Sunday

15, 7, 15

Fifteen pictures to show what I’ve been up to:

I’ve been drinking this new-to-me Coffee Milk I got from 7-Eleven.

It tasted like latte (surprise!)

I’ve been spending some money on cheap things that I can find in Taiwan only. From stationary to food items to clothes and shoes (thanks to night markets!).

Clockwise from top: pretty colored/patterned papers, 3 notebooks, 2 bottles of 5 grain tea, 2 packs of pocky sticks, an eraser, rubber bands, and some sticker labels. All this for about an equivalent of 10 U.S. Dollars

Yes yes, I could have easily gotten the erasers, the rubber bands, the notebooks, and the sticker labels in the U.S., but believe me, they are wayyy cheaper in Taiwan. I think the rubber bands found in Taiwan are more elastic and stronger too. And who doesn’t love notebooks with lovely patterns, but only a little more than $1 a piece?

Shoes ~$10

This dress and top combined was about $8.

Two tops ~15.

I'm obsessed with anything Stitch, so I knew I just HAD to get these stickers when I saw they were only about $1.50. Look at the size of them!

I’ve been spending some time in the bookstores and hauled 4 Mandarin books back. I like to read books in Mandarin from time to time to brush up my Mandarin.

Does anyone recognize the book on the bottom left? 😀   I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I bet the book is far better than the movie (like always).

The book included some pictures from the movie.

I’ve been having some baking mishaps. I mistakenly added lemon extract instead of vanilla extract into the brownie batter. Cut me some slack, ’cause these two bottles look exactly the same, and when you’re zoned out like I was, you wouldn’t have noticed either!

The brownies still turned out okay though!

I didn’t tell my friends about my little oopsies, so when one of my friends bit into one, she was like…”hmmm…there’s an interesting taste to this brownie…” 😛

I’ve been playing with my cat, despite her not wanting to pay any attention to me.

