When we moved out to the suburbs of Atlanta over two years ago, my mind went into cultural shock from being one of the very few couples in our neighborhood without children to having a 40 minute drive get to midtown Atlanta. Luckily (or not) I happened to work from home and a daily commute wasn’t something that I needed to worry about.

Over the past couple years, I went through phases of “I hate living out in the ‘burbs” to “well, I love our house so I guess I’ll deal” back to “when are we going to move already?!”

Well, I am glad to say that I’m finally, really(?) starting to warm up to living in the suburbs. It may be from joining a gym that I really enjoy or having new neighbors that we like chatting with or finally realizing that we won’t be able to have a monster-sized backyard if we move back into the city.

What do you do with a large backyard? You plant things of course!

Edible things, that is.

I’ve been wanting to plant a fruit tree in our backyard for a little while now and when I heard about Atlanta Local Food Initiative‘s Incredible Edible Grow-It-Yourself Fruit Tree, Vine & Berry Bush sale (wow, that was a mouthful!), I immediately hopped over to Georgia Organics’ website and pre-ordered a brown turkey fig tree and a blackberry bush.

Figs and blackberries – two of my most favorite fruits in the world. If we can manage to nurture and grow our little plants, just think of the lovely fruits that can be picked right out in our backyard!

Pick-up of our new plants was over this past weekend at the Atlanta Community Food Bank. Despite the crazy thunderstorm that morning, we picked up our little ones and brought them home, safe and sound.

Then it was time to place the fig tree in the ground. Of course, my lovely husband was kind enough to do the hands on part:

And put up some chicken wire to deter our dig-happy pups from the new tree.

“Hey Mom… whatcha doin’?”

Grow little one, grow!

Our figs and blackberries won’t be ripe and ready for picking for another year or two, so in the meantime, I thought I would satisfy my fruit craving with a nice coconut panna cotta with pomegranate jello inspired by my brilliant friend, Jen of Use Real Butter.

Coconut Panna Cotta with Pomegranate Jello (4 servings)
1 can coconut milk (15 oz)
1/4 cup agave nectar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons agar agar, divided
1/4 cup warm water
3/4 cup pomegranate juice
1/4 cup boiling water

Let’s Cook:
For the panna cotta, mix 1 teaspoon agar agar in a small bowl with 1/4 cup warm water, then set aside.

In a small saucepan, combine the coconut milk, agave and vanilla. Mix well and bring the mixture to a boil for about a minute. Pour the agar agar mixture into the coconut mixture and stir to combine.

Divide the coconut mixture evenly into four serving containers and place in the refrigerator to set for about 4 hours.

To make the pomegranate jello, mix 1 teaspoon agar agar with 1/4 cup boiling water. Then pour into a small mixing bowl with the pomegranate juice. Mix well, and then pour onto the panna cotta after the panna cotta has set.

Then place the containers back into the refrigerator to set for another 4 hours.

Note: If the pomegranate juice is too tart or sour, mix in some agave or sugar to taste. The result should still be tangy.

I started this blog almost two years ago as a not only a way to archive my family’s recipes, but to also explore eating health benefits of Asian cuisine and staying fit and healthy.

I have always prided myself on being more on the athletic side, from cross country in middle school to varsity tennis in high school to dancing in college. (Yup, that’s me)

When we moved to the suburbs 2 years ago, I stopped dancing but took up kung fu. After almost a year of training in kung fu, and working my way up to a brown belt, I quit because I realized that I was more of a lover than a fighter.

Over the past year I have relied on my own will power to stay in shape, with my only form of exercise being when I am able to somehow convince myself to go for a run (I hate running) or when I take the dogs for a walk. (I did manage to complete a half-marathon though.) This, combined with an incredible amount of stress from work, not treating myself well and eating like crazy (a side effect of having a food blog).

I finally came to the realization that the reason I was feeling so crappy was because I was slowly gaining weight, pants were getting tighter and I was just was no longer feeling healthy anymore. Even though I think we eat relatively healthy foods in our house, not working out was starting to take a toll on me, both physically and mentally.

