Wacky Wednesday

Guess what?! I got bitten by a vampire in the morning!

Did that get your attention? No..ah darn it..gotta come up with a better one next time.
Okay, I had my blood drawn and some other physical tests this morning, which means I had to be fasted starting midnight (no food, no drink and that includes water). The person who drew my blood might be her first day doing it. She poked my arm at the middle part, which I clearly knew that wasn’t the right place. I sort of told her that it should be the one a bit on the side. Well what she said? She said that my vein was really deceiving and poked at the place that I told her. DOH!

The weather was really cold/cloudy and rainy! We’re in May, aren’t we supposed to have sunny and a bit warmer weather?

on our way to grocery store

Don’t get me wrong…I do actually enjoy this kind of weather (and right after I said it out loud, the sky cleared up and the sun came out. Grr..just can’t see me enjoying something huh??)

I had a super late breakfast: coconut pancake, braised coconut shredded chicken and sliced of whole avocado.

I made this coconut pancake after seeing the recipe on Nom Nom Paleo. Actually it was her husband’s, Fitbomb, who came up with this. I didn’t remember exactly what he put in his, but roughly my coconut pancake had:
3 eggs
1/4 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup shredded coconut
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

I fried them with 2 Tbsp coconut oil on medium heat.

The pancake was on the bland side (I purposely did it that way since I don’t want it to be sweet anyway), but it was on a drier side. After checking back the original recipe, I figured I forgot to add at least 1 Tbsp of fat (butter or coconut oil). DOH! Well, I still finished it and saved the other one for a snack.

I couldn’t have enough of yucca root fries,  so I made another batch, which also the last batch.

Because of those, I didn’t really have a proper lunch. Pretty much I polished off the entire plate throughout the day. Even as my post workout meal.

Had some strawberries, which I made a little effort to cut off part of the stems away. Usually, I just pluck the leaves and left the stems and I am not embarrassed to admit that I just swallow the entire strawberries including the stems.

I was so happy when these babies finally arrived!!

Red Boat Fish sauce, a Paleo approved fish sauce! No sugar added, no chemical, no gluten, no gimmicks! Just anchovies and sea salt, that’s it! Authentic from Vietnam and I can’t wait to add these into some of my cooking or use it as a dip! Woot!! Big thanks to Nom Nom Paleo who spread out the word of this item gem.

So finally I got a chance to cook the white perch fishes that I got 2 days ago. As I mentioned, when the fish is fresh, just need to salt them a bit then pan fry them and enjoy it!

Served with a dipping sauce (mixture of juice of 1 lemon with 3 tsp of Red Boat fish sauce). YUM!

Red Boat fish sauce tastes very differently from other fish sauces that I’ve had before. It’s not as fishy and salty. It’s just perfect! I’m pretty sure it’ll be wonderful as part of marinate as well!

I’m still pretty full to have a dinner (blame it all to the morning fasting that threw my eating schedule to a whack!), but these fishes and the dipping sauce surely tempt me….A LOT!

I’m still in my Desperate Housewives marathon, but don’t get me wrong. Although I still spend quite sometime in front of my computer, 80% of the time I’m sitting on my stability ball. How’s that not a great core workout?

Have a great evening everyone!

**UPDATE**
Ok I just had my very light dinner although I wasn’t hungry but I rather eat something now rather being starving later midnight. Btw, Kath is having her first blog giveaway! Go visit the post to learn more how to win $30 Amazon.com voucher!

 

Finally…

Happy Friday everyone! How’s everything? Any plans for weekend?

I will be hanging out with my college friends tomorrow for lunch and maybe bowling. I haven’t seen them for couple months because of some family matters. Anyway, I’m glad I finally can see them again.

Btw I FINALLY got my car’s bumper fixed! After shelling out $500 for deductible, I’ll just wait for the insurance to jack up my policy at my next renewal.

Tomorrow morning I’ll bring my car for 40k service – it’s been overdue! Heesh…I just wanna get the car thing outta my way.

Ok let’s go to the fun stuff.

I took a half day off from work today for an appointment. That didn’t take too long so I figured I wanted to stop by Sprouts Farmers Market — FINALLY!

