Tag Archives: cooking

Forced To Do Some Cooking (or Making The Best Of Things)

Posted on March 25, 2020 | Comments Off on Forced To Do Some Cooking (or Making The Best Of Things)

There have been a lot of photos shared since the pandemic started. People in hospitals hoping to survive. People wearing masks and gloves in public. Places that are usually packed with people being empty because people are isolating themselves. But I think the photos I see most often are related to grocery stores and getting supplies. I see so many photos of people hoarding supplies and having full carts or empty shelves in grocery stores. I do understand how panic buying happens because I’ve had those same thoughts, but I don’t get it to the degree that some people are taking it to. To me, panic buying is getting an extra thing of soap and toilet paper when you are buying some, not buying enough to last you a year.

Because of people panic buying, the idea of going to the grocery store has become very stressful for me. I am trying to limit my shopping to once a week to limit my potential exposure to someone who might be sick or an asymptomatic carrier. But at the same time, I don’t know what I’ll find at the store when I get there. If there’s something I need, I know I could still go out and try to get it another time, but there is no guarantee I’ll find it. And again, every time I go to the store I am potentially exposing myself to the virus. So I’ve just been working on doing my shopping once a week and figuring it out from there.

Honestly, if I could just get microwave meals for most of my meals, I would be doing that. But frozen food is a bit limited at the stores right now (hopefully they will be restocked soon). Some fresh things aren’t as easy to find either, but there are some things I can get. I do have to cook for at least some of my meals. And as much as I would love to meal plan and cook based on that, I have to work around the idea that I don’t necessarily know what I will be able to get when I do go to the store. So my cooking has needed to be a bit creative and I’m not used to that.

I’m not a big cook and I have said for a long time that I need to be better about cooking more at home. It’s very easy normally to get prepared or frozen meals (or to order in) and I am a fan of the convenience. I’m not going to deny that some of that comes from being lazy. But it’s a habit that I’m not proud of and I have known for a long time that I need to do better. And I guess being forced into change was the thing that I needed.

I’m not necessarily cooking the way that I have always wanted to. The things I’m making are pretty random or boring. For example, I cooked some peppers and onions and put it over rice with some beans. It was nothing fancy, but it was food and I made it. And I am making enough so I do have some leftovers so I don’t have to cook every night. I would love to find ways to be a bit more creative as I’m forced to cook, but I can’t depend on getting all the correct ingredients for something. I guess I could make a list and see what I can get each week, but a lot of things are perishable so that doesn’t really make sense. So I’m really stuck with this mismatch cooking and figuring out what to eat.

The only things that I am trying to collect things and hopefully I’ll get everything soon are for baking things. I’m not a big baker, but there are a few things that I know are not as easy to find in grocery stores right now that I would like to try baking. I don’t have everything I need, but the baking supplies are dry goods so I don’t have to worry about them spoiling.

Maybe this method will work and I’ll like doing it. I might figure out some new favorites. Or maybe people will stop hoarding soon and the grocery stores will look normal again. I’m mentally preparing that it won’t be normal for a little while and that I’ll need to do my shopping once a week. And fortunately, the grocery store near my house seems to be pretty calm and decently stocked. They limit how many people can be in there at one time so nobody is rushing around trying to get everything they need. People aren’t leaving the store with carts full of food (or multiple carts). They really are only getting what they need and that helps everyone have a chance to get the food they need.

I still have been having panic attacks the past 2 weeks before going to the grocery store because I have no clue what it will look like when I get inside. But the most that I go in and see that it’s not too horrible, the easier it will be. And hopefully, my grocery shopping will get easier as I find a routine with cooking a few things that I feel confident that I can get the ingredients for each week. This isn’t really the way I imagined myself working on cooking more, but it is the way it is and I’m going to try to take advantage of the moment.

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Another Night At Hipcooks (or I’m On Fire!)

Posted on January 11, 2019 | Comments Off on Another Night At Hipcooks (or I’m On Fire!)

My first experience at Hipcooks was a few months ago. I was very lucky to be invited to check out a class and I had the best time! But that class was a bit weird for me because it was the morning after I had to force a friend to check into a hospital for being suicidal. As much as I wanted to focus on the class, I know I was distracted and not totally there. I still had an amazing time, but I couldn’t wait to take another class so I could feel completely involved in the experience.

