30 Day Food Challenges

I've decided to try out some different 'diets,' for lack of a better term, over the next few months. Or possibly year. There are a lot of diets I want to try out. For 30 days (or the duration of the month), I've got to stick to that diet. I'll be blogging about my experiences and doing some research into each. At the end of my month, I'll reflect back on how this diet affected me. This will be a very fun thing for me to try! I'm excited to do it.

The diets I've come up with so far are (not in this particular order):

• Pescetarian- vegetarian with the exception of seafood
• Vegetarian
• Vegan
• Gluten-free
• Paleo diet
• Sugar diet (no sugar in the first three ingredients of food-sugar in recipes confined to a maximum of a cup)
• Sugar diet (no sugar whatsoever)

I'm almost positive that the second variation of the sugar diet will kick my butt. Still! It will be fun to try. If I fail, I fail and I'll let readers know. But let's see how this goes, shall we? 

First up, for the month of February: Vegetarian.

Innovations Roadmap #2

Success [suh k-ses]

Noun

1. The favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors.

2. The attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like.

3. A successful performance or achievement.

4. A person or thing that is successful.

5. (Obsolete)Outcome

Topic: How will you know when you are successful?

From the time we are born to the time we die, society places an emphasis on the first two dictionary-given definitions of success. Be prosperous. Get wealth, position, honors, the whole nine yards. Even number three implies that one must do something right. The average American is successful when they’ve got money and the white picket fence house with their dog and two kids. But why does this have to constitute success for the average American? Why does society place such a huge importance on putting yourself out there to succeed? “Ignore your passions and do the thing that’ll get you money.”

Maybe your way to define success is being wealthy. To each their own. But that’s not my view of success. Being wealthy will never equal success for me. Maybe I did something right- I was successful in something- and wealth comes with that specific success. This is going to be something rare in my life, I think. Wealth accompanying success. Personally, I know I’m successful when I get a good feeling and I can see it on other people’s faces. I’ve accepted that I’m not going to be filthy rich in my career. I want to be a teacher. A language teacher. Languages are fascinating. My success will be seeing the appreciation on students’ faces when something clicks in their mind regarding language. I don’t need physical reward. My success comes from making in the lives of others.

My success comes from knowing I did my best, even if I failed. I learned something regarding the experience, regardless succeed or fail. I have to be happy with myself to be successful. By this point in my life, I’ve realized that trying to please other people means next to nothing if you’re not happy yourself. You can be successful to other people, but what does it to you? I learned this the hard way. I was successful in school. Almost straight A’s, honors and AP classes, scholarships for college, president of a club, secretary in another, leader in my major. Others looked up to me. But I wasn’t happy with myself. The only time I was really happy was that one club where I was president, because it was a club that I was passionate about, and when I helped change it, I felt successful. My major was another example of when I was successful. My grades showed I was successful, but I knew I was because I was learning Japanese. I knew I was going to be successful because I learned a language. That was one of my goals.

Knowing I did my best with the circumstances given to me is success. Right now, in a high school in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada, the language majors are being cut from that school and placed in another. The reason? Languages are not an art. This liberal arts school, Las Vegas Academy of International Studies and Performing Arts, doesn’t think language is an art. That’s shame. I think language is an art. When my friends who are a language major told the world about what they’re doing to the language program at this school, I am going to admit I initially thought, “Okay, who cares. It’s the school board, the principal, and the language teachers who came to this decision. Not unanimous, but it must’ve been a majority. We can’t do anything. Their minds are made up.”

But the more I thought about it and the longer I remained on facebook, seeing my friends become passionate, I gave myself a well-deserved mental slap in the face. That program made me into who I am. It pointed me in the direction I wanted to go, and it was doing that to my friends. If I didn’t fight for this, I was putting down what made me think is my success. The language majors inspired and continue to inspire students- the very thing I want to do. So I decided to fight for my major.

My honest opinion on the above matter is this: There is very little chance of changing the school district’s mind. They seem absolutely sure. However, this isn’t the first time the language majors have come under attack. There is a possibility the decision can be reversed if we ask parents to express how important language is, ask alumni to write about how important the major has been to them, and to ask current language students to speak about how language is life for them. The school’s line is “It’s not just a major, it’s a way of life!” What right do they have to say our way of life isn’t legitimate? So long as that possibility exists, I’m going to fight for that major, so it can continue to do what I want to one day do. Whether or not this effort succeeds matters, but I know that I tried and I was successful in fighting for something that was important.

Success isn’t about money or physical property. Personally, success is feeling happy with myself and knowing I made a difference in the lives of others. It doesn’t have to be in a big way. It can be small. I know that I’m successful when I am content with myself. I did something right, and that’s all that matters. 

