Chobani Winner!

Aloha everyone! I am pleased to announce the winner of the Chobani giveaway is…

Here are your random numbers:

4

which means…Kay! I was happy with these results because Kay is also from Oahu and she informed me that Chobani is unavailable on the island! I had no idea! I’m glad that a fellow “local” (can I consider myself a local if all my friends are? I guess that would make me an honorary local?) gets to feel some Chobani love. You can email your address to me at mayapamela@gmail.com, Kay!

These past two days I’ve been really into yogurt parfaits, which of course starred Chobani.

Yesterday’s mix was a Strawberry Chobani with an AppleBerry Vitatop, mashed banana, and peach slices. I really enjoyed the Vitatop, the muffin was very moist and I loved the bites of dried fruit in my parfait. I really like the fruit on the bottom feel to the yogurts–after trying the strawberry flavor I have to say it wins over blueberry.

Today I tried the pineapple Chobani and I LOVED it!

I was in a rush this morning, so I couldn’t arrange my breakfast parfait style. Somehow, the same proportion of ingredients but layered differently cannot be contained by the same glass. Post picture I had to put the granola in another cup and apply throughout eating. The yogurt mess also included grapes, peach slices, and strawberries (with the pineapple flavor it felt like one of those old school fruit cocktails, you know what I mean?) with ginger granola.

So the AppleBerry Vitatop was a success, but I can’t say the same for the chocolate:

Excuse the horrible lighting. The chocolate tasted a bit dry, which I didn’t like eating plain. Maybe it would have been better with some yogurt or more ice cream to mask the dryness (that was the last bit of Dulce de Leche ice cream pictured here, but it wasn’t enough). I do like that I could get a chocolate fix with a shot of iron. As a vegetarian I try and be aware of my iron and B12 intake and such.

I also recently received a large package of Gnu bars. Yesterday, I tried the Orange Cranberry.

As soon as I opened the wrapper I was blasted with the scent of orange zest. Yum! The texture was…interesting…it reminded me of quinoa. It was very seedy with a lot going on, which isn’t a bad thing, just a texture to get used to. Overall, I would give this bar a B.

Over the weekend I volunteered at Ma’o Organic Farms in Wai‘anae with the AFS students. I didn’t take any pictures as we left our belongings behind, so any photos you see are from Google.

It was amazing. The farm is all about growing fruits and vegetables that are often deemed impossible to grow in Hawaii. For example, they recently successfully grew cauliflower. This is extremely important for an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, as cauliflower usually has to be shipped. That is a long distance for cauliflower to travel, which means a lot of burned fossil fuels in transit. It is not healthy for Hawaii to be so dependent for produce. Ma’o Farms wants Hawaii to be more self-sustaining, and I think it’s incredible that they can do so organically.

The farm also makes incredible strides to involve the community as much as possible. Ma’o Youth is an internship program of two years that employs Wai‘anae youth and gives them the opportunity an Associate’s Degree at Leeward Community College in agricultural studies. The program covers education costs, provides a monthly stipend, and sends participants to agricultural workshops around the world. Wai‘anae is an impoverished region–en route we passed tents on the beach with mailboxes out front. Camping tents serve as makeshift homes. This program allows the youth to literally get their hands dirty in their own native land and start a career doing so.

As AFS volunteers, we hauled rocks to make room for new fields. It only took about two hours, but with a total of 30 volunteers, the Ma’o Farm staff said we did the work of three weeks. Afterward they treated us to an incredible lunch–10 types of organic salad greens, pasta salads, purple sweet potatoes, hummus, fresh tuna salad sandwiches, homemade bread, and fresh fruits. Many volunteers contributed other treats to the spread.

My eyes were bigger than my stomach, but could you blame me? They had fresh baked challah!

Now I would much rather buy high quality produce from such a farm then, say, a tomato with a faint, watery taste that traveled 3,000 miles. Buying local produce is important anywhere, but I think the message is particularly pertinent in Hawaii.

What do you guys think of buying locally? Worth the money?

A toute a l’heure!
Maya

First Giveaway!

Hey blogettes!

