A new me...

I'm done...

I am finished with focusing on everybody else and not taking care of myself. The stress is too much, I'm exhausted, and my physical and mental health is being negatively impacted.

So, I have decided "NO MORE".

I need to start taking care of myself and put myself first. I need to do what I can to help myself. I need to get healthy, lose weight, and be happy. I am realizing that I don't have to be the person I am now for the rest of my life. I can change my path and fix it all.

So, I am making the choice to make my life better.

1. Change my diet. I need to change the way I eat and do better with my portion size. No more fast food, no more going back for multiple servings, and more home cooking of healthier meals.

2. Working out. I need to get into better shape and start walking and working out.

3. Cleaning. I need to go through all my stuff and get rid of a bunch of junk. I have too many clothes that I don't wear, too many art supplies that I don't use, and just too much STUFF. It is time to clear it all out!

4. Hobbies. I need to go back to my hobbies and doing things I enjoy. This will make my life less stressful and more fun.

5. Myself. I am going to take for time with my appearance. I will dress better, take time to do my hair and makeup, and just try to take better care of how I look.

So, yea... a lot of changes. I won't be doing it all one at a time in order to make it easier. It won't do me any good to do it all at once and then get stressed out from that! So, step by step.

Yep, step by step... to a happier and healthier me.

So, meals this past week were super easy. As such, this post is going to be pretty short as I only have to review 2 meals!

French Dip Sandwiches with French Fries (foodnetwork.com)
Grade:A
These were really good! The au jus was very flavorful and it came together like a French Dip you would get in a restaurant. Biggest tips with there though are: 1) Toast the rolls or they will be too soft and will fall apart due to all the juices. 2) Do not use the extra salt the recipe calls for... they will be salty enough due to the meat and beef consomme. 3) Splurge and get the expensive roast beef. The tenderness of the meat makes it very much worth it.

Nachos (Eat This Not That)
Grade: B+
Not a ton to say here, they were nachos. We put ground beef, black beans, cheeses, red onions, cilantro, salsa, and sour cream on ours. They stayed really crisp thanks to baking them in a single layer on the cookies sheet. I would like to try them with chicken!

Menu for week starting 2/28

Another week, another set of meals. This week though is sort of lite... I have a test tonight, classes on Wednesday, a meeting Thursday, and am getting my hair cut Saturday (and will then go out to lunch with mom) so I didn't need many meals. Still, I like to keep a list of what I make so that I can go back and see what I liked!

So, our two meals this week:

Nachos (Eat This, Not That Recipe book)

French Dip Sandwiches (Foodnetwork.com) with french fries

Yea, like I said, super easy.

So, this weeks meals are over and done with. They were in general a success, some more so then others, but none were horrible. Here is a short and basic review of what I thought of them.

Tilapia with green beans (Food Network Magazine)
Grade: B
Good, but sort of bland. I think the blandness had to do with the fact that green beans are not in season at the moment and thus I was unable to get the most flavor from them. Plus, they needed to be cooked a bit longer. I like my veggies still crisp, but these were a bit too much so. I think I will make it again, but maybe wait till summer and the farmers markets so I can get fresher green beans.

Smothered Pork Chops (Foodnetwork.com) with mashed potatoes and glazed carrots
Grade: A
Very good meal. It was comfort food to the max, and very flavorful. I really enjoyed it and I don't normally like pork very much. I was also very happy with how they cooked, as I have had issues with pan frying (stuff browning WAY too fast and before it was cooked through).

Chicken Cacciatore (myrecipes.com) with rotini
Grade: A-
Wow... that is what I thought of this. I did add tomato paste, Italian seasoning, and red pepper flakes as it was suggested in some of the reviews. I could see how it would be a bit bland without the additions, but with them it was great. The chicken was fall of the bone tender and so flavorful. One of the best slow cooker meals I have ever had.


Cod with Tomato Cream Sauce (Eatingwell.com) with rice
Grade: C
Eh... it wasn't bad but it wasn't memorable. It was just sort of there. Not sure if I did something wrong, but it just wasn't great.

