HAPPY HALLOWEEN! FLAT TOP AND COLDSTONE

Wow, greatest Halloween I've had in a while. It seemed like my costume was going to be a disaster until the last minute.
We got together a group to go as the Clue characters. I was Miss Scarlet with the candlestick (our very very VERY obviously fake toy gun was confiscated by an obnoxious English teacher a few days ago). Should I grow my hair out again? The wig was starting to grow on me (pardon the pun).
After school, I changed out of the costume, and a few people from the swim team and I went downtown. We hung out for a while at one of our houses, sang karaoke and such, then headed over to Flat Top for dinner!
I LOVE PLACES LIKE THIS. I realize that a lot of these buffet/ all-you-can-eat places are ripoffs, since the only difference is that you see what's available, as opposed to having a closed-off kitchen, but that is definitely what makes it fun.
Our sticks:
I filled my bowl to the brim with brown rice, vegetables, and all the soy products they had (Quorn, tempeh, seitan)... I was really excited and felt like being vegan for the night for some reason.
I added a white stick for vegetarian/ allergy, and a yellow stick for vegetable soup... what bugged me is that I asked them specifically if they would turn it into soup or just give soup on the side, and they said on the side, but they turned it into soup! I definitely eat my fair share of soup at home and this didn't feel quite substantial enough. I ended up getting a second bowl of what seemed like a decent portion, but it wilted down so much when it cooked that it was really only a few bites.
Most people got noodles or flat bread, and one girl got hers as a mushu wrap.
Our coach was saintly enough to give us a day off practice for Halloween, and I really am trying to eat less on the days that I don't swim. However, they wanted to head over to Cold Stone. Because I was actually still really hungry from dinner, I was a good child and ordered a small frozen yogurt with cherries, whereas the rest of them got decadent, chocolate creations.
I was SO TEMPTED by the pumpkin ice cream (I got a taste of it), but no, I was resolute. Besides, today is my dad's birthday and we are going to have a very decadent dinner.
We went back to the house and played a childish game of 10 Fingers/ Never Have I ever... Only someone on the swim team (me) would say "Never have I ever swum anything besides breaststroke in the 200 Medley Relay."
And no, I had no candy whatsoever this Halloween! It really didn't appeal.
And PS, I am so happy this year. Freshman and Sophomore years were terrible. I love the swim team, and I love hanging out with people in different grades. Love the freshmen!

Je ne cuisine pas trop souvent, mais je mange tout les temps

It's true that I just never seem to cook. I've gone through cooking obsession phases, but lately it seems like all I ever do is eat. Of course, this has to do with swimming too... We swam 2.7 miles yesterday and my mom and I went to a friendly neighborhood restaurants, where I had to order SECONDS on rice and vegetables at a restaurant with already big portions! I can feel myself bulking up, and I need to eat even when food might not be the most appealing, just because I need fuel.
Oh, and I just have to rejoice a bit: my 100 breast stroke time is a 1:24 so far!!!!!!
That being said, we certainly do eat tasty meals at home:
Stir-fried eggplant with carrots and a mysterious Chinese sauce that we get in China town, one of my dad's "everything" stir-fries with summer squash, carrots, soybeans, and peppers, plus brown rice.
Salad with those candied pecans, feta, and more of the white beets. The pasta Patrizia gave me with tuna, capers and roasted red peppers (could have been a lot more sauce to pasta-- we accidentally made too much), and roasted pear-squash-ginger soup with Greek yogurt and pumpkin seeds.

This amazing and simple fish dish, according to my mom: baked tilapia with herbs, potatoes and olive oil, with salad and leftover soup.
Once again, I LOVE ARTOPOLIS BAKERY'S VEGETARIAN MOUSSAKA? It's such an indulgence. We got their butternut squash soup, but it smelled so strongly of chicken stock that it might as well have been the pan juices of a freshly roasted chicken. Alas.
We tried to cook spaghetti squash, but there was a misunderstanding. From reading other peoples' blogs, I know that the easiest way is to first bake it, but according to Deborah Madison, you were supposed to scoop out the raw insides and drop them in boiling water, which proved impossible because the strands weren't long enough. It also made the squash really watery. It was still good, though. We ate it with tomato sauce, feta, stir-fried broccoli, and I had the tiniest bit of brown rice (the presentation is all nice because I microwaved it in the container and it retained that shape).
Dinner: The baked mushrooms and eggs that failed earlier (but only my mom had an egg, because I had eggs for lunch). This time the egg wasn't overcooked and the mushrooms were perfectly moist. The croutons absorbed their juice and the additional cooking liquid from the red wine and became spongy and flavorful. We also had corn on the cob and stir-fried beet greens, which were a bit too salty and too tough to eat the stems. You can also see some overripe farmer's market tomatoes that we had to use up. I also had a fresh veggie burger from Trader Joe's on the side: the ingredients list is actually really short: just tofu, vegetable oil, salt, and various vegetables. My plate looks really unappealing because the ketchup sprayed everywhere.