Inspiration: Food photography

Tonight Jenna and I made Zuppa Toscana Soup!
I got inspired to pick up food photography...so everyday for the month of February I am going to make some dish, drink or desert and photograph it to the best of my ability.

contains: turkey sausage,  potatoes, kale, onions, garlic, heavy cream & water

Hopefully my inspiration doesn't turn into frustration

Jayden is 1 today!

My mother is throwing Jayden a Mickey Mouse themed birthday party in a week or so thought I would get in the spirit and make Mickey & Minnie Mouse themed sugar cookies :)

Now Is Good

Moments,
how life is a series of moments
Each one a journey to the end
Let them go
Let them all go

Life is a series of moments
Let them go
Moments,
All gathering towards this one

Roasted Eggplant Dip!

While I was still sleeping my mother left for work and just before she left she opened a Barefoot Contessa cookbook and told me to make the recipe for Roasted Eggplant Dip! she also told me to make pita chips

First I made the pita chips
I took a package of pita bread and put them into 8 piece triangles. Placed them on a cooking sheet, brushed with oil, salt, pepper, oregano and baked for 16 minutes (8 minutes on each side) on about 400 heat.

While those were in the oven I started making the dip. What this calls for is 1 eggplant, 2 bell peppers, 1 red onion , 3 tablespoon olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and 2 tablespoon pesto (mixing all together minus veggies)

I started by peeling the eggplant and taking out the seeds of the peppers. Chopping the eggplant into 1 inch pieces, slicing the bell peppers and cutting again into 1 inch pieces, and chopping the onion

After I put all into a large bowl and added the olive oil, salt, pepper, pesto mix

Placed onto a pan and roasted for 45 minutes (top half pic raw veggies, bottom half pic roasted veggies)

After it came out of the oven I put into the food processor for a few pulses

added to chip and ate! hope you are satisfied mother

maigz me wanna daiunce

my urge

my urge is to give away a lot of my stuff


two nights ago I looked up from the computer and scanned my room intently and all I could think about is the amount of stuff I have. My life is a square shaped room filled with clothes, shoes, new technology, old technology, and all other useless materials

I WANT TO GET RID OF IT ALL!
well, not the sentimental-not-worthy-to-anyone-else-but-me-items

the word "simple" has been resonating and marinating in me for quite some time

cooking

has been my most recent activity lately as well as making recipes as healthy as I can!

so this morning I woke up and craved something salty, so this is what I made

2 egg whites, 1/4 cup of spinach, 1 russet potato (boil potato until soft. cook spinach until wilted, take off heat. put the egg whites in and when semi-cooked add in spinach and cut up potato. stir well and eat)

after, I was craving something sweet- which is normal. I love sweets, and I hate that about myself so I decided to make a single serving of pancakes. 

1/4 cup whole wheat flour, 1/2 tablespoon sugar, 1/4 teaspoon baking powder, 1/8 tsp salt, 1 egg white, 1/4 cup milk, 1/4 tsp vanilla, a dash of cinnamon & nutmeg, and a tablespoon of pumpkin butter. Mix & put in pan until cooked!

They were so good! not totally healthy but healthier than normal pancakes by making simple adjustments like egg whites, whole wheat flour, and a small portion. My next breakfast idea is flourless OATMEAL pancakes, and I believe they are sugarless too! 

mysterious square state

for a year now, I've heard this states name almost every day of my life. sometimes more- 2, 3 ,4. 5 times a day. I hope me visiting stops the madness of the word following me around.

Never-the-less I had a GREAT time! I went with Brianna and her mom and it went by so fast! like a blink of an eye. A blur, a awesome blur. We visited her friends, traveled to vail a few times, traveled to aspen, got lost on highway 133, almost ran out of gas, ran into a pack of elk, ate at interesting places, went downtown, found out I was really good at bowling, and saw a friend from long ago and together we explored downtown a little deeper, walked, talked, playing pingpong, played pool, did some mischief, and drank coffee (bad idea because I pulled an all nighter before my travels home).

 I learned that I loved Denver, although I don't know if I could live there because the beach is so far away. For some reason, I'm not even a beach bum or attached to the ocean but that thought of not having it sounds suffocating. But while in Denver, I had this idea in my heart that I belong in a city but I don't think I belong in Los Angeles...then again, I always have these feelings that sometimes never work out.




And all these faces, oh how they adore you
With every blessing; every strength of a storm.
And it seems to me it all worked out so different
Funny how distance and time they don't change at all

So may your worries, may your worries
Never fall to loud
Oh may you stay here, may you stay here
Happy in your own skin,
on the ninth cloud


here a few photos:

 


 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

"oh me too!"

the typical phrase that a girl says to a guy when she is interested in him
or a human to another human to gain someones approval
or status, reputation, white lies
the many possibilities the phrase "oh me too!" can have are endless

but for me, I feel like I constantly say this, to everyone I know
boys, girls, parents, grandparents
because I really do feel that way... I really do feel like "me too!" a l w a y s
man, I am such a conformist
am I really just like everyone else?
this makes me wonder if I'm even my own original person, or I wonder if this just makes me very versatile and able to blend and a aid to get along and break the ice with other beings
I seem to have this ability to just form into whoever I am around
-I want to be my own-
those words, that phrase, that simple phrase that gets me thinking "am I really JUST like every single soul I meet"

seems like it

Cauliflower rice!

so I'm being vegan pretty much for the next 6 days. well, I'm on  day 3 so 3 more to go! but honestly this experience has made me want to change my life style of eating. Usually, I am pretty healthy-- vegetables are my favorite food group BUT I have a disgustingly bad sweet tooth.

