Some Accomplishments of the Day

For some reason our Southern California has been windy, cold and gloomy since Saturday. Is it trying to sympathize with our current situation? Nah, probably just coincidence.

Anyway, after 2 days off from working out I blasted the usual Bodyrock.tv workout this morning, which took me a total 24 minutes (not including warm up and cool down). Seriously, after working out, the endorphin did give me some boost and lift up my mood a bit.

Breakfast was a very humble half of purple yam with the usual loose leaf tea.

Both Hubby K and I had some energy so we did house cleaning for the entire morning.

Before we knew it, it was lunch time already and I just quickly made some beef steak that I marinated last night plus heated up the last batch of Yellow Tamarind Cabbage Soup.

I also inhaled this whole avocado. No seasonings, just scoop it out. YUM!

Plus some macadamia nuts from Henry’s Market. Damn I gotta go get more before the sale ends! Apparently, Brother A also liked this nuts as much as I do.

We both agreed today we felt like we accomplished something. For the past 2 days, we were basically just sitting in front of our computer, either browsing or watching something. Totally unproductive.

Afterward we did some light grocery shopping at Seafood City, a Filipino supermarket down the street. I was only planning to buy banana leaves for my next recipe experiment, but I couldn’t resist the fresh White Perch fishes!

How to cook these fish? Well, when the fish is very fresh, just lightly salt it and pan fry it! It’ll taste good no matter what!

And I had this forgotten favorite snack.

Big thanks to Fit Daffy reminding me about my favorite Pumpkin Pie Yogurt.

Now I’m not sure if I’m gonna have dinner or not. Anyway…I’ll be having more of this:

 

Hot and Sweaty

Thank you for wishing me getting well and good news is my throat doesn’t bother me much anymore. It still felt a bit dry in the morning, but it gradually disappeared at the end of the day. Hopefully I’m over it.

Btw, today was HOT HOT HOT and humid here! The weather was gorgeous for beach people (unfortunately, being under the sun for a long period of time is not my cuppa tea) – sunny and high 80°F. Ironically, my workout today was titled “Hot in Here workout”, which exactly described how I felt after finished with it.

As usual refueled with baked yam, which was super mushy because I baked it waaay too long, but who cares. Plus I had 3 hard boiled eggs sprinkled with Trader Joe’s 21 Seasoning Salute plus my weekend loose leaf green tea.


Let me tell you that finally today I managed to make perfect hard boiled eggs! Before either they were undercooked or overcooked.

However, last night I failed to make my beef omelet with shredded coconut, which I’ve been craving for the whole week.

The mixture was too watery that I couldn’t flip it. Frustrated and impatient, I decided to turn it into scramble eggs.

Still yummy tho.

But my lunch today was way prettier (thanks to natural light)

Btw I scored some goodies.
Avocado for 50 cents each from Walmart! This was totally unexpected! I know some Walmart carries grocery items, but not the one nearby my place. Something new!

Henry’s Market was having 72 hour sale and this 3 lbs mandarin oranges were on sale for $1.97 for each bag (3lbs bag). Usually these guys cost at least $2-$3/bag. And they’re super sweet and I went back there again today to get another bag.

I could easily eat 4 of these in one sitting! So yummy and sweet, better than muching on chocolate/cookies

How’s the weather at your place now? Spring? Summer?
For me, today felt almost summer-like. A little too hot for spring standard. Btw, I realized I didn’t shower at all from the time I finished my workout in the morning until after dinner time. Gross I know. Usually I’d shower right after I finished my workout (after I wasn’t sweating anymore) but lately, it’s been pretty jam packed that I just had to do a lot of stuff from one to another. Good thing I didn’t shower yet because when I was vacuuming the house in the afternoon, I was drenched..again.

Have a great weekend!

 

Lack of Energy

Hi all, how’s your Saturday going so far?

I’ve been feeling SUPER LAZY today, though this morning I managed to squeeze in my workout that supposedly for yesterday.

Fueled myself with leftover Costco chicken

Consequences for not eating proper post workout meal (starchy carbs like yams & sweet potatoes): I felt SUPER SLUGGISH, lack of energy, fatigue later on! It wasn’t fun feeling.

So after got home from grocery and other errands, I popped all yams that I got at the store in the oven and nuked one to be consumed right away!
Now I don’t have to worry about tomorrow’s post workout meal anymore.

Got mandarin oranges for $2.99 for 3lbs bag – SCORE! I LOVE THESE THINGS!

I decided not to go with K to his parent’s house for dinner today. Instead I drove myself to check out Sprouts Market Henry’s Farmers Market.

My goodies

Strawberries for 97 cents/box -got 4 so total $4 for 4 lbs -SCORE! Taste wise: kinda bland -unlike the one I got from Farmer’s Market last week (super sweet but it was a whole big box for $11 – I guess it was equivalent of 4 lbs?) Oh well I got what I paid for, right? At least Fage Full fat greek yogurt was $3.79 – MUCH cheaper than Albertsons or Whole Paycheck ($4.99)

More goodies: found pastured raised 100% natural grass fed beef, Applegate bacon and Henry’s brand no preservative sausages! -(gotta keep these for my quick to serve protein!)

