snack is crack

i enjoyed many a snack plate this past winter vacation. observe:

apples with cheese

carrots with a few of my faves: TJ's creamy unsalted natural PB and TJ's whipped cream cheese

Apples with cinnamon and peanut butter

more carrots and peanut butter and cream cheese...yum

and my fave squash - kabocha! cooked with her peppery chicken and ginger :)

trader joe's and a long-lost favorite

winter break at home means lots of trips to trader joe's with my poppa.

we used to get huge bags of snyder's honey wheat pretzel sticks at sam's club, but they don't seem to sell them there anymore. one day, with carbs in my snack-lovin' mind, i remembered my old flame.

so, seeing these at trader joe's, i had to get them! so good!

and some of this fab honey as well :)

and my beloved yogurt...i had never had french village plain yogurt before, but i needed me some tarty goodness. no one else in my family likes their yogurt plain. i'm an odd one.

this yogurt was a bit thinner than i like, but not too bad. still tart :)

and you can't go wrong with plain yogurt, especially when eaten with a morning glory muffin. ah, the taste of fall spices...

mmm mm good

OMG, a yogurty giveaway! and another!

In honor of these giveaways breaking my hiatus (ugh, these past few weeks have been constant time crunches), I give you my recent yogurt eats:

Chobani 0% Vanilla Greek Yogurt

You know I've got to get those upclose and personal shots when it comes to my beloved Greek yogurt :)

With some crumbled Morning Glory muffin...so good and tastes like autumn!

Next up, blueberry Chobz!

Perched atop Cadillac Desert (read it - you won't believe how insane the US is).

Some fruit-on-the-bottom action!

With another quarter of that delectable Morning Glory muffin...

And you can't have a post chock full of Greek yogurt without my fave Oikos! My roomie went to the Head of the Charles regatta a month ago and snagged a bunch of free samples. She came back with mini Larabars, gummy vitamins, chapstick, and a bunch of yogurt (including Liberte and Oikos <3). I helped myself to a cup :)

Stonyfield Organic Oikos Vanilla Greek Yogurt

With gingerbread...(dies)

My favorite of all these orgasmic experiences was the Oikos. Love, love, love it! The vanilla Chobani was meh. It had a bitter aftertaste, though I did appreciate the creaminess of it. I've heard better things about the plain Chobanis. I'm going to have to give 'em a try one of these days. The blueberry Chobani was also okay. I'm not that big a fan of the fruit-on-the-bottom though. It took away some of the yogurt's thickness. Nevertheless, none of these concoctions disappointed. I just love me some creamy yogurt.

Now for some non-yogurt-related giveaways in the blogosphere!

1. Katie's giving away chocolate! This chica is way too awesome - she's trying to raise money for a great charity (The Enough Project) through her Operation Chocolate-Covered Kindness and you can help if you visit her site!

2. Yogiclarebear also has a sweet giveaway :)

3. Polly want a cracker?


Thanks for reading guys!

examinations, shexaminations

despite my neverending workload, i just had to post because An Apple a Day giving away Nuttzo's nut butter!!! check it out

and because no post is complete without pictures...

TJ's raw cashews

PB&J larabar <3

the new jocolat bar (thanks Running Around Normal!)

i know this looks gross, but it's actually harmless - cinnamon flavored honey and cream cheese on toast :)

ok, i've got to peace! if for whatever reason you are interested in what's been up in my life (not that i've done much updates), check out underrated understated, a blog project i have with my sister :)

recent treats

i don't think i could ever go back to milk chocolate ever again...

<3

i finally cracked open another jar of pb loco peanut butter (courtesy of food snob) at the end of august... um, why was i waiting???

let's take a look at the insides...
needless to say, it's all gone now. luckily i have one last jar of the Sumatra raisin and cinnamon pb loco peanut butter :)


so let's get to the real point of this post:

clif nectar bars!!! i have yet to try one. i'm crossing my fingers!

and yes, i know it's been a while, but i've just been so busy with school. when it comes to blogging, other things come first. that does not mean i'm abandoning catching bananas though. i'm just letting myself off the hook from consistent blogging.

anywho, next time i blog, it may be advertising another giveaway, so watch out!

peace, yo.
shirlz

emptying out the camera

it's tragic. this blogging business is a tricky one. i wish i could update more often, but i need to stayed glued to the books this semester. and glued to the cross country team. and let's not even talk about work.

