LATKES!!!

Whew, I'm exhausted! I spent a good 4.5 hours just walking without sitting down once! I slept in because I watched Gossip Girl until 1 am.... guilty pleasure guilty pleasure... then I walked into my mom's study to check on her to find her watching the SAME THING (but a few episodes behind me)!!!
Because I slept in so late, I had a relatively light breakfast: cottage cheese with a little yogurt (not Greek, which is rare), 1/2 banana, blackberries, grapenuts, pecans, and sliced almonds.
I needed to get out of the house... this is what happens when I sleep in-- I feel like I've wasted the day! I decided on a whim that Jewish or not, I would be celebrating Christmas this year by buying people presents! I braved the freezing cold weather in my warmest clothes, gloves, a scarf, and a hat, and took the bus downtown. I spent ages gazing at presents I knew I couldn't afford, but eventually I was pretty successful. I left at around 11:45 and I didn't get home until after 4:00. I didn't stop for lunch or anything! I did, however, grab a quick nonfat decaf mocha (not pictured... I didn't sit down, remember?), which warmed me up considerably.
However, when I got home, I was STARVING! I scarfed down the rest of the lentil chestnut soup, graham crackers and peanut butter, and an apple.

This still didn't really fill me up (moral of the story: bring a snack), but I knew dinner would be relatively soon, so I didn't eat anymore. It's a good thing I didn't, because tonight's dinner was fantastic!!!
I only really need to eat latkes once or twice a year, due to being so rich. Tonight we had latkes with homemade apple/pear sauce and Greek yogurt (full fat because when you just have a dollop it makes all the difference... I wish it had been sour cream, though, for the full Jewish effect).

We also had a beet soup with beet greens, like a faux borscht, which we also ate with a little yogurt.

I had 1 1/2 latkes, and believe me, I was stuffed! These latkes still weren't as greasy as most, though, which is why they're not 100% golden and crispy.
On the side we had an arugula salad with candied walnuts.


My parents thought this was a weird meal because there was no main course, but that didn't even occur to me! To me, it seemed perfectly balanced and filling. I didn't even think of having dessert.
But I did have a tangerine.

Lights out

I want to be in bed EARLY today... say, 9:15 or so? This was the most relaxing Thanksgiving break ever. Normally I would have found it pretty boring, since I mainly just lounged around the house, leaving it only to do exercise and homework, but with the world's worst weather outside, I really enjoyed it.
Today I woke up too hungry to do exercise right away. I actually woke up at 7 and FINISHED MOBY-DICK! That is an accomplishment... only I don't know what I think of the ending. In fact, I'm annoyed at Melville. He made us read all 450 pages of that tiny print of a plot where no progress is made and everything ends in disaster? Now, I know the whale represents nature and you can't conquer nature, blahblahblah, and I am totally anti-whaling, but for once, could they have killed him just to make the ending feel definite?
Enough ranting-- I hadn't had oats in a long time, and made them this morning. I had a third cup portion, and it seemed TINY! Of course, it ended up filling me up, but I just wasn't used to there not being so much volume.
I had: 1/3 cup oats, 1/3 cup this WEIRD oat milk stuff that is brown sugar maple flavored... I tried it plain and nearly threw up, but it seems okay cooked in oats, 1/3 cup water, 1/2 banana, cinnamon, 1/8 cup cottage cheese, cranberry sauce, a drizzle of peanut butter, some walnuts, and a little Greek yogurt.
I did stuff in the morning and around 9:30 or something I went down to the workout room. I was afraid somebody would be in there but nobody was! I did 40 minutes on the elliptical reading Interview with the Vampire. It was my first time reading and working out at the same time, and I managed to get a good workout in without feeling bored, which is my big problem with machines. Basically, as I read, I kept increasing the level until I was at level 23 or something! I do want to try interval training, but I think I need to be in the right mood.
Afterwards I used the limited number of strength machines to do 3 sets each of the one that works your pecs and triceps and the one that works your quads and calves (sorry, don't know the names).
I also did 3 sets of bicycles, which were killing me at the end. I think it's because I did a lot... at least for me-- my friend Aoife does 60 on each side! and that's ONE SET! I did 40 and that was plenty for me.
It felt nice to sweat, actually! With swimming and running in the freezing cold, you don't sweat. Actually, I take that back. I was sweating in that damn 85 degree pool the other day!
I didn't eat anything after my workout because it was pretty close to lunch. For lunch my dad had leftover pizza and I made a leftovers plate too with zucchini, the last cauliflower ball, and the rapini, which I added some feta and lemon too. I also had a piece of pumpernickel with avocado, smoked salmon, and lemon. This was very filling and delicious.

