Granola bars: turned into an awesome pre-workout snack/breakfast!

This is hands-down the simplest, tastiest, and best granola recipe I have ever tried. The saying "the best things are simple" clearly applies to this case. Yum. I've been looking for a granola recipe that's simple and has more of an earthy/oaty taste, and this is it.
It's a great recipe if you (like me) don't have any rice crispie cereal on hand and need a super nutritious and non-processed yet satisfying snack.

They're a great no-bake option as well- just press dough into pan and refridgerate for 60 minutes.

You can add dried fruit, chocolate chips, wheat germ, flaxseed, nuts, other seeds, and such to your granola bars to your taste. I added some wheat germ and chocolate chips, since in my world everything's better with chocolate!

RECIPE: (from howsweeteats.com)
*4 cups rolled oats
*1/2 cup unsalted peanuts, chopped
*3/4 cup natural peanut butter or sunbutter, melted
*1/2 cup brown rice syrup (I used honey and it works gorgeously)

PREPERATION:
1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2.) Mix all ingredients together and knead until fully incorporated. You may need to add a bit more honey or peanut butter depending on what you added into the granola bar
3.) Press dough firmly into greased pan and bake for about 25 minutes
4.) Take out and let cool

Also...

I crumbled a bar onto half a cup of low fat plain yogurt and added some raspberries and blackberries. Drizzled it with some honey and voila! The perfect pre-workout snack!

Just looking at this makes me happy ;p

Avocado Almond Crostini

This is a delicious and easy party appetizer, and one of my favorite post-run meals. The nuttiness of the almonds and olive oil really pulls together the whole thing, and the almonds give it a little crunch.
It's a bit like guacamole on top of a slice of toasted baguette, but I am quite proud of myself for coming up with the addition of nuts- again, it really pulls the whole thing together.

RECIPE: serves about 10 slices
*1 ripe avocado
*1 teaspoon lemon juice
*1 teaspoon garlic powder or grated garlic
*1/2 teaspoon salt
*Pinch of pepper, to taste
*About 3/4 a baguette
*1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
*About 20 raw almonds, roughly chopped (roughly in half)

PREPERATION:
1.) Slice baguette into 10 slices
2.) Lightly drizzle with olive oil and toast for a few minutes on both sides until just golden
3.) Dice avocado but don't mash until guacamole consistency

*Mix in the pepper, salt, garlic, and lemon juice, being careful not to over-mash the soft avocado

*Dollop about a teaspoon of avocado onto each slice of baguette

*Garnish with chopped almonds and serve!

Day 1: Mildly craving a cookie

This hasn't been a huge lifestyle change for me, but I definitely do miss chocolate. I'm a firm believer in that every meal should have dessert, and so my fruit consumption has gone way up. You'll also find I eat a lot of home-cooked chinese food, as in my house pretty much all the meals are Chinese food  (unless I'm in a mood for more adventurous cooking.) since we're a Chinese family!
Here's what I ate today:

BREAKFAST: Millet and wild rice porridge; a staple food of Northern Chinese, this porridge is a bit more like a thick gruel. Had a bite or two of dried meat (my mom makes it herself and hangs it in the garage) as well as some stir-fried corn in my porridge. Several handfuls of yummy ripe blackberries to slake my sweet tooth.

LUNCH: I packed some steamed turkey salad with carrots, celery, and romaine lettuce, dressed in a bit of soy sauce, olive oil, and apple wine vinegar, garnished with black pepper. A pear (one of my fave fruits!) for dessert

DINNER: This one's a bit tougher, since I volunteered at the community center and dinner was provided there. Of course, since they were serving pizza and catering leftovers, I ate beforehand. Had a whole box of blackberries (yes I know that is a helluva lot of blackberries) to staunch my sudden urge to empty a box of brownie batter, and a large portion of baked salmon and broccoliwith another pear for dessert. Ate at around 3:30 to 4:00, so after the volunteering event was over I had an apple and some almonds to power me through one and a half hour of dance.

3-day Detox Sugar Cleanse before the holidays: Live Primal



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Loosen your belts and clear your fridge for leftovers; here come the sugar and carb onslaught of the holidays. I definitely believe in guilt-free indulgence (I never count calories- click here for more info on my food philosophy) and never count calories, but I also hate that slogging gross feeling you get after ingesting too much sugar and crashing from the high. As someone who has the world's biggest sweet tooth, I have experience in that aspect.
So join me as I cut out all sugars, artificially refined foods, and factory-processed foods for the next 3 days starting tomorrow! I promise you'll feel so much better afterwards and I hope this might even inspire you to live a healthier lifestyle with fewer processed foods when the cleanse is done.
It's hard, and I can't say it'll be pain free, but at least you'll feel better about indulging when the holidays hit and you accidentally have too many cookies.


