Quinoa Granola

April 8, 201012 Comments

Breakfast this morning was inspired by Heather. A few days ago I saw her post on quinoa granola and after yesterday’s quinoa breakfast, I knew I had to try it ASAP!

I had mind with greek yogurt and a sliced banana.

Seriously. Best homemade breakfast I’ve ever had! That’s saying a lot!

I tweeked her version a bit. Here’s my recipe for a single serving:

Coconut Quinoa Granola

inspired by Quinoa Granola

1/4 cup uncooked quinoa
1 tbsp flax
1 tbsp unsweetened coconut
1 tbsp agave
cinnamon

Rinse the quinoa. Combine all the ingredients and spread on a baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 10-15 mins, stirring occasionally.

This was all sorts of delicious! The whole meal also had about 20g of protein! Kept me full for a pretty long time (5 hours?).

Definitely recommend it.

Ugh too much to read tonight! Have a good one!

Hot Cross Buns

April 2, 20106 Comments

I took a cue from Mama Pea last night and got ready for Good Friday. While I hummed the tune in my head, I baked some hot cross buns.

I proceeded to distribute them to my schoolmates today. Hope they were appreciated.

I enjoyed a few of these for breakfast (not the healthiest but that’s okay) with some coffee in this mug:

Quite fitting. Makes me laugh.

I also had Hot Non-Denominational Buns (without the cross).

I thought they were pretty delicious! A nice treat for Good Friday.

Today was another gorgeous day! We had a high of 83! I wore a sundress and life was great!

Today was also Open House for my department so I spent a good portion of the day showing around prospective students, which was kind of fun.

Thank goodness for the weekend! Even though I have a ton of work to get done, I also have so many shows to catch up on! Lost, Ugly Betty, Grey’s Anatomy, Mad Men! Where to start!?!

Hopefully I’ll get to catch up on blogs with weekend too! I’m pooped! Have a great night!

April Will be AAAAmazing!

April 1, 2010April 2, 201016 Comments

Happy April Everyone!

I hate April Fool’s Day! Sorry to be a scrooge (what? wrong holiday?), but I won’t even pretend to be pregnant or dropping out of school or anything of that shocking sort. Are you a fan of April Fool’s Day??

Today has starting out wonderfully!!

Reason #1: It’s SUNNY out and there is going to be a high of 78!!!!

Check out the sunshine radiating from my fire escape!!

See Lauren‘s post on Vitamin D

Reason #2: Amazing oats in my new bowl! Isn’t it cute?

My oats may not be as fancy as some, but my oat + banana +yogurt + almond butter combo is the best thing on Earth to me! Case in point:

Reason #3: Delicious lunch!

At Allie‘s suggestion I had a tempeh + pumpkin butter + spinach sandwich. Yes there is tempeh and pumpkin butter amongst that mountain of spinach.

OMG delicious! Try it! Even better than yesterday’s sandwich!

Reason #4: Yesterday I got Mad Men season 3 arrived in the mail. Thus I can continue my love/hate relationship with Don Draper.

Reason #5: Class was outside today! I got to argue with someone, which is fun because usually it’s a huge group of people sitting around agreeing with each other.

Reason #6: Fantastic work out this morning! It flew by! I did 4 miles on the T-Mill while watching Tyra Banks’ E! True Hollywood Story. I love trash TV!

So I’m posting this later than expected but today has been a great day so far! To be honest, I’m not sure how much work I’m going to get done the rest of the day, but I’m a happy camper!

Hope your day has been as pleasant as mine!!

Tomorrow is Friday!!! WOO!

Let’s Go Streaking!

March 31, 2010March 31, 201016 Comments

Ok actually you can and should do this with your clothes on!

My brother-in-law started a fun facebook group called The Running Streak Group.

Basically the idea is to run (at least) 1 mile everyday, never missing a day. You can see the United States Running Streak Association for more info!

