"healthy-ish-er" mac 'n cheese

There's pretty much no way to do healthy mac 'n cheese, let's just be honest with ourselves here. But you can at least do a little finagling to dress that wolf's food up in some sheep's healthy-ish clothing. Here's how I usually jazz up my store-bought mac 'n cheese, adding a little more flavor, texture, and nutrients (or so I've convinced myself). When I am living overseas, I usually buy a couple boxes of mac 'n cheese when I'm home and bring them out when I need a little bit of home--America in a box and it never goes bad.

Here's what you'll need for your healthy-ish-er mac 'n cheese:

1 medium or large saute pan
boiling water, if you have 4 or 5 cups (about a liter) ready to go, you'll have more than enough I'd say
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion (size to taste... if you like more flavor, use a bigger onion), diced small
2-3 cups fresh spinach, or 1-1.5 cups frozen spinach
any other veggies you want to throw in that you have lying around (I've used red pepper, frozen broccoli, cauliflower... veggies with a little structure. Much to my disappointment, eggplant doesn't work well in this recipe)
1.5 cups veggie meat crumbles
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 box store-bought mac 'n cheese*
1/2 vegetable bouillon cube (optional)
Red chili flakes or cayenne pepper to taste (optional)
Parmesan cheese to garnish (optional)

All my measurements are estimations, so feel free to adjust the oil

You're basically creating a skillet casserole, but you're working it like a risotto almost. I've been doing this technique for a while, out of sheer laziness of not wanting to wash an extra pan, but then Mark Bittman gave my technique legitimacy. You don't need any of the vegetables to be completely cooked before you add the water, you just want them to be about half-way or three-quarters cooked if you want them to still have some crunch when you're eating.

1. Start heating the water, either in a saucepan or kettle. You're only going to be dirtying up the saute pan, so you just need to boiling water in a separate vessel, boiling and ready for when you'll need it later. Don't salt the water, there's pleeeeenty of sodium in the mac 'n cheese cheese sauce and the parmesan, so adjust the salt later.
2. Heat the oil in the pan, add the onion. How you cook this is to your preference. I like the flavor of the onions when they're a little browned, but if that's not your thing, keep the heat low-medium and just let the onions get translucent.
3. At this point, add any non-spinach veggies (including fresh garlic; if using garlic powder, that comes later). If you're just working with the spinach, add that here. Spinach cooks super fast whereas other veggies take longer, so the principal is to get in the things that will take the longest to cook in first. Let these get slightly browned/toasted if you like that flavor (I do). 
4. Add red chili flakes or just a tiny bit of cayenne pepper now. If you haven't used cayenne before, be careful! It goes a long way. The red chili flakes are a lot more forgiving on spicyness, so go for that if you just want a mild kick.
5. If you haven't already, add the spinach. Let cook for a minute or two.
6. Add the veggie meat crumbles, let brown/saute for a couple minutes. I've tried this with veggie chicken, but it's not as good as with the veggie ground meat. If you're working with real meat, you'll have to use your own judgement of when to add the meat in as I'm not sure about cooking times, etc., and you don't want to take meat cooking advice from a long-time vegetarian if you want to avoid food poisoning. Just sayin'.
7. If you want garlic flavor, sprinkle with garlic powder now. 
8. Add the dry pasta, stir, let it get infused with some of the flavor that you have going on in the pan. I usually let the pasta get a little toasted, get some color on it, but that's just my flavor preference. You don't have to and the dish will still turn out fine. 
9. Add just enough boiling water to cover what's in the pan and throw in vegetable bouillon cube if you're using it. Stir to make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom of the pan and to scrape any flavor bits off the bottom.
10. Stay by the pan and stir every once in a while, keeping an eye on how done the pasta is. After the first initial water dose, you just want to add water a little at a time, because you will not be draining this out. The water will need to be completely absorbed by the pasta, veggies, and fake meat, so don't overdo it on the water, otherwise you'll have mac 'n cheese porridge. 
11. When the pasta is just this side of done, lower the heat and add the cheese packet (see my note on preferred mac 'n cheese brand below). Stir until the cheese melts in and everything is coated. Turn off heat, let sit for a minute (otherwise you'll reeeeally burn your tongue, that cheese gets hot!).
12. Serve up and sprinkle with parmesan if you like.

Bon app!

