Banana Bread

This is the recipe for banana bread that I got from Dr. Deihl's cookbook The Optimal Diet. The Optimal Diet is one of my favorite cook books and I really enjoy using it. It has low calorie, low fat and heart healthy. It's everything that you want in one cookbook! It's really amazing! Here we go!

2 c. flour
1/4 c. walnuts
1/2 t. salt
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/4 c. apple concentrate (water NOT added)
1/3 c. honey
1 1/4 c. mashed banana
1 egg (or fake egg)
1 t. lemon juice

1. preheat oven to 350 degrees faranheight
2. mix together the dry ingredients. Add the wet. Mix well.
3. Pour batter into a greased bread pan.
4. Bake for 50 minutes. Check with a toothpick or knife to make sure it's done and allow to cool before slicing. 

Pictures

So here's the deal with pictures. I am going to spend tonight and tomorrow taking pictures of all the things that i am going to put on here and the things that i have on here. I have lacked to put on pictures and I think that would be nice to have to make my blog better. Please bear with me. Thanks.

Peanut Butter Cucumbers

My friend from China came over a few years ago and shared this recipe with us. I really enjoy making it and it's a really nice cool dish. Really refreshing.

1 peeled cucumber
1/4 c smooth peanut butter
enough lemon to make it creamy.

Slice up the cucumber into fourths and then coins. Mix peanut butter with lemon until creamy and pour over cucumbers.

Hot Pot

Hot pot dipper baskets

So... what's hot pot you ask? It's a popular Chinese dish. The main idea of it is that you have piles and piles of food on plates all around the table and a crock pot/rice cooker/pot on a hot plate in the middle. Everyone has a little basket that they fill with food and then they let it heat in the "heater" in the middle. The heater contains a broth and then they can put the meat that they heated in a bowl and eat it. It's a really fun activity, fun to prepare and fun to eat. This is also nice because if you are a vegetarian, you can pick and choose what you put in it. I use a fake duck ...

and i also used some home made seitan (recipe here ) chopped up into small pieces.

Hot pot can consist of fast cooking vegetables and meats. Oh and mushrooms. Almost forgot. We had shiitakes, and this black edible fungus. This is what it looked like condensed.

I put it in a pot with some water and when i came back in an hour., it had filled my whole pot! We had a lot of that in the hot pot.
So remember to slice everything thinly. This is what you can put in yours. Make the ammounts according to the ammount of people you have. Hot pot is usually a party food.
The hot pot consists of two parts. The broth and then the things that you cook in it. The broth can have:
Water
Carrots
Daikon Raddish
Hot pot seasonings (look for at asian food markets)

Have that warming in your pot on a hot plate/ rice cooker/ hot pot cooker/whatever

Carrots in coins
Spinach leaves
Bok Choy
Fake duck
seitan
enoki
black edible fungus
noodles
shiitakes
sea foods
potatoes
green onions
tofu
mini dumplings

Be creative! Just besure to cut up your veggies so they can cook extra fast! Have fun and comment on how it went!

Oatmeal "buttermilk" bread

Oatmeal "Buttermilk" Bread
Makes 1 9x5 in loaf
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup boiling filtered water
1/4 cup warm filtered water
2 t. dried yeast
1 1/2 c milk with lemon juice
3 T. oil rest with apple sauce to make 1/2 cup
1/4 c brown sugar
1 cup coarse whole - wheat flour
3 1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour
2 t. salt
1 spray bottle of water

