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I have been on a fitness craze recently. I love dancing (with xbox kinect, Dance central and Just Dance) and P90x with my brother. I can work out for about 5.5 hours straight and still have energy for MORE! I am addicted. So saying all of this, I  need to consume protein to help build my ‘muscles’ I haven’t yet because I dislike the taste of protein powders…

I went online and did some research for protein bars, i took the ingredients and made my own insane recipe. Its insane, because it doesn’t taste like some health food bland blah! It tastes REALLY GOOD!

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoon of chia seed, soaked in water (yield about half a cup)
• 8 table
• spoon of chunky peanut butter
• 2 tablespoon of whole brown flax seed
• 1/4 cup of slivered almonds (toasted with NO oil)
• 1/8 cup of cacao nibs (for the yummi chocolatey flavour – I vitamixed so it has a thinner consistency
• 2 table spoon of unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1 small lindt dark chocolate 90% bar
• 3 tablespoon of hemp hearts
• 8 table spoon of grounded flax (moisture absorber)
• 2 scoops of protein powder (I used pea protein)

Steps:

• Combine all the wetish ingredients in a large large bowl: peanut butter, soaked chia seed
• Add the dry ingredients: whole flax seed, cacao nibs, shredded coconut, almonds, hemp hearts, and protein powder
• Leave in the fridge for a coupole of hours (… i have found since adding the whole flax seeds it somehow produced its own flax seed oil, so its a bit oily)
• Remove from the fridge and add grounded flaxseed 2 table spoons at a time until its a non sticky, non oily, non gooey, non liquidly consistency
• Roll them into balls, mine are about 1.5 inches in diameter.
• And coat them with hemp seeds.

And here they are!

Nutritional info to come…

I have been meaning to make a batch of Vegan cupcakes ever since my co-worker Tom gave man a vegan chocolate cupcake from OMG baked goodness in Toronto.

Yes that was about 3 weeks ago… I haven’t had a moment of time to do so.

I did some research and found this recipe at Allrecipe.com but had to substituted some ingredients for ones I am NOT allergic (or intolerant to) – You can surely try out the original one for yourself. I am sure it tastes fantastic!

Ingredients (of the original recipe)

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
• 1 cup water

Ingredients (of my recipe with alterations)

• 1 cups teff flour
• 1/2 cup of rice flour
• 1/4 cup of raw sugar
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/3 cup virgin coconut oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
• 1 cup soy milk

1. Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl and sift out larger chunks.

2. Combine all wet ingredients and mix.

3. Combine both bowls together and mix it until its the consistency of frosting.

4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and let it bake for about 20 minutes, or until the cupcake rises and crackles.

This recipe yields about sad cupcakes or 7 happier ones. I used 2/3 of my batter with my version of the recipe and the last 1/3 i added some organic roasted almond butter.

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The making of homemade Lara Bars

Welcome to week 1 of my ‘new lifestyle’ With a total of 10 pounds lost this week… its a big change.

So with my discovery of my huge food intolerance to 210 items. I have been forced to cut out many things in my life. Its hard working on set and seeing co-workers eat snacks and foods i never had to think twice about. Now I do. I have removed gluten, sugar, and dairy from my diet (along with many other things… the internet would crash if i listed it all)

To yield 10 “Lara Bars”
- 20-30 prunes
- 1/4 cup of slivered almonds
- 1/4 cup of cranberries
- 1/8 cup of goji berries
- 1/8 cup of cashew (which i discovered this week i am allergic to)
- 1/8 cup of walnuts
- 1/8 cup of toasted white sesame seeds

MUSH everything in a large bowl. I used a spatula to mush the prunes and added from ‘smallest’ seeds/berries to largest. I folded the larger nuts in so they wouldn’t all crappy.

I have two small pound cake pans, that i coated in a saran wrap. Then I put half of the yummi goodness in one and the other half in another

I divided each pan into 5 ‘bars’ Then packaged each up with some parchment paper and saran wrap.

It was a WINNER! They taste amazing! I love them.

Unfortunately I had half a bar and had a major sugar high for 45 minutes (and my body temperature went super high ). So all 9 bars were finished by my mom.

