10 Goals for 2023

I know it is only the beginning of December but I like to be prepared. I’ve done New Year resolutions almost every year, but they are more like goals I make plans to achieve. I don’t always achieve them all but I would get close enough so that I can pat myself on the back for the job well done. In recent years, I’ve settled on the round number of ten since around half of them would be the same year after year. I would like to share the goals I have for 2023.

1. Ten thousand steps daily

In the year 2022, I have an over-arching big challenge about fitness. I joined the Great Wall of China virtual challenge where I would translate my workouts and steps into distances (km) and I would ‘walk’ the length of the Great Wall of China which is 3513 km long. So roughly that would make a little under 10 km per day. There were many ups and downs but I’m nearing the end of the challenge and I’m only a little over 200 km from the destination. I tried to do a similar challenge in 2020 and I could barely make half of that amount. Lots of improvement in my fitness journey. Daily workouts are no longer something I have to struggle with, I just do it. I do still struggle with inactivity for the rest of the day though, and that is the thing I’m setting out to correct next year. I want to move more, all hours of the day. So as the over-arching challenge of the year, I’m doing 10K steps daily. That doesn’t mean I would go for a long walk on a daily basis. I want to be realistic here, I have an office job which means I’m in one spot, sitting or standing, for eight hours of every weekday. And realistically, I don’t really have the time to go for long walks. But what I can do is get up every waking hour and walk around for like 10 minutes. That’s literally all it takes.

2. 55 rest days

Okay that must sound weird. 😀 I try to work out every day, it’s simply an easier way for me to do my workouts when I don’t have to decide which 3-4 days I want to do a workout. So I just do it every day. But shit happens. Like this year, I got the flu twice, covid once and a whopping 12 migraines. Not a fun time, no. So for the year 2022 my goal was to only have 20% of my days to be rest days, mostly involuntary. Which means 80% of the days are workout days. I would discuss later whether I hit that goal but to further challenge myself, I want to make it 85% workout days in the year 2023. Which would amount to around 55 rest days. Doesn’t sound much but I’m actually pretty confident that I can do it.

3. Back squat reaching 92.5 kg

My big goal for when I hit 40 years old is to squat 100 kg. For the year 2022, my mission is to advance from 60 kg to 80 kg. Tomorrow, I am going to be lifting that 80 kg. Next year, my initial goal was to advance to 90 kg. But then I realized that if I give myself two months to add 2.5 kg, by the end of 2023, I should be able to reach 92.5 or even 95 kg. And since my birthday is in summer, this advancement speed would mean I can actually hit 100 kg ON my 40th birthday. That would be quite a way to celebrate. 😛

4. Tracking calories, water intake and daily weight-in

I will write about it more later but I did join Noom in October. I will write a short review later but I do enjoy doing it. I also realized for me, it just means back to calorie tracking. I want to continue the good work next year so I would continue to do the Noom habits without paying for the app. 😀

5. Learn 10 new recipes

I tried to do a lot of culinary challenges but I decided to keep my goals pretty humble. So for the year 2023, I just want to learn to make ten new recipes. Nothing more nothing less.

6. Visit 10 museums

I love museums but I don’t visit them often enough. So for the year 2023 I want to visit ten museums at least.

7. Write 150 blog posts

This year had been really bad for consistent blog writing. I still blame the covid for dulling my creativity. 😀 But I know I am a much happier person when I consistently write on here so I want to again set a clear goal for 2023.

8. Daily journaling

Similar to writing blog posts, I tried to journal daily and it was doing wonders for my mental health. On days when I don’t write anything, it is usually an indicator that I’m not doing that well. But if I push through the fog and write something, I would usually feel better the next day.

9. 150 movies

I admit, I have only watched about 120 movies this year so far. The 150 movies had been my goal for years now but it is the first time in a long while that I had trouble reaching it. I did watch a lot more TV shows this year though.

10. 50 books

For two years in a row I managed to read 50 books a year but this year, I broke the chain. I’ve only read 25 books so far. I don’t know what happened but I do have to start making a dent on the big pile of new books I’ve acquired this year.

There they are, 10 goals for 2023. At the end of 2023, I shall review how well I’ve done with these in my Wrapping Up the Year post. What are your goals for 2023?

