Thursday 6 December 2012

Healthy Gingerbread Muffins

Very rarely do I FEEL THE NEED to blog. Usually, I'll blog to tell you about a story or experience that happened, to unwind from studying for a couple of hours and get something off my chest. That hasn't been happening too much lately, so it'll usually take one of my friends' friendly reminders ("why haven't you blogged since OCTOBER 24?!") to kick me off my butt and inspire me to clamor up a blog post again. Not today.

A friend and I made gingerbread cookies for the children's wing of the hospital! 

I just knew that when I bit into these warm, pillowy muffins yesterday that I had to share this with you. I couldn't believe they had no added sugar and were made with whole wheat flour. I've been sort of on a gingerbread kick lately (gingerbread lattes, gingerbread cookies, gingerbread candles) and wanted to make something gingerbread flavored and also healthy so it would fill me up for breakfast (switching it up from my pumpkin flavored pumpkin oatmeal cookies, below). Enter these healthy (technically even vegan, but none of you are vegan, so whatevs) gingerbread banana muffins!

I actually came up with this recipe myself too, mixing and matching from a lot of different sources because I wanted to replace the oil and sugar in this recipe I found on Pinterest. They're made with no added sugars, bananas for sweetness, only 2 T coconut oil for moistness, half white, half wheat flour, 1/4 cup molasses, and a healthy dose of ginger (none of that half tsp crap). So put on some holiday music, light your gingerbread candle, and whip up these guilt-free gingerbread muffins!

Healthy banana gingerbread muffins
Makes 6

1/2 cup white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1 t ginger powder
1 T pumpkin pie spice (or 1 T cinnamon, 1/2 t nutmeg, and a pinch of ground cloves)

1/4 cup milk (any type, fat free, almond, soy)
1 cup mashed banana (2 medium bananas's worth? Just use however much banana you want)
1/4 cup molasses
2 T coconut oil (I got mine from Trader Joe's)

Mix together wet ingredients, minimizing lumps (I even microwaved mine for about a minute to melt the coconut oil). In a separate bowl, combine all the dry ingredients well. A little at a time, add the dry ingredients into the wet. Do not overmix. Ladle into a paper-lined muffin tin. Muffin liners should be 3/4 full. Bake at 350 for 25 min. Recipe is easily doubled.

The muffin's aren't too sweet, which is perfect for me, but if you're so inclined, add some brown sugar (1/4 cup) if you can't bear to eat your cake unsweetened.

Ate all but two before I took a picture. I'm a bad blogger. 

I've been nomming on them for breakfast the whole week and might just go back into the kitchen to make more. I'm a gingerbread freak.  

Saturday 1 December 2012

The holidays are here!

It's finally December and we can officially start celebrating the holidays like normal people, and not freakishly overzealous holiday people! Who am I kidding -- I've been using Eggnog flavored creamer, Sugar Cookie and Eggnog flavored teas (yes, teas. And they taste as weird as they sound), a gingerbread candle, and soaking up all the other holiday flavors (and hoarding pumpkin spice creamer) for weeks now. Above is the Bath and Body works candle I've been obsessed with for the past week or so. The peppermint scent (which I usually dislike) isn't strong at all and it smells more like an everlasting delicious mug of hot cocoa or a batch of chocolate cookies baking in the oven. Try it out, it's my new favorite holiday scent!

I'm a little sad that I'm going to be missing the traditions of Dec. 25 and NYE here at home this year, but I'm also excited to go back to China for winter break! It'll be the first time I've been back in two years (in winter nonetheless, we usually only go back in summer), and I'm looking forward to seeing my grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins & spouses again as I get older and prioritize them more each year. I also take it for granted that my entire family here (mom, dad, sister) can go too because there was a chance my dad wouldn't have been able to go back with us this year! My sister and I have gotten older and started living our own lives in the past few years which makes it increasingly hard to travel together as a family, so I'm still thankful we're still able to go back together this year (albeit all taking different flights, landing in Beijing on different dates, sigh). And also looking forward to doing nothing but eating, shopping, and getting pampered every day!

