I studied for that??

**I wrote part of this blog last night, but couldn't upload it because seriously, our internet still sucks at life right now!!**
Anyone ever watch a scary movie while studying for a test? Well that is exactly what I'm doing right now while watching Friday the 13th Part 2. Ha! I have a weird obsession with scary movies even though I close my eyes through most of the gory parts. Definitely have seen this movie before though.

Anyway, lucky for me, my Biology test tomorrow will be based on the formative assessment questions we can do online as many times as we want. I’ve done all 3 test assessments about 20 times each and the questions are becoming repetitive so I think I’m pretty much all set for tomorrow!

Dinner a few nights ago..

I love sauteing peppers in just three ingredients: Delicious!

• olive oil
• salt
• pepper

We had some jambalaya, and oven baked salmon along with the peppers.

I can't seem to cook my salmon right. It always turns out a bit dry and tough even though I marinate it 30 minutes prior to cooking. The marinade I used was honey, soy sauce, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a bit of sesame oil.

and my Korean lunch streak continues. On the plate are some spicy Korean noodles, leftover spicy bulgogi, kim chi, spinach, seasoned seaweed, and brown rice. My plan for this Christmas is to have my mom come teach me how to cook Korean food. Little does she know; her coming here has more purpose than just wanting to see her, although I am very excited to have her for the Holidays.

The plate looks huge but I swear it was just a little bit of everything :-)

I finally made it to the gym this morning after not going for a couple weeks. I tried out a different Virgin active gym near my school. It was nice since there weren't as many people there and I could move around freely in the weight room. There's also a ladies room only, so when or if I start to feel self conscious, I can always go in there. It felt SOOOOO good to be back, even though I couldn't lift as heavy, I still felt very accomplished. *pats myself on shoulder* Today's lifting session was back and biceps. 3 sets, 8-10 reps.

• lat pulldown
• barbell bicep curl
• barbell row
• hammer curl
• dumbbell one arm row
• incline bicep curl

My test this afternoon was a total bust, but in a good way. There were only 20 questions and I finished in 5 minutes!! What a joke!! I seriously studied my ass off for that?! Oh well, lesson learned. At least I think I got 100%!

Time for a nap!

TGI FRIDAY!!

Yay! I can finally say my weekend is here!! TGIF! :-) haha.. it feels so weird saying that since I haven't been in school since 2006. Yeesh! I'm actually a part time student though so my schedule has gotten somewhat lighter. I attend classes from Wednesday 9:30- 12, Thursday, 9-12, and Friday 9-1 p.m. Not too shabby.

Now you would think this still leaves me plenty of time to blog, workout, and study, but I'm finding it really difficult these days to manage my schedule. It's only been a couple weeks though so I'm hoping I just haven't "found my grove" yet. Here are some pictures from a couple nights back.

I made wild salmon for dinner prepped in:

• brown sugar
• soy sauce
• vegetable oil
• water
• garlic powder

I used this recipe again because the last time I made it, the fish turned out sweet and delicious. I baked the fish in the oven for 15 minutes on 175 C but the fish turned out a bit overcooked so I think next time I'll make sure to take it out after 10.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/grilled-salmon-i/detail.aspx

saute of zuchinni, red onions, and mushrooms in EVOO, salt, pepper, and garlic powder

yuum.. I could really taste the true flavor of the veggies since I didn't douse everything in siracha this time! :)

What a simple, healthy, and tasty dinner. Mmm mmm!

Lunch yesterday was soup,salad, and more soup!

I've rediscovered my passion for light ranch dressing again. Hallelujah! Thankfully I had a huge stash that was brought over to me by my family.

Waitrose minestrone soup from a container.

this soup is delicious; it contains lots of veggies, pasta, and beans all combined in a lovely tomato-ey broth.

3 hours later... I was still hankering for more soup so I heated myself a can of Cream of Chicken soup and added in some white rice. Cream of chicken and white rice soup! yumm-o

with lots of black pepper

So..  I haven't been to the gym since Monday. BAD HANNA. BAD! Please. Someone. Find. Me. My. Motivation. Again. It's just one of those times in my life where I have lost all will to work out. I'm completely content with sitting at home.. eating... sleeping... studying... eating.... sleeping.....studying.. Real Housewives.. Jersey Shore.. eating ...sleeping.... studying.. :-)

Back to that eating part. I ordered from My Sushi Club again last night since T was busy at work. My platter of sushi included the veggie platter consisting of asparagus, crab, cucumber, and avocado nigiri. I also had two temaki rolls, the California and eel and avocado.

bowl of miso soup

my eyes were definitely bigger than my stomach when I ordered the chicken katsu because I was super full by the time I got to this. I had a few bites and saved the rest for the hubs.

it was tasty though!

this little princess managed to sneak in half my California temaki roll when I took a bathroom break. I should have known man; she was eyeing my food all night! BAD GIRL!!

