Go Crazy with Kimchi

Lake shot of the day

I woke up pretty sore from these last few days of running. I looked out the window, realized that I really didn't feel like going outside today (good thing I didn't, because it turned out to be really windy), so I went down to the weight room and did my usual 40 minutes on the elliptical while looking at some stupid book on colleges... I need big books that will stay open. Boring, but at least I got to sweat some.
Breakfast was amazing, if I do say so myself. I plan on eating this amazing gingerbread until it's gone, so I need to get creative here.
Gingerbread Parfait with Caramelized Apple Chutney, Greek Yogurt, and Cashew Butter
Sounds gourmet, no?
Basically, I just layered the ingredients with a drizzle of Whole Foods raw fresh cashew butter, which I'd never had before. Very mild, but refined. Delicious, in fact, but a completely different creature from peanut butter, which is attention-seeking and hogs the spotlight.
I heated the gingerbread first. It went great with my chutney, which has proven to be versatile! My dad ate it with chicken for lunch, and, just as I predicted, it makes a nice accompaniment to meat.
Lunch: leftovers! We must clean out that fridge! More of that seitan pie (now that I think about it, it really isn't a pot pie, because the crust isn't puff pastry and there's a bottom crust), spinach and more vegetables.

And a pear.

I went to the bookstore and bought:
-A better edition of Anna Karenina
-TALES OF BEETLE THE BARD, which I've already read. And all the proceeds are going to charity! Go Rowling!
-There was a 20% off cook book sale, but I couldn't find anything I wanted! I have more than enough cookbooks, but what I really want are some good Japanese, Korean, and African (not just North African) cookbooks.

I was a little hungry later on and had a bowl of Amy's chocolate vanilla bunnies with a little GoLean Crunch, half a banana, blackberries, and soymilk.

Therefore, I wasn't too hungry for dinner, but my dad and I cooked, and I'm really glad we did. We were thinking of just having more leftovers, but we ended up incorporating leftovers into what I made, which was bibimbap! I've never made Korean food at home, but it really wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. The only difficulty was stir-frying EVERY single topping separately. (Check out the awesome peanut oil-pouring shot!)


Toppings we used:
-Carrots
-Burdock (also known as mountain yam... it looks like an extra thick, hairy, brown carrot)
-Cucumber (But only the skins, which is interesting)
-Watercress
-Instead of beef, I used some "soy chicken" from Chinatown, which is basically just tofu rolled up to look like chicken... no TVP here. I seasoned it with sesame oil, soy sauce, sesame seeds, ginger, garlic, and a little sugar.
-Leftover mung bean sprouts
-Leftover Korean zucchini seafood-pancake (literally a tiny piece)-- we used this instead of a sunny side up egg
-MUSHROOMS
-and of course, kimchi.
-AND some pear-- this really evened out the spiciness


(All mixed together)
We microwaved leftover brown rice and mixed it with chili paste and sesame oil, then topped it with the vegetables... and more chili paste.
I ate the entire bowl, minus some of the soy chicken. The carrots and burdock were the best part-- they were a little burned, almost like shoestring potatoes or something!
Mm, this is one of those meals where I just don't want a dessert because I want to remember it. To get rid of that garlicky kimchi taste, I had a tangerine.

I finished Interview with the Vampire. How come nobody told me it was so philosophical and depressing? Any slightly more cheerful vampire stories? Or just good books in general?

I can't think of a title for this post

Wednesday is piano day.
Caught a ride to school with some extremely nice neighbors.
Breakfast: 1/3 cup oats, 1/2 cup of my butternut squash from last night, 1/2 banana, the rest of our cranberry sauce stirred in (this didn't look as pretty, but at least it wasn't cold) 1/3 cup oat milk, 1/3 cup water, Greek yogurt, candied walnuts.
I didn't have a snack today, but I did grab a carrot from my lunch box.
Lunch: tofu sandwich with hummus and spinach! It was kind of bland... maybe it needed mustard (weird with hummus though) or something. But super satisfying!
I was really craving hummus, so I had more carrots and celery with more hummus.
And a pear.
The lunch spread you see includes snacks for music.
I took the bus downtown after school to music... I got there about 45 minutes early, so I went to Starbucks because I was literally FALLING asleep. I couldn't decide what to get, but I didn't make such a good decision in the end. Whereas I like the sweetness of mochas, the pumpkin spice latte was just NOT for me. I thought it tasted way too sugary by the end... and what's in it, anyway? It was orange... was there actually pumpkin in it?

