Korea & Japan: The Crowds

I've been meaning to make this post for a while, but I've been a little lazy about it...

I know Korea and Japan don't really like being compared to each other. Well, really Korea doesn't like to be compared to Japan. However, since I live in Korea and I studied Japanese for almost four years...I've done it. I tend to take a pretty neutral stance since I love them both pretty well. And while I'd rather keep most of my opinions off the internet, there is one thing I will declare:

The crowds in Korea are crazier than Japan.

I've been to Japan twice now. Last summer I was in Kyoto/Osaka for a week. This past March I was in Tokyo for three days. I never really wanted to go to Tokyo nearly as much as I wanted to go to Kyoto, but I had the time and the money and it was the easiest trip to take at the time. I was curious and so I hit some sights, met a friend of a friend, and had a pretty good time.

Most people will talk about how it's super crowded in Tokyo. How there are people pushers on the subway. I didn't experience that, but then I didn't try to travel around the city before 9am. In Kyoto, once, my friends and I experinced a sardine packed train on our way to a very popular fireworks display. I can see crowds like that in the USA, too.

Something that struck me that I would like to compare, is how a busy shopping area looks around 6/7pm on a Saturday night.

This is Omotesando in Tokyo:

This is Gangnam:

(Note: I promise they were taken at the same time of day, but one was March the other was July)

Now, yes there are a lot of people in both pictures. However there are more in Gangnam.

To be fair, here is Harajuku:

Harajuku was pretty crowded, but it's also super small. The street isn't that wide and the shops are pretty well crammed together.

My take from living in Seoul and visiting Tokyo is that I don't think Tokyo is busier than Seoul. Sometimes, I think Seoul might be busier, but it's also more modern. I wonder what it's like to live in Tokyo, rather than live there, but then while I could ask people I know who spent more time there, if they haven't lived in Seoul as well, the comparison is lost.

Japanese Pattern Book: The Success

I bought a Japanese pattern book a year ago thinking I'M GONNA MAKE A THING but then my sewing machine broke and things never happened. That's okay. I bought a new, cheap, sewing machine a few months back and for all the cursing I give it, it does manage to reward me most of the time.

Someday I'll find another issue of this magazine. 

 Japanese pattern books are great because you get tons of patterns in a nice little package. However, they can be daunting because they're 1: in Japanese and 2: jumbled together.

This post is not going to be a tutorial, however. I will say that using them is not nearly as scary as you might think since you just need to find the right pattern on the folded inserts, trace them, and add seam allowance.

I wanted to make this pattern. It's very pretty.

There is this red sheer fabric that I have been dragging around of years. I used to even just hang it over windows but I had never sewn or made it into anything. There was nothing I wanted to use it on. So, this dress...yeah. That's a good one to use it on.

I was very careful. It was hard because that cheap machine likes to fight and skip stitches, but I got it there. I did french seams anywhere it would be left exposed to make sure fraying was kept to a minimum. I also took it to a repair shop nearby and had the collar overlock stitched (serged) before I attached the yolk because the collar seams are exposed on the wrong side of the fabric.

Skipped stitches. Many a seams were redone. 

La French Seam. You can see the fabric is encased. 

It took me a few weeks to finish but I really took my time. Mostly this is because of the fabric, which is a pain to work with. Yay sheers!

Phone camera makes not the good picture.

I'm really happy with it, though. I even added a ruffled bottom so I can wear it to work without tights (I have a tattoo on my leg).

Quick! Take a picture before I go to work!
No time for nice faces! 

Peach Preserves in Korea

Fruit is Korea is super seasonal. There was a period in the late winter where suddenly I could get crates of strawberries for like, 12,000원 and that was a special month.

Being summer, tons of stuff is suddenly in season. During my two years in Korea, I see peaches in the summer, and only in the summer. I keep thinking about peaches and how yummy they are and how they should be in my oatmeal.

So I tried canning them.

