Angela Loves Food

update

2011-02-13T13:24:00.001-08:00

What a lovely day, how has your week been? I hope it has been glorious! :) It's only day 44 into the new year, have you been evaluating your intents and goals for this season? I hope you continue to strive and shine.

It's been a while since I've updated and quite honestly I have been over blogging, I lost the spark to update but you can always follow me on twitter @AngelaLovesFood...there you will realize how truly weird and random my thoughts seem to be.

Other thoughts: Boxed macaroni tastes better when you jazz it up!

I like to add more nutrients and volume to food for satiety. I bought a box of organic boxed macaroni by Annie's. The direction calls for 1/4 of milk and to stir in the cheese packet. Realizing that I have less than half that amount of milk left (who would leave that much milk left over in the fridge?!) I added 1/4 of cream of chicken with milk to thin out, seasonings, avocado, tomatoes, and cayenne pepper. It.was.pretty.awesome!

There were definitely enough for left overs. I am the queen of bulking it up. Stretching .99 cents for two days, is an accomplishment, just add volume!

Other thoughts: When attempting to make Macaroons for the first time, it may be a good idea to do some research...

Because what could have been coconut balls, could potentially turn into a flat cookie. Not complaining, but I definitely sad that my experiment didn't work. It was pretty delicious nonetheless.

Another thought: No matter what mood you find yourself in, seeing a dog in diapers is pretty darn amusing.

Thought: Despite eating five servings of Samoa cookie ice cream in a sitting, if I eat one vegetable, I've accomplished my goal of healthy eating for the day. In this case, five vegetables. BAM, I'm on a roll!

Fact: I've never seen an ugly sunset.

Luke 18:27 "The things which are impossible with men are possible with God."

My favorite things

2011-01-11T00:06:00.001-08:00

Are you looking for modern rugs to spruce up your place? CSN Stores seriously has everything you need.

I've been in such a baking mood lately, mostly in the cookie arena because it's simple, and it takes less than 30 minutes to bake a batch of cookies that

1. You can have for for dessert after breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

2. To exchange to your friends and/or family

3. Just to give as gifts or a nice thought

4. Or to eat all to yourself! nom nom nom

The best cookie I've ever made was a batch of Mama P's Peanut Butter Dough Balls

Initially it's supposed to be vegan, but I didn't have vegan butter or vegan chocolate chips, but still great nonetheless!

Very peanut buttery good

The dough came out very soft and airy, it was so nice to work with. After freezing the dough to firm up, I rolled it into balls, hence Peanut Butter Dough BALLS.

Maybe it didn't firm quite enough because the cookie flattened a wee bit. It was so good, I am in love with the softness of the cookie. I think I ate three. It used to be that I enjoyed the almost burnt-crispy cookies, but now it's all about the golden outer layer and with a doughy center. mmm

I used chunky peanut butter, you can clearly see the peanuts.

Since I have nothing blog worthy to post, I suppose I will do a quick post about things that I love.

1. Candles! add them to any room and it puts me at a relaxed state of mind, there is just something whimsical about a candle that I like. It makes it enjoyable to have on my desk beside me while I am reading. When our heater broke, I seriously used this candle to keep me warm by placing my hands over it like a campfire. It also makes my room smell wonderful. This candle was on sale for $10 (originally $20) and it is HUGE.

2. Trader Joes Tree Tree Tingle Body Wash- I am in love with this body wash. After buying a candle and realizing how a scent can put me at a calm state, I purchased this on a whim because I love the smell of peppermint and eucalyptus. Man, let me tell you, after I bought this my showering time has doubled. When I would take yoga and shower at their facility, I washed and rinsed myself three times (hey! it ain't my water bill) just to take a whiff of myself!

3. Moleskin journal- I bought this journal two months ago (it came in a pack of two) and today I officially finished writing in the first journal. I am happy to start onto my next, I love the feel of the paper, how flexible, and nice it fits in my purse. It isn't bulky at all, it makes journal writing fun. I bought more journals a week ago from a japanese store, so I will see whether it matters or not whether it's moleskin that I take a liking to. I would say I have a total of five journals that I never finished though out the years, moleskin is the only journal that I finished writing from start to finish.

4. Sailor Gel Pen .38mm- Since I've been journaling a lot, I have to find a good pen. The only pen that I really like are the ones I buy at a japanese store called Marukai on Balboa. It's the only place I know so far with a pen that has the thickness of .38mm. That is thin! I've used ball bens to write in my journal but it smudged all the time, using this gel pen takes pressure off my hands because I press hard when I write and it glides on perfectly.

5. Starfield- I am in love with this album.

6. Yoga- I foresee more yoga in my future, I bought an unlimited one month pass to CorePower Yoga when a really good deal presented itself. Unfortunately my month ends tomorrow, so all I can do is wait til another deal hits at www.groupon.com Yoga is seriously addicting! I've sweat more doing yoga than I do exercising. It's because the classes I choose are in a heated setting. My favorite positions are the baby pose and crow because it really stretches my hips. My hips are usually tight from sitting all day at work.

7. Babies- They make my heart melt. sigh.

scrambled morning

2010-12-10T13:32:00.001-08:00

This morning led to a rough start because I was scrambling to produce an essay that was due by 11:00 am, I woke up at 8:45. Crunch time! I had no time to make breakfast, I had to hurry on along and finish my paper due in T-minus 2 hours!

Last night I attempted to do my homework but I was just exhausted by the time I got home from school, work, and Bible Study. It was funny reading my attempts at the essay I tried to write last night, you'd figure I was drunk writing it. Anyhow! I got the paper down and sent by 10:00am. I work better under pressure, although it may not be my best work, but it's done! phew.

Now I just need to look forward to my next three exams. Ew. Looking at the bright side, school is almost over and I do not have any more papers or projects!

My cow-dog always brightens my day, except when she ran across the street to do her thang on a patch of grass this morning. I had to yell at her, I don't want to see her get run over by a car. It's a bad thing to think about, but it's reality. It can happen to anyone.

Excuse the greasy hair and eyeliner smudge, apparently my eye make-up remover isn't doing it's job.

After my paper was done, my mom treated me to Starbucks. I managed to get my drink for free because they ran out of the Christmas Blend I wanted, awesome. The same thing happened yesterday. I am pretty lucky.

Breakfast ensued. Avocado, scrambled eggs (4 egg whites + one yolk), and golden potatoes wok with coconut oil in a skillet with diced jalapenos, diced red onions, and garlic. Epic.

I enjoyed with with Cayenne pepper + mustard. I love mustard. I used to hate it because I really disliked the smell and off putting vinegar taste, but my taste has adjusted to foods I used to loath. Love how that works because now I enjoy things that are GOOD for me.

Healthy fats (avocado) Protein source (eggs) Carbs (potatoes)

Flavor! Spicy brown mustard!

Which potatoes do you prefer?

I love love sweet yams, recently I tried white yams and it's subtlety sweet, but I love any form of sweet potato, I think that includes Taro?

moved!

2010-10-28T18:24:00.000-07:00

Nothing special, I just decided to change to wordpress. I will miss you blogspot!

Click here! Angelalovesfood.wordpress.com!

Time time time time!

2010-10-21T21:46:00.000-07:00

For the past week, each night before I go bed I ask myself "Are you satisfied with how you used your time today?" and the answer 100% of the time is NO. Yet the next day, the same pattern gets repeated and it's a cycle. It's so easy to waste time for me, like it is to waste money. I am working on handling my time and know that there are things that I need to sacrifice. That should be worth the sacrifice!

I spend way too much time on facebook, reading blogs, reading a bunch of garbage online, doing the same mundane things over, and just find myself being BORED. It doesn't mean that it's bad doing these things, but it's best to do it in moderation, I understand that we don't always need everything to be productive every minute of the day. Downtime is always good too, even if that means going on Facebook to relax?

I was scrummaging for my planner yesterday and I found it. I need to put that thing to good use, I haven't used it since August! I also want to buy another new planner I'd enjoy writing in. Suggestions? Or am I just wasting my money?

I'm really picky and it has to be something I'd enjoy writing in. I've had countless of journals (more than five), but the moleskin that I recently purchased has been my favorite and I always want to write in it.

I've also been contemplating on doing a media cleanse with a few exceptions, so we'll see how that goes. I don't want to, but I should.

- After class this morning, I was sooo starved that I ditched my biology class and went to eat Pho (Vietnamese beef noodle). I was so starved that I couldn't concentrate, time went by soooo s-l-o-w-l-y in my stat class. I figured I'd be miserable if I went to my biology class, plus I have an 88% so I'm not close to failing :o)

When I was finished, I found out that there has to be a minimum charge of $10 on the card?! then I wished I had gone to class or at least got a bagel instead. Darn it for trying to save money! I HAD to buy a $3 drink and it wasn't even good. Karma right there.

***blogger is being a butt-face and not letting me upload pictures. I am definately switching to WordPress, I made an account, I just need help figuring out some shtuff! I think I'll call it a night.

How do you organize your time?

I ate the best pizza (from a chain).

2010-10-20T23:20:00.000-07:00

Yes,tonight I ate one of the most delicious pizza ever, and it is from a chain. gasp! Round Table Pizza to be precise.

I've never had Round Table Pizza until tonight, and what made it even more special was that I got to share that experience with such an amazing friend.

Let me tell you about the pizza, first of all I wasn't even hungry, so that's a good place to start. You know why? because when you are starving, everything literally tastes good and there's hardly any objectivity. But I wasn't hungry, and my stomach was hurting prior. But when I took my first bite. Oh my word! delicious!

First half of pepperoni, salami, and mushroom...second half: Garlic Chicken with mushrooms, green onions, red onions, and diced red peppers. Little tomato sauce on both

I lovedddd the garlic chicken, my favorite. The chicken was moist and flavorful and the green onions made the pizza taste fresh.

I usually don't order pepperoni pizzas because usually the pepperoni is overpowering and salty, but these were thin slices of salami and pepperoni. It was the bomb.

Warning: this is a long read:

---I shared my experience with such a great person, Sean B. He is the president of iaomai medical outreach, so please check it out! and if it speaks to your heart, donate to their team because it is such a powerful cause. Sean told me a few stories about his ministry and I was so blown away.

- Did you know that in some parts of the third-world country, when you have any disability, passerbys who pass near villages will literally abuse or KILL that person? it's so horrible. Sean explained to me that the parents of a nine year old boy had down-syndrome and was also blind, his parents had major protecting to do but they can only do so much. When Seans ministry came to help the little boy, they took him to the clinic and prayed that this kid would have cataracts in his eyes because WITH cataracts, you can perform surgery and hope for a miracle. He didn't have any.

But then later, an eye doctor came and put the strongest prescription glasses on him. Then suddenly he was reaching for his parents. What a miracle, this boy can finally see! Sean even showed me a picture of this little boy. Sean explained to me how stupid of them for praying that this kid would have cataracts, when really...they should've prayed that this boy would be able to have vision.

- Prior to our meeting, I haven't spoken to Sean in four years. FOUR years! Out of those four years, I've gone through phone number changes, but I've always managed to keep his number in my contacts despite the fact that I haven't spoken to him. Well out of the blue I texted him because I was going through some personal struggles, a somewhat identity crisis. He answered and here we are eating pizza. I couldn't believe he was sitting in front of me.

He also bought me a book before we ate, called Captivating by John & Staci Eldredge. So I can't wait to dig into it. Have you heard of it?

Thank God for technology. He is such a great friend, despite the fact that I haven't seen him in four years, he took time out of his busy schedule to see me and help me, for that I am so thankful. He is so good with his words when it comes to giving me guidance. I've learned new things about him and I am also proud and admire him in how far he's come throughout his journey.

oh geez, I am bragging here aren't I??! But seeing him tonight has started of a new page of a chapter in my life. And after I post this blog, I am going to write about it tonight in my journal to reflect. Obviously some things need to be kept private, but if you'd like to know more, shoot me an email!

I love writing in my new moleskin journal! I bought it a few days ago to jot down my thoughts and feelings to help me stay focused. I bought the green one :o) It's so flexible, thin, and light to carry around.

