Category Archives: sushi

by | June 26, 2010 · 8:47 am

In Love with a Russian… Stout!

     FRIDAY! What a wonderful word! I’m sitting on the couch listening to one of my favorite bands, Mumford & Sons and typing while a cool breeze rolls in through the windows and candles flicker on the counter. It is possibly my favorite way to spend the evenings – I’m such a homebody!

     I set my alarm for 7am today and woke up to my lovely Owl City tone (a GREAT way to wake up!). I rolled out of bed, brewed a cup of coffee and rudely awakened my roommates with the blender.

I NEED my GMs in the morning, especially on a work day! This had 3 cups of spinach, 1/2 a cup of unsweetened soymilk, 1/4 a cup of frozen berries, 1/2 a frozen banana and LOTS of lemon juice – the spinach was on its last day and needed the lemon to make it drinkable :P.
     The spinach has almost turned, so I don’t think I’ll be Monsta-ing tomorrey… I don’t know what I’ll do! Maybe I’ll try Vegan Overnight Oats again? I’m not sure, I’m pretty scared after last time!
     After a thrilling rally at work to get company moral up (give me a break, seriously! I could have still been in bed during this!), I opened all my registers and was berated by my stomach for not feeding it often enough. I grabbed a coupon and headed to Subway for a cheap Sunrise Melt.
This was an english muffin with an egg, turkey, black forest ham and goat cheese, toasted. It was edible, but I much prefer a scramble with lots of veggies!
     I got a lot done at work! Very, very productive, if I do say so myself.
I made these cool little paper ladders and read about 100 pages of “Insatiable” by Meg Cabot over the course of the day.
     I was craving unhealthy things at lunch, but restrained myself and instead had some sushi.
A mini-spicy tuna roll with brown rice.
     After lunch I took to my couch and read even more of my book, and also found some time (and room in my stomach) to fit in Paciugo.
I had a child size of soy chocolate and strawberry-balsamic sorbet. If you think strawberries and balsamic vinegar sounds like a bad combo, you need to try this right away!!! It will change your life – it’s that good!
     I stopped to pick up ice after work because my roommate had called to let me know that she found Magners Cider locally!!
This was the beginning to my Friday night. Notice the cool new Pumpkin Ale glass – a gift from my wonderful mom! You’re jealous, I know.
     For dinner, my roommates and I ordered Pizza Hut. Personally, I think some Fridays just beg for junk food and brews.
I got a personal pan with double pineapple and green bell peppers. There’s green on it, therefore it is healthy. I ate half of this. 
And then I ate the other half…
     Yesterday I decided that instead of drinking my standards in beer – Fat Tire, Franziskaner, Spaten Optimator, etc., I would start purchasing different beers that were well-rated in my beer book, review them and learn even more about the brewing process via tastings.
    Tonight, I got to break open the first of the fancy beers I picked up yesterday – Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout.
WOW! This beer is incredible! It’s similar to 1554 by New Belgium, but a lot richer and thicker. This had a dark coffee aroma, sweet, but not overbearingly so, and a very light bitter aftertaste. I normally don’t enjoy any bitterness in my beer, but this was very well balanced! The aroma and taste became a little more bitter over time as the beer came up to room temperature. 
I’m in love!
     After sipping this beer for over an hour, I feel like someone wrapped a warm blanket around me and covered my eyes with fluffy pomeranians.
Who wouldn’t like that? Awww, my baby Buddha!
     I am ridiculously content now after a single bottle of that beer (it is 9% alcohol though, so drinkers of legal age, beware!), and am now ready to retire to my book while listening to some relaxing music. There is no other way I’d want to spend this night. How do you typically spend your weekends?
Happy Friday to you all! Relax, breathe and LIVE!

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Filed under Buddha, Friday, green monster, homebody, Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout, pomeranian, sushi

by | June 13, 2010 · 9:35 am

A Morning of Firsts, and Lasts

     I didn’t mean to… I swear I didn’t! Last night, I promised you all that I’d eat two ice cream bars, but I failed. I only ate one. I guess it’s a good thing that one satisfied me, but after my promises of not lying to you anymore, I felt guilty. Just had to let you all know the truth.

