New Almond Butter, girly purchase and more suprise!! ^_^

Okay. Let me say the surprise first! Star is NOT coming this Friday, but TODAY!!! I'm going to pick him up right after I finish this post!!! YEAH~~~ I love him!!! He knew that I wanted him to come as soon as possible so he booked the first flight he could get, which is Wednesday night and he'll arrive on Thursday 7.30 AM!!! So excited!!! ^_^

Now, let's move to the new batch of Almond Butter. I made not one, but TWO kinds! The simple one, with just roasted almond and pinch of salt.
This time, really smooth!!!And the other one is a new creation. Remember my failed maple-raisin AB? I used half to made cornbread and was having the other half for breakfast, but I wasn't enjoying it much. So, something must be done! I used some of the new batch of AB, the rest of maple-raisin AB, 1/3 cup pumpkin puree, 2 tbsp maple butter and 1/4 cup raisin! Result? An extremely smooth Pumpkin maple Almond Butter!!! IT's sooooooo good!!!
Look how smooth is thisThe best part of making nut butter is to clean this with my tongue.... hahha.... such a tough job!!!^_^ Now, girly purchase! Look what I got today in the mailI bought all these for <$15. Lips colors Lovely pink nail polish
Check out my entire selection of nail polish
I don't know why I have all these, because I usually go to manicure and only use them for fun! ^_^ How many nail polish do you keep?

Finally, food! Another great day, followed almost the new challenge guideline.
Breakfast

• 1/3 c. rolled oats
• 1/3 c. almond milk
• 1/4 c. wheat berries
• 1/4 c. pumpkin
• 2 tbsp flax meal
• topping: 1 tbsp low fat plain yogurt + 1 tbsp maple-raisin AB + blueberries

YUM YUM~~~
I didn't really need AM snack, but had it anyway when I was waiting in the doc office: 1/3 of honest granola bar. (bad)
Lunch: chicken bamboo shot dish over "noodles" and a chopped tomato
Dessert: 2 squares of almond cornbread
I kep PM snack small (good): 1 slice of WW with LC and an apple
I went to swim pool, swam for an hour, showered, moisturized and felt amazing!! :)
Early dinner at 7pm (good): tortilla veggie pizza!!! I used Tj's rice tortilla for the dough, topped with homemade sauce, mushrooms, mini peppers, broco-flower and part-skim mozzarella.It was delicious!!!! I need to have this more often!!!
Dessert was amazing: 1 cup of low fat plain yogurt + 2 tbsp wheat berries + 1 square of almond cornbread crumbled + coconut flakes
It was delicious, but maybe too much yogurt, I felt a little bloated afterwards!
Day 2 of the challenge and Day -1 of Star arrival was FABULOUS!!! ^____^

Question: Any guess about how I'll spend these two days with Star? What kind of dates do you think we'll get?

Foodie is hungry!!!~~~

It was a day focused on food!!!~~ I did nothing but eat good food on a gray/rainy Sunday~ What better alternative did I have? And I was especially hungry all day long, so I had to feed the hungry monster inside me :D
Thank you guys for providing me great tips about how to make nut butter... I think my problem was not grind until the butter consistency before adding other ingredients! Also thank you for tips to make green oatbran. I adopted the processor method yesterday to make it.
Spinach on the food processor. Grind for few secondsOatbran making on the stove (1/2 c. oatbran + 1/3 c. pumpkin + 1/2 c. almond milk)Adding oatbranGrind about 1 minute and top with failed maple-raisin almond butterDelicious and no splash! ^_^After finishing those crumbled AB I had to have some smooth AB.... so finishing the jar. Lovely~~~ I need to make some REAL AB again!!!
I was really satisfied with this high fat high vitamins breakfast, but still packed an apple and a bar for mid morning snack since I always have late lunch on Sunday (yoga class and groceries trip afterward).Lunch at 2.30pm: a tomato salad, balsamic grazed carrots and chinese one pot meal.After finished this big plate, I went for more (I warned you, I was a hungry)Dessert: cottage cheese + fresh blueberries + teaI spent my afternoon watching TV, taking a nap and when I woke up I was hungry again. Half of this gigantic grapefruit (almost the size of my head) and a cup of powdered soy milkDinner was delicious too!!! Look what I've preparedStuffed mini sweet peppers with ground beef. It's a traditional Chinese meal and it was my first time making it. It's so easy and sooooooooooo good!!!

