Why I Haven't Been Updating & an Update

1. Honestly, for the most part it feels like I'm talking to myself. Blogging is such an interesting concept: to write and speak into a computer/internet world and hope it reaches people, much different than other social media platform.
2. This ish is a lot of work and I'm not fancy when it comes to graphics like I probably should be when it comes to blogging. It shouldn't take as much effort to put pics on here as it does for me, yet I'm also not that into learning new ways to be fancy with the graphics...
3. Yelp has taken over my life. I check-in and review just about everything these days and that allows me to get my fix from other people who love food just as much as me. I'm not the crazy Yelper who reviews everything like gas stations, but I will review a grocery store from time to time. Also, I've been receiving some perks thanks to Yelp, so my whole "Yelp famous" dream may come to fruition soon...or later. I enjoy Yelp because it's a Foodie's paradise, other people who love food just as much as you and are honesty about the establishments they frequent/patronize.
4. I post food pics on IG all the time, so it feels kinda redundant to post them on here. I don't like redundancy, do you?

As far as an update on my "food life," this week I begin my Monday and Wednesday plant-based diet. Meaning, I'm cutting meat outta my meals on those days, so far I still have Greek yogurt in my fridge, but I plan to switch to So Dairy's cultured coconut/almond milk (whichever has the least fat and most nutrient content). I still have cheese in my fridge too, but yall already know I only touch that on the weekends, but this week I may make an exception because I bought some fancy (Peppered Bellavitano) cheese from Whole Foods because they're hand-cut cheeses were 20% off. I already have some stewed tomatoes in the fridge and a grilled cheese would go perfectly with it :) The Engine 2 diet event I attend at Whole Foods (sponsored by Yelp) and my immersion in The China Study is going to turn me into an animal-based protein diet heretic.

This Monday and Wednesday I'm eating a quesadilla filled with avocado, spicy black beans, sweet yellow onions, spinach, and cilantro. I ate it last night for dinner and what I miss most from the quesadilla is cheese :( I spread Greek yogurt and tomato salsa on it so it definitely didn't lack flavor. For my other 3 meals for the work week I made BBQ shredded chicken, stuffed that and sautéed mushrooms into a sweet potato and it's served with some lentils and lemon pepper asparagus. YUMMMM!!!!! It took me forever to make all of this last night, but I realized as I was stuffing my sweet potato that I only used maybe 1/4th cup of chicken. The lentils will provide me all the protein I need. For breakfast this morning I had an egg-white sammich with sautéed mushrooms and yellow onions, a little grape jelly (sans the high fructose corn syrup) and baked sweet potato fries. YUM! I didn't miss the cheese on the sandwich either because my palate is used to breakfast sandwiches without cheese, but also the mushrooms gave it soooooo much flavor.

Enjoy your week folks and challenge yourself to incorporate a health change into your diet.

What I'm Here for This Week...

1. Jazmine Sullivan's "Reality Show" album

After listening to this album, I'm really disappointed in myself for not knowing she released an album in 2010. I knew she took a hiatus from the industry, she had some long rant about how the industry was raggedy years ago, and said she wasn't going to make any more music. So this album, when you listen to it is nothing but shade to the industry: reality show personalities, folks who change once they get money, chics who are only good for their fake bodies, and more. It's been out for about a week and I already know a good portion of the words... O.B.S.E.S.S.E.D

 

2. American Sniper

 I've never heard people exit a movie theatre or any other public venue in COMPLETE silence like that before. The reverence was indescribable. Some folks are saying it glorifies war, I honestly didn't see that, (of course) I watched it through clinical eyes. In the background, it depicted how multiple tours of duty increases the likelihood of PTSD or PTSResponses. I'm going to suggest the movie to my dad (retired Air Force), but I have a feeling he may cry.

 

3. King Size Recliners

The movie theatre Justyn and I go to, now has King Size reclining chairs. My word! What an awesome invention. sheesh! They even require you to reserve your seat when you buy your ticket now. If your Regal theatre doesn't have these chairs, then is it really regal?! I say, no.