The classes at Hipcooks are amazing and I’d take a class every week or so if I could (I am looking at their volunteer assistant opportunities so I can be in classes for free), but anything that isn’t essential isn’t in my budget right now. So I was so grateful when my friend Dani invited me to check out a class that she was teaching! She was going to be teaching another cocktails class so it would be similar to the one I went to before. But it was all new recipes and drinks so it was totally different. As soon as she invited me to her class, I said yes because I knew there was no way I was going to miss it!

The first class I went to was in West LA very close to where I live. This time, I went to their class in the art district near downtown LA. I gave myself plenty of time to drive there because of traffic, and I got there nice and early. They have a ton of free parking at that location which is amazing, so once I parked I headed over to the class to relax before everything started.

The space is very similar to the one I went to before. They have the same set-up for the cooking with the semi-circle table so everyone in class is working together.

And there was the big table for us to sit at to learn the different cocktails we were going to make and to enjoy the food we prepared.

The cocktail class I took last time was more of a summer themed class with lighter drinks and food. This time, the class was a winter themed cocktail class and we had food and drinks that had different holiday spices.

When I was a bit distracted in class last time, I was able to put my focus on taking photos of everything that we were doing. I loved being able to share photos of things we made and I was hoping to do the same this time. But I guess the more involved in the class I am, the less likely I am to take any photos! I took a few photos of things while we were making them, but they don’t show the finished product.

So you’ll just have to read the about what we made. For food we made glazed walnuts, gorgonzola stuffed apples, pears with Manchego wrapped in prosciutto, mushroom and goat cheese empanadas, croustade cups with salmon, seared beef on parmesan crisps, and spiced cookies. And for the drinks, we made a rosemary pomegranate gin fizz, a winter dark and stormy, mulled wine, a new fashioned, and a hot apple pie. All of the food and all of the drinks were so good! And even though I don’t really drink, I did try all of the drinks we made and I really liked the gin fizz! I don’t normally like gin, but this was really good and I could see making it for a party!

While I didn’t get that many photos of the food, I did get one amazing photo. The benefit of being more attentive and involved in the class is that I got to do some really fun things. For the glazed walnuts, we added alcohol and got to flambé the pan. There were 3 pans going and Dani demonstrated with the first one. The second one was done by someone else in class and the didn’t quite get it to burn in a really spectacular way.

Then it was my turn. I know I’m not a great cook and doing anything with fire can be scary, but I wanted to see if I could do it. Thankfully, I asked one of the other instructors to take photos of me while I did this because I think I got one of the greatest photos of me ever!

I thought I wouldn’t be as terrified as I was, but it was scary when it started going. After the initial shock and I started to move the pan around, it got easier and I was so proud of myself for doing it. It’s not something I would need to do in normal cooking (or would probably do in my own tiny kitchen), but it’s nice to know I have this skill if I ever get the chance to do it.

I also was involved in a lot of the other dishes including helping to shape the parmesan crisps into tacos and bowls after coming out of the oven. Everyone in class was working together so nicely and we had a really fun and silly mood in the room. The last class I was at probably was like that as well, but I just wasn’t totally there. This time I got to enjoy how nice it is to be in a cooking class where everyone is just having the best time.

I was a bit sad when class was done because I just had the greatest time! Dani was an awesome teacher and I’m so proud of her. She is new to teaching and I think she did so great and I know that she’s just going to get better as she continues to teach. And I know that I want to take more of her classes because it’s always fun to be in a class with friends, even if they are your teacher.

I hope that I get another chance to take a class at Hipcooks soon. Both of the times I’ve gone I have had an incredible time and have left feeling empowered. Cooking is something that still makes me a bit nervous to mess up, but Hipcooks class emphasizes having fun and trying new things. I know I need to do that more often not just in cooking but in my life.

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Cooking At Hipcooks (or Remembering Cooking Doesn’t Have To Be Hard)

Posted on September 12, 2018 | Comments Off on Cooking At Hipcooks (or Remembering Cooking Doesn’t Have To Be Hard)

I’ve written about my struggles with cooking on here several times before. I will probably never understand why cooking is something tough for me to prioritize and do more often, but realizing it may be a struggle for forever has helped me feel a bit better about it. I don’t think I’m a bad cook and I do like cooking, I just don’t do it.

Even though this has been something I’ve struggled to do more often, I’ve never really taken a cooking class to help to motivate me or make cooking more fun. So when my friend Dani asked me if I wanted to join her at Hipcooks for a class, I said yes to see what cooking classes are like there. Dani is a volunteer at Hipcooks, which means that she helps clean up during classes. But she can still participate and she earns free classes by volunteering. And for the summer cocktails and infusions class she was also told that she could have a friend come with her. So I got to check it out for free!

