Chi chi chi chia!

Day 3 of my "cleanse" and I'm still eating a lot.  Yesterday I went to the gym.  I did a zumba class which was so much fun!  I mean, I can't really move my hips like the instructor could, but it was still fun.  Anyway, the reason I am telling you I went to the gym (besides just to brag) is because when I was there, people were passing out... just kidding, people were passing out these chia pods.

I was like, "I like chia kombucha, and it's free and I'm Jewish, so I think I should get one."  I took one and my friend took one and we went to the gym class.  After the class my friend was like, "I'm probably not going to eat this."  So I'm like, "I'll take it!"  This has happened to me so many times, someone doesn't want their food so I just offer to eat it, like I'm a food vacuum or something, I really don't know why I do this.  

I had no idea when I would eat this because although it looked like pudding it was definitely not going to be my dessert.  Then, this morning I needed something to eat, and I remembered I put this pod in the fridge.  And so I tried it.  

I didn't really like it.  I mean, I was totally fine with the texture, which I'm sure would have turned people away immediately.  I like chia kombucha so I knew what to expect.  If you have never had chia before, it is kind of hard to explain, but it is (are?) slimy seeds pretty much.  I love it, people hate it.  But, don't knock it 'til you try it (that's the saying right?).

The package says the pod is "nothing but sun ripened chia seed, coconut milk, real vanilla bean and real cinnamon."  Those are all things that I normally like, but for some reason when they are put together they taste really weird.  

This of course didn't stop me from eating the whole thing.  I have another one that I will probably try to eat again, maybe it's an acquired taste.  I don't know if I would suggest this to anyone.  It's vegan and probably not hard to make if you really are craving some.  

This was definitely not as good as my green tea freddo from Peet's.  I love these!  It is pretty much a milkshake, and I always get whipped cream on mine so it is really like a milkshake.  One suggestion when you order this drink (which I highly suggest you do), do not order it with non-fat milk.  It's not worth it.  Think about it, it is bad enough for you, and if you are already getting whipped cream (which is a must), is a little bit of whole milk really going to add that much fat?  

Enjoy... not so much the chia pod, mostly just the green tea freddo.

Day 2

It is hard to find good food for breakfast here for a couple of reasons.  One, I really don't feel like waking up earlier than I have to, to go to the dining hall to eat yogurt and fruit (it's not worth it).  I also don't have the energy to go out and buy breakfast food to keep in my dorm.  I do like oatmeal, however, and the day my mom came in, she brought me a big bag of it.  Usually my oatmeal at home looks like this:

I like my oatmeal super sticky and gummy because I'm weird.  I think normally people like it when you can actually see the oats.  To make it my way (the better way), I use one of my favorite kitchen appliances - a rice cooker.  My rice cooker has an oatmeal setting because it's fancy (I'm kidding, I don't know if it is actually fancy, I just like to think it is).  The ratio is 2:1 (2 cups water, 1 cup oats).  You put the ingredients in the rice cooker and turn it on, and when it dings or stops or whatever yours does to let you know it's done cooking, you open it up and serve.  I put walnuts, brown sugar and cranberries (or raisins, I just don't really like raisins that much) and mix it all up.  I always have a nice big bowl (or two) because it's oatmeal, so it healthy?  Anyway, my oatmeal at home is amazing, but my oatmeal at school is anything but that.

                  

I make it in a jar by putting some oatmeal and hot water.  I put almonds in it while the water is hot and let them soak up and get a little plump because it gives it some sort of flavor.  I have no brown sugar or cranberries, so I am pretty much eating plain oats.

I guess it doesn't look too bad, but trust me, the one I make at home is way better.  I miss my rice cooker and griddle and magic bullet.  I like eating more than I like cooking (not that I don't like cooking, but eating is way more fun), but all I want to do right now is cook my own food in my own house!  I am making a list of a bunch of recipes I want to try when I go home and can cook.  

I don't want to end this post with the ugly picture of my school oatmeal so here is another photo of the good oatmeal:

Try it for your next breakfast because it is super filling and actually kind of healthy.  

Happy eating!!

Is a mini burger diet?

So, I was supposed to start my cleanse today, and it kind of worked I guess.  I mean, I enjoyed my dinner which is more important than it being super healthy right?  It wasn't like it was bad for me, it's just probably not what you think of when you think of a cleanse.  Anyway (yes, it's anyway not anyways!  Do not add the extra "s," it's wrong) my dinner.  I went to this Italian restaurant, which had pizza and really beautiful gourmet sandwiches.  I got the mini burger made with homemade sausage.

It was slightly spicy, but just perfect!  Not only did it look beautiful, but it tasted amazing too.  It had warm tomatoes and zucchini (which you would think would have been weird, but was surprisingly good) a little bit of olive oil and arugula.  Arugula is always delicious on sandwiches if you've never had it before.  It is slightly spicy and way better than romaine lettuce, definitely try it on your next sandwich.

