Favorite quote from “Committed” & a recipe

As I mentioned, I started reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s new book Committed. I am a big fan of her previous book Eat Pray and Love and as I recently just got married, I have to read it. I haven’t finished it yet (1/3 to go) but I want to share my favorite quote:

“… the emotional place where a marriage begins is not nearly as important as the emotional place where a marriage finds itself toward the end, after many years of partnership.” “… there is no one special person waiting for you somewhere in this world who will make your life magically complete, but that there are any number of people with whom you could seal a respectful bond. Then you could live and work alongside that person for years, with the hope that tenderness and affection would be the gradual outcome of your union.”

I know.. it’s not a very romantic quote… but it is so true. Believe me, I wouldn’t agree with it 10 years. I’d say that passion is the most important element of a happy marriage. But life experience taught me that it might not be true.

What’s your thoughts about it?

Monday was quite productive, in addition to curse the snow all day long (I had a meeting with my advisor and it’s canceled) , I did some progress with work.

I started with a hearty breakfast: high in protein, fat and fiber! Black bean & black rice milk, high-fiber high-fat bread (recipe below) and 1/2 baked squash with greek yogurt.

high-fiber high-fat bread adapted from April’s recipe

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cup fiber one grounded
• 1 cup flax meal
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup black bean milk (you can use any milk)
• 2 tbsp coconut oil
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp acai powder (optional)

Mix everything and bake for 30 min at 350F.

It’s dense, chewy and the addition of coconut oil gives it a great flavor

A quick stir-fry using these

baked german dumpling tastes even better as leftover!!! Love it~~~

School is still closed , I think it might not open until next week, more snow is expected for today and tomorrow! So, more stay-home for me. You guys enjoy the air and sun for me!

Q: How often do you declutter your house?

Highlights of Sunday & a recipe

I didn’t forget about TCM, #4 is here.

#1 I woke up at 7AM!!! 9.5 hrs of sleep FEELS GOOD!!!

#2 “Workout session” in the snow was fun! We started with Toutou’s car, after 30 min, it was almost ready

I was all wet and sore

#3 A hearty meal after the workout!

Beef & Veggie soup that took 10 hours to cook. Love slow cooker, sooo easy.

leftover stir-fry and baked dumplings.

Seriously… you need to make it… it’s FANTASTIC!!!

Baked German dumpling

Ingredients:

• 5 slices of bread or half pound (any kind)
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 onion
• parsley
• S+P+nutmeg
• 1-2 tbsp oil
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs

Method:

1. Soak the bread in warm milk for 10 min2. Add remaining ingredients

3. Mix

4. Add bread crumbs

5. Bake at 350 F for 45 min.

Ready

It’s SUPER tasty!!!! I love it! Can’t wait to try other variations!

#4 An old favorite snack: baked acorn with greek yogurt and cinnamon.

#5 100% leisure day FEELS good!!! I nap, read (half way through the new book), watched movie, talked to mom, went to bed super early AGAIN!

Q: What was the best of your weekend? Mine was definitely being able to sleep properly

Traditional Chinese Medicine series #4

Food and Eight Principles:

Food can be used to clear the exterior and bring about diaphoresis. It can also be used to warm the interior and support Zang Fu function. Besides flavors, food have directions and thermal properties (in terms of their effects). Some foods are neutral while others are cool, cold, warm or hot. Hot conditions can be subdued with cool foods, while cold conditions can be warmed by hot foods. Deficiencies can be corrected with foods that support the body’s weakness. Excesses can be drained and the balance between Yin and Yang restored. Changes may not occur immediately; but, given time, food can be the most influential factor for maintenance of health of all forms of therapy. Foods also have energies capable of generating the sensations in the body upon consumption. The five energies of foods are cold, hot, warm, cool and neutral. These energies act upon the body in different ways and can be used to treat conditions which are caused by imbalances in the bodies energy. Symptoms caused by cold conditions can be alleviated by consumption of warm or hot foods, while hot conditions can be helped by cool or cold foods. Examples:

Cold	Cool	Neutral	Warm	Hot
Bamboo shoots	Apple	Egg Yolk	Brown sugar	Black pepper
Banana	Barley	Beef	Chicken	Cinnamon bark
Clams	Tofu	Carrot	Fennel	Ginger
Crab	Chicken egg	Peanuts	Garlic	Green pepper
Lettuce	Eggplant	White sugar	Green onion	Red pepper
Kelp	Wheat	Oyster	Shrimp	Soybean oil
Seaweed	Mushroom	Pork	Lamb
Sugar cane	Spinach	Rice	Ginseng
Watermelon	Mung bean	Egg Yolk	Raspberry

Excess conditions can be assisted by feeding foods which help control or counterbalance the abnormal energetics involved. Deficiencies can also be helped with food.

