HoW (Health of the Week) 1 and Single Serving Chocolate Cake

Hey hey everyone! How was your guys's New Year? I know mines was pretty eventful! I'll talk about it later in the post.
For now, I have some other things to talk about. For one thing, I'm changing Workout Wednesday (WoW) to Health of the Week (HoW). So, It will be more broad on the health spectrum, not just on workouts but also nutrition as well. Also, I have to give you guys the single serving cake recipe. It's absoulety delicious! I'm scared of the calorie count, especially since I decided to eat it with peanut butter on top. However, it's pretty much healthy and it tastes delicious. Here's the recipe.
Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoon whole wheat flour
• 2 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 tablespoon sugar
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 3 tablespoon milk
• 3 tsp applesauce
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Combine all the ingredients into a bowl. 
2. Microwave for 40 seconds. 
3. Take out and enjoy. I like eating it with peanut butter. 

This is how the cake looks before I put the peanut butter on top: 

Anyway, I have to talk to you guys about my past couple of days. 

For one thing, one of my favorite snacks is this: 

It's nonfat greek yogurt with dark chocolate chips, 1 crushed Nature Valley Granola Thin, and ground cinnamon. It tastes amazing. It's also really healthy. 

We also bought a few groceries from Wal-Mart on New Year's Eve. 

 With the fish, I plan on eating it with quinoa and steamed vegetables. With the cheese, I plan on making a casserole with it.

I also got this at Target:

They were only like 86 cents! They were on sale. It's probably because it's a holiday item. But I can't wait to try this! I love pita chips and I love gingerbread. I hope this tastes good. I'll tell you guys how it tastes when I eat it. 

As you know, one of my New Year's Resolution is to eat healthier. Well, that's been quite a challenge. That's where the HoW comes in. For one thing, we went to McDonald's on New Year's Eve. I ended up ordering this: 

The classic grilled chicken sandwich with no mayo. It's not the healthiest thing in the world (it has transfat and the bun isn't 100% whole wheat) but it is better than ordering other things on the menu. If you can't eat completely healthy, at least choose some of the healthier options. Get grilled chicken instead of the crispy or fried ones. It would have been better if I hadn't eaten the bun but I didn't want to waste it (my parents would scold me). If you're going to order a salad, don't eat the croutons and the bacon. Leave the dressing on the side or choose healthier types of salad dressing. 

Then, on New Years Day, we decided to eat brunch at a local American diner. They had steaks, omelettes, fries, shakes and all of that stuff. I ended up ordering an veggie egg white omelette with cheddar cheese, whole wheat toast, coffee and hashbrowns. 

I didn't eat the hashbrowns. But I did eat the broccoli my sister didn't want. I had to special order the omelette so that they'd use egg whites. I forgot to tell them to not put butter on the whole wheat toast but I guess that's okay. I also ended up seeing one of my old classmates that works there ( I didn't know until yesterday that he worked there). 

Then, we met up with family, took pictures and walked. It was pretty nice. 

Then, my family from SF decided to come over around dinner time. So, we went to Hometown Buffet. You can imagine how hard it was to eat healthy yesterday. I did my best to stick to the healthy stuff. 

My first plate was baked fish, broccoli and green beans. I added some salsa to the beans and broccoli.  I also got the Minutemaid Lemonade that's only 5 calories a serving. Coffee, tea or water would have been better but it's okay. 

My 2nd plate was broccoli, bake chicken and I had half a salmon filet (that's not picutred). My next plate was a fruit plate. I got melon and canned peaches (I assume the peaches were canned). Then, I got a lot of ice cream. The first is the swirl soft serve with some peanuts. The other one is nonfat vanilla froyo with peanuts. I love froyo. 

It was nice spending time with my cousins. We talked, ate and then went back to our place. They also gave us tons of Ghirardelli chocolate. All of it is dark chocolate with either some filling or almonds. The non dark chocolate ones are the peppermint bark. Here's one of them I tried and it was delicious. 

It has sea salt with roasted almonds. Yummy!

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that when eating out, try to make healthy choices, or at least healthier ones. You'll be happy you did. 

Oh yea. I have to add one fitness advice. It doesn't hurt to start strength training. It's good to build muscle when you're younger. It boosts your metabolism because muscle uses energy, unlike fat. Also, if you have more muscle now and maintain it, it will help you once you start again. I plan on incorporating  more strength training into my workouts this year. 

So, how was your New Year?

Do you have any tips on sticking with your New Year's Resolutions?

Victorian Sponge Cake and my day today

Hello everyone. How are you guys doing today? I'm doing pretty good, actually. I had a fun day today. I'll talk about my day later in the post. But, for right now, I have to tell you guys about the Victorian Sponge Cake I baked yesterday.
The cake is absolutely delicious. I received the recipe a long time ago last October, when British exchange students came to stay with some of my classmates. They gave me the recipe, but I never got to baking it until yesterday. Here's the handwritten recipe they wrote:

I thought that British handwriting would be different, but I guess it looks the same.

