thoughts on...whole30

why hello there. its been a while.

Today marks the first day of our whole30 challenge.

I am excited, slightly nervous and not even a little hungry. no dairy, no wheat (or gluten for that matter), no booze, no sugar.

I've been pinning recipes like crazy, you can find my board here. And I'm very excited to start cooking some of these dishes!

The best part is that Peters doing it with me so I have support from him and we can motivate each other. Its also practical because he's the main chef in the house and now we can enjoy the same meals together.

The hardest part will be the social aspect of giving up certain foods and lifestyle. We have beers and drinks with friends usually multiple times a week so I'm not sure how that will play out. I also find that working in an office and going out to grab lunch with co-workers is the main time that we chat and bond, so to give this up is also unknown to me.

super tender, super easy weekday chicken parm

now, first things first, this isn't my recipe. Its peters, but he was kind enough to share it with me and that doesn't surprise me because he's kind enough to make it for me at least once a week. 

I'm not much of a chicken breast kind of person. I like white meat but the thought of a whole chicken breast slathered in bbq sauce or something doesn't really appeal to me. to be honest its just too much meat for me. these chicken parms are perrrrrfect to make a pack of chicken breasts last for a few meals because we all know how expensive those buggers are. They are crispy and tender, soooooo tender, melt in your mouth almost, and are relatively healthy. And versatile! I like mine just on the side of a big salad, peters a bit more traditional with his on a bun but we've eaten them on wraps, over top of pasta, and as a side to countless veggies. 

oh and before we get into the ingredients, the quantities of each ingredient will really depend on how many chicken breasts your making at once. Eyeball it and you can always add more.  

Ingredients 

pack of chicken breasts (mine had three in it)

marinara sauce

cheese (cheddar for me, goat cheese for him)

Wet mix:

1 cup mayo

1tsp worcestershire (weirdest word to spell ever)

1 tsp apple cider vinegar 

Dry mix: 

1 cup bread crumbs (sometimes he adds some panko in there if we have it)

salt and pepper

TO DO

preheat oven to 450 degrees

cut the chicken breasts in half longways so they are flatter. keep cutting the breasts until they are approx identical sizes,  this will keep your cooking time consistent and ensure they are all done at the same time. 

wrap the individual chicken breasts in saran wrap and pound them with a small heavy pan or a mallet if you have one. 

dip and smother the flattened breasts in the mayo mixture ensuring it is completely covered

then dip in bread crumb mixture until completely covered

place on baking sheet. (you may want to butter the pan just slightly so they don't stick)

repeat until they are all coated. 

bake for 20 minutes. pull out and add marinara sauce to the tops and then the cheese. (I skipped the cheese in the pictures below and opted instead for peppers and onions)

back for another 10 minutes. 

EAT!

in other non-cooking news i've been pretty busy lately! every week has brought a new challenge, first a week of interviews, then a week of negotiating/second interviews and now a week of finishing up freelance work before starting my first week of the new job.

Man oh man there were some stressful moments in those weeks. It was really hard for me to choose which option to go with (I had multiple offers to choose from, which I am so grateful for, but was also super hard to know what to do) and even harder to say no to some of the options. I wish I was better at just establishing what I wanted and then communicating it to others but I'm so flip floppy and its never black and white. I tried to live with the advice they told us at school, 'go with your gut!' 'get the job you want, not the job you think you should have' etc etc but ultimately it came down to how I felt in the interview and what option I thought woud be good for me right now. my gut wasn't any help, I must say, it was going in 100 different directions.

okay I must get back to work, daytime television is so crappy haha I just saw I television show explaining what text message codes 'kids these days are sending' did you know NCOC means no clothes on camera? no?

Pics from the week

// roasted veggies//

// I'll take it//

//church rummage sales never disappoint //

//the best meal that Peter makes. Salt and vinegar miss vickies crusted fish. plus shredded carrot salad, still crazy about it. Ammmazing//

//from the back parking lot//

//meet and greet with Stevie nicks. Holy bucket list//

// pb&j//

// homemade rosemary lemonade//

//anyone need some aloe Vera? Anyone? Haha//

make something you love

Ughghghgh I am almost donnnnnnnnnnnne school. Can you even believe that? No me neither. Like I seriously can't.

