theyummyblog

Again, I have been away from here for a while. I have had quite a lot on my plate lately, so I will try to update on here as often as I can! Anyhow, I wanted to share with you guys a salmon recipe I found on Allrecipes.com that was delicious, along with a few adjustments I made.

Here is the original recipe:

Maple Salmon

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 pound salmon

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, mix the maple syrup, soy sauce, garlic, garlic salt, and pepper.
2. Place salmon in a shallow glass baking dish, and coat with the maple syrup mixture. Cover the dish, and marinate salmon in the refrigerator 30 minutes, turning once.
3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
4. Place the baking dish in the preheated oven, and bake salmon uncovered 20 minutes, or until easily flaked with a fork.

When I made this, I actually didn’t do any measuring whatsoever. I just made sure to add a lot of maple syrup to the mixture since I wanted the added sweetness, and I left out the garlic salt entirely, since I figured that it was already salty enough. This was my first time making this, and I never had much luck cooking salmon at home, but this one turned out to be a success! The maple taste gave the salmon a nice little zing, and even my sister who was hesitant on how this recipe would turned out absolutely loved it. You can make any changes and adjustments as you see fit and add any other side meals to this yummy dish.

I have a bit of a headache right now so I better get some rest (though I had a snow day today so at least I did get an extra day off!).

Enjoy and if you decide to prepare this, please comment and say how it turned out!    

Hey everyone! First of all, hope everyone had a great Valentine’s Day (Hey, even if you’re single, you can still enjoy the yummy candy!). And as you can see, I haven’t posted in a few days as I have been quite busy, but yes, I have finally returned

Anyhow, today after I was done with my classes, I went with my friend to the school store and noticed that it sold Girl Scout Cookies! I haven’t had them in a long time, but when I was in elementary school I used to know a girl who was in Girl Scouts and who would sometimes carry around a few boxes of these cookies, and if she had them with her she would usually give me a box. They had been some of my favorite cookies, so when I saw them in the store today, I was pretty ecstatic. My friend kindly brought me two boxes, one Peanut Butter Patty box (yes I know the peanut butter thing is still going around, and I admit I also ate a Reese’s Peanut Butter Blizzard at Dairy Queen on Saturday night, but I am still careful about which products I eat), and one Thin Mints. But me with two boxes of cookies- well, let’s just say that the Peanut Butter Patty box is in the trash by now, and I’m working on the Thin Mints. Again the sugar monster has taken over me, which is why I realize that I can only only treat myself to these goodies occassionally. Well, I did have two 5 oz. cans of V8 (veggie juice), too, so at least I was able to get some nutrition from that. Though yes, maybe also adding some fruits and cutting out some of the sweets would help… and by realizing that walking to and from buildings and up and down stairs at school isn’t the only exercise I need to keep healthy (though I am definitely going to start going to Planet Fitness again some time this or next week).

One other unrelated thingy I wanted to say was to thank everyone who left me a comment (yes, finally! hehe). And unfortunately, I don’t know where the picture in my previous blog originated from nor if it is real or not, but glad everyone (well, the two people who commented on it) liked it

Hope everyone also had a good President’s Day, which I am sure it was especially nice for the people who had off from work for the holiday. Unfortunately, I still had to go to school, but at least I have off tomorrow. Yay!!  

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Literally.

It all started when I woke up yesterday morning, and now I am going through 2 boxes of tissues, my throat is scratchy, my body aches, and my head is spinning. I ended up missing school today, and luckily I don’t have school tomorrow so hopefully I can take some of that time (at least the time when I am not frantically trying to catch up on my homework) to recover at least somewhat.

And of course as we all know, when you get sick, food doesn’t exactly taste too good. Really, the only foods I am eating are juicy fruits, soup, and sugary foods. Ok ok, I want to eat sugary foods ALL the time, but the main reason I like eating them when I have a cold is because I can actually taste them. Although, juicy fruit (especially watermelon) and soup feel the best going down my throat.

