How to feed your husband when you're out of town.

Happy Monday!

My hospital is sending me to a nursing conference in Florida this week, and I leave early tomorrow morning, Yay! I will be going with my charge nurse, B but we will be flying/hotel-ing in different places. This is my first time traveling all by myself, and to be honest I'm a little bit scared....(but more excited than scared!)

I'll be gone from Tuesday to Saturday, and this will be the longest amount of time I've been away from home since I've been married. Eugene's midterm season begins this week and I felt so bad that I couldn't be here to encourage and support him.. They say the way to a guy's heart is through his stomach, and I'm sure having pre-made, ready-to-go meals can warm a guy's heart up pretty quick, too. Since he's usually too busy to make food for himself during his busy season, I had to think of creative ways to help my husband survive this week without me. It only took a few hours, two trips to Costco and a lot of Breaking Bad. (I finished the 5th season while I was preparing this! What a great show!!!)

I first prepped his lunches. On most days, Eugene will be gone the entire day so I just needed to prepare something to send with him. I whipped up some simple teriyaki salmon and grilled chicken with tuscan balsamic marinade. I also steamed and roasted huge bags of broccoli and made some rice.  Five days of lunch ready to go!

I also bought a Costco Pizza on my way home today. We live less than 5 minutes away, and this only costs us $10 so this was an easy decision for me. Eugene usually comes home pretty late (after LA traffic dies down) and is pretty hungry, so this is perfect! We love pizza! 

Here we are, individually foiled and ready to go into the freezer! 

Don't mind my pile of dishes!

These are also very wonderful, affordable and delicious little things from Costco. These little salads come in a pack of two for $5! They are really delicious and even have a fork inside! Perfect when you need to eat lunch on the go. 

...and these little, mini-sized guys are also from Costco. (Can you tell that we really, really LOVE Costco?) They come in a pack of 12 (mango, berry blast and green machine flavor) and are only $10! Perfect for on-the-go breakfast.

Now I can go to Florida in peace. :) 

Still sad that I can't be with Eugene this week  - but at least I know his tummy will be well-fed and happy! I'll try to keep you posted about my trip. Have a great week, everyone!

Give Thanks: breakfast at Jenny's, trips to Costco, the smell of lemons (and lemon zest!), Eugene coming home early to see me before I sleep (!!!), a yummy and encouraging boiling point lunch with Kristen, excitement for my week in Florida!

Yay, Fall is here!! (goals, updates & blessings)

This Sunday was the first day of fall and I could not be happier. I really love the fun of summer and all, but I absolutely love this season! Fall means there will be cooler weather, the occasional rain, warm colors of orange, brown and yellow plastered everywhere, pumpkins, lots of squash (especially butternut), pumpkin-spiced things and the wearing of lots and lots of scarves and sweaters and boots. Hooray! I decided to make a few goals for this season - so here they are! (I'll try to accomplish these goals by Thanksgiving!)

Goals for fall 2013

1.  Make something with squash

2.  Bake a pie (and it must have some Cinnamon in it!)

3.  Visit a pumpkin patch

4.  Make an Autumn-related craft

Anyway - E has been in school for about a month now, and things are starting to pick up! He's been getting a lot busier, staying up to study a lot later these days and getting involved in a lot of things at school. I'm doing well adjusting to him being busier these days. It is definitely way easier the second time around. God has been faithful and we have been so thankful for that! We've also been at our apartment in Downey for about two months now, and it's been lovely! Here are random updates on what's been going on, what we've been learning and things we've been enjoying lately.

