Asian inspiration

I love soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ginger and noodles. But, since I am trying to eat very healthy, I try to stay away from take out. A lovely friend from work shares her Real Simple magazine with me (a great frugal tip).And I tinkered with a recipe in there for dinner the other night.

Here you go:

8 ounces soba* noodles
1 pound boneless chicken breast
2 cups shredded red cabbage
5 tablespoons canola oil, divided
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon ginger

In a saucepan, cook chicken with 2 tablespoons canola oil over medium high heat. Cook 8 ounces soba* noodles, cool, and toss with chicken, cabbage, 3 tablespoons canola oil, rice vinegar and soy sauce. Sprinkle with ginger and toss.

*Soba noodles are Japanese Noodles made from buckwheat and wheat flour, which gives it a dark-brownish gray color.

Quick Cold Dinner

Isn't today the first official day of spring. For a few days, spring weather has been knocking at my door. I turned off the heat, put away the winter coats and dusted off my bike. I actually didn't have to wear wool to run in.
So of course, I am looking for yummy, yummy cold recipes that are refreshing and quick.
This is what I came up with. It's healthy, quick and filling. It makes one serving.

White Bean Salad

1 cup canned cannelli beans, drained
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 cup red pepper, diced
2 tablespoons crumbled feta cheese
1/4 ounce avocado, diced

In a bowl, put beans and peppers. Stir in olive oil. Top with feta cheese and avocado.

Why I write and why I stay busy

After waking from a catatonic nap post school day, taking the pooch to the park, riding bike 15.5 miles, showering and making dinner, I was finally able to carve out some time to sit down. I am watching "Julie and Julia" and got the sudden urge to blog. I love to write, especially in first person when I don't have to find peer-reviewed journal articles or wait for people to return my call. I miss taking all of the thoughts that swirl in around in my multi-tasking woman brain and putting them on paper (or computer screen.)

On my bike ride today, one of my riding partners said, "You never had a problem being over-committed." Is this what people think of me? The girl who can't say no? But I like to be busy. It's a blessing from my parents. They are hard workers that hardly ever sit down. And I have inherited it. And I am OK with it. When I am in the midst of being busy, I feel busy, but rarely overwhelmed. I have really low blood pressure and rarely feel anxiety. Sometimes I can't sleep because lesson plans are flying past my eyelids and referral slips are haunting me. But overall, I crash when I hit the pillow.

I feel like I am at a good place in life. I love my job most of the time, I love my husband and my small brood of animals. I have a wonderful new nephew Joey (See me and him in the photo) who is going to be raised into a awesome young man because his parents will be sure of it. I am getting my master's degree, something I always aspired to do, and I am finally recommitted to eating healthy again.

So, my next goal is to get back to the blog to share my frugal tips. When you are busy, it's hard to be frugal, let alone blog about it. But, I am going to try to over commit and do it anyway! So, here is to trying to get back to the blog and really exercise one of my passions...writing!

Wonderful intentions

Over the past several weeks when I run across something, it flicks a switch in my head that says, "You should blog about that." But life has been so busy, I tend to forget what I wanted to blog about when I finally get a minute to sit down. I am running around a lot lately. After school, I've been running with my new running partner. Then, I take my little pup to the park. Then it's dinner and school work. Last night, I was so exhausted, I went to bed at 7:30 p.m. I can't believe January is almost over. 4 more months until summer. I keep telling myself that! Here is to hoping that I can remember what to blog about the next time I have a moment!

On food

Every one's choice of food is influenced by something.
And being raised on mostly American and PA Dutch delights such spaghetti, Hamburger Helper and meatloaf makes me wonder how I have ever came to love practically everything. And not just everything, but in weird combinations, too.
As I sit here and write this, I am snacking on a bowl of couscous mixed with raisins, chic peas, avocado and feta cheese.
After a lot of thinking, I believe I found the root of it all. Besides watching scary movies way too scandalous for our age, freezing underwear and making prank calls, we partook in another tradition at sleepovers as children. We dared people to drink whatever we mixed up in the kitchen. Our concoctions of mayonnaise, hot sauce, applesauce, milk and egg yolks must have made me tolerant and in fact enjoy food of all flavors and types.
So, I find joy in looking in my refrigerator and combining whatever it is that I see. And the more I try, the more I find flavors that mix in a magical way. I love Guy from Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, because he mixed sushi with pork barbecue.
It's a great way to use leftovers, experience new flavors and come up with a new favorite recipe. I am sure you will run into a few mishaps, but your won't find the gems if you don't eat the dirt first! Enjoy experimenting!

Online shopping

These last few weeks leading up to Christmas have been very busy for me...and I haven't been preparing for the holiday itself. I have been studying for grad finals, writing and grading papers, attending meetings, volunteering at the library, taking cycling classes, taking the dog to the park and doing everything but shopping for Christmas. So, when I did have a moment, I signed online. And did everything I could to save money. Before I viewed my cart, I googled coupon code and the store I was shopping at for some savings. Even a very obscure police officer site I ordered some items for Nate for, had a great coupon code. I usually end up at www.retailmenot.com, but a co-workers swears by www.gottadeal.com. Even if it saves you shipping, or covers tax, it's better than nothing, right? So, don't' forget to take a few extra seconds to save that holiday dough!

Snowed in

Wow, what a novel idea...staying home an entire day. I just finished up my grad classes for the semester, the program to write IEPs is offline for the weekend and I have been doing a decent job keeping up with the house cleaning. So, what do you do with an entire day to yourself? Well....I cleaned most of the house. I vacuumed up a lot of dog and cat hair. I washed, folded and put away four loads of laundry. I made two lovely pieces of jewelry for Christmas gifts. I got a head start on the library books I picked up for my extended Christmas break. I took Moose out in the snow to play. I did dishes. I put away piles of things that had been sitting around for months. I watched some silly Christmas movies. I shoveled the walk.
I definitely didn't eat very healthy. The neighbor baked cookies and brought them over. I sampled one of each variety. I ate lots of chocolate and candy and sweets today. And, of course, I didn't exercise. It's just one day, right?
What a day!