And don’t forget the vitamin C-packed O.J.

Besides eating, another activity that has taken up much of my time today is doing my Rosetta Stone. Yup, I’ve been cramming in some Spanish. I actually probably did it about six hours (with some breaks in between). But between speaking Spanish all day and talking on the phone, it didn’t exactly do too much good to an already-sore throat. Now I am going to try to speak as little as possible for the rest of the day. Later tonight, I will also take some Advil PM in hopes of actually getting some sleep.

Hope everyone else is doing better than I am.

* Oh, and please feel free to comment!! I don’t think I have actually received any comments yet.. I would love to hear other people’s inputs, complaints, whatever!   Thanks!!!!

Me–>  

OK, not really, but that invention would definitely come in handy!

While in the process of sorting through some junk in the house, I discovered some old recipes that I received from my culinary classes in eighth and ninth grade! And one of them happened to have two special Valentine’s recipes on them. Though of course you can make them any other time of the year, the color (food-wise) and the name of each recipe has a cute little Valentine’s touch to it. I’ll post them on here so you can have a few nice surprise ideas for your honey on Valentine’s Day (which believe it or not, happens to be this upcoming Saturday!).

Toasted French Hearts with Strawberry Butter:

Ingredients:

Butter

1/4 cup Land O Lakes Sweet Cream Butter, softened

1 1/2 tablespoons strawberry preservatives

Batter:

1/4 cup milk

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 teaspoon salt

6 slices of bread

2 tablespoons Land O Lakes Sweet Cream Butter

Separate: powdered sugar

Directions: In a small mixing bowl, beat together all butter ingredients at medium speed, scraping the sides of the bowl often, until light and fluffy (1 to 2 minutes); set aside. In a pie pan, stir together all batter ingredients. Cut each bread slice into a heart shape. In a 10-inch skillet or on a griddle, melt 2 tbsp. of butter on medium heat. Dip bread slices into egg mixture, turning to coat both sides. Cook bread slices, turning once, until golden brown (3 to 4 minutes each side). Sprinkle hearts with powdered sugar; Serve with strawberry butter.

Tip: For easier cutting, place bread in the freezer for 10 minutes.

Passion Fruit Smoothie:

Ingredients:

1 cup milk

3 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup water

6 oz. frozen juice concentrate

5 ice cubes

Directions: Combine ingredients in blender, blend to your preference. (You can also top it with whipped cream and a cherry if you like!)

Enjoy!

Yes, I will start off by saying I am in fact suffering from sugar withdrawal. Really, I didn’t have much sugar at all today. Though today I am sorry to admit I didn’t eat too many healthy foods, either, the foods I did eat weren’t really too sugary. The yogurt parfait I had at school had too much fruit, not enough yogurt (in my opinion, at least), so I didn’t eat too much of that. Plus, I was running late as usual. Then I ate some macaroni and cheese (Am I obsessed with mac-and-cheese or what?), and though that isn’t the healthiest of foods, it certainly doesn’t have too much sugar. But the sugar cravings did come on strong by the time I came back home, and I was so desperate for it that I ate some chocolate chips out of a bowl! Of course I would’ve much more preferred an Oreo McFlurry at McDonalds or a Frosty Shake at Wendy’s, but hey when money’s tight, what’s a person to do? Though I guess eating out too much can cause that, too.

Also, another small thing I would like to announce is that I am finally able to use a working laptop again! Though I don’t recall ever mentioning about this in any previous posts, to make a long story short, the hinges of my laptop’s monitor were literally hanging on by a thread, my boyfriend offered to buy me a new screen on Ebay for 25 bucks, he said it never arrived but I guess it did after a lengthy amount of time, he surprised me yesterday with a newly-fixed laptop instead of one with a busted monitor, and here I am today! He even installed Windows Vista and other programs on it, including the Microsoft Office programs and Rosetta Stone! Only thing, though, is that the damn thing doesn’t have any sound for some reason, so I can’t even use Rosetta Stone or listen to anything on Youtube Oh well, you can’t get everything, but still I get a laptop that works better than ever (minus the sound). It also means that I get a lot more time to blog, since I don’t have to share one computer with four other people!  

