feeling a little better~

First of all, I want to thank you guys for the support, you're the best, even better than some real life friends. I'm deeply touched by your words. I decided to move on with my own research project and as Jennifer suggested, I'll talk to other professor from our department about my work, hopefully I'll get some feedback from them. And definitely I'm agree with Juliet that a good academic doesn't mean a good teacher/leader/advisor. If one day I could be a professor, I'd try my best to support my students to go through this hard process of research.
Finally, I'll do all things that Liz, Erica, Julia, Alicia, Lindsay suggested. I went to the gym this afternoon for an athletic conditioning class... it wasn't the best fitness class, but at least I got some endorphins and a workout. For the thanksgiving, I'll do yoga, movie, running, candles and of course work, a lot of work. (the good thing to be alone in US is not have to decline parties invitation because I have to work)

okay. Back to eats. I'll warn you that when I'm feeling low...I don't have much appetite. So, what you'll see won't be very interesting....
Breakfast: I wasn't in mood for sweet brekkie, so I went for a toasted muffin with two poached egg whites with some salsa and laughing cow, along with an apple and coffee as usual.
Morning snack: ricotta+wheat berries
Lunch: leftover soup and a small bowl of rice
Pre-workout snack: toasted muffin with laughing cow and PB.
By dinner time, I began to feel hungry (signal of feeling better?). So, I had a big plate of food.
Roasted cauliflower and Brussels sprouts (with canola oil, S+P), brown rice with chickpeas and Tj's grilled chicken with BBQ sauce.
Finally I could enjoy a meal.
Dessert was mix of fresh blueberries, fage and baked butternut squash (it's so sweet that I like to have it as dessert). And 2 marrocs.
I hope tomorrow I can feel even better than today~~
And once again, thank you! I really appreciate your comments and suport.

So upset to be ignored!

No no, I don't mean that you guys are ignoring me... just the opposite, you guys always bring me support and cheer me up when I'm low. I'm upset with my research and specially with the professor I'm working with. Okay, I've never talked about my research in this blog but I think I can't avoid it anymore....today my tolerance has reached its lowest point, if I don't express it here I'm going crazy!
The professor who I'm working with since 5 months ago is a very respectful and well known researcher in our field (top 15 economists in the world). So when she offered me to work with her on a paper I was the happiest student ever. Unfortunately being famous involves a lot of thing, she's extremely busy on conferences, interviews, newspapers articles, etc. As consequence, I hardly can find her to talk about our paper. I insist with emails and calls. Every time I try to find her, I get stressed out. I called her last week and she asked me to call her back on Monday morning, so I did. But when I called her, she asked me again to call her in 10 min, but when I called her back, nobody answer the phone anymore. I felt terrible!!!!! my stress level has reached its peak since I began to work with her. I couldn't contain my emotions and I began to cry badly. I've put so much effort for this project, I've tried my best to do everything fast and well. But the result doesn't depend on me alone, I need her help but she's so busy. I know that she likes me and she wants to work with me, otherwise she wouldn't have offered me at the first place. But she's always so busy and my project will never be her priority 1.
I really don't know what to do.... because I'm in a point of my research that I can't move further alone and I can't wait much longer either. The semester is ending and I haven't written any single paper yet.. oh....what am I going to do?
What do you guys do when you feel desperate, impotent and totally stressed out?

okay back to eats. I'll just post photos today, I'm really not in mood in writing more details about it.
I went for a spin class trying to feel better. The monitor worked appropriately this time. Here's the stat
Duration: 52 min
Average Heart Rate: 139
Maximum: 161
Calories burned: 305

And the last thing, today's my bf's birthday. Unfortunately I can't celebrate it with him... I can just wish him Happy birthday by phone and here. So sad for him and for me!

catching up sleep~~~ ^_^

As some of you already know, last week I was deprived of sleeping, waking at 4 or 5 am everyday. So, this weekend I was extremely tired and by 9 pm I felt very low and went to sleep few minutes after dinner. That happened again yesterday... so I'm writing a quick post about yesterday's eats.

Breakfast:
Carrot cake oatmeal

• 1/3 cup old wessex
• 1/3 cup almond breeze vanilla
• 1/3 shredded carrots
• 1/2 banana
• 1 tbsp flax meal
• 1 tbsp wheat berries
  
• 1 tbsp coconut flakes
• 1/4 cup fresh blueberries.

Sunday is also Savannah's oatmeal day, so I made it for her too. As she's a big fan of pumpkin seeds, I topped hers with tons of pumpkin seeds.
I went to vinyasa yoga in the morning (snack was H2H) and had a quick lunch alone with leftover: soy bean sprouts sauteed with soy sauce, cabbage sauteed with tomatoes, a steamed corn, small piece of Tj's tenderloin and small bowl of Tiger Stoup.

