Adventures: Hawaii 2014 - Oahu Day 2

With the time change from California to Hawaii, it's much easier to wake up early. We were up and ready to tackle the day easily by 7am. But first, let me take a coffee drink selfie.

vintage kona mocha with peaberry chip

It was pouring all over the island and Tanya had forgotten her tennis shoes so we went back to Kaneohe to grab them and since it was actually drier on the "wet" side of the island we decided to do the Pillbox Hike (great Wiki Resource: link).

It was a little muddy from the drizzling earlier that morning but there are ropes on the side of the trail if you need some extra grip. It is not a paved trail so you need to watch for areas of major slippage. We were in a rush to complete the hike since it looked like it was about to start raining again so we actually didn't hike to the actual 3 pillboxes. You can get a pretty good view without even hiking all the way up.

(note: the two photos below were taken at the same spot and no filters were used but I did change the ISO settings which is why they look so different. But it gives you an idea of how gloomy and ominous it was that day)

Right after we finished the Pillbox Hike and got back to our car, it literally started pouring. We drove by so many people taking cover under random people's homes. Due to our stranger danger meter, we decided to not offer any rides.

Originally we had wanted to hike Koko Head again because it is seriously the Everest for someone that rarely exercises lol. But since it was raining, we figured it wouldn't be the best idea. So instead, we decided to tackle another hike. I had mentioned doing the Makapu'u Lighthouse Hike so that's exactly what we did. There's a decent amount of parking but make sure you don't have anything valuable in your car. Right when we arrived, there was a cop interviewing some people and their car had been broken into (window was shattered) so be very careful and exercise common sense!

After that hike we decided to do our usual ritual of getting an Acai Bowl. We headed for Salted Lemon.

Their acai bowl is quick huge so if you're not particularly hungry, I would suggest sharing. My only comment would be that their acai bowl needed more granola! But it was tasty nonetheless.


I had also wanted to go to North Shore and try Matsumoto's Shave Ice since I've never been in all the times I've been to Hawaii so since we still had some extra time, we headed north to do one more hike at Waimea Falls. This really isn't a hike and you also have to pay for entry so it's not something that's a must do. If you are interested in visiting an arboretum or botanical garden, then this is more the place for you. The trail is VERY easy and is good for all ages. You can actually take a dip in the water at the end of the hike at the waterfall which I wouldn't recommend unless you want leptospirosis (there's a huge sign warning you about it) but again, you can YOLO it up all you want lol but I wasn't about to ruin my vacation by getting an infection.

these leaves made me think of a bug's life and bug's land in california adventures

i'm standing there for size reference lol. the tree is gynormous!

After finishing that hike, we headed for Matsumoto's Shave Ice. If you are using an iPhone, be very careful of the directions it gives you when going from Waimea Falls to Matsumoto's Shave Ice. It actually tells you to turn right into a road that does not exist! Luckily there's another rode that takes to you back.

I actually enjoyed Matsumoto's Shave Ice more than Waiola Shave Ice to my surprise. But I will say it was probably because of what I ordered and the presentation. If you are someone that looks at the menu and is completely confused as to what to order, I would order the Hawaiian combo with condensed milk (everything tastes better with condensed milk!). Also spare the extra 30 cents and get the cone holder thing! Your clothes and hands will love you for it 'cause it gets dirty! Plus you won't end up with half your ice on the ground. The Hawaiian combo came out as a rainbow (obviously) and it was extremely tasty! Highly recommend. Unfortunately I don't have a picture because eating shave ice and taking pictures are two things that don't go together but here's a picture of what it kinda looked like. As you dig into it more, it looks prettier and prettier with all the colors.


After driving all over the island, we retreated to Aulani and spent some time in the pool before heading back out for some Curry House. I don't know if it was all the traveling we had done that day or all the hiking but this bowl of Curry Udon with Fried Chicken tasted so BOMB. I've actually been to the same place before but it didn't taste as good the time before. I always say you have to try a restaurant twice before you can rate it on Yelp because of exactly this reason. Everyone has their off days.

After the noodling, we went to Target to do a little shopping. When we got back to Aulani, we watched 17 Again (one of our favorites from pharmacy school) and then fell asleep. 

Day 3 was our shopping day so there weren't very many pictures but I will make that post soon! Thanks for reading (or at least just skimming through the pictures lol)!