RULES: (Inspired by the book Fat Cat by Robin Brande, with a few of my own adjustments)
1.) May only eat foods that prehistoric people ate; no yeast, sugar, or factory-processed foods such as saltines, diet pop, or coffee
2.) May eat the KINDS of foods prehistoric people ate, fresh fruits, nuts, veggies, unprocessed meat (they actually ate carrion occasionally before the discovery of how to use fire, but I'd rather not go there...) home-baked yeast-free whole wheat bread/pasta/pizza. Milk and honey are okay even though cows and honeybees weren't domesticated until many, many years later. Spices are fine to make your food palatable.
3.) May NOT count calories - but must make sure you have all the necessary nutrients your body needs, see below.
4.) I will be drinking organic green tea made from freshly brewed tea leaves, as to keep my sanity throughout my classes.

CURRENT EXERCISE:
Totally into intense cardio intervals and jump rope right now, squeezing in long walk/jogs with my dog when I can.
Intense cardio workouts 4 times a week with the less intense workouts the other 3 days including dance and tennis. When I have time, 30 minutes of strength-building yoga and a light three mile run makes for a nice weekend stress-releaser.

NOTE(S):
*I am not a certified health professional and if you have any specific needs regarding your body then please check with your doctor to make sure you're getting the iron, zinc, calcium, and other nutrients your body needs.
*Your body actually suffers physical/mental withdrawal symptoms if you suddenly cut back on artificial foods and go from a junk food diet to a healthy one devoid of sugar. I did a sugar cleanse once and god I'm telling you it was hell the first couple days. However; push through the first two days and you'll start feeling really energized and kinda like that annoying yoga-addicted friend who keeps preaching about the evils of sugar and somehow has boundless energy. (A.K.A. me on some days... only I love sugar too much to be an unbiased speaker on the topic.)

Thanks for your support and I hope y'all join me on these three sugar-free days before the holidays!

Quick, Easy and Delicious Avocado Pasta

What to do with a ripe avocado?

This is a question I'm sure many of us have answered in different ways. Avocado goes great in salads, sandwiches, dips, facials... and pasta. Yup, that's right. Is it strange at all that I've never thought about using avocado in pasta before? The creaminess of it is almost like alfredo; it's a wonderfully healthy way to replace a cream or butter based sauce.
Of course, me being me, obviously the simple process of selecting the correctly ripened fruit has to go wrong due to some stupid mistake on my part. I'd left an avocado out on the counter to ripen a few days ago, and was going to make use of it today, but accidentally mixed it up with several other not totally ripe avocadoes and had already cut into it before I realized my blunder.
Oops.

But since the damage was already done and the avocado wasn't too green, I went ahead anyways and used it to make this pasta, with fabulous results (the only drawback being that my sauce wasn't really creamy since the avocado wasn't soft enough.)
Let's just say I'll be making this dish again and again and again... etc.

RECIPE: (from ohsheglows.com)
*1 medium-sized avocado, pitted
*Juice of 1/2 a lemon and lemon zest (once again I demonstrate my prowess for blundering and I chucked the peel before I could grate off some zest, so I didn't add this. I'm sure it would've looked pretty, though.)
*2-3 cloves garlic (I used 2 and it was definitely strong, so I would recommend using 3 only if you really like garlic)
*1/2 teaspoon salt
*2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
*2 servings/6 oz pasta of your choice; I used angelhair pasta
*Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

PREPERATION:
1.) Boil pasta, about 8-10 minutes
2.) While the pasta is boiling, make the sauce by putting the garlic, lemon juice, and olive oil in food processor
3.) Add in the avocado and salt
4.) When pasta is done, drain and add sauce on top

5.) Mix well and garnish with black pepper and lemon zest

Family dinner: Healthy Fried Rice

I made some very healthy fried rice for my family today, as I'm trying to eat healthier and amp up my workouts in preperation for the carb onslaught that is the holidays- I live a mostly hedonistic lifestyle and diet, but since I have an great affection for fresh produce and work out pretty much every day of the week (4 super-intense workouts a week and 3 less intense toning ones), the damage isn't too bad. I also happen to live in a family where I didn't even know what butter, hot dogs, donuts, or graham crackers were until I was seven or eight. However, I do try to keep to a mostly unprocessed diet when I'm not craving sugary carbs too much, so here's a healthy recipe for delicious restauraunt-style fried rice!

