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I've been counting down the weeks till I am done with this biology class series. As much fun as it has been, I'm really looking forward to having my old, normal, 8-hour day schedule back.This quarter I am taking botany, which really fascinates me, but it's like learning a new language with all the various terms and abbreviations in my textbook. I can see lots of flash cards in my future!I am also
Things are a changing, that’s for sure. It’s funny, but I’ve never actually felt myself change like I have been the past few weeks. I’m growing, maturing, and it’s an interesting feeling. The nerd part of me wonders what neurons connected to make it happen, but the human side of me says, who cares! I’ve decided on a few new mantras for this time of my life. For a long time, it was “Mi
Things I want to do every day:-10 minutes of relaxation yoga before bed-Exercise-Eat (and record) at least 3 servings of fruits and veggies-Wake up at 5 am, don’t rush out the door-Cook breakfast and eat at home-Short strengthening workout in morning
Spring is finally here, and yet its 37 degrees out and my sister-in-law reported snow on their deck. I've been missing skiing so much this season because of school. I've only been able to go once a week compared to three to four times a week last year. I've been missing the forest a lot. It seems so silly to say that, but it's how I feel.I went on a fairly good short ski trip this winter to
As I was driving back to work from lunch today, a thought popped into my head. This thought has been bouncing around my head for a while now, and I think it's time to finally put it on paper.I realized that I'm finally getting to do all the things I dreamed about when I was little. All I ever wanted to do was climb mountains, explore, go where ever I wanted, whenever I wanted. And I am living that
I have been really terrible at sticking to my meal plans lately. I absolutely love to peruse through my cookbooks and see which recipes I want to cook. I’ll admit, I have an excel sheet with a lot of recipe names and their estimated times and what season the produce/meats are best and other miscellaneous information. I’m a bit of a data collector (you should see my hiking list! It’s at about 1250
I’ve been feeling rather off today. Not my usual self. I get those days every once in a while where I have this indescribable feeling, almost like malaise, but not quite as blue. I have been trying to shake it off and become my normal happy, smiling, chipper self, but today it’s just not working. I have a feeling its mostly because of stress and trying to keep my head above water. There are just
So this whole going back to school thing has been a wild ride. I’ve gone through lots of emotions before I started and through the first quarter. That first quarter was definitely not the easiest. I had to learn how to balance school and work and still manage to not let everything overwhelm me. It got to me sometimes, but I picked myself back up and kept on going. In the midst of all the chaos,
Hey! I'm back! Sorta. I want to keep posting, but life is really busy right now, with school and work and skiing. So I'm going to keep this one short and sweet!I love the combination of steak and onions. They just go together so perfectly. I have posted a few recipes, such as my steak and onion sandwich, and I'm sure I'll post more of them.I paired the steak and onions with a simple green sa
As I was surfing Facebook the other day, I came across a gal who I used to know back in elementary school and was good friends with her sister. Of course, over time, we have all drifted very far apart, but what struck me was the photographs of her paintings.They were absolutely amazing, yet they had no structure to them, no distinct image. These paintings were able to form so much emotion inside m
I’ve been feeling out of sorts lately. I’ve been blaming it on the weather, but I really think it’s something more. I’ve been feeling tired, unmotivated, exhausted. I’m getting to the point where I just want to shut myself in my apartment for a week and just sleep. Ok, maybe not a week, but a few days.I think it’s mostly been because my schedule is out of whack. It’s not the same every
The first time I had heard about Spray Park was when my friend Valerie went there on a cloudy day a few months ago. I had no idea what to expect, but my mind was definitely blown away.A friend and I had planned to go on a hike somewhere off of Chinook Pass, but when we got to Enumclaw, there were hoardes of people talking about going to the same place. So we enacted plan B: head to Mowich Lake.&nb