Adventures: Hawaii 2014 - Oahu Day 1

Finally back and settled into a regular routine so here's the first of a few posts from my most recent trip to Oahu and the Big Island.


First stop after landing is always a trip to Aiea Bowl for their tasty chicken. Noms.

After getting some grub, we headed to a few stores to grab some necessities for our trip at Walmart and then headed to Aulani. This was my second time staying at Aulani and I was very satisfied. My expectations were just as high as the first time and they were totally met. On arrival the hotel staff pretty much rushed to give us leis. When we arrived in our room, we found this towel Mickey head! This was not here the previous time so it was a nice surprise.

After doing some unpacking and vegging out, we headed out to the pool. I must say that you seriously can't take a bad picture anywhere on the premises. I swear the palm trees are strategically placed lol.

I absolutely love the infinity pools they have at Aulani. This one you see in the picture below is their kids pool but they actually also have an adults only (18 years and older) one too.

We were walking around and I saw this little guy.

Aulani is a great place for whether you want to be super bumming it or if you want to have an action-packed time. I was pretty tired from a day of travel and we were both ready to be total bums for the rest of the night so we ordered pizza from Pizza Corner right across the way (they actually deliver!) and went over to pick up these bad boys (see garlic rolls below). They were pretty bomb. Be very wary if you are on a romantic trip though 'cause your breath will stank. Anyways, going back to Aulani. They have a great little DVD rental place at the community center which is open until 8pm where you can rent 2 DVD's per day. They have a DVD player in the room for you all ready to go. These are mostly/all Disney movies (not just the cartoons but some newer ones as well). You can always just bring your own DVD's too. We usually watch stuff to fall asleep so on this first night we ended up watching The Proposal. Love Sandra Bullock in that movie!

And that concludes my first day in Oahu! Day 2 was our day for 3 hikes and 

Day 3 was our shopping day! Stay tuned for those posts and our Big Island posts!

note: most of the pictures taken on this trip were taken with a Sony Mark III which unfortunately was stolen on my way back to San Diego. I was lucky enough to have transferred all my pictures onto my computer beforehand. So I would advise to keep a close eye on your belongings because this was a very expensive lesson to learn :/. Plus it was actually my birthday and Christmas present combined so it was quite a heart-wrenching loss. 

Sunday Sounds: Lorde

photo cred: link

Not sure if you have watched the new Mockingjay trailer featuring Lorde's Yellow Flicker Beat but I am obsessed. In case you haven't seen it, here's the trailer or preview or whatever it is.




The song just sets the mood for the entire movie. It also puts me into this state of mind where I'm a angst-y teen in goth mode. Reminds me of those years of my life.

Enjoy!

Tasty Tuesday: Honey Soy Tilapia

We bought a freezer pack of tilapia from Costco and after work, it looked like the easiest thing to cook. I looked up a recipe for a marinade with ingredients I already had around the house and this recipe from All Recipes came up for Honey Soy Tilapia.

I doubled all the ingredients for 4 fillets and threw in the brussel sprouts afterwards. The recipe turned out pretty good. I found out that I wasn't a big fan of tilapia. I guess I never really had tilapia before but I'm not a fan of how rough the texture is. I prefer a softer fish. I'll probably end up trying the marinade on chicken to see how that goes.

As for future recipes, I want to find more tofu recipes because I prefer tofu over any meats except KBBQ of course lol. If you have any recommendations, leave them below!

Sunday Sounds: Deorro

For the most part, the way I discover new music is just by listening to the radio and then Shazam-ing the songs. Most of the time they play the same old things on the radio but once in a blue moon you find a gem. I'm not a huge EDM person but I do have my favorites like Alesso and Zedd which are more popular music than anything. Anyways, I was listening to the radio the other day and came across Deorro's Five Hours (Don't Hold Me Back) Vocal Mix. Love the song though the words could be a little different lol. He's also from West Covina which is right around the corner from my hood so that's pretty cool. Have a listen!

Happy Sunday Funday!

Sunday Sounds: Sam Smith

Is it too late for a Sunday Sounds? Nah. We had a 3.5 hour rode trip to LA on Friday so I got to listen to a ton of new music and some oldies but goodies. One of my favorite songs is Sam Smith's new single (I think?), Restart. I only liked it in the beginning but I just looked up the lyrics and now I'm absolutely in LOVE. Seriously, I think we've all been there before. Without further ado...