It was served on this wood cutting board and so it was absolutely stunning!  Here are all the photos I took of it:

I think this is the best photo of it.  You can see all the zucchini and tomatoes and yummy deliciousness.  

My dinner was divine, and not too bad for my diet.  But then I was like, "I think I need something more."  I just quoted myself because it's a cool thing to do.  So, I went to get a cinnamon bun, and OH MY ACTUAL GOD it was so good!!! (It was so good I had to put three exclamation points)  I got the original cinnamon bun, I wasn't really feeling the cookie dough it just looked too heavy.  It was warm and soft and the icing was so sweet and good.  It was vegan, does that make it part of a cleanse?  I'll say yes.

The picture doesn't do it justice, it was seriously such a good dessert.  My cleanse is going fine, I mean, like I said before my cleanse is not really a cleanse.  I feel better than I did last night when I had two doughnuts so that's a good sign.

I've been eating too much

Like the title of this post suggests, I've been eating way too much!  It's not even that I have been eating too much good food, it's that I have been eating too much mediocre food and dessert (although the desserts have been very satisfying).  Sorry, there are no pictures on this post, I just wanted to say that I am going on a "cleanse diet."  I put this in quotes because my "cleanse diets" are not real "cleanse diets."  I only mean that I am going to eat less garbage (like, I will not have two doughnuts like I did last night, although they were absolutely delicious - I even heated them up in the microwave!).  I want to get rid of all the garbage food I have been eating this week.  This would be so much easier to do if I had something to distract myself besides homework (like TV!), but I don't have TV so this is going to be a difficult diet.  I will let you know how it goes, although I don't really know who "you" is besides my mom because she is the only one that reads this blog I think.

I lied, I will show you a picture of the doughnut that I cannot have for a little while!  I ate the other one too fast and so I didn't take a photo of it.

Yes, that is me sitting on the floor eating my second doughnut.  I cannot be doing this all the time (like I have been).  I realize also that I need to learn to take better photos with my iPhone.  

Not enough falafel

I am pretty sure my favorite food is falafel.  If you've never had one, that's too bad, you're really missing out.  They are a fried chickpea (garbanzo bean, does it matter which one I use?) ball served with hummus and tomatoes and onions and whatever else you want.  Seriously, I love them so much I had them three days in a row... and I could have had them four days in a row, I was just too lazy to go out and walk to get one.

I went to this place that claims to be "the best falafel in town."  That is a pretty big claim, right?  Well, it was pretty good.  I would not be opposed to going there right now to eat another one, let's put it that way.  I got a falafel plate, which came with hummus, tomatoes, pita bread and a side I could choose from (I chose rice).

The hummus was so good! It was creamy and just amazing.  The falafel itself was also delicious, crunchy, and really brought me back to the one I had the day before.  Looking at the picture is really making me want another falafel plate.

I don't want to be that person you always see taking photos of their food, it looks stupid.  That is why my photos are not that great.  Had I been eating this in my room, which would have been a really depressing atmosphere and unenjoyable, the photos might have come out a little nicer.  I mean, the falafel still looks pretty tasty to me.

I've tried to make falafel before with my sister.  They were good, but these were REALLY good!  Also, the pita bread was warm and soft and with the hummus and falafel... oh my god, I want another one!  I am hungry right now as I am writing this, probably not the best idea.  Careful with falafel and hummus though, make sure you don't have to go out or anything after you eat this because, I really can't say this any other way, you'll have gas.  Besides that, it's great!

I want s'mores

I haven't posted anything in a while.  I've been busy, not so much with schoolwork (because I'm procrastinating too much to be busy with that).  I also haven't really had any amazing food recently that deserved blogging.  But, last night I did!!

My favorite desert is creme brûlée (because I'm obnoxious like that).  I seriously love it so much and whenever it is on the menu I will order it.  Why do I like it so much?  Because, how could you not?  It's sweet and creamy and crunchy all at the same time and it is just amazing.

Last night there were food trucks by my dorm, and my friend told me about this food truck only for creme brûlée.  Obviously that was my favorite food truck there (even though I hadn't actually tried it yet).  We went to the gym (I'm super sore right now) and then after we walked to the food trucks.  Nothing like a nice creme brûlée after a good workout, am I right?  There were so many flavors to choose from, but I chose s'mores.

Yes, they had s'mores flavored creme brûlée and it was... amazing!!!  It was chocolate creme brûlée with toasted marshmallows and cinnamon toast crunch cereal on top.  It was crunchy and creamy and just all around delicious.

It was the perfect amount of sweetness (I personally don't like my deserts too sweet).  I want another one so badly right now, but I have to wait until next Monday to get one!

I got my own individual creme brûlée, which I loved because I don't really like sharing that much.  I can't wait to go back next week!

I could not watch TV last night, but I could read.  I didn't read, but I could have.  Why read when I can eat my creme brûlée right?  I want to watch TV really badly though, all the new seasons of the shows are starting soon and I am going to feel so behind.  At least I have one thing to look forward to every week now, my individual creme brûlée.