     Bad news: I ran out of spinach. There was no GM for me this morning. Instead, I decided to try the overnight oats that I’ve read so much about. I used the vegan version from Oh She Glows. Luckily, I had picked up some chia seeds at Sprouts before the farmers’ market on Thursday, so I was able to throw all the ingredients into a bowl. It looked a little scary…

     
     When I woke up in the morning, it looked even scarier.
     Then I stirred in a tablespoon of flaxseed peanut butter and a drizzle of maple syrup and it looked like it was going to crawl out of the bowl and beat me up.
     I’ll say this nicely – I’m NOT a fan. Cold oatmeal and I just do not mesh. It was chilly and slimy, and after every bite, I took a sip of coffee like a chaser to get rid of the shivers it brought on. Maybe if I ever get the guts (ewww, that’s what it reminds me of) to make it again I’ll reheat it and try it warm. Have you ever heated up overnight oats? Did it make them inedible or better?

     When I got to work, I diligently focused on my responsibilities.
     That’s one of the pages of The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud. The only copy that was available in my library was a large print. When I want to read something badly enough, I’ll settle for this, but large print takes some getting used to! Personally, I find it harder to read than regular.
     I also got to hang out with some of the boys.
     They hang out with me when I have a snack break and guard my purse from the delinquents who may try to steal it. They’re chill.
     My annoying stomach started going off an hour into work, even though I’d had massive amounts of cold, clammy protein in the oats and peanut butter, so I swung by See’s Candies to get a sample. The workers at See’s know me. They know me well. I paid for two pieces, and this is what they gave me:
     I ask for two, I come out with five. I hate those workers so much…and yet I adore them! Double caramel FTW!
     For lunch I had a mini spicy tuna roll with brown rice and sriracha soy sauce, yet again. I met up with my friend Brittany and we sat outside in the beautiful sunshine, enjoyed the fresh air and dreamed about what we could be doing if we had money and weren’t trapped doing retail. Girls gotta dream 🙂
     I bailed on work early. I just couldn’t take anymore standing around and reading, plus I had to pick up the roommate from the train station. I got home, sat in a comfy chair, tweeted about how I never wanted to get out of it, then finally got up and made myself a mini-KSS.
     This baby had lettuce, warmed lentils, half a bell pepper, half a container of Spicy Ranchero Egg White Salad, a sliced and sauteed zucchini all tossed with about 2 teaspoons of homemade dressing. I feasted. I smiled.
     I headed on down to the train station, picked up the adored roomie and came back to catch up over a Franziskaner (for me) and a glass of wine (for her). Then I realized I needed to write my blog before I fell asleep in the aforementioned cozy chair, so I opened up a coconut milk ice cream bar, and here we are.
     Tomorrow begins a week of housesitting, so my blogs may be slightly sporadic because I don’t get internet connection over there – BOOOOO! I hope you all enjoy your Saturday nights, and aren’t as lame as I’m about to be – passing out in said chair before dragging myself to bed.
Bon Nuit!

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Filed under books, Chocolate, coffee, Franziskaner, kitchen sink salad, overnight oats, reading, See's Candies, sushi, The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud, vegan, work

by | June 8, 2010 · 6:58 am

Monday Blahs

You can kind of see the etching on the glass – these were party favors from my bro’s wedding 🙂 He and my new sister-in-law are big homebrewers!
The day crawled by. Around noon I started getting hungry, and being possibly, officially lactose intolerant, I whipped out the goat’s milk yogurt that I’ve read about. How can I describe this to you? It tasted like liquid goat cheese, and when you pull the spoon out, little strands hang down, back into the cup. EW. I ate about a quarter of it before I just couldn’t take anymore.
Those are stale cinnamon Puffins on top. Sigh.
I had to get that awful taste out of my mouth, so I went on lunch and got the usual: a mini spicy tuna roll with brown rice.

Sorry for the lame picture. I really did look crazy taking this, so I was trying to be discreet. Massive Fail.
After four more hours of counting the minutes, I got to come home and throw on some sweats, wash my face and eat a big KSS with the last slice of pizza and… you guessed it: a Fat Tire. This KSS had roasted zucchini, asparagus, chopped red bell pepper, Spicy Ranchero Egg White Salad, warmed lentils and fresh herbs that came in the salad bag.

Sorry for the short post. I have the next few days off, so I’ll be getting on the trails, back on my bike and taking more pictures! Happy…? Monday…..