Set asied 1/4 cup of rolled oats. Place the remaining 1 1/4 cup of oats in a medium bowl and cover with 1 cup of boiling water. Mix with a spoon to moisted all oats. Let bowl sit, uncovered for 10 minutes, stirring frequently while water is absorbed.
Place 1/4 cup warm water in the bowl of your stand mixer and sprinkle yeast on top. Mix with a whist to dissolve yeast. (if mixing by hand, combine warm water and yeast in a medim bowl and mix with a spoon or whisk). Let rest for 5 minutes. Add soaked oats, milk with lemon, oil and applesauce, brown sugar, whole wheat flour app purpose flour and salt. Mixing by hand - add soaked oats, buttermilk oil sugar, flours and salt mix with wooden spoon. Knead with your hands for 10-12 minutes. Dough will be wet at first but will eventually form a b all. Ball with have a satiny finish and will bounce back quicly when poked with a finger.
Place dough in an oiled metal bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Proof in a warm room 70-75 degrees for about an hour. Dough will almost double in size.
Pull dough from bowl and flatten with your hand releasing excess air bubbles. Form dough into desired shape and transfer onto pan. Let it proof in warm room 35-40 minutes. Loaf will rise. Preheat oven to 385 degrees. Remove plastic and mist top of loaf with a spray bottle of water. Sprinkle with remaining oats. Place pan on center rack and bake for approx 1 hour. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes.

Got this recipe from my aunt. I made it and it turned out looking like sourdough (big holes) but it tasted much better than sour dog (no sour!!)

Nutritional Facts if divided into 25 pieces
calories  123.6
Total Fat 1.9g
 Sat 0.3 g
 Poly 0.5 g
 Mono 1.1 g
Total Carbs 26.6 g
 Fiber 1.8 g
Sugars 2.4 g
Protien 3.8 g

Skinny Sushi/Kimbap

So i was looking today for sushi/kimbap recipes and the serving size to calorie count was like WOW! In one there were 2207 calories! I couldn't see myself eating that many calories at one meal so i played around in the kitchen and made something that was so low calorie i couldn't believe it! Okay, so after I saw the counts on the commercial ones i was shocked to see my own. So first what i put in mine is carrot, pearl rice, spinach and tvp (or vegetarian burger) and then seaweed on the outside. That's what i used for mine. You can put avacado, cucumbers, and so many more items in yours.
Also people asked me what is the difference between sushi and kimbap. Kimbap is Korean and Sushi is Japanese. Also sushi is usually dipped in a dipping sauce and kimbap is seasoned enough that dipping sauce isn't needed. Kimbap is (for me) lower in calories and fat.
So let's get rolling. Some people suggest that you use a bamboo rolling mat to help but i don't use that.
So..... I'm not giving exact measurements because it's different every time you make it. So
I put

1.5 carrot
1 block spinach
1 "batch" pearl rice
1 c. tvp (vegetarian "meat")
1 egg (optional. I made a few with egg and a few without. I can't eat eggs either)

Put a sheet of nori out on the rolling mat or clean and DRY counter. Put the rice close to the middle, then put spinach, carrot, tvp and egg. Roll over one end over the rice and push the filling in. Roll up and you can use water along the edge of the nori (seaweed) to help it stick. I made like 5 rolls from this. I haven't tried freezing it so i will invite my friends over and have them eat if for me. :)
93.1 calories per roll
0.2g fat
36.2 mg sodium

Homemade Seitan

Seitan is another name for glueten. You can't search for gluten recipe because all you will get is gluten free. So seitan is the name for it. Here is my recipe. It's really fun to make since it will get very large when cooked.

1 c. gluten flour aka do-pep
1 T. flour
1 T. nutritional yeast
1 c. water
1 1/2 T. soy sauce

Boil 4 cup water with 1/4 c soy sauce. Mix dry add wet. I suggest that you use a fork to mix... DO NOT USE A WHISK it will be super messy! Cut them up into little pieces Boil in the water for 30 minutes.  

Salsa

Here we go with Theme and Variation on Salsa.
i usually have like 3-4 tomatoes that i wash core and cut up.

3-4 tomatoes
1/2 onion
2 garlic cloves
2 jalapeno peppers ( or to whatever degree of hotness you want)
1 T. lemon juice
1 anihiem chili pepper
1 banana pepper

Prepare the tomatoes, chili peppers and garlic. Mix all ingredients in bowl together. Feel free to put in a can of pineapple, or mangoes.

Waffles/Pancake

our vintage waffle maker!

