bad planning

 

Dinner of the night:

Grilled mackerel; daikon radish steak; tofu with natto; cabbage salad with eggs and ham; rice and miso soup

I didn't do too well this week on menu planning, and somehow fridge was getting empty by Wednesday night.  No clue how did that happened!  I was pretty creative coming up with these dishes last night, but tonight's gonna be even more interesting... definitely lacking some proteins!!!

cashmere sweater

Outfit of the day...

Cashmere sweater - Michael Kors

White top - Banana Republic

Capri pants - BCBG Maxzaria

Pumps - Giuseppe Zanotti

I've stopped doing outfit of the day for a while, mainly because I feel so weird taking my own pictures in front of the mirror, and clearly I've not shown any improvements.  Maybe I should use a tripod or something, but I'm really not sure if I can' stare at the camera without giggling or making weird faces, so I think I'm going to stick with this awkward method again.

I've purchased this cashmere sweater at the outlet, and I must say it is one of the smartest shopping I've done for a while.  It's very simple and classic, and I think I can wear them for a really long time.  Plus, it's great that it's super warm.  A quick temperature change from the past weekend, this week has been somewhat on the chilly side for LA.  Although considering I can get away with just wearing a cashmere sweater with a scarf to go outside, maybe it isn't so bad after all...  (sorry my friends in NY!!!)

Comfort food

The other day, I've made braised short ribs based on the recipe my friend has recommended to me... and turned out great!

As much as I've loved the dish and can totally drool all over looking at these pictures, I guess they're not really my "comfort" food.  If I have something similar to this everyday, my stomach will probably go crazy!  So last night, I've decided to make something that's easy on stomach, which naturally is Japanese food for us.

 

Honey-miso glazed chicken

Bean sprouts and tuna marinated in Japanese mayonnaise and soy sauce on cabbage

Tofu with soy sauce and scallions

Rice and miso soup

These dishes are much simpler to make, and it only takes less than an hour to make them all (vs. 3 hours making those short ribs!).  I'm glad both my boyfriend and I are Japanese who prefers Japanese food the most, because they're the easiest (for me) to prepare and they are in fact pretty healthy as well.  Oh, you may think is this enough food for two people?  We're both on a diet right now, trying to lose weight for the NYC half marathon coming up next weekend.  I've seen some results but as for my boyfriend... he's already super skinny and muscular, I don't know if he has any room to lose weight...

not so happy Monday...

At least, these flowers make me happy!

This morning, I've been busy preparing braised short ribs based on the new recipe I recently got from my friend.  I'm really hoping it will turn out great :)  (It's smelling great in the oven so far!)

"hinamatsuri"

Celebrating with good sushi...

In Japan, March 3 is known to be "hinamatsuri" or also known as "girl's day."  There are a few traditional aspects about this day (such as decorating your room with these super fancy, expensive Japanese dolls, specifically made for this day, etc), but most importantly we celebrate by eating "chirashi."  On the day of hinamatsuri, I had another very long, yet very fast run with my boyfriend.  By the evening, I was pretty useless to do anything productive in the kitchen, so naturally I begged my boyfriend to take me to some sushi place.  We didn't had much choice, because we wanted to go somewhere very close so we can both enjoy drinking alcohol.  We ended up going to this sushi place right by our apartment, but surprisingly it was much better than we've expected.  It wasn't the typical sushi place you find in Santa Monica, where sushi is described as rolls with fried stuff and "cooked" fish, and people didn't assume spicy tuna rolls and edamame are the essentials at sushi restaurants.  This place was pretty authentic.  We had omakase and we were quite pleased.  If you love the authentic sushi, I think you will enjoy it as well.  (Although I forgot to take the picture of blue crab roll, which was served at the end) 

Happy Friday!

Last night's dinner...

Daikon radish salad

Natto pasta

Wasabi-flavored pork

This week flew!!!  I can't believe it's already Friday, but I'm actually glad it went by pretty quickly.  Since I only do grocery shopping once a week, my fridge is usually empty by Thursday.  So I have to be pretty creative to cook something fulfilling and good enough to pack for lunch the next day.  These dishes were super easy and super quick, but I think my boyfriend wanted to eat these pork with a bowl of rice, rather than with natto flavored pasta... something to consider for the next time.

adding some colors

In interior designing, having a nice piece of artwork is almost like essential.  The only problem is, it's usually pretty expensive, and with the same price tag I can buy nice clothes or shoes.  So as a shopaholic, naturally, I've taken the latter choice in the past.  Luckily, I found these pieces at really reasonable price!  Aren't they so cute?  When I saw these, I thought they were so me, so I snatched them very quickly online.

Our dining area used to be so boring, but it adds some nice touch to it.  Pretty pleased :)

To spice up my not so exciting apartment, I've started taking a flower arrangement lesson as well.  It's on a monthly basis, and it teaches you a variation of how you can arrange pretty flowers.  I have to admit, I'm not so good at it at this point, but it's just been great to be surrounded by flowers.  It totally brighten up the room and I'm quite addicted to it.  These are the last pieces left from the flower arrangement, plus the flower arrangement my boyfriend has given me on Valentine's Day.  I thought my apartment can do better than this, so I added some additional flowers today.

I'm not too happy with the way tulips are arranged right now, but once all petals open up, I'm hoping it may look a bit better, and same goes with lilies.  Just like how I learned from the flower arrangement lesson, maybe I will add mint leaves from my balcony to make the arrangement nicer.  Nonetheless, flowers make me so happy!

best curry

cooked by Le Crueset dutch oven!

I kept the recipe pretty simple, and I only added a few secret ingredients.  But I think the main reason of this success goes to my Le Creuset pot!  I just cooked it for an hour or so and it came out so delicious!  Full of flavors... and naturally after I make a full of curry in a pot, I make this the next day...

Curry casserole! It's so easy to make, yet it's so addictive.  I changed up the white sauce from what I made last time and I think it definitely helped!

With sauteed mushrooms and zucchini in white wine and balsamic vinegar... simple dish can be pretty tasty ;)

status updates

So... I've been totally neglecting this blog for a while.  It's hard enough to keep updating a blog, but I happen to have 2 blogs, which makes it extra difficult!  So I will make it quick, a recap from the President's Day weekend!

@ my first flower arrangement lesson & friend's small birthday party afterwards

Post Rock 'n' Roll Pasadena Half celebration @ Pie 'n Burger in Pasadena

More post half marathon celebration @ Bar Food in West LA

"Too lazy to wear makeup because I'm still sore from running a half marathon" kinda day @ Krispy Kreme

"My boyfriend cooked for me because I was still too sore from running a half marathon" kinda day...

No matter how tired or busy I get, I guess I never forget to eat :)