Do people besides my boyfriend read my blogspot??
I have like over a dollar earned. Like, whoa.
I still think I'll blog on MySpace
Super good and EASY cinnamon roll recipe anyone?
Ingredients
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup margarine, softened
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 (.25 ounce) package instant yeast
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup water
1 egg
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup margarine, softened
1/2 cup raisins (optional)
Directions
1.Heat the milk in a small saucepan until it bubbles, then remove from heat. Mix in margarine; stir until melted. Let cool until lukewarm.
2.In a large mixing bowl, combine 2 1/4 cup flour, yeast, sugar and salt; mix well. Add water, egg and the milk mixture; beat well. Add the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring well after each addition. When the dough has just pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth, about 5 minutes.
3.Cover the dough with a damp cloth and let rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, cinnamon, softened margarine.
4.Roll out dough into a 12x9 inch rectangle. Spread dough with margarine/sugar mixture. Sprinkle with raisins if desired. Roll up dough and pinch seam to seal. Cut into 12 equal size rolls and place cut side up in 12 lightly greased muffin cups. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
5.Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until browned. Remove from muffin cups to cool. Serve warm
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Ninety-Minute-Cinnamon-Rolls/Detail.aspx
Friday, November 13, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
All State Sucks
You're in good hands? What a load of bull.Well I was in a car accident last August of 2008. Anyways, my car was parked on the side of the road and I was just going to someone's door and leaving so I was still outside. Some lady backed out of her driveway really fast and hit my car. I then get a written statement from her saying that she was responsible for all damages and a copy of her insurance. I also should mention that I called the police so they were there to witness everything.
Anyways, it turns out she had not been paying for her insurance so she wasn't covered. However, I have All State full coverage so they took care of everything. I still had to pay $500 deductable though which was understandable at the time because I was promised by All State that it would be paid back without a doubt.
Over the course of a year, they constantly said us reminders that they are working on the case and that we will be paid back shortly. Then, exactly a year later, we receive a letter from them telling us that we should hire our own lawyer to receive our money back. I thought that was completely bogus. I had a letter from the lady saying it was all her responsibility and everything. I had her name, number, address, driver's license number. It is completely ridiculous that they can charge us so much for car insurance and charge us a deductable payment for something we weren't at fault with. Then they gave me false hope about getting my money back. I hate All State.
Stick to Kraft American Singles
Or whatever else kind of cheese you like. However, do not try to save by buying cheap generic crap. It'll screw you in the long wrong because you probably won't eat it. Many generic items, from my experience, tend to taste like cramp unless they're from Whole Foods in which the generic might even be more expensive than some brand names.
Well while shopping tonight, I was working on a tight budget so I thought I would buy the Kroger Great Value brand of American sandwich cheese. When making it with my grilled cheese though, I noticed that the cheese really doesn't melt properly. It taste awful, almost had a powdery taste to it like it was made out of that powdered cheese you make macaroni and cheese with. Unfortunately, it didn't taste as good as macaroni and cheese.
It has been my misfortune to find that most generic brand dairy products taste awful. I also had ice cream from Krogers which was generic which also tasted like poop. Once I was even in Randalls and a random couple who I didn't know told me not to buy the generic milk they had there because it made them sick. So my point is, is that when it comes to dairy products, buy the name brand!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Natural Cures at Home
Over the course of my life time, I have heard too many people tell me eat this for that or drink this for that so I thought I would compile a list of them to share with all of you. Enjoy!
