Making My Own Kombucha

Kombucha. You’ve probably heard about this fizzy, probiotic drink from plenty of food and wellness bloggers. Kombucha is the product of fermenting sweetened tea using a symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast (SCOBY). Kombucha has been lauded for its ability to

• Improve Digestion
• Weight Loss
• Increase Energy
• Detox
• Support Immune System
• Reduce Joint Pain
• Prevent Cancer

But, kombucha typically sells for $3-6 at supermarkets, which can really add up overtime! I decided to brew my own kombucha to see if it actually lives up to its health claims.

I started brewing my kombucha in February and I used a recipe by The Kitchn; it’s super detailed and explains everything step-by-step.

Just as a helpful note:

Batch Size: To increase or decrease the amount of kombucha you make, maintain the basic ratio of 1 cup of sugar, 8 bags of tea, and 2 cups starter tea per gallon batch. One scoby will ferment any size batch, though larger batches may take longer. (The Kitchn)

One of my friends’ sister was brewing kombucha as well, and I used a piece of her SCOBY.

The scoby looked a little something like this! (Improving-SCOBY-Health.jpg)

I kept the kombucha in a dark area and let it sit and brew. Every couple weeks, I would give it a taste test to  make sure it wasn’t too sweet, but it also wasn’t too sour and vinegar-like. Finally, at the end of April, I decided it was ready!

 

 

 

Look at that scoby!

  

So, you can see that the scoby grew to be huge and super thick. The kombucha tasted sweet and vinegary, with just the right amount of carbonation. I drank 1/2 cup of kombucha a couple times every week, so here are my observations:

• Claims to improve digestion –> From my experience, I was actually more gassy than before!
• Increases energy –> I guess the vinegary kick from the kombucha did give me more energy…but the drink is super sugary, and the longer it was left in the fridge, the sweeter it got (something to do with the fermentation process…), and for me personally, the kombucha was too sweet.

In conclusion, I don’t really think kombucha is worth the hype based on how it made me feel. I must admit that I do feel very healthy sipping that ice-cold kombucha, but at the end of the day, I don’t think it is worth the money, or effort and time to make it.

What do you think about kombucha?

Love,

Serena

 

Banana Cinnamon Coffee Overnight Oats

I love my overnight oats. Sometimes I think I wake up because my oats are calling my name. You might think I’m a bit overly obsessed but let me tell you they are the perfect breakfast to have in the mornings when you don’t have time to/don’t feel like making anything, but don’t want to sacrifice your health. After all, breakfast is the most important meal of the day and you better feed your body right, from the start.

I have so many overnight oat recipes that I’ve created, and I’ll share more of them later. But for now, allow me to introduce my go to, BANANA CINNAMON COFFEE overnight oats. As with many of my recipes, each of the ingredients are selected for a purpose, so that the ingredients list doesn’t contain any unnecessary bells and whistles.

Here it is:

Servings: 1

Time: 5 minutes active (yes, actually 5 minutes I timed it :)), 7-8 hours fridge overnight

Ingredients:

1/2 cup rolled oats

1 tbsp. chia seeds (or sub flax seeds)

1/2 banana

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp instant coffee powder (equivalent to about 1/2 cup coffee worth of caffeine)

1/2 cup + a little bit more almond milk (or milk of choice)

honey to taste

optional toppings: almond slivers, dark chocolate chips, etc.

Instructions:

1.) In a mason jar or some resealable jar, mash the banana. Add oats, chia seeds, cinnamon, coffee powder, honey, and milk.

2.) Screw on the lid and shake until well combined (or you could be fancy and mix with a spoon).

