John Freida Frizz Ease 10-Day Hair Tamer Review

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for my very long absence.
Today I would like to review the John Frieda Frizz Ease 10-Day Hair Tamer.
My hair gets pretty frizzy no matter what season of the year it is so I figured I'd give this product a try. I saw pretty good reviews for it so I thought why not.

How my hair is:
I have long hair, it's color treated, nothing fun like blue or purple, just as close as I could get to my chestnut brown hair as I possibly could. My hair gets oily very easily so I have to wash it every day usually. Prone to frizz be it rain or shine, summer or winter.

The instructions say to apply the product to your hair until your hair looks "wet" then allow it to sit for 8-10 minutes. I tried it for 10 minutes. I rinsed it out washed my hair as usual. It worked pretty well I was pleased with it so far that is until I woke up the next day. Please know that I did this treatment at about 10 PM, when I woke up early next morning approximately 8 AM my hair felt like an oil slick...looked like it too.

I figured I just used too much of it so I showered again washed my hair. Three days later and three washes later, my hair is limp, my hair has lost its volume, it still has frizz not as bad as before but still existent (I wasn't looking for a miracle product but I wasn't expecting flat hair). All in all I think this would work on maybe normal to dry hair and not for people prone to oily hair. I will admit my hair does feel extra soft so I give it a thumbs up for that.

Hope this review is helpful.
Lots of Love,
Caroline

Learning Japanese: #1 Book Suggestions for Self Study

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Paper Masks at Walmart

Hi Everyone,

Today as I wandered around Walmart checking out all the beauty products I came across a bunch of paper masks. Paper masks are pretty darn popular in Asian countries, Korea especially, and I was pretty happy to find some in Walmart since so far here in Pennsylvania the only two places I've been able to find them was at Ulta and Sephora. Other than that I was stuck hunting the internet for these precious beauty gems. The price was pretty decent they were $2.50 per sheet mask. I'm used to paying about $5 and up for a sheet mask so this is a plus.



The brands I found are:

1. Soo Ae (Made in Korea)
2. Masque Ology (Made in Korea)
3. Yesto (Made in USA)


Soo Ae:

1. Propolis (Made with honey)
2. Vitamin
3. Deep Sea Water
4. Aloe
5. Green Tea
6. Collagen
7. Purifying Black Charcoal Mask
8. Tea Tree

Masque Ology:

1. Total Skincare Skin Calming "Special Care Cream Mask"
2. Intensive Moisture Hydrating Skin "Moisturizing Cream Mask"
3. Vitality Glowing Skin "Vita Clarifying Cream Mask"
4. Skin Tightening Elasticity Intensive "Collagen Lifting Cream Mask"

Yesto:

1. Yesto Tomatoes: acne fighting
2. Yesto Cucumbers: calming
3. Yesto Coconut: hydrate and restore
4. Yesto Tomatoes Charcoal paper mask for detoxifying.

As you can see the sheet mask addict that I am went a little crazy and bought 16 of them.
There were also a few clay masks that I might look at next time.

I'll be testing one of these 16 masks once a week and giving my opinions of them.
I'm willing to play the guinea pig for you guys...cuz you know I love all of you and I...I...I just love sheet masks!

If you feel like getting a few I'll provide the links for them at the end of the post.
I've only seen these so far in my area at the North Huntingdon PA Walmart not yet at the Greensburg Walmart but I'm hoping they catch on.


Soo Ae: Propolis
Yesto Tomato acne
Masque Ology Collagen Lifting

Maybe you'd like to give them a try with me ^.^

If you guys know of any other place to find sheet masks in Western PA let me know, share the glorious knowledge.

Apologies for My Absence

Hi Everyone,

I'd like to apologize for my 2 month absence. I've had a rough time.
I've been ill and have been to the ER and have missed some days from work.
Due to my lack of a thyroid my medication was too low of a dosage and it was making me ill.
It hasn't been easy. I hope you can forgive me.

Also my dear sweet little fluffles  our American Eskimo pup Luna hasn't been feeling well either she's had a double ear infection and hasn't been the most well behaved patient. She's only 15 pounds but she's very strong and has had to be muzzled since she's in so much pain that she tries to nip. My dad likes to joke and tell her she looks like "El Diablo" while I've been referring to her as Hannibal whenever she's had to put the muzzle on when we clean her ears and administer her ear drops. She's one grumpy little girl.

