Bella Lena: Will You Be My JuJuBe

Holas My Jujubes!

Wait, back up…did i just call you all jujubes? Yes I did, but more on that later…

I’ve been waiting to make a certain purchase lately but I never worked myself up to actually doing it, until now. Why now? Because the amazing people at CSN has yet again contacted me and have offered me another amazing opportunity- this time to review an item! (We’ve done two giveaways with CSN in the past) If your new to my blog or blogging world, then let me introduce CSN. CSN owns over 200 online stores selling things from bistro sets to my favorite kitchen supplies! I’m going to use their amazing opportunity to put it towards my larger purchase that I’ve been wanting to get. Can you guess what it is?

I’ll show you all my purchase when it arrives and give you an all out review.

If you were given this opportunity, what would you choose?!?

—

Now Back to the JuJuBes

Sounds like a candy no?

Actually it sounded so much like a candy, i googled it

<Source>

Remember these bad puppies from our childhood…

Well I actually wasn’t referring to these. Instead I’m replacing these nonvegan, artificially flavored treats, with these Natural namestealers

Please excuse the horrendous picture, my camera died and instead of charging it I took out the camera phone- yes and the worst blogger dedication award goes to…

These are JuJuBes also known as chinese red dates! DATES!!! 🙂 MMmmM no these unfortunately taste nothing like our favorite dates in larabars, fudge babies etc but they are tasty! Kinda like a lighter in sweet taste of an apple.

JuJuBes are used in many purposes:

1. They are used in Chinese and Korean medicine to release stress

2. They are also dried and eaten as a candy in many Chinese families

3. A funny one i love and found on Wiki- the sweet smell of jujube’s is believed to make teenagers fall in love (hmmm i think i just found out how to snare a Fella for this Bella)

Unfortunately the bunch that Mama Bella bought were not ripe yet. Blech tasted very blanddd- definitely not the sweet smell of a lover’s snare sigh i have no patience! I blame Mama Bella, she was urging me to eat them. She has been pumping me full of plenty of exotic fruits- remember the Jabuticaba?- because she knows I won’t be able to get them in Michigan.

Speaking of Michigan…these Bella is flying off in 2 days!! Can you stand the excitement? We can’t wait to show you our new apartment! Remember when we first started this blog and we were only just starting to look for apartments? Wow time flies!

Hmm this post is needing a little pizazz I know but is the promise of plenty new eats, recipes, outings, and bella craziness that will begin in a couple days enough for you to forgive me?

Love you Mis JuJuBes

❤ Bella Lena

Bella Lena: Baking Extravaganza

Whew the GRE’s are officially ova!! Stick a fork in it, its done! 🙂 My thoughts on how I did? I’m not exactly satisfied with the score and I’m still wavering between taking it again or just leaving it as is. I’m definitely more pro towards the latter as it involves not having to restudy and restress. I hardly got any sleep last nite- i need to learn to cope with stress better if I’m looking to go into the health field!!

In other news, not only am I done with the GREs but I’m also done with work! This summer I worked in a doctor’s office as a CNA and learned a lot about the ins and outs of health care. To show my appreciation to my boss and coworkers I went on a vegan baking frenzy this weekend.

Time Started: 9:30 AM

Time Completed: 4:30 PM

Sry Bella Mommy, the oven may or may not have been on from 10am-3pm…yipes lets just say while I did save some animals by making vegan goodies, I didn’t do too much as an eco-conscience individual with all that sucking of energy…eh some days you win some and you lose some

On the Menu was basically an entire tribute to Isa Moskowitz – this woman can do no wrong. (Author of Veganomicon, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar and one of geniuses over at ppk.com)

Vegan Banana Bread

(adjustments made: I used lemon juice instead of ACV, 1/3 cup corn oil instead of  margarine, and used extra cinnamon instead of allspice since i didn’t have any of these ingredients on hand)

To get six servings for the six gift bags, I made 2 loaves (i needed to double the recipe) and cut each into 3rds

THESE WERE THE MOST AMAZING BANANA BREAD IN THE WORLDDD!!! These were my first attempt at making vegan banana bread. In the past, when I wasn’t vegan I had my go to recipe for this bread, but I honestly couldn’t even tell the difference. These were moist, banana-y and dare I say even better? yes i dare.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

(Adjustments made: i used soft tofu, sweetened applesauce, vanilla soy, and regular flour- again due to pantry limitations)

This is a LARGE recipe. It makes 40 small cookies but I made giant cookies and made around 18 so 3 per bag.