The past couple days I have just been eating raw veggies, but I've been looking up recipes and the first one that did not call for any thing but vegetables, oil and spices.

ingredients: cauliflower, olive oil, one bell pepper, one medium onion, salt, pepper, and some green spice in mothers cabinet

step one: cut the core of the cauliflower
step two: chop the cauliflower into little pieces (as you see the photo of the heart)
step three: put cauliflower in food processor till it's a rice texture
step four: put 1 tablespoon of olive oil in pan, let heat, add chopped onions and peppers for 4 minutes on medium head, and another 4 minutes on low heat
step five: add cauliflower and let cook on for 6 more minute. add salt, pepper, spices for another minute
step six: serve!

so good, and currently my favorite dish

http://ifwedisappear.tumblr.com

consuming my mind lately, and will be for the rest of this year and if it ever becomes anything- then for the rest of my life :) follow if you have tumblr: http://ifwedisappear.tumblr.com

cleanse

I NEED TO CLEANSE! I'm writing it on here so I hold myself accountable to not fail and to engrain in my little brain

I'm going to eat fruits veggies and nuts the next 6 days before I leave for Colorado!

oh yeah, I'm going to Colorado. I almost forgot. I'm going to explore the snow, take photographs, read, visit museaums maybe, do something, do anything.

maybe hit Seattle before I go back to school, who knows

but yeah, healthy healthy healthy

I hate loving chocolate so much
or pizza
what the heck
cleanse
healthy
fruits + veggies + coffee + nuts
healthy
okay yeah, till the 19th (or 18th, whatever)

okay bye

I finished one of my favorite books

and I just happened to rent it at 11:11
I didn't even notice till a couple days ago
life's coincidences are weird
I took my time reading this book; reading it in parks, reading in the car, reading in between meetings and things, but mainly reading about a chapter a night before I went to sleep. I enjoyed it, slowly which is not like me to do anything slowly---I should start moving slower and fully enjoying things.

10 days into 2013 and...

I set these goals for myself for this year

1.I want to get published in some kind of magazine or lookbook
2.learn the guitar
3.lose more weight
4.read the whole bible
5.stay true to my word
6.be happy
7.focus on living in the moment
8.and never complain

1.I have teamed up with a author and am taking the photos for his book that we hope to publish

2. a seat opened up in the wait pool for guitar lessons at SMC and I added the class before anyone

3. I have been motivated to work out. Still eating a lot of candy (I hate my sweet tooth) but always leaning towards healthy food
4. my church blessed us with free bible reading plan books, where we read a a few chapters a day from the OT and NT. I was so thankful! 

5. have thought of a few little stupid white lies to say- and haven't

6. I have been really happy

7. did you read my last post?

8. I think I haven't been- you tell me :) 

gliding through the canyon

last night was great, irreplaceable

brianna picked me up from my house, went over to spencers and sat in his room while he showered- I myself being nosey and going through every drawer and brianna into her photo of her and his cat "smokey". Cameron eventually came and we set on voyage for Kelseys house. After that we stopped by a place or two, and glided through the canyon listening to the new song by tegan and sara, that spongebob stacking crabby patty song, some ghetto rap and old Mgmt. Mgmt was definitely my favorite, something about the song that came on the radio that gave me- a feeling- indescribable. I sat in the passenger seat of Briannas car, sitting loose in my seat with the seat warmer on letting my body sway in every direction with ever swerve of the canyon. Towards the end of the song I stood with the bottom of my feet on the warmed leather seat and stuck half of my body out of the sun roof. IT WAS AMAZING. Eventually turning onto PCH was beautiful, the nightlite beach side road had such a great aura about it with wineries, resturaunts and beautiful houses to each side of us. Our destination was Dukes resturaunt in Malibu.

Upon arrival and nearly getting ran over by two cars as we crossed the dangerous windy road we got a table for 12 young souls. It happened to be taco night, which I had no desire to eat and I didnt even care for tacos at the time. Well, I decided to get one anyway because I am super sentimental and love experiencing all different resturants. Without a doubt that had to have been the BEST taco I have ever had in my life. It was grilled fish- although the battered ones that brianna got looked quite amazing too- with some kind of pico de gallo and tasty crunch vegetables scattered through out. As the night went on, conversation progressed and information exchanged. Pictures taken and good memories made.



Lets just say, I'm going there every Tuesday I can till I get sick of it :)

As for today, I did a few things here and there but the most exciting part of my day was receiving the first copy of "If we disappear" which is a novel by Tyler Bruno. Not only is it going to be a novel but we are going to be putting our two talents together and we will be turning the novel into a story photo book so you can visualize the story as you read and look at the photographs. I can not wait for this! Models are picked, destination is located, props and been decided on and now I'm half way deep into this novel that I can't put down!

I'm so excited to embark on this adventure, and hopefully see if progress throughout 2013.



So I prayed to be published in 2013...I did not expect it to be in a novel but this is more exciting than anything I had in mind! I do still pray and wish to be in a fashion magazine but I will gladly take up this challenge.

Stay tuned for more information :) iz gonna be wicked

January 8th 2013

lately I've been going for walks to the library, runs around the neighborhood, bike rides looking for orange trees down the street and as I do so I've been getting an overwhelming nostalgic feeling that I am growing up.  I have been living in my house now for 7-8 years ago and since then I have been exploring my neighborhood, going into every crevice, learning and documenting it from the inside out. The passing of time is a weird thing to take grasp of

I went for a bike ride, nature hunted, and laid in the park today