RECIPE: (Serves 6)
*2 cups of brown rice
*1 cup of shrimp, roughly chopped
*2 cups of broccoli, steamed
*2 teaspoons soy sauce
*1 teaspoon salt
*Pinch of black pepper, to taste
*1 teaspoon fresh ginger, finely diced
*1/2 an onion, roughly chopped
*1/2 a tomato, roughly chopped
*3 cloves garlic, finely diced
*1 teaspoon lime juice
*1 tablespoon vegetable oil

PREPERATION:
1.) Prepare rice according to instructions on bag or cooker
2.) Steam broccoli, prepare and chop all the vegetables
3.) Bring water to a boil and cook shrimp

4.) Stir fry rice, vegetables, shrimp, and other ingredients in the vegetable oil for about 3-4 minutes or until nicely mixed
5.) Turn the heat to low, put lid on, and let steam for another 10-15 minutes, occasionally stirring to
make sure it doesn't stick or burn

And... More Pumpkin! Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

With Thanksgiving so near, I'm feeling bombarded by all these pumpkin recipes. And with pounds of frozen pureed pumpkin in the freezer, what can I do but cave to the peer pressure?
These little muffins are not only delicious but made a great snack for me to bring to my after school activities. Sub applesauce for the vegetable oil and half a cup of flour for a few tablespoons of wheat germ, and it's practically healthy. (Not usually the direction I go with my baking, but it's always nice to cut calories if you're not sacrificing taste.)

RECIPE: (From food.com)

*4 eggs

*2 cups sugar (I used 1 cup)

*1 (16 ounce) can pumpkin

*1 teaspoon vanilla extract

*1 1/4 cups vegetable oil (yes, 1 1/4 cups)

*3 cups flour

*2 teaspoons baking soda

*2 teaspoons baking powder

*2 teaspoons cinnamon

*1 teaspoon salt

*12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips

PREPERATION:
1.) In large mixing bowl beat eggs, sugar, pumpkin, vanilla and oil until smooth.

2.) Mix dry ingredients together and mix into pumpkin mixture. Fold in chocolate chips.

3.) Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups 3/4 full

4.) Bake at 400 F for 16-20 minutes.

And... More pumpkin! Pumpkin chocolate-chip muffins

With Thanksgiving so near, I'm feeling bombarded by all these pumpkin recipes. And with pounds of frozen pureed pumpkin in the freezer, what can I do but cave to the peer pressure?
These little muffins are not only delicious but made a great snack for me to bring to my after school activities. Sub applesauce for the vegetable oil and half a cup of flour for a few tablespoons of wheat germ, and it's practically healthy. (Not usually the direction I go with my baking, but it's always nice to cut calories if you're not sacrificing taste.)

RECIPE: (From food.com)

*4 eggs

*2 cups sugar (I used 1 cup)

*1 (16 ounce) can pumpkin

*1 teaspoon vanilla extract

*1 1/4 cups vegetable oil (yes, 1 1/4 cups)

*3 cups flour

*2 teaspoons baking soda

*2 teaspoons baking powder 

*2 teaspoons cinnamon

*1 teaspoon salt

*12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips

PREPERATION:
1.) In large mixing bowl beat eggs, sugar, pumpkin, vanilla and oil until smooth.

2.) Mix dry ingredients together and mix into pumpkin mixture. Fold in chocolate chips.

3.) Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups 3/4 full

4.) Bake at 400 F for 16-20 minutes.

Cilantro Lime rice

I had some leftover rice from yesterday, so I decided to make some cilantro lime rice (as the title implies.) This classic recipe has become quite well-known to anyone who has been to a Chipotle burrito place. The acidic hint of lime is balanced out with the softer tones of cilantro, and the whole thing is just delicious. My little brother loves this recipe as much as he loves Chipotle (which is a LOT) and I make it whenever I feel like adding a little zing to my plain rice but am tired of regular greasy fried rice.

It makes a great complement to a burrito as well as a nice side dish, and can be served on it's own as well. Of course, I had to check out how the original recipe went from the source itself at chipotlefan.com, and found the ingredients to be super simple. Pretty much just throw in whatever you want, just keep a watch on the lime juice because a little goes a long way on that front.

RECIPE: (from the original source)
*1 teaspoon vegetable oil or butter
*2 tsp. fresh cilantro
*2/3 cup white basmati rice (pretty much any rice will do)
*1 cup water
*1/2 teaspoon salt
*1 Lime

PREPERATION: (If you have pre-cooked rice like I did, just stir-fry everything in a skillet)
1.) In a 2-quart heavy saucepan, heat oil or butter over low heat, stirring occasionally until melted.
2.) Add rice and lime juice, stir for 1 minute.
3.) Add water and salt, bring to a full rolling boil. At boiling, cover, turn down to simmer over low heat until rice is tender and the water is absorbed, about 25 minutes. Fluff rice with a fork.

