homemade granola bars

My boyfriend is definitely the more health conscious out of the two of us, but you hang around someone like that long enough and it does become contagious.  Lately I have been refusing to use a recipe if it doesn’t have the nutrition facts listed.  It is unbelievable how much sodium is in stuff!  Now, truth be told I’m not completely sure what could happen by in-taking too much sodium, but why risk it, right?  I could go google it right now, but I want to get on with this post.

That is the background story to why we decided I should try to make my own granola bars.  Reports have been coming out for years that most store bought granola bars aren’t any healthier than many candy bars so we generally avoid them.  However, we wanted to change up our packed lunches a bit as well as having something snackable around the apartment and that is how this idea came about.

I found an easy recipe which pretty much allowed for me to put whatever I wanted in it.  I did buy flaked coconut, but to fill up the rest I just used what I had which was white chocolate chips, craisins, and raisins.  Obviously they aren’t as good as what you buy at the store, but they are pretty good and since they are much better for you it is a fair trade.  I plan to make another batch tonight so we can bring them along on our upcoming hiking/camping trip.  This time I have multi-grain cheerios, slivered almonds, and dried berries.  Looking forward to them already!

Click the link below for recipe:

EASY GRANOLA BARS

marinating makes it marvelous

Ok, so it wasn’t exactly marvelous, but I needed a word that started with M.  If you have been following along with my cooking posts you are aware of my frustrations of making all the different chicken recipes taste any different from one another.  For awhile now I have been meaning to see if marinating was the trick, and after trying out this recipe, I just may be on to something.  This is an obvious solution to anybody who has spent anytime in the kitchen, I realize that, but I’m new.

So one day I picked up some chicken at the grocery store without knowing what I was going to do with it.  The next morning I searched for a marinade that I could make with ingredients I already had in the apartment.  BALSAMIC CHICKEN is what I found.  Definitely could tell the difference as for once the flavor ran throughout the chicken.  Unfortunately the flavor wasn’t ideal for our taste-buds, but it was still good and  was just for the sake of experimentation anyway.  Now if only I had a full size fridge so I could keep a half dozen chicken breasts in there in different marinades.  A mini fridge just won’t cut it after this discovery!

Click the link below for recipe:

BALSAMIC CHICKEN

i’ve succumbed

I’ve succumbed to the peer pressure and finally joined Facebook.

krav maga

 

I’m finally doing it.  I first heard about Krav Maga from the TV show Human Weapon on the History Channel which aired in the latter half of 2007.  I’ve been thinking about it ever since and finally, one and a half years later, I joined Krav Maga Worldwide.  So far I have only taken the intro class and one level one class, taking it slow to start, but hopefully I’ll be attending more regularly soon.  I liked the intro class well enough to sign up, but it took a whole two weeks for me to go back and take a real class.  That class was awesome and I really want to go back!  Warm-up wise I hung in there except when in came to push-ups and lower ab work.  As usual, drills started with punching which is by far my weakest attack.  One of the instructors actually called my punches “love taps”.  Shortly after, however, I got my redemption as we moved onto round kicks, my best attack.  As a kid doing karate, this is how I scored probably 80% of my points during sparring.  Round kick to the back of the head, they knew it was coming, yet somehow they rarely could stop it.  Anyway, while I probably can’t kick as well that high anymore, it didn’t matter since we were only doing round kicks to the waist.  The instructors were impressed, but of course all they knew was that it was my first class and not about my background in martial arts.

Next was elbows which is a wicked attack and pretty instinctual in my opinion.  Praise for that too.  Then it was choke defense which I definitely still need some work on.  The choke defense technique is different from what I’ve been taught in the past, but after I get it down will most likely be much more effective.  And that is pretty much my reason for wanting to take Krav Maga in the first place… because it is more effective.  Yes I trained in Karate for about eight years and have a black belt, but no that does not make me feel confident that I could defend myself in a fight.  I’m not saying that Karate is not effective, just that the training I received was not.  UFC fighter Lyoto Machida on the other hand, he gives Karate a good name.  What I did though, that was mostly performance oriented, as was the three months of WuShu training I received in Beijing.

But now… now it is time to learn to fight and defend, for real.

in search of the right salmon

After my mother stated that she couldn’t find much she liked on allrecipes.com… she suddenly did. 