Lastly, but definitely most importantly, I’ve been goofing off with my friends.

~~~

This morning when I woke up, I got an email from the adorable Michal at Earth Muffin that I got a blogger award from her! This is my very first blogger award so you can probably imagine my excitement ;).

So, I’m supposed to share 7 things about myself. Hmmm….

Seven things about me:

1. I used to love steak and beef when I was little. But gradually, my taste bud for meat had subsided over the years, making the 2-year vegetarian that I am today :D.
2. The thing I miss most being a vegetarian is fish. That’s my weakness whenever I walk into a Japanese restaurant here, because they have the best grilled fish ever!
3. My dream house would consist of a large kitchen with lots of pantry space, a room made into my yoga sanctuary, and a little garden where I can grow my own herbs. And of course, there will be a dog and maybe even a cat.
4. I grew up with friends that I knew way back in either elementary of middle school, making us an inseparable bunch. Taipei American School goes from K-12, so once you’ve found your friends, you’re most likely to stick with them till you graduate.
5. I played varsity volleyball and varsity badminton in high school. Now don’t go smirking at the thought of “varsity” badminton! The average distance ran during a professional game is 4 miles, whereas tennis covers only 2 miles. The official smash record is 206 mph, set by a pair of Chinese doubles player (Tennis: 153 mph, set by Andy Roddick).
6. I used to hate milk as a kid, but I gradually took on the taste of low-fat milk or skim milk. I could never down a glass of full-fat milk, even today!
7. I can roll my tongue into lotus-flower shape.

Fifteen wonderful blogs that I pass this award to:

(in alphabetical order, because that’s only fair :))

• Amanda @ .seek.
• Ayla @ High on Healthy
• Gail @ The Sky Collector
• Chelsea @ One Healthy Munchkin
• Chelsey @ Clean Eating Chelsey
• Crystal @ Well Forward
• Jenny @ Moonwalk the Miles
• Kat @ Keep’n the Faith
• Katie @ Faith, Food, & Fitness
• Kaz @ The Art of Kaztronomy
• Lauren @ Whole Wheat or Bust
• Lisa @ I’m an Okie
• Megan @ The Oatmeal Diaries
• Sophia @ Burp and Slurp
• Wei-Wei @ ;yum

Hope you guys enjoyed that little tidbit about me :D.

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+ What’s one thing about you that people can’t tell by looking at you?

+ Have you ever had a baking mishap but still turned out okay?

Life without hummus and recent obsessions

I told y’all I’ll be back really soon! 😆  Anyways, on to my “regular” post!

While I very much enjoy Taiwanese food while at home, I sometimes do miss the various nut butters and hummus that can only be found back in the States. For example, while prepping my lunch today, I was really craving raw broccoli and carrots with hummus.

No hummus? Any peanut butter? Sadly, we just ran out as well.

What’s a girl to do when she obviously needs some dippage to go with her raw veggies? After scrummaging through the fridge, I decided on this:

Obsession # 1: Black Sesame and Honey Paste

It’s definitely not your regular nut butter, but it’s still nutritious, full of healthy fats, and most importantly, delicious! I usually spread this on bread, but I took the chance and dipped my raw broccoli and carrots in there. Verdict? Not bad. I’d still prefer to have hummus for my raw veggies though

So I may be craving for hummus, but the everyday eats here still makes me one happy gal! 😀

Obsession #2: Sweet Sop (sugar apple or custard apple)

This fruit is native to tropical Americas, India, and Pakistan. It’s believed to have been brought over to Taiwan by the Holland folks about 400 years ago.

[Sidenote: Taiwan was inhabited by Hollanders in the 1600s]

Sweet sop, as its name implies, is very sweet, very soft, and has a texture much like custard. Its seeds are huge (you see the black oval shaped stuff there?) and are scattered ubiquitously throughout the flesh of the fruit. Much like avocado, it becomes softer as it ripens. At its ripest and sweetest time, you can easily cut the fruit open and either (more lady-like) scoop out its flesh with a spoon or (more barbarian) attack the fruit with your teeth. It is definitely not a pretty fruit to eat. You are going to be spitting out on average 4-5 seeds with every bite you take. You’ll acquire a gooey, sugar substance around your mouth too.

Despite its messiness, it’s oh-so-good! I don’t think I’ve ever seen it in California. Anyone else seen it in stores/farmer’s market around where you live?

Obsession #3: Oats with salted egg

It’s savory, it’s filling, what’s not to like? This stuff is perfect to fill up my hangry tummy after my morning Ashtanga yoga classes (2 hours!!!). I simply cook 1/3 cup oats with 2/3 cup water (shamelessly in the microwave) and then add chopped/mashed salted eggs into the oats. Stir the goop up and call it a satiating meal…and it is! It’s been awhile since I’ve had this combo of grains+protein, so I’ve been having this for lunch almost everyday.

What about the high sodium content? Okay, not exactly the healthiest stats, but I justify by claiming that I need to replenish my salt storage in my body after sweating off a a gallon of fluid in my yoga class.

Obsession #4: Mr. Mark Bakery

This is, hands down, my favorite bakery, ever ever ever, on the face of this planet. It’s got dozens and dozens of different types of whole-grain bread and pastries, from plain to savory to sweet. This is where I get my Black Sesame and Honey Paste from. Some of their breads include:

• Sunflower seed multigrain toast
• Cream cheese bun
• Barley and oats toast
• Green tea with red beans (adzuki beans) toast
• Soy bean toast
• Sweet potato stuffing roll
• Chocolate and walnut loaf
• Cream cheese and red beans (adzuki) loaf
• Crispy rye multigrain toast
• Chocolate truffle roll
• Organic vegetables toast
• Walnut and cheddar cheese loaf

Let’s see what goodies I got recently, shall we?

First up, red beans (adzuki) with sweet cream multigrain bread.

Secondly, rye multigrain bread with red bean stuffing with white sesame seeds sprinkled on top (see the red bean trend here? :)).

Last but not least, Original Sugar-Free Multigrain toast.

I certainly didn’t waste time tasting these doughy breads? I quickly incorporated the toast into my breakfast the next morning.

Original Sugar-Free Multigrain toast, papaya, guava, and Black Sesame & Honey Paste

Look how thick the slice is! So doughy and so soft! I ate that toast with some Black Sesame paste. On the side I enjoyed some fresh papayas and guava.I bet you’ve never seen green guava before :).

Guavaaaa, whole fruit.

Papayas the size (or larger) than footballs!

Cut up papayas and guava

Obsession #5: Amanda’s Blissful Banana Bread

I couldn’t help but pull out my baker’s hat (no I don’t really own one) after seeing Amanda, then Jessica, rave about it. I had a serious itch to try it, and it’s also been ages since I’ve made myself some ‘nana bread.  I deserve it. 🙂

I substituted the spelt flour for whole wheat flour, Greek yogurt for regular yogurt, and maple syrup for honey. I also didn’t have ground flax seeds (omitted), and neither did I have coconut butter (replaced with vegetable oil). With all these modifications, I prayed that it would turn out alright. It did.

I couldn’t resist to sprinkle some muesli and some mini chocolate chips on top. Why, hello beautiful! 😀

I made these two days ago, and I had my last piece today while shopping and with an iced Starbucks latte. Truly b-l-i-s-s-f-u-l.

Obsession #6: Quaker’s Barley milk

Have I told you yet how much I love 7-eleven’s here in Taiwan? Yes! This is another one of my fabulous finds there!

Barley, barley loveee! 🙂

~~

I’m meeting up with an awesome and lovely lady tomorrow for the first time. I’ll be showing her around Taipei city, as this is her first time to Taiwan. I cannnnnn’t wait! I’ve never done “touristy” things here before, so I’m actually excited to hop from one tourist attraction to another tomorrow!

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+ If you live in a big city or near tourist attractions, do you do “touristy” things?

+ Current obsessions?

+ Make sure to check out my guest post here!

Baking Galore

It’s really nice to be at home, not only because I won’t have to take as much care of myself (:mrgreen:), I can go to bed at whatever hour that pleases me, which is in my case, 10 pm. I find that 10pm-6am is the optimal hours of sleep for me, as I feel the most rested if I sleep at these hours. Any other hours, 11pm-7am, midnight-8am, or 9pm-5am, won’t do. Although they are all full 8 hours, for some reason my body seems to like 10pm-6am the most.

Tea eggs. Your typical hard-boiled eggs which are then let simmered in a pot full of spices, soy sauce, and black tea leaves.

According to Ayurveda, each person has his/her own optimal sleep hours. Being a kapha myself, my optimal sleep hours are, well whaddya know, 10pm-6am. While others may benefit more by sleeping later and waking up later, this is what is right for me.

+ Do you have “optimal sleeping hours”?

The "marbled" stripes come from the intentional cracks in the eggs when they are marinating in the spiced fluid for the flavors to seep in.

And of course, home, Taiwan, means glorious food.

Can you believe you can get this delicacy at our local 7-eleven? True story.

A plate of goodies.

Mixed variety of sea kelp salad with Japanese sesame dressing.

Cold bamboo shoots.

Chinese-style cucumber salad with garlic.

And let’s not forget that I can bake, bake, and bake!

