#healthy bitch. chicken rice and broccoli...

[kitkatcadillac]

ooough marinating chicken with olive oil/vinegar/splash of lemon juice/garlic/salt then oregano/pepper halfway thru cooking really good i think i can be friends with chicken again actually

[thessalian]

Thess vs Self-Care

One thing I’m finding in my quest to eat healthier, make my own things, and generally do the self-care thing, is this: ...self-care is hard, and those people who keep bitching about “poor people should just cook their own food because it’s cheaper” and similar sorts of bullshit really need to be slapped upside the head with a wet trout.

I live alone. I am neurodivergent. I am physically disabled. I have a commute that’s physically taxing without the disability, and a job that is less physically taxing but can be very draining all the same. I have some significant food intolerances that make eating at all fairly difficult. With all that, though, I recognise that I have it relatively easy. Yes, it would be nice if I had a partner or housemate who could help me with some of the cookery-related bits, but at least I’m not trying to feed a family of three or more after a hard day’s work.

I’m in a position where I often can’t just say “Fuck it; I’m getting takeout”. I can’t get microwaved meals ... well, these days I kind of can, but the selection is limited and the price is ridiculous. Hell, same issue with ramen - there are instant noodle cups with rice noodles, but those are a special treat, not a staple in my diet. If I want to eat dairy, I have to buy pills that will allow me to digest it. Gluten intolerance (which given my vitamin D issues probably actually is coeliac) means that I can’t even do most soups, much less something like baked beans or other ready meals that thicken things with flour. Most convenience foods are not an option for me. So yes, I cook.

Hell, I cooked as a kid. Single-parent family, I was expected to help out pretty early. But I found it fun, so that’s fine. There were convenience food shortcuts sometimes, but by the time I hit my teens, I could put together a fairly good selection of meals from scratch. It saved my mother having to come home from a hard day of beating her head against the glass ceiling at work and then having to cook for two.

Thing is ... it’s expensive, to cook and have a varied diet. I think the victim-blaming jackasses who insist that we could all be doing just fine if we ‘learned to cook’ aren’t considering things like ... you know, food we enjoy. Joke’s on them, though - I personally don’t call beans on toast ‘cooking’, and that’s what a lot of people eat. It’s got your food groups, it’s filling, and it’s cheap. It’s crap, yes, but at least it’ll keep you going. The problem is, though, that the victim-blaming jackasses seem to think we should just ‘keep going’ and never have nice things ever.

Well, I deny that. I will keep trying to make my diet healthy and varied and good. I just wish it didn’t so often turn a ‘good pain day’ (and it’s depressing that I have to say that) into a bad one. This I say as I go to pull a chicken, broccoli and mushroom pasta bake out of the oven and take another peek at the fruit in my dehydrator. Those things will feed me for awhile, and feed me well and in a pleasing way ... but getting to that point hurts, and is tiring, and takes up so much time. But apparently it’s fine if we’re tired, hurting, and deprived of everything but the barest essentials of survival.

In summary: COMPOST THE VICTIM-BLAMING HYPER-RICH.

[onetuffbunny]

when i was a kid, my parents fed me alphabet soup a lot, the kind that comes in a can.

people think there’s something actually called campbell’s alphabet soup but that doesn’t exist and never did. as a society, we made up a soup name. they’ve got tomato a to z’s. don’t have those a lot in this household. my kid’s afraid of the color red. when i make spaghetti, i just give him noodles and butter and a lil bit of dried parsley. he doesn’t like alfredo. i did like the cheese and pepper thing, you know what i’m talking about, but he decided that pepper is too spicy. tried doing veggie pasta with a bit of broccoli and stuff but he would not take the bait. i basically spend 90% of my life trying to get children to eat vegetables. do you know how hard this is. the only thing i can get him to consistently eat is grapes and fruit gummies and chips. like wtf dude, you cannot just eat chips, you gotta eat some leafs every once and awhile, man was not put on this earth to eat chips alone. honestly the only reason i’m eating human food at this point is so i can leave my plate out and hope he steals off of it when i’m not looking, which is maybe training a preschooler to be a food thief but like whatever man, you gotta do what you gotta do with little kids, they’re like little drunk people that rely on you. his pediatrician says he’s healthy, so i guess i’m doing something right.

anyway.

they got a vegetable soup with alphabet letters in it but it’s not actually called alphabet soup. that’s not on the label.  it also sucks. i think there was a chicken alphabet but idk if it’s still around. canned meat kinda grosses me out. you know it’s got a lot of shit in it to make it shelf-stable. don’t get me wrong, i have eaten my fair share of hot dogs and tuna in a can and spam in my life, but generally speaking, i don’t buy a lot of meat anyway. kind of the ‘living off the land’ type. i got a root cellar and everything. if i can’t hunt or fish it, don’t really wanna eat it (also brisket is expensive lol) but you can’t hunt dinosaur shaped chicken nuggies in the wild. anyway, if i buy meat, it’s not meat in a can. unless it’s spam. my first for-realsies boyfriend (idk leonard or whatever, makes me sound like a dick for not remembering, but i was like 20 and suuuuper depressed, this being before i learned my current rabbit styles) taught me how to make the breakfast of kings, which is frying up some garlic rice and then you fry up spam and however many fried eggs you want. pretty dope if i say so myself. terrible for your cholesterol. i mean, i don’t give a shit about stuff like that though, i figure the stuff i eat is probably the least damaging thing i’ve done to my body tbh. before i got into nsfw enterprises, i was in the wrestling scene and let me tell you something. no shit that all that shit is scripted out and who wins has been decided on beforehand, like, did you think the undertaker really has magic powers, no, he’s a republican, but even still, that does not mean that you don’t get hurt for realsies sometimes. like. yeah, obviously you learn how to take moves and sell them so they look like they’ve knocked the wind out of you but really you’re fine, like, i can fuckin sell, i was good at that (for the record, i was a heel, butcher jack was one mean son of a bitch, butcher jack still is but that character sure as hell ain’t a wrasslin persona anymore unless you use very specific definitions of wrestling lololol) but i was a little dummy and i was in the shady as fuck backyard hardcore scene and let me tell you what. i got scars from barbed wire. i got a scar from a flaming table. i got scars from glass. shit hurted. career was brief but glorious but also i really like having money to pay rent, so i took my career in a different direction that requires about the same amount of clothing lololol. sometimes i think about the career i could’ve had, like, damn i could’ve been kenny alpha, but there’s no point in dwelling on uncertain possibilities. you gotta drive forth into tomorrow.

