Acai...I said "Ah-Sah-EE"!

Latest obsession : Acai!

Many moons and lifetimes ago, I went to a gem of a local surfers' cafe and on a whim, ordered my first Acai bowl. It was a superior bowl of a creamy, frozen fruit blend with fresh fruit, granola, coconut flakes, and bee pollen. Acai bowls weren't popular then, so I did not encounter Acai bowls again until now.

(photo from Yelp of the delicious Acai bowl from that surfers cafe)

2015 started off with a reset in the clean eating category by doing a month of the Whole30 Program. It is pretty much a strict version of Paleo to get me back on track after the holidays. One morning, looking for breakfast alternatives, I decided to check out a grand opening of Nektar juice bar. Apparently these juice cleanse bars have have been popping up all over the place. Instead of juice though, I saw they had Acai bowls, which triggered my memory of the decadent taste of yummy goodness.. so I had to try it again. I must say I was disappointed. The Acai still tasted good, but it was expensive, small portioned, and topped with only a few slices of banana.

And so the hunt began, to find the best Acai bowl that was somewhat convenient. Granted, the original surfers' cafe was still around and according to Yelp, still has many reviews of having the best Acai bowl around... but it's a good 45 minute drive and completely out of the way. After getting a couple more expensive Acai bowls ($8-$12) at different places and still being disappointed, I came across a random happenstance of a search on Yelp and found a wholesale distributor that also was willing to sell to the general public, Acai products at wholesale prices! Oh the joy of the inner hoarder in me! Icing was added to the cake when I found that the distributor is a mere block away from my work.

And.. flash forward to the present day. I am the happy owner of an entire case(.. cause you know.. it's wholesale..), 64 packets (er...we're down to 52 packets) of frozen Acai puree to finally make my own best tasting Acai bowl. Ryan is also a fan of the Acai bowls. So that it itself, says a lot. He usually rolls his eyes at me anytime I go off on a healthy food obsession. Apparently, Acai bowls are highly popular within the Brazillian Jujitsu community and also promoted by the Gracies.

Many different ways to make these.. I don't do it the Gracie way. These proportions seems to work for me:

* 1 packet of frozen Acai puree
* 1 frozen banana
* 1/2 cup of frozen berries
* 1/4 cup of coconut milk
* 1 scoop of Supergreens powder (optional)

--> Vitamix on high til smooth!

* Add toppings of banana, berries, and unsweetened shredded coconut (and granola for Ryan).

Homemade Acai bowls were calculated to be ~$3/bowl with double the amount than the restaurant/store bought ones.

Other Acai bowl recipes which the distributor passed on to me...

Additional Acai Tidbits of Information

My Acai bowls are now exactly the way I want them to be - Pure acai with fruit, no added sweetener and high in antioxidants. A bowl of yummy, healthy, dessert for breakfast. Yes, DESSERT FOR BREAKFAST! Score!

Gobble Gobble 2014

This holiday of cooking started off with banana oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for breakfast...

Oh yes!

Take a look at them happy kids!

I pre-made the slower cooker pumpkin spiced apples a couple days ago, so dessert is ready to go for today. This is pre-cooked apples below. We (er.. I mean, I) started eating dessert a couple days ago, so no after photo.

I picked up my farm fresh turkey on Monday, and it was spatchcocked and brined on Tuesday. Today I gave the bird its last massage of holiday herbed butter. Spatchcocking was no easy task.. it was a fight between the bird and I for a while. There was a bit of cursing and bruised hands to get the bird into this "flat lay down" position. It will be well worth it though, with an estimated 1.5 hour cook time and a sure-proof way of cooking the meat evenly.

Since we have a friend coming over day after Turkey day, I also brined a 4lb ribeye roast.. you know, for variety. In total, I'll be cooking 19lbs of meat (14lb turkey + 4lb ribeye) in two days for 3 adults and 2 kiddies. Given the rule of thumb.. 1/2 pound meat per person, I have enough to feed 38 people... we're going to have lots of leftovers.

Backwards Prime Rib Recipe

Kids and I spent the early afternoon playing and running around in the yard. I know we live here, but they haven't done that in a while as Liam and I have been sick and indoors. Today, they got to run around and dig in the dirt. I managed to get in a slow 1 mile jog; it's been 3 weeks since my last run.

I started cooking the sides first prior to turkey time. Instead of traditional mash potatoes, I made roasted mashed garlic cauliflower (modified NomNom's cooking method from steam to roasting) with a little bit butter and lots of chives.

Another side dish was the Crispy Sweet Potato Roast, no additional sauce.

Sweet potato pre-cook.

Sweet potato Cooked.

Current favorite salad.. Trader Joes Harvest Blend Salad with pumpkin vinaigrette!