I can’t have sugar… or sugary ‘dried’ fruits…

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Happy birthday my love!!! May there be many many many more

Its a carrot banana pecan cake and boy was it delicious!

Smothered with lemon creme cheese frosting with lemon zest and honey and sandwiched between butter candied pecans.

I decorated it.

It didn’t’ last long, we ate it almost within 10 minutes of finishing the cake. I wish i could relive it.

I am no cake decorator like my darling cousin jenn (www.jenniferchao.com) but i can say i made this with love and decorated with care.  I had a great time making this for my sweet sweet love Shawn

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Mom will celebrate her sweet birthday tomorrow. Alex my brother ordered her cake from Chalk river. its a cute lady bug. We ate the cake already. Its so cute. Ah

Happy Birthday Mom.
We love you!

Here you go, my first attempt.

We can’t succeed unless we try right? Well.. I tried. And it is hard. Took me about 30 minutes to make that teeny tiny square… My mom helped iron and cut the pieces I sewed it together.

Thank goodness for Doloris (Shawn’s mom) who took a peak at my sewing machine weeks before.. or this sad attempt would have never happened… Boy was there many things wrong with that picture, cheap thread, wrong needle (16.. thick enough for corduroy) threaded wrong, wrong stitch tension, wrong foot, wrong stitch. Just plain wrong. And it didn’t help that i took the machine apart 3 years ago, and just put it back together….

Don’t ask, I am Chinese, I assume I can disassemble it and like my family in Taiwan does… put things back together, lickity split… NOPE…

Ask me about…..
The piano
My brothers bike
Our VCR
My mac laptop (.. such a triple tear moment)

Doloris also made me that lovely quilt for my 29th birthday. Read about it here.

One day I will make something… the problem is it takes so dang long. I will keep trying.

I have all the squares ironed and cut out already (well mom does… Thank you!) I just need to stitch them together, iron,… forget it

Until next year… I will posted my finished … NAPKIN TEAR

Happy Birthday Sherald (Shawn’s papa).

We celebrated his Birthday the past past weekend. My cousin Jennifer Chao @ www.jenniferchao.com made this wonderful cake for us. Shawn had taken photos of his dad’s banjo and tada.. an edible version. It was almost WAY too goo to cut into.

It was a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and boy was it delectable.  It was enough for 4 fat people, about 10 servings. The neck was modeled in cocopuffs and rice crispy treats…

We all had 1 piece that day and another the day after, and I also brought it to a friends house to share a third of the cake with her and her husband.. So there was plenty to go around. It was very enjoyable.

If your in the Toronto (Ontario, Canada) Region and need a custom cake, check out my cousin:

Jennifer Chao
Owner of Sweet Escapes
www.jenniferchao.com
info@jenniferchao.com
(416) 602-3017

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Read about her experience here:

http://www.jenniferchao.com/tag/banjo/

I forgot to post these up. Exactly 1 month ago today was my birthday. I was born December 24, 1982. Which makes me 29 years old right now. This year was very special, it was the first time Shawn and my family celebrated my birthday today. I had a great time, because i was princess for the day. I had my favorite HOT POT, which i love… many selections of food. I also received many wonderful gifts. One i cherish the most is a quilt made by Shawn’s mom, Doloris. Other gifts i love were the boxes of chocolates in which i am pre-diabetic now…

I wouldn’t change that day for the world. It meants so much to …

Aren’t you hungry now?

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I drew this while in Alliston last week. We put up speaker systems and a wall mount up at Shawn’s, and i bought this little easel and frame… I was inspired by this one duck sitting on the mantel (one on left..) my original idea was to draw all the items on mantel… but i got distracted and this happened

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I could not ask for better weather this past weekend.Before and after thanksgiving weekend has been a bit chilly, but it was warm enough to ALMOST dip in the lake… (almost… believe me my toes were cold)

A perfect weekend to celebrate our two year anniversary. It has been an amazing ride.. time always goes so fast when we are together and im so thankful you came into my life (when you did). I edited 1200 photos down to my favorite 100 or so, and only posted one or two of each location… or else i would use my unlimited storage unit up

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