*As for my preferred store-bought mac 'n cheese, it's confession time, I guess: I've found that the best for this recipe is Velveeta Shells 'n Cheese. If it makes you feel any better (it definitely helps me feel better), they do have a whole wheat version. The shell shape of the pasta stands up to the cooking and is a good shape for eating with the other ingredients. I've also found that the Velveeta itself, thanks to its simple heat 'n serve consistency, is the best for this recipe because you don't need to worry about the extra ingredients called for by other store-bought mac 'n cheese, which can make the dish a little mushy. I've tried this dish out with Kraft and Trader Joe's versions with their powdered cheese packets and it just doesn't turn out as well. Yes, Velveeta is basically edible plastic cheese. But I figure that my few moments of plastic cheese weakness are more than made up for the by the countless MickeyD's plastic cheeseburgers that I haven't consumed in the past 16+ years. Whatever, it's my story and I'm sticking to it. :)

all dressed up with... about a million places to go (er, write about)

This is basically a Cliff's Notes of what I've been doing (travel-wise) for the last year. I've got posts in the works for most of these trips, but it's been so long since some of them, I figure it's best to get something up before I forget some of the specifics and am just left smiling at the overall memory. First things first though, FYI, in case you didn't know or hadn't figured out from my other recent posts, I'm no longer living in Tokyo. In fact, since leaving the concrete jungle, I've bounced around SE Asia, the US, back and forth across the Pond, and I've stopped again for the time being the 'burbs of NYC, but plan to move into The City ASAP (Long-term? Short-term? We shall see, that will depend on a lot of things...).

So, since last July, I've had a pretty amazing time of it, travel-wise. Waaaaay back in July 2010, I sparked what I'm sure will be a lifelong love for Thailand with a too-short visit to Phuket. On the flight back to Tokyo, I read an article in the in-flight magazine about an unbelievably beautiful island in southern Thailand called Koh Lipe and I vowed I would visit there before I left Asia.

That article and a discovery that one of my colleagues would be in SE Asia in September/October prompted my 4-week backpacking jaunt across Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos last fall. Needless to say, I spent as much time as possible on the beach in Thailand, but it still wasn't enough and, luckily, I never made it to Koh Lipe, which just gives me an excuse to visit Thailand again soon. Cambodia and Laos were pure adventure... you'll have to check out that post (coming soon!) for more details.

i climbed temples in the jungle in cambodia

After a quick return, pack up, and sayonara to Tokyo in mid-November, I spent two and a half gorgeous weeks on Oahu, both in Waikiki and North Shore. On North Shore, I walked straight out of the condo and into beautiful, calm (sorry, surfers), clear blue water and swam with wild giant sea turtles who liked to swim and sunbathe on the quiet little beach. Back in Waikiki and Lani Kai (so pretty!), open water swimming with more sea turtles, but these were more modestly sized.

sun-bathing beauties near haleiwa 

I got back to SoCal in the beginning of December... and I left again in the middle of January for a month-long trip, working my way up from Florida to DC to NYC. This began what has come to be The Reunion Tour 2011. This year, I've seen so many old friends that I hadn't seen in forever (and met some new ones as well... this is also the Year of the Baby... lots and lots of babies, hahaha!).

sammy, the chunkiest super baby around--his shirt says "100% awesome" and it's totally true

Soon after I got back, I left again for Arizona where I began the Year of the Vision Quest with my college friend, Sofia. I literally drove into the desert and drove back along the California coast. It was pretty cool. And the reunions continued in Phoenix and Tuscon, where I got to have dinner with my uncle and aunt and brunch with my cousin and his wife, respectively. On the road with Sof, we went from the southern border of the state (Tuscon) to the northern (the Grand Canyon). It was a beautiful drive that took us through Sedona and across some stretch of high desert I don't know where that had the clearest night sky I have ever seen... there were so many stars and it was so black and empty, I felt invisible and awestruck. We had so much to catch up on, we didn't turn on music the entire daylong drive... we just talked. And decided that it was basically imperative for me to join Sofia in Greece this summer.

ok, it's not the grand canyon, but they are sunday morning brunchers in tuscon 

After AZ, I was lucky enough to do some more road trips to Palm Desert (Katy!), San Francisco (Norma and Shiraz!), and Las Vegas (Mom! Party time!!), before finally hitting the road for real with my bags packed for my move to NY.

This was it, the big move to the biggest, brightest City-with-a-capital-C in the world!!

I left 5 days later.

But not for good! By coincidence, one of my friends from Tokyo happened to be visiting NY too and happened to be booked on the exact same flight as me (connecting in Dusseldorf) for my trip to Europe, which just goes to show you, this world sure is small. So, NYC to Dusseldorf to Athens airport to Athens bus terminal to Tripoli bus terminal to taxi to village to donkey... Okay, just kidding about the donkey, sort of. Twenty-four-plus hours later and I was drinking wine and dancing in a circle with the best of them until 3 in the morning.

