just quichey

Last night, I got a wonderful homecooked meal from my lovely madre. I'm going to miss this kinda food so much when I go to school. Haha, my mom was a little flustered that I was taking pics of her dishes and planning to post them up on the intarwebs as she insisted she threw this stuff together rather haphazardly and that it was nothing special and nothing to show off to anyone. Whatev, ma, everything you make tastes like heaven to me :).

Marinated eggplant, leafy Chinese greens, and sweet and sour cod :9 A simple (and really healthy!!!) meal.

My measly contribution: stuck a couple sweet potatoes in the oven.

I looove sweet potatoes; apparently they're also the healthiest vegetable evar. We always get either the yellow or purple ones from the Asian market. They're so sweeet and soft and fluffy...

After dinner there was more fruit massacreing and we lost another scrumptious Asian pear to some voracious monster in our house...

My sister took my camera to school today (something with her photo class) so alas, I didn't get to document my breakfast and lunch. The morning started with a beautiful little sweet potato leftover from last night, and a bananer with a heaping glop of almond butter. Yumyum.

Lunch was EPIC! But sadly, I didn't get a pic of it.... it involved a tortilla, garden burger patty, hot salsa, and goat cheese though ;). There was also maybe some chocolate noshing afterwards...

And then I sat around in foodcoma and doodled a bit...gah I haven't drawn anything in so long, it felt a little foreign.

You can totally tell where I started getting lazy....

Feeling a little unhappy with myself for sitting on my bum all day, I decided to go for another run. I stuck to the shaded woodsy paths today and cranked out a sweaty 2.65 miles. Blah, still haven't got it back because I still felt pretty miserable doing it haha.

Browsing around on the internet and blogosphere, I was hit with inspiration for dinner (I'm in charge of feeding my dad + sis tonight since my mom is coming home late). I went to the grocery store, picked up a pie crust and made a modified version of this baby, a savory onion tart. I added turkey to the mix and seasoned with garlic powder, pepper, salt, dried basil, rosemary, and a little oregano.

In all its pre-oven glory!

And then it went into the oven 390F and stayed there for about an hour. I also stuck our remaining sweet potatoes (including some of my fave PURPLEY ones) into the oven to cook as well.

What a beaaauuutiful color! Sweet and perfect.

Aaaand, my tart! It smelled really good...

More food porn. Who wants some?

My tart came out pretty decently! It tasted spectacular but the bottom part of the crust was a little too soggy and the quichey part wasn't as firm as I had expected either. Nevertheless, my sister and dad gobbled it up enthusiastically! Success!

Well, I now am off to have dinner with some of my favorite girls in the world now! We're hitting up this place for some Greek food. Mmmmm, loooove Greek food, I'm excited. Cheers!

i live at whole foods

Continuing where I left off yesterday...

After lunch, I was feeling bored and restless so I walked to Whole Foods. It took about an hour, but it was a gorgeous day outside so I quite enjoyed my little stroll. Plus, I would pretty much walk to the ends of the Earth for a WF so...anyway...

The goodies:

Stevia packets, Sunshine falafel burgers, Medjool dates, whole wheat tortillas, wheat crackers, grape tomatoes, dark chocolate (!!!), and a rainbow assortment of Larabars.

I've been very curious about Stevia for a while and thought I'd buy a little just to try out in baking and stuff. It seems a little too good to be true, right? But a lot of bloggies use it and swear by it so I figure it's gotta be pretty awesome.

I nibbled half a pistachio Larabar while waiting for my dad to pick me up. (Too lazy to walk all the way back toting groceries :p) After I got home, I also helped myself to a date which was pretty much like a piece of candy disguised as a fruit.

For dinner, I broke out the falafel burgers!!!! I popped a pattie into the microwave and it filled the house with a very spicy Middle Eastern smell. Mmmm.

With more hothot salsa and a side of cherry tomatoes. Yumsauce.

My sister kept sneaking bites off my plate. My dad wanted a whole patty for himself. Hmph! And to think they were all very critical and skeptical about my new healthy eating plans thinking I'd be eating nothing but lettuce all day...take that!

I'd been hankering for cold sweet fruit all day (we actually did not have a SINGLE piece of fruit in the house! Which is unthinkable considering we usually buy produce by the truckload) so you can imagine how happy I was when my mom brought peaches home. We had gone peach picking a few weeks ago for white peaches so I had basically been swimming in peachy goodness for a while. But the ones my mom brought home were yellow and soooooooo sooooo juicy. Not as sweet and fragrant as the white ones, but oh my god amazing. I devoured it too fast to take a photo...

And I was even happier when family friends brought these:

ASIAN PEARS!!!!!! DROOLFEST.

I was pretty much with fruitbaby for the rest of the night.

This morning started out with two pieces of Ezek each with a smear of NUTELLA (ella ella ey ey). God I love that stuff.

Are those lick marks on that spoon?? Nah...

A little later, I polished off the leftover Lara from yesterday...


And then I set off to Michaels to do some arts and crafts shopping for a summer project for our design agency at school. Brings back memories of high school...