And last side dish, boiled french green beans mixed with olive oil, salt, pepper, and a squeeze of lemon.

For the grand finale... the turkey1 I prepped it following NomNomPaleo's Butterflied Turkey recipe, but in reality, I cooked it following Alton Brown's recipe. That's because I learned last year, that we have a really really old oven with ventilation that goes into the house! So, it cannot sustain cooking anything in the 400s temperature without setting off the fire alarm.

Alton Brown's recipe has a lower cooking temp, 350F, versus NomNomPaleo, 450F. Both recipes still cooks with a relatively short time. It took me exactly 70 minutes today (30mins @425F to brown, and another 40mins at 350F to cook thoroughly) to reach breast temp ~150F, and thigh ~165F.

Here's the bird.. sunny side up, fresh out of the tanning salon.

And here is us with our simple family Thanksgiving this year!

The kids were not too fond of the turkey. The meat came out tender and flavorful, and I think that was the problem. The kids are not too familiar with the sage, thyme, and rosemary spices. The sweet potato and green beans were probably their favorite.

This year was keeping it simple, especially since it is just us four. We definitely miss seeing family, especially the kids get so excited to visit family or have visitors during the holidays. My family did kept me in the loop as they planned their usual potluck-style Thanksgiving, so it was great to hear of all the yummy dishes (Asian style of course!) - baby back ribs, braised tendons, sticky rice, steamed crab, etc.

Downside of not being with family.. no over-indulgence! Haha! The upside of being on our own for the holiday was that the cooking did not take all day since there were only a few dishes with easy recipes; It was just here and there through out the day with plenty of time to do other things - play with the kids, do some exercises, take photos, blog in detail... =P

Family V-Up practice


Oh, and lot of leftovers. Two containers to eat for the next week, and the rest of it goes into the freezer.

Now on to round 2 and 3 and 4, etc of turkey usage... turkey bone broth soup, turkey mac'n'cheese, turkey pho noodles...

Turkey Day Eats

I have been hemming and hawing over cooking a turkey; It is so much work and prep time... but on last minute impulse, ended up placing an order for a small Diestel Organic turkey. Regardless of what we do for Turkey day, it is nice to have turkey leftovers that we can enjoy for the week. Then we'll be turkeyed out til next year!

Last year I cooked my very first turkey following the recipe posted by NomNomPaleo, one of my favorite Paleo foodie bloggers. I might be biased, but it was definitely up there in taste. So, this year, I plan to do it again, NomNomPaleo's Butterflied (Spatchcocked) Bird.

(photo from NomNomPaleo's website)

And for a new recipe to try, I am looking forward to cooking one experimental dish.. and this is it --> Slow Cooker Pumpkin Spiced Apples. Planning on modifying the recipe by reducing the sugar and switching it from brown sugar to coconut sugar.

(photo from http://www.maebells.com/slow-cooker-pumpkin-spiced-apples/)

And that's it! Keeping it simple but hopefully high quality of fresh and healthy-ish!

Update : May need to add another dish to try too... this one --> Crispy Sweet Potato Roast

(image from smittenkitchen.com)

Nemo

I just had to take these few snaps of the two together...

I had rented "Finding Nemo" for the kids to watch for the first time, but I had to cook dinner. They both get scared easily, so I warned them to hold each other during the scary parts since I wouldn't be there to hold them.

And how I found them was just way too cute!

My latest food obsession has been Korean style tofu stew/soup, which I make with these simple seasoning packets from the local Korean market.

I triple the amount of "stuff" that I put in it to make it pretty much a protein and veggie bowl. With two seasoning packets, I throw in a whole bunch of green onions, a pack of enoki mushrooms, a bag of bok choy which I shred, a block of cubed tofu (non-GMO), and crack 6 eggs into the broth.

This, in addition to other dinner items, can last 2-3 days worth of dinners for Ryan and I (not the kiddies since it is a little spicy and contains eggs.) I love it though! Perfect for the cooler weather now.

Liam's 3rd Halloween-Themed Birthday Party

Liam's turning 3! And with him being such a big boy now, I decided it is finally time for him to have a real big-hoopla birthday party with the works.. friends, party planning, cake, and memorable fun. About a month ago, Liam started "trick or treating" every night when he cleaned up his toys. He would pick up the toys, put them in a carry basket, and come over and say "trick or treat". I would then pretend to give him a treat. This nightly ritual for the past month, led to Liam's 3rd birthday party set to a Halloween theme.

Liam's Halloween costume is... a racecar driver!

