AAA, camera is MIA

I'm telling myself that I'll find my camera, which was in my pencil case. Of course, the one day I can't find my camera case and decide to put my camera in my pencil case, I leave my pencil case at at school. It had better be in my locker... that's all I can say. so alas, today's post is picture-less for now.
Breakfast: VERY SWEET. In theory, dessert for breakfast. It fixed my sweet tooth, though!
2 pieces of banana bread with peanut butter, some berries, and a mug of hot chocolate (must get rid of all this milk!) with 2 tiny kosher marshmallows that just melted in.
I didn't have a snack between breakfast and lunch, but I ended up eating my snack (a Clif nectar bar) at lunch anyways, so I think I should probably still have a snack to keep my blood sugar up. the bar was good... like a Larabar, but less dense.
For lunch I had a great sandwich, although not very filling: pumpernickel-rye bread with avocado, a Laughing Cow, spinach, and sliced green apple.
on the side: a carrot and some grapes.
After school (it feels so nice not to have swim practice!) I took a long walk with my friend Becca, who goes to boarding school. When I got home I was pretty hungry, so I had cottage cheese with a chopped up pear, cinnamon, and a handful of Grapenuts.
My dad cooked a fast, satisfying dinner today... I definitely ate too much, but a lot of that was soup and fiber: he made soup noodles with tons of Chinese flat noodles, fresh mushrooms, pickled cabbage, Chinese greens, carrots, ginger, sesame oil, vinegar, soy sauce, and silken tofu. He also opened up a can of this Buddhist dish (Chinese canned food is surprisingly good!) that has seitan, mushrooms, bamboo shoots and quail eggs (I didn't eat the quail eggs).
And now I am so full...
Thanksgiving is so soon! It'll be weird with my mom gone, but my dad and I are planning something fun with his grad students.

Sunday... I saw Twilight again

I want to confess that last night after dinner I went back for some ice cream and raspberries.
I had both Stoneyfield nonfat vanilla frozen yogurt and Purely Decadent non-dairy SNICKERDOODLE ice cream. I don't think I've eaten any ice cream so delicious for a while... It's definitely not health food, and I couldn't help going back for some more.

I did see the movie again, dragging my dad to it this time. All I can say is that it was even better for me the second time! I relished every scene with Jacob, and was excited because I didn't have to be worried that they were going to change the ending.
Plus they showed a trailer for Harry Potter 6! It looks pretty good... but July is way too long to wait!
Today I just didn't feel like running, and I didn't feel like making myself. Yesterday was just not fun, and it kind of took the appeal out of it. Running with people is better for me, unless I'm in the right mood.
For breakfast I wasn't starving, so I had some cereal: Annie's cocoa vanilla bunnies with 1% milk (we currently have 2 things of skim, 1 thing of 1% and 1 of 2% in the fridge and I don't know why! So I must use them up), a banana, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, almonds, and a drizzle of peanut butter.
I worked part of the morning, then made some banana bread!
I made Kath's recipe, but added lots of spices and replaced the honey with maple syrup. It's amazing that this has no added oil whatsoever!
My dad and I went for a walk by the lake. It felt nice to get some fresh air. By the time we came back it was already lunchtime. I must confess that although I was eating a nice, organic, vegetarian meal, it was ironic how pure my dad's lunch looked compared to mine. It was all I could do not to start eating it right then and there.
Mine:
A wrap with hummus, spinach, and leftover tempeh.
A carrot with hummus and grapes
A big chunk of banana bread
A glass of milk


Him: a giant, zen, peaceful bowl of cabbage and sparerib soup with rice. It looked so utterly wonderful, and I never used to eat the pork in it anyway... it was just such a nice flavoring agent. What do I do? If he uses organic pork to make it next time, we'll see what happens.

We went to see Twilight at 1:45... the theater was pretty empty and I think he liked it.
When I got home I had an apple and some tea.
Dinner was great tonight, and we didn't really put any thought into it! It's a rare occasion that my dad does non-Chinese food, but he did a great job! He'd bought 2 sea bass filets from Whole Foods, and he pan-fried them with a sauce of tomatoes, olives, and oregano, which we ate with brown rice, arugula salad, and an eggplant dip that I made.
I roasted an eggplant whole for 45 minutes, but it was pretty stringy, so the flesh I could salvage wasn't right for what I was intending to make. Instead, I turned it into a dip with pomegranate molasses, olive oil, parsley, salt and pepper, a sprinkle of sumac (love that stuff!), pomegranate seeds, and a spoonful of full-fat Greek yogurt, because my mom is the only one who eats it and I need to find a way to get rid of it while she's away... situations like this, where you only use a little, are a good idea. If I do say so myself, the complexity of the flavor in this dip was amazing! I only wish there had been more... 1 eggplant certainly doesn't make a lot when you peel off the skin.





What a great dinner! It's too bad I still have a lot of work...