Lastly I would like to talk about one of the best things to spice up a dish, garlic! I absolutely love garlic. Thankfully, my boyfriend does too so we're able to use loads of garlic in all our dishes. A French teacher once told me that if you cook with a lot of spices then you're in love so she must be right because spices and garlic are the way to go. Garlic actually helps with high blood pressure and it's very easy to incorporate in to almost any dish. If you're lazy like me and buy the pasta sauce that comes in the jar, even if it's garlic flavored, just add some extra fresh cloves of garlic to it. You'll be amazed at how much it can liven that sauce up. There honestly isn't a dish out there that I probably wouldn't put garlic in unless it were a dessert. You can always mix garlic in with your vegetables and meat. It's delicious and nutritous so go out and try it. And that's it for my natural cures of today. Follow me for more helpful post :)
Above here you see a picture of tea and ginger root. As a Filipino, I am very used to seeing and working with ginger so it was a shock to me that very few people knew what ginger actually looked like. It's actually a very good spice to any stir fry or certain soups. I think it is extremele delicious but it also has very good healing properties. One thing it is excellent for is nausea. As someone who frequently becomes nauseous I have found that there is no better and faster working cure than a slice of ginger root. I normally just cut the skin off of it and suck/chew on it as is but it is also good to put in hot tea. Just slice it in to a few small pieces and use it as you would tea leaves. Adding honey and lemon to it make it super delicious. Another good thing ginger tea is good for is fighting colds. I've never tried this myself, but I've heard that if you drink 2-3 cups of ginger tea daily right when your cold starts up that it will last for a much shorter period of time and be less severe.
Bitter melon is also very useful. However, as the name suggest, it is also very bitter. My mom is a diabetic and often eats bitter melon because it helps control her diabetes. When cooking it, I suggest soaking it in salt water for at least half an hour to try and combat the taste. A simple recipe for this would be to just soak it in the salt water and then add it in with your scrambled eggs. It actually goes very well with scrambled eggs. As an Asian, we eat everything with rice, so we generally scramble this with eggs and then eat with rice (brown rice for diabetics). However, having it with a side of wheat toast is just as good. It's an aquired taste so if you don't like it the first time you try it, just keep trying it. Eventually you'll learn to like it or you'll just learn to deal with it. If you're going through a rough time with your diabetes, this is the stuff to eat. Oh, and as a side note, you'll probably only be able to find this in Asian grocery stores. They're fun to shop at anyway so stop by one and broaden your culinary horizon.
Lastly I would like to talk about one of the best things to spice up a dish, garlic! I absolutely love garlic. Thankfully, my boyfriend does too so we're able to use loads of garlic in all our dishes. A French teacher once told me that if you cook with a lot of spices then you're in love so she must be right because spices and garlic are the way to go. Garlic actually helps with high blood pressure and it's very easy to incorporate in to almost any dish. If you're lazy like me and buy the pasta sauce that comes in the jar, even if it's garlic flavored, just add some extra fresh cloves of garlic to it. You'll be amazed at how much it can liven that sauce up. There honestly isn't a dish out there that I probably wouldn't put garlic in unless it were a dessert. You can always mix garlic in with your vegetables and meat. It's delicious and nutritous so go out and try it. And that's it for my natural cures of today. Follow me for more helpful post :)
Depression and Prozac
Depressions is a serious topic that has affected me and close friends of mine. However, I am the only person I know who has received actual medical treatment for it, so I wanted to share my views on the very well known antidepressant, fluoxetine (Prozac).
First let me try and explain what this medication is and who should take. Well obviously, depressed people shoudl take it. There's something about a chemical imbalance within your brain but I'm sure not everyone out there is a biochemistry major so I won't go in to too much detail. Prozac basically tries to balance that out. You won't ever really receive a high from the drug, it just helps people function better.
When I had first visited my doctor, I was only seeking a blood test because I thought I had a vitamin B12 defficiency since I was vegan. I was always tired, I could sleep for 12 or so hours a day and still feel drowsy. She gave me the blood test, but my vitamin levels were normal. She's been my doctor since I was little and knows about my life at home and what not so she thought I might be depressed so she prescribed me 20 mg of Prozac which she later changed to 40 mg.
While on the medication, I experienced quite a few changes in my mood over the course of three weeks. I started feeling better and was much less irritable. One huge side affect though that started happening within the second was that I had a few panic attacks. I saw her about it, and she said it was normal and would probably stop once the drug had taken full effect. She also suggested I get a therapist which I never did because I was too busy for one of those. Plus I had a good group of supportive friends.