It was easy, but time consuming. I used a recipe I found from 100 Days of Real Food that is no pectin and no refined sugar. I don't know how to get pectin and since I wanted to make the preserves, like, today, I didn't want to find it on Gmarket, either. It was originally for strawberries but fruit's fruit.

I divided it by one third for my purposes.

2kg (2 pounds) peaches
1 1/4 C honey
1/2 Apple, grated
1/2 Tbs Lemon Juice

The peaches were cheap. I asked them at the supermarket to make sure the packages were 1kg each like I suspected. My Korean was a little wonky (did you know 한기로 should be 일기로?), but they got what I meant and said yep!

I picked up my cans from Homeplus. They were about 3,500-4,900원 each. I will have to return the taller ones because they are too tall for the largest pot I could find. The water wouldn't cover them to seal properly. These are Quattro Stagioni jars from Bromioli Rocco (an Italian company). They each come with a multilingual instruction book on how to pasteurize and seal the jars. I checked online and people claim they are also freezer safe.

I also picked up my honey at Homeplus. One bottle was almost exactly 1 1/4 cup, so easy peasy. This Acacia Honey (11,000 원) is pretty common in Korea and while expensive, much more natural than sugar. The lemon juice I had, but I also got it at Homeplus. Not it's not fresh squeeze. What do I look like, a hippie? 

I put my jars in the large pot to sterilize for about 10 minutes while I prepared the peaches. I also boiled some water and put the lids in a bowl to sterilize

After the peaches are chopped and peeled, throw all the ingredients in another large pot and boil for about 60 minutes. (The longer the thicker).

After the preserves were ready I poured 1.5c into my blender and gave it a few pulses, then put it back in to mix so there were less chunks. Then I ladeled it into one .5L jar and one .25L jar.

 It made a lot less than I would have liked, but that just means I won't be giving any away to friends...

It also means I can experiment with making other jams from the nectarines and other things around without needing more jars immediately.

After filling the jars and tightly put on the lids, you submerge them again in water and boil them yet again for 10-15 minutes. I'm still waiting for mine to cool. I'm hoping they sealed okay. If they didn't I might try resealing the larger can. Mostly I plan on throwing it in the freezer to keep for a later date.

I'm not even sure why I processed the smaller jar. I wanted to make sure it would work, I guess. I plan on opening it again right away and putting it in oatmeal, anyway.

Update: 

I left the jars in the pot to cool and when I came home. The jars sealed. I read this on another blog that it would probably do it as the jars cool, which is great!

Ash's Birthday Costume

My friend Ashley from Getting Past the White Tiger decided to have a theme birthday party. "Rehab for Fictional Characters." As the star she decided to be repentant Ash Ketchum from Pokemon and asked me to help her put together his somewhat unique jacket.

It's actually pretty easy and she pointed me in the direction of a how-to website which suggested rather than making the jacket from scratch taking a white and a blue dress shirt, detaching the sleeves, then reassembling them appropriately.

I picked up some yellow cotton from Dongdaemun for the trim and fake pockets, then sewed them on.

For her hat, we masked the check off with tape on a piece of fabric then spray painted it. Then the white was basted onto a red hat.

I even had a pokeball from Japan on hand. It had stickers in it.

Not worried, Prepared

Always prepare for the worst, but don't panic.

I am not worried about the last month or so of political bolstering from the North. They're doing a good job trying to make people panic, but the best thing we can all do is go on as normal with one change: have a plan.

Expats in S. Korea should do two things:

1. Pack an emergency bag.
2. Sign up for your consulate travel warnings.

Your emergency bag is the get out of dodge bag. It's your evacuation bag. It should be small and basic. Mine is a backpack. It has a change of clothes, sundries (toothbrush, brush, spare glasses, contact case), my USA track phone (even though it has no minutes), and an international power converter, and my laptop. I don't carry my passport around, but it is next to the door with my bag.

I signed up for USA travel warnings about a month ago when this all started. I kept putting it off. They sent me a 'don't panic' email last week and I'm going to assume that since they have my phone number if something bad happens they will call or text and email me with instructions.

