I'm on Spring Break! Yahooooooo!~
Today, I took my LLT midterm (which I did horrible in), went to the gym for a good workout, gave my Kanji speech, and practiced my speech speech with Sakakibara sensei. After that, I went to the apartment, packed and drove home. Then I had an awesome dinner with my mom at home. We had two leftover dishes that my dad made. SO good. It was taro and eggplants stuffed with fish and pork. My mom made garlic Chinese spinach and these shrimp patties that she labored last night for. I'm a lucky girl. She also brewed me a cup of her kumquat honey tea. mmmmm. I also had some organic SO Delicious chocolate ice cream! My fav! Only 130 calories per serving and it's dairy free. :) It tastes better than regular chocolate ice cream in my opinion.

On that note.....my stomach still feels horrible, but I can still eat. hahaha. Nothing will stop me, muwahhaha.

On a happier note, my sis will arrive tomorrow! She's coming to see me give my speech on Saturday! Yahoooo!~ Then, we will head to Chicago together on Sunday. Can't wait! (^v^)

My stomach has been feeling horrible lately. I don't know if it's something I ate or what, but it's making me feel horrible. ;( The thing is I don't need to go to the bathroom. Maybe I ate something toxic. ugh.

I feel really weak today. I didn't end up going to the Urban Outfitters Night thing. I have a midterm and speech practice tomorrow. ;(

I'm getting really nervous about my speech on Saturday (only 3 more days left! ahh!). I only memorized it last night and today, when I went to practice with Sakakibara sensei, I stumbled in a few parts towards the end. **sigh** I think sleep is so important. Now I know why I used to feel fatigue all the time. It was definitely from what I ate and moreover the amount of sleep I was getting. I use to sleep on average about 4-6 hours a day. Now, I like sleeping about 7, but since I've been so busy lately, I only get about 4-6. Therefore, I am always super tired and in class, it's hard to concentrate. At the gym, I feel OK, but still I could do better.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day. I hate Wednesdays. I have to sit in two classes from 9:00am - 3:30pm with a break from 11:45ish-12:40pm. Then, usually right after that, I go to the gym. Tomorrow, I might go to a review session for my LLT class instead though. I feel like I could defnitely benefit from that. There's also the Urban Outfitters night. I don't know when I'll go to the gym and if I will have enough time to study for the test. Ahhhh. And the Japanese Speech. omg.... ;(

I'm pretty sick of field observations and studies right now. It's so mind numbing. Don't get me wrong, I want to learn as much as possible, but sometimes, sitting there with a sub and doing nothing more than helping them with work is just mind numbing. Especially when you have to wake up at the butt crack of dawn to go.

For dinner, I made "Keh Dan Mor Goo". Basically, it's a classic Chinese dish with Egg in a soupy tomato sauce and I added the mushrooms. It's usually set over rice and is sweet. I made mine not so sweet and the eggs did not come out as "wat" (slippery) as I would've liked. It was more lumpy, but it still tasted good. keke. Once I perfect the egg, I might post up the recipe. (It's pictured above)

Today was a great day! I woke up at 9:00 ish and had a great sleep. Although my dream was very weird and reflected all the things that have been going through my mind, I slept for like 7-8 hours. That is very ideal! :) I also baked Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls (5 pack) for me and my friends for our Ann Arbor trip. The rolls were smaller than I have expected. They were 150 calories each, but I only used like 1/3 of the icing, so its give or take a few. Not bad for a cinnamon roll though. Would I buy it again? Probably not.

So, today, as I said before, I went to Ann Arbor with Andrew, Jun Jun, and Angel. We went to Zingerman's for lunch and then we went to Urban Outfitters. After that, we played games and pool at Pinball Pete's and headed to Bubble Island to play Taboo. It was overall a fun day. Zingerman's was interesting. We order our food at the deli and then walk over next door to their bakehouse and wait for our food there. It was super busy and I loved the atmosphere. I had a sample of their dark chocolate (it's chocolate month) gelato and it was pretty amazing. I ordered their chicken broth with al dente egg noodles which came with a sour dough bread. It was filling and good. I didn't even finish the soup. That's a first. haha. Then, when we came back to East Lansing, I ate dinner and headed to the gym. It was a great workout. Always feel so good after a workout. :)

But....today I realized that I have SO little time left to memorize the rest of my speech and practice. I'm so nervous right now. eek! Gotta get to it!

inside the deli of Zingerman's

Wow, today was such a long day, but it wasn't bad to tell you the truth. I started the day at Winan Elementary from 8:30am-10:00am to observe for my TE494 class. Then, I went back to my apartment for a quick snack and tutored from 11:00am-12:30pm. Then I headed to Colt Elementary to do more observations from 1:15pm-2:45pm. Then I went home for a quick lunch and headed to the gym till 5:30pm. A Papiano's pizza delivery car was parked with its engine running behind me so I couldn't get out for a good few minutes which seemed like eternity to me. I'm really impatient when it comes to things that get in my way or routines. I'm working on it. ;) I actually called IM West and the Parking Department, but that bia got out just in time. haha. Lucky him.

