#13 - Cook 10 new recipes & add them to my recipe box. (25/101)

I love cooking as you might have figured out by now. I also love finding new recipes, either through Pinterest or through my friends (one of my good friends writes a blog called "Beets Me Katie" and I love exploring cooking with her). While I have tried more than ten new recipes over the last few months, here are ten that I cooked and would choose to make again. Below are the links to the original recipes if I have them along with changes and additions I made in some cases: 

1. Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken Bowl: This recipe is delicious, so much so that I have made it multiple times over the last few months.  I adapted the original pork recipe since I do not eat pork and instead made chicken. I've made this with both chicken thighs (dark meat) and chicken breasts (white meat) and I will say it is more flavorful with thighs. Both times I also sautéed bell peppers, zucchini and onion to add to my bowls and also chopped up fresh cilantro, mint and basil to sprinkle on top - both highly recommended!  

2. Strawberry Salad: This is my mom's recipe, a summer salad she makes that is one of my favorites. It is a simple romaine and spinach salad with red onion, cucumber, strawberries and a homemade poppyseed dressing. I do not have the exact recipe for the dressing but here is a similar poppyseed dressing recipe. This is an awesome summer salad and I will continue making it for years to come.

3. Grilled Lamb Chops & Mint Pesto: This was the recipe my boyfriend and I made to "break in" my new grill. We grilled lamb chops which were awesome, marinating then in some rosemary, garlic salt, pepper and a tiny bit of olive oil. I had been growing mint in my garden and the mint was growing like crazy so I wanted to make a recipe that could use some of the mint. We made this mint pesto which was great but we accidentally forgot to take it out of the fridge when the lamb came off the grill so we ended up only tasting it and using it with leftovers afterwards. Whoops!   

4. Honey Chicken Kabobs: I have enjoyed finding recipes to make on my grill and these honey chicken kabobs were no exception. They were easy and delicious, the honey marinade left a great chargrilled taste to the chicken. When we made these kabobs, we also grilled pineapple with them which was an awesome addition.

5. Lemony Basil Orzo Pasta Salad: I made this dish for a mediterranean shawarma night that my friends were having where I was asked to bring a side dish. I did not have much time so it was the perfect recipe, super easy and quite tasty. I loved the yellow grape tomatoes and also added a few other vegetables and spices to the dish (and therefore needed a bit more lemon juice and olive oil). I added yellow and orange bell pepper, red onion and fresh mint and dried oregano. 

6. Okra Masala/Bhindi Masala: This dish was made as part of a way to try out making indian food at home with my friends. We made four dishes, the first being bhindi (okra) masala. I love okra and a I love masala recipes (tikka masala, channa masala, etc.) so I thought this would be great to try. The okra masala was delicious and I will for sure make it again.

7. Dal: An indian dish I love and wanted to recreate, this lentil dal recipe from the New York times is really great. I tend to think of indian food cooking as something that will take a long time and will require difficult ingredients to acquire, I was surprised at how easy the recipe was and how I almost had all the ingredients in my kitchen already.

8. Avocado Black Bean Enchiladas: We made this recipe after a weekend full of lots of meat so wanted to make a vegetarian recipe that was easy but hearty. I pretty much love any recipe that includes black beans and avocados so the name of this recipe caught my eye. This was super easy and hearty, it made a lot so my boyfriend was happy to have lunch leftovers for the next day!

9. Lamb Burgers: I can't seem to find this recipe but these lamb burgers were delicious and easy! We made a good greek yogurt, lemon and parsley garnish that was delicious to go with the burgers as well as an Israeli couscous, bell pepper, red onion, lemon juice and olive oil salad. 

10. Coconut Curried Kale and Sweet Potato: When my friend Christine was in town last week, we made this delicious recipe but made some additions and changes that I would definitely suggest. We added chickpeas and mushrooms, made a small mango, lime and scallion garnish and made coconut rice instead of plain basmati rice. Great vegetarian dish with delicious flavor. The sweet potato did take a long time to cook, if I cook it again I would make sure to really cook the sweet potato before I add the other ingredients. 

#26 - Take an aerial yoga class. (24/101)

A few years ago I took a couple aerial yoga classes. They were amazing - think combining yoga, acrobatics and silks and using a combination of flexibility, strength and balance throughout the hour. I decided I wanted to try it again in Atlanta. I started using ClassPass a few weeks ago, which allows users to access a network of fitness studios across your area. I was really excited to see aerial yoga as an option on ClassPass so I went to a class today. The studio is about 25 minutes away from my home in the suburbs of Atlanta, it was called Sky Gym, so a Sunday morning was the perfect time to try it out and make the drive while there was no traffic.

