homebody

Greetings from glorious Maryland! I love home.

Alas, I'm headed back to school tomorrow morning (noooooo) but at least it's been an incredibly restful five days of sleep and laziness and mom's cooking mmmm.

I finally got my lazy butt into some running pants this afternoon and cranked out 3 miles for the first time in at least two weeks. It felt great at first but by the end, I was pretty wrecked. I've been getting pretty inspired by some other bloggies and their insane mileage when it comes to running and I really do want to improve! It seems like everyone else out there is just popping out the double digit miles like it's no biggie. Crazy!

And now for the glorious part, a week's worth of homey eats!

I spotted this baby the moment I stepped into the house on Sunday. A ginormous glorious POMELO!!!! I loooove these! For those of your unfamiliar with these babies, they're like a milder, sweeter version of a grapefruit (which I also love), but about twice as large. These things are huge!

Doesn't look that big here, right?

Totally dominates this TI-84 though.

As well as my head.

Peel off the super thick rind...

Beautiful juicy sweetness inside!!! Yep, I ate the whoooleee thing (over three days hahaha).

This visit was filled with amazing fruit. Mmmm, I can't believe some people don't eat fruit??? I think one of our family friend's never eats fresh fruit. Ridiculous!

Fuji apple, Korean pears, Fuyu Persimmon (which I never cared for before but they're actually really good! My mom loves 'em.)

I didn't take many pics of our actual meals but I assure you they were quite good. Here's today's lunch and dinner though, extra epic since it's my last day here :(.

This may look kinda strange but it was so yummy!

Korean-style seasoned ferns (they look funny but I could eat these all day), yam noodles, mung bean sprouts, and greens. Super healthy and super tasty.

And epic feast of a dinner!!!

Shrimp, egg, and scallion. Omnomnom.

Ridiculously amazing baked purple sweet potater (nothing added!) - can you see the caramelized juices just oozing out of it??? Seriously tastes like CANDY.

Cabbage - plain but I grew up on this dish and miss it all the time.

SALMONNN with a slightly sweet and savory marinade and scallions. Melted like butter in my mouth; definitely been getting my seafood fix lately.

I stuffed myself sillyyyyyy. Good thing I went for that run hahaha.

After dinner, there was a generous amount of fruit-eating, per usual and a special treat!

Glutinous rice balls with sweet black sesame filling (tang yuan in Mandarin). These babies were made from purple rice, hence the color.

The filling is the best part! Soooo foodgasmic.

And lastly, what home visit isn't complete without me busting out my baking skillz (harhar I wish). I made another two loaves of healthy BANANA BREAD, one using an improvised a-little-too-healthy recipe and one with my mom's (but with a few healthy modifications).

The first loaf didn't turn out too hot - it was really dense and chewy, not much like a bread. That's what I get for trying to make a loaf out of bananas, yogurt, whole wheat flour, baking soda, and cinnamon. Hahaha yeah that was all I put in it.

Ok fine, maybe it wasn't that bad, it just didn't rise very much. But I still ate about a quarter of the loaf right when it came out of the oven and my sister pretty much ate the rest of it over the past few days...

It looks pretty good in a picture haha.

And then I used my mom's classic banana bread recipe (this one has egg whites and a little brown sugar among other things) and it came out a lot more bread-like.

It puffed up quite nicely :).

Yep, so I'm heading back to campus tomorrow morning, but not without a suitcase full of goodies. I'm bringing with me:

-the second loaf of b-bread.
-new jar of TJ's almond butter (roasted this time!)
-TJ's pumpkin butter
-bag of purple sweet potatoes
-carton of TJ's butternut squash soup
-box of Ak-mak wheat crackers
-dark chocolate
-instant ramen
-20 mini packs of dried and seasoned seaweed
-couple each of persimmons and pears

Yeah, I'm pretty much ready to feed my own small army.

At least I'll be well stocked and I start to tackle the pile of assignments I've neglected thus far. Woe...

post-midterm munchathon

I'm HOME! And pretty much the first thing I did upon stepping into the house was shove a gigantic sweet potato into my mouth. MMMMMMMMM. It was obviously gone too fast to even think about taking a photo.

Ahh, so glad to have a nice week of R&R. My last few days on campus were slow and filled with friends and foooood. My fridge was appallingly empty from not having gone grocery shopping in more than two weeks so there was a lot of eating on the town. Not that I minded in the least; I've become rather fond of the delicious little establishments here :D.

Weary after my last two back to back morning exams, I was delighted to find that someone amazing had left this delicious present sitting on my desk: a multigrain pita stuffed with egg whites, tomatos, avocado, and hummus. Best boyfriend evar? My tummy certainly thinks so <3.

