All Jazzed Up with No Place to Go

If you were someone with the happy circumstance of being financially supported by your parents and living in Duncan and having no job or school work because the class you thought you were going to take has been cancelled you would know that sometimes you have days where you feel really jazzed up and you want to do something, but you don't know what the hell to do (phew, long sentence). When I first found myself in this situation it was easy to figure out what to do, because there was lots to do:

-clean the house
-purge the closets and get rid of stuff we don't need
-catch up on correspondence with long lost friends, relatives, and business acquaintances (haha, ok, I don't have the latter, it just sounded good)
-brush the cat
-exercise
-stockpile food of various types in the freezer so that when I actually am busy we won't go hungry because neither GP nor I thought about dinner
-take various online courses that give me basic skills I'd need in service jobs, such as Serving it Right and FoodSafe

Now that I've done most of those things (or have managed to form them into a somewhat mindless habit) there is very little to do all day, which is one of the reasons I have this blog. Right now I'm sitting outside with Friskies, enjoying a cup of tea and a cool breeze (what did we do before wireless internet?!). It seems I am, for all intensive purposes (hehe, a joke) an accidental housewife. Believe me, this does not thrill me but I'm coping asbestos I can (gawd, I'm hilarious today). So what do I do when I can't think of anything to do? Well, find out how to get certified as a fitness instructor, of course! Would you attend a fitness class led by me? Here's how I think mine would go.

Here are some pictures of the delicious things I've been cooking lately:

A few nights ago I made this yummy yummy seared snapper fillet with avocado and grilled veggies. Grilled veg is becoming a staple, it seems, and I am slowly starting to tire of zucchini, scrumptious as it is cooked on the grill with garlic and finished with a little lemon juice. If only we could eat chocolate zucchini cake, but no, GP never fails to remind me that I'm not eating what's best for my body every time something starchy or sugary comes close to my quivering salivating lips. Needless to say, I tell him I'd rather have a satisfied tummy than a perfect body, but he does have a point. I can't eat cake every day and feel good about myself. Goodness knows I've tried. Sometimes I think about making a pan of Rice Crispies Squares in the morning and eating the whole thing before he comes home. Pretty sure that borders on Bulimia, but let's not go there. Onwards!

Above you will see some chicken (quickly marinated in a simple garlic-rosemary-S&P-oil mixture) kebabs atop a basic Greek salad. I bought the olives pitted because I effing hate having to fiddle around with my teeth getting the pit out. Maybe it's a bit more expensive, but it's really worth it if, like me, you love kalamata olives but not the pits. Plus, if you buy your veggies at the Farm Market for a pittance you can afford to splurge on olives and scrum-diddly-umptious Feta cheese.

By the way, did you know that, since 2002, Feta has been one of those protected designation of origin products, like Champagne? Yup, it's only allowed to be called Feta if it was produced in Greece (or Lesvos) and is made of sheep's milk or a blend of sheep and goat's milk (the amount of goat's milk cannot exceed 30%). The more you know.

Anyway, the dinner was fucking tasty. We've been using a thermometer for our meat cooking and our chicken has been consistently amazingly juicy and tender. I think GP just likes using it because it makes cooking feel like a science experiment, but the results are amazing. People overcook their chicken so much, it's no wonder everyone is so afraid of putting it on the grill.

Oh! I almost forgot to mention the tzatziki I made! It's P90X-proof, meaning it has some added protein and no fat to speak of. I used the last of my most recent batch of yogurt, which I have been meaning to talk about here. I think the secret to a firm and successful yogurt is fourfold: add skim milk powder (I think I mentioned this in my post on yogurt), use a powdered store-bought starter, incubate for more than 12 hours, and strain half of the yogurt for about half an hour to add back to the unstrained portion. The last step is especially important for a thicker, creamier yogurt. I was impressed at how deceivingly creamy our skim milk yogurt turned out when I did this. It wasn't as mouth-stickingly thick as the very first batch in my previous yogurt post, but it was the exact consistency I was going for: a bit firmer than commercial yogurt, but not as firm as sour cream. Plus, the extra hours yielded a more sour and very pleasant taste.