I’ve heard this market before but I’ve never got a chance to check it out. There’s no Sprouts Farmers Market nearby my neighborhood area and today I decided to go to this one which I’d say kind of close by where I was today. Even that, the drive was waaay out of my usual route.

Anyway, my first impression: It’s like a Whole Foods with Trader Joe’s price The place is clean and their produce look very fresh! They also have a bulk bins of nuts, rice, flaxseeds etc. Their staff are pretty helpful. Earlier I saw their Organic fuji apples were not stocked and asked whether they still had them in stock. They happily went to the back to check and minutes later they told me they already restocked the shelf. Woot!

C’mon, when was the last time I could get Organic Fuji Apples for 88 cents/lbs?

These babies ARE HUGE too and they aren’t bad looking either! I restrained myself not to get too many or I’d blow off this month’s grocery budget.

48oz 100% Raw Unrefined Honey for less than $10.00? I’ll take that!

5lbs Organic carrots for $4.49? Sure, bring it here!

88 cents/lbs red seedless grapes. I immediately grabbed 2 bags of those!

For some reason, I COULDN’T FIND ANY full fat Greek yogurt, so I figured I’ll try these 2 brands.

For organic pricing, Sprouts Farmers Market has won my heart. However, since it’s located far from where I live, I don’t think I’ll make it part of my weekly grocery trip. Maybe monthly. It’s a different story if they start to open nearby my neighborhood place though.

Btw yesterday was the actual Chinese New Year (or Lunar New Year) and my workplace provided some kind of Chinese sweets for all the employees (geez I was hoping they’d give out the “red pocket” aka bonus)

Obviously I didn’t touch any of those sweets, not my favorite so no worth cheating.

But I scored this Loose Leaf Green Tea from one of the gift basket from our vendor!

And no Chinese New Year meal would be complete without NOODLES!

Noodles symbolize long life in Chinese, so during special occasions (birthday, new year etc) it’s good to have noodle dish. Simple dinner yet very filling and yummy Do you notice the ground pork dish? It’s the same ground pork that I used for the dumplings.

Just stir fry, added some veggies – voila – another dish!

And FINALLY, I made my OWN Coconut Butter – Thanks Katie for posting it!

It is SUPER SIMPLE!

Homemade Coconut Butter (from Chocolate Covered Katie)

Ingredients:
1 package of unsweetened coconut flakes (I used Let’s Do Organic) – I got those from Amazon.com – 12 packs of 7oz.  for $21!

Directions:
Blend unsweetened coconut flakes in your food processor and blender until it clumps up together- like this!

Be patient..just like nut butters, take a little a while sometimes..depending on your blender/food processor

Homemade Coconut Butter!

Any favorite grocery stores that you always go to?
I usually go to ethnic market rather than Vons, Albertsons, Ralphs etc. Since most of my dishes are Asian, I usually shop at Chinese market for veggies. For meat and other stuff, Superking Market, a Mediterranean-Mexican is one of my favorite as well and I blogged about it before here.
I very rarely shop at Trader Joe’s and never shop at Whole Foods (sorry for TJ and WF shoppers – no offense). For me, Whole Foods is like a rip off. Sure they have organic guarantee stuff, but I am not willing to spend my whole paycheck on it.

 

Happy New Year- Welcome to the year of Rabbit!

What?? Another New Year? Thought we just celebrated it not too long ago.

No, actually it’s Chinese New Year (Lunar New Year) and this year will be the year of Rabbit.

Unlike Western new Year, Chinese New Year follows Lunar Calendar, which I am not quite familiar with it either. Just look at wiki for more info – I’m lazy in that way haha.

Anyway, Chinese has their own 12 Zodiac signs which will be rotated every 12 years. Chinese zodiac signs are different from Western ones. The signs are (in this order): Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig.

Ok enough with the blabbing, let’s move on to the fun part: PICTURES!

On Saturday, I had a lunch with one of my former colleague at Tasty Garden in Monterey Park.
I blogged a bit about Tasty Garden before at another location in Alhambra. Unlike that one, the Monterey Park one is bigger and has more stylish interior. And of course the food might be slightly more expensive.



I know I won’t be able to really stick to Primal while eating out (can’t control the sugar/soy sauce/hydrogenated veg oil etc) but I tried my best.

