Easter

This easter was a blessed one. I've never felt so much closer to God than I have this past week. On Friday, I joined my roommate and some friends to attend a service on The Passion. On Sunday, I went to church to witness baptisms and spent the rest of the day at my cousin's house with the rest of the family. Many dogs (even a stray labrador), eggs (a military man and clown), and food (lots of it). Here are some pictures:











About my weekly updates, I'll get to those soon! Hang tight!

Los Chaparros Mexican Restaurant

Helloooo new favorite Mexican Restaurant.

After Pow Wow on Saturday, my brother, his girlfriend, and I went to Los Chaparros Mexican Restaurant, and it was an amazing choice. Legit mexican restaurant, run by mexican people, and a beautiful bathroom. If I was a yelper, I'd give them a 4.5/5, but only because we waited an hour to get seated and to get our food.

For our appetizer, we got a Chipotle Chicken Chingalinga, which are like tiny chimichangas. For dinner, I got a chicken chimichanga with rice and beans, and the others got burritoes, my brothers was as big as his face. Once we got the food, we scarfed it down, and I conceived a food baby. All their plates have little mexican flags on them.

On the way home, and once I got home, I crashed from the deliciousness/oiliness of it all. I'm definitely going to go again, maybe try the burritos, the carne asada, or enchiladas.

The Journey Begins

One week and two days have passed since the beginning of nursing school. It's not joke when it comes to long, full days of lectures, group work, and quizzes. The 6 days in total (I have classes from M-TR) have been packed with information. And ever since school began, I've just been trying to keep up or catch up. I should actually be reading a chapter about inflammation right now so I can take another quiz (my second one for the class thus far). We just got our quizzes back for another class and I've really been cutting it close getting 90% on the quizzes we've had so far.

But rewinding about a little less than two weeks ago, we had our nursing orientation and induction. To make it short and sweet, we sat for hours on end, listening to people talk about what we'll be "looking forward to" in the next 3 years. Quite possibly, the most interesting thing during that orientation was listening to nurses in the field share with us their experiences with patients. I wasn't able to take any pictures during the orientation, but here are a few that were taken of the whole class:


I'm somewhere in the middle.

My parents caught a bit of traffic on their way to the ceremony, so they got there pretty late. They weren't able to get any pictures of the ceremony's process, but we were able to get some pictures, albeit the blurryness, this was the only picture of me, my mom, and my dad. My brother was taking the picture:

We headed back to the west side of the island to find a place to eat and "celebrate".

We ate at Phuket Thai to celebrate. After that dinner, I've kind of deduced Thai food has instantly become one of my favorites. :) Sadly, I wasn't able to get any pictures, one: because I didn't have my camera on hand, and two: because my phone camera was not working at that time.

I might be able to post something tomorrow, but I'm making no promises. Until next time...

Da Kitchen

For our lunch/dinner, we headed to "Da Kitchen" for a really great meal. It was the first time for all of us, and we all didn't know what to expect. We placed our orders, and waited. My fries came first, which looked delicious, then my burger. The burger was massive, and about three of my fists put together. That huge. The picture does not do it justice.

My brother got a Katsu Moco, which was a mix of eggs, fried rice, a burger patty, chicken katsu, and topped with gravy. Basically, a three course meal. My brother has as appetite, and even he was surprised at the size of the bowl.

The three others ordered a Hawaiian Plate. If you were to attend a Luau here, the Hawaiian Plate was about 2.5 times what you would normally get.

I wish we compared the size of our meals to something 'normal sized' so you'd get the idea of the meal we had. By the end of the meal, we were all under Food Coma. They had a full menu of some great desserts, but we had no room for it whatsoever. I didn't even finish my meal, and ended up taking some of it home.

On our way home we were talking about Shark Week and the awesomeness of it. We mentioned stories of seals getting mauled and stories of people surviving shark attacks and just the bad-assness of a shark in general. As a complete coincidence, we came across a truck with a huge catch in it's truck bed. It's fin and head were sticking out on both ends because it couldn't fit in the bed of the truck.

It's a bit hard to see in the picture, but it's there. Luckily, a friend of ours is the catcher's neighbor, so he was able to get a picture of the catch from his facebook.

The whole day was spent and I came home, took a long and cold shower, and went straight to bed to rest up for a while before watching Jersey Shore. I'm not a fan of the whole GTL lifestyle, I just watch it for laughs, and the drama, and trust me, there were lots of it, haha. And now I'm here, and about to lay on my bed. See you tomorrow.

