Getting Back in the Kitchen

I finally spent some quality time in the kitchen making delicious food - it had been too long since I had done much more than put together bowls of yogurt and salads.

First up:  guacamole!

I had a perfectly ripe avocado, to which I added some chopped red bell pepper, a diced onion, about a tablespoon of lime juice, a sprinkle of cayenne, and a dash of salt.  So good!

I snacked on the guacamole as I made my main course - pizza!  I followed this recipe, using 2 cups white whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup regular all-purpose flour, sans rosemary.

I topped it with some homemade pesto.  When I make pesto for myself, I just eyeball the ingredients depending on how much basil I have on hand.  I added basil, skim milk, olive oil, parmesan cheese, walnuts, salt, and pepper to a food processor and voila, pesto!  I had a pineapple begging to be cut up and enjoyed, so I decided to put some fresh pineapple on my pizza.

I was excited to use my mom's pizza stone this time, and it definitely made the bottom of the crust turn out softer and tastier.  I baked this at 500* for about 12 - 14 minutes.

After dinner, I had one thing in mind:  Mama Pea's hot apple pie smoothie!

I used an apple (which I didn't peel, even though I used a normal blender and not a high-speed one, and it turned out fine - I can't stand wasting that super nutritious apple peel!), cottage cheese, skim milk, almond butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, honey (I didn't have maple syrup or stevia), salt, and 10 ice cubes.  I left out the protein powder since this was an after-dinner treat, but I would have added it if I were eating this after a workout or as a meal.

This morning I kept the momentum going and prepared a delicious brunch:

I had a fried egg sandwich, fresh fruit, and a cappuccino.  SO good.  For the egg sandwich, I toasted whole wheat sandwich thins, spread some leftover guacamole on one half, and added a fried egg (cooked in a bit of olive oil).

I had some more fresh pineapple, along with strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries.  Summer fruit is the best!!

I also made myself a cappuccino by heating up 6 oz. of skim milk in the microwave, using my little frother to whip it up, and then adding it to 2 shots of espresso which I used my dad's coffee machine to make.

It definitely felt nice to get back in the kitchen and spend some time preparing good food.  Hope your weekend is off to a great start!

Song of the day:

"Shadow Days" by John Mayer, off his new album Born and Raised.  I heard a radio interview with John Mayer recently, and I didn't realize that he had been off the scene for about 2 years.  Apparently he gave a couple of scandalous interviews and received a lot of criticism, so he had been lying low.  I did hear a radio DJ (on a college station) pronounce his name as John My-er instead of May-er recently, so maybe he totally fell off of some people's radars, haha.

Instant Mini Pizzas

Happy Cinco de Mayo and Derby Day!  Are you doing anything fun to celebrate?  I love themes/ any reason to have a party, and wish I were doing something fun today, but unfortunately exams are standing in the way :(  Maybe next year... or the year after that...

But I'm still finding some small ways to get a few treats in.  With the warm weather, I started off both yesterday and today with iced coffee!

On Thursday evening I brewed a pot of strong coffee and let it cool down, then put it in the fridge overnight.  Then when I got back from the gym yesterday morning (cardio day - elliptical and rowing machine), I enjoyed a refreshing glass of coffee poured over ice, with some added almond milk and a few drops of stevia.  Yum!

Random observation - have you ever taken coffee to the gym with you?  A hot drink is seriously the last thing I would want when I'm working up a sweat, but yesterday when I was on the elliptical, a guy got on the elliptical next to me with a Starbucks coffee.  I saw this happen when I lived in DC, too (there was a Starbucks in the same building as my gym).  First of all, I can barely drink out of my water bottle without spilling all over myself when I'm on the elliptical, so trying to sip hot coffee would be a disaster waiting to happen.  Second, hot coffee is just not thirst-quenching, in my opinion.  But if people in DC and Ohio do it, I guess it's a thing....

Moving on - I've been having a lot of huge salads for lunch lately, which are delicious, but yesterday I was in the mood to switch things up a little bit without spending much time on preparation.  With that in mind, I put together some mini "pizzas," using what I had on hand in the fridge.

I lightly toasted some whole wheat sandwich thins, then spread on a mixture of pasta sauce, tomato paste, and fresh basil.

I added some toppings:  spinach, halved grape tomatoes, sliced kalamata olives, and nutritional yeast.

Then I put them under the broiler for about 5 minutes.

And that's it!  Super easy, and a great lunch alternative to the usual sandwich or salad.

