Hey folks!
Today’s post is going to be a bit different- I was nominated for the Liebster Award! But, this is a food blog after all. I didn’t want to take away from a recipe post, so luckily there is a lot of food tie ins here + today’s WIAW post!
I was nominated by Remya of Unique Medley. She blogs about all the awesome and unique food that she makes . Check out here recipes! They’re pretty awesome ANNNND she’s awesome because she nominated me! Thanks girl,  

Now for the rules: If you have been nominated for The Liebster award and choose to ACCEPT it, write a blog post about it in which you:-

1. thank the person who nominated you, and post a link to their blog on your blog.
2. display the award on your blog — by including it in your post and/or displaying it using a “widget” or a “gadget”. (Note that the best way to do this is to save the image to your own computer and then upload it to your blog post.)
3. answer 11 questions about yourself, which will be provided to you by the person who nominated you.
4. provide 11 random facts about yourself.
5. nominate 5 – 11 blogs that you feel deserve the award, who have a less than 1000 followers. (Note that you can always ask the blog owner this since not all blogs display a widget that lets the readers know this information!) {I guessed here!}
6. create a new list of questions for the blogger to answer.
7. list these rules in your post (You can copy and paste from here.) Once you have written and published it, you then have to:
8. Inform the people/blogs that you nominated that they have been nominated for the Liebster award and provide a link for them to your post so that they can learn about it (they might not have ever heard of it!)

My questions:

1. What inspired you to start a blog?
I started this blog back in Jan 2014- the middle of my senior year. I had started reading blogs maybee… the summer before my junior year? That’s when I started cooking and researching more about nutrition and cooking techniques, at least. By the end of my junior year, I was hooked, and cooking all the time that summer, and my parents constantly suggested I start a blog. I finally took the plunge that winter break, but I now I’m really trying to fine tune details and make it look better.

2. What would you consider as your greatest strength?
AHH. In regards to…?! I hate open ended questions D: hmm okay, can I say cooking?! I like being creative, so that ties into cooking. In general, I’m also a very driven person, so when I set my mind to something, I will not stop until I achieve it. Will. Not.

3. If you won the lottery what would be your first reaction?
AHHHH YAY. I do play the lottery occasionally and have won small and one large sum   I’m a saver for sure, so depending on the amount, I’d put all/most of it into savings, then, pay off school, buy some kitchen appliances, donate to certain charities, then TRAVEL <3

4. What is your most essential kitchen appliance? Why?
My knife & my blender! I don’t have my own food processor, so I use my blender for everything from smoothies to soups to dips and purees and ice creams. Vitamix ftw!

5. What would your dream job be?
A doctor AND chef. Still trying to make that work.

6. What’s your favourite fruit?
Strawberries. Easily. Long answer: I love ALL berries. and blueberries are my #1 for baking, and white peaches are my #1 when they’re in season.

7. Have you ever helped out an injured animal?
Yes! Well, sort of? when I was in kindergarten, we took in a cat wandering outside and nursed her back to health, sadly she only survived a year <3 In high school, I volunteered at the humane society for about a year.

8. Who was your favourite teacher at school and why?
My fifth grade teacher, my 7th grade math teacher, my 9th grade english teacher, and my APUSH teacher. I still go back and visit all of my teachers, but these are the stand outs & my mentors. It’d be hard to name the rest, but also my 11th grade AP calc teacher & 12th grade AP english teacher.

9. Do you like vanilla or chocolate cake?
Eh. Vanilla? Can I pick a blueberry muffin.

10. Which fictional character do you wish was real?
Harry, Hermione, Ron, etc. Well, I mean they’re real , I just wish I could meet and be one of them

11. Who is your role model?
Hm, tough because I don’t really think about this. Well, there was this one girl at my school last year who graduated Pre-PA & with a Dietetics major, very successfully, so I guess her! Besides that, any and all other food bloggers It’s a lot of work!