What else have I been up to? Trying to focus on school even though it's my least favorite topic -- cardiology. It's basically a repeat of last year now with all the drugs added in. Something about the heart just doesn't interest me as much as the other systems. Maybe it's the instructors, maybe it's the language they use (everything is a variation of increased/decreased contractility, inotropy, rate, force, volume, etc). Ooh, I just realized it all has to do with very physics oriented terms, and I hated physics! That's it! However, I did shadow a cardiologist today at the Asian American clinic we go to, and you can't deny that you're indispensable to your patients when you're a cardiologist.

I'll leave you with some pics we took over Thanksgiving break with my dad's new DSLR camera. He got hooked when he tried my uncle's and then decided to order one himself before Thanksgiving. After seeing the new James Bond flick and pregaming the big meal with our own mini-Thanksgiving lunch, we decided to take advantage of the unseasonably warm weather, dress up, make ourselves up, and do a photoshoot like our favorite bloggers! Enjoy.

 About 80% of the pictures were of my dog. But doesn't Charlie look so majestic here? Like he's on a Scottish moor? 








 Frolicking in the pine trees in our backyard, pretending we're in an AE ad. 

 "Pretend like you're emerging from the woods and see something scary!"

Tuesday 23 October 2012

Yoyo's breakfast cookies

Peanut Butter Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies (no flour or added sugars!)
These are the perfect breakfast or after dinner snack. Made with oats, pure pumpkin, applesauce, and mashed bananas for sweetness, they have no added sugars or flour. Add protein powder or flax seed for extra nutritional punch and lasting power. I grab one of these on my way out the door, and there's no need to make oatmeal and clean a bowl. And if I make the patties bigger next time, they'll fill you up until lunch! The best part, they're only about 120 calories each. 


Ingredients:
-2-3 medium bananas, mashed
-2/3 cup pure pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie mix)
-1 dish of unsweetened applesauce (about 1/3 cup)
-1/4 cup unsweetened peanut butter
-1 3/4 cup oats
-1 scoop Vanilla protein powder
-1 tsp vanilla abstract
-1/2 tsp salt
-1 T pumpkin pie spice (or a couple shakes of cinnamon and nutmeg)
-4-5 chocolate chips for the top of each one

Mix all the wet ingredients together, then add the oats and mix until everything is covered. Let the mixture rest for 10-20 minutes. Then form patties with your hands (cookies will not spread very much, so form them as big as you want to eat them.) Put 4-5 semi-sweet or white (or whatever flavor you want) chips on the top of each. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes. Mine were perfect at 25 minutes. Let rest on cookie sheet for 1 minute before transferring to wire racks to cool. This batch made about 14 cookies that I've been nomming on for the past week! The perfect protein packed grab-and-go breakfast.

Sunday 7 October 2012

Wedding weekend

This weekend I went to the wedding of one of my childhood friends, Rachel. We've known each other since 5th grade, when our parents first dragged us along to that Asian  party where all the kids were relegated to the basement. We spent that night eating, playing cards, Mafia, charades, the Sock Game, pushing each other off the couches, and laughing the night away. I still remember that night more than 12 years ago, because it was the start of a friendship that now feels more like family. We would see each other every holiday season, with Thanksgiving at their house and New Year's Eve at my house, adding/subtracting some new kids every year, but up until college, it was always the core group of my sister and I, Rachel, and our friend Andy J. After we all went to our respective colleges, our group sort of fragmented, but we would still see Rachel almost every year at Thanksgiving, which I now always associate with her house and catching up with her again.

When she wasn't at her house for Thanksgiving, she was at her then boyfriend Robert's house, and last year she and Robert got engaged! My family and I had the privileged of attending her beautiful wedding in Long Island yesterday and I could not be happier for my childhood friend who's a married woman! When I saw the gold band on her finger yesterday, I had to pinch myself that this girl that I grew up with is now married. But such is life, right? This was actually my first ever wedding, and I get the feeling I'm going to be spoiled for every wedding I attend afterwards. Not only was it my first wedding, it was my first Jewish wedding, which now I realize is very different from a traditional (aka everything I've seen on TV) Christian wedding. No exchanging of vows, no "you may now kiss the bride," no "I now pronounce you man and wife!" But nonetheless, it was obvious there was so much love between the bride and groom. I only hope I can be so lucky to find someone like they've found each other.