AKA How to not go stir crazy during the gloomy months. I thought I would post this now that the rain has arrived here. Since starting my meetup group and because I'm a Seattle native, I get lots of questions from transplants. "Does it really rain as much as they say?" "Why does everyone refer to Mt. Rainier as 'The Mountain'?" And my personal favorite: "How do you keep from going stir crazy during
So in my previous trip report, I went exploring on the east side of Rainier on a Saturday, and now in this post, I am going to tell you about my hike on the west side of Rainier that occurred the next day.Driving out to Rainier is no easy feat if you are coming from downtown Seattle. To get to either Sunrise or Paradise, it will take about 2.5 hours. Luckily for me, I live about an hour south of S
A few weekends ago, I spent the weekend exploring Mt. Rainier. On Saturday, I took a group of gals up to Sunrise to see Mt. Rainier up and close and personal! Then on Sunday, I went hiking out of Paradise on the popular Skyline Trail. I'll talk about Saturday first.I was so excited to take a group of gals from my meetup group up to Mt. Rainier. I knew a lot of them had recently moved here and hadn
I'm way behind on my hiking posts, so I'm going to combine these two together, since they are both on Cougar Mountain! (Sorry, all pictures are from De Leo Wall hike and all taken by Tina. I can't find my pictures!)Wilderness Peak and De Leo Wall are both popular trails on Cougar Mountain. Wilderness Peak is located off SR 900 between Renton and Issaquah. The trail head is rather easy to miss, and
Hey there!You all still there? Maybe? I'm sorry I disappeared without notice. You see, I just started school this week.Wait, what? School? Yes, School. Even after all those times I've said I will never ever go back to school to get another degree.Me at GRCC graduation in 2007Ok, are you confused now? Probably. Anyways, long story short, after I graduated with my Bachelor's degree, I swore up and d
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I love making fresh sodas in the summer instead of drinking soda from the store. My favorite so far has been this lemon basil soda. It tastes like a sparkling lemonade with a fresh basil taste. Add in a little vodka for the grown-ups, and you have a refreshing summer cocktail.Enjoy this while lounging outside, in the warm summer sun, or while entertaining friends.Lemon Basil SodaServes 2 2 l
I absolutely love this sauce! Its sweet, but tart and plain delicious! It goes well with either ham or ice cream.Wait, what? Ham OR ice cream with this sauce? Has she gone nuts?!? Just trust me on this one. This sauce is super versatile!I have a cookbook that I've mentioned before called Menus in Minutes. I love it for the simple fact that most of the recipes are under 30 minutes, including prep t
I love green beans and garlic together. Why is it that they go together so well? I'm not sure, but I know I love it. I also love putting an Asian spin on classic dishes, like green beans and garlic. For this dish, I used some diluted black bean garlic sauce to add some flavor, without the high sodium content. To do this, I first cooked the beans in garlic and olive oil, then diluted some of
Hi there!Glad you could join me for my first monthly ingredient link party! I'm so excited! I can't wait to see what you all have created with basil.Basil is a wonderfully delicious herb, with notes of licorice and cloves. There are many varities of basil. The most common one is the Genovese cultivar. It's the one you most often see in Italian cooking. However, basil is not only in Italian dishes;
Hey there!Welcome to the first month of the 30 Day Healthy Lifestyle Challenge! I'm so excited to start this! I feel that if I am held accountable to you all, I just might actually follow through with making changes in my life and I hope you will too!As I wrote in this post here, I am starting a 30 day healthy lifestyle challenge that focuses on forming good habits that replace bad habits,
I love orange chicken. It’s one of my all-time favorite Chinese-American dishes. Whenever I go to any chinese fast food place (which really isn’t that often), I almost always order the orange chicken. It’s so delicious, but so bad for you.Out of the blue one night, I decided to make my own “healthier” version. I also decided to add in some basil for a nice change. I think the recipe turned out gre