The location is actually very close to my house. I could have walked over if I wanted to, but I decided to drive so I didn’t have to walk home in the dark. And as soon as I got there, I noticed that everything was set up to have everyone work together. I imagined it would be individual stations where people learn to do things, but it was a much more collaborative class. Where we did most of the cooking was around a semi-circle station where the teacher was in the middle and we were all around.

And the table where we would be eating and making cocktails was a big square table. It has the feeling of being a party more than a class.

There was also a menu with all the food and drinks we would be making in class.

While I’m not a big drinker (and I hadn’t really had a drink since my birthday party last year), I was excited to learn how to make different cocktails. I knew that even if I didn’t drink for a long time, a bunch of the drinks could probably be made without alcohol. And they would be new skills that I was going to be learning.

The class had 8 people not counting the instructors and Dani so it felt small but we could also have little groups to work on different things. The cooking at Hipcooks is a collaborative effort and everyone gets to work on different things. For example, I was working on the bruschetta with another student in class while other people worked on a salad and a tart.

The bruschetta was an easy process. The instructor toasted the bread and I took a clove of garlic and rubbed it on the bread. Then we covered that in mascarpone cheese and layered sliced figs and prosciutto on it. It was so easy to do but looked impressive which is the best!

What I loved the best about this class was that there were no recipes and no measuring tools. The idea is that cooking is fun and doesn’t have to be perfect and I love that idea! When we were making wontons we were filling them with goat cheese and avocado. We were just told to fill them and as long as we could seal them closed it was fine. We didn’t have to worry about making sure everything was measured out and precise. It made everything easy and relaxing.

Since the class was a mix of cooking and cocktails we went back and forth between the cooking area and the table where we mixed drinks. The square table had different stations for us to work in for making cocktails and we all worked with a partner. I was partnered up with someone who was in class alone as well and we worked together making the different drinks.

We learned how to do a proper pour of alcohol, how to muddle herbs and fruit, and how to shake a drink using a shaker. I took sips of everything we made and some of them are drinks I know that I would totally make another time.

While we were having our drinks, we also got to eat some of the food we made. The instructor did some of the finishing work or baking things that needed to be baked, but most of the work was done by the students in class.

We went back and forth between cooking and making drinks a few times, but I liked that because it split things up nicely. I never felt like we were making drinks for too long or cooking for so long that I forgot what we made. The class was 3 hours long, but it really felt like it flew by. And although I wasn’t in the most social mood while in class, I did chat with everyone who was there and had a great time. I had a lot weighing on my mind while I was there, and it helped me to put that out of my mind for a bit and have some fun.

I also loved how the group came together over the course of the class. While 4 people in the group were friends and there was another group of 2 friends, but we didn’t all know each other when we started. But at the end of class, it really felt like we were one big group and that we weren’t a collection of strangers in a class together. It was really nice and exactly what I needed when I was not in the best head space.

I seriously loved this class! Not only were the things we made awesome, it really proved to me how flexible cooking can be and helped to take away some of the feelings of needing to be perfect that I know I’ve had when cooking in the past. I’m looking at taking some other classes there since they have so many different types. And I’m also looking into maybe volunteering there so I can do some free classes!

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My First Meal In My Instant Pot (or I’m Loving This!)

Posted on May 24, 2018 | Comments Off on My First Meal In My Instant Pot (or I’m Loving This!)

I wrote recently about how I got an Instant Pot. I had seen so many posts about why it is a miracle cooking device and have had friends rave about it. But I really wondered if it was for me since I’m a pretty lazy cook. But right before I got sick I decided to get one and see if it lived up to the hype.

Because I ordered it right before being sick, it spent about a week living in the box it came in and then about another week out of the box stored in my kitchen. But I set a goal that I wanted to try to use it at least once this week. I’m not always good about using new tools and appliances as soon as I get them and I wasn’t going to allow myself to do that this time.

While it did come with a little recipe book, I also know that there are hundreds of cookbooks that are specifically for the Instant Pot. I get cookbooks from the library so I can look at them for free and then scan the recipes that I love. But I was looking at cookbooks late at night and realized that I could get the e-books and make things even easier for me. I got the e-books and instead of loading them on my Kindle I put them on my iPad. Then I could read the cookbooks and take screenshots of any recipes I liked! I don’t know how exactly I will be organizing them or if I will be printing them out, but at least they are available to me now and they look much cleaner as a screenshot than they do when I scan them.

