cook Archives - Scale My Life

Vegetarian Challenge: The Naked Truth About Vegans

May 31, 2016 3 Comments

No meat, No Dairy, No Eggs, No Fun? Vegans, the most dedicated, and often most outspoken of the meatless movement. As far as I could tell these people lived, ate, slept and breathed health and animal rights, sacrificing some of life’s most guilty dietary pleasures such as pizza, ice-cream and milk chocolate. Their sacrifice and commitment in the face of the common and easy dietary lifestyle really intrigued me. Having done my research over this past month and realizing the damning correlations...

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Vegetarian Challenge: I Want The Truth! But I May Not Be Able To Handle The Truth…

May 23, 2016 2 Comments

Few times in my life can I recall having been moved by something so strongly that I was immediately forced to take action. To watch or read something and then immediately have the need to know more about it or the need to call a friend just to share must mean that it had profound impact on your life. This was the feeling I had after finishing the documentary Forks Over Spoons. Before the credits were even rolling on the screen I had grabbed my...

Budget Challenge Scale My Life Blog

Molly’s Budget Challenge: Reflections of a Budget Queen

March 23, 2016 No Comments

It’s Molly again, reporting back with reflections after my week of accepting Ryan’s challenge! As I mentioned in my first blog post, I regularly spend $400 a month on groceries; $200 every 2 weeks equating to $7.14 per day. And let me tell you, this is not willy nilly spending! To make this happen I have to plan my meals down to the T to make sure I spend my money the best way I can. The Strategy At...

Become a Better Cook - Challenge 2 Scale My Life Blog

Cooking Challenge: Distracted Stew Cooking

February 24, 2016 No Comments

I had it all planned out. This was the last night of my 1 roast 3 meals challenge and I wasn’t going to let it kick my ass again. The first night was a marathon of beef cooking and the second was a chaotic pot pie experiment. Both nights I got distracted and both nights we ended up eating after 10 o’clock. But that wasn’t going to happen again. This time I had a plan. Step 1: Where did I go wrong?...

Become a Better Cook - Challenge 2 Scale My Life Blog

Cooking Challenge: Beef Leftovers for Days

February 21, 2016 No Comments

After making possibly the best roast I’ve ever had, I was feeling pretty confident with my cooking skills. I mean sure my friend Drew saved me from destroying my roast and dinners for the next 3 days but I was the one who slaved away to make it work. Thankfully Drew’s American Test Kitchen cook book had done most of the trial and error for us so I just got to follow along and look like a pro. Now it was...

Become a Better Cook - Challenge 2 Scale My Life Blog

Cooking Challenge: Big Roast on a Small Budget

February 18, 2016 1 Comment

Over the last few days my cooking challenge has really started to build some momentum. After investing into some essential meal planning hacks, I spent my evenings in cultural exploration. First I got to prepare Salt Fish and Ackee, the national dish of Jamaica with my friend Daniel who grew up there. Then Brittney and I were treated to an amazing authentic Chinese cooking night with our friends David and Sophia who went all out with cool Chinese robes, samples of traditional teas...

Become a Better Cook - Challenge 2 Scale My Life Blog

Cooking Challenge: Failing to Plan Means Planning to Hate Cooking

February 11, 2016 No Comments

Cooking Reflections If this month’s cooking challenge has taught me anything its that I suck at planning ahead. I don’t know if it’s just a male thing or maybe something to do with my birth month (I’m a Libra if you were curious) but scheduling, and planning ahead are just not my areas of forte. This has really seemed to bite me in the ass this month as apparently cooking a good meal is only about 20% actual cooking and 80%...

Become a Better Cook - Challenge 2 Scale My Life Blog

Cooking Challenge: Calling In A Real Chef

February 10, 2016 No Comments

Pan Fried Chicken, Risotto & Roasted Radishes Friday was finally here. I had survived my first working week of cooking and other than a few late nights, a lot of grocery runs and some hard relationship lessons everything had gone pretty well. This was the day I had been waiting for though. Up till now every dish I had attempted I had been at best winging it and hoping for the best. Now I was actually going to work with a...

Become a Better Cook - Challenge 2 Scale My Life Blog

Cooking Challenge: Tofu To the Rescue & Slow Cooker Sogginess

February 9, 2016 No Comments

Wednesday: Meal 3 – Tofu Pad Thai By the time Wednesday rolled around I have to admit I was pretty exhausted. Late night dinners, grocery store guessing games and relationship tightrope walking had all taken a lot out of me. That being said I was really looking forward to Wednesday’s meal as my friends Justin and Alex were hosting us over at their place. This meant way less stress and way more wine. Justin is a vegetarian and part of...

Become a Better Cook - Challenge 2 Scale My Life Blog

Cooking Challenge Meal 2: Moussaka Marathon

February 8, 2016 No Comments

Tuesday: Meal 2 – Greek Moussaka Having survived night one relatively unscathed I went into day two with much of the same approach (I’m a slow learner). It was late Tuesday afternoon when I decided it would be fun to make this week a cultural week. Upon hearing this my girlfriend decided we were having a Greek night so I went to work trying to find a nice authentic Greek dish. Since last nights dish was relatively simple (other than the...