Sunday: Meals of the Week Post

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The meals from last week were a huge hit. I didn’t get bored of the meatloaf / stuffing for dinner, and I didn’t get bored of the corn quesadillas. One thing I did add was pickled red onion. I am pretty sure I could eat that stuff on everything, and it’s incredibly easy to make.

This week I’m opting for simple flavours again. Chicken is on sale (two whole chickens for $15, normally you get one for $10-$15) and shrimp is on sale. I still have ground beef frozen since I only used half of it for my meatloaf, but I’m thinking that might get turned into a burger later on, or maybe chili. Anyway. This weeks meals –

Blackened shrimp tacos with a lime slaw

Quinoa fried rice: this recipe was adapted from the myfitnesspal blog.

Ingredients:

  • 2 chicken thighs, cooked, shredded
  • 1/2 cup uncooked quinoa
  • 2 large eggs, whisked
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
  • 1 diced small white onion
  • 1 cup sliced carrots (thin)
  • 1 cup frozen peas
  • 1 cup frozen corn
  • 3 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1 teaspoon fine chopped fresh ginger
  • sriracha to taste

Directions

  • Cook quinoa according to package instructions (I cooked mine in a rice cooker with a cup of water, and I also used ancient grains instead of regular. It has a really nutty flavour).
  • Scramble eggs in a non-stick pan over low heat. Slice into strips and set aside.
  • Add oil to a large pan over medium heat. Add carrots, onion, garlic, and ginger. Cook until soft.
  • Add peas, corn, and cooked chicken. Heat until warm.
  • Add quinoa, and scrambled eggs. Mix it all up.
  • Add soy sauce and sriracha to taste.
  • Can store in the fridge for up to a week. Serve warm.

Easy and delicious meals for the week. I may mix a bit of brown rice in with the quinoa, but it doesn’t need it, I just use it for bulk. I plan on serving some sweet potato crisps along with the tacos just for a bit extra too (a treat my other half sent me while he’s away).

The only instant pot stuff I plan on making is the whole chicken, and the quinoa / rice. It’ll still save dishes / time / hassle of having to cook it so I don’t mind too much.

My breakfast of chai seeds / oats  / homemade yogurt / cubed apple / maple syrup (just a splash) / spices was absolutely delicious. I’m not sure if I want another week of the exact same breakfast or if i want to switch it up. None of the things I enjoy for breakfast are on sale this week, bacon is expensive, eggs get boring. I imagine I’ll figure it out when I do my groceries for the week.

I’m not down any weight this week, still hovering around the 197-198 mark but I’m also not up any weight and some weeks that’s just as good. I know I didn’t eat as well as I could have (my other half sent me a care package with some treats in it) but it’s a marathon not a race, as the saying goes. This week I should be able to stick with things a bit better and hopefully get down another pound (or two).

Making any exciting meals this week? Have a recipe you want to share? A site that you get most of your meal prep from? Let me know in comments!

Adventurous Christmas Present

Because I don’t already have enough hobbies and projects on the go, I decided to start one more. It’s a Christmas gift for my other half, so I am not going to post a picture here (he probably wouldn’t see it any way, but just in case) and I’m thinking I may have bit off more than I can chew. It’s a complicated cross stitch, and there’s only a few months before Christmas (where I’m working on other projects at the same time). I can’t work on it at night because I’m usually in a dark room, and this particular project is being done on navy aida cloth (18 count). I’m not sure I can get it done in time but I wanted to give it a try. If anything it can be a Christmas present for next year.

My mother taught me to cross stitch when I was probably around 12-13 years old. She had been doing it for years and continues to. Her stuff is very intricate, and she has even won some local awards for her (she did a huge afghan one year). Me, I don’t particularly have the patience for larger projects. I have one on the go that I’ve had started for many years now, a European Bistro. It will look amazing when it’s done, but “when it’s done” is probably not for another 20 years and I think I started it 10 years ago.

I do well with smaller projects, or projects that are near and dear to my heart, like the adventure time one above (completed for the husband, it hangs over his desk. I have a fluttershy one that hangs over mine). Cross stitching is a relaxing hobby that you can customize to suit any person in the world because it’s just taking images and using tiny threaded X’s in different colours to transfer that image.

When I was first starting out I used to buy kits from Michaels or online, but now I prefer to make my own designs, and I just buy the floss (typically DMC). I don’t get a chance to cross stitch as much as I’d like since I am typically busy with the 1 year old or a different hobby (gaming, knitting, crochet, spinning yarn, cooking, photography, you get the point..) but it’s one I like to come back to and one that I pick up a few times a year.