Dessert was fage with fresh blueberries.
A friend came to home to have tea with us. They had brownies that I made last weekend and I had Tj's 5 seeds bread with laughing cow (I'm not a cake/pie person) with mate tea.
For dinner I made Fusion of noodles.
It's delicious and fun to have 3 kinds of noodles at one meal, so you don't get bored for sure.
dessert was a pear with fage with strawberries (no pic!).
Bye for now... it's Monday, need to work~~~~ ^_^

catching up: groceries madness~~~~~ ^_^

Last night I was so tired that I went to bed right after dinner. I don't know what happened to me, maybe the lack of sleep from past week finally caught me or maybe because of afternoon's groceries madness. ahhaha.... we went to 5 stores for our groceries yesterday!!!! Can you believe that????? and the funny part is that I still need to go today because we forget couple of things.
As I said in my previous post, during winter time, when night comes as early as 5pm, my best weekend is staying at home, do some not school related readings, a good movie and a lots of cooking/baking!!! In order to do that, we had to filled up fridge.
Breakfast was another bowl of yummy oatmeal.

• 1/3 old wessex
• 1/3 almond breeze vanilla
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 banana
• 1/3 cup frozen strawberries
• 1/3 cup frozen blueberries
• 1 tbsp wheat berries
• 1 tbsp coconut flakes
• 1 spoon PB

love the pinky-blue color and obviously it taste great! Coffee and candle!After my breakfast, I called to my parents (1-2 hours every weekend). It's so great to talk to them, even it's just by phone. Although we're thousands of miles apart..when I hear them I feel like home. I would call them more often, but it makes me miss them more, and sometimes it's sad to feel so impotent to not be able to be with them when they're getting older. I wish I could take care of them or just spend more time with them. Oh... btw, I'm the only child because of Chinese one-child policy. So, I can imagining how they miss me, and how much they want me to be with them. But you guys know how great how generous is parents love, even they'd like me to be with them, they support me 100% on my studies and my professional career because they want me to be happy and have a better life.
Another call followed, with my bf (TheBoyfriend1124). We talk at least twice a day, so our call wasn't that long. But during weekdays, both of us are so busy so it's good to have more time and more relax mood to talk. Talking with bf is so different feeling than talking with parents. I'd never tell my parents about my stress and my concerns. I'd only tell them good news to make them happy. But I'm totally "naked" to my bf, I might not tell him every single thing I do (for this he can read my blog), but I let him know all my thoughts, good and bad ones. I feel so safe telling him everything and I know he will be always there for me. He's my angel and my company in this life.

Morning went through so fast, when I finished my calls, it was about lunch time. Oh. first I had two cups of H2H between calls.I asked Savannah what she had planned to do, she had nothing planned yet, so we agree to do some shoppings. But before that, a Chinese meal for lunch.

I made stir fry soy bean sprouts with salt, sugar and soy sauce.cabbage with tomatoesTofu and green veggies soupAnd riceA big load of veggies....very satisfying.

Dessert was marroc (no pic)

We went to a mall but after an hour or so we got bored because there was nothing interesting to buy. Then we decided to switch to our favorite shopping tour: groceries!!! We went to Korean market, Tj's, Mom's, Latin store and Shoppers. So fun!!!! Now, our fridge is really stuffed!!!
Back home, cooking time!!!! Before that, I had an Asian pear! very juicy~~~Cooking 1: tarta de pascualina. It's basically a spinach pie, but it's a classic in Argentina. I've promised to Savannah to make it for her, but the pie crust was hard to hard. okay, here's the recipe

• 2 pie crust (the brand name is: La Salteña, it's more crispy and lower fat than american brands)
• 2 packages of frozen spinach (well drained)
  
• 2 boiled eggs
• 1 egg
  
• 1 chopped onion
• 2 garlics
  
• 5 oz. Parmesan
• 2 tbsp oil
• 2 tbsp corn starch
  
• S+P
• 1 tsp cuminMethod

1. Cook chopped onions and garlic with oil for 5-7 min until brown.
2. Add spinach, cook for another 5 min.
3. Add corn starch (dissolved in water), Parmesan cheese, S+P and cumin.
4. Put one piece of the pie crust in a round pan, place the eggs (cut in half) at the bottom, add the fillings and cover it with the other crust.
5. Brush with beaten egg.
6. Boil for 5 min and then bake for 25 min in 350F.It's a really easy pie to make. It's delicious, perfect for a quick lunch.

Cooking 2: coco's style Chinese pork. It's my boyfriend's favorite dish and also all my friend who tried it, loved it. Sorry if you're vegetarian/vegan and can't stand meat, just skip this part.