Breakfast Parfail

No, there is no spelling error in the title. Just a name I've given to my first try at making a parfait. It doesn't look too bad, right? It was delicious, I just didn't layer it correctly (or so it seems). From the bottom: bananas, yogurt, bananas, strawberries, granola, strawberries. Not much variety, but it's all we had.

Summer is a great time for a parfait, so next time you're thinking about what to eat for breakfast, try a parfait! :D

Romano's Macaroni Grill

Last night, a few friends and I headed to Romano's Macaroni Grill at Ala Moana. The initial plan was to have dinner at Shokudo, but with our last minute planning, we weren't able to get reservations. We got seated at around 6:30 and since it's been around 2 months since we've last been together as a whole, we caught up with each other. Our waiter for the day was Toni -

If you've been to Macaroni Grill before, the waiters all have their own awesome name writing skills. Toni (and I'm sure all other waiters) was able to write his name upside down for all of us to see. The last time I ate at this restaurant, our waiter incorporated his name into a drawing of his face. I really wouldn't mind working there. We ordered spinach artichoke dip as an appetizer, and for my meal, I ordered Carla's Chicken Rigatoni (or so I thought).

With the little knowledge I have of pasta (even though it's my favorite food), I failed to notice that this was not what I ordered. After eating about a sixth of this plate, my friend, Cassey, finally mentioned the awkward shape of our noodles. We deduced that we were both given the wrong plate, and quickly switched. I was slow to notice, so it was a good thing she caught on. I did have a feeling though (I was staring at her plate for a while). I had leftovers, so I was able to get a picture of what I really ordered afterward.

Cassey brought along her cute little daughter, Adi. She was too adorable. I drew a picture for her on the table with the crayons they had available. Unfortunately, I was having too much fun and wasn't able to snap a quick picture of it. But I did get one of her.

When we finished eating, the dessert menu came around. I was too full to order anything, but doesn't the Roasted Almond dessert sound like the most delicious thing ever? As soon as I turn 21, I'll be sure to save some room for it.

Afterward, we headed to The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf for some coffee, while the others headed to Cinnabon. I was looking for a Bank Machine to get some cash, but the shopping center so stupidly got rid of MY bank's bank machine and replaced it with a bank that absolutely no one has. Worst idea ever, Ala Moana. So to no avail, we gave up and chit-chatted for a bit before heading to the car. We walked past a window display showcasing Spongebob Squarepants and Adi wanted to say Hi, which eventually led to us stepping into the store to get her something. It was quite amusing as we were trying to find out what she really wanted. While she was occupied with the mass of toys, we checked out the cutest bags and purses. The brand is called Angry Little Girls, and if you haven't heard of it, you must take a look for yourself asap!

This was my favorite:

After rummaging through that store, we were pooped and stuffed. We headed to our cars but had to wait a while for one friend, Ana, to get her car to pick up Cassey and Adi since Ana didn't want to drive alone. While we waited, I took pictures of Adi and her new cup.

And how small she is compared to my friend Nescia's boyfriend, Art.

I really suck at taking group pictures, but I really couldn't since there was no one around to really take our picture and we couldn't really get everyone together. Or maybe it was my lack of trying, haha!

Anyway, after saying our goodbyes, we headed out, me with Nescia and Art. But before we went home, we stopped by Target to get a lock for Nescia's suitcase (she took off to the Philippines today with her mom for two weeks). After Target, we dropped Art home, then went on our way. I live four houses down from Nescia, so it's always easy to catch a ride with her if I don't have a car available.

On our way home, friends on twitter mentioned major traffic on the freeway (and mind you, this is at 10:30 at night, and in a non-traffic area), so we were advised to take a different route. Me and Nescia were being hopeful, so we decided to skip the exit for the alternate route on the Highway and stayed on route. We thought that by 10:30, it would've cleared up, but no, what a bad idea. We were stuck in traffic for about 45 minutes, just complaining about our bad choice. We were also freaking out a bit because of the fact that we were low on gas and phone battery. I was going to take a picture of the craziness that was the traffic that ensued, but figured you would only see red lights. Eventually, we got out, headed to the gas station, and headed home.

I said my goodbyes and my 'have a safe trip' and that was my night. Apparently my parents also went out and witnessed the traffic as well. It was a fun night, and I haven't had one of those in a while. It seems like everything always starts picking up near the end of summer. But I'm not complaining. Now, I need to step on it with my tests and training for nursing.

Look forward to a post about Inception tomorrow!

