Get Those Good Habits Rolling!

Let’s get in to some healthy habits. I don’t know about you, but I find starting up a new good habit to be really, really hard. I feel motivated and accomplished for about four days, but then I get lazy and revert back to my old ways. A month later I look back at my failed attempt to better myself and feel like an undisciplined underachiever. 

I think this is something everyone goes through sometimes. 

While studying in psychology, I took a class entitled Motivation and Emotion. It was one of my favourite classes, actually. One of the things covered in this class is the difference between instant and delayed gratification. It occurred to me that I was having so much trouble forming new good habits because there was no immediate reward, only hopes of a better future life. 

Beef and Broccoli over Rice

Life is back into full summer swing. Working full-days with my kindergartens, helping out in the toddler room, melting for hours on end when I get home. 

Oh ya, my apartment is regularly hotter than the outdoor temperature. I can’t open my windows because I have them sealed off to keep the mud wasps out. I have an air conditioner, but I don’t run it all day so that I can cut back on hydro consumption. So, it’s hot. I pity the pig, who has no escape from my sweltering living room. 

 That’s Molly. She’s a hedgehog, but I call her piggy. You know, hog... pig... Anyways. 

When it’s so hot, turning on the oven is simply not an option, so this week’s cooking was done in the slow cooker. I love my slow cooker! This week’s recipe is based off the one found on Key Ingredient: Beef and Broccoli over Rice 

Ingredients: 

•  1 lb stewing beef 

• 1 375mL can beef broth 
• 1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce 
• 1/3 cup brown sugar 
• 1 Tbs olive oil 
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder 
• 2 Tbs corn starch 
• Fresh broccoli florets – as much as you like, I used one stock 

Directions: 

I used my 3qt slow cooker, and it is the perfect size. Put the beef in the crock. In a bowl, mix beef broth, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, olive oil, and garlic powder. Poor that liquid over the beef in the crock. 

 

Cook on low for 6 hours. 

After 6 hours, carefully remove about 3 Tbs of the liquid from the crock and put it in a bowl. Thoroughly mix the corn starch with the liquid in the bowl, then poor the liquid back into the crock. 

Add your broccoli florets to the crock, mix everything, and cook on high for 30 minutes to one hour (depending on how smooshy you like your broccoli). The liquid needs to boil in order for the corn starch to make it thicken, so remember to switch the heat to high! 

Pair this deliciousness with a rice of your choice. 

I’ve made this dish about four times, and it has tasted different every time. I’m not sure why. I must be changing ingredients depending on what I have in my kitchen. Or the fact that I don’t measure any of my ingredients. Hmm. Ok, I guess I know why it's different every time. 

The original recipe called for soy sauce rather than Worcestershire sauce, but I use the latter simply because my soy sauce bottle is fused closed with dried sauce, and I’m too lazy/cheap to get a new bottle. Worcestershire sauce is essentially just soy sauce with a few extra ingredients anyways, right??

Apartment Hunting, and a Little Shakespeare

This weekend I took a road trip to The City to find a place to live when I start back to university in September. 

I’m not going to lie, I have a small housing budget for my 8-month stay in The City (actually, I have a small everything budget... It’s going to be a tight 8 months), but I was feeling optimistic about finding a place. 

I went online and found 18 ads for decent-looking apartments within my price range, so I started calling to make appointments. Of those 18, 4 were immediately out of the running because they were looking for someone for August, not September. Another 6 were eliminated because they wanted a one-year lease, and I was looking for month-to-month. 4 of the people I left a message with did not return my call. That left 4 apartments with which I was able to make an appointment. 

So off I went to The City to check out these 4 places. 

Whitening Linens with Lemon Juice

Who here has had a terrible cleaning experience with bleach? I know I have. Bleach is harsh, and really destructive if not used properly. For this reason, I use anything other than bleach as often as possible (unless there are some hard-core bacteria that really need to be killed for good). 

A lot of materials, like white linens, say on their care labels that they are not to be bleached, despite the fact that they are white. Apparently these materials have a tendency to turn yellow if bleached, rather than being whitened. I was surprised to find that out, because I associate bleach with white things, not yellowed things, but I didn’t want to chance it. 

I had some white bed sheets that got peed on by this girl: 

Of course, I didn’t find her golden gift until it was well dried and set. Seeing as they were relatively new sheets, I was a little peeved. I Googled how to whiten sheets without bleach, and found the easiest, no-scrubbing, already-had-supplies-at-home method was lemon juice.