I had an apple. I was originally going to have a larabar too, but I thought that was overkill.
Quartet went well, but because the coach is a cellist, there wasn't really much I could do...
Private lesson was the opposite-- in an hour, we only got through 2 pages of a nocturne!
So my dad picked me up (back from his trip, but he leaves tomorrow) and we went home, where we had the world's fastest dinner.
He stir-fried some cauliflower, we had leftover brown rice, string beans, and those salmon sausages I bought at Whole Foods.
The verdict: DELICIOUS! Tasted just like meat to me! It's not that you couldn't tell it was salmon, but the texture was very convincing. It's not even meant to imitate meat, I don't think, but it was great. I ate it with ketchup and mustard.
I was starving, given lack of snacks and being out of the house for over 12 hours, so I had seconds.


And thirds on cauliflower that I didn't photograph.
I still wanted something sweet, so I had grapes and a zen soy swirl pudding... I still can't decide if I like them or not. I like the first bite, and then by the end I already feel like I shouldn't buy them again.

I love my Sailor Moon spoon...
tomorrow is my friend Kaitlyn's birthday, and I'm making her a special lunch :) Nothing fancy, but it'll be fun for me, because I'll pack her stuff I would never make for myself (she's the opposite of me... carnivorous, junk-foody, etc.): I'm thinking a marshmallow, nutella and banana sandwich. I'll also leave her a little card and maybe some other cute things.
Good night!

Home Alone

Well, I'm alone this week! Not exactly... my dad left today, is coming back tomorrow, leaving the next day, and my aunt is coming to stay with me during the weekend.
I'm pretty excited... planning on cooking for her and dragging her to see TWILIGHT! 3rd time's a charm (for me-- page has already seen it 4 TIMES!).
I actually enjoy being home alone. the only annoying thing is that I can't drive, so it's the bus and walking in this terrible weather.
Breakfast: For some reason I just haven't felt like oats as much, although I plan to have them tomorrow.
I had 2 pieces of toast with 3 tsps of peanut butter total... I know I'm a moron, but how many tsps in a tbsp? is it 4? I might just look it up. Anyways, there was half a sliced banana on the toast.
I also had 1/2 cup of cottage cheese with blueberries and wheat germ.
Plus Chai tea because I was tired, which I had with STEVIA! I can't believe that this is all natural... not that it doesn't taste natural... but why doesn't it have calories?
Snack once again was carrots, but with celery this time. I find that I just need something to munch on, and this does the trick.
Lunch: leftover eggs and tomatoes over brown rice with more string beans. And an apple.

I got home from school on the bus and it was gorgeous outside, but way too slippery for me to even consider running (I saw my friends' running, but I was afraid they might accidentally fall and kill themselves). Instead, I went home and worked out on the elliptical. That's 3 days in a row that I've done the same machine! Normally I HATE machines... but since I'm getting a workout, I won't complain, although I wonder what caused this sudden change. Because I was finding it a little hard to read actual books, I took some cookbooks and leafed through all the pictures. The time went by super fast! I did 40 minutes doing not exactly intervals, but every five minutes I would go up a level until I was almost on the highest level. I burned 380 something calories. Then I felt I hadn't cooled down, so I walked for 11 or so minutes on the treadmill. Then I did some upper body weights and some bicycle sets.
When I got back I had a pear.

For dinner I couldn't wait to cook! What's awesome about home alone is that I can cook whatever I want... weird vegan things my parents would find strange, make pancakes, whatever!
I decided to experiment with some more Western-style tofu and make a kind of oven-baked tofu, like oven-baked chicken, which is the healthy version of fried chicken.
This was mainly because we have buttermilk in our fridge that I would like to get rid of... I didn't end up using all of it, though. I combined a couple recipes: one from Running with Food and an Ellie Krieger one. I was stupid, though! I took Ellie's idea of using grape nuts and crackers, but I didn't crush them first, so of course they wouldn't stick to the tofu! I dipped the tofu in a combination of buttermilk, mustard, honey and egg whites, but because the coating didn't stick, it became more like a crunchy topping, that was still pretty good.
And this was the most exciting part of the whole evening: KALE CHIPS! I have heard so much about these, but I've always been skeptical. I just baked them for a little under ten minutes with olive oil, salt and pepper, and they actually tasted exactly like potato chips! I haven't even really been craving potato chips, but if I had been, this would have satisfied that craving. I wonder if I could eat them with some vinegar to bring back salt 'n vinegar memories...
I ate the chips and tofu with ketchup.