For a more detailed take on the whole thing, head over to JackK's blog. I'm pretty much on par with his sentiments.

Shredding Week 2

I just finished level 2. I'm only shredding for 3 weeks on weekdays, then I will probably do a week of yoga to let my body recover. I lost just over a pound last week. I anticipate it might be more this week with my activity up.

Most of my measurements are the same, but some places are creeping down:

arms: 14 (-.5")
bust: 38
waist: 40
hip: 44
thigh: 26.5 (-.5")

I've had a couple of people message me about my progress and I think that's great. I'm actually really happy that people have been following what I'm doing and are getting inspiration. We all need to support each other. I need it, you need it, we all need it.

If you can, please comment or message me questions, ideas, or what you're doing. Everyone needs different methods because every person is different. You can buffet your health. A little bit of advice here, a different workout there. The whole thing is a learning process about what is best for you. It takes time but it's totally worth it.

High Street Market Review

There are quite a few different foreign food markets in Itaewon, but High Street Market is the newest. Their specialty is a deli, but they have a lot of other great things, too.

What are you looking for? Oatmeal? American coffee or tea? Spices? Canned vegetables? Grains? Venison?

They have a wide variety of things you might want and the best part is, they'll deliver. That's right, they'll deliver. I haven't tried it, yet, but I live 45 minutes from Itaewon so I haven't needed it. However, Korean "taekbae" service from them is 3,000원 anywhere in the country (6,000 for Jeju) and they even deliver free to some districts in Seoul.

So far, I have bought an 8"x8" baking pan, a muffin pan, ground turkey, spices, coffee, oatmeal, Pam spray, and some chocolate from them. I really love their store and it's becoming very popular. I highly recommend if you're in Itaewon you head down to check it out. If you can't make it up to Seoul, check out their website. You'll be happy you did.

The most recent haul. P.S. That oatmeal is amazing.

Main site: http://highstreet.co.kr/
Map: http://highstreet.co.kr/Front/Mall/?url=Comintro&

Good Korean Restruant Foods

The best restaurant foods I can recommend in Korea are in the video above. Let me also talk to you about them in more detail here, in the blog.

I got all of my dietary information from the KFDA website, which you can find here.

Eo-mokguk ~ 어무국

You can find this stuff in street stalls all over the country as well as in Kimbap shops and even at the lunch stalls in grocery stores like Lotte Mart. I like to eat it at Addal (아딸) a Korean fast food chain where you can get a big bowl of soup with fiskcake for \2,000. I think it's a steal.

One Serving: 600g
탄수화물(carbohydrates) 34.2 g
단백질(protein) 18.3 g
지방(fat) 4.5 g
식이섬유(dietary fiber) 19 g
Weight Watchers Points: 5


Kimchi Jiggae ~ 김치찌개

Also available at most Korean restaurants, you can get Kimchi Jiggae from anywhere from a doshirak (lunchbox) place like Hansot to a neighborhood restaurant or kimbap shop.

One Serving: 400 g
탄수화물(carbohydrates) 11.9 g
단백질(protein) 15.1 g
지방(fat) 15 g
식이섬유(dietary fiber) 8.4 g
Weight Watchers Points: 6/7

Galbi Tang ~ 갈비탕

Oxbone soup is so flavorful that you might not believe it's only 6 points, but the portions are so light with the actual meat it gives you right what you need. It might be a little hard to find places that have it, but just ask around. Someone can probably point you in the direction of a place with good galbi-tang. It's worth it.

One Serving: 600 g
탄수화물(carbohydrates) 7.6 g
단백질(protein) 27.4 g
지방(fat) 10.8 g
식이섬유(dietary fiber) 2.6 g
Weight Watchers Points: 6

Steamed Dumplings ~ 물만두

This is the one I didn't believe what the KFDA website had because it seemed like there was a typo somewhere. Regardless if you want some dumplings, have them, just watch how many you eat and keep balanced the rest of the day. The listing for steamed meat dumplings was reasonable, however.