I also attempted to make chocolate protein brownies off of Jamie Easons recipe, but it was a total flop! But it smelled delicious. sigh. I doubled the recipe and added a few tweaks, but it came out tasting like card board with a horrible after taste. I was mad that I wasted six eggs due to the process.

Do you write in a journal?

Again, check out Seans Medical Outreach, if you know any medical professionals or volunteers who would be interested in helping the unserved, or you can donate here. Pass the info!

I whip my cheesecake back and forth

2010-10-18T20:53:00.000-07:00

**Also it's that time again for a CSN review. CSN sells an Ottoman coffee table that you should definately check out.

I have been on such a coffee kick lately (I bought coffee almost everyday this week, shame on me!) but not only does CSN sell cookware, shoes, stools, coffee tables. I will be reviewing one of their products, and I am in some need help! What would you buy from their store?**

- Silicone baking sheets?
- Cast iron skillet?
- Hand Mixer?
- Spiralizer?!

Keep your eyes open and on the lookout.

IAnyway, I guess my post title is a hit or miss, unless you know what I'm relating it to. If you're lost I was referring to Willow Smiths Whip My Hair. Daughter to the handsome Will Smith. To be honest, I feel weird listening to it, because I can't believe she's 9?! Will they play this at the club or what?

Last last Friday Jasmine and I made cheesecake. From my last post, I bought ingredients to make cookies, which we spontaneously used for the crust. Think BJ's Pazookie! Which I've never had, but the calorie content scares me. Which is odd of me to say because I think this recipe I am about to show you is even more detrimental to your health. Rule #32 according to Zombieland (the movie)...Gotta enjoy the little things in life right?

To make the dough, I used BethT's Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.

This recipe required 14 Tbsp of butter. Kill me now. The key technique in making this cookie is to brown the butter, unfortunately our oven did not work. So I found a simple short cut. Enter the mircowave, one of the greatest inventions ever.

Honestly, I would've preferred browning the butter via stove. It took 10-12 minutes (give or take) to brown the butter with the microwave. I mircowaved it in one minute increments to prevent any burns.

It yielded these results

The best part, chocolate chips. I measured my chocolate chips according to the recipe, but then I said "screw it!" and dumped the whole thing. No regrets, sometimes it's okay to break the rules when you know it's not gonna hurt somebody :oP

I seperated the dough in freezer bags, I figured I'd want cookies on a rainy day (which happened to be yesterday).

Then it was off to Jasmines house. I've never actually hung out with Jasmine before, so it was fun to bond over baking, which is something we enjoy doing. I've never made cheesecake before, so I was super excited to watch the process.

First we formed a cookie crust on a pie pan, then we baked it at 375F until it looked just about right (slightly undercooked) It came out poofy at the beginning and we were worried, but as time passed, it deflated.

You can use any cheesecake recipe you find and customize your own flavors.

I got to use a hand-held mixer, which I got excitingly stupid about. I've never used a hand-held mixer, it DOES make mixing so much easier! No duhr.

We seperated and added cocoa power, bananas, and white chocolate as bases for our cheesecake.

A cool technique that I learned was you don't need extravagant tools to add simple touches. A pasta noodle simply works out in making swirly designs.

We used chocolate cookies as crusts for our muffin shaped cheesecake. Just add cookie crumbs and melted butter (seriously, more butter!)

Our cookie pie came out of the oven looking like this. I love how I get a taste of chocolate chips after each bite. It is seriously more chocolatey and cookie tasting than it looks.

After refridgerating our cheesecake, we went to the gym together and then went our seperate ways until we could meet up and eat it. But I accidently feel asleep and woke up at 1am! Good thing Jasmine is a night-owl, because I came over right afterwards.

Eating cheesecake at 1:30 in the morning is a bad idea, depending on how you feel in the morning.

We feasted and watched the latest episode of Glee and Raising Hope. Raising Hope is such a cute and funny show! You should check it out on Hulu.com, the dialogue definately coincides with my sense of humor.

My other half to take home :o) I had a fun time!

Vietnamese food, grocery shopping adventures, next baking project

2010-10-14T00:29:00.000-07:00

Before, homework would come first and then blogging. Tonight is a different story, and I am crazy to put off homework til after midnight. I guess I don't learn my lesson when I wake up wishing I had slept earlier that night. You live and sometimes never learn.

Tonight I met with my lovely friends whom I've known way back from elementry and middle school. We decided to eat at a local vietnamese restuarant.

I'll leave you with lots of pictures and a few words.

Annnnnnd my awesome dish which I will for sure get next time, beats my usual order of pho (beef noodle soup)

#90: Shrimp, Beef, & Chicken with flat pan fried noodles, bak choy, brocolli, onions, celery, and carrots.

Andrew (btw you should totally check out his youtube channel) was totally making fun of me because I was smiling as I was snapping a photo of my food. Which I am positive I always do?!

Afterwards we had met up with Sandy (another childhood friend) and chatted while Sandy and I ate frozen yogurt. SERIOUSLY THE WORST FROZEN YOGURT EVER. Yuck, it tasted like sour cream. Needless to say I didn't finish it.

Of course we head over to a taco shop (this night is just full of eats no?) to meet Randys (middle school buddy) brother and friend.

I decided now was a good time to go shopping for ingredients since I had already eatten, the grocery store took only several minutes to walk to.

Photo Credit: Andrew A.

I needed ingredients to bake up a good recipe, can you take any guesses? This is my typical wanderings around the grocery store.

My "try to make it look challenging face", uh fail?

Whole wheat pastry flour

Very artistic Andrew, consecutive rows of grains.

Writing down the code so my items can be scanned out. The first time I bought from bulk, I didn't know I had to write down the code. Lets just say I got yelled at by the lady behind me in line.

coffee

I am trying to eat less meat, not because of any diet changes, but because meat is quite expensive.

Egglands Eggs on sale. wahoo!

Andrew explained how the pink stamps make the eggs look artificial, I thought it looked cuuuute.

Squash heaven

Ring! My spending was a little over $9

I bought the following:

- Tofu

- A dozen eggs

- Butternut squash (I accidently typed butterbut squash, boy am I tired!)

- Two garnet yams

Bulk:

- Brown sugar

- WW pastry flour

- Golden brown sugar

- Cocoa powder

Any guesses to what I am making???

Tis the season for pumpkin

2010-10-11T22:41:00.001-07:00

I am fortunate to have friends who will stop over voluntarily and bring me food (see below) and Pumpkin beer. What? PUMPKIN BEER?! How lucky am I? Unfortunately I can't drink tonight because I have lotsa studying to get done. Gotta be coherent.

Last week, I had a sudden urge to keep myself organized. I think it's so fun to make To-Do lists, I just like the sense of accomplishment when I can cross off my agenda. I went to an awesome Japanese store the other day and found these cute note cards for $1.89, score.

It's such a perfect size to study on the go without having to fumble around with loose index cards. Along with that, I bought a pen that is .39 in thickness so that it would be easier to fit my writing in such a small card. I am happy with that purchase. I'm thinking of buying more for future use.

I love writing with this pen

Also I downloaded a cool app, the Google Calendar organizer. It's so fun to type out and color coordinate everything. Pros: You can add voice memos, pictures, smiley face, and doodle symbols.

The Con: When my professor gives us homework, I think it'd be hard for them to distinguish texting on my phone vs. typing the homework lessons on my phone. I wish it had more smiley face options! "Invite someone to porn debate?" saaayyy what?!

No, it wasn't anything crazy. My church opened its home to host a debate on porn, it was a packed house full of a lot of young people. It was a pretty interesting experience. Did you know that before Ron Jeremy's porn career, he held a Bachelors in art and theatre and a Masters degree in Special Education? who knew. If you don't know who Ron Jeremy is, look him up. Craig Gross was also part of the debate. He and Ron argued out why they were for and against pornography. If you want to know about the story behind XXX Ministry, click here.That was my Saturday.

After church yesterday, two friends and I ventured out to Tender Greens. I ordered Roasted Chicken and it came with yukon mashed potatoes, bread, and an arugula salad with tomatoes and vinegrette. The tomatoes were amazing, and I saved the best for last: mashed potatoes and some skin. mmmm

Tonight, I was starvin' marvin. hangryyyy! But my friends saved the day when they texted and asked if I wanted food they didn't finish from a resturant. I obliged. Along with Pumpkin Beeeeer. I am ~~lucky~~ blessed. I love pumpkin.

Home to the blog at last

2010-10-08T19:58:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since I've popped up to say hello. So hello.

urrently I am blogging from Starbucks, and reading a bit of blogs here and there. I can't get enough my regular Soy Cafe Misto w/ Pumpkin Spice. I always opt for Venti, but I realize that I never finish it and that it was best to just get a size smaller (grande). Now that I am almost finished with it, I want more. Am I not satisfied with anything? gah.

Back soon to edit. I am currently testing out Windows Live Writer because I've heard good things, so lets see how I like it.

PUBLISH

Weight training, whey protein, and oatmeal.

2010-09-15T11:21:00.000-07:00

Howdy.

I am estatic because I have endorphins raging inside me! I love that feeling that you get after a workout, don't you? I am happy for no apparent reason, and I feel so giddy inside :oD!

This morning I went to my weight training class at school and proceeded to do the rowing machine for 15 minutes to warm-up and then lifted weights. Today was back and bicep.

I felt strong and here are the stats for one hour of weight training:

86% maximum HR due to the rowing machine kicking my ass, that's some good cardio workout I say, but I don't think I have the mentality to row for 30-45 minutes, which is how much cardio I try to strive for a day.

Grunt FACE! grow biceps grow!

After weight training, I was starving and initially thought of starbucks, but I had to drive away and save money. I didn't want to form a habit of mindlessly going to starbucks all the time. I had something better waiting for me at home. Enter: WHEY PROTEIN.

Gotta feed a stressed out muscle right?

With the optimum nutrition whey I got a while ago, I combined it with Amazing Grass's Green Superfood and Wheatgrass.

In the Magic Bullet:

- One cup of almond milk

- scoop of Green SuperFood

- Wheatgrass powder

- Optimum Nutrition whey protein, chocolate

- Frozen bananas

I whipped away and got this...

I think this is much satiable than a regular ole' coffee from starbucks. At least I can wish I got this protein smoothie from starbucks, mind trick wonders.

Paired with oatmeal. Complex Carbs + Protein = Feeding Muscles

In the oatmeal, I added a slash of almond milk, peanut butter, and honey. All together I got a good complete breakfast!

Look what I found while packing, this was me in fourth grade. I loved those overalls, and I love that hair (even though I hated it back then).

I am going to the dentist now, stay tuned for whats to come!

cap'n crunch's peanut butter

2010-09-13T17:36:00.000-07:00

After class and stressing about losing a key (which I didn't lose! sorry for making you wait Jeff), I am going to wind down by hitting a few books and studying. Preferrably at a coffee shop sipping on hot tea with my iPod.

I took a visit to Costco to find a Bible (don't ask, or do!) and saw a bulk case of Chobani greek yogurt yogurt and Almond Milk. I didn't get the greek yogurt, but I'll have to suffice :o/ I also didn't find a Bible, and if you are thinking nooo duh why would they possibly sell it there, well I saw that they sold one a few months ago and it was pretty and for a good price. I came out with almond milk and a bag of bananas instead.

Do you ever get nosy and glance over at other peoples purchases? I always do that at Costco, and most of the time I think to myself "I wish I can live in your kitchen!" sometimes due to boredom, or other times just to make assumptions about their diet or purchases! "three cases of tequila, party much?"

After buying almond milk and bananas (smoothies)...I purchased my favorite cereal, Captain Crunch! Love that stuff.

The Peanut Butter Puffs "stay crunchy...even in almond milk". It literally hurt my gums to chomp on them, but I love them nontheless.

My computer is being ridiculously dumb with posting pictures! Maybe it's a sign I need to stop blogging and start studying?

ciao!

le tigre shirt!