To add to the problems I also have to have my oven repaired. The stove portion of it works but the actual oven does not, it's a gas oven and I think it's the pilot light that's not working. Not having an oven has made cooking very interesting. The oven broke on the day I was making pizzas from scratch, dough, the sauce, it was great.....but soon as I was ready to put them into the oven I realized it wasn't preheating at all. That was the day I forced myself to learn how to grill a pizza on a small charcoal grill. And don't let anyone tell you that you can't grill a casserole it can be done.

I'd like to say I have a few things planned that I'll be sharing soon. I have a Japanese cabbage roll recipe in the works, along with a few other recipes.

Update on my weight loss plans and goals....I've failed due to my health problems in fact I think I've sadly gained but since I'm starting to feel better I'll be working on improving and hopefully can give you a positive update one of these days.

Please check back soon as I'll have recipes for you soon within a week or so.
Once again I apologize for my absence.

Thank you for being patient.

Lots of love,
Caroline

Weight Loss Plan Japan Style

Hi Everyone,

So one of the main reasons for this blog is because I wanted to try losing weight while eating tasty Japanese food and walking a whole lot more like they do in Japan. So far I've been a total lazy bum.
Every week I'd go "I'll start this Monday" which turned to "I'll start tomorrow"...and that cycle went on for over a month.

So tomorrow June 6, 2016 will be my starting date.

My rules for myself are:

Avoid the following foods:
Junk food (ex: chips)
Sweets
Fried food
Sodas

Foods allowed:
Vegetables
Fruit
Meat
Fish
Rice
Teas (without sugar or with splenda)
Water
Coffee
Milk

I'm also not stupid I know going cold turkey on junk food will just make me break my diet so once a week I'm allowing myself to have one goody. Even if it's just a popsicle or a piece of dorayaki or a small piece of chocolate.

I've been doing some "research" I put out a question on the app HiNative.
I asked for people in Japan to answer how many steps they take in a day if they use an item like a fit bit. I got a few answers which helped a lot.

Two ladies answers my question both agreeing that it depended where you go on a daily basis.
And that it was also different for people who drove or ride a bike.

One of the ladies said she walks about 8000 steps a day while the other recorded 25,000 to 30,000 a day.  Both said they tracked their steps using their iPhone.

So for a good start at walking more I'm aiming for the classic 10,000 steps that's on my fit bit.
After a week or so I'm going to aim for 15,000.

My goal is after I lose a good chunk of weight I can hopefully get to 20,000 steps a day.

Right now I'm sadly close to 300 pounds, I'm currently not comfortable sharing the exact amount so let's just say I'm like 280 pounds.....once I start losing a bit and I'm a bit more comfortable sharing things I'll give you exact weights as I'll be keeping a journal.

I apologize to everyone I know I'm making this public for the whole world to see so I shouldn't be cowardly about it since I'm trying to talk about it online but....I'm just taking baby steps for right now I hope you understand.

I'm going to be trying to do the はらはちぶんめ Hara Hachi Bun Me system of eating.
Which is pretty much just eating until you're 80% full.

I hope to give you guys some positive updates and once a week or every 2 weeks give you a progress report. I think if I make it so I have to show results to you guys that I'll succeed. Please support me in my endeavor to a healthier me.

I've thought out my meal plan for tomorrow.

Breakfast:  
Home made Acai Bowl
1 banana
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1 cup mixed frozen fruit and veggies (bought from the grocery store)
put in the blender with 2-3 TBS milk or almond milk
Then top it off with a bit of unsweetened coconut and 1/4 cup of granola

Lunch:
2 onigiri with 1 TBS of beef and garlic chive filling each
1.5 cups of miso soup:  I put soft tofu, onion and wakame in it this time around
2 mandarin oranges

Dinner:
I've prepped chicken stew in the slow cooker so dinner is ready by the time I get home.

Dessert: 
1 yogurt

I bought some Greek yogurt whips from yoplait, I put them in the freezer so I can trick myself that it's "ice cream"

I'm also going to walk on my treadmill and make sure I get to 10,000 steps.