Vegetable:
One Serving:10 Dumplings 120 g  <- 120g for 10 dumplings? Seemed low.
탄수화물(carbohydrates) 18.7 g
단백질(protein) 6.8 g
지방(fat) 6.1 g
식이섬유(dietary fiber) 5.5 g
Weight Watchers Points: 4

Meat:
One Serving: 8 Dumplings 250 g
탄수화물(carbohydrates) 48.6 g
단백질(protein) 16.3g
지방(fat) 21.4 g
식이섬유(dietary fiber) 10..5 g
Weight Watchers Points: 11


Mul Naengmyeon ~ 물냉면

Cold noodle soup is fantastic.

One Serving: 800 g
탄수화물(carbohydrates) 112.9 g
단백질(protein) 15.8 g
지방(fat) 4.1 g
식이섬유(dietary fiber) 33.2 g
Weight Watchers Points: 12

Shredding Day 1 & Meals

I'm back doing Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred this month. Hopefully it will help me get under 180 pounds and help me shred some inches. I did this workout back in January and had great results, so I'm doing it again. However, this time I am not going to do it on the weekends to give my body a rest and do other things like hiking.

Day 1 Measurements:
Bust: 38
Waist: 40
Hips: 45
Thighs: 27
Arms: 14.5

The last time I did the shred I ended up with a strained shoulder which is why I'm taking breaks on the weekends. I think the workout is great overall, but working out every single day for a month is not. I've certainly lost the endurance I had after the last time but give me a week; I'll get it back.

In conjunction with working out I will continue to eat healthy. I stocked up on oatmeal and eggs for breakfasts. Lunches I miss sometimes because I wake up late, but sometimes I will bake a chicken breast and have some bread. Here is what today's brunch looks like. It was 10 points total.

Home made bread, eggs, mushrooms, and lean ham.

The weather is getting warm again which means cold salads doesn't make me shiver eating them in our cold office. So I made up a batch for dinners and they're quite satisfying.

It's herb and garlic dressing from Home Plus, half a tomato, garden vegetable salad mix, 10gms of cashews, 10gms of parmesan cheese, and 5 quail eggs. I put them in a tupperware in that order and then I don't have to make them  before work. Just grab and  go. The eggs and cashews give them the filling feeling a salad needs, as does the cheese. They're 7 points each. If usually take some fruit with me to work and something else to snack on in case I get hungry.

Sideways, I know. The tomatoes are on the bottom to keep the lettuce from getting too soggy. Grapes are my snack of choice this week. 

We'll see how it goes. I'll give another report next week.

Bacon Egg Cups

The big trend is to use Pinterest to keep track of all that stuff you want to try but most people never get around to it.

Well, I try to.

Here's the location of the pin: http://www.recipebyphoto.com/minibacon-egg-cups/

I've tried a few recipes I've found browsing that site and some of them are now staples in my routine. Today I'm going to give a review and my own instructions to the bacon egg cups for you all to enjoy.

How are they? In a word: Amazing 

They are incredibly simple. You will need four things.

An oven, muffin tins, bacon, eggs.

You may also want seasoning and cheese.

One egg per cup.

Season and whip the eggs. I add a tablespoon of milk. You can whip with a whisk or with a blender.

Line the outside of the tin with the bacon and pour the egg mixture into the center. Bake at 350°F/180°C for 30-35 minutes. Then eat them.

The eggs fluff up very nicely and aren't hard at all. The bacon comes out chewy.

As for health, they are fatty,  but not terrible. Bacon is not something you should eat every day, but it is something you can eat. Use lowfat, low sodium cheese if you can. I found low sodium cheese in Home Plus and snatched it up. 

Two cups is 5 Weight Watchers points. Two cups with 20gm of parmesan cheese is 7 points. 

That "Time of the Month" & Weightloss

Warning: This post will contain "female" or "period" talk. If you don't want to read it, here are some kittens. 


For about 85% of women, PMS symptoms pop up every 3-4 weeks [1]. When you're trying to lose weight, this can be a downright nightmare. It certainly is for me. It starts out slowly. Suddenly my brain is subtly telling me "you need some chocolate." Since my diet is going well I think "Okay, let's have some chocolate." Then it becomes a downward spiral.