3.) Pop it in the fridge, and enjoy right out of the jar the next morning! (ideally 7-8 hours in the fridge, but the timing is flexible)

Yeah, that’s it. Just a throw everything in a jar and shake kind of recipe. You DO NOT have to have any kind of cooking skill to make this oatmeal, and it turns out creamy and satisfying every time!! You can heat it up in the morning as well, but I find cold/room temp oats to be just fine. I even have overnight oats for snack sometimes 😛

Let me know if you try out this recipe and your thoughts! Happy oatmeal eating 🙂

Love,

Serena

 

 

Asparagus for Any Day

I’ve always loved asparagus because of how fun it is to eat! Asparagus isn’t like spinach or lettuce where I feel like a cow eating it with stems and leaves sticking stubbornly out of my mouth. Instead, asparagus is crunchy and texturally satisfying. Also, fun fact, 1 cup of asparagus has 100% of the daily value of Vitamin K for blood clotting and bone support.

If you follow our Avolicious Instagram, you’ll know that I was sick this past week. I had a fever and I still have a sore throat, but I made this delicious asparagus dish that was both healthy and satisfying. My recipe was based off of my spiced fried rice recipe in that I used similar super healthy spices.

Here’s the simple recipe and I hope you give it a try!

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

1 pound Asparagus (duh)

1 tbsp Minced garlic/garlic powder

1/2 tsp Turmeric

1/2 tsp Black Pepper

(That’s it!! only 4 ingredients!!)

Process:

1.) Wash asparagus and chop into 1.5 inch pieces.

2.) Heat 1 tbsp. water in a pan and add minced garlic if using

3.) Once water is hot, add asparagus and cook for 2 minutes

4.) Add turmeric and black pepper

Yay!! All done. This recipe is easy easy you really don’t need to have many cooking skills for it! Plus, the turmeric is amazing for fighting inflammation, and black pepper helps the body absorb the nutrients from the turmeric.

Enjoy!

-Serena 

Quick and Easy Fried Rice

Sometimes, I’m just too tired to cook. I know, shocking, but after a long afternoon of shopping, all I want to do is lay down. So, on these days, I usually  just take whatever I have in the fridge. throw it all together, and call it a meal. But there are times when these haphazard cooking days actually turn out amazing. One example of this is my spiced fried rice.

I’m not going to lie, there were a lot of ingredients I used (mainly from spices) as this is a spiced Fried Rice. But trust me, it is good. Especially when you’re tired because the heartiness of this dish just warms you right up.

Also, each spice that I use has a plethora of health benefits associated with it. For example, turmeric is strongly anti0inflammatory, has powerful antioxidant effects, and prevents common diseases overall. I use pepper in this recipe because it helps the body absorb the turmeric more effectively.

Servings:2

Ingredients:

-2 eggs

– 2 cloves garlic minced

-1 tsp ginger

-1 carrot chopped

-1 stalk celery chopped

– 2 handfuls dark leafy greens

– 1 tbsp soy sauce

– 1 tsp turmeric

– 1/2 tsp pepper

-1 tsp cinnamon

-1/2 tsp Chinese five spice

-2 tsp olive oil

-1/4 cup broth or water as needed

-1/4 cup cashews

– 2 tbsp sesame seeds

-2 cups brown rice

– optional: any type of meat/meat substitute leftover, I used 2 scallops, chopped up

Note: These ingredients can be substituted for other similar ingredients! This recipe is meant to be a clean-out-the-fridge, whatever-you-have-on-hand type of recipe. For example, you can switch out brown rice for white rice, or the dark leafy greens for broccoli. The possibilities are endless.

Procedure:

1.) Heat half of the olive oil (1tsp) in a pan, and then scramble the two eggs. Remove from pan.

2.) Heat the remaining olive oil on high heat with the minced garlic and ginger

3.) Once the aromatics smell fragrant, add the chopped carrot, celery, and meat leftover and sautée everything for about 2 minutes. The meat should be heated through, and the carrots and celery should be a bit crunchy

4.) Add the leafy greens and sautée until wilted. Meanwhile, add the scrambled eggs, turmeric, pepper, cinnamon, and Chinese five spice

5.) Add the rice, and some liquid to help break up any clumps. I used bone broth that I of course had leftover, but you can also use water or another type of broth. Add the soy sauce, cashews, and sesame seeds.