~~~

WARNING: The following contents may not be suitable for readers who are prone to excessive drooling, munchie attacks, or addiction to sweets.

Baking #1: Simple Biscotti

Biscotti (pronounced /bɪˈskɒti/, Italian pronunciation: [bisˈkɔtti]) more correctly known as biscotti del PratoEnglish: biscuits of Prato), also known as cantuccini (English: corners), are a twice-baked cake originating in the Italian city of Prato. The cakes are large almond biscuits, made dry and crunchy through cutting the loaf of dough while still hot and fresh from baking in the oven. [Source: Wikipedia]

• 65 g (~5 Tbsp) Dark brown sugar
• 70 g (~5 Tbsp) Light brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 30 g (~2 Tbsp) butter
• 2 tsp Brandy (or other similar liquor)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 360 g (~3 cups) All-purpose flour
• 2 g (~1/2 tsp) baking powder
• 2 g (~1/2 tsp) baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 160 g (~2/3 cup )mixed unsalted nuts

Preheat the oven to 320 degrees. Using electric mixer, whisk together the eggs and sugars for about 2 minutes until slightly goopy.

Add melted butter, the brandy, and vanilla extract. Mix thoroughly.

Sift together (optional, but makes for finer powder) flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into the egg mixture. Mix till just combined.

Then mix in the nuts.

Now comes the sticky part. Put a good amount of flour on your hands and on a flat surface. Transfer half the dough out onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and shape into a long, flat rectangular (less than half an inch in height). If your oven and baking sheet are big enough, you can put the other half onto the sheet as well.

Bake at 320 degrees for 20 minutes. The results will be bread-like.

When cool enough, cut the “bread” into about half an inch thickness.

Lay them down on a side. They can be touching each other since they won’t rise anymore. Bake that side at 284 degrees for 10 minutes. Flip to the other side and bake another 10 minutes. Finally, stand them up (as pictured below) and bake for 10 minutes.

These are surprisingly crunchy biscuits–perfect for a light snack or afternoon tea!

Baking #2: Brownies
Adapted from Let’s Dish

• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup (or more!) walnuts (optional)

I actually doubled this recipe because I was making it for a large crowd.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9-inch square baking pan (or line with parchment paper). Mix together flour, cocoa, and salt in a large mixing bowl.

Melt the butter in a sauce pan at low heat, stirring occasionally and making sure the butter doesn’t bubble or overheat. Remove from heat.

Stir in the sugar and vanilla into the melted butter, then quickly whisk in the eggs one at a time.

Pour the butter mixture into the dry mixture. Stir till just combined. If adding nuts, add them in just before everything is well combined, then mix till combined.

Pour batter into prepared pans and bake for 25-30 minutes.