Usually my body wants sugar and chocolate. Sometimes it even screams for fat. This week it has already been both, and I gave in. Working at night, with my teaching hours 5-10pm, I come home tired. Sometimes I even come home hungry. I try as much as possible to curb this by bringing fruit to work to stuff my face with between classes, but it doesn't always work.

We can blame this PMS craving insanity one our hormones. Usually feminists don't like to blame things on hormones, but you know what? I will. Suddenly I am crying while watching The Big Bang Theory over empty candy bar wrappers and the next day I'm wondering what is wrong with me? Then the breast tenderness starts and I think: "Oh, so we're back to this, now, are we?"

As it turns out, before the actual period part happens, the estrogen levels in our body rise then drop suddenly. This triggers the release of cortilsol, which is a stress causing hormone. It triggers the fight or flight response [2]. What this means to me is that your body is freaking out and telling you to EAT ALL THE THINGS while you can...because stress means run away and store energy.

A few things I have done in the past that worked okay you can find by just Googling "PMS Cravings" and there are a bevy or articles telling you what to eat instead. It's usually a good idea to try to substitute fruit for sweets, but at the height of my cravings my body just kind of says...

What I (try) to do: 

Chocolate Cravings 

To cope with chocolate cravings I splurged at Home Plus and bought a large 16 piece box of Lindor Milk Chocolate Truffles. The box is about 15,000 won, but it was totally worth it. I made myself this promise: I will only eat 1-2 at a time and I will let them melt in my mouth and savor them. This actually worked really, really, well and I didn't even finish the box until a month later. One truffle is 2 Weight Watcher's points. Since I usually leave some points for the end of my day, it was the perfect craving curb.

The bottom line is this: pick your favorite chocolate and savor it. Spend some money on it. You're worth it.

Sugar Cravings

Eat fruit. Eat a lot of fruit. Drink water with your fruit. Go to the store and (in Korea) spend like 10,000 won on a big old box of grapes or strawberries or blueberries and eat that fruit until you're full. I mean bursting oh-my-god what have I done? Full of fruit.

I know fruit is expensive in Korea. Especially since most of that stuff is seasonal, but usually you can find something on the shelf that won't put you in the poor house. The good news is that Korea almost always sells things in bulk which mean that when you spend about 10-15,000 won on a big old box of fruit...you now have a BIG OL' BOX OF FRUIT. Which is good for you. Eat it and stop complaining about the price and start thinking about how happy you'll be next week on weigh-in day.

Fat

I definitely ate fried chicken this week. My body decided to tell me, while I was hungry and tired, that I needed some fried chicken and I gave in. I did not feel good about it afterward. I still could feel it the next day. Fat is one of the hardest cravings to do well because the kind of fat my body thinks it wants is not the stuff that contains 'good fat.'

The best thing I try to do is turn to unsalted nuts or avocados if I can find them ripe enough to eat. Usually they are not ripe when I need them to be, so nuts it is. An ounce of nuts is, sadly, about 4-6 points depending on the nut. However, if you portion control it might be the kick you need to make your body happy.

Finally, the last bit of advice I have is to try to fit more complex carbohydrates into your meals because they take longer to digest, can improve your serotonin levels [2], and contain essential vitamins [3].

Good luck, ladies.





References:
[1] "How to Cope with Food Cravings and Keep Losing Weight" Charlene Laino, Charlotte Grayson, MD. MedicineNet.com <http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=56732>

[2] "8 Healthy Ways to Deal with PMS Cravings" Charmaine Ann Enerio. Fitday.com <http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/fitness/8-healthy-ways-to-deal-with-pms-cravings.html#b>

[3] "8 Diet Dos and Don'ts to Ease PMS" Cari Nierenberg. WebMD.com. <http://women.webmd.com/features/diet-and-pms?page=1>

Weight Watchers in Korea 1 : Nutritional Values

A few people have asked about doing Weight Watchers in Korea. I'm going to do a short series of videos to give people tips to help get started.

