• Driving in a car with 2 cats is not always fun. But I still love our little monsters.
• Arizona is too cool for daylight saving time.
• McDonald’s is gross.
• Dairy Queen is pretty cool.
• Things always take longer than you planned.

Breakfast – a few warren pears from Frog Hollow Farms (samples from this weekend). They’re almost too ripe at this point, so I wanted to use them up.

Snacks throughout the day – more pears.

Lunch – Southwest chicken salad from McDonald’s. Not very good! I am not a McDonald’s fan. There are many other better fast food salads out there. I also snagged some of Bobby’s fries. They were gross.

1st Dinner (7pm) – a side salad and a grilled chicken ranch wrap from Dairy Queen. This wrap was fantastic – yummy cheddar, creamy ranch, and a nice piece of grilled chicken on a tortilla.

2nd Dinner (11pm) – a shared grand slam with Bobby from Denny’s. We got hash browns, eggs sunny side up, hearty whole wheat pancakes, a biscuit, and turkey bacon. Both the bacon and the pancakes were “healthier” options on the menu. Bobby had all of the hash browns. I had most of the pancakes, some of the biscuit, some eggs, and 1 of the bacons. I heart Denny’s.

We are staying at a Motel 6 in Kingman, AZ. Anyone ever been there? I think we might get Denny’s for breakfast tomorrow, too… I plan on keeping it a little lighter (probably just a huge bowl of oats).

Off to get some rest and get ready for more driving tomorrow… I’m gonna try to get a massage out of Bobby. Happy Tuesday!

Like this post? Check out...

• June 14, 2011 -- On Waking Up Early & Summer Challenge
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Brandi‘s Stuffed French Toast:

Sabrina‘s Egg White Veggie Frittata Muffins:

Frog Hollow Farm‘s dried fruits (and Warren pears! So amazing).

Frog Hollow Farm also had a variety of chutneys and conserves, which were incredible. This was my favorite booth of the afternoon.

Some kind of shrimp and scallop ceviche from Fuego (can’t find a link):

A cool table with non-traditional shortbread made by Botanical Bakery:

Handmade marshmallows (pumpkin was one of the flavors) by Gateau et Ganache:

Chocolate covered nuts. I brought some of these home for Bobby and he has been calling them "poo balls". They are delicious despite their odd nickname.

My favorite candy of the day, made by Nina. Her Single Malt Scotch Bar was awesome.

Annie the Baker‘s cookies. Amazingly buttery and delicious. They tasted just like cookie dough.

p.o.p. candy‘s toffee – I had so much of the chai one. It had nuts and dried fruit.

Yummy (and pretty) chocolates.

Fabulous spreads.

479 Popcorn. My favorite was the curry (odd because I don’t like Indian food).

My other favorite dish of the day – Vineyard Pantry‘s Autumn Savory Tartlets (little pastry filled with wild rice, butternut squash, blue cheese mustard, cheese, and more). I can’t wait to experiment with their products.

A crazy cool beet meringue goat cheese savory dessert thing. It was a work of art (and quite tasty).

Olives.

Shannon‘s savory bread pudding.

I still have pictures from dinner, but I’ll save them. I met so many amazing people, including Emily from Foodzie – what a cool woman. That is a company I would love to work for.

A big thanks to FOODBUZZ for an amazing weekend.

In other news… wish me luck – we’re moving this week. (We’re taking off Tuesday instead of Monday.) Road trip from Sunnyvale to Princeton with two cats. Will be interesting.

Happy Monday! (Or Sunday, if you’re up late.) What did you do this weekend?

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• June 15, 2009 -- Going Out With Mom!

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Tonight we drove up to San Francisco for the first Foodbuzz Festival event. The welcome reception was from 5-7pm at the Hotel Vitale. This wasn’t the main food event of the day, but they did have two cool appetizers: gruyere gougeres with bacon and mascarpone and pork rillettes. They were provided by midi.

I tried the rilletes. Pretty good, but kind of salty. I didn’t try the puff things, but they looked cool.

After the reception we headed over to the Ferry Building for an amazing dinner event. Foodbuzz rented out a portion of the building and had restaurants serving food all the way down the alley.

As soon as we entered I saw mini cupcakes, and I couldn’t resist. Dessert first! I tried the pumpkin cupcake, but they also had red velvet, chocolate cinnamon, and an almond flavored one. I had an almond one on my way out for my real dessert. These were provided by Mission Minis.

I also tried this delicious vanilla bean ice cream by Straus Family Creamery. Awesome.

Then it was time for some real food. I had a bean burrito from Tacolicious. It wasn’t that good. I wanted chicken, but they were out. They had cool shirts though.