These were a BIG hit. Soooooo peanut buttery! They were like bites of gooey deliciousness. MmM Cookies w/ tofu in it? yes ma’am!

Mixed Berry East Coast Coffee Cake (from Vegan Brunch by Isa of course)

(Adjustments: cinnamon instead of nutmeg, lemon juice instead of ACV, and vanilla soy)

I needed to double the recipe to make larger portions. Mmmm adding berries to this traditional cake took it to the next level. The topping was also the perfect balance of sweetness- not too overpowering

Blueberry filled Lemon Muffins adjusted from Vegan Brunch by Isa

(Adjustments: i didnt have any poppy seeds on hand so had to omit it- big mistake, the flavor was a bit lacking and I decided to cut them half and turn them into blueberry muffin sandwiches to add a bit of blueberry sweetness- solution solved! plus it looks so prettyyy)

Peanut Butter Fudge from Kitteekake’s Blog

I wrapped it in wax paper and let them set into bars

All together now- minus the fudge

Alright bloggies, I apologize for using all this plastic wrap. I know horrible. I needed to wrap everything individually to keep it fresh and to split them into portions. I felt awful using all this but I make up for it in all the other 359 days of the year rite?

Whew that was a lot of baking. I’ve missed cooking! Bella C lets get together and start cooking again k? k...10 more days till our reunion for Senior year!!!

My coworkers and bosses enjoyed their gifts plus they treated me to vegan takeout from NYC’s vegan restaurant Wild Ginger. I got the teriyaki seitan with sugar snap peas lunch special which came with brown rice, a slice of kabocha (ee squashhhhh im excited for fall/winter squashes! Whose with me?) and a veggie spring roll. No picture but it was phenom!! This was my first experience with a NYC vegan restaurant- i know wth? how is that possible?- it was sooo delicious i’ve been dreaming about that seitan since that lunch!

Also on a side note, I need to- yes need to- tell you about this new fruit I discovered.

Mama Bella got me some of these the other day and I’m hooked. I think i’m eating them by the pound!

What is it you ask? Grapes? Nope…its Jabuticaba. It has a hard purple flesh that you pop in ur mouth, bite, and the fruity flesh pops out and throw out the skin. Super sweet and delicious! Each one tastes a bit different though, depending on when they were picked.

From Fruits Info.com

On the first day of the fruit picked, its flavour is like guava,

the second day it is like mangosteen,

the third day is lychee taste,

the fourth is passion fruit taste,

the fifth is sweetsop fruit;

the sixth up to the eighth is grape fruit nature of taste.”

Have you ever had a Jaboticaba? What’s the most unusual fruit you’ve ever had?

For all my vegans out there, when you do big projects like this do you usually bake vegan or regular? I was trying all these recipes for the first time so I needed to try them before sending out the final products so I had to make them vegan in order for me to taste test (and sneak bites/lick the bowl of course!) It would have been easier to make them nonvegan since some ingredients are easier to come by, but if I eat vegan, I believe that my gifts should be expressive of me as well. Plus they tasted so good, vegans and nonvegans alike should love em! (just dont tell them there’s tofu in the cookies! hehe)

Alrighty back to packing up my life! Michigan in 10 days!!

This is definitely not all of it. Why is it that I always go back with double the amount of stuff I bring home? I also need to learn to put more stuff into storage. I use like 1/16th of the stuff I pack home and then I end up buying so much more to bring back to Mich!! I am possibly the worst packer ever. I’m seeing a $50 overweight luggage fee coming my way 😦 Trying to convince myself, I do not need to bring my new yoga mat back to school with me when I have one already there (its just not pink, pretty and gorgeous lol) and that I might not need ALLLLL those shoes/clothes rite?…ummmm well lets see how much do I ‘need’ it…like at least “$50 dollars worth in fees need” rite?? hehe

Anyone wanna come pack for me? I’ll pay you in vegan treats.

All my Love,

Bella Lena

Bella Lena: A Whopper of a 21st Bday Post!

