Tag: update

White Bean and Sausage Rigatoni

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I think I need to start taking notes of what happens every week because half the time I end up forgetting. Last week is a bit of a blur, and this week, Monday felt like the longest day, and Tuesday felt like Thursday. And it’s only Wednesday…

Not too many updates. Module 2 of fall semester is going well. I feel like I’m actively participating in class and actually retaining and learning the information, whereas Module 1, it felt like it was going in one ear and out the other. Even though I’m taking an extra class this module, I feel that I have more time for myself and a better handle on everything.

Honestly, it’s probably all due to my calendar update. I re-vamped the whole thing. It’s a little scary to look at because it’s so overwhelming, but it really keeps me on track. I’ve put EVERYTHING, like literally ~everything~ into my calendar. This includes when to wake up, my morning routine, reminder for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, homework/study time, gaming time, bed time, everything. And it’s been really great actually. I used to feel like I couldn’t do certain things like working out or playing a game because it didn’t fit into my schedule. But now that I’ve allocated time to do those things, it’s actually really easy to do them and a lot of the time I end up being ahead of schedule rather than behind schedule. And if something ends up not fitting, I don’t feel bad because I know I’ve accomplished so many other things in my day. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, I would highly recommend doing this, it really helped.

I also started using these notepads that my sister gave me a while back. They’re called “Today’s Plan of Attack” and its split up into most critical, would be nice, and not a chance. It’s pretty limited space which is good because it means I can’t over-pack my day. And then I get to cross things off as I finish them, which is really satisfying and makes me feel like I’ve accomplished so much, even if it’s just a minor task.

Anyway. Halloween weekend a friend of mine won a brownie and cookie making kit, but wasn’t going to use it, so I ended up making it. Just the brownies, the cookie box is still on my counter. I’m not a great cook, but I’m very comfortable cooking and following cooking recipes to make something edible. Baking on the other hand is a whole other story. I don’t think I have ever baked something that has turned out how it was supposed to. I don’t know why. I follow the directions and things still turn out burnt, or undercooked, or just plain ugly. These actually turned out kinda okay! It was really exciting. They were really painfully sweet, but good all the same. I didn’t take a picture, but the box came with a coffin cut out and some icing, so we (I) got to decorate the brownies to look like coffins, post-Halloween. It was a lot of fun!

Aside from my questionable baking skills, I made a rigatoni recipe which turned out delicious (I think I say that every week…). I had a bit of help cooking the sausage because anything other than chicken makes me a little nervous that I’m undercooking it, and we definitely don’t want that. The recipe was really straight forward, and there actually wasn’t a whole lot of prep time, mostly cooking time for the sausage. I also thought I took photos, but apparently I only took like 3… soooo sorry about that. Must have slipped my mind.

The recipe for this week is from Better Homes and Gardens, New Cook Book, 16th Edition. As you can probably guess, this recipe is located in the Pasta section of the book. The book is like 700 pages long, so there are a lot of other really good recipes and ideas in here, some of which I’m hoping to try and share with you in the future.

I had nearly double for everything except for the beans and I think I should have bought 2 cans. They weren’t overwhelming but there also wasn’t really enough to realize that they were there. I think it would have been nice if there were more. I also noticed that the sausage the recipe recommends is PRE-cooked. That saves a WHOLE lot of time. So, for next time, I will buy already cooked sausage so I don’t have to struggle again. This turned out really great. I didn’t add in the dried basil, but having the fresh Basil added on top was a really nice touch. And I of course added loads of Parmesan cheese. Since I decided to cook the sausage, it took me much longer than 20 minutes to prepare this, but overall the recipe was really quick. It was a good cozy meal.

After preparing this, the rest of the night consisted of watching yet another episode of Monsters & Myths. We finished The Haunting of Bly Manor the night after Halloween. The whole season was SO good, and the ending kinda sucked. It was just so underwhelming. Like they had this great buildup and then were like “oh, we need to wrap it all up in this last episode.” It was a little disappointing. But overall, the show itself was really good. Next up: Christmas Movies!!!

Deciding between a zucchini dish or a pork dish for next time. We’ll see 🙂

To be continued…

Gabriela

Sweet Potato-Quinoa Chili

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Happy Halloween!

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. It’s so much fun to decorate for. I, of course, went all out! I found a lot of great stuff on Amazon for pretty cheap and a lot of stuff at Dollar Tree. I didn’t want to spend too much money so these stores ended up being great. I had a mini get together (7 people maximum) for Halloween, just to get some friends together for a post-Finals break. We all live alone or with a roommate and haven’t had much to any interaction since grad school started so I felt comfortable with a small gathering, but definitely made sure everyone who came was also practicing COVID-safe guidelines. It turned out to be a lot of fun.