First of all, let me tell you, I do Weight Watchers Online. I got a nice deal last summer for 3 months at a reduced price and I keep paying the monthly fee. I do so through my American bank account since there is no way to set it up for a Korean account. It is worth it to have, even when I'm getting lazy about tracking, because I can always go back to the website and look for recipes and ideas when I feel like I need to get back on track.

This first video is about nutritional values to help calculate point values for foods you find in Korea. This would be useful when you are grocery shopping to help you decide to buy or at least to help keep your consumption under control.

Forget About "Cleaning Your Plate"

As I woke up bleary eyed this morning I went to make myself some oatmeal. Mmmm oatmeal. Homely, delicious  healthy. However without morning Joe to kickstart my brain I found myself dumping 1 cup of oats into 1 c of boiling water...meaning I made twice as much oatmeal as I usually would for breakfast.

Ooops.

As you start losing weight on weight watchers you'll notice your 'daily points' goes down ever 5-10lbs. It makes sense, because when there's less of you, you should need less calories. However, it does take some adjusting at times. You realize that you can't eat exactly the same the whole time because eventually you're going to have to eat less to lose more.

Something we have to hurdle over is an idea implanted in our head from the time we are young. "Clean your plate." "There are starving children in Africa/China." However, we need to take a moment to think about why our elders told us such things. When you're young, you're finicky. Kids don't want to eat half a cup of broccoli just because it's healthy. It's yucky. So we're guilted into eating it so our parents don't have to worry about treating us for nutrient deficiencies later on.

Now that we're older, wiser, and trying to eat healthy, we have to think about what we really need in our bodies. When you're at a restaurant and they give you enough rice to feed a small army, don't eat it all. If your friends make you a meal and they give you tons of bread, eat what you know is right for you, then say you're satisfied.

We don't have to eat until we're bloated. It's that kind of thinking that got you to where ever you don't want to be now. So, forget about cleaning your plate. Recycle that food. Start a household compost bin. Ask someone else if they're hungry still. Just don't think that starving children in Africa will suffer more because you didn't finish your oatmeal. Honestly, would they have ever gotten a chance to eat YOUR oatmeal anyway?

Next stop: compost bin.

Who's THAT?

This is my journey so far.

One of my students when I come into the classroom instead of saying "Hello" or "How are you?" he thinks it's funny to say "Who are you?" I don't know why.

The point is this: sometimes, I look in the mirror and ask the same question.

Who is that? 

I mean, I know it's me. Most of the time. That isn't to say that I haven't caught the reflection in a store window and couldn't figure out why I wasn't in it. The amazing, yet scary, thing right now is that I'm starting to look the way I always thought I should look. There is this weird dichotomy between what I was used to seeing in a mirror for ten years and what I believed to be the person trapped inside.

Like most adults, my peak was in high school. Unlike most adults, I actually only had about 2 years of peak because mostly through high school I was still overweight until I dropped weight one summer and kept it off until halfway through my first year of college.

Just before graduation.

Poor choices and lack of exercise in college and the following years my weight crawled up over 250 lbs (>113kg) and stayed there for more than 5 years. I don't remember exactly when it got that high, but I know it had been there for a while. I was complacent with my weight because other people would tell me I looked good. And despite protests from my doctor and continuous cholesterol and diabetes checks, I always came out safe. After 2-3 years of regular diabetes checks I started to refuse them because I don't like needles and they never came out close to positive. My only major health problem is that I have PCOS, which I have known since high school. It isn't caused by weight, it's caused by hormone imbalance  I had no reason to be unhappy with my weight...other than I didn't really like how I looked.

Christmas 2008

Recently I have gone back through old photos of me and I have a hard time believing how much I have changed. I know that in 2006-2008 I was over 260 lbs and wearing size 22 clothes. There were a lot of other factors keeping me there, stress, lifestyle, willpower, etc. It took some major changes in my life and friends and family introducing the tools to me to help me get to where I am going now.