Here is my recipe for waffles. we don't have a belgian waffle maker but i don't think the recipe would be any different

1/3 c corn flour
1/3 c oat bran
1/3 c brown rice flour
1/3 c barley flour
1/3 c whole wheat pastry flour
1/3 c whole wheat flour
1/4 t salt
1 T. sugar
1 T. baking powder
2 T. soy milk or milk powder
2 C. water
Mix Dry and then add wet. For waffles, in my waffle maker, it takes about one scant cup to fill the thing. Feel free to play around with the recipe and see what you find!

I also use this recipe for pancakes, i just scoop 1/4 cup on the griddle and fry.
Have fun waffling and pancakeing!

Corn Butter

I make corn butter as a substitute for real butter. I am a vegan (also lactose intolerant) and so here is what I use instead of butter!

Corn butter
1/4 c. cornmeal, dry
1 cup water
1/2 t. salt
1/2 c. water
1 T. nutritional yeast flakes
other seasonings (garlic, onion, mckays chicken, etc.)

1. simmer cornmeal in one cup water i na small pot on stove until soct and water is absorbed.
Blenderize hot cornmeal with remaining ingredients until very smooth. Pour mixture into a container. Cover and chill until firm.

It makes a really nice spread. It's cheap and easy to find the ingredients for.  I hope you enjoy. This is a half recipe by the way and this is a very easy recipe to double.

Garbanzo Spread

This Garbanzo Spread is a good way to get protein and is better than the plain old peanut butter and jelly for the lunches.
1 can garbanzos (15 oz)
1/2 small onion
1/4 can olives
pinch of garlic powder
Put garbanzos, onion, olives and garlic powder in a food processer/ ultimate chopper thing and blend until smooth.

12 servings
38 calories per serving

Low Cal Tomato Salad Dressing

This is a low calorie salad dressing that i use. It's really good.
1/2 c. tomato juice
2 T. Lemon juice
1 tsp onion
1 tsp dry parsley flakes
1/4 t. salt
1 tsp brewers or nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp celery salt
1/2 tsp dill
Combine all ingredients in a jar with a lid and shake well before using.

Mud/Sovex

This is a spread that my mom and grandma both make and is very low in calories and is nice on breakfast toast with cereal.
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 1/3 cup brewers or nutritional yeast
2/3 c. v8 or tomato juice
1/4 tsp garlic powder
 Bring soy sauce, water and tomato juice to a boil. Remove from heat and mix in brewers yeast and garlic powder.

Jogathon

Our school had a jogathon to raise money. I was number 8 which is really lucky in China. I think it panned out for me. I have tied with another girl with the highest laps for girls and i ran six miles! Without any training! I mean i had been running 5k's and so i guess i just put them together and then ta dah!! I'm kinda excited about it. :-)

Track... Tired... Sore... Acro... Random Pictures...

This is an acro move called an Arabian. All these moves are done by the Acro Knights. I am on that team.

This move is called an arm to arm. It's hard for me to get up but it's a fun move and looks impresisve.

This move is called the butterfly. It's fun but if you do it for long, it will hurt your arms.

This is the camel.

This is the house.

Star

This is what i really want to be doing right now and by the way that is really me. I do love wakeboarding. It's really hot here and I'm really tired of not being in the water. I so want to be gliding over that glassy water being pulled behind a jetski or power boat.

And lastly but not leastly this is my dog. Lucy. She has her own blog funnychihuahua.blogspot.com

I

I hope you guys have a great day... I might do another post on shoes and clothes that i found, idk.

track, shoes, apps, and whatever else i think of

Haha... this doesn't seem very crazy updates that i have been doing but i do have some updates for track. Only one other guy came to track practice so the coaches decided to push us real hard. There is this hill that goes up a mountain/hill thing and so we have to run up that like three times. One guy (that didn't come) has gone up it in 15 some seconds... but I am not that tgood and can only go up about 20.29 seconds is my practice record (PR). We also had to run three 200 meter races/pushs. I was litterly dying on the last one. It was hard, but i got a 36.03 on the last one which i think made my day. I didn't think that i could push myself that hard.