Friday dinner, we checked out a Korean/Japanese place we had never been to before. I got a Futo Maki and Salmon Avocado roll. Their sushi rice was amazing!

Everyone else got the Bi Bim Bap which was admittedly pretty darn delicious as well.

Saturday lunch, I was really craving Indian food so we hit up the lunch buffet at Kalluri Corner. I didn't take pics because my buffet plates are embarassingly messy and unattractive (and piled with an unreasonable amount of food). I have a buffet complex in which I always feel I have to eat a lot so that I get my money's worth hahaha. I've been told I'm pretty fearsome when it comes to all-you-can-eat. Especially when it comes to Indian food, I can be quite bottomless.

Dinner was more sushi....can never get enough this stuff. We hit up a small local takeout place called Sakura Express. My friends are pretty familiar with the owners and we always end up getting a lot of freebies teehee.

Unagi don (eel over rice) and with avocado and BONUS heap of spicy tuna.

Salmon and avocado roll with BONUS salmon sashimi on top.

Korean pears are summoning me to the kitchen. It's good to be home :).

foodie fame?!

My blog delinquency has reached ridiculous levels!!! Two weeks and not a single entry; I should be spanked, or even worse, deprived of chocolate and crackers D:

But, in my defense, it's MIDTERMS WEEK, and this entry is mostly a product of me not wanting to cram more information into my head. But Fall Break is right around the corner and then I'm going HOME, where there will be an abundance of wonderful edible things that I can write about. Yay. So much for this being a school blog hahaha.

OH! Before I get into anything, a SHOUT-OUT to the lovely people at the Whole Earth Center!!! I stopped by the other day for my usual plethora of goodies and they recognized me through my bloggie! Crazy, right?! Considering my blog has a readership of like, 2 people, this was a humongous and flattering shock to my system. Anyway, I love you guys and will continue to frequent your lovely center as much as my schedule and wallet allow!

And now, some munchie pics.

Trying this stuff out - not bad, has great texture and very refreshing!

Staples from WEC - curried sweet potato peanut soup, coconut orbs, eggplant spread

Can't get enough of these babies. Look at that hidden trove of chocolate bliss. Although, I'm (shocker) actually a much bigger fan of the outside than the chocolate on the inside. WEC, if you're reading this, would you consider making solid orbs without the choco chips inside :)???

I was also delighted to see the WEC carried "Japanese" sweet potatoes. After the batch of unsweet ones I got at the farmer's market, these were amazing!!! Will definitely be eating a bunch of these when I'm at home.

In non-WEC news, I've been CHUGGING this stuff.

It's basically a superfood powder with a bunch of amazing things like wheatgrass and stuff. It's also surprisingly tasty and makes me feel quite energetic and healthy. I've been drinking a glass a day just mixed with water, but I think blending it in with milk or smoothies would definitely be even yummier. :D Check out the nutrition!

Other typical dorm staples:

Sunshine or Annie's burger patties with large heaps of salsa.

Fruit smothered in AB.

I've also been on a soup and oatmeal kick. Cold fall days just beg for warm mushy stuff!

I discovered this recently at the university grocery store. It's insanely DELICIOUS, like pumpkin pie in a bottle. Oh my god, I could drink this stuff all day.

Went ridiculously well with pumpkin pie oatmeal.

Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal is inspired by a number of my favorite bloggies, but basically this baby included a packet of plain instant oatmeal/bran mix, 2 spoonfuls of canned pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, powdered ginger, cloves, and a about 1/3 of the bottle of Odwalla pumpkin protein. YUM!

Another one of my recent faves:

Banana oats with a healthy dose of AB.

This stuff is SO AMAZING. I use Chocolate-Covered Katie's Microwave Melted Banana trick, which is exactly what it sounds like. Popping bananers into the microwave makes them all melty and super sweet and banana-y. Perfect with oats topped with some cinnamon, a splash of almond milk, and a generous dollop of almond butter. Dreamy sigh.

Speaking of other peoples' blogs, I'll post up a list of the blogs that I follow in the near future. Need to really take off my hat to the wonderful ladies who have inspired me so much!!!

And lasty I leave you with a pic of my lunch.

Nothing like a warm bowl of chunky lentil soup with Mary's crack(er) crumbs on a fall day.

More ridiculous: I've gone through three, THREE, boxes of Mary's crack since my last post. I have a problem!!

Back to studying, booooooo.

what i've been noshing

Ahh noo, these are degrading into less-than-weekly updates. Will I ever be good at this?

Anyway, here are some highlights from this past week's eats. I hit up the grocery store again and bought another bunch of yummy, mostly organic goodies and stopped by the local farmer's market this morning for some other stuff. I swear I'll start bringing my camera around more...