Check out that perfect avocado!

Later I was starving and had an apple.

Afterwards I braved the weather to go back to Istria (I wonder if they'll start to recognize me...) and write my second art history paper. This was SO MUCH FUN TO WRITE! Basically, you go to a museum (the Art Institute) and pick a piece that predates 100 CE, then do a fake analysis of it where you make up its symbolism, where it was from, etc. I chose this Chinese pig pen model, but my paper became almost like a mystery story where it turns out that the society worshipped pigs (Piganism, like Paganism, get it?), but also had this weird idea that life couldn't exist without death, so they would kill the pigs and eventually they all died out.
While I was there, I had a decaf mocha with skim, which I had been looking forward to all morning. I was hungry, and all that delicious milk and chocolate filled me up!

By the way, this listening to my body thing is definitely working. It might just be psychological, but I already feel thinner and that my jeans are looser, as well as just feeling BETTER and less bloated all the time. Win-win situation.
My dad and I went to Whole Foods afterwards and bought a bunch of stuff-- we spent less money than last time, thank god.

I bought stevia, finally! So excited to try it!
For dinner I made another dish from the Flexitarian Table, which is slowly becoming my kitchen Bible. This dish is probably a hate it or love it kind of thing, because its flavors are STRONG. It's German or Eastern-European influenced... I made the "non-vegetarian" option (I could have made it with tempeh): smoked white fish over saurkraut with apples and onions.
It was so easy! All I had to do was saute the onions with apple, carrot, celery and caraway seeds, simmer it down with white wine, add the saurkraut, simmer, then add the fish and simmer. It was really fast because really, everything was cooked. this would be great to make if you had nothing fresh and needed to resort to what was in your pantry.
On the side we had boiled potatoes, which were perfect because they were so bland.
My dad also stir-fried some broccoli, which I had seconds of.
And now I feel the urge for something sweet, so that will probably happen soon. I'm going to get everything together for school and get in bed with Interview with the Vampire! Life is sweet!
Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving weekend!

Ho Hum, my arm is bruised, and so are the peaches that I turned into ice cream

I have never felt so sleep-deprived in my life. I think I've gotten maybe 11 hours in 3 DAYS? I usually get 9 hours a night! I feel so tired that I feel constantly awake (and I haven't had any caffeine). Practice yesterday wasn't that strenuous, so I didn't get tired until 1 AM, but then I woke up at 4 and couldn't get back to sleep. I was starving, probably 1) from jet lag (it would have been dinnertime) and 2) I'm always hungry in the morning. I kept trying to sleep, but got up and had breakfast at 7:00. I ate a lot, but still didn't feel totally full:
-Whole wheat cinnamon raisin English muffin (1 half with almond butter, 1 with peanut butter)
-A bowl of a combination of cottage cheese, buttermilk, and Greek yogurt with grape nuts, peach, berries, wheat germ, cinnamon, nuts, and a drizzle of honey.
-Rooibos tea with milk