I really wanted to bake a potato or something, but we don't have any! :( I thought my usual brown rice would make this seem to Asian, which was the opposite of what I was going for, so I resorted to canned butternut squash, which I heated up with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, maple syrup, and salt. The problem was that I always overdo the ginger, which gave it a slight bitter aftertaste... but no big deal.
What a fun dinner! Very unlike the things I usually cook... I used to cook very mushy, soupy food-- mainly bean-based soups and stews. There's nothing wrong with that, but this is more interesting. I've gotten back in the groove!
And because I didn't really have any substantial snacks today I thought it was justified to satisfy my sweet tooth: hence, a nice bowl of the last of the vanilla frozen yogurt and some more Purely Decadent Snickerdoodle.

Good night!
The house is quiet.

Classic comfort staples

This will be short because there are only a few more weeks before winter break and that means TONS of tests, papers, and projects!
Last night I made a yummy sundae with vanilla frozen yogurt, mango, half a banana, cinnamon, and a sprinkle of coconut. YUM.

Breakfast: went for 1/2 cup of oats because during the week, I need a more substantial breakfast: 1/2 cup oats, 1/2 cup of that weird maple flavored oat milk (i might have to throw this out...), 1/2 cup water, 1/2 banana, some blueberries, flax, and Greek yogurt.
Snack: I nibbled on carrots! It was nice to have this instead of a bar because my mid-morning hunger isn't so severe that I need something THAT calorie dense.

Lunch: I made a delicious wrap, although it got so flattened that it looked more like a sandwich. It had baby spinach, rapini, avocado, a Laughing Cow, and hummus. SO GOOD! Plus leftover broccoli and an apple.

It was practically a blizzard all day! I love snow, but that cancels out all possibilities of running outside. I decided to come home after school and try a different approach- save the homework for LAST, because then you really can't procrastinate. Right when I got home, I changed and went down to the workout room for some elliptical stuff. I did intervals today... 5 minutes warm up, 1 minute hard, 2 minutes easy for 25 minutes, then another 10 minutes of moderately paced training. Intervals definitely make things more interesting! I don't usually trust the calorie burn, but it was about 390 calories.
I went upstairs and had a snack of 1/2 cup cottage cheese, the other half of my banana, and 1/8 cup of grapenuts with cinnamon.

This definitely tided me over till dinner! I practiced an hour of piano and did some homework while my dad made the fastest dinner in the world.
THIS IS COMFORT FOOD TO ME. Pure Chinese homestyle cooking: scrambled eggs and tomatoes and stir-fried string beans.

The eggs, which I need to make sometime, are really simple: you scramble eggs in vegetable oil, then add garlic, ginger, salt, soy sauce, and tomatoes, and stir-fry it and then reduce the heat. The tomatoes burst and the whole thing becomes sweet and soupy-- in fact, many restaurants serve this as a sauce for noodles!
Seconds on eggs:

OH YUM YUM...
and I feel a dessert/fruit craving coming on.
Had hot chocolate, a pear, some grapes, and a small whole grain graham cracker square that tasted like cardboard.

NOTE THE AWESOME ROBOT MUG.

Good night!

Rosh Hashana!

Apples and honey

The best challah from Fox and Obel

Chicken soup with knaidlach (which I couldn't have :( )

Grilled swordfish

Carrot and butternut squash tzimmes

Salad with roasted beets, cherry tomatoes and pumpkin seeds

Patrizia's apple cake

Aunt Claire came! And we had possibly the most disorganized and unorthodox kiddush and blessings... we kept singing the wrong tune, and also forgot to bring out the pomegranate! My dad hummed along, as usual.

Sorry I haven't been posting! Not many excuses, but I just haven't felt like it... partially because I eat too much to take a photo of every time I eat.