Rested Knees and Dough Kneading

Thursday was a rest day for me and with the evening wide open without a run, I decided to make bread. Inspired by Sagan's post, I thought it was time to face my fears of yeast, kneading, and dough rising. My first attempt last night resulted to rock hard bread due to my carelessness in reading oven settings. :P I was determined though so I found another recipe for kids so that even a first timer like me wouldn't go wrong. List of ingredients was short: flour, yeast, sugar, salt, and water. I actually had fun kneading and bashing the dough. While the dough rested, I was too excited to focus on my book and couldn't wait to see how my first risen dough would turn out. After two hours, I became a believer. I saw it with my own eyes - Dough does rise. Haha. A revelation for a quick bread lover that I am. :P Less than 30 minutes after, I had freshly baked babies.

{Fresh Plaids}

I have a couple questions for the more seasoned baker readers. Kindly fill me in on these things. Thanks! :D
- If a recipe calls to let the dough rest for 2 hours, would it make a difference if I let it rest for an extra couple hours? Will it still be okay to let the dough rest overnight?
- At what point does one add the spices, herbs, nuts, etc. to the dough? How about toppings? I added the sesame seeds just before baking but they didn't stick to the bread very well.

{Sesame Spill}

While this may only be the lazy version of Sarah's breakfast challenge, eating bread that I personally made from scratch put a smile on my breakfast face. Being the balanced person that I'd like to think I am, I had one slice with fig jam and another with whole grain mustard and avocado this morning. One sweet, the other tangy.

Weekend is just around the corner! I've got a long run, a barbeque party, and grocery shopping to look forward to. What do you have in store for the weekend?

Staycation Highlights

{Yuriko Sensei's rare smile was a surprise when I saw this pic.}

Wearing yukata (summer kimono) at amusement/theme parks is normal practice during summer. It was a fun experience when we spent Friday evening in the park to watch fireworks and just hang out. While we had to follow school rules, it sure was a lot more relaxed since we were on staycation. Food was still delicious and I enjoyed helping out at the kitchen. As always, miso soup, tea, and pickled veggies were always served with our meals. Love Love Love Japanese homecooking. :D

The school principal treated us to lunch at an eat-all-you-can yakiniku place. Check out my eats. I started with sushi, asparagus, pineapple, pasta salad, brocolli, and peaches.

{Salad and Sushi}

While the principal grilled beef, I used my grill space for satsuma imo (sweet potatoes), kabocha, and squid steak. I think I amused him when I also threw in some of the peaches and pineapple in the grill. :P

{Lower Half of the Grill: Kabocha, SweetPs, Squid Steak, PApple, Peaches}

Second tray. Grapefruit, orange, onion, and more kabocha. A scoop each of chocolate and matcha ice cream. There were tons of flavors to choose from but I had my heart on these two flavas from the very start. :D A bowl of cold udon on shiso flavored sauce sprinkled with sesame seeds. Last saucer contains a takoyaki, slice of omelette, and nimono (stewed carrots, renkon, and daikon).

{MORE Kabocha, Fruits, Choc&Matcha Ice Cream, Udon, Takoyaki, Omu, Nimono}

We chose half of the pastry selection for sharing. Here are my six bites of sweet heaven: plain cheesecake, strawberry cc, mango cc, chocolate cake, angel cake, and strawberry shortcake. PLUS, edamame! :D

{Cake and Edamame}

Do you think I overindulged? Personally, I think I handled this buffet well. I skipped the fried rice, curries, fried potatoes, fried chicken, yakisoba, spaghetti, salad dressings, and a lot of the high calorie items. While everybody else grilled meat, I was very much satisfied and comfortable grilling my kabocha and onions. My fave pick for this buffet was the chilled asparagus. The last buffet I went to, my fave was wakame salad in ponzu sauce. Haha. :D It must be the heat.

How do you handle buffets? Do you choose your fave dishes or do you like getting a bite of everything? If I had it my way, I wouldn't go to an eat-all-you-can restaurant. For me, the amount of available food choices is just not normal. One needs to exert more restraint compared to when one simply orders what s/he wants from a menu.