I started an afghan a few years ago and each square of the afghan is going to be a blizzard battle pet, but I haven’t gotten very far on it yet. I’ve also been slowly working away on the Hufflepuff crest from Harry Potter (happens to be my house of course) but that’s on the back burner while I work on this new Christmas present. I have more cross stitch projects on the go than I do knitting projects, which is something I have always wanted to change. I want to FINISH projects, and not just have a collection of half completed bits and bobs. It’s always one of my new years resolutions, actually.

So we’ll see how far I get with this new one. Maybe I’ll buckle down and focus enough to finish the others.

Right.

Extra-Life Hype (Contest Hype!)

It’s getting close to that time of year again – extra-life. Now I know a TON of my gamer friends are going to be participating, but I’m hoping that I’m still able to reach my goal raised this year. This will be the 4th year I’ve participated, and every year is a lot of fun. I won’t be doing the full 24h myself, but I’ll be streaming off and on from November 3rd (Friday) and November 4th (the “official” EL day). You’ll be able to see me, my husband, and probably my kiddo make silly faces and fools of ourselves as we try to raise money for one of the best causes out there – all while playing video games. I don’t have a schedule yet but that will be coming soon(tm).

This year I’m raising money for the B.C. Children’s Hospital Foundation. As most of you know, my son was born premature and it’s because of foundations like these and hospitals like these that we’re able to cope and deal with issues that come along with having a premature baby. As the saying goes, our children are our future, and lets help them get the best care and equipment possible.

I’ll be doing giveaways on the stream – but to help hype things up lets get a contest going here on MmoQuests. It will run until October 31st, so have fun entering!

Want to make an extra-life donation (click here!)
Want to enter to win some cool games (click here!)

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway
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Comfort Games

You might think that ALL video games fall under the category of ‘comfort’ games – but in my case this just isn’t true. Some games are incredibly frustrating, some games cause a lot of anxiety, some games are just not very relaxing at all to play. Some require me to actually (gasp) pay attention and be fairly awake.

Then there are comfort games. Games I play that give me such a warm fuzzy feeling, that require a little bit of concentration but not too much, and are just so quaint I absolutely adore them. The first rendition of Cook, Serve, Delicious is one such game (for me at least). Even though you’re mashing keys as fast as you can to try to serve customers on time, I just find it therapeutic to be memorizing specific orders of keys and remembering what keys go to what foods. It’s like knitting (for me) which is a lot of memory exercises.

I even made a video or two of me playing it (you can find it on my youtube channel here)

You can imagine my surprise (and joy) when I learned that yesterday Cook, Serve, Delicous 2(!) released on steam. I had seen this ages ago listed on twitch as a game with no images at all and it sort of fell off my radar since then. I don’t have the budget to pick it up this month but I’m hoping to be able to get it before too long (I’m on steam as Stargrace if we haven’t joined up as friends yet). The graphics look cute, the game play looks relatively similar to the first game and I can’t wait to dive in and make horrible bits of food for people and upgrade my restaurant.

Do you have a comfort game? Let me know in comments!

Investing in a Handheld?

I currently own two consoles and one handheld. An ancient 3DS (not XL or anything like that, just a 3DS) a PS4 (Destiny 1 bundle edition), and a WiiU. The 3DS gets the most use these days, but they all get a little time here and there. I already made a post about otome last week when I was playing Amnesia, and I lamented over the fact that Nintendo is reluctant to put out any vs / otome type games, and that leaves me with steam / pc versions only (for the most part, I realize there are a few 3DS versions etc).

I wondered about getting a PlayStation Vita, and talked it over with the other half who seemed pretty supportive of my love of visual novels (along with JRPG and other PS only titles). The Vita isn’t too expensive, and I really feel that otome (and other games like that) are best played on a handheld where you can relax as you embrace the story and “play” (or read) it where ever you want.

Arislyn has been regaling me with tales of playing Collar x Malice, and there are quite a few other vn being released / that have been released – it would be nice to get a collection going for myself. So far I just have one non-steam physical copy. I’ve never owned a sony handheld before so I have absolutely zero experience with any of the products to date. I don’t know if it’s alright to buy it used (a-la-ebay) or if I’m better off investing in it new from the box. I’ll have to save up for it slowly, it’s not something I can just run out and buy (well, technically I could but it would be taking my budget away from something else, so I’d rather save up month by month) so I’ve got some time to figure things out first.

Have some advice? Know of a great otome I need to pick up? Selling a vita? Let me know in comments!

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.