At the beginning of this summer, I made a goal to be able to run up this steep hill near where I live without walking or stopping by the end of August.This hill is about 1.1 miles long and it's got a 10% grade to it. When you drive up it, it doesn't seem that steep. But when you walk it, oh my gosh I feel like I'm gonna fall over! (Ok not really, but you get what I mean!)I've walked up this hill m
My lettuce crop has been absolutely exploding! I thought I should probably use some in a recipe, and since I have been craving Mexican food, tacos came to mind. Tacos were a regular at my house growing up, but they almost always included sour cream and cheese. I decided to try to make a flavorful taco without the dairy.The meat is cooked with onions and garlic, then seasoned with a spicy, smoky sp
I'm so far behind on my hiking posts! GAH! I'm just not inspired to write them, but I'm gonna make myself do it! So exactly a month ago, I went with a great group of gals to Mirror Lake with a stop at Cottonwood Lake. The skies were cloudy when we started in North Bend, but by the time we got over the pass, it was sunny! Unfortunately, the trail head was back in the clouds, but it was nice and coo
I made this dish a while ago when I was craving some halibut and had a bit of parsley and cilantro left over. I thought instantly of chiumicurri, since I had seen a recipe for it in one of my bazillion cookbooks. I added in some lime juice for my own spin. Other than that, it's a simple fresh sauce that can be served over almost any kind of meat.I pan fried the fish, then served it over a bed of g
Do you have that big block of leftover spaghetti sauce in your freezer, but just don't want to eat it as spaghetti? Do you want to give it a fresher flavor that makes it feel like it was just made? I did! I had some zucchini in the fridge that needed to be used up. Since I love garlic zucchini, I thought it would go good on some leftover spaghetti sauce I had sitting in the freezer, and it
I originally came across a recipe for a tomato sauced fettuccine dish that included chard over a year ago when my ex's mom's garden was exploding with chard. I couldn't find many quick easy recipes with chard, so I was extremely excited about this one.I decided to revisit it recently, and this time I added in a little Italian chicken sausage and used spaghetti instead of fettuccine. It was still v
I love making pizzas at home! You can customize them any which way you want, and if you are sharing, you don't have to fight over the best (or worst!) parts.This pizza was inspired by one I saw in Grilled Pizzas and Piadinas. The one in the book had caramelized onions, with sopressata and walnuts. As good as it sounds, I went the lazy way.First, I used a garlic naan as my base. Holy moly was that
Hey there! Just to let you all know, I started a facebook page for my blog! Feel free to like my new page over on the left side there! :) Thanks! I hiked to Franklin Falls twice last year, and didn't once get a picture. Finally, on my third trip there, I got plenty of pictures, as you will soon see!Franklin Falls is a rather large waterfall that is right under I-90 Westbound, just west of Snoqualm
It's not often that I post a dessert recipe here because I usually don't have the time to make any fancy desserts (I'm too busy hiking!). Usually, my desserts consist of fruit with nuts and a little bit of sweetener. Last night, for example, I halved 2 apricots, sprinkled some slivered almonds and cinnamon over them, then drizzled a bit of chocolate sauce over it. It was heaven!Anyways, on to this
My inspiration for this meal came from one of my favorite cookbook authors, Michele Cranston. I just love her food and the simplicity of it. In her book Spicy, she has a Warm Banana Pepper Salad that looks amazing. I wanted to try it out, but alas, my store does not carry banana peppers and I didn't want to go fiddlin around with any of the other peppers because I'm not that familiar with them.So
I've been dragging my toes on writing this post, and I'm not quite sure why. Probably because I'm not really in a writing mood, but I'm going to get it done today!On the 4th of July, I joined a friend for a short hike up at Snoqualmie Pass. I had always wanted to hike around the Snoqualmie Pass ski area during summer to see what the terrain looks like without the snow, and I finally got my chance.
As I wrote in this post here, I want to start a 30 day healthy lifestyle challenge that focuses on forming good habits that replace bad habits, in order to form a healthier lifestyle. You can choose any habit you want, be it a simple one or a complex one.Each week, we will report back here, every Wednesday for 30 days, on how you are doing with forming your new habits or breaking your old habits.
