11/10/13 Grocery Shopping Haul

I was exhausted on Sunday after grocery shopping. My mom and I went to 4 different markets to buy different things. For those of you who get familiar with grocery shopping, you will realize that it's hard to find a store that has everything you need. Some might have good meat produce, but not vegetables and fruits. Some markets have a better price on an item than the other. I realized this since I started doing grocery shopping last year with my brother (well, my brother is the driver whileI do most of the grocery shopping LOL). Going to multiple stores is indeed time-consuming and tiring. But the reward is sometimes you get some surprises. It was worth spending the entire afternoon on Sunday because I got some great deals on some items. YAYYYY! :D

Here's my shopping list on 11/10/13:

1. Trader Joe's

-organic raisins

-organic cage-free, vegetarian fed eggs
-avacado
-organic herb mixed salad
-organic greens mixed salad
-organic 2% low-fat milk
-organic soy milk, sweetened
-tomatoes
-Trader Joe's Italian vegetarian sausage
-organic free-range, vegetarian fed chicken breast tender *$8.99/lbs.
-lady fingers

2. Whole Foods
-organic vegan yogurt
-fresh baked bagels (3)
-Mia's kitchen organic Vodka sauce
-unsweetened almond milk
-vanilla almond milk
-organic whole wheat bread
-organic fresh cabbage

3. Ranch 99 (Mountain View, CA store for me)

-bean sprouts x1
-Chilean fresh seabass x2 *$14.99/lb. (I bought two that are about $10 each)
-black tiger shrimp, peeled and deveined *$9.99/lb.
-rice vermicelli x1
-green onion
-cake flour
-firm tofu x1
-persimmon *$0.79/lb.
^I LOVE PERSIMMON. I think I bought approximately 30 of them xD

4. Costco
-Levi's Lady's Jean Jacket *$14.99 The greatest deal I've got so far!! LOL
-Pajamas *$16.99/set
-Salmon with pesto butter

[Meal Planning] Week of 11/11/13-11/17/13

I know this is one day late, but later better than never! I thought it'll be cool to write down meals I'm planning to make for this week. I will include the prices of each meal (with calculation) just to show how home cooking is always better and cheaper than dining out. In addition, I will include the approximate time it takes to make the meal and cleaning up as well. Recipes will be following up soon! 

Monday: Chinese dishes - 家常小菜 homely dishes
-steamed seabass
(insert picture)

-Stir-fried shrimp with scrambled eggs (蝦仁炒蛋)

*I think this dish is also called "scrambled eggs with shrimps"

perfect dish to go with rice. it's easy, simple, quick, fresh, and homely.

-Stir-fried bean sprouts with garlic

-pan-fried tofu

-dessert: Chiffon cake

-fruits: persimmon

Tuesday: Chinese dishes!

-steamed seabass <--seabass is sooooo good that I can eat it all day everyday. CAN'T RESIST.

-Tomatoes scrambled eggs

-Stir-fried bean sprouts with garlic

-Stir-fry prawns with onions
-leftovers from yesterday (Stir-fried shrimp with scrambled eggs and a few slices of tofu)

Wednesday:

-Baked salmon with pesto butter

-salad with raspberry vinaigrette, raisins, walnuts, and avacado (home-grown!)

-fruits: grapes, persimmon
-dessert: [HK dim sum dessert] strawberry pancake

Thursday:
-Simple hometown fried rice vercimelli (or rice noodle) 家鄉炒米粉

• cabbage
• ham <--no nitrite, black forest ham
• egg
• onion

-fruits: persimmon

Friday:
-Peanut congee (aka. rice porridge)
-steamed chicken thin slices with

Saturday:
-MyPlate!

• salmon with pesto butter, baked and then broiled
• side salad
• fruits: strawberries and persimmon

Sunday:
options for lunch:
-[organic&fresh] crispy chicken with spaghetti in Vodka sauce
-hometown fried rice vercimelli

dinner:
-rice
-steamed seabass
-leftover from friday
-

My Favorite Chefs! Super Inspirational In Cooking!

As I mentioned before, I am a self-taught cook. I started cooking three years ago, and I have always looked on a few amazing chefs/people who are great at cooking. Simplicity best fits my situation because I am a high school student in a academic rigorous school. I don't have the time to cook some world class dishes in my tiny kitchen. I have only got an hour everyday to cook and wash dishes. Therefore, I am really looking at the people who can provide quick and easy recipes. If the recipe is not quite healthy, I make my own substitution to make it healthy but still being tasty.