anyway, enough about wrestling, we’re talking about soup.

growing up, money was tight because my mom was like a lunch lady or something, i really do not remember, and my dad was in the army, idk what rank, we don’t talk, and more importantly, i have a metric fuckton of brothers and exactly one sister because my ma wanted a daughter real bad so she could dress her up and kept going until she finally got one but guess what ma, you could’ve dressed me up. she grew up to be real boyish based off of social media postings, so i guess ma never got what she really wanted. point is, you can’t have that many kids and have any money unless you’re a millionaire and/or commit tax fraud, which usually goes hand in hand. idk i only know one millionaire and i’m pretty sure he’s not committing tax fraud and it’s like whoa, i literally cannot conceive of how you live, you have a fucking candy room just for candy, wild. he keeps offering me jobs but idk, mixing friendship and work historically ends poorly. i do some modeling work for him sometimes though but like for t-shirts and shit, don’t get the wrong idea here. incidentally, if you need a male model (or like male adjacent, i do not even know how to define my gender, all the muscles and shit is just a form of drag, i am not masc, i am a rabbit), hit me up & we can discuss pricing. my availability is pretty much whenever.

as you might expect, we ate a lot of highly processed stuff designed by some guy in a labcoat somewhere: lots of potpies, hamburgie helper & his cousin tunie fish helper, about any tv dinner you want as long as it’s from the cheap section (i am still a connoisseur of kid cuisine, there’s just something about those brownies that just hits the spot), various mixes to put on pork chops, maccy cheese, whatnot and whatnot and whatnot. chief among this was soup. now, campbell’s soup today is like what, a buck-fifty? something like that. idk i haven’t picked any up in a long time. this being Days of Yore (the 80s/90s), it was probably like fifty cents or something. given that each can stretches to a couple people, you just need a few and you have enough to feed a big as fuck family for cheap. since my ma wanted to make sure we got our veggies in, she fed us a lot of the veggie soup with alphabet letters. a lot.

thing is, i hated that stuff. couldn’t stand it. it’s a taste thing, sure, but it was mostly a texture thing. me & my son are on the same brainwave when it comes to Bad Textures. i could not fucking deal with it. i mean, who the fuck wants to eat a mushy carrot. i would rather die than eat a mushy carrots. disgusting. gross. no. i got fed this once, maybe twice a week, each and every week, and i was always like “i am going to die if i eat this, you are poisoning me, this is awful, i am perishing,” like, i did not want to eat this shit and i still don’t because veggie soup in a can is disgraceful. i can make my own veggie soup and it’s bomb as hell, but that shit sucks.

this drove my mother bonkers. rather than see it as a sign of the eventual brainstate that psychologists love exploring (i have given psychiatrists so much of my money over the years), she saw it as a sign that i would become a wild child, which like. i did. i did do that. i don’t know why anyone was surprised by that. if you keep telling someone they’re difficult, don’t be surprised if they turn out difficult out of sheer fuckin spite. don’t know what they expected. like damn, if i keep getting accused of doing drugs & crimes, might as well become a massive stoner doing vandalism, you know what i mean? i think the only thing that surprised them was the bisexual antics (for the record, i’m gay but i did not know this in the 90s, mad respect to all my bi brethren, sorry to all the girls i got with, it was me and not you) and like i’m still pretty sure my mom thinks that any relationship i’ve ever had, man or woman, was done specifically to piss her off, haha. when i tell people i was a teenage runaway & about my parents (very catholic), they assume i ran off due to gay reasons but honestly, that was a lot lower on the list than you might think. my teenage years were a trip. by the way, protip: stay in school, make sure you got a bank account no one else can access, don’t run off with nothing in your pockets.

so she was like “[INSERT LEGAL NAME HERE] (not a deadname, just not y’all’s business), this is your favorite soup. you love this soup. eat your favorite soup. you always tell me this is your favorite.” and i was like “no, this soup is shit. it’s not my favorite.” and she was always like “no, this is your most favorite soup in the whole wide world and you’re eating it.” this would go on and sometimes i’d eat the soup just to shut her up. one day when i’m like six or whatever, still a little kid, she’s like “you can’t get up from the table unless you eat your soup” and i’m like “no fuck that, i wanna go watch ninja turtles” or whatever i watched when i was six, idk when that came out. but i’m like six, so i have to it at the table. now, i was stubborn as shit as a kid. i sat there like an entire hour or however long. i was not budging and i was not eating the soup. eventually, my mother got out the airplane spoon, the one i had when i was a toddler, and she’s like “nyoom, nyoom, better open up, just eat this bite and you can leave, there’s the airplane to give you your most favorite soup in the whole world.”

anyway, long story short, she was just putting words in my mouth.

[normal-thoughts-official]

Bitch talk about rapharl teaching Alec how to cook a good meal for Magnus and both deciding to work together after lot of bickering because of Magnus bane love juices (u said in your last answer to ask u this so I now demand)(also coz I m Intruiged)

bitch i literally have already told u about this but also sure uwu

ok so like….. alec doesn’t get food. that’s just how it is. he grew up eating nothing but institute food and you can bet your ass there wasn’t seasoning on that shit. on like shadowhunter christmas or fucking something they put salt on the food and that was real adventurous. in shadowhunter culture, food was always seen as nothing but means to an end, Nourishment™ and nothing more. i’m surprised they even had shit like pancakes instead of just being like “for my patrol i am bringing this raw kale, yoghurt and rice smoothie. it is the best combination of nutrients for this time of day & activity” or just straight up eating like nutrient paste like those astronaut food thingies, but i suppose for that last one you would need technological development. do shadowhunters even have blenders tbh. anyway

the point is, food isn’t culturally an important thing for shadowhunters, which is all but canon considering the face magnus made at institute food (seriously, like… the trauma), and there is NO WAY alec knows how to cook. moreover, he doesn’t really get the inherent connection magnus has with culinary as a way to keep tradition alive and express one’s feelings, including love