House Special chicken - I mainly finished this (without the sauce)

Beef rib dish - K ordered this and I had some bites

My friend ordered this and for sure this one was totally off limit. I only nibbled a bit on the walnuts.

I can't miss this one! One of my favorite appetizer dish. Gluten is not primal but I don't care. Besides I don't have GI issues w/ gluten. I already avoid it enough so just a day of small bites won't hurt.

I LOVED our table! It’s right next to the big window = natural lightning = gorgeous food pics! Good thing my friend was ok with me taking food pic without calling me a weirdo.
Went to in-law’s place for dinner and sis in law mentioned there was some kind of Chinese New Year celebration in Monterey Park and it was free so we swung by. Lots of pics ahead!

cute hats!

Seriously? The place wasn't that big...

Some Chinese wisdom proverbs? I don't read Chinese..just guessing

lots of food stands

They were trying to sell the FILM SLR cameras

Ooooh kettle corn!! Smells so heavenly! Too bad I couldn't have it...always got sore throat after consuming those...too addicting!

cute chinese outfits!

those are for the dogs

this was the longest line- for the stinky tofu!

hmm maybe K might need this so I can finally ditch my earplugs?? LOL

raffle for free LCD TV

snacked on the last choco balls that I made a while back

Dinner!

Desserts!

Couldn't resist these!! Fruit tarts! - Limit myself only 1. Enough gluten & sugar in one day..lol.

Taro cake anyone? I didn't have any.

Sunday I did lots of cooking but that’ll be a separate entry…it’ll be another recipe post

Btw on Tuesday we went to in-laws place again for dinner to celebrate Chinese New Year. The actual date is Feb 3, 2011 but according to K, in Teo Chow tradition (my in laws), they celebrate Chinese New Year 2 days before the actual day. That’s new to me. In my family, we celebrate it on the actual day. Some of my Buddhist relatives celebrate it on the New Year’s Eve because on the actual day, they are vegetarian.

We had HOT POT.

Plus other dishes beside it.

Crab meat / shark fin soup ? So good! I had 2 bowls of this

LOTS of food!

I love hot pot. Pretty much just dump whatever you want in the boiling soup. The soup base doesn’t really need any seasonings because after you boil all the veggies, meat etc, all flavor goes into the broth.

Mother-in-law made these Chinese White Sugar Cakes (白糖糕).

It’s mainly made from rice flour, white sugar, yeast and baking powder and steamed. I think she put some green food coloring or pandan extract to make them look green. The cake is not overly sweet, kinda chewy and has a slight sour taste due to the yeast fermentation. I’ve never made this cake before but that’s the idea.

For those who celebrate Chinese New Year: Xin Nian Guai Le! – sorry for my bad Chinese Pi Yin

Do you like hot pot/shabu-shabu?

Have you had taro cake before?

 

Friday Ramblings and Chimichurri Sauce

TGIF everyone! I’m so glad the week is OVER and weekend is finally here!

Btw, remember the Chimichurri sauce I made last time? My salmon turned out GREAT!

Baked Salmon (or other fish) with Chimichurri Sauce (adapted from The Food Lovers’ Primal Palate)
Ingredients:
1-2 Tbsp Avocado Oil
3-4 garlic cloves
Handful of fresh Italian parsley
Dash of salt
Dash of ground black pepper
1/2 tsp chili powder
Freshly squeezed lemon juice (3 lemons)

Directions:
1. Mash garlic and parsley in your food processor (I used my mortar and pestle since the amount is not a lot and I didn’t feel like washing my food processor)
2. Mix everything and refrigerate until you’re ready to bake the fish.

3. Line the salmon steak on the baking dish (I pre-seasoned the salmon steak with some salt before)
4. Pour the Chimichurri sauce over the salmon

5. Bake in 350°F for about 25-30 minutes

Serve!

I had extra sauce so I used it to bake the Star Butter Fish as well. Delish!

Yesterday I had some stomach indigestion *ugh* after devoured the whole package of this:

Don’t get me wrong! Artisana Coconut Butter WAS SO YUMMY that I couldn’t stop myself. I was driving home and was kinda hungry and this thing popped in my head. So without hesitant, I just scarfed down the whole thing. One bite, two bites and I was like “to heck with it, I’ll just finish the whole thing!”

