Thursday: baking day ^_^

Why should I limit sunday as the baking day? A midweek day dedicated to baking could be fun and relaxing, right? YEAH~~~ So I made Megan's gingerbread apple spice cupcakes. Actually mine turn out to be more like muffins than cupcakes. I followed closely the recipe, except I replaced molasses by honey and sugar. I added some soy milk as well since the barter was a little bit dry. And as these muffins are mainly for Savannah (since yesterday I finished all our ginger cookies), I topped them with pumpkin seeds (she's a pumpkin seed lover, I'm a pumpkin lover. Perfect couple, right?)
When they were in the oven baking, the flavor in my apartment is AMAZING!!!! It's a light and spongy muffin, full of flavors. You guys really should to make it. It's extremely simple and perfect for holiday season either for breakfast or snack.
I had half after it cools. (I realized that muffin's real texture can only be tasted once it is cool)
I'm glad to receive so many answers about what you'd like to know about China. Most of you guys are more interested on food (as I expected) because we're all foodies!!! ^_^ But other interesting things were pointed out. I'll summarize them here so I don't forget when I go to China:

1. FOOD (local food, how food is viewed, how people share food)
   
2. sights
3. "chinese" menu at McDonalds
4. differences between rural China and the cities

Definitely all these requests will be conceded and much much MORE!!!!!
I and The Boyfriend are still planning which part of China we're going. Up to now we've decided to go Shanghai (my hometown and where all my family live, so I'll spend most of time there), Hong Kong, Shen Zhen, Hang Zhou. And we're looking for one more city to go. So excited!!!! I love love traveling. Even though I'm from China, but rural China or just other big cities in China are so different than Shanghai. So every time I visit a new city, it's like to visit a new country (similar to Europe). The people, their customs, beliefs, food, language could be so different that I wonder how difficult it must have been to unify China.
I promise that I'll take tons of pictures for you guys to meet the real modern China. And of course all those incredible FOOD!!!
Okay. Back to today's eats. Breakfast

• 1/4 cup multigrain
  
• 1/4 cup oat bran
• 1/2 cup almond breeze
  
• 1/2 banana
• 1/2 apple
• 1/4 cup egg white
  
• vanilla
• 1 tbsp flax meal
• 1 tbsp wheat berries
• 2 tbsp cottage cheese
  

I added egg white to get some protein to see if it helps me to cut back of cravings in the mid-morning. Somehow, maybe because of that, it turned out to be a huge bowl of oat. I didn't really taste egg white there, but it was delicious!!!!!! this combo will definitely be repeated.The trick worked, I didn't crave anything the entire morning. It hold me for almost 5 hours. Maybe it was because I was too concentrated on work that I didn't hear my stomach, because when I stopped working and began to prepare lunch, I felt the hunger immediately. So I first had 1 pita bread.Lunch was served after 30 min. Baked salmon with soy sauce, ginger powder, sugar, cooking wine, pepper, together with some onions. For me, this is the perfect baked salmon ever! I also had some sauteed romaine lettuce with mushrooms and rice.
Such a complete (in term of nutrients), filling and delicious meal.
Dessert was 1 big spoon of PB.
I had to hold office hour this afternoon, so I packed 1 pita bread with laughing cow and a package of BB as snack.Back home, baked muffins and I did The Power Vinyasa Flow #1 from www.yogadownload.com because I was lazy to drive to gym and also because I'm planning to go to spin class tomorrow, so I guess I didn't need cardio work today. How many times do you guys do cardio work a week?
I wasn't hungry after that muffin, so for dinner I had my favorite tortilla pizza topped with eggplant, mushroom, broccoli, sauce, mozzarella and tons of basil!!! (not by choice. I poured the entire bottle by accident. I did what I could to remove most of them, but still, it's too much basil). And some hummus on top., Fortunately it was quite good and much more filling than I thought. I like to put a lot of veggies on my pizza and eggplant is the best topping for me.
Dessert was another favorite: frozen strawberries + fage + wheat berries!!!
I just had my favorite dinner plus my favorite dessert! can't be happier!!! ^__^
Hope you had a great Thursday.

Question: If you have to buy souvenirs in US for a non-american friend, what would you buy?

overload of food!!!!!

