Thought this for a moment:

Tags

candid, question of the day

I sure do feel like my hands have been attached my laptop lately.

Got to unwire myself sometimes.

How often and how long do you unwire from your phones and your laptops? Is it 1 hour per day or per week? Is it 1 day out of the week? Or one week out of the month? 

Reach far

Tags

cape, fly, inspire, reach far, soar

Inspiration for the day .

Reach far

Tags

cape, fly, inspire, reach far, soar

Inspiration for the day .

Weekly menu

Tags

candid, cooking, life hacks, organization, simplicity

I’ve been meaning to do this for a while and I think it would make our life a lot easier. Decided to make a weekly menu based on what is in our fridge to avoid making the extra trips to store and plan for the week.

We cook about three times a week to minimize having too many leftovers and also it does get tiring to cook every single day after work. There are some things we like to do as soon as I get home such as read my Nook, do other chores, browse the internet, watch TV, and exercise.

How do you plan your meals for the week?

“Hey Baby, What’s Your Credit Score?

Tags

background check, credit check, credit score, date, dating

I thought this was an interesting article.

It’s not you, it’s your credit score.

Maybe your potential suitor asking for your credit score is not so crazy after all. After all, most relationships and marriages end due to poor finances. Maybe the credit score is an indicator to suitor on how stable the potential relationship is. But I have to say, I wouldn’t want my date to ask me for my credit score on the first date.

A few months ago, I asked my girlfriends if they would like to have a credit check or a social media check from a potential employer. They said “neither, it’s none of their business — it’s personal!” Look, you have a social profiles all over the internet — people can look your up on Google search and you pop up. You don’t realize how transparent you really are. I can’t imagine their reaction that a potential boyfriend/fiance/husband/baby daddy wants to credit check you too.

Growing up, I’ve met plenty of people who told me how they are bad with finances and they would love to find someone who would take care of their financial problems because they make a lot more money. If this well-financed someone ends up asking for your credit score and your score isn’t up to their standards, chances of being with them are low.

To me, it was a feel-good article reminding that learning how to take care your self and your own money reigns.

What are your thoughts on being credit checked by your date?

How to exit your job gracefully (Part II)

So today is my last day of work and yes, it is the day before Thanksgiving.

Honestly, it did feel like a long two weeks just dragging and dragging on.

Anyways here are a few things I learned on my last week of work:

1. Throw a party at work — could be happy hour or it could be serving Indian catering in the break room. It really depends. There are some people that dedicate a whole week of them giving cookies, bagels, and coffees to their soon-to-be former employees everyday of the week. To me, I would rather have it low key because I don’t want to have my departure be rubbed in people’s faces (even though I feel the envy in air).

For me, it was just my supervisor buying a few Indian dishes and the lunch was spread via word of mouth because since I was leaving during Thanksgiving week, there was not going to be a lot of people anyways. Some people want the whole building to attend their going away, for me, I just had 10 people. The ones I invited myself were already on vacation, but that’s ok. We did not buy that many dishes anyways.

2. Clean up your deskk – So when my coworker left for maternity leave, I had someone from another department who was wanted to cross-train in my department and he took over her desk and there still a lot of stuff. Thank god, I took my time cleaning up my desk and I’m sure the next person who takes over will appreciate it.

3. Don’t over-PR it - I kept my departure very, very low key. I didn’t put my status regarding my two weeks because I do have coworkers on Facebook and I don’t want my news to rub on their faces. I did not want my status say “Put my two weeks in, off to (new company). Adios (old company)!” and people on my wall write “congratulations, where are you going?” “congratulations!” or “what’s going on?”  on my coworker’s newsfeed.

Actually last week, I met up with a friend from college and told her the good news of my better opportunity and my move to LA. A few hours later, on Facebook, I see her post on our other mutual friend’s wall “Hey let’s have a reunion and celebrate Julie’s good news.” Our mutual friend writes “what’s the good news about Julie?” I had to private message him the good news.

4. Exit Interviews – To me, this was the hardest. I was not sure if I was in a position to be comfortable enough to say how I really feel or keep my composure. If anything, I think its a combination of both. I still think one should give honest feedback but not a bash-fest. The whole week, I was trying to think of what to say during the exit interview. If you feel like you’re not going to say anything nice, work your way around offering constructive criticism.

5. Asking for a recommendation – This was probably the part I was looking forward to because I do want to have a recommendation on LinkedIn. When you departure, look for people to write you a letter of recommendation in your last two weeks otherwise people will forget about the work for you when you’re long gone from the company.

20 dollars groceries – I believe this would be week 5

Tags

20 dollars, Amazon Prime, budget, Capm exam, groceries, menu Monday, shopping

This week I spent 19.52.