OK I definitely should be studying for my GRE which is in exactly 2 weeks but I figured if I don’t post up this whopper of a post today, I might not until September! So here is my attempt at posting a whole weeks worth of 21st Bday goodies into one giant post. I originally planned to break it all up but I’m gonna try to churn it all out now!

Ready? Set? Go!

Tuesday- August 3rd

I started off the morning w/ a bowl of cereal before jetting off to JFK to catch my flight. I’m super anal about getting to the airport 2 hrs prior to departure in case there is a long line at security! Turns out, there wasn’t but I was stalled by a minor mishap in line (i got stopped at the metal detectors for having a wine opener on my carry on–this was actually leftover from my sisters graduation and I never unpacked it. The security guy thought it was funny since just two seconds ago i told him i was turning 21 that nite lol)

So I had about an hour and 45 minutes to spare at the airport and decided to grab some snackage. $10 worth of Starbucks fruit cups and a $3 Dasani water? Sure- i love supporting airports 🙂

X 2

I read a bit of The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks and then I was off!

Hello Michigan here I come!

Ginger Spice picked me up from DTW (GSpice is actually Vegetarian K but I decided she needs a cooler nickname on the bloggie and sinces she’s a red head who also loves the Spice girls, it just fits :))

We then headed over to her apartment where she decorated it w/ pink and purple streamers ❤ The fridge was also stocked w/ mucho goodies. I will refrain from posting too much pictures of the night but lets just say it was fun, full of awesome ppl and definitely my best birthday I’ve ever had! I never get to spend bdays with friends since as a summer baby, most friends are off on vacay. This was a super nice change!

Also…something I’ve been waiting all summer for….

Bella girls reunite!

You didn’t think I’d forget about Bella C did ya? Christina joined me earlier in the night along w/ some close friends before the partay for some din din at Seva’s one of our favorite vegetarian/vegan restaurants in Ann Arbor which we’ve reviewed about a gajillion times

In honor of my love for all things lentil and curry, I started w/ the curried lentil soup

Soup in 90 degree weather? Bring it. Love love love ❤

Bella C stuck w/ something more weather friendly- cooling Gazpacho

For the main course, I stuck with the curried theme (and because Bella C would not let me get my usual BBQ ‘wich). To get out of my menu ordering rut I got the North African Couscous

From menu: aromatic mix of carrots, potatoes, onions, cauliflower, peppers, tomatoes and garbanzos in north african curry spices on couscous with chargrilled tempeh and fresh cilantro AKA lurve on a plate!

The portion size was humungoooo! I ate half of it and saved the rest for later that nite (for the much expected munchie cravings). It was delish tho and I’m glad I experienced something new

DO you ever get stuck in a menu rut? Do you tend to order the same things or try something new everytime?

Bella C got The TLT

A rolled up sandwich of chargrilled tempeh, cheddar cheese, guac, tomatoes, and shredded romaine lettuce in a whole wheat tortilla

We both fell in love with the way Seva prepared their tempeh! Yum Yum and double yum! I am definitely experimenting with grilling tempeh in the Fall!! (luckily i’m bringing up the george foreman…im sure Old George never expected it to be used for tempeh!)

Wednesday Aug 4th- My BDAY!!

I had an amazing night w/ amazing friends! I fell asleep around 530AM and rolled out of bed at 8AM. WHAT? I guess I was just super excited to celebrate my bday some more. I finished off the couscous for brekkie, and had some of this

If turning 21 means you can have cupcakes for breakfast, I want to turn 21 everyday! 🙂 This is one of the many vegan bday cupcakes that Bella C made me!! (curtesy of  our cupcake bible- Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World) She also made me a vegan bday cake from the same batter that we lit the night before

After digging in to my sweetastic brekkie, me and Bella C left Ginger Spice to do her hwk and we took a stroll of Ann Arbor. I’ve missed thee beautiful town! While on our stroll we took advantage of the bday freebies!

6 free bagels from Zingermann’s Deli

Free Entree from Seva (cool summer salad w/ grilled veggies) that I split w/ Bella C

I also purchased a drink (cuz i can! lol) called scurvy- fresh OJ, Rum and Razz Syrup

Free scoop of Fro Yo from B&J’s, which my dairy intolerant self passed onto Bella C- clearly she enjoyed it 😉

I did some more cupcake loving when we split a free mini vegan mocha cupcake from The Cupcake Station

We then happened to pass by the Farmers Market! We both forgot it was Wednesday and the market was in full swing. It’s a lot slower in the Summer months, but we know it’ll be packed come Fall! Luckily we live only a couple blocks away this year!

