Detox Week 3, Day 18

Hello! Time for some food porn! I totally dropped my camera a few minutes ago and freaked out. I thought I had broken it and lost all these great pics of food! Luckily I didn't break it as it still works. There are a few little cracks and dents though. :( I may have to shop for a new camera in the near future if it starts shutting down. Hopefully that won't happen as I love this camera.

Today was a busy day as I had to drive Grandma to a few appointments and then take her home to Torrance which I don't mind one bit because she lives around the corner from the 99 Ranch market! I only had $20 on me but was able to bring home this:


yams, chinese eggplant, broccoli, celery, bananas, baby bok choy, water chestnuts, vanilla essence, baby corn, golden plum sauce, wasabi paste and korean bbq sauce. But wait, you're thinking...I missed one!


That would be this intriguing item. Sweet Potato Noodles! I have no idea what this tastes like as I've never seen it before. I believe the ingredients are just sweet potato starch and water and the noodles are green! Weird. Can't wait to try it. I'm imagining a stir fry with peanut sauce or something...

Today's eats:

Breakfast: granola with soymilk (not pictured as I had to eat and run!)
Snack #1: a banana and a half (eaten in the car while driving)


Lunch: Oriental chopped salad. Green leaf, romaine, spinach, red peppers, shredded carrots, mandarins and almonds tossed in a sesame miso dressing recipe which I got from You Are What You Eat cookbook.


Snack #2: a small serving of brown rice pudding. I was so mesmerized by last night's rice pudding that I had to make some. This is Gillian's healthier version though which is only half as sweet as last night's pudding. It's made with brown rice, cinnamon, lemon juice, lemon zest, raisins, brown rice syrup and soymilk. It's good but only slightly sweet. I don't mind that though. It still feels comforting and is a nice dessert.


Dinner: Beautiful veggie stirfry with broccoli, baby bok choy, carrots, red peppers, zucchini, baby corn, water chestnuts and onions. I made it healthy by using only a little soy sauce diluted with water.


To go with the stirfy I made this korean bbq baked tofu. I marinated thick slices of extra firm tofu with 1/2 water and 1/2 korean bbq sauce. I also had brown rice with my meal.

Veg friendly finds at the asian grocery.

I took grandma to a doctor's appointment today and after I dropped her off home in Torrance I swung by the 99 Ranch Market around the corner from her house. I love going to asian markets. Whenever my mom goes, I always tag along. So many interesting things to look at and buy. I only had 20 bucks on me so I couldn't go crazy but I think I did pretty well for the amount of money I had. Here's my haul.

In the front: broccoli, red bean cakes, soybeef jerky, chinese hot mustard, two kinds of tofu, firm and extra firm. In the back: baby bok choy, cans of mock meat, almond cookies, vegetarian mushroom oyster sauce and potato fries.

I know I should be buying more produce than packaged products but these things are what lures me into these stores! You'll see what I mean as you scroll down.


These are so yummy. They are a tender flaky pastry filled with a generous amount of dense red bean paste sweetened with sugar. So good. I just had one at lunch. *smacks lips*


Soy beef jerky! I got this honkin' package for $2.89. What a deal! I tasted one. They are very chewy and more sweet than salty. Not bad at all.


Ingredients for the jerky. Gotta check labels. Just because it says 'vegetarian' doesn't always mean it's vegan. So after a quick perusal of the ingredients, I found no dairy or eggs in them so into my shopping cart it went. Hey and look! Free flossing pick included!


Mock Chicken and Mock Popk!!! (I'm sure they mean Pork!) I have to admit, I bought these for the novelty. I usually make my own mock meat so I don't necessarily need to buy stuff like this. But I couldn't help buying them just because. I'll probably use them in a stir fry with some kind of sauce.


Ingredients are pretty much the same for the mock chicken as well as the mock pork. By the way, these canned mock meats are pretty high in fat because oil is added to them.


Mushroom stir fry sauce. Really good stuff. I like to use this in veggie stir frys. I didn't take a pic of the ingredients but in case you're wondering they are: Mushroom extract, salt, sugar, modified starch, caramel color, hydrolysed vegetable protein and sodium benzoate.


Thousand layer cookies?? Don't know about that. But I do know that I love anything with almonds in them.


Ingredients for almond cookies. I bought these because they were practically the only cookie on the shelf without butter, eggs and milk. I think asian food companies like to put 'milk powder' in everything!

So that was my asian grocery adventure. I would love to have gotten more items like the vegetarian ham tube (which was $16!!), more bean cakes and other exotic items. I plan to use the tofu, broccoli, bok choy and the stir fry sauce for tonight's dinner. Will try to photograph it and post it in tomorrow's blog entry.