I am super excited though. I feel confident and accomplished.

However,  I feel like in the hardest part of stress and deadlines I sort of lost some of that. I lost my voice. It was horrible.

I'd like to talk about that for a minute because ultimately I learned a very valuable lesson and went through a process that I think is crucial for any creative to go through.

As you would imagine, I had to show my work along the way, especially with larger semester long projects. There was an opportunity every two weeks to meet with advisors and peers and get their feedback.
While some of my peers would defend their point of view and choices, I was more receptive to the feedback. I wanted this project to be the best ever.
The hardest part of that was restarting again and again. not necessarily back to the drawing board (although that did happen quite a lot) it was revision after revision. extra meetings with the advisors, lots of emails. I was starting to feel defeated, inadequate and just worn down. And the worst part about all of this, is that throughout this time, I can honestly even say that I didn't even love it. So when I would hear confirming thoughts from my advisors I just kept going back at it again and again.

And then I broke down. I lost it. There was no specific trigger situation that comes to mind other then just I knew I didn't love it, and how could this be, and I was trying so hard, and I wanted it so bad and the stress of a looming deadline and and and it was a bad scene that Peter walked me through and I'll forever be grateful for his advice.

Make something you love.

so simple, yet I totally lost sight of it. Instead of clearing my mind and creating what I wanted I was in a continuous spin of rearranging the broken pieces.

I took a day away from it.  I think we even left the city to go home for the weekend. I needed space from it.

I came back to it with a new mind set. Make exactly what I want so that next time I am presenting the work I can defend it wholeheartedly. I was running out of time and I knew I just wanted to design something that would make ME happy. That I would be proud to show off to people.

And then guess what? I had a ROUND OF APPLAUSE after the next time I presented my work to the advisors and peer group. They LOVED it! and best of all I LOVED IT.

So the lesson I learned was to design something that I can stand behind wholeheartedly and have faith that others will love that perspective as well. By being authentic to myself and my vision I was able to come up with the best work.

///////

Looking back on it, I feel like this advice is a little...uh...duh!
But I truly lost sight of it.

Once I started the spiral of looking to my advisors for feedback and ultimately trying very hard to please them, I lost what was important to me.

It going to be so important to remember this, especially in the real world, with client's strong opinions and 'helpful' suggestions. I need to make sure I absolutely love it, and the rest will follow.

Lately its been raining pretty much every day and I've had enough of it.

BUT! but the silver lining is that april showers bring may flowers and will also bring a healthy vegetable garden for me this year.

I found these old film pictures from at least a year (maybe more?) ago. I wish that camera still worked.

They seemed to fit my mood right now. Well no, not really...but they fit the mood.

Lately things have been so upside down and backwards in an alter universe world.

We decided to take the night off from work Thursday night and Peter choose to go to Ikea (I know!) and then Friday night I wanted to go to the movies (right?!)

And other less tangible things have been backwards, just the way we are acting with each other. Me telling him to relax and calm down and just chill. which is like the complete opposite of the rest of our relationship haha.

Peters been working non-stop and hes been coping with that like a champ.

I've been powering through the last of my school projects and deadlines.

Sharing a computer at home right now is INTENSE. Usually we would decide who gets to use the computer by who needs it the most but when we both need it LIFE OR DEATH DEADLINE thats when it gets ugly my friend.

anyone else getting the feeling this summer is going to be epic?

yeah me too.

xox

last week

// all stocked up on fruit // sometimes its so nice when the boys make dinner and I have 15 minutes when they are both in the kitchen to quick tidy the apartment. Its amazing what you can do with 15 minutes //

// we went home to lindsay for easter weekend. I only allowed us to go for one night, then we had to get back to the computer ..I mean city //

// but yes. obviously stopped for a bordeaux cherry milkshake //

// went to see Alt J last week. so friggen good. ∆ also so nice to get out with peter 

// on the way home. these photos are terribly out of order // 

// these balloons were a total fluke and absolutely perfect for my portfolio website photoshoot //

html on blogger to display images at the full width of the page

So I was messing around with my html on the site tonight to try and get my images to display at 100%. I think I've done it successfully!!