Actions of Foods:

ARREST BLEEDING: Black fungus, chestnut, Chicken eggshell, cottonseed, cuttlebone, guava, lotus plumule, spinach, vinegar

STOP URINATION: Raspberry

CLEAR TOXINS: banana, black soybean, clam (freshwater), cucumber, date (red & black), fig, honey, radish, aduki red bean, star fruit, vinegar

DISPERSE BLOOD STAGNATION: Brown sugar, chive, chive root, crab, saffron, vinegar

DISPERSE COLD: Ginger (fresh), wine

INDUCE BOWEL MOVEMENT: Castor bean, sesame oil

LUBRICATE DRYNESS: Tofu, chicken egg & yolk, honey, maltose, pear, pork, sesame oil, spinach, yellow soybean

LUBRICATE INTESTINES: Banana, peach, soybean oil, walnut, watermelon

LUBRICATE LUNGS: Apple, apricot, chicken egg white, ginseng, lily flower, loquat, peanuts, persimmon, strawberry, white fungus

PROMOTE BLOOD CIRCULATION: Black soybean, brown sugar, chestnut, peach, saffron, and sweet basil, wine

PROMOTE DIGESTION: Apple, coriander, ginseng, green & red pepper, nutmeg, papaya, pineapple, plum, radish & leaf, sweet basil, tomato

PROMOTE ENERGY CIRCULATION: dill seeds, dry mandarin orange peel, fennel, garlic, radish leaf, spearmint, star anise, tangerine,

PROMOTE URINATION: Asparagus, barley, Chinese cabbage, carrot, coffee, corn, cucumber, grape, kidney bean, lettuce, mandarin orange, mango, mung bean, onion, pineapple, plum, star fruit, water chestnut, watermelon

REDUCE FEVER: Muskmelon, star fruit, water chestnut

RELIEVE ASTHMA: Bitter apricot seed

TONIFY BLOOD DEFICIENCY: Beef, chicken egg & yolk, cuttlefish, oyster, spinach

TONIFY QI DEFICIENCY: Sweet apricot seed, tofu, beef, brown sugar, chicken, eel, maltose, potato, sweet rice, sweet potato

TONIFY KIDNEYS: Black sesame seed, string bean, sword bean, wheat, kidney

TONIFY LIVER: Black sesame seed, liver

TONIFY SPLEEN: Beef, ham, white rice, potato, string bean, sweet potato, yellow soybean

WARM INTERIOR: Black & white pepper, chicken, chive roots, clove, fennel, dried ginger, green & red pepper, nutmeg, sword bean

I couldn’t resist …

This is the view from my bedroom…. I wonder… are we in ICE AGE??? I wanted to go out to feel the snow… to play with the snow…. but I was hesitant…. maybe it’s too cold? maybe I’ll sink? what if I fracture a bone or something? well…. see? My mind just can’t stop working. Michelle, you’re right, I think too much!!!!  shame on me!

finally I convinced me and Toutou to go out and have a look (we live in the same complex). This is the path that I had to get through…. not too bad

first step! oh…. WOOOOO!!! the snow is soooo puffy and it was sooo warm outside!!!

All the cars were covered with snow to be unrecognizable.

look this tree… it looks funny

that’s my not-ready-for-snow kind of outfit

me trying to identify my car

yes, it was my car indeed.

A workout at the snow has been scheduled

I was quite productive at home. worked until 4PM (solved a prove that I’ve been struggling for a week) and began to cook. I was eating whatever I could grab for lunch most days of last weekend. As a friend says, “you are killing yourself slowly“. He is right. I was sleeping deprived, not fueling properly and mad at myself. So, to act rationally, I cooked a lot… maybe for the whole week

Ingredients for a bread pudding (aka.. baked german bread dumpling)

a beef & veggie soup

a high-fiber high-fat bread

final products and recipes to come!

And I also roasted some pork, thanks to Krista’s instructions, it turned out DELICIOUS!! pork is my least favorite meat, I’d never buy it for myself. But I have some leftover in the fridge from Star’s visit…. so either throw it away or do something. Krista encouraged me to roast it, so I marinated it in some worcestershire sauce, ginger powder and pepper overnight and roast it for 20 min. AMAZING!!!

it served as topping to the stir-fry

A proper meal makes my belly and mind happy.~~~

Q: What’s your favorite activity in a snow day?

I wonder……

Does it ever happened to you that YOU KNOW what to do to feel good but YOU DON’T do it? or YOU KNOW what makes you feel bad, but you KEEP DOING it? How irrational is that?

I consider myself VERY rational but I still behave irrationally not once, MANY times! Like

• I know that talking to my friends make me happy, but I don’t do it often.
• I know that calling to mom, listen to her makes her and me happy, but I only do it once a week.
• I know that soaking my feet before bed makes me sleep better, but I struggle to do it every night and I often chose not to.
• I know that cooking relaxes me and a good meal makes me feel better than long session of snacking, but I still do it like yesterday
• I know I shouldn’t feel guilty if I don’t work on a Friday since I’ll work during the weekend, but I still couldn’t enjoy it 100%.

well… the list keeps going. I definitely should make a list of things that I shouldn’t be doing because I KNOW I’ll regret it.

Moving on. I decided to do groceries yesterday morning because we have a storm alert. For my surprise, I wasn’t the only one going to TJ’s at 9AM!

the line was insanely LONG!!!

well… at least I’ll be starving

I made another black milk: black bean & fresh corn. Love adding corns to the mix… it’s so refreshing!

I spent the afternoon at the living room, 2 hours of nap, 2 hours reading the new book, watched movies and snacked. With toys as my companion

I watched Sherlock Holmes…. mmmm…. so so… not as good as I expected.

lastly, a “date” with Dave Farmer.

I know a lot of people don’t like him because he talks A LOT!!! But I like it, it helps me to focus on the moment (otherwise I’ll start thinking about research).

Q: What’s your favorite yoga pose? and what’s the pose you’re working on right now? My favorite pose is head stand and I’m working on scorpion.