I’m going to make this post a quick one. Enjoy!
Loomis and I off to heal the world.
Waiting for our guide to show up.
A little posing in front of the center.
Soft Serve!
Never try shopping for boots while eating soft serve.
Brown boots = <3
Soup, crackers, whole grain sourdough bread, soup = BIG TIME <3
Coconut bread. see the yellow coconut swirls? YUM!
The family at Golden Gate Park
Should have been the 49ers…
Good night!
Here’s yet again, another long post.
Hope you enjoy reading and seeing photos as I have lots to share!
Friday:
Breakfast:
Coffee, cinnamon bagel with almond butter, banana slices, coconut flakes, agave nectar.
Snacks:
fresh strawberries added to Fage w/ honey = SOOOOO GOOD!
Chocolate chip cookie. I wasn’t planning on eating a cookie today, but one of the managers brought it to work to share. I couldn’t resist!
Lunch:
Soup, salad & crackers
Long didn’t have work today (because of his doctors visit), so I took his lunch. I had packed him lunch for the week and I sometimes leave notes on there for him, so that explains the salad description on the tupperware. Just so y’all don’t think I’m that OCD for my blog. LOL! (okay well maybe I am, but not in this situation).
Salad: spring mix/baby spinach, tomatoes, quinoa, walnuts, apricots w/ vinaigrette.
I also packed the tomato and roasted red pepper soup with crackers.
Silly me I didn’t realize that there was metal on the jar (duh!), so I poured the soup into my glass bowl that I used for the strawberries and yogurt earlier. Then I heated it in the microwave for a few minutes. Then threw it back into the jar because it was looked prettier. This is where my OCD tendencies for my blog comes in. Hey, it makes for a great photo doesn’t it?! 
This soup is AMAZING on a rainy day like today.
When I got home that night, I was exhausted! It was already 9 pm, so I went to bed and crashed my face into my pillow.
TODAY
I slept in until 9 & it felt GREAT! I got to relax for a bit, but then soon had to get ready to leave for San Jose to visit my in-laws for Vietnamese/Chinese/Tet (whatever you wanna call it) New Year.
Breakfast:
Banana, cinnamon raisin bagel with wild blueberry jam, almond butter and a cup of coffee
on the road again…
Within a few hours of getting to the house, I had some more soup I had it with half a Vietnamese baguette.
Yes, I love this stuff!
I paired it with a chai chola from taylor tonics. It doesn’t get any better than this…
Later we went to the store to get some last minute groceries. At the register, I found an Angry Birds new year red envelope. I LOVE angry birds!
However, the package of 6 did not have just angry birds cartoons, there were teddy bear ones too! It was very fitting to give to our little cousins (ages 3-7).
Then we ate dinner. My mother-in-law, prepared us soup with mock meats and noodles and veggies. It was pretty good. I never had this type of soup before and I don’t know how she made it, so I can’t really say…. I think my favorite part was the “meat” balls. I think they’re all soy based meat replacers.
After we ate, we opened birthday presents!
Yes I got MORE birthday presents! Let’s just make January my birthday month. LOL
Long’s birthday is on the 27th, so he got birthday gifts too:
all awesome gifts!
Here’s what I got:
Perfect Meatloaf Pan Set. I CAN’T WAIT TO USE IT!
Not for meatloaf though…I’m thinking other types of loaves, such as bread, vegetable/lentil loaf etc..
pajama set and a purse.
Here’s me posing for y’all with my “Pinky” Sweater (other b-day present from my sister) and my new purse.
me => DORK!
Yay for the birthday couple!
We also ate 2 mini bundt cakes. They were delish!
We had the lemon-raspberry (not pictured) and the red velvet. Perfect Portions.
I also got a chance to play with Chi Chi, one of my mother-in-law’s dogs. Chi Chi is so adorable. When she gets excited, she twirls around and bows.
While we played a round of golf and settlers, I had a bowl of ice cream, bananas, and potato chips.
I interrupted Long during a game of Magic The Gathering to take a picture with his birthday 49er sweater, so he’s trying to fake a smile. LOL
Good night and HAPPY NEW YEAR!
I’ve gained weight! It has only been a week and a half since I’ve began the 10k training and I’ve already gained 4 pounds! I have not been particularly eating any more food. In fact, I’ve been eating less junk food since the holidays AND I have been dramatically more active lately. My clothes seem to fit the same…then again I haven’t really been paying attention. I do notice that my calves and abs are toner than they have been these past couple of months. I guess the only reasonable explanation for the weight gain that I can think of is that I gained muscle mass. I should probably measure my body fat % again just to be sure.
The last time I checked my numbers was last December 10th (a month a couple of days ago). My body fat % back then was 21.8% and my weight was 130 lbs.
Could it be possible with just a week and a half’s time to gain so much muscle mass? Or did I really gain that much weight in one month? Or am I doing something wrong here. Any ideas?
