Blog
Mediterranean Salad Courtesy of Lynn
Sep 6th
Hey guys!
I’ve gotta lot of work to do, but I wanted to share a recipe that I found from Lynn over at the Actor’s Diet. Check out the blog when you have a chance! In the last few days she posted about a wonderfully simple but really delicious Mediterranean salad, and so yesterday I decided to try it out.
You can read the blog about her making this salad here, but I wanted to show you my version of the recipe that she posted.
According to Lynn, her recipe includes the following:
Lynn’s Mediterranean Salad
Heirloom cherry tomatoes
Persian cucumbers
Zest/juice of another big lemon
2 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
A handful of chopped fresh Italian parsley
1/4 tsp. salt and pepper
Cut up a bag of Misto alla Griglia and added (with all their oils) to the mix
Basically grilled eggplant and zucchini in a special marinade, only available in the US.
I went to the local supermarket here in Los Banos (Robinson’s) to try and see if they had any of the ingredients. They had most of what I was looking for except for the specific Heirloom tomatoes or Persian cucumbers. However, I found out that just the regular small native tomatoes and cucumbers sufficed. I of course couldn’t find the Misto alla Griglia that Lynn used in her recipe since that’s only sold in the US, so of course I decided to see what I could do with 2 extra large eggplant. (Surprisingly, there was no zucchini to be found in the store which was sorely disappointing).
Since I didn’t have any of the already prepared eggplant and zucchini I decided to grill and marinade the veggies myself. Since I only had eggplant that’s all I used. And it turned out like this!
Lynn's Mediterranean salad, my way.
After mixing together all the ingredients I had a zesty, refreshing and totally scrumptious salad. Best part was, that it was all totally healthy and it tasted great! Here’s what I used to make the marinated grilled eggplant my way.
Marinated Eggplant
2 extra long eggplant, cut lengthwise and then cut up into 2 inch pieces
6 tbsp. of EVOO
3 tbsp. of Balsamic Vinegar
1/2 tsp. each of finely minced oregano, thyme and basil
1/2 tsp. of salt and pepper
Mix them all together and grill for 8-10 minutes a piece, while turning.
Some marinated eggplant is the best part of this dish.
And there you have it… a perfectly simple, easy, but delicious and refreshing salad. Lynn sure knows what she’s doing when it comes to food! Now I’ve just gotta figure out how to get some avocados so I can try out her ultra simple guacamole recipe at some point…
Destressing Time & An Actor’s Diet
Sep 1st
So I’m sitting at home with my cat MoChiiro in my lap. I’m currently wondering what to do with myself tonight. I was supposed to have an epidemiology exam tomorrow, but it was moved to next week, so I’m kind of free tonight since we don’t have any exams until next week.
Got my surgery test grade back from one of my professors. I did pretty well actually and because we were awarded some bonus points I scored a little higher. Really happy about that… and it was great because that’s how my day ended. 
After classes today I went with my friends Larra and Chat to the Student Union building to play some ping-pong with our newly acquired racquets (I had bought her one for her birthday a few days ago)! We stayed there for about 2 hours just playing non-stop before calling it a quits. I was tired, but we had lots of fun!
Now I’m wondering what to do with my time. I don’t really feel like opening a book tonight since that’s all I’ve been doing all of this week. I guess I will just make myself some tea and see if any of my friends have any plans. If not, I will just take this night to relax I suppose. It’s raining outside and I guess it’s not the right weather to go out. Haha…
Lynn Chen, writer of "The Actor's Diet"
Anyway, hope you guys are doing well. Before I go though, let me redirect you to a blog that I’ve recently started reading called “The Actor’s Diet”. It’s written by one of my favorite Asian American actresses, Lynn Chen (star of “Saving Face” and “People I’ve Slept With”). She talks about balancing her food habits with life, as she’s struggled with dieting as an actor. It’s actually a pretty interesting read. She takes pictures of almost everything she eats and updates the blog quite frequently. I love what she does to eat healthy, and I’m trying to do the same. Check it out if you have a chance!
Take care guys! Have fun doing whatever you’re doing.
We Ride
Aug 31st
Yes, we will continue to ride and ride until the journey ends. Was just listening to the track by Tommy Park from JYPe that was done for the opening of the Wonder Girls TV series. It’s an interesting song… and it goes along with a cooly edited video.
I feel like I’ve just been grinding each and everyday. When I say that I kind of mean that I feel like I’m still recovering from something. Even though I had the pleasure of enjoying a three-day weekend, it still didn’t seem like enough time to recover from everything. I still feel like there’s too much to do and too little time and I’m worried that things will catch up to me. There’s still too much to do… I feel inundated with things. So I’m feeling a little stressed.
I’ve resulted in watching some YouTube videos. Here’s a cool one of my brother who actually won a contest in Coney Island, NY a few weeks ago. Check it out. The guy definitely has moves.
(Video is courtesy of Brooklyn Theory)
Well I still got stuff to do but will actually destress a little bit. Gonna go do some cardio for a bit, read for a bit and then sleep. Tomorrow we have a slightly big lab to finish up in Physiology class.
Catch you guys later! xD