I also tried these savory vegetarian and meat pies from Pie Truck. Pretty yummy!

And a raw oyster from Hog Island Oyster Co…. awesome.

I passed on these chicharrones (fried pork chips) but they were cool looking. From 4505 Meats.

Alive had a selection of raw foods – 2 raw pizzas and raw cheesecake. These were okay. Not my favorite, to be honest.

The best items of the night: Spencer on the Go‘s Beet Salad with blue cheese and "far west fungi vol au vent" (creamy mushrooms on top of a puff thing). I went back for seconds on both of these.

Then there was some incredible thin crust pizza from Pizza Politana. This was the best pizza I’ve had outside of Italy and New York. And I didn’t think I was a pizza person.

Lastly, there was a cool pork sandwich and potatoes from Roli Roti. This seemed to be really popular with other bloggers, but I thought it was just okay.

They had this funny shirt: "I heart Crispy Skin". (TWSS? Not.)

My favorite of the night was absolutely the mushroom dish from Spencer on the Go (second favorite was their beet salad). Holy amazing yum. On the way out I snagged some more ice cream and the almond cupcake.

Don’t worry, I didn’t finish everything pictured. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for tomorrow… Happy Saturday!

Like this post? Check out...

• May 2, 2010 -- Reviews Galore
• September 22, 2008 -- More eats for 9/21/2008
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• January 16, 2009 -- Yogurts & yoga
• August 10, 2010 -- Knowing When to Stop (Eating)

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This challenge might be hard for a few reasons – 1) Bobby and I are driving across the country next week; 2) the holidays and lots of decadent foods are coming up; 3) due to the move, I don’t know what my new routine will be (we’re moving to Manhattan btw). But I’m going to try. I’m synthesizing their goals and mine, and this is what I came up with. I’m going to try to do this for as long as I can. These aren’t arbitrary; these goals are what my ideal lifestyle would be so I want to keep up with them.

1. Go to bed early (by 11:30pm) and get 7-8 hours of sleep a night.
2. Cut out artificial sweeteners. I’ve been on a diet coke kick recently and it’s time to stop.
3. More veggies, less fruit.
4. More cooked foods, fewer raw.
5. Lots of water and tea.
6. Cook and plan more (or at least eat out at cheap-yet-healthy places).
7. Sit down for every meal.
8. Do something relaxing for 30 minutes every day (yoga, a bath, these exercises).
9. 30+ minutes of cardio each day (walking, running, yoga).
10. Give myself credit. Even if I don’t do all of these things perfectly, I’m going to give myself credit for the attempts and partial successes.

Because we’re moving, I’m trying to use up the groceries we have and I don’t plan on buying more. This week I’ll be eating out a lot but I’m not too worried about that; I love eating out and I can always find something healthy on the menu. The only thing that worries me about eating out is the money issue. I wish I was less frugal

The other issue I might have is that this weekend is the Foodbuzz Blogger Festival. I plan on eating well, but I doubt that I’m going to get much sleep because two of my favorite bloggers are coming to stay with me and we’re all going together. I am so excited to meet them.

Some of the yummy dishes I plan on making and eating during this November challenge are…

a healthy Thanksgiving meal, like last year’s

fresh delicious salads

lots of squash fries…

this fun Indian mushroom recipe

… and lots more. You should check out my recipes page for more inspiration. This bread recipe was one of the first things I ever posted (December 2007).

Anyway, back to the “back on track” plan. Today has been a good day so far. I did a yoga class this morning at my studio and I went to bed early last night (crashed on the couch at 9:30pm). I wanted to go to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner, but Bobby has band practice… so maybe not.

And now this post is getting epic. Happy November! Are you challenging yourself this month?

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• September 23, 2010 -- New York Yummy Vegan Food
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• January 26, 2010 -- Ch-ch-ch-changes
• January 8, 2008 -- Gnocchi Hash Browns – Breakfast Recipe

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We didn’t get any kiddies last year, and I don’t know if we will this year either. Do you get trick-or-treaters?

Earlier today Bobby joked, “Maybe the reason Americans are becoming obese is that we focus on candy for every holiday and on Halloween we buy too much so we have extra left over. I bet other countries don’t do this.” But he’s right. Trick-or-treating is a very North American thing (Canadians do it too). It’s done in the US, the UK, Canada, parts of Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Ireland. Apparently it’s been introduced in Italy and New Zealand (because of American culture infiltrating the media), but it’s been pretty controversial. Stuffing your face with candy seems to be a uniquely American thing to do.

