Fair Day

Gonna make this short and sweet.
Hit the State Fair with my pal M yesterday. It was in the 90's the whole day so we had lots and lots of cold treats.

Had alligator meat,

 

which tasted like really chewy chicken.

 

 

Split a scoop of pistachio gelato, (M got the pistachio and received bigger scoop than me... dunno why... maybe her nails are cooler?)

split a scoop of guiness chocolate gelato (in which they said was beer but I couldn't taste any),

and we finished off with some frozen custard! Super yummy and rich.

Came home beyond tired and with open blisters on my feet from my knockoff abercrombie flip-flops.
his is why I don't ever buy knockoffs in China anymore.

Day of eats #2

"Slept in" until nine today, which is actually pretty late for me. I'm an early riser and generally wake up at around seven or eight in the summer even though I don't fall asleep until at least eleven at night. However, I still have trouble waking up and/or functioning with minimal sleep during the school year. FML.
Semi-brunched on a bit of leftover chicken,

 

 

2/3 of a 'naner & peanut butter (gave 1/3 to Lulu thanks to her big ol' puppy eyes),

 

 

 

 

and give or take a couple spoonfuls on the go... plus one with some goodies

 

 

 

 

I wasn't super hungry at lunchtime, so I had a nice bowl of broccoli and a couple teaspoons of avocado, which I didn't bother to take a pic of.

 

 

 

 

My friend came over and we had a bit of a failed experiment with making cake in the rice cooker. Apparently my rice cooker is more temperamental than her's. It turned out okay-ish and I will post it later if I can find out how to bake it in an oven. The slightly burnt bottom did not stop me from having two slices with some pb frosting.

Yummy dinner of basa fish + stir-fried broccoli.

 

 

 After dinner (and really all through it) I was CRAVING peanut butter like a mad woman, so I spent some quality time with a LOT of Skippy's. Plenty of peanut butter "lettuce wraps," which is pb spread between romaine lettuce. A cal-free/guilt-free pb vehicle better than celery because you can load more creamy goodness on it!!!

Day of eats #1 (+ WWS)

This post has been long in coming! #queenofprocrastinating lolz. (Yes I just added a legit hashtag... sue this teenager.) Lots and lots of avocados!!! Mom got some yesterday and I am back on the South American pear bandwagon.

Started my day off with a cup of oatmeal with 1 (ish) tablespoon of honey and a bit of vanilla extract. This was also my pre-workout meal.

 

 

Lunch was a banana + peanut butter (yes I know there's a ton of sugar in Skippy's but my mom only bought the sugary kind, though preservative-free. I'm too lazy to make it and the almond butter is all hardened, so give me a break people.),

half an avocado,

and a peach. With a bite taken out of it already...

Spooned a whole avocado in the afternoon. I know, naughty me. Hey, it's as much action as I've gotten this summer.

I was feeling snacky come dinner time, so I had a baggie... of frozen grapes ;p

and half an avocado.

I also had a cup of chocolate soymilk and some watermelon, but my camera was being wonky.

Onto my WWS!!!

(POP vids from here.)

Happy Monday, y'all!

Asian Day

We went to my little bro's performance last night. His saxophone teacher hosted a reception for "Asian day," a series of performances by various Chinese people. That's a fantastically descriptive piece of writing, ain't it. You'll have to excuse me for my total lack of focused writing today- I've got trillion things on my mind and plus it's just kind of a lazy day for me. ;p
Anyways, my former piano teacher is his wife (I'm talking about the sax teacher, not my brother lol) and since she was in charge of the catering I helped serving the hearty Chinese food they were prepping in the kitchen.

It was in a vineyard about an hour's drive up north, with gorgeous views. My blurry photos really don't do it justice...

 

 

 

I had three spring rolls, which were crunchy and delish,

a Chinese pulled-pork sandwich,

and one or two potstickers.

I came home uber stuffed!