School is killing me!

Seventeen credit hours is something that's considered suicidal among college students. Guess who's got seventeen credit hours? This girl! I have a ton of reading to do (one night included 50+ pages of reading. On a computer.), a ton of big projects (three are looming on the horizon!), and lots of knowledge to consume (Japanese and linguistics). Add volunteer work, and you've got the recipe for a very, very busy and stressed out college student just trying to keep up the good grades.

I apologize if I don't post recipes or meaningful knitting/crochet posts in the next few weeks. I'm waiting until my current ESL student takes her citizenship test to halt volunteer work, and that's going to take up some time. My posts can only be quips on some days because of the sheer amount of work I've got.

Thank you for bearing with me!

Innovations Roadmap #1

Innovation [in-uh-vey-shunn]

Noun

1. Something new or different introduced: numerous innovations in the high-school curriculum

2. The act of innovating; introduction of new things or methods

(Definition courtesy of dictionary.com)

Topic: How can Innovation play a part in your campus experience?

One of the first things people on just about any college campus will tell you is that college is a place to find yourself. That’s partially the point of me taking the Innovations Roadmap class. This class is identifying a passion and running with it. How can you make a difference in your community, whether it be the close-knit community you grew up in or the global community. It can also be for the college campus. I can’t tell you how often I heard, “college is like an overly large smorgasbord.” They tell you to try bits of everything. In this way, innovation works into the college campus. You can try everything. You can make your college experience personal. By identifying what you like to do, you can come up with a hundred different ideas to make your experience unique. What’s that? You want to join a think tank? Go do it! You want to join a club? There are plenty out there, each with their own missions. You don’t want to do any of the options available and want to make up your own club or solve a problem or volunteer? No one’s stopping you!

My first college football game. No one stopped me from going. It was fun, I discovered.

Innovation is going to play a huge role for me on campus. First off, I don’t like going to campus activities because it’s always at an inconvenient time (way to go, programmers, for putting the events at night! Not all of us are night owls!). Secondly, it’s the same thing over and over again. If I wanted to jump up and down in time with the music, I’d do it in my dorm so I didn’t have to awkwardly bump into someone else. Third, most clubs I’ve looked at aren’t particularly matched with my interests.

I sat down to think a bit. What am I doing wrong? Everyone’s told me to try everything college has to offer, but I don’t like what college has to offer. It clashes with my personality. A way I’ll be able to enjoy what college has on my own terms is coming up with new ideas using my interests. For example, I noted the lack of a knitting or crocheting club. It should come to no surprise that I looked for this club. While not a community knitter/crocheter, I decided that the company of others and the possibility to discuss life while knitting/crocheting would be beneficial to me. After all, I can make friends! Isn’t that what people have been telling me about college? Go make new friends, because you’ll have them for the rest of your life? I decided to create one a few months ago. My only problem is time, school, organization, members, recruitment… However, with innovation, I can decide my plan of action. I can create this unique college experience for myself.

(From colgateconnect.org)

In addition to the calls of “enjoy everything college has to offer,” the warnings of “do NOT pigeonhole yourself and focus on one track” ring loud in my mind. I’ve had at least two teachers preach this to me. They say something similar to “don’t try to get out of college in 4 years or less. Enjoy college!” This sentiment has actually given me a panic idea. The teachers seem to be warning against deciding on what you want to do too quickly because otherwise you’ll make yourself miserable, or something similar to this. I know what to do with myself, but at the exact same time, I don’t know what to do with myself. I know what I want to do with myself. Following this warning, though, it seems like I’m not going to enjoy life and find myself as much as I should. Innovation, as a result, will allow me to explore my interests more deeply while still allowing me to pursue my major. If used as a method of exploration, innovation will allow me to take classes I find enjoyable while finding new pieces of information.

Innovation allows me to take what I think is a problem- the lack of suitable activities on campus- and my interests to find a solution to this problem. Maybe, at the end of my college years, I can look back on it and think, “Hey, I loved this!” Innovating is not only solving problems, but discovering yourself. I think that’s what I need to do.  I need to discover myself in college. Innovating will play a large part in my campus experience because I want a way to feel more comfortable on campus, so I’ve got to make up that way, all while finding myself. It sounds tough, but I think I can do it.

Viva Las Vegas Dog Treats

My dogs are a huge part of my family. There used to be times when my family would spend a good ten to fifteen minutes trying to get the dogs to come sit with us, let alone sit still for the camera. We used to include them in our holiday cards, because they were family. My little fluffy brothers, you know? Once upon a time, we got them those rawhide bones to chew on Christmas Day. They ruined the soft squeaky toys. Or, well, the small one did. Rawhide bones had the guarantee of being IMPOSSIBLE to ruin until they worried it with their teeth enough.