Anyway, that's the recipe they gave me. However, I did have to research it a little bit. As it turns out, it is self rising flour that is needed. If you don't have self-rising flour, you can add some baking powder to the flour. Just search online on how to make self-rising flour. I also added vanilla extract to add a bit more flavor. I didn't add any strawberry preserves or whipped cream, but I know that it would have tasted amazing if I had added it. Unfortunately, I didn't have any at home. I will remember to buy those the next time I bake this cake. It's still a very good cake. Enjoy. :)

Ingredients:

• 4 oz self rising flour (1/2 cup)
• 4 oz sugar (1/2 cup)
• 4 oz butter (1/2 cup, I know. A lot of butter.)
• 1 tsp baking powder (if you are using regular flour. Add baking powder to regular flour.)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• strawberry preserves
• whipped cream
• powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. 
2. Grease a cake pan ( a very small one).
3. In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. 
4. Mix in the eggs. 
5. Add in the vanilla extract. 
6. Mix in the flour really well. 
7. Pour into the prepared cake pan and bake for 20 minutes. Use a toothpick to test if the cake is done. 
8. Wait until the cake cools. Cut the cake in half (horizontally) so that you can make a cake sandwich. Put strawberry preserves on one side of the cake and whipped cream on the other. Then, put it back together like a sandwich. 
9. Sprinkle powdered sugar on top and serve. 
10. Enjoy. 

So, I had a fun time today. It was a hot day though. I rode the lightrail with my cousin, met some random people while on the lightrail, bought my textbooks at the university and ate some yummy food. 

Well, in the morning, I was really hungry. I went to my cousin's place, but I hadn't had breakfast yet. So, we walked by a gas station, which was close to the lightrail station and I bought myself a Chocolate Chip Clif Bar. It costed twice as much as buying it from my local supermarket, but I was hungry. It was delicious though. We met a random person on the way there and that person kept talking to me and my cousin. That person was pretty nice though. Talked to us as if they've known us for a long time. Finally, we arrived where we were suppose to go and by then, it was lunch time. 

For lunch, we ate at a burrito place at the university. It was actually decent. It also came with chips and salsa. I ordered the veggie burrito. It tastes a lot better than the veggie burrito I bought at a different Hispanic place I talked about in June. 

We got our textbooks after and then we walked around for a bit. Then, we went back to my cousin's place, picked up my other cousin and went to get some froyo since it was a hot day! The froyo was delicious. I got toffee froyo, peanut butter froyo and milk chocolate froyo. You have to love self serve froyo. For the toppings, I got  sprinkles (my fav!), dark chocolate chips (my MOST fav), yogurt chips (I wanted to try it) and one chocolate covered pretzel ( I didn't want to overdo on the calories). All of it was delicious! 

So, I guess that's basically it. 

I really want to make horchata and naan. I will be able to sooner or later, once I get the ingredients. I'll post the recipe once I get it right. 

So, do you guys like froyo? Or do you guys like regular old plain ice cream? 

Have you guys had any weird experience while using public transit? 

M&M Cookies

Hey Everyone. How are you guys doing today? Well, for me, I just don't like that the weather is getting colder now. But, hey, at least I know that the holidays are coming up soon. But, I still have leftover Halloween candy, and tons of it at that. I can't wait for the holidays to come up.
The next holiday is Thanksgiving, which most of us celebrate.The funny thing is that my former history teacher doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, because it is a colonial holiday. What a strange guy he is, but he's pretty cool.
Anyways, back to the candy. We have tons of M&Ms, so I decided to bake some M&M cookies. They're quite easy to make and really delicious. I had such a bad craving for M&Ms and cookies, so I decided to put them together. Warm cookies coming out of the oven sounds good on cold days anyways. Enjoy. :)

Ingredients: 

• 2 1/2 cups All-purpose Flour
• 2 tsp Baking Powder
• 3/4 tsp Salt
• 1 1/2 cups Light Brown Sugar
• 1/2 cup Sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup Butter ( I usually use 1/2 cup)
• 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 2/3 cup M & Ms
• 
  

Directions: 

1. In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. 
2. In another mix together the sugars. Add in the butter and cream the butter with the sugar. 
3. Add in the egg and vanilla extract. Mix.
4. Add in the M&Ms. 
5. Preheat the oven to 350 F. 
6. On a greased pan, make about 2 tablespoon of dough to make dough balls and place them on the pan. They should be about the size of golf balls. 
7. Bake for about 10 to 15 minutes. 
8. Take out, let it cool, and enjoy