Thank you sprouts!

In the bag:
- Green leaf lettuce
- instant oatmeal (99 cents per pound)
- 1 lb of tomatoes (on sale for 88 cents per lb)
- cucumber
- 2.4 lb of beef ($10.64)
- 1 lb pears (88 cents per lb)
- red onion
- 1 carton of eggs (not pictured)
- 3 limes (0.75)
- half gallon of vanilla coconut milk (got a dollar off coupon)

Not bad… so far, me and Mr. Fish have done a really good job being within budget. As we’ve shown, you can live off of 20 dollars worth in groceries and we’ll keep doing it.

As I told myself, I think it’s time for a food blog due to a special request.

In other news…

Have you seen the gas prices in California?

I thought it was very hard to go out this weekend. I was planning to go to LA on Sunday but instead I didn’t, I just played tennis at the park and studied for the CAPM.

Thank goodness for Amazon Prime. I think with these rising gas prices, I don’t mind buying things on the internet for deodorant and toothbrush heads and other basic things. I’ll just stick with driving my car for going to work (some days I carpool), going to the Pilates studio twice a week, groceries, and going to my CAPM exam.

Black Bean, Quinoa, and Arugula Salad plus Chimmichurri

Tags

Arugula, Avocado, Black Bean, budget, Chimichurri, eat clean, food, healthy, menu Monday, Quinoa, recipes, Salad, salad dressing

This week in 20 dollars of groceries was way over budget. On Tuesday, I have a little get together and I did say that I did not want to count alcohol and food we are preparing for a party. Highlights is two bottles of Lambic Framboise, frozen packets of Acai Puree, and gluten free BBQ sauce (which I did not know was gluten-free — I picked out the cheapest BBQ I could find).

Ehh…that’s ok. Anyways I thought maybe we can start Monday off with some salad!

Maybe I should start eating more salad — eat salad once a day, everyday. I’ve attempted a few times before by taking salad to work and everyone assumes that you’re on a fad diet. Example:

Day 1: Coworker: what are you eating lunch?
Me: Just salad.

Day 2: Coworker: what are you eating today for lunch?
Me: Salad.

Day 3: Coworker: What are you eating today for lunch?
Me: Salad.
Coworker: Are you on a diet?
Me: No.

And that ends the conversation. I don’t know why people assume I was dieting. And it usually leads to someone telling me that I don’t need to diet. Please. I eat a lot more at home anyways. I like making salad and I do just more than Caesar. I can make filling and I can prove it.

The salad I’m going to make is from Good Food Buzz, but I made a little changes. Also, I made a chimichurri sauce for the dressing and it tastes AMAZING!

Quinoa, black bean, Arugula salad (I need a shorter name )
Ingredients:
1 cup of Quinoa
1 can of black beans – drained
Arugula – I bought a box of prewashed Arugula from Sprouts (2.99)
1 Avocado (0.50)
1 Red Bell Peppers (0.50)

Feel free to change up the portions to whatever you like. My box of Arugula is good for about until Friday (assuming I’m the only one who eats the salad) so I probably am going to use a 2nd avocado and more bell pepper.

Procedures:
1. In a saucepan, cook quinoa until it’s fluffy and set it aside to cool.
2. Chop bell peppers and avocado.
3. Add the chopped bell peppers, avocado, and quinoa to the arugula.
4. Enjoy!

Cost to make:3.99 (did not include the cost of beans and quinoa because I bought them a while back). 3.99 for 5 days equals to 0.80 a day, I think I should start making salad at home more often.

Chimichurri sauce
This a very versatile sauce. Apparently people in Argentina use this sauce like ketchup — this usually goes with steak. My friend uses Chimichurri sauce with her fish and growing up she would dip bread and chorizo. Today, I’m going to use it as a dressing. Can’t wait to try pairing it with other things!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of oil (I used grapeseed)
2 tbsp of red vinegar
1 cup of chopped parsley (0.50)
4 cloves of garlic chopped (0.33 for one garlic)
1 tbsp of salt
1/4 tbsp of black pepper
1/4 tbsp of red pepper

Note: I used the Ninja to chop the parsley. I mixed the oil, red vinegar, garlic, salt, black pepper, and red peppers and put the parsley last.
Also to note, I need a cute container to serve sauces.
Cost: 0.88. If you already got oil, vinegar, and spices — you can pretty much make almost any type of dressing .