You should probably test for doneness at about 20 minutes. Use the toothpick test. The brownie is probably done if the toothpick comes out almost clean, but not quite. Here’s the trick to brownies. If you wait till the toothpick comes out clean, the brownie will become slightly too dry when cooled. It’s better if the inside is still a little gooey so that it becomes the perfect degree of moistness and fudginess when cooled. 😀

~~~

Alot of you seemed to be slightly surprised/confused about the Matcha shaved ice with sweet adzuki beans in my last post.

Matcha is a finely-milled powder used to make Japanese green tea. It has a more intense flavor than your average green tea. Besides making tea, the matcha powder is also widely used in desserts in East Asian cuisines (ice cream, candies, lattes, milkshakes, smoothies, cakes, pudding, mousse, etc, etc, etc!). Matcha also has 137 times the amount of antioxidants than your average green tea.

Matcha in powder form and tea form

Matcha martini!

Matcha truffles

Matcha and sweet adzuki bean Swiss roll

Adzuki beans are commonly slightly sweetened in the East Asian culture, and also often incorporated into desserts (thick jelly, ice cream, candies, red bean soup, and as a complement to the slightly bitter matcha). Sometimes they are boiled with sugar to result in a sweet red bean paste, which is often used as fillings in biscuits, pastries, and baked buns.

raw Adzuki beans

Go figure. Adzuki Kit-Kat!

Adzuki paste for pancake fillings

Matcha ice cream with sweet adzuki beans

Speaking of matcha and adzuki beans, I may or may not have a baking endeavor involving these two in the near future. Stay posted! 😀

Muesli Chocolate Chip Cookies

Back in the days when I was still a little kid (how I wish I could turn back time!), I would go to this one summer camp year after year. Like any summer camps, we had our camp songs that we would sing near and dear to our hearts. I remember so clearly that Tuesdays and Thursdays were Pool Days, meaning we got to go on the school bus and go on a field trip to the swimming pool! On those days, we would sing this song:

Swimming, swimming, in the swimming pool
The day is hot, the day is cold, in the swimming pool!
Breath stroke, side stroke, fancy diving too
But don’t you wish you can have, anything else to do!

This morning, I did just that! I went swimming at the pool in our community. And by swimming, i didn’t mean your splish-splash type, but swimming laps. It’s a great total-body workout!

[picture]

I did about 35 min of alternating free-style and breath strokes.

True story: I used to be deathly scared of water when I was little. I took my first swimming lesson when I was 6 or so. I accidentally swallowed and choked on lots of water, and refused to take another swimming lesson from then on. Finally during 3rd grade, we were required to take some sort of swimming lesson for our P.E. class. I had no choice but to face my fears as I, once again, tackled to put my head under water. I realized during that first class that I liked swimming. It felt so calm and serene under the water, and I loved the way that I could float around like I was in outer space.

+ What was a fear that you had as a kid, but had to face eventually?

After much bumming around in the house these past few days, I finally got to meet up with one of my high school friends today! For lunch, I requested we go to another vegetarian restaurant.

The restaurant was located at the entrance/exit of a trail–just perfect for hungry hikers! But alas, we didn’t go hiking today (toooooooooo hot!), but I was still hangry from my swim in the morning!

Entrance/exit of a trail and to the restaurant.

Herb garden right outside the restaurant.

The tables in the restaurant were filled with sand, rocks, and shells.

For starter, we had a small salad with passionfruit dressing and pumpkin soup. Both are to die for!!! And I’m not even close to exaggerating.

Salad with passionfruit dressing.

Really really good pumpkin soup.

For my main course, I had Pumpkin Rice Noodles (very tasty!) that was loaded with mushrooms and veggies.

Pumpkin rice noodles

While my friend S got the Mushroom Risotto. Last time I was here I got this dish too, and it was the best risotto I’ve had. Ever. (Sorry for the blurry pic)

Mushroom risotto

The meal was followed by a light dessert, Lavendar Tea Jello, and iced tea with an apple slice!

Lavender Tea Jello with cream.

Lightly sweetened iced tea with apple slice.

I only managed to finish half of my  noodles, so I asked the waitress to pack it to-go for me, thinking that it’d make a yummy lunch another day. Ugh, and now I can’t believe I actually forgot it there! 😦

The heat made us want to hide in cold, air-conditioned buildings. What better ways to satisfy our needs to be cooled than hiding in a dark and chilly movie theater? Off we went to see some booty-kickin’ Angelina Jolie.

Like always, she totally rocked her role, and I was absolutely diggin’ her in the black hair!

We killed time at a mini arcade while waiting for the movie. S is the master of the master of these claw machines. I kid you not!

The results? Pacman and his little jellyfish friend. Actually, S managed to get me two jellyfishies 😀

~~

Okay, so here’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for–the recipe for the cookies I made yesterday.

