Hello from another time

This post was meant to go out... a month or so ago.

Where did the time fly? I'm going to do a quick update:

1. I celebrated my wedding reception with my best friend. Two traditions, two days, one memory to last forever.

Being married doesn't feel too different, except for that fact that I have this ridiculous hyphenated last name. It's always entertaining spelling it over the phone.

2. Discovering the wonders of a slow cooker...

I love throwing in random ingredients into a slow cooker during the morning, then coming home to an apartment filled with this great aroma of cooked vegetables, slow cooked meat. MMMMM. So far, I've done slow cooked BBQ pulled chicken, roasted chicken and vegetables, curry - they've all turned out great! Tonight, we're doing tomato braised chicken that will be served over a parmesan pasta.

3. How delicious chicken is. I gave up meat two years ago out of health reasons, but recently introduced chicken back into my diet. I wasn't seeing any real improvements in my fitness and I think I wasn't eating right. There are plenty of people out there who have been able to successfully be fit and vegetarian/vegan - I just realized I'm not one of them. Plus, I realized how much I love chicken. One of my favorite dishes? Ginger chicken over rice and vegetables. This recipe is super simple - just cook rice with chicken broth and minced ginger. Then, boil/steam/or roast chicken and serve the rice with some fresh green onions with chicken and fish sauce! Deliciously easy and simple.

4. How much I missed "craftin" it up.

5. How beautiful the outdoors can be.

I'm starting to do longer runs in the morning and the sight is beautiful.

MOH and I also started our fall hike routine. The first trail we took? Oso Creek Trail. So beautiful and located in the heart of Mission Viejo.

Fall is here officially, and I'm excited for the pending holidays!

Until next time, happy eating everyone!

Tater tot heaven

Sometimes, you just need a good burger... and a great side of tater tots.

Sure you eat healthy, you try to watch your fat intake, maybe run or lift some weights. You curb those fat cravings, reminding yourself that there's a looming reception in the horizon too close in time to re-alter your dress. You try to convince yourself that you're a lean, mean, healthy machine.

But then you think about a burger. Someone (not mentioning names, MOH) drops a not-so-subtle hint that a burger sure would be nice. That it's been awhile since we've eaten a burger. Then, all those healthy habits you prided yourself in just disappear. They vanish in the air like a "fart in the wind" (I can't take credit for this awesome quote - it's from Shawshank Redemption). Now, all you can think about is a really good, juicy burger with a side of fries. Or maybe onion rings? Or... tater tots!? Gosh, anything sounds good right now. The thought of eating that sensible salad seems like an afterthought. All you can think about is a lightly toasted bun with some cheese and a good-old fashioned burger.

So you go. Not to any old place.

And you order a burger that looks like this...

THE BURGER (photo courtesy of MOH)

It's not any old burger. It's the Toro Burger (Santa Ana location) TRUFFLEcheeseburger. And it was delicious. But what is better than a juicy burger, with an absolute divine truffle topping?

Tater tots - cheesy style.

See the cheese on top?!?! How can you resist? (photo courtesy of MOH)

It's lightly fried taters with a generous drizzle of some weird cheesy mixture that reminds you of velveeta, but tastes like it's laced with some kind of crack, because all you can do is keep eating it, keep licking it off your fingers/fork, feel guilty about, yet keep eating. It's a vicious, delicious cycle.

This place killed it for me. MOH and I came to Toro Burger and this little unassuming burger joint hosts probably the best burger I've had. The burger is juicy, cooked properly, and their menu entertains very unique combinations (they also have a ramen burger, and next on my list - the ghost pepper burger).

But the bad thing about a place like this is the feeling you get afterward. No, not the "man, did I just down a day's worth of calories in one sitting?" No, that's a given, most likely. I'm talking about the feeling of wishing you had more.

But you can't bring yourself to go back. So you try to make do and try to make something that sorta reminds you of the foodie heaven you experienced not so many days ago.

So I attempted to make tater tots. There's something weird about tater tots - they're just potatoes, but something about the texture makes tater tots really fun to eat. Maybe it's the feeling that when you bite into one, and look at the half-eaten tater tot, you see a little mini tot inside.

Either way, they're fun to eat, and surprisingly easy to make. If you want them to taste like the restaurant, you need to deep fry them. Or leave them in the oven, rolling it over a few times to get the sides to crisp up.

And voila, you've got cheesy tots!

These look more like asteroids rather than tater tots, but I promise you, they're really tasty.

