New running shoe, yoga and a review!

#1 Early Grey tea giveaway!

#2 Last day to enter Virgin Coconut oil giveaway!

Sit tight, this post is going to be long!

My new running shoe arrived!!! Look this $130

after I ordered it online I was concerned that maybe it might not fit well, for example too wide. But when I tried it, it fits perfectly, like specially designed for my feet! 😆

I craved trying it “on the road” but I resisted the temptation (I’d better rest after the long run), instead I did Power Vinyasa #2 (45 min) with a slight modification: DO IT WITH EYES CLOSED!!! It was way more challenging and it allowed me to focus more on the present!!! Really fun! 😉

One of the reason that I like having oatmeal at the breakfast is that it forced me to slow down and read the newspaper, otherwise I’d burn my lips. I’m so impatient, if it’s a sandwich, I’d finish it in 2 min.

Few days ago I got a package from French Meadow Bakery

Their mission includes:

One Body, One Planet. Eat Well.

Since 1985, French Meadow Bakery™ has used only top-quality all-natural and organic ingredients, old world bread-baking techniques, ancient healthy grains and seeds, and cutting edge performance foods research to create baked goods the world loves. Here are four reasons you’ll fall in love with us, too.

Our ingredients are all-natural.

Our skilled artisan bakers turn all natural, sustainable ingredients into tasty baked goods. We avoid using ingredients that contain genetically-modified organisms, which impact biodiversity in the plant world and have an unknown effect on human health.

We’re certified by top agencies.

As a small company with sound practices, we’re unwavering about standards of quality. We’re certified organic by the USDA and Quality Assurance International, certified Gluten-Free by the Gluten-Free Certification Organization, and certified Low Glycemic for Diabetics by the Glycemic Research Institute. Search for Gluten-Free, wheat-free, and low glycemic index products.

Our foods taste good and are good for you.

We go beyond basic nutrition by using all-natural and organic ingredients that boost your health. Performance foods like hemp, sprouted grains, and flaxseed provide important vitamins, minerals, proteins, and good fats that help your body prevent and treat disease.

We’re committed to sustainability.

Since its beginning, French Meadow Bakery™ has used ingredients and processes that help maintain the biological diversity and productivity of our world’s resources. We use only certified organic grains and all natural ingredients grown in balance and harmony with nature. We support small farmers, the cornerstone of a natural, sustainable food system. And we’re committed to educating our customers on the lifelong benefits of organic foods, which protect not only the planet, but our bodies and minds as well.

Hemp Tortillas

I used it to make breakfast pizza.

Coco’s review: I had it heated and it was crunchy like crackers (+). Other than that, it’s pretty similar than standard tortilla. In term of nutritional value, comparing to La Tortilla Factory’s, this one is slightly higher in term of iron 10% vs. 4%, others values are pretty similar. 3/5.

Sprouted Grain Tortilla

I rolled it up with leftover veggie stir-fry

Coco’s review: I’ve never tried other brand’s sprouted tortilla, its texture is very different than standard tortilla. It’s thinner and chewy. But it tastes rough, like grass or too much fiber in it. Its nutritional value is similar to Ezekiel’s. 2/5 (improved later)

Women’s bread

With 14 grams of protein and 2.6 mg of soy isoflavones per serving, Women’s BreadTM contains key nutrients for women’s health.  Sprouted grains bursting with vital nutrients and vitamins are easy to digest. Dried cranberries provide an antioxidant boost.

I tried it plain first

and then with almond butter

Coco’s review: It sounds a great bread for women. I like its texture since it’s dense but I don’t like how it tastes because it’s kind of sour even with added AB. Nutritional value (for two slices): 14 g protein, 3 g fiber, 4 g sugar and 10% iron. Overall, I’d give it 3/5.

I wasn’t satisfied with how sprouted tortilla turned out at lunch, so I give the sprouted tortilla a second chance at dinner. I roasted an eggplant with some sea salt and olive oil as spread

A vegan pizza made with sprouted tortilla, Mae’s tomato sauce, roasted eggplant, roasted bell pepper, tofu and nutritional yeast.

made a salad dressing using: Tj’s fat free balsamic vinaigrette, olive oil and mustard

salad + pizza is the perfect combo! 😀

The sprouted tortilla tasted much better this way, so I upgraded it to 4/5!

Q: Do you like sprouted bread/tortilla and why?

Woman in the news. Wooo!!

That was my reaction when my friend send me an article that was in Argentinean’s most important newspaper yesterday! My name appeared here!!! 😯  How that happened????? Well… that article was written by my co-author and he mentioned our latest work. But the surprise didn’t stop there. I entered my name in google, searched for news and I found more news with my name in it! Korea Times, Brazilian website , chinese blog and US website!!! 😯 It was just OVERWHELMING!!!

