Everyday Tweet

Yummy Pictures: April 29th is National Shrimp Scampi Day

Via @Foodimnetary, today April 29th is National Shrimp Scampi Day. Last night, my brain must have been plugging into some vat of oneness because I got this wicked craving for Shrimp Scampi on spaghetti which mind you I haven't had in eons mainly because your typical scampi is made with lots of butter.

But, I had a bag of frozen shrimp and frozen edamame in the freezer, so I decided, why not, and here in pictures is what I created. I don't have an exact recipe, but I can tell you the ingredients I used, and how I cooked the dish.

Ingredients I used to make enough good for 2:

• Pre-cooked frozen shrimp
• Diced up garlic
• Plugra European style salted butter
• Olive oil
• Edamame
• Trader Joes Quattro Formaggio Cheese Blend: Parmesan, Asiago, Fontina, Provolone
• Spaghetti noodles
• Sea salt
• Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute

First, I cooked the spaghetti and thawed the shrimp in a bath of warm water.
Heated up some olive oil and butter in a pan then added the garlic and sauteed the shrimp.I use both butter and olive oil so I don't have to use as much butter. Plus, the olive oil has the good MUFAs.

After about a minute of sauteing the shrimp, I threw in the pan about 3/4 cup of yummy edamame with the noodles, and seasoned with some sea salt and the Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute.

Stirred everything up in the pan for a couple minutes, and mixed in about a handful of the Trader Joe's Quattro Formaggio Cheese Blend. Tossed real quick before putting into bowl. Voila!

 

Dr. Seuss on Life Purpose: Oh, The Places You'll Go

For my birthday this year, a good friend of mine gifted me with the Dr. Seuss book, "Oh, the Places You'll Go! " Remember that book? The story really reminded me about the journey of pursuing your life purpose work. If you haven't read this inspiring piece of literature, you must, and quickly, here's why:

• The story will remind you of your child-like wonderment. It's good to be reminded of those hopes and openness to new things we felt as kids. Just because we're adults doesn't mean we have to lose those parts of ourselves.

• Seuss shares the realities of a journey both positive and scary. There is no, "all life is a fairy tale" in this book yet there are many Rocky Balboa like moments, and I think that's realistically balanced.

• Seeing "Oh, the places you will go" in pictures (visuals) will help you see the bigger picture of what is going on in your own journey. We can get too tunneled vision sometimes, and forget that both fantastic and "this sucks" are temporary states and just parts of a bigger whole which in the end is you reaching your dreams and goals.

• The book is fun!

Mini-sizing the To Do List: Smaller paper

One of the sure fire ways to overwhelm yourself is to create a To Do list that is as long as a legal size piece of paper or to create some super Excel spreadsheet with color tabs and tables.

A less daunting way to accomplish what you need to get done is to focus on mini batches of 2-3 things you need to accomplish and to make those items on that short list...well, short and to the point.

The mini-me list

One way I help myself be short and to the point is to literally write my mini to do list on little pieces of paper. Here's a block of notepad paper on my desk. Each note is 1.75" x 2.75". I can put these little pieces of paper in my wallet or pocket.

I can tell you that looking at mini paper literally makes my brain feel at ease because I think how big and stressful can something be when it's written on a minute piece of paper?

Now granted, small things in actuality can have big impact and require much work, but at least visually, seeing the line item on something the size of a matchbook helps ease the dauntingness one can feel when seeing large sheets of To Do list.

And speaking of matchbook sizes of paper over on Etsy.com do a search for "matchbook notepads" and you'll find some really cool notepads like these blue themed matchbooks from Burgundy District.

In Pictures, The Slanted Door, Modern Vietnamese on the Wharf

In my opinion, two of the best months to visit San Francisco are April and September, and when you come here to visit, you must visit the Ferry Building as there are many incredible culinary delights in that place like The Slanted Door restaurant, modern Vietnamese cuisine, where I had lunch for my birthday yesterday.

In fact, Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal were seen making out in the restaurant once. I mention this because The Slanted Door is definitely a great place to take a date especially when you're first going out. For example, if you have to wait for your table here is the view from the patio that faces the water. Yeah, beautiful view of the San Francisco Bay Bridge.

I was in the mood for a Bloody Mary, and boy was this drink zesty.

For appetizer, we started out with the Slanted Door spring rolls with shrimp, pork, mint and peanut sauce.

For lunch, we ordered the Grapefruit and Jicama salad with red cabbage, pickled carrots and candied pecans, followed by the Chicken Claypot with caramel sauce, chilies and fresh ginger and barbecued Willis Ranch pork spareribs with honey-hoisin sauce. My picture of the spareribs came out blurry so my apologies for the tease. The ribs were definitely tasty.

 

Following lunch at Slanted Door, we headed over to Blue Bottle for one of the most amazing Mocha drinks I've ever had along with Parisian macaroons from Miette. Check out the yummy pictures.

In Pictures, Blue Bottle Coffee and Miette Parisian Macaroons

If you come to San Franciso, you must get yourself one of the coffee drinks at Blue Bottle Coffee Co. They only use the finest organic, and pesticide-free, shade-grown coffee beans, and offer organic milks and soy plus whatever magic they add into their drinks.

I had one of the most amazing Mocha drinks I've ever sipped, and was amazed by how frothy and thick a non-fat Mocha could taste. I enjoyed the decorative leaf made from the milk.

In San Francisco, Blue Bottle has a Cafe near downtown Nordstroms, a kiosk in Hayes Valley, and a new store in the San Francisco Ferry Building where I hung out this weekend. Say hello to the barista. 