 

4. Coupons (as always)

Thanks to a paper I had from maybe 3 weeks ago that was valued at $600+ I was able to rack up on multiple products. For example, Target has DOVE body wash/bar soap priced a little over $5, with their sale being buy 4 get 1 $5 gift card. I had 8 coupons, 4 body wash, 4 bar soap. So I bought 8 items and got 2 $5 gift cards. I separated my transactions, so I could use the gift cards on my other purchases and reduce my expenses for that day. Another example, craisins were priced at $2 at Shoppers, I had a BOGO coupon and also a save $1 off the bag of craisins. Meaning the BOGO coupons applies to the free item and the $1 off coupon applies to the one you're paying for. So I got 4 containers of craisins for $2. Yes, I eat craisins like that, I like them on my salads. I bought the 50% less sugar ones too :) Also, Justyn and I got to see American Sniper for free thanks to Regal gift certificates I received for Christmas, then we had BOGO Chipotle for dinner :)

 

5. Space Heaters

My "light bill" was a consistent $70 or less summer-fall because I keep my air off when I'm not home. Until one day I came home and it was 56 degrees in my house, I couldn't take it, so I left it running at about 67 or so, bill rose to $91 then to $142. *clutches pearls* So my dad came in town on Saturday morning and of course being the good man/father he is, he went and bought me this fancy shmancy space heater. It heats my entire house. I'm currently experimenting, my heat is off while at work, and I will run the space heater when I get home and see how warm my house gets.

 

6. Sister Time

My line sisters. It's always endless laughs with them. I truly love them and am blessed to have them as sisters.



Whippin the yams, whippin and flippin the yams...

Because sometimes life is just "TEW MUCH" and you need to be pushed around on your chariot while the peasants do all the manual labor. Little girl was knocked out while her mama purchased her pampers. OKAY! The life.

Backed chicken breasts with a blackberry BBQ sauce I made.

Stole this "seafood bake" idea from a follower on IG. I of course made the alfredo sauce from scratch, it's super easy. Alfredo sauce is nothing but heavy cream and seasonings.

I cubed Sargento Tasting's pepper jack and Vermont White Cheddar Cheese. OH! It's shrimp and scallops in there btw.

Sprinkled some bread crumbs on top with a little parmesan and VOILA! 

I should be a professional healthy snack shopper. I love this seasoned seaweed.

I get these chips from BJ's and they are so freaking good. Not to mention they're pretty darn healthy. I believe this product was my first time having something that was "sprouted" and it's peaked my interest to try other sprouted foods. Here's the very cool website: http://gowaybetter.com/products/sweet-chili/

My coworker made a cast iron apple pie. He didn't add too much sugar either, I could tell by how it tasted, it was pretty tart, which means I didn't feel so guilty eating the little bit I did :) It's so pretty.

Prepping Thai meatballs. Ground 99% turkey meat, chopped Thai basil leaves, salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes, garlic powder, 1 egg for the mixture to stick.

Roll em up, roll em up, and put em in the pan! LMAO! No, I didn't add breadcrumbs, why should I?

When it's all said and done...covered em in this tasty sriracha roasted garlic BBQ sauce I got from Trader Joe's. Every ingredient in organic and it helps that Trader Joe's does tastings, so I got to try it before I bought it. 

Goat and lamb stew with a side of cornbread. 

I followed an oxtail recipe for this stew and put it over egg noodles. Goat meat is REALLY lean, leaner than beef and chicken.

I had coupons and bought about 5 bottles. I was skeptical of the light version because the original is just so dag on good, but it didn't disappoint.

And peep the calories. This is the lowest amount of calories I've ever seen in a dressing with the lowest being 50 that I've seen before. Yes, I see the sodium content but that's what you get when you buy dressings from the store.

Decided to give these protein bars a try. thumbs down at least for the banana bread one. It tasted like chalk.

Add Supper Club menu.

Course 1: Snails & Coconut. I was talking to someone and said I had "snails" and they tried to come for me in this rude tone of voice saying "escargot" I quickly snapped back. I know wtf escargot is, the menu said snails, so I called it snails. It wasn't in the shell like how escargot is typically served snaps fingers

Course 2: Lumpia. My first lumpia experience. It's basically a Thai egg roll from the pics I've seen before, but this was served chilled. It was good, the wrap was more of a crepe than your traditional thin egg roll wrapper.