Well the panic attacks did stop and I did feel a thousand times better. I even dumped my dead beat boyfriend and was moving on with my life. I felt so much better about everything that I decided that I no longer needed Prozac anymore and stopped it all on my own which is a HORRIBLE idea. This happened around March of my Senior year. I then just started crashing. I missed loads more school to the point where it would have been impossible to make up all my work. I actually missed so much school that I ended up dropping out during the last month. How stupid, right?
Anyways, I just kept going downhill until about June and then I got a job which kept me very busy. I also enrolled at a community college to get the credits for all the classes that I needed to graduate. I ended up getting a GED because it was easier, but the point is I got my life back together on my own. I never did go back on the Prozac even though it had helped. I just went out of my depressed state and I sometimes think it was high school that made me so depressed.
But even though I was able to recover without medication, I think that anyone who has had symptoms of depression and has had them for a while should visit their doctor and talk to them about getting on antidepressants. There are a helpful drug with no addictive properties. Hopefully my weird story that doesn't really make all that much sense gave someone out there some prespective on the drug. If not, I just hope that the story wasn't too incredibly boring.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Free Food at Restaurants in Houston - Coupon Included
Well I have stubled upon something truly grand that I think everyone should know about and participate in. Do you like eating discounted or even free food at restaurants? I sure do. There's a very simple and easy way to do it too and it doesn't involve searching endlessly through newspapers for coupons. All you have to do is take about 5 minutes of your time and sign up for those email clubs at your favorite restaurants.
I first found out about this last July when my boyfriend and I were completely broke and trying to think of someplace we could eat for his birthday weekend. I was at the Olive Garden website trying to see if they had good lunch specials. There prices weren't really outrageous but it wasn't super cheap either, but we decided to go there anyway. However, before we left I wanted to check my emails and so I checked his at the same time. He had a free coupon for a free burger and fries from Red Robin waiting for us in his inbox. It was such great luck, it was unbelievable. Truly, unbelievable because I didn't believe it would really work.
Some of you may be wondering how that got there, well my boyfriend's mother had signed him up for it a while back and neither of us new about it. Red Robin emails you a few days before your birthday and the coupon is good from then until a couple of days after your birthday. It's completely legit too. We ate at the Red Robin in Tomball on state highway 249 (Tombally Pkwy). It was really good and they give you an endless amount of fries. We got two refills :). I ended up getting the guacomole bacon burger while he had a sautted mushroom burger. He said it was the best mushroom burger he has had for a long time. I don't have pictures of the actual burgers we had but the website picture isn't that far off. Here's the very obvious mushroom burger:
I first found out about this last July when my boyfriend and I were completely broke and trying to think of someplace we could eat for his birthday weekend. I was at the Olive Garden website trying to see if they had good lunch specials. There prices weren't really outrageous but it wasn't super cheap either, but we decided to go there anyway. However, before we left I wanted to check my emails and so I checked his at the same time. He had a free coupon for a free burger and fries from Red Robin waiting for us in his inbox. It was such great luck, it was unbelievable. Truly, unbelievable because I didn't believe it would really work.
Some of you may be wondering how that got there, well my boyfriend's mother had signed him up for it a while back and neither of us new about it. Red Robin emails you a few days before your birthday and the coupon is good from then until a couple of days after your birthday. It's completely legit too. We ate at the Red Robin in Tomball on state highway 249 (Tombally Pkwy). It was really good and they give you an endless amount of fries. We got two refills :). I ended up getting the guacomole bacon burger while he had a sautted mushroom burger. He said it was the best mushroom burger he has had for a long time. I don't have pictures of the actual burgers we had but the website picture isn't that far off. Here's the very obvious mushroom burger:
Yummy looking, huh? Well maybe not so much for someone who doesn't care for mushrooms but otherwise it would look very scrumptious. Just for two burgers and never ending fries, the total was $14 with a $4 tip. Not bad at all. But that is my first experience with the email club thing. Another one that I have is from Sweet Tomatoes. Another good, and also family friendly, restaurant. I've recently signed up for their e-club, just last week actually, and have already received two buy one dinner get one dinner free coupons in the mail. Actual mail, not email. I was also emailed by them today and received the same offer along with new information that kids eat free October 30, and 31st. So parents, take advantage of this opportunity because with this tough economy, we all could use a free dinner for our children.