Breakfast:
Oatmeal, splash of soy milk, banana, a drizzle of agave nectar, coconut flakes and coffee.
Lunch:
Sandwich: tofurky slices, mixed greens, mayo, tomato and cucumber slices. I added a couple of swabs of vegetable garden cream cheese. Delish.
Breakfast
I’ve been enjoying my mini tiramisu cakes (1 and a half mini slices to be exact) my sis’ got for me for my birthday last Sunday. They go great with a hot cup of coffee. I only wish I had more!
Lunches: Sandwiches.
This sandwich was from last Monday. It’s stuffed with Hickory Smoked Tofurky deli slices, mixed greens, tomato, mayo and a side of yellow gold fishies.
A whole sandwich (I ate the first half while the potatoes were cooking in the deep fryer). Must stop deep frying…. The deep fryer may be one huge contributing factor to my weight gain!
Sandwich ingredients were the same as mentioned above. Maybe a bit more mayo this time around.
Dinner:
Spicy Tofu Bento Bowl. It was torture some for me to follow the recipe exactly, but I did it (minus the avocado. Didn’t feel like paying $1.50 for just one). Spicy as promised… however, the dish was WAY too salty! Next time, I’m reducing the 1/2 cup of soy sauce called for in the recipe to 2 Tbsp. or 1/4 cup.
It looks so delicious. I would have given it a perfect 10 if it wasn’t so salty. We could have been great together. I could also have water weight as well. Note to self: drink more water!
The recipe called for soy sauce in the salad dressing. I was very reluctant to add soy sauce into a salad dressing. I mentioned it to Long and he made a face. Then I also made a face. We both made a face. We weren’t feeling the massive amount and awkward use of soy sauce…I mean I’ve heard of adding fish sauce or even vegetarian fish sauce, which has soy sauce as one of many ingredients, but straight up PURE soy sauce in a salad dressing!? We love soy sauce, but NOT THIS MUCH. If you’re going to make this recipe, I’d stick to the balsamic vinaigrette dressings. Then again, it’s always interesting to try anything once.
on the drive to South Lake Tahoe
My birthday night. The scenery somehow reminds me of Nigella Lawson’s kitchen.
Loomis has the balloon tied to his collar. He was SO CUTE walking around with it. He kept looking up at it with confused expressions.
Oh and I never got to post about this lovely waffle from The Red Hut Cafe at South Lake Tahoe. The pecans were actually in the batter. Must recreate this! 
January 10th:
Jillian Michael’s 2011 Jumpstart Diet Yoga Toners. If you haven’t tried these moves yet, you must do it soon! Getting in a good stretch while toning up. I love workout routines that multitask with your muscles.
January 11th:
30 min x-training with Just Dance 2. Today was raining, so I swapped today’s 2.5 mi run with tomorrow’s 30 min x-training.
January 12th:
Planned a 2.5 mi run easy run around the lake with the pups when Long gets off work.
–That’s what she said.
Okay, I’ve been watching a little too much of the office!
ahem, back to business….
I attempted to categorize the photos based on the day and meal times, but I realize that I have no clue which photos belong to which day. In addition to that I don’t normally photograph EVERYTHING I eat.
Note to self: keep better track of your meals.
Since I don’t blog everyday and after every meal, I won’t remember what I ate the day before or the the day before that, so I’m going to have to write it down in my planner or something. Even though these photos are not exactly in order of consumption, I’m sure you’ll enjoy them. 
I’ve also been having a sweet craving lately. Luckily we didn’t have any candy (particularly Red Vines) in the house. I would have devoured the whole package in one sitting. We do, however, have an abundance of cuties, so I’ve been nibbling on them instead.
Here’s a sight that hasn’t been on for a while—AB & J! I ate this while trying to organize my workout schedule. I’m trying to find solutions to make my life easier when I start school and find work again.
One night Long and I were extremely tired (I hadn’t come up with a weekly dinner menu yet) that we went searching for take-out. After much thought we headed to a burrito truck that served arms-length burritos. No, seriously it’s longer than the length of my forearm! (Is it just me or are my hands gigantor?)
We split the burrito in half and had chips along with diet cokes to complete the meal. Two people 1 huge burrito, 2 diet cokes, 2 bags of chips = $10.00. Not bad ay?
We also had a little “adult” fun with Guitar Hero.
Long setting up the instruments.
Smile honey!
While we were having fun with Guitar Hero, Miss Dottie was having a little fun of her own—in a box!
What is it with cats and boxes anyway?
I opted for a cup of tea with milk one morning because I ran out of coffee beans. Just got 2 pounds today, so I’m good to go for another 2 weeks or so.
