There's always something to worry about! A lot on my mind at this very moment....so, I will keep this entry simple.

"Best comfort food I've had away from home" - My boyfriend

Yum Yum Special Shepard's Pie
- Small package ground beef (usually a little more than 1lb)
- One large onion chopped
- Spaghetti sauce
- Spices (oregano, basil, salt, pepper)
- Worcester and tabasco sauce
- 3 medium potatoes
- 1 stick of butter (1/2 cup)
- 1/2-1 cup milk
- Pinch of salt
- 3 tbs sour cream
- Shredded cheddar
- Medium casserole dish
- Large bowl

Wash and cut potatoes into 0.5 inch slices. Boil them for about 15 min or until soft.
Meanwhile...
Fry ground beef until golden separately. Fry onions with extra virgin olive oil until soft and tender. Add ground beef and desired amount of spaghetti sauce. Add spices and worcester and tabasco sauce to taste. Simmer for about 15 min on low heat. Slightly thick sauce is desired.
Cover to bottom of the casserole dish with the sauce.
Back to the potatoes...
Drain the water. Peel the skin off the potatoes and put it in a large bowl. Mash the potatoes. If you don't have a potato masher, a fork is fine. Add in butter. Mix until butter is melted into potatoes. Add salt. Add milk and mix until smooth. Add sour cream and mix.
Add the mash potatoes into the casserole dish on top of the beef sauce. Then top it with cheddar cheese.
Bake at 375 degrees for 25 min. If you'd like the cheese to brown a little, turn the oven to broil. Be careful, it burns fast!

Substitute for spaghetti sauce (halfsies HOME MADE!)
2 cans of diced tomatoes
1 pkg spaghetti sauce

Confession: After my boyfriend made that statement about my shepard's pie, he decided to take it back. He decided that one of his guy roommate's meatloaf was "more comforting" HA. I'm going to pretend that didn't happen! =)

Fashion Smashion

At 12:27am on a Thursday night with no obligations at all...I, like many other people would do...
Cleaned my room.
I don't know why we always start from there. Maybe we do it to show that our life is organized? Or maybe it's about control when we have no other priorities at a specific time in life?

(I have finished summer school and found housing...finally, here I come, Summer!!!)

Anyway...as I was cleaning and reorganizing....I came across....

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/features/baltimoremomblog/2010/06/silly_bandz_tweens.html

SILLY BANDZ

They're like these little packets of goodness!!!
They come in pretty colours
They come in glow in the dark
They come in smelly form
They come in ALL TYPES of forms!!

Essentially, they're rubber bands with a theme/shape.

I find came across them at a party. This girl had an armful of them. She worked at Rue 21 and said they were the new cool things. She gave me my first Silly Band ever. A pink penguin.

The next day, July 4th BBQ, this little boy saw it and immediately loved it. How could I not give it to him? I had to insist that I was too old for it before the boy took it. Too cute!!!

I've seen many people strutting them. Including the guy who sits next to me in class. He has a yellow turtle.

Celebrities like Sarah Jessica Parker or Mary Kate Olsen are seen mixing these Silly Bandz with their fine jewelry.

http://www.olsen-twins-news.com/mary-kate-olsen-celebs-and-their-silly-bandz-62436/

Oh, how cute!!

Confession: After the July 4th weekend, my boyfriend went to NC for vacation. Among the many gifts he bought me....I can now say--I am the owner of smelly fashionista-themed Silly Bandz.

Summer Drinks

Yesterday was my last day of classes for the summer. Now I have a three week break.
To celebrate, I decided to let go and have a relaxing night. I ended up going to the Cheesecake Factory with two of my friends. I tried their Tropical Smoothie...it was amazing


The smoothie reminded me of a little something I made a couple weeks ago...