During class, you use a soft, fabric hammock held up by carabineers and do a combination of traditional yoga poses or aerial adaptations of traditional poses using the hammock. Sometimes you are sitting in the hammock, other times you'll just have a foot or leg in it and in other instances you'll be laying cocoon style in the hammocks. My favorite part of the class was the inversions, meaning the times we got to go upside down(!!) in the hammocks and test our strength to hold up our bodies. I really enjoyed the class and felt like I got to really stretch and work on my flexibility, I will definitely go back again!

#29 - Get 8-9 hours of sleep each night for one week (longer if possible). (23/101)

My sister has always needed a lot of sleep. She is one of those people that cannot function unless she gets at least 8 hours of sleep a night but really does her best when she gets between 9 -10 hours of sleep per night. I am not like that. I can go days with little sleep and still be high functioning. I usually can keep this up for a week but then I will crash. Hardcore crash. Like need to sleep 14 hours for two nights in a row - crash. I had a crazy work week and proceeded to have a "crash week" where I intentionally slept at least 8 if not 10-11 hours a night for a week. It was wonderful but I realized a few things:

• It is really nice to get more than my average amount of sleep once in awhile. I felt very relaxed all week and enjoyed the benefits of knowing I was rested and ready to start my day. That being said...
• I realized get more tired during the day if I sleep more than 8 hours a night than if I sleep 8 or less than that a night. When I oversleep, I find myself dragging in the afternoon, wanting to drink an extra cup of green tea for caffeine and wanting to take a nap. I do better if I sleep between 7-8 hours a night on average.
• After a couple nights of lots of sleep, I start waking up after 8 hours of sleep. There were a couple times this week that I went to bed at 10PM and woke up at 6AM - I was done sleeping. I used the time wisely and would go to workout before work or go into work early so I could leave a bit earlier than usual.

I will probably not be able to sleep over 8 hours on a regular basis (nor will I want to) but it was a fun exercise to intentionally tell myself to sleep more than I usually do. I want to set time in my schedule aside to sleep this much every so often so I can give my body the time to relax, rejuvenate and restore. 

#39 - Complete a round of couch to 10k. (22/101)

I am not a runner. I used to hate the mile in gym class growing up.  I would find any excuse I could to skip out on it as I would rather do dozens of pull-ups any day over running for 10 minutes straight. When I lived in Argentina from 2013-2014 I realized I had a lot of free time on my hands so I started to exercise more. I explored the city by walking and I was lucky to live close to the Bosques de Palermo, Parks of Palermo, so the walking turned into running. I completed an app on my phone called couch to 5k, interval training to get someone running a 5k in 8 weeks. I loved the way it made me feel and I was also stubborn so I had to finish the challenge I set out for myself. When I returned to the US I continued to run but as soon as it got cold I stopped, I didn't like being outside myself when it was dark and freezing!

I moved to a new neighborhood in Atlanta in June that is very close to the Atlanta BeltLine, a walking and biking trail that runs through metro Atlanta. The weather was gorgeous so I started running again and decided I wanted to start running more than I had before. So I set out to complete to couch to 10k app which would take 14 weeks to complete. The first 8 weeks were pretty easy but the next six got much harder. I pushed myself and made it through, I was comfortably running over 6 miles at a time. While it is now getting colder and I will probably stop running as much, I now know I can do it and will start running again in the spring!

#10 - Take an Asian cooking class. (21/101)

I love all ethnic food, especially Asian food. While I like going out to eat Asian food, I wanted to learn some tips so I could cook it more at home. So last weekend, we went to a Thai Cooking Class at Sur La Table. The menu included:

• Thai Chicken Cocount Soup (Tom Ka Gai): This was surprisingly delicious and simple! I am not the biggest mushroom fan but I loved how soft and tasty the mushrooms were in the soup. This is a perfect soup for the winter time.
• Stir Fried Wide Rice Noodles with Beef and Broccoli (Pad See Ew): This was awesome - we only seared the steak for a minute which made it juicy and tender, the Chinese broccoli was delicious and I was surprised to see the noodles (unlike regular noodles) boiled in about two minutes. If I made it again, I would add even more vegetables. We learned the key to good fried asian food is a hot wok (lots of heat) - I think I'll need to go and purchase a wok now!
• Sweet and Spicy Cucumber Salad with Roasted Peanuts: I loved the vinaigrette dressing on this salad and will definitely make it again. I didn't add peanuts to mine but those that did said it added a great crunch.
• Forbidden Coconut Mango Rice Pudding: This was sweet and delicious. I had never made forbidden rice before (similar to black rice) so it was fun to try a new grain. We added toasted coconut and slices of fresh mango on top of the rice pudding, extremely tasty!

All the food was delicious and we learned some tips about where to look for ingredients, how to cut certain foods, tips on preparation and more. We also learned that cooking Thai food at home is really not too difficult - the more difficult part is usually finding the right ingredients. The class was so fun, I'm excited to try out some Thai cooking at home!