Banana Bread with Walnuts and Flaxseed

Made banana bread today before going to school. Took lots of pics this time. It's from the Power Foods book. My second attempt at making it. Much more uniform since I mashed the bananas before I put it into the mix with everything else. Probably should have done that the first time too, but for some reason I thought the bananas would be squishy enough that they would still incorporate into the mixture correctly. Bread was still kind of dry, needs something to keep it moist, more butter? Oil? Less cooking time?

President's Day Weekend

Really fun and productive weekend. On Friday, Nick and I went to Ikea because we wanted a long pillow. When we sleep our heads always fall in the crack between our two pillows. We were going to get a long one that would span the crack. However, we didn't find one to our liking and ended up purchasing Swedish meatballs and lingonberry sauce. I bought these trainers since we were going to go hiking on Saturday. The last time we hiked I wore Converse, which was really uncomfortable and I slipped which was embarrassing. These ones were comfortable. The hike was really enjoyable and I think we are going to go again this weekend. I didn't take any pictures though, since I didn't bring my phone with me. Where are you supposed to put your phone when you work out? My clothes have no pockets.

I felt really energized during the hike but after we got home I was starving. Then after we ate I felt exhausted. So weird. Also went and got a hair cut. I don't like it. It feels too thin and short. But whenever I get my hair cut it always turns out to be so similar to what it looked like before that most people can't tell the difference. Even when I ask for different styles it still comes out the same. My hair refuses to look like anything else. I tried the pear and Gorgonzola pizza at CPK with Nick. It didn't taste how I thought it would, it was kind of sweet, which was weird on pizza. The pears were good but too thin. Definitely not enough toppings. Sorry I didn't take a picture. But oh well, Nick's pizza choice wasn't too bad, the garlic chicken one. It's his favorite but they still didn't put enough toppings on it :[ sad. No picture either, since I forgot, sorry!

Shaved Snow

Today I went to lunch with my mom and sister to a restaurant called Class 302 in Rowland Heights, CA. The interior of the restaurant is modeled after a Taiwanese elementary school. The desks and chairs are supposedly the same type that are used in the schools. There's a chalkboard with Mandarin on the wall. The space is extremely small and cramped. I'll admit its also quite a long drive from my house. But I had a craving for this place so it was worth the trip. The main item that I wanted was the shaved snow.

It's not like normal shaved ice. First off the ice is flavored, this particular one is made of milk. The other flavors include green tea and mango. The ice is shaved off in sheets instead of little crystals, like Hawaii shaved ice. On top is condensed milk, which I wish they'd give you more of. The other "toppings" are actually underneathe the ice, which include: azuki beans (red beans), rice balls, and egg pudding. The azuki beans here are of low quality in my opinion, they taste like they came out of a can. Same with the egg pudding, tastes manufactured and is more water than pudding. Rice balls are good though, nice and chewy. But I can forgive the quality of the toppings because as a whole, this is the best Asian style shaved snow I have had. The fluffiness and softness of the snow is superior to other Asian shaved ice places.

Protein Power Smoothie

This is the other cookbook I own, Power Foods. My boyfriend, Nick, gave it to me for Christmas. He knows how much I love food and cooking. I'm glad he's not a picky eater, I like to have him try new recipes with me. The first 65 pages of this book tell you all about the power foods used in the recipes and why they are healthy for you. For example, what types of vitamins and minerals are in each food and also how to buy and store the ingredients, which I found really helpful since I haven't worked with all the ingredients before. 

I made the first recipe in here, the protein power smoothie. It turned out to be really tasty actually. I used raw honey instead of regular. I also used frozen berries since its the dead of winter. The recipe says to stick all the ingredients in the blender at once. However, I think the berries should be added a little bit at a time. I threw them in all at once and they got stuck and weren't blending properly. I had to take some out and mix the rest with a spoon before they would blend again.

Vietnamese Noodle Soup

I'm going to be cooking my way through this cookbook by Food Network Magazine, Great Easy Meals. I've done a few before, some recipes I like more than others. But today I made the Vietnamese Noodle Soup which is on page 3.

Here's a picture of the finished product. The family liked it, so I will probably be making it again. It's pretty simple to make and assemble. It's very flavorful, the star anise and cinnamon stick works well. It doesn't taste super cinnamon-y at all actually but you can smell the aroma when you're making the soup. I didn't use traditional rice vermicelli noodles, like you'd usually find in pho soup. Mostly because I couldn't find any at the market, I just used some random rice noodles and it turned out well.

Sprinkles Cupcakes

Sprinkles Cupcakes! I bought these last week. Only ate half of one though, they were mostly for my siblings. My brother loves the red velvet, all the white frosted ones. The pink one is strawberry (bottom left). Those are the only two flavors I like. I've had some others. The black and white one was super dry. Salted caramel just wasn't to my liking, tasted weird. Carrot has little strings of carrots inside. I can't remember what other flavors I've had. They're kind of expensive at 3.50 a pop. I thought they used to be 3.25? Oh well. Only once in a while as a treat for the little ones.

I've been searching for a photo editing app on my iphone. The one I used for the photo below is Camera+ it works pretty well. I thought it also had the ability to make photo collages but I was disappointed to find out otherwise.

New Fitness Goal

I've been over-eating and not exercising lately, making me feel guilty. Granted I was sick on Wednesday and I can still feel the after-effects of my migraine today. But whatever, life goes on. So I'm going to pick one new fitness goal to work on. In the past I believe I've tried to make too many drastic changes at once which is overwhelming and difficult to keep up with, perhaps leading to my relapses back into the cookie jar. Anyways, my new goal is to drink more water. Mostly because water is good for you, and I think I'm not getting enough anyways. My water bottle holds 32 oz. So four of those puppies should equal 1 gallon.  I'm not shooting to drink one whole gallon right now. But just two of these bottles. I've had one and a half so far and it's practically time for me to sleep. So I'm not doing too bad. 

Excited for this 3 day weekend. Could really use the break after midterms. I need to study more, I tell myself this everyday. I'm getting better though. It took years to develop my horrible study habits. They aren't gonna disappear overnight. Hope all goes well. Just keep moving forward.

Valentine's Day

Got an Edible Arrangements from my wonderful boyfriend. We also spent time making chocolate covered strawberries.