After the ceremony, there was cocktail hour with heavy hour d'oeuvres (including Peking Duck, assorted stir fries, sushi, egg rolls, spare ribs, bao zi, jiao zi, all sorts of Asian goodies) before we all proceeded into the banquet hall for the reception, which was absolutely gorgeous. Sky high autumnal colored centerpieces decorated the tables with floating flowers and candles surrounding them. Once we found our tables, we were ushered to the dance floor, where the party started right away! I had expected a formal dinner first followed by dancing, but I think this was a really good idea in that they staggered the dancing and three courses so we weren't stuffed to the brim by the time it was time to get on the dance floor (even though I was already stuffed from appetizers, oops). Surprisingly, they started out with the traditional Jewish dances (the Horah) and the whole lifting of the bride and groom on the chairs, which was a blast! Throughout the whole night, I had SO much fun, even though I knew like, 5% of the people there (I only knew a couple family friends there, the rest of the guests were mainly the bride and groom's extended family and their friends from Yale). I literally I can't imagine how fun a wedding would be with people I actually knew!

Here are some pics from my phone. My dad finally bought a fancy DSLR camera, so there are better pics from him, but these are all I have now.

 Driving past NYC on the way there



 Waiting for Rachel to walk down the aisle

These centerpieces probably cost a gazillion dollars each

With the beautiful bride! So much love.

After the wedding, JJ and I couldn't help fantasizing about our own weddings (our parents were like, can you just have a combined wedding plz?), but Rachel's wedding has done nothing but to build up our expectations for future weddings and spoil us for life :) All in all, I had such a fun weekend venturing into the world of weddings and celebrating such a happy occasion. I know Rachel and Robert will have a happy life ahead of them (even though I will miss her at all of our family gatherings). Mazel tov!

Sunday 30 September 2012

Recharging my batteries

It's Sunday night at 9 pm and it's the first time I've opened my laptop all weekend.

While that statement might give some a heart attack because it means I haven't studied all weekend, I sorely needed these couple days to relax and recharge before getting ready to hit the books nonstop for the next couple weeks. Last week was one of the most stressful in recent memory, and there's nothing like going home, seeing all my closest friends and family again, and getting out of Baltimore for a while to re-energize and revitalize my spirits again.

First off, remember that exam I was studying for last weekend? It was horrible. I won't bore you with the details, but everyone that I talked to felt like it was one of the hardest tests we've ever taken in medical school, and our class average dropped about 10%. I didn't do as well as I wanted, but I feel like that pretty much after every exam. I think I finally need to let go of those days when I could study two or three days before and ace a test because the bar is set so much higher. It's a sobering fact and only something that I'm starting to accept after a year, but I think it's essential so I don't get depressed after every exam. Coming to terms with medical school is a work in progress so check back with me later, but what else was there to do but move on? After a fun Monday night at the bar where everyone wanted to forget about the day's test, we still had to get through the rest of the week. Tuesday was spent hanging out with an old college buddy who came up for a surprise visit and having an impromptu reunion with my favorite London boys. I don't usually like surprises, but this was the best kind! Then it got serious the rest of the week: I sacrificed a few precious days not studying to finish writing my final research paper and then gave a 15 minute oral presentation in front of 3 judges for Medical Student Research Day on Thursday. I didn't win anything, but it was good practice presenting a scientific project. Between research and starting ICM (my clinical class where we learn how to actually see patients; this year it's at the VA, the Veteran's hospital) this week, I barely had any time to learn any of the new material (mycology), which stressed me out even more. I know, even not studying (falling behind) stresses me out, but at least it's only the beginning of the new unit and we have 3 weeks to catch up. But it's also a double edged sword because it means we have an extra week's worth of material we have to hoard in our brains before we regurgitate it for the test (we usually only have 3 weeks of material, but this time we have 4 for mycology, bacteriology, and parasitology, infamous for being the hardest course in med school). Ahhhh. And so the cycle of stress starts again.

Nonetheless, I took a much needed break this weekend by going home, hanging out with my parents and sister, getting a mani-pedi, and catching up with close friends both in MoCo and in DC. It's amazing how hanging out with your friends makes you feel good again. I came back from meeting up with a friend in Rockville feeling so refreshed and recharged, like I could handle life again after talking with her! I sorely miss that in Baltimore. At school, I feel like I rarely talk about anything other than school with my friends and it's hard to form a deeper connection with people when you're all just focused on getting through the day and studying. Even though I love having 160 people in my class who understand what I'm going through and who are on the exact same schedule as me, I sometimes feel like I'm alone in having to cope with it. Reconnecting with some of my old friends from high school, college, home, whatever, makes me realize how important it is to have a support system outside of medical school who will remind you that there's actually life outside of med school! I think I had forgotten that a little in my day-to-day grind in Baltimore, which was why this week of getting out of the city and catching up with old friends was so welcome (even at the expense of my studying. In fact, I think that should be the point.) I told my friend who surprised me on Tuesday that am I going to remember any single night of studying? No. I'm going to remember going out having a good time on a Tuesday night in Baltimore. Even though I might not get the best grades out of my school friends, I feel like there are other things that are more important in life and I'm not going to apologize for that.