Since it was in a cooler temperature, the texture was kinda chalky. It might be better to melt it a bit so it’ll be more like a spread. But it melted once I put it in my mouth. I guess now I learn not to indulge it all at once or my stomach won’t be happy. No more indigestion. Good thing I didn’t barf.

Have a good weekend!

Btw there’s $50 iHerb shopping spree giveaway!

 

Can’t Miss the Freebies!

Happy Wednesday!! Before you know it weekend is around the corner!

Today was such a good day because: our department provided FREE LUNCH from Chipotle! As a typical thrift Asian, I wouldn’t want to miss this!

But I still keep everything as primal/paleo as possible – no rice, beans, tortilla and soybean oil.

After reading Nom Nom Paleo’s Chipotle post, I opted for Salad bowl with carnitas (the only meat that’s not cooked in soybean oil) with mild tomato salsa, sour cream on side (company didn’t cover guacamole..FAIL). So I got my veggies, protein and some fat.

Apparently they were super stingy on the sour cream!

Good thing I prepared my Coconut Milk Dressing. Got my healthy fat intake!

Benefit of free lunch?

I could have my packed lunch as my breakfast instead!

The beauty of eating Primal= There’s almost no difference between lunch/dinner/breakfast anymore!

Except when I made this Almond Pancake

Slathered with cheese spread

Not paleo/primal standard but hey gotta loosen up a bit sometimes!

I love this Président brand! It’s from France and cheaper than Laughing Cow. It’s not that salty and very mild taste. My wallet and I surely love it!

I admit, I do miss this ever since I’ve gone Primal – no bread, crackers etc. But my Almond Pancake surely could satisfy my cravings of any gluten/grain stuff.

Anyway, remember the chicken dish I made on Sunday?

I “re-purposed” it to become “quiche” = b-fast food!

Super easy, just add one beaten egg and bake for 20 mins in oven 350°F.

So no need to get sick of eating same thing over and over. Vary it a bit!

Also in this b-fast I had today – topped with the sauce from the Indonesian Beef Stew – YUM! Plus the last drop of Unsweetened Almond Breeze.

Freebies from iHerb!!

Artisana Raw Coconut Butter and Artisana Raw Cacao Bliss.

I’ve heard sooo much raves about coconut butter and when I saw iHerb provided these samples (just need to pay shipping) I instantly ordered them!

Btw, for first time shopper, use my promo code SUT585 to save $5.00! Now go and get your free sample of Coconut butter from iHerb.

Or if you want to get a big jar of it, Katie is having Coconut butter giveaway!

iHerb also included Madre-C sample.

mix it in warm water

stir and enjoy!

Perfect timing! So many people sick at work now and I have to boost up my Vit C! Figuratively speaking, I was breathing germs in and out at the office for 8 hours- 5 working days!! Ugh, bless my immune system! I know Leashieloo and Jessica catch a cold. Hang in there, girls!

Do you differentiate your food for breakfast/lunch/dinner?
I used to, but not anymore

Favorite cheese spread?

Have you received any freebies?
Compared to other food bloggers, I don’t think I’ve received as many freebies as them. But I don’t sweat it though it feels nice to receive free stuff.hehe..especially food related.

 

Where did my weekend go?

Hm..it’s already Sunday night? Where did my weekend go?

And lucky for those who has a day off tomorrow (Martin Luther King Day for those in the US). On the brighter side, it’ll be a better commute for me..hehe Gotta cheer myself up a bit to prepare for another week.

Thanks for the comments on my last post regarding laser eye surgery. It surely was the highlight of my day reading your thoughts about it!

Yesterday’s optometrist trip was a success! My prescription remained the same! WOOT!

With insurance, I only ended up spending $30 for eye exam, prescription for contacts and glasses and 1 full year supply of contact lens. K, on the other hand had to spend about $300 because he had to order a new frame. His prescription changed slightly..it was lower instead of higher. He wasn’t quite happy about it and decided to look for another optometrist next year.

Afterward we went to TJ which was located right around the corner and I picked up a bag of organic apples.

I know apple is one of the “Dirty Dozen” list but I’ve never bothered buying organic. But after I started going Primal/Paleo, I’m start thinking of getting “Dirty Dozen” produce organic. When K heard that, he just rolled his eyes and said that our grocery bills will be much higher.

