Bitchin' Kitch'n: The Holiday Goodie Edition

So it's been about 3 months since I posted anything so I figured I would kick off this post with some goodies I've been making since I have been away. First off, I finished my half marathon YAY!

I ate a full pint of green tea ice cream after a two hour nap. Purely for recovery.

With a pretty damn good time, for my first time, of 2 hours and 5 mins.After I finished a war of awesome food was waged and I won out in the end. My first nummy creation was making banana spread from scratch. There are lots of recipes out there but I opted for the vegan-friendly version (essentially just swap out the butter for plant-based margarine).

Proper banana spread storage is not usually a mead glass...but it did the job for how long it lasted.

Next I went to the store and practically povertized...impoverished...(unsure of the correct form :/ ) myself by
purchasing some smoked salmon. To make matters worse I  found a REAL boulangerie ...

Mom's Bread in Jeonju-si, Korea

...that makes REAL baguettes (-_- my poor waistline).

I have never seen such a pretty baguette in Korea.

So of course I indulged in delicious sammies for a good week. My fave being brie and smoked salmon with half a pomegranate mmmmm.

Yes, it was as good as it looks...and more!

And now that it's the holiday season I am making peanut butter balls, substituting some things to make them vegan of course, for my co-workers ^^ My favorite part of making things probably has to be testing the batches as I go :) And that's what I've been doing. Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat, and it is time to make all the goodies and eat them with loved ones.

The drying goodness of my labor of festive love <3

I'm going to have such a food hangover tomorrow.

Happy Holidays!

-Sara-

A Fine Mess

Yes, a fine mess I've gotten myself into. I have been training for a half marathon for the last month and I was quite proud of myself for having reached my goal of 18k in under 2 hours. Unfortunately, I also managed to run myself quite ragged. How? Allow me to recount.

First my school decided to send me on a seminar trip (no kids YAY) an hour away (not bad) with my challenged co-worker (ugh ooookkkk) for 8 hours (ummmm...) on a saturday *SCReeEEEeeeEEECH* O_O PARDON? Did you hear those screeching breaks? Yeah, that was my patience coming to a stop, and quick, to keep from head on slamming in to a brick wall of "Oh HELL NO!" But oh yes, two weekends ago was one of exhaustion because not only did I get signed up for that unpaid crap but I had signed up to volunteer that Sunday.

Now, here's something you may not know about me. I have a really REALLY hard time backing out of something once I've started it, which begins the moment I agree to it, no matter how unpleasant or difficult it may be or how unsatisfying the end result may be. I don't know if I have a fear of disappointing others or myself but I just can't backout once I decide I am doing something.

Awww yeah, matching tracksuits AND backwards hats, so street!

So after sleeping a total of about 14 hours over the last 3 days I hauled my foolish butt out of bed at 5 am to get ready and go to Seoul to volunteer for World Peace Day at the Olympic Stadium. I can't complain entirely, I got to practice my French, Korean, and help others with their English (though when you're exhausted it's hard to speak coherently in any language). I also saw some pretty interesting events including an entire crowd of elderly people in matching track suits (by section) doing choreographed aerobics during a soccergame, an orchetral performance accompanied by about 6 sections of ajummahs and ajusshis (elderly people) doing a choreographed mural show. You know, where everyone in the crowd had a piece of paperboard and they flip it over to form different pictures, only this one was hardcore with freworks and such.

The eats are all blue, all the color you see are people in matching track suits (see above).

After my crazy weekend, I was pretty exhausted (to say the least) but kept up my running routine and that Monday I hit a very satisfying high. 18 k in under 2 hours. Well I have to say I was quite pleased with myself so I took it easy, varying my distances over the next few days to keep from wearing myself out. I was doing pretty well...until I went out earlier than usual and wrenched my knee on a huge crack left by a frost heave in the running path. I was down and out for a while, jumping from hospital to medical clinic to PT but now I'm back!

Part of my PT is getting electricity sent through acupuncture needles.

It's my last day of physical therapy and I've started working my way back into the running game. Back up to 7.5 k, though alternating between speed walking (Gram-gram in the Mall kind of speed walking) and jogging (running still isn't quiiite an option).

So that' what I've been up to lately. No new special recipes, jut trying to eat more protein and carbs and less fats. Really love sandwiches so i can't help having one for dinner, but I think I need a better alternative to granola in the morning. Any quick and easy breakfast suggestions? Even things I could make ahead of time and heat up on the stove or eat cold? Note: I don't own any appliances besides a gas stovetop and a toaster.



Until next time, I hope the world is being really good to you! Happy Fall (my favorite season ^^)!
Sara

Bed-probs and room-sicks

Finished my run by the river a the sun was creeping over the high-rises

Well today is one day where I am extremely grateful for what I have/all the necessities I grew up with.Today, after a month of sleeping on my floor, I got a bed. It wasn't planned that way, originally I was supposed to have a bed waiting for me when I arrived at my apartment, but such is the life when living in Dynamic Korea. So when I showed up at my new apartment after traveling for a solid day and not sleeping for about two to find there was no bed I was a little ticked off, but the exhaustion kicked in and I didn't care. Then when I started running in the morning but was wicked tired from lack of sleep because, if you aren't aware, hardwood floors are, well, hard.But I got too tired to care so I let it go. Then tonight I was supposed to get my bed at 7 and instead got a super sad phone call that, abridged, went like this. "We can't buy you a bed so we'll bring you one soon".