Course 3: BBQ Fish. That red ball is the tomato and is was the best thing on this plate. When the skin is served on my fish I like for it to be crispy and this wasn't. 

Course 4: Adobo Pork. This was so doggone good. UGHHHHHH! SOOOO GOOODDD!

Course 5: Buttermilk Panna Cotta. This dessert was a beautiful mixture of texture, sweets, fruity flavors, crumbles, little pieces of chocolate, and the red vein sorrel made it even better with the tart/sweet taste.

The review I left for the chef on the back of the rating card.

This is called Mexican street corn. As always, I've seen it on Food Network and that's what made me order it. I was in Charlottesville with coworkers for an all-day training and when lunch time approached, I ventured onto Yelp and found a nearby Mexican/Peruvian restaurant. Everyone followed us there and I felt like my arse was on the line because I choose the restaurant...

This is the cemitas sandwich. Better known as Jesus's tears of joy.

You first choose your meat, I chose the charcoal rotisserie chicken. Then they pile everything else on top of the seeded bun: avocado, adobo chipotle peppers, fresh Oaxacan (WAH-HA-CAN) cheese, papalo (summer cilantro), red onions, and here's the kicker...A SLICE OF HAM!

The makings of pecan fig butter. I got the idea from the butter that was on my sweet potato at Founding Farmers, did a little googling and this is what they said it was. Pulsed some pecans, figs, added some seasonings I can't remember, such as cinnamon, ginger, maple syrup, then...

Mixed it with room temperature butter. Yummy! I, of course, but it on sweet potatoes but it's also REALLY good on pancakes. Enjoy!

I Just Realized How Grown I Am...

When the holidays roll around, I typically go on a tour of VA, it's slightly annoying having to do a bunch of driving, but it's always worth it in the end. This is how it usually goes Thanksgiving, stop by my mom's house (Fredericksburg) Thanksgiving morning, eat with her, then head to Richmond to spend time with the aunts, uncles, cousins, dad, and stepmom, leave at about 11 and crawl back in the bed. Christmas usually goes like this, Christmas Eve with Justyn's fam, Christmas morning with my mom in Fredericksburg, Christmas evening with extended family in Richmond, then back up north I go. You see where this is going? Well, my mom lives in Florida now, so I no longer have to make as many stops, OR so I thought. So Justyn and I rode down to the 757 together (because my car was already down there) Thanksgiving morning,  all for me to jump in the car with my parents and ride to Richmond, get back to Hampton at 3:45am Friday morning -_-, then dinner with Justyn's family Friday evening, chill Saturday with my parents, followed by Richmond again on Sunday after church. Listen honey! I wasn't supposed to leave Hampton until Monday morning, but I was NOT about to spend my time off from work being in the car for 3 days, so I drove my happy hips to Richmond Sunday and came home afterwards. Best decision I could've made for myself...

Now let me tell you, I haven't been to Hampton in God knows how long, meaning I haven't stayed with my parents in God knows how long either. I realized something while I was down there, I'm grown. LMAO! I need my space. I've always known that I can only be around my parents for a max 4 hours in one day, one setting, but I always thought it was because they were overwhelming, but really it's because of my personality type. My MBTI results said I was an ENFJ, meaning I'm an extravert, I draw my energy from the outside world, but I'm BARELY (imagine that "blind" chic in the back of the cop car as you read that) an extravert, merely by one point. So that means, I need my alone time just as much as I need my group time. Well honey, I'm an only child, and that just DOESN'T happen with my parents. Any time we're together, they wanna be TOGETHER. Mainly my dad, my mom has a very similar personality to me, which is why we get along so well. I mean this with love because it's absolutely hilarious, but my dad is a handful. We're watching TV in the living room and he talks throughout the entire show for hours. LMAO! I mean all we watching is a marathon of Chopped and he commentating like it's sports. BRUH! "AWH MAN! I KNEW IT! I TOLD YA'LL HE WAS GONE WIN, DIDN'T I?!?!" LMAOOOO! It's so freaking hilarious...for the first hour...and as I look back on it now, but it's overwhelming in the moment because I really can't deal with a lot of stimuli sometimes.