Half-Day Eats and Half Marathon Training Question

Since I am currently living alone, I get to eat whatever I want. It is a double edged sword for sure. Nobody's stopping me when I feel like ice cream and chocolates for breakfast. While I have my moments and make less healthy food decisions at times, I'm thankful that I love fruits and vegetables so that it's easy for me to get my fill of 10 various veggies in a day. Yes, I do make a fruits and veggie count and panic a bit when the number drops to 5 veg/2 fruits. :P Do you live alone? If not, do the people you live with share your healthy eating habits?

{Breakfast: Egg, mizuna, shaved carrots, green pepper in gim/Korean nori}

I loved how the warm egg made the nori melty yummy. Blogging snack was a slice of banana bread, frozen banana slices, and frozen grapes. This time, I added kinako (soy bean flour) to the mix for some protein action and topped with black sesame seeds. Wiki says that: "About one-third of the sesame crop imported by the United States from Mexico is purchased by McDonald's for their sesame seed buns (The Nut Factory 1999)". That's a lotta buns! Protein in a sweet slice of bread, winner methinks.

{Snack: A Slice of Kinako Banana Bread}

Check out my watermelon August calendar at the background, love the color contrast. :D I had plans of trying to make Thai Green Curry but the heat is killing me so that will have to wait another day. :s Instead, I deciced to recycle left over carrots, green pepper, and mizuna to make a salad. With thinly sliced cucumber and gluten free rice penne; it made for a quick cool lunch. Haha, lazy me. There's still a big container of that in the fridge so I can have it whenever the tummy grumbles.

{Lunch: Rice Penne with Veg + Raw Tofu}

That was refreshing. I'm gonna have another serving of that later with some slices of avocado for the healthy fats! Whew! I'm only half-way through my eats for the day. I am truly amazed at bloggers who post all their eats every single day! You guys are awesome.

Running Question: Hal Higdon's Half Marathon Plan is 12 weeks but I have 16 weeks to go (not including this week) before the race, how should I go about that? I plan on repeating 4 weeks (ex: W1, W2, W5, W6) depending on how each training week goes. Any suggestions? Super thanks!

Last July Weekend

Unlike the other weekend which was packed and I had to sacrifice sleep, this weekend was more balanced. I like how refreshed I am on a Monday morning after a great weekend. I hope yours was great, too!

Food. My weekend eats were great. I made double serving of curried veggies on Saturday because curry tastes even better the day after methinks. The food spread at Aki and Jo's Saturday Socials consisted of organic tortillas, salsa, chocolate chip banana bread, and gyouza (pot stickers). I love it that Aki is a healthy foodie so we totally clicked! She shared the banana bread recipe she used which is from a young Japanese lady's blog. Looks like I'll be baking me some banana goodness this week. What is your favorite pastry to bake? In my family, I'm the least talented baker but banana bread is something I can manage. :D

{Chocolate Chip Banana Bread}

On Sunday, I heated the leftover curry with cheese before heading out biking and shopping. Dinner was at friends' party where I also had ice cream. While I don't cook with meat now (and have also stopped cooking fish a few weeks ago), I have a bit of meat/fish at social situations. I'd still prefer meatless options but if there's none available, I do eat a bit like that single piece of gyouza at Aki's and spaghetti with meat sauce at the party. Whatever eater you are (raw, vegan, vegetarian, flexitarian, omnivore, etc.), moderation is key. I say, eat healthy. Period. :D

Sleep. I'm not done yet with "The Omnivore's Dilemma" but have started Leo Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina". Cross reading the two very different books is interesting. I'm enjoying reading and it's a great way to make me sleepy when my brain won't just shut down. I got my ideal 7 hours of sleep during the weekend and now feel so much better compared to last Monday. Did you sleep well over the weekend?

Move. Ran 4 miles on Saturday and biked on Sunday. It was my first time running at 3PM and was it hot and humid! :S The heat must have helped because I just wanted to get the run done with quickly. That meant a faster run and therefore faster pace. Score for turning a negative thing to my advantage! Haha. Also, thank you very much for all your encouragement and tips on my first ever 10 miler. It's amazing how much support we receive from people we haven't met in real life, right?

It will be August this coming Saturday! :D Let's rock the last days of July! Have a great week ahead.