Recipe of the Week, part 16 – French Omelette

Still on the Julia Child train, I got obsessed with the simple French omelette. I’m not much of a breakfast person, so little so that I attempted to make myself fall for breakfasts by doing a year-long Breakfast Around the World challenge. Spoiler alert, it just made my dislike of breakfast grew stronger. XD One of the reason might be that my mornings are quite packed. I gotta work out, shower and go to work on time. I don’t like eating sweet things and most of the time I don’t enjoy cold breakfasts either, or carb-rich ones cos I would get sleepy. So it has to be something quick, tasty, and low-carb. And also something that I want to eat every day. And I finally found it in Julia Child’s French omelette.

It’s a very simple recipe really, with just few ingredients but to master it, that’s a whole another story.

Ingredients (for 1 serving):

2 large eggs
1 tbsp (15g) butter
generous amount of salt
black pepper
chives (optional)

I keep my eggs on the counter so they are room temperature. The first thing I do is turn on my electric stove, to the max. If you have a gas stove, I envy you deeply. I don’t put the pan on the stove yet. First I break two large eggs into a large bowl and beat it until it’s bubbly. Then I put the pan on the hot stove, lets it sit there for a bit, then add the butter in. I would swirl the butter around the pan so that the surface is well-covered, especially the sides of the pan. Add the salt, I use a small salt grinder and I do 6-7 turns on it into my eggs. And about four turns on the black pepper grinder. I have no idea how much that is, in measurements. 😛 Gently mix the spices in. By now, the butter should just stopped making the sizzling sounds and it’s just before browning point. Pour the eggs in and immediately start to shake the pan back and forth on the stove without lifting the pan from the heat source. After about 5-10 seconds (depending on your stove and pan), the egg shouldn’t be runny anymore. It shouldn’t be whole cooked. Flip with a spatula or spoon or fork about 1/3 of the omelette in half. Drop the omelette onto a big plate and fold it onto itself to make it into a roll. 😀 Have a dollop of butter ready on your knife and butter up the surface of the omelette, then sprinkle some chopped up chives on top. And voila! 😀

Serve immediately for best consistancy. The whole cooking process, once mastered, should not take more than one minute. And it’s so good that I devour it usually in one minute. A great breakfast in less than 2 minutes. 😀 The secret is, it’s going to be more butter and more salt than you thought you would need. XD It’s filling and so satisfying, and I’m actually looking forward to it when I wake up. It took me about 3 weeks before I managed to make the perfect consistency for the omelette. I’m sure if I ever get a gas stove, I can make an even better one. If you are going to give it a try, I hope you enjoy. 🙂

Recipe of the Week, part 15 – Carbonara & Amatriciana

I have a weird culinary hobby and that is endlessly trying to achieve what I consider to be impossible: the perfect carbonara. I am not claiming I finally succeeded, cos I’m sure I will have a better one when I someday visit Italy. But as something I made myself, this was damn near perfect. To be fair, it is not my recipe. It is the Italian-American comedian Matteo Lane’s recipe, I just happen to follow him on Instagram and Youtube. I’ve made tens of different carbonara recipes, but this one I haven’t tried yet. And in a very Italian fashion, Matteo didn’t give exact measurements so the following are guesstimates from yours truly. I encourage you to experiment with the different amounts of things to your own taste, and trust me, it will be the most delicious experimental journey ever.

Ingredients (1 person portion):

50-70g of chopped guanciale (not bacon, not even pancetta, it has to be guanciale)
2-3 egg yolks (depending on how big your eggs are)
2-4 grated pecorino cheese
spaghetti (80g dry spaghetti)
salt and black pepper to taste

1. Turn on your stove to medium-low, and slowly cook the guanciale in its own fat.
2. Boil the pasta water, add a generous amount of salt. Normally it should taste as salty as the sea but since the guanciale is quite salty, the pasta water can be less salty.
3. Put your egg yolks in a giant bowl (glass or metal). Lightly beat the yolks and then adding your pecorino into the mix. Whisk until combined.
4. Your pasta water should be slightly boiling now, put your egg and cheese bowl on the pot, so that your bowl isn’t touching the boiling water (that’s why a big bowl is recommended). Whisk the egg and cheese mixture furiously, do not let the egg turn into scrambled eggs! You will notice the change in the texture on the mixture when the cheese is melted but the yolk remains runny. Take it off the heat and add the spaghetti.
5. Keep an eye on your guanciale, don’t let it go too crispy (unless you like it crispy). Once it’s the doneness to your liking, transfer them onto a paper towel to absorb the extra oil. Do not throw away the oil left in the pan just yet.
6. After your pasta has been cooking for over 5 minutes, you can add a little bit of pasta water into your egg mixture. Add it very slowly while whisking at the same time, this will prevent the egg from scrambling.
7. When your pasta is cooked to al dente (or just a smitch over if you like it), transfer it straight to the egg bowl. Mix quickly to combine it, and add more pasta water if needed. Season with black pepper, add your cooked guanciale and just a little bit of that oil left in the pan and mix mix mix.
8. Now plate, grate some more pecorino on top if you want and more black pepper if you want. Now enjoy!