I enjoyed a cool refreshing watermelon juice from Pilar’s Tamales, where we previously learned to make horchata and hibiscus tea!

And we bought some zucchs for dinna.

After a bit more exploring stalking/lurking outside our future apartment, we headed back to GSpice’s apartment, snacked on some bagels (Zimmermanns u may be the king of sandwiches, but you got nothing on NY bagels–yet i still happened to have 2 of u throughout the week 😀 I’m not that judgy)

Then we headed to the market and bought some essentials for GSpice to make some chili in a crockpot. While it cooked, I napped- did i mention i only got 3 hrs of sleep? We watched some United States of Tara on DVD and then when the smell of this cooking was too much to bear, we dug in!

The night was spent with some more Tara, some Euchre, and some more good company 🙂

Thursday- August 5th to Sunday August 8th

Next morning, the two Bellas said goodbye to GSpice and Ann Arbor and headed to Bella C’s casa for some more R&R. I’m going to recap the week w/ some pics 😀

Christina’s family garden:

Fresh veggies for amazing meals throughout the week! Including this new lurve–

Eggplant Rollatini from Veganomicon

There’s a lot of steps but with the two Bellas in the kitchen, we are unstoppable!

The Tofu Ricotta that went into the Rollatini (Give this to all tofu haters- it WILL convert them!)

Eggplant after it was breaded–X3! It made a lot–we had left overs to snack on (no complaints there!)- this tasted like chicken cutlets at least to me and Christina it did- not so much to the carnivores but they enjoyed every bite too!

Look at this lovely swiss chard. We bought swiss chard at the market instead of spinach becuz someone I won’t mention who coff Bella C coff read the instructions wrong and we thought we had to wrap the eggplant in the leaves so we got chard to make it easier. Luckily we read the instructions again and realized the veggies go inside the eggplant! O wellz, we cut em up and it tasted amazo.

It’s been a while since both of us have taken pics for the blog and so many times we were half way through eating before realizing we shoulda captured it on film. So here are some pics that made it onto the camera but are definitely not even close to summing up the amazing eats had:

Baked Asparagus w/ EVOO and sea salt

Grilled Portabellas curtesy of Bella C’s Masta Grilla Dad

Sweet Cornnn-iline Good times never seemed so good Oh i’ve been inclineedddd…ok sry super cheesy but the Neil Diamond song just popped into my head when i wrote sweet corn 😀

Some pretty tasty shmasty salads were also conjured from the Garden de Bella C

Raw Cauliflower salad w/ homemade Cranzberryz Juice Dressing

Garden Fresh Salad w/ the all the fixings!

And of course it really wouldn’t be a Bella Reunion w/out some dessert feasting

Some more cupcakes from VCTOTW

Dear Food Network’s Cupcake Wars, we are available 7 days a week (just give us substantial amount of ample amount of time to drop out of college)

Some Banana serve lovin

Some totally not vegan but we are going to pretend we don’t care Marshmallow roastin

Meltastic Gooeylishious Heaven

‘Mallow smashed between two graham crackers (i had enuff sense to avoid the milk chocolate- though it was calling out to me lol)

I’m not sure who feasted more that night, us or the mosquitoes that were also having dinner on us- literally. 😦

After an amazing week at La Casa Bella C, I flew out Sunday morning back to the NYC

Had some Mexican huggin salad at my layover in Ohio (cheaper tix but longer flight blah)

Along w/ some unpictured pretz w/ the left over guac and a ton of this new choco granola carby love from Milk & Honey Granola (this granola has honey in it to any strict vegans out there, but they do make a vegan papaya cashew granola)

I got this from Christina’s Auntie V for my bday who got it from WF bulk section but they also make it in packages. Seriously O My Mmm, yumm..this wont last long lol

Ok so that was my foodie adventures back in Mich. I’ve seriously missed my Bella in Crime and my Ginga Spice and cannot wait to return in September! For now I’ve got to survive the GREs, and grad school applications. Joy de joy! I dunno when I will be back but i’ve got to go lock myself in a hole now to study!

But don’t worry these two will be back and reunited soon.