1. The first chef who inspires me to cook is Christine's Recipes by Christine Ho. She, a home cook, presents her recipes in an easy way. I remembered I found her recipe because I wanted to bake something. Since then, I started looking at her other Chinese/Cantonese recipes because I really miss my home food. She also inspires me to eat healthy by using healthy ingredients in her recipes. Without her, this blog would not exist. She inspires me to start blogging about my passion to food, and she's sincerely nice and just a great cook to learn from. Especially for beginners.

http://www.christinesrecipes.com/

2. This person have the greatest impact on my belief and vision to food. He inspired me to think beyond the taste, to a level where I started to care about health. He raised my awareness to the health issues involving food in America. He changed the way I view chips, sodas, snacks (JUNK FOOD!). Most importantly, he changed the way I cook and the way I select food to eat. Yes, he is Jamie Oliver. One of the greatest chef on the planet, and one of the most amazing human beings I've ever known. The way he cooks have inspired many kids in the world. He encourages people to use organic (home-grown!) ingredients, as well as cooking healthily. He not only made me discovered how important health is, but also inspired me to make an impact in the community with my power. I hope that I can be part of his food revolution in the future, helping with school lunch meals, educating them about food so they can make good decisions for themselves, and ultimately aiming for a healthy next generation. He gave me the dream that I would never thought of when I was in HK. He gave me goals that I can aim on while practicing my passion (cooking). My admiration to him can't be described through words, but I just want to say "THANK YOU" to you, Mr. Oliver. Learning from you has been a great experience and I'll keep working hard to achieve our common goals. Thank you for your time and effort. Thank you for all the things you have done so far in order to raise awareness about food. Thank you for being so inspirational to me. Thank you. "Cook it. Share it. Live it"

http://www.jamieoliver.com/

http://www.jamieoliver.com/us/foundation/jamies-food-revolution/home

3. Laura Vitale (LauraInTheKitchen)
If you ask me what I do I watch, I'll tell you that I have had a record of watching a cooking show (that's right, cooking show) for 4 consecutive hours. To be exact, I watched 4 hours of LauraInTheKitchen, and never got bored with it. Laura has an extraordinary personality. She presents her show in a fun and entertain way. She is cute, funny, lovely, nice, and using a word to sum up, awesome. Her recipes are a great start for a beginner because they are all super easy (and relatively quick too!) to make. I bet they are all fool-proved. She can easily bring a person into cooking as well as baking since her recipes have a successful rate of 95% (with 5% of ingredients, accident, and human errors), it really makes people who are not good at cooking/never been into the kitchen before proud. Laura specifies in Italian and American cooking, as well as all kinds of baking. She's a great chef and I've learned so much Italian+american cooking from her. She also has some wonderful baking recipes which are simple and delicious. I definitely encourage you to check out her website and youtube channel to begin your cooking journey! You won't regret knowing her, I promise.

http://www.laurainthekitchen.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/LauraVitalesKitchen

4. 飞雪无霜的美食博客

http://blog.sina.com.cn/jsjhlzm002

[Important] Promise's Words of Wisdom

Food,
is not just to fulfill our hunger and appetite;
it needs to be healthy and tasty, and no matter what happens, it HAS to be healthy and tasty in all circumstances.
doesn't need to be too fancy. Simplicity builds the important flavors.
must be affordable for ALL.
should be easy and quick to cook @ home.
can be made by everyone,
even if you're one of the people who never touches the kitchen, and
if you do, you might be the cause for an accident.
connects the people around you;
all the differences in society and in people disappear because of food
"talk food @ the table" = "the start of a friendly relationship"
gives you energy; not just physically, but also mentally.
makes people happy! 
represents your love and care to others, especially to the ones you care and love the most.
LOVE IS FOR SHARING!!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is a teenage girl's experience and beliefs toward food. She has found herself enjoy making food for all the people around her. Believe it or not, the ability to cook is like having a magical power to make people's days shine, and put a smile on their faces.
You realize that the time and effort you put in don't matter once you see your beloved ones are enjoying your food, and that gives you the feeling of joy and blessing.
The Power of Food = Love, Happiness, Joy, and Motivation, then all wrapped into A Sweet Promise.

More importantly, I care about my personal and my family's health. We are trying to switch to a healthier diet while still being able to enjoy some delicious food. We realized that health should come in the top priority, because without a healthy body, no matter how much money or power you acquire, you are just stuck in the hospital and receive treatments. One of the key success to a healthy diet is cooking at home. Home cooking not only saves tons of money (trust me, I'll show you the calculations in the recipes), but you know what you're eating into your body. You can use olive oil instead of vegetable oil like what most restaurants use. You can go organic and still be way under budget.
One of the major reasons why I created this blog is because I care about the health issues related to food happening in the U.S. The numbers for obesity and diabetes are extremely high and the government is spending tons of money in health care every year. The cause is simple. It's because people don't have a good and healthy diet, and they are always exposed to unhealthy food.

In my blog, I'll be addressing recipes that are healthy, nutrition balanced, fast, and easy. In nowadays, people really don't have the time to make a two, three hour meal (including preping) for their families, and so am I. I never spend more than an hour (this includes cleaning too) in the kitchen preparing dinner for my family, and I have figured out ways to do so. If you are interested, follow me and let's "share love, spread health, and make impact". 

Sincerely,
Promise.

[Life] Post-PSAT thoughts and treats!