After breakfast, I went back to "sleep--" aka staring at the insides of my eyelids until 10. My mom had slept more than me, but she also woke up in the middle of the night. Today was not a good day at the beginning. I was under-slept, my mom and I were yelling at each other the entire morning, I found out that I can't take Russian at U of C because it won't fit into my schedule, and we had to rush for lunch and everything else because my mom had to go downtown for Pilates.
Lunch was very hurried and badly presented, since I was in such a rush (and rage): Grilled portabello mushrooms (brushed with balsamic and olive oil) on potato buns, pickles, carrots and peppers with hummus, and the rest of the tomato soup. It's amazing how the quinoa acts as a thickener. As for the mushrooms, I wish there was some way to add more protein to them (other than cheese), because I just end up slathering them with ketchup. We were out of salad or anything green, so there was no crunch. Oh well.
Swim practice... I knew that it would make me feel better and more awake, although we had to do kick sets with shoes today! I know that sounds unsanitary and it probably is, but our coach says that the chemicals in the pool kill the bacteria. We had a meet today that I didn't have to compete in, but it was incredible that people were expected to do the workout that we did and then compete in 4 events each. Crazy.
The bruise from yesterday has turned bright purple and hurts a LOT. It didn't help today that after our kick sets (he made us dive in and do IM order (butterfly, backstroke, breast stroke, freestyle) sprints with shoes on!!! Satanist. And more than one set of these!), we had to sprint, get out, jump back in, sprint, get out, jump back in-- climbing in and out of the pool, scraping my arms and legs in the same place every time. Ow.
After practice I had a banana that had gotten disgustingly mushed in my bag. We won the meet, but it wasn't fair, considering the other team only had 8 people.
I got home more than an hour later and was starving, even though I didn't race today. I had a little trail mix and some milk.
For dinner, we had: Salmon steaks with berry glaze from The Philosopher's Kitchen, by Francine Segan. Basically, it's just grilled salmon drizzled with a little bit of butter (gasp), sauteed with shallots and raspberry vinegar, then served with raspberries. The sweetness of the salmon went perfectly with the tartness of the berries, and I also added a squirt of lemon and some cayenne.
On the side we had boiled purple fingerlings with mixed herbs and a drizzle of olive oil, some sliced tomatoes with basil, and finally, just a simple green salad (sorry about the picture).
Because one of my best friends and her mom are coming over for dinner tomorrow night and I'm supposed to be cooking, I decided to make the peach ice cream tonight. The problem is, making ice cream is actually pretty simple, but everything seemed to go wrong. First of all, I curse Mark Bittman for not specifying what heat to heat the custard mixture at, because it curdled and I had to strain it through a sieve, which took ages-- but at least it ended up alright. Second of all, it took us about an hour to figure out just how to use the ice cream maker-- I've only used it once, and that was for blood orange sorbet, which was much simpler. We kept thinking that we were missing a part, since we couldn't find the instructions and all the instructions online were for older models. FINALLY we found the instructions and put it together.
I combined a few different recipes for this:
Peach Ginger Ice Cream (yes, this is so creamy and decadent I think it's going to have to be the side to something else):
-1 1/2 cups cream, 1/2 cup milk (or any combination of the two)
-6 eggs
-1/2 cup sugar
-1 cup pureed peaches
-a tsp grated ginger
-I also decided to add in some chopped peaches and crystallized ginger at the end.
All you have to do is heat the milk, cream and ginger, combine the eggs and sugar, and when the milk has boiled, add a little bit of the milk to the eggs and whisk. Then add the eggs into the cream and heat. When it's thick enough (this was my mistake-- I let it curdle), turn off the heat, add the peaches, and cool. When it's cool enough, pour into ice cream maker. When the ice cream maker can't churn it any more because it's too thick, add in the peaches and ginger, then put the ice cream bowl back in the freezer for overnight.
I'm not sure what else I'm making tomorrow, but I know I'm making either a carrot or Kabocha squash soup, in addition to some kind of chickpea dish with the most delicious specialty brown rice that my mom got me for my birthday. Sounds simple and monastic, but we'll see (both my friend and her mom are vegetarians. Her mom used to be a vegan), and I might make a dessert to go with the ice cream... fruit crisp, maybe?
I really should sleep. I think I'll take a sleeping pill tonight.