Since I already used up our joint account grocery budget this morning for getting grain-fed beef from regular market, I opted to get small pieces of grass fed beef. Now I know I can get grass fed beef from around where I live!

I found my kryptonites

100% dried mango -no added sugar

unsweetened banana chips! I munched LOTS of these in the store

I ate a bit too much banana chips that now I’m feeling kinda sick of it. The dried mangoes were a bit too sweet for me so I couldn’t eat it too much, which was good.

Anyway, I LOVE Henry’s Farmers Market. It’s very very similar to Sprouts Market (very homey, with bulk bins of nuts, dried fruits etc) and the best thing is? It’s much closer to where I live compared to Sprouts. Now I know where to shop for grass fed beef and other organic stuff. Woot!

Something I want to talk about:
I was browsing through my old posts and read what I wrote in the past and seems like I’ve never really had a consistent topic. Some posts I might write about food of the day, some about recipes, some just random stuff like my life etc. Sometimes I wonder, if by having a non-defined blog topic actually a turn off for new readers. Some big bloggers that I’ve seen usually always have one consistent topic in their posts – either being vegetarian/vegans/primal/paleo, informative/education, restaurant reviews, recipes etc. Even this morning, K mentioned that I’m not being consistent. One day I’d be doing certain stuff and the next day my thought would change to something else. – scattered brain?

I’m sorry if I’m not making any sense, but it starts to bugging me a bit and how would I want to continue with this blog.

Have a great night!

 

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.

 

Everyone’s out watching Harry Potter The Deathly Hallows!

Hi Friends, how are you doing? It’s Friday again and next week will be Thanksgiving week – meaning a short week!! But for me I won’t be having a long Thanksgiving weekend because I have to work on Friday after the Thanksgiving (known as Black Friday). I am working in a retail industry thus it’s the busiest time for us.

Anyway, I am not complaining. Besides, the traffic will be much better

Last Saturday I had to go to a dentist for my yearly teeth cleaning.

to be honest, I dislike going to a dentist..urgh!

Afterward Met up with my friend, her hubby and her kid for a lunch at this Japanese restaurant.

so empty and it was lunch time! woohoo!

According to my friend, this place is crowded during dinner time - mostly young people who enjoy drinking

lunch menu was pretty cheap. all of us picked #7

free refill of miso soup

The lunch set - K and I asked more salads for twice..hehe..I didn't finish the rice

couldn't remember the last time I had BBQ meat - I'm not much a meat eater.

On our way to my in-law’s place for dinner, we stopped by at this newly opened Chinese market and it was super crowded! Just because you’ll get some gift by spending a certain amount. The cashier lines were full! We had to wait at least 30 minutes!

it's like a zoo. Why there were so many people?? It's not like the market was giving away the stuff for free..haha

our grocery loot

the gift - but I gave it away....it was way too sweet for me to drink

Got this cute earrings from my sister-in-law to be

i love dangling earrings!

Questions for today:
1. Anyone out there going to watch Harry Potter this weekend?
I am not going to. In fact I’m going to wait at least a month later to watch it in the theater, when the crowd has died down. I don’t like to be in a crowded place as much. I know it’ll be fun seeing other fans, but crowded and noisy thing are just not for me.

2. Do you dislike going to a dentist/doctor?
Not so much for a doctor visit, but dentist, yeah. I used to have braces on when I was little and had it for a loong time. Just remembering those dentist visits already makes me cringe. Also 2 weeks later I have to go back to the dentist so he can take out my permanent retainer and order a new one for me. URGH!

3. Can you wear fake jewelries?
I can’t. I have to wear gold or I’ll get itchy. The earrings that I got weren’t gold but I think I could wear them for a short of time. But today I felt a bit itchy. Kinda bummer because there are so many cute jewelries that are not gold. And gold are expensive!!
Have a good weekend!

 

Jogging, furniture window shopping and relaxing

My morning beach jog/run was fantastic! I even did a mini interval run/jog in between, synchronizing with my music. I thought today I couldn’t do much run because my left knee acting up, but that wasn’t the case. Also as usual Saturday morning is our grocery shopping time so we stopped by at Superking Market on our way back. Ever since I found out about them, I usually go there to shop produce stuff. They don’t label themselves carrying organic produce, but I could careless about buying organics. I chose convenience and budget friendly rather than organic. Besides, the stuff look fresh and decent price.
Surprisingly I wasn’t hungry at all after that run/jog interval, though I only did it for 2-3 songs. Usually I had to snack on some energy bar but not today. I still had it in my bag, but I wasn’t feeling hungry so it stayed in tact.

Ok my eyes are starting to closing up and have to shower and go to bed soon. Nite!
Finally, after I came home, I was so excited to taste Rudi’s Organic Bakery Bread for my breakfast!!