Starting April 1st, I’m going to try to run at least 1 mile everyday! Sounds kind of fun right? Anyone want to join me? Feel free to join the facebook group! Good way to make sure you get moving at least a little bit everyday!

I wish I had more exciting eats to show you all, but unfortunately I’ve been running around like a chicken with its head cut off for the past few days! I’m trying to get together school work, apply for internships and be the overall rockstar that I am!

This morning I made a green monster for breakfast and in my rush out the door, forgot it. That was upsetting… luckily I wasn’t hungry this morning.

But I’m pretty excited for lunch. I’m trying something new!

Tempeh with jam and spinach! (Note my super bread slicing skills aka super uneven!) Ready to go…

Sounds like an interesting combo! I’ve seen it around the blog world! I’ll let you know how it is. Have you ever had the tempeh/preserve/sweet combo? Did you like it?

EDIT: OMG THIS IS AMAZING!!!

In other news, my Stress-Less March idea is working really well. While it sucks to have to take everything with me and lug it around campus all day, it’s really nice to get so much done and come home and sort of relax for a bit.

I’m in the library so I should probably get to work. Hope you have a great day!!

Slimmed Down Coconut Cardamom Rice Pudding

March 27, 20108 Comments

Last week in NYC, I went to Rice to Riches for a pre-NYC departure treat with some friends. This place is basically like an ice cream parlor, but instead of ice cream they serve rice pudding. Let me just tell you. It was delicious! (I even kept the cool tupperware container it came in!)

Ever since then, I’ve been wanting to make my own. However, I realize that rice pudding can be a flat out FATTY treat. So why not try to make mine a little healthier? (And cheaper! My friend an I shared the “Epic” size and it was $8! Isn’t that nuts?!!?!)

Coconut Cardamom Rice Pudding

inspired by Joy of Baking’s Rice Pudding Recipe

1/3 cup short grain brown rice (any length grain should work fine)
2 1/2 cups non-fat milk
1-4 tbsp sugar depending on how sweet you want it (4 made it EXTREMELY sweet, I would try it with 1 or 2 first )
1/3 cup unsweetened coconut
1 tsp cardamom powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp cornstarch

Place rice and milk in a sauce pan and bring milk to a boil (stirring occasionally to make sure it doesn’t burn on the bottom). Simmer for 25-30 minutes (stirring every few minutes) until rice is al dente. Remove from heat and stir in coconut, sugar, cardamom, and vanilla. In a small bowl mix together cornstarch and some of the milk, once you’ve removed any clumps, add it to the pot. Place back on medium/low heat stirring occasionally until thick.

Transfer pudding to individual bowls or one large container. Serve warm or cold!

Soo good! May have eaten a little too much…

This was like a delicious, creamy (Indian) dessert!

Now back to actual school work 😦 Not excited for this!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

POM Cornmeal Muffins

March 14, 201012 Comments

Hellooo everyone! I hope your weekend is going well. I had a super fun time last night, went to a friend’s show then went dancing with some ladies! Then daylight savings happened and I turned into a pumpkin…

or maybe I kept on being my fine, fierce self an hour later than usual!

In my last post, I made POM Ricotta Muffins… The fact that my POM muffins weren’t so good was bothering me all day yesterday. So today I decided to give it another try, this time slightly different and sans ricotta.

POM Cornmeal Muffins

inspired by Joy of Baking’s Berry Cornmeal Muffins

1 1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped date pieces
1 egg
1 cup POM Wonderful
1/4 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Combine dry ingredients in one bowl, wet ingredients in another. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Fill lined muffin pan about half way each. Bake 15-20 minutes.

I feel redeemed! These were tasty! I loved the texture, the slight fruity taste from the POM, and the nice chewy sweetness from the dates! Definitely recommend these!

I enjoyed one with a little Barney Butter spread on it! DELICIOUS!

Today is Pi(e) day (3.14… 3/14… get it?) and I’m baking for an event! I’ll be back later with fun pie creations later!