Naturally, since Michaels is right next to...dun dun dun, WHOLE FOODS, I was compelled to go again. I'm an addict, what can I say? Today's damage...

Lychee white tea, more grape tomatoes (they're on sale!!), coconut water, garden burgers, and fresh baked raisin challah bread for the fam

Unfortunately, the challah was not as soft and chewy as the kind I had bought previously :(. But at least it's...organic? And I dunno what it is about packaged coconut water, but it just doesn't taste like the stuff you get straight out of a coconut, even though it's supposed to be just that. Where is my coconutty flava??? WF, I will be back!!!

Lunch was a massive veggie plate with hummus and a wedge of sheep's milk cheese. It was surprisingly REALLY FILLING and I am now sitting here full and happy and eyeing my chocolate stash...huhuhu.

One massive green bell pepper, handful of grape tomatoes, block of cheese, and red pepper hummus :9

My sis forgot her house keys today so I'm stuck at home until she gets back. Boo. Have a nice afternoon, kids!

cool mornings and hot salsa

First foodie post! Wahoo!

Only in the 50s this morning! Had to bust out the fuzzy slipper socks the minute my feet touched the cold cold floor... where did summer go???

My breakfast included an unpictured piece of cinnamon raisin Ezekiel, a (again unpictured) bananer, and a sweet pumpkin seed cluster I got in Taipei. Yumm.


At 10, I decided it was warm enough to go for a run and set out around the neighborhood. I am sooooo out of shape after not really exercising while I was in Taiwan this summer for two months. Although I've been slowly getting back into it, my summer laziness is still in full swing and I've been quite the lethargic lump. Yeah, I took a lot of walking breaks and pretty much felt like death by the end. I did see a lot of cute doggies along the way (yay) and ended up cranking out a miserable 2.25 miles according to mapmyrun.com (aiyee).

For lunch, I got a little creative with just stuff lying around the house.

Behold! My ohmurrito rice bowl! What the eff, right?

I used a little leftover five grains rice from yesterday for the base and topped it with two microwaved egg whites, TJ's hot (and it was HOTTT) tomato salsa, a little ketchup and pepper with two little wedges of sheep's milk cheese on the side. It was surprisingly deeelectable and spicy spicy. Yay for "fusion" food.

For dessert, nibbled on a little chocolate :9.


I can't believe school starts in two weeks. Aaahhhhh, I am so not ready to go back. But I've started to pack my goodies for the semester. I'm excited to be in charge of all my own meals! At least I have that to look forward to. This box is going to be brimming by the time I'm through with it.

So far we got: almond butter, nutella(!!!), green tea, milk tea, wild blueberry jam, instant red and mung bean soup packets, and sweet and spicy chili sauce which is hiding in the paper bag.

Hurrah for my first foodie post! I am off to be unproductive and lazy as usual. This blog is probably going to start off pretty inconsistently but I'm hoping to really get into the groove of things soon. Have a nice day!

beginnings

Let’s attempt to get this show on the road!

First, a little about myself:

My name is Carol, I’m a 3rd year college student and have an undying love for all things food-related. I’ve recently embarked on a journey to improve my lifestyle by eating healthier and cleaner as well as supplementing my eating decisions with more exercise and physical activity. Starting this year, I’m not joining any on-campus meal plan or dining group so I’m basically left to my own devices. A perfect opportunity to go culinarily crazy!

Some history: my relationship with food has been turbulent and a little messy over the past year and a half — I set out to lose weight about a year ago and went about it in all the wrong ways. I’ve always been a bit of a chubby child with a ravenous appetite and indiscriminate love for all kinds of food. My parents never pressured me to change or did anything to negatively affect my self image. At the same time, they also told me it was all genetics, and I couldn’t do anything about it anyway. Well, I was fairly unsatisfied with my body by the end of freshman year and so set off to do something about it (and being a rebellious teen, I just had to prove my parents wrong). The weight came off, yes, but I lost a lot more along with it, namely my energy, vitality, and immune system. I felt weak and cold constantly and would get sick frequently. My skin developed a plethora of problems like eczema and allergy attacks. I was thin, yes, but miserable.

Since then, I’ve come to realize, mostly through the help of a lot of fitness and food bloggers out there, that it’s really more about quality and not quantity. I don’t have to restrict how much I eat, but instead aim to eat foods that are nutritionally whole without all the bad stuff. That way, I can still stuff my gob and feel good about it, both mentally and physically :).

So where am I now? I’m currently maintaining a weight I feel good at through healthy eating and regular exercise. I’ve reformed my food intake to include a lot of fruits, veggies, nuts, whole grains, and healthy fats. I like to call myself a “flexitarian” - I don’t really eat meat, especially red meat, but on special occasions (like if my mom is cooking something delish), I’ll nom on a little. I’ve also gotten into the habit of working out regularly and aim to keep it up throughout the school year. I still have a long way to go, but I’m excited for the road ahead. It’s amazing how much I’ve learned in a year and I’m super ready to be in tip top shape so I can fully enjoy the best years of my life.