If something is glitchy do be a doll and let me know though....


If anyone is wondering how I did it I will do my best to explain.

First you need to log into your account and go to the templates tab...you should see something like the picture below...click on the edit HTML button

From here you are going to scroll down until you see the html code for the posts...it should look like this 

/* Posts

-----------------------------------------------

 In the posts area you can copy and paste the code below (making sure to get both brackets) ..This will allow your pictures to stretch the entire width of the post area. It also makes it resize accordingly if someone is looking at it on a smaller screen. (As opposed to adding a fixed pixel amount, say 350 px wide....this means the photo will always display at 350 px wide instead of fitting the screen)


.post img {
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
  }

good luck and if you have any issues be sure to let me know and hopefully I can help out.

plenty

Hi kids,

So Kathleen from Braid is having a contest to win a spot in her Braid workshop at the start of May. All you have to do is answer the questions below and comment on her post. I figured since I was writing something out I might as well share it here as well.



1. What is your art? 

I want to help people get what they want out of the online experience and present themselves in the best way possible. 

Right now I am (21) days away from finishing my diploma in Web Design </holycrap>. I feel its important for me to work in a small to medium sized agency after I graduate to continue learning and make new connections. My dream job would be to work in a creative environment and be a digital media producer. I see it as a professional list maker and task organizer, prioritizer and facilitator. And thats the kind of stuff I love to do. I also want to work for myself and start doing freelance work as often as possible. Ultimately, I'd like the freelance work to be able to sustain my income and time in the long run. 

I also really want to find the voice of my blog. Which really should have happened already because I have been blogging for six years and have always thought that it is completely possible to make it into something great. I've always been stuck between a personal hang up of sharing too much or when to share and how to market it as a place where I share my thoughts...and if thats even a marketable thing. 


2. For you, what is the scariest part about sharing yourself? 

I am thinking a long time about how to answer this question because I am not sure what my answer is. Small things come to mind...misspelling a simple word infront of a group of people, forgetting someones name when its impossible to retrace your sentence, having my dress tucked into my panty hoes (all things that have happened already haha). 

The obvious thing that comes to mind is rejection but I feel like pulling off a band aid. Its sharp and painful at first but it passes quickly. When you work in the creative field its important to remember just how many points of view are out there and not one of them is completely 'wrong'. 

Being authentically me when I first meet people is very hard. I find I am very polite and smily and agreeable, and even though I do possess those qualities I feel like I'm a sugar coated version of myself. I'd like to come across more thoughtful, taking the time to construct my answers and replies before I blurt them out. 


3. For you, what is the hardest part about selling your work? 

Committing to anything really specific (I have the frequently Pisces ability to be able to see merits to both sides of the argument.) Or in broader terms I am easily swayed by so many options or possibilities that I end up having a hard time committing to one idea or style.  I feel like I have so many interests and passions that its hard to say "___ is exactly what I want to do". I'm feeling a little lost on what exactly is my strongest points, and what I will enjoy the most and where those things overlap.

I often don't defend my work as much as I should -I want to stand up for it more. Especially being in a classroom environment of teachers and students, I usually take the teachers advice and recommendations and make the changes...whereas others in my class have more defined points of view that allows them to passionately stand up for their work. I wish I could have more of that. 

I'll do her anyway

wow its been a lifetime since I last posted. I honestly can't even believe its been so long.

so yes, big news, google reader, my trusted blog content curator is no longer going to be around BUT, I have a great new option.