Other part of my plan of attack is to go down the steps at work which helps since I work on the 34th floor of my building. If i just take my time it'll at least be more active than I've been doing and anything helps.

It took me my whole 28 years of life to get this weight so I know it'll take me a while to lose it, going to be realistic and just try my best.

I hope to one day be at a healthy weight and to also be able to buy cute shirts from Japan and wear them with otaku pride.

I hope I have your support and I hope to update you soon.

Thank you

Gyoza Version 1

Hi Everyone,


I have been totally neglecting my site which I apologize for. I was all set to post my nikujaga recipe last weekend but apple decided to sabotage me. I was transferring my pictures and it asked me if I wanted to update my phone, I figured  sure why not...big mistake I spent 2 hours starting around midnight trying to get my phone to function, because itunes decided to have an error while updating. I wasn't able to turn on my phone or run anything, it just kept showing I needed to install itunes onto my phone which at that point my computer and itunes refused to recognize my phone. Two hours later I finished fixing my phone.....then went to bed since I lost most of my pictures especially my step by step for the nikujaga it managed to only save a few though so I was lucky at least a little bit.

Today I'm going to show you how to make Gyoza. I'm also going to show you how to freeze them so you can have a quick dinner. I love freezing these because it's so convenient, plus tastes better than the store bought frozen gyoza.

You'll need:

1/2 pounds ground meat
1 cup thinly diced cabbage
2-4 green onions thinly chopped
1 TSP sesame oil
2 TBS shoyu
2 TBS mirin
2 TBS sake
1 TSP garlic paste (optional)
1 TSP ginger paste (optional)
1 TSP salt
1/8 TSP pepper
1 package of large gyoza skins/wrappers or 2 packages of smaller sized wrappers
pam


When it comes the the ground meat there's plenty of ratios you can use of different meat types.
My personal favorites are all beef or a half and half mixture of beef and pork. I've also done all pork as well.

I'm also going to try in the future ground chicken or turkey or where I put it as half and half like half pork half turkey, but that's for another day when I feel like experimenting.

In a bowl put the green onion, cabbage, garlic, ginger, salt, pepper along with the ground meat.

Mix the ingredients until they start to combine. Then add the rest of the ingredients and mix some more.

Now cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit in the fridge for about half an hour, you can let this sit overnight as well.

While I was waiting for this to marinate I started making dinner I was hankering for some tacos...and it used up the other 1/2 pound of the ground beef I used.

After the half hour is up get out your wrappers and a small bowl with some water.

Now I am about to show you my FAVORITE little kitchen gadget so far....I say this as my kitchen-aid mixer looks at me like I've betrayed him...

This is a gyoza mold, you can get it from Amazon for about $5.

I used to fold my gyoza by hand and it took FOREVER with this little guy about 20 minutes, saves so much time.

Below is my little gyoza making station. Not pictured is a sheet pan I liberally sprayed with some pam. 

Take your first Gyoza skin and place it on the folder. Take a butter knife or small teaspoon and add some filling to the middle.  Wet one half of the gyoza wrapper with some water and fold.

Place it on the sheet pan and repeat until you've run out of wrappers. I tend to have a little bit of extra filling left with this recipe. I ended up this time with about 1/4 cup of mixture which I'll used later this week. I'll cook it up and put it on top of some rice.

Now once you're done put these little guys in the freezer. No need to put plastic wrap on top.

I tend to let them stay in for 2-3 hours, I've even left them in over night.  Once fully frozen I divide them up into ziploc bags in easy 1 serving portions I tend to portion them at 5-6 gyoza per bag.

To cook the gyoza after they're frozen take a pan and a lid. My favorite pan to use is my cast iron skillet. 

Add about 2-3 TBS of vegetable oil and heat it up. line up your gyoza like in the picture below. 

One trick I learned is that after you place the gyoza on the pan to move them around a tiny bit so the bottoms get nicely coated with the oil.

Over medium high heat allow the bottoms of the gyoza to start to get a lil crispy.

Once this the bottoms start to look like they're beginning to brown, lightly place the lid on top, make a small opening on one of the side and slowly add a little water about 1/4 cup. The contents of the pan will start popping and sizzling which is why you keep the lid on as much as you can as you add the water.