After spending about an hour at the optometrist and another half hour at TJ, we decided to eat out for lunch. We went to Mughal Halal Tandoori Restaurant for an afternoon buffet.

The restaurant was not that big and there was a party going on at the other side of the room. The food was good, though not much selection. But for us who are not that familiar with Indian cuisine, having a buffet is a good way to try different dishes. Besides, they also offered Chinese food (egg fried rice, stir fry veggies).

An Indian restaurant wasn’t complete without its naan bread (garlic and plain)

soo soft and so good when dipped in the curry sauce. I had a little piece of these, despite it's totally not Primal/Paleo - gluten

My shares:

I’m completely aware that when eating out, it’s pretty hard to determine whether the food meets primal/paleo standard. But I won’t stress out too much about it.

K’s shares (and I nibbled on it a bit- the Chicken Biryani Rice was good…had a spoonful of it)

With Groupon, we ended up only with $1.90 something bill for total (my Groupon worth $20 and I only paid $10 to buy it). Of course we tipped them from the pre-discounted amount. The waiter must be super busy that he mistakenly took our $10 bill as $20. So we got a lot more change than it was supposed to be. We are honest people so we just left the extras.

Whew, I was stuffed from the lunch and even skipped dinner – I didn’t go to my in-law’s place because I figured I wouldn’t be able to eat anything anyway. Besides I was so dead tired, not sure why…maybe I was wiped out by my morning workout.

But I certainly can’t wait to taste this Dragon Fruit

Have you had dragon fruit before?

Organic or conventional produce? Thoughts?
I do worry about pesticides from the “Dirty Dozen” produce, but at the same time how do we know that the organic ones are pesticide free? One could argue that it’s just some marketing gimmicks to trick people to spend more money for their produce.

Have a good night!

 

Another day off tomorrow, GNU review and calorie intake thoughts

Today I thought would be another draggy day but turned out not really. Work wasn’t crazy busy, but more like an okay pace. Heck I even felt the day went by pretty fast. Probably because tomorrow I’ll have another day off? I had to take a day off tomorrow for lab appointment. I had to be fasting, so no drinking or eating 6 hours prior the exam! Gosh! I could handle hunger, but thirst??? That’ll be tough! The appointment is at 2:30 pm but I have to be there at 2:00 pm. Geez, that means I have to stop eating and drinking by 8 am!
*sigh* Also no exercise in the morning. Even though I have a day off, still can’t really sleep in either or else I can’t eat/drink anything until late afternoon!!

Anyway, after my morning workout, I was super hungry so I chugged down this homemade almond milk with 1 scoop of Designer’s Whey Chocolate Protein Powder. Gosh, I couldn’t remember the last time I had this protein drink. To be honest, I don’t really like the taste of protein drink and if you look at the ingredients closely, lots of weird stuff there. I rather get my protein from real foods.

red bean bread bun from Chinese bakery. so fluffy

Had this as my breakfast at work. The red bean was a bit sweet to my taste but thanks to my bitter green tea, it all balanced out.

Unfortunately, that red bean bun didn’t hold my hunger until lunch time. I packed 2 slices ww homemade bread and had those topped w/ PB around late morning. Bad move! I was sooo full that I couldn’t even finish my lunch! I hate it when I wasn’t hungry at my usual meal time.

But I still could finish the fruits! papaya strawberry post lunch and orange peach w/ non fat yogurt as my late afternoon munchies

Btw, I kept forgetting to put my let me review GNU Foods Espresso Chip Bar that I tried last week.


This bar has a strong coffee flavor! I was expecting a semi sweet bar with a hint of coffee flavor, but that wasn’t the case. This bar is seriously for a coffee lover.  I am not quite a coffee drinker so this bar is a bit too strong for my taste. I was going to have it for my late afternoon snack, but after one bite, I decided to save it for the next day’s morning snack instead. I am quite sensitive to caffeine that I rather avoid having it in late afternoon or I’ll have trouble sleeping.