I think after this weekend I’m going to be officially over sweets for a while!

Off to work on some more econ! Have a great Sunday!

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

March 7, 201016 Comments

I hate letting food go to waste. Yesterday’s zucchini was starting to mold and the bok choy was turning yellow but I still used them.

I have a sizable container of ricotta leftover from my Eggplant Parmesan. I don’t want it to go bad, so I’m trying to figure out ways to incorporate it. On Friday, I spread some on my sandwich… delicious. Today, I thought… pancakes… It’s Sunday, why not? Thus…

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

adapted from Bobby Flay’s Recipe

1/3 cup, heaping of whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cardamom powder, optional
pinch of salt
1/2 cup of ricotta
1/3 cup milk
zest + juice of half a lemon
1 tbsp agave
coconut oil

Combine the dry ingredients in one bowl, the wet ingredients in another bowl. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix to combine.

Add some coconut oil to a skillet/griddle/pan, melt on low heat. Add 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake, cover with a lid/foil. Once you see the pancakes get “holey” on one side, flip them over and cook for a few more minutes (maybe 2). These pancakes are pretty delicate so low heat is essential. These are the varying degrees of heat I used… low is best 🙂

I got 8 pancakes out of this recipe. I immediately froze 4 to be reheated in the toaster oven on a rainy day!

I topped my pancakes with some extra lemon zest, shredded coconut and a mixture of greek yogurt and maple syrup (1/4 cup yogurt + 1 tbsp real maple syrup). DELICIOUS!

O.M.G.

Make these. Now!

While I say the cardamom is optional on there (Bobby Flay used nutmeg but I thought lemon and cardamom sounded great together), it really makes the recipe that much better. Cardamom is one of those underused spices in the US that is just amazing in my opinion. Best ice cream I ever had was Cardamom Ice Cream at Ici in Berkeley. I might venture to say that cardamom is my favorite spice…

Now I’m stuffed and ready to conquer my pile of reading and methods problem set!

Any suggestions on what else to do with my ricotta?

See you next time for Sunday baking! I’m making a vegan treat tonight!

Have a great Sunday!!

Carb-a-licious!

March 6, 2010March 6, 201010 Comments

Hi everyone! Happy Saturday!

I woke up this morning still full from last night! That African food was dense! After a Green Monster and some internet perusing, I headed to the gym where I ended up doing 4 miles on the treadmill. My knees felt fine, probably because I did a run/walk combo (run 2 mins/walk 1 min).

I came home to try something new:

Barley!

I’ve realized that complex carbs keep me full for longer. The past two days I’ve come home ravenous after a basically complex carb free lunch! So I’m going to try to incorporate whole grains and other complex carbohydrates into my lunches to see if that helps keep me from wanting to gnaw my arms off around 4:30pm.

I made a delicious stir fry with a bit of coconut oil, garlic, zucchini, bok choy, scallions and Kikkoman Ponzu. On top of that, I added a chopped up Spicy Chik’n Patty and helping of barley!

Delicious! Very filling! Finished off the meal with two cuties and huge cup of green tea!

I basically did nothing today… I went to TJ Maxx to return the fantastic red heels that didn’t fit 😦 and to Target to pick up some cleaning essentials.

Later in the evening, I decided I wanted a labor intensive dinner, because reading wasn’t looking that good…

Pizza! Using this dough recipe from Eating Well.

Toppings includes: sauce, a layer of finely chopped spinach, fresh mozzarella, chopped artichoke hearts, and grated romano cheese.

Artichokes make everything delicious! What are your favorite homemade pizza toppings?

I also ventured and made Chocolate Chia Pudding…

Sad to say this is the first bloggie recipe that I did not like. I threw it away 😦 Oh well! Can’t love them all!

Since today was full of slacking, tomorrow is a study day. Dreading it already. The Oscars are on tomorrow! I can’t wait to see the dresses on the Red Carpet!

Have a fantastic night!!

