Whole Wheat Oat Chocolate Chip Cookie Bar

Hola todos! Como están ustedes? Estoy muy bien. Gracias!

Yo horneé galletas el lunes pasado. Tenía una ganas para comerlas! Me gusta comer postres. Es muy mal para la salud pero los postres son muy delicioso.

Translation: Hi everyone. How are you guys. I'm very good. Thanks!

I baked cookies the past Monday. I felt like eating them. I love eating desserts. It is bad for the health but desserts are so delicious!
I wanted to bake something that was more on the healthier side so that I wouldn't feel bad eating them. I came across a recipe from eatgood4life.com and it looked very simple to make. I just had to make them. Well, I didn't have to but I wanted a healthier dessert. It ended up being really good. My mom likes it too.

Here's the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup olive oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups oats
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• dark chocolate chips (as much as you want) 

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Line a 9 x 13 pan with foil or parchment paper. 
3. In a bowl, mix together the sugar, eggs, oil and vanilla extract 
4. Mix in the rest of the ingredients. Mix until a dough forms. 
5. Place the dough in the pan and push the dough into the pan, so that it covers most of the pan. 
6. You can add extra chocolate chips on top if you want. 
7. Bake for 25- 30 minutes.
8. Take the bars out and let them cool completely. 
9. Cut them into bars and enjoy! 

Warning: These bars do crumble a little. However, they are delicious! I just had to make these just so that I wouldn't feel too guilty about eating sweets. 

Do you like cookie bars?

What baked goods do you "healthify"? 

Whole Wheat Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

Hey hey everyone. I've been busy all week with classes. I'm sorry I didn't post this recipe earlier in the week. But, I finally have it up (I'll talk about my first week back in the next post)!
These whole wheat peanut butter banana muffins are delicious! They are really simple to make. These only make about 7-8 muffins. I made half the recipe since I only had one banana. But, hey. Making some is better than having none. Here's the recipe.
Remember that you guys can eat these as a snack or part of breakfast!




Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 ripe banana, mashed
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1/3 cup sugar (or less, if you want them to have less sugar)
• 1/4 cup peanut butter 
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
• chocolate chips (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. 
2. In a bowl, mix together the milk, sugar, banana, and peanut butter. 
3. In another bowl, sift together the flour and the baking powder. 
4. Slowly pour the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and mix as you pour the flour in. 
5. Pour the batter into the muffin pans, 
6. Bake for 20-23 minutes. 
7. Take it out, let it cool and enjoy!

I would have added chocolate chips (dark chocolate chips, that is!) but I didn't have any. So, next time, I will add it. 

I hope you guys enjoy these muffins!

Do you like muffins?

Who here LOVES school?

Brown Rice Broccoli Tofu Mesh

Hey hey everyone. I hope your weekend is going good. It's Labor Day weekend!
So, here's the recipe I promised from earlier this week. I know, I'm sorry for making you guys wait 6 days for this.
Anyway, it's simple to make. The only thing is that I never really measure anything when I cook. I know what ingredients I use and the approximate amounts. Usually in Asian cooking, we just use our eyes and see if we have enough of one ingredient or another.
Here's a loose recipe you can follow. Enjoy.



Ingredients:

• brown rice 
• tofu (I used one container of tofu)
• broccoli
• carrots and peas (I used the frozen ones)
• Annie's Lite Honey Mustard Vinaigrette

Directions:

1. Cook the brown rice. I usually cook 1-2 cups dry brown rice. 
2. Cut the tofu into cubes. Pour the dressing over the tofu and let it sit and marinate. 
3. Boil the broccoli in water. You can also roast the broccoli instead of you like roasted vegetables.
4. Spray a non-stick pan with cooking spray. I use the olive oil kind. 
5. Add in the tofu (and all of the sauce). 
6. Cook and brown the tofu. Then, add the carrots and peas. 
7. Mix in the broccoli. And then add the rice. Stir and make sure all of the fillings are evenly distributed. 
8. Serve and enjoy! 

I hope you guys enjoy this meal. If you want a more asianified meal, use tamari or soy sauce instead of the vinaigrette. 

How do you eat brown rice?

Do you have any plans for the weekend?

P.S. There is a whole wheat peanut butter banana muffin recipe that I will post later on. It's delicious! Be on the lookout for it. =)

Running + PB2 Alfajores

Hey hey everyone! How are you guys doing on this fine day?