Across the way from Blue Bottle in the Ferry Building is Miette, a very cute pastry shop inspired by the patisseries of Paris. 

Along with my Mocha, I enjoyed this petite chocolate Parisian macaroon, a totally guilt free dessert because it was very delicious but only about 3 bites max. There were 5 other macaroon flavors which all looked delicious, and a bunch of other dessert delicicies which we'll definitely have to try next time.

I can't say enough about Blue Bottle and Miette. Do stop by and enjoy their culinary delights!

Slice of Chocolate Decadence

I'm all about balance, and that means no deprivation. Life is too short to not enjoy chocolate. Here's a slice of vegan chocolate cake I got at my local Whole Foods bakery. (I have a type II milk allergy) I can enjoy this slice over two days.

And yeah, it was that good.

Oprah on Twitter: "What Can I Use Twitter For?" Here's 7 Things

You've been hearing about Twitter almost everywhere you go, and even Oprah is on Twitter. People have tried explaining it to you, but still, you are scratching your head a bit wondering, "What can I use Twitter for that I can't do with something else I got already like a Facebook page, IM, or text on a cell?

I describe Twitter as a Swiss army knife of texting awesomeness, and here's what you get. I personally enjoy Twitter over all other social networks because it's instant, your page is clean and simple, and the community is uber friendly and a bit older than MySpace and Facebook, 35-49 was the largest age group in Feb 09. {source Nielsen}

Oprah is all about living your best life, so here's 7 everyday things you can do on Twitter to help you along that journey. I also include sample topic #hashtags you can use for searches:

• Accountability tool for reaching a goal: I started using Twitter back in 2007 as a way to help me drop the last 10lbs in a 25lbs loss effort. Because you can use Twitter from a cell phone or mobile device, I would tweet my workouts and that helped me first, to stay accountable to my workouts because I knew people were watching me, and second, it helped me develop a support system of others trying to reach the same goal.

• Find job leads and job hunting tips: Not only are companies starting to use Twitter more for recruiting, but other people tweet about job openings they've heard about or simply ask, "Hey, I'm looking for a job as an {insert role}." Here's a great post on using Twitter for job search including stories from people who actually landed jobs via Twitter. If you're a small company, and can't afford to pay job boards, Twitter is free. Search terms you can use for job hunting include: #jobhunting, #jobsearch, #jobs, #salary.

10 Words To Help Motivate You To Exercise

Since we like to keep it a cinch and emotive here at Everyday Tweet, here's 10 simple words to inspire you to workout:

health

lean
advantage
endorphins
boost
Lalanne
hawt *
strength
kickass
reward
fitalicious*

health

*modern meaning "sexy or hip", 50's acronym: having a wonderful time.

*fit + delicious

Snack Idea: Jicama Fries with Spicy Yogurt Aioli-like Dip

Doesn't that look deelish? These Jicama fries and Spicy Yogurt Aioli-like Dip are really easy to make. I'm using the term "aioli-like" because true aioli has garlic and olive oil in it, and this dip doesn't but it has the texture of an aioli.

Making the fries and dip

To make the Jicama fries, simply cut fresh jicama into fry like pieces or if you have a French Fry cutter, use jicama instead of potato. Sprinkle sea salt on fries.

To make the dip for one person, take 2 tbsp of Greek honey yogurt, and start off mixing in 1/2 tsp of Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce. This sauce is very popular, and is offered in many chain grocery stores in the Asian food section.

Tips:

• I suggest starting off with a small amount of the hot sauce because you can always add more if you want more heat. I use the Greek yogurt over traditional yogurt because the Greek version is thicker like mayonnaise.

• The Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce tastes really good with honey Greek yogurt. I tried the hot sauce with a Vanilla and Plain Greek yogurt but it just didn't have the same panache the honey combo creates.

• I have not tried any other types or brands of hot sauce, but if you do, please let me know how it turned out.

Enjoy!

3 Ways to Snap Out of The Comparison Trap

I tweeted today about comparing yourself to others:

Since the economy has been on the tank, it's been very easy for many of us to fall into the comparison trap where we start comparing ourselves to others especially when it comes to things like material possessions, money, relationships, career and beauty / manliness.

The comparison game is just that a trap. @catheroo pointed out this insightful quote, "Comparison is the thief of joy." And, I think The Desiderata by Max Ehrmann sums it up succinctly:

If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

So, if you find yourself in the comparison funk, here's 3 ways to help you snap you out of it:

• For everything you feel you are lacking, write down at least one thing you do posses or do have going for you. I call this the "It's only fair game" which your psyche can make logical sense. If the lack gets the limelight, then your abundance should get equal time. Writing the list of what you do have even if it is only 2-3 things will start getting the "good feeling" momentum going.

• Context is everything. What is the context in which you are comparing yourself to someone else because in one context something that appears to be good might be not so important in another context. For example, being a millionaire is something many people envy. But if people are trapped in a burning building, does it matter who is a millionaire or not? No, what matters is courage and helping others. Money is not going to get people to safety, but courage will. So back, to your "what you have" list, remember your character traits and values.

• Look at the big picture. The person you are comparing yourself to may have one thing you envy, but their overall life may be worse off than yours. That person may also be looking at you and envying your life and what you have. Yes, remember your "what you have" list, others have stock in that list too because even if you can't see what's fantastic about you, others can.

So, you feel a bit brighter now? What are some other ways you've snapped out of the comparison funk?