One of the most major changes was moving abroad. I hope to get into more depth about this later, but most of us Westerners have a strange logic about living in Asia. We think: Asians are small and skinny. If I'm living in Asia and live like they do, I will become small and skinny too! It's wrong.

3 months after arrival in Korea: still 250+

I dropped about 15-20 pounds after moving to Korea just because my body needed to adjust to what was going on. I did walk a lot more because...well you walk a lot more when you live in the country and don't have a car. However, it was still more than a year before I was straight up in size 18 jeans again.

This is where looking at old photos starts to get strange.

I started Weight Watchers and doing exercise routines on and off in June 2012. I am not perfect and don't always stick to my diet, but in the 8 months since I started I have lost about 48 pounds.

Team vests given on arrival...the biggest they had didn't fit me.

My friend on the left there gave me those pants...they're already getting loose.

This post is simply to show how far I've come. It's an odd feeling to look back at where you were after a long journey with losing weight. I think it's also important. It's painfully obvious that it's possible, just by looking at me here. The most important thing is to know my own history so that I never repeat it.

Edit: I was told I should include pictures from my trip to Tokyo last weekend, so I will.

Kyoto August 2012

Tokyo March 2013

Chicken Curry

My first recipe video! Yay! 

It is by no means perfect but if I get all perfectionist I'll never finish videos.

I came up with my curry recipe on my own. Nothing special about it other than I know what vegetables I like...and available. I use mild curry because I don't like things too spicy but don't be afraid to get medium or hot, it won't make a difference on your calories/points.

You can find curry mix anywhere in Korea. If you're not in Korea, you can find it in most ethnic food sections at any large grocery store. I make a batch, eat a portion, then store the rest to take to work for dinners the rest of the week. It reheats well and goes great on tortillas. Om nom nom nom.

Chicken Curry 

Prep time: about 15 minutes
Cook time: about 10 minutes
Serves: 4 

Points Plus Points: 3 (4 with pumpkin) 

1 medium white onion1 large carrot3 stalks of celery250 grams chicken breasts1 package Vermont Curry powderoptional~ 2 cups pumpkin or squash 

1. Roughly chop vegetables. 
2. Cut chicken into bite sized pieces. 
3. Heat pan, spray with oil. 
4. Cook chicken until no longer pink. 
5. Add vegetables, hard first. Cook until onions are translucent. 
• Optional: Add pumpkin, cook 1-2 minutes. 
6. Push contents to the side, add 1 cup of water, bring to a boil. Pour curry powder in and stir to dissolve  Slowly stir ingredients together. Curry will thicken quickly. Remove from heat, serve. 

Freezing Bananas

Bananas are super cheap in Korea. Sometimes they're expensive, but the expensive ones are usually jumbo Chicitas with perfect skins.

Hey as long as they're not rotting and looking massively deformed what do you really care? (not that a deformed banana is any different than a 'normal' one)

Skulking around on Pintrest, the internet's new social bookmark website and cookbook, I found an article about freezing bananas to make a fat-free, milk-free "ice cream".

The idea was to basically cut up bananas and freeze the slices on a tray, then blend the frozen slices until creamy. I'll talk more about this in a moment, but this idea of freezing sliced bananas sparked another inspiration in me.

You see, I make smoothies pretty regularly with frozen blueberries and strawberries I buy here. 2 cups of fruit with 1 cup of regular soy milk usually comes out to a satisfying breakfast (worth about 5 Weight Watcher's Points). I liked to add 1 banana to these but bananas always go bad faster than I can eat them. Sometimes I would throw them in the freezer and let them brown, then try to thaw and peel them later like I would for banana bread, but it's difficult to peel a frozen banana. It's also cold! 

I always thought that freezing a banana meant it would get overripe because the skins turn brown when you freeze them. Boy was I wrong.

They come out looking pretty much exactly as they did going in. Now I have two bags of frozen bananas for smoothie or ice cream, or bananas I can keep longer than 2 days for ingredients in my cooking. Just thaw!