Anyway, I'm here to talk about a few things. For one thing, I'm addicted to animal crackers right now. We bought the organic Disney animal crackers from Costco last week and they are so good!

So, what I'm here to REALLY talk about is running. More specifically, training to run a half-marathon or a marathon.

I have one question. Have any of you guys experienced weight gain while training for half-marathon or a marathon? Do you guys wonder why?

Personally, I thought that I'd lose weight with all that running but it's not the case (not for everyone, at least). Gaining weight can be easy, especially with all that running. Here's why.

• You are eating more than you should. We tend to eat more due to the increased level of activity. However, it doesn't mean that we are necessarily burning all of those calories we are eating. 
• Increased muscle mass is another reason. You gain more leg/thigh muscle from running. It's just part of it. 
• Our body is holding more carbohydrates to increase our glycogen supply for our runs. Water is also retained due to the increase in carbohydrates!

Well, I hope that clears up some things. And now, here's the recipe. I got this recipe from Erica House. I love her blog! Here's the recipe. 

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup oatmeal 
• 2 tablespoons PB2
• 1 packet stevia
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
•  1/8 tsp baking powder
• 2 egg whites
• 1 tablespoon apple sauce
• 2 tablespoons water

You can make sandwiches with dulce de leche. It'll be called alfajores!

 Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl.
3. Drop spoonfuls onto a baking pan. 
4. Bake for 10-15 minutes. 
5. Take them out, let it cool and enjoy! You can make sandwiches with these by using dulce de leche. 

Do you like alfajores?

Have you ever trained for a running event?

Healthified Double Chocolate Chip Frappuccino

Hey hey everyone. How are you guys doing?

I'm doing great, thank you very much. I only have 2 more weeks of school left. Then, it's finals week! It's crazy because I have a debate for my sociology class on Thursday. Then, I also have a group psychology research project presentation coming up. There's also my psychology exam on Thursday.

Anyway, on the bright side, the weather has been great. It's been in the 90's all week. On the downside, it's going to get a bit colder now. But, as of right now, it's warm and it makes me want something cold to drink. So, I thought, why not a frappuccino? I thought about buying some from Starbucks, but they are so expensive. They are having the half of promotion right now but I don't want to waste all that money when I can make some right at home.

And, you know what? It's delicious! My brother even likes it. You can make it even healthier if you want to by substituting some ingredients. It'll still taste great. Here's the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup milk (any milk of choice)
• 1/3 cup chocolate chips (you can use dark chocolate chips or carob chips)
• 2 tablespoon chocolate syrup (I used the sugar free kind)
• 2 cups ice
• 2-3 tablespoon sugar
• whipped cream (optional, you can use the fat free kind if you want)

Directions:

1. Place all the ingredients into the blender container. 
2. Blend until it's thick. 
3. Top with whipped cream if you want to and drizzle it with some more chocolate syrup, Enjoy! 

It's that simple! And, it tastes pretty good. My brother loves it! 

It's great to drink on a warm day. I love warm days. Shorts, tees, dresses and skirts. It's great! Once it gets warmer, I get to go swimming. I love swimming. The only thing is that I don't like getting tanner than I am right now. I'll have to deal with it though. It's not that bad. I was born tan. It's probably due to my dad's farming genes. He was born in a village in China and they were farmers. 

Anyway, my week has been alright. I've been lifting weights, doing cardio, studying, doing homework and hanging out with friends. 

My breakfast as of late has been oatmeal with pb2, chocolate chips, truvia and ground cinnamon. I drink coffee with this. Sometimes, I use real peanut butter instead or I add in apples. It depends on my mood. Here's an ugly picture: 

By the way, the Trader Joe's Spicy Black Bean Dip is alright. I feel that there's too bit much of a vinegar taste to it. It took forever to open the jar. It was on too tight so I had use a knife to go under the lid to get rid of some of the air. The Trader Joe's  dark chocolate with raisins and pecans was a disappointment. I didn't like the taste of it. My favorite Trader Joe's brand items so far are the Cookie Butter and their almond milk. Yummy!

Here are a lot of other items I've tried. 

 This is Annie's Light Honey Mustard Dressing. I love that it's all Natural. There's no artificial flavoring or preservatives that are bad for the body. It also tastes good! It doesn't taste healthy at all.

 The Unreal candy is so good! Sure, the color isn't that pretty but it tastes like regular M&M's. It's healthier though. No GMOs, no high fructose corn syrup and no artificial coloring. I also bought the Yes2 blueberry wipes stuff so that I can use it to clean my face after my workouts.