but he does understand the basic fact that food matters for magnus. it’s funny to me because during s1, every time they talked about dates, alec suggested drinks (as he knew it was something magnus liked), but magnus always went for restaurants. the ethiopian place he knows, the place they went to in tokyo for their second date... i think drinking is more flirting for magnus, but going to a restaurant is more romance. because like not to slut all over the place yet again, but food is love

all of that to say (can u tell this is gonna be a really long answer) that alec is smart enough to eventually realize that magnus would love it if he made him some food. but does alec know where to start? no. he can’t like, tell a carrot apart from a broccoli tree and that’s just how it is. so, he goes to raphael for help, because he knows for a fact that raphael loves cooking and that magnus loves raphael’s cooking

and because alec is Like That his approach is very much like… “okay so teach me right now how to make a michelin star-worthy meal” and raphael is like… rubbing his temples, stressed out already, because goddamn 

so raphael has to sit down and explain the facts of life, i.e. that it doesn’t work like that, to him. cue dramatic speech about how cooking is an art, it’s not just about following a recipe. raphael could teach alec the steps to the most intricate dish, and it wouldn’t be worth anything if alec didn’t understand food, how it worked and how it meant. you don’t expect someone to draw the mona lisa just from knowing art theory. it takes practice, and love, and dedication, and raphael is willing to teach alec all that, but he has to understand that it will take a long time

and alec is like. what the fuck is a mownay leezah and raphael has to sigh and be like. cooking is like mastering a weapon. you have to train. and alec is like ah okay understandable 

cue cooking classes, which will 100% be written here like some “the hero is trained by their wise, old uncle on the ways of fighting” trope because like, yeah. so put on some music that matches that tone

so for the first class raphael puts some soup in front of alec and alec is like. hmmm. and raphael is like “take some and tell me how it tastes” and alec of course goes all “soup……” and raphael raises his eyebrows at him and he’s like “vegetable soup……” and raphael makes go on gestures as patiently as he can and alec is like “i think there’s……….. potato” 

so speech number 1: to be able to cook, you need to know how to eat. cooking is something that you do with all your senses. you need to be able to taste, and tell what’s missing, or if there’s too much of something, and if the texture is right, etc. you need to know what you’re looking for, you need to understand how to improvise, you need to pay attention and be in tune with it. you have to understand the ingredients. and alec is just like, nodding along and doing his best, because look. he might be a himbo with no previous experience on this and he might have no idea what raphael is talking about, but he does want to get this right, and understand this part of magnus better, too. only reason he’s not taking notes is because raphael looked at his notepad like he was going to die

alec takes to describing and understanding textures pretty well (hypersensitivity, babey!), but struggles a lot more with tastes because he doesn’t really have the apparel to describe it accurately due to lack of experience with that. which quickly makes raphael kinda.. sad. he went years without eating (he WILL find a way to be able to eat AND be still a vampire if it’s the LAST THING I DO IN THIS STUPID LIFE) but he can still tell what everything tastes like from memory. it’s not that alec can’t tell, he just… doesn’t know what to do with them because he was raised in a culture that literally didn’t care (and possibly forced him to eat Bad Texture foods and shit like that because it’s not like he has the space to complain about that, does he? and as a fellow autistic raphael can sympathize with that very, very well) 

so slowly but surely alec starts to pick up on tastes and describing and telling them apart and recognizing them when together, you know, shit like this. and sometimes he can recognize something from places magnus has taken him to before and he’s like oh, ginger! that’s what it was! magnus likes this, and his eyes are so full of love raphael has no choice but to huff like a kid because he can’t be caught thinking that it’s cute that alec loves his dad so much

(but it earns him many points in raphael’s book)

once alec graduates in Eating, they go to speech number 2: Why You Have To Vibe With The Ingredients. maia is there for that one because i said so, and anyway they need to get to taki’s to have this particular class because they grow at least some ingredients there okay let me have this (one of the things that made maia’s heart melt for raphael the most was seeing the way he was so careful and loving with the plants, like….. especially if they’ve started working together before raphael could eat food, he would just treat them with so much care and longing and put his all into making sure they grew healthy and well and it was just… heartwarming and heart wrenching in equal measures). but anyway she mostly takes to sitting on the counter, watching this unfold, and being very amused

so raphael shows alec, who promptly almost steps on a really small basil tree, leading raphael to scream NO!!! like he is dying and making maia almost double over with laughter, what they have. obviously they can’t grow enough shit to run a whole ass restaurant but they have almost all kinds of herbs and a few quick-to-grow, easy-to-take-care-of ingredients like tomatoes and squash. bonus for these ones: their fruits are also very visible! so raphael gets to show alec how they grow, what the texture is like, how much they weight, etc. obviously he doesn’t expect alec to grow his own ingredients or anything, but it is important to pick the right ones, otherwise no matter what you do, your food will suck. and seeing some examples of them growing might help you understand why and how that works

so raphael goes around to teaching him how to select the best ingredients according to type of vegetable, then meat, chicken, etc. and like not to slut over raphael but for just a second can i say that he’s just… such a patient fucking teacher, even when alec makes him want to die on the spot, and he is clearly so passionate about the subject, like he talks about it with such conviction and care and wants to make sure that alec understands exactly how it works beyond just decorating what is the correct texture for what and maia is just making heart eyes at him the whole time. she came here to be amused but seeing her boyfriend like that really makes her melt. ugh i love them

also every once in a while alec will say something Painfully Shadowhunter-y and raphael will just stare right at maia with the deadest-looking eyes you’ve ever seen in your life, and she almost spits into her own coffee at least once. sometimes she pats his shoulders all like “hang in there, bud”. but also like, he can’t fool her and she knows that he’s proud whenever alec gets it right, and he’s happy that he gets to do this for magnus, even if kind of second handedly. he knows that it will make magnus immensely happy if alec manages to make him a good meal, and like, he deserves it. plus, raphael just loves food and being able to share what he knows about it is always a joy. not that he won’t complain the whole time. but you know