Farewell to summer- Garden Salsa

As you could probably tell from my last couple posts, I am in the process of accepting summer is almost over and doing my best to welcome fall. However, I must say that I'll mis lazy summer sunsets and floating, sheer dresses). On the food front, (because I'm assuming people don't just visit this site to read my long, random rants on life) I'm sure I'll be soon yearning for resh summer produce and regretting not taking the time to try out recipes like Caprese salad or blueberry grunt. As my consolation: at least there'll be plenty of classic Chinee dishes and cold-weather treats to warm me up after a day of hitting the ski slopes, and to cheer me up when I get nostalgic for warm sunshine and sandals.

I had the last batch of season tomatoes, fresh picked from my neighbor's garden, and what to do but to make salsa? I know everyone's probably bored of salsa recipes already, but since this'll probably be one of my last summer recipes this season, please bear with me.
I like my salsa fresh and chunky; not that suspicious-looking reddish stuff from a jar, and after a bit of experimentation, I've come up with a recipe that satisfies both my love of freshness and spiciness.
You can add some fresh avocado or tone down the garlic if you think this is too spicy, but I personally enjoy a spicier and tangier salsa so my ratio of tomatoes and onion was tilted more towards the onion and garlic side.

RECIPE: (Serves about 2 cups)
*2 large fresh tomatoes
*1/2 onion
*3-4 cloves garlic
*1 large stick celery
*1/2 cup fresh cilantro
*1 1/2 tablespoon lime juice (about the juice of 1/2 a fresh lime)
*1/2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

PREPERATION:

1.) Finely dice tomatoes and grind everything else up. If you have everything peeled and cut, just chuck it in the blender and mix with tomatoes
2.) Add lime juice and mix well

Chinese-style pasta

Stir-fried tomatoes and scrambled eggs with noodles is like the Chinese version of marinara sauce and pasta. Though originally the noodles are supposed to be hand-pulled, I hadn't had much time today (or the skill, really) to hand-pull the noodles, so I just boiled some angel-hair noodles.
It took took only twenty or thirty minutes to make, and brought back many flashbacks of my early childhood. I feel like this is another classic dish that really personifies simple asian home cooking, and a dish even pickier kids are garanteed to love.

RECIPE:
Serves 4

*2-3 medium sized ripe tomatoes
*5 oz angel-hair pasta
*2 stalks green onion
*7-8 eggs
*2 teaspoons salt
*2 teaspoons pepper
*1 tablespoon dried shrimp
*2 tablespoons vegetable oil

PREPERATION:
1.) Dice tomatoes to pieces about the size of the first joint of the knuckle of your thumb, and dice green onion.

2.) Heat oil in skillet and scramble eggs

3.) Throw in chopped tomatoes and green onions

4.) Sprinkle salt and pepper in skillet with the frying eggs and tomatoes

5.) Add the dried shrimp bits and mix well

6.) Boil pasta until soft and edible

7.) Drain and serve pasta with the eggs and tomatoes

Even easier guacamole

I've posted a guacamole recipe before, but here's a recipe that's super simple, and possibly even tastier than I made before! I was looking and experimenting for a guacamole recipe that can be thrown together in minutes, and found it HERE.
Unfortunately, I had to borrow a pic off of someone else's site for this post, because my family gobbled it up before I could take a pic. About 99.5% of the pictures on my blog, especially the recipe ones, are original, but since I live with someone who's appetite is practically insatiable, occasionally there are times when the dish I made was eaten before I could take pictures. And since I am an extremely live-in-the-moment person, I often will not repeat the recipe again or will forget the recipe unless it was extremely sucessful, and even then I'll probably forget to blog about it.
Anyways, enjoy this quick and delicious guacamole recipe that you can serve as a snack, side dish, or even as a light meal.

RECIPE: Serves 4
3 avocados, peeled and chopped
1 lime, juiced
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp salt

PREPERATION:
Mash together all ingredients and serve wth tortilla chips!

Going Vegan- Carrot fries

In order to drop a few pounds of water weight, and mostly to purify my body, I'm going on an all-natural, vegan diet for the next few days. (Goodbye, leftover birthday cake.) However, this doesn't mean I have to nibble on all-natural wheat germ and lettuce all day. I've been perusing various vegan food blogs and cookbooks for insipring and delicious recipes that are both good, and good for me.
These carrot fries are a recipe from Color Me Vegan by Colleen Patrick Goudreau. I don't have that many mouths to feed, so I only made half the portion described, about 2 servings.



RECIPE: Serves 4

*16 medium carrots, peeled and cut into matchsticks

*1 tablespoon (15 ml) olive oil

*1 teaspoon salt

*Freshly ground pepper, to taste

*1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

PREPERATION:

1.) Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F

2.) Place the carrot stics in a bowl and pour the olive oil over them

3.) Using your hands, toss the carrot in the oil to thoroughly coat

4.) Spread the carrot sticks in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper

5.) Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and cumin

6.) Bake the carrots until they begin to crisp, about 45 minutes, checking every 15 minutes or so to toss or turn the pan to ensure even cooking