Yayy PSAT IS OVER! :D Overall, I think I could have done much better if I studied. But I know I did the best that I could do, so I'm pretty happy about it. One thing to note is that don't answer the questions you don't know, because if you guess it wrong, you lose 1/4 a point. Leaving it blank (omit the question) is better than losing points. Also, because it is Preliminary SAT, there's no writing portion. The writing section is all multiple choice. I didn't run out of time in any of the sections, but that was because I immediately skipped the questions that I don't have a clue on. A lot of people worried about not doing well on the PSAT will reduce your chance of getting into a good college, but really, colleges look at your GPA and official SAT/ACT scores first. Then they look into your extra-curricular and letter of recs and other stuff. Qualifying for the scholarship just gives you another achievement, but it's definitely not dictating whether you will get accepted into a good college or not. So just relax and chill like me! 

I never treat myself bad. I always try to enjoy every moment I have in life. So, I made myself some treats after the PSAT! The afternoon is my time to relax, even though I have Spanish quiz on past tenses (which I still don't remember the conjugation for all of the irregular verbs). I am making brownies and banana chocolate chip cake. I'll probably eat a piece and give them away to my parents and friends just cause I can't take too much sugar since I already have 6 cavities T^T. But eating 1-2 pieces of homemade goodies is good enough for me to relax and just have fun in the afternoon with baking. I hope my house will be filled with butter, eggs, chocolate, and banana smell :P

p.s. I apologize if my grammar or any word or phrase or sentence doesn't make sense to you. I am brain-dead now and all I just to do is take a nap then eat food XD (yeah, I'm pretty lazy sometimes)

[Life] PSAT+ACT

Aghhh I really hope I don't need to be worried about these standardized tests. I have tons of pictures in my phone, but it's so sad that schools and other things in life always get along the way. As a junior, I have to get good scores in the standardized tests in order to be able to get into a good college with a scholarship given to me. Tomorrow, Oct 16th, is the national testing day for PSAT. I wish I could upload my photos and designs for my blog onto the computer, but unfortunately I just don't have time to do it now. In addition, I also need to study for the ACT test coming up next Saturday, Oct 26. 

Luckily, I get to take a break this Friday because it is staff development day~ So, I MUST upload my photos for the red bean shaved ice drink recipe and update my blog. :)
I have to apologize for the constant delay and failed to upload my blog. I am still trying to figure things out and make my daily schedule work. I am also learning to become more efficient.

Anyway, I am super tired right now because I slept late yesterday night, and I am gonna go to get ready for bed now. GOOD LUCK AND ADD OIL TO EVERYONE WHO'S TAKING THE PSAT TOMORROW! 
There's NOTHING to worry about if you didn't do well on standardized tests. Just work hard and do your best. To me, God will have something ready for you. He has prepared for whatever we need. All we need to do is work hard and try the best we could. The rest is already determined by our father in heaven who sincerely love us for who we are. <3

[HK Drink] Red Bean Shaved Ice 红豆冰

The famous Hong Kong drink, Red Bean Shaved Ice (红豆冰 hong dou bing), not only is popular in Asia, but it used to be my favorite drink in the summer when I was still in Hong Kong. Seriously, nothing can beat a cup of ice cold sweet drink in a hot and humid summer day. You can even add a scoop of vanilla ice cream to make it even more guilty and tempting, but it is always worth it. :P

I know this is a perfect drink for the summer, especially party time, but it is pretty heavy-duty (high calories), so I'd recommend having it once or twice in a while. I made this drink yesterday for my friend's surprise party. But before that, I made it 4 months ago in June I believe. The best thing about this drink is that you only need 3 ingredients to make, and it will only take you 10 minutes including cleaning up. How can you resist on that?

Let me introduce you to this SUPER QUICK AND EASY recipe.

[HK Drink] Red Bean Shaved Ice 红豆冰:

Makes 5 medium size cups

Cook time: 5 mins

Ingredients:

1 can of canned red bean paste

2 cans of evaporated milk

12 ice cubes, blended in blender or use human strength to crash it into shaved/fine pieces.

Method:

1. In the cups, equally add in about 2-3 spoons of the prepared (canned) red bean paste. Then fill up the cup to 90% full with evaporated milk. Lastly, add in the shaved ice to each cups. Place a spoon into each cup so your guests can mix and drink on their own.

A Sweet Promise:

• Milk can be used to substitute evaporated milk. It will still taste good but evaporated milk makes the drink smells better. I used milk instead of evaporated milk in the pictures because I didn't have evaporated milk, and they still turned out great! My friends loved it :) I'd say go for evaporated milk in first choice, but if you don't have it, no worries. Milk works just as well.
• Sugar is not added because the canned red bean paste is sweet enough. If you think it's not sweet enough, feel free to add sugar.
• You can also make your own red bean paste. It is safer and healthier because you can control the amount of sweetness you desire, and you can choose the quality of the ingredients. I will post another recipe on this drink with a little twist and make my own paste. Please look forward to it~ ^_^