WTF - mental breakthrough + major rant ahead

I hate hospitals. If you want to see, smell, and hear people dying, head to the hospital.
And I absolutely despise weigh-ins. Why am I bringing this up? Because I had a regular physical check-up last Thursday. Yeah, I'm what you'd call as healthy as a horse. I also feel like I weigh as much as one.
Inexplicably I have gained weight.You may call this "normal and healthy growth," but to me it is just totally cray-cray. I HAVE GAINED 10 POUNDS. Without growing a single inch!!!
And the even more mind-boggling part is this- my measurements have SHRUNK. Yes, you've heard that right; I gained 10 pounds in a month and my pants are LOOSER.
At first I was devastated. Totally and completely devastated. I had no idea how, although I was eating very clean and probably around 1600 cals a day (which is actually a 500 cal deficit for my age and activity level!!!).  I know for sure that I did not eat over 1600-1700 calories, because although I did not track every calorie closely, I was pretty much living off of broccoli, fruit, and nut butter. No white flour or sugar except for twice a week on cheat days. So how the hell did I gain weight but shrink?!
I pretty much broke out crying in the doctor's office. The doctor was a very nice man, but obviously not sure how to deal with a blubbering teenager. I went to the bathroom like five times to wash my face and make sure my eyes didn't swell too much.
For the past couple days, I had little to no appetite every time I thought of the number on the scale. When I ignore the scale and focus on being healthy, I'm fine. When I'm faced with the disgusting thought of a triple digit number, I feel like puking. For the first time in my life, my BMI is in the 20's! Yet for the first time in my life, I can fit into double 0 jeans. Which is more important? A number which I can easily lie about and probably nobody would even believe if I told them, or keeping my measurements at or under 32-24-33?
I couldn't blog after the weigh-in, because I was ingesting literally only a handful of pine nuts each day, and felt like a hypocrite. I'm supposed to be over this. I'm supposed to suck it up and move on- either lose the weight by starving myself (a healthy calorie deficit doesn't seem to affect my weight, although I can eat loads and not gain; it's weird...) or focus on losing inches and screwing those gross numbers to hell.
Today is the day I will finally choose the latter. The funny thing is that when I look at pictures of asian girls who are the same height/build as me but (now) 10-20 lbs lighter, I look practically the same as them! I am not very muscular and don't build visible muscle easily, so this baffles me. After all, a month isn't enough to gain 10 whole pounds of muscle weight for a girl like me.

But I have officially decided to work on getting my waistline to 60 cm instead of my weight back to a double-digit number.  Clean eating and plenty of pilates will for sure shrink my waistline!

I have chosen a path that is much, much easier and infinitely less painful than starving myself. I WILL stick to it.

Break time

I think I just need a week or two off from posting, just to get my thoughts straight on some recent developments.

Thank you for your patience and support,
TSAC

Words

I was looking through my desk drawers today, and I found a journal I kept last summer. It always feels weird to read my own writing after not looking at it for a while; it's like looking through somebody else's eyes.
The little black book I wrote in 12 months ago, still a bit more than half blank, called out to me like crack to an addict, or Bella's blood to Edward. Anytime I see a blank notebook page, I want, no, need, to write. It's in my blood, a generation of get-out-into-the-world dreams rendered futile by diapers and revolution. It makes me think sacreligiously- what makes my writing so different than Hemingway, Byron, Hugo, Homer? Okay that bit should probably be omitted, as I could probably mentally castrate myself for thinking it. Which makes this scenario practically identical to heresy, yet not due to the fact that I can brandish my priviledge of saying whatever with the impunity of somebody who will never be taken seriously. Like that time a guy handed me a sticker for a Democratic candidate and I pleasantly took him aback by saying 'I'm a Republican.' (BTW my political status is murky at best.) Which must've really surprised him since I could pass for a 10 year old, if 10 year old asian girls had boobs. (ish.)

Easy savory vegetarian tarts (super simple shortening-free pie dough recipe!)