okay so for next time, alec actually gets to cook for real! some good ole’ s o u p. and alec’s like “hmm. i mean i wanted to make something nice for magnus, you know?” and cue speech number 3: if you aren’t able to make a really good soup, you won’t be able to make anything else. it doesn’t matter how simple the dish is, what matters is to do it right, to make it with love, and to make it taste like home. soup is not just soup, it’s warmth, it’s love, it’s caring, it’s peace. i want you to prove to me that you can pour your whole heart into whatever you make magnus. there are no better or worse dishes, there are dishes more suited to one’s taste, or to an occasion. if magnus is upset, some nice, hot soup is going to soothe him way better than the most delicate pastry. so make me some soup, lover boy, and prove to me that no matter what it is, you can put your love for magnus and take care of him all the same

and alec is not one to back down from a challenge, so he sets his jaw and proceeds to cook like he is heading to battle, or in an episode of hannibal, or some shit. and inevitably he overthinks every single detail and it turns out weird and suboptimal, and raphael is like “i can taste your nervousness in this” and alec is like “nervousness is not a taste” and raphael is like “and yet”

speech number 4: you don’t have to think about it, you have to feel. if you’re thinking too much, you’re stuck in your own head, you’re not paying attention. food isn’t made with the mind, it is made with the senses. pay attention to the textures, tastes, sounds, colors. don’t be out there trying to think of what the most accurate combinations are, or something. just pay attention to what you’re doing

and alec’s like. “i’m too autistic for this humbo jumbo i don’t know how to cook through following my heart” and raphael, ready to smack him with a newspaper, is like “it’s not about following your heart, it’s about following your body, paying attention to what you feel. you are more likely to notice texture differences, tastes, sounds, brightness. use that” and alec’s like alright

anyway so alec makes some and it’s like, alright, not fantastic, but good. then for the third one raphael just goes “ok just think about magnus” and alec is like *vibrating* man i sure do love magnus and he’s practically secreting heart emojis through his pores and raphael is like uggghhhgghhhghghhghhhhhh g r o s s, texting maia about his woes and pain lmao. anyway you guessed it the soup turns out great cuz i’m a corny bitch. raphael is like maia. maia. the soup was so good. just because he was thinking about magnus. he’s actually worthy of my dad. uggghhhhh put a stake through my hEART and maia is just like. pat pat

okay so then they go to more technical shit like chopping techniques and temperatures and stuff like that you know the usual shit. and raphael teaches him some more recipes until he eventually decides that alec is good enough to learn something fancier to woo magnus with - idk what that would be tbh so like insert something here. and okay alec graduates cooking class woohooo

and then a few days later magnus goes visit raphael and he’s all like “so… alec cooked for me the other day” and raphael pauses and softens incredibly and is all like “did he now?” and magnus nods, clearly so happy it’s unbelievable, possibly a little in awe because he wasn’t expecting the sudden display, not when he knew that alec wasn’t exactly interested in culinary, much less for it to be so good. like obviously alec had put thought and work into this and it’s just… really nice. and he felt just so cherished and loved and i just aaaaaaaa

obviously he tries to keep the lovey-dovey shit to a minimum, if anything because raphael already teases him enough (he’s still not over “because you’re totally unbiased”), but it’s just so obvious that he’s happy and he can barely hide a smile behind his tea and whatever raphael made for him (pan dulce maybe?) and he looks almost giddy, and that’s enough for raphael to feel accomplished. and he asks what alec made for him and magnus goes “soto ayam” and raphael’s eyes widen in shock and he smiles to himself like “the bastard”, because in the end alec made magnus soup, soup from magnus’ culture, because he understood perfectly exactly what raphael meant with food being love and care, and i just aaaaaaaaaaa

and don’t get me wrong he’ll make magnus fancy dinners too eventually, with roses and wine and the whole shebang, but he specifically chose soto ayam to be the first because he just loves magnus and wanted that to show through his food before anything else and i just doadsiahdaih im a soft bitch the end

[agirlneedsgoals]

Lazy Girl Food - Spoonie Food Edition - Gyoza w/Sauce

So Spoonie Food is generally stuff I don’t cook, I just...heat it up. Or mix things. I have little to no spoons some days and making food that’s halfway healthy is really hard at those times. So here are some basic spoonie food tips:

look for things that already have veggies in them or where veggies can be easily added (spinach, broccoli, carrots, blah, blah, blah...)

shelf stable is good but frozen is generally healthier because see above

know what you have/plan your meals ahead of time or at least have a broad sense of what you can make fast

put. a chair. in. the kitchen.

try not to make dishes for yourself; think ahead; mise en place; foil sheet pans

lay in some pasta; traditional is good, obv, but Barilla makes shelf stable par-cooked pasta in single serve packs that you heat in the microwave

lay in some sauce; homemade sauce is great; homemade sauce is also a  bitch to make; find a brand you like of jarred and stock up

learn like 2 or 3 basic sheet pan roasting recipes and tweak as needed

there is nothing wrong with a lunch of a carb (crackers, bread, tortillas), a protein (peanut butter, tuna, ham), a fat (butter, cheese, mayonnaise), and a fruit/veggie for lunch; mix and match, go wild, I believe in you

if you can afford it, grocery delivery is a fricken lifesaver; even cheaper is the order ahead/pickup kind, but that does require you to cart your groceries from the car into the house

accept that some days it just aint gonna happen; keep shelf stable, ready-to-eat food (granola bars, PopTarts, crackers) and bottled water or juice near your bed, that way on days you just can’t at all, you won’t starve

Obviously, it’s not comprehensive but it’s something. Today’s spoonie food edition is going to be gyoza with sauce. In and of themselves, gyoza (or dumplings, or pot stickers, whatever) are decently healthy for ready to go food. You can get vegetarian, even. It’s mostly how you cook them and what you put on them that can get you in trouble, but we’re gonna pretend to steam them, so we’re okay.

Now, I, myself, have no fucks left to give and also I’m already fat, so I will eat an entire package of gyoza for lunch by myself (okay, wait, so that really depends on how many are in the package and I do it rarely, but anyway). For our example here, I’ll use Trader Joe’s Chicken & Vegetable Gyoza. There’s around 600 calories and 13 g. of fat. Is that great? Hell no. But it’s WAY better than going through a McDonald’s window, trust me.

TJ’s is fairly adequate for taste and price but, honestly, the Asian markets are probably cheaper and they’re definitely more authentic. But since I am a heathen when I’m out of spoons and I microwave this shit, you’ll want to make sure the filling is FULLY COOKED, especially if it has protein in it.

