Concert & Petit Macro

Yesterday after a long nap, a friend text me about going to a concert at night. “Sure!” I replied (not even knowing which concert :shock:). And there I was… watching Belle & Sebastian who I knew anything about 😉

It was in DAR Constitution Hall

>2000 seats, all sold out!

the show was great! I like it a lot! I’m getting their album!!! hehehe… 😀

and there was a lot of interaction with the audience

and the best part? I was seated!!! 😉 I’m just too old to stand for 2 hours. I enjoy more the show if I’m comfortable! 😀

Q: Do you prefer seating or standing in concerts?

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As promised, here’s my review of Mayumi’s Kitchen

Mayumi worked for seven years as Madonna’s private macrobiotic chef. In this book, she shares her unique view of Macrobiotic cuisine.

What’s Petit Macro? A new take on macrobiotics that is suited to cosmopolitan tastes, with less emphasis on Japanese-style cooking. It is a stress-free way for anyone to enjoy the benefits of macrobiotics without giving up the foods and cooking styles they are used to.

Basic guidelines:

• Avoid dairy products and animal protein because they lead to lifestyle diseases. But she says it is okay to be part of your menu every once in a while. Just eat it with vegetables that are three times the amount of the meat, by weight.
• Use only naturally processed, unrefined ingredients, and, whenever possible, organic, locally grown vegetables.
• Try to eat in a balance fashion, in harmony with the seasons. Chew well, finish eating for the day about 3 hours before going to bed, and stop eating before you are completely full.
• But the most important guidelines is, don’t get bung up on guidelines!

Other recommendations:

• Make a habit of eating leafy greens and root vegetables, as they will help your body process fat and keep you detoxified.
• Food is important, but feeling good about what you are doing and keeping stress levels down is also important. Stay positive, and just do what you can stick with.

Her recipes are simple. Most of them no more than a few steps. She offered a beginner 10 day detox diet, a beautiful skin, a muscle-building and a weight-loss menu for 3 days.

My take: strongly recommended!

I read all the recipes in one sitting and I want to make every one of them!!! They do require some unconventional ingredients like kombu, umeboshi plums, seitan, protein meat (TVP) but they can be easily found in asian stores. I’ll do the ten day detox. I think it’s a misleading name because it involves no juicing, no special food, just a lot of natural, well balanced meals. I won’t follow it strictly because I don’t want to restrict myself in case I crave certain food; I still want to enjoy meals with my friends and I don’t want to give up coffee. Day 1 starts Monday! 😀 So exciting!!!

Here’s another use of the mushroom sauce (recipe below)

Steamed broccoli and okra, homemade sweet potato gnocchi topped with 1/2 cup tomato sauce and 1/2 cup mushroom sauce

Mushroom sauce adapted from Mayumi’s Kitchen

Ingredients for 2 cups

• 2 cups of assorted mushrooms
• 1 cup almond/soy milk
• 1 medium onion
• 4 tbsp coconut oil
• 2 tbsp WW flour
• 2 tbsp coconut flour
• S+P

Method:

1. use 2 tbsp of coconut oil to brown chopped onions for 8 min. Set aside.
2. heat 2 tbsp of coconut oil and add WW/coconut flour, mixing constantly for about 2-3 min.
3. add almond milk to 2.
4. combine 1 and 3, seasoned with S+P

It’s rich and creamy, slightly sweet. Very good to top steam veggies or as pasta sauce.

Q: Doing anything fun this weekend? I have a BBQ party tomorrow and I’m in charge of the bread 😉

Something borrowed

I finished it!!! I finished it in <1 week even I was super busy, so that means something right? 😉

I know some of you have read it too, so the summary will be brief.

Something Borrowed by Emily Griffin was her debut novel. She tackles some pretty controversial subjects in the book: infidelity being the obvious one, but with that comes the question, what constitutes betrayal? Is there such a thing as justification for betrayal? Who exactly betrays whom in this novel? It turned out to be both interesting and fun to find out. Ms. Griffin raises a complex story about relationships, a damaging, toxic friendship and its consequences.

Do I like it? Yes, definitely. What I enjoy most about any movie and/or book is the fact that we can always identify with the character of the story at some extend. Even we don’t behave like them most of them, it doesn’t mean it never occurred to us to try such thing.

The story is well written with enough suspense to catch your attention and want to keep reading, but at the same time it gives you pauses to reflect, to wonder what would you do in that situation.

At the end of the book, there is a guide for reading group with several questions. I’ll answer one of them and you’re welcome to tell me yours. 🙂

What do you think was the real impetus behind Rachel’s decision to sleep with Dex after her birthday party? Ws it about her desire to break out of her good girl persona? Was it about long-standing resentment toward Darcy? Or was it both?

I think it was both. Rachel has been a rule follower girl, she puts what people think and expect about her first, she values Darcy’s friendship and she try to be a nice friend because that is the correct thing to do. But at the same time, she has resentment toward Darcy, consciously or unconsciously, so betraying her isn’t too damaging for her because it means she’ll be free from a toxic friend who never let her shine. At the same time, she’s looking for soul mate, someone who can touch her deep inside, someone who she feels a connection. It happened to be Dex, her long time friend who she knew she likes but didn’t dare to try because he seemed to be too much for her. But when Dex gave the first step, she couldn’t resist any longer. Although she wanted to think that she was doing wrong, therefore feeling guilty. She knew it wasn’t that wrong and she wouldn’t regret it.

Big News #1 & A fresg breakfast!

As I said last week, I have two big news to announce. I’m finally safe to say the #1. I’M MOVING TO DC!!! 😆 Yeah~~ I’ll finally be a city girl again!!! 😀 I’m super super excited!

Living close to campus, surrounded by greens during the last four years was good and necessary to focus on research. My best friend has been telling to move to DC for a while but I never felt the urge. However, after living 6 weeks in a big city like Shanghai, going out almost everyday meeting with friends and eating out, I just can’t live in country-side any more!!! Once I made my mind, I needed to move IMMEDIATELY! I arrived States on Thursday night, did apartment search on Friday, by Saturday I was looking apartments and decided for one. But the process was not smooth. Since my grad-student income is low, they usually would not accept my application unless I have a guarantor.  But where am I supposed to get a guarantor?  I asked few people that I know, they are either not qualified or didn’t want to. Things got worse. When I sent the application for the new apartment, I also gave notice to my current apartment that I’m leaving. That means no matter if I get a new apartment or not, I HAVE to leave my current apartment by July 14th. That means if I don’t get anything, I have no place to live. You can imagine how stressful is the situation.  But I’m such a lucky girl!!! 😉 For unknown reason, the leasing office of the new apartment took back about the guarantor and my application went through without a problem. Last Saturday I signed all the papers and I’m moving into the new apartment on July 10th! And you know what’s the best part? My best friend and another close friend of mine live in the same building!!! 😆

I feel the luckiest girl in the world!!! 😀

My breakfast this morning was

A base of blueberries and rolled oats

Kefir (my first time :))

Mung bean soup

and flax meal

it was so fresh and yummy~~~ 😀

Finally… look what I ordered. Giffen’s fan, anyone? I read her “Love the one you’re with” and liked it a lot. It’s not profound but really entertaining. Her writing is beautiful and the story real! 🙂 I can’t wait to read these.

Q: What are you reading now?