Muesli Chocolate Chip Cookies

Wet

• 1 cup Muesli
• 1/2 whole wheat flour
• 3-4 Tbsp chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Dry

• 1 egg
• 3 Tbsp peanut butter
• 1/4 cup (or less) honey
• 1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 340 degrees. Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly.

Then, in a separate bowl, combine all the wet ingredients and blend.

Add the dry to the wet and mix with spatula till only combined.

Drop by tablespoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet or lined with parchment paper, about 1 inch apart (they don’t rise much). Bake for 10-12 minutes.

These cookies are moist and chewy! One bite equals a chockful of grainy touch from the muesli!

Not enough salivating cues from this post? I leave you with this:

Matcha fluffy-shaved ice with sweet adzuki beans! The shaved ice has a melt-in-your-mouth texture. Enjoy!

All the time in the world

Hello friends! It’s been some seriously sweaty and hot two days, but I am still here, not dried out or wilted. I make sure to hydrate myself (I’ve had about 2.5 liters of water already in the past 4 hours!).

I’ve been doing alot of just moseying around, bumming, and reading (blogs and books alike). I gotta admit, I like having all the time in the world to read blogs. I don’t feel pressured, I can actually read them (instead of sprinting my eyes through lines), make thoughtful comments, and truly absorb what I read.

If only blog surfing/reading/commenting was a paid full-time job…I’m sure we’ll all be making a beeline for the interview.

With all the time in the world, I can dig around in our fridge and scrounge up some grubs for lunch.

salted eggs

These salted eggs are by no means healthy, because of the high sodium content, but they are a source of protein.

I scooped out half the egg, chopped them, and piled them on top of a piece of rye bread with cheese and avocado.

It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t divine either. I think the salted egg overpowered everything else, namely the avocado.

On the side I enjoyed some steamed cauliflower and leftover Chinese purple veggies.

See the purple juice?

Anyone care for some smoked peppered ham?

No I didn’t become a meat-eater since the last post! I am honestly still vegetarian…unless you count eating gelatin making me non-vegetarian. Taiwan makes the best imitation meat…so real that it fooled my cat on several accounts! I know these are highly-processed, so I try to limit my consumption of these imitation meat.

Since I have all the time in the world, I did a little baking.

I told Lauren that these Peanut Butter Crunch Muffins would be the first thing I’ll bake when I get home to Taiwan. I followed her recipe, but sprinkled some muesli on top for aesthetic purpose and some extra crunch. These were good, but could definitely up the amoung of PB! I love uber rich PB cookies or muffins! 😀

I also made some cookies, recipe by yours truly! This is the very first cookie recipe I’ve come up myself, and they sort of remind me of Supercharge-Me Cookies. Perhaps I had those in mind when I was creating this recipe for Muesli Cookies.

Recipe to come tomorrow!

Continuing on with these sweet notes, I’d like to share some items commonly found in bakeries here in Taiwan.

Doughy bread stuffed with sweet buttery crumbs in the middle. Again, these are in no way healthy, but oh-so-delicious!

I may have all the time in the world, but I still don’t want to clean up somebody’s mess!

My mom and I went out yesterday morning for a yoga class, leaving my dad and my little sis at home. We were gone for a maximum of 4 hours, and then I came home to a house full of trash and half-eaten food left out.

Um..okay. Who leaves a finished container of pudding in the fridge?

This is something only my little sister would do–leaving containers, juice boxes, soda cans, etc that have been eaten clean in the fridge. Sometimes I feel like my mom and I are the only adults in the house, and my dad and my sister are the immature kids. Is there anyone in your family who’s like my sister?

Anyhooz, I saw this on one of my yoga teachers Facebook yesterday and was totally captured by the wisdom of it.

Do you agree/disagree with any of these observations?

Alright, I’m off to do some more reading, snacking, watching TV! Life is good 😀

Eggs, that’s what for lunch and dinner

The banana pancakes this morning kept me full for 4 full hours! It must be the combination of bananas plus whole grains and some protein! Definitely a keeper of a recipe.

As if we didn’t get enough eggs last night, the star of my lunch today were…eggs.

I used Allie’s method of cooking her eggs, and by golly, they indeed turned out beautiful! How shameful of me to cover them in nooch before I took a picture to do them justice. 😐

The eggs were on a bed of spinach and arugula, with some sugar snap peas, red pepper, roasted eggplants, and roasted sweet potatoes on the side. Can’t have roasted sweet potatoes without the ketchup!

I don’t know what took me so long to try date + nut butter, but it totally blew me away when I popped this bite-sized dessert in my mouth!

Love affair of date and crunchy almond butter.

