I bought a box of quinoa last week and decided it was time to try it for breakfast. I will have to try it again because, since I’ve been having such good luck just throwing things together and not really measuring anything, I thought I could just skim a recipe and it would work out. Well, not this time.

I found this recipe, but just kind of…threw what I thought were good amounts of each ingredient together. I think where I mostly went wrong was that I decided to fry the apples and ended up with way too much butter on them. And then the soy milk was supposed to be “drizzled” on top and I dumped a bunch in. So, it was the recipe, plus some buttery soy milk. I was able to dump most of it out, but it still didn’t taste exactly how I’d hoped, haha.

However, I still have a ton of quinoa and plenty of apples. I will be trying this again, except next time, I will follow directions.

Actually, I just looked up pumpkin and shrimp recipes…and might have to try a curry next time.

I love food. Until earlier this year, I have been a strict vegetarian, vegan at times, even. The mac and cheese and fondue (FONDUE!) is what got me back on dairy. I dabbled in raw vegan diets. Maybe I was doing it wrong, or maybe I just didn’t have the time and patience for dehydrators…or maybe I just really like hot food…but that didn’t work out for long. But vegetarian for about 8 years.

A few months ago, I decided to add fish/seafood back to my diet. It took me a few months to actually DO it. I felt ashamed. I felt like so much of who I was revolved around being a vegetarian. Then I realized how ridiculous that was. But it was still hard to take that first bite of fish. A big slab of tuna at my dear friend Shea’s house. I had told her that I wanted to start eating fish again but had no idea how to cook it. So, she invited me to dinner where we would cook together. I wasn’t sure if I wanted my first seafood experience to be a public or private affair…it was a very stressful decision for me. But, Shea being a good friend, and someone who knows how to cook fish, I decided to go for it. I only ate about a quarter of my fillet. It tasted lovely, but the texture was so new to me (texture was a big reason for not liking meat in the first place) and I also just…didn’t want to shit my brains out later that night. (Vegetarians, you know what I’m talking about…) I gradually started having fish once a week. And now I might have it a few times a week, or not at all for a bit. If you saw my post from the Philippines, you know I’ve even had fish with it’s head still on.

ANYWAY, I am posting this because tonight I made some really delicious shrimp. I made my own ginger + red chili + honey sauce and marinated my shrimp in it. Not for long enough, I’m still new at this…veggies don’t need to be defrosted or marinated! They just taste good!

I didn’t measure anything, just threw it all in a food processor. Added some shredded carrots, and boom! Delicious.

And now for the pumpkin. There is no pumpkin puree in Australia. (“We make it ourselves!” Well, aren’t you all just a bunch of Bettie Crockers? Where are the pumpkins, then?!) So, Evan’s parents sent me a package: “Pie In A Box.” It had everything I needed, measured out and everything! I just needed to get a pie crust. Turns out they don’t have those pre-made here either (“We make our own!” Well! I would, too, if I had all of my kitchen appliances.) So, it turned out to be a pumpkin pie with a graham cracker crust. Delicious!

Before I made the pie, I stole a little over a tablespoon full of pumpkin puree for a pumpkin, banana, cinnamon, soy milk smoothie. Not my idea, stole it from a favorite photographer of mine, Kyle Cassidy, whose life I follow online.

Well. Now for some Christmas carols in the park by the house. It’s almost 90F outside. Ah, the southern hemisphere.