I've been in a blogging rut for a little while now, even though I have a huge backlog of material I can write about. Mostly because I've been having an internal debate on where I want to take my blog. Do I want to keep it just a food blog, which is what I originally started it as? Or should I morph it into a fitness/healthy living blog. (and I'm going to fill this post with pictures of a strawberr
There is a road just outside of North Bend that leads to a large network of trails. It is called the Middle Fork Snoqualmie Road. There is something special about this road. For lower clearance cars, it is only accessible for a small window in spring and early summer. Otherwise, you will need to take a high clearance vehicle. All because of potholes. I took advantage of the recently graded ro
As you drive up to Snoqualmie Pass from the west, there is the large mountain on the north side that has a steep, tree-less peak and it has enticed me since I was little. I have always wanted to hike to the top of it, and I almost got my chance.A few weekends ago, I met a group of gals from my meetup group and we set out to hike Granite until we hit the snow. Several websites gave this trail a rat
Habits. They are hard to break and hard to form. I’ve had a few bad habits that I have broken and it was very difficult. I’ve also made a few good habits, and some were easy, while others were more difficult.One habit that comes to mind is my daily cup of tea. Back in high school, I did a lot of reading into a healthier lifestyle and made a list of the 10 things I wanted to do every day. Thi
When I made a Cherry-Basil Sauce a little while back, I had to buy some cherry juice for it. Unfortunately, cherry juice only comes in medium sized containers, even though I only needed about half a cup. I took this as a challenge to find as many ways as I could to use up the cherry juice other than just drinking it plain. So far, this is my first, but I wrote down at least 5 other drink ide
This is my variation on the classic French dish of peas with mint. I love peas as they are, but I was really craving some pasta. I decided to add in the snow peas at the last minute to cook with the pasta, then I tossed it with a garlic olive oil and sprinkled chopped mint and parsley on top.Peas and penne is a great spring and summer side dish that is delicious for many occasions. Serve this chil
Everyone has their own special spaghetti recipe, right? Some people add meat, others add veggies. It's all pretty much based on personal preference.I remember growing up, my parents would make a big batch of spaghetti sauce and then freeze it for easy weeknight meals. I don't make spaghetti often, but I can tell you that I have a big container of frozen sauce in my freezer right now. (That reminds
Ok so I bet you all have had enough hiking stories and are ready for some more food, am I right? Well here you are! A food post!I remember the first time I saw this salad in Marie Claire Seasonal Kitchen, my favorite cookbook. I knew right away I just had to make it! So I did, and I loved it!Unfortunately, I forgot about it until a few weeks ago. I had quite a few radishes from my garden that need
Mt. Si is the large piece of rock that shadows over the town of North Bend, also known as Twin Peaks (based on the tv show). I grew up always seeing Mt. Si as we would drive by on our way up to Snoqualmie Pass, and yet I hadn't been to the top until a few weekends ago. It was definitely about time!View of Mt. Si from Rattlesnake LedgeI met up with a few gals from my meetup group, bright and
I just love the name of this mountain: SQUAK! Sounds like a bird, huh? Apparently, it came from the sound of the Southern Lushootseed name for the mountain. Who knew? Anyways, I had been wanting to hike the Phils Trail-Thrush Gap Loop trail for a while, but I still haven't finished the whole loop. Me and another gal from my meetup group started out after work and made out way up the mo
I've done the Northwest Timber Trail on Tiger Mountain twice now. The first time I did it, I didn't really pay attention to much because it was misty and we couldn't see much.This time around, it was sunny and clear so I was able to see the pretty views that make up for the crazy mountain bikers who almost run you over. (Well, not really. You can hear their brakes sqeaking BEFORE they get close to
Let me just say one thing here. Beer is delicious. The darker the beer, the better.However, I have about 15 bottles left of a Stella clone my brother made for me. Only problem is that I'm not drinking them fast enough because 1. there are so many and 2. see above (as in, I prefer darker beers).So what did I do? I made a stew! A pork stew, nontheless. With roasted veggies.And guess what! It was fre
I'll admit it, I'm getting behind on my posts. I went to Gig Harbor with my meetup group a few weekends ago and had a blast, but just haven't felt inspired until now to write about it.I decided to go to Gig Harbor after reading about it in Sunset Magazine. I love that magazine! oh my goodness! They always have delicious recipes and fun things to do! I look forward to reading it every month.Anyways