I feel like my posts have been very serious/philosophical of late. As you can see, my blog is pretty personal and as you all know, I'm an (sometimes brutally) honest person, and this is is how I really feel, so why pretend otherwise? I promise I'll post more light-hearted recipes and pictures in the future, especially since it's about to be OCTOBER! Which means it's time for pumpkin season, candles, sweaters, boots, and Halloween so soon. In the meantime, here are some pics of what I've been doing recently.
 Cauliflower crust pizza in my new cast iron skillet. It tasted good, but I still have to perfect that cauliflower crust. Yes, I'm still on my diet. 
 Assembling my zucchini lasagna (again). This time with goat cheese and spinach. 
 Ta-da! Couldn't resist sneaking a piece before the pic. 
 Matcha green smoothie! A delish post-work out drink/lunch. Combine 1 small frozen banana (this gives it the creaminess and smoothie texture. Before I discovered this trick, my smoothies would always taste really icy), 1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk, 1 scoop vanilla protein powder, 1 bunch washed kale, and 1 tsp matcha green tea powder for a delicious and low cal, high protein green smoothie. 
 Matching leather jackets and boots for fall. 
 Stang of Siam, a cute little Thai place we went to to celebrate some friends' birthdays. 
Some of my favorites in DC! On the roofdeck of this new British bar on U. St. called Brixton. 
An idyllic DC street right across from my friend's new place

Next up, a family friend's wedding this weekend! So excited for the wedding (first one I'm attending), not excited for the 5 hours of studying in the car on the way there and back. 

Sunday 9 September 2012

Blog binge

I've been on a blog binge lately, namely because of the black hole of productivity known as Pinterest. I'm obsessed right now. For those stragglers who have yet to get a Pinterest account, Pinterest is basically a virtual bookmark "board." It takes users' favorite pictures and articles from around the articles and "pins" them on a giant board that you can scroll through and then re-pin to your own boards. It's kind of like Tastespotting or any of the gawker sites, except for every concept conceivable: fashion, interior decorating, travel , food, work-out tips, products, inspirational quotes with a heavy DIY influence, so you'll find a lot of "make your own prepackaged foods" or "tailor your own shirts" pins.  You know how they say that getting a Facebook notification or text is like a drug addict taking a hit nowadays because we're stimulated so much by social media? Well, Pinterest is kind of like that for me -- whenever I sign on, I feel instantly a little less stressed, a little happier because the page in front of me is full of beautiful DSLR taken images of weddings and recipes instead of antibodies and complement (currently in our immunology block). I could happily spend hours pinning those beautiful home decorating DIY's, work-out tips, sewing tutorials even though I've never stitched a pillow, upholstered a chair, or hemmed my own pants in my life (I have used some of the work-out tips though!). And then once I've pinned it to my board, I usually forget about it or never look at it again. Clicking on picture then takes you to the original article or blog it came from, so I've also discovered so many new blogs lately, and then that leads to another hour or three wasted reading through the blogs of beautiful and glamorous women, who's lives I will never have. It's fascinating and addicting in the moment (ooh, a blog for petite Asian women! a blog for decorating my future dream home! a travel blog of all the places I want to go!) but in the end, pretty pointless and even counterproductive, because not only am I wasting time in the moment, I'm also only fantasizing about a life I won't ever have the time to lead as a future doctor. But nonetheless, I've added them all to my blog roll to obsess about at a later time. If you must know, they're Gary Pepper Vintage (a gorgeous Aussie's high end fashion blog), Iowa Girl Eats (healthy, yet hearty food from a girl who shares my work out to eat philosophy), Extra Petite, and Alterations Needed (the later two have handy tips for buying clothes for petite women. I'm nowhere as small as them, but I think I'll give buying kids clothes a shot now!). And what do you know, I'm back on Pinterest to procrastinate even writing this blog post.