My brain operated in two modes the past month of September. It was either thinking about work issues or brainstorming birthday planning. I took influences from recent events, even TV shows, to come up with the idea of a "Scavenger Trick And Treat Hunt" around the yard. At 3 years old, chances are that Liam may not remember details of the birthday party, but I wanted to approach the planning so that he has a greater possibility of remembering the fun. And so the pumpkin scavenger hunt combined a challenge at each pumpkin station which was doable for a 3-5 year old, but may require the help and support of the adults. When the kid completed the challenge, they get to pick a treat out of a jack-o-latern basket. Some of the pumpkin stations also required team work.

Scavenger Trick And Treat Hunt - Pumpkin Stations
1. Decorate Trick Or Treat Bag
2. Go Fish
3. Bean bag Toss/Cornhole
4. Cylinder/Block Log Hop
5. Bike Tire Hop
6. Driveway Sprint
7. Build a Tower Bridge
8. Bear Bear Mummy Wrap
9. Crawl Maze
10. Decorate Your Pumpkin

1. The party started with the kids decorating their trick'o'treat bag with Halloween stickers and marker/crayon artworks. Once all the kids had arrived and bags decorated, we went on to the next "Pumpkin Station".

Ryan and our neighbor, Mike, teamed up to lead the kids to find the pumpkin stations. Mike was "The Map" while Ryan assisted the kids in the activity at hand. Other parents helped out by being cheerleaders or handing out the treats afterwards. All in all, the scavenger hunt was great for the kids. They had a challenge to conquer. They had support and cheering section. They watched the other kids go through the same thing. And they all received a prize.

2. Ryan helping to set up the fishing pole at the Fishing hole station. Kids used a fishing pole to hook rubber duckies.

3. Bean Bag Toss

4. Cylinder and Block Hops --> Stole this idea from the Spartan Race where one had to balance and hop across logs. Obviously made this easier for the kids. Ryan would help and hold one hand if needed. There was a great cheering section on this challenge. Some of the kids started off unsure, but then would give it a try after seeing a few kids complete it. The cheering from the parents made it even better.

5. Tire Jumps --> Tires lined up a row where the kids have to jump (or step-through) the tire path.

6. Driveway Sprint

7. Build A Tower Bridge --> I took out a bunch of empty boxes, drew an example diagram, and the kids had to work together to build a tower bridge out of the boxes. When the bridge was done, they would each crawl through to the other side and received a treat.

8. Mummy Wrap Bear Bear --> We hung a teddy bear from the railing of the balcony, so that the kids would help give Bear Bear a Halloween costume. Each kid had a streamer or two which they were suppose to work together to wrap up Bear Bears head, arms, legs, and tummy to create a mummified Bear Bear.

9. Crawl Maze --> Took this idea from the Spartan Race barb wire crawl as well as the latest episode of "Agents of Shield" where the agents had to infiltrate an area protected by a laser grid. We kept it simple for the kids and used streamers. =)

The crawl maze was one of the favorites among the kiddies. Some even went back to do it several times. The maze ended at an area with a narrow section where they get a treat from the jack-o-latern.

Liam getting a treat from the jack-o-latern.

Emilia's Halloween costume this year is Rapunzel!

Em playing around with one of her besties.

Thing1 is suppose to be supervising the kiddies.

Liam's homemade vegan birthday cake! Thanks to Amparo for a great recipe for a good taste and texture cake. My implementation of the recipe could have been better and now I know, coconut oil is finicky to work with, especially in warmer temperatures.

(Photo-bombed by Liam's cutie classmate, JuJu!)

Along with the Halloween theme, I planned out the food trying to make it adult and kid-friendly, healthy, and Halloween-ish.

(photo curtesy of google..)

Food:
Snacks -
1. bowl of pepitas and cranberries
2. peeled cuties w/celery stick on top (like a mini-pumpkin)
3. half bananas with chocolate chips for eyes/mouth (ghost)
4. String cheese broomsticks - chives & pretzel sticks
5. cucumbers or crackers w/ cream cheese & olive spiders
6. Jack-O-Latern Veggie Tray - Carrots and broccoli w/ yogurt dip
7. strawberry mice --> pepitas as ears, carrot noodles as tail, chocolate frosting as eyes
8. Octopus hummus dip

(photo curtesy of google..)

(photo curtesy of google..)

Adults Lunch-
1. Trader Joes Harvest blend salad w/pumpkin croutons
2. 8lbs Center Cut Tenderloin Roast

(photo curtesy of google..)

Kids Lunch-
1. mac and cheese
2. hot dog mummy wraps (crescent rolls)

(photo curtesy of google..)

Dessert
1. Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
2. Liam's Vegan Chocolate Cake

I did over plan too many details of this party that it was extremely stressful to execute. Next time around, best to skip out on the food decor. Thanks to grandma, though, for helping with food prep and ensuring a great memorable party for the kiddies!