The Sweetest Thing

We've had a ton of these ingredients in the fridge, so do expect to see different variations of this meal in future posts. I've already mentioned some of these ingredients in my Greek Strained Yogurt post, so there's no need to revisit that. This meal is very similar to what I've had before, but with this post, you're able to see the yogurt I was talking about, as well as a few slices of pear.

Also added to this meal was a slice of bread with nutella and strawberries. Such a delicious combo, and if you haven't tried it out yet, you must. Strawberries and nutella alone (without the bread) is a great snack if you ever get hungry throughout the day.

And of course, the drink. The drink is simply iced coffee made from a ready to make packet. Nothing too special.

This meal was very filling; I felt quite bloated after eating/drinking all three parts. I'll take a note of that next time I plan on eating a big breakfast. But yes, as I mentioned earlier, with so much of these ingredients in the fridge, do plan on seeing this type of meal post again.

First Birthday Brunch

A couple of days ago, I attended a first birthday brunch/lunch at the Hale Koa hotel down south in the tourist city of Hawaii. The celebration took place outside in an area that would have suited a luau rather than a first birthday party. The party came equipped with a moon-bounce, candy, balloon animals, and air brushed tattoos. All that you would expect at a first birthday party here in Hawaii.

The lunch was average, with the fixings that a hotel catering service could arrange. My plate was filled with fruits, a salad, and the fixings to make a delectable sub/sandwich as well as a few mediocre choices. I didn't finish it all, sadly. The fish that you see furthest to the right was smoked, that I didn't know, and that I didn't like. The fish at the top of my plate was a bit bland. The greek salad towards the left had a little bit too many herbs/spices. The bottom half of the plate was heartily eaten; as for the top half, I only really enjoyed the sandwich I made out of the cold cuts, cheese, and the bread.The meat with the gravy atop was about the 3rd best piece on my plate.

After lunch, we sat around and watched the little kids partake in a bunch of activities. My brother and I talked about the movie Inception that recently came out. He called it one of the best movies of the year, and I have yet to see it! I just haven't found time to go to the theater lately. When the party was near over, we decided to take some pictures out on the lawn. Everything looked so green and fresh.

My mom:

We got out at about 12:30 (the party started at 10) and the sun was pretty high up, and so were the temperatures and so explains the squinting.

My dad had to use the bathroom for the last picture, which explains why he wasn't there. We went home afterward; I relaxed for the rest of the day.

Greek Strained Yogurt

Say hello to the new Thursday post. Forget seeing recipes on here, it's not like I actually come across recipes that often, and if I do, I might post it. And so you have it, breakfast. Or any meal, really. I'm only saying breakfast because there are a few times during the week, like today, when no one is home to make a snark comment about me taking pictures of my food and because I tend to only eat a breakfast and dinner. My lunch consists of snacking on carrots, or eating a fruit. Yeah, that's what I call a diet, and it's been working. I've lost 7 pounds, miraculously. The above picture isn't mine, but the next two are.

My mom, dad, and I took a trip to Costco the other day with the intent of picking up bread, milk, and orange juice while waiting for my mom's car to be done with at the Tire Center there. Of course, it didn't pan out that way, and we ended up buying a shit load more than expected.

It wasn't a bad thing though because I was able to pick up things for myself, which included things for breakfast! We got a lot, but for this breakfast I picked up Greek Yogurt (which is different than regular yogurt in that it's more concentrated and has more protein in it because whey is removed during the processing), strawberries, granola (good ol' flax seed), cranberry juice, and orange juice. You can't see the yogurt in the pictures, because I buried it with the granola, and strawberries, but it's there. The juice is just a mix of cranberry and orange juice with optional pulp.

A good breakfast is always a good start to your day, so always try to fit it in, even thought it may be just a breakfast bar and a cup of coffee or orange juice. Regarding the first picture, I really wish my reliable point and shoot could take such a great picture, but my plan of purchasing a DSLR camera has been put on hold for about 2 years now. Retail Therapy just kills me. Hopefully I find a job that can fulfill my camera and 50mm lens needs.

Scrumptious Saturday

Sorry for the really lame title, but it was! I woke up bright and early and cooked up a great breakfast. Being the great breakfast it was, I felt it needed to be eaten outside, and so it was. The rest of the day was spent outside as well. I was busy getting things checked off my to-do list. The tasks were all computer/internet-related, so I was able to spend the summer day where it should always be spent, outside. Just with the internet and my AC plug. And so I present you with a picture of my breakfast. It may not look great, but it was for me. I'll try something different another day.

And now for the food I wish was in my belly. :)