What I Did on My Summer Vacation 

I got to attend Sofia's brother's village wedding (unforgettable!); started training as a good Greek wife by washing 100+ dishes and ironing on multiple occasions (first time in years); posed for pictures in an ancient amphitheater; had a Richie Sambora sighting at the Acropolis (sorry, but he's no Zeus); stayed in a 100+ year old beach shack that I'm inclined to believe had walls made of asbestos, but the location was so amazing, what's a little lung disease?; partied it up in Skiathos, the trying to become the new Mykonos (but still a little shy of the mark) island with some of the most beautiful beaches and water I've seen and where I got my best souvenir of the trip--the most amazing tan of my adult life (I, me, Miki, she of the dark hair, have BLOND arm hairs now!) and not one sunburn (thank you, SPF 50); took a chance and arrived in three different cities in three different countries in a row without a place to stay and ended up in 1) a very nice water front hotel with a Greek celebrity sighting (no clue who he was but Sofia assures me that this is cool) in Thessaloniki; 2) a slightly run-down, but satisfactory place in Genoa, which turns out is actually an architecturally beautiful city with a very well-maintained medieval section of town where the alleyways aren't even wide enough to ride a horse down (but still plenty wide enough for a lady of the night to sell her wares in the middle of the day); and 3) a totally serviceable and relatively affordable little hotel near the train station in Antibes, the super-yacht docking hub of the Mediterranean, where lots of non-American Anglophones like to go to find work cleaning toilets and swabbing the decks of boats that are BYOH (Bring Your Own Helicopter) and drink A LOT at night. (Wow, I think that's a record run-on sentence, even for me.)

people like to dance in circles in greece, especially at big parties that take over the whole road and where two lambs and a pig are served... but beware the clarinet music, it could be fatal

every trip needs a random celeb sighting... sadly, i only recognized him because he used to be mr. heather locklear 

greeks like to dance in circles at clubs too (sofia is an amazing and FAST greek dancer!)

a beautiful beach in skiathos

After one night in each of the three cities and a never-ending train ride (5 hours turned into 9), we spent five blissful days in Toulouse and its sunflowered surrounds. It was bucolic. No, seriously, I'm sure that if you look that word up in the OED you'll see pictures of rolling French countryside hills covered in seas of sunflowers and two-lane roads lined with tall trees and the odd old Citroën chugging along every now and then, and that's pretty much what we saw for five gorgeous days. Sofia totally called it when she said, "It's very Charlie Brown." We toured medieval walled cities, walked along hidden riverside paths, played in fresh water fountains, ate fruit straight off trees, and lazed lake-side while listening to Edith Piaf and Billie Holliday and eating cheese and baguette and drinking cider and wine, and tasted the best (yes, really) macarons that I have ever had. Ever.

lively nightlife in a genoese piazza

only the best for miss sof in antibes

medieval city steps... check out that beautiful paysage

Then, I went on my own to Paris for just long enough to have a falafel and crepe from my favorite places and share a few bottles with a some great friends, and a brisk walk through the 5th and across les iles. My train to London town got me to Wimbledon, safe and sound in "my London flat" (aka Samantha's place) just in time to watch the riots live on the telly. A final flight to NY (via Reykavik... no volcanoes this time, phew), and I'm back, safely ensconced in the 'burbs of New York City (it's so close, yet so far!) where I'm less at risk of getting caught up in a riot, but I do have to watch out for the suburban gun-toters.

police boosting their presence on oxford street the day after the big london riots

What's next? Stay tuned!

Why The Oprah Winfrey Show Inspired Me

Yes, I said it. Now, sit down, close your mouth, open your ears, head, eyes, heart... and Listen (and dance, of course!). As Oprah closes out the 25th season of "The Oprah Winfrey Show," I thought I'd finally say my piece on this and people can take from it what they will.

Some of My Favorite Things (aka Things I've Learned from Watching The Oprah Winfrey Show):

- Maya Angelou (numerous appearances): "When people show you who they are, believe them." That means, if someone tells you they're crazy, believe them. If someone tells you they drink a lot, believe them. If someone tells you they're selfish or lazy or a jerk, believe them. I don't always remember to follow this, but it stuck with me and I've, in turn, repeated it to many people. A couple weeks ago, a non-Oprah-watching friend of mine told me that this had stuck for her after I'd said it to her and it helped her realize things about her relationship and she decided to get herself out of a bad situation. And just the other day, another friend repeated the same thing and I was like, "That comes from Oprah!!" I love how I've totally plagiarized stuff I've learned on Oprah, used it with friends who aren't really Oprah viewers, and they get to learn the lessons too.