Here are some of the pins that I've actually used!


I spent 2 hours this morning straining the mixture with paper towels because I didn't have a strainer or a cheesecloth. But I love pumpkin creamer...and this way I can have it all year round! Though I did see it for the first time in the grocery store this morning! I grit my teeth and made the organic version myself though. 

I haven't gotten through this whole workout yet, but seeing random work out pins come up always inspires me to take a break and sweat for a couple minutes. 

I've been doing this after 45 min long cardio sessions as well. Try it! It's calming. 

Anddd some on my wish-list: 

My dream bathing suit! Don't have a spare $225 to drop on it right now though. 


Gorgeous medieval rings.

In personal news, this weekend was a quiet weekend in Baltimore for me. It's the first weekend after the test, so nothing too heavy academically (except a slew immunology lectures I have to catch up on hanging over my head), but most of my friends are home, so I've just been staying in, reading, working out (yesterday), and cooking and Pinteresting (today). This morning, I ran to the Farmer's market though and picked up a huge bag of kale (I feel like he packed 5 lbs of kale into a 2 lb bag!), sweet peppers, thai chili pappers, sweet potatoes, and an acorn squash today. Then stopped by the normal grocery store to get some eggs and cream. And it all came to around $20! Grocery success. I wasn't a total hermit and went to a friend's house on Friday night before hitting up a couple bars in Fells (the next morning, I explained to my mom the concept of a pregame. I love how my parents don't act surprised when I tell them how much I drink anymore...) and cooked zucchini lasagna with my friends before watching a really depressing war movie. But the lasagna was delicious! 

I used this recipe, but I use recipes as more of a guideline to what I need to do rather than following it to the tee. My friends brought over rainbow chard, so we chopped that up and put it in the sauce, and I added mushrooms and omitted most of the meat to make it even healthier. It was still great! 

Tomorrow it's back to the grind. Already looking forward to next weekend already! 

Saturday 25 August 2012

First week of MSII

I've been back in Baltimore for a few weeks and just finished my first full week classes as a second year medical student. The farther we get into medical school, the more we're expected to know and memorize, all building up to that far away day when we're actually supposed to take care of patients. So I think we're (or at least I) am still basking in the blissfully ignorant phase of summer/pass-fail because our first class back is our one and only pass-fail course (in contrast to all of our other classes which are still graded on the ABCD scale). The start of this year has brought about many changes--new apartment, new roommate, new friends, rediscovering old friends, new responsibilities--but in this case, it's a good thing. I'm enjoying it a lot more than I expected. It's only been the first full week of classes (after 2 days the week before), and ICM hasn't started up again, so watch me retract that statement the first week that classes start to get hard. But in the meantime, photodump of "summer" while it still lasts...

 My beautiful roommate

 Beet salad. Looks better than it tasted. 
 Congratulations on getting your first job, chika!

 New running route brought a pleasant surprise.

 New room! U lyke?
 Our med school a capella group Hippocratic Notes
 Our housewarming gift to ourselves

 Most complicated board game I've ever played (Eclipse). I'm clearly losing. 




This weekend was also filled with lots of housewarming parties (mine included) and catching up with med school friends, many who I talked to seen since the last day of school. It makes me realize how lucky I am to have a whole class full of people I can hang out with and trust. It's hard to believe that in 3 short years, we'll all be doctors (in name, at least) and in a couple years after that, we'll be attending reunions defined as specialists and surgeons, wives/husbands in tow, instead of just a couple of crazy kids who like to have fun. But right now, I'm still just enjoying the ride, and the people I have to share it with.

Wednesday 8 August 2012

Summer 2012, Part 2

 Coldplay concert at the Verizon Center...with my new floppy hat 



 Tim's gourmet burger

 Brunch at Sequoia. Better than the Yelp reviews!
 A Maryland summer isn't complete with crabs and Old Bay
 Farmer's market quiche
My first Oriole's game! It was underwhelming.  

Happy birthday to my favorite brand new RN!
Homemade pizza from scratch (dough, sauce, and toppings) and recycled squid ink chiatarra from Sotto Sopra. Delish. 




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I'm a practicing hematologist/oncologist living in sunny Southern California. I take care of sick patients during the day and try to live life to the fullest outside of work!

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