Cinnamon Raisin Bread and Spelt Ancient Grain Bread

I toasted both of these goodies in the oven for a bit to warm them up and also to get one side a bit crispy. Yesterday after I received them, immediately I put them in the fridge so they won’t get spoiled. These are organics, can’t stay outside too long, especially with this getting warmer So Cal weather.

fluffy cinnamon bread

I haven’t bought any bread from store for a while but I could remember how it tasted like. It was soft but empty at the same time. Also store bought wheat bread (any kind) always left some bitter after taste in my mouth. But not with Rudi’s Organic Bakery Bread! The cinnamon raisin bread had that typical cinnamon smell and the sweetness came from the raisins and tasted pretty solid. I am not a big fan of cinnamon, but I am not a hater as well. It’s just something I could live without but I won’t refuse it if it’s around either. Overall this cinnamon raisin bread is a must for all cinnamon lover.

Next is the Spelt Ancient Grain Bread, toasted and topped with Natural Directions® Organic Crunchy Peanut Butter.

Rudi's Organic Bakery Spelt Ancient Grain Bread - toasted and topped with chunky PB

close up view

I’d say this is my absolute favorite! Tasted pretty light, pretty unusual for whole wheat bread. Even the one that I usually make, I have to mix 50/50 with regular flour, otherwise it’ll be a bit dense. I read on a lot of baking sites, most whole wheat bread recipes that use only whole wheat flour tend to be a bit dense compare to white bread. That’s because whole wheat flour doesn’t have as much gluten as regular flour.
Ken, my husband (I think it’s time I should just refer him with his name instead of keep saying “my husband” all the time ) toasted Rudi’s Organic Bakery White Bread.

first round, a bit too toasted on the other slice

second round, much better! Not too burned!

He had total 4 slices of those, plus another 3 slices of my homemade whole wheat bread. He ate all of those plain, no PB, butter, nothing, zero, nada. Just plain toasted bread slices! I took a little bite of the white bread. I couldn’t remember when was the last time I had white bread! It tasted a bit sweeter than the wheat ones I had earlier (sweetness from the raisins doesn’t count), and much fluffier as well.

warm homemade almond milk

Delicious breakfast on Saturday morning!

I was feeling like to have my usual jasmine green tea

Ken was nice enough to brew some Ti Kuan Yin Loose Leaf tea. I had 2 cups of this

While we were having breakfast we decided to go to Living Spaces to shop for our living room furniture. Seriously we’ve been planning on getting furniture ever since we moved, but always got delayed. At least I want to get rid of this ghetto looking futon from my living room:

After we finished breakfast, showered, we went straight to the store, which wasn’t too far from our house. Walked around the store, saw some dining table sets,bar stools and our eyes went on this sofa:

Source: Living Spaces Website

Looks pretty nice and we actually wanted to get it, along with some bar stools that we saw. In the end did we get it?
Sadly, NO. Ken said he wanted to wait a bit for the sofa but next week we might want to get the bar stools. Why next week? It’s a long weekend and we have this wishful thinking that the store might have some big sale going on. We’ll see.

After that we headed out to have ramen for our lunch. We haven’t been to this place for a while so had to circle around a little bit because the “human GPS” which was me kinda forgot the cross street thus making a big circle to finally get to here:

Kinda funny the store uses "Gomen" as its name. Gomen in Japanese means "Sorry"

It was a small restaurant, and pack as usual during lunch time. Thus the meaning "Gomen" because the customer had to wait a bit for the table? haha.

Good thing it didn’t take us long to get a table. I was pretty starving so after skimmed the menu, I decided to get Combination Any Ramen with Gyoza Combo. I chose Chasu Ramen, can’t go wrong with that. Ken chose Yasai (Mixed Vegetables) Ramen.

Gyoza aka potstickers came first

Finally after 10 minutes wait, our order came at the same time!

Chasu Ramen in soy sauce base soup

Ken's Yasai Ramen. Looks pretty light and healthy! I think today I wasn't in the mood of healthy stuff haha

Various toppings to add to your ramen: Chili pepper powder, soy sauce, vinegar and white pepper

How to eat ramen the Japanese way? Use chopsticks to pick the noodles, put it on the spoon with some soup and enjoy! Itadakimasu!! (way of Japanese saying grace before eating)

Usually I couldn't finish that whole bowl of noodles, but today I was starving! All gone!

Despite not in mood of healthy stuff, I still set aside the fatty pork parts.

We were planning to go to another furniture store but Ken was pretty tired so we decided to head home. Guess what I got? My Garmin package has arrived!! Woot!

gotta charge it first and put it on test drive for my beach run/jog tomorrow!

can't neglect fruit serving of the day: mango, orange and peach..all yellow colored fruits today

So it was a lazy afternoon for us. Ken took a long nap and I was browsing the internet, read random blogs, watched anime until it was dinner time. Btw, I had this little bad boy again today:

Had to drink lots of water after this

Dinner was just whatever. Left over from yesterday, boiled some spinach and steamed sweet potatoes. I didn’t have much veggies in the afternoon so I maxed them up for the dinner:

I had another half of sweet potato after this pic and added more tofus as well. Love tofu so much!

 

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.