There were a bunch of recipes that I saved and some of them look amazing. But for my first meal in my Instant Pot I wanted something that seemed simple and didn’t have a ton of ingredients. I was a bit nervous about using it and I didn’t need a weird recipe to add to the stress. But in my saved ones I found a recipe for sausage and peppers that didn’t have a ton of things in it. And it pretty much was a recipe that said to put everything in and turn it on. I know you can brown food in the Instant Pot, but I didn’t need to do that so it seemed easy enough to me. So I got all the ingredients and made it the other day.

I knew that the time on the recipes wasn’t always accurate since it didn’t take into account the time it takes to get to pressure and whatever time it took to release the pressure, so I started making it a bit earlier than I thought I might need to. But it was still awesome to start making dinner at 5:30 and know it would totally be done by 6:30 (unlike my slow cooker which I need to start in the morning to have food at dinner time).

All I had to do to for the recipe was to dump a few cans of diced tomatoes and tomato sauce into the pot along with some water and spices. Then I put the Italian sausage on top and sliced a bunch of peppers and put that on the very top. It looked really pretty before I was put the lid on.

I was a bit nervous putting the lid on because I wasn’t totally sure I was doing everything right. And even though I knew it could take a lot of time to come to pressure I was worried that I did something wrong because it wasn’t switching over to the timer (which is what happens when there is enough pressure to start cooking). But after about 15 minutes it did switch to the timer and I started to relax a bit more.

This had to cook for 25 minutes and while I didn’t watch it the entire time I kept glancing over to it to make sure nothing crazy was happening. I don’t know what I thought would happen, but because there are so many different warnings I figured I should keep a bit of a watchful eye on it. But everything was fine and when the timer was up I was ready to release the steam.

So many of the warnings in the instruction booklet were about steam burns. I had asked a friend about releasing the steam and she said she protected her hand with a towel and used a spatula to turn the dial to release the steam. I did just that and while I jumped at first because the noise scared me, I was fine and everything was working just the way it should.

I was so excited about everything working that I totally forgot to take an after picture. But it looked amazing and like I had it cooking for hours instead of 25 minutes. The only thing I will do differently next time I make it will be to brown the sausages before cooking it. They weren’t bad, but they just didn’t look pretty and they could have used a bit more of a snap to them. But considering this is the first time making this recipe and the first time I used the Instant Pot, I think I did pretty great!

And this was pretty easy to clean too. It is nice with my slow cooker that I can use the liners so there is almost no clean up. I just have to clean the lid. But this has the insert that was really the only thing that needed to be cleaned and it wasn’t that tough to do it. I also wiped down the inside of the lid, but I didn’t scrub it (it doesn’t seem like people do that, unless I’m wrong). There are ways to use silicone liners inside an Instant Pot, but I don’t think I’ll be getting them because it wasn’t that bad.

I’m so glad I got my Instant Pot and I used it pretty soon after getting it. I know that I’ll be using this on a somewhat regular basis and it will totally help me with cooking. I know I’ve said that several times, but I think the convenience factor of not having to start cooking until almost time to eat will help me a lot too. With my slow cooker, if I think about it once I’ve already started work it’s too late to do it. Now, I can go to the store after work to get ingredients and still have time to make it and eat at a decent hour!

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Feeling Like A Fresh Start (or Spring Cleaning and New Toys)

Posted on May 18, 2018 | 1 comment

After being sick for what felt like forever (but in reality about a week and a half), I was ready to feel normal again. I have a feeling it will be a little bit longer before I’m totally better, but I’m about 95% there. I’ve only got some congestion left and it’s so minor that I’m not even taking cold medication for it anymore.

But while physically I was feeling better, mentally I wasn’t in the best place. I had the issues I mentioned yesterday on here that basically gave me a day of just being in a low place. But what was putting me in a worse mood was my house being so messy! While I was sick I didn’t really do any cleaning and in my tiny house it really shows when I’m not doing a little bit of cleaning every day. So I spent an entire afternoon doing a major cleaning of my house.

Mostly I was doing the normal cleaning stuff like dusting, vacuuming, and wiping down the various surfaces in my house. I needed to do this for sure because my place was dirty but I also wanted to rid my house of any germs. Even though I don’t think there were that many germs left since they can’t live on surfaces that long, it was just the feeling that my house was germy that I wanted to get rid of. The cleaning that I did was a serious workout (maybe that was because I’m still a bit sick), but when I was done I just felt a huge sense of relief and normalcy in my life again.

