It's been so long!

Wow, I haven't been here in a while! Let's see what happened while I was gone...Breaking Bad ended and Dexter ended. The former definitely did it right with the final season, however Dexter's finale left something to be desired. I am still showing Breaking Bad withdrawal symptoms because the entire show was just that good. Anyway, besides TV shows, I have the dreaded GRE on Saturday, Nov 2, same day as Bangladesh Night (University of Texas at Dallas). I am taking part in two dances and a fashion show and although it may seem way beyond my time and stuff, doing extracurricular like this really keeps me motivated and happy. Oh, and today, I am going to dress up as Rosie the riveter for Halloween so I can get my $3 deal at Chipotle! Happy Halloween everybody!

My Halloween Costume: Rosie the Riveter!

This was an easy,  peasy costume that I threw together in less than an hour! I wore one of my hubby's shirts and took a piece of cloth, painted it red with white polka dots. I slapped on some black eyeliner and matte red lipstick (MAC Ruby Woo). The hair took the longest I guess. I teased the top portion of my hair and sprayed it down well and made sort of a pompadour. 

Eid Moo-barak!

Weight loss shmeight loss...

I am a moderately large sized girl with an above average appetite and a seriously below average metabolism. The result? Weight gain just by breathing in air. As a kid I was always on the chubbier side and I never really had a problem with it. However, people always seem to have a problem with chubby women. I mean let's just all agree that if no one cared and if it didn't matter, we would all eat three croissants a day smeared with butter and few tall glasses of vanilla milkshakes. Life isn't so kind though. In the last one year, my chubbiness superseded my previous chubby times. I am married and just like me my hubby is a foodie. Hence, ever since we got married, I sort of let go and started eating as I pleased. The result? + 30 lbs. I got so laid back that I didn't step on the weighing scale and just sort of wore clothes that were stretchy so not to realize how out of shape I was getting.

Anyways, 2 weeks ago I decided to go on a 'regime' to try and lose some weight and get into shape. I cut out sugar, refined carbs, fat. When I say cut out, I don't eat sugar at all but I do eat brown rice (tennis ball sized amount and only once a day) and my fats include cooking with Pam cooking spray. I've been eating grilled chicken tenders, lettuce, tomatoes, avocados, snap peas, a few nuts, fish, oatmeal, etc. Not all at once of course, but those items constitute most of my meals. My workouts include walking on the treadmill at 3.0 mph with ankle weights. I do a few dumbbell exercises and crunches too.

So far I've lost a pound. Just 1 pound!!!! It is so frustrating. My hubby says I look a bit slimmer (either he's lying or he's encouraging me to keep going lol). I don't feel happy though. I am deprived of serotonin-releasing carbs and I am wide awake at night because of I don't have a full stomach lol. I know there are tons of girls out there who have always watched what they eat and so its a way of life for them. Not for me. I love food. I live for food. If it were upto me, I would eat as much carbs as I wanted, smeared with as much butter as I waned. But like I said before, life isn't so kind. People are not so kind. Bulges are not forgiven. So I wonder, at the end of all this regime, hopefully when I've lost all that additional weight, I will look better but will I feel happy with so many sacrifices? I am not so sure. 

My new oatmeal routine

I've been making overnight oats for my hubby for a while now. However, I've been steering clear of it as I am not a big fan of oats. For breakfast I like fried eggs and buttered toasts. None of that health stuff does it for me. However a recent trip to the weighing scale opened up my eyes so I decided to take a healthier route instead. I'm loving this combination pictured above. Here are the ingredients

1)3/4 cup of oats
2)1 1/5 cups of milk
3)1/2 a banana, sliced
4)Few pieces of fresh coconut
5)1 tsp chia seeds
6) 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
7) Honey, just a dash

This combination is absolutely winning, for me at least. It tastes like dessert but its sort of healthy. It also keeps me satisfied for quite sometime. Yay for healthy!

Review: MAC Studio Fix Fluid

I used to use MAC Studio Fix Fluid in NC37 way back in the days. It was my favorite foundation, it gave full coverage, stayed put for hours and made my skin look flawless. But then in between, I kind of shifted to other foundations like Makeup Forever HD Foundation, Revlon Colorstay, etc. Recently, I decided to go back to MAC and pick the Studio Fix Fluid but this time the shade I picked was NC40.

 I also decided to buy the pump which costs a whopping $9.

Overall, the formulation feels the same like it did before. I dislike the scent. It's sort of bordering on chemical and antiseptic smell. I got the shade NC40 which matches my tan skin quite well. I am just surprised that I think I still prefer Revlon Colorstay's Oily/Combination skin foundation better. I have the shade Golden Caramel in Revlon Colorstay. The drawback with that is that its a tad pink for my yellow skin, but I still like how it feels and looks on the skin. Back to MAC Studio Fix Fluid, I am going to try it out and see how it holds up. I think if you are trying to save money, go for Revlon Colorstay Foundation. It's a superb foundation :)

Recipe: Coconut Mochi Cake

So ever since I learned about Mochiko rice flour, I've been obsessed. Its a glutinous type of rice flour. It is also called sweet rice flour. I buy the Koda brand which is available in most Asian stores. This flour is used mostly to make mochi which is a chewy rice cake stuffed with sweetened red bean paste. I, however, don't make mochi with it. When I was in undergrad, a friend from Hawaii introduced me to Butter mochi which is basically like a pound cake made with mochiko rice flour. It tasted like a soft, chewy, buttery cake, something like I've never tasted before. As the name suggests, butter mochi is quite rich and dense in calories. So I came up with a slightly lighter version that tastes about the same with lesser calories.

2 cups mochiko rice flour
1/2 cup turbinado sugar
1 and 1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/4 cup dried coconut flakes

You just mix everything together until its a smooth paste and then grease a dish and pour the batter in. If your batter is too tight, add more water or milk to make it runnier. The runnier the batter, the moister the cake and lesser the chances your cake won't be dry. Bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes. You must remember that the chewiness and gooeyness is characteristic of this flour and hence it doesn't mean that is is undercooked. I don't know if it is an acquired taste thing but I just love this dessert. It tastes like nothing you've ever tasted before.