Anyway, I kind of got sidetracked by the yogurt. The tzatziki consisted of the leftover yogurt, some garlic, lemon juice, dill, and S&P to taste. I didn't add cucumber because GP and I aren't too keen on lumps, but if you did add cucumber you would want to strain it after you grated it for maybe half an hour and then plonk it into the sauce.

Will the Real Healthy Foodie Please Stand Up?

I am of the opinion that food should be tasty, versatile, healthy and easy to make. I don't want to buy an ingredient at the store only to have to use it all up for one dish, I want to make it last for several different dishes that depart significantly in flavour from the dish I originally used the ingredient in. Not only does this help with creativity, it saves money. Since I'm living off my parents now (and, of course, because we're in "these economic times"), saving money is kind of a necessity.

I can't stand those fussy food blogs that encourage you to follow one million different steps that only add to the presentation of your dish and not the flavour. Sorry, but I refuse to blanch green onions so that I can braid them together and wrap my asparagus in them. Asparagus (or any other vegetable) does not need to be dressed up with dumb crap that you're not going to eat anyway. That's part of the reason I don't consider this a food blog, along with the fact that I seem to complain a whole lot about school and talk way too much about my cat on here. I don't have the patience to make a food blog and, even if I did, I don't think I care enough to give people my recipes. If there's one thing I hate it's giving people my recipes only to have them not follow them. Is that weird? Probably. I'm a weird person.

That is not to say that I don't value presentation. Hell, I won't post a photo of my food if it doesn't look like it could be at least a little bit tasty. However, I'm sure Gordon Ramsay agrees with me that taste should come before anything else.

Another thing that frustrates me is the lack of healthy recipes on food blogs. Don't get me wrong, I love a good cupcake as much as the next guy, but who can eat cupcakes every day and feel good about their body? Not me, though I don't think you have any idea how much I wish I could. Is there any food blogger who is concerned about taste AND nutrition? Because it sure doesn't seem like it. The vast majority of blogs I've come across are baking blogs and the cooking blogs that I have read have so many recipes for carb-laden dishes like pasta and pizza.

The dinners I make usually consist of a lean protein (usually chicken or [shell]fish because cows and pigs are too smart for me to eat) and one or two vegetable dishes. That is the only way I can figure out to limit our carbohydrate intake because GP and I usually have sammiches [sic.] for lunch. I am continually shocked when I go out to dinner and see dishes with no vegetables on the side, or even worse, pasta dishes with bread on the side. Excuse me, but what the hell?! Nobody needs that kind of carb. overload unless she is an elite athlete and from what I hear in the news about obesity most of us are not. Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say here is that if you find a blog (or are the writer of a blog) with lots of healthy ideas for chicken/fish, don't be selfish; share it with the class!

Let Me Count the Ways #3

Top Ten Reasons Why I Love My Life

(In no order)

1. I make an amazing birthday cake. Evidence to the left from my little brother's birthday, which was yesterday.

2. GP does nice things for me, like cleaning the entire kitchen after I made the aforementioned cake (and when the kitchen was a MESS), EVEN THOUGH he wasn't able to come to the birthday dinner because he was working and EVEN THOUGH I told him explicitly not to clean it up because I would when I got home. It was kind of like having a house-elf, but GP is a lot more handsome and independent.

3. I look fabulous in most hats.

4. I'm good at things I don't even like doing, namely yoga.

5. Friskies does NOT like whistling, which makes for endless entertainment. If GP or I whistle, she tries to bite us.

6. I don't have to go to school or work right now. Neat!

7. I have a knack for finding great places to live just at the right time.

8. I've been pretty good about working out. In the past 90 days I have only missed 5 workouts of the 6 per week that GP and I have been doing. All but one of those workouts were yoga. Also, I've been getting stronger and stronger. I can do seven chin-ups now! I must say I've been finding it hard to stay motivated lately. I need a little pick-me-up. Suggestions, anyone?

9. I haven't gotten a sunburn yet this summer. That is good because my skin is very fair and sunburns are painful and do not bode well for future health or skin appearance.

10. I can speak French. That's awesome because I live in a bilingual country and I think everyone living here should be taught more of both languages.