In other news, I've been totally digging the weather lately. Quintessential crisp, brisk, red and orange and gold fall days with gorgeous blue skies and plenty of sunshine. Makes me want to break out the cinnamon and spices and eat sweet potatoes and squash. MMMMMM, love this season!!!

On to the eats!

Chilly weather calls for soup!

Getting creative with butternut squash with added broccoli and topped with the last of the crumbs out of the Mary's Gone Crackers.

Bustin' out the chili.

Broccoli is obviously an essential component of every meal hahaha. I've rediscovered my dislike for beans though...thought I grew out of it but nope. Can't stand 'em. But at least they're nutritious...

Salad. Probably eat one of these a day though usually not so extravagant. This was a dining hall creation and I only get to go there twice a week :p

Also, picked up a lot of fruit and veggies this weekend including some peppers, apples, KIWIS and best of all, POMEGRANAATTEESSSSSSSSSS.

Chilling with my almond butter and salad mix.

Most beautiful fruit ever.

Topped some plain yogurt with superfruit (pom, cherry, some other stuff) preserves and fresh pomegranate

Deeeelicioussssssss.

The past few days have been pretty boring food-wise. There's been a lot of continual snacking and not a lot of meal-type things. But then again, when is it not like that?

Bought this sweet potater at the farmer's market today. Cooked it up via MICROWAVE (thankfully didn't explode) and noshed. Sadly, NOT SWEET. My heart weeps - where are Asian yellow and purple sweet potatoes when you need them most?

In my quest for something sweet, a lot of this disappeared. :9

This has been a recent love of mine as well. Delicious and guilt-free!

And I've gone through 4 packs of these. Um...they don't call it Mary's Crack for nothing.

I crave INDIAN FOOD. I'm scared of what I would do to an Indian buffet right now. Paneer, come heeeeree.

a very special day :)

Saturday started out as a normal day.

AB + banana on Ezekiel...mmmmmmmmm

But a normal day it was not! The boy and I had decided that this past weekend was to be our 2 year anniversary celebratory weekend!!!! What an occasion...:)

We had made reservations at SUGIYAMA in New York City. Looking at the menu all of last week got me super super hyped and a little anxious. This would be the most money I've spent on a meal in my life! I expected it to be super awesome, especially on such a special day but what if...what if????

Well I am glad to say that this lovely little place DID NOT DISAPPOINT. It was, to say the least, absolutely incredibly fantastically breathtakingly AMAAZING.

We both ordered the 8 Course Modern Kaiseki - each course was exquisitely arranged and the flavors were delicately balanced and unique. What an extraordinary meal! I'll stop blabbing and let you see for yourself.

Romantic little table for two ;)

Our evening's culinary journey...

Gorgeous decor!! The little lanterns and branches started here and sprawled all over the ceiling. It was magical!

Without further ado, our 8 course meal!

Course 1: Monkfish liver tofu - sooo soft and creamy, light and delicate. Loved the little wooden spoon too!

Course 2: Assorted seafood and veggies - there's Japanese green bean in wine jelly, shrimp, tuna fish cake, egg, a whole little crab, whitefish cake, and edamame. Yes, I picked that little crab up and popped the whole thing in my mouth, shell and all! I was a little scared, not gonna lie, but it tasted pretty good.

Course 3: Sashimi platter - one of my favoritessss! Tuna, red snapper, octopus, uni, and some other fish I forgot topped with freaking GOLD FLAKES. Yes I ate those first hahaha. Also an oyster on the side which was delicious...and I'm absolutely terrified of raw oysters!

Course 4: Clear soup - that fish cake was amazing melt in my mouth bliss, I've never had anything like it! The soup itself was light, but flavorful, and warmed the cockles of my heart.

Course 5: Mixed seafood on HOT ROCK!! - We got a marinated mixed plate of assorted seafood (fish, shrimp, some mushrooms and peppers) and were given a glowing firey rock to cook it on. Deeelicious.

Course 6 : Assorted sushi and salad- I LOOOVED this one. The slow cooked octopus on the left made me go into total foodgasm, so so so incredible aahhh! Mushroom and watercress salad, veggie and eel sushi on the right. Basically everything on this plate was utter ecstasy.

Course 7: Assorted veggies and stuff in a light broth - shiitake mushroom, taro, and fried tofu stuffed with fish cake in a lightly marinated broth. So flavorful and tender and delicious :9.

Course 8 (nooo): Sticky rice and Miso soup - Sticky rice packed with goodies served with assorted pickles and miso soup. Hearty and left me quite satiated.

Desert: Yay one more!!! Fresh grapefruit and wine jelly topped with a light cream. Fragrant, lightly sweet, and the perfect end to a terrific meal.

And so ends my journey into Food Heaven. It was such a fun (and incredibly delicious!) experience with my fave dude on our very special day. What more could I ever ask for??