life - personal

April Quarantine 2020

Hi! It feels like it’s been forever since I’ve been on here. This is mainly a catch up post since the latest life update occurred in March, just when the virus was reported. Although, I have been on here and I’m slowly reading what you all have been up to. Lots and lots of cooking happened in April. I’m excited to share with you all some foods that I’ve made in future FWMD posts if you’re interested in making any of the food you’re about to see.

For the most part, our schedules consist of working Monday-Friday, then hanging out on the weekends. Not too much excitement since we’re trying to stay in as much as we can. We’ll also take walks around our apartment complex to get some fresh air if the weather is pleasant.

Drafting this post made me realize how much food I had made and how I’ve gotten behind on creating FWMD posts for them.

Anyways, here’s what we’ve been up to the past month!

April 2nd: We made cinnamon bread.

Alexis shared this cinnamon bread recipe with me after bringing some that her grandma and mom made. Excuse the messiness in the picture, but Stephen was the one to take the picture below to get this shot just right to show off the loaf.

I probably should’ve halved the recipe because it was so much more than I anticipated it to make and we, sadly, didn’t finish it!

April 4th: We had Crock Pot General Tso’s.

It was absolutely delicious, despite how it may look in the picture! Although, I’ll have to try making this on the stove since being prepared in the slow cooker caused the chicken to be somewhat soggy. This recipe is a new favorite of mine, but I prefer the crispiness of breaded chicken.

April 10th: It was nerve-wracking, but I switched my blogging platform and it’s now on a self-hosted one! I had Stephen and my brother help me so I didn’t mess anything up. I was really fretting the switch because I was unsure of how it would work. At first, I didn’t see my past posts’ images transfer over at first, but I think everything is working properly now. Alexis remade my logo and the header on my site for me, which I absolutely love. If you need a graphic designer, hire her for the job!

As of now, you can’t see my posts in the Reader, [sadness] but I’m going to save up for an email list so you don’t miss any posts if you’ve been kindly following along.

April 11th: We made homemade Hot Chicken & Fries.

We’ve made this recipe a couple times already with chicken tenderloins. I would like to try frying some drumsticks since I love, love them and we hardly buy those. I’m currently trying to concoct a good fry seasoning instead of just sprinkling salt and pepper over them. If you know a recipe, please share!

April 12th: We made plain scones. Stephen followed the recipe from a YouTuber he watches and I think they turned out pretty good. Although, I would love to add some fruit or chocolate in them the next time!

All we had at the time was grape jelly, which it was good, but I would’ve liked strawberry jelly or some fruit in it!

April 16th: Panda Express had a really good deal at the time. The Panda Express Family Meal started at $20, such a deal that we couldn’t pass up!

You get two sides, [we choose chow mein and the fried rice], and three entrees! We ordered the Teriyaki Chicken, Black Pepper Angus Steak, [my new favorite!], and Beef & Broccoli. The B&B had so much broccoli, but it was okay. I needed my veggies anyway after eating all the chow mein. This meal pack lasted a couple of days for me and I’m never disappointed by what I order from here.

I like turning this frame that Stephen got me for Christmas. Here’s one of many time lapses I have recorded:

When you’re watching it in regular time, it’s so mesmerizing and soothing to look at. You never get the same picture, so I constantly want to flip it and see what it’ll create next!

April 18th: After seeing a post that Jinjer had of her having quiche, I started craving it and I was in search of a recipe. Alexis sent me a Tasty video on Instagram and I just had to try it. I did manage to post this recipe because I was really excited about it. The Hash Brown Mini Quiches were so fun to make and they’re delicious! Although, there’s no pie crust for this recipe, so it’s like a muffin omelet?

April 24th: I had my own little garden.

I’m mad at myself because I didn’t take a picture of the very first day when I put the garlic cloves in the cup because they all were puny and couldn’t even stand up in the bottom of the cup or touch one another! As you can see from the picture, their roots are going everywhere and the sprouts have grown significantly!

They badly needed their own space and so I upgraded them to an egg carton.

Why did I do this?

I was curious about the sprouts on garlic whenever I’d get some cloves to use, [we keep them near the stove and moisture eventually collected] so I looked up why and what happens, found out that I can incorporate the stalks in recipes, so I was excited to see for myself! Also, I coincidentally came across a recipe on my Facebook feed to make cheesy garlic biscuits and the ingredients called for garlic stalks. So, I decided to make this a fun project for myself and I’ve really enjoyed it!

I’ll add a growth update in the May Quarantine post, but I think I may want to make a separate post if I grow stalks again with some new cloves because they grew surprisingly fast within a short amount of time!

This weekend, I also read Cry of the Peacock by V.R. Christensen within a couple of days. It was an okay book, but I’ll save that for the book review section that I’ll be introducing in the future!

April 25th: I had an immense craving for Chick-fil-A, so we ordered to-go for dinner!

I ordered my usual: The Frosted Coffee with the Spicy Chicken Sandwich Meal. Stephen ordered his usual Coke with the Chicken Sandwich Meal.

Also, we received a sweet care package and a homemade card from Stephen’s parents.

April 29th: We finally found other types of noodles in the grocery store and I made Kung Pao Noodles!

Only, I doubled the sauce ingredients but skimped out on some of them, and it made the noodles too salty. I remedied them with more sesame oil and rice vinegar though! I ate the majority of them.

April 30th: Stephen made homemade pizza.

This pizza didn’t turn out as well as he had hoped, but lots of practice to perfect it!

I’ll end the post here since we’ve done a bit more in May.

  • How did you spend April, if you remember it? I know how the days seem to just blur together during this strange time.
  • Did you cook any recipes you loved?
  • What were some activities you did while in quarantine?

I hope May is treating you well so far!

A 28-year-old seeking to live a thousand lives. Blogging and writing about some things that I love, which include succulents, books and music, and what I've been up to while living in Nashville, TN.

3 Comments on “April Quarantine 2020

  1. Oh my goodness lots of delicious recipes!!!! You guys really did spend your time cooking a lot! I did at the beginning but when we were not sure if my husband was gonna be laid off or not, we ended up budgeting and not trying new recipes just in case because some recipes required ingredients we didn’t already have.
    Anyway, I’ve been trying to make recipes lately too. I need to perfect them though and take better pictures to show on the blog because some of them were tasty.
    I hope you’re doing well! I know we’re keeping up on insta but cannot wait to see you back here 🖤

    1. That’s smart of you all to be conscientious and budget! I kept saying we would budget but I never followed through with it. I would love to see new recipes by you because I’m running out of meal ideas!

      I’m working on some behind-the-scenes ideas currently, but I’m planning on being more active on here soon! I miss this space and reading what you’re up to. Hope you and your family are doing well! 💙

Do you have anything to add?