Life Changing: Cheers to a New Year

A new year! Can anyone believe it's 2014?! I certainly can't! The holiday season flew by and now we're all onto our new year's resolutions.

A big one is staying out of the hospital! And staying healthy!

Like I said in the last post, listen to your body. Even if it's not heart related, in any kind of situation, don't just give up because one doctor tells you something and it still doesn't feel right. Trust your gut instinct. AND DON'T BE STUBBORN! I mention this because certain members of my family are always stubborn about their health, as am I at times. But your health is never something to fool around with.

Aside from staying out of the hospital, I have a list of resolutions. (Like the rest of the world) Losing a few pounds is a top priority. Lets be honest here, everyone wants to lose a few pounds. Although I tried to be healthy, I can honestly say I had way too many sweets. Saying No, (and yes, I'll admit it, I am a hypocrite because I did mention just say NO before) I didn't quite do that. Too much cookies and cake, not enough veggies! I think we can all say, we put on a few pounds this season.

I did give away my baked goods when I could, however, somehow I ended up with more coming back to me!

Here's one of my more creative projects of the holiday season which consisted of way too much Crisco!

A vanilla cake with sprinkles, m&m's, and way too much icing. I used a cake molding that required a lot of crisco but in the end, it turned out pretty decently.

New Years resolutions:
-Stay out of the hospital
-Lose weight and maintain a healthy lifestyle
-Cook more (at least a few times a week for my family)
-GRE's complete
-Apply and get into grad school
-READ! (I won't bore you with my book list, but it's quite long)
-Finish a puzzle I've been working on since my recovery (5,000 pieces)
-Try something new (not sure what, but gotta live it up!)
-Continuously write in this blog and keep on inspiring! (at least that's what I hope I'm doing for anyone reading this)

While I only helped a little with this recipe, the transplant patient did most of the work. He wanted curry, and so he made it. Cauliflower, chick peas, curry, tilapia, capers, and basmati rice.

Make sure you drain the liquid from the chick peas and rinse in water! Take's out a lot of the sodium. I will say, if there's a low sodium curry, try to get that. Or don't add the entire curry jar. It's just too much sodium! Boil the cauliflower, add in the curry and chick peas and you have one dish. Basmati rice can be tricky, so just follow what it says, rinse the rice, then boil in the required amount of water, and let it soak in. This actually takes the longest period of time in this recipe. Bake the tilapia at 350 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes in a small amount of unsalted butter, water, and Mrs. dash to add some spice.