Mmm breakfasts

Cinnamon fruit filled omelet


Melty apple English muffin


Microwaveable mean green breakfast cake


PB banana chocolate chip breakfast cookie


Protein-packed pumpkin pie breakfast cookie


So many breakfast cookies, including Joy the Baker's vegan carrot cherry breakfast cookie:


Salted pecan pumpkin pancakes

Day (break) & moon(cakes)

I woke up, cold. Is it fall already? I like the fresh morning air, but I'm typically cold. I headed to the gym. Every Friday has been the same and I haven't missed one Friday yet: 24 SET and TurboKick.

24SET is starting to become more familiar and bearable. I just power through it and feel great afterwards.

TurboKick was so much better. I was more present and active. I even got that consecutive knee and back kick that was trouble for me.

I came home and decided that since I was still sweaty, I would get my 30 Day Shred done for the day. Done.

I ventured out with mom to pick up mooncakes, which were all wrong. We had to go through all of them to find the mixed nuts or five kernel. Apparently they're more expensive than the mung bean kind that they accidentally included.

Fillings:

• Lotus seed - traditional, expensive
• Red bean/mung bean
• Five kernel - filled with nuts, seeds, and dried fruits as well as jerky
• Durian - ate this; typically mixed with a paste, but I had it full-on and in a snowskin like crust. Because it's perishable, it had to be frozen. Since it's only durian, the filling gets icy in between little crevices

Crusts:

• Chewy - the usual type I see, which is Cantonese
• Flaky - prevalent in Taiwan
• Snowskin - made of glutinous rice flour, like mochi

Mooncakes also have egg yolks inside, either one or two. They make vegetarian ones without egg yolks though.

My aunt told me that she made some once, but in order to make it, you have to prep the sugar months in advance.

Okay, the big question is Why are we talking about mooncakes?

We are celebrating the mid-autumn festival, which is partly a harvest festival.

The other part is a story of our earth and its 10 suns. They alternated in heating the sun until all of them met and scorched the earth. We were saved by a man who shot down 9 of the 10 moons. He attained an elixir of life that another man tried to take. The other man kills the first man, but his wife drank the elixir and floated to live in the moon.

As for moon cakes, they were baked as a means of communication between rebellion leaders during the mid-autumn festival. The Chinese were unhappy about being ruled by Mongolians so they planned their attacks with messages on the cakes.

Hm, I thought it would be more interesting. Oh well. I want a snowskin mango mooncake that was advertised on TV, but it's only available in... Singapore? I haven't seen a lot of unique mooncakes around here though. :/

Get 'er did.

I finally submitted my before picture to M.C. Barao's 30 Day Shred challenge. My cousin took it on my iPhone and the front picture is horrendous. I like the back side a little more so I'll share that.


Since I'm addressing my September goals, here's my anticipated reading list.

• September 1-5 The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
• September 6-11 The Sweet Life In Paris
• September 12-18 Room

Yes, yoga. I found out that I can get a week of free yoga at some studios around here so there I go.

Eats:

Chobani 0% honey to start the day. Not a fan. Not much honey flavor. Hope the Trader Joe brand is better. I'll get Fage next time since it has honey on the side. Mmm.

(image from Chobani)

After my nerve-wrecking interview, I went to Layer Cake Bakery, which was like 2 steps away, and tried a canele. It was not good - the spongy inside was too rubbery as was the outside. To make up for it, I ate the top of a red velvet cupcake and that was awesome. I devoured it so no pics. :( My nerves were still shaky after awhile.

Not a great feeling, but you know I had a good feeling last time and that didn't work out.

I went to the farmer's market for cukes for my green juices. I visited the food trucks and wanted to get one of the salmon grilled cheese sandwiches from SlapFish Truck, but held out. Maybe next time.

I went to Sprout's for a can of beets and some carrots in hopes of making a different kind of juice later this week.

Also nabbed some Yogi Green Tea Blueberry Slim Life because of this post.


I stopped by Empanada's Place and got an amazing criolla empanada because it's the typical one. I ate half and saved the other half for my cousin. This was delicious and the ladies were super nice. Oops, they said they'd give me a free dulce de leche cookie but forgot - I would've paid for it.


But the best thing ever was lunch: Blogilates' pho. I usually don't eat so many noodle soups nor do I enjoy pho that much on a normal basis, but geez, this was delicious. I'm having the other half of my Miracle Noodles and can of chicken stock tomorrow. I only used 1 cup/half can of the stock.


On the agenda tonight:

• Go to yoga.
  
• Buy spinach and applesauce.
• Drink green juice.
  
• Scan my CBEST.
• Apply for 2 jobs.