2010-09-12T19:54:00.000-07:00

During my packing extravaganza a few days ago, I found one of my favorite old t-shirts!

circa 2004? My cousin Julie bought it for me as a gift for Christmas. I like funky t-shirts! I wore this during sophmore year in hs all the time and paired it with a nice pink cardigan and pearly necklaces, then suddenly it disappeared. I was sad, and then I found it and was estactic.

I love this cow dog. Lately everytime I visit, she's been getting heavier and heavier. It's a good thing because she was so fragile when we got her, but a month ago she stayed the week at a friends house. They have a male pup AND cow dog isn't nutured. soo? I hope she isn't heavy because of...ya know...

Plus, she's been in a funky weird mood.

This morning before work, I was craving oatmeal until my sister gave me a bite of her McDonalds sausage burrito. I love those breakfast burritos despite how unhealthy it is, I would always get two almost every morning during my freshman year.

My mom gave me this other half of her breakfast burrito from someplace. Still tasty! (cheese, eggs, potatoes, and sausage)

Today at work, I got some reading done but still need to do lots more. In that case, gotta study!

I am excited tomorrow is Monday, I have a weight training class and it helps that the baseball coach is adorable! yes, I said it. Ha.

Kombucha & Joe Brooks

2010-09-11T22:15:00.000-07:00

Howdy!

Darwin fueled me to start blogging agian, thanks Darwin for making me realize that I have a ~~baby~~ blog that I needed to tend to.

I have been busy with school and the lack of access to my computer doesn't help at all.

I have been packing since yesterday and THAT took 6 hours. That was 6 hours of being overwhelmed! I did not eat at all with all that dust flyin' around, opps. I blew my nose and there was dust, tmi. I am not even close to being done with my room, which is all I need to worry about. In fact, my room looks even more horrendous. The reason it took more than 6 hours was due to the fact that I needed to pack so little ( I am moving back home to mom! and there's little space) BUT I felt the need to hold on to things.

(source)

I realized that was the problem, I kept holding onto STUFF. Stuff that I didn't need that were just taking lots of empty space and dust. Perhaps when I get home I can toss my old theatre uniform from two years ago? "...but it was from my first job.., ahhh!" It had to take me a few hours to go back to what I packed and toss it out or donate. Eventually I just didn't care, but I still do. argh, packing :o(

Anyway, a couple days ago, I got to see one of my favorite musician, Joe Brooks. I've listened to him since 2007, and fell in love with him and his music ever since. Do you ever get vivid flash backs just from listening to a song? A song that evokes distinct emotions from long ago and takes you back some place, a song that makes you happy because it reminds you of ________, or sad because of ________. His songs definately do that for me! It's definately bittersweet.

Fortunately, I found out he was coming to San Diego a few days before he was set to play. Lucky me. I thought it was free, but it wasn't. The $ was definately worth it, who knows when I'll see him again.

He has a very charming british accent and it helped a lot that it was an intimate venue. Front row!

I bought his cd and love it!

Last week, my batch of kombucha was ready to be bottled. Unfortunately laziness played some part of a role and I left the kombucha fermenting for longer that expected. The result was a sour tasting brew. I also added WAY TOO MUCH starter in the beginning. So I started all over and made new tea and added more sugar.

A huge baby scoby forming from a mother. I use green tea only when it comes to booch, but now that I have plenty of scobys, I feel comfortable experimenting. I know that if I ever fail on a batch I have plenty of back ups for trial and error :)

Bubbles are a good thing! it's feeding off the sugar and fermenting. woo hoo!

I started this batch on 9/5, so I should bottle it tomorrow depending on how sweet/fermenty I like it.

Which I will bottle in these awesome mason jars. They have been sanitized, so no funky microorganisms floating around in my booch ya know? :)

This booch was bottled almost a month ago and left at room temperature for the kombucha to continue maturing, like wine?

I added TJ's concorde grape juice (10%) to the mason jar before I bottle it up. The ingredient is just grapes, so I wasn't worried! The result was that it tasted just like the regular grape kombucha I used to buy at grocery stores.

cheers!

Check out Joe Brook's video, so adorable.

quesadillas!

2010-08-31T21:07:00.000-07:00

Today consisted of school and working out at the awesome school gym. I also purchased a pumpkin spiced coffee from starbucks for the second time this week. argh, and I need to remember to write that down in my financial journal. yikes.

*My mom actually treated me to the Pumpkin Spice after picking her up at the airport, but I am choosing to put that down as my own purchase on the journal, because I would've still bought it whether or not she did pay for it

On Saturday:

You know dinner was a success 100% when your stomach doesn't kill you. I've noticed gradually that my tolerance to lactose has been dipping low. Now I can't have a sprinkle of cheese without feeling like my gut is eating itself.

When I took Tums before my consumption of cheese, I hoped and pleaded it'd work.
Ashley made dinner.

It's fun to watch Ashley cook because for the longest time I've known her, I've never seen her cook. I've only seen her pop an occasional chicken bake in the mircowave here and there. ha

This is one of the nicer dogs that stops barking at me after two minutes. I think I got comfortable saying "Shut up!" the 362178 times I've stepped foot in the house. In fact, I think that is the first thing that comes out of my mouth.

Shrimp with butter.

Beautiful hands.

Big chunk of cheese.

She has skills.

This picture is too nice to paste over a pineapple head and hamburger belly, upon her request. I'm not that mean. She told me to do this a few days ago, and I remembered. See? I am a good listener Ashley *see the above if you missed that one.

Happy in anticipation

With Tums on the side, how nice. My stomach didn't kill me, yes!

We ended the night watching Dinner with Shmucks. It was a funny and heart felt movie, I loved it. Paul Rudd is such a charming guy.

Then we saw The Last Exorcism

During the movie I was really scared (covered my eyes and got really jumpy). I hate scary/grotesque movies that could have the potiential to happen in real life. ie) ghost stories, Saw, The Centipede.

I also hate it because I feel like I miss out of the movie from covering my eyes too much.

I believe there are demons, but maybe someones head can't rotate at 360 degrees in real life? right? ha. So I was relieved with the fact I wasn't watching a movie "based on true events". The ending was really weird and humorous. That's all I can say.

Fact: I haven't fully seen The Exorcist. It gives me the creeps, and I convinced myself that the movie did really happen in real life!

$tar"bucks"

2010-08-27T22:01:00.000-07:00

Tonight after work, I attended a six week course on how to handle your finances based on the Bible and God's principle. Over the past summer, it's no lie that money has cause stress in me. I worked more hours, but where was my money going? I spent more than my means, I didn't care, taking out $40 out of the ATM every other day made it seem like I was financially responsible (was I?), ...oh by the way, where was my money going???

I thought it was time that I take initative to start being responsible when I heard my church was offering financial classes. The thing I needed was a foundation. So after tonight, I thought it was very insightful and I hope I can share the things I learn along the way. I want to be financially free mentally, don't you?

I then come home to an email and find this:

The Pumpkin Spiced flavor is back at Starbucks. Let me tell you that I was addicted. Not even a month ago, I was excited for its comeback. But alas, I am trying to make a habit of tracking my spending (homework for a week). We'll see how this goes, but of course I want to buy one (preferably a venti), okay?

The important thing is learning how to say "no"...."no" pumpkin spice! <---that was hard

Dates. The first time I had one of these was last week, but they were too sweet for me that it took me a while to eat one. AND one was enough.

Let's rewind back to Thursday, where I tried them with peanut butter. OMG they are so addicting, like seriously. The peanut butter really balanced out the sweetness. I was addicted eating these at work...8-10 dates and 4 tablespoons of nut buttah.

My indulgences also got balanced out with left-overs.

Hand shredded romaine lettuce with green bell peppers, red onions, grape tomatoes, radishes, beets, summer squash, and bulgarian feta. Along with a side of baked potato fries and chicken.

What spending habits do you need to get rid of?

- I use my plastic on auto-pilot when it comes to purchases on little things, but those little things add up! Eating out is mainly the issue here.

School makes me eat out more, boo.

2010-08-26T00:19:00.000-07:00

The hump is almost over, thank goodness. Since school started Monday, I've been itching for the weekend to come sooner, but then I remember I work on the weekends!

The good news is that my school schedule isn't as crazy as last semester where I had to stay at school for ten hours. I now get off at a reasonable time and my professors seem really nice.

The bad news is that I have been eating out more. Not good for the wallet, I think I could've bought a cute dress. sigh. I digress. No more eating out Angela, seriously!

So tonight, I prepped veggies and baked chicken to bring to school.

I love summer squash, it's so crispy and mild. I just love how it isn't waterly like cucumbers, which is probably why I prefer squash more.

Tonight, I prepped the following:

- Summer squash

- Green Bell Peppers

- Radishes

- Beets (mirowaved for 7 minutes and peeled after cd)

- Red Onions

- Romaine Lettuce (used a salad spinner for the first time!)

- Green onions

In the Oven:

- Chicken Breasts (marinated in evoo, salt, pepper, oyster sauce, fish sauce) baked at 450, then 350

- Pressed Tofu (in salt, pepper, evoo, and fish sauce)

- Gold potatoes cut like fries baked at 450 (evoo, salt, pepper, garlic, fish sauce)

I have been adding fish sauce to everything like crazy, I just think it makes the dishes taste good!

With all the prepping, everything came together. I have come to conclusion that I like my okra raw. I love the crunchy texture and the inside tastes so gooey and slimy due to the seeds.

This morning I had a weight training class. The great thing about having a weight training class at school is that I am forced to exercise...but happily and willingly. In the end I felt like a million bucks sweating in the wee hours.

On the stovetop I combined:

- 1/3 cups of steel oats

- 1 cup of water

- Half a banana

- Cinnamon

- Chia Seeds

Topped with: Greek yogurt and Justin's Chocolate Hazelnut butter

*update on the toe :o) : Some of you were brave to scroll on and check out the gnarly picture of my gruesome experience. Big daddy toe is doing just fine, today is the first day I took antibiotics that I was prescribed. I felt a tingle of pain so I went to CVS to fill my prescription. Gotta be cautious.

Any gruesome accidents that has happened to you?

bread and feet! ** bloody pictures ensue

2010-08-22T00:42:00.000-07:00

What a glorious Saturday, the weather was so nice today. From yesterdays post, I complained about my throbbing toe. You see...I stepped on a toothpick Thursday morning, now that it is Saturday (two days pass) it still hurt!

I made myself a plan to see the nurse at school on Monday, but I couldn't wait another two days. I made it mandatory to go to the emergency room after work.

But I guess getting a sandwich was much more important? and maybe watching an episode of Jersey Shore?

I stopped by Con Pane located in Point Loma after work, and requested a seasoned roast beef sandwich sans mayo, and add avocado on a multi-grain. Pretty epic.

- It included: roast beef, thinly sliced red onions, lettuce, roma tomatoes, avocado, and goat cheese. I don't like goat cheese, but the flavor combination worked so well together. I also loved how they used large chunks of fresh avocados.

-Their bread was fan-freaking-tastic. It contained so many seeds, and from what I noticed, the following are: sunflower seeds, flax, millet, and sesame. It was doughy and soft, yet it held my sandwich nicely.

I meant to eat half, but I ate the whole thing. Can't blame me though. epic

**** Warning: if you hate the site of blood and feet, discontinue reading. If you're weird like me and think feet and blood are awesome, continue****

So after watching The Jersey Shore and stalling some more, I finally grabbed my keys and headed out the door to the hospital. I relied on my music and magazines to keep me occupied.

After thirty minutes, the nurse called me in and took my temperature and vitals. At that point she took off the two bandages and tape that I used to tightly secure my big daddy toe (yes, I call my big toe "big daddy"). Boy, it was swollen and red!

Nurse- "Hun, when was your last tetnus shot?"

Me- "umm, I'm not sure."

-Okay, that's fine. [a few minutes pass by] okay! you're done.

-cool. thank you [getting ready to approach the door]

-WAIT, I almost forgot. [leaves and then comes back with a needle!]

I got terrified and told her that I was scared. "you'll be fine honey."