• 1/2 pounds of grounded beef marinated with cooking wine, soy sauce, brown sugar, S+P and corn starch
  
• 17 mini sweet peppers
• sesame oil
• corn starch
  

Stuff the peppers with the beef, sauteed it with some sesame oil, soy sauce, add water until almost cover the peppers. Let it cook for about 20 min until 2/3 of the liquid is absorbed. Add corn starch diluted in some water, stir and done!
I also made a quick stir fry with mushrooms, green peppers and spinach.All together with some rice.Look this..... it's really really good. (I had 5-6, can't remember well) ^_^
And then desserts: white fungus drink + steamed kabocha + chocolateThat was a lot of food but I still felt room in my stomach after 2 hours (before bed). So I had a powdered lotus cream. This is the powderafter adding boiling water, you get this cream consistent. Yummy~~
Question: Do you consider you a foodie? Why? How would you define a foodie?

cooking & baking!! ^_^ (be prepared for pic attack!)

Sunday was GREAT!!!! I can't remember the last time I did this, spending the whole afternoon/evening cooking/baking/grounding goodies. It was sooooooo enjoyable, perfect "date" for a rainy Sunday. Besides of this, I went to yoga in the morning and did groceries, WF, Tj's and local supermarket. ($80 in total). I had all the intention to buy less and use what I have in the pantry, but then when I see fresh veggies/fruits, I just can't help myself! Gr......... will power = ZERO. But I didn't care too much, since I know I'd be eating them all!!! As long as I don't waste food, I am ok, right?

Okay. let's move to my food adventure.
Breakfast was boring but yummy: Tj's english muffin (double toasted), poached egg white, LC, Cinnamon Swirl PB, apple and blackberries.AM snack (on the road): Quaker True Delight (recycled pic)A very BROCCOLI Lunch (all leftovers): last portion of vegetarian lasagna, cheeseless cheesy broccoli puree, steamed broccoli and broccoli slaw with bbq sauce.Dessert: white fungus porridge and dark chocolate.I chilled out a little bit catching up some blogs and then immersed myself into the kitchen accompanied by some Easy Listening music. HEAVEN!!!

#1: Dill cornbread. Original recipe provided by Krista, here's my version

• 1 cup corn meal (polenta)
• 3/4 cup almond breeze
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbp Tj's 10 seasoning
• 2-3 tbps chopped fresh dill

Mix everything and bake for 30 min at 425F. End result
It was amazingly delicious! Just the kind the I like. I had square 10 min after coming out from the oven.
#2: my first homemade Almond Butter. I've always wondering how to make it so I asked Ashley and she was so nice to provide me with detailed instructions. So, I made Roasted almond butter. It was soooooo fun making it, especially when the ball became butter, it was magic! End result
perfectly smooth, amazing roasted almond flavor! Perfection! I am already thinking what to make for the next batch. Because this 1/2 jar won't last for long.

#3: dates meal! I had some dry chinese dates that I didn't know how to have it. So, I grounded them and will use it for toppings. Like this: 1/4 cup Fage + strawberries + dates meal. Yek!! people, I officially ended my dairy free mode! I just miss it and felt my body craved it, so I will have them back, but in small portions! ^_^

#4: low fat/ low cal ricotta cheesecake. Original recipe provided by Ashley too, but I made some modifications. So, here's my version of it

• 1 cup part skim ricotta
• 1 cup firm tofu (I wanted to see how tofu works for baking and cut back on dairy)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 2 eggs
• 1 packet vanilla whey protein powder
• 1/4 cup stevia
• 1 tsp vanilla
• juice of 1/2 fresh lemon
• 1/4 cup flax meal
  

Mix everything and bake for 40 min at 375F in the top rack and put a pan with water in the lower rack.
End result

#5: roasted rainbow carrots with dill
I've been wanting to make these for so long and finally got some fresh herbs and time to make it.

• 3 carrots (1 orange, 1 white, 1 pinky orange)
• 1 tbsp olive
• 2 tbsp balsamic
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2-3 tbsp fresh dill

Coarse the carrots with the mix of the remaining ingredients and bake at 375 for an hour.I ended up everything around 8pm and had a delicious dinner: sauteed mustard greens with garlic, roasted carrots, barley risotto and smoked salmon (Tj's).Dessert: ricotta cheesecake with a blueberries sauce (just blend some frozen blueberries and some lemon juice).it was soooooo good, so smooth, perfectly sweetened. I went for another piece right after these
Such a fantastic dinner~~~ I enjoyed soooo much!

Question: Can you stick to a recipe? or you're like me who just to put some personal touch on every recipe?

oh... FAQ part 2 will come soon, if you missed FAQ part 1, check here!