Love u all ❤ ❤

Thanks for everyone who made my Bday so special and spectacular!

Bella Lena

Bella Lena: Living in the Moment

What’s that sound? O just the sound of tumbleweed and dust rolling past….yes i understand us Bellas have been slacking on our blogger duties!! It’s hard to find motivation to blog when I am at work most days and not making much meals besides quick and easy fixes.

Or jumping into Chipotle for this delicious monstrosity

Can you tell I’m in love?

There’s something about guac and warm black beans that make a salad pop! The secret to getting a humungo salad? Ask for extra lettuce at the beginning of the assembly line, and then ask for additional shredded lettuce at the end of the assembly line 🙂 Which is why u can’t see any of the fixings in the pic. A salad fit for any beast

However, I am still reading all of your lovely posts on my google reader! Even if I am not commenting as frequently, usually because I am reading as I quickly eat a bowl of cereal and rush out the door to catch my ride to work or reading as I am about to fall asleep from a long work day 🙂

I can’t believe summer is already more than half way done!! Where did the time go? To be honest though I cannot wait for Fall semester! SENIOR YEAR YIKES! But I’m excited for all the new things waiting for me-

1. My new apartment with the lovely Bella Christina which includes the nearby farmers market, the vegan restaurants, local flair etc and of course using it all for the blogs with new recipes and fresh ingredients/restaurant yummies

2. My new classes- of course this will soon grow tiring and i will hate them with a vengence come midterms 🙂

3. Senior year- I’ve decided to live every day to the fullest. The past three years I’ve studied my a$$ off and put off a lot due to studies which in a way is yes what we’re going to college for but I also think I missed a lot of great opportunities. Next year I fully intend to embrace my college years into what I hope to be an amazing last year at Umich.

I’m also nervous about many things like

1. Physician Assistant Grad School Applications/Interviews (as well as taking the GRE within the coming month)

2. Leaving Christina- having lived with her for what is going to be our 4th year, I can’t imagine living a life without her. These past 3 months have been hard as is!!

Wow thats a lot of future talk…no matter how much u plan for the future, it always hits u with surprises, so I’m going to plan, but also live in the moment as much as I can (if that makes sense)

I was plenty surprised when Mama Bella cut into our watermelon and got this

excuse me but is that pineapple? Nope just yellow watermelon! I’ve never seen this before so I was quite intrigued. According to google search, yellow watermelon is sweeter than its red counterpart and a bit like honey

Dear Google,

You lie

This was very blah and not sweet at all. Just tasted like water. Sigh. However, not wanting to waste it, I’ve decided to help my mom polish it off.

Meanwhile, she went out and bought a lovely red watermelon and pickled the rinds.

Did you know that the rinds of a watermelon are very nutrient packed! It’s actually healthier than the watermelon “meat” itself. It is full of vital vitamins and minerals like Vit C, B6, A, Magnesium and Potassium. Next time you have watermelon, consider pickling them as you do with cucumbers! First you cut off the green skin which is inedible and leave the yellowish rind part and then marinate it with your pickling seasonings of choice. My mom sprinkles in salt, vinegar and some other stuff I’m not quite sure I would have to ask her, and then lets it sit for a day to soak up the flavor. I grew up on this stuff when I was younger. It’s a great snack and a great way to reduce waste!

There has been a lot of fruit loving lately on the blogosphere. This is what I love about the warm weather- wonderful fresh fruit aplenty!

I wish I had some amazing new recipe to show you but alas my lazy bootie hasn’t done much of anything innovative in the kitch much lately 😦 I however, will post about my instant curry veggies dinner that I’ve created and been enjoying sometime in the future.

Other things to look forward to is a Bella C & L reunion in two weeks 🙂 when this Bella turns the Big 2-1! Crazy shanigans and much Bella times to commence.

I love all of u bloggarinos- we haven’t forgotten you! I can’t wait to start blogging a lot more when we  get the two Bellas back together in our kitchen!

Much love,

Bella Lena

Does the future scare you? Or do you like living not knowing what’s coming?

Have you ever had a yellow watermelon? Was yours sweet?

What are you most looking forward to?

