Monthly Archives: July 2011

Reality Check

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I’ve been feeling rather ‘off’ ever since I returned home two nights ago. It almost feels like I was in an alternate universe the past month and now I’m back in reality.

I’m wondering if it’s because of my lack of sleep, or perhaps the frightening amount of chapters and lectures I need to get through by the end of the week in order to take my finals.

I’m thinking it’s the latter with maybe a sprinkling of the former.

So…what does one do when one returns to so-called reality?

Sort the mail? - nope

Begin studying for finals? - nah

Unpack? - definitely not

Grocery shopping? - YEP!

Thats an important order of business around here ;)

yogurt, cottage cheese, raspberries, and a 16 oz un-pictured container of giant blueberries

I never thought I’d actually miss having yogurt and cottage cheese.

rice cakes, Mr. Wheat apple cinnamon crispy wheat, chocolate almond milk, cereal x’s 2

I’m hoping that crispy brown rice makes for a crispier 5 ingredient crispy.

 and two staples – almond milk and bananas

After I took care of my first order of business, I finally moved on to the others, and while I was sorting through the mail, I found this beauty addressed to me.

These pita crisps are SO good. They’re equally as addicting as the cinnamon apple Mr. Wheat crispy wheat I just bought. I ate my way through about half of each yesterday afternoon and was more than happy they spoiled my appetite for dinner. Yep, I enjoyed them that much.

Then I crashed by 10pm. Thank you jet lag.

This morning I met up with this gal at a nature preserve to catch up while also working up a sweat.

It was nice to kinda feel like we weren’t in the city for a bit as we walked and hiked 7 miles between lush trees and tall grass.

But once again I was back to reality afterwards as it was time to face those books.

I hope everyone has a lovely Sunday :)

What’s the first thing you do when you come home from a trip?

[Almost] Home Sweet Home

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I realize I’ve been MIA the past couple days – reasons being:

1)   I’ve been rather uninteresting the past couple days as I’ve spent the majority of them catching up on summer school projects and assignments that were due, and attempting (keyword ;) ) to get ready for finals next week.

2)   When I was not being a bookworm I was out trying to enjoy my last couple days in Hong Kong.

I’m currently en route home and just got off a near 13-hour flight from Hong Kong to Los Angeles and am currently in LAX waiting for my connecting flight home.

Although I’ve really enjoyed my time in Hong Kong, the Maldives, Singapore, and China, I’ve spent exactly one month on the other side of the world, and I’m ready to be home.

Home is where I get to have my favorite foods, eat my favorite breakfasts, and bake whatever I want whenever I want. Even though I had a kitchen to use in Hong Kong, ingredients were quite sparce. It was either too expensive or I just couldn’t find it. I’m sure if I had looked a little harder I would’ve eventually found some things, but some are just plain unavailable.

They do sell kombucha though. I hardly ever drink it, but since the flavor sounded mighty appealing at that particular moment I made an impulse buy.

I didn’t realize until after I had bought it that I had paid a little over $5 for it even though it was on sale.  I actually don’t know how much kombucha usually costs in the states, but I sure hope it’s not 5 bucks a pop.

At $5 a bottle, I figured I might as well drink it out of some fine china. And that’s exactly what I did…

Great flavor, btw.

I think drinking Kombucha may have just about been as exciting as it got the past two days, other than finding something in the fridge.

Remember how I mentioned how much I loved the pastries from Tony Wong?…Someone must’ve read my blog because look what I found in the fridge two nights ago tucked in right next to my cashew butter!

And inside that bright yellow & black box?

A mixed berry napoleon!

In all my excitement, I forgot to take a picture of the whole cake.

Just picture this slice times 10 and you’ll have a picture of the full napoleon. Sometimes we just have to use our imaginations :)

This is seriously one of the BEST napoleons ever. It’s officially joined my list of favorite sweets.

_ _ _

2 and a half hours until my flight home!

What do you love most about home?

Almond love

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After a day of fun in the sun yesterday, it was time back to the normal grind…which today, was my dreaded operations management assignment.

Of course I didn’t start until I got my brain warmed up a bit with a nice hearty breakfast.

On the menu this morning: Oats

A nice big bowl topped with cooked apples and some homemade cashew butter.

I haven’t had oats in a very long time and this particular bowl was extra delicious.

I worked through the morning with a couple visits to the freezer where all the leftover 5 ingredient crispies I had made for yesterdays boat trip were hanging out.

Since I had made two batches and there was way too much food on that boat, there were quite a few leftover crispies. No worries though…just means more for me :)

Batch 1, I had made with cashew butter and batch 2 was made with crunchy barney butter. I love cashew, but the crunch of the almonds from the barney butter definitely gave those crispies a little extra somethin’ somthin’ which made them my instant favorite.

You know what else almonds gives a little extra somethin’ somthin’ to?

Black bean almond milk (and now that I think about it, just about everything else…)

Remember that batch of black bean milk I made about a week ago? I also blended up a black bean almond version recently, which I enjoyed even more.

I pretty much followed the same process as last time, except this time my 1/2 cup of soaked beans had been cooked for 20 mins in 2 cups of water.

After cooking them I had stored them in the refrigerator, along with the liquid, for a couple days until I decided to use them.

Black beans

Plus 1/2 cup roasted almonds & 4-6 cups of water

were placed in a blender with the strainer attachment.

(4-6 cups of water because it depends on whether you like it thick and creamy or more smooth and diluted)

2-5 mins in the blender and the black bean almond milk was ready!

Roasted almonds are key here! austiNuts has some of the best roasted almonds I’ve had and I think it’s really what gave the black bean milk its extra special taste.

I’ve got a couple other delicious almond treats up my sleeve, but that’s for another day :)

Any almond fans out there?