{"id":515,"date":"2016-01-19T23:48:55","date_gmt":"2016-01-19T23:48:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.venividiedi.net\/?p=515"},"modified":"2016-04-21T16:25:04","modified_gmt":"2016-04-21T16:25:04","slug":"confessions-of-an-under-achiever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.venividiedi.net\/?p=515","title":{"rendered":"Confessions of an Under-Achiever"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

January is my laziest month. Weird, I know. Everyone else jumps on to their new year’s resolutions with so much verve, while I am spending more than half of my day in my pajamas. I always have this big Holiday hang-over. It’s because I spend so much energy the previous month — with all our three birthdays, anniversary, Christmas and New Year. January is more than half-way through and this is all I’ve done:<\/p>\n

—–took down my Christmas decor – last weekend, D generously offered his services; that’s what he does every year. A gentle reminder that the decors have to go. He knows that I am OC about putting it all back in place, so I will have to refuse his offer and do it myself. God forbid I should need a red and gold Christmas ball and I won’t find it in the red plastic box in the second shelf on the left side of the attic.
\n—–survived my salad-only Holiday detox – the Lord knows I did not pass on any dish nor drink last month and my skin paid for it. Dry, dull and blotchy. Ick. I don’t do colonic cleanses, the mere thought of it terrorizes me. So i just do it the old fashioned way of drinking lots of water and consuming raw, unprocessed fruits and vegetables. My skin has now stopped looking like on old leather bag. Yey!
\n—–binge-watched Nurse Jackie Final Season, Fargo Season 2 and Homeland Season 5 – now you see why there is no need to change out of the pajamas until sundown.
\n—–never missed any NFL play-off game – D can’t wait for Superbowl. Once that’s done, we can spend our days like normal people again. He does not appreciate planning our days around Tom Brady’s game schedule.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Other than those, barring going back to work (let’s not even go into how many patients I saw coz it’s kinda pathetic too), I haven’t done much…<\/p>\n

What snapped this whole under-achieving vibe was Bean’s entry on our to-buy list. I keep one in the kitchen. I am very forgetful so if it’s not on this list, it won’t make its our way into our house. Under his entry of Gatorade grape flavor, he wrote, Real Food. Ouch! I have not cooked anything since the start of the year. I kept my family alive through nuke-n-eat FitFoods and by anyfooddelivered.com. It’s a website that allows you to order any food in the area and they charge you. So simple. I order stuff from Fat Bao. It’s Asian fusion specializing in baos. Beans likes their Big Byrd and Yummy Byrd.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"D<\/a>
D likes their soft-shell crab bao and ahi-tuna bao<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"image\"<\/a>
\nI love their tonkatsu, but I am staying off the carbs so I just have the soup and beans gets the noodles and all the meats on it
\nOther than this life-saver of a restaurant, it’s all veggies and fruits . Now you see why the energy level is low. Oh, and not a drop of alcohol too. Too bad coz it’s the beginning of the quarter and all our shipments from our wine memberships are all coming in\u2026drats.<\/p>\n

Anyway, Beans finally got fed-up with all these foods, yummy as they are, so he requested that I cook some “real food”. Naturally, I felt guilty. I asked him he wants anything specific, he said he has missed my lemon chicken and wild rice soup<\/a>. The awesome mom that I am, I immediately made some.<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I use rotisserie chicken (get one whole chicken then dice the breast part) so that this is just a one-pot dish. If you use raw chicken, you need to marinate the chicken breast with salt and lemon then saut\u00e9 it. I barely got off my hiatus so the fewer dishes to wash, the better.<\/p>\n

\"In<\/a>
In a pot, add a cup of rice\/wild rice combo and season with herbs. I use an italian herb mix (1 table spoon)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Add<\/a>
Add 3 cups of chicken stock and as soon as it boils, add carrots.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Add<\/a>
Add diced up chicken, cover and cook for 20 minutes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"add<\/a>
add juice of three lemons then cook for 5 minutes without stirring.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sliced lemons in the picture is purely for aesthetics. And just like that, my creativity has awakened too! I have officially started what looks to be a wonderful year.<\/p>\n

Here you go, Beans. “Real food”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  January is my laziest month. Weird, I know. Everyone else jumps on to their new year’s resolutions with so much verve, while I am spending more than half of my day in my pajamas. I always have this big Holiday hang-over. It’s because I spend so much energy the previous month — with all … Continue reading Confessions of an Under-Achiever<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-h-town-houston","category-i-me-and-myself","category-stuff-i-cook"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p71dzN-8j","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":415,"url":"https:\/\/www.venividiedi.net\/?p=415","url_meta":{"origin":515,"position":0},"title":"Beef Kabobs","author":"certifiedfoodie","date":"December 30, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Grilling beef is a no-brainer. I can't believe how we were so daunted over grilling until we moved to Texas and bought a Weber. Couple a good quality grill with good quality meats, you can't go wrong. And yeah, throw in a meat thermometer there too. \u00a0it's always nice to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Stuff I Cook"","block_context":{"text":"Stuff I Cook","link":"https:\/\/www.venividiedi.net\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"This may seelm like a lot of ingredients but really it's not. It's your ordinary bottled spices and you may omit some that you don't particularly like.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.venividiedi.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/image-138-300x225.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":466,"url":"https:\/\/www.venividiedi.net\/?p=466","url_meta":{"origin":515,"position":1},"title":"First Day of the Year","author":"certifiedfoodie","date":"January 1, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"There is no better way to usher a new year than being in the company of great people and amazing food. Speaking of which, we had prime rib two days \u00a0in a row, so life is definitely good! Prime Rib 1 was during New Year's Eve. We normally don't celebrate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fredericksburg"","block_context":{"text":"Fredericksburg","link":"https:\/\/www.venividiedi.net\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"image","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.venividiedi.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/image-22-300x225.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":307,"url":"https:\/\/www.venividiedi.net\/?p=307","url_meta":{"origin":515,"position":2},"title":"Naples’ Holiday Spread","author":"certifiedfoodie","date":"December 26, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"This marks our first Christmas holiday in our Fredericksburg vacation home. Foodprep-wise, I am quite apprehensive on how the kitchen would hold up. Don't get me wrong, we fell in love with this house with its uniqueness, magnificent views, \u00a0and being country-chic and rustic. But those last two adjectives \u00a0are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "I, Me, and Myself"","block_context":{"text":"I, Me, and Myself","link":"https:\/\/www.venividiedi.net\/?cat=6"},"img":{"alt_text":"The water was too cold to do anything but skip rocks. Have to wait till summer. But since we are in Texas, with its bipolar weather, that can be tomorrow.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.venividiedi.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/image-82-257x300.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1174,"url":"https:\/\/www.venividiedi.net\/?p=1174","url_meta":{"origin":515,"position":3},"title":"Crab Fried Rice","author":"certifiedfoodie","date":"November 3, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This is not how I usually cook my crab fried rice. But on the dinner we had at Eddie V's, I was so smitten over their version so I had to recreate it myself. This is almost like Mexican fried rice. My usual way is the Asian variety with tons\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Sautee a cup of onions, red and green bell peppers for about 4 minutes or until soft. Then add a cup of crab meat.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.venividiedi.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/IMG_4366-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1929,"url":"https:\/\/www.venividiedi.net\/?p=1929","url_meta":{"origin":515,"position":4},"title":"Maison Pucha Bistro","author":"certifiedfoodie","date":"December 10, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"This week, like most weeks in December, has been a blur. Holiday season is fun but there's just way too many things that need to be done. 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