What Do You Love About Cars?

Okay so I don’t know much about cars. At least I’m honest, right? But someone I do know who basically lives for her car is Instagram’s well known car babe “mk6nessa” also known as my best friend, Vanessa. Vanessa and I go way back; over 15 years ago, to be exact.  Although we hardly spent our younger years gawking at the hottest cars in our neighbourhood, Vanessa was sure to hop onto the hot car trend, and she did it well. A few years ago she made the purchase of her lifetime buying a Volkswagen Golf GTI. Ever since then our friendship has never been quite the same… Only joking. But sometimes I do wonder if she would choose me over her car… I don’t blame her.

 

Her VW Golf GTI has had some work done, courtesy of Vanessa’s particular taste. Suspension, exhaust, and performance upgrades are some of the work she has done. Along with some personalizing with exterior modifications. For anyone who still isn’t familiar with Mississauga’s very own Mk6nessa, you will have to check out her Instagram for the full effect. Not only can you check out her beautiful GTI, I’m sure you’ll be quite entertained with her comical and hardly appropriate posts. What can I say… my best friend is amazing! For anyone like me, driving a beaten up 2003 Jetta, it’s not the most ego boosting page, but hey… we can all dream right?

If you’re ever lucky enough to run into her on the road (not literally), make sure to say what’s up and spread the love. Drive safe!

Love,

Birthday Love

As some of you may already know, my birthday was a couple of weeks ago.  My birthday was on February 14, yes… Valentines Day! Being the efficient person I am, I had a whole day of deals and birthday benefits lined up for me.

#1 Mandarin

To my surprise, Mandarin provides you with a free meal on your birthday. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t taken advantage of this incentive for all the birthdays I have already spent at Mandarin. Year after year, Mandarin has always been the prime spot for my family to celebrate our birthdays. I guess it does serve perfect for everyone, because there’s a treat for every taste at Mandarin.

The Catch:

• You must sign up with their loyalty program, previous to your birth date.

• You must bring 3 friends with you in order to receive this awesome deal.

• You must print out the coupon (sent via email) and use within 7 days of your birthday.

#2 Booster Juice

Who doesn’t love a smoothie, especially when it’s free, and on your birthday. Unfortunately for me, it was -40 degrees Celsius on my birthday so consuming anything cold that day was like torture.  But for all of my fellow bloggers GO FOR IT!

The Catch:

• Must sign up for their loyalty program, previous to your birth date.

• You don’t receive the coupon (via email) until your actual birthday.

#3 Marble Slab

Marble slab is one of my favourite ice cream chains around today. So when I found out I could get free ice cream on my birthday you could imagine how ecstatic I was. Marble Slab provides an endless amount of options with delicious ice cream and topping options. Since Mother Nature was so not on my side this year, I did unfortunately, miss out. For all of you lucky bloggers that aren’t suffering from -40 degrees Celsius weather on your birthday, I promise you won’t be disappointed.

The Catch:

• Must sign up for their loyalty program, previous to your birth date.

• Must buy 1 ice cream in order to receive yours for free

These are just 3 awesome incentives you can receive on your birthday, the most special day of the year. I advice all of my fellow bloggers to indulge in these awesome offerings and feel free to share with me other birthday deals I may not know of. Good luck and Happy Birthday!

Love, 

Love Me Some Fried Chicken

Anyone that knows me well knows I have a soft spot for fried chicken. Having said that, I feel guilty not telling my fellow bloggers about my newfound discovery, Koo Koo Chicken.

One of my habits involves browsing through insauga’s awesome website. This is the go to site for any Mississaugians trying to find something to do in Mississauga. One of the great things about insauga is their “top5” feature. This feature lists the top five bests in Mississauga. Today’s lucky pick was “Top 5 Fried Chicken Joints in Mississauga”. Number one on this list is my most recently discovered, Koo Koo Chicken.

This hidden gem is located at Bristol and Creditview, just outside of Streetsville. I feel like a fool having driven by this place time and time again, although, it is not the most visually appealing places to dine. Even after finding out it’s number one on this golden list, I was still skeptical when arriving. Now, I must say, this entire experience truly justifies the saying “don’t judge a book by its cover”.