Lots of steamed veggies for dinner!

chinese veggies (Choy sum in Cantonese or chai sim in Mandarin)

steamed egg plant and carrot

nuked frozen edamame

baby carrots dipped with nutritional yeast

Dessert

yogurt with lots of peaches and some vanilla ice cream

Remember the last post when I mentioned I wanted to gain more muscle weight? Well I’d say it’s not quite easy for me to increase my calorie intake. One thing is I can’t eat a lot of foods all at once and on the other hand, somewhere in the back of my mind, there’s still some “fear” that this extra calorie will backfire on me. I know I can always keep it off as long I keep working out regularly, but there’s still that “fear” that my workout can’t keep up with my calorie intake. Sorry, I know I’m not making that much sense, but that’s how I’m feeling now.

 

Family and I, GNU review

I finally took my time and called my mom earlier using Skype! Gosh I know I’m such a bad daughter not calling her for quite a while (last time she was here was around 3 months ago!!)….*sigh* Sometimes I think I am always got too caught up doing my own stuff and keep procrastinate calling her. Felt bad….in some ways. I am always amazed at some people who can call their parents and talk to them everyday. Seriously, what possibly can you talk to them on the phone if you call every single day? Sometimes I hesitate to call my mom because I feel like I have nothing to talk about. Yeah just going to work, come home have dinner, shower and sleep. So majority of the time, my mom talks more about her stuff. My Skype account balance was over, but that wasn’t an excuse for not calling her anytime soon. I’m telling myself that from now on I should AT LEAST call her once a week…or more if I can!

Ok, lets move onto the food part!
This morning, I made another bowl of oats, topped with pb, low fat plain yogurt and some strawberries!!

didn't bother to cut the strawberries in half...I was a bit rush this morning

Cut up fruits for my lunch snacks as well. I’m so glad finally I could have more varieties in there besides orange, peach and papaya.

I knew that the bowl of oatmeal won’t last me until lunch time, so I packed GNU Foods Orange Cranberry Bar as my late morning snack at work.


The first thing that I noticed when opening the package was the strong orange scent. It had a sweet smell, like those orange candy, however, the bar itself wasn’t that sweet! For non sweet tooth person like me, it was tolerable. The bar was a bit chewy but not dense. It was actually considered to be pretty light. I could even taste the wheat flakes and some raisin chunks in between. It had a slight bitter taste though, kind of the bitterness from a fresh squeezed orange juice. Overall, I love this bar, can’t wait to taste the other flavors! For more complete nutritional info, visit their site here.

So today my lunch was consisted of lots of veggies (similar to what I had from last night dinner) plus I brought my nutritional yeast as my dipping. It was super good! Just as an info, nutritional yeast has lots of vitamin B12, thus makes your urine color neon yellow – based on the information that I searched earlier. I was a bit worried when I saw that, thinking I didn’t drink enough water. Usually my urine was colorless because I could drink 8-10 12oz. of water. After I knew it was from the nutritional yeast, I eased up a bit. But I think I’ll go easy on that. Don’t want to overworked my kidney with overloaded vitamin B12 which my body won’t absorb all of it, thus ended up being wasted. That thing wasn’t cheap either!

I was quite full after lunch, even only managed finished one of my fruit snacks, didn’t eat my edamame and yogurt. So those ended up as my dinner, minus the yogurt, along with some boiled green beans and broccoli and 2 whole egg omelets.

For those who live away from their parents, how often do you talk to them? For me, I am trying at least calling once a week. My parents are all the way in Asia so time difference plays some part here. Sometimes I chat with them, mainly my dad, early morning before I go to work, or call my mom in the evening after dinner.

 

Review time for Boomi Bar and Prana Bar

I think it’s time for me to give some reviews on Boomi Bar and Prana Bar. Seriously, I still have a big stack of those and I’m just slowly trying them. The best thing is I packed some to bring to work and keep them in my office drawer as my emergency snacks.

Prana Bar Apricot Pumpkin

Calories: 190. Ingredients: organic pumpkin seeds, organic agave nectar, organic date paste, organic almond butter,organic dried apricots, organic puffed amaranth, sea salt

This bar is very sweet to my taste and it’s chewy and a bit dense. Probably because of the agave nectar plus the date paste. It has some bits of pumpkin seeds into it but not so much of the apricot taste. However, despite those, this bar has the least calories compared to the rest of the bars. I am ok with this bar, given I am not a sweet tooth person, but for those who like sweets, this would be perfect! Not to mention all the ingredients are organic and it’s certified USDA organic!