ON TO THE RECIPE!

Gyoza with Sauce

INGREDIENTS

1 pkg. frozen gyoza

1 tbsp. soy sauce

1 tbsp. sesame oil

1 tbsp. UNSEASONED rice vinegar

Honestly, if you have seasoned rice vinegar, just ditch it. There’s sugar in it, ugh, awful, season it yourself.

Put your gyoza on a plate; just, like, crowd those bitches on there. Sprinkle water over them. Get two paper towels wet. You can ring them out so they’re not dripping but you want them WET, not damp. WET. Lay it over the gyoza and stick it in the microwave. Heat on high for 2 - 4 minutes, depending on your wattage. Check if they’re heated through. If you have to go again, it might be worth rewetting your towel.

Once they’re done, you can either eat them on the same plate or be like me and stick them in a large soup bowl. Splash the sauce ingredients over them. I don’t even mix it, just splash it in. It won’t look like it but it’s more than enough. Give your gyoza a little stir with your chopsticks and nom away.

You’re welcome. 

[higgins5]

Tag game

Oof, this is so so late, but I am doing it! And thank you to the lovely @foxsoulcourt for tagging me!

LAST

drink: Water, we are being healthy children here 

phone call: My District Manager at work to discuss my transfer

text message: One of my best friends about his terrible life choices (jk but really binge watching a show for 14 hours straight? Boy get to sleep!)

song you listened to: I’m Over You by Bryan James (it may or may not have been on loop for a while)

time you cried: Last Thursday 

EVER

dated someone twice: Haha, yep. Didn’t work out, but we’re still friends

kissed someone and regretted it: Not yet!

been cheated on: Unfortunately

lost someone special: I think we all have, but such is life

gotten drunk and thrown up: Oh god no

fave colors? Sea green, storm gray, oh I can’t believe i almost forgot! Really any deep blue or purple, like how the night sky gets just before it’s almost black

IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE I?

made new friends: Multiple, and i am so greatly for all of the lovely people who have graced my life

fallen out of love: Not so much people. But things I believed I loved turned a little false, yes

laughed until you cried: Gosh, all the time. It’s awful, I call it my seal laugh because I’m laughing so hard I can’t breathe and i’m just doubled over hitting a table or my leg to express my joy because that’s all I can do

found out someone was talking about you: Just two weeks ago! And honestly I hate that. Like if you’re gonna talk bad about me just do it to my face. I’ll find out one way or another, might as well be from you

met someone who changed you: Some good people, some not so good people. But I believe it was all for a reason

found out who your friends are: Yes

kissed someone on your Facebook friends list: Hmm... Well, I do not actually have a Facebook so I guess that would be a no

GENERAL

how many of your Facebook friends do you know in real life: I guess I can clarify about FB here. My parents were always freaked out about the internet so never let me get one, and being a good child I never did- plus I was just not interested, so I just... never got around to it in adulthood. AND like whenever I needed to talk to a friend through FB I just used my parents page cause that was their solution, so there was no real need. But like, from the friends I had on my mom’s page yes, I know all of them irl

do you have any pets: SEVERAL AND I LOVE ALL OF MY FURRY CHILDREN! I have an 11yo poodle/terrier mix (mom was a poodle, dad was the terrier next door. Truly a scandal) named Bear and i love my grumpy old man to death; a 2yo boxer/husky mix we rescued that was originally supposed to be a lab which was a total lie named Nutmeg, but it’s okay I love my babe even if i can take her on a 3mi run and she’s still ready to run 3 more; an 8yo wonderfully affectionate and beautiful tabby cat named Willow; a 6 year old (oh my god, she’s 6, it feels like yesterday she was a satellite dish in a collar that meowed) purring machine tabby cat named Sage; and two beautiful girls. Lagertha and Gwenievere are two very playful and loving one year old dumbo eared rats

do you want to change your name: Eh, not really. I’ve had it for this long, might as well keep it

what did you do for your last birthday: Oh that was so fun. I went to the Melting pot (this fancy fondue place, so good) With a couple of friends and had a really great time, even though someone got me crayons as a gag gift (I.... hate, crayons with a PASSION, but she’s known me for like 10 years so of course I accepted.... hesitantly)

what time did you wake up today: Like 7:30? but i didn’t actually leave my bed until 9ish because don’t be fooled, I am not a morning person. I just run because I’m an idiot

what were you doing last night at midnight: Sleeping

what is something you can’t wait for: Figure out where life is taking me and then be a bomb ass bitch at it

what are you listening to right now: X&Y by Coldplay

have you ever talked to a person named Tom: I have, and he is a lovely person. Go talk to a Tom everybody, nice people

something that gets on your nerves: Horrible people. Like just those people that are horrible for no absolute reason. Like grow up, get a life, why do you have to make other people just because you’re unhappy. there are many people you could see for help and I have a number you can call if you need a recommendation 

most visited website: Probably a tie between Tumblr, Youtube, and Spotify

hair color: Well, naturally I am blonde but rn it’s a reddish auburn color (but hey, people ask me all the time if it’s my natural color so who knows maybe i was destined for this shade)

long or short hair: ish? It’s growing from a pixie (that I might go back to soon) so its like... not quite shoulder length yet but give it another month and we might be there

what do you like about yourself: You know what, i’m gonna give myself some love and say everything. Lol, but as a serious answer probably my personality/nature. I have a very big heart but am also incredibly sarcastic so it is a delicate balance 

want any piercings: SO many. I’m saving up to get my nose done soon (nostril) and later I’ll get my daith, helix, third piercing in my lobe, tragus, and maybe rook

blood type: Some kinda O? Honestly for someone who donates blood as much as I do, I should really know (but important blood donation note, if you wish to make sure not to do it too frequently! Healthy people = healthy blood = healthy donation receivers!)