Plus, on top of all that, I have the day off tomorrow! Woooohooooooooooo!!

I am still sticking to my plan to add healthier foods to my diet, although I have definitely not given up junk food ENTIRELY. To me, depriving myself of things I enjoy does not equal a happy life. And come on, me without sugar is like a fish without water! Ok, I don’t think I would die if I didn’t have any sugar, but I certainly wouldn’t be a very happy person to be around…

Anyhow, today I went out to eat a late lunch at (where else) Old County Buffet with (who else!) my boyfriend. Here is what I ate in a more organized list-like format:

All in one plate:

• macaroni and cheese
• spaghetti
• mashed potatoes w/ gravy
• green beans
• carrots
• almost one slice of pizza

Dessert:

• Vanilla ice cream w/ hot fudge and crushed oreos -that was probably my favorite

As you can see, I did add the veggies to my plate, as well as the pasta. I’ve heard that the more “colors” you consume, the better- in food terms, that is. To be more precise, greens would be foods such as brocolli and green beans, oranges would be foods such as oranges and sweet potatoes, blues would be foods like blueberries, etc. Although these may not always be the tastiest of foods, at least they make your plate look pretty (and can make you feel better as well!). That is not to say that vegetables can never taste good, though. One example is the way my mom has started to cook her chicken and vegetables. Although I don’t have the complete recipe, she puts some chicken and vegetables in a pan and broils them in the oven with tomato puree (if I’m not mistaken), garlic, and some other flavor-inducing ingredients that I can’t recall at the moment (probably considering that it’s quarter of 11 at night).

I’ll try to remember to get more of the recipe tomorrow, but I better try to get some sleep as another day of school awaits me (that is if the snow doesn’t cancel it!).

When I was in about my late middle school years and I was starting to (or at least attempting to) become health conscious, I had my first taste of V8 vegetable juice, along with the fruity version of it. Soon, like any other young teenager, I stopped drinking it completely since I thought it was “gross”.

Then over the weekend, I was introduced to it again when my boyfriend brought a few cans. I still wasn’t too crazy about it, but then I started realizing (especially after a sleepless night yesterday) how poor my diet was and how I can feel my health declining, so I realized that since I hardly eat any vegetables to begin with, that I should start drinking V8 cans again to supplement some of the vitamins I was lacking. I have also started to take a daily vitamin supplement (One A Day Women’s), but I feel that I should be putting some of the benefits of vegetables into my body, too. (Another goal  I’m going to act out is to start going to the gym again as well).

One issue about the V8 juice, though, is the sodium content. An 11.5 oz serving of original V8 juice has 690 mg of sodium, while an 8oz serving of Spicy Hot V8 juice has 710mg of sodium. With the V8 Splash and V-Fusion (which give you some nutritional benefits of fruit), sugar is the main issue. I am not planning on drinking the fruity version, but I am going to go for a daily can or two of V8 Low Sodium vegetable juice, which only has 200mg of sodium for an 11.5 oz serving, along with more potassium. Although as my parents (my dad is a pharmacist) had recently warned me when I mentioned that I was going to start drinking V8 again, potassium in too high levels can potentially cause some damage to the heart. Though according to some online research I did, people should get approximately 4,700 milligrams of potassium a day. With V8 Low Sodium containing 1180 mg of potassium per 11.5 oz serving, you would have to consume about 3-4 servings before your potassium consumption could possibly reach a “high” level. Personally I feel worrying about the potassium in V8 juice should be your least concern, as having a high potassium and low sodium diet can have health benefits (including aiding in lowering blood pressure), and it also contains more than your daily requirement of vitamin C and almost the daily requirement of vitamin A.