Feedly...heard of it? its serrrrriously awesome if you have an iphone.
heres some pics ..

ok, first of all, in about 3 nanoseconds it will import your google reader, if thats what you currently use.

and right away it set up this lovely interface of my blogs to read..

and the best part - on your phone it has SUCH a beautiful look. every photo is full screen and the blog post title is overlayed onto the image.

this is kind of geeky but its cloud based so what that means is that everything is always synced. if you read a post on your phone and then log into the computer it will still show it as read. same as google reader but for the newbs out there (mom and davey)(i.e. my fan base) this is a great app. 

so what else is new? 

I'm 26 now. 

I'm 26 and i'm going to be switching to wordpress. this blogger garbage is garbage barf. 

see how easy it is? 

yeah. 

having a party tonight. 

probably starting whole30 on Monday

have a shit ton of homework to do these days

probably should be working on that. 

yeah, I'll be back with a more meaningful post on being older and dumber and all that jazz. 

I was reading the newspaper the other day at the kitchen table and halfway through an article I noticed my head was about 10 cm from the paper and I was all hunched over and just the whole posture was horrible and I realized I REALLY NEED MY GLASSES. which is funny because, yes duh, I need my glasses. thats why I was given a prescription for them and thats why I have four pairs. but in my head I've always sort of wanted glasses so I sort of over exaggerated my need for them and fantasized about needing them. but folks. the day is here. I really do need them. wearing them right now and forever.

I think its my phone that is making them so bad. I'm always squinting at it and holding it like super stupid close to my face to read it.

anyway.

I've been meditating. I posted a while ago about buying this book and I'm working my way through it. I bought some chocolate for the chocolate mediation and it was reallllllly really fun. I even had peter do it with me once and he was blown away too. its a whole new experience to tasting your food. coles notes version of the chocolate mediation if you want to try it is to open the package, smell it in, notice everything, look at it, really see it. pop it in your mouth. feel it on your tongue. let it melt. resist the urge to bite it. resist the urge of your tongue. taste it. are there new tastes that are appearing? chocolate has over 300 different flavours. let it slowly pool up in your mouth. when its all melted let it drip down your throat. swallow it. think about it. repeat if you want.

when we finished Peter said wow that tasted so good. yet he had a piece before the meditation and wasn't all that impressed. it changes your whole view.



I read this really nerdy money blog called the simple dollar and I read something that I haven't been able to stop thinking about. He is talking about the taking small savings seriously instead of focusing on large investments or making more money in a year.

The same is true for lunch. If you can come up with a lunch routine that saves $3 each day off of what you’re doing now, you’re saving $1,100 per year. That’s about 4% of the take home pay of an average American family for the year. This is saved just by paying attention to one detail and fixing it.
$1,100 is seed money for a microbusiness. It’s a solid down payment on a car. $1,100 is money that can get you through a rough spot.
Again, the counterargument that many would make is that most details won’t save you $3. To that, I say, so? If I can spend fifteen minutes figuring out a more efficient system for doing laundry that cuts energy and water use by 10% at home, I’m saving about $0.05 per load forever. Our family does a load of laundry every day. Over the next decade, that fifteen minutes of thought is going to save us $182.50.
Please, tell me something else you could do in fifteen minutes that would bring home $182.50 after taxes.

 How often do we think, oh whatever its just $3? Just $3 adds up to over $1000 per year! Thats a trip to Cuba or a few days in New York or a good little reserve fund for someone my age.
I think about how often I'm in the grocery store and put something in my cart worth 3$ that I don't really need or could make myself with cheaper ingredients. I'm not going to deny myself that item, but I want to push myself to do it for cheaper. and to think about 'cheaper' options for things that I already consider inexpensive, not just ways to save on the 'big' items. Eating leftovers instead of buying new. making sure to use up all food in the fridge before it goes bad. I feel like this is focusing on food but the same goes for toiletries or entertainment or anything.

For starters I'm making my own salad dressings. Heres my go to recipes for Ranch, Caesar and Italian.

All images from this tumblr
xox