One of the best buffets in Houston would have to be Todai and it also has a special birthday offer. However, all you need to do for this restaurant is come in on the day of your birthday. They will give you a gift certificate to come in again for a free meal. It's a wonderful restaurant and during dinner has a nice dim setting perfect for couples. It's a Japanese restaurant with a Brazillian twist to it. They bring different cuts of meat and carve them right at your table. The top sirloin from them is delicious by the way. So are the chicken hearts if you're in to that sort of thing. They also offer the regular sushi and sashimi along with raw oysters and snow crabs. They are located in the Marq*E center off the Katy freeway. They can be very pricey during dinner ($30 a person), but are very well worth it. For more information about them, visit http://www.todaihouston.com/
One last thing I would like to mention that may seem extremely ridiculous is to buy coupons off Ebay. Seriously though, I know it sounds stupid, but let's take Denny's for example. If you are anything like me, then you're a broke college student who stays up at all hours of the night and gets a little munchy and even hungry enough for a meal. Well there are very few restaurants open at 3:30 AM, my friends and I have learned. However, Denny's is a fairly cheap and good restaurant to go to and it's always open so it's generally the restaurant I turn to. However, even some place as cheap as Denny's can get a little expensive so one thing that I actually looked in to doing was buying coupons to eat there.
On Ebay at this current moment in time, there are 20 buy 1 get one 1 free meal Denny's coupons going for $0.99. That is extremely cheap and the savings would be unbelievable. Let's say every burger costed me about $7 and I went there with friend's 20 times, we would end up paying $280 vs. the $140 we could be paying. That's a huge difference. And if you're not a Denny's fan, Ebay has a coupon for just about every type of restaurant out there, not to mention gift cards. You will never pay for full price for a gift card off Ebay. Even if you had to pay $20 for a $25 coupon, that is still like getting $5 to eat somewhere for free. This would also save you some money if you're a big gift card buyer around the holidays. If you were to buy 4 gift cards and saved $5 for each one, you would end up with an extra $20 in your pocket.
Well that's all I have to say about that. Oh, and keep reading my blogs!!! Thanks :)
Ingrid Michaelson Concert 09/26 @ Houston Warehouse Live
Ingrid Michaelson is a great artist and I strongly encourage each and everyone of you to check out her music. I was lucky enough to actually see her in person last month at her sold out show so here's a play by play of how things went.
For someone who's never been to a concert before, much less by herself, going was exceptionally scary. I had bought her ticket 1-2 months in advance for $15 plus another $15 tax and processing fee. Ticket Master knows how to get your money. Anyways, I was super excited to go at the time thinking that I would meet knew people and stuff. I had invited my best friend to go with me, but unfortunately he declined thinking that some indie artist just wasn't for him. So in the end I was left with no one I wanted to spend a night with willing to go with me which sucked but worked out anyway. A week before the concert though I kept freaking myself out and put my ticket up for sale on Craig's List. I had a ton of offers but told them all someone else already bought the ticket. In all honesty, I just wasn't ready to part with my beloved ticket.
So the night of the concert finally comes and I'm super stoked to go. I got ready, took some pictures of myself so I would be able to remember what I looked like for my very first concert. Then I left...and got lost....with a GPS. I know, insane right? My GPS was just out to get me, I think. It seemed like it would just come up with a turn out of nowhere when at first it told me to go straigh. Anyways, I ended up finding the venue eventually and then came the worst part, parking. I drove around for about 15-20 mins just looking for parking. I felt so stupid when I did find parking because it ended up being right behind the building. I had never seen it because I never turned on that street and the view was blocked by tour buses.