Boomi Bar™ Pistachio Pineapple

Ingredients: Pistachios, honey, dates, apples, candied pineapple, cashews, crisped rice, amaranth, salt

Calories: 200

I love this bar! It has a big chunks of pistachios and the rice crisps added the airy feel of this bar. Also unlike Prana Bar, this bar is not that sweet! Even non sweet tooth person like me can still tolerate it. Calorie-wise is a bit high (200 calories for this small bar), but if you’re active and workout a lot, it shouldn’t be a big problem. In fact, I had this bar as my late morning snack and I still could have my lunch at usual time. It holds my hunger perfectly.

Boomi Bar™ Bar Cranberry Apple

Ingredients: Almonds, honey, apples, cranberries, dates, crisped rice, puffed amaranth, salt

Calories: 210

I had this bar today for my late afternoon snack because the fruits that packed today didn’t do it. So I decided to give this one a try and I loved it so much! I might be wrong but for me this bar was actually less sweet than Boomi Bar™ Pistachio Pineapple. Also it wasn’t as chewy and sticky, a bit more airy. I could taste a hint of tangy from the cranberry bits. Not to mention big chunks of almonds.

Boomi Bar™ Complete Nutritional Facts
Prana Bar Complete Nutritional Facts

Overall, I’d say Boomi Bar™ is my favorite over Prana Bar. Boomi Bar™ is not as sweet, chewy and dense as Prana Bar. However, it doesn’t mean Prana Bar taste bad, it’s just not quite for my taste. I’d still eat it if it’s the only thing in my pantry and when I’m hungry, who cares how it tastes as long it’s still edible, right?

 

Easy Breezy

I woke up a bit late today (around 7 am..hahaha..I know it doesn’t consider to be late actually!) and it was such a bright sunny day. It’s Saturday, and usually Saturday always started with grocery shopping and this time I went to Super King Markets!

I always check their weekly ad which usually updated every Thursday to see what produce they have on sale. Since the one I usually go always get really crowded over weekend, I always go early morning to avoid the busy crowd. Today I got there a bit later than usual (around 8:40 am) and I had to wait pretty long at the seafood section. There were sooooo many people and the isle was pretty small so it was best to just carry shopping basket instead of shopping cart.

Why it’s crowded? Because their produce are always FRESH and CHEAPER compare to other national chain supermarkets (think of Ralph’s, Vons, Albertson’s etc). Majority of the stuff they carry are targeted to Mediterraneans and Mexicans but they also cater to Asians as well! I got my House Premium Tofu for 99 cents! Also I love their Naan bread and the pita breads! Last week I got their mixed nuts and had to resist a temptation to finish the whole container of nuts! Overall, I love this place and always check on their ads before checking others!

When my husband and I got back from grocery shopping, we were both starving because we haven’t ate breakfast. I heated up whole wheat pita bread I got from Super King Markets, topped with some cheese. Hmmm…so yummy!

whole wheat pita bread w/ melted cheese

plain soymilk. Gotta get more later tonight

My husband had 1 naan bread and 1 Arabic bread that he got earlier. I had a couple bites and they were so good, especially if you eat it right after you heated.

I tried to keep my breakfast light because it was already 10 am when I had it. Don’t want to get too full that I’ll have to push back my lunch meal.

Speaking of lunch, I baked banana nut squash I got earlier. This is my first time having it and since I had no idea how to really cook it, sliced and threw them into the oven was the best choice. They turned out so good!

baked banana nut squash

Remember the 6 egg yolks I had from last time I made my egg white omelet? My husband made them into Egg Yolk fried rice!
I reminded him to go easy on this fried rice because egg yolk contains high cholesterol and I don’t want him to get sick. I wasn’t feeling too well today with this cramps from the monthly thing, so my husband prepared lunch for us *yay*

steamed corn cobs

our lunch!

My plate

I finished most the squash and didn't even eat the corn.

And can’t skip my afternoon fruits either!

oranges and red globe grapes

Tonight we’re going to go to my in law’s place for dinner. It’s part of our weekend routine and also to celebrate Mother’s Day at the same time. Maybe I can get some pics later? Who knows.