Guess who finally made it to the gym today!? Yes, I went because I made myself no other option but to go. This morning, I packed myself a peanut butter sandwich and and apple so I wouldn't have the excuse "but I'm too hungry to go to the gym!!" and I made sure I kept hydrated and visually pumped myself to go straight there. My vision didn't turn out exactly the way I had hoped (ie: sweat dripping, endorphins flowing). My workout was pretty tame but it still felt good to get in a workout either way.

Focus: Warm up 6 minutes on treadmill, Back and Chest, 3 sets, 15 reps

• lat pulldown (B)
• dumbbell chest press on swiss ball (C)
• seated low pulley row (B)
• chest fly on swiss ball (C)
• assisted pull up (B)
• push ups on knees (C)

stopped by Chilangos for lunch and scarfed this down immediately upon arrival at home. T'was delicious as always :)

• chicken
• lettuce
• pinto AND black beans
• mild salsa (inc. tomatoes) and hot salsa
• light sour cream
• light sprinkle of cheese

I've sort of fooled myself into thinking this is a healthy lunch. You do save yourself some calories though by eliminating the tortilla and going light on the sour cream and cheese. I was half tempted to skip the sour cream and cheese but no way man, it adds that much more flavor to the salad! Yummmy!!

Time to relax and reflect aka nap time!

Mushroom risotto

Surprise Surprise! I was in a cooking mood last night. I've been feeling bad lately because all I've been doing is laying on the couch and vegging out. I definitely haven't been cooking, and I definitely haven't been cleaning (our cleaning lady came yesterday-she's an angel!). Time to get prepping on the ingredients. On the menu:

• wild sockeye salmon
• red pepper and bok choy medly
• mushroom risotto
• lamb chops from Waitrose (already preseasoned) for T

I wanted to try something different with the salmon so I went with this recipe I found on allrecipes.com
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/grilled-salmon-i/detail.aspx

chopped up some romano red peppers

marinated the salmon for an hour:

• 1 tablespoon and 2-1/4 teaspoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon and 2-1/4 teaspoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon and 2-1/4 teaspoons water
• 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• garlic powder 
• small sprinkle of sea salt
• generous squeeze of siracha

started by making chicken broth (I used the cubes)

After prepping the salmon, I got to work on ELR's mushroom risotto. I've made several things from her website and everything has been fantastic. And of course it would be, she's a LeCordon Bleu grad :-)
I would highly recommend checking out her website and cooking from there, especially if you're not too familiar in the kitchen like me. She has many simple and delicious recipes on there.

per her instructions, I sauteed one minced shallot in EVOO.

sliced up some mushrooms

added 1/4 cup white wine to 1 cup risotto and stirred in the chicken stock, 1/4 cup at a time. Thankfully, the wonderful smells got me through the whole stirring process that took over 30 minutes!

yuuuuumm... seeing this again makes me want to heat some back up right now.. at 9 a.m.!!

near the end, I sprinkled some fresh grated parm cheese. It was REALLY good but sort of on the salty end. I swear I didn't add any additional salt. Next time I'll remember to use low sodium chicken broth.

sauteed bok choy and red peppers

• evoo
• soy sauce
• sesame oil
• siracha

oven roasted lamp chops for the hubby (since I had a feeling the salmon wasn't going to be enough food for him!)

the salmon was a bit overcooked but the marinade was delicious! It was the perfect balance of sweet and salty.

one huge bowl and lots leftover. I have a feeling the leftovers won't be there for long.

mmm.. I was quite proud of myself for putting together this dinner. Especially since it was super easy to make! T even said it was probably the best dinner I've ever cooked him. I bet it was the lamb that won him over! Hmph!! ;-)

Breakfast this morning and then I'm going to try and make it to the gym!

Would I like some eggs with all that ketchup?

Okay, I didn't make it to the gym. It is now 12:24 and I just finished lunch. I guess I was more tired than I thought! Here's the workout I would have done in the gym:

• tricep pulldown
• barbell chest press
• tricep kickback
• pushups
• overhead tricep extension
• chest flye

Here's what I'm going to do now:
http://www.youtube.com/user/blogilates#p/a/u/1/zA5jfTSv9O4

Wild Alaskan Salmon

Seafood laksa soup from Chop Chop noodle bar. I can't get enough of this stuff. It's so YUMMY!!

King prawn fried rice and duck over rice. Lots of rice rice rice but super good anyway :)

After dinner, I watched The Last Song and had a giant tear fest on the couch. I wasn't a fan of Miley Cyrus' acting but I enjoyed the movie nonetheless.

Breakfast was 1 egg plus egg white scramble w. hummus and toast.

Exercise of the day: Zumba!

Bed of greens and sauteed peppers

Waitrose Mediterranean orzo pasta salad as Side #1

Waitrose Mediterranean roasted vegetable pasta as Side #2

Topped off my greens with oven baked Wild Alaskan Salmon (prepped with salt, pepper, honey, light sodium soy sauce and baked for 10-15 mins).

Check out this article about the benefits of eating Wild salmon as opposed to Farmed. I made the switch a few months ago, only ordering Wild Salmon from Ocado when its on sale.
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/salmon-factory-farm-vs-wild/