6.) Give everything a good mix and you’re done!

What is your favorite leftover recipe?

Love,

Serena

VIDEO: Avocado Toast

I decided during lunch today (while my parents were out attending a wedding), to film a video of how I make my avocado toast lunch.

As you can see from the video, it’s super duper simple to make this lunch! Let me know of what you think of the video. I really want to start doing more video content so if you have a suggestion for a type of video you’d like to see me do, leave the suggestion in a comment!

Enjoy!

 

How do you like to eat your avocados?

xoxo,

Stephanie

 

Winter Roasted Veggie Bowl

After seeing hundreds of amazing looking roasted veggie bowls on Instagram, I have been craving a good one for the last couple weeks. Well, I finally got to making one this weekend and it was sooo satisfying!

Honestly, you can put anything in roast veggie bowls. Potatoes, squash, mushrooms, cucumbers, tofu, the possibilities are endless! For mine, I put roasted organic sweet potato that I baked in the oven for 35 minutes and 425 degrees.

I drizzled some olive oil so that the potatoes would crisp up, and added cinnamon for a boost of added nutrients.

Also, I’m not sure what kind of sweet potatoes these are, but they have a slightly milder sweetness than conventional orange sweet potatoes.

Next, I roasted some zucchini and carrots in s&p for 20 minutes.

Finally, I added a bed of spinach, the roasted veggies, and a fried egg to the bowl and dug in!

This bowl turned out so delicious, especially with the runny yolk from the egg. You definitely need to give it a try cause I’m telling ya it was GOOD.

What are your favorite ingredients for roasted veggie bowls?

Love,

Serena

3 Overnight Oats Recipes

Whenever I have a really late night spent doing homework, I know I won’t be able to sit down and enjoy a long breakfast in the morning because I’ll likely wake up late. My solution used to be to make a really simple breakfast that morning to eat in the car, like an almond butter banana sandwich. But that still took too much time in the mornings. So, my solution this year has been to make overnight oats!

Most of the time, I’ll make chocolate banana oats. I love the banana chocolate combination so much!

Ingredients:

2/3 cup rolled oats

2/3 cup almond milk

1 tbsp chia seeds

1 tbsp cocoa powder

1 banana mashed

1 tsp sweetener of choice (honey, maple syrup, agave, etc.)

1 tsp cinnamon

Mix all of the ingredients in a mason jar or Tupperware and leave in the fridge overnight. The oats will soak in the almond milk, making them soft. In the morning, you can grab it and go, or you can heat it up too. Also, you can add additional toppings. Some of my favorites include  pomegranate seeds, dark chocolate, almond shavings, and blueberries.

  

Sometimes I even mix in chia seed pudding (3/4 cup almond milk with 1/4 cup chia seeds 1 tsp vanilla and sweetener of choice.

When I don’t have banana or cocoa powder at home, I  make vanilla overnight oats.

Here I layered chia seed pudding, chocolate banana overnight oats, strawberries, vanilla overnight oats, and blueberries.

Ingredients:

2/3 cup almond milk

2/3 cup rolled oats

1 tbsp chia seeds

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

3 tbsp apple sauce

Procedure:

Same as above! I add applesauce to bind the oats, but they’re optional. I also add cinnamon because it’s a nutrient-packed super food! It’s filled with antioxidants, anti-inflammatory properties, vitamins, minerals, and so much more. Even 1 tsp can have positive impacts on your body!

Finally, chocolate peanut butter overnight oats.

Ingredients:

2/3 cup rolled oats

2/3 cup almond milk

1 tbsp chia seeds

1 tbsp cocoa powder

1 tbsp peanut butter

1 tsp sweetener of choice (honey, maple syrup, agave, etc.)

1 tsp cinnamon

Procedure:

Again, same as above, so easy!!

Overnight oats are my GO-TO breakfast. They’re fast, simple, and nutritious, and they give me something to look forward to in the morning!