But besides the normal cleaning stuff (which was more like a deep clean), I had so much random organization work to do. I’ve been slacking off on some of that stuff. For example I did a reddit gift exchange last month and I hadn’t put away the books I had gotten. But since I was cleaning my cabinet where I keep my coffee table books, I put the books away. I also had about a week’s worth of mail to go through (and bills to pay) and it felt good to get rid of all the junk mail that was sitting on my table while I was sick.

But the best organization I had to do was something that I was pretty excited about. Before I was sick, I did an order on Amazon for something that I’ve been wanting for a while and it’s just been sitting in a big box near my front door for over a week.

I got an Instant Pot! I’ve been thinking about getting one for a while and I just decided to go for it! While I love my slow cooker, it’s not always the most convenient thing to use. If I don’t think about cooking dinner until I’m done with work, it’s too late to use the slow cooker. But with this, I can cook things so much quicker!

I’ve got a few friends who have one (most have the same model that I do) and they have all raved about it. And I can’t wait to start testing out new recipes in it! I’ve only accomplished getting it unpacked and reading the instruction manual. And I won’t get a chance to cook in it for a few more days because of some meals out I have planned. But that gives me the time to do research online for some good recipes that I want to try.

Having a new way to cook more often feels similar to having my house nice and clean. It’s a fresh start in a way and the start hopefully of a new awesome way to eat healthier and cheaper at home. While I was sick I depended on cans of soup and microwave dinners. I’m craving cooking something again and I love that I have something new and fun to try out. I’m a little worried that I won’t be using my slow cooker anymore again, but I’m sure that even though there is a slow cooker option on my Instant Pot I’ll find some times that I want to use my regular slow cooker.

Even if I’m not totally better from being sick, I just feel so refreshed and ready for whatever comes next for me. It’s just such a good feeling to be moving on from a bad week and a half (that was bad in more ways than one) and feeling like I can take on the world. Who knew that having a clean house and a new cooking gadget could do that to a person?

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Stock The Crock (or I Hope This Gets Me Back On Track With Cooking)

Posted on October 27, 2017 | 1 comment

As much as I want to be an awesome cook, it’s something that has been very difficult for me to get into. It’s always tough to cook when it’s just for you because you know you’ll have a bunch of leftovers for a while. Also, I hate buying a ton of ingredients for just one meal and it seems like many recipes call for things that I just don’t have at my house all the time. But I’m trying to be better about cooking especially since I can use my slow cooker on days that I’m not going to the gym after I’m done with work.

So when I was offered a chance to get a copy of “Stock The Crock” I immediately said yes!

I’ve gotten a few slow cooker cookbooks since I got my slow cooker, but this is the one I wish I had gotten first! So many of the cookbooks I have involve too many ingredients or they require you to cook things before putting them into the slow cooker (I’ll admit, I’m lazy). But this one has an amazing mix of recipes that are simple and basic (but not boring) and the more involved recipes that I haven’t really been doing yet.

When I was looking through the cookbook, everything looked great to me. But one recipe stood out. It was the recipe for chicken with salsa.

This is a basic recipe, but that’s what caught my attention. This really only requires 2 ingredients; chicken and salsa.

The original recipe called for chicken thighs, but they were much more expensive at the store so I used chicken breasts instead. But what’s awesome about “Stock The Crock” is that there is a section for substitutions at the bottom. There are a bunch of different options for how you can change the recipe to fit different dietary restrictions or tastes. And it gives the directions on how to use those substitutions so you don’t have to worry about what to do.

I’m aware that I’m a bit skittish when it comes to cooking. I’ve tried some recipes that sounded delicious and ended up pretty much going immediately to the trash. But most of the time, that happens when the recipes are too complicated or need me to use ingredients I’m not used to using. But since salsa and chicken are both things I’m familiar with, I was excited to try this recipe.

It couldn’t have been easier. Put the chicken in the slow cooker and cover it with a jar of salsa. Then set it on low for about 4 hours (it was a bit faster with the chicken breasts). Once it’s done, shred the chicken and you can use it however you’d like. I decided to make a bowl with rice, some pico de gallo, cheese, greek yogurt (I use that instead of sour cream in most things) and avocado. It was the perfect dinner bowl!

And I have a ton of leftover chicken to use for more bowls or other things. I might see what else I can do with shredded chicken so I don’t waste any of it.