- The bra show: This episode really did change my lingerie life and probably goes down on a lot of women's lists of most memorable Oprah shows. I upgraded my bra shopping from ye old Mervyn's (similar to Kohl's) to Nordstrom's and the like. I am now a devout follower of the Le Mystere demi t-shirt bra. And I know my correct size. The girls are much happier now and get to wear nice stuff.

- Tererai Trent episode: This woman from Zimbabwe wasn't allowed to be educated because she was a girl, was married off at 11, and had three children by the time she was 18. Eventually, she moved to the United States and completed a bachelor's. Then her husband was deported because of his continued abuse of her; a single mother of five, she completed her master's. A few years later, she completed her PhD. If this woman can do this, with all these challenges, my privileged butt has absolutely no excuses. Get. This. Done.

- The girls in Oprah's South Africa school: One of the girls, Lesego, had such an exuberant personality and was so, just, with it, even as a teenager. I was impressed by how powerful, wise, and smart people (especially girls) can be. I put a quote from her in the "Words to Live By" section on the sidebar of this blog. She said, "You're an individual. Act like an individual. Don't try to blend in. Blend out!" That is one powerful dose of self-confidence and I'm excited for her future. I can only see her doing something amazing. 

- Suze Orman episode looong ago: You can never, ever know enough about personal finance. Really, seriously, ever. Sadly, a lot of smart people I know, they don't know so much. Smart people with lots of degrees and work experience and job responsibility. I guess it's intimidating to come at when you've never really learned about it before. I had a great foundation set for me with what my dad taught me and I refined it with some of the stuff that Suze Orman talks about. She's an acquired taste, but if you're ready and willing to learn, don't worry so much about what she's like as a person (you don't have to be her friend!), just pay attention to what she has to teach you about the fundamentals of personal finance. I have, on several occasions, used what I learned from watching Suze Orman's PBS special for young professionals to help friends figure out their credit cards, open/use various banking and retirement accounts, juggle my own personal finance situation (freelancer over here!), etc.

- 20,000 person flash mob: Oh. Mah. Gah. This was one of the coolest things I've seen on TV ever!!! And it was a total surprise to Oprah! Dance, the Black-Eyed Peas, and a surprised Oprah--it's like it was custom-designed for me to love. ;) Still gives me goosebumps and makes me want to get up and dance when I watch it. Here's how they made it happen, in case you're curious (I was!).

- Kevin Aucoin makeup episode: This man was a famous makeup artist, openly gay in a time when people were still getting used to that in a national forum, and just seemed really nice. And he did great things with makeup, thought all women were beautiful in some way, and told us how we could accentuate that. So I got his book. Sadly, he died in 2002.




There are surely many, many more, but I can't think of them all. These ones have stuck in my memory without doing too much digging, so I guess they're really the standouts for me. 

It's never a bad thing to have greater perspective, tolerance, and love for the other people we share this globe with. It's also fun to be able to share in other people's happiness--how can you not smile when you watch Oprah give away something, be it a car or a vacation or a house or, most touchingly, an education? (FYI, 64,688 people have been educated through Oprah's foundation. Biiiiig like!) Don't you smile when you see people receive gifts or kindness in every day situations? And it's special to be allowed to share in people's sorrow, troubles, grief, and triumph.

I know it's de rigeur to make fun of Oprah and people who like/love/idolize/worship her. I know that people get hung up on the touchy-feely, mumbo jumbo they think she/her show spouts and stuff like Tom Cruise jumping up and down on the couch is a stand-out moment.* But, for me, her show is more about the lessons I learned about how to be the best version of myself... and there's always going to be something new to learn.

Oprah started out for me as just a fun show to watch in the afternoons after school (hello, Bra Revolution and makeover shows!), but, probably in the last ten years or so, morphed into something that offered a little more substance and guidance--a little more meat, you could say.

The final episode was what Oprah called "a love letter" to the viewers. It started out a little lecture-y; at first, I was like, "Is this it for the whole hour? Bummer." Pretty soon though, I was thinking, "Oh, I need to write that down... Hey, that's exactly what I needed to hear... Yes! Service is important!," and so on. Of course I teared up at the end, but I didn't go into the ugly cry. The Oprahgasm continued the next day with tons of shows and news. And I'll get to watch the "best of" episodes all summer long. And, as people keep pointing out, there's now OWN.