Like what any normal person would do on a lovely Sunday afternoon, we window-shopped at this beautiful outdoor mall called Victoria Gardens in the P.M.

“Cinderelly, Cinderelly
Night and day it’s Cinderelly…”

I guess my legs were a bit tired and sore from the long-a$$ bike ride yesterday, so we came home for some splashing in the pool. While we were in the jacuzzi (hot tub) to end our splashing session, these two little girls (3 and 7 maybe?) joined us. At first I was playing with them, so I cupped my hands to get some foam and blew it at them. You know, for fun. They returned the foam blowing. At first it was just friendly and fun, and then they started to get violent! They’d put the foam on my head and pat my head, hard. They also splashed me in my face with the warm water :(. Now that’s not cool. I know, I know, they’re just kids, and I do love playing with kids. But sometimes they need to know when they’re stepping out of the line!

I had been planning to make this dinner ever since I saw it on Tina’s blog a few days ago. The Tortilla-Crusted Feta and Broccoli Quiche becomes the Tortilla-Crusted Feta and Spinach Quiche.

• 3 La Tortilla Low-Carb tortillas
• 1 cup spinach
• 1/2 white onion
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• 1/2 cup feta
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• salt & pepper

But first, the onion broke my fragile little heart. It laughed at me as I shed tears and cursed at it.

Well, I’m a tough girl so for my sweet revenge I sauteed it with some mushrooms in a little olive oil. I added the spinach to block out its glistening, golden eyes. I dumped everything onto the “crust” that was simply 3 layers of tortillas, and buried the onion deeper with the feta cheese.

pre-baked, without egg + yogurt mixture

I mixed the 2 eggs plus the yogurt in a bowl and whisked till well incorporated. I poured the egg mixture over everything.

Baked for about 40 min (instead of 30) because it was watery!

I put the okras that I got on Thursday to use. I usually eat them steamed with some soy sauce, but this time I decided to roast them. It was a good plan 😀

A wholesome meal!

Oh onions, why must you cry and turn the crust soggy? Well, I believe the yogurt was his accomplice too. See, I used plain yogurt which contained more water than your regular greek yogurt. Gosh darn it, I should have strained the plain yogurt first!

Well, I think I’m off to go relax and snuggle up with this cinnamon roll (or here)  that was just fresh out of the oven! Mmm..the smell of heaven…:D

Now go and enjoy your Sunday evening!

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+ What are you favorite shops at the mall?

Versatile peaches

Peaches and nectarines are summer.

Not only are they delicious and sweet, a medium-sized peach contains 2 grams of dietary fiber, and are are also a good source of vitamin B3 (helps reduce high levels of cholesterol in the blood), potassium, and vitamin C.

Did you know that peaches are of Chinese origin? Illustrations of peaches have been found as far back as 10th century B.C. in China. Apparently the Chinese have also developed a number of races of peaches. [Source]

The peach got its name around 300 B.C., because a Greek philosopher thought the beautiful fruit came from Persia.

The English name is derived from the Latin word Persicum malum, which translates into “Persian apple.” [Source]

It is a negative-calorie food, meaning, you burn more calories by eating and digesting it than the actual amount of calories contained in this fruit (about 60 calories).

Today, I discovered a beautiful way of incorporating peaches into my three meals.

I started out with Peaches ‘n’ Cream for breakfast.

Toasted up a Cinnamon spice Alternative Bagel, nuked half a peach (the other half went to my lunch!) with cinnamon, and topped the other half of the bagel with “cream” (plain nonfat yogurt strained to make it creamier).Of course everything was sprinkled with cinnamon.

I decided to top my leftover yogurt with cherry, just because it makes it look more “dessert-like”! 😀

A beautiful tower of peaches ‘n’ cream!

The main character for lunch today again is…peach!

My research advisor went to Hawaii for 6 days to spend his wedding anniversary/July 4th weekend there. I know right, Hawaii!!! So jealous!

Anyways, he was kind enough to bring back some gifts 🙂

Passionfruit-Mango goodness in a jar! When I opened it I was immediately attacked by the sweet-smelling aroma of passionfruit and mango! They are not kidding when they said passion-mango butter!

I slathered a thin layer onto one half of a sandwich thin, and topped the other half with microwaved peaches (spiked with cinnamon), and brie!

Glossy peaches!

Oh my word, I cannot tell you how good this sandwich was. Again like my apple-sweet potato-brie sandwich from yesterday, I was savoring every single bite.

note to self: buy more peaches for next week

Today was by far the longest and slowest day in lab. I was so sure that Time just jumped into a pool of jello or something, and was just swimming along a little too slowly. Good thing I had this bright pink shirt to cheer me up a lil today.

When 5 o’clock eventually came around the corner, my lab mate and I stumbled into my car and hit the road for a Potluck Party and our lab manager’s house.

I made 3 batches of these flourless peanut butter cookies, with crunchy peanut butter!