I couldn’t hide my excitement and began to call my friends and family! I was shocked, shocked by happiness!!! 😆 And what made me the happiest is the way I knew about it. It was sent by the parents of my best friend (who’s in the program too) from ARgentina, they even sent me an email to congrats me!!! That was soooo sweet and kind! I can’t express how much that act made me happy, even more than the news thing itself. You know, jealousy is in human nature, I’m skeptical and pessimist about people sometimes, so I wouldn’t expect them to be truly happy for me, but they did and I can feel their sincerity. 😀 I’m so thankful to achieve this little success, and even more when I have friends who are truly happy for my success. That’s so valuable!

But at night, after the hype I entered in doubt. Maybe I shouldn’t spread the words to everyone I know, because not everyone will be happy for me, they might think I’m showing off myself, they might be jealous or simply they might not feel so happy about it. Let’s face the truth, not everyone is generous, kind and be really happy for others’ success. I probably should only share my happiness/success with my closest family and friends.

Q: What do you think? Should I tell to everyone? or should I reserve it to closest friends and families?

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Back to normal posting! food and groceries! 😉

After days of eating out, I craved simple meals like this oatmeal cooked with soy milk, flaxmeal, topped with apricot preserve and more flaxmeal.

Stir-fry green tea noodle with greens, black fungus, tofu and shitake

loading up in groceries!!

Maybe I overdid a little bit, that is a lot of food! But I need more energy these days, I’m defending my thesis proposal in 10 days! 😀

Used homemade pizza crust that I had in the freezer, topped with broccoli, roasted peppers and cheese

served with a salad with balsamic + olive dressing

YUM~~~

Don’t miss the Virgin Coconut Oil giveaway!

A serious talk: Gendercide

This is the cover article of this week’s The Economist, it was emotionally intense when I read it and I’ll share with you so you know how lucky we are to be women).

IMAGINE you are one half of a young couple expecting your first child in a fast-growing, poor country. You are part of the new middle class; your income is rising; you want a small family. But traditional mores hold sway around you, most important in the preference for sons over daughters. Perhaps hard physical labour is still needed for the family to make its living. Perhaps only sons may inherit land. Perhaps a daughter is deemed to join another family on marriage and you want someone to care for you when you are old. Perhaps she needs a dowry.

Now imagine that you have had an ultrasound scan; it costs $12, but you can afford that. The scan says the unborn child is a girl. You yourself would prefer a boy; the rest of your family clamours for one. You would never dream of killing a baby daughter, as they do out in the villages. But an abortion seems different. What do you do?

For millions of couples, the answer is: abort the daughter, try for a son. In China and northern India more than 120 boys are being born for every 100 girls. Nature dictates that slightly more males are born than females to offset boys’ greater susceptibility to infant disease. But nothing on this scale.

It is no exaggeration to call this gendercide. Women are missing in their millions—aborted, killed, neglected to death.

Most people know China and northern India have unnaturally large numbers of boys. But few appreciate how bad the problem is, or that it is rising. In China the imbalance between the sexes was 108 boys to 100 girls for the generation born in the late 1980s; for the generation of the early 2000s, it was 124 to 100. In some Chinese provinces the ratio is an unprecedented 130 to 100.

In fact the destruction of baby girls is a product of three forces: the ancient preference for sons; a modern desire for smaller families; and ultrasound scanning and other technologies that identify the sex of a fetus. In societies where four or six children were common, a boy would almost certainly come along eventually; son preference did not need to exist at the expense of daughters. But now couples want two children—or, as in China, are allowed only one—they will sacrifice unborn daughters to their pursuit of a son.

How to stop half the sky crashing down

Baby girls are thus victims of a malign combination of ancient prejudice and modern preferences for small families. Only one country has managed to change this pattern. In the 1990s South Korea had a sex ratio almost as skewed as China’s. Now, it is heading towards normality. It has achieved this not deliberately, but because the culture changed. Female education, anti-discrimination suits and equal-rights rulings made son preference seem old-fashioned and unnecessary. The forces of modernity first exacerbated prejudice—then overwhelmed it.

And all countries need to raise the value of girls. They should encourage female education; abolish laws and customs that prevent daughters inheriting property; make examples of hospitals and clinics with impossible sex ratios; get women engaged in public life—using everything from television newsreaders to women traffic police. Mao Zedong said “women hold up half the sky.” The world needs to do more to prevent a gendercide that will have the sky crashing down.

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Back to normal life. Yesterday I had oatbran for a change (I’ve been having bread bread bread almost every morning lately)

but I was reading about bread 😉 I met Jeff and Zoe in San Francisco Foodbuzz Event and when I wanted to make my own bread I immediately ordered the book.

morning setting was weird again, right? FT and cookbook. 😉

I spent the whole day at the school, back home I wanted a comfort and balancing meal. (I had lunch at school restaurant with a invited speaker and had salmon with mashed potato, so I needed veggie)

As I ate, images of farm girls/women in China came to me. I felt sorry for them but at the same time I was truly grateful to be alive, to be where I am and to be able to do what I do.

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