About Me
Here are the questions to your answers! Please feel free to ask me if there’s something else you’d like to know!…
Why did you start this blog?
Ha, I started this blog because I thought I should give my friends a break from getting so many mass emails from me with all my “important thoughts.” I thought a blog could be an outlet to share my thoughts and aspects of my life while giving others the choice whether or not to look at it. From the beginning I realized cooking, eating and squeezing the most out of life’s everyday opportunities are what I’m most passionate about.
I want to know your secrets of having the stamina to cook, style & blog after a long day job.
The secret? I love to do it! That’s it. I don’t put pressure on myself to post a certain number of times per week or to take pictures of everything I eat. I blog when I can and want to, and clearly, I’m pretty passionate about it 
Plus, cooking, photography and writing have all been favorite hobbies of mine that I would do separately growing-up. I feel fortunate that I found one hobby that actually combines all 3!
How do you make time to do all this cooking?
My husband and I try to live pretty simply – we don’t have a TV and don’t have smartphones. I don’t have any problems with these things and may use them in the future but I know myself and I would easily spend a lot of time here when my time is limited and those aren’t my priorities right now. So simply taking away things like this frees up a lot of time for cooking!
Also, another HUGE reason why I find ways to do all this cooking is that I plan out all our meals each week. MEAL PLANNING HELPS SO MUCH!!! It keeps the grocery bill down, and each day I just get home and have to decide which meal to choose instead of looking through the kitchen and trying to figure out what I can put together. I usually only plan one meal that might take a bit longer to prepare each week and will do that over the weekend; otherwise most meals can usually be made under 30 minutes. I figure, we’re going to eat no matter what so I might as well put the extra effort into making our meals healthy and homemade (most of the time)!
On a tangent – Planning our meals also saves a lot of money since we’re not tempted to go out to eat – I actually have a really hard time paying to eat out somewhere when I know there’s perfectly good food at our house that might go bad if we don’t eat it soon!
Where do you get your cooking creativity?
I get most of my meal ideas from magazines that have been given to me as gifts – right now my favorites are Food Network and Food & Wine. I also go through our cookbooks and your food blogs for new ideas and inspiration!
What is your favorite thing to cook or bake?
Breads! I know many people are afraid of things that involve yeast, but I love the process! I’ve definitely had my frustrated moments of spending hours making a bread that didn’t rise or never fully-cooked, but all the times that I’ve produced a warm, flaky crust from just a few simple ingredients makes all the failed attempts worth it!
What are your favorite comfort foods?
I love a hearty stew, deep dish pizza or big breakfast on the weekend!
What were your favorite foods when you were little?
Hmm…I do remember my favorite candy bar was Butterfinger, I loved my mom’s cream of potato soup and I can remember eating way more food at the Pizza Hut lunch buffet with my friends than could ever be healthy for anyone.
Are there any foods you absolutely can’t stand and won’t touch?
Jello. I’ve had issues with the texture since I can remember. I’ve even tried it again as an adult since I know taste buds and preferences change, but still just can’t tolerate the texture!
“I would love to see your kitchen. I bet it looks awesome!”
That’s very endearing, but if I showed you, I would just leave you disappointed. 
My kitchen is functional enough that it has a stove, oven and bit of counter space. But there’s no dishwasher, most of our “small kitchen appliances” sit on shelves outside of the kitchen itself, and if I stand in the middle of the room and outstretch my arms, they can reach both ends of the counter. While it’s not my dream kitchen or what I may lust after on Pinterest, I think that’s what I like the most: that you don’t have to have the latest gadgets or most expensive products to make delicious, wholesome food; it’s something that can be done anywhere and with simple ingredients.
What other hobbies and activities do you enjoy?
You may have also picked this up from my blog but I love traveling, running, and reading.
So as I mentioned about we have a TV that only works to watch movies. HOWEVER, A LOT of shows are also available online so I’m not too removed from reality
We find that when we’re at other people’s houses we EASILY zone out and can end up watching a lot more T.V. than we’d prefer to spend our time on. So this way, to find a show online definitely takes more of a conscious effort than just flipping through the channels and leaving it on anything that looks semi-decent.To get back to your question though, my favorite shows right now are Modern Family, Glee and Parenthood.
Do you have any favorite hobbies/routines with your husband?
We have dinner together nearly every night. Even if it’s just pasta on a Tuesday night, we typically have a candle lit on the table and a Pandora station on. We also have a weekly “date night” that may range from playing tennis on the weekend to watching a symphony downtown. It’s time set apart for just the two of us.
How long have you been married?
Five wonderful and happy years!
What is the most life-changing lesson you’ve learned in the last year?
I’m constantly re-learning that there are so many things out of our control and how vital it is to fully embrace and live each day, to be grateful for what we have, and to never judge others as we don’t know their story and there are so many better things we can be doing with our time.
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http://healthifulbalance.blogspot.com/ Healthiful Balance
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Shannon Lim
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http://www.simplylifeblog.com/ Simply Life
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Nurse3766