Ten minutes after my tetnus shot, it felt like someone punched me in the arm real hard. ow

More waiting ensued.

I watched the Cupcake wars. This episode made me tear up a bit though. Then I admired my toes some more (I kid) and compared it with each other. Left is swollen compared to its counterpart. Can you see the puncture wound?

Then the nurses took my x-ray to see if I had any pieces from the toothpick lodged inside. The results were inconclusive, because its hard to identify a small piece of wood from the scanning. So the only choice Dr. Buckley had to do was numb my big daddy toe and slice the area to "look" for said object.

-He injected three, THREE! needles of numbing medication. I screamed (for real) and held on to the rail bars for my dear life. It seriously hurt like hell, that was why I screamed! He giggled after I realized the third shot felt like nothing. "ahhh!...oh, ha ha, that actually didn't hurt."

I watched him in amazement as he sliced my flesh, and blood gushed out like mad.

This is only modest.

ohhh, look what Dr. Buckley found...

yup, the end piece of that toothpick.

I learned two things tonight: 1) never leave sharp objects laying around and 2) I need to trim my toe nails more often

Didn't I warn you that it was going to be ~~gruesome~~ awesome?

What I love, the good and the ugly.

2010-08-20T21:38:00.000-07:00

School starts on Monday and in all honesty, I think I could've had a better summer. I could have MADE it a better summer, maybe could have and should have are both dangerous words?

- I realized that if I would've in fact were to have a bad one (I didn't), then I have the choice to do something about it. Just like this morning, when I was frustrated with a situation, I identified what made me angry and I chosed to do breathing exercises to help ease the situation.

Something that I have been worried about is getting enough rest for school, because my sleeping habits are weird right now. It's obvious that if I come to class rested, I'll be ready to learn. I LOVE sleep because I don't get enough of it. When I know I don't have to wake up early the next day, I am so grateful to sleep in.

"Sleep is a gift from God."

1. Rest: The average hours of sleep I get is five hours, when the recommended is eight. What happened? We live in a society where we have technology that serves as a convenience for us. To give us things quicker and faster (automatic toliets anyone?) but apparently there still isn't enough time in the day. We still can't squeeze in rest, instead that goes in the backburner. I can recall days where I did not sleep at all, due to school, work, or caffiene :o)

-This makes me realize, are you more or less loving, patient, caring, helpful, happy, and alert when you are tired or asleep? Having enough rest will enable you and I to be the best you, for ourselves and other people. Also, it'd allow us to be healthy overall mentally and physically.

- If our bodies suffer, so does our soul. Our body and soul are both connected, if you can't function because of sleep, your soul can't function too.

Goal: To get more rest! and train myself to sleep early.

Something(s) I Love

I love vegan green monster muffins.

Vegan Green Monster muffins from The Chiclife. This muffin is so great. I love the concept healthy muffins. It isn't green because of food coloring, but because of spinach :o) My favorite color is green. That helps.

I realized this morning that I frozed some GM muffins from a couple weeks ago when I looked through my freezer. When you don't see it, you forget it! so true, so true. It proved to be true when I cleaned my trunk today, I realized that I need to resell my old text books and that I don't need to buy more index cards.

I also love this cow dog

especially dogs that wear diapers

When Lily "cow dog" came into our lives, she was a terrified and fragile little thing. Afraid and rattled by everything that surrounded her, she did not bark at for the first couple of months because she was neglected by her previous owner. After we decided to keep her, she grew comfortable around us and started barking. Her barks are obnoxious! but I love it because I was starting to worry for a bit when she didn't. On the plus side, she also gained weight because my mom feeds her everything.

I love at at-home beauty remedies

Let me intorduce you to a do it yourself pore strip! I realize how disguisting it is, and how I am possibly embarrassing myself for posting this, but it's so cool not to.

The last time I ever bought Biore Pore Strips was in high school, the downside to buying these strips is the cost and the pain. ouch, but it works.

You'll need:

- 1 tbsn of milk (fat free, 2%, whole works)

- 1 tbsn of unflavored gelatin powder

- brush pen (think paint brush or a small cosmetic brush)

Directions- Mix everything, then pop it in the mircowave for one minute. Stir again, and wait til it's good enough to brush a thin layer on your nose. You don't want it to cool all the way because it will harden fast, so hurry! Then brush a thin layer on your nose and wait for ten minutes or until everything is completely dry. Make sure you brush it all over your nose and a bit on the outer layer of your nostrils, so that you can begin peeling from the outer layer towards the tip of your nose.

Let me warn you, it smelled like armpits. yuck. Make sure you deep clean your nose after, because we still smelled stinky pits after.

The peeling was a little painful at certain points, but if I recall, the Biore strips hurt like hell to peel off. I cried tears. But with this home made one, it was only a drop of tear that fell from my eyes this time.

Okay, I am warning you with this next picture. Be prepared to be disgusted, or if you're like me...AMAZED!

This is how it looked like after the peeling. It's kind of hard to see using my camera, but with my naked eye, I saw everythaaang.

I darkened this picture to give you a clearer look.

You're welcome! :oP My nose definately felt softer after.

mmm, I love figs.

I truly hate fig newtons, I don't like anything about the cookie. I can see why people like them, but yuck. This year was the first time I tried fresh ripe figs from the tree. OH.EM.GEE! they taste so amazing, just like candy. I love the texture, the sweetness, and the fact that there are millions of seeds inside. They remind me a lot of chia seeds.

My co-worker Jeff is so lucky to enjoy these fruits of labor. It's a gift.

If I ever own a home, I would definately LOVE to grow my own garden and plant trees. I am adding tomatoes, a fig tree, an orange tree, a grapefuit tree, herbs, onions, peppers, zuchinis, lettuce, etc etc etc. wishful thinking? Well, I am going to turn it into a reality someday :o) Do you plant a garden? If so what are you growing? If not, what would you like to grow?

I also love my home brewed kombucha

I added TJ's concord grape juice before bottling it because the only ingredient is grapes, and oh my goodness, it tastes like the real thing!

=

I love how my mom suprised me by bringing home pasta. nom nom

And she loves volunteering me to do the dishes.

In a Curry

2010-08-20T16:33:00.000-07:00

This morning started on the wrong ~~foot~~ toe. Literally. Yesterday morning I accidently got pricked by a tooth pick that was on the floor, and from then on my big toe has been throbbing. It brought back memories of when I got stung by a sting ray, because that's exactly how it feels. The pain is radiating throughout my toe which made the 35 minutes of my morning cardio a bit unbearable. leee sigh.

I hope I don't have to visit the doctor soon. Then I drive 20 minutes out to my way to get a pass for my car for nothing, unfortunately THAT was denied. I realized in tense situations, I hardly breath. So on the car ride home I did some breathing exercises to help calm me down, but I was a bit stubborn because I wanted to be angry. Then later on while I was cooking, I hit in the head on the cabinet door. Doh!

But you know what helped make me feel at ease? hot curried stir-fry on a hot summer day. Because I am weird like that.

Yes, another one. After coming to my moms house, I thought I had left left-overs. Nada. Ya know what? That's okay because it was so easy to prepare. I just threw everything together in a pan and waaahhhh-la!

Instead of TJ's meatless sausage, I had fake "chicken". I'm not intentionally avoiding meat, cause believe me I would use it! but I've just been using what left in the fridge and saving some money.

Served with barley. I am obsessed. It's a nice change from brown rice, it hit the spot and fills me up ~4-5 hours. Hopefully I am still hungry in a couple hours because I have dinner plans.

Time to do some summer cleaning and de-clutter my life before school starts, before I go. I leave with this flashback from last week.

***************************

Last week Jasmine, Ashley, and I ventured to downtown to watch a screening of Eat, Pray, Love.

I was excited, although I've never read the book. I was anxious to know the story behind Elizabeth Gilbert's bestselling novel. I think I was looking forward to EAT out of the PRAY and LOVE.

Great movie, it definately had sad, happy, hilarious, and life learning moments. Quite inspirational actually, I'm looking forward to reading the book now. That's only if I am willing to pay $12 for the book, Amazon.com here I come.

After the movie, we decided to eat at Fred's Cafe located in Old Town.

Steak Rancheros. So good. I assumed that the steak would be sliced, cause you know, I'm a diva like that. I need my steak sliced! I was afraid how the texture would turn out, because I've been to places where the meat was tough, bland, and chewy.

Let me tell you, it was some really good steak. Medium rare, mostly on the rare side. Soft and chewable, also flavorful.

Taco trio.

Jasmine with her chicken enchilada. I had a bite and liked it, I think the cheese made it taste good. Monteray? sp?

Happppy!

What makes you happy? And when you get upset, what do you do about it?

Gotta jet!

Hot n' Cold

2010-08-18T17:21:00.000-07:00

It's so hot right now in my household! Holy cow, I am sweating bullets and it doesn't help that I am eating some hot curry on a hot summer day. I am on a tight budget...at least til payday! but I the only thing I had on hand was a meal replacement drink which is for emergencies. It wasn't an emergency just yet.

I had to get up at work at 5 in the morning with only five hours of sleep, after I came home to my moms house, I crashed hard! I took a 2 and a half hour power nap. The extra zzzz definately got my creative mind juice flowing.

I looked around the kitchen for something I can just pop in the mircowave. nada! ziltch...Then I saw that I left a bag of dried barley I bought a month ago and curry powder. Perhaps curry infused barley?

I scoured the freezer, I spotted one salmon patty that I left many many months ago. I wasn't feeling it, but it wasn't the time to be picky. I was huuuungggrrrrry! oh but then I remember I left some TJ's Meatless Italian Sausages, I had two links left. Cool, something I can work with.

And I also left a big ass bag of frozen stir-fry vegetables that I bought from Costco many months ago too.

I seem to always leave stuff at my moms house.

I just threw everything together and create a curried stir-fry dish, nothing technical...just easy. The barley went in the rice cooker, thank goodness for a rice cooker because I don't think I can moniter any grains on the stove top.

I was my first time trying barley just by itself. wow, I love the texture, it's so soft and fluffy.

"It's so FLUFFFY!"

What I had on hand:

Frozen Veggies included: Broccoli, water chestnuts, carrots, sugar snap peas, shitake mushroom, corn, green beans, green bell peppers, and yellow onion. Amazing! (3-4 cups)

- Olive oil (2 tbsn)

- Salt and Pepper

- Fish sauce (yeah I know, ~ 1/2 tbsn)

- Chili paste (1 tbsn)

- Fresh ginger chopped (~1 tspn)

- Two cloves of garlic

- Lime juice (~1 tbsn)

- Coconut milk (small can, 6 oz)

- Curry powder (3 tbsn, I know)

- TJ's Sausage links

- Sriracha (1 tbsn)

I simmered everything together, soooo good. My tongue was burning, thus, I was sweating. Now I am looking forward to chopped fruit that I prepared earlier that is currently in the freezer! The container is frosted :o)

I seem to always enjoy cold things served in cold platters, cups etc. Cold beer in a cold cup, yes. Fruit in a chilled bowl, yes.

In my cold container: Red grapefruit, yellow peaches, black plums, and cactus flower. yuuum. Tastes like summer.

booch and recipes

2010-08-07T20:25:00.000-07:00

I just had a snack, and usually when one hears the word "snack", it's probably safe to assume that the majority would think it's something like special k bars or some carrot sticks, yaaa know what I meeean?

No, skip the special k. I am trying to get back in the habit of incorporating six small meals a day, combining both good carbs and protein. A cereal bar really doesn't justify itself as a small meal.

After work I was hungry. Snack #2 of this evening.

Almost burnt Bagel Thins with Eggs. I cracked four. FOUR eggs. Three egg whites and one egg with green onions, black pepper, and fish sauce. Yeah, I'm not insane.

I didn't want to do the scrambled thing, because my favorite part of an egg is the whole yolk. Untouched. Unbroken.

I love the texture, it's sooo good. I saved that part for last. I also squirted Sriracha. I cried and drank a whole 16oz bottle of water, that didn't seem to help at all. My tongue was burning. I didn't learn my lesson after I finished my water. Doh!