For anyone who wants to get their daily serving of vegetables in a healthy way, I would definitely recommend the V8 Low Sodium juice. Plus, I feel that the lower sodium content gives it a lighter and not as strong taste.

You can visit http://caloriecount.about.com/ for more information on the nutritional content of V8 juices and basically any other type of food.

With the peanut butter scare still going on and more items being recalled, it’ll make anyone not want to eat peanut butter. That included me, too, as I was sure I wasn’t going to eat another peanut butter product until it was resolved.

Then today I was in school and with my first class being over, I felt hungry, so I went to the vending machine and brought the only freaking peanut butter product in the machine– Funny Bones! 

In case you’re not familiar with them, this is what they are:

Actually I had completely forgotten about the peanut butter thing when I purchased them, but then as I was talking to my boyfriend and I mentioned I was eating them and that “the peanut butter was SO yummy”, he was like, “Um, but what about the recall?” Then I blurted out something that I won’t say on here, though I did eat two out of the three cakes (which was both because I started feeling weird and thought I had already caught salmonella and I was late for my next class). I did read, though, that salmonella poisoning symptoms show up within 12-72 hours, so I guess I wouldn’t have started showing signs THAT early.

However, I don’t remember ever reading about Drake’s products being recalled, so I’m pretty sure I will be okay. Still, this time I will definitely take extra caution to avoid any other peanut butter products until it is announced that it is safe again.

Hopefully it’ll be done with soon, though. I’m starting to crave for more Funny Bones…

Yahoo! Food wanted to find the best BOXED macaroni and cheese, so they invited a “trusted panel of macaroni and cheese enthusiasts” to taste-test various brands. Mind you, as I have stated previously, I would go with homemade mac-and-cheese to a boxed brand any day, but if on a particular day you’re just not up to cooking this dinner favorite, maybe you can try this brand that placed #1 in the test. First place goes to… Pasta Roni shells and white cheddar!

Personally I’m not a fan of white cheese of any sort, but perhaps if someone gave me this dish without telling me anything about it, I might think otherwise! Who knows, my distaste for white cheese could very well be psychological. Hey, I could simply have some sort of OCD to the white color of cheese, as whenever I think of cheese I automatically think of the color orange!

Anyhow, the other honorary mentions include the Kraft macaroni and cheese dinner (original flavor) taking second place, then after that the Kraft macaroni and cheese dinner (premium thick-and-creamy), Kraft Velveeta shells and cheese (original flavor) and Back to Nature macaroni and cheese (tied for fourth), Annie’s Shells and real aged cheddar, and a generic store brand macaroni and cheese.

For more info on the contest and results, you can check it out here: http://food.yahoo.com/blog/yahoofreshpicks/2745/boxing-match-the-new-mac-cheese-winner/

Hopefully you’ll get some dinner ideas along the way, too. :)  

I wrote a post on cookie-chocolate bars a short while ago, in which I promised you guys that if I found more info on them that I would post it. And FINALLY yesterday, my boyfriend and I were at his co-worker’s house, and the co-worker granted permission that my boyfriend could have the cookie/candy tin at his house, which also consisted of the exact same cookies! My boyfriend, though (being the nice guy that he is), gave them to me instead, so I was able to get the name (off the tin), search it on Google Images, and be able to post pictures of what they look like. Trust me, it’s a relief that I was finally able to locate them off the internet!

The tin comes in an assortment of cookies and candies in Belgian chocolate, but obviously my absolute favorite is the one with the cookie on one side and chocolate bar on the other. The first picture (with the three of them in the middle of the plate) is probably more accurate of the ones I have, as they have the floral design on them. But either way, really all the candies that I have tried in the assortment are quite yummy, so I would recommend them to any chocolate addict. You can go on their website (www.delacre.com) for more information, although I have to warn you that the only languages you can choose are French and Dutch. However, this URL (http://www.delacre.com/products/selections.html) is actually in the English language, so it might be more helpful.

Enjoy