theinbetweenismine

just a girl living the expat life

Archives for August 2018

Monthly Favorites | August

filed under: monthly favorites

1. Here I am again talking about a kitchen item in my favorites’ list, but I beg you, if you don’t own a steaming basket*, get your hands on one. It’s so much easier to cook certain vegetables (like beans, broccoli, etc.) in a steaming basket than in water.

2. I don’t know about your gym clothes, but mine stink (especially after they sat in my gym bag for a few hours), so I invested in Molly’s Suds Sports Wash* to take care of the odor.

3. I’ve been a big fan of gnocchi recently. The regular potato kind, the sweet potato kind and most recently the cauliflower kind. Have you picked these* up at Trader Joe’s? You should.

4. My friend Tanja went to Aldi the other day (no, we still don’t have one nearby – don’t ask!) and sent me Schogetten* just because and it just made me so happy, a) because I have such a sweet friend, b) Schogetten are delicious and c) they remind me of home.

5. I’ve been craving ice-cold chocolate milk this month and Nesquick* is my favorite.

6. In case you are not using a password manager app yet (who doesn’t?), I’d like to recommend Dashlane* to you. It’s a great app that really keeps all your passwords straight and makes logging into websites a breeze.

7. I recently got this Method Body Wash* Coconut-Rice Milk-Shea Butter with one of my Grove.Co* shipments and I just love the smell of this body wash so much. It lathers up real nice, too.

What was one of your favorite things this month?

* #notanad, This is not a sponsored post. I have not been compensated by the brand or anyone else for linking the websites. However, the post does contain ONE affiliate link. If you decide to join and try out Grove Collaborative via this post, you will receive $10 towards your first order and I will receive a $10 credit on my account.

Thinking Out Loud #23

filed under: Thinking out loud

It’s been a hot second since my last rambling post, so I thought it was time to link up again with Amanda from Running with Spoons for Thinking out Loud. (Well, to be honest, the link-up hasn’t been posted in a couple of months and I am not sure what’s going on, but I hope all is well with Amanda and in the meantime, I will keep this posting format going!)

+ J and I have been craving Thai food a lot lately (it’s my favorite Asian cuisine, what’s yours?) and I think I embarrassed myself this weekend (just a tad). We often go through the whole menu, just to end up ordering the same things again: Tom Kha soup with chicken (yum), Thai fried rice and an order of vegetable red curry. Our local Thai place makes a kick-ass vegetable curry with lots and lots of vegetable, including one that I love but couldn’t quite figure out what it was. When I finally asked the waitress, she (looked at me a little bit incredulously, because I think she thought I should have known) and told me it was bamboo. OF COURSE. Well, thing is, do YOU know what bamboo shoots actually look like when they don’t come cut up in little strips in a can? I didn’t (until I googled it last weekend). If I just saved you from a potentially embarrassing situation, you’re welcome. If you are way smarter than me when it comes to bamboo shoots, carry on. Nothing to see here.

+ I am working up my courage to actually try a cycling class at my gym. I am trying to get some other forms of exercise (besides running) into my workout schedule and I recently switched from the lateral trainer for warmup to a stationary bike. Now one of the girls at the gym that I regularly run into encouraged me to try the cycling class on Tuesday mornings. I know, my friend Tanja would approve. So, hold me accountable?

+ I was sad to hear about John McCain’s passing last weekend. You can disagree with the guy politically and personally all you want, but he was an honorable man and you don’t make your response to his death a political statement like a certain someone. [insert major eyeroll here] Just don’t.

+ The Google snooze button is saving my life right now.

+ My cousin B and his girlfriend just arrived in Seattle and they’ll be traveling up to and throughout Canada over the next couple of weeks. I wish I could have joined them on yet another adventure.  It was so much fun to travel with them last fall. Also, how is it possible that I haven’t been to Seattle yet?


+ We went down to the waterfront last weekend and it was actually quite nice. There was a light breeze, there were boats on the river and everything was lit up nicely. I sometimes forget that while Sacramento is a “small town” compared to other big cities in California, we do have some landmarks that are pretty. We don’t go down to Old Town often because it feels kinda touristy sometimes, but every once in a while it’s fun, and the Tower Bridge really looks golden at night, am I right?

What have you been thinking about today?

Recipe | Skirt Steak Stir-Fry

filed under: recipe

I don’t know about you, but I love a good stir-fry because you can pretty much adjust the meal completely to your liking. Use the meat you like, use the vegetables you like (or have left over in the fridge). There is not much you can do wrong when making a stir-fry. 

This is a recipe we’ve been going back to a few times recently because it’s a fairly quick dinner option for a busy weekday night and so delicious. You can easily prepare the rice in advance (or use frozen brown rice) and the combinations of ingredients for this dish are endless. We made it with skirt steak recently (which cooks quickly and is so flavorful when marinated), but you can also use chicken or pork, or omit the meat altogether and make this a vegetarian stir fry by just using a bunch of vegetables, as we did last weekend.

 

[yumprint-recipe id=’25’]

What’s one of your go-to recipes when you want a quick dinner on the table?

 

Currently | August

filed under: currently

(still) USING | my bullet journal. And I realized that what I love most about bullet journaling is all the space I have to write down things other than weekly appointments or tasks (e.g. lists, brain-storming sessions, etc.)