At work I hopped on the StairMaster at interval, level 8, for 40 minutes. Cool down on the elliptical for 5 minutes and swam for 5 minutes. Ate lunch. Guarded. Then lifted weights. Today was tris and back.

For lunch, I packed a salad complete with fix-ins. Underneath it all: spinach, purple onions green onions, beets, radish, avocado, and danish feta. So good! With both feta and avocado, I don't really need dressing at all. I packed two containers of salad, so I am looking forward to dinner.

With my salad, I had a side of a vegan black bean burger. With the vbbb, it made the lunch complete :o) soooo goooood.

Note: I had one for lunch, not five! :oP

I adapted the recipe from The Front Burner. Honestly, the only thing that took me so long to make these (after bookmarking it for a while) was because of grating carrots...and possibly because the recipe list looked intimidating. But in hindsight, they're just spices. Or maybe I'm just lazy. But after realizing that I can grate my carrots with the magic bullet and knowing that I can buy spices in bulk and not have to pay a $hitload of $$, then I was good.

I love how my cow dog loves to sit on my lap when she sees me. The only reason why I love it so much is because she's been neglecting me. B-word. Cow dog has been giving all the attention to my mom. Only because my mom feeds this cow dog everything. I remind my mom to not, I repeat, NOT give this cow dog chocolate. Only because my mom is really obtuse when it comes to things like this.

She scared me the other day because she poked a black widow. wth! I yelped and told her to stop before it bit her. She was like "what's a black widow?". Uhhm, well something that can KILL you! women! that night I left her house fearing the saftey of her and cow dog.

One time we went to Target, and a policy they have is that they don't allow pets. This is a conversation:

mom: They don't allow dogs inside, hide her in your bag or just tell them that she's a service dog.

me: (my dry sense of humor) Yeah, she's a chiuahua in a dress. She totally looks like a service dog.

mom: What's a service dog?

me: .....

mom: What's a service dog? Angela, what's a service dog. huh? oh! pretty purse.

Anywho. Here's my booch fermenting its magical goodness.

This morning, a baby scoby was forming and there were more bubbles. I heard bubbles are a good thing during the fermentation process.

Just getting the point across.

Listening to Taylor Swift- Mine, on repeat. Gotta learn the lyrics. Also the new Bruno Mars song- Just the way you are is sooo cute. awh :o)

booch and squash

2010-08-04T20:48:00.000-07:00

Hump Day is almost ovaaah! I started the day dashing out the door heading to work, which started at 545am- 830am. I did not brush my teeth, comb my hair (not that it matters), or eat breakfast. By the time I was heading home at the end of my shift, I was starving and stinky. Oh how I wanted to brush my teeth badly :o( With no oatmeal and eggs to be found around the house and the lack of will to spend money on breakfast...I had left overs from last night.

Last night I wanted dinner. I had two choices: A) Buy ingredients and whip something up or B) Go to the taco shop and buy a burrito!

I knew I'd regret the bloat and uncomfortable fullness if I went with the taco shop option, so grocery shopping it is!

I went to the market not knowing what I wanted, I started out in the meat section and it was a choice between chicken and turkey. "I've had chicken plenty of times, waaaay to many times. Let's take a break from that tonight. oh! the turkey is cheaper!"

Then it was produce: Yellow onion, brocolli, summer squash, and jalapeno.

Then it hit me that I should make... spaghetti. Not just regular ole' spaghetti, but spaghetti with copious amounts of veggies that you can imagine. I remembered my mom had one last jar of pasta sauce. cha-ching. But I had a hard time finding noodles, because the cheapest one was $3.29! hell to the nah. Plus I didn't want too much carbs at night, so I went to the check-out lane noodle-less.

Then it hit me...Spaghetti Squash. Why is it that the light bulb always turn on towards the end?

Cook the spaghetti squash according to directions.

- In a skillet add olive oil, then add the following:

- Large onion

- De-seeded and chopped jalapeno

- chopped cubed pieces of yellow summer squash

- Brocolli Florets (weird I know, but it gets tenders and good!)

- Chopped garlic (at the end)

Then add ground turkey and cook it though. When it's all cooked, add your pasta sauce.

-Salt and Pepper

- A splash of fish sauce (weird I know! it isn't fishy at all, it adds a bold flavor)

So delicious! I have plenty of left overs to last me a few days. It's such a money saver and I look forward to eating it a lot, I actually get excited. Sometimes I'll add bulgarian feta to it, since it's the only cheese source available to me. It's really delicious, the sharpness eases well with the veggies and sauce :o)

Today I bought a scoby to brew my own kombucha. I'm very excited. I actually bought it from Averie, I'm positive she had no idea who I was but I didn't want to blurt out that I was a blog reader of hers. It felt like meeting a blog celebrity ha. I felt uncompleted after I left. I couldn't hold it in, so I texted her just to tell her I was a reader. I half expected her to get creeped out, but she was glad. phhhew. Along with the scoby, I also bought her booch and it was wonderful. I can't wait to make my own!

Averie's homemade booch. yuuum. I drank the whole thing and remembered how much I love kombucha. I later met with Angel because he purchased a Scoby as well, let's see how this process goes. Hope no one dies.

So far I boiled ~ 2.5 liters of water, poured in a cup of sugar, and let eight green tea bags steep. Now I just have to wait til it's room temperature. That was 3.5 hours ago, it's still really really warm! ahhhh. Patience :o)

We're running as fast as we can

2010-08-03T17:47:00.000-07:00

I don't know what it is, but waking up past 11am turns me into such a lazy person. I woke up at 11 and contemplated in my bed about how I could've woken up earlier. I then got up and made breakfast. Breakfast always motivates me to get out of bed and start my day.

Breakfast was 1/3 cup of coach's oats cooked in 1 cup of water and 1/3 banana, topped with 1 tbsn of chia seeds. That looks like a lot of chia seeds!

I also had a refridgerated french pressed coffee and blended it with chocolate whey protein. Yum, good amount of carbs and protein to start my day!

After I stirred it all together!

My oats only contained 1/3 banana, so it wasn't as sweet as I wanted it to be, so here is my secret weapon.

Nothing wrong with sweetening up my oats with SF Jell-O powder, try it.

Then after breakfast I proceeded to lay in bed for another hour! ha, the lazy bug got the best of me. It was then that I decided to go for a run, it was either now or never.

I was kind of nervous because I haven't ran in forever! The course is a big circle wrapped around the lake that is 5 miles.

I ran and got my heart rate pumping, I picked the wrong time to run because it was blazing hot and I didn't hydrate enough. After mile 2, I had a throbbing headache, cramps, and dry mouth. yuck. I almost wanted to quit because I wasn't as fast as I used to be. But in the end it wasn't about trying to catch up to the guy running way ahead of me, it was about doing my personal best. Someones gotta start from somewhere.

I walked for at least a mile and a half throughout the middle of the course and continued running. I swore I heard rattlesnakes! that just made me run faster.

Stats

Holy cow?! 101% maximum?! I need to run more often.

I burned 631 calories. yahoo!

I ended up walking and running for about an hour and 5 minutes.

Tired and cramped up :o( but sure glad I did it :o)

I then walked around a bit and in the end I was happy I decided to do something about my laziness this morning.

More ducks. quack!

After the run I wanted to go to the gym to do more cardio and weights, but my head hurt like a mother, so I just went home to this.

A leftover Carne Asada Burrito: Steak, Guacamole, and cheese. I didn't see any pico de gallo :o(

But it was delicious! melted cheese and guacamole = heaven

I am planning on showering after this post and driving down south to buy a Verdolaga Plant aka Purslane to add to my smoothies, they make my smoothies taste so wonderful and smooth. I'll probably hit up costco to buy a bulk of salad as well. My life is so interesting!

Playing catch up.

2010-08-02T16:35:00.000-07:00

Hello Monday! The weekend flew by fast (except during work). Let me fill you in on what happened during the weekend.

I got the chance to pair up with the generous and kind people at CSN, and if you have a chance take a look at their website. My favorite store out of their 200+ shopping sites is Cookware. Ever since I became a foodie, kitchen gadgets became something that I needed and wanted to have! (maybe once I get my own place it'd be kitchen gadget galore :o)

Also, once I became a ~~food snob~~ foodie, I can't help but eat in cute bowls and plates (for picture purposes and the asthetic pleasure :o) which is why I have been awe-ing over the plates from Corelle. Check it out!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Friday I was invited by Ashley to attended our friends sister debut. It was her 18th birthday that came with a lavish celebration. Unfortunately I had work until 7pm that day when the reception started at 6, but by luck my boss approached me and randomly asked if I wanted to go home at 4:30 pm. I happily said YES!

After work I headed to Erica's house (on right) where she did Ashley's (left) make-up and hair. To save time, I did my make-up at work and changed at Erica's house. Erica was nice enough to curl my hair with a hair straightner.

Smile!

Ready to PAR-TAY!

When we arrived, about 20% of everyone was there. Someone had said that it was typical for Filipinos to arrive late, "Filipino Time" if you will.

I was starving and there was a snack table for the guests to enjoy. It curbed my hunger throughout the ceremony and until dinner was served.

On my plate had pineapple, grapes, watermelon, and jicama, various cheese cubes and finger food.

Our table: Bikini Bottom.

After the introduction of the birthday girl and her group of friends "18 roses and candles" and grand-father and grand-daughter dance. It was time to eat! Buffet style.

I ate about 25% of what was on my plate, I guess the snack platter really did satisfy my hunger.

Group picture with birthday girl in the center.

The real party didn't start until everyone got to dance! It was such a fun night, although it wasn't fun to get up early in the morning for work. ha!

Saturday was also another Birthday celebration that ended up in Downtown at the Yardhouse. The only thing horrible about downtown during the weekend (especially Friday and Saturday) is parking, it took us approximately 20-30 minutes to find parking and walk to the venue. Boo!

Smile!

I ordered the Blue Crab Cake Hogie. It was delicious. The Fries were thin and stringy, and were so addicting to eat. Thinner cut fries = good crunchy texture.

We mingled and had interesting conversations and called it a night! Again, I had work the next day and was tired!

For work the next morning I prepared a salad.

In my salad: Arugula, beets, avocado, purple onions, green onions, and danish feta. It was delicious!

I also found a Flowering Kale at the market, I am such a dork because when I spotted it in the produce section I was in awe and couldn't help but admire it. Any suggestions on what I should make? Possibly a Purple Monster (Purple kale, almond milk, and frozen banana)?

Today I am figuring our what to do with my flowering kale and seeing Day and Knight at the movies.

I also had leftovers from the Yardhouse along with red potatoes that I roasted this morning at 450 for 40 minutes.

I added green onions and purple onions. I will never make that combo again, the purple and green onions didn't mesh well flavor wise and made me nauseous. So I just ended up eating the rest of the potatoes and sandwich.

Deliciousness.

What flavor combination have you failed with?

- Today I learned that potatoes don't go well with purple and green onions alone. But then again, doesn't a potato salad contain two of those things?

Anyway, gotta go get ready!

Have a great Monday.

Phoung Trang

2010-07-29T22:50:00.000-07:00

I've been going to a vietnamese-chinese restarant called Phoung Trang with my family since who knows when (middle school?). Usually when we go as a family (cousins, uncles, aunts, dad, etc) we order the usual that would feed a family of 5-6, so there was no need to look at the menu. Plus...I was picky.

Fast forward a few years.

When my cousin invited me to go with her a few weeks ago, it was the first time I gazed through the menu with my new perspective on food. Before I ever discovered food blogs, I never appreciated food like I do now. I love to try something new, I like discover a new plant or cuisine from a different culture. I like to savor and admire my food rather than demolish it in a minute flat. Food brings people together that's for sure, everything I do revolves around food. I can't stop thinking about it, smelling it, and tasting it (duh). Food is fascinating to me.

(on the tangent) But cooking shows like (I forget the name) on the food network really pisses me off! "That bacon in his soup was too soft, I expected it to be crispy, not fatty."