She raved about the PUFF PASTRY SALMON found on the site, and said my dad loved it too.  I am always looking for good salmon recipes, mainly ones that make salmon not taste like fish, because while I have come to thoroughly enjoy seafood in my adult life, my boyfriend isn’t quite there yet.  He’s trying though, because he is fairly health conscious and knows how good a lot of the things from the sea can be for you, especially salmon.

Still, I am weary of making it for dinner because the first and last time I tried he couldn’t stomach it and ended up eating PB&J instead.  (The only meal I’ve made thus far where this has happened.)  Because of this, I made one with salmon and one with chicken and gave each of us half of each, just in case.  And while he did say he liked the chicken one better, he completely finished off both his halves.  Hooray, I got him to eat salmon!

I, on the other hand, couldn’t even get through half of what was on my plate.  Something about the puff pastry just wasn’t sitting right in my stomach.  Because of this, I am still on the lookout for a salmon recipe that pleases the both of us.  I’m not sure is this one will get a repeat performance or not, but if it does, I will definitely double the pesto that was used.  We both used what was left in the container as a dipping sauce since without it there wasn’t a whole lot of flavor.  Perhaps I did something wrong.  Maybe the next time I try it I’ll have Mom make it and see if I taste a difference.  What do you say, Mom?

Click the link below for recipe:

PUFF PASTRY SALMON

branching out to “fine cooking”

If you ever click on the recipe links in my posts you know that everything has come from allrecipes.com.  And with all the “rave reviews” I have been giving myself, my mother decided to try the site out for herself, much to her disappointment.  So she sent me an email listing some of her favorite recipe websites which I promised to try.  Of course, they all require you to register and I don’t like registering with too many websites, so it was hard to find a recipe.  But for some reason, I was able to view BUTTERMILK COUNTRY FRIED CHICKEN WITH CUCUMBER SALAD on finecooking.com.

With the first couple bites I wasn’t too impressed… the cucumber salad tasted too much like pickles due to the dill and the chicken was good, but only on the outside.  But I soon adjusted to the strong dill taste and when dinner was over my plate was practically licked clean.  Not the best meal I’ve made thus far, but it is definitely up there toward the top and I know my boyfriend will request it again once we start getting into repeats.

As far as website review goes, I still like allrecipes the best, due mostly to the organization rather than quality of the recipes.  I am a sucker for clean looking and user-friendly websites.  I will probably end up registering for finecooking though too, mainly because I like that a lot of the recipes are full meals, combining main course with side dish.  I put way too much thought into pairing the right side dish with the right main course, so this attribute could give me back a few hours to my week!

Thanks Mom

Click the link below for recipe:

BUTTERMILK COUNTRY FRIED CHICKEN WITH CUCUMBER SALAD

they did it again

Back in February I posted about the Worldlink Education newsletter and how they totally lied about the experiences we had in Taigu.  Well, a new newsletter has been issued and they did it again!  This one isn’t nearly as bad, but still, they are quoting me for something I never said.

Under the section Cultural Excursion: Prince Gong’s Mansion

At the end of this cultural excursion, we bid farewell to Sarah (USA) as she was bound for the airport to return home. Her parting words ‘I will not forget the friendships I have made here nor this wonderful excursion’!

Ummmm, no they weren’t.  I don’t remember what my parting words were exactly, but I know for sure they were not that!

Greg Mortenson

original cover/subtitle

bestseller cover/subtitle

Last month we had the pleasure of seeing best-selling author (and so much more), Greg Mortenson.  You may not know him by name, but most have probably heard of his book Three Cups of Tea.  And if you hadn’t heard of it, well now you have.  You’re welcome.

I am not going to go into what the book is about, but if you care to know just google it.  Or read my good friend’s synopsis of it here.  Yes, I am the “Sarah” she refers to in the post.

Oddly, the talk he gave was primarily just a retelling of what was in his book.  That seemed odd since I bet at least 90% of the people there had already read it.  I wonder if they too were there hoping for more of a “what has happened since” kind of thing.  He did focus a lot though on his charity called Pennies for Peace.

The first bit of funding Mortenson received to fulfill his humanitarian promise was from school children in the form of small change.  It made all the difference in that first project of his and today the pennies children are donating are continuing to help fund education for youth in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

If you are a teacher, or perhaps have a roommate who is a teacher, I encourage you to look into this program and/or spread the word.  I know the school year is just about over, but that gives you all Summer to figure out how to work it into your curriculum.  Not only is it beneficial to kids in other parts of the world, but it will be to your students as well.  Click on the Pennies for Peace link above to find out how to get involved!