nicknames: Gosh, too many to type. Apparently I’m just nick namey. But uhhh, the most common: Ash, Ashbash, Higgins, Higgy, Higgs, Figgins, Chief 

relationship status: Single

zodiac sign: I’m one of the twin fish babes, Pisces all the way

pronouns: She/Her

fave tv show: Don’t watch as much tv as I used to but Supernatural is always a good go to (recently I’ve been watching a lot of HGTv and doctor Phil and Hallmark with my mom though, if that’s anything)

tattoos: None (yet)

right or left handed: right handed, I’m basically useless with my left (unless an instrument is involved)

ever had surgery: Nope, and hopefully we keep that trend goin!

piercings: two ear piercings 

sports: Uh... in High School I was pretty active and track and I was a competitive shooter (air rifles- but I’m from Texas so). Nothing in college at the moment, I might try out for the track team just cause i miss bein a part of stuff

vacation: I am broke, I can only dream (but I do really wanna travel, so gotta save up!)

trainers: my totally stylish suede brown vans are my go to, but Adidas for running

eating: Currently? Nothing, but I did have some steamed broccoli and carrots&rice, and grilled chicken for dinner

drinking: Orange Juice

I’m about to watch: Absolutely nothing

waiting for: Didn’t I already answer this? it’s so much pressure. Uh... change?

want: To be successful in whatever I 

get married: Eventually

career: Haven’t gotten there yet, but everyday is one step closer

hugs or kisses: Depends on who and when

lips or eyes: Eyes. First thing I notice

shorter or taller: At 5′3 I don’t think I can even pretend to say i’m tall

older or younger: I probably fall more on the younger spectrum

nice arms or stomach: Yes

hookup or relationships: I am a committed relationship kinda person all the way. Never really understood the whole hookup thing but to each their own

troublemaker or hesitant: A hesitant troublemaker is probably more me. I say I try to stay out of trouble, but it just kinda finds me

HAVE I EVER?

kissed a stranger: No

drunk hard liquor: Yes

lost glasses: Ugh, all the time, worst is when I lose my contacts AND glasses

turned someone down: Yes

sex on the first date: Not my style

broken someone’s heart: Yes

had your heart broken: In love and life

been arrested: Nope, and i’d like to keep it that way!

cried when someone died: Yes

fallen for a friend: Yes

DO I BELIEVE IN?

yourself: Well someone has to, so might as well be me!

miracles: I do. And if they aren’t true, at least the belief of their existence helps make their outcome possible

love at first sight: In some fairytale world maybe, but for me, nah

kiss on the first date: Possibly

angels: Yes. Of what way and form I think that’s for you to decide

OTHER

best friend’s name: I have a couple because there is too much life to only need one person in it! Lexi+Brittany+Mauricio+Imaya from all the way back to middle school and Ronan (a recent addition)

And even if we don’t talk every day of our lives I know they’ll always be there for me when I need them. Good or bad. And they know I would do the same. That’s all that really matters in the end. They’re my little chosen family

(oh that got a bit sappy, okay moving on)

eye color: Light blue? Blue? I dunno, people say it’s pretty so I go with it

fave movie: Don’t really have one...

favorite actor: Yeah... same with movies, don’t have one of those either

extrovert or introvert: I like to call myself an introverted extrovert

favorite flower: white peonies 

favorite hello kitty character? I wasn’t aware there were characters aside from hello kitty....

oof this is a long post, but very fun to do! Hopefully y’all haven’t done this yet but if so well I’m gonna tag you anyways @i-h8-u-no-u-dont @pansexualpandion @rvmengf @egglorru @it-has-the-gay-fanfiction and really @ anyone who wants to do this! I’d love to see your versions!!

[victakestaipei]

WEEK 2 RECAP: “Gua Bao?” More like “Gua BOMB.”

So I have come to realize that during the weeks, my blog posts about my classes are going to be pretty repetitive. So to save you the few minutes of your life you’ll spend reading, I’ll just shorten it a bit...and skip to the food. We always do the same things in class. We take quizzes, read the text book, practice writing characters, and talk alot about a wide array of topics... (we actually get off topic alot... In one of the classes this week I ended up playing the song “Mr. Roboto” on my iphone because I made a reference about it... we have a new classmate and he’s from Japan and everyone wanted to hear the “Domo Arigato” part... ugh.. it’s a long story.)

Anyway, let’s start from Tuesday I suppose:

So in class we had another one of those written dialogue quizzes, I got an A ((of course HEH)) and on the test from last week, I got a 94%! Feelin’ good. In the gym it was leg day, and I’m starting to incorporate more cardio daily, so I’ve been running on the treadmill at the end of my workouts. I want to drop weight and tone up while I’m out here so I figured this will help give me the extra kick that I need. I ran a mile in 7 minutes and 30 seconds... Or so I thought. I was super happy about the amount of time it took and how it didn’t even feel hard and how my knee actually wasn’t hurting for once in my life. BUT, I soon realized that I am a headass. I didn’t realize until later in the week that everything here is in kilometers, not miles. Meaning, that I didn’t actually run a mile in 7 minutes and 30 seconds, I ran 1 kilometer. Which is less than a mile... it’s actually 0.62 miles to be exact. What A BUZZ KILL!!!! I was on this “high” the whole rest of the day because I thought I was really wrecking shit, but really I’m just an idiot. A slow running idiot. lol. 

For dinner Bunny and I went to this popular joint that she had heard about from a friend. I actually have heard of this place too, but didn’t realize it until after we had arrived and ordered our food. We went to this small hole-in-the-wall restaurant in the Gongguan night market where they serve the “Traditional Taiwanese Snack.” It’s called “Gua Bao.” It’s basically a pulled pork hamburger with veggies, pickles, grated peanuts in a peanut sauce, and cilantro... all in a steamed bun... you hold it and eat it like a hamburger, and it’s delicious!! It was only 55 NT (about $1.80 US). You could choose between lean meat, fatty meat, or a mix of the two. I went with the lean meat, and I’m glad that I did. The restaurant also offered an array of soups, but a lot of them featured pork intestines, and that's not really my type of party. 

Wednesday:

I did back day at the gym today and ran another “mile”... SMH. That still gets me man. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

For lunch, Jeannie, Bunny and I went to this potsticker place right across the street from campus. We’ve been there before and it was really good the first time, with each potsticker being 5 NT! (or about 17 cents). We each ordered 10 potstickers and a bowl of warm noodles, totalling to only 90 NT ($3 US). I chose 5 curry potstickers and 5 garden vegetable. The Curry flavored potstickers were by far the best potstickers I’ve had since I’ve been here (and that’s saying something). And for dinner, Bunny and I went BACK to the Gua Bao place (it was that good) but this time brought Nick along! We had a good time.