This was quiteee the delicious drink! I can't give you the exact recipe, but it comes something like this...
14oz pack of frozen mangos
24oz pack of frozen peaches
16oz orange juice (I prefer to use Simply Orange)
4 shots of vodka
Blend all ingredients in mixer. Ta-ta! If you like it thicker, add a couple pieces of ice cubes. Garnish with a slice of fruit. I used a slice of peach.
When I made this, I actually used peach vodka and it had this strong distinct taste, so I didn't put as many shots in, but if you'd like...add as many shots to your taste. This recipe is really flexible. Use whatever frozen fruit you find in your freezer.

I actually had the mangoes and peaches because I was attempting a healthy strike. Worked for about a month and then I gave up. I lost 5lbs, but I had no motivation after. The frozen fruits tasted terrible as a snack, so I made it into the smoothy.

Speaking of losing weight...
I use to watch The Biggest Loser. I loved the show, but I just haven't had time to follow recently. Although, I must say...the first couple seasons were the best. Now it's filled with a lot of marketing junk. Regardless, I feel like it's inspirational. The show helped me lose my Freshman 20.

If you're considering losing weight...that's a great place to start. It's inspirational. Watch one episode before you go the gym.

Confession: Yes, drinking is actually counterproductive to losing weight. Take note: THERE IS A LOT OF CALORIES IN ALCOHOL!!! Although...I did come across an interesting article the other day...


Cosmopolitan's August 2010 issue had an article about "Is Wine the New Diet Drink?" on page 190. It basically talked about a study that researchers did for 20,000 normal-weight women for 13 years. The study showed the the women who drank a glass or two of red wine a day were 30% less likely to be overweight. Reasons being that 1. triggers your body to torch calories. Because women's body tend to have lower metabolism rates, they have to work harder to burn the calories. 2. Alcohol raises your body temperature causing the body to burn calories to create heat. 


Interesting...

Education used in "Real World"

Busy, busy school! I just have one more 10-minute presentation and a paper due next week.
This weekend, I will be going to New Hampshire to visit the boyfriend's family.
Cool story, they were actually featured on Episode 2 of Boston Med.

Which brings me to....
MY CLASSES! I've been going at school non-stop for a year now. No breaks at all! Perhaps the occasional long weekend and a two-week winter break, but that was about the extent.

Back to my story --
In one of my classes Television: Text and Context, we watch films and we analyze them.

http://blogs.e-rockford.com/bricksandclicks/category/the-daily-show/

http://blogs.tampabay.com/media/2008/04/at-the-daily-sh.html

For example, one of the first weeks, we watched The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Our take (and the author's) on the show was that the show uses the conventions of comedy (through satire and parody) to critiques the news.

Bottom line: Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert believe that there is a lack of objectivity in the news today. News is meant to inform people, however in reality, they aren't giving the substantive information needed so that the audience can make judgements for themselves. Instead, we have shows such as the O'Reilly Factor that are strongly opinionated shows. In the past, news featured experts giving facts and explaining the situation, now we have journalists that give their take on an event. Therefore, on the Stewart and Colbert use satire and parody to challenge these news reports. Because these shows are known to be comical, they do not need to follow the conventions of the news genre, rather they criticize it using their show and humour. The set up of the show is almost identical to news and the satire used is to challenge the news.

http://www.uniquewarez.com/tv_zone/311953-boston_med_all_seasons_720p_hdtv_reg_updates_megashares.html

For my final project in the class, I have to make my own analysis of a tv series or episode. I have chosen Boston Med. I want to take on the critique that the show is highlighted to be a documentary, but in my analysis, I show that the show uses documentary conventions to drive the drama narrative. The show is a documentary about the people who work in Boston's Brigham, Children's, and Mass General. My overall point is that the show is a constructed fiction. It is meant to be a reality-based documentary, but I believe otherwise. Even though the show is unscripted, I don't believe that it is non-fiction. The filming does feature "real people" but I think the entire narrative is pieced together by TV workers. They create the central story. Therefore, the people in the show are seen as characters, rather than "real people." I feel that it is more drama than documentary because it doesn't highlight the major societal problems. For example, the show has a lot of talk about how the doctors and nurses are their for long hours, and thus, focusing on interpersonal relationships between the doctors and nurses. However, the show ignores the larger societal issue that it may be a problem. Perhaps that is an ongoing issue with hospitals where people work too much. Another point to note is that the show does not go into detail about greater issues that affect the entire society such as health insurance. At this point in MA, health coverage has been a large topic, yet the show overlooks it. I support my overall point using genre conventions. For example, the show uses documentary conventions such as the hand-held camera and one-on-one interviews. It helps to add drama and drive the central narrative with the doctors and nurses.

