Couch to 5K Day 1

Today was my first day of running. I started the couch to 5k program with Nick. For some reason my arms and shoulders are super tired, which is totally weird because I use my legs to run. I'm pretty proud of myself for finishing the workout even though it was just a 5 minute warm up walk and then intervals of 60 seconds walking and 90 seconds jogging for a total of 20 minutes. I got a cramp in my side which hurt. But yeah, I'm pretty pooped and I have to study for neurobio still. Finals are next week too, so this week isn't going to be that much fun. I bought the Nintendo 3DS in the pink color with the birthday money I got. I plan on getting the new Kingdom Hearts game when it comes out at the end of the month. I miss playing console games.

Japanese Custard Pudding

I made these fabulous custard puddings by following an easy and simple recipe from the cookingwithdog youtube channel. Here's the video so you can watch it for yourself! One thing I tripped up on when I was making these though was that my water wasn't hot enough initially when I was trying to steam the custard. So really make sure it's only JUST BELOW boiling, or it won't cook properly! I even let mine boil a bit and I didn't have any problems with bubbles in the pudding. 

Caviar Manicure

Nick bought me this nail set from Sephora. The caviar style nails are so pretty. However, I would only recommend them for special occasions because the little beads come off really easily, so it's not practical for every day wear. 

Turkey Chili

This version of turkey chili does not have tomato sauce. I followed Ellie Krieger's recipe. I substituted poblano peppers with jalapeno peppers though because they didn't have the poblano ones at the supermarket. It turned out really nicely and was a big hit with the family. 

Gluten-Free Cookies

This is my first attempt at GF baking. I got the recipe for these chocolate chips cookies from The Healthy Gluten Free Life. I was pretty impressed. They taste different from "regular" chocolate chip cookies but they were still good. The only problem I had was that they were much more crumbly than regular cookies. So when I put them in a zip lock bag they started to break into pieces after a while of being jostled around. Going around to several different grocery stores to buy all the flours was a hassle though. The hardest one to find was sorghum flour. But I eventually got it at Whole Foods, which I found out happens to have all the flours I needed. Whole Foods can be quite expensive though. 

Green Sauce Enchiladas

These are black bean and sweet potato enchiladas. I also put a smear of goat cheese down the middle of the tortilla for some zing. I found out that I absolutely adore goat cheese. It has a much stronger and unique flavor. For the sauce, I tried Rick Bayless' Frontera Green Chile Enchilada Sauce. I watched Rick Bayless on Top Chef Masters, his mole looked so delicious. The enchiladas are made with corn tortillas and they're GF. The sauce was super yummy. I bought and made more again. And it was on sale at Sprouts so that made me happy.

Honeycomb

I've never had honeycomb before. I saw this milk chocolate covered honeycomb when I was at Sprouts last week and I just had to give it a try. It's sweet and delicious. My dad thinks it's too sweet but for me, and my intense sweet tooth, I can definitely handle it. The honeycomb is crunchy but not hard to bite down on. The air pockets in it make it more brittle so you're not fighting to chew it. It's a really unique candy, I bought more today when I went back to the store ^.^