Making these little balls of carb-y goodness were super fun. Especially if you like working with food like rolling dough and making balls. Try it! Compared to their glamoured up fried-cousins, baked tater tots are delicious, can have great flavor, and can be infused with whatever cheesy goodness you like. I did sharp cheddar and pepper jack and both turned out good. I'm thinking a soft cheese would be phenomenal though (maybe mozzarella).



Ingredients:
- 3 large russet potatoes
- your favorite spices
- cheese, cubed preferably, or compacted into tiny balls
- olive oil

Protocol (for a 1 inch diameter tater tot):
1. Preheat oven to 425 degree F
2. Boil skinned potatoes in water for 15 minutes
3. Grate potatoes (try to grate while it's slightly warm, as it will be easier to mold into balls) and season generously with salt, pepper, paprika or other spice you would like in the tater tots
4. Roll grated potatoes into tiny balls (however big you want your tater tots to be)
5. Take each rolled ball into your hand, one by one, and smash it into a flat disk
6. Insert the cheese ball/cube into the center (the more compact the cheese ball, the better) and cover the cheese with the grated potato (similar to covering a ball within a larger ball) - make sure the potato mixture is compact and not loose or it will fall apart in the oven
7. Take olive oil and place 1/4 cup in a bowl - dip your finger into oil, and coat your hands with the oil - roll each tater tot with your hands to make sure the tot has a light olive oil coating (you can use a brush if you don't want to get your hands dirty)
8. Bake tater tots on a flat baking sheet for 15 minutes, and flip over the tot and bake for another 15 minutes
9. Take out once brown (usually after a total of 30 minutes) and enjoy hot or wait a bit to cool!

June gloom slump - sending happy vibes

It's the start of July and Southern California is slowly losing the "June Gloom" feel. The weather is beautiful and it's nice for a change to have clouds rolling in with little sun, but these last few months have been really stressful.

June Gloom over Seal Beach (photo courtesy of Darkest Tree)

I'm starting to hopefully wind down my graduate career (fingers crossed), but the idea of the "next game plan" is a little daunting to say the least. My lab just put out a grant renewal which was really hard on our little lab - imagine two main people running around like two headless chicken scrambling to put together figures and preliminary data. Yikes! Sleep has been evading me and a majority of the time, I think I could successfully pass as a zombified freak. Just in time for Comic-Con too.

It's over though. But it was a painful set of stressful weeks with one horrible week of bad digestion problems. I'm not going to go all TMI on you, but it was bad. June was hard, but the sky is clearing up, the weather is looking more "Socal," and there's a silver lining appearing... hopefully.

I never quite understood the power of positive thoughts. I'd talk to friends and family and always hear the "keep your head up," or "stay positive!" but never got it. I say those things too, but they're more for inspiration. You say that kind of stuff to people to make them feel better, hoping that their luck does turn up. But do happy thoughts, good meditation vibes, or positive chakra really translate into something physically changing in your body or brain? Or is it more placebo effect?

It turns out that thinking happy thoughts, or remembering happy memories actually can reverse the negative effects of stress... At least in mice.

Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology published a recent article in Nature documenting a phenomenal finding. In this study, Ramirez and colleagues optically stimulated "happy memories" into the memory specific region of the brain (dentate gyrus) within mice subjected to stressful environment, and discovered a reduction and amelioration of stress-induced behaviors and cell loss. Mice that normally experience stressful environments display different behaviors such as anhedonia (lack of pleasure), less mobility, and even cell loss. All these behaviors were restored to levels similar to control mice when happy memories were reactivated.  The researchers also identified the pathway responsible for mediating the control of maintaining depressive symptoms as  network connecting the memory-rich dentate gyrus with the more emotional regions of the brain like the nucleus accumbens and hypothalamus. By stimulating the dentate gyrus and reactivating the "happy network" of cells, depressive symptoms and protection against cell loss were kept at bay.

It's an interesting possibility, and definitely something that we can all take to heart. I always try to tell people to think positive, but implementing it myself is hard. As a "glass is half empty" type of person, it's hard for me to try to maintain positivity when stress hits you hard. But finding moments of happiness may just help reduce the impact of stress on your life (and hopefully, ward off those wrinkles on your face!).

 If you think back on rough patches in your life, what really helped pull you out of the rut? It might have been the kind words of family, a little "get well" card from your BFF, recalling a fond memory of the last time you were happy, or even looking forward to something after this stressful moment in your life. One of my major motivators? My family and MOH.

Blissfully happy in Irvine (photo courtesy of MJD)

That and finding my happy place in my mind when I'm running.

Sending good vibes to everyone on this Sunday - enjoy the remainder of your weekend! Until next time, happy eating!

References:
Ramirez, S et al., 2015. Activating positive memory engrams suppresses depression-like behavior. Nature. June 18: 522(7556):335-9.