So, while this is not exactly a New Year’s resolution (I started a membership at the gym in early December), I am on a quest to get myself back to my high school weight (have about 35 lbs to lose). And I decided that if I share this goal with all of you… you can help hold me accountable for my actions.

Never fear, this will remain a primarily a food blog. Food is one of my great passions, and it is also such a big part of staying healthy and fit. I will throw in a bit of…
- Thoughts about working out… the blood, sweat and tears,
- Workouts that I am currently obsessing over,
- Any races or events that I’m training for,
- What foods and recipes I’m working on that are both healthy but yummy.

It’s only been a month, but I am already feeling happier and much less stressed now that a regular workout schedule has been put in place.

Glancing over at my 101 in 1001 list, here are a few goals that I’m working towards in the health section:

1. Get back to my high school weight
2. Go on a yoga retreat.
3. Go without soda for a month
4. Complete a sprint triathlon

I hope you join me on my journey. I’m excited to see what’s in store this year!

In the meantime, I will leave you with this easy tilapia recipe that incorporates the Chinese cooking “holy trinity” if you will: green onions, garlic and ginger. This dish is easy enough to make for a quick and healthy lunch, but fancy enough for a weekday dinner.

Tilapia with Green Onions, Garlic and Ginger (2 servings)
2 tilapia fillets
1/2 tablespoon canola oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 thumbsized piece of fresh ginger, minced
1/2 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce
4 green onions, cut into 1/2 inch long pieces

Let’s Cook:
Rinse and pat dry the tilapia fillets, then cut each fillet into 7 or 8 pieces, about 2 inches long.

Heat the canola oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Then add the tilapia fillet and let cook for about 2 minutes until the side is slightly golden. Then flip the fillets over and add the garlic and ginger to the skillet, sprinkle evenly over the fillets. After cooking for about 1 minute, add the soy sauce and let cook for another minute.

Finally, add the green onions and flip the tilapia fillets again. Let cook for another minute, then remove from heat.

Serve with jasmine rice and enjoy!

We have had a great basil explosion in our little backyard garden. Basil has been one of my favorite things to grow in our garden, partly because it’s so easy to grow and partly because I love the smell of freshly chopped basil.

Now that we have so.. much.. basil, the question is: What to do with all of it? I know I can eventually freeze it, but there’s just something special about being able to walk outside, pick fresh herbs and make something delicious right away.

Last night, I attempted a margherita pizza from scratch. Mostly because I’ve been doing through Antico Pizza withdrawals. It was a huge fail. Note to self: use store-bought pre-made dough.

At least a few of my past basil recipes haven’t been complete failures: Mango Blueberry Quinoa Salad, Spicy Sauteed Eggplant Dip and Tomato Mozzarella Panini.

I’m thinking a basil pesto or maybe a pineapple basil cocktail may be on my horizon soon. What are your favorite basil recipes?

Here’s my official public on-blog announcement. I’ve decided to be a vegetarian, again.

This would be my third attempt at vegetarianism.

Attempt #1: From end of senior year of high school until the beginning of my second year in college. This attempt at vegetarian began after reading the book, “The Jungle,” for one of my senior AP classes.

Attempt #2: Earlier this year, in May, I tried a pescetarian diet for 14 days.  And it was rough.

And here’s the third attempt.  It all started on the first week of October when I caught a cold and lost my appetite for meat.  After I recovered from the cold, I decided that would just continue on with the vegetarianism.  I’ve lasted the most of two months so far, and going pretty strong.

My reasons for being a vegetarian this time are quite different, and I feel are also stronger than the reasons that I had before:

1. Health reasons
Many people incorrectly assume that vegetarians are weaker than meat-eaters.  But in reality, having a plant based diet offers better energy and better health than having an animal based diet.  For me, I can feel a significant difference when I stop eating meat, I just feel healthier and cleaner somehow.