Yeah~~~~ it was a overload of food today, specially these addicting Ginger cookies!!!! Take a look
Before:it's a lot of cookies!!!After:yes!!! I finished them all in less than an hour!!! under what circumstances??? STRESS & ANXIETY! (if you remember what I say last night about today's plan? well.... I had to write down the model for my paper! and man! that's the most stressful thing!!!) But at least I had these cutest animals cookies with me, right? ^_^ What food do you like to have when you're stressed out?

okay. If you think that because I overloaded on cookies, I was going to cut back on meals??? NO WAY!!! Today is one of those Tiger Hunger days. So, I need to feed it!!!
Oh. before I forget, thanks for all you guys who concerned about my sleep. Fortunately I slept like a baby last night (9 hours!!!).
Okay, back to eats. Breakfast

• 1/4 cup Tj's 5 grains
• 1/4 cup oat bran
• 1/2 cup almond breeze original
• 1/2 apple
• 1/2 cup frozen strawberries
• 1 tbsp flax meal
• 1 tbsp wheat berries
• 1 tbsp cottage cheese

yum yum~~~~~~~~ And the indispensable coffee!Few minutes later, I had another coffee with the other half of apple
I began to work at 7.30am trying to figure out what elements I needed to put in my model to make my story to work. I began to write down equations after equations, algebra, erase, more equations, more algebra, erase...... repeat and repeat!!! After 3 hours.... I had no model but all those cookies!
Despite all those cookies, I wanted a satisfying lunch but I didn't want to spend more than 15 min on preparing it. So, stir-fry, the almost delicious and quick meal. I used 1/3 big eggplant, 2 cups of mushrooms and a big handful of spinach. Ginger powder, soy sauce, sugar and sesame oil. mmmmmmm........... so tasty!!! I also had some rice and baked tofu.
Did some more attempts with my model during the afternoon before I went to the spin class. Today's stat Duration: 50 min
Average Heart Rate: 141
Maximum: 160
Calories burned: 303
As I didn't had snack earlier, I was quite hungry when I came back. But it was too early for dinner, so I had two pita with laughing cow.Did some errands at home and prepared a light dinner (I felt a little bloated!). I just heated some chili with frozen green beans and okras.Dessert was fage with frozen blueberries.
And of course second one was needed. Fage with cinnamon!
Yesterday I asked you guys what is your favorite Chinese dish. Most of your answers actually are not true Chinese food, (except sour & sweet pork and Szechuan dishes). They're more like adapted American-Chinese food. I think what most of people know about chinese food is just a very small part of Chinese food. The real Chinese food has many more varieties than stir-fry veggies with meat. I don't think it would be interesting that I explain here what the true Chinese food is. BUT the good news is I'm going to China in less than 20 days (December 22th to be exact) and I'll be traveling different parts of China with The Boyfriend for two weeks. So, you guys will be able to see true Chinese food from China, guided by a little gourmet like me! Are you excited???? Well, I'm veryyyyy excited. My last trip with The Boyfriend was August this year during the Olympic season. We went to the best/typical restaurant in Peking and it was amazing!!!!! I wish I had a blog so I could have recorded all those fabulous places and eats! ^_^

Question: What facts about China you want to know/see most? Food? Culture? People? City? Whatever you'd like to know!

Tuesday break~~ ^_^

Is it too soon to give me a break???? It's not even mid-week!!!! Maybe, because I needed so I gave it to me. Well, actually it was a short break, it began at 4pm. This afternoon I had to attend a lecture, a seminar, a meeting with a professor (in which the only thing I was thinking about was food..... I was so hungry!!!), and then I had a tea and some chat with a friend in his office. Back home around 5pm, starrrrrrving!!!!
Okay, first rewind to the early morning.
How did I sleep last night? You'll figure it out in just a second.
I had a three-part breakfast.
First: 3.45am, pita bread + laughing cow+ginger cookies and a cup of almond breeze.Second: 5.45am the usual oatmeal combo

• 1/4 cup Tj's 5 grains
• 1/4 cup oat bran
• 1/4 cup frozen blueberries
• 1/4 cup frozen strawberries
• 1/2 banana
• 1 tbsp flax meal

