My sprouts are ready...(read on!)

So am I !!!!! I will be going on a 1 week Raw Food Challenge next week (starting Sunday). This is actually an event hosted by Rawlicious this past week but since I have a week off school next week, I'd have more time to prepare my meals and enjoy them so I decided to delay it for a week :)

I will be posting everything that I have at each meal, hopefully including the recipes! Really excited!!

Raw Matcha Red bean Coconut square!

This is the creamiest thing I've EVER eaten in my life! It literally melts in your mouth! Its soooooo goood!!! (although the price is not...) I have no idea how they make raw adzuki bean paste taste that good! But, it will taste even better if there was more matcha flavour! I got it from Herbs & Nutrition in the Annex. I really, really love this store!

very pricey...but if you think about all the prep and cleaning work needed to make this and the organic ingredients, its kinda worth it.

Simple and delicious, also very healthy!

mmmmm...

I will attempt to remake this!

Tears of Joy at Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront 5K

Oh,my god. Oh.My.God. 

I got 1st place in the race for my age category. 6th place out of 3200 females. I beat my previous STWM 5K time by a whooping 2 minute and 30seconds. After quitting running last summer and not training for 1+ year due to injuries. After barely ANY training before this race (only started running again about a month ago), and head wind at both the start and finish line. And, most important of all, after following a VEGAN diet. Oh, my god. I was literally CRYING when I crossed the finish line after seeing my finishing time. 20 minutes flat. If I had that last push and didn't slow down at the end, I could break the 20 minute mark. Still, I am SO HAPPY right now. SO,SO, HAPPY. Usually when I cry after a race, its because I did poorly. Not this time. This time, its tears of JOY.

with my finisher's medal

1st place medal :D

Award redemption tent

The "after party"

1st place medal

Finisher's medal

One of the happiest days of my life! GO TEAM TVA!!!! 

I also posted this picture in Facebook, and wrote-

Meat eaters, I prove you wrong again. Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront 5K- 1st place my age category, 6th out of 3213 females. Only started running again one month ago after I quit running last summer due to injuries that never seem to heal. Then I became vegan in January this year. Shockingly, I improved 2min & 30sec even with head wind at the start and finish line, barely any training, and NO ANIMAL PRODUCTS. I also ran pain free. Plants, I love you. Animals, I love you too, that's why I will never eat you. As I was running all I thought about was "This is for TVA". GO TEAM TVA!

read comments here

M & B Yummy! Ethiopian food!

I had dinner at M & B Yummy, a vegetarian/vegan Ethiopian restaurant in Queens West. Ethiopian people run fast, so why not eat the food that they eat before my Scotiabank 5K race tomorrow? :D Plus I LOVE their food!

Their menu. Their price is quite reasonable! Plus I got 20% off because I ordered take out (10%) and I have the Toronto Vegetarian Association's discount card (another 10%). They also have VERY GOOD customer service.

More items

Inside the restaurant

Love the design :)

Some Ethiopian appetizers (all vegan)

This is what I ordered- The "Beef" combo! It's really unique! The outer wrap is called Injera and its made with barley and teff grain, and inside, every corner is filled with different things like chickpea stew, potatoes and carrots, spinach, green beans......, and the centre is "beef". You will always taste something different!

Notice the different filling?

So filling!(no pun intended!). Only halfway done and I'm full already. But because its soo delicious, I still managed to finish it!

Back at home. I had so many ripe avocados so I decided to make raw chocolate pudding with them and use as a fruit dip (mangoes and oranges in this picture). Its REALLY GOOD and EXTREMELY CREAMY. All you need are avocados, cocoa powder, and agave nectar/dates/other natural sweetener, a blender/food processor, and 5 minutes! Super simple! I asked my parents if they could tell what is in the pudding and they were guessing and guessing but could not tell its avocados!

Can't wait til tomorrow's race!!!!!

STWM Run Expo, Free Lululemon yoga mat, and Hoops!

I'm running the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront 5K this Sunday!!!! Its my first race since last summer when I decided to forgo competitive running after countless injuries that never seem to heal. This time, its more for fun and to raise money for Toronto Vegetarian Association :D I raised $150 for them! So today I went to the pre-race run expo to pick up my race kit/goodie bag and man, was it a good day!

The entrance

I signed on their board.Go team TVA!!! 

Dream BIG

Some of the booths

More booths, mostly selling technical running gear

This is where it got exciting! Lululemon was there! They were also giving out yoga mats for doing yoga! I was sooo lucky because that was the last one! I told them I LOVE yoga so they asked me if I wanted to do a pose or a sequence, so I did! They were pretty impressed with my flexibility :D

I did Sun salutation

Forward fold

Updog

Downdog

Then a pigeon pose

The best part! I showed them my favorite pose :D

And this is how I finally got to own a Lululemon yoga mat :)

Stuff from the Expo. Goodie bag, 5K Technical T-shirt, Vancouver 2010 sunglasses for $5, and of course, The Mat!

This Sunday, I run for Toronto Vegetarian Association 

After the uber-exciting expo, I went to my beloved circus training class! Time to get some blood rushing to my head! Run-on my feet, Circus-on my hand, all balanced out :)

Attempting Splits under bar

There we go! Looks easy but its actually kinda hard to balance

Bird's Nest :D

Fun!

T-shirt for acing first Kinesiology test of the semester :)

I surprised myself when I saw 50/50 on the mark sheet! Hard work do pay off :D The prof gave me this shirt. Cool,eh? 

All kinds of berry smoothie + Fresh's Curry

After an intense strength workout today, I enjoyed a super delicious and nutritious smoothie that is so smooth and creamy its almost as if I'm drinking melted ice cream! (pssss.....there's even spinach in it!)

Stuff in it-

• Frozen mixed berries
• Frozen banana
• Big handful of spinach
• Strawberry soy milk
• Vega berry flavoured shake n go smoothie powder
• Indian Chai tea leaves and powder
• Lecithin

Blend in a very high powered blender, pour into you favorite glass, kick back, relax, and...Sluurrppppp!

For dinner, I made-- Fresh restaurant's Coconut Curry! I LOVE their recipe book. Everything is just sooo simple to make yet soooo delicious!

Unlike many cookbooks, the ingredients here are not so overwhelming that they'll make people skip the page before even looking at it.

Added some mix veggies

Almost done! By this point my house smells like a Thai restaurant :)

Serve with brown rice, quinoa, pita bread, rotis......... :D

More food!! :D

This morning I had the Asian Almond green tea granola and Dark choco chip mocha muffin that I made yesterday for breakfast (recipe in previous post). They are oh-so-delicious!

Bananas and soy yogurt topped with Asian Almond granola

Better view. The powdery stuff on top is chai and cinnamon powder

Dark Chocolate Mocha muffin

served with banana slices

You won't believe there's bean flour and NO wheat flour in here

Broccoli pancakes that I made after breakfast. Unfortunately I have no exact recipe for this because I needed to use up leftovers from my freezer so I randomly combined defrosted leftover homemade broccoli pesto and almond "cheese", added Thai basil sauce, ketchup, vegenaise, and gluten free flour and pan fried them. 

Smelled so good! They taste super good too! Good in sandwiches, burgers, salads......A unique twist on pancakes/patties :). When my parents came back from a relative's place, they asked immediately if lunch was ready. LOL!