I was planning on posting this on Wednesday, for it’s usual bi-weekly scheduled posting time. But it’s amazing just how overwhelmingly busy I am. Even the other day, I had a headache all day simply because I was stressed and didn’t know how I was going to get everything done that I needed to get done. I really can’t imagine posting this every week. It doesn’t take very long to make a post, but it is time that is devoted to something other than my studies. Even though I have free time for taking a break, that break time is specific for break time, not blog time. So the two week schedule is really manageable and half the time I’m surprised that it’s already been two weeks, so I can’t imagine how it would be if I posted every week. Plus it gives me a chance to take a break from making recipes when I need to (like I am this week).

For the Halloween season, my friend group and I started watching The Haunting of Bly Manor which is on Netflix. I’m not a big horror person and I’m typically the person that sits there with my eyes closed and my hands covering my ears, but this is actually a really good show. The first few episodes made me nervous, but now that I know what kind of “surprises” are expected to be in store for the rest of the show, I’m okay. Now it’s picking up and getting really good! All of the hidden details and background stories are coming out and everything’s connecting. We have ONE episode left (which we’re hopefully watching tonight) and I CAN’T WAIT.

I ended up making this meal (and next post’s meal) with a friend because we’ve started to watch this show on Netflix called Monsters & Myths, which is a docu-series talking about why certain myths have lasted so long, and what makes them so good/interesting. I highly recommend. It’s actually really good.

This week I made Sweet Potato-Quinoa Chili which is a recipe I found in Eat This, Not That! magazine. It was really easy to make and I (for once) followed the recipe perfectly. I think I was also pressured because someone else was going to be trying my food, so of course it HAD to be good. I only messed up once (with groceries….again). The probably with recipes is that they don’t say “Buy 3 red bell peppers.” They say “Use 3 cups red bell pepper,” but I don’t know how many bell peppers that correlates with! So I typically buy more so that way I know I for sure have enough. It worked out fine, I used the extra stuff for other meals, but still.

The recipe was really straight-forward and the only thing that took time was the chopping. Other than that, everything just sat happily in the pot to cook. The Greek yogurt, green onions and fresh cilantro are actually all toppings to the dish, and are not incorporated in to the actual cooking. I didn’t know this and bought a BIG tub of Greek yogurt, only to use a little scoop. Even though it was a small scoop, the Greek yogurt really balances out the spices and density of the quinoa chili, so even though it’s a small aspect, it really makes the dish come together.

To finish off our (my) hard work, we had the bowls while watching Monsters & Myths. A relaxing weeknight in preparation for a chaotic week. I feel like I’m finally getting into the flow of grad school, so maybe it’ll get easier from here on out? We’ll see. Probably not.

Next time is a rigatoni dish, so stay tuned!

To be continued…

Gabriela

Salmon with Roasted Tomatoes and Shallots

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So what’s happened in the last two weeks?

Two Friday’s ago we had a resume event where we were able to make changes to our resume to make it as good as possible. I had lots of little tweaks but now looking at my resume, it’s so much better. So that event was a success! Last Tuesday we received our first projects in which we get to work directly with a company. Our first meeting as a team with our client is actually later today, so I’m both excited and a little nervous. On Monday (two days ago!), my Medical Diagnostics class gave our phase 1 presentation for our project. It went really well and we got a lot of great feedback and constructive criticism from our professors, so I’m excited to see how we progress with phase 2.

This recipe is the first recipe that I researched for and it turned out way better than I was expecting it to. In all honesty, I didn’t have high hopes just because I haven’t followed a recipe in a long time, so I was sure that I would mess up somewhere. I think this was also my first time cooking fish? I’m always nervous cooking any fish or meat because I always think that I am undercooking it, since I don’t like when it’s overcooked. It’s the little things.

As you can see here to the left, the recipe itself was actually very straight forward and easy, so it was a good choice to start off with. This recipe is from a magazine series titled Better Homes & Gardens Special Interest Publications, and the specific magazine was the 13×9 One-Pan Comfort Food. I grabbed this magazine a while back since I knew things with grad school would be picking up quickly, and I thought this would be a great way to still have healthy meals while not totally cutting into my already busy schedule. Plus, I need to eat! So why not make something fun?