So, happy trails, Oprah; I can't wait to see what's next. As my grandpa would say, ya did good. :)

*Tom Cruise and the couch incident, by the way, was not even in the least the weirdest show I've ever seen on Oprah. You wanna see surreal/bizarre/odd/huuuh/whhaaaaa? Try to track down the Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield show. Now, that was bizarre. These two huge guys that could barely fit in their chairs were practically declaring undying, high-pitched love for each other.

p.s. Here's a great list of "25 Things Oprah Taught the World." I would just add that a lot of what she taught us was stuff she herself learned from everyday people who did extraordinary things. And if that isn't a big go-do-something-meaningful-with-your-life kick in the pants, I don't know what is.

Top 5 Not-Obvious Things I Love About Japan

I started this list in 2008, but only got two down on the list. With a little 20/20 hindsight, I've found it much easier to finish now. I guess I'm starting to get a little nostalgic about my Tokyo life and those lenses are becoming slightly rose-tinted. :)

1. When you push the "close" button in an elevator, the doors really close right away, just like on TV. It's all very dramatic. 
2. My toilet paper holder - just click in, click out. If/when, I ever own my own place, you can be sure that there will be Japanese toilet paper holders throughout. Japanese technology innovation at its finest.
   
3. The "bidet" function on the toilets. This took me a couple years to get the hang of and get used to. My apartment came with one of these kinds of toilets, but, like I said, it took some getting used to, but once I did, well, all I can say is that these do the job they claim to. Squeaky clean! (Sorry if that's just too TMI for some people.)
4. The scotch bars. Thanks to my friend, JP, I started learning about different scotches and now consider myself an official scotch drinker. He started me slowly with Johnnie Walker Black and soda and we worked our way up to drinking scotch on the rocks in cool, small bars around Tokyo with impressively large and diverse collections of bottles. Tokyo is where I learned how a scotch on the rocks should be served--in a glass with one big chunk of ice (ideally hand-shaped into a sphere) freshly picked off the block so the drink doesn't get watered down too quickly. 
5. Aluminum screw-top bottlecans. Perfect for times when you want a cold drink, but just a sip at a time. Isn't it annoying when you buy a can of soda and only want a taste and then have to throw the rest out because you don't want to carry it around all day. Enter The Bottlecan. I definitely prefer this to plastic bottles, which aren't as cold and I don't like the idea of putting more plastic into the world. At least the aluminum is cheaper and easier to recycle (I think).

no idea where i took this picture, but i'm thinking it might have been at the miyako odori in kyoto

poor bastard

Or, how I draft a blog post.

Going through these old drafts is pretty entertaining. This post was titled and in my drafts and yet there was nothing written in the body. Now, even I am super curious as to what the hell I was planning to write about!! I started this post in 2007, so the idea is now lost forever and we'll never know what I intended, but knowing Tokyo, this could've been about any number of weirdos I encountered on the streets.

I've learned from mistakes like this so, now, when I've got something I want to write about but maybe don't have time to do all the "research" (i.e., hunt for funny and/or relevant links) and thinking about what I want to say, I'll at least write a few lines or bullets into the text area to remind me when I come back to the post. Then, later, I'll come fill the rest in. Sometimes I've got just enough of the writing juice in me to knock out a whole post in a short amount of time and will get it ready right away. Like this one. :)

What's up with all the old posts?

I'm cleaning house.

At least, in terms of my blog (I don't even want to think about what my room looks like these days... let's just say moving again will be easy because most of what I own is still in boxes). I just realized that Blogger makes it possible to see all my outstanding drafts... and I have half- or mostly written posts from as far back as 2006! I'm going to get to work on these, probably in no particular chronological order, and see if/how I can revamp them to be less time sensitive. Considering that most of these posts were begun while I was in Japan, there will likely be a Japanese-y spin on a lot of the topics, but we'll see if I can wrangle any of them into more broad-reaching topics. There are also A LOT of travel-related posts that are waiting to go. I haven't detailed anything from my super awesome SE Asia backpacking trip last fall and I'll be sprinkling in new posts as well as my upcoming summer plans promise to bring adventure as well.

The difference between a writer and someone who's got a writing hobby is that a writer writes... everyday... and, well, I guess probably gets published and paid for her writing every once in a while. Sign me up! I want to get this whole writing thing back on track. So, this may not be me writing every day on the blog, but at least working on some form of writing project most days of the week (that's how that whole job thing works, right?).


Dolly Parton - 9 To 5 by jpdc11