It was a Monday night when you told me it was over babe

And by the Friday night, I knew that I would be okay

Don't say it was a good thing

Don't say it was the right thing to do

Don't say it was the best thing for the both of us

When I'm the one playing the fool

What do you want from me when I just wanna restart

You keep coming back for me when you're the one who tore us apart

And the truth is I'm better on my own

And I'm the one to leave it apart

So let me restart

So let me restart

So let me restart

You've been lightin' up my phone

Worried that I'll be alone tonight

Wanna make sure that I'm fine

But baby you're not on my mind, no more

I know it was the best thing for the both of us

Cause you're the one who looks like a fool

What do you want from me when I just wanna restart

You keep coming back for me when you're the one who tore us apart

And the truth is I'm better on my own

And I'm the one to leave it apart

So let me restart

So let me restart

So let me restart

So let me restart

What do you want from me when I just wanna restart

You keep coming back for me when you're the one who tore us apart

And the truth is I'm better on my own

And I'm the one to leave it apart

So let me restart

So let me restart

So let me restart

So let me restart

So let me restart

Hmmmm

Tasty Tuesdays: Pesto Chicken Pasta Salad

Lately I've been trying to cook a little more in an attempt to not only save money but to eat a little bit healthier. As someone who is just starting off in the cooking department, many of the recipes I find online are extremely overwhelming. They have way too many ingredients or the directions are really convoluted and I have trouble understanding what it is they want me to do. Also, on most days I'm cooking these meals, I've just come home from work and there isn't much time to cook a crazy fancy meal. In these Tasty Tuesday posts, I hope to showcase some of the recipes I've found online and show you what the finished product looks like. I know when I go online and look for recipes, I take a look at the pictures and my finished product usually does not look like that lol. Also, you never know if these recipes you find online will taste good either. Hopefully this will be a great resource for those of you just starting out with cooking. Now lets get started!

If any of you are like me, you pretty much love Costco. Whenever we go there, we usually stock up on the necessities such as boneless chicken thighs and ground beef, etc. We keep all the meats in the freezer until we need to use them. I just found the "Defrost" button on the microwave so I've been using that for the quick "Shit! I forgot to put the meat in the fridge to defrost" moments. The nice part about the Costco prepackaged chicken thighs is that they are already separated into approximately 1 pound pouches. For my microwave, you put in the meat, push the "Defrost" button and enter in the number of pounds you're defrosting. Defrosting a 1 pound pouch takes about 10 minutes.

So I went to Costco and bought all this chicken. What to cook with it all?! When I got home from work (around 4:45pm), I started looking online for chicken thigh recipes. I came across this one from Real Simple (love them!), Pesto Chicken Pasta Salad.

check out the full page here and for more recipes check out realsimple.com

I noticed that I didn't have the olives or bocconcini but I felt like the core of the pasta salad would still be there minus those ingredients. I happened to have bought a container of pesto from Costco so this recipe was perfect.

1. First off, I start off by preheating the oven to 400 degrees. 
2. Then I boil a pot of water. 
3. While the water was coming to a boil, I stuck the package of chicken into the microwave to defrost. 
4. While both of those things were happening, I mixed the salt, pepper, and olive oil. 
5. Once the water comes to a full boil, I put in the pasta. 
6. While the pasta is going, I start rubbing the chicken with the mixed salt, pepper, and olive oil. 
7. Once all the chicken has been thoroughly rubbed, I throw the chicken into the oven and set the kitchen timer for 20 minutes (I like my chicken really juicy so I don't want it to be too cooked).
8. Cut/shred the chicken.
9. Mix the chicken, pasta and the pesto sauce. And tada! You're done!

thoroughly rubbed chicken

the finished product

For veggies, I had a bag of frozen brussel sprouts so after I removed the chicken from the baking tray, I threw the brussel sprouts on the same tray, sprinkled some salt and pepper over them and threw them back into the oven for a few minutes (look at the bag for estimated cook time).

I love this recipe because everything can be done in about 30 minutes time. The thing that takes the longest is baking the chicken and what I usually do is go watch a YouTube video to "wind down" from the day while sipping on some vino.

Hope you guys enjoyed this very simple recipe! 

Please leave any recipe suggestions below and I will attempt to cook them!

Thanks for reading!