I’ve said this before, but each time I successfully make something I gain more cooking confidence. I don’t know how long it will take before I feel totally comfortable trying to cook new things from time to time, but I have a feeling that this cookbook is going to be a big part of that journey. Even the more complicated recipes are on the easier side. And if they are too complicated, there are enough modifications I can make to make it something that I can do and not need to buy too much stuff.

But I’ve also been inspired by some of the recipes in the cookbook to try some more ambitious things. I know that you can bake using your slow cooker and there are some recipes that I might want to see if I can do it. And getting this cookbook reminded me of how I should be using my slow cooker more often. I don’t think about using it as often as I should because it always seemed like slow cooker recipes were big deals. But this has reminded me that I can make simple and delicious meals. And this is the perfect way to cook when it’s too hot to think about using any other appliances.

I’m so grateful that I was given a copy of “Stock The Crock” because I have a feeling that I will be using it all the time. I have so many cookbooks that only have one or two recipes that I want to try and they just take up space. But this one has inspired me to try lots of new things and I’m getting excited about trying out each recipe and seeing what becomes new favorites of mine!

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Broken Oven (or Putting A Wrench Into My Plans)

Posted on March 16, 2017 | 1 comment

After writing the post yesterday, I felt extra motivated to get my butt back into gear. I don’t want to play the victim, and when I read my post after writing it that’s exactly what it felt like I was doing. I don’t need to be a victim and I have no plans on being one.

So I went back to the food plan that I created for this week and decided to figure out what I could do to shift things around so that I could still pretty much follow the plan. I needed to move some of the dinners to other days and shift around a few other meals, but it still seemed pretty reasonable to me and I figured I could get it to all work out for me.

So last night, I knew I would need to do some cooking. I’ve been making these really great muffins out of garbanzo beans that taste really decadent for breakfasts and lunches a lot and needed to bake those. And I also wanted to make meatloaf muffins to have for a few dinners. I decided to make the meatloaf first since I needed those for dinner and got to pre-heating my oven. While my oven was pre-heating, I mixed up all the ingredients for the meatloaf (with almost more veggies than meat) and got it into a muffin tray.

And then I tried to open my oven.

For some reason, my oven would only open on one side. The other side seemed stuck and I couldn’t open it no matter what. My oven doesn’t have a self-cleaning option so it wasn’t stuck because of that (which is what everything online seemed to say) and I couldn’t see it stuck on anything. And then, the oven door slipped and somehow one side fell off the hinges.

I’m glad I had turned off the oven before the door fell because it wasn’t too hot when it fell down. I tried with everything I had to get the door back on the hinges, but there was no way that it was going to go back. And with one side falling off like that, the oven was starting to tip over so I figured out how to get the door totally off the over and put it on the kitchen floor.

Fortunately, my neighbor let me use his oven to cook the meatloaf so that at least I didn’t have to throw all that out. He said I could bake the other things that I needed to too, but I didn’t want to worry too much about it and figured that hopefully my oven would be fixed soon enough.

My landlord came by to see if the oven could be fixed, but he doesn’t think it’s possible. I’m waiting for a call from another repair person to see if they are going to be able to fix it or if I’ll need to get a new oven. I’m not sure if I want a new oven because I finally have this one figured out (basically I need to set the temperature almost 100 degrees higher than I need it to be so it’s right). And hopefully I’ll find out within a day or two what will be happening.

I hate that when I get things back on track in my head, there is something that stops me. There are several things that I wanted to make this week that involve using my oven. And yes, I could probably go back to my neighbor to use his again, but I don’t want to inconvenience him. If my oven if fixed soon, it shouldn’t throw too much off. And again, I have rearranged my food plan to see what I can make and how I can get things to work out. I may need to make a grocery run to get a few other things that I know I can make in the microwave or on the stove, but I should be able to be ok.

And even though this isn’t a fun situation, I’m still trying to look on the positives. At least I rent and I don’t have to spend anything to get my oven fixed. My oven broke before I put my food in, because if it broke when the food was in there I’m pretty sure everything would have been burnt. And not having an oven isn’t that horrible. It’s a setback, but a super minor one compared to everything else I have dealt with. And hopefully soon, I’ll have a new oven that will work perfect to use for all the cooking I know I need to be doing!

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Vegan Fudge (or Another Super Easy Recipe)

Posted on March 8, 2017 | Comments Off on Vegan Fudge (or Another Super Easy Recipe)

I’ve been testing a few new recipes lately since I’m working on meal planning and cooking at home. I usually am trying one new dinner recipe each week or every other week. I’m trying to find simple recipes since I don’t want to have to buy a ton of ingredients that cost a lot of money or something that takes forever to cook. So my searches tend to be for pretty basic stuff. And sometimes, I need something to inspire me to find a new recipe.