Anyways, after parking I got in line and for the show. It was confusing because coming from my car the first line was to this Spanish Grammy Awards show. I knew I wasn't dressed the part for that so I asked someone where I was supposed to go. It was actually the building right next to it which had a really confusing line. The line was split in two so there were actually two lines going to the same building. It looked like a fork: one main line and then two lines merging in to that one. Anyways, I ended up on the side of the fork which was closer to the wall which was let in first so it's like I had skipped all those other people.
For all those who don't know very much about concerts, go stand towards the front as soon as possible and don't leave your spot. I was too young to get any drinks from the bar anyway so that worked out in my favor or else I might have been stuck very far away from the stage which would have sucked. After getting inside, we had to wait like 30-45 minutes just for the show to start. I was super hot, as anyone would be in a cramped, crowded, room, so I was really excited onces the lights dimmed and someone came on to the stage. However, that excitement soon turned to disappointment when Greg Holden appeared and not Ingrid Michaelson.
For one thing, I don't even know who Greg Holden is, and also I had been waiting so long it seemed like torture to make me wait even longer for who I had paid to see. I also was new to the whole concert seen and when I had purchased my ticket it never mentioned any sort of open acts so it never occurred to me that there would be one. Greg wasn't that bad though. He was fun to listen to and interect with. I ended up really enjoying him. During the end of his songs, Ingrid even came out to sing with us. Oh, another tip is that you should always sing with all your heart at concerts. No matter how bad your voice is, no one can really hear it anyway.
Well after he was done, we had Ingrid who was fantastic. She had her audience interact with a lot of her songs. Oh, I should also mention that some fans gave her these two super creepy dolls that were supposed to look like her. She liked them but they were still creepy. During the concert I also was somehow smushed closer to the stage. I started out in about the 4th row and centered but ended up in in about the 3rd row and slightly to the right of center. It was still a good position though. I need a better camera so that I can take better pictures next time.
After the show, Greg was out there signing autographs and giving people hugs. That's basically the show in a nut shell. The lesson in all of this is: don't be afraid to go to concerts alone! I had a blast and pigged out at Jack in the Box after the show (around 1 AM).
For someone who's never been to a concert before, much less by herself, going was exceptionally scary. I had bought her ticket 1-2 months in advance for $15 plus another $15 tax and processing fee. Ticket Master knows how to get your money. Anyways, I was super excited to go at the time thinking that I would meet knew people and stuff. I had invited my best friend to go with me, but unfortunately he declined thinking that some indie artist just wasn't for him. So in the end I was left with no one I wanted to spend a night with willing to go with me which sucked but worked out anyway. A week before the concert though I kept freaking myself out and put my ticket up for sale on Craig's List. I had a ton of offers but told them all someone else already bought the ticket. In all honesty, I just wasn't ready to part with my beloved ticket.
So the night of the concert finally comes and I'm super stoked to go. I got ready, took some pictures of myself so I would be able to remember what I looked like for my very first concert. Then I left...and got lost....with a GPS. I know, insane right? My GPS was just out to get me, I think. It seemed like it would just come up with a turn out of nowhere when at first it told me to go straigh. Anyways, I ended up finding the venue eventually and then came the worst part, parking. I drove around for about 15-20 mins just looking for parking. I felt so stupid when I did find parking because it ended up being right behind the building. I had never seen it because I never turned on that street and the view was blocked by tour buses.
Anyways, after parking I got in line and for the show. It was confusing because coming from my car the first line was to this Spanish Grammy Awards show. I knew I wasn't dressed the part for that so I asked someone where I was supposed to go. It was actually the building right next to it which had a really confusing line. The line was split in two so there were actually two lines going to the same building. It looked like a fork: one main line and then two lines merging in to that one. Anyways, I ended up on the side of the fork which was closer to the wall which was let in first so it's like I had skipped all those other people.