While on medium high heat, (closest you can get to high heat) with the lid still loosely on cook the gyoza for about 5-7 minutes. It really varies on the type of  pan you're using so keep an eye on it.

The lid is on to hold in the steam. So you are lighly frying the bottoms of the gyoza but the top portion of it and the filling are steam cooked.

Once this is done flip it onto a plate. And you just made yourself some epic gyoza worthy of a total food porn shot, worthy enough to be in a JDrama or Anime go you!

I packed these little guys for my lunch along with some cauliflower tatter tots I made.

Lunch at work tomorrow is going to be a feast ^_^

For dipping sauce I tend to do soy sauce with a touch of sesame oil and a drip of rice wine vinegar.

Example 2 TBS shoyu, 1/8 tsp sesame oil 1/4 tsp rice wine vinegar.

I always end up adjusting it to my tastes. Once I even added Korean red pepper flakes...burning mouth was so worth it.

I hope you give this recipe a try and if you have any requests just leave a comment and I'll try my best ^__^

Nikujaga Recipe

Hi Everyone,

So the other I came home from work and decided I'd make one of my favorite Japanese recipes, Nikujaga. Those of you who watch anime or J-dramas might have seen this, it's a popular recipe in Japan for home cooking. Nikujaga is part of Yoshoku cuisine in Japan.

What is Yoshoku? Yoshoku is what you call "Japanified" foods from western countries. Nikujaga is the Japanese rendition of beef stew, the name literally is Meat and Potatoes. I'm personally a major fan of yoshoku dishes, especially when suggesting Japanese recipes to people who have never made Japanese food before. I kind of like to think of it as a friendly way to introduce people to flavors before getting them to delve into things like Nabe. Plus the ingredients are normally pretty easy to find except maybe for the dashi.

I hope you give my rendition of the nikujaga a try I made 2 small changes to the recipe from all the other ones I see online and I think it just adds to the flavor. This recipe will serve about 4 people.

1 pound shaved beef (can't find shaved? that's ok I'll tell you what you can do in the instructions)
3 large potatoes cut into wedges (bite sized wedges)
3 carrots cut into rolling wedges
1 cup of sugar snap peas or green beans (both are very good in this)
2 medium sized onions

2 cups of water (warm water)
1 TSP of dashi (dashi made of sea weed)
1 TSP garlic paste
4 TBS Sake
4 TBS Shoyu (Soy Sauce)
4 TBS sugar
2 TBS vegetable oil
1 TSP salt (optional)
dash of pepper (optional)

I'm going to be very honest, when I was prepping to make this I was all excited then it hit me....I had no green beans or sugar snap peas, I just love how they taste in this dish so I was unhappy I didn't have them. But it certainly didn't stop me from making nikujaga. So if you don't have them it's ok to omit them although I highly recommend you try to get them.

In a pot add the 2 TBS vegetable oil and saute the onion, garlic paste and shaved beef until the beef begins to brown.

Add your carrots and potatoes.

Stir in the 1 TSP of dashi into your warm water, when the water is warm it helps dissolve the dashi better. You don't necessarily have to use warm water but it helps. Add it to the pot.

Bring it to a boil and let it simmer for about 15 minutes. Then add the sugar, sake, shoyu, salt and pepper. Gently stir, try your best not to break the potatoes.

Then let it simmer until the liquid reduces to 1/2, you can even reduce it to 1/4 the flavors will be more concentrated then.

When you see the liquid is closer to being reduced to half it's original amount add the sugar snap peas or green beans, they can be fresh or frozen and gently mix them in. They'll cook rather fast, usually takes 5-10 minutes.

After that it's ready to serve. You can eat this with rice but I tend not to.

Now if you can't get shaved beef which frankly I can't get my hands on when I go to giant eagle you can make it at home. If you get a large piece of beef like a roast. You can put it in the freezer for about 1 or sometimes closer to 2 hours depending on the size of the roast. You then take it out and make very thin cuts with your knife and it'll shave that way.

You can also make nikujaga with thicker pieces of meat like the size you'd have if you were making a stir fry, I've done this before and I've just added a bit more dashi and let it cook longer so the meat became really tender.

Hope you give my recipe a try and if you have any requests just let me know ^.^