Thank you so much for your kind words on my last post. I truly appreciated everyone’s commentary, I could tell that you all put a lot of thought in your comments. and I concluded that I want to keep blogging fun. That is my number one priority. I hope to gain more readers and I would love to ignite interesting conversations in blog land, but at the end of the day I need to enjoy this process. In the past I haven’t been the best about replying to comments, which I will definitely begin to do because I get the most insightful comments sometimes and I’d really like the dialogue on certain issues to continue. So I’ll just keep doing my thing and hope that you guys like what ya see!

I’ve been getting my Chobani on lately:

This was my attempt at a waffle. I always make my own waffles, but I saw this multi grain mix and thought it would be good for a weekday morning. Except it turned out more like a pancake. It’s cool, I like pancakes, but I was craving a crispy waffle. I topped this deflated waffle baby with bluberry chobs, frozen raspberries, sliced banana, and coconut.

This morning I was going to make a decadent oatmeal creation until I learned that one of the girls needed to bring in a baked goodie for her class but failed to tell anyone. I was asked to bake something and bring it to her school before noon, only I planned on hanging out with a friend on the windward side and I wanted to leave asap after dropping off Silvino. So at 7 am I DEAB aka Dropped Everything and Baked. I decided to make Ghiradelli brownie mix cupcakes because they would cool much faster than pan brownies. In forty minutes I concocted the following:

Is there a Baking Olymics? If so I’d totally be eligible for that.
Anyway due to the olymic games that occurred in the kitchen this morning, I had less time for my planned indulgent breakfast creation (the horror!) so I got my Chob on again:

Which I used to make this:

A breakfast parfait with honey chobani, hemp plus granola, and sliced banana (ps loved the granola, it’s probably at a health store bulk bin near you).

After three Chobanis I have included that Chobani is the perfect Greek yogurt if the intense thickness of Fage and Oikos is too much for you, as was the case for me when I first tried Greek yogurt. It’s like the GY gateaway drug–it’s a nice thick step up from standard yogurt but not quite as hardcore as other brands. I really like how smooth it is, and will definitely be purchasing it on my own. I can’t wait to try the other flavors!

Plus I have to respect a company that really goes out of their way to create a positive costumer experience. Morgan at Chobani was quick to respond to my emails, sent the Chobanis in less than a week of our correspondence (in a refrigerated case! It’s no joke sending yogurt all the way to Hawaii!), and offered my readers a giveaway!

Comment on this post for one entry, and mention the giveaway on your blog for another entry. I’ll close the entries at Tuesday on midnight EST (this is important as I’m six hours behind the east coasters!) and announce the winner on Wednesday.

In other news…

Today I had no idea what to have for dinner when I remembered that I had a few TJ peanut butter filled pretzels left and some tofu begging to be eaten. I remembered that Caroline posted a recipe for pretzel coated tofu. It involves coating sliced tofu in a dijon mustard/agave mixture and then dredging the slices in crushed pretzels and baking at 375 for 20 minutes. Honestly I didn’t have very high expectations, I thought it would be a bit bland, but I had no other ideas, so I figured I’d give it a shot.

How silly! It was delicious! The mustard/agave combo gave a sweet, spicy mellow flavor to the tofu and I loved the peanut butter pretzel crunch. A definite must try! I had broccoli in soy sauce/hot sauce and grapes on the side. (btw the kitchen lighting is crap…apologies)

I’ve been eating broccoli on the daily (thanks costco bag) so I was getting a little tired of it. Though hot sauce and soy sauce sounds like a simple combo, it really made the broccoli pop, and I really enjoyed it.

Alright must be off, I just got back from an hour+ walk (after running the past two days) and I have a few things to do before I go to bed. Which includes some happy baby yoga posing on my bed while listening to music. My thighs will be very happy. Don’t forget about the getaway to get your own Chobani loot!