For all those who don't know very much about concerts, go stand towards the front as soon as possible and don't leave your spot. I was too young to get any drinks from the bar anyway so that worked out in my favor or else I might have been stuck very far away from the stage which would have sucked. After getting inside, we had to wait like 30-45 minutes just for the show to start. I was super hot, as anyone would be in a cramped, crowded, room, so I was really excited onces the lights dimmed and someone came on to the stage. However, that excitement soon turned to disappointment when Greg Holden appeared and not Ingrid Michaelson.
For one thing, I don't even know who Greg Holden is, and also I had been waiting so long it seemed like torture to make me wait even longer for who I had paid to see. I also was new to the whole concert seen and when I had purchased my ticket it never mentioned any sort of open acts so it never occurred to me that there would be one. Greg wasn't that bad though. He was fun to listen to and interect with. I ended up really enjoying him. During the end of his songs, Ingrid even came out to sing with us. Oh, another tip is that you should always sing with all your heart at concerts. No matter how bad your voice is, no one can really hear it anyway.
Well after he was done, we had Ingrid who was fantastic. She had her audience interact with a lot of her songs. Oh, I should also mention that some fans gave her these two super creepy dolls that were supposed to look like her. She liked them but they were still creepy. During the concert I also was somehow smushed closer to the stage. I started out in about the 4th row and centered but ended up in in about the 3rd row and slightly to the right of center. It was still a good position though. I need a better camera so that I can take better pictures next time.
After the show, Greg was out there signing autographs and giving people hugs. That's basically the show in a nut shell. The lesson in all of this is: don't be afraid to go to concerts alone! I had a blast and pigged out at Jack in the Box after the show (around 1 AM).
Ingrid and her crew
Whoa, Blogger - The Beginning
Well I am verily (that was not a typo) new to Blogger but am not new to blogs. I was an active blogger on MySpace but have decided ot try this new site out. I was actually reading a news article today that suggested I could become rich from frequently blogging and that this was a good site to try it. Well as a broke college student, I don't have very much to lose but a little bit of my time so why not give it a shot. It's doubtful that I will receive very many, if any viewers, but trying never hurts. If anyone is interested in reading that news article, the URL is as follows: http://venturebeat.com/2009/10/22/technorati-full-time-bloggers-are-making-more-money-than-ever/
Well since hardly anyone knows me here. No one knows me actually, I should inform you all of a few very boring facts. I say "anyways" a lot along with "oh" and "well." I'm sorry to say but my vocabulary isn't PhD material. I write in a way where you, the reader, can read my articles and not have to type in to Google "define: accolade." Of course most of you are probable well aware of what that means anyway. Yes? No? Well it means praise and what not.
Quick introduction about myself. I'm 19 years old, a former vegan, and currently a college student but you all should have already picked up on that. I'll try to keep my blogs to a certain subject and hopefully be able to help some people with questiosn about random things. My role model in life is Tyra Banks. I'm pre-med and enjoy horseback riding. I don't know how much more random I can get but as my blogs go along you will learn more about me and hopefully enjoy my work. Oh, my name is also Melanie and I'm half Filipino/half white.
The End.
Well since hardly anyone knows me here. No one knows me actually, I should inform you all of a few very boring facts. I say "anyways" a lot along with "oh" and "well." I'm sorry to say but my vocabulary isn't PhD material. I write in a way where you, the reader, can read my articles and not have to type in to Google "define: accolade." Of course most of you are probable well aware of what that means anyway. Yes? No? Well it means praise and what not.
Quick introduction about myself. I'm 19 years old, a former vegan, and currently a college student but you all should have already picked up on that. I'll try to keep my blogs to a certain subject and hopefully be able to help some people with questiosn about random things. My role model in life is Tyra Banks. I'm pre-med and enjoy horseback riding. I don't know how much more random I can get but as my blogs go along you will learn more about me and hopefully enjoy my work. Oh, my name is also Melanie and I'm half Filipino/half white.
The End.
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