It’s a really simple recipe, and it’s always those that are the hardest to master. And with a recipe with so few ingredients, the quality of the ingredients really stands out. So order a piece of guanciale online if you can’t find it in your local grocery store, it’s worth it. Use good quality eggs, the color of the yolk would be more yellow and taste better. As for the red pasta (photo up there), it’s amatriciana aka red carbonara. It’s a refreshing alternative to the creamy carbonara. Just replace the egg with some good tomato puree. Leave like 1 tablespoon of guanciale oil in the pan after you fish our the meat and pour the tomato sauce onto the pan. Add the pecorino when the sauce starts to simmer and mix until smooth. Then add the al dente pasta and the guanciale to the sauce. Mix until fully combined, plate and enjoy. No pasta dish would ever replace carbonara for me, but the amatriciana is also excellent.

Recipe of the Week, part 14 – Tuna Casserole

I am not really a casserole person, unless you count putting pasta in the oven to melt the cheese a casserole or a straightforward lasagna. 😀 It’s not like I don’t like them, I just haven’t made a lot of them. Needless to say, I am very excited to embark on this journey to attempt to make casseroles all of April, one recipe per week. And an additional challenge is that I’m also on a low carb diet. Which would mean casserole stables like potato and sweet potato or even rice are out of the question, and of course, no pasta in any form. I quickly found out that non-starchy veggies are not ideal for casseroles. If you care about how it would look. Which I don’t, as long as it tastes good.

So here’s my first casserole – tuna. In addition to three cans of tuna, I added:

• big zucchini, cubed
• grilled artichoke hearts
• cauliflower florets
• sundried tomatoes, sliced
• kalamata olives, halved
• spicy salami
• a good tomato sauce (pizza or pasta sauce)
• feta cheese, crumbled
• cheddar cheese, shredded, on top
• capers
• seasoning: garlic, oregano, black pepper

I actually didn’t add any salt, cos mainly I forgot but I’m glad I did cos all that cheese and other salty stuff like olives were enough to give it enough saltiness. As expected, fresh veggies, especially the zucchini, let out their water and created a bit of liquid to accompany the casserole. But that liquid tasted pretty damn good so I didn’t mind it at all. 😀 It also kept pretty well in the fridge so it was a good meal-prep dish also. I warmly recommend it.

Recipe of the Week, part 13 – Zucchini and eggplant rolls

This was a combination of stuff I saw on IG and got inspired. The base is sliced zucchini and eggplant (lengthwise) and slightly grilled in the oven with just salt and olive oil. Oh, I did meal-prep some bacon and on the same baking sheet that had the bacon grease, I grilled the zucchini and eggplant. In the giant lasagna pan, I mixed up some pizza sauce and olive paste. Then I stuff the veggie rolls with cheese and salami and prosciutto. In zucchinis, I placed a piece of feta cheese, sprinkled some fresh oregano, a little slice of salami, and rolled up with the grilled zucchini. In the eggplant, I rolled up a little piece of heirloom tomato, mozzarella, fresh basil leave, and a piece of prosciutto. After I placed the rolls on the sauced up pan and then placed some more pizza sauce on top and sprinkled some shredded cheddar cheese. Then baked the whole thing for like 20 min or something. I totally forgot that I was going to add tuna to the zucchini rolls. XD So I mix up the tuna with leftover feta, grilled artichokes (that I also forgot), sun-dried tomatoes, and the rest of the fresh oregano and baked that mixture in the oven too. 😀 It’s not exactly pretty to look at but it was actually very delicious. I was initially a little worried that I wouldn’t come up with enough ideas for low-carb casserole ideas for April recipes but I think I’m going to be fine. 🙂