• We live less than 5 minutes away from Costco and it is seriously the best. It's awesome when I don't know what to do for lunch and I don't really feel like cooking - $1.50 hot dog + drink with endless condiments is not a bad deal.
• Eugene hasn't been sleeping too much these days. He's been busy studying, working, running errands for the clubs he's involved in, interviewing prospective interns at his workplace, etc. Even though we don't get to spend as much time together, I am so proud of how dilligent and wholehearted he is in all that he does!
• I think in the two months we've lived in Downey, we have gone to Portos over 20 times. An estimate. (We only live like 5 minutes away - can you blame us?)
• There is a Frostbites that just opened not too far from us, and it's dangerous(ly delicious). 
• On my days off, one of my absolute favorite things to do is: driving Eugene to school. It's great because of so many reasons: 
• The carpool lane is a true Godsend in LA traffic
• Eugene can study/nap in the car!
• I get to hang out/eat lunch/make korean food with my parents in their apartment in LA
• I get to check out cool, hipster places in DTLA with my sisters (Last week, we visited Stumptown Coffee! Their cold brew was amazing!)
• We can eat really yummy asian food on our way back (since we can re-route ourselves through Alhambra, Monterey Park - where all the excellent asian food is at!)
• In the last two weeks, we've gone to THREE weddings.
• During the last week of summer, we converted our couch into a futon and we've been sleeping in the living room ever since. It's been a month and a half now. True story. :) 
• I recently found a Korean Market close to my place. It was a miracle!!!! I've gone there twice in the last 10 days. 
• I've recently gotten into water coloring. It was about a month ago, and I randomly got inspired so I went to Target and bought a $2.99 watercolor set. The set includes the jankiest little brush ever. Can't even paint a good circle or draw a straight line with that thing. I'm saving up pennies for a better brush!
• Yesterday we bought a 150-pack of those single serving french vanilla creamers so we can mix it with our Keurig coffee. Keurig is truly God's gift to lazy, convenience-seeking coffee lovers. Yum!
• This past week during my annual MD appointment, my doctor told me that all women in child-bearing age should be on pre-natal vitamins, NOT just normal multivitamins. Apparently pre-natal vitamins have lots of great folic acid and not as much Vitamin A (which can be tetarogenic and harmful to your unborn baby). Good to know!
• These past two months, I've learned to NEVER EVER take an in-house washer/dryer for granted ever again. Oh, what I would give to be able to do laundry at home and not at the laundromat! My back/forearms are sooo sore from carrying for 4-loads of laundry from my apartment, to the car, to the laundromat, back to my car, and finally back to my apartment! Never gonna take that for granted again!

Sorry for all the random (and sometimes, meaningless) updates :)

(oh, and sorry for the PDA!)

Happy Fall, and cheers to a warm/cozy and productive season!!

xoxo,

Sharon

{tried & true recipe} spicy thai chicken curry.

Since we've moved to Downey, we have been eating a lot of pizza and curry. I think I've made one or the other at least once a week. Trader Joes pizza dough is seriously our best friend these days. :) We've been making 1-2 pizzas a week!  Today I made both - pizza for dinner and curry for tomorrow's lunch!

We decided to make BBQ chicken pizza today since cilantro/corn/tomatoes were on sale and my BBQ sauce was only 68-cents (holla!) I made two smaller pizzas hoping that we'd just eat one for dinner and freeze the other for a rainy day - but we ended up eating both... Woops! It was just too good. :)

This pizza had chicken marinated with lime/salt/bbq sauce, bbq sauce for the base, mozzarella cheese, red onions, corn, tomatoes. We garnished it with fresh cilantro and lime juice.

For dinner I tried a super easy thai chicken curry recipe. Trader Joe's has really good canned/bottled curry. It's not as fancy and exotic as making your own - but it tastes good and it makes life/cooking easy so that's good enough for us!

First you boil your potatoes and carrots until soft. Drain the water. 

Add chicken, diced tomatoes and green bell peppers. Saute together with some EVOO.

Pour in Thai Green Curry sauce.  It's spicy!

Add half a can of light coconut milk (This is crucial, in my opinion!)

It  will also help lighten up the sauce so it's not too overwhelmingly spicy.

 Let it come to a light boil, then lower your heat and keep it at a simmer until the sauce thickens. 

Break up your potatoes! It helps thicken the sauce and makes the potatoes more bite-sized. :) 

I always add the other half of the coconut milk to my rice. 

Basically wash your rice as you would usually (Long grain rice is best - our favorite is basmati rice!)  

Cook your rice with half-half ratio of coconut milk (the remaining portion in the can) + water.
You can always add more water if you need to!

We actually ended up adding the leftover corn from dinner and garnished it with cilantro. Yum!

(This was a very small sample plate for Eugene - not a second dinner. Don't judge us!)

:O)

Give Thanks -  a day full of learning from doctors and nurses, our extremely fun sub-neuro class (!!!!), pink at starbucks, iced black tea, the smell of lime, driving by PCH on my way home (Thanks for the rec, Lucy Loo!) 

beautifully mundane and ordinary days.

People often ask me what I do on my days off.

Because nurses who work in the hospital usually work 12-hour shifts,  we usually only have a 3-day work week. This is definitely one of the many perks of being a nurse! Before I was married, most of my days off were spent going eye-shopping, meeting up with people, spending hours reading at cute cafes, taking spontaneous trips with my family and/or friends and basically doing whatever I wanted. It was pretty splendid.