 I've been using the baby spinach in my salads with black bean burgers. The pretzel chips were alright.

The LUNA Bar Carrot Cake is new and I love it! It's like a chewy carrot cake without all the fat. There's not much of a frosting like the regular carrot cake but the actual cake part is spot on!

I ate this whole bag of sweet potato chips before my night class on Thursday. It was so good! Good thing it wasn't regular potato chips, right? Haha. Don't judge me. I'm trying to make myself feel better. 

What made me feel even worse is that I went to Ecogrounds during the 15 minute break and bought the Mocha Javalanche. At least I said no whipped cream and asked for soy milk instead of the regular milk they use. It was a bit too sweet. It was hot that night and I needed the energy to stay awake. 

I also tried Starbucks Java Chip Light  Frappuccino. It was so good! 

Yesterday, I stopped by Fluid, the coffee shop where I go nearly every week when I go to work. I bought their Zen Smoothie, which is a green tea smoothie. They used soy ice cream in it! I also bought their oatmeal cookie, which had coconut, white chocolate chips and some dried fruit in it. It was so good and chewy. the smoothie had too much soy ice cream in it. I couldn't taste much of the green tea. Here's how both of the items look:

Well, I guess that's it. I just finished typing up my history paper and now, I have to work on my debate. I'll see you guys next time. My next post will be about school lunches.

How was your week?

What's your favorite thing to eat or drink when the weather gets hot?

Quinoa Pancakes

Hey hey everyone. How are you guys doing today? I'm doing fine, thank you very much. I'm just here to pop in and give you guys my quinoa pancake recipe.
I've been wanting to make pancakes for a while and finally, I decided to make them.
I assure you that you won't regret making it. This recipe is yummy and healthy. Enjoy!
It can be made vegan if you use an egg substitute such as a banana or some flax seeds mixed with water.



Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup cooked quinoa
• 3/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 packets stevia
• 2 tablespoon agave
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp baking powder

Directions:

1. In a bowl, mix together all of the ingredients.
2. Heat up a non-stick skillet or a non-stick pan to cook your pancakes in. 
3. Spray with non-stick spray. 
4. Pour 1/4 cup mixture for one pancake. Wait until it bubbles and then flip. Cook for another minute on the other side. 
5. Continue doing this with the rest of the batter. 
6. Enjoy with whatever toppings you want. I love eating pancake with either sugar free chocolate syrup, peanut butter, bananas, or recently, Trader Joe's Cookie Butter. 

I hope you guys enjoy these. =) 

I know I will be enjoying these with Trader Joe's Cookie Butter. I'm totally addicted to it. 

So, do you guys like pancakes?

Have you guys tried Cookie Butter before?

What do you like to eat your pancakes with?

Healthier Red Velvet Pancakes and my week

I love red velvet cake. Don't you? They're so delicious, especially since there's that hint of chocolate with it. I love chocolate.
Yes, I've made red velvet cake before, a long time ago. But, I never took pictures of it because it was my first time. My classmates actually liked it and said it's hard to make red velvet cake taste good. I was surprised. I'll post my recipe once I make it again and take pictures of it. I just never got around making it again since my family prefers ice cream cake.
Anyway, I've been having cravings for red velvet cake but I knew that I couldn't make the whole cake. Also, it's so unhealthy! So, I decided to make these healthier red velvet pancakes. They're quite delicious (but a little high in sugar). The finished pancakes are a bit sticky but that's how they are. I like that kind of texture. If not, then you can just reduce the greek yogurt and add more almond milk. Also, you can bake these if you don't like to make pancakes with them. They'll be like red velvet cupcakes but a bit sticky. A picture of the cupcakes are posted below the recipe. So, here's the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 1 1/2 cup greek yogurt
• 1 egg
• 2 or 3 drops red food coloring
• a dash of salt

Directions:

1. In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, cocoa powder, sugar, and salt. 
2. Mix in all the wet ingredients. 
3. Heat a non-stick skillet and spray with cooking spray (such as PAM or something like that). Mine is the olive oil spray. You can use butter as well, if you like the taste of butter. 
4. Take about 1/4 cup of the mixture and pour it onto the skillet, pan or whatever you are using to cook the pancakes. Once bubbles start to form, flip the pancakes. I warn you, it will be a bit hard to flip them. 
5. Cook on that side for about 1 minute and the pancakes are done. 
6. Serve and enjoy!
7. If you would like to bake these instead, then pour the batter into the cupcake tins and bake at 350 F for 25 minutes. 
8. They will deflate once you take them out. Let them cool and enjoy! They will stick to the paper liners (if you're using them). I highly suggest you spray the tins with cooking spray so that it won't stick to the tins. 