WTH? first of all that bacon is in a damn soup! of course it's gonna be soft doofus! and since when was bacon not fatty?! GAH! critics! Some people just like to talk, it hits a nerve sometimes...but I digress.

Anyway where was I? Oh yeah. After gazing at the menu, I vowed to myself that I would BE BACK.

The second time I went with Ashley. We decided to split the dish, which was a regret because it was so dang gewddd! We ordered the sizzlin' steak, and we heard that steak sizzlin' from the moment the waiter walked out that door.

"shhh, you hear that? I think that's our food." I think the whole restarant (at least on our side) went silent to marvel at our cow.

mmm, with butter. Sometimes a bit of butter is fine in my world. The meat was tender and not chewy at all! So tender it practically melted in my mouth. I had leftovers today at work, I did not mircowave it, YES, I ate it cold. I think there is a rule to what left overs are deemed non-mircowavable. Cold Pizza. yes....

Cold pizza is the only thing on my mind that is an A-Ok to eat cold, anything else I'm missing??

well...if I can't find any excuse for what is deemed good or bad, then just dismiss it. Cold beef is okay in my books for now. But that cold beef tasted just as good, but not better!

Tonight after work, my mom wanted sushi. She was being nice. I like it when she's nice. Anyway I suggested Phoung Trang instead, she's never heard of it. Shame.

Bored sister

Estatic me!

Pork, shrimp, and Jellyfish salad. Yummm!

You heard that right.

Incase you were curious as I was, this my friend is part of a jellyfish.

I've been stung by a stingray before, I don't recommend it. I'm pretty sure getting stung by these son of a b's is just as painful.

The texture was rubbery, but it meshed well with the salad.

Sour soup

We got a family special that fed three. We had plenty of leftovers.

Clams. yuuum. The broth was amazing, amazing enough to be eatten with rice by itself.

Salted Catfish in a hot pot.

My dish!

mmmmm, my favorite!

hello kebab

2010-07-14T21:44:00.000-07:00

My last post was two weeks ago, and let me tell you...it felt like a month. Does anyone read this? hello :o) I have been doing so poorly updating my blog! I have so many things to share with you that it overwhelmed me looking through my pictures on my camera from a month ago. All I can do is give you my best, and I honestly don't remember some of these pictures I took...I don't even remember what I did two days ago!

Perhaps I need to buy a brain teaser book to exercise my noggin' a bit.

Let's make it short! I'll explain each picture that I post, that works right?

Lately last month, I have been in a food phase. I have been visiting The Kebab Shop at least once or twice a week that the cashier practically knows me by name.

Lamb, Tabouli, and fries.

Lamb Doner (think burrito)

Lamb, Hummus, Pita, and Saffron rice

Lamb doner again....

With all the left over lamb, it became a brilliant idea to be creative with lunch...

....I just received an unexpected call now, and posting tonight is my last priority.

My uncle just passed away from being diagnosed with a stage four brain tumor from last year, keep his family in your thoughts and prayers.

:o( got to go, in these situations, it's hard to know what to do.

got to go.

Farmers Market

2010-06-27T16:49:00.000-07:00

I had a great time exploring the Hillcrest farmers market today, I had to do a double trip back to the car to leave a few bags of fruits and veggies because they were so heavy! This was one of the best farmers market in San Diego that I have been to, I fell in love!

Here are some pictures! I gotta go to church soooooon! very soon.

I was feeling snacky, but the first thing I saw was the GreenFix organic smoothie booth. The ingredients put into that smoothie sounded perfect. I had a few beers the night before and I felt the need to detox a bit! I sipped and samples many fruits and vendors. There were so many samples!

delicious!

These must be the cutest strawberries. I've never seen them so small, and I think these strawberries must be the real deal. Organic, local, and pesticide free!

I bought four bulks! I don't know what hit me, but I'm looking forward to eating it with my breakfast and snack tomorrow.

I was really tempted to buy a pot of herbs to cook with, and mostly to brew along with my tea. I saw a different assortment of mint leaves that I thought would go perfect with a light grain salad or an iced tea. mmmm. Maybe next week!

low and behold....Garlic Scapes! I was so excited when I found these, now I just need to find recipes that I can use them with.

Samples are key! if it weren't for the samples, I would've never bought a cantelope. They were so sweet and juicy. It so refreshing, and usually I have a love-hate relationship with melons, but these were epic!

I didn't want to leave the market without trying out some local eats, I wanted something exciting. Out of all things, this vegan "pasta" caught my eye.

The noodles are made from zucchinis (which I bought) so maybe I can recreate this dish at home. It was very good! I loved the added mint to the pasta. yum

along with a vegan coconut cream pie.

The crust reminded me of Larabars and I thought it was neat how the "cream" filling was made from cashews and coconut meat. sooo awesome. I don't think I'd mind going vegan at all!

Shoooot! I am late for church, gotta drive!

toodles.

cowdog

2010-06-23T22:09:00.000-07:00

I love the fact that our dog has gained weight since her arrival a few months ago, because she was so fragile and thin. I love her.

Today she was so excited to see me after I paid a visit, her breath stunk, so I restrained her from licking my face. disguist. oh how will I ever deal with my baby?...err, maybe it isn't the time or place to think about that.

My mom has faithfully been feeding our cowdog Lily all random sorts of things, this has been happening gradually. At first my mom got upset that I bought her wet dog food, because that would throw off the normal liking of her dry food she eats everyday. (When my mom left, I secretly fed it to her though, she liked it!)

But over the past few weeks, I've been seeing wonder bread, rice, chicken....and today I see an omelette in her bowl! WTH?

I guess it's okay? I'm only rationalizing it out with the fact that I've seen owners feed their pets peanut butter, but I heard chocolate could potientially kill a dog.

Maybe I'm just gulliable. I need to check Google.

neglectful bloggie I am

2010-06-22T17:19:00.000-07:00

Although I've been such a neglectful blogger for the past...I don't know... month, I felt no pressure whatsoever to post. I just went along with the flow, and it also didn't help that I had no access to the interweb through my laptop. I survived through out the day with my phone, it was enough to go on facebook and browse a few blogs here and there.

yikes! not to mention my reader has filled up to 800 unread posts since I've been M.I.A. Just the thought of that overwhelms me, but you know what? I just need to hit "clear" and all will be better. It's like throwing away school work that I've accumalated throughout the years, I can be a pack-rat like that!

I feel horrible because I'm pretty sure I missed some important stuff going on in the lives of my favorite bloggies, but it'd take forever to catch up!

I am tired, I don't know where to start off. Have you seen Toy Story 3 yet?
Well today I had a star service to attend to, it's an 8 hour workshop where we learn about customer service. It's a complete waste of time, but whatever, I get paid.

But the guy in charge totally sounds like Lotso the Bear! I thought that was hilarious. He's a mix between creepy and lovable. mmm?

Last week Ashley and I decided to hit up SmashBurger in La Jolla after a successful shopping in the wee hours of the morning. Rare for Ashley considering she wakes up at 1pm. We were shopping for outfits for some potraits we wanted to give our fathers for fathers day. We just ended up buying group photos.

Mediocore experience with the photographer = mediocore photographs. She had us do ackward poses that made me feel like as if we were a lesbian couple, Ash agreed. Although we've known each other for six years, it's still uncomfortable when we invade one anothers personal space.

We just ended up shooting with Ashleys camera at La Jolla Cove which turned out great. Photos to ensue soon.

Anyway...we went to SmashBurger.

After debating whether I should get a burger (it is called SmashBurger afterall) or a salad because I wanted to keep it lite. I ended up with a salad.

It contained smashchicken, tomatoes, mixed greens, pumkin seeds, sunflower seeds, craisins, raisin, goat cheese, and balsamic vinagrette.

Verdict: Not so great! I finished 1/3 and ate the rest of the chicken. What a waste of $$.

We had the suddern urge for something sweet and settled with the Gelato shop across the street. With the intent of sharing a gelato, once Ashley walked in and saw the array of colors and flavors, she exclaimed

"Nevermind, I am getting my OWN cup!"

Medium cup with Cookies n' Cream and Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie. Being the piggy I am, I polished it in 5 minutes.

Later that night I saved my appetite for Ranchos with Darwin. I was looking forward to dining at this little Mexican gem in Northpark.

My first experience was with Angel. Oh how I missed this ~~kid~~ grown-up!!

What an adorable mexican!

Amazing lobster with a side of rice, beans, guac, and tortillas.

After that day, I went to Ranchos for a total of three times...in a week. Yikes!

I almost went by myself yesterday...almost.

My second time was with Darwin and his buddy Joey. I love the fact that they serve fresh tortilla chips and salsa. I love their salsa, it has the right kick of spice!

I am also in love with the decor, really adorable and yellow. I've come to conclusion that I like wearing purple, yellow, maybe green, and I'm starting to branch out to blue with my clothing. Just a tangent I'd like you to know.

I got the carne asada and shrimp combo with rice, guac, and beans. Good! Not as good as the lobster, the meat in this dish was bland. The sides made up for it though.

This waiter/hostess is just...really cool. Great presence.

So cute. I have a Rancho Daddy and a Kebab Daddy, ha.

By this point, I am just so tired to write. But I love this place and they have so many vegan, vegetarian, carnivore options! I want to try em' all!

Third time with Ashley I got the Papas Ranchos! yummy.

I'm so pooped. I was anxious all night because I was afraid my alarm wouldn't go off. I had to wake up early for work and had a dream I was late (with the 30 minutes of sleep I had).

Bye!

personal reference

2010-06-04T22:33:00.000-07:00

They say it's not okay to drunk dial because for godsake you don't make a fool of yourself, and the same goes for blogging when you are sleep deprived and just don't know where your head is. Thank goodness I can delete this post when I do feel like I am making a fooool of myself. Or maybe I'd want to keep this post to look back and laugh at myself

Which seems to be all the time, at least in my ~~right state of~~ mind.

[source]

Actually, I don't know how to even start writing about what's on my mind. Sometimes I can't understand myself. Sometimes I don't make sense. That's all the time. Can I just tell you that I like ice cream?

Especially when I am feeling some sort of hurt or frustration, in the past, cream and sugar was always there to comfort me from the frozen section.

Lack of sleep will cause emotional distress, I found myself breaking down, because I probably needed sleep, yeah, that's what I told myself tonight. I put on a good face (I think) when a whirlwind of emotion is scattered throughout my noggin. I tell myself I need to sleep on it, that's just like sayin' gimme some mo' ice cream and just let me forget.

I want to forget.

[these photos were from a few weeks ago]

I've learned to deal with what I'm facing besides shoving it in my face!

large fudge chunks

A reeses cup

White chocolate chunks

what? is this what I think it is? Somewhere in the world someone loves me.

oh no she didn't.

Looking back at these photos distracted me from the situation with ooooh and yuuuum.

The power of ~~Madonna~~ Ice Cream

On one note, I don't know why I am upset, nothing has happened yet.

I can see rejection a mile away.

I am such a kid.

Where's my dog, I want to play with her.

Lily?

Where's my drink? I need it.

Oh I kid.

delete!

What did you do?

2010-05-31T22:52:00.000-07:00

Today's weather couldn't be anymore perfect for Memorial day! I don't know about you, but I think if anyone were to plan their wedding, Memorial day would be the right date. It seems to always call for the perfect weather here in San Diego and is one of the most busiest day to hit up the beach. Poor beach guards, that must be a stressful day for them.

But for us pool guards, it was sort of dead, we had more people than I expected. I predicted 2-3 since it was a grand re-opening, but we actually had ~8-10 people.

On perfect days like this, I get reminded of why my job rocks, because I get to work outdoors and soak up some Vitamin D!

Let's rewind baaaack to yesterday. It was very relaxing, I got errands done, went to church, and had breakfast for dinner afterwards.

Looking for a place always seems to be the trouble after church, there are so many options but it's hard to make up your mind, especially when you don't know what you're craving. I knew I just wanted a complete balanced meal with protein + carbs and nothing heavy.