As a kid I loved halloween. I don’t think I cared too much about the candy, to be honest. I did love dressing up. My mom always helped me and made elaborate costumes. I’ve been everything from a witch, to a pumpkin, to a bag of jelly beans (so cute), to a little Dutch girl with clogs, to a witch again, to a hippie… Well, you get the idea.

Of course I ate my candy – who wouldn’t? But I remember saving it for ages (I always “save” things for the “best” time) and ending up throwing most of it away after it went bad a few months later. This is the same way I treat most nice things I own; I save them for opportune times, but often the opportune time never comes and I regret saving whatever it is. Living in the moment is probably a better idea, anyway. And who wants to save something like calories? That shouldn’t doesn’t make sense.

But back to Halloween – it’s a shame that we can’t give out candied apples or homemade cookies anymore. I think that would be the best way to celebrate.

[Aside: we just got a kid! A little alligator! So cute.]

Am I being too cynical? Should I just accept that (most) Americans glorify unhealthiness because it’s “the land of the free” and we can pretty much do what and eat what we want without thinking of the consequences? I think I’m getting too pensive for a Saturday night, so I’ll stop there. Hope you all enjoyed your Halloweens.

Like this post? Check out...

• July 5, 2011 -- A Week of Moving – Rocking and Walking
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• May 18, 2009 -- Bananas & tar-jay finds

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Raw Zucchini Hummus

Ingredients

• 2 zucchini
• 3/4 cup tahini (raw)
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 1/4 cup olive oil (cold pressed, if you want it to be truly raw)
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2.5 teaspoons salt (I would cut down on this)
• 1/2 tablespoon cumin

Directions

Chop the zucchini and blend everything in the blender. Add the lemon juice and garlic (and salt) a little bit at a time to get the flavor that you want.

I thought this was really yummy. I might use a little less garlic and salt. I few other substitution ideas might be…

• nut butter instead of tahini (like a yummy Thai peanut sauce)
• experiment with other oils – sesame oil would give it a nice Asian flavor
• other spices instead (or in addition to) cumin – chili powder, Asian 5-spice, cinnamon
• add in some herbs – oregano, basil, dill, etc…
• vinegar in place of lemon juice
• add some Bragg’s liquid aminos (cut out salt, cut down on lemon juice)

Of course you could do beans instead of the tahini, but then it would be a more standard hummus.

What’s your favorite hummus? I really like Tribe’s Olive Hummus. So good. I know Sabra is a popular one as well. I love putting hummus on crispy fruit like apples. I don’t know if that’s common or not…

HERE is my recipe for simple homemade hummus.

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• May 12, 2011 -- Video Post: Thursday Latelies!

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Raw Energy Balls

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup carob powder
• 3 cups shredded unsweetened raw coconut
• 3/4 cup coconut butter/oil
• 1/2 cup raw agave nectar

Directions

Mush everything together by hand. Shape into balls and freeze before eating.

Substitution ideas (not all raw)

• honey or maple syrup in place of agave
• oatmeal in place of some shredded coconut
• nut butter in place of coconut butter/oil
• cut down on oil; add more sweetener
• replace half the oil with a super-ripe mashed banana
• cocoa powder in place of carob powder
• ground flax in place of some shredded coconut

These were good, but a little bit too heavy for me. I find that many raw food desserts do not sit well with my temperamental stomach. The recipes with a lot of oil or sweet ingredients are especially tough for me to eat. These were really delicious though, and I would make them with a few modifications. I would cut down on the oil and Jill suggested maybe subbing some of the coconut for oatmeal (like no-bake cookies).

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I watched The Biggest Loser last night. I’ve been enjoying this season (“Second Chances”) mainly due to the fact that Jillian is digging up the contestants’ issues and forcing them (the contestants) to deal with the issues head on instead of hiding them as the contestants get healthy. The theme with all of the contestants is self-forgiveness. We can all relate to this on some level; I certainly have (more than) one experience in my life that I just can’t seem to let go of. Watching the contestants grow and change and evolve into these new and inspiring people is motivating. I suppose that’s why the show is so popular.

While I’m on the topic of growth and change, I wanted to say again how excited I am to be moving (to New York) in less than 2 short weeks. Thank you for your ideas and positive comments. I can’t wait to begin this next phase of my life. It’s bittersweet to be packing up my things and making preparations to move back “home”. I will certainly miss some of the people I’ve met here and I’ll always remember the fun times I had in California. Now I think it’s time to let it go and move on.

My high school reunion (5 years) is at the end of November. I’m going to go since I’ll be back in the area. Did you go to your high school reunion?

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Today we went up to Sausalito to be touristy. Bobby got this really good free-range, organic turkey burger from a place called Hamburgers. Apparently it’s Britney Spears’ favorite burger place (?).