Mozart and Mung Beans

Happy Wednesday! There's a Chinese expression that says "Once Wednesday is over, there's only tomorrow and the day after tomorrow until the weekend!"
Tomorrow I'm actually going to the MIDNIGHT showing of Twilight with Page... shh, don't tell. It seems like all the cool "Indie" seeming kids are actually secretly seeing the movie, but they won't want to say anything.
Breakfast: Oatmeal with 1/2 banana, applesauce, blueberries, raspberries, maple syrup, yogurt, and some grapenuts.


Snack: Peanut butter Z-bar
Lunch: Check out my awesome Chinese lunchbox!
Layer 1:
Layer 2:
Layer 3:
By the way, those are just leftovers of steamed egg and tofu with greens.
Plus an Asian pear to go with the whole Asian theme and some Kashis, dried fruit and nuts (I DIDN'T NEED THIS. I need to stop packing food that I don't need).

As for a workout today, I took advantage of workout center in PE. It was a relatively easy workout, since my legs were KILLING ME TODAY. I didn't think yesterday was hard, but I guess my body wasn't used to it. I did my swim coach's workout: 5 minutes warm up, 1 minute high, fast intensity, 2 minutes easy, for 25 minutes, then 5 minutes cool down (on the elliptical). It was enough to get me really hot and sweaty, so after class I went to the little kids' playground and read Moby-Dick until I got cold. It was nice.
I had to take public transport to music school, which was a way to get some more walking in. I was so tired, I actually fell asleep on the bus! It's rare that I'm tired enough to fall asleep standing up. I was leaning to the side, but when the bus jolted to a halt I gasped pretty loudly and woke up.
I had some time to kill before my quartet (5:30), and I had a private lesson after, so I knew dinner wouldn't be until pretty late. I stopped at Starbucks for some much-needed caffeine and food, since Starbucks has definitely been improving their food!
I got a nonfat gingersnap latte and their "Protein Plate," which had apple slices, grapes, a hard-boiled egg, a mini whole wheat bagel, peanut butter, and cheddar cheese. Squeezing the peanut butter out of the package was really fun! I didn't eat the egg yolk and only had one piece of the cheese, which was rubbery and probably not worth it. But I guess protein really is the key to staying full! I wasn't even that hungry when I got home, but of course I ate way more than I should have.
By the way, quartet was awesome! Teacher couldn't make it this week and the violist wasn't there, so the cellist, violinist and I worked on the Mozart. I love chamber music.
Private lesson also went well, except that my hands are so dry that they were bleeding a little. I need to carry around lotion.
My dad cooked again, since my mom is busy packing. Sadly, he made the dish that I miss most about being a vegetarian, and it's so extremely frustrating since I never even ate the meat anyway! It's a very humble dish: spare rib and cabbage soup. The pork is taken out of the soup and served separately with soy sauce, the soup is purged of all fat and impurities until it's a cloudy broth with leafy cabbage. I miss it so much, and it really is pretty healthy. I was tempted, but I still haven't made my decision. Every time I think I'm going to start eating meat again, I read some terrible article... like today, I read about workers kicking turkeys and shoving broomsticks down their throats.

Anyways, I feasted on vegetables tonight: green peppers and vinegar and MUNG BEAN SPROUTS! Those are the sprouts with the smaller pods at the end, and they're green, unlike soy bean sprouts, which are yellow. The peppers are first grilled until completely burned, then stir-fried with vinegar. They have a very meaty taste.
The mung bean sprouts have lots of scallions, ginger, garlic, a little cornstarch, and sesame oil.


And we finally made real brown rice tonight! I hate the pre-packaged stuff... so dry.
Condiments: homemade chili oil
and this weird fermented tofu stuff.

I really didn't need seconds, but of course I had them. I really need to start listening to my body... maybe I would lose a few pounds. I don't really need to, but I think now I'm eating more than is really necessary. I hate feeling stuffed.
TWILIGHT TOMORROW! OH YES...

SECTIONALS!!!

I can't even believe that swimming is over for the year.
I slept for almost 11 hours last night-- can you believe it?? Granted, I woke up a million times in between, but I went to bed at 10:30 and got up at 9:00 to SHAVE MY LEGS! The whole process took about 20 minutes, since I wasn't that hairy to begin with, but my legs felt SO GREAT after it was over. It did feel pretty wonderful to just slip through the water, although I don't know if that was what actually helped my times. The pool we used at UIC was 16 FEET DEEP! It was so deep that there were windows on the walls so that people underground could look through them and see us underwater!
I ate a big breakfast, since I knew I wouldn't be getting lunch:
1 scrambled egg yolk and one white
Oatmeal with 1/2 cup oats, 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup water, 1 banana, applesauce, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, pecans, almonds, and Greek yogurt. That's what I call filling!
Plus Earl Gray for that pre-meet caffeine boost (there was no drug testing at Sectionals, and I wonder how much caffeine you would have to have to get in trouble for abusing it).
Sectionals was pretty much all day today, and I got best times on everything! I got a 30 on my 50 free and we got 5th overall in our 200 free relay! We even got medals that are shaped like the state of Illinois :)