The positive is I got uninterrupted time with my dad, I learned how to make my stepmom's dinner rolls. I just ate 5 by the way...as a snack; I may need an intervention. Pray it goes to my butt. I also got to spend my grandpa's 85th birthday with him. I'm realizing as I get older how important it is for me to spend time with my family, even if it means a bunch of driving because I don't want to have any regrets when they're gone.

Black don't crack. 85.

Why does making yeast rolls take over 2 hours and a lot of shoulder muscles???

But they were totally worth it. Dang! I want another 1 now.

So, I realized I was grown because I need my space and the ability to shut folks out when need be. If you're asking yourself "well what you gone do when you're married, Tiffany?!" my answer would be "aint that what separate bedrooms, living rooms, and knowing your partner is for". Just saying. Plus, you can't be as blunt with your parents as you can be with your partner. Also, Justyn knows when to leave me alone, my dad on the other hand, will see it all over my face, ignore it, and keep on talking. LMAO! I swear I love him. Also, I can't stand not having my snacks, fave food items, and etc in the house. As you can imagine.

I just love being in my own space.  Now let me get back to looking at serving dishes, platters, and beverage dispensers online, because again, I'M GROWN!

Just Because You're White, Doesn't Mean I Need You as My Savior.

WOMANIST

The worse type of racist is the one who falsely believes they're self-actualized, believes racism exists, and yet tries to "save" all people of color, we'll call this The Great White Hope. This is inspired by someone I come into contact with on a very frequent basis. 

• The Great White Hope asserts herself into race dialogues among people of color and contrasts race issues to gender and sexuality issues. This is an easy slip up of most White people trying to understand racism. 
• The Great White Hope goes out of her way to "support" people of color, but doing so in a patronizing baby manner. People of color need support from the powerful majority, not someone who babies us and treats us like children offering Band-aid solutions to problems.
• The Great White Hope attempts to reach out to the most ethnic person in their presence (which just so happens to be me in this instance) and attempts to befriend them. I'm not your token to alleviate your  white privilege guilt.
• The Great White Hope begins to tell seemingly normal stories about her life then inserts race into the convo for no apparent reason, but it's always apparent to the self-actualized person of color. "I was going over my retirement with my accountant, a Black woman, and she's just so patient with me." -_- Should we be happy that you have one of our kind working for you?
• The Great White Hope will scrutinize everything about you as a person, then turn around the next day "OMG! Do you like ballet? Do you want to go see Misty Copeland?" even after you've let this person know you don't want to befriend them, because remember you are their prized token of "see! I'm not racist! Look at my ethnic friend!" Granted although I know nothing of ballet, I enjoy Misty Copeland as a woman, but I'm not going to be your shiny little Black girl to show off to the world. 
• The Great White Hope will complain about the fun you're having with others in order to garner your sympathy because again her goal is for you to be her friend, regardless of whether the attention she receives is positive or negative.
• The Great White Hope will equate any and EVERYTHING to race that applies to her life with the hopes that you'll understand where she's coming from "it's like if someone were to say the n-word around you". Because again, this "proves" she is racially conscious and therefore my ally.

At first I had no idea why The Great White Hope was placed into my life, but now I realize it's because I need to work on my anger some more. I don't dislike her because she believes she can save the world, I dislike her because she's conniving and manipulative in the manner by which she attempts to "save the world". 

White Privilege and a lotta bit of BRUNCH

WOMANIST
 

White privilege. Every semester, I go back to Mason and speak to the Multicultural Counseling class in the Counseling Masters program. I love going back because it was my favorite class and the class I learned the most about myself in, aside from the group counseling class. I along with 2 others will speak and attempt to elicit convo from the class. Well this time I went back and the class was very White washed, moreso than any other class I've been to, or even my own from 2012. They were a smart bunch and I sat on the panel quiet, so quiet, one of the panelists asked "are you okay" and he didn't believe me because I usually talk a little more. At that point, I looked at the class and said "you all are talking a lot, and it appears as though you have a grasp of this race dialogue we're having, but then I realized you're simply intellectualizing it and nothing is being felt or coming from the heart when you speak". The other panelists left, I stayed, and somehow, someway they began to speak from the heart. Tears ran down the faces of the students. So when white privilege is discussed and others have difficulty with the topic, or even believing that it exists, just remember, white privilege is having the ability to deny that it exists and because of your denial people of color appear to be suffering paranoid schizophrenia. I will never forget learning that when a schizophrenia assessment is given to clients of color, the administrator has to be certain they take into account the fact that Black people scrore significantly higher on the paranoia subset. Meaning, Blacks are more likely to display paranoid characteristics, because it's become a surival skill to be watchful of microaggressions.