What is your favorite flavor of overnight oats??

Love,

Serena

My 2016 Health and Fitness Faves

2016 is over in a couple of minutes (or might be already over by the time you read this), BUT I wanted to share a couple of my 2016 health and fitness faves.

ONE// Wearable tech

image source

While I personally don’t have any wearable tech items (as my mom fears about radiation…) I think 2016 was the year for wearable tech. I’ve seen from Jawbone, FitBit, Polar, Garmin and more on the arms of fitness junkies and ordinary people alike! It’s great that these wearable tech items are slim, pretty discreet, and easy to use. I really hope to persuade my mom to let me get one!

TWO// Foam rolling

Now this is something I’ve personally experience and reaped benefits of. I had extremely tired quads at the end of summer after a sudden increase in running mileage. My old running coach (that I still contact to this day) recommended that I take a break from running and instead, foam roll for a good 40 minutes. 10 minutes for quads, 10 minutes each for side of the leg, and 10 minutes for hamstrings. While it was a mundane motion, foam rolling definitely helped me recover quickly!

 

THREE// Yoga

image source

While yoga has always been touted as a healthy practice for the body and mind, I feel like it has gotten a lot of hype this year. I’ve personally love to do yoga as a nice way to stretch my body and challenge my body in a different way.

 

FOUR// Healthy and cute food restaurants

from my What I Ate in Korea blog post 1 and 2

I personally am so happy about this! I feel like recently there’s been so many healthy restaurants that are both cute and popular, although they are on the expensive side. When visiting NYC or Seoul this year, I’ve definitely seen a lot of places to eat where there are green-colored and fresh foods instead of brown and fried ones. Especially, meals with avocado has been getting the hype recently!

 

FIVE// Superfoods

from Serena’s “detox” juice

My maternal grandmother and my mom is a huge fan of superfoods, so I’m definitely one as well. I think during 2016, we’ve seen a lot of acai, goji, maca, noni, and cacao from the media.

In addition, not really a superfood, but chia seeds and hemp seeds have been getting a lot of praise as well.

 

SIX// Green juices/smoothies

image source

Oh. my. goodness. How could I not list green juice? I think this is a pretty self-explanatory item.

But one thing to note: some green juices can have a lot of sugar so watch out. It’s always best to make your own one (check out my green smoothie recipe from this year)!

SEVEN// Vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, gluten-free …

There’s also been a lot of encouragement, support, and development into diets and lifestyles that are necessarily the standard carnivore or American diet. I love taking a peek into “What I Eat in a Day” videos where the eater has a certain/specific diet.

I personally still eat red meat and all, but I truly respect all who make the choice to eat a certain way.

Check out Serena’s blog post about her diet switch!

EIGHT// Body confidence

I feel like during 2016, the media as well as celebrities spread messages about body confidence and body image. So necessary in this day and age. #preach

Check out some of my body image posts here and here.

 

Hope 2017 can be another health and fitness filled year!

How did you ring in the New Year?

xoxo,

Stephanie

 

“Make your own” California Roll Recipe

Writing this post currently back at school brings back such sweet memories. This was my last dinner(s) before I left for school last Saturday.  And I say dinners with a “s” because the last three nights I ate this and EACH TIME GOT EXCITED FOR IT.

For me, healthy eating is always delicious, always filling, always colorful, and of course, always nutrient dense. And this recipe is all of those. It’s actually fairly simple, but the prep work does take some time. However, if you do it in a big batch one day, then you can go off of that batch for a couple of days like my family did!

For those lovers of sushi, avocado, smoked salmon, or meals where you mix things in (like burritos, bibimbap), this recipe is JUST for you.