Last minute the BFF and I decided to go to Studio Diner, if you've seen DDD from the Food Network, Guy Fieri raved and drooled about this place (like he does every other diner), so glad it's right up our alley.

Ash ordered Mozz stix as a starter, it looked ggggoooood.

The sauce looked yummy, too bad I didn't try it! I just loved how it looked homemade vs. straight from the can. You can see the chunks of tomatos and herbs. yum.

Finally our meal came, prior to ordering I had asked the waitress to omit the butter and after a slight confusion on my part (I get confused or I don't fully hear) I forgot to tell her to switch the cheese from cheddar to feta. oh darn. Do you get a few brain farts when it comes to customizing your meals? I repeatly remind myself before hand, but seem to always forget this and that.

Still good anyway :o) I ordered a veggie omelete that consisted of Broccoli, Mushrooms, Tomato, Spinach, and Cheese.

I also asked for jalapenos on the side, turns out they were fresh peppers and they did not de-seed them. I had a horrible experience in the past where I did not de-seed a jalapeno pepper, AND that did not turn out well. I was scarred.

But I ate it anyway

I had a fun time at studio diner, and want to definately go back again and try something new.

Today at work I snacked on a peanut butter sandwich with arnold thins

After a bite, it was missing something...I'm so glad I packed strawberry jam...you know, just in case.

I took a couple of these packets fromt he diner because I also got an english muffin on the side with my omelete, but it already had butter smeared on it :o( I would've saved it for the next day too. oh well.

Perrrrfect size for dipping measures, I'm a food breaker at heart.

I ate as I watched my co-worker Jeff swim laps.

He's a beast, he's like Bear Grylls and Lance Armstrong in one. He's either doing something cardio related or growing tomatoes. Just epic.

He brought a banana to work. resemblance?

A little bit? just a little...?

Anyway, I digress, but words of wisdom from Jeff stuck with me today. That moment came when I was whining about how bored I was (I was going mad), Jeff simply just responded with "really? when I get bored I do something"

I didn't know what to say because I was caught off guard, he was dead on right. The answer is obviously...obvious, but I never put those words into action. The action of doing nothing pretty much sums up my life ever since school was out! First of all, the fact that all I had to complain about was how bored I was...consider that a blessing. But it made me think about how much time I've wasted in the past week all because I did nothing.

It's a sign because yesterday I felt useless and unmotivated because I realized (I always realize things at church) that I have qualities that are not put to use (and maybe because I napped most of the time yesterday!), but maaaaybe...just maybe I can make a difference in something, whatever it may be. That I will have to figure out.

As much as I would like to watch re-runs of Glee or nap during the day, I want to make something count in my life, ~~maybe~~ that's why I feel like something is missing in my life...thanks for igniting the bulb. oh the simple moments in life :o)

DO Something should be the mantra.

I'm going to start by going to the gym and working on cardio + legs.

work in process!

re-introducing the good stuff in my life...again

2010-05-28T23:23:00.000-07:00

With school out I no longer have the excuse to say that I don't have the time to workout, because I have plenty of time, I have waaaay too much time on my hands it's ridic. But as of late I've put exercise in the back burner, when school was in session, it was understandable that education had to come first on my list. Thus, I was used to not making time to squeeze a work-out in and just lounge around, the guilt of not staying fit subsided. I need to re-introduce the habit of going to the gym, because my passion for it has dwindled down to the ground. Now, I would rather eat a burrito than lift weight. ooopph! not a good sign!

This morning I woke up extremely late, 12:30 p.m. I need to work on that (how embarrassing right?), I missed the most important part of the day, which was breakfast...

"breakfast? lunch? snack?..." maaaybe brunch....brunch it is!

By mixing in pizza in the form of an omelete, it's a win-win! (by the way have you seen Letters to Juliet? cute movie).

I've just been reminded by looking at this picture that I need to make it again, and you need to make it as well! It was mar-va-lous!

Well first of all, I need to explain how the process works, but I think you got it all figured out..I'll explain anyway.

+ Crack open 4-5 egg whites (I used four, but next time I'll opt for five for more protein staying power)

+ Add 1 Tbsn of water and whisk it (for fluffing purposes, don't be afraid)

Then you pour it over a pan and cook it both sides. Once you have flipped the omelete with the cooked/firm side facing up, then you add your ingredients.

+ Add tomato sauce (I used hunts which was infused with oregano and spices, def made a difference!)

You can add your own spices as well.

Then top off your pizza anyway you like. I used almond mozzarella cheese, green bell peppers, and beefless tips. Instead of almond cheese, you can choose from ricotta cheese, pepper jack cheese, vegan cheese, chedder...the list goes on. Same for veggies and meat!

yummmm, next time I am going to add chile flakes for heat.

Then I went to Costco and bought Broccoli and Spinach. I've been on a broccoli kick lately, I love it roasted. I also needed spinach for green monsters.

Later on, I wanted to go to the gym, but I took a nap instead. ahhh, see what I mean about putting workout last? and why did I need more sleep?! I already had ten hours. oh I am ashamed, baaad.

Anyway, in order to make up my lack of veggie intake for these pass couple of weeks (I haven't had mexican ood in three days! I think I beat that habit. Knock on wood!) I bought a sh*tload of fiberific greens.

This was the first time I bought a whole cabbage from the fresh produce aisle, it was definately more volumous for the price of .88 cents vs. buying it from the bag at $2.

I mixed approx 2 Tbsn of coconut oil with 4 packets of stevia and tons of cinnamon and drizzled it all over my cabbage. Then I folded in the mixture til everything was evenly coated.

Then off in the oven it went at 400 for 30 minutes, stirring halfway.

I was hoping I'd come out crispy, but it came out looking more sauteed. So next time, I would save the energy by stir-frying it on the stove for 5 minutes rather than waiting 30 minutes to get the same results.

My new obsession: roasted broccoli. Roasted at 400 for 30 minutes. I am in love.

I am also in love with this picture from California adventures.

"oh dearrrr, don't drop my camera, dear god, please don't drop my camera"

oh my, I look horrific.

Time to go to the gym, I hope.

What is your favorite veggie to roast? I find that if I am buying a new vegeatble that I've never tried before, the first thing I'd rather do is roast em' and it usually comes out great, except for eggplants which I need to work on.

many many days of damage

2010-05-27T20:42:00.000-07:00

In all honestly, I had consumed six or seven mexican food in one week! What happened Angela? Have you gone completely nutzo? and to top it off, I haven't been to the gym consistently. Oh boy, I am just killing myself slowly.

Whilst uploading these photos to my computer and thus remembering many things I ate that were un-pictured, it's no woner my jeans have been feeling tight and I have just been feeling crappy.

Let's start! shall we?

This smells so amazing, it makes me want to lick myself silly

These hemp seeds are delicious! nutty and buttery, sort of like pine nuts.

I was in a veggie eating mode, that is...until I got SICK! which was three weeks ago. At that point, veggies were no longer in my diet. I re-introduced myself to lots of bad carbs and junk.

Butter nut crusted parnips, sooooo freaking good.

I didn't eat meat for two weeks, but then I broke that by eating this quesadilla.

One of the many many many mexican fast food I''ve eaten for the past two weeks! :o(

It was a hard habit to break...which was to stop eating mexican. I forgot how much I love it, then I remembered why I ignore it so much. It's addicting and good.

But not so good with the heart, I did cardio and could hardly breathe.

Reality check?...no not so much, I continued eating away!

Margarita...

sugar sugar sugar.

One of the most saltiest philly cheese steaks I've had. It made me thirsty all night and all morning the next day.

plus

+ 4-5 burritos

+ ~3-4 quesadilla

+ In-N-Out burger

+fast fooooood

+pizza

+booze

...and many more hazardous thigns to my health.

oh, and saving the best for last

Justin's Chocolate Hazelnut butter. The Chocolate Peanut butter is amazing! So I can't wait to break into it.

Oh I love this dog so much.

Cinco De Mayo

2010-05-07T14:39:00.000-07:00

Hello blog, I haven't wrote in here forever. Those last two entries did not count, I think.

The last time I wrote here I was sick. I am still not 100%...maybe 90% or lower. I developed a big head and was positive that I would be healthy again within that week but it got worst and worst. Also what contributed to me being sick longer than expected was because I did not take any medication AT ALL! When it comes to medication, I try to avoid it at any possible cost. I have nothing against modern medicine, but I just prefer to have my body fight itself back to normal without any of that stuff. If worst comes to worst, then I'd have no problem taking it. So far it's just vitamin C for me!

Confession: I haven't been eating great the past week, but am I going to negatively talk myself into shame? no, life goes on. Maybe this is progress for me, because in the past I would beat myself up so much, but I realized now that it is just a waste of time. Now, I cry for about a minute and that's it. :o)

I started noticing how much I crave carbs more than anything when I am sick. Do you crave anything out of your norm when you are sick?

In celebration of Cinco De Mayo, we celebrated at El Toritos. El Torito is definately not a health-friendly restaurant. I should've gotten a salad and regretted it after.

Their chips and salsa is amazing, I can never tame myself when it comes to it! I was to the point of fullness before our entree arrived.

Sandy and Ashley are not food bloggers, I believe they just like taking pictures of their food. Just because.

I got a delicious beef quesadilla. I had one piece of quesidilla, small serving of corn cake, and ate the whole guacamole.

Confession: I attempted to go vegetarian, and I semi-succeeded (had a piece of salmon) the first two weeks. After three days, my craving for meat dwindled down dramatically. I felt so light and full of clarity because I ate more vegetables than ever before.

But I decided to eat meat at El Torito, just because. "Just because" is a poor excuse, but at the point of starting a vegetarian diet, I had no reason to really why I decided to take on that challenge. So if I ever did slip up, I have no reason to get mad at myself!

After I ate 1/3 of the quesadilla, I felt so yucky though!

Over the week, I picked up The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone enjoyed reading her reasons for living a vegan lifestyle, the info behind it, and the benefits. I am hoping to grab her book off the shelf to read for myself in the pleasure of my own bed.

For now, I am slowly starting to eliminate meat and dairy from my diet, but I wouldn't label myself anything just yet!

Later on in the night, Ashley and I decided to have fun and chase rabbits. So random I know, but I love having a friend who is willing to do anything random and weird with me. Boy! those rabbits are super fast. I think we spent at least 15 minutes chasing rabbits. Taking funny pictures around campus and hiding from the custodians!

I've known her for 6 years!

Then it was my first time going to a bar. It was fun!

We ended up asking random people if they can sound like Chewbacca. I don't know why, but it's so funny!

Then we met an actual artist who worked for Lucas Film and he ended up drawing Yoda on my recipt.

He drew Yoda and I drew a picture of him on top. I think I made him look scary than he actually looked, but it was close! that was a cigarette hanging on his mouth by the way, ha. Pretty good for someone who wasn't 100% if you know what I mean.

Jeremy believes he can do more push-ups than me. I didn't think so, so we made a bet that if he does more push-ups, I would oblige to buy him a california burrito. I don't know what I would get in return though any ideas?

I ended up doing 30 push ups at the bar, I need to learn to lower my booty though. Work in progess.

Cinco De Mayo ended up being such a naughty nutrition day for me, I digress.

What random things do you like to do with your friends?

Out Sick

2010-05-02T17:14:00.000-07:00

After my teeth extraction and unability to eat anything interesting, I was excited to be blogging again once I healed.

But alas, I got SICK!

Note to self...and to you: Always wash your hands after the gym!

You might never look at me the same way again, but on Monday I went to the gym and worked out on several equipments. After the gym I was quenched and decided to peel an orange, at that point I remembered that I didn't wash my hands but figured I'd be okay because I haven't been sick in so long. I have a strong immune system...duh.

Stupid me, well...I got sick the next day. And I still am sick.

Wish me a speedy recovery and I hope you wash your hands before you eat.

Toodles.

Justin's Nut Butter: Chocolate Hazelnut

2010-04-26T16:33:00.000-07:00

Is this new? If it is...I can't believe they sell this at Marshalls! I snatched the last one, lucky me. And if I find more, I might have to break into my bank. I might have to offer YOU a jar (ahem...giveaway), so cross your fingers as I journey onto finding another jar. This is going to be hard.