Refuel after swimming and eat light for Japanese dinner

Got in a great swimming workout today-- lap after lap of just kicking, doing freestyle arms and butterfly. I realized I've been swimming better lately because I've been eating a little bit before practice, since I start to get hungry in the middle. The problem is, we don't have much in the house that's good for snacking on. Today I finally resorted to crackers and peanut butter... at home I always go for the all natural kind and avoid Skippy at all costs. I don't know what brand we have over here, but it actually has fully hydrogenated vegetable oil on the ingredients list! I've never even seen that on a nutrition label before... I've only ever seen partially hydrogenated. That company has guts... you have to give it to them. Since when do companies actually confess to what they put in their products (although trans fats are still listed as 0 g)? Anyways, I'll admit it. I had some peanut butter. Maybe it'll wreak havoc on my arteries and digestive system, but I felt really energized afterwards.
I came back starving (and realizing how manly my shoulders are getting), to be greeted by a rice cooker full of brown rice :) . We ordered from downstairs again (The delivery person got to the door at the same time as me!), but got all new dishes: the most wonderful eggplant dish with red and green peppers, tofu skin with green pepper, and the shredded potato which was stirfried and not deep-fried, just the way it's supposed to be. I also had the leftover shaobing from last night. So I basically carb-loaded: rice, potatoes, and bread. But when you're hungry from sports it really is a different kind of hunger. I feel like I'm a machine that needs to be plugged in and recharged.
After lunch I had my Chinese tutoring, and afterwards my parents decided they wanted to go hiking. Last time we hiked it was a pretty hardcore workout, but luckily, we just decided to go to Yi He Yuan, a beautiful park full of weeping willows and and lotus fields and all the cheesy classical Chinese things you have to be there to appreciate. We walked around the park and up to the top of the hill (really not very difficult), then back to the exit. This took around an hour and a half to two hours.
We ate dinner at Wu Dao Kou, the student district. There are a lot of foreigners there, especially Koreans, so there's an abundance of Korean restaurants and awesome clothes stores, as well as lot of little smoothie stands that sell green tea milkshakes. The nightlife is pretty awesome and it's definitely one of my favorite areas. We had dinner at a Japanese restaurant called Yi Shin that my mom's Japanese grad student recommended. The restaurant is very hard to find... hidden behind a shopping mall full of restaurants. It's located in a little black house behind a parking lot. My mom and I had already been there once, and it was definitely both authentic, good-quality, and relatively cheap. I'm just not sure if we ordered well the first time: She got salmon and salmon roe over sushi rice, there the salmon was cooked and flaked and there was so little that it was really just rice. I got soba in mushroom broth with "mountain vegetables," which was good, but very austere and unfulfilling. We split an eggplant dish, but it was so covered in bonito flakes that it felt a bit like eating pencil shavings.
This time, my dad got a tuna assortment on sushi rice, we shared a plate of assorted handrolls, I got grilled salmon (been craving it), and my mom got "mackerel pike," whatever that is... a hybrid of the two fish? What? We also ordered natto beans to start, since I was curious about them. My mom warned me, and she was right. I think maybe I could learn to like them, but I couldn't help thinking that the gooey brown texture reminded me of earwax... definitely an acquired taste, and the first time I didn't like a soybean related product! We shall see... I will conquer you, natto beans, and learn to eat you. Any advice on how?
I wish there were more restaurants like this in Chicago-- Japanese restaurants that aren't just sushi bars, because I love chirashi and grilled fish. Actually, apparently the most authentic items on the menu are the fried things, like fried tofu and tonkatsu. But I'm not so much into that.
Everything we got was good (although most of the handrolls were too mayonnaise-y, so I just had the plain tuna one). The mackerel-pike or whatever it was really was like a combination of the two fish-- it had the fishy (in a good way!) taste of mackerel, but was slightly less chewy. I didn't eat as much as I usually do because I ate so much at lunch. The people next to us were French (I miss speaking French!!) and seemed to know exactly what to order... next time, more sushi, for sure.
For dessert, my dad wanted me to try what's more of a Chinese than Japanese dessert: basically, "tofu" which is actually a kind of jello made of Chinese almonds (really apricot kernels) floating in sugar water. Very light, but I think I'll save my dessert calories for something else. I probably should experiment more with Chinese desserts, though, since I think most people are under the impression that they don't exist.
p.s. the restaurant has a "panda sushi roll!" Not sure how it would taste, but isn't it cute?