This is Joey, a West Highland Terrier. Definitely not the cleanest. 

This is Chester, a Golden Retriever. He's really light for the breed.

In the past two years or so, I've noticed something. My parents were no longer including our dogs in the Christmas picture or getting them presents. The horror! This past Christmas, I resolved to do something about at least one of them. While getting them in the picture was impossible, I got them Christmas presents. Specifically, I made their presents.

I was browsing the internet one day when I stumbled across Brown-eyed Baker's Gone to the Dogs dog treats. No, it wasn't the fact she had a Golden Retriever that hooked me. Although that may have been a factor. I'm not too sure. But I digress! The reason I picked these treats is Chester. The poor guy is (likely) allergic to meat. The vet didn't actually check him for allergies, but it's a safe bet to say he's allergic to meat because the two times we tried to feed him dog food with meat in it (after we suspected this) he stopped eating. He eats fish instead. Fishes are yummy. In order to make treats both dogs could enjoy, I decided on the above recipe because it used peanut butter! My dogs are suckers for peanut butter.

Healthy Dog Treats

Ingredients: 

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 cup natural peanut butter
• 1 cup whole milk (Now, there may be a difference for using low-fat and whole milk. I ended up using whole milk because my mom refused to buy a gallon of low-fat specifically for the dogs. It should be fine to substitute the milk. Nothing's happened to my dogs.)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. 

2. In a bowl, combine the flour and baking powder. In another bowl, combine the peanut butter and milk.

Dry ingredients.

And wet ingredients!

3. Put the dry mixture into the wet mixture or vice versa. Mix well.

4. Knead dough on lightly floured surface or parchment paper. Knead out dough to about 1/8 of an inch thick and cut out shapes with card suit cookie cutters. Place on a cookie sheet, evenly spaced.

5. Bake for 20 minutes. Take out, let cool, and store in an airtight container. (And don't forget to let your dog have a sneak taste!)

I was in the holiday spirit, so holiday treats are in there too.

My batch came out much larger than the original because I rolled the dough thinner and I used tiny cookie cutters. I know my parents have a habit of separating treats, so the smaller the cookie is, the easier it is to snap the treat in almost equal halves. Plus, my dogs are never given big chunks of treats. Thirdly, I wanted the homemade treats to last longer. I also bagged about six to give to Nate's sister's dogs. According to him, they devoured them. Maybe I should make them some dog treats, too!

My dogs took to the treats like dog-sharks. After I gave them a taste, they went around the island, looking to see if I'd give them more. The personality of my dogs showed pretty clearly. Chester sat close to me, knowing he wouldn't get any more, but hoping that if he was good enough, he'd get another. Joey sniffed around for more and kept looking up at the island.

"Don't. Move." 

Chester noms on his treats nicely.

Joey usually takes them somewhere else to nom on.

Crochet food

I'm going to talk a bit about crochet food. I found an adorable little book called "Amiami Restaurant' by Mitsuki Hoshi about two years ago during a trip to California. My family makes a point to stop by the Marukai, and there's a bookstore right next to it. I always go in and look for Japanese crochet or knit books, because I like looking at the things they make. Well, I picked this one up and brought it back. I had the opportunity to use it for a school thing where I made crochet sushi. They are adorable!

Sushi isn't the only thing in this book, though. There's ramen, oden, hamburgers, and all sorts of yummy creations. I was once asked to make a hamburger steak for my mom's friend restaurant. It looks delicious! Makes me want to eat the actual thing.

If you haven't already, explore crochet food. Maybe a little one in your life (or gourmet friends!) would love to have one. There are plenty of free patterns out there for all sorts of food. Go make some (non-edible) food!

(You can find Amiami Restaurant here. I did a quick search, but there may be a cheaper option somewhere else. I do encourage you to do some searching!)

Happy New Years, everyone!

It is now 2013, and it's started off very nicely. I'm glad to be where I am today, with the friends I do have, my family fine, and another great year at my University. I'm prepared for what life may throw at me. I have a few resolutions, and I'll write them down. This will be a useful blast to the past come December 31, 2013 when the next New Years is upon us!

1. Write my own crochet/knitting pattern. 
2. Open up an etsy shop or something similar. 
3. Stay in shape- go to the pool/gym/do dorm room exercises at least three times a week.
4. Read at least twenty books (maybe I'll do book reviews!)
5. Finish my story and edit it.

These five are fairly important to me. There are the resolutions involving school (AKA getting above a 3.7 GPA/straight A's), but I've decided not to make those to free myself from more disappointment. 

I wish you all luck and happiness in the New Years!