WEARING | my wishbone-necklace again. I had forgotten about it for a while and then I found it cleaning up in my jewelry box the other day.

READING | The story of Arthur Truluv by Elizabeth Berg. Such a sweet, sweet story.

WATCHING | my water intake, because most days I do ok, but some days I go the whole day without touching my water bottle and then I think I have to pound 64 oz before bedtime. Stupid idea.

MAKING | scrambled eggs. I like them browned and well done. How do you like your scrambled eggs?

LOOKING FORWARD TO | the long labor-day weekend!

EATING |  granola with yogurt.

DRINKING | ice-cold chocolate milk (after my weekend run).

THINKING | lots of thoughts these days. Why can’t my brain ever shut up?

ENJOYING | the cleaner air. Man, you don’t appreciate the clean air as much as you should unless it’s been taken away for a little while. The smoke and haze from the wildfires around us was nasty, but I am so glad we’re (mostly) back to blue skies. I hope that will be the case for other fire-stricken areas as well.

(and also) EXCITED | about slightly cooler temperatures this week. It’s been so nice outside.

LISTENING TO | NPR.

TRYING | to be present and content in the here and now. Why do so many people (me included) linger in the past or keep contemplating the future most of time?  GAH.

What’s up with you currently?

5 things I do & don’t pay for

filed under: budgeting, finances

A little while ago, my friend Kate shared a post about the things she does or does not spend (her hard-earned) money on and I am jumping on the bandwagon, because if I have learned one thing over the years while budgeting, it is that people just prioritize their spending in different ways. And while it is interesting to see where other people spend their money, it really shouldn’t have any influence on your own priorities whatsoever.

But because comparing on the Internet is fun, I’ll share with you what things I do and don’t pay for.

What I pay for

+ Food

Both groceries and eating out. J and I like to cook and we like to cook good food. I’ve said this many times before, our grocery spending falls in the “moderate to liberal spending category” for two adults per month and I am trying to be ok with it because we value good food.

+ Cable

I know, we’re probably some of the few people who still pay for cable, but it’s worth it to us. We regularly watch news/talk shows on cable networks that we wouldn’t be able to access otherwise. I also really love all the animal and nature shows on NatGeo to zone out to (and knit).

+ Running stuff

I admit it, running is a relatively cheap sport if you want it to be, but there are also so many cool clothing items and shoes and gadgets to buy and races to pay for. I have made a bit of room in my budget for all things running related (mostly because they make me happy). On a side note, I only enter maybe a handful of races per year, so I am picky about the races I will sign up for in order to try and keep the entry fees (which sometimes can be hefty) in check.

+ Travel

It’s always something that is on my mind when I think about where I want my money to go. I try to go home once a year and then also try to see some of the beauty that I am surrounded by here in California (and the US in general). Well, I wish that travel was more of a priority right now (and that I had more time off, ha!), but I do generally like to pay for experiences > things.

+ Yarn

I’ve become a bit of a yarn snob over the years, I won’t just knit with any old yarn. If I spend the time to make something, I want it to feel good and be high quality. So, when I buy yarn, I make sure it’s quality yarn, like the gradient yarn from 100Farbspiele.

What I don’t pay for

+ Books

I know that sounds terrible. Ideally, I’d want this to be one of my “what I pay for” categories, but in all honesty, I get all my books from the library these days. My Amazon Fire + Overdrive are my bffs. It’s just easy, convenient and I only buy physical copies of the books that I really LOVE and would like to own.

+ Coffee at Coffee shops

I love coffee shops and of course, every once in a while I will walk into one and order a fancy drink, but mostly, I make my own coffee at home (or at the office).

I do likemy coffee with lots of milk, so if I feel like a latte, I can also make those at home because I own a fancy milk frother, (ok, minus the fancy foam art, I don’t have the patience for this). There is little reason for me to drop $5 on a caffeinated drink. If you want to give me budgeting advice, don’t tell me to cut out my Starbucks habit. I don’t have one.

+ Hair salon

I have (for now) given up on getting my hair done professionally at the hair salon. It’s just too frickin’ expensive. I only got it done twice a year as it was, but I easily paid $150 (incl. tip) for color and trimming my ends. I decided that for now, I am cutting down the cost even more. I color my own hair at home and get a trim at the barbershop.

+ Clothing

I am not particularly fashionable, I probably would say that I don’t even have a “style” (unless you count jeans and t-shirt as a style), although sometimes I wish I did. (How did you find your style?) I can pretty much wear whatever I want to work, so I also don’t need a closet of fancy work outfits. I sometimes invest in a few higher quality items (like my Birkenstocks), but most of my clothing was on sale and/or pretty inexpensive. It’s just not a priority.

+ Music apps

Most of the music I like to listen to, I own already, so I don’t subscribe to Spotify or Pandora. I like the idea of dedicated music channels (like the “Pearl Jam channel”), but there would be no way I’d have the time to listen enough to make the subscription worthwhile. I know some people can’t live without these apps, but since I also don’t have an unlimited data plan at this time, it would eat up my data even faster than it already does.

What do or don’t you spent money on?