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*

Japanese Treats - December

December was a bittersweet month. I'll focus more on the sweet part in this post :)
It literally was a sweet month. My local Asian market reopened and I was so happy! Nothing really changed except they added a seating area by the bakery.

In celebration, I bought some chocoboy cookies, strawberry pocky, and some honey stix chips (which I will not be posting pictures of cause they were...gross). The chocoboy cookies I bought were the "generic" brand compared to the japanese ones (Meiji - Kinoko No Yama) that may look more familiar:

I bet mine probably tasted the same but some people like eating the real thing I suppose. I just wanted to try it :/

The "Generic" Kinoki No Yama Cookie

The cookie itself looked like a lop-sided mushroom but it did not detract from the taste, The chocolate and shortbread-like cookie complemented each other perfectly.

^ Cookie Tasted Good :)

Now, onto the strawberry pocky! I've had strawberry pocky before but I couldn't resist the halloween box! It was just too adorable:

BOOOOOO!

I split the box with mu sister, after all, Pocky is meant for sharing. And the great thing about Pocky is that it makes you feel like you're sophisticated :)

My Share

My final treat this December was from a darling friend of mine whose Japanese. She gave me a candy called Chelsea by Meiji. She gave me the Yogurt Scotch flavor and my sister the Butter Scotch flavor. At first, I was like Scotch? There is alcohol in this thing?! But I later realized it was a play on words :)

Meiji Chelsea Yogurt Scotch

The box slides out and the candy is neatly stacked inside. They're about 20 calories a piece, no fat. And they taste like any other hard candy that is meant to melt in your mouth. I do prefer the Butter Scotch flavor over the Yogurt Scotch though because I feel the Butter Scotch one has a more sweeter taste. Did I mention the wrappers? They're gorgeous...

Slides Out...there is even a message inside :o

A Very Belated Thanksgiving Post

Yes, it is Christmas and I have not posted anything about Thanksgiving! I am so behind! But, never late than never.

Anyways, Thanksgiving this year was delicious, nutritious, and perfect even without turkey. Who says you need to have turkey anyway? This year, we treated ourselves to garlic mashed potatoes, wild rice stuffing, rosemary potatoes, caramelized sweet potatoes, deviled eggs, lettuce wraps with yves ground soy and marinara sauce, cranberry sauce, pumpkin cake cupcakes, and a fruit dessert made from filo.

A Shot of the Meal!

My serving started out standard...but I gave into seconds...and thirds.

This is my plate. I went for the good stuff.

But how could I resist the rest? I remember literally sitting over the fruit dessert and eating the leftovers...everything just tastes better on Thanksgiving :)

Lettuce Wraps w/ Yves Ground Soy and Marinara

Pumpkin Cupcakes...105 calories each!

The Fruit-Filled dessert I DIDN'T eat :P

Beard Papa's - Telegraph Ave. - Berkeley

After passing this place in September this year, I laughed at the name. Beard Papa's? What's that? I later found myself staring at the computer bored a week later and found that they sold the most mouth-watering cream puffs, ever (at least from what the pictures showed). Next time I went to Berkeley, I had to go.

We encountered the Berkeley store in late October. The walls were a bold yellow and quite small. What else could you expect? It is after all a specialty store. They only need to much room for cream puffs.

Pumpkin Filling!

Since it was October, I was delighted to try their seasonal flavor of PUMPKIN! Yeah! The crust was soft and chewy but the cream filling on the inside tasted just like pumpkin filling. Like a pie with crust all over...it was decadent. I was surprised I didn't gobble it up in three bites since it was pretty small. But, on the caloric side, it was only around 240? Not bad, not bad at all.

Did I forget to mention the powdered sugar?!?

Food Explorer in Los Angeles: Pick Up Stix

Pick Up Stix; Chinese Wok'd Fresh

I'd like to begin with my road trip to LA this past week. Spent with my dad, sister, and best friend Christina, we had fun at Magic Mountain and at Americana at Brand but the food was awesome [and calorific] as well. :]

Entrance to Pick Up Stix

Our foodie-rific journey started at the Pick Up Stix near Valencia. Closing all their Northern California locations was a huge bummer so finally eating at this place was pure delight. I used to always order the Orange Chicken and occasionally the Kung Pao Chicken [substitute with tofu].

Orange "Chicken"

Kung Pao "Chicken"

Christina ordered a spring chicken salad and my dad ordered some noodles and this spicy lettuce wrap whose tofu filling tasted like garlic pizza. Yum?

Ad for Pick Up Stix Spring Salads

We attacked all the foods together. I mostly ate the Kung Pao Tofu and had some pieces of Orange Tofu and brown rice. I also took a few dabs at the "garlic pizza tasting tofu". So delicious, but the only thing that made it not so appetizing were the calories D:

But us girls got rid of at least some of the calories in the fitness room back at the hotel ;)