Menu for week starting 2/21

Ahhh... what to have next week. Thinking tomorrow morning would be a great day to hit the grocery store. Of course, I decided to wait until now to try and figure out what to make. I either need only 2 meals or 3 meals with one being a crockpot meal because I have to go to campus on Thursday for a study group for Accounting. I already have a meal planned for tomorrow that will fall within the plans for next week...

So far I have:

Tilapia with green beans and cresent rolls (Food Network Magazine)
- I already have everything I need for this

Smothered Pork Chops (Foodnetwork.com) with stuffing and glazed carrots
- Chicken broth
- Buttermilk (maybe, need to check the use by date on what I have)
- Can of Carrots

Chicken Cacciatore (myrecipes.com) with rotini
- I am going to change this a bit and leave out the mushrooms due to my mothers allergy and make it with chicken thighs since that is what is in the freezer. This is a slow cooker recipe so mom can eat when she gets home from work and I can eat when I get home from classes.
- Onion
- Green Bell Pepper
- Yellow Bell Pepper
- Rotini

Cod with Tomato Cream Sauce (Eatingwell.com) with rice
- Thyme
- Shallot
- Chicken Broth
- Heavy Cream

Weekly Menu/Recipes

Sometimes I can be so unorganized...

Last week I was supposed to make a maple glazed salmon. Well, due to schedule conflicts and me getting sick, it never happened. I made the other meals I had planned and just moved this recipe into this weeks menu. Sounds easy enough right?

Well, that only works if you can remember where the recipe came from! I spent over 2 hours searching for where I found this recipe while freaking out because my mother was super excited over it. Now, I did finally find it thanks to my handy notebook of meals I want to try, but I realized I need some way to keep this all more organized.

And then I remembered I had a blog I keep forgetting about!

So don't be surprised to see my listing my weekly menu, including a shopping list and where the recipes are from. Not only will this help ME, but it may also give an ongoing point to this blog!

Game ratings VS Idiots (8/07/2008)

Moved from Myspace...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKzF173GqTU

Stupid Fox News BS again...

I have played at least part of Mass Effect (I have an issue with finishing one game before starting another so gonna have to replay as soon as I get through Lost Odyssey). I am a 26 years old female, so far from the "average" player as they stated in the story. I have also been noticing a trend of gamers getting older and as such it seems games are maturing along with us.

The game is rated M for Mature 17+. The reasons include: blood, language, partial nudity, sexual themes, violence. It also supports family settings (aka locks), It is all right there on the box before you purchase it. There is no hidden agenda to get kids hooked on sex and violence. The ESRB rated the game as such, for the reasons stated, and as such it's pretty freakin obvious if the game is one you would want to buy your child.

Whatever happened to personal responsibility? Whatever happened to a parent telling their child they can't play a M rated game or see an R rated movie? Why is it up to the government and the entertainment industry to bow down and change the way things work? It is NOT the fault of the gaming industry that some parent couldn't say no to their child and bought them an M rated game. The parent had the game information available to them and could have been an educated decision. Instead, they buy the game and then get offended that there is a side shot of some alien woman's boob (which you only see if you end up with that scene based on decisions you make through many hours of game play... it is not even a "main" game sequence). Ummm... hello "PARTIAL NUDITY"? What part of the rating is so hard to understand?

I am so sick and tired of people blaming everyone else but the person responsible. If some kid plays a game and decides to go on a shooting rampage then there are other issues at hand. If it was the GAME then we would have a heck of a lot more instances of this happening considering the gaming industry is a billion dollar industry. There are millions of gamers out there who have played games such as Mass Effect, GTA (while not one I will ever play, I have no issue with adults playing it), Halo, or Half Life. Yet as soon as something happens, BAM it's the games fault. Not the fault of the person who committed the act, not the fault of the parents who bought the game, not the fault of the years of depression and the fact the person had come off their medications... no, it's only the fault of the game (or the music they listened to or the movie they watched).