0 Berry Banana Morning

New star ingredient: Waitrose Blueberry Coulis!

There's only one ingredient on the list, which is 100% blueberry puree. But if there's no preservatives whatsoever, I wonder how the coulis manages to be packed without going mouldy. Anyway the coulis had a bright, tangy sharp flavour, clearly just blueberry goodness without the sugar nonsense.

Paired with fresh chopped strawberries, mashed banana, and spiked with cinnamon and vanilla, my steelies could not have been more awesome. The nut butter frenzy continues with four toppings today! Chunk of Laughing Giraffe vanilla almond macaroon, Jem red maca almond butter, Woodstock Farm almond butter and my homemade peanut/almond/flax/sesame butter.

I froze the rest of the blueberry coulis into ice cubes because I know I wouldn't be able to finish the package within 2 days as recommended. Makes as awesome after dinner dessert especially with the repressive humidity + blisteringly hot weather going on now.

0 Power up!

Could breakfast get any better? This morning's version was a buffet of treats. I wonder how many ingredients you can pack into this small Le Creuset bowl of mine ;)

• 20g oat bran
• Few drops of the last of Silk soy (unsweetened)
• Water -- microwaved and it overflowed :( --
• 3/4 (60g) frozen mashed nana
• Sesame-pumpkin-flax + Garden of Life raw protein
• 11 giant blueberries
• 10g Superfood Green hemp/spirulina/coconut granola
• Heaping Fage 0% yogurt
• JEM raw maca almond butter
• Woodstock Farm almond butter
• Homemade almond/peanut/sesame/flax butter
• Hidden treasure - raw cacao nib ball

12 Awesome ingredients! And very-belly satisfied!

0 1000 words a day

What a major load off the back! Poster session is finally over and done with. While one examiner asked plenty of questions, the other was barely listening and did not appear very much interested. Anyway, I'm so glad and happy it's over. Now I just have to write ~1000 words a day to the final thesis submission on 11 Apr. Okay, ideally I should write for one week and revise for another week so that makes it 2000 words a day.

Power breakfast to start the day: 33g oat bran (necessary for the time-being instead of steel cutters due to time constraints in the morning), 25g frozen nana, 11 blueberries, 1 strawberry, innards of one durian cream puff, chia seeds, sesame/flax/pumpkinseed powder, homemade almond/sesame/peanut butter, 2 raisins and topped with more sunflower and pumpkin seeds. Needless to say, the treasure in this bowl was the dollop of D24 durian cream strategically hidden in the centre of the bowl.

Let's get the ball rolling towards the goal of 2000 words a day! >>>

0 The gift of sleep and rest

Some things are just too coincidental to happen by chance; I believe it was a sign from God. Today's Bible verse is Psalm 127:2

In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat--for he grants sleep to those he loves.

In light of my viral feverish sickness, I believe God wants me to take a break and rest; the few days before that I had been returning to the lab for consecutive days on end. Despite my sickness I still went back to the lab the past few days and was really non-productive, like slow jerky movements which is not good because you need steady hands. Maybe because I was defiant, I still have not recovered (fever has subsided but cough is persistent). Another reason is perhaps although I'm taking the cough medicine (pi pa gao), I'm still taking my nuts and nut butters and other cough-inducing foods that I would not give up. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed this morning's stick-to-your-ribs bowl of oatmeal: whipped banana blueberry Scottish oats (BRM) cooked in water/goat's milk, protein powder, cinnamon, vanilla extract, topped with crushed nuts, raisins, chocolate AB (Justin's) and tahini. Except that it was interrupted with bouts of coughing fits in between.

I should learn from my cat - snooze all day!

1 Waffleton

Vans blueberry waffles were at half-price! Obviously I couldn't pass up the chance of not buying it, despite its expiry date drawing imminently near (1 Apr to be exact). I've tried the original one before and loved it, so I was pretty excited to try the blueberry.

It was blueberry domination. You could smell the the sweet fragrance of blueberries even when the waffles was in its frozen state. A start to a promising meal indeed. You could see specks of blue dotted through the waffles. And most importantly, you could taste the ephemeral blueberries; unlike most commercial brands where "blueberries" is synonymous with sickeningly sweet artificial blueberry syrup flavor, Vans was real and natural. My only gripe was that the waffles didn't get as crisp as I would have liked; perhaps that may be remedied by toasting it a bit longer. I had the waffle smothered in my homemade cashew butter and topped with the sweetest yellow peach ever. It's good to switch from oatmeal once in a while, you know [except that these waffles are wheat-based].

I can't believe its WEEK 11 already. So many things to do, so little time. 2 more thousand-word essays, 1 software to complete, 1 more short essay, 1 presentation and 4 exams to go.

0 Managing difficult essays

From 3562 to 2111 (-1451). My essay is now a lot more trim and healthy, but still a [not so] long way more to go. Minus 611 more to 1500!

I'm so loving Back to Nature Apple and Blueberry granola! So appley in smell and taste!

Also, so egg-cited for Cam's and the Angkor culture!

And today was a free day in that I did not need to spend 1.5 h travelling to and from school!