When I came back to the apartment from the gym, I took a quick shower and headed to Prithi's to learn how to make Plum Halwa. I'll set the recipe later, but it was really delicious and sinful! Good thing, I had a light dinner when I got home. haha. I prepped some steel cut oats for the next few days. I can't wait to try it out. I had a few bites and I definitely like the texture. :)

The first time I made this berry-soy (hence BS), I was surprised that it was so sweet even with no sugar or sweetener. The magic of natural sugar. :) This smoothie has a thick consistency. I like to spoon it like frozen yogurt or a dessert. If you like it more watery, just add more milk. You do not need ice cause the frozen fruits are like ice cubes themselves. Plus ice waters down the smoothie and that ain't good.

Ingredients
- 1 banana
- 1 cup soy milk
- about 7-8 frozen strawberries
- 1/4 cup frozen raspberries
***(I used all organic products)

Directions
1. Put all the fruits into a food processor or blender.
2. Add the milk.
3. Blend that sucker until it's nice and smoooooth. *Makes two servings

Fast and easy quesadilla for lazy days and we all know that that's everyday for me. haha. I love the warm gooey cheese inside the crispy tortilla. Try it with some other veggies. I'm thinking about mushrooms, frozen veggies, etc. :) Have fun with it!

Ingredients
- 2 small tortillas
- 1/4 cup part skim shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1 tbsp chopped green onion
- 1/2 green pepper diced
- 1 tbsp sour cream
- nonstick cooking spray or oil

Directions
1. Get that pan piping hot.
2. Spray the pan with cooking spray. Set one tortilla in the pan. Set half the cheese and diced green peppers on it. Set the rest of the cheese on top and cover with the other tortilla.
3. Push the tortilla down with your spatula. When the bottom of the tortilla is brown and crispy, carefully flip the tortilla.
4. When the other side is crispy and everything in between is nice and gooey, take it out of the pan and onto a cutting board to cool.
5. When the Quesadilla is cooled, cut into four pieces with a large sharp knife. You should hear the crispyness of the quesadilla.
6. Mix a tablespoon of sour cream and chopped green onions together for dipping. **You can add whatever veggies you like!

Who would've thought that making scones would be so easy? Moreover, the scones I made today are actually healthy! I got the Whole Wheat Blueberry Scones recipe from Lori at MadeHealthier.com. If you have never been to this site, you must visit it. It has healthier versions of really good food. Her recipes are simple and require common ingredients. My favorite part of the site is that it really is truly healthy. With other sites that claim to be healthy or light, most of the time, I find that it really isn't. I like that that she doesn't include what isn't necessary. Kudos to her for that.

Ok, now about the scones. This was my first time making scones, but it's not going to be my last. I can assure you that. The scones came out crunchy and crumbly on the outside and so fluffy and moist on the inside. I was surprised because it consisted mostly of 100% whole wheat flour. I just made a few slight changes when I made it, but it's mostly the same. Here is my version of MadeHealthier's Whole Wheat Blueberry Scones. The directions are pretty much the same. I just tweaked some of the ingredients to my liking.

Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups 100% Whole Wheat flour
- 1/2 cup all purpose white flour
- 1/4 cup nectar agave (natural sweetener)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 cup lite soy milk
- 4 tbsp butter or butter spread (I used Promise activ Light Spread)
- 1 egg
- 1/3 cup frozen blueberries

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, and baking powder.
2. Add butter to the flour mixture until it has a crumbly texture.
3. Beat the egg and add to the flour mixture. Next add the milk and mix carefully. You do not want to over mix.
4. Carefully fold in the frozen blueberries.
5. Cover your baking pan or sheet with foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray.
6. Scoop out 9 equal portions about 2 inches away from each other.
7. Bake for 18 - 20 minutes.
(makes 9 scones)

Today, I went to Golden Harvest with my mom to eat dim sum. I haven't had dim sum in SO long. I knew that I had to eat egg tarts and Ma Lai Go (Malay steamed sponge cake) for sure. (Can you tell I have a sweet tooth? keke) Luckily, the first thing I saw on the cart was Ma Lai Go! I ordered it before my mom even sat down. hahaha. I ate most of the humongous Ma Lai Go... I gorged myself with dim sum today since I haven't had it in so long. Golden Harvest's dim sum is alright. The dished weren't hot enough and taste wise, it was alright. I would give it 2.5/5 stars.

After dim sum, we went to the new Walmart Supercenter on 14 mile, Van Dyke. It was incredibly busy. There were a lot of produce there, but not a lot of organic choices. We only had time to go through the produce and foods section. I got a box of chocolate Pocky! I ate sort of bad today, to say the least. haha. It was wellllll worth it though!

***If you want to find out more on the dim sum I ate, check out the dim sum link above. It lists out many of the items I have put into my belly. :)

au pat yik a.k.a. beef tripe

Dan Kat a.k.a. Egg Tarts

au chap (beef stomach with daikon)

dou meel (chinese spinach with garlic)

soon jook goon (pork and mushrooms wrapped in tofu skin)