“Make your own” California Roll Recipe (serves 3 HUGE appetites)

Ingredients:

• Rice (brown rice preferred!)
• Nori (the large seaweed sheets WITHOUT any oil or salt)
• Avocados (I believe we used about four – but the number is completely up to you!)
• Smoked Salmon (My family personally loves the Duck Trap brand in the huge size that is sold at Whole Foods!)
• Carrots
• Cucumbers
• Eggs (as many as you want, but I believe we used 8 eggs to make a huge “omelette” and we still had leftovers after having it for 3 dinners)

 

• Optional:

 

• Burdock (We Koreans have a side dish made out of this. It’s really good, but it’s definitely not necessary for this recipe.)
• Dan Moo Ji (picked daikon radish – another Korean that is completely optional, just adds a little kick like a pickle)

 

Directions:

• Wash your avocado, cucumber (and dan moo ji) and cut them into thin slices
• Lightly saute your carrot with some olive oil and after done and cooled, cut them in thin slices
• Make an “omelette” by only adding eggs into the pan and after done and cooled, cut them in thin slices

 

The finished product for these three directions should like this

• Have your stove on a low setting and lightly toast your nori to make them more stiff but not super crunchy like a chip.
• Afterwards, cut your nori sheets up into small pieces

This is one of our three dinners. Do you see how small the nori sheets are?

 

Now onto the fun part!

• Lay one of the small nori piece on your plate
• Add your rice as a base layer and add all the ingredients in

 

Enjoy!

 

What do you like in your sushi rolls?

xoxo,

Stephanie

 

 

Avocado Toast w/ Smoked Salmon and Chia Seeds

I’m surprised that I haven’t shared on this blog the source of my intense love for avocado.

img source

In truth, my mom is the true foodie. She was the one who bought and consumed most of the avocados in our house until about last summer. Until then, she was pretty much force feeding my dad and me this green thing that wasn’t really sweet like a mango but wasn’t refreshing like a watermelon. The problem was, she was just eating the avocado straight out of the peel. Even now, I don’t really salivate or get tempted at the fact of just eating a plain avocado. I have to eat together with something.

 

And that’s exactly where the avocado toast comes in.

 

I’m pretty sure I found avocado toast from either a foodie instagram or somewhere online – but all I can say for sure is that it wasn’t a random idea that sparked in my head, I saw it somewhere. I decided to try it out since avocados were always stocked up in our house (courtesy of my mom) and we always had bread (since my family are carb-addicts).

 

I didn’t have that much high expectations to the avocado toast as I wasn’t a fan of avocado, but if naming a blog I co-author with the name avocado, the fact that I crave for an avocado every single day at boarding school, and that at least one of my meals back home includes an avocado, I don’t what else will tell you that I truly fell in love.

 

Over the past year since I got lovestruck, I’ve been perfecting the “art.” I’ve tried and failed, but I think I finally hit the jackpot. It’s truly simple yet so delicious. I generously sprinkle chia seeds as they give a nice crunchy texture that contrasts to the buttery avocado. However, once in awhile, when I have the luxury of having smoked salmon in the house, I add a slice of the smoked salmon as well. Ah … healthy fats all in one – avocado, chia seeds, and salmon.

 

So that’s my lunch pretty much all summer long (I’m a creature of habit) and the source to my love for avocado!

 

 

Ingredients:

• Multigrain/whole wheat bread
• One ripe avocado
• Chia seeds
• Smoked salmon
• Optional:
  • Mango
  • Boiled egg

 

Directions

 

Toast your pieces of bread | My family and I don’t own a toaster, so we’ve been toasting our bread using this panini-style fry-pan and it works equally as well.

 

Boil one/two hard-boiled eggs. | Again, my sweet mom already prepared these for me, so all I had to do was take these eggs out of the fridge.

 

Cut up your avocado and mango

 

After finishing toasting your bread, slather on avocado with your fork

 

Put one slice of the smoked salmon on the toast | I got these from Costco

Sprinkle chia seeds on the toast

 

Enjoy!

 

Simple right! But it’s insanely good and I do believe that the simplest pleasures are the best.

How do you eat your avocado’s?

xoxo,

Stephanie