Baptism: Catching Bananas Style

Hallelujah! Praise the nut butter jars!

After my friend and ex-freshman-dorm roommate E passed the peanut butter torch on to me, I let the thing burn on in my hands, a tribute to the unearthing of my secret love for the stuff. But today, the secret has been shared; the torch now moves on.

That's right, folks. I have converted another peanut butter skeptic who, like me once, despised the spread, eating her PB&J sandwiches sans PB. No longer is this the case! My sister has entered the realm of the nut butters and has been reborn.

With a little help from this guy, of course:


TJ's Creamy Unsalted Peanut Butter has only one ingredient - dry, roasted peanuts! Therein lies the addictive powers of this foodie staple. Natural peanut butter wins over Jif and its hydrogenated oils any day.

Check out that creaminess! You betcha I dipped a spoon in ;)

And if you didn't catch the reference for my title...

Nacho Libre = my fave Jack Black movie eva :D

Edit:

Check out An Apple Day for some awesome giveaways :)

Color my world

I apologize for breaking the rules of chronology, but considering how I rarely post daily, I figure showing y'all the eats is all that matters ;) So let's flashback to two nights ago...

Shrimp and Egg Stir Fry

Steamed Bok Choy

The colors in this dinner were so pretty and everything tasted fresh! Good job Daddi-o! I love me some Asian greens!

Of course, as with pretty much every dinner I eat at home with the fam, our meal was complete with a bowl of pearly white Jasmine rice. The best is when the rice is cooked to the perfect consistency - not too sticky, dry, but only enough for a good chew. Mi madre prefers her rice to be softer and slightly on the mushy side.

Don't forget to check out these giveaways!

Like RAW bars? Visit K's blog!
For the coconut heads :)

Ice Cream Man, where are you?

Once, you used to pave the streets in song, advertising your wares. Once, you delighted with cold treats of every kind. Once, you were a symbol of summer. But, alas, no more. The neighborhood is now deprived of that music-box tinkle of childhood tunes.

However, of ice cream, it is not.

What is that sweet little ball resembling snowballs? Nothing that your stock of ice cream held. Ice Cream Mochi. That's right. Ice cream nestled in a thin layer of dough made of sweet rice. These little guys were rare treats back in the day and rightly so: they're pricy! But they're worth it - if you get the right kind.

Chocolate Ice Cream Mochi

They look good, right? Too bad they didn't taste the part. This brand of ice cream mochi just couldn't rival the Mikawaya brand I used to eat as a kid, but it was on sale. The mochi was good, but the ice cream was chalky. It was too sweet for me, although I say the same for most ice cream (I'll still eat it though [:).

Good enough for an post-run snack. I was hot, sweaty and gross after my 6-miler yesterday morning and had no problem inhaling the ice cream for lunch dessert! I ran another 6 miles this morning, but I think I'll save the mochi for some other occasion.

i like coffee, i like tea: remix

Happy 5th! I just had to say it since I didn't wish y'all a Happy 4th. Plus, my buddy, who I will call Khaleeb, wished me a Happy 5th today via text from Maine. 'Tis tough blogging everyday. I don't know how you people do it! I suppose I could blame my lack of interesting eats or the fact that I try not to use the computer too much. Or my general laziness when it comes to composing blog posts!

So I've blogged about how I enjoy my cup of joe, but this was just insane. I will admit, the idea has infringed on the back of mind a few times before, though never to completion.

"What is she yammering on about?" you're probably asking.

Ladies and gents, I give you Vanilla Coffee Milk (green)Tea:


Not quite as epic as my tone suggests, I suppose (note the cozy mug and lack of staging). Nonetheless, this drink was...interesting. I could taste the vanilla and the green tea at the same time. However, it was a bit on the sweet side (what else could one expect?) and I didn't really like the extreme milkiness. Let's just say I won't be getting my iced coffee fix at 7-11.

Now the giveaways...(and there's a lot since I had a lot of catching up to do)
ZestyCook is giving away some Pom!
Yummy, nutritious baked goods here from Nutritious is Delicious!
Something for runners...
Great snacks and coupons from An Apple a Day :)
Whoa, another amazing giveaway from Danica's Daily
TJ's giveaway from Angie!

White Meat All Around

I know the title of this post seems ridonkulous (read: ridiculous to the extreme), but that's how I'd describe dinner last night.

My mom prepared some delicious tofu carrot soup with lean pork slices, while I cooked the rice in the rice cooker ;) However, soup and rice ain't gonna cut it for us three chicks (grammar error much?). So, we warmed up some leftovers: some steamed tilapia with soy sauce and the chicken "toi gua" stir fry from before.

Tofu Carrot Soup solids (the actual soup was still in the pot)

That's a lot of white protein right there - chicken, pork, fish, and tofu. It may not be the most balanced meal, but it sure was interesting! Plus, the soup was delish!

As for this morning, I had me a nutty slice of Oroweat Oat Nut Bread pre-run. I then proceeded to run my obligatory 5 miles (but not obligatory in a bad way!). I've been running rather slowly (9:10 to 9:20 miles) these days and I'm not sure if it's because I'm not warmed up enough in the morning since I run not too long after getting up. Maybe I'm just tired. The sun beats down pretty hard too. Regardless, running wakes me up and it's the quantity that matters at this point, so I ain't complaining.