What to do with my plain yogurt... home-made granola

Lately I've been eating lots of oatmeal. It's super easy to make in the morning and jam packed with tons of good nutrients. And the great bowel movements I get are an added plus!

My favorite way to eat oatmeal so far is cold. I like to put in a 1:1 ratio of almond milk to oatmeal and drizzle a little agave nectar, and top with fresh fruit. Then leave it in the fridge overnight and voila - you have a quick, hearty breakfast before you start your work day. It's great for me because I'm super lazy and hate having to wash the little sauce pot that I normally use for hot oatmeal.

But what if you're not into oatmeal and all its gushy, mushy goodness? If you're a texture kind of person, get your oatmeal fix by making granola! No, I'm not talking about granola from the store - I'm talking about home-made granola adjusted to the sweetness level you like.

Raisin and date granola - a little on the chewy side, but great with plain yogurt!

MOH and I have been trying to eat healthier. I'm hoping that this isn't one of our sweeping declarations that only gets implemented once and never again (like our "post-exam" sushi making nights that happened once in sophomore year of undergrad), but rather a long term, permanent fitness goal. One of the ways we're trying to get healthier is reducing our sugar intake. Oreos are out of our apartment, and the only cookies we're making now are ten-grain, minimal sugar babies (still good, but healthier!).

This granola recipe is super easy, modifiable, and healthy. What more can you ask for? I like having a minimal sweetness to the granola, so I used honey or agave nectar. No other sugar needed (except from the dried fruits). If you like  granola, this is something you should try - it saves on money and you can make it exactly how you like it.

Hope everyone's enjoying the long weekend! The weather here in Socal is beautiful - MOH and I went on a great scenic hike at Santiago Oak Regional Park in Orange. The park was beautiful and lush with green.

Raisin-date granola (I recently tried coconut-raisin granola and it was pretty good too, so feel free to experiment with different dried fruits!)
Ingredients:
- 2 cups of granola
- 1 1/2 tablespoon of honey (less or more depending on how sweet you like it)
- 4 dates chopped finely (the coarser you chop, the higher likelihood of having clumpy, chewy granola bits, so your call)
- 1/2 cup of raisins

Protocol:
1. Mix in dry ingredients (everything except honey)
2. Add in honey and mix with your hands until fully coated
3. Spread on baking sheet and bake at 350 for 15  minutes until lightly brown
4. Let cool on rack and then eat! Store granola in fridge for freshness.

Coffee-laced chili = yum

I love hot sauce. It goes on anything ranging from starches like rice, proteins like eggs, or carb-y starches like beans. Whether it's Tabasco, Sriracha, or Tapatio, hot sauce has a special place in my heart. And just because I'm getting older, experiencing more bouts of "heartburn-like" symptoms, I still like to do at least a dash of hot sauce on my food. It just makes it more tasty, even if my gut sometimes feels like it's on fire.

So this weekend when MOH and I went to the Farmer's Market, we ventured to a cute little stand called Dadman Farms. Their signature sauces are part of a line called "Nukeyerbungo" and feature a range of mild to spicy hot sauces that are similar in taste to the tangy sour Tabasco sauce. The owner was super nice and really passionate about hot sauce.

Of all the sauces there, one sauce that really caught my eye was their signature "coffee-laced" Chiletenango Sauce No. 4.

It sounds strange - coffee? In a hot sauce? But the coffee offers a great smokey after taste that gives the sauce a little bit of a kick. It goes great with eggs, but AMAZING with chili.

The stars were aligned it seemed - this weekend's weather was a little more muggy than usual, not to mention cold. So chili and cornbread was a great warm treat.

Chili for me is just something I throw together using residual ingredients and almost-going-to-expire beans (I know, MOH, I buy in bulk and forget these cans exist!). I had a little tomato sauce leftover from tacos, so just threw in the remaining sauce, some chopped tomatoes, onions, corn, and beans (pinto and black), and just let the mixture simmer over a medium heat. For seasoning, I just added some cumin, cayenne, paprika, onion powder, and garlic salt. People like differing levels of spice, so I just like to season accordingly (but be careful because too much cumin will come off too bitter). Then I topped it off with the hot sauce for the extra kick! It was a super hearty soup that went fantastic with some corn bread. The hot sauce adds this slow burn at the end that has a little extra caffeine to rejuvenate your spirits!

Until next time, happy eating!