I’m always on the lookout for a Navratan Korma comparable to Sabina’s, an Indian Restaurant that went out of business a few years back. I was browsing through old magazines and found one in Vegetarian Times. Although I didn’t follow the recipe exactly, it was very good. That’s big coming from my picky palate.
A little deep frying action going on with my Christmas Gift.
Sweet potatoes and russet potatoes
Closed the night with cookies and warmed milk
In my next post I’ll give a recap of my 10k training and my new favorite way to cross train that’s fun and exciting!
For lunch I had tofu sandwiches. There’s something that I enjoy about cold sandwiches. This was the perfect sandwich. The crumbly texture of the tofu was nice too.
Tofu, tomatoes, grey poupon mustard, ketchup, light mayo and baby spinach leaves 
Packed myself some tofurkey sandwiches for the rest of the week. The preparation will save me loads of stress!
Arguement with the husband….
He says, “sorry”
Lulla says, “sorry” too or….more like “Do I get a treat for posing for the camera?”
All is now forgiven. I love you two!!
<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
Vegetables waiting to be roasted:
yams, green bell pepper, yellow onion and some olive oil @ 420 for about 30 minutes.
Dinner: roasted veggies, chickpea pasta, and a side salad with ranch dressing.
What a night! OK gtg study! Wish me Luck on my Exam!!
10-Grain Pancakes with Fruit topping, coffee.
(Roughly 320 calories with 4 grams of fiber and about 8 grams of protein)
Fruit topping was made with mixed frozen berries, 1 Tbsp of raspberry preserves, 2 Tbsp of Wild Blueberry preserves + 1 Tbsp of water. Heated until mixture thickens.
Hungry hungry husband. This feast included: 1 pancake, 1 waffle, his polenta coins and my polenta coins.
When you’re enjoying it this much, you gotta use your hands.
I seriously need to stop on this banana n chocolate on bread obsession ….…
It’s just oh SoOo good!
I came up with my own meatless version of the traditional Vietnamese Mi Quang.
The trademark color of this noodle soup is credited to Tumeric. I like mine a little spicy, so I added a certain type of chili spice powder. 
And the beautiful star anise among other ingredients…
toppings + Sriracha & Hoisin sauce
.
…….
…………
………………
other than banana and chocolate, BAnana & AB makes me happy too.
Cute little apricots
coffee & tea
~~~Love Sunny Days~~~
***Chai***
***Channa Masala***
*** Aloo Palak***
***Vegetable Korma***
This was the definite star of the show today. Rich, creamy and full of spice. As I mentioned many times before, I am saddened by the fact that my favorite Indian restaurant, Sabina closed down. Ever since then I have yet to find a good vegetable korma. Biryani house has by far come the closest. In fact, the only reason why I come here is because of their Vegetable Korma. I just wish they would add some cashews though…
When Long found an old bike frame from the public market about 2 months ago, he had an idea to build himself a bike (from scratch). That’s when he decided to sell his SUPER nice 2010 Specialized Allez bike throwback version. I told him he was crazy and not to sell it. It was a great bike! and I knew he loved it. I still do not know why he sold it….
I would include a picture of it, but he deleted pictures of it after posting on Craigslist (I just found this out right at this moment 
). But here it is from the web. It looked exactly like this, all shiny and pristine!
After selling the bike, he had been trying to….actually I’m going to have him write his own words on this. It’s hard for me to describe and convey the pride that he must be feeling….
So first off…I really did like my Specialized Allez, especially since it was the throwback version. You had the beauty of the vintage look, but with all new components and parts. However, since I bike to work every day, and since my ride to work is all completely flat ground, I realized I never used the gears. Such a waste as the gears shift like a hot knife slicing through butter.
Anywho, so one day, I was roaming around the public market, I came across this Bianchi Celeste frame. All the vendor had was the frame, nothing else. No seat, no crank, no pedals, no wheels, even no handle bars. I was able to haggle the price down to $30 – a steal as these Bianchi frames run for much more. Well after I got the frame, that was about two months ago, I had been planning on building it up for my summer project.
Summer came two weeks ago, and I’ve basically spent most of my free time tinkering with it. I’ve never built an entire bike from scratch so this was a learning process. Finding the right parts for a cheap price was a little struggle, but surprisingly, the most difficult part of the entire process were the brakes. About a week ago I had actually finished putting the entire bike together, except for the brakes. I could and did take the bike around the neighborhood, but with no brakes I couldn’t stop. I spent about two days trying to put the brakes on myself, realizing I didn’t really have the right tools, so I called a quits and took it into a bike shop. So in theory, I didn’t build the whole bike myself – Mike’s Bikes in Berkeley put the brakes on for me!
After taking it on it’s first official ride with brakes yesterday (see pics below), I felt pretty happy about the entire process, however, now that it is all done I would have to say I will probably never build another bike from scratch again. Although, I wouldn’t mind building a bike for someone else. I think I’mma keep this bike for a real long time as it’s super light, super fast, and just my style.