However, now that I'm married - my "days off" are now primarily reserved for my household duties (aka wife duties). On the days I work, I usually work from 7:00am to 7:30pm, which usually doesn't leave a lot of time for chores, sanitizing the kitchen, organizing my fridge, cleaning the mildew from the showers, watering the plants, meal planning, grocery shopping, sweeping the floor, vacuuming, picking up my hair from the bathroom floor, doing laundry etc. This has forced me to be creative with the time I have on my days off to catch up on my chores and keep my apartment from looking like its been hit by a storm. It's a lot of work -  it's tedious and sometimes mundane - but I'm learning to find many reasons to be thankful for the season I'm in now. I know that our life is full of many different seasons and I'm determined to enjoy each one that God graciously gives to me. I know that one day this season will end and I will have to adjust to another... so in hopes to embrace the life I'm living now, here's a snippet of an ordinary day.

Today I attended a 2-hour class at work for a new change they are doing in the computer systems at our hospital. I actually only got about 3-hours of sleep last night, so I had to make an emergency run to Starbucks before. I was feeling super tired and my fatigue deceived my mind into buying a Venti quad-shot (4-shot) caramel macchiato. This was pretty foolish of me because I can never finish more than a few sips. Here I am walking back to my car with my 3/4ths full Starbucks drink. Poop.

After my computer class, I stopped by Trader Joes. 

 This season of my life is truly marked by a deep love for Trader Joes. I seriously love it there. It is currently my favorite spot when I need some retail therapy. (haha, don't judge) Now that we're living in Downey, our closest TJ is a 20-minute drive away so whenever I happen to be near one, I try to find an excuse to go. Last time, it was to get a new bag of chia seeds. Today we were out of eggs. Every time I go to shop, I always look for one thing I've never tried before. 

Today, I got a little can of Thai Curry!

Then, I stopped by the Costco near our apartment.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about our budgeting system. With only $120 to spend for 2-week's worth of groceries, I've been saving up my spare change for a few weeks to buy some meat from Costco. I was really excited to finally be able to walk out of Costco with my HUGE packs of chicken and salmon. I came home and immediately cut everything up into smaller pieces and foiled everything and organized it in my freezer. I was really happy! It's all about finding joy in the little things, people.. :) 

I spent the rest of the day cleaning the apartment, wiping down the kitchen/bathroom, putting things away, sweeping/vacuuming and organizing my fridge/freezer. Eugene was able to come home early for dinner after class so I quickly whipped up dinner for us.

 To celebrate my victorious purchase, of course we had to eat salmon for dinner! 

I made a simple teriyaki salmon with a soy sauce/sesame oil/brown sugar mixture, steamed some veggies and served it with some jasmine rice. Victory (and our celebratory dinner) was sweet. 

I read in one of my food magazines earlier last week that the best way to save time with meal planning and cooking is to make big portions for dinner and plan to eat leftovers for lunch. As simple as that sounds, I never thought of that before! For dinner tonight, I made a lot more than the two of us could eat and the rest of our meal went into a tupperware for Eugene to take tomorrow! :) 

Although my days are ordinary and full of seemingly-mundane tasks and responsibilities, I'm reminded time and time again that my ordinary life ultimately belongs to an extraordinary God. I'm learning that all the seemingly ordinary things that I'm doing can be acts of worship before God when I do it with a heart to honor and serve Him. The tasks in and of itself are tedious, and often seem without end since I basically have to sweep, sanitize, wipe, vacuum, dust and put away clothes almost every day! Though my life and the things I do to spend my time seem mundane to me at times, I know that even my most ordinary tasks do not go unnoticed by the God I am pursuing to serve. 

I hope that no matter what the season - whether it be a busy one full of new experiences and lessons and adventures, or a quiet one with a daily grind full of routines and to-do lists and never-ending chores, that I could approach each day, each season, each task  with eagerness to do all things wholeheartedly. I'm learning that the beauty and glory and purpose we find in our lives is not found in the things we do from day-to-day but before Whom we stand and serve. 

So thankful for this season in my life. :)

* * *

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

Colossians 3:23-24

Give thanks: short-days at work, the tremendous blessing I have in my job, my free-reward drink at Starbucks that I can look forward to tomorrow (!!!), a clean apartment, frozen lemonades, washi tape, bedtime prayers with eugene