I went to the big five sporting goods store today and bought some nike free run shoes. They are size 7.5 (i'm a size 5.5-6) but they fit pretty well for being big. The arch is just right, and they are feather weight. I also thought about buying some really cute neon colored spikes but i didn't have the money on me at the time. I got the nike shoes for 80 dollars and the spikes were 65 dollars plus the spikes. I think i'll get those later... lol. They were very cute... Ahhah! Here's a picture. Yay! I found one. I was hoping that i could find one but i was afraid that i couldn't since i had forgotten the brand that they were... lol

On to something differet. I found this website called pose. It is a website that lets you share your fashions online with other people who are crazy about fashion too. I have posted some stuff. It's really fun to do and i enjoy finding and making outfits to post on pose. Pose is also available on your iphone/ipod devices. I really enjoy this app.
I thin k i'm done talking about stuff. So have a nice day!!

Track

Rainy and windy weather so we had track practice inside. It met running up and down the school hallways terrorizing the janators and students that had their feet out. We did the drills of the terrible twos. Run to the end of the hallway at a full dead on sprint, and then jog back, from 8-10 times. It was a lot of fun. They said, it you aren't like sprinting, they'll pull you out so you can rest. It gives you time to get your energy and breath back. I was only pulled out once. Another girl was pulled out at least three times. I didn't notice all the times. We also had to run aroudn the gym eight times. Got very like seeing the same stuff over and over after the fifth or sixth lap.

Exercise and sports update

Here is a picture of my favorite workout machine. It's a precor crossramp thingy. It's amazing! I can torch 100 calories 12 minutes! I love kleen kanteens too. They are a metal waterbottle that is very eco friendly.

Okay. So for track and field, i had wanted to be do pole vault. Unfortunately... the place where i practice is small and they don't have their own vault pit. So, i would have to go over to a bigger high school and practice, but the coach there has so many people wanting to do vaulting and so they only get 3-4 vaults a practice. so, I decided that i'd do hurdles insted. It'll be fun. Haven't actually done any yet. We mainly did the sprint drills last practice.

I'm  thinking about going  over to our sporting goods store and buying a pair of these Nike free run shoes. THey look really slick and i really want to try them. They are very light and flexible and that are some of those things that i want in a running shoe. It should help me in track. I really like the looks of it and you can customize them in Nike iD. It's a really fun website where you can make your own nike shoe. You can choose the colors and stuff and it's super fun.

Lemony Bread

1 c. white sugar
3 T. apple sauce
3 T. oil
2 eggs
1/2 c. milk
1 1/2 c. flour
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
grated rind from one lemon
Mix all ingredients and bake in a greased bred pan at 350 degrees f. for 45-60 minutes. When take from oven and still hot, brush with syrup of 1/4 c. sugar and juice of one lemon. Use up all syrup.

If divided into 16 slices,

Calories  125.3
Total Fat   3.3 g
 Saturated Fat  0.5 g
 Poly 0.4 g
 Mono 2.1 g
Cholesterol 20.4 mg
Sodium 88.4mg
Potassium 32.4 mg
Total Carbs 22.3 g
 Fiber 0.5 g
 Sugar 12.8 g
Protien 2.2 g

how to make rock candy

This was a fun project that i did last year just for fun. It was good too. :-) The picture shows the kind that you can get in the store. I don't make them as good as they did like with the colors but mine were okay.
Supplies/Ingredients -
2 cups of water
3 cups sugar
1/4 cups corn syrup
food coloring (opt)
flavoring (0pt)
pencil
paper clip
string
jar

1. Boil a pot of water on the stove. Tie one end of the string to the pencil. Then clip the string so that it's about 1 cm from the bottom. Tie on the paper clip.
2. Wet the string, and roll it in sugar. Put in the sugar and corn syrup into the boiling water and stir it. You can add coloring and flavoring. Then pour the boiling mix in to the jar. Leave an inch at the top. (forgot to say, don't put the pencil in when you're pouring. It'll be messy)
3. Don't refrigerate it. Leave it out in like a window sill. Watch it till it grows crystals.
Good luck!