Anyone that admires such beauty in this world such as fried chicken knows what counts when judging the good kind from the bad.  I can confidently say what I, personally, look for is a super crispy, perfectly flavoured skin, and juicy chicken beneath it all. It can’t be too greasy and I need some flavour/sauce options. Koo Koo Chicken gives you everything I just mentioned. I placed my order according to insauga’s suggestion: Deep Fried Chicken steak with Fries and a Drink. Koo Koo Chicken makes everything fresh compared KFC’s lamp warmers, which leaves their chicken dry.

After ordering I took my seat and waited not-so-patiently for my meal. The best part of this experience is the Taiwanese twist on this classic favourite. Instead of a regular pop I had the option of getting bubble tea or a fruit smoothie. To my delight I ordered an original milk bubble tea.  Shortly after receiving my drink came the chicken steaks and fries. The fries were cooked perfectly, nice and crispy but not too greasy. The chicken was perfectly flavoured, perfect crisp, perfect juiciness from the meat, just perfect. The best part of the chicken was the 6 spice options sitting on your table waiting to be used. I chose to combine a couple of these spices: spicy, plum and black pepper. The chicken tasted sweet and spicy, just the way I like it. As usual, accompanying my meal was a sauce. I kept things simple, this time, and mixed half Siracha hot sauce and half ketchup; a usual go-to sauce mixture for me. The combo I selected was quite the generous portion so if you’re hungry you’re in luck.

Anyone that knows me knows I’m quite the food critic so if you have a craving, listen to me now and go to Koo Koo Chicken. Please share what you think about the entire experience. I can imagine you will be left as satisfied as I am right now.

Love,

Peace, Love & Family

On October 13^th 2014 my family lost a very beloved family member, my grandfather, better known as my Papou.  After a year of battling pancreatic cancer we ended up losing him to dementia. Although my family had a year to somewhat prepare for the loss to come, it did not make anything easier. It wasn’t until this great loss that I realized how strong love truly is.

My family has been nothing but loving throughout this entire nightmare. The hardest part of it all was also losing my grandmother, Nonna, on the day of Papou’s funeral. At that point my family and myself felt hopeless and like there would never be a silver lining. When going through such tragedy it becomes hard to understand what you need to feel better. Losing two very important people within 5 days almost felt like a very bad, horrible joke. At that point, you’re in shock, you can hardly think about what you’re going to eat, never mind how you’re going to get through the day. But through all of this tragedy the only thing that made sense was my family.

The endless amount of love we received, and still are receiving, from one another as well as our close friends truly shows how significant we are to each others lives. I wouldn’t be where I am without my family and their constant love and attention. It was hard at first to figure out the meaning behind such horrible incidents, but after some time it became clear how important my family is to me and how we can get through anything as long as we have one another. I love you all to the moon and back and am so proud to have each one of you, in my life, standing beside me every step of the way.

Love,

For the Love of Food

With all this talk about love many things come to mind.  But as many of you may agree, one of the things I love most is food. It’s not just love, it’s lust. Yes, I lust food. It keeps me up at night, it encourages me to get up in the morning, it’s what gets me through my 3-hour lectures. Just imagining a perfectly prepared plate of food is enough motivation to get me through the toughest of days. For any of you that know me, well, you know the key to my heart is food.

Growing up in a Greek/Italian family you can imagine the amounts of luscious food and get-togethers revolving around amazingly prepared food.  Endless amounts of fresh bread, 1100+ Christmas cookies every year, freshly baked spanakopita (from scratch, of course), pastas, seafood, steaks… I could talk about it for days. Choosing one favourite dish would be so naïve of me; I’d be a fool. Although I must say I am a huge fan of soup, nom.

In spirit of my loving Grandfather, who recently passed away, I would love to share with my fellow bloggers a fantastic recipe for soup that has been carried on, in my family, for generations.  The name of this soup is simply “Papou’s Soup” (Papou translating to Grandfather in Greek). I spent a huge chunk of my childhood with my grandparents. Staying at their house (quite often) I would wake up to the smell of this amazing soup. It wasn’t morning until the smell of soup was in the air forcing me out of my slumber.