Also, I’ve been kinda obsessed with carrots lately and have been eating them by the pound…no literally! I peel a whole lb bag and just nosh on them while studying, or watching tv every night. Anyone know if this is particularly bad for you? Personally raw carrots give me stomach issues- ie. bloated- but I’ve been taking the hit just cuz i can’t get enough of em. I should probably take a hiatus from it soon tho, because this bellas tummy isn’t feeling it too much 😦

Bella Lena: Salads and Snackage

Dear NY Restaurants,

When I read your menu and you say “entree sized salad” i expect a beast worthy salad

I present to you “Cinema Cafe’s” on 34th and 3rd, Cinema Entree Salad– from the menu: “blue cheese, toasted macadamia nuts, blood orange, granny smith apples, organic field greens, champagne vinaigrette” I veganized it and skipped the cheese.

Sorry for the crappy picture. Again a beautiful sly picture snapped by my Sidekick as I pretended to text, which is probably equally as rude as whipping out the camera in the middle of the meal, but a lot less awkward! I hate when ppl text during meals!

Let me tell you this salad was 3 bites. 4 at most! I skipped the dressing b/c it was more oil than vinaigrette. I was tempted to order another but the thought of spending another $13 on a handful of greens was too preposterous to fathom. I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt since most probably don’t come for the salads. They are known for their sliders and other meaty entrees which from the thumbs up of my dinner companions, are pretty spectacular.

Luckily earlier that day, I had an amazing new salad find. During my lunch break when volunteering at Downtown Hospital, I was heading over to The Country Kebab on Fulton St for some red lentil soup and hummus/pita combo when the heat was so overwhelming that soup was definitely out of the question. I settled for a short walk to Chipotle and grabbed a salad with greens, black beans, fajita veggies, tomatoes and the winner of the dish, guacamole. OK enter in new salad love of my life. Guac + salad= heaven. Why have I not known this? I love avocado in sandwiches as a mayo substitute but this was the kicker! Yum heaven. Sorry no pic, i was too busy drowning in this yummy mess.

Ok sorry for the sidetrack…back to dinner- the place was beautiful despite the lackbuster salad. Interesting concept- they actually had old movies play on the walls of the restaurant. The night was wonderful as I got to meet up with wonderful friends over drinks and dinner, with wonderful weather and some entertaining shenanigans.

Needless to say after a subway ride home, despite the late hours, I was starving and quickly scrounged up some carbo-loading snackage of pretzels, raisins and my newest love- this popcorn from the genius over at Pure Sweets. The creator of this is actually my Uncle’s cousin, and she’s been experimenting with a new recipe for vegan popcorn. I still have yet to meet her (i got the popcorn from my Uncle’s other cousin, who is the doctor that I’m currently interning for. Have I lost you yet?) From tastes alone I believe there is some coconut milk in there for the coconutty taste and some agave nectar for the sweetness and sticky caramel consistency. At first I thought it was a little chewy, but now I’m actually digging the chew! Plus it slows down my treat feasting…ok yeah not really by much though 😉

Had this box waiting for me when I got to work

OoO a whole bag for me? Ok you caught me, I snapped this pic after having about devoured 1/4 of the bag, so this bag was actually a lot fuller from the get go .

Its got popcorn, a wonderful glaze of sticky heaven, nuts and flaxseeds.

I shared it w/ Mama Bella and Sister Bella last night and Mama Bella enjoyed it since she’s been in a sweet mode lately which is usually not very like her at all. Sister Bella said that the flax looked like bugs but still tried it 🙂 It takes some weedling for her to try vegan treats.

I usually like my popcorn plain- airpopped kernels in a paper bag in the microwave with some cinnamon sprinkled on top, but this is definitely a treat I don’t mind having once in a while. And since the bag is pretty much more than half way gone, we can say that in the past couple of days its a little more than once 😉

Alrighty, my GRE’s are less than a month away, and this Bella has yet to crack open the books. I’m considering rescheduling it despite the $50 rescheduling fee. 50 dollars seems insignificant when compared to taking a test thats going to determine whether or not I get into PA school when I’m not ready. Decisions decisions…

Something thats not too hard on the decision track though…I’m planning a Bellas reunion b/c September is just too far away. Hmm hitting up Michigan for my 21st seems like the perfect solution 🙂 time to go search for airplane tix….and you wonder why I dont get any studying done when I keep getting sidetracked 😉

Till next time loves,

Bella Lena

Bella Christina: On The Hunt Again!

hey guys!  congrats to the CSN winner yet again…y’all know how we love to give out free stuff.

alas, I’m back again to ask YOU if you’d like to be in a cookbook!  Hatherleigh Press is looking for all recipes including either BERRIES or MAPLE SYRUP!  If you have any original recipes, we will lovingly cite you and your name will be right below the title of your recipe.   🙂

email me at steenakeena@gmail.com if interested!  thanks guys — it’d be hard to make these cookbooks without chefs like you.

love,

christina

CSN Giveaway Winner Announcement!

