May 5, 2009

New grain & reading-holic!

Hi everyone, how was your Monday? productive? I hope so, it's supposed to be productive, right? But mine was not productive at all in term of work, but yes in term of leisure readings. I spent the morning doing errands, filling out thousands of forms for my summer intern (hate this!), worked 3 hours in the afternoon (fighting with sleepiness) and then read read read, I finished both: Journey of a Thousand Miles: My Story, The First Year: Type 2 Diabetes: An Essential Guide for the Newly Diagnosed.
The diabetes one wasn't as good as I expected (very general ideas and too much talk, not enough info) and Lang Lang's biography was great! It was my first time reading a biography, never really understand why should I be interested in someone else life story. But I was so wrong, it's sooooo interesting and mind opening. I learned so much and confirmed once again that success does not fall from the sky, you have to work for it. You could be a genius, but if you don't work hard, you will never success.
After finished these books, I ordered 3 more books on amazon and I want them to arrive right now!!! I crave reading!!! Have you ever experienced this kind of craving?

Now food, which was not bad.
breakfast: new grain!!! AMARANTH: high in protein, calcium, and iron. The combo:
  • 1/4 c. dry amaranth
  • 1/2 c. almond breeze
  • 1/2 chopped apple
  • 1/4 c. ricotta
  • vanilla
  • homemade Almond Butter.
Together with the other half of the apple. It was a very interesting grain, so tiny, I could taste each of these little balls. It's not as creamy as oats/oatbran, it's more like millet/couscous, so if you want to get some creaminess, you might want to add some oatbran.
AM snack packed to school: cereal bar and chocolate from Arg.Lunch: a super plate of poached egg whites over smoked salmon, leftover barley risotto and steamed broccoli slaw.I was sooooo stuffed when I finished so I had a tiny piece of the ricotta cheesecake.Later in the afternoon I had another chocolate from Arg that I store them in a cute box from Paris.Before I went to gym for some magazine reading, I had 1/2 of each of these bars. The right one is from Arg (see how small are they compared to Americans?)For dinner I made stir-fry with mushrooms, spinach, eggplant, tofu and tomatoes, seasoned with soy sauce, vinegar, brown sugar, sesame seeds and sesame oil.And two squares of the dill cornbread.Yummy~~
Dessert: fungus soup (black and white fungus) with Chinese dates.Question: Do you like reading biographies? What was the one you liked most?

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

I crave reading books ALL the TIME! I am SUCH a bookworm! I love the feeling of being engrossed in a good book...
amaranth porridge! I can't believe just 1/4 cup will give so much! at least, it looks enough for me...is it as volumnious as oatmeal?
hmm...I do enjoy biographies, though not all...politics bore me, but I did sort of find My Life by bill Clinton interesting...but so far,my fav was Wasted by Marya Hornbacher...she write about her struggle with ED in such a lurid detail...

Krista said...

I love that cute box from Paris!!!

I will read anything and everything! My family teases me because I read the cereal box at breakfast time!! :) I don't know that I've rea any biographies, though....

Lucia said...

Hi!! I've been reading your blog for a while and just wanted to say I really enjoy it. I happen to live in Buenos Aires so when I stumbled upon your blog I was very surprised to see all those Bon o Bons!! :) I really enjoy your recipes and admire your amazing and healthy attitude towards food, treats, etc.

Un beso enorme!!!
Lucia

A Toronto girl out West said...

Thanks for the Amaranth review - I'd been thinking of buying some. Not sure if I will now given it's non creaminess. Still good to know though! :o)

Anonymous said...

I love reading, and I do crave it sometimes! It's so hard, though, because I have a bad tendency to get caught up in a book to the neglect of many other things, so I have to limit my reading.

Run Sarah said...

I usually read fiction! I love your stirfry - so colourful!

Sweta (My Indian Dietitian) said...

Amaranth seeds-wow,haven't tried that after experimenting with it way back in college!! We use the leaves regularly though-thanks for reminding me:)
W.r.t biographies-don't remember any that has left an impression,but yes the autobiography that has remained in my memory is "My Experiments With Truth" by Mahatma Gandhi!

Pearl said...

i love to read anything! i usually get into book kicks where i will read everything by that author after i've learned to really like them. however, i try not to do that now as i want to read books from more authors :)

Maggie said...

I love how you're introducing us to all of these grains. I'm kind of stuck on oat bran, but sometime soon I'll branch out.

I am a reading addict. I think I'm going to go to Borders today to just sit and read for a while.

I like biographies but I haven't read many. Lang Lang's sounds great.

Julie said...

Haha I totally craved reading when I was reading the Twilight series!

The Dainty Pig said...

Amaranth is very very interesting. I have tried it a few times, as it is a common breakfast grain in macrobiotic cooking. I like it (there are some good recipes with dried apricots), but it definitely isn't my favourite! Definitely not as creamy as oats or millet.

I am such a bookworm. I could read for hours! I like bigographies as well, but I haven't read that many--usually I read fiction (i heart haruki murakami).

xoxo

Alison Can Read said...

Thanks for the rec for Lang Lang's bio. I heard an interview with him a while ago and thought he was very interesting.

Bios are probably my favorite book genres although I haven't read any lately. I particulary like biographies of historical figures.

Gina; The Candid RD said...

Great call on the bars. The American bar is so huge in comparison! That is the definition of the reason why diabetes is such a problem in America. However, those Superfood Odwalla bars are full of fiber, protein and healthy vitamins and minerals!

By the way, feel free to ask me anything about diabetes :)

Erica said...

Confession- I hate to read! Blehhhh. I guess thats part of the reason I went to school for engineering- way more math problems than reading ;) Interesting new grain! I want to try it

ChickPea said...

ooh! Amaranth looks tasty--I've never tried it.

Emily said...

I want some of your delish looking stir fry! :-)

I love reading, and biographies are really interesting. I love reading anything about WW2 heroes, like Corrie Ten Boom ("The Hiding Place"). I think biographies can be very inspirational.

Anonymous said...

i'm a book craver, too! but i do it the free way -- at the library. kind of like amazon, though -- i reseve online, and they call me when the books are in.

new grains are so exciting!

HangryPants said...

Yes, I definitely have that reading craving - especially in rainy grey wwather like this!

I never read biographies. I guess I should try!

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