Sweets & Treats

February = chocolates and sweets. Its implied with Valentine's Day. And after getting rice balls from my oh so cool Japanese friend for lunches, I decided that I should treat her and my friends to something sweet :)

Since Valentine's Day was on a Sunday this year, I brought my desserts on Friday. My first concoction was a chocolate loaf cake (looked like meatloaf at first) but don't worry! It tasted good...I think? Haha, anways, I topped it off with the Toaster Strudel glaze packets (all six) and ten marshmallows.

Would you eat me...?

Since the loaf was still warm, the frozen icing turned into glaze and made great "glue" for the marshmallows. The chocolate chips melted right on cue as well :3

After that, I made chocolate chip cookies. The lighting of the picture isn've very good cause of my stove light ><

My crispy chocolate chip cookies...gooey in the center

I took both these treats to school and got excellent reviews for both. Twas a sweet Valentine's Day :)

That same day, we received a treat from our neighbor: an armful of bread! No kiddin'! We got three loafs of Cascade Pride bread and some onion bagels. So nice of them :)

BREAD :D

Cheese Tamale Pizza, Green Tea Gelato, and Other Peculiar Things

January was a cold month. I found myself amidst rain showers and very bored. When my friend came over for the weekend, I was asked to make something to sate her hunger. The solution? A cheese tamale pizza! But, not quite :)

Cheese Tamale Pizza?!

Taking an unopened package of Tandoori Naan, I used a piece as my "pizza crust". I then scavenged the freezer to see what food items we had not touched in awhile. To my surprise [not really], I found an unopened bag of two cheese tamales. Looking at the nutrition info, I quickly decided to use only ONE (uh, 15 grams of fat in one tamale is good enough...).

I microwaved the tamale till it was warm enough and cut it up into random pieces to give it that "chicken" look. I lathered the "crust" with tomato paste before I added the tamale. I added parmesan cheese as a garnish.

Cutting at the "Pizza"

Before serving, I cut the "pizza" into two so that the serving and calories would balance out for one person per slice [also cause it was pretty hefty]. Cutting it was pretty hard, but the taste made up for it. Not sure if I'd make it again though :/

Friends Eating "Pizza"

If there is ONE thing I learned, it is this: Naan makes good pizza crust.

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On the second to last day in January, I visited my cousin once again in Berkeley. We went out to eat ETHIOPIAN. It was my third time eating the cusine and I STILL forgot to take pictures D:
The place was pretty good though and low cal. I MUST remember to take pictures next time D;

But I was able to take a picture of my Machi Green Tea Gelato from Ciao Bella.

Creamy Green Tea :)

Doesn't it look delicious? The green tea wasn't overpowering at all. You could tell it was in there but the flavor was mild enough to enjoy the creaminess of the gelato. <3

Now, onto the chocolates and candies of February *cough* V-DAY *cough*