Went fishing on Saturday with some family friends. It was actually pretty fun, and I caught four or five sunnies. We all returned with worm blood cheerfully staining our hands.
We rented a boat, and since it was  potluck-picnic sort of deal, I decided to use the opportunity to overcome the intimidation of pie/tart crust and make some tarts. I made a batch with peach pie filling and a batch with savory vegetarian filling. I didn't get to take a pic of the peach pie tarts before we had to go, so I guess I'll post that recipe another time. You can choose to make little tarts like I did (due to the lack of a pie tin) or make a pie. Either way, the dough is super easy to work with!

(different lighting)

RECIPE:

Tart/pie Dough (from allrecipes.com, makes 12 standard muffin-cup-sized tarts, 1 9-inch pie)
*1 1/4 cups flour
*1/2 cup butter
*1/4 teaspoon salt
*1/4 cup cold water

Savory veggie filling  (from allrecipes.com, fills 24 dough shells, or 1 9-inch pie crust)
*2 tablespoons buter
*1 onion, minced
*1 teaspoon minced garlic
*2 cups chopped fresh broccoli or any vegetables of your choice
*1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
*4 eggs, well beaten
*1 1/2 cups milk
*1 teaspoon salt
*1/2 teaspoon black pepper
*1 teaspoon oregano
*1 tablespoon butter, melted

PREPERATION:

Tart/Pie Dough
1.) In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
2.) Stir in water, a tablespoon at a time, until mixture forms a ball.
3.) Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
4.) Roll dough out to fit a 9 inch pie plate or muffin pan. Place crust in pie plate or each individual tart case. Press the dough evenly into the bottom and sides of the pie plate or tart case.
5.) Put back in fridge until the filling is ready to go

Savory veggie filling
1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2.) Over medium-low heat melt butter in a large saucepan. Add onions, garlic and broccoli. Cook slowly, stirring occasionally until the vegetables are soft. Spoon vegetables into crust and sprinkle with cheese.
3.) Combine eggs and milk. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in melted butter. Pour egg mixture over vegetables and cheese.
4.) Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until center has set.

P.S Anybody have thoughts on how the Olympics are going? Aren't y'all proud of all the Olympians the U.S has, ahem, erected?

Source

WWS

I'm dangerous around avocados. Extremely. Salt + pepper + avocado = must get a spoon now. Guess what we have in abundance at our house right now? My current fave snack. ;P

Just me, the spoon, and the avocado. Perfection.

Here's my WWS...kinda just a take-it-easy mixed dance/cardio week

Not Too Much

I'm still trying to decide if apathy is more comfortable for me than running around like Sarah Palin after hairspray.

Besides piano, working out, and studying for AP classes, I have zip to do right now. Dance team tryouts start in ten days, meaning all I have to do before then is chill out.

I am the type of person who is constantly- and I mean constantly- on the move, looking for something to do, literally jumping up and down with unused energy. But at the same time, I gotta tell ya; high school is somewhat akin to Hell. Somewhere between hell and purgatory, in any case. Besides a gazillion hours of volunteering + extracurriculars, I've got shitloads of schoolwork, homework, workouts, and piano to do. Honestly can't say whether that's better than sitting on my ass watching episodes of the Big Bang Theory.

BTW that show is one of my current obsessions... my fave is Sheldon and possibly Amy. Sheldon feels like a super cuddly toddler you just want to throw out the window every time he opens his mouth. Gotta love ;P



In happy-ish news, I finished my last classroom day of driver's ed yesterday!!! Thank the lord that it is, because I'm hard pressed to find anything duller than sitting through three hours of reciting traffic laws of which a good 20% or so will probably never be seen in real life in America, much less China.
The only bright side to those classes was the Dairy Queen next to the driving school; so far I've tried the heath bar blizzard, and I really want to try the French Silk Pie. Anything with caramel and/or chocolate in it, really. Just give me some sugary refined carbs with melt-in-your-mouth texture and I'm good.