A friend of mine had a loss recently and I wanted to do something nice for them. They are vegan so most of my guilty pleasure foods wouldn’t work for them so I did some searching for good vegan treats. So many of them had lots of ingredients that I don’t have or don’t use. It’s not worth it to buy something that will just be used in that one recipe (the problem I’ve had with cooking in the past) so I just kept searching for something easy to make. And finally I came across the perfect recipe!

I found a very basic recipe for vegan peanut butter fudge that pretty much only had ingredients that I already have! It was so easy and fast to make and so good that I know this will be something I will be making for lots of people in the future! And as I have before, whenever I find an awesome recipe I want to share it with you all!

Vegan Peanut Butter Fudge (from Spoon University)

What you need:

  • 1/2 cup natural nut butter (this was the only ingredient I had to buy because the only peanut butter I had in my house had honey which is not vegan)
  • 2 tablespoons coconut oil, softened or melted
  • 2 tablespoons maple syrup
  • 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

What to do:

  • Combine all ingredients and stir until combined
  • Pour into a container that is lined with parchment paper
  • Put container in freezer and freeze for 45 minutes
  • Take out of freezer, cut, and enjoy!

That’s it! It’s so simple that I can’t believe that I haven’t made this before! I actually have not been able to get the fudge to my friend yet (so they might be finding out that I made something for them by reading this blog), but I know that they will be a hit!

This isn’t necessarily the healthiest thing to eat, but it’s so much healthier than most desserts that I know how to make. And I’m sure this recipe is easy enough to switch things up so the basic recipe can be used for a bunch of different things. I was thinking that this could be a really good topping to the gluten-free brownies I know how to make. Those brownies are sometimes used as the base for triple layer brownies with brown butter frosting. But I think using this fudge as a frosting could really be amazing! I might have to try it out sometime.

Every time I try a new recipe, I’m so anxious that it’s not going to turn out ok. I had that happen a few weeks ago with a new soup recipe that I tried. I thought it was going to be amazing and I was so excited about it. And then I tried it and it was horrible. I tried to fix it but there was no saving the soup and it had to be thrown out. I felt awful doing that because it is a waste of food and money (and I did try to see if any of my neighbors wanted it), but I knew I couldn’t eat it.

Having a recipe go wrong was a blessing in disguise because it wasn’t the end of the world like I thought it would be. It was unfortunate, but nothing horrible happened because I made something that tasted horrible. I’m not as scared now as I was before that I will do something wrong. And more often than not, the recipes will turn out awesome (like this one did) and it will become something that I will want to keep making!

The trial and error in my kitchen continues each week. But I know that this vegan fudge is going to be something that I make over and over again.

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Tacocity (or A Book Review And Giveaway!)

Posted on August 5, 2016 | 7 comments

I’m so excited for today’s post! Not only do I have an amazing book recommendation for you, but I’m giving away a signed copy too! I recently had the opportunity to read “Tacocity: Los Angeles” which was written by my friend Rob Gokee. I’ve known Rob for a couple of years through various friends. He’s an amazing composer, big user of twitter, and obsessed with tacos! I feel like almost every picture he posts online is of tacos.

So when he started mentioning that he was writing a book about the tacos of Los Angeles, I wanted to read it! I’m not a huge taco person, so if I’m going to go get a taco somewhere I want it to be the best. And since Rob tested out dozens of taco places for his book, I know any place he recommends is going to be one of the top spots to go to.

Rob gave me a copy of his book to read (full disclosure, he gave me a free PDF version to review but the review is all my own) and I was very happy when I started reading it.

Tacocity

Obviously, I knew that the book was going to review taco places in Los Angeles, but I didn’t know much more. I was happy to see in the table of contents that he actually breaks down his reviews geographically so you can look at the area of Los Angeles that you happen to be in. Where I live in West LA, there aren’t a ton of awesome taco places. But while there were some familiar names in the West LA section I loved seeing that there were some places I hadn’t gone to yet and I immediately added them to my list of restaurants to try.

West LA

For each of the restaurants that Rob reviews, he includes a little bit about each place and what they are best known for. He also gives some tips about what to order, when the lines might be shorter (or in some cases if you should go to the outside line or inside line), and sometimes advice on parking which can be tough to find in LA. I loved hearing his stories about what he tried at each place and all the photos that were in the review section made me want to go have everything!

