tiny_ninja | i'm sailing away, away, you're welcome, 'cause maui can do anything but float!

Challenge #7

Promote/Rec/Sing the Praises of Yourself!

♥ I can bake.

A decade ago, cupcakes really became a big thing and I got a copy of Hello, Cupcake! and all I wanted to do was make pastries for days and days and days. I can make a lot more than just cupcakes now, and my kids have started asking for special cakes for their birthday parties and such. For Gabby's third birthday in November, I made a rainbow surprise cake that came out beautifully. When you cut into it, M&Ms and candies spilled out from inside. Granted, I'm now on a low carb diet (which suuuuuucks because bread is one of my favorite things to eat and make) so I can't bake nearly as much as I used to. Still a skill I have in my back pocket.

♥ I'm great with grammar.

When I write my own pieces, I'm generally good at catching most grammatical mistakes as I go. In editing, I only catch one or two typos. When I beta read for others, grammar is usually the thing I can help with the most.

♥ I crochet.

Last year I did two craft fairs and made $300 towards my Christmas presents. It's not a lot of money, but it brings me a lot of joy. It's even more fun when I can make some nerdy references in my work, like dragon egg dice bags and Avengers-themed baby bibs. The Captain America one I made finally sold this fall, which was great.

♥ I cosplay.

I haven't been able to do a proper one for myself for a couple years now, thanks to having kiddos, but I have made a bunch of cosplay pieces over the years. My favorite is making Squall's SeeD ball uniform and Rinoa's white party dress with

runicmagitek, which we wore to see Distant Worlds live in Boston.

♥ I write stuff.

All of my works are over at

wingsyouburn ♥ My fandoms vary and I have a lot in progress that aren't posted yet, but hopefully I'll have more up there this year. :3

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I've also been doing low carb with my diet lately to make my digestive system less grumpy (and so far it's helping? I think?), so know I'm flailing pompoms with you in that department! I also miss baking a lot, too, but it can be a nice treat when you do dive into it! Also that cake for Gabby sounds badass.

Grammar is your bitch and I've learned so much from you in regards to that. Like more than my shitty English teachers 💕

I MISS COSPLAYING WITH YOU EVEN IF IT WAS THAT ONE TIME. I loved that concert, too :D it was amazing.

Let me know if you find any decent low carb recipes. Things I have learned is that spaghetti squash in no way can replicate actual pasta and fucking cauliflower doesn't belong in mac and cheese >.< I miss bread. I miss bread so fucking much.

Thank you bb! You know I'm always happy to help with the grammar bits. American schools don't teach proper English grammar and I learned more from studying Spanish than I ever did in English class.

WE SHOULD COSPLAY AGAIN! We could do PortCon here in Maine or something - it's a small con so it's not overwhelming for either of us and it would be a lot of fun :3

RE: low carb stuff - honestly for me? It's a lot of "well, I guess I'll just add more protein and veggies" and that's been working out well for me. Just taking existing stuff I already love and adding more of that while cutting back on pasta/rice/potatoes/bread/whatever. Instead of a sandwich, I'll try to use tortillas or even a big leaf of lettuce for wraps. I can't really do a lot of salads or raw fruits and veggies, so I either need to cook everything down or find things that are already cooked or broken down enough for me to digest, which saves a lot of time, too. Like canned veggies have been a godsend for me. When I do use a carb, I try to limit it to a couple times a week instead of, you know, every damn meal. Ty's found some great gluten-free pastas that are made entirely from chickpeas and other stuff, which have been great. Like they're more protein than carbs, too (and even the carbs make up 15% of the nutrients or whatever, which is WAY better than the crazy amount in regular pasta or bread).

But yeah, fuck spaghetti squash (it tastes so bland and way too much effort for what it's worth) and cauliflower. I remember going through a similar thing when I found out I had to cut out gluten. It's really hard and nothing will ever taste like the real deal. But just remember the things you like that aren't bread and load up on that! Cook up some veggies and cheese and turn chicken breast into a stuffed chicken! Or mix ground meat with sauteed veggies instead of spaghetti - like stir-fry but minus the rice. And if you have a couple meals a week where you sneak in some carbs? That's ok too!

That's like... kind of a non-answer for "what recipes you have" but that's how I've gone about it transitioning to it. Take the shit you like and figure out what else to add that isn't carbs :D

Oh, off the top of my head - I do overnight oatmeal for my breakfast during work days. 1/4 cup of rolled oats, 1/4 of whole milk (or whatever milk you wanna use), a couple drops of vanilla, and a pinch of salt. Stir it and slap it in the fridge overnight. Add berries or fruit or whatever you want the next morning and eat. Also zap it in the microwave for a minute if you're like me and hate cold oatmeal. I'll add a tsp and a half of plain greek yogurt after zapping too to thicken it up. I swap out toppings and stuff weekly, so this week I got blueberries with sliced almonds and unsweetened shredded coconut. Oats do have carbs, but they're way better than like, toast or cereal. So if you're going to have mild carbs for a day, thumbs up for oats. ~~Because I don't have fucking time to make bacon and eggs every god. damn. morning.~~

American schools are a bag of dicks. Fact.

I'D LOVE TO DO THAT! Maybe not this year, but I'd be game for next year or at some point! Whenever that is, I'd love to be the Auron to your Yuna :D

That's kind of what I've been doing, instead of having bread, substituting it with a portion of veggies instead. The problem I have is that I'm a boring picky eater and hate most veggies, in part because I ate canned veggies growing up and some veggies should not be canned. Like asparagus. Fucking legit, canned asparagus is the worst thing on the face of the planet and the smell of it triggers hella bad memories for me, so I can't even try to eat the fresh stuff. I'm slowly working through trying new things though, so it's getting better. Slowly. So, so slowly. Canned corn and peas save my life, though *thumbs up* I'm glad that's working out for you!

Last night I made a "keto" (which is bullshit but I digress) chili with ground turkey, tomatoes, and all the flavors of chili without the beans. Beans have a weird texture for me so the only way I could eat regular chili was to smother that shit in cheese and fritos, so now I can skip the chips and actually eat it like a soup. Jon even said it tasted like chili to him, which is a huge step in the right direction, since it's one of his favorite meals.

I've been doing homemade egg bites for breakfast! Scramble up your eggs, add whatever toppings you have on hand (I've been doing a lot of sliced deli turkey, cheese, broccoli) and pour into muffin tins and bake off. I'm lucky in that I can pop them into the oven at work (shhhh don't tell anyone) and reheat them easily. I need to try overnight oats again - I did that for a while but the flavor combos I used made them taste funky the next morning lol Thank you for so many good ideas!

And yessssssss you know I've wanted to cosplay Yuna for years now. Someday we're going to do it!

Ugh, that sucks with the veggies for you D: My mom always did fresh or frozen veggies when I was growing up. And I love veggies! So it's really disappointing how difficult it is for me to have them these days. I can count on one hand the fruits and veggies I can have raw. The rest needs to be cooked to death and if it isn't, I might as well eat a bag of crushed glass, because that's how it feels after eating it. Even then, if I eat too many veggies, still feels like I ate glass :( none of the buenos.

I love the egg bite things! I was doing that for a while, though it was getting to be too much work for me on Sunday nights (like almost two hours worth of prep, because again, I have to cook the everliving fuck out of my veggies), so I switched to oatmeal.

ONE DAY WE WILL DO THIS COSPLAY AND IT WILL BE AMAZING.

i'm sailing away, away, you're welcome, 'cause maui can do anything but float!

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