After abdominals and stretching, I had another yogurt-muffin concoction (der!):

Plain yogurt with crumbled Cranberry Orange Bran Muffin from Souplantation

And one Nature Valley Oats 'N Honey Crunchy Granola Bar from the packet of two because I was still hungry. A handful of almonds and walnuts may have also made it into my tummy ;)

Now I'm just chillaxing, but hopefully not for too long! There are things to do...

GIVEAWAYS :D

Justine is giving away some of her favorite things!
A chance to taste nature!
Kailey over at SnackFace is having a veggilicious giveaway!

Confession of the Day (channeling Justine here): I've never had beer straight up. Seriously. I am not a drinker in general, but I've had vodka, rum, kahlua, etc. In teeny increments, mind you. Maybe I should grab a Pabst next time I'm at a college house party?

Hey guys (if anyone still reads this bloggie), sorry for my horrendous time-management skills or, in other words, my lack of blogging.

Let's recap the past few days with some random eats shall we?

Random lunch: a crunchy carrot with ketchup, shredded slice of deli turkey over leftover cold steamed spinach, random piece of chicken, piece of white Chinese bakery bread (the "side" bread, which is the only part of the bread I'll eat - I generally don't eat white bread). I liked this lunch a lot because I'm a snacker and I love spinach :)

Cherry Chocolate Brownie Oats: made with a tablespoon of Creme Brulee hot chocolate, cherries, and half of a crumbled Cappuccino Brownie (baked for Daddy's Day). It was good, but it could have been better if we had rolled oats instead of the quick cook kind.

Okay, so I don't know what this is. I mean, I know what it is, but I don't know how to explain it so that you all would. Let me try.

The other day, my Aunt M (she lives barely a minute's walk from us) brought us some veggies from her garden. We usually get spinach and other green veggies that have Chinese names but no American translations (that I can think of...) from her. This time she got us what we call "Toi Gua." Picture a pale green vegetable that's a cross between a radish and an artichoke with no leaves. It's a root veggie that's larger than the size of my fist. I wanted to take a photo, but my Aunt J, who was visiting, had chopped one of them up for the dish shown above and my Mom used the other in a stirfry with chicken for dinner.

Anyhow, the (huge) batch of rice was cooked in the rice cooker and then mixed with the stirfried "Toi Gua" for a delectable lunch.

As for today, I had half of an Oatmeal Raisin Walnut Cliffie pre-run. My left eye has been bugging me lately (as have been my knees). Methinks it has something to do with the sun in the mornings and a lack of SPF because it's not the actual eyeball that hurts - just the eyelid. Feels like a sunburn to me. Ouch.

Anyway, post-run, I did abs and stretched. I was going to do an upper body workout, but I was feeling like I needed something in my tum. Did you know that eating something within 40 to 60 minutes after a run/workout allows your body to recover faster?

So I made a little cup of Blueberry Muffin Yogurt with fat free plain yogurt and some crumbled Wild Blueberry Muffin from Souplantation.

Then I did a 15-minute resistance band upper body workout using the band I received from Missy's giveaway. And then I had a half slice of cheesecake. "Oh no you didn't!" Oh yes I did.

No picture of the cheesecake, sorry. It actually wasn't all that great (my Mom bought it from a coworker who just got laid off...), but I ate it anyway. I'm not sure what's wrong with me, but I've just been caving in to my sweet tooth lately. Something for me to work on, eh?

While we're on the subject of yogurt and muffins,

Plain yogurt with crumbled Banana Nut Crunch Muffin Top from Souplantation

Plain yogurt with Buttermilk Corn Muffin from Souplantation and almonds

You can probably tell I went to Souplantation lately, huh?

And another giveaway I stumbled on :)
Here too! This one ends tonight, so hurry!

Have wonderful days!

"if anyone asks why i can never be a vegetarian, my response would be 2 words: korean bbq"

As promised, the spread from my night out on the (Korea)town:

We ordered beef brisket, bacon (bad idea), and octopus. However, the meat was mostly fat since we didn't know any better, so we asked for boneless beef rib. Much better :)

I really enjoyed the miso soup. It had a ton of veggies and tofu. It was a bit on the salty side though since they kept replenishing it without adding extra liquid. I also liked the kimchi and dipping sauces, although I couldn't tell you what kind of sauces they were. They were good though. I should've taken pictures of the cooked meat, but I was busy chowing down ;)

Food that I didn't photograph included cold rice noodles in a cucumber broth. The noodles were thin and chewy, but I didn't really like the dish at all. I strongly dislike cucumber. Plus, the cold broth tasted slimy...

We ended dinner with some Korean melon gum :)

[The quote came from the mouth of my silly sister. I'm not quite in agreement, though Korean BBQ is pretty darn nummy].

And of course, GIVEAWAYS!

Check out the hot guy on CCK's blog
If you like green tea as much as I do, check out BlueSkyWorld's giveaway!
Then, there's Missy Maintains' Amazing Grass giveaway!

Edited to add:

More Amazing Grass :)
Pure Bars and Real Simple
An awesome giveaway from Erica!
And even more Amazing Grass (also from Erica!)
Cool running gear from The Happy Runner
Believe it or not, another amazing giveaway...


I apologize for the massive attack of giveaways. There are quite a few generous bloggers out there :)