What was I thinking?

School started three weeks ago and I've already started a countdown. 10 weeks left. I'm not sure what I was thinking taking 19 credits, running 2 clubs, teaching knitting classes, working part time, donating platelets every other week, and having a husband. Yea. It's my own fault. Maybe this will be good, Hopefully in the next few weeks I can figure out how to make the best of my free time. 19 credits may not have been so bad, but I am taking 6 classes that are all heavy workloads :|    

Anywho, here are somethings I'm looking forward to right now (besides the end of school_

• St. Patrick's Day Parade
• Going away for A wedding in April and another in June
• Spring break
• Sakura Matsuri at the BBG!!!!
• Starting the garden!
• Renegade Craft Fair
• My Birthday (June)
• Warmer weather
• A mystery trip? Hopefully we will go somewhere this summer
• If not a new apartment

 And thats about it. Why my birthday? So I can make these!

Cherry Lime-aid Cupcakes

And these!!

January 17-20, 2009

January 17, 2009

The Self: Cranky, gross night at work. Mreh!

The Daily: I started knitting a sock.

January 18, 2009

The self: In a daze on the couch. I did data entry at work all day. Surprisingly exhausting.

The Daily: Gave up on the sock, started a new hat for the beginning of school.

January 19, 2009

The Self: My Mother in Law at Dinner.

The Daily: Butter at dinner. I like this plate.

January 20, 2009

The Self: Getting Ready for Eric's Wake. Today is a day of mourning.

The daily: Inauguration day Coffee sleeve from Starbucks. Today is a day of change and celebration.

Fridays Bento

    Today's Bento:

-Vegetable Gyoza (frozen from Trader Joe's)

- Cherry tomato/ Mixed Vegetable Gratin

-Tamago (yucky tamago today)

-Shrimp/Furikake fritters

- Grapes for filler

The Verdict:

Not bad but i've had better. I like the gratin again. I think I will use less mayo and cheese in the future (I'm trying to be healthier!) There was also a teeny hole in the cupcake liner that I had the gratin in and it leaked on to my gyoza. Gyoza were good as usual. The shrimp fritters were really good, I just wish I had soaked the shrimp in lemon before I cooked them, they tasted a bit fishy. Todays tamago was no good. It looked so nice but it tasted soggy. Not sure why, as there was nothing wet in that part of the bento. Grapes are always good. I think I did not enjoy my bento so much today, because I didnt really want to eat at the time, and was not in the mood to eat anything in it. They forced me to take my dinner break. Its good when they do that at work, as I frequently forget.

Goals For the next week:

-Keep up the cooking in the morning

-Keep up the mise en place

-Plan for the week, I do the "What can I make?" The night before while I prep for the next day.

-Track the calories for each bento

-NOT blow the whole day of eating (mostly) well when I get home at night. I usually get home from work around 9pm and have a habit of eating dinner or a larger meal then. If I need to eat I will eat fruit or yogurt which I will have on hand for this (and bentos)

January 16, 2009

January 16, 2009

The Self: I'm the lotto bitch in the hospital. Here's me with the scratch offs. 

Today was a big winner day. Lucky Them. Also my sweater was trying to choke me all day. I was grateful

for changing when I got home.

The Daily: My Tamago that I made this am for lunch. I was very proud of it's nice roll. Too bad it tasted like crap. The one I made yesterday looked like crap but was tasty. I think I might buy pre-made tamago at Mitsuwa next week. 

Week 1 Bentos (so far)

I was Monday and Tuesday this week, so I didnt make Bentos for those days. (Although I would have been better off doing that.) I made bento for today and for tomorrow. I tried something new though. Normally when school is in session I would make bentos at night for DH and I. However at work I have no microwave access (I do at school) so after my bento sits in the fridge over night its still too chilly when I eat lunch. Since I dont have to be in work till lunchtime I've been prepping my bento at night and finishing it off cooking wise in the am. Today was the first day I did that. (And of course I woke up to a few inches of snow this summer which cut into to my am bento cooking time!) But it worked well and tested much better then super cold bento. 

So for todays bento I made a mini vegetable gratin, tamagoyaki, teriyaki shrimp and rice.

This way was easier. Last night I marinated the shrimp, prepared the gratin in the cup and that was it. So this morning all I did was put the gratin in the toaster oven, while that was baking  I fried the leftover rice I had, and cooked the shrimp in the same pan (I did the rice first since it takes longer to cool) After the shrimp and I rice I made the Tamagoyaki. 

This is the vegetable gratin, all ready to go for tomorrow and be cooked in the toaster. The gratin was so good today I decided to make it again tomorrow! Yum!

I also cooked up some really easy shrimp furikake fritters too. Keeping frozen uncooked shrimp in the freezer is a good idea, they defrost very quickly and work for proteins. 

I've been following (trying) the bento challenge at Just Bento. This is week 1. More about getting started and into the swing of making bentos for lunch everyday. This is my week to get back on track, with making lunches and not eating so much crap. (again trying) I linked all the recipes I used from Maki at Just Bento, go visit!

January 14 & 15, 2009

January 14, 2009

The self: Doing some paperwork, at work. 

The daily: My iced tea I made. In my reusable Starbucks cup.

January 15,2009

The self: Some webkins and myself.

The Daily: My tamagoyaki pan

Donation No.1 of 2009!

 Since my new year resolution this year was to donate blood and components as much as I am allowed I though I would write about two firsts for the year. Today was my 1st donation of the year, and also my first platelet donation.

 Platelet donation is great because they are able to take several 1000 times more platelets out of your blood then they would be able to get from just a single pint donation. The platelets are then used for cancer patients, accident victims, and bone marrow transplant patients to name a few. The amount I donated today is enough for two transfusions.  

  The whole process takes about two and half hours, which is a bit long but not bad it all!

The quick version of it is:

You do the mini physical/screening.

The put one needle in one arm where the blood will be taken from, and a second needle in the other arm where it will be returned to you. You blood is taken out run through a centrifuge filter machine, separating out the platelets and the plasma and returning the rest in the other arm! 

So for a bit less than two hours this is what you are doing. They have little TVs to watch which is very cool, and they gave me some nice blankets to snuggle in. (When your blood comes back in it is cooler than your body temperature so you get a bit chilly during the process. I took a nap for a bit of the time and talked to the phlebotomists who were working. 

I am going to document the process more next week when I go to do my next donation and will take some photos.  More then!