Hey Bellas and Fellas

Just a short post today on the winner of our CSN giveaway!!

Thanks again CSN Stores!

Our winner is…

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:21

Noelle from An Opera Singer in the Kitchen!!!

Congratulations!!! Go check out her site too! Pretty awesome vegan and raw goodies galore!!

Noelle please email us at blissfulbellas@yahoo.com with your full name, address, and phone number within 48 hours. Thanks!

Alright we hope all of you had a lovely Father’s Day and are enjoying this beautiful gorg weather outside!!

Eat Healthy, Live Happy, and Be Blissful Every Minute of Every Day

-Yours truly,

Blissful Bellas

(CONTEST IS CLOSED!) Bella Lena: Beautiful Dreamer (and a Giveway?!? I must be Dreaming!)

For the past couple of days I’ve been looking like this

Only probably not as cute 😉 (anyone ever think chipmunks might be a cute pet?)

For those following us on Twitter, you may have known i just got all 4 of my wisdom teeth extracted!!! Ouch! I took vicodin the first night but haven’t taken any since then! Im not one for the groggy drugged feeling!

I dream of one day transforming back into the gorgeous model that I am

Ha yeah rite, now thats more like it

Yea i dunno what compelled me to post this pic again on this blog..i wont be on the cover of Maxim anytime soon nor do i think i want to lol

I dream of eating whole oats again!

Instead of the quick-1-minute kind that is easier for me to swallow now a days! i miss the chew of my oatmeal!

I dream of salads galore

while I love me some green smoothies,

sometimes a little color of a butiful salad is desired!

I dream of my delicious TJ snackies!

especially those pretzelsssss!! to satisfy my snacking crave ive been eating cereal dunked in almond milk for 2 minutes until they are nice and soggy. While i love me some soggified cereal im really missing the crunch of a good snacky!

I’m also dreaming of some yummy Fuji apples! Luckily Bella Mama has cut up some fresh watermelons that I can slowly suck on and chew softly

SOoooo juicy!

I dream of crunchy veggies over brown rice! I’ve been drinking some of Bella Auntie’s Veggie Broth with softened carrots, seaweed, and asparagus. Delicious!!

I definitely don’t feel like I’m getting my veggie on though! I can’t wait to start getting more of a balanced diet again. My snacking has gone down which is a good thing but so has my balanced meals!! I’ve been eating natural peanut butter in small bites to get my protein and fat in.

The only good thing is I didn’t have to go into work for the past couple days since I developed a fever probably due to infection or something. Unfortunately I was stuck at home and not actually doing anything fun with my days off! I didn’t even crack my GRE book which I need to since my exam is in a month and a half! YIKES!

I also dream of taking a real summer vacation

but that’s a different sort of dreaming!

Alright now onto a more plausible dreaming! You might remember last time CSN stores sponsored a giveaway on our blog when we gave away a personal blender. Well CSN graciously are sponsoring yet another giveaway because our readers are just so fricken awesome! we hope ur all still out there 🙂

If you’ve never heard of CSN they have over 200+ websites selling things from bathroom vanities to our favorite cookware! This time instead of us arbitrarily determining what you could win, we’ve decided to let you choose! CSN will send you a $40 dollar gift certificate to be used in any of their 200 sites!! Get yourself something completely free!! Or put it towards something bigger (hmm I smell a potential Vitamix buyer!!)

Ways to enter

Mandatory entry: Comment on this post telling us what you would use with your CSN gift certificate!