That is my presentation in a nutshell!!

Confession: Still love LOVE Boston Med! I was watching it on campus and got all teary-eyed. Quite embarrassing. All the stories are so touching! Today was actually the last episode. =( Will definitely watch it online tomorrow or this weekend! We also studied a critique on Sex and the City, yet...still LOVE IT! So...these "scholarly analyses" won't hold me back from great shows!!!!!

Do you eat breakfast?

Do you eat breakfast?
A.) Consider starting!
B.) Good on you!!

Ever since I was little, my mommy would make me breakfast in the morning. Well, that's of course, before I moved to college.

Now, I make breakfast for myself every morning. (Oh hoho, look at my first statistic! Why, thank you, Mommy!)

Breakfast is a truly important meal. Here are some statistics:
- According to a study found in The Philadelphia Inquirer of 1,089 kids ages 12-to-15 years-old conducted in the Netherlands, children were more included to eat breakfast daily if their parents ate breakfast daily. Parental rules regarding the morning meal also played a key role in getting kids to eat breakfast regularly. See, breakfast is important!
- According to a study by USDA and Kellogg's, 22 percent of breakfast skippers were obese, compared to 15 percent of cereal eaters. From this study, we get that kids who eat breakfast are less likely to become obese. Breakfast is important.
- According to a University of Connecticut study published in Nutrition Research, eating eggs for breakfast might help you eat less later in the day. The key is protein. Eggs and breakfast are important!
- An Australian study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that drinking fat-free milk at breakfast helped study subjects to feel fuller, more satisfied and to eat fewer calories at lunch. Breakfast is important.
- According to research reported by the U.K.'s Telegraph newspaper, "feeding children high energy breakfast foods such as porridge at a young age boots their exams results at school." Children who followed such a diet before their third birthday had improved scores in reading and problem-solving tests compared to their peers. Breakfast is important!!!
- An article in The Vancouver Province titled "How breakfast can help make your skin beautiful" stated that ingesting oatmeal or bran flakes may help reduce acne breakouts. Want to have beautiful? Well, breakfast is important!!

If you want more global statistics on breakfast, you can get it where I got it. HERE

Speaking of...guess what I had for breakfast.

Homemade banana bread!!!

It was super cute, I made a large loaf and two mini ones.

Bahananana Bread (that's three "na"s after the Baha)
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/8 teaspoon salt (pretty much a pinch)
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups flour
3 large bananas, overly ripe
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat the oven to 325F. Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. In another bowl, add the dry ingredients together (salt, baking soda, flour). Sift the dry mixture into the butter, sugar, and egg mixture. Mix until nice and creamy. Mash bananas into the mixture. Stir in walnuts, if necessary.

Bake for an hour. To make sure that it is ready, stick a toothpick into the loaf and if any of it sticks to the toothpick, leave it in the oven for a bit longer.

Makes 1 loaf.

Confession: Okay, I lied, I actually didn't have the banana bread for breakfast. I brought it to school but it was just too cute to eat. I had to post it here before it was ingested. Actually, as a matter of fact, I did have a greeeat breakfast! It's my typical breakfast. In the morning, I pick out a variety of fruit and put it in a Tupperware, typically peaches, nectarines, oranges, kiwi, or grapes. Today, I had a peach. Other times, I put half a banana with half a package of oatmeal + milk. That's for a story another day...