Food: breakfast combos

Last week I couldn’t decide whether I wanted savory breakfast or sweet ones. So I alternate

#1: oatmeal + veggie buns + chinese green salad (万年青）

it’s dry chinese greens, I just boil it, add some soy sauce, sugar and sesame oil, simple and quick to add some veggies in breakfast

#2: 2 veggie buns with a new favorite homemade soy milk (2 parts of soy bean hydrated the night before, 1 part of black rice and 4-5 chinese dates).

it’s a thick, flavorful and nutritious milk. I’m obsessed with it now! 🙂

#3: the same milk + 2 slices of WW bread, 1 with strawberry preserve and 1 with almond butter

I mistakenly bought unsalted AB in Tj’s so I haven’t had it for a while, but the other day I wanted some, so I just stir-in some sea salt and now it’s tasty! 🙂

#4: big bowl of oatmeal with these two new pickles, strip cucumber (left) and spicy radish (right). I love the spicy radish!!!

Q: Do you eat vegetables in breakfast? How?

Weekend happening: sleep, eat, gym and repeat

The past few days were total relaxation. Due to Star’s luck of sleep on his business trip, all he wanted to do is to sleep (day and night)! As Erin would say:” Yes, my lord, sleep we’ll do! 🙂 Other than the 5k race on Saturday’s morning and my dearest friend’s birthday party at night, we just stay at home and relax.

I finally convinced Star to join my beloved gym! He’s been sedentary for more than a decade. I encouraged him to exercise more but always failed until now. He has turned 34 few months ago and it became mandatory for health purpose to start exercising, specially with his propensity to have diabetes (his mom has it). So, now he has committed to go to the gym whenever he stays with me (hopefully >3 days a week). So far he’s liking it and I like it even more!!! Because now I don’t feel bad to leave him at home alone when I go to the gym~~~ 😆

While he takes long naps… I bake 😉

for my lord: peanut butter cookies with homemade PB

I used roasted peanut with sea salt. Ground 7 min and done! Nothing else, just peanuts!!!

beat 100g butter with 80g of sugar and 2 eggs

once it becomes white, add 100g peanut butter

add 200g flour

and 1/4 cup of sesame seeds

bake at 375F for 20 min.

I also made multicolored soy milk (soy, aduki, mung and black bean) for breakfast

served with homemade multi-grain bread with butter (above) and PB (below)

It was the last piece of bread… so I’m making a new bread (as I type)

Other eats:

noodles with bok choy, eggs and olive preserved olive leaf

tortilla pizza topped with cauliflower and a pumpkin sauce made with pumpkin puree and tahini

I’ve started to make nutritious soup that takes >4 hours to make. I made black chicken soup with assorted chinese herbs on Saturday and this one on Sunday.

this one has pork feet, black beans, shiitake and red dates. I made sure to take out most of the fat from the pork feet, so what’s left is the collagen. Collagen = beauty weapon against saging!!! All asian girls know that 😉

If you excuse me, I need to look how the bread-making is going and to prepare lunch for my lord. hahaha… That’s how I feel today, most of the days I feel like the queen and he my loyal servant 😉

Q: Are you a soup person? What’s your favorite soup? I’ve never been a soup person, but my acupuncturist told me that soup is good, specially for people with weak digestive system, so more soup for both of us!

I’m back: updates, package and more

I’m back and

• my luggage arrived a day later
• I lost my passport
• Jet lag is in full motion! (4-5 hours at night and 1-2 hours during the day, not fun! :evil:)
• Star has temporarily moved his “office” to my place! 😀

I got a package from Libre

sample of loose green teas

and a very cute tea glass

The Libre glass ’n poly has a health-conscious glass interior for fresh taste and a durable polycarbonate exterior for ‘on the go’ durability. The stainless steel tea filter is surrounded by BPA free polypropylene as is the lid interior. Can be used 2 ways to brew and travel with loose leaf tea.

I haven’t cooked for more than a month. I don’t know… I’m in a not-cooking mode lately :(. But breakfast is important, so I made a nutritious one.

I soak assorted beans: soy, aduki and mung beans for 12 hours

made soy milk

cooked white fungus soup with goji berries and chinese dates. And a handful of pistachos completed the breakfast! 🙂

and the rest of the day was spent watching TV, napping, eating chinese take out 😦

I hope I can recover from the jet lag, bad mood and start cooking soon.

Now…. into something that I mentioned in a previous post, that I miss veggies. Many of you was surprised that I miss veggies because you see a lot of vegetables dishes in my posts. You’re right. Chinese people do eat a lot of veggies, but only when we eat at home. When we eat-out, we don’t usually order veggies. 1) what’s the point of ordering something that you can make at home at a much cheaper price, 2) I don’t trust the cleaning condition of the restaurants. Vegetables in China are not as clean as those that you can find here in the US. It requires a lot of cleaning and we doubt that they do it.

Because it’s only me and my Mom, we don’t cook often at home (2-3 times in 5 weeks). We either eat out or snacks on corns, chestnut, buns, etc. At the end, I eat less veggies in China than in US.  What’s the consequence of that? constipated, feeling full all the time, heavy and bloated. But I ignored all these and enjoyed fully my stay in Shanghai 🙂

Remember that I had a knee issues? I was having ITBS and could barely run 10 min before getting the pain. Well, the TCM proved once again effective. I can now run at least 40 min without pain! 😆

Let me explain what treatment I had.

First week, they put two press needles on me, one in my insured knee, one in the opposite elbow

it’s a sticker with a metal ring in it

they make a cross on the point and put the press needle on it. It feels a sharp pain at first but then the pain goes away. It only feels when you press on it.

second part of the treatment was moxibustion

the practitioner hold a moxa close to the pressure point for about 15 min.

After the first treatment, I could run 12 min without pain. After second treatment, 15 min; third 20 min, etc. It was magical!!! And you know why it works? it is because blood don’t flow much to knee area. And when we have tense muscles in these area, we need external help to release the tension. Acupuncture and moxibustion do that precisely. It attracts blood flowing to the area and release the tension.

I can’t wait to run outside!!! 😀

Next posts: what I got in China, new skin care routine and products!