 

There was only one White guy in the class and a panelist asked him a VERY direct question that I couldn't even answer. So I kind of switched it to say "how do you feel being a White man, knowing that a Black woman fears you". He again had difficulty, but I simply empathized and reflected his behavior when asked "you look like you feel awkward...it's a difficult space to be in". With that, he began to feel what was being asked of him...He as a White man, is in a very powerful position and he had no clue until that class. What an awakening to have: to realize that you have power, then be told, but it's not a good power, and we (people of color) need you to be able to do something productive with that power.

 

 

 

DOMESTICATED

 

So my partner in crime, Justyn, and I went to Zengo for brunch. We LOVE Zengo. I took him there, against his will, on our first date, so it's always special to me. But this was our first time going for brunch and it truly did not disappoint. The way Zengo does their brunch is essentially a boughy buffet, meaning, it's all you can eat, but you place your order for items you want. It's $39/pp for endless small plates and all-you-can-drink mimosas. $39 is a bit pricey, but for the goodness that was served it was worth it and it's not even worth complaining about. I've def paid more for a meal with my secret dinner crew. My suggestion for Zengo would be to make their menus like sushi menus at restaurants, disposable paper cards that you check off each item you want and how many. Maybe I'm greedy? Quite possibly, but I wanted to be sure I tried every single thing I had my eyes  heart set on. With that being said, I instead located a pen (I didn't have a pencil, because I hate those childish things) and I put a small dot next to each item on the menu that we ordered. The menu can be found here.

 

 

Handi Pandan Waffles. They came out cold, so I can't even give it a proper review. The next item came out cold too, once I asked the waiter if that was intentional, he made sure everything else was nice and warm.

Peking Duck chilaquiles. Definitely NOT a fan. This was the other cold item, but I didn't like wudeva seasoning situation was on the nacho-esque corn tortillas.

Short Rib hash. Jesus probably died for my sins, just so I could eat this and...

THESE LOBSTER GRITS! Let me tell you how greedy I was...I wanted to crush this entire bowl, but knowing that grits stick to your ribs, I ate as much as I could without getting too satisfied, to save space for the other orders.

 Bacon and Scrambled Egg steamed bun. Not a fan. The eggs are clearly processed. I wanted to try the steamed bun because I see it on food network in Asian countries.

Bacon fried Rice. mediocre. I mean it's hard to mess up anything that has bread and bacon in it. I also didn't waste space in my stomach for this item, since it was so average.

Angry zengo roll. Usually I stay away from sushi that has avocado in it, although I like it avocado, but this was pretty darn good.

Achiote-Hoison Pork Arepas. You know how mothers have a fave child (although they'll lie and say they don't), this was definitely my favorite child. The arepa (the yellow bottom) was crispy and crunchy, while the pork was tangy, smoky, and sweet, mixed with the cream on top. My goodness. Next time we go, I'll def order 3 plates of these first (3 come on a plate) for Justyn and I to share. The saddest part was I barely had space in my tum for it.Cuz remember the whole time we're drinking passion fruit, guava, and and pomegranate mimosas.

Thai chicken empanadas. By this point, anything we ate was a blur. This was good but the fact that my tum was full, took away from the true experience of my taste buds.

Angus beef & pork meatballs. Well, you know we just had to try one last thing before "last call". Shameful.

So while we're drinking and eating our lives away. Our friends (meaning, Justyn's friends, but you know how when you've been together for so long, his friends become yours, and yours become his) were partaking in the mimosa march, so we linked up with them nearby. This...right...here...The Wobble came on. LOL! Justyn clearly loves the wobble CC: Bermuda cruise post.