I think I like ’em crunchy than smooth! 🙂

Well, the forgetful part of me left my camera at home, thus the lack of pictures of all the gourmet food we had:

• Spinach salad with peaches, walnuts, cranberries, feta tossed in olive oil
• Enchiladas!
• Lasagne
• Pasta salad
• Watermelon!
• Brownies
• Chocolate chip cookies
• homemade Snickerdoodles
• Chips & guac
• Homemade ice cream
• Homemade Dark Chocolate truffles (sooooo good!)
• Ravioli
• Cheesecakes
• Other stuff that include meat that I can’t eat

See? Told ya I had peaches x 3 today! The dark chocolate truffle was seriously AHHHmazing! I need to ask for that recipe fo’ sho! Or raid his room tomorrow…haha. The guy who made this said he still had 16 or so in his dorm room. I really wanted some homemade ice cream too, but I was too full by the time the professor who brought it showed up. It looked delish!

Tomorrow’s a Friday! And the end of my 8th week of research (out of 10). In less than 3 weeks I’ll be heading back home to Taiwan! Woot woot 😀

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+ Do you like crunchy or creamy peanut butter more?

Lack of inspiration

I’m experiencing one of those days when I just have no inspiration whatsoever for my blog, which I’m sure you’ve all had encountered at least once during your bloghood. BUT! Yes, there’s always a BUT! I do have alot of inspirational eats to share! If you guys don’t mind, it’s gonna be a short post with plenty of pictures and some captions 😀

I’ve noticed that my posts have been lacking in the dinner and other eats department…

How about some big-mouth burger?

Piled high with a Gardenburger Sundried Tomato Basil veggie burger, sauteed onions and mushrooms, sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, and lots of arugula. All between a whole-wheat sandwich thin! You gotta agree with me that the Sandwich thins are by far the best invention in the foodie world! While I love sandwiches and burgers, I don’t like having too much dough in the pile.

One thing I know for sure is that my version of the big-mouth burger is a whole lot better and healthier than this:

One flimsy piece of lettuce and a thin slice of tomato and call that fresh veggies? I think the grease/carbs/meat-to-veggie ratio is something on the order of 6 to 1. Yuck.

Speaking of healthified, here’s a healthified creamed spinach!

This simple recipe came from The Vegetarian 5-Ingredient Gourmet, which merely called for some silken tofu, spinach, a teensy butter, salt & pepper. I added some nutritional yeast for some cheesy flava!

Served alongside some roasted sweet potato doused with cinnamon! Mm-mmm! 🙂

What else can you play around with roasted sweet potato moons? In a sandwich of course!

Again, on a sandwich thin with brie cheese, sliced apples, and leftover roasted sweet potato. Oh man, this made a gourmet lunch! I heated this thing up for 30 secs in the microwave at work today so that the cheese was slightly melty and the apple slices were warm. Sooooo good! I was so sad when I finished my sandwich, even though I ate as slow as possible to savor it 😦

I’ve been wanting to make these oatmeal pancakes made with egg whites for some time now. I finally got the courage to spend a little extra money on grocery this week to buy a carton of egg whites (I hate wasting egg yolks!).

I’d have to admit, I was a little skeptical about the recipe at first. Oatmeal + egg whites + baking powder = pancakes???? Well, I got totally kicked in the butt by this recipe when my perfect pancakes were born.

Made myself a Chocolate PB2 + J pancake sandwich! The pancakes were sooo chewy! Love the texture too! 🙂

My pancake mix:

• 1/2 cup oatmeal
• 1/2 cup egg whites
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• dash of sweetener
• cinnamon
• vanilla extract

Yum yum yummidy yumyumyum!

Dinner today was quick and easy–literally from kitchen to table in 15 minutes or less! All thanks to this yummy find from Trader Joe’s.

All I did was pop it into the microwave for 4.5 minutes, and the spicy aroma was filling my kitchen! I served this along with TJ’s Whole Wheat Couscous, which was conveniently cooked in the microwave as well!

For the couscous:

• 1 cup couscous
• 1/2 cup veggie broth
• 1/2 cup apple juice
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1 tbsp curry powder

Microwaved for 3 minutes, fluffed it up, then added some more apple juice, curry powder, and about a tablespoon of honey. I also threw in half a chopped tomato. I almost added some red chili powder, but thank goodness I didn’t!

Because the Channa Marsala was spicy already!

Oh boy oh boy! This was surprisingly DELICIOUS! The couscous that I made up on a whim paired perfectly with the spicy channa marsala (also had a hint of sweetness). I served the couscous and channa marsala on top of a bed of romaine lettuce. Initially, it was just for aesthetic appeal, but my first bite of the meal told me otherwise.

The cool, crispy, and refreshing lettuce contrasted perfectly with the hot ‘n’ spicy channa marsala! With every bite I had a cooling crunch, a grainy delight, and an excitingly hot flavor!

Definitely repeating this dinner!

Now I’m off to bake 3 batches of cookies for tomorrow’s Biology Department Potluck. 😀