I don’t know if these fries were organic, but they certainly were delicious (especially with oodles of ketchup).

Dad and I posed with a bird by the bay.

I opted for vanilla ice cream from Lappert’s. Honestly? Not that great. It was $3.60 for this little cup and it was not worth it. It was boring and I’ve had much better.

Dinner was more interesting. After we got home we went out to Roll House, a cheap and local Korean restaurant. We started off with side dishes (2 kimchis, a mayo waldorf salad thing, pickled daikon, and a fish cake dish that was super yum). Got seconds of some of these.

My dinner was Bi Bim Bap – fried egg, seaweed, cucumber, carrots, spinach, mushrooms, and some other things. I topped it with lots of red spicy sauce (love). When I lifted up the egg to mix it, I found a surprise – beef. Eek. I took it off and gave it to Bobby. I don’t like to send things back. I’m pretty sure I didn’t get it all off though. My meal also came with miso soup (upper right).

Bobby and my dad were full after dinner, but I had to get frozen yogurt to make up for my ice cream disappointment. Bobby did end up helping me a bit with this.

It was green tea, regular tart, mango tart, and blueberry tart. Kiwis, strawberries, and pineapples for topping. Yum.

And for today’s exercise - this morning I did Sadie Nardini’s 30 minute yoga routine – power half hour. I LOVE Sadie’s routines. I can’t wait until I’m in New York and I can take her classes in person.

What’s your favorite exercise class?

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Quick summary of our day: This morning my midterm went fine; I think my bowl of protein powder oats gave me some good brain power. We didn’t really do anything else terribly exciting today because I had to show our apartment at 1pm. We got Chipotle for lunch (Dad’s first time) – I got a veggie salad, Dad got a chicken bowl, and Bobby got a chicken burrito. After the showing we headed to Santana Row, an upscale shopping area in San Jose.

Sorry in advance for the crappy pictures – left my sweet camera at home and used the small one.

Tonight we went out for dinner with out cousins. We got Vietnamese at Pho Nam in Sunnyvale. This place is great. I got #52, the Vermicelli with Shrimp. It came with veggies (lettuce, cilantro, carrots, cucumber), vermicelli (rice noodles), grilled shrimp (with oil), and a yummy fish sauce topping. We got (unpictured) spring rolls (fried and fresh) for the table as well.

I thought this meal was fab – fresh, light, and pretty healthy. Dad got pork and shrimp vermicelli (similar to mine) and Bobby got beef pho (noodle soup). Bobby also got a strawberry shake – I thought it was pretty so I snapped a picture (and had some of course).

Dessert was lots of fresh pineapple from Safeway (Thanks, Dad!).

Just a reminder – I don’t post about everything I eat; don’t think this was everything I ate today

I have been eating this awesome smoked mozzarella cheese on apples. I’ll try to remember to take a picture next time I have it. And I still have to share that crazy chocolate treat that I got recently too.

Have you had any cool new food finds lately?

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Dad’s was topped with granola and maple syrup; mine with sesame seeds and maple syrup. (My dad did the Amazon deal already – what are you waiting for?) He wasn’t too impressed with oat bran, but he did admit that it was a brick-in-the-belly breakfast.

After packing some snacks (bars and fruit) we headed down to Monterey. We wandered around Cannery Row and Fisherman’s wharf…

Then we headed out to a park in Monterey for a short (but hilly) hike. We hit up Trader Joe’s for lunch before proceeding on to another state park on the way home – Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. This place was amazing. This tree was around before Jesus was even born. It was 2200+ years old when it fell back in 1934 and had been around for the signing of the Magna Carta, the Revolutionary War, and even when the Normans conquered England (1066).

These trees are huge.

As is this "banana slug".

When we got home it was time for drinks. I had a glass of wine – Murphy Goode’s Fume – and dad had more beers. I cooked up a quick and easy frittata for dinner using 6 eggs, zucchini, red pepper, red onion, and goat + parmesan cheeses.

On the side I made broiled tomatoes (idea from Whole Foods) – tomatoes cut in half, topped with olive oil, salt + pepper, oregano, and parmesan; bake at 400F for 10 minutes; broil for another 5.

And because I can’t go another night without kabocha, I made a big batch and ate it all myself.

I’m now munching on grapes and cursing Qumana for deleting the post that I just wrote (it looked pretty much the same as this one – I hope, anyway). Now I have to study like a mad woman for my anthropology midterm tomorrow.

Are you good at studying/preparing in advance for tests/whatever? Or do you procrastinate? For me it all depends on my other time commitments, my mood, and the class/work itself.

Like this post? Check out...

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• November 8, 2009 -- Foodbuzz Festival: So many yums (tasting)

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