He loves his bike! lol
It’s my turn to write about my little bike adventure. Below is a picture of me with my fourth bike. I first started off with a mountain bike, which was extremely heavy. I would not recommend for anyone to buy a mountain bike if you’re going to ride it solely in the city. I learned this the hard way. So, after much disappointment and struggle with the weight of the bike, I then switched to an older Trek Hybrid.
I immediately fell in love it’s lighter weight, but the bike was still not the right for me—it was too big. Then I got an old crickity hybrid Fuji that I was reluctant to give up. Although it made noise when I moved me bum and sounded like it was going to break any moment, I thought It was amazing! It rode perfectly. That is until Long did some tweaking on it and made it even lighter. Without my knowledge he switched it from a regular 7 rear gear with a total of 21 speeds to a 1 rear gear capable of going only 1 speed. He didn’t tell me, so when I took it to school one day, I was pleasantly surprised at how much faster I was going. It felt light as a feather. When I got back home, I asked him if he did anything to my bike, he replied, “whoa you noticed?” His surprise was due to the fact that I noticed the slight change in it’s weight. I guess I really knew the bike. Just thinking back on it, I’m missing it…. I hope that whoever has it now is taking good care of it….
Now, you might ask if I loved the bike so much, why did I sell it? Well, as the saying, “moving on to bigger and better things” goes, that’s exactly what I did. Well, except for the bigger part. haha. I did not realize the full potential of a woman’s bike until I took this beauty (KHS Flight 220) for a ride. All the other three bikes were men’s bikes. This KHS was made for a woman. Me, being a woman, found it extremely comfortable. Makes sense, it was made for my body. lol The frame was the lightest I have ever felt. The seat—OMG—the seat was PERFECTION! All of the other bikes had seats that were a little uncomfortable, but this one was very nice.
I part with some more random pictures of me with the pups!
Lulla! Always so happy. I absolutely <3 her.
Goofy Goofy Loomis always happy too! I didn’t realize how small (yet mostly 60 lbs of muscle) he was for a Labrador mix. So cute!
The morning of our 1 year anniversary didn’t started off as great with Loomis vomiting on the brand new rug we JUST bought a couple of days ago. He must have ate something he shouldn’t have, as usual. When I headed to feed the plants, I saw this cute little kitty basking away under the sunlight in Lulla’s lounge. What could it be about this bed that is so appealing? Dottie doesn’t even like the texture of the fabric! Could she be in there just to put her claim on it as Loomis tried to do? (I found Loomis in it later today again).
After Long “walked the dogs” he came home with a bouquet of roses and Lindt chocolate truffles. (I made truffles for our wedding). So nice.
The flavors are White chocolate, milk, dark, orange, hazelnut and vanilla. We shared two pieces of the milk and hazelnut. for our wedding, I made white, milk, dark, orange, and hazelnut.
Was a big one. Good thing, I ate every single piece of the vegetarian bacon, hash browns, egg and English muffin + soymilk (Long ate the English muffin with almond butter) because the hike we went on this morning was nearly 2 hours! 
Here we are in the parking lot of Bort Meadow 
I took this picture in the Meadow. I tried to get them to focus on me, but I’m loving this picture much much more. I have to say that my photography skills are getting better and better. What would I produce if I had a high powered camera….?
On the car ride home, I ate 1 medium banana and a honeycrisp apple. 15 minutes later I munched on cucumbers dipped into a slightly sweet soy sauce based sauce. I’ll have post recipe for the dip later.
If any of you are interested in making the Vegetarian Egg Rolls that I mentioned, here and here, it’s in my Recipes Page right under Vegan Egg Rolls. called Mama’s Specialty Egg Rolls. I have included a short tutorial to make it easier.
I then relaxed with a cup of hot chocolate:
about 12 oz. of soy milk
1 Tbsp. of unsweetened cocoa powder
1 Tbsp. of sweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp. of granulated sugar
2 Tbsp. of semisweet chocolate chips
It wasn’t my best cup ever, but it hit the spot.
For dinner tonight we plan on heading out to San Francisco to an Indian restaurant to eat food that I have been craving for 4 years!
Please submit your suggestions by WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 6TH.
Last day to sign up: January 9th 10:00 pm
Challenge Officially starts: Sunday, January the 10th.
So far, there are 5 participants! Keep ‘em comin’!
Miss Dottie got under the pillow and blanket all by herself. I’m visiting family right now and I miss her so so much! Can’t wait to squeeze and cuddle with her on Friday.
Here is Loomis on our drive to visit my parents. There is enough space in the back seat for him to lay down, but he chose to sleep on our stuff instead. I have no idea why.
Loomis and Lulla in their Bandanas.
My two favorite boys.
I love this girl!
I love this girl too! She crawled onto my lap as I was on my blog. Miss her!
