Baking fail?

Yesterday, I fired up the oven and baked a coconut-banana bread and a sour cream coffee cake. I used my tried and true banana bread recipe and added some shredded coconut to the mix. The result? Meh. First it fell (I had opened the oven halfway through - oops), second it was all browned on top (more brown than usual). I did the toothpick check and it seemed clean but when I sliced in, I realised that it could have stayed in the oven a bit longer. It tastes good but doesnt have a very strong coconut taste. Banana is pretty powerful flavour. I still have more shredded coconut left but I think I will make macaroons with the rest.

As for the sour cream coffee cake. Another meh. It wasn't bad but it just wasn't wow-ing me. I think I probably needed to have added the maple syrup glaze. I was kinda tired and didnt want to be in the kitchen anymore so I skipped it. To be fair though, I haven't had a proper slice of the coffee cake. I will try it again later tonight and see if I still think it is "meh."

Yoga X

I hate Yoga X.

OK. Maybe that's a little harsh. The first "problem" is that the workout is 1.5hrs. My brain just cannot seem to accept that I will be exercising that long. What can I say? I'm lazy. I've never done yoga before and have no idea how different Yoga X is from other yoga workouts. However, I just can't seem to get with repeating the vinyasa sequence that many times. Plank, upward dog, plank, downward dog, runner's pose, warrior. Repeat a million times then add warrior 2. Repeat a million times then add backward warrior or something. I guess I can't turn off my mind just yet. The second half of the workout is a lot of poses and some yoga belly. I can't do all the poses but I like them and I love the variety. Today I did about an hour of workout. I was proud of myself. I only sat out 10 minutes of the vinyasa and then random poses like the crane pose that I just cannot do just yet.

Overall it is quite the workout though. I am usually sweating and panting really hard 30 minutes into it. I will keep trying and hopefully, I can turn off my mind and enjoy the 90 minutes without constantly wondering - when will this end? Perhaps there needs to be the option to turn off the timer on the screen. I cant help but focus on the timer - counting down to the end of my workout.

Eating out

I hardly ever go out to dinner. I love making my own meals (sometimes) and I often can't justify the cost of an entree when I can create the same at home for much less. Call me cheap, if you will. Or maybe just poor. Anyway, last night I went to Versailles Restaurant in Little Havana.

I looked at the menu online and was happy that they had a wide variety of choices. What would I choose? I had a lot of chicken and pork in the past week and thought I'd go with seafood. However, when I got to the restaurant, I saw that they had oxtail and suddenly I was unsure. Yes, I am very indecisive, why? Right before the waitress took our order, I decided to go with the braised lamb shanks.

Others in my party ordered whole fried snapper, fish filet, barbequed chicken and a seafood creole. Everybody enjoyed their meals. My lamb wasn't necessarily amazing though. It was good but needed a little extra something. However, overall, it was still a good meal. And a good night out with friends. I would definitely return to Versailles to try something else on their menu. Maybe this time, I will get fish.

Restaurant.com

Over the holidays, I entered a giveaway on Hysterical Randomness and won a $25 gift card from Restaurant.com. The night when I entered, I was craving Japanese and looked on Restaurant.com and saw that Umami Asian Cuisine was listed and thought I'd go there.

I got the gift card and was asked if I'd like to do a guest post. Awesome! No problem! Would love to! Now I just have to decide on a restaurant and a date. Well,no, I already know the restaurant. I ran over to restaurant.com, typed in my zip code and hit search. Whoa! Where did all those restaurants come from?! They weren't there the night I first looked at this.

Now I'm overwhelmed. Do I narrow my search by location? By cuisine? By cost? Decisions. Decisions. I thought I'd veto Cuban cuisine. Hey, I live in Miami. Cuban cuisine is always a foot away. Do I stick with Asian? Go Italian? The steak house a few blocks away? Oh look! There's Jamaican!! Oxtail! What I wouldn't do for some oxtail right now. Oh man, this is going to be hard.

Stay tuned folks (all zero of you reading this right now)!

This blogging thing is hard

I am making myself blog every single day. If only, 2 sentences each day.

Here goes!

P90X

First, I really need to get back into a blogging routine.I think if I get into the habit of writing something everyday, then I may also start writing more in general. But what to write about? I ran out of steam trying to chronicle my brain surgery journey. (If you have any questions about that, please, please, please ask!) Nothing fun really happens in my life. I could write about teaching but I don't want to reveal too much about my students. So what else?

And then it hit me.

P90X.

I started P90X 4 weeks ago. And it has been quite a journey. Let me give some background. I am not fat. In fact, most persons might look at me and say that I am skinny. However, I have trouble spots. Well, it is one spot. My tummy. Yuck. Yuck. Yuck. I gained about 15 pounds last year and it all went to my waistline. I was disgusted. I just did not look good. It was time to do something about it. I have always had trouble with my belly. Always. However, I have just never been motivated enough to exercise more than 3 times and then just give up.

But when I looked in the mirror and thought of how tight my clothes were fitting, I knew I was tired of having this tummy. It was time to do something different. I had tried to do P90X just after surgery when I started gaining weight but I did it about 3 times and then gave up. It was time to do it again.

I stared with the Core Synergistic workout and about 10 minutes in, I just could not do it. I realised that I was just not physically ready. I decided to develop a plan for myself. I would start with Pilates for a week - getting my body ready for exercise and then move to P90X. And that's what I did. Pilates everyday plus walking at least 2 miles and then P90X.

So here I am at the beginning of Week 5 of P90X and Week 6 of exercising.