in lieu of recent munchies, i've decided to go through the images in my "blog" folder and share past, unrecorded eats with you.

first, i'm proud to reveal a dish i cooked all by myself for dinner this summer.

the dish is actually bigger than it looks

the mother was tired after work and i volunteered to prepare the meal. it wasn't hard. i just steamed the fish that dad prepared the night before and tossed things together for the tofu soup.


i also had my first vegetarian fish dish this summer.


recently (as in this past year while i was on the other side of the country), my family has been making take-out runs every now and then at QQ kitchen, this little taiwanese place. their food is reasonably priced - in fact, i'd say it was downright cheap - and the portions are large. i can never finish all the rice. well, that's a lie. i probably could if i wanted to ;) plus, their entrees come with cabbage and a piece of tofu and i love me my cabbage and tofu! there's also some pickled vegetable and a tea egg.

the "fish" was quite interesting. i liked how it was presented with seaweed rimming the sides. it kind of looks like real fish, huh? though it didn't really taste like fish, it was still good. chewy with a sort of smoky taste.

i love breakfast. it's one of the few times in a day where creativity takes over without you having to even ask for it. i had this brilliant idea one morning...

waffle bowl! a toasted eggo waffle with vanilla yogurt and raspberries in bowl form. fun to eat and delicious too.

alrighty, that's it for now. i'm having issues remembering to take my camera with me places. i'm a bit protective...and forgetful. otherwise, i would have been able to show you guys the spread from the lobster bake before the first day of classes. i love lobster. and cornbread. and corn on the cob.

and some giveaways!!!

My Breakfast Blog is giving away cookies in honor of her blog startup!

hey kids,

i'm back at school (hence the lack of posting), although classes don't start for another week and a half or so. i'm working as part of the emergency response team for freshmen pre-orientation trips. needless to say, we are being worked to the bone. i'm too exhausted to blog too much. plus, i'm waiting for my canon powershot to arrive :)

i'll be mainly eating in the dining halls for my meals, so it'll be tough to snap photos of my eats, but i will try to post here and there. i also have some old stuff that i need to post too!

i had vanilla yogurt with raisin bran and half a banana and the other half on the side for breakfast this morning. i'm sure that's not too difficult to imagine. it's quite nice of the outing club to provide us with food (in exchange for hard work and cooking and cleaning shifts of course).

i also had a handful of chocolate-covered pretzels as a snackie. oh, camping food.

Rachel's yogurt

Since first stumbling upon Rachel's yogurts via various blogs and visiting the company's website, I've been itching to try the fabulous flavors.

Henry's Farmers' Market relieved that itch. And I thought Trader Joe's was wonderful (it still is!!!). The store had everything! Things that only existed in the blogworld before became reality the night my parents, sister and I took our first trip to the newly opened branch near us. I saw Popchips, PB&Co (first experienced from an online purchase), Barney Butter, and more!

I was immediately drawn to the dairy section to gaze upon the shelves of yogurt (after meandering down the nut butter aisle, of course). Rachel's yogurts were on sale for 99 cents each, so I had to grab me two flavors - Vanilla Chai and Plum Honey Lavender.

Trying to decide which flavor to try first was hard, but the Plum flavor won out. I was curious to see how these three flavors would be meld together. Plus, I had no idea what lavender would taste like.



I was a bit disappointed with this container. I couldn't pick out any of the flavors in the name. It just tasted like a big mess of berry yogurt. Not that it tasted bad because it didn't. Although a bit on the sweet side, I still enjoyed it with some raspberries (another deal from Henry's).



The Vanilla Chai yogurt was a bit better in that it wasn't quite as sweet. Again, though, it didn't live up to its name. I could taste the vanilla, but I would have prefered a stronger chai flavor. No picture since by this time, my sister had taken the camera to Yearbook Camp. I enjoyed this yogurt with more raspberries and some bran flakes (no photo - my sister had the camera at this point). I sipped a mug of raspberry tea alongside :)

The verdict: I like the nutritionals of these yogurts (hello, Omega-3's!), but they are very sweet and have more than 20g of sugar per serving. I'd probably buy these for the occasional dessert or mix half a container with plain yogurt to cut down on the sugariness.

Speaking of yogurt addi(c)tions, flax would be a nice touch in my concoctions...head to Missy Maintains for a chance to win some!

These raw crackers would be nice for some crunch too!

Also, it's Run to the Finish's birthday today! In her honor, she's giving away gifts :)