A toute a l’heure!
Maya

Exciting news!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

I’ve been ITCHING to post these past few days–I have some exciting updates! Blogging proved difficult, as I spent the weekend with Sophie chez Bargiel and I was laptop-less, as my beloved Mac is currently on the mainland for repairs. Bummer. But without further adoo…

I am 98% sure I will be registering for the Hononlulu Marathon! I am now volunteering quite a bit for AFS and this past weekend we had a party for the AFS Oahu exchange students (all 5 of them, the Oahu chapter is small but growing!) One of the students, a Japanese girl named Shiori, lives about five minutes away from me. Her mom is running the marathon this year, and though Shiori has never really run before, she registered. Shiori doesn’t speak a lot of English and I want to help her train, as lord knows I’ve read plenty of running related blogs. The marathon is in December, so I need to get training! I’ve now been on a few MPRRC runs and many people asked me if I am considering the marathon. I always said no, I had plenty on my plate as it is. But I decided that I can always start training and see how I feel. Today I went on a MPRRC run in Kailua, and we ran 9 miles. That is now my longest distance ever run–and I feel fantastic! I woke up itching to run at 5:30 and I attacked the mileage. I have to say I was proud of myself, I did two peak distances in one week. I never thought of myself as a “runner,” per se, but with each passing day I feel stronger and more confident. I think that I am physically capable of training for a marathon, I just need to wrap my mind around the notion. I plan on modifying my marathon training plan on this one, more or less. My plans for cross training include swimming, surfing (hopefully!), and lots of yoga. I found an adorable yoga studio run in the owner’s home near where I live. She is willing to trade services, such as providing child care for the yogis’ kids and cleaning, for classes. I’ve only practiced yoga on my own and for an intense 2 week Bikram stint. I’ve always wanted to practice yoga consistently to really reap the benefits and I think this could be an amazing opportunity! I’ve already signed up for the introductory 3 class special to see if I like the studio, and have completed 2 Vinyasa classes, one of which ended up being a private lesson. As the studio is small (yoga is not very popular in Hawaii, it is mainly people from the mainland who practice) the personal attention is great to fix some of the bad habits I’ve formed by practicing on my own.

Anyway, sorry for the yoga tangent! Back to the marathon plan–I’d like to contact the local Team in Training group tomorrow. As long as I’m training for a marathon I’d like it to make a profound difference, and I would love to fund raise for the Leukemia and Lymphona with TIT. I hope to use the blogging community as a resource to help me reach this goal! Training and fund raising for a marathon is exactly the kind of challenge I could use right now, and I feel so good about having such an encouraging community of runners in Oahu to guide me.

So many other things I have to post about, but I am currently running on 3 hours of sleep, a 9 mile run, and a full day spent in the North Shore. But I will share a fantastic breakfast I enjoyed on Friday, thanks to Chobani!

Thanks Morgan for the samples! I can’t wait to try the pineapple flavor.

I incorporated the peach Chobani with the Multigrain Vitatop for…

A Kay inspired parfait! Please excuse the not so attractive parfait layers–I was in a bit of a rush because I had to drop off Silvino at school and attend a yoga class right afterwards. Of course I still took 15 minutes to eat…I enjoy a leisurely breakfast! The parfait also had a few peach and banana slices.

At first I thought the Vitatops were a bit small, but in a parfait the portion was just right. You can only expect so much muffin goodness out of a 100 calorie package, but the grainy sweet flavor was spot on. At first I was a bit surprised that the Chobani Greek yogurt was not as thick as the Fage counterpart, but after a few bites I came to appreciate the texture of Chobani. Fage is as thick as sour cream, but Chobani has a sweet smoothness that Fage does not achieve. I also liked the little bits of peach as I always loved fruit on the bottom yogurts when I was little. I didn’t think this breakfast would hold me for long, but it kept me going through an hour and a half yoga class until lunch. No wonder breakfast parfaits are so popular in blogland!

I have quite a few posts coming soon, can’t wait to share! Also, I will soon be hosting a Chobani giveaway…details to follow!

What’s a challenge you would like to undertake in the near future (personal, school/work related, athletic,etc)? How are you working to achieve that goal? If you’ve trained or are training for a half/full marathon, do you have any tips for my training schedule?

I must be off–I have to request every marathon training book the island libraries offer!

A toute a l’heure,
Maya