Multiple Entries:

(1 extra entry for each additional option)

1. Leave a comment telling us what you would like more from our blog!

2. Join us on Twitter and become our twitter friend!! @blissfulbellas and comment back to let us know you did so

3. Copy and tweet I want to win a CSN $40 Gift Certificate through @blissfulbellas Giveway http://wp.me/pH8oK-hO. Leave a comment letting us know you did so

4. Add us to your Google Reader and leave a comment letting us know you did

5. Add us to your blogroll and leave a comment letting us know you did

6. Blog about our giveaway on your blog! (2 extra entries leave two comments that you did this)

7. Tell us how you found out about us! (either b/c u heard about our giveaway through a tweet, another blogger etc, because ur an avid reader (we sure do hope those exist out there lol), because u were randomly googling lol there is no right answer! :D)

8. Answer this question: If you ever had your wisdom teeth extracted, what did you eat afterwards? For those who haven’t had their wisdom teeth extracted, tell us your biggest dream! (i understand this may be a bit personal so feel free to use ur second biggest dream or third!)

Alright have fun!! We love being able to give back to our readers and we love CSN for thinking of us for this giveaway!! Lets make this last one week! Contest ends a week from today at midnight!

Happy Dreaming!

– Bella Lena

Bella Lena: Jal meokkesseumnida! (Bon appetite!)

An-nyung-ha-se-yo (aka hello in Korean!)

Warning: be prepared for a bunch of Sidekick phone pics (i have yet to find a non-awkward way of taking out the cam in the middle of dinner, so i took these pics slyly on my phone)

Last night my grandfather came back to NY from China (his second home). To welcome him home, we all went out to Korean BBQ down on Northern Blvd at KumGangSang. This place has the best Korean BBQ. We’ve tried other places before because this place can get kinda steep on the wallet but nothing ever compares and we always end up back here.

The entrance has a gorgeous waterfall and diners can enjoy their dinner outside but we never do because of the mosquitoes!

The great thing about korean bbq is the little dishes that come with your meal. This was just 1/4 of the table!! My favorite was this amazing eggplant dish! I could have almost skipped my meal and just ate these little dishes!! Everything was vegan too!!

My family ordered a bunch of raw pork, chicken and beef to be cooked at the center of the table on a grill! Despite my vegan-ess, it smelled amazing! I love the smell of bbq! We also ordered some sushi, a noodle dish, and soup! If you ever have the pleasure of eating with my family, you wont ever have to worry that there won’t be enough food!! I had a seaweed salad starter and for my main meal I had Gop Dol Bi Bim Bap– steamed rice topped with assorted vegetables and tofu in olive oil based stoneware served sizzling hot

YUMMMM! The best part is the crunchy rice at the bottom of the bowl. I was stuffed after this meal. This large bowl plus all those small side dishes was enough to feed me 3X over and of course I finished it all in one sitting! There was also little dishes of ice cream for dessert which I passed on. Our total ended up being near $200, o delicious korean bbq why must you be so expensivo??

Afterwards we took a trip to my boyfriend Tjs and I picked up some ingredients for a Green Smoothie (along with enough snacklettes to make a certain snacker proud and a good chunk of change was spent on here too)

O boy how I’ve missed this! When I got home from work today I didnt have time for lunch at the office so I whipped this bad johnny up. Inside was a banana, splashes of unsweetened almond milk, splashes of cold water, three chunks of frozen mango, a couple of mixed berries and about almost half a bag of spinach!

Voila!

It wasn’t until after I made this that I realized I should have used the POM juice that I received! I will definitely use it next time though!

Question for ya!

Do you ever feel awkward taking pics in front of other people for the blog?

Things to consider!

Bella Christina is part of an amazing recipe cookbook project, look at her last post or click here to see how you can be a part of it!!

Daume bayo!! (aka see you next time in Korean!)

Bella Lena

Wanna be part of a cookbook?

Hi bloggers!!

Remember when I said I’m an intern at a lovely publishing company called Hatherleigh Press?  Well…we’re looking for contributions for an upcoming book, “The New Kitchen Garden,” and with your unique, personally created recipe, you could be given credit in the book!

We’re looking for a few BREAKFAST recipes, a few MEAT/POULTRY recipes (I know, and most of us are probably veg heads, right?) and a few DIP recipes!

All recipes must be personally created, have a list of ingredients and how to put it all together, and all must use only FRESH ingredients, preferably ones that can be found in a homegrown garden 🙂   [like tomatoes, asparagus, beans, nothing canned or dried please!]

Please let me know if you’d like to contribute by e-mailing me with your recipe by June 13th at steenakeena@gmail.com

Love,

Bella Christina