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Filed under brown rice, Fat Tire, grind, kitchen sink salad, Monday, sushi, work

by | June 5, 2010 · 8:24 am

GREEN MONSTER!!!

I promised you that I’d finally have something other than a breakfast scramble for breakfast, so I give you…THE GREEN MONSTER!!!!
I used a recipe I got off of http://greenmonstermovement.com/. I chose the “fool proof” recipe for my first time. I’ll try anything once, but I’ll admit, I was nervous to try this baby. I had to go through with it though, because yesterday’s trip to Costco landed me a 2.5lb bag of fresh spinach! Check out what it looks like next to my gigantic blender!

And yes, that is my blender peeking out behind the gi-normous bag! Can’t believe that bag was only $3.99! YAY COSTCO!!!


Lucky for me, I had leftover flax meal from my homemade bread, and a bunch of fresh bananas, so it started like this:
It met its original end-point at this:
But, after the first sip, it was just too bland, so it went back into the blender with a handful of fresh blueberries, and came out as this:
After being passed around between the roommates, the general consensus was that it was STILL TOO BLAND! Still, for the first attempt, this was completely acceptable and drinkable, as this picture seems to show:
I think tomorrow morning I’ll throw in an Emergen-C or two for some extra tang. It was definitely missing something – maybe lemon or lime zest or something similar. I think I’ll also chuck in another cup or two of spinach. I might as well go big or go home :).

After chugging that gigantic, filling MONSTER, I headed off to work. I had an early shift and didn’t plan enough time to eat breakfast as well as drink the GM, plus I didn’t know if the GM was meant to be a replacement for breakfast or had in addition – it’s meant to be had in addition, as I found out :-/.

About half an hour after clocking in, I felt the insistent groan of my raging stomach, so I ran to Subway to try one of their healthy new breakfast sandwiches. I brought along a coupon – (YAY coupons and saving money!) and lucky me, got the new girl. She ended up making me a sandwich with 3 pieces of spinach, a layer of turkey and ham, and a wheat bun that was toasted. At the end of the line, a very confused me handed over my coupon and they tried to charge me $4 for the piece of crap she’d put together! They finally realized their mistake – a breakfast sandwich includes egg and is on an english muffin – and gave me the sub for a buck. I’m still a bit pissed though… definitely didn’t want a hunk of hot bread with meat and wilted spinach :-/. I was going to take a picture, but it was just TOO pitiful!

Lunch turned around though! I went to the sushi place and got a mini spicy tuna roll with brown rice, sriracha with a little soy sauce and two huge cups of ice water. I’m working on increasing my H2O intake!
I ran into a friend I used to work with, enter Duck-Duck (my friend from high school), and had a “catch-up” lunch. After parting with Duck-Duck, I had just enough time to go to my usual cushy post-lunch couch and read a few chapters of my current book – Julie and Julia. I just want to point out, this book is a total bummer! I saw the movie a few months ago and thought it was very cute, but this book is just depressing! I’ve never read a book whose author had such a bad attitude! Sheesh! I needed a See’s candy to pick me up, so I got me a Tipperary bon-bon, and split an apple pie truffle with my mum who stopped by :).

FINALLY I got home and was treated by my roommates to a wonderful dinner of seared tilapia and steamed green beans tossed with garlic oil:
You must remember though, it is Friday night, so it was followed by this:
That Fat Tire is most definitely mine! As was the following one… :). I also have been looking into the Tour de Fat – October 23rd in Los Angeles! Anyone want to go? Please let me know!

After the sunset, I retreated back inside and finally got to try some So Delicious ice cream. I’ve been wanting to try the coconut milk So Delicious, but didn’t have the desire or ability to drive all the way to Sprouts, so I settled for this:
I gotta say, ice cream really needs a nice piece of cake to compliment it. Pepperidge Farm’s chocolate layer cake was actually SCREAMING at me to eat it! I had to obey!!!
There really is no better way to end a Friday night. I’m a total homebody, and while going out and getting trashed just isn’t my cup-o-tea, I’m all for a few beers, some cake and ice cream and some good conversation. Nothing better 🙂

Happy Friday and g’night all!

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Filed under beer, cake, Fat Tire, flax, green monster, love, New Belgium, Pepperidge Farm, roommates, so delicious, soy, spinach, sushi