Yummmm

Today was a good day.  I woke up, took a shower, got breakfast and came back to my dorm to take a nap all before 1 o'clock.  Then I went to a chocolate tasting with my sister and her friends.  I don't really like dark chocolate, but that was still fun.  My sister, her old roommate and I went to dinner and it was so amazing and totally hit the spot that I didn't really realize I was missing!

We went to this Peruvian restaurant and after thinking that I was going to eat seafood with rice, I ended up getting Pescado a la chorillana (fried fillet of red snapper with sautéed onions and tomatoes on top served with rice and cassava).

It was really good!  The tomatoes were warm and so delicious!  The cassava was interesting, I don't really know how to explain it, but it was kind of like a crunchy potato, but really good!  I wanted more than just two!  I love rice, so I also ate all the rice that came with it with all the delicious juices it soaked up.

On top of the fish I put some of this spicy green sauce that they had put on the table.  It was super spicy and I have no idea what it was made out of, but it too was delicious.

They also gave us this crunchy corn snack.  My sister asked what it was, and the waitress said it was a different type of corn that they fried a little.  It was still warm when they served it to us and was salty and amazing!  I want more right now.

It was a pretty good dinner, super satisfying.  I am sick though, along with practically everybody else on my floor, so now I am in my room watching TV on my computer with a runny nose and a sore throat.  Not the most enjoyable end to the good dinner, but still, at least I have the pictures of the food to look at.  I wish I could just eat and watch TV for a living, that would be pretty nice.  I really just want to be able to make my own food again in my own house and watch TV on my own REAL TV, but again, that will have to wait.

In the mood for some pho

I was looking through some of the photos I took to put on this blog, and I completely forgot to write about the pho my family made before I left!  I have been obsessed with pho lately, and for some reason before I left I was really craving the salty and deliciousness of a nice bowl of pho.  Although it was probably annoying to do, I made my mom drive me to the asian market (I hate driving and will go out of my way not to drive) to buy the ingredients.  Any asian market will have these ingredients, in fact, when we went there, we found ingredients we didn't even know we needed!  I cheated a little with this recipe because I'm lazy and really did not feel like going all out on making the pho.

Ingredients:

-instant pho paste (I found it at the asian market and the guy who works there says to mix a couple tbs of the paste with chicken broth)
-chicken broth (the broth is to taste, so put more chicken broth in and less pho paste or vice versa)
-pho noodles (I guess you could really use any noodle you want, but if you want a more authentic pho make it with the pho noodles)

For the toppings you can pretty much put whatever you want, that's what makes this so much "pho"n!! Everybody can put whatever they want in their own bowl.  For my family, we put:

-bok choy
-garlic
-limes
-ginger
-corn
-chopped scallions
-fried onions (we found these at the asian market but you can probably use the onions that go on top of casseroles)

The most important part of this dish (in my opinion) is the sauce that you put in it once it's made.  Put however much broth you want in your bowl, and then put sriracha sauce and hoisin sauce, I'm telling you, these make the soup!

Here are all the ingredients if you would rather just see what we put in instead of reading it because you are lazy like me (my sisters are in the background):

Once you have all the ingredients on the table and are ready to go, put some broth in your bowl with some noodles and whatever other toppings you want in it and enjoy!

Looking at these photos is making me crave pho right now!  Know what else it is making me crave? Yeah, TV because I know that when I took this picture the TV was literally 3 feet away from me.  I bet the DVR is 100% full right now because I can't watch any of my shows.  I seriously suggest this to anyone, it is such a fun dinner and the whole family will love it!!

Have "pho"n!!!!

How to use dining points correctly

So, I have been having some trouble with my dining hall points.  I personally do not think it is worth it to go to the dining hall, spend meal points (aka money) and only get salad.  Yes, I could get more than just salad at the dining hall, but I am not always in the mood for a burger at 2 in the afternoon, especially on the days (which happens to be most of them) when I do not exercise.

Now, I have figured out a way to spend my points wisely, and I only wish I had known this last week because I would have been way more satisfied at the end of the day.  There are other cafes on campus that sell other types of food for cheaper than the dining halls!  Why would anybody not use this?

Today I got a rice bowl, and like anything I post on this blog, it was amazing!  It came with chicken, vegetables, white or brown rice (I chose brown although I'm sure white rice would have been way better) and your choice of teriyaki sauce or some other sauce I did not get.

It was filling and absolutely delicious, I ate it all!  

 After that, I went back to my dorm and did homework, but luckily my mom brought me all these snacks to help me study!  Thanks mom.

I organized them in my bookshelf so now I get to see all the wonderful choices I have right when I walk into my room.

School has been hard, but food is making it easier.  What would make it even easier though is a real TV to watch all the episodes of Kardashians I am missing, but I guess I'll just have to wait until Thanksgiving to do that.