Roll with the punches, but let's go light on the coconut dear... Vietnamese rice rolls and Thai custard fun

This weekend was a quadruple threat for MOH and I. It was a three-day weekend, Valentine's day, our anniversary (for the month), and my birthday weekend, so we had to do something special. What better way to spend a great weekend than staying in, cleaning cages, and making some good home-cooked meals?

MOH and I have been on this quest to find pandan leaves. Pandan leaves originate from Asia and are often a flavoring component in many desserts (ever had Pandan waffles?). Every one of my dad's birthdays has featured a beautiful, tasty Pandan cake full of young coconut stuffing. It's the same cake every year, from the same bakery, but my tummy never complains.

Pandan is a popular flavor for many cakes (especially paired with coconut)

While you can put Pandan in several cakes and other types of baked desserts, MOH was craving a Thai custard, sangkhaya, that is often flavored with pandan. So when we finally found Pandan in a grocery store (our fourth effort), we were super excited to try to recreate a Thai favorite that is near and dear to MOH's heart.

The results were delicious, but a bit high on the coconut side. If you like a subtle coconut flavor, I would suggest doing a half-half mixture of coconut milk and almond milk (I'm going to definitely try it next time). If you LOVE coconut milk though, you're in luck - this recipe has the flavor of vanilla and pandan with a kick of coconut. Super creamy, and great to dip with any type of bread.

And with the weather being hot lately (at least for Southern California), I decided to make something light and simple - Vietnamese rice rolls, or banh cuon.  Banh cuon is a type of rice roll that has different types of fillings (meat, vegetable, seafood), and is often eaten over a bed of hearty greens, with steamed meat and fish sauce. Banh cuon is one of my favorite dishes that my mother would make. She would make everything from scratch, even the rice rolls. This was a staple in our house and often was served for brunch during the weekend. It's also a fun dish to eat because you can customize how you want to eat it. If you're more into the rice rolls, you'd stuff your dish full of these little rolls. If you're more into the vegetables, then you could skimp back on the rolls and pack on the greens. For me, I'm super lazy and decided to just buy the rice rolls from the grocery store. If you choose this easy cheat route (totally fine, no shame), preparing the dish can take as little as 10 minutes... seriously.

Super simple, and really healthy (depending on how you make your plate). Either way, a great way for MOH and I to end our Sunday night.

Happy Valentine's to all! And happy eating, please!

Pandan sangkhaya recipe (modified from this awesome recipe):

Ingredients:

- 2 egg yolks

- 1/4 cup sugar
-1/2 tsp vanilla extract

- 4 pandan leaves, washed and wiped

- 1 1/2 cups coconut milk (although to get lighter coconut flavor, do half mixture with almond milk)

- 1 tbsp cornstarch

- 1/8 tsp salt

Protocol:

1. Blend pandan leaves with 1 cup of coconut milk until pandan leaves blended thoroughly- strain the mixture and set aside

2. Mix yolks, sugar, cornstarch, vanilla extract, and salt until mixed thoroughly - then add in pandan milk mixture

3. Over low heat, stir the mix (from #2) until thick - you are aiming for a consistency that's like yogurt. Don't overmix - as soon as it thickens, turn off heat and set mixture aside in bowl

4. Once cool - enjoy with bread, dipped!

Banh cuon recipe (this doesn't need a recipe, but ingredients are just listed)

Ingredients:

- Package of banh cuon

- 3 cups beansprouts, blanched

- 1/2 head lettuce, shredded

- Herbs (mint or Vietnamese perilla), chopped

- Steamed fish cake (or Vietnamese ham, cha lua)

- Fish sauce (can be made using this recipe)

To make your banh cuon, customize your dish with as much greens or meat as you like - top off with some fish sauce and enjoy!!!

Sunday brunch spotlight - Green Tomato Grill

It's been awhile since MOH and I have gone out to eat, but we finally visited a restaurant on our list that has a great brunch menu and it did not disappoint! We spent our Sunday having a great meal in Orange at a tiny place called Green Tomato Grill, a little mecca for meat-lovers, vegans, and vegetarians alike. It's a cute restaurant with a cafe type setting that feels like a mash up between a Veggie Grill and Peet's Coffee.

Green Tomato Grill has a wide menu of breakfast items such as burritos, breakfast bowls, and egg scrambles, in addition to a huge variety of healthy lunch options (grilled bowls, salads, and wraps). There's also room for customizing your dish if you want that little extra kick or sauce to top your dishes - just simply grab a blank menu and circle your choice toppings.

Let me just say that everything we had tasted amazing. The food is super healthy, We started our meal with one of their most highly rated sides, chili lime popcorn.

The popcorn had a great lightness to it - not at all buttery, but full of a great tangy kick. I just kept popping these little kernels into my mouth until my actual meal arrived. Poor MOH, I ate more than half our shared bag.

Everything here is delicious and fresh. I ordered the BBQ Tofu bowl, one of their most popular items (at least through Yelp). Crispy lemongrass tofu is served atop brown rice with a great heap of stir fried vegetables that consists of cabbage, snap peas, tomatoes and onions. And to top it all off? Green Tomato's signature chipotle sauce with sliced avocado. The bowl combination was so delicious. The crispy tofu was so well seasoned and stayed crispy despite being mixed through all the sauteed vegetables. The dish was extremely filling.

Definitely a great welcome back to trying new foods. I'm not a fan of bowls when I go to restaurants, but the great sauce combination with vegetable stir fry was too delicious to pass up. And who can say no to fried tofu???

Until next time, happy eating all!

Half-marathon success!!!

One of the things on my bucket list is to run a half-marathon or even better, full marathon. I've entertained the idea whenever I see cool running events, but never follow through with signing up. Of all the events available through California, Surf City definitely looked like "the one" to try. With a relatively flat route and beautiful backdrop (who can say no to running alongside the wonderful ocean view?), Surf City is hard to say no to. So when early registration rolled up last year, I finally signed up, scheduled in my training schedule runs, monitored my "healthy food" intake, and started counting down the months.

Today, everything came together despite battling a fever and nasal congestion the night before. 

It was such an amazing experience and big accomplishment for me. For the past few years, running has been a great outlet for me to de-compress and just relax. I'm not a fast runner by any means, but running allows me to have a few moments every day to just be with my own thoughts and it's something that I have control over in life. Life is full of so much unpredictability, with so many things out of our hands (no matter how much we try to handle it). Life is so short that you need to do everything in your power to just find more bubbles of happiness.

Like finding an awesome person to share big moments in your life.

What do I find when I arrive home? My own special medal that MOH handcrafted with felt.

More happy moments to end this weekend! 

Super Bowl just ended, and hopefully you enjoyed your weekend, no matter what the outcome.

What was on the menu tonight? Easy-grilled cheese sandwiches complete with sliced onions and mushrooms... yum. Happy eating all!