My gums have healed a little bit and I can eat now :o)

Lemme buy you a drankkk.

2010-04-22T19:42:00.000-07:00

Buy me a drink, because I can't eat.

I got two 2nd bi-molars extracted because my bite needs to be corrected, the numbness wore off a while ago. I am trying to eat.

ouch much?... actually no. I have a really great dentist.

I drove and got baked beans from KFC because I am too nauseous to cook.

I will be back soon. This week will be nothing but green monsters and soup...if I am willing to make it.

I hope you have a lovely Thursday, Friday, and the weekend!

Toodles

ohhh, and michelle from chasingthenow is offering her readers an awesome giveaway!! check it out

Tofu Stir Fry

2010-04-20T23:29:00.000-07:00

Holy cow. I need FLOSS A-SAP! I just ate dinner and I have veggies stuck between my molars and it hurts! I need floss I need floss I need floss. Where is it?! I've been looking everywhere!! So far I've used my fork (plastic, mind you) that I will dispose of, but it is not doing the job. No durrr

I feel like once I floss the gunk out of my molars, I will give out a sigh of relief. It's almost like having your ears itch inside so much, that once you clean your ears with Q-tip... your eyes literally roll to the back of your head because it feels so good. Don't lie, you've experienced it before. And it's not the proper way to clean your ears did you know?

Anyway, onto dinner.

I unconsciously shopped for veggies while roaming around the grocery store, I saw pretty vegetables and ooh'd and awe'd over them and put them in my basket with no back up plan. If I had any plans to use veggies for dinner...well, I simply forgot. Then I read Janetha's post about her sweet & savory tofu stir-fry that she adapted from Oxygen Magazine.

Cha-Ching! I totally have that magazine lying around in my room. Tofu Stir-Fry it is.

I chopped a whole package of extra firm tofu into cubes. Mixed the container with soy sauce, sesame oil, agave, and mesquite seasoning. shake-shake-shake...shake your booooty

Let it sit and absorb for a few minutes or so.

Lined all the cubed pieces on parchment paper and set it in the oven at 375 for 20-30 minutes.

The magazine calls for you to mix the tofu along with the veggies. But I opted to keep it seperate incase I ever wanted tofu with other things OR to eat it by itself ;o)

In a skillet, I added all of my chopped veggies.

- Chopped portobello mushroom

-Bak choy

- chopped sweet bell peppers

-garlic

-red onions

-green onions

-chopped eggplant

I let it cook in the pan for about 5-7 minutes or until the onions are transparent

Then I add

-1/4 cup of vegetable broth

-1 tbsn honey (I used agave nectar)

-1 tbsn of soy sauce

-1-2 tbsn of white rice vinegar ( I had apple cider vinegar)

-1 tbsn of arrow root powder (I didn't have it on hand, but it was still delish!)

then simmer for another 3-5 minutes

While that was cooking, my tofu was done. I had baked my tofu while preparing and chopping veggies, so it was perfect timing....

....because it was time to dig in

I was pretty proud of myself, because cooking something like this would've intimidate me. The recipe on the magazine looked delicious and pretty...but it intimidated me that it wasn't going to turn out as good as it sounds. Well, it turned out good! Now I am excited to try other recipes that I've oogled over the past year.

I made another batch of this. This time the variety of vegetables were different, thats whats great about this dish. You can accomodate it to your liking.

oh, and winner of cuisinart ice cream maker is Daniel, who said he'd make vanilla with a hint of coconut and lime. Sounds good to me. Email me yo ~~numba!~~ address. Angelalovesfood [at] Gmail [dot] com

It's 11:11! I wish that I can find floss asap. I still need floss dammit!

What do you wish for?

Vietnamese cuisine: Pho

2010-04-19T11:24:00.000-07:00

Hello there! how are you?

I am starving! it's that kind of starving where your mouth drys a bit...oh, maybe perhaps I need to drink water. I haven't done that at all this morning.

okay, well anyways, you have til tonight to enter for the cuisinart ice cream maker. I'll be picking winners tomorrow.

A few days ago, I went to one of my favorite Pho resturant: Pho Ca Dao. I realized for the longest time that I have been pronouncing it wrong! and it's hard to break the habit.

I used to think it was called (pha-ka-dow) along with the rest of everyone! but it is actually (Pha-ka-yow)
Oh how I hate silent letters! but I digress.

We started with egg rolls. I haven't had eggrolls in a long time, so it was just what I imagined it to be.

hot, crunchy, slightly salty, and savory.

The batter was perfect. Not soggy at all.

Combining the lettuce and pickled carrots made eating the egg roll much filling.

It also made me feel a bit 'healthy' that I was combining greens to something fried and probably unhealthy.

I don't think that's the case, but it helps. :o)

I got to sit next to the window. In the past, this seat was where I always wanted to sit at. Primarily for the "view". I think they should start adding exotic flowers in my opinion!

Then my bowl came!

#17- Beef noodle soup with cooked and rare steak.

mmmm, the broth is hot enough to slightly cook the rare steak.

yikes! now I am hungry!!!!

Sorry for the lame post, BUT I am going to eat a PB&J sandwich and dink a protein shake. Starving!!!

What ethnic cuisines do you enjoy? Also, what is your ethnic background, do you have any favorite dishes from your culture?

Black Bean Soupppp!

2010-04-16T18:33:00.000-07:00

Hello there, how are you this Friday? Don't forget to enter the cuisinart giveaway. It ends this Monday.

Hello, I have been living like it's vacation mode and not school mode. 5 weeks of school and I already lost my motivation! not good. But I need to keep pushing harder because 5 weeks of class is going to fly by pretty fast, and up to this point I can't afford to bomb!

Breakfast was the same...yet different. Not only have I been lazy about school, but also with breakfast. Last night I was lazy to chop bananas. Pathetic, I know...but I didn't want to wash any silverware, so I added Jello Sugar Free Chocolate-Pudding Mix to my overnight oats and even stuck the spoon in there overnight!....because I was too lazy to wash that too, ha.

- 1/3 old fashioned oats
-1 Tbsn Chia Seeds
-8 oz Almond milk
-1 Tbsn SF chocolate-pudding mix

It was...well...very pudding like AND delicious. I was slightly suprised that I didn't need to add stevia to it, the sweetness was subtle.
The consistency was much smoother and thicker with the pudding mix, and I LIKE it. I will definately repeat it tomorrow with CHEESECAKE pudding mix!

* Please turn your head counter-clockwise

A Green Shake for breakfast as well.

-1 cup of frozen spinach

-1 cup of Almond Milk

-1 scoop of ALIVE! powder in Vanilla

My breakfast required very little chewing.

New Coffee: Godiva Chocolate Truffle....

You may be thinking to yourself how this coffee sounds like such a treat, but that wasn't the case for me. I think Godiva needs to stick to making chocolate and not coffee! I did not like it for some reason, the taste threw me off.

I loved how dark and aromatic their grounds were, but it was not the case after it brewed. I'm weird. For now, I just need to stick to the Target Brand: Archers Farm in S'mores. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

Since we have a coffee-maker in the office, perhaps my co-workers might enjoy it. That works.

Black Bean Soup---

This morning I woke up to Black Beans that have been slow cooked for an eight hour period on low.

It smelled fantastic, similar to bbq'd baked beans.

Last night I added:

-2 cups of veggie stock

-2 cups of water

-Generous sprinkling of Mesquite seasoning (the reason behind the mouth watering aroma)

-Ground pepper

-Cayenne Pepper

-Cumin

Slow cook for 8 hours

Then I chopped some more veggies and cooked them over a stove top

-Cherry tomatos

-Red onions

-Red, Orange, Yellow, Green sweet bell peppers

-Anise

-Serrano Peppers (chooped along with the seeds!)

-Jicama

-White sweet corn (not pictured)

-Okra (not pictured)

I sauteed them in olive oil and added ground pepper, sea salt, and mesquite seasoning.

This seasoning smells soooo amazing if you love bbq! If I became a vegetarian and I sprinkled this in my food, my brain would be tricked to believing I was eating BBQ ribs!

cook it until the veggies are sweaty and soft.

Then I dump em' back in the slow cooker and let it slow cook for another hour.

For lunch I pureed my soup in a blender aaaand it was fantastic (sorry no picture). I was suprised at how much it filled me up It was really spicy with a kick, and the corn/black bean mellowed everything out. I will definately make this again and change up the variety of veggies next time.

Let me introduce you to a new member of the family...

Lily

I nearly bawled laughing when my sister announced we have a new dog, and in walks a little chihuahua in her ~~slutty~~ dress...(I'm not sure what breed she is)

I think she is a little timid, she hasn't even barked or eat yet :o(
Right now is is sitting on my lap and getting used to me.

Do you have any favorite soup combinations or recipes?
- I would like to start making soup more, especially with the slow cooker!

Imagination of the lunch bag

2010-04-14T17:32:00.000-07:00

Well I've been looking in my ~~Barney~~ lunch bag

And I've found a lot of things...~~gizmos and gadgets and odds and ends...and even some old strings!~~
kombucha and sandwiches and salads...and even a some swordfish!

So lets ask ourselves the question "What can we make today?"

with the imagination of the ~~Barney~~ lunch bag

We'll see what we can make today

YEAH! look at what I made today

I might have failed atthat one, but do you have any old favorites?? Remember Banana in Pajamas? HA!

I remember everytime the bears ate their honey biscuits, it always made me hungry for KFC biscuits or Church's chicken biscuits. mmmmm

Don't forget to enter the Cuisinart giveaway plenty of time.

And you have til 4/16 to enter Averies chocolate giveaway!!! hurrrrrryyyyyyyy

and I also added a new video on my about me page, hah, very silly. But it was from ~4 years ago

Breakfast should be fun and slooooow--VONO

2010-04-13T21:43:00.000-07:00

GLEE is tonight! HALLELUJAH!

I was squealing inside yesterday when I realized Glee was only less than 24 hours away. Gleeks have waited forever for this night to come and it's finally here. I even made myself anxious at one point, because I bottled up so much excitement that I was afraid of getting the post-blues after the episode is over. Much like post-wedding blues.

For the past two day's I have been eating Vegan Over-Night Oats [VONO] and it. is. Da Bomb!!!

I was never a fan of over night oats. I have tried it over the past twice and it grossed me out for some reason? So I would end up microwaving it and I just declared that I would always prefer my breakfast cereal hot.

But [enter] chia seeds and it somehow made my ONO much more refreshing and dessert like. Oh what difference chia seeds make!

With TJ Crunchy Almond Butter w/ Flax and SF Smuckers Blackberry Jam

-1/3 old fashioned oats

-1 cup of unsweetened almond milk

- one packet of stevia

-1/3 smashed banana

-1 tbsn chia seeds

stir AND store!

For the first time in a while, I got to eat my breakfast at home. The majority of the time, I eat my breakfast in my car on the way to school. Which takes me approx ~15 minutes

For the first time I ate with this cute little condiment spoon that I found at Crate and Barrell. I've been wanting one ever since I've seen Kath eat her breakfasts with it. ohhhh, I am a consumer-formist at worst.

But it made the process of eating breakfast much more enjoyable and slow ~25 to 30 minutes, the way it should be.

With hot smores coffeeeeee! yum

GLEE is on RIGHT NOW! but I am actually going to stop at WF's so I can buy Living Harvest's Hemp-Tempt Ice Cream, ha. I wait for SOOO LONG to watch Glee and when it finally airs I put it on halt to buy ice cream.

Speaking of ice cream......

Did you enter my CUISINART GIVEAWAY? there is plenty of time and chances to win!

What do you like to top on your oatmeal?

- I love any nut butter and pumpkin. If I could, I would top my oats with tons of chocolate, but excess sugar in the morning is bad for a girl like me. It involves a horrible sugar crash. I missed class one time because I had a carrot cake and crashed on the couch for FOUR HOURS! and I was still lethargic after. Perhaps that is a good thing? because that means I tend to stay away from it when I can.