I am completely out of flour and the only store that sells whole wheat will be closed until next Friday! So I decided to just do something simple and delicious and eat a yummy bowl of sliced strawberries with thick strawberry cream/milk :). 

Simple Noodle Soy Sauce Soup

Today I made a simple noodle soup. It is easy, does not require a lot of ingredients, and can be altered and adjusted in so many different ways.

Noodle Soy Sauce Soup

Ingredients

-2 cups instant rice noodles   -1 cup spinach, shredded or bok choy, divided into separate stalks  -5 tbsp. light soy sauce    –1/8 cup peanuts   -2 carrots sliced in long thin strips  -1/2 tsp. salt   -2 cups water  -1 tsp ground red pepper  -1 cup peas (or soy beans)
-other vegetables can be substituted but will change calorie amounts.
Instructions
-Bring water to a boil and add all ingredients except 1/8 cup peanuts and 2 carrots sliced in long thin strips.
-once everything is cooked add the rest of the ingredients and simmer, stirring until fully mixed into the soup.

Makes: 7 cups
1 cup is  app. 83 calories. (If there is a fairly proportional amount of each ingredient)

Hiking

    I have been trying to find more things to do, besides gym and hanging out at my house, so I have spent a long time looking things up and finding places to do it in Kunming. I am going to TRY doing at least one thing outside a week. I found this nice mountain called 长虫山 which literally translates to Long Bug Mountain. It turned out that you can actually see the mountain from outside of my house! (I somehow never noticed it). Everything worked out really well with my first attempt at getting out of the house. I went with Jesse and Aleashea, she is Jesse's sister and my best friend, we didn't get lost, had a lot of fun, and the mountain turned out to be quite nice!

 Me and Jesse :)

                                                                              Aleashea

A tomb for ancestor worship

Hehe if only the people who left it new what that said xD For those who can't see it clearly, the paper that they are putting next to the tombs says "hell bank note"...that's not very optimistic...

Beautiful view! There was also a little stone table and 4 stools in the ground to sit on so I will be going back again for a picnic!

         Trail mix i brought :). I had dried dates, pumpkin seeds, almonds, sunflower seeds and      raisins (peanuts are good but I didn't feel like adding them)

                    A stray cat. I thought it was really pretty, but didn't have any food left to feed it.

Need to edit!

Wow lol I really need to learn to proof read better! Some of my posts are quite full of mistakes! I will get to it eventually ;).
Today I had a great time hiking (which I will post pics of tomorrow) and was quite satisfied by the quality of the horror movie The Descent that I watched with Jesse, my boyfriend.  I LOVE scary movies and am trying to watch 100. I think The Descent will be number 71 =D.  Tomorrow I also plan to make a rice noodle soup and possibly some sort of dessert. Just to give a little explanation; I am trying to make some sort of dessert every Saturday and a breakfast on Sundays.

Hot Chocolate

I noticed today that my coconut milk was espessially thick and creamy after being chilled in the fridge. I then decided, you know what? I really want to put a dollap of that on a bowl of fresh strawberries....BUT sadly I do not have any delicious, fresh strawberries; but I still really want to put a dollap of it on SOMEthing it just looked too perfect. So I decided to make some vegan hot chocolate =).




To make vegan hot chocolate you need these ingredients.


Sugar-I think powdered works the best
100% Cocoa powder
Soy milk powder or ,if you are not a vegan, regular milk powder

I am  not going to give an exact recipe measurement because different soymilk powders have a different percentage of soy milk and fillers and different people like their hot chocolate to taste differently. I make mine by taking a container or tupperwear to mix the ingredients first. I add the most soymilk powder, then a little less cocoa and then less sugar. After I mix it into the container really well, I put a tiny bit into a cup, add water, and see what needs to be increased. After I get it the way  I want it, I then have a nice large amount made up into the tupperware to make hot chocolate out of again later.
After I have prepared my cup I dollap just a few small scoops of the coconut milk into it and enjoy :). The coconut milk does a decent job of immitating the effects of melted marshmellows by adding some smooth creaminess to your hot chocolate.

Obviously hot chocolate is not something you want to indulge in too much but enjoying a nice steaming cup of home made hot chocolate isn't without benefits.

1. The pure cocoa powder has a lot of benefits for the body including iron and antioxidants.
2. The soy powder contains protein and other nutrients
3. The coconut milk, while high in fat, only needs to have a small amount added for a nice effect and does contain a lot of healthy fats.
4. I don't know if this is true for everyone, but a hot cup of chocolate milk really fills me up for a little while and it makes me feel warm and cozy on a cold day :).

My motto is this: Eat as healthy as you can normally so when you get a craving for something (like the chocolate cravings I have been having!) there will be nothing wrong with indulging. Also as you become healthier you realize you don't need to eat as much to get the enjoyment.
Savor it. Don't choke it down.

Some Pictures

I decided to go out and have my sister take some pictures of me. I thought these two turned out pretty nice :)

Vegetable Stew

Yesterday for Dinner I made a Vegetable Stew. I have always loved this dish and it is great for social cooking (cooking with a friend or family member) as it is does not take a lot of rushing around and mostly involves cutting up the vegetables.

Vegetable Stew

Ingredients

-1/4 cup of olive oil  -1 medium onion, diced -3 carrots, cubed  -1 ½ bulbs of garlic, grated  -1 cup of water  -5 tomatoes, diced  -2 red bell peppers, diced -2 cups of green beans  -2 zucchini, sliced into half circles  -2 potatoes, cubed  -1/2 cup of mushrooms, sliced (Pretty much any kind of mushrooms will work for this stew so just experiment with your favorites :) )  -1/4 cup of red wine  -1 ½ tsp salt  -1 tsp pepper  

Instruction
-Heat ¼ cup olive oil in large pot and add 1 ½ bulb of garlic, 1 onion, 3 carrots, and 1 cup of mushrooms, cook for 5 minutes.

-Add 1 cup water and bring to a boil, add 5 tomatoes, 2 red bell peppers and ¼ cup of red wine. Cook for 30 minutes

-Cook 2 cups of green beans, strain then add to a bowl; cook 2 zucchini, strain and add to bowl with green beans; cook 2 potatoes in salted water, strain and add the green beans, zucchini and potatoes to the pot.

Cut the zucchini into round slices and cut those in half

The green beans are best when at about this size.

-Add 1 ½ tsp salt and 1 tsp pepper and cook for 15 minutes.

Makes app. 12 cups  

1 cup is app. 105 calories

Tons of flavor and nutrients and low in calories. I love eating mine with crumbled up crackers!