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+ What’s your favorite Indian dish?

Cheesecake and Wasabi

Don’t worry, I’m not that crazy as putting the both together!

Like I promised from yesterday’s post, I will be revealing what I baked yesterday!

Japanese-style Light Cheesecake

The main difference between this light cheesecake and your regular New York style Cheesecyake is that this version is lighter, fluffier, with a melt-in-mouth texture. This is achieved by beating the heck out of the egg whites (till soft peak forms), then folding that egg white mixture into your yolk mixture. This cheesecake also usually doesn’t come with a crust, and utilizes milk instead of whipping cream.

It’s a popular cake in Taiwan and other East Asian countries since it’s not as heavy and doesn’t make you feel “weighed down” after eating a slice. I promise you can still taste the cream cheese though! My boyfriend, a cheesecake fanatic, has given his approval. 😀

The recipe is adapted from a Taiwanese blog, so I’ll be your translator for tonight!

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JAPANESE-STYLE LIGHT CHEESECAKE

Makes 4 6-inch, 2 8-inch, or one 9-inch round springform pans.

First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Yolk mixture:

• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1/2 cup milk, room temperature
• 50 g butter (1/4 cup)
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 6 yolks, room temperature
• 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp cake flour (or all-purpose flour if you don’t have any)
• 1/4 cup corn starch
• 1/8 tsp salt

In a medium saucepan, heat the butter, milk, and cream cheese at low heat till melted. Remove from stove and let it cool and sit while you prepare the other materials.

In a separate bowl, sift together flour, cornstarch, and salt. Add the yolks, 2 at a time, stirring and mixing in between each addition. Add the lemon juice when all the yolk is incorporated into the flour mixture.

Pour the cream cheese mixture in. Make sure that it has cooled enough so that it doesn’t cook the egg yolk! Blend with electric mixer till smooth and no chunks can be seen.

Egg white mixture:

• 6 egg whites, room temperature
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 3/4-1 cup granulated sugar

Combine the egg whites and cream of tartar in a separate, clean bowl. This is very important! If there’s any yolk residues or water mixed in with the egg whites, the egg whites won’t fluff up!

With a clean mixer, blend and whip the thing till bubbly.

Add the sugar in 3-4 parts, beating and whipping till soft peak forms.

Now stir the egg whites mixture in 3 parts into the yolk mixture, stirring quickly and lightly in between to combine.

Wrap your springform pans with aluminum foil to prevent water from leaking in.

Line the pan with parchment paper (you can cut out the shapes), then pour the mixture in. Drop the pan a few times from half foot a one foot up onto the table to get rid of the excess air trapped inside the mixture.

Fill a shallow baking pan halfway with water and submerge the cake pan into the water. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, then lower heat to 300 degrees and bake for another hour. During this hour, make sure to open the oven door every 10 minutes or so to let out some heat and prevent the cake from cracking!

If the top is browning too much during the baking process, you can cover the top with aluminum foil.

When done baking, let cool for a few minutes. Release the springform and peel off the parchment paper. When completely cool, let sit in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, or overnight.

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I tried the cake 2-hr after and the morning after. They taste sooo different! The 2-hr after cake was definitely more spongey, airy, and had more of that melt-in-your-mouth texture. The cake the morning after is slightly denser, but still velvety! I love both kinds of flavors and textures!

Obviously I didn’t know how to follow instructions and poured in the hot cream cheese mixture into my yolk mixture way too soon. Specks of yellow = cooked eggs 😦

Does anyone have any idea how to get rid of the flashlight spots? I use a digital SLR.

Between the two of us (Dmitri and I) in the last 24 hours (although he ate most of it..haha). Owning and still going!!!

I also tackled this guy today:

Wasabi peas!

We’ve been having this long and ongoing conversation about wasabi peas in the lab since the start of summer (you can tell we talk about food all the time in my lab, probably more than we talk about science ;-)). I suggested that we keep a couple of bags of those so that we can stuff them into our mouths whenever we need a sinus-clearing wake-up call (or for the purpose of a congested sinus if you will).

So finally this past weekend my research advisor stopped by an Asian market (99 ranch) and got the wasabi peas, Taiwan brand! I stuffed all 10 or so of those little peas pictured in my hand into my mouth all at once…

I had forgotten how tear-jerking, sinus-clearing those were.

I ate one or at most two at once for the remainder of the day.

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+ Are you a fan of wasabi? Love that stuff! I like to mix alot of it into my soy sauce for some sushi-dippage!