Cornbread recipe without cornmeal or cornbread instant mix! (adapted from this recipe):

Ingredients:
- Canned corn (I used half a can, but feel free to add more)
- 1 1/2 cups of flour (gluten free or 10 grain are good - 10 grain will be more gritty but equally delicious)
- 1/8 cup truvia
- 1 tbsp baking power
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup almond milk
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup of Smart Balance butter blend
- 1/8 cup of honey
- cheddar cheese (optional)

Protocol:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degree F
2. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl
3. Add in wet ingredients into bowl and mix thoroughly (add cheese last)
4. Pour into a pan (I did a loaf, but muffins or a square pan would be fine)
5. Bake for 20 minutes or until brown

Short break - will be back!

Hi all,

I've been posting fewer and fewer posts here and I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm still alive, just behind on a couple of things. Life's been getting busier, and as a result, I haven't been doing things that I love (writing about science, experimenting, or even sketching), but I'm trying to manage my life better, promise!

Posts will still come every so often, just not in as great frequency as it used to be.

In the mean time, everyone keep eating well, staying healthy, and keep happy thoughts along!

I miss sketching...

Food fun ventures part 2

MOH and I just celebrated our 9 year anniversary - 9 years. Time flies.

Whenever an anniversary rolls around, MOH and I like to reminisce about how we used to be. You think back and realize just how far you've come on a physical, mental, or in this instance, foodie standpoint. We remember back when we first met - our go-to surviving college student meals consisted of packing sandwiches with all the fixings (wheat bread with cheese slices, romaine or cabbage, and ham) and dinners with either ramen or baked goods (fish sticks, pizza rolls, chicken nuggets). A "healthy" meal to us was stir frying green cabbage with eggs and topping off this healthy mix with thai chili sauce. Serve over white rice, and dinner was served! Now, we're making better attempts to eat healthier and have sworn off using the thai chili sauce on all occasions except as a dipping sauce for samosas or eggrolls.

As a throw back to our younger days, MOH and I decided to venture into the Anaheim Packing House, a collection of more than 20 old school meets modern food vendors and restaurants all located conveniently inside a giant warehouse. Many of these restaurants take food classics and put a twist on the favorites. Each restaurant has its own autonomy with decor and range from old parlor feel to the up scale bar scene.

Inside decor of the packing house - beautifully lit, lots of spaces to eat and hang out

Little vendors strewn throughout the district including this "springtime stand" featuring easter eggs, bath towels, and specialty floral soaps

Of the 20+ restaurants located in this food district, where do MOH and I beeline to? Perhaps the gourmet dark chocolate shop? Or the tea vendor with the monkey picked oolong sampler? Nah, neither of those places catch our eye this time.

The restaurants all vary with some specializing in just ice cream bars, or dark chocolate mixes, or Japanese hot-pot

We decide to keep stay true to our classy selves and head straight to the grilled cheese bar of course.

The Black Sheep Grilled Cheese Bar (GBC) is this cute little mini-diner that specializes exclusively in grilled cheese delights. The menu lists about 10 items, everything grilled dairy.

MOH and I tried their signature #1, which consisted of fromage blanc cheese (super creamy and nutty), caramelized onions, roasted tomatoes and pesto. 

This place will creep up on you. We ordered one sandwich to share and wished that we ordered two. The sandwich is surprisingly creamy but not heavy. The cheese proportion was perfect with the bread. I normally don't like cheese too creamy (sharp cheddar is my favorite), but this cheese was so soft against the crunchy bread that it just worked. The onions and pesto were really good contrasts to the otherwise nutty bread as well.

As if our arteries weren't already shot from eating cheesy goodness, we decided to do more damage by ordering a side of fish and chips from good 'ol Chippy's.

For some reason, ordering fish and chips is something that I'm always drawn to whenever I see it on a menu. I didn't eat it much as a kid but the fried flaky, white fish and tartar sauce combo is one of my favorite things to eat. I think it's the guilty pleasure of eating deep-fried goodness because I have a similar love-hate relationship with french fries (something I always order, even if it's at a fancy restaurant where it goes by the name "pommes frites").

We ordered their sampler of fish, calamari and fries and the size was pretty decent for the price.

I sometimes encounter fish 'n chips having too much batter compared to fish, but the fish to fried dough ratio was really good. The fish was a good size and the calamari had a good bite to it (not too soft or chewy). The fries were sadly, just fries, but the fish was really delicious.

We tried to sample more places, but our tummies just couldn't handle it (although we were seriously considering getting more grilled cheese). Instead of getting dessert, MOH and I opted to just save dessert for next time. There's a cute little popsicle bar that does creamy/fruity variations of ice cream bars that I think we'll try for next time.

The trip to the Packing House was a great success - MOH even walked out with a cute little friend and we spent our special day happily eating grilled cheesy goodness. Fried fish didn't hurt either.

Until next time, happy eating all!