 I hope you guys enjoy these pancakes or cupcakes. 

So, my week has been quite busy! Here's what I've done this week. For one thing, I went grocery shopping. I love grocery shopping. Here's what I got. 

I bought the Peanut Butter Panda Puffs, Almond Breeze Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk, Van's Whole Grain Waffles, non-fat vanilla greek yogurt, two ProMax Bars (one of which is the ProMax Lower Sugar Chocolate Fudge) , 1 Clif Bar and the Kellogg's Double Chocolate Crave Cereal.

Both of the cereals were delicious. I'm definitely buying the Peanut Butter Panda Puffs again or the Koala Chocolate Crisp one.

What's cool is that I also went to Dollar Tree and bought these two healthier snacks. So, yes, you can buy healthy foods cheap!

Glories Sea Salt Sweet Potato Chips and the Sugar-Free Peanut Butter Cakes. The chips were delicious and everyone in my family loved them. The peanut butter cakes were small and tasted decent. They weren't bad, at least. We finished them all on the car ride to Stanford yesterday (which I will talk about later in this post).

On Wednesday, I went to campus to work on my debate outline. I bought this to drink on when I was working on it. It's the No-Calorie Lemon Brisk drink. At least I ate a healthy lunch of my asian black bean burgers and steamed vegetables.

After working on the outline for a couple of hours, I went to volunteer at the hospital. I bought this for my early dinner at their cafe before volunteering.

I bought the Napa Chicken with Avocado Wrap and Mint Dark Chocolate M&M's. The wrap was decent but I wish I bought the regular dark chocolate M&M's. These were just TOO minty.

I met a volunteer that was volunteering at the same department as me. He's been volunteering there for a year now and gave me some advice. His name's Antonio. He also attends the same uni as me. While volunteering, they had an apple brandy cake for the workers and volunteers to eat. It was so good. I have to make that one day. Well, once I get the brandy, I'll make the cake. It was a pretty easy day for volunteering though.

Friday was work and it was pretty much a good day. A lot of typing and filing. It was fun. Also,  I bought the Black and White Mocha from Fluid and it was delicious! I go to Fluid every week when I go to work. I've been tempted to buy their burritos but I always end up buying a baked good instead. Their whole wheat chocolate chip cookies are the best!

Then, yesterday, it was a busy day. We went to Redwood City to do some stuff. Then, we went to visit Stanford University. My mom always wanted to go visit there, so, we finally did since it's close to Redwood City. Here's some pictures of Stanford (and me there). Just to let you know, I normally don't post pictures of others. Only of myself. Most of the time, my friends and family don't want their pictures posted, so, I respect that.

The campus was so beautiful! I mean, I visited Stanford before, 2 years ago, but it was cloudy that day and it was rainy. But, today, it was absolutely gorgeous. The weather was perfect too. It was a lot of walking but a great workout too. My dad took these pictures.

Also at Stanford, I saw this 20th Century propaganda during the wars.

I just had to take a picture of it since I'm learning about this in my history class.

Anyway, we ate those sweet potato chips and peanut butter cakes on the car ride.

After, we went to San Francisco and went to a shopping mall. I've been wanting to go to the Asian store, Yes Style, for the longest time. I tried going last year around this time, but they were closed. But, yesterday, it was open. I was so happy! The store is on the 2nd floor, located next to Macy's. The store is small and the prices aren't that great. But, the style is from Tokyo, Seoul and Hong Kong. I looked through their dresses and some of them were actually cute! I ended up buying the 59 Seconds Lace Panel Keyhole Back Skater Dress. It's a Hong Kong brand. The dress is so cute. Here's the link to the website.

Here's my failed attempt at taking pictures of my dress.

Then, we went to the food court to eat some dinner. I went to California Crisp and bought the BBQ Chicken Flatbread. It came with this past salad.

The flatbread sandwich tasted pretty good. They even make it fresh. I didn't eat much of the pasta but it tasted okay.

I also tried making a mocha drink with instant coffee. I added half a hot chocolate packet, a teaspoon of instant coffee, hot water, almond milk and a packet of stevia. It tasted alright but I'm going to perfect it one day.

Sorry for this long post.

Anyway, how was your week (and weekend)?
Did you go to my friend's band's performance last night?