The recipe calls for salmon, salt, pepper, cherry tomatoes, shallots, garlic, oregano and olive oil. Having most of these items already in stock, the shopping list for this recipe was not only extremely short, but also well within budget. The most costly thing was the salmon of course. I also have this habit of not reading the amounts I need, rather I just read what I need, so I ended up buying a little bit over 1-lb. of salmon, which turned out fine, but in the end, I think I should have purchased a second package of cherry tomatoes. less tomatoes didn’t make or break the dish, but I think it would have been nice to just have a few extra goodies on the side.

As you may or may not be able to see from the photo, the recipe suggests finishing the dish off by adding “a bed of hot cooked Israeli couscous tossed with olive oil and a few handfuls of fresh arugula or baby spinach.” Now, me being me and not reading directions, I, of course, did not see this, so I just finished it off with some good ‘ole classic rice. Worked just fine 🙂

What can also be seen from the photos are the clear differentiations made in my version. I initially was following the image by using whole cherry tomatoes, but then having finished the package and wanting a bit more, I sliced up a Roma tomato (and I wish I had sliced up a second one). I also chopped the shallot smaller, rather than in the strips that the image suggested. Additionally, I cut the salmon into portions prior to cooking. I mainly did this because the salmon I bought was so long that it would not have fit in the pan. But it also turned out to be beneficial because it made platting the food much easier (in my opinion).

As I mentioned earlier, I finished off the dish with some rice and I added teriyaki sauce for some added flavor. This in and of itself was delicious, but seeing as how this was my big meal for the day (quite literally), I was noticing that I was getting hungry a bit after eating. So I decided to add a bit of a spin onto the recipe and instead of doing Israeli couscous with baby spinach or arugula, I added chopped up sweet potato and avocado. This was delicious and I personally feel like it really added a lot of great flavor.

So that was this week’s recipe! I definitely recommend trying it out, it lasted me the whole week (with ~ 1.5 lbs of salmon). I don’t know if my salmon was farm-raised or wild caught (I prefer wild caught for taste and environmental purposes), but if you do choose to try this out and have wild salmon, here’s a nutrition fact about wild salmon:

Wild salmon is high in omega-3 fats and a good source of protein. It also contains other nutrients such as B vitamins, potassium, and selenium. (Information obtained from The Power of Superfoods magazine – I love my magazines).

Hope you try it out! Next post is a quinoa based dish!

To be continued…

Gabriela

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Tacos

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Hello, hello!

I hope everyone is doing well. With certain places opening up again, please remember to still be careful. It can’t hurt to still be smart about your distance with other people and washing your hands. 🙂

On my side, things are going well. I’m feeling a little overwhelmed by school. There are a lot more distracting noises at home — neighbors mowing their lawns, dogs barking, young children screaming. So focusing is kinda a joke, and motivation is at an all time low. BUT, graduation is soooo close! Just have to hang in there a little longer.

It’s midterm week and I’ve got quantum chemistry and bioinorganic chemistry coming up. Also found out I have three finals on the same day (love that…). I’ve got a 20 source annotated bibliography due Friday, and yes, my sanity is slowing deteriorating.

But with all of those super fun things going on, the one thing I’m looking forward to is my birthday (yay!). Initially my big birthday celebration was going to be EDC in Las Vegas with some friends. However, with coronavirus, that’s been postponed until October and I’m back home for the time being. The upside is that I do get to spend my birthday with my parents! I haven’t had a birthday celebration with them in 4 years because I’ve always been in California. It’s usually with my sister, but it’ll be nice to celebrate with my parents again!

IMG_7219So anyway. A few weeks ago my roommate emailed me an idea for a recipe swap. Since we can’t all be together, this is a fun way to stay connected and meet new people. The recipe I received for the swap was called Healthy Sweet Potatoes and Black Bean Tacos, which naturally, we added to. We had had steak and veggies the night prior and there was a bit of steak leftover, so we added it into the tacos (it was delicious).

We used the same ingredients as the original recipe. I was a little curious about the sweet potato, but it actually fit so well in the tacos. And the honey! So unexpected but so good!! It was a huge hit with my mom and my dad. For toppings, we added shredded cheese, avocado (which we smashed up to make it easier to put on the tacos), and sour cream. The only other change we made was instead of adding the spice mix to the sweet potatoes, we mixed it in with everything, so all of the goodies had some spice.

This is an easy recipe to follow and a great recipe to convert between vegetarian and non-vegetarian. This could also be an easy vegan meal with just a few changes to the ingredients. I would HIGHLY recommend this recipe. Thank you roommate and recipe sender for this great recipe! This is probably something I wouldn’t have typically looked for, but I’m so happy I decided to try it!

Stay safe and stay well. Hoping everyone is hanging in there the best they can.

To be continued…

Gabriela