11 random facts about me:

1. I have super longer hair. Always have, always will. It’s down to my butt. Okay, I cut it once in 8th grade from like bottom rib to my shoulders (to donate) and haaaated it. My hair is too thick to be that short!
2. My favorite color is purple. I’m pretty sure I’ve said this, but oh well. It’s very important. It’s in my “tell us about yourself” speech when I’m being interviewed even.
3. I had a purple streak in my hair in 10th grade. It took 3 months of trial and error to get a purple shade in! But once we bleached it, oh never again. That poor hair. it took almost 3 years before it was all cut off!
4. Oh, in 8th grade I had red high lights. They looked pretty cool. Okay too much hair talk.
5. Oh, I also love socks. Also a part of my “about me” speech. If I need a present, get me fuzzy or athletic socks, or something purple, or something to do with cats. I’ll be (probably too) ecstatic.
6. Speaking of things I love, HARRY POTTER. Huge Wizarding World fan. If you couldn’t tell by the question above, or the fact that I play Quidditch I’ve been to the Wizarding World at Universal Studios twice, and wore the robe in my senior graduation pictures My 16th birthday party was also Harry Potter themed. We attempted to make some dishes from the Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook. Attempted!

 

7. I’m an organized mess. My room may be messy, but I know where everything is and every weekend, I’ll clean it and it’ll be spotless. Also, my room will be the only messy place. I like a clean kitchen
8. We collect mugs! Every place we go, we get 1 or 2 mugs. We have them in all shape and sizes and colors, it’s pretty cool. Also, I collect key chains. Get them from every place we visit!

this picture makes me so happy! <3

9. I’ve went to the London 2012 Summer Olympics. We saw trampoline gymnastics, ping pong (INSANELY INTENSE), and women’s indoor team volleyball (Japan vs. Russia semi finals I believe)

10. My favorite subject has always been math, I was doing like 3rd grade work in 1st grade. I’ve also always wanted to be a doctor. Trying to make both dreams come true!
11.  My 2 cats are named Oreo and Cookie I got them at the very end of kindergarten, they’re twin black boys. Oreo had a few white hairs on his face, haha.

on top, oreo is on the left and cookie is on the right.

12. okay I cant stop. I was a girl scout until the end of my senior year of HS. I was a top seller! Like 500 cookies a year. And I ate none my junior and senior year LOL great marketing skills. *shudder* at the cookies though
13. I’m studying abroad this summer! THREE WEEKS 2 DAYS TILL I LEAVE FOR ITALY FOR 2 MONTHS TO STUDY FOOD OH YES.

I nominate:

Food Parsed– Elaine blogs about homemade healthy cooking, sharing some easy recipes some ethnic recipes, and lots of how-to’s, geared for college kids.
Mango About Town– Melissa is a Professional Home Economist (read more about that hereee) studying to earn her MS in Human Nutrition Science- super cool! She blogs about healthy food & fitness- like moi!
Five Beans Food– Elissa is from Australia & blogs about simple homemade budget friendly meals with her family.
DiehaRD Foodie– Victoria is an RD (yay!) blogging about healthy meals and balanced eating with her & her husband. She shares biweekly food preps too!
Foodiecology– Katherine is a southerner, blogging about her love of food, recipe development, fitness endeavors, and her town. Like me, she started her blog a while ago after being a reader to document recipe,, and is now trying to make it bigger and better!
Kerri’s Kitchen– Kerri blogs about her vegan recipes, health, cooking tips and lifestyle as a busy dental student making time for health and yummy food

My questions:
1. What’s your favorite blog post of your own? I can’t pick.
2. What blog got YOU to start blogging? the fitnessista & gliding calm (no longer up), and later fannetasticfood. and maybe  choosing raw, now thefullhelping.com
3. Where have you traveled to? What’s your favorite destination?So many places. I loved London & all of Italy
4. Dream place to visit? Italy, again. I also want to visit Okinawa, Japan (the happiest place!), Singapore (foodie heaven), and… Europe. Narrowing down Europe requires more specifics )
5. Tell us a bit about your view on diet. (not a diet, but about how you/others eat) in the words of Michel Pollen, “eat food, not too much, mostly plants”
6. Favorite book and/or author? J.K. Rowling dah.
7. What did you study in college? (or, what are you studying now?) Does it relate to your current filed of work? Nutrition/Medicine/Math and maybe Psych or Marketing or  1 of my 8 other possible minors xD
8. Would you change your career if you could? we’ll see! I wish I was working now though.
9. What 5 foods do you eat every day? Okay, jk, no numerical limits here. hmm, cucumbers berries, legumes, zucchini/eggplant/cauliflower, greens.

10. What’s your favorite animal? Pet? Do you have/want any? cats! I have 2. <3
11. FAVORITE FOOOD. and dishes. hah, tough one. you can name a few. Raw: cucumbers, berries, and yogurt. Cooked dishes: dal & rajma, stewed greens, and gobi

~Masala Girl
answer a question of choice in the comments!