Snacking Around The World

Although I don't eat cereals often, the fun packaging got me. So, I sampled cereals from Lithuania! Their website states: "In exhibition World Food Ukraine in Kiev, our best products Cinamoni and Nuttys won Grand Prix and Golden Medal in tasting contest." Looks like the ones available at my favorite imported grocery shop are winners! I like how the cereals were not overly sweet. Yum. What's your fave cereal?

{Cinamoni&Nuttys}

Next up, caramelized biscuits from Belgium. These were perfect match with tea as I read on a rainy afternoon. A bit dry and crumbly, I did not mind dunking them in the tea.

{Speculoos Lotus}

Where do your bananas come from? The ones here are from the Philippines. Ever since reading about Gena's Banana Soft Serve last month, I've been making and having some. I had it plain, with cinnamon, and with dark chocolate. It's simply the best. Today, I had some topped with black sesame. The toasty seeds gave the creamy bananas a bit of crunch action, not that it needed that.

{Kitty Jiggles in Approval!}

While it is best to purchase local, I am guilty of buying imported food. My reason could be as silly as cute packaging, or the excitement of trying something foreign, or that there simply are no bananas in Japan. Do you buy at imported food shops? It's like taking a foodie trip around the world, right?

Weekend Wii + Wee Bit of Sleep

I'm suffering from the Manic Monday Syndrome right now. I can't wait for the workday to end so I could nap, try a new eggplant dish, and go for an evening walk, then SLEEP. My weekend in bullets:

. Found some great produce Saturday morning.
. Made new friends and bonded over Wii, faith, books, and good conversation. This might become a Saturday Evening Socials kind of thing. They even created my own Mii! :P
. Nibbled on freshly baked brownies and okra tempura at said socials. Would love to try making the tempura with my okra but the heat is killing me.
. Ruined my optimal sleep streak by Wii-ing way past midnight. It was my first time playing it. I'm so behind, I know. :s Although it was fun, I'd still prefer real exercise any day of the week. You a Wii fan?
. Slept over at Rea's but couldn't really fall asleep. Hate it when that happens. Before I knew it, the sun was up and we had to go out for the scheduled run.
. Completed the entire lake loop on Sunday morning. Even if Rea opted to bike instead, I still pushed for a run.
. Learned about how a friend's eating habits are significantly different from mine. It's not a matter of who's right or wrong. As I don't like being judged for what I eat, I accept that what works for me doesn't necessarily work for others.
. Biked around to parts of the city I've never been to. Spent the rest of Sunday at the mall where I drank good coffee and snacked endlessly. Checked out running gear and bought some fun and soon to be tested snackies. :P
. Got rained on my ride back home but it did not bother me. It was a refreshing break from the heat.

That's it. It was a fun Wiikend and my only regret is not sleeping early last night. Now, I certainly feel like crashing. Must not underestimate the power of rest again!

{Hope this relaxing image helps me last the day. :P}

Here's to a great weekend! Unlike me, I hope you balanced all the fun with enough rest in preparation for the new week.

Normal Eating

Quick post today. I just read this blog post and came across a great definition (at least for me) of Normal Eating. It is uncomplicated and complete methinks.

"Normal eating is being able to eat when you are hungry and continue eating until you are satisfied. It is being able to choose food you like and eat it and truly get enough of it - not just stop eating because you think you should. Normal eating is being able to use some moderate constraint on your food selection to get the right food, but not being so restrictive that you miss out on pleasurable foods. Normal eating is giving yourself permission to eat sometimes because you are happy, sad or bored, or just because it feels good. Normal eating is three meals a day, most of the time, but it can also be choosing to munch along.

{It is leaving some cookies on the plate because you know you can have some again tomorrow,}

{or it is eating more now because they taste so wonderful when they are fresh.}

Normal eating is trusting your body to make up for your mistakes in eating. It is overeating at times; feeling stuffed and uncomfortable. It is also undereating at times and wishing you had more. Normal eating takes up some of your time and attention, but keeps its place as only one important area of your life.

In short, normal eating is flexible and moderate. It varies in response to your emotions, your schedule, your hunger and your proximity to food."

-Ellyn Satter, 1987

I probably looked crazy nodding my head at every sentence. It also sounds forgiving and friendly. What do you think?