CHECK OUT OUR SIGNS! In the one that shows all our team members, I'm shown with my plaid pants and a big plate of food in front of me. Thanks, guys!
In between events I snacked on some of my friend Page's Honey Nut Cheerios and a cookies 'n cream Luna bar.
I didn't get my desired 1:23 in breast, but I did get a faster 1:24 than I'd gotten in a while! I'm actually really lucky that I didn't get disqualified, because on my first 50 I only touched the wall with one hand! I was SO AFRAID they would notice, and the second 50 i was just thinking "DQ. DQ. DQ."
I kept humiliating myself! In my 50 free, I actually FELL off the block before he said go, and we all started over. It was so incredibly embarrassing. I guess I was just really nervous today, but everything worked out okay. My friend Page dropped 5 SECONDS in her 100 freestyle! In a sprint, dropping even 1 second is a big deal!
After the meet, we all headed over to Connie's pizza where Coach's awards were given out to seniors (go Aimee and Caroline! There, you're on the blog now) and we gave our coach his present... Hahahaha. Caroline ordered a suit and they actually gave her the guy's version, so we passed it on to Mike!
I personally hate deep-dish pizza, but we hadn't had lunch, so I saw no problem with eating it. I had 2 pieces of veggie pizza (the second without the cheese), and a ton of salad.
Although the cake was AWESOME-- it had our team picture on it-- I didn't think it was worth eating. I hate frosting. I had a horrible garlic taste in my mouth, though, and maybe eating cake would have gotten rid of it.
We all said our good byes-- some of us cried-- and Page and I left. Once home, I had a bowl of berries to rinse out the garlic taste, which, by the way, has still not gone away!

Now that the excitement of swimming is over, I'm realizing HOW MUCH homework I have this weekend-- it's crazy!
Plus, tomorrow will be EXTREMELY EXCITING, BLOGWISE. The chef of the best (supposedly) Thai restaurant in Chicago, Arun's, is best friends with one of my neighbors (his name is Arun, by the way), and she knows how much I love food. In addition to inviting me to eat at his restaurant next weekend, she is bringing me tomorrow as a guest TO HIS COUNTRY HOUSE IN MICHIGAN WHERE HE WILL COOK US BRUNCH AND BE FILMED BY THE CANADIAN FOOD CHANNEL! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW EXCITING THIS IS? ONLY MY DREAM COME TRUE, THAT'S ALL.
OH MY GOD. Hope you guys are all having a good weekend!

All about fermentation

Here I am, blogging in the library since I have last period free today. I'm blogging now because there's a pasta party immediately after practice and I don't know how much time I'll have before I get home. I GET TO SHAVE TODAY!


Breakfast (this kept me full all the way till 5th period!): two pieces of pumpkin bread with peanut butter and banana, cottage cheese with blueberries, strawberries, wheat germ, honey, a sprinkle of grape nuts and slivered almonds, and the rest of the chocolate soy milk, which was literally one sip.
I have to say though, I went back for some more cottage cheese (I need at least one and a half servings to fill me up) and cereal (puffins this time), and cut my mouth when I was chewing! Has this ever happened that something you're eating has a sharp edge and scratches the inside of your mouth? Painful!
Anyways, bio was super interesting today, since our current unit is metabolism. Today we talked about fermentation, and our teacher asked for us to name some fermented foods. I immediately starting naming the works: tempeh, natto, kimchi...
and he said, "Kimchi's good! And what's the Western equivalent?"
I immediately answered "Sauerkraut!"
Him: Cabbage fan!
The conversation kept going, until he mentioned Middle Eastern preserved lemons. I accidentally blurted out "I LOVE THAT STUFF!" and everybody game me a weird look, including him. "We'll talk privately," he said.
It turns out that he bakes bread (we talked about the biology of alcohol fermentation vs. lactic acid fermentation) and we own the same great food science book, On Food and Cooking.
I WISH I HADN'T DROPPED FOOD CHEMISTRY! It's a spring quarter elective, but it meets during Art History :(
Anyways, he put a picture of natto on the project for everyone to see. Most people couldn't tell what it was: some thought it was a rice krispie treat, beans and cheese, or even larvae.
He brought out a jar of millet miso from this Massachusetts miso company (South River Miso) whose miso is actually made by stomping on the soy beans! He put it into some scary-looking machine that could detect C02 and O2 emissions to test the level of living bacteria in the miso.
Something else I remembered! He makes sourdough by adding GRAPES in with the flour-water mixture before adding the starter! They have to be organic, though: apparently the white film around the outside of organic grapes are all organisms, so they help the fermentation happen faster. Cool, huh? Also, apparently the reason almost all soy products are fermented is because they're more nutritious that way.
Around 11:40, I had my blueberry z bar.
Lunch: very filling! Leftover pumpkin and lentils and couscous, plus applesauce and an orange. It was so juicy, my hands still smell like oranges!

That's about it for now. I'll update what happened with the pasta party later. Pictures will also be posted later.
PS: an example of a lunch that is exactly the opposite of mine? Behold my friend Kaitlyn's: pretzels, 2 Uncrustables, Cheese Nips, mandarin-orange ish fruit, and a banana.