My days. My nights. My life. Lived well.

So, I know that I have neglected my blog, but I don’t have a team of writers like Perez Hilton, and I guess I’ve just had other stuff going on. I’m sure you’re wondering where I am if you’re even reading this, and maybe you think I’ve just faded into obscurity like an old Top Model winner. I have been semi-active over on Facebook and Twitter, so I suppose those are the best ways to see what I’ve been up to. Although, I’m probably going to set some better privacy filters over there. Believe it or not, I have been having an internal struggle the last 3-6 months about how much of myself I want to share online. I don’t really know where this has come from, but I think I’m starting to find the balance.

Rob is back from the Recording Workshop and he is now interning over at Azmyth Studios. In addition to it being a good studio with a diverse group of clients, it’s also the closest studio to our house.  I am so glad he’s back. I really missed him. The first month wasn’t that bad, but oy February seemed so long.

Anyway, I’m really going to start blogging more now. I think I’m finally to a point where I can start sitting down and doing some writing, as I have not been able to do any since my main concentration has been purging my clutter.  Frankly, I feel like I can start doing a lot of things now because my house is almost that of a normal person. I do know that I will officially be leaving my pack-rattedness in 2009.  I have recently been working on purging clothes.  It is now to the point that everything clothes-wise has a home in my house, yet there is not enough room and the spaces are overflowing. So, now that it’s all amassed together, I get to go through and go category by category and make myself get rid of at least 1/3 of each category of clothing. I am still battling with some stuff going on in my basement. Apparently my joists are too short to support by floor properly. And there’s some erosion. I am getting back in contractor mode and it sucks.

On a better note, my most recent obsession has been green breakfast smoothies. I’ll do a whole post at some point here, but I have really been enjoying my breakfast. I basically stuff whatever I can into a blender that’s good for me- greens, fruit, flax oil, protein powder, Centrum liquid, Benefiber- and blend it all up into a delicious morning breakfast drink. I’m sure a lot of the green smoothie purists would scoff at my additions of Centrum, Benefiber, and protein, but whatever.  Today I am mourning the return of my friend Jennette’s Vita-Mix to her. You may remember when I met Jennette at BlogIndiana (yeah, lot of good it did my blog to go to that *wink*). She’s such an awesome blogger that companies send her stuff, just hoping she’ll start using it.  Anyway, I was reading up on blenders and apparently the Vita-Mix and the Blendtec are the Canon and Nikon of blenders. So, I put out some feelers on Twitter to see if anyone had any experience with either blender, and she offered to let me take hers for a spin. My Cuisinart is a pretty awesome blender, but it just can’t hold a candle to the Vita-Mix. My next mission is to get a Blendtec to try.

Anyway, that’s what’s been going on here. I may take a day off, but I’m going to try the whole blog-every-day-for-a-month-straight exercise in April, so get used to coming back here.

Nothing but love!

I totally rely on Trader Joe’s for quick, frozen heat-n-eat dinners that are easy to make and not too bad for you.  Here are the last two we had:Monday night: Mandarin chicken (supplemented with brown rice and broccoli):    Sunday Night: Chicken Gyoza (potstickers) with raw carrots. Mmmmmm…  Friday Night: Not from Trader Joe’s, but from Costco- Mozzarella, Basil, and Tomato Wheat Ravioli.  Plus special Karen Leep recipe Chicken with Italian Breadcrumbs.  well, to be fair, it’s not too special- if you know what it’s called, you know the recipe.  But it’s the love that makes it good. LOL.   

So, I don’t know how many people know this, but I am actually a pretty decent cook. Recently we had a party where people claimed I made the “best grilled cheese ever” and I’m pretty sure they were being sincere. I know grilled cheese isn’t hard, but I think people could taste the love. LOL. Now that the house is clean, I hope to have some small dinner parties at some point. Plus it will be incentive for me to keep the dining room table clean.Last night I made some Japanese chicken. It’s one of my go-to recipes that I use quite a bit because it’s just so darn easy. Last night when I was making it, it was seriously almost perfect. The chicken was browning so perfect that it looked like I belonged on Top Chef or something.Anyway, next time I make it, I’m going to try and take my camera in the kitchen, because I never think of doing that until I am unable to walk away without risking burning the food.Anyway, I also had another little epiphany while cooking dinner last night. I need to just ditch my spatula/turner things. I probably only need like two of those for pancakes and eggs. Tongs are just so much easier and more sensible. It’s so easy to turn pieces of chicken over or stir fry or whatever. I really don’t know how I went so long without discovering the joy of silicone-tipped tongs. I need to get one more set, if not two, of tongs like this pair I already have (but I am on the lookout for a fun pair like the kids tongs at Williams-Sonoma):Anyway, here’s the chicken recipe. I cook some rice in the rice cooker and then we heat up some vegetables (last night they were thai style soy ginger carrots from Trader Joe’s) and it’s a great meal that’s tasty and good for you. It’s pretty spicy, so if you don’t want so much spice, just scale back the red pepper flakes. Enjoy! Oh, and make extra rice so the following morning you can make hot cereal with rice, milk, cinnamon, and honey. Yum yum!Chicken nanban recipe

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 lb chicken thigh or breasts if you prefer
• 1 onion It’s surprisingly tasty with the onion, but if you don’t have one on hand, you can still make the recipe and it doesn’t suffer. It’s kind of optional.
• 1/2 cup vinegar
• 4 tbsps sugar
• 4 tbsps soy sauce
• 1 tsp chopped red pepper
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil I use a little blend of canola, flax, and olive oil that I make to maximize the good fatty acids.
• *katakuriko starch or corn starch for dusting I use corn starch.

PREPARATION:

Thinly slice onion and soak in cold water. Mix soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, and red pepper in a pan and heat on low heat. When the sugar dissolves in, stop the heat. Cut chicken into bite size pieces. Dust chicken with katakuriko starch or corn starch.

Heat 1 tbsp of vegetable oil in a frying pan and fry chicken pieces in the pan until brown. Pour the spicy and sour sauce over the chicken and stop the heat. Drain onion slices well and serve on plates. Place chicken pieces on top of the onion. Pour the spicy and sour sauce over the onion and fried chicken.

*Makes 4 servings