LMAO!

Of course, it's night time now and we're a lil intoxicated. So we went to Shake Shack. Justyn and I split this meal. Major side eye to the both of us because we both wanted more. This mistake will never happen again.

 

 

 



Blue Duck Tavern & Taste of DC

Tuesday, my hair is giving me a major attitude. I was sitting at work willing and ready to curse any and everybody out, all cause when I left my house I had some bomb curls, then I caught myself in the mirror and I magically had a fro. I was beyond pissed, I couldn't even take it. I was so embarrassed when I looked in the mirror, I end up having a different hairstyle cuz I had to pull it into a bun later.

Please believe me when I say, my hair was ABSOLUTELY LAAAAAAAAAIIIIDDDDD this weekend though. Hmph! I blow dried my hair, then 2-strand twisted it into bantus. Make sense? cool. When I blow dry my hair before doing natural styles, it gives me more length (obviously) and makes my hair fluffy, light, and airy. Oh I just love it! I wish I could put that heat to my hair every week, but I did it twice in a row this month, so I won't be doing that again for a while.

So Jamie had a birthday and we went to Blue Duck Tavern in GeorgeTown. It just so happened to be on my 60+ item "Places to Eat" list so I was excited. Of course I perused the menu prior to arriving...and by prior to arriving I mean when she sent out the invite. This is the bone marrow with a parmesan crust. That's a bed of sea salt on the bottom and roasted garlic. I spread the bone marrow on top of the bread and it tasted like gelatonous bacon. It was amazing.

Jamie. Aint she a beaut. That's the apple pie the restaurant is famous for as well, they served it with ice cream. The apples were clearly fresh because they were a bit tangy.

Sifrina Arepa from Taste of DC. The lady who took my order was impressed by my Spanish, I guess she couldn't tell that I was Dominican ;) I picked the first food item we'd all try and from there we took turns. The majority of us were adventerous eaters, so we had a ball.

Pork and cabbage dumplings. THIS. COLESLAW. WAS. THE. BEST. ISH. EVER! It had an amazing ginger taste to it, the ginger politely overpowered all other flavors.

It's really how funny how small the world actually is. This is my bestfriend from 2nd grade. We went to school together in Fredericksburg and she went to college with my bestfriend from 7th grade, Jamie. Amazing right?

Le crew.

Okay, so let me explain these next few pics that are actually me shouting. So at Taste of DC you use tickets to get drinks, we didn't buy any but by the end of the function we were tipsy. Wherever we walked, black women were just giving us their tickets left and right. That's the plus of coming about halfway into the event too, please are leaving for the first half and trying to get rid of their tickets. So this is my "we got free drinks shout". Please believe I love me some wine.

This chicken was supposed to be for Justyn but the tipsy munchies kicked in.

This wine was at the event and they had it at Total Wine, so Justyn got some for us. I also signed up for their rewards program too :)

Last weekend was Sheena's bday and she had a brunch at A-Town in Arlington, it was a buffet breakfast. Apparently it's illegal in VA to have bottomless brunches, so it wasn't bottomless. They had a wide array of food on the buffet though, sushi, tomato and mozz salad, grilled veggie salad, spiced shrimp (the good big crunchy kind), all the breakfast stuff u could imagine, bacon (the good kind, it tasted like Oscar Meyer, you know most restaurants carry that cheap thin bacon), fried chicken (which was actually seasoned well), an omelette station, and desserts. I ate so much I didn't have room for any other food the rest of the day. Sad.

Got these cheeses from BJ's, I was excited because I had a coupon too.

Looks like I'm making a banana pudding, but it's actually plantain for my no-pasta lasagna.

Meat sauce and fat-free cottage cheese go on next.



Followed by slices of the aged Vermont white cheddar from the Sargento Tastings.

Zucchini slices were next.

Of course another layer of meat sauce and cottage cheese.

Kraft is the only brand I've found that makes fat-free cottage cheese.

Then add a layer of some shredded cheese (I went light with it, le sigh) and some bread crumbs for a lil crunch and texture.

#SnackHealthy