African Recipe Semi-Fail but Still Delicious

March 6, 20108 Comments

Yesterday my schedule got all turned around! I intended to go to class then work for an hour, go to an another class and stay on campus to study til 4 then come home a cook. However, the second class that is usually at 12:20 got moved to 3:00 and went almost til 5:00! I still managed to get a lot done in between but I was not prepared to stay on campus til past 5!

Anyway, when we last spoke, I was soaking black eyed peas…

Here’s why: Rhoda, my friend who pops up around here all the time, is moving to Africa! She threw a Rhoda is going to Africa party, where we all made recipes from her future home, Burkina Faso!

So I made Savory Bean Cakes! Not the healthiest but these could definitely be made healthier while still tasting delicious!

Burkinese Savory Bean Cakes

adapted from Savoury Beancakes

200g dried black eyed peas (I actually ended up using about 220g… not a big deal)
1 carrot, chopped
1/3 onion, chopped
salt to taste
1 egg, beaten
oil for frying

Cook and peel the black eyed peas. Allow to cool.

Put all ingredients in the food processor and process until smooth.

At this point, I would allow your dough to cool. I think this is where mine went wrong. Form them into ball and flatten, essentially into patties.

Fry for about 10 minutes.

I guess I should also say that I’ve never fried anything before, so I don’t really know how to. I think of myself as a pretty able cook for the most part but when it comes to frying… oh jeez!

Some were burn (oil too hot). Some broke apart (should have let the dough cool… I think).

But they tasted great! Beany and delicious!

Even though they weren’t fabulous looking, I took them to Rhoda’s for our Rhoda is going to Africa celebration.

There was a ton of tasty Burkinese food! Check out the spread:

Rhoda made this DELICIOUS Stew!

Served with cous cous

This stuff was dense! I was full the entire night! (My two helping of dessert probably had something to do with that too!)

She also made a millet porridge for us to try! I thought it was tasty! Rhoda was apprehensive but she’s going to be eating it a lot in the next couple years apparently!

Julie made the same recipe as me! Coincidence! Guess there aren’t too many recipes from Burkina Faso out there. She made hers with black beans. They were delicious! Amazing how two different beans can taste so different!

Liz made a tasty mango chutney to complement it all! I believe she used this recipe.

My plate (definitely had seconds…)

Dessert were Sara’s brownies with fruit and hazelnuts! Delicious! And Anna’s apple crisp (which I’m bummed I forgot to take a picture of!)

Sooo good! It was really fun to try out these new recipes! Even if some of them didn’t turn out as expected… Are you a fan of trying to make things you’ve never heard of or do you prefer to have a point of reference (i.e. you’ve eaten it before) when you make something?

After dinner, we headed to a party at Sara’s house. I danced it up a bit (Beyonce came on and you better believe I was all over it), but pooped out at about 12:30am.

Today is another sunny day! Any fun weekend plans?

Have a great day!!!!

SUNSHINE

March 4, 2010March 4, 201011 Comments

Today was a good day! For a few reason:

1. I went to the gym and ran (along with a 30 minute elliptical date with Oprah’s O Magazine)! After 2 weeks off from running to let my knees rest from excruciating pain, I ran 1 mile today! Pain free! I’m starting slow again to prevent any other form of injury!

2. We had SUNSHINE!!!! It was amazing!! I hadn’t seen the sun in weeks! (No joke!) I walked to class with a smile on my face! Great start to the day!

3. Finished all my reading for this week and tomorrow I’m getting ahead and starting on next week’s! Woo! This work day plan is working well so far!

4. Delicious lunch! Left over eggplant parmesan under the broccoli, along with fruit and veggies. Not photographed is a homemade granola bar!

5. Grocery Store: Green Star Coop and Wegman’s! Bought the usual spinach, carrots, etc. But also picked up a few new goodies to try:

Coconut oil! I’ve heard about all the health benefits and today I broke down and bought some! I can’t wait to try it! I hope it helps clear up my dry skin on my face!!