It has a lot of fat, but as the cooking time is long (2 hours or so), all the fats is released from the meat and the remaining thing is collagen. It's extremely soft and not greasy at all. Savannah loved it!!!!! "I haven't had so much meat since I was a kid.. this is delicious!!!!!!" Savannah said.I don't like pork at all, I just began to eat red meat this year, and the only meat that I can't eat is pork. So, I didn't even try it. I know you might wonder why I learn and think how to cook pork if I can't even stand it.... well the reason is love. ^_^ my boyfriend's favorite meat is pork and he's very picky with food.... So I had to master in making delicious pork dishes for him!

My dinner was Tiger stoup with 3 small pieces of Tj's roasted tenderloin and my favorite steamed corn.Dessert: fage with vegan pumpkin pudding. (I had two bowls)I went to bed almost right away, read 5 lines and falled into deep sleep.

Bye for now, today will be more cooking/baking!!!

it's friday~~~~~~~~~~ ^_^

This was a short week, well that's how I feel...maybe because I was busy this week.
My weekend began today at 11.51am, when I finished teaching the last of the three sessions. I spent whole afternoon doing NOTHING.... ^_^ and this is so relaxing~~~~ By nothing I mean nothing related to work. I did read posts of bloggers; I created links for recipes that I've done in my blog; I went to the gym to test my new Polar (even though with some complications). And here I am, stuffed with a big dinner and dessert.

Oh~~ thanks for the suggestions for my last night's dish... finally I decided to name it as Tiger Stoup, which is a mix of Sweet Tooth's and Lisa's suggestions.

okay. back to food now.
breakfast combo

• 1/2 cup old wessex
• 1/2 cup almond breeze chocolate
• 1/2 banana
• 1/2 apple
• 1 tbsp wheat berry
• 1 spoon of PB
• pinch salt
  

I put both banana and apple from the beginning of cooking. I really like this combo, the addition of apple give it more sweetness.
PB melted
I find PB easier to melt in the oatmeal than BB.
I packed trail mix and the other half of the apple as snack. (I was trying to fuel more during the day because I planned to go to the gym tonight. )
Back home I was starving....so just quick/simple lunch: the last portion of leftover eggplant tofu lasagna, 1/2 cup rice, 2 tbsp of hummus and a warm salad of Brussels sprouts with palm heart with 1 tbsp of BBQ sauce and pepper.
Very nutritious and satisfying meal.
Dessert was Fage with pumpkin and cinnamon.
While I was reading blogs I snacked some H2H, half piece of heart chocolate and a marroc (already eaten)!I wasn't hungry at all this afternoon, but had a muffin with laughing cow anyway before heading to the gym.I did a 35 min interval in the treadmill because I wanted to test my cardio fitness.

• 1 min of warm up (4 miles/hour)
• 4 min jog (4m/h)
  
• 6 sets of: 1 min of speed work at 7m/h + 3 min recover at 5m/h
  
• 4 min cool down (4m/h)

My heart monitor began to work properly, but after 5 min, when I began to speed up, it got stacked at 97! I don't know what happened, definitely my HR was much higher (according to the treadmill my HR was 150 or so).
After the interval I went to the elliptical machine to read Woman's health magazine. I did 18 min and the monitor was working properly. It seems that it works fine when I don't move much. Anyone had similar experience or know why is that?

Back home I needed a big meal after the workout. As it is Friday, it's pizza night~~~~~~ I use Tj's rice tortilla as usual and topped with zucchini, broccoli, an egg, tomatoes sauce and mozzarella. As side dish I had stir-fry romaine lettuce with garlic and salt.
The addition of egg was pretty good....love the taste of egg mixing with cheese. mmmmmm......... delicious!!!
I was pretty stuffed at the end....but how could I resist this last piece.
Stuffed badly but dessert was calling~~~~ So, I waited 3o min for a partial digestion before to have new creation (for this week's BSI). A vegan pumpkin pudding made with tofu!!!!!!! yeah~~~~ you read it right, I made it with silk tofu and I think if I don't tell you, you won't notice at all!!!!!
okay. here's the recipe
Ingredients

• 2 cups of pumpkin puree
• 2 cups of silk tofu
• 1 cup of almond breeze original
• 2 tsp of gelatin powder
• 1/3 cup agave nectar or any kind of sweetener you have
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tbsp pumpkin spice
  

Method
1. heat almond breeze and dissolve agave nectar in it
2. hydrate gelatin powder in 2 tbsp of water
3. combine 1 and 2.
4. blend pumpkin with tofu for 2-3 min until you get a smooth mixture.
5. add 3 and blend 1 min more
6. pour the mixture in 3 bowls and freeze for 4-5 hours
I had one bowl with BB
HEAVEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously, you guys need to try this, it's so simple and so delicious!!!!!!!!

I don't have any plan for the weekend yet..... It's freezing/snowing outside, so being at home, do some readings and/or bakings or even do nothing is relaxing enough for me. What about you guys? What do you have planned? What's your perfect winter weekend?