In the book, “The China Study,” by Cornell professor & nutrition researcher T. Colin Campbell writes that people who eat mostly plants contract fewer deadly diseases than those who eat a mostly animal based diet.

Breast cancer runs in my family.  And I feel that it is my duty to take as many preventative measures while I still can.  If eliminating meat from my diet will help with preventing cancer, as well as make me feel better at the same time, I’m going to do it.

Eating red meat nearly doubles risk of breast cancer – Natural News

2. Animal rights
I truly cannot feel right about claiming to be an animal lover and support wildlife conservation without being a vegetarian.  I can’t love my two rescue pups while sitting at the kitchen table eating a hamburger or pork chop.  We as a human race are treating living, breathing things as a product.

Which brings me to this point.  I have no issue with animals raised for food, who are treated with respect.  Which is one of the reason why I love visiting my dad’s hometown of Miaoli, Taiwan.  You can walk down the street and see the chickens, ducks and geese just roaming around freely in their yards, and you can taste the difference between this real free-range, organic poultry and the stuff they sell in the grocery store in the US.

Earthlings – by No Meat Athlete
Animal rights and Vegetarianism – by Happy Cow

Today I found out that our little puppy loves watermelon.

The watermelon plants that we planted in our garden have been growing lots and lots of watermelons this summer. We have lost a few watermelons to some sort of little creature that has been taking huge bites out of the watermelons, but we have managed to save a few for ourselves.

This afternoon, I found a tiny melon that had already been separated from the vine, so I gave it to Aubie. He loved it.

And here are two ripe watermelons that we managed to salvage before the mysterious little creature got to them.

We’ve been cooking with our home-grown herbs, basil and parsley, for a couple weeks now.  We have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of our vegetables.   I am so ready to be able to walk outside and pick out fresh veggies for lunch and dinner.

It’s amazing to me that 2 months ago, this jungle of a garden were just tiny little sprouts.  I would go look at them in the morning, hoping that they hadn’t withered and died overnight.  Now look, the plants are huuuuge.

My favorite part of the garden is our Japanese eggplant plant. It’s just such a pretty plant.  I may be biased, purple (and green) are my favorite colors… put them together and I’m just in color heaven.  For me, actually liking to eat the eggplant is a bonus, I’d probably be happy just growing the eggplant so that I can look at it – ha!

Now, what would a blog post about the garden be without showing off some cucumbers?  The cucumbers were amazingly easy to grow.  And from looking at the amount of yellow cucumber flowers on the vines right now… we’re going to have more cucumbers than we can possibly consume.  So, in a few weeks I will be giving away free cucumbers.

Look at this cucumber… it’s the biggest one in the garden so far.  At the rate it’s growing, I’m guessing that it will be in a salad or similar sometime in the next few days!

And I can’t forget about our little raspberry plant!  It’s just starting to produce berries now.  They’re so pretty!

The cucumbers in our garden were starting to take over more space than we anticipated (yup, we’re garden newbies) – covering up the basil and practically suffocating our eggplant. So, after a bit of online research… turns out that you’re supposed to stake the cucumbers in smaller garden areas – Ha!

After a quick trip to the store, we came back with two cages for out tomato plants and some stakes and cheap pantyhose for the cucumbers (yes, pantyhose). Turns out that pantyhose is a great tool to use for staking because it won’t cut into the stems of the plant.

Now, you’re actually supposed to start the staking process when the cucumber vines are only about 6 inches long, but since we didn’t realize that we needed to stake the plants, our vines were about 2-3 feet long. Yikes. So, the whole process was pretty rough.

But, well worth it. Check out the before and after!

When/if we decide to grow cucumbers again next year, we’ll be sure to stake them early!

It’s been over a month since the last post about our little garden, and boy has it grown. And to think, I was afraid that the little plants wouldn’t make it past infancy!

It’s just been so fun to watch the growth of these little ones, especially after an evening thunderstorm. Just to walk outside in the morning and see that the plants have practically doubled in size overnight.

This is how the garden looked one month ago, in April.

And this is one month later…