Hong Kong Style rice porridge

Tags

20 dollars groceries, budget, Cantonese, cheap eats, congee, Hong Kong, recipes, rice porridge

Another week of living off 20 dollars in groceries. Its starting to get really challenging because I wanted to get avocados but I knew I would be over budget. I wanted to get açai puree but I knew I would be over budget. I just had to tell myself “maybe next week.” Oh the temptation! This week I went over by $2.06. Not bad…I think its because of the chicken that I needed for my favorite margarita pasta recipe (will post that next week).

So here is what I bought this week:
Sprouts had an amazing 72 hour sale (Friday-Saturday):
1. Mom’s Best naturals Toasted Cinnamon Squares
2. 1 Gallon of 2% Milk
3. Roma tomatoes (1.29 for a pound)
4. Shredded cheddar cheese (1.30)
5. Grapes (0.88 per pound)
6. Chicken breast (really small portion for 2.83)
7. Pasta (1.50 each!)

Vietnamese market down the street from my place — I usually like buying meats here.
1. 1 pound of pork shoulder (1.99 per lb)
2. Pork neck bone (0.99 per lb)
3. Ginger (I only needed 1-inch of ginger. Don’t recall how much it was per pound but I was only charged 4 cents)
4. Dozen medium eggs (1.19)
5. Preserved duck egg

I can’t believe I forgot to take pictures of my grocery shopping trip. But just take my word for it folks.

I’m going post the congee recipe by popular demand. It’s called by many names throughout Asia — Chao (Vietnam), Jook (China), Lugao (Philippines), and more.

Anyways, I grew up eating this dish and I didn’t like it too much growing up. Maybe because my mom made it every week and my dad liked it and that was all he asked for. My boyfriend loves this dish. In fact, he tried to make it and I didn’t like the texture too much–too much rice. Then one night, my friend took me to a Hong Kong cafe in Alhambra. She told me her favorite dish was the rice porridge and I said “eh…really? I’m not too crazy about it because my mom always makes it. My boyfriend loves it and makes it. My boyfriend’s mom makes it too.” Then when the tilapia with preserved egg congee came in, I became a believer. It sounds like an unusual combination but its so good, it’s addicting! I guess it was the creamy texture and the preserved egg that bought me in.

A couple weeks later, I took my boyfriend to the same Hong Kong Cafe in Alhambra and ordered the tilapia with preserved egg congee to show him what it’s all about. He liked it too and I was trying to find out how this congee’s smooth and creamy texture.

After researching, it’s very easy — no blending or breaking rice required. It’s a very forgiving recipe so feel free to change the quantities. Also it’s very cheap to make.

Pork and Preserved Egg Congee

Ingredients:
2 cups of rice, rinsed
Oil
Salt
13 cups of water
1 lb of Pork (1.99 for 1 lb)
1 lb of pork bones (69 cents)
1-inch of ginger (4 cents)
4-6 preserved eggs (1.99)
Ground Pepper
Green Onions

1. Rinse rice and put rice in a container. Marinate rice with sesame (try other oils too if you don’t have sesame) oil and 1 tbsp of salt. Take your time.
2. In a stew pot of 13 cups of water put in pork, pork bones, and ginger and let it cook all the way through. This will be your pork stock. (Feel free to put chicken or beef stock).
3. After the pork cooks, take out the pork and cut it into small pieces and set it aside for later.
4. In the stew pot, let your pork stock reduce (to however you want). Add more salt to taste.
5. Take out the pork bones and discard.
6. Rinse your marinated rice with water and put it in the stew pot and let the rice cook. Take your time with this one. How the rice becomes so creamy and fine is that when the rice cooks in the stew pot, it pretty much get “overcooked” that it breaks itself. See? No blender needed.
7. After you get your desired texture, you can add more water to make it less sticky.
8. Add back your pork. Add quartered preserved eggs and let it heat up.
9. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
10. Add in green onions (I didn’t have a lot of green onions in my porch, so I used chives too).
11. Serve

Feel free to add soy sauce or fish sauce or some sriracha .

Enjoy!!

Cost of ingredients: $4.71 (does not include rice, oil, salt, ground pepper, green onion).

Week two of 20 dollars on groceries

Tags

budget, groceries, menu Monday, shopping

This week:
Ralphs
- roma tomatoes
- grapes (not pictured)
- red leaf lettuce
- wheat bread
- black forest ham
- peaches

Trader Joe’s ( my favorite place )
- orange chicken
- frozen Asian stirfry vegetables
- pita chips

Total: 20.86 — which was better than last week’s trip. We still have frozen chicken thighs in the freezer from last week. I think we won’t be starving this week. I noticed our fridge is looking cleaner lately :-p.

Looks like we will be eating sandwiches everyday for lunch this week. I had spare canned garbanzo beans to make hummus for the pita chips.