Thursday:

I had another dictation quiz and got another low A. Today was leg day yet again. Starting to see a pattern here? I’m proud to say that I’ve kept the routine/schedule that I talked about in my recap blog post from last week..

For our post-gym lunch, Bunny, Jeannie and I went to this Soy Sauce-Braised place. I can’t remember the name. *eyeroll*. But basically it’s a food stand on the street market by our university, and they lay out all the meats, and veggies and noodles on display, and you choose which ones you want, and they mix them all together and cook them in this super hot soy sauce soup... It’s pretty good. I was super excited about this food stand because they actually had VEGETABLES!!! You know how often I see vegetables here in Taiwan??? Never. I don’t think I’ve had a vegetarian semi-healthy meal since I’ve been here. And I’ve looked!!!!! Anyway, for my dish, I chose tofu, broccoli, cabbage, mushrooms, and udon noodles. I paid about $7.50 US which is a bit steeper than my usual meal, but I think that’s because I doubled up on the tofu. (hehe). Either way though that’s still what I spend on average at Cane’s back in the US, and it’s wayyyyy more food. I do have to say that I went a bit over the top. My food was a MOUNTAIN!!!! We also bought this watermelon slush drink to share that came in an actual watermelon! Presentation get’s an A+, and it was pretty refreshing. 

After we ate we went to this store called “Jin Xin Fa” and bought tons of stationary (everything here is so cute and I desperately wanted to buy some cute planners for the upcoming school year). I also bought an extra long ethernet cord so that I could use my laptop in bed and have better internet, as well as a new phone charger... 

For dinner I ended up cooking (reheating) left over lunch... but I made rice and added scrambled egg to it... As it turns out, my $7.50 lunch fed me and Bunny for dinner. As I mentioned in my blog post about my dorm a few weeks ago, we have a small kitchen area at the end of the hall. Bunny and I wanted to use the rice cooker, and we struggled at first. We had to put water between the bowl where the rice goes and the outer bowl?? Strange. Either way thought the rice came out perfectly. Bomb.com.

Friday: 

For lunch, the three of us tried this Malaysian Curry place on the street market. It was on the second floor, and the interior looked like someone's home at first... My dish was 100 NT ( around 3-4$), and I ordered the Malaysian chicken curry and rice. It’s basically a filleted chicken cutlet fried in batter and served with a mound of rice, both covered in curry. And topped with potato wedges... THIS PLACE WAS SUPER GOOD I WILL BE BACK EVERY WEEK OH MY GOD. There is only one lady who works here, and she cooks all the dishes. I also think she lives here...? Not so sure. We spoke to her a bit after finishing our food, and she told us how 22 years ago she came to Taiwan, and she asked us where we're from and told us she's been to both Florida and New York before. She also showed us pictures of her 8 month old grandson who lives in Florida. Her daughter was born in Malaysia and currently lives in America as she's married to an American guy. She was the sweetest lady ever, gushing about her grandson and showing us all these videos. Such a lovely lady.

After lunch we did some shopping in the street market (clothing), I bought a shirt... and not much else because everything looked so small. When shopping one lady didn't let Jeannie use the dressing room to try on this outfit.... it seemed odd, and the lady didn’t seem to have a reason to not let her use the dressing room which was clearly there with the open curtain and no one inside. I think the lady who worked there was just a bitch. She was rude, and possibly racist?? I can’t tell you how many times I would walk into a shop (during the hour or so that we were walking around) and the ladies who work there would hover over me constantly. *eyeroll*. Figures.

We went home and I took a shower and relaxed before heading to Shilin Night market. I’ve been here before and posted a video, but in case you all forgot, it’s the biggest night market in Taipei and is pretty poppin on the weekends. Jeannie and I love to shop, so we had a ball!! Four of us went, it was Ada, Jeannie, Bunny and I. We spent a few hours shopping and walking around and eating the street food. I ate this pork bun sandwich, some French fries with a bunch of sauces on them (like mustard sauce, salt, pepper, etc), and tried the popular chicken fried steak. 

squid on a stick^

We stayed at Shilin a few hours before parting ways... Jeannie and I went to meet up with some others at a bar and Bunny and Ada went home. This is around maybe 11:15pm... Jeannie and I met up with Nick at this open patio bar/hookah lounge. It was $20 (US) all you can drink. The bar was called K House and was located smack dab in the middle of the gay district off of Ximen station. Ximen station is also a very popular shopping area for the younger crowd, with a 5 story H&M and other popular stores. It took a while for Jeannie and I to find the bar, we put it in google maps and it took us to a completely different location. By the time we found it a lot of the people we were meeting up with were loose off the goose. Which makes sense since it was all you can drink and they'd been there a few hours already. We left the bar around 1, and headed to 7/11 and walked around town a bit after that. I was pretty lit. I slammed about 5 drinks in 30 minutes and was just chillen after that. I had two jack/cokes, 1 vodka/sprite, and 3 peach flavored drinks but I don't know what alcohol was in those..?? They were super good though!! My favorite, definitely. We were walking to another bar when I got super tired and decided to take an Uber home with Jeannie and another guy we met that night, his name is Collin. Collin goes to school at Carnegie Melon *ooooooooo snap*. I got into my dorm around 2:30-3am, and went to bed around 3:30. When Jeannie and I were walking with the group, Collin was telling us about how he had plans to go snorkeling the next day and he invited us to join the group on Facebook. I knocked out after showering when I got home, since I had to be up by 7:15 to make it to the meeting spot at 8am to go snorkel. I was exhAUSTED. Snorkeling should be worth the lack of sleep though.