Third: 6.45am baked kabocha! TONS!!!!! (no pic! I was so busy having them ^.^) I guess I had about 1 pound of it!!!! so stuffed afterward. Definitely a overload of vitamin A! I need to cut back on pumpkin, seriously, no more pumpkin until next year, otherwise I'll become pumpkin!!!! (the true worry is getting a yellow tint on my skins, specially my palms, which is a little bit scary)
Now reason for the three parts brekkie. #1 was to convince my body to go back to sleep. (failed) #2 was official brekkie even though I wasn't hungry at all, but just wanted to begin my day properly. #3 was remedy for my terrible headache. (not true remedy, I just wanted to have something that I really like and hope my headache will magically disappear afterward. Obviously that never happened!)
Despite the morning big-brekkie-headache issue. I did work properly from 7 am to 11.30 am. Have a quick lunch. I made chili last night, so I had one cup of the chili, throw some spinach, mushrooms and the final leftover chicken soup. Heat them all together and lunch was served. (<5min)with a pita breadI packed more ginger cookies as dessert (I had them in the seminar, making funny noises! Erin, I told you, I don't have a educated mouth either! ^_^)
Now, forward until 5pm. Back home, starving, I had one apple (heated in the microwave as Magpie suggested), 1/3 cup cottage cheese and a slice of Tj's 3 seeds bread. Along with REAL SIMPLE!!!! I finally got it! I've been waiting it for weeks and it finally arrived! 5 min finished all those, I still felt hungry, so another slice of bread with laughing cow. I know you guys like Real Simple a lot, but I must say that I am a little dissapointed. Too many ads and too few real articles. I really don't like when an article's content is about recommending products....... for that, I prefer simply just Ads. I don't know, maybe it's december, the holiday month, so there are more ads than usual. I hope so!
I also received two new books that I ordered right after I finished Eat, Pray and Love. These two are very popular as well......Hope I'll like them too. I think finding a book that you really like is a matter of luck. Dont' you think? Because whatever your best friend likes doesn't imply that you'll like it too, book taste is so personal.
I didn't feel needing a big/complex dinner after that big snack. But I wanted to have an early dinner because my lack of sleep last night finally caught me!!! So I made a stir-fry veggies (mushrooms, romaine lettuce and broccoli) with grated ginger, soy sauce, 1 tbsp of sugar and 1 tbsp of sesame oil. And 1 block of baked tofu. I love loading tons of veggies ^_^ (except pumpkin)
Dessert was 1 bowl of fage with PB and 1 bowl of fage with cinnamon. FABULOUS!!!~~~~~~ It's interesting how suddenly my mood is better even though none of my research issues have been resolved, the lack of sleep last night, the terrible headache this morning....... none have affected me! I guess when nothing can be worse you begin to see the world with other lens. Rebonding from the lowest point can make you become more optimistic. Does it make sense what I'm saying? Or I began to dream already??? I guess it's time for me to say good night! I love you all! Hope you had a great day! Tomorrow is Wednesday, mid-week day~~~~~~~ uuhuuuuuuuuu!!! And I need to begin to write down my model!!! so fun!!!~~~~ Question: What's your favorite chinese dish and why?

Monday is hard, isn't it?

Although I worked during last weekend, after a Sunday break, it's hard for me to back into work with focus. Plus more issues with my professors......grrrrrrrrrrr....... I can't wait to finish all this and go for a vacation!!!
I'm sorry to all you guys that I've been complaining so much lately. During these two years and half in the program, I've been stressed out by exams and deadlines, but I've never experienced this kind of desperation before. I've never lost confidence on myself so much as I am now. I wish I could find other way to channel my anger and frustration. But unfortunately there is few people here who I can talk about this, so poor you guys who are so kind to visit my blog, unfortunately you'll have to bear with me. I hope all these issues can be resolved somehow soon!

Okay. About my eats today. Despite my loss of appetite to eat, I managed to ingest a good amount of food because the last thing I need now is get sick or loose weight (I'm going to see my parents and bf in 20 days and I don't want them to worry about me)
Breakfast combo

• 1/4 cup Tj's 5 grains (couldn't find old wessex)
  
• 1/4 cup oat bran
• 1/2 banana
• 1 apple
• 1/2 cup almond breeze
• vanilla + cinnamon
• 1 tbsp flax meal
• 1 tbsp cottage cheese
• 2 tbsp pumpkin and sunflower seeds
  

You might have noticed that I'm adding apple as part of my oatmeal pretty often lately. I like the flavor and texture that it gives to the combo and as it is winter, when I eat apple alone, I get cold. So by adding it to my breakfast, I make sure that I have an apple a day.
Coffee and FT
Morning snack: 3 rice cakes with 1 package of BB.Lunch was leftover sauteed cabbage, chicken, a soup made with miso, Korean spicy sauce seaweed and some soy made knots, together with a cup of rice.
The soup was very tasty and spicy, perfect for winter.
Dessert was a small piece of banana loaf with PB.Afternoon snack was more rice cake with cottage cheese.I went to a spin class later afternoon. My stat
Duration: 52 min
Average Heart Rate: 141
Maximum: 164
Calories burned: 315

Back home, I wasn't sure what I wanted for dinner. Not much appetite, but fuel needed. So first I had banana loaf. And then I came up with these for dinner, guess what are they?
3 of them are grits (I bought it cooked in Tj's) and 2 of them are poached eggs. I topped them with sauce, pinch of salt, mozzarella and dry basil, broil for 5 min. I also had some baked kabocha and the rest of the soup.

mmmmmmmm.........so yummy~~~~~~~ I began to feel a little better after dinner! :) life isn't so bad!
For dessert I had frozen berries and strawberries with Fage and a big bowl of ginger cookies!!! These are so cute, perfect to munchie when I watch Prison Break. ;)Question: If you're married, did you buy your ring together with your husband or he bought it for you? If you're not married, would you like to receive it as a surprise? or would you like to choose it for yourself?