After the reviews of all the taco places around LA, there is a recipe section with some of Rob’s favorites. As you all know I’m working on trying to cook more at home, so I hope to soon have a recipe post for you all of me trying one of the ones from the book! This mole taco one might be the one I have to make because I keep coming back to the picture from the book and thinking it looks incredible!

Mole Tacos

I think this book is perfect for anyone who lives in LA or might be moving to LA soon! It’s a great guide to amazing food in the city and I think even people who have lived here their entire lives will discover a new restaurant in the book. And even if you don’t live in LA but love tacos, this is a great read from the recipes in the back as well as giving you inspiration for a LA taco trip (I’m sure if you tweet at Rob he can help you plan a taco crawl).

Now for the fun part! You can enter to win a signed copy of “Tacocity: Los Angeles”! There are a ton of ways to enter this time (just make sure you leave a blog comment as that is the required entry). While most entries are only one-time things, you can tweet every day for extra entries! Rafflecopter will randomly be selecting the winner at the end and you will be getting a signed copy of the book from Rob!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck and I can’t wait for you all to read the book too!

PS: There will be a book launch/signing for “Tacocity: Los Angeles” coming up on August 22nd from 5:30-8:00pm at Salazar (one of the places Rob writes about in the book). I hope to see a bunch of you there!

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Home Cooking (or Getting Into A Routine)

Posted on May 25, 2016 | 1 comment

I haven’t really written about food on here lately. Meals used to stress me out so much and I knew I needed to work on it. So many nights I would either forget to go to the store to get groceries or got home so late that I was too lazy to cook. So I’d order delivery food or get some take out from a quick service type place. I know that I wasted a bunch of money (and ate a bunch of calories that I didn’t need) doing that, but I just couldn’t get into cooking.

I tried cooking a bunch of different times and different ways. I thought meal planning would work for me, but I ended up losing inspiration or not feel like eating what I was supposed to eat that night. Bulk cooking worked for a bit, but I got really bored with it and if I didn’t have time to bulk cook I couldn’t seem to get back on track. I would hear about what other people would do, and it would seem so simple. But for so many reasons I just couldn’t get into cooking. A lot of it does have to do with the amount of work and cleanup required to make a meal for just me, but that really is laziness.

I knew something needed to change and I set my monthly challenge in March to be to not get delivery food for the entire month. The last time that I ordered delivery food was actually in the middle of February and I’m happy to say that I haven’t gotten delivery food since. I have gone out of dinners and I’ve gotten take out from places like Chipotle or a salad place, but since delivery food was the bad habit I wanted to break I’m pretty happy that it’s been this long since I’ve gotten it. There have been a few times where I’m feeling super lazy and think it would just be so easy to order something in, but I have been working really hard at keeping easy to put together foods or ok frozen dinners at my house for those nights. While frozen dinners aren’t the best option, they are significantly better than anything I could get delivered to me.

My cooking hasn’t been anything too crazy. Most of my dinners have been a turkey burger and some veggies like broccoli or sweet potatoes.

Healthy Dinner

If I start cooking the potato in the microwave and finish it in the toaster oven, I can put that meal together in less than 20 minutes. I also do make more recipe type dinners from time to time. A lot of time I make meatloaf because it’s pretty basic to put together. The last time I made it, I did about half meat and half chopped veggies so it made a lot of meatloaf for not as many calories.

Meatloaf

I make meatloaf in muffin tins so it’s easy to portion out and put some aside for leftovers for the next day or so. After the prep work, there’s not that much cleanup since the muffin tin is a disposable one. So I’m usually able to clean up while the meatloaf is in the oven and I don’t have to worry about cleaning up after I’m done with dinner.

I have no clue what really got me to cook more often. Nothing really has changed in my life, it just happened. But I think a lot of things in my life have happened that way. I would have been trying to kick a habit that I didn’t like for years (like chewing gum or drinking soda) and then one day it stops and I don’t really think about it. I don’t missing chewing gum at all, but there are the rare occasional times that I do miss soda. Fortunately, that craving goes away pretty quickly so I’ve been soda free for several years now.

The same thing happened with cooking. I was trying to force the change to become a home cook for a long time. And while I would get into a habit of it for a bit, it never stuck. This time, it just feels natural and right for some reason so I don’t see any reason for me to stop. I do still have so many changes that need to be made about my food habits, but I’m so glad that I’ve been able to make this change now and hopefully other changes will fall in line too.

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