[micamone]

every time someone I know mentions having to have something cut out of their diet I like, feel totally blessed that I don’t have to do anything like that. Like, there are some things I WON’T eat, but that doesn’t mean I CAN’T eat them, you know? and I just am always like “damn bro, you live like this?” even when they’re okay with it and even when it’s something easy to avoid It’s like being reminded that it’s near impossible to find left-handed scissors or being aware constantly or wheelchair ramps, even though you don’t need them. Such an odd feeling, where I don’t think less of the person or anything I’m just like “oh yeah. that’s a thing I have to remember.” It hits me a lot around events that involve food, especially potlucks, where I want to bring something but I know I can’t accommodate everyone and I always feel bummed.

it also violently reminds me of one time where I looked dead into my favorite highschool teachers eyes, after listing the ingredients of my lunch I was eating in front of him (rice, beans, cheese, tomato, ground beef) and getting a “wow, I can’t eat any of that! haha” from him, and saying without a hint of irony “I. Would. Die.” and going back to eating.

[5millionfriends]

Basic fitness bitch meal tonight. Chicken breast, fried cauliflower rice, and st...

Basic fitness bitch meal tonight. Chicken breast, fried cauliflower rice, and steamed carrots/broccoli. 280 calories and low carb. Got some protein packed almond butter banana oatmeal cookies in the oven! #lifetimefitness #300caloriemeals #weightlossgoals #weightloss #weightlossmeals #fitnessmotivation #fitness #weightlossjourney #weightlossdiary #healthylifestyle #healthy #healthyfood #healthyeating #healthyfoodshare #mealprep #slimmingworldfollowers #slimmingworld

Source

#Fitness

[thessalian]

Thess vs the Grocery List

A couple of bits of commentary got me to thinking about how I handle food shopping and what I think about things along the lines of inflation.

Last first: inflation. Yes, I know things cost more over time. You know what else should cost more over time as a result? THE TIME AND EFFORT OF THE PEOPLE WHO PRODUCE IT. The problem is that it doesn’t. Wages have not gone up in line with inflation for quite some time. Most of the people I know haven’t had a pay rise even in line with inflation for decades. So before you start bitching about, “Of course things cost more - it’s inflation”, ask yourself why inflation doesn’t apply to human labour. When it very clearly should. If inflation on items keeps increasing without the wages of those who allow for the production and distribution of those things rising to compensate, only the very rich will be able to afford anything at all, and those of us who do the majority of the actual work will be left to starve and so will the rich people because there won’t be an us to exploit anymore.

That or we’re going to bring back the guillotine. But I doubt that because too many people living just above the poverty line think this is entirely fair despite the fact that they’re a bad month away from being below the poverty line instead of the temporarily embarrassed millionaires they believe themselves to be, and they’ll never rise up until they finally figure out that they’re getting screwed right along with the rest of us.

Anyway.

Insofar as grocery shopping goes. I did some good shopping - I mean, the bill came to a lot, but I was shopping for the month. There were a lot of things to consider. Like, 30 days before next payday, I need food for dinner for 30 days, minimum. More to the point, I need some of that food to be minimal-effort in case of bad fibro flare days ... and I don’t know how much, because I have no way of establishing how many pain days I’m going to have in a month. I also need to consider more than just one meal per day, because eating just that isn’t healthy, and enough of it has to be portable to get me through 16 or so days per month at work. And on top of all that, it needs to take my dietary restrictions into account - gluten intolerance and lactose intolerance. And being stuff I actually like and would want to eat? That does actually take a lot of fanangling. (Though at least the lactose intolerance is get-around-able because I can tolerate it in small doses and for larger doses there’s Lactaid.)

So here’s my shopping list, because I’m honestly rather proud of it:

Meat for many many days (nine chicken legs; eight pork chops, two rump steaks, 500g beef mince, two salmon fillets, two sea bass fillets), most of which went into the freezer in individual packets. Also salami.

Frozen veggies (two bags of broccoli, one of broccoli and cauliflower, also some hash browns and potato waffles)

Fresh fruit and veggies (clementines, grapes, carrots, courgette/zucchini, onions, potatoes, mushrooms, tomatoes, cucumber)

Dried fruit (apricots, banana chips, raisins, sultana/strawberry medley, and basically healthy alternatives to gummy sweets made from actual fruit)

Crisps (multipacks, variety packs)

Basic dried goods (two bags rice, three bags gluten-free pasta, four tins tuna, two jars instant coffee, sugar, gluten-free breakfast cereal)

Dairy-ish (butter and gluten-free yoghurt)

Some basic treats (gluten-free cookies, two bags of gummy sweets, six-pack of cola, two bottles of squash - like Kool-Aid but in liquid form, and speciality flavoured rice)

Which, for $140 or so, isn’t that bad, given the amount of speciality food. I mean, yeah, sticker shock, but beyond maybe topping up the fresh fruit and veg, I won’t have to buy anything else for the rest of the month. Which is good because shopping is hard for me. Hell, even putting all that away hurt.

I’ve made as many allowances as I can for bad pain days. The tuna’s good for my easy-cook tuna broccoli pasta, the fish will be two meals apiece with one being leftovers for the following day or frozen on being cooked, the mince is for a batch of bolognaise sauce which will be at least four meals with only one lot of cooking effort (one on the day, three servings frozen for consecutive days, and since I’m using onion, mushroom and courgette as filler I could maybe even stretch it to four), and most of the rest of it doesn’t take that much effort depending on what I do with it.

Suttice to say, eating reasonably while still getting some enjoyment out of it takes some serious work. I’m willing to put the effort in, though. I remember the times when I didn’t, or couldn’t. Nothing is more depressing than having to scrape through on nothing but the bare minimum with no end in sight. Hell, some of my best budget meal tricks require cup-o-soup mix, and those all have wheat flour in them as thickener, so I’d have an even harder time now. But it’s miserable, eating nothing but the bare minimum, scraping together whatever budget meal you can afford, rationing to have a vaguely steady trickle of food until the next payday or your benefits come in or both, and knowing that it’ll never be enough to really feel well-fed.

And the worst of it is the hit to morale. It’s the modern day equivalent of just enough gruel to survive without having enough energy to do much else beyond what you need to do to earn just enough gruel to survive in a vicious demoralisation cycle. My mental health is bad enough as it is without adding that, so it’s fairly necessary for me to produce decent meals on the quasi-regular, and the occasional treat. I have to remember that I’m worth it; a lot of the world would love to convince me and everyone else otherwise.

It should not take this much planning to eat decently; people deserve decent, healthy, tasty food without this much juggling. But it does. So I’m going to make the damn effort for as long as UK food stocks hold out.