The up-down excitement-disappointment roller coaster is I think one of the hardest to stomach. It's harder to bear the constant tearing down of your hopes than not getting your way, but it really makes you want whatever it is even more.You definitely feel like that little brat from Babe whose grandfather slaved away on a dollhouse but you cry because it's not the exact one from the store. Well that was me, all whiny and upset because I wasn't getting my way. Is it difficult not having a bed? Sure it is, but is it something that everyone has? No. No it's not. Even in first world countries beds are expensive and not everyone can afford them, and in Asia there is not always space for them in our cozy little one-rooms.It's not uncommon to sleep on the floor and during the winter some prefer it as the heat comes up from the floorboards.I'm not saying it's bad for me to ask for what I was promised, I'm just saying that short lived time in self-created misery forces one to appreciate things.


So, after my disappointing call I got another one around about 7:45. My co-workers husband has a truck and was willing to, after work, come all the way to my home with the mattress and drop it off. This is the same woman who is teaching me Korean after work everyday. So at 9pm they pop over with a big mattress and you would think it was Christmas morning. I rushed down stairs, flailed my arms at the motion-sensor door and the three of us moved my lovely lil bed up the flight of stairs and into my room.

 So here I am, laying on my cozy new bed, excited to finally get my home in order, and hoping tomorrow morning will be a beautiful a this one was. Hit the 14k mark today, only 6 more to go before I'm at a half marathon!! Sweet dreams all, I'm off to test drive Sleep Station Alpha. I hope the world is good to you ^^

-Sara

New season, new cast, new plotlines

Ok, so I'm sure you're a bit like "What the hell is going on? Why did she change her blog?" Well, I had set up the last one under the pretense that I'd be in Korea for one year and it'd be all about my experience and meow meow meow. Anywho, I decided to start a new blog. So here's my new blog ^^ I'm going to fill it with random updates, sometimes long rambling ones and sometimes short and to the point ones, sometimes with lots of pictures and sometimes with one at the most. It's going to be an organized mess of what's happening in my life because, well, I can't help but be a little messy it's who I am ^^

So for those of you just tuning in here's a quick overview, living in South Korea, teaching English, loving every moment.

Now here's the update for now. This year I am trying to work really hard to improve my health since last year I slacked off big time. So I've been in the kitchen a lot (strange to correlate health and food right?) and I've got a couple of projects going to gear me up for culinary school sometime in the near future.First of all I am working on how to do things without most modern appliances, i.e. blenders, electric mixers, crock pots, because I can't afford these kinds of appliances on my budget and living the way I do(changing apartment and country every few years. So I've been working out how to cook with one pot or pan, one mixing bowl, and one utensil.

My first recipe was for veggie burgers and although they look a little funky in the raw state, they are delicious! They are also super easy to make and once you make them you can freeze the raw patties until you are ready to use them. I don't know if anyone will want the recipe but if you're interested here it is <3

Homemade Veggie Burgers

Not gorgeous but oh so nummy!

3-4 small potatoes, skinned (about the size of red potatoes)
1/2 of a small green pumpkin (or about 1/2 cup of roughly cut pumpkin)
1/2 of a large carrot
1/2 green bell pepper
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 yellow bell pepper
1 can of black beans strained and rinsed
1 to 1 1/2 cups of bread crumbs

Ok, so first halve or quarter your potatoes so they'll be more manageable when mashing later, cut your carrot into discs and your pumpkin into manageable pieces, and pop them all in a pot of water. Turn the heat on and just let it do it's thing while you get your peppers.

Take your peppers, slice them into strips and then mince the strips as fine as you can get them, put the bit into a large mixing bowl. By the time you are done with your peppers the pumpkin should be done.

Now here I used a soup ladle to pull out my pieces of pumpkin without bringing all that water, just tip the ladle to the side of the pot to let the water run back in but not the pumpkin. Plop the pieces in the bowl with the red pepper and use the bottom of the ladle to mash the pumpkin, it should be easy to mash but if not just pop it back in the water until it mashes easily.

Your other veggies should be just about finished so go ahead and plop those in the bowl and mash them with the underside of the soup ladle, if not you can skip to the beans while the veggies cook a bit longer, this recipe doesn't need to go in order if that's the way things work out.

Add your rinsed and strained black beans and roughly mash them in with the other veggies to make a thicker veggie mixture. Lastly add your breadcrumbs, you can use any kind you like, though I used panko. It took me between 1 to 1 1/2 cups to get my veggie patty mix to be of a similar consistency to hamburger say, when you're making meatballs. Throw in your favorite seasonings (I added bamboo salt, pepper, basil and oregano) and you've got your own home-made veggie burger meat ^^

Making veggie patties is pretty much the same as making hamburger patties. Grab a good sized ball, flatten it a bit, and work in a circular motion using your thumb to keep the sides from splitting and getting all weak. Then, since I didn't have a Tupperware large enough for my patties I just took some plastic wrap, greased it with a little olive oil, wrapped up my patties and placed them in the freezer.

FIN

So I've been eating those patties for dinner for the last day or two and I have to say, they are pretty good! I haven't gotten sick, and they are really filling!

What else have I been doing? Not much since work has been my life and I'm saving up for school. I am, however getting ready to do some races in the next year. I'm starting to get back into running regularly and am up to about 12 km when I go for my morning run.So I'll be doing a 10k soon, hopefully, and then I plan to do the Seoul Marathon in the spring! I'm also starting to learn Korean from a woman at my work so that I can speak and write better so I can bag me a Korean boy!...Or so I can enrich and expand my mind by learning a new language, y'know whichever is more important. Other than that the world has been rather tame. Try to keep you posted, though I can't guarantee the length of my posts will be consistent. I hope the world is treating you well!

-Sara