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)
Wow, yesterday night's dinner at my neighbors' place was amazing! I got to eat so many different types of homemade Indian cuisine. Filling my stomach up with good food was not the only thing my neighbors did, Anshu (sp?) also filled me with a lot of awakening knowledge. He is so intelligent and inspiring. His way of thinking is very pure. I remember going into his apartment and made a comment on how I loved the simplicity of his place. To that, he replied, "Simple living, higher thinking". He taught me various things about Krishna, Indian foods, life & love, marketing, consumerism, war, etc. His wife seemed so pure as well. They just were such simple, yet unique people. I really look forward to building a friendship and bond with them. I think they are the type of people that you just want to surround yourself with. If everyone lived like them, the world would be such a better place (I'm not exxagerating!). keke. (^v^)
Ok, let me talk about the food....
I wish I had an awesome memory and remembered all the names of the foods I had, but I don't. I will try to describe it well as I can. First, we had this super fresh wheat tortilla looking thing. Literally, right off the round pan thing she cooked it in. I believe it's called Chapati. We used this to wrap and dip in various sides. One was this white refreshing yBogurt with cucumber and I believe coriander. I'm pretty sure that was Raita. Anshu told me that it's really good for digestion. I don't like yogurt, but I definitely like (actually, LOVED) Raita. We also had this one side that consisted of potatoes and cabbage and I think made with many spices. I think that was called Kootu. We also had some Chutney and really good Indian rice. In a bowl, we had some potato curry sauce kind of thing. It was really good. Here comes the really good part....dessert. There was homemade vanilla ice cream that had a pinkish hue to it. It was soooo chewy and the aroma was amazing. Next was suji halwa. It was made with cream of wheat (semolina) and almond and raisins. AMAZING AROMA. There was also this block of chewy thing that had the texture of fudge. It was tan in color and was made of almond paste with a cashew on top. So delicious! I think that was called Badam Burfi. Oh, there's more. There was this one rice noodle kind of thing in a sweet milky soup. I believe it is called Payasam. Ok, that's it. I promise. haha. Overall, I loved everything, but the one thing that stood out the most to me was definitely the halwa. The aroma that traveled around the inside of mouth was just incredible, to say the least.
An interesting thing I learned from dinner was that in Indian culture, it is tradition that one person serves and do not eat while others dine. So, the wife served us and treated us like kings. I felt sort of bad at first, but every culture has their reason for doing things and I definitely see the advantage of this tradition. I definitely enjoyed the service. keke. (^v^)
Tamagoyaki is that sweet rolled egg you find in sushi, such as the futomaki roll. It's fluffy and a little sweet. I was craving this today and I remembered my Japanese conversation partner taught me to use honey when making tamagoyaki. So, I tried it out today for dinner and it turned out so well, if I may say so myself. ;) keke. Try it out for a fast, easy, oishii (yummy) super. I put mine over some quick stir fried veggies.
Ingredients
- 1 egg
- 1tsp honey
- 1 tsp of warm water
- nonstick cooking spray or oil
Directions
1. In a bowl, mix the honey and warm water together until the honey is completely dissolved in the water.
2. Add the egg into the bowl and whisk together.
3. Heat a pan on medium heat and spray with non stick cooking spray.
4. When pan is heated, pour egg into pan and try to distribute the egg so you have a thin even layer.
5. Wait till the egg is almost completely cooked through (turn the heat lower if it's burning the bottom). The top should be just a little bit runny.
6. Check to see if the egg is not stuck to the bottom of the pan. Start rolling the egg from one side carefully with your cooking spatula.
7. Once rolled up into a spiral kind shape, put a lid on the pan* and turn to very low heat. This step is to make sure the egg is cooked through.
*** If your pan doesn't come with a lid, it's fine. Just cook it a little longer with low heat.
It's IHOP National Pancake Day. Go to IHOP from 7:00am-10:00pm today for a free short stack of pancakes! Of course, we all know that pancakes aren't the healthiest thing in the world, but it is for a good cause. You can choose to donate to the Children's Miracle Network. I don't know bout you guys, but I'm going for sure. C'mon, free pancakes.... ;)
Ok, I admit that this is not really a "recipe", but something I put together when I had a major sweet tooth but did not want to indulge. But indulge I did! Pummelo is so yum! If you've never tried pummelo, it's like a sweet grapefruit. I would suggest you to try it alone first and then try it with my recipe. :) The sweetness of the vanilla soy milk really balances the tangy citrus taste of the pummelo. So good.
Ingredients
- Half of a pummelo
- about 1/4 cup organic vanilla soy milk
- mint leaves (optional) (for garnish, I didn't use it)
Directions
1. Cut out the meat of the pummelo only.
2. Place in a cute lil glass cup if you got one.
3. Put just enough soy milk to cover the pummelo.
4. Swoosh it around a little and let it soak up the vanilla flavor for like 30 seconds.
5. Take a tiny fork and indulge. :)
I was so frustrated with Weebly that I almost switched over to another blog host, but I submitted a request on what the problem was and it turns out that posting a double column thing will screw things up. So I took the double column off of my Setsubun post. :)
Today, Angela came to take pics of me at my apartment for her photography project. It was interesting. Not my style, but she's truly become a great photographer. :) I wonder what I would be like if I kept taking photography classes with her.
I lucked out today, cause all Lansing schools were canceled. I didn't have to spend 5 hours at field study, which led me to going to the gym early. Always love that. :) My weekend was fattening as hell. You know how going home to your mommy's cooking is. I was really good and refused to eat her rice cakes though. I think I hurt her feelings, but I don't care. I would've been depressed if I ate it anyways.
I went to Trader Joe's Market for the first time with my mom yesterday and it was awesome! I got some steel cut oats to try some of Dani Spies' ideas and I plan to play around with it myself. I'm interested in how they will compare to quick rolled oats.
My Korean student's mom hand sewed this for me!