Ingredients:

-       Butter

-       Knorr Stock Cube (I prefer beef)

-       Soup rice (same as used for risotto)

-       Fresh Dill

-       Fresh Garlic

-       Red Pepper

-       Green Onions

-       Sliced Cheese

-       Milk

-       Feta Cheese

-       Salt and Pepper (to taste)

-       Chili flakes (optional)

Step One:

-       Fill pot ¾ full with water,

-       Set stove to Med/High heat

-       Immediately add Knorr stock cube and butter 

Step Two:

-       Quickly chop fresh garlic, red pepper, green onions and fresh dill

-       Add all to water

Step Three:

-       Once the water has begun to boil it’s time to add the soup rice

-       Add as much rice to achieve your preferred consistency

-       Lower stove to Medium heat

Step Four:

-       Once the water begins to look cloudy, it means the rice is cooked

-       **The rice releases starch once cooked which makes the water look cloudy**

-       Add a splash of milk and 2 slices of cheese (processed cheese melts best in the soup)

-       Chop up feta cheese into tiny cubes

Step Five:

-       Wait until the soup has begun to boil

-       Add spices, to taste (salt, pepper, chili flakes)

-       Turn off heat, add feta

-       Allow to cool for about 5 minutes

-       Serve and enjoy!

As you can see this recipe has few measurement outlines. For anyone who has cooked with a Greek, you’ll know there’s no such thing as measurements when cooking. It’s all based on preferred taste. Enjoy this recipe as my family has for generations. Bon appetit!

Love,
 

 

5 Steps to Loving Yourself

http://dianepiroon.wordpress.com/2012/02/17/inspo-post-3-love-yourself/

Most of us forget the most important aspect of love, loving yourself.  We all talk about loving yourself before you can love another, but not a lot of us know how.  I have 5 easy steps for anyone to follow that will bring you closer to loving yourself for who you are.

STEP 1: Come to terms with your past.  Accept and move on.

http://newbeginnings28.wordpress.com/2011/05/07/is-the-past-the-best-predictor-of-the-future/

Everyone has a past.  What we've gone through does not determine who we are.  How we get through things is what defies us.  Learn to leave the past where it is and turn every past incident into a learning experience.  Don't let your past control who you are today, you get to choose your future. You get to choose the path to the future you want.

STEP 2: Save Your Money

http://torontopubliclibrary.typepad.com/business_personal_finance/2012/08/how-to-save-money-on-everyday-things.html

Stay on top of your money before it gets on top of you.  Some of the biggest stresses in this world revolve around money.  We stress about it, cry about it, lust for it, fight about it; we let it control us. Knowing this, it is extremely vital that we have control over our money and learn to budget within our own means.  Figure out how much money you spend vs. make weekly and adjust accordingly.  My greatest advice would be to get a job early on in your life and save, save, save.  Put a portion of each pay check into a savings account.  Use that savings to pay bills, put towards the next step in your life (buying a car/house), or into something rewarding like traveling.

STEP 3: Travel Often.

http://postgradproblems.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/835bb25f8df8abb0f512d173baed5c0f.jpg

We need to remind ourselves to take a break from our daily stresses to enjoy the simple things in life such as traveling.  If we are not learning, we are not living.  A vital part of our lives is learning and the best way to learn, in my opinion, is by traveling.  Traveling teaches us so much about the world we didn't know could exist. Traveling to new countries/regions reminds you of how big this world really is and how many inspirations there are out there. Or visiting your roots and traveling back home reminds you that you have a place in this world.  Be open to new places and new cultures. There's so much we don't know about our world that we can learn and appreciate through traveling. 

STEP 4: Appreciate what you have.

http://vegvacious.blogspot.ca/2011/07/i-am-fabulous.html

Remind yourself of what you have, rather than what you don't have.  Before you know it, what you have becomes what you had, and it's too late to appreciate it then.  Take the time to endure the small things in life.  Enlighten yourself with these small things.  Remember:  You really don't know what you have until it's gone.  

STEP 5: Set goals.




source



Without goals, we are not driven.  If you want to be motivated and feel satisfied, it's important to set goals.  A goal can be saving enough money to go on a trip once a year, or on a smaller scale, finishing 3 hours of homework so you can watch your favourite show that evening.  Having something to always work towards keeps us on our toes and excited for the future.  It keeps us on track and determined.  There's no better feeling than once you've completed a goal. And don't forget to reward yourself! 

I hope you can all use these 5 easy steps to your advantage. I would love to hear of any feedback you have relating to these steps. Good luck and never give up!

Love,