I enjoyed my instant pizzas with some strawberries and a juicy peach.  So good!

After lunch I was craving something sweet and chocolatey, and I decided to make this chocolate cake batter smoothie by Angela at Oh She Glows.

It definitely satisfied my craving and was pretty healthy to boot!  It contained almond milk, old-fashioned oats, a frozen banana, cinnamon, vanilla, carob powder (you could also use cocoa powder), peanut butter (the recipe calls for cashew butter but I didn't have any, so I subbed another nut butter), chocolate chips, and ice cubes.  The hardest part was waiting an hour for the oats to soak!  It would be easy to add a scoop of protein powder, Greek yogurt, or cottage cheese to get in some extra protein, too.

Well I submitted my take-home exam earlier today, so I've got one more exam to go before I'm finished with this year.  So close!  Hope you're enjoying some margaritas/ mint juleps, wearing a fancy hat/ sombrero, and breaking a pinata/ watching the Derby.  All at once, preferably.  Have some extra fun for me!

Song of the day:

"Hey" by the Pixies.  One of my all-time favorites.

Pizza, Pancakes, and Plants

Last week while I was at the grocery store, I saw some mushrooms and got a craving for pizza with sauteed mushrooms.  And bonus, I realized that I already had all of the other ingredients that I needed on hand - score!

I followed this whole wheat pizza dough recipe with just a few slight changes.

Ingredients:

- 1 cup warm water (about 110*F)
- 1 packet active dry yeast
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- about 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, finely chopped

Directions:

Pour the warm water into a mixing bowl and sprinkle the yeast on top; let sit for 5 minutes, then add honey.  Gradually stir in the flours, salt, and olive oil.  Knead until the dough comes together and is smooth and springy - it will be sticky.  Lightly oil the mixing bowl and roll the ball of dough around so that it is lightly coated with oil, like so:

Cover loosely (I used a tea towel, you can also use plastic wrap - but just lay it on top, don't secure it) and let rise for 45 minutes.  Ta da:

While the dough is rising, preheat your oven as hot as it will go (mine went to 525*) and give it sufficient time to heat up before the 45 minutes are up (this will depend on your oven).

After the dough has risen, punch the dough down, then pretend like you're a pizza master and try to spin it around on your fists.  If that fails - like it did for me :) - don't fear - you can just stretch it out and shape it with your hands.  I formed the dough into one big rectangle on a baking sheet, but feel free to make any shapes you want, like animals, states, celeb crushes, etc., or make individual pizzas.

Top the pizza however you like.  I made a pesto sauce and eyeballed the ingredients, using fresh basil (from my basil plant!), almond milk, raw walnuts, nutritional yeast, garlic cloves, a sprinkle of salt, and olive oil.  I also added sauteed mushrooms, halved grape tomatoes, and kalamata olives.

Bake until the edges brown and some bubbles rise up in the dough (mine took 13 minutes).  And there you have it - whole wheat pizza made from scratch!  And the leftovers taste great warmed up in the oven OR eaten straight out of the fridge - I taste-tested both methods for you guys :)

While you're waiting for your pizza to bake, check out the sunset.

In between washing dishes.  (Or loading them in your dishwasher if you're lucky!)

This morning I was excited to be able to make pancakes for brunch.  I followed this recipe from Julie at Peanut Butter Fingers for Honey Whole Wheat pancakes, but tragically, I forgot the honey!!!  I didn't realize until I already started cooking the pancakes :(  They were still delicious, though, and I love that they're made with great ingredients like whole wheat flour, oats, and chia seeds.

I couldn't decide if I wanted to top them with Greek yogurt or peanut butter, so I used both!  Plus a sliced banana and strawberries.

Greek yogurt on one side.

Peanut butter on the other side.

And a pumpkin spice latte with plenty of frothy almond milk.  The froth makes it so much more fun!

After my brunch, I went on a planting spree.

Aerial view (not sure why I felt the need to take this shot, but here it is):

That's my sickly basil plant in the middle (I bought it as a plant, not from seeds - can't take credit for that one!).  I did plant a few basil seeds in hopes that I will be able to have some back-ups if my existing plant bites the dust soon.  I also planted some strawberries (wishful thinking, I know), lavender, forget-me-nots, chives, and rosemary.  And yes, those are yogurt containers - I didn't want to commit to buying any more cute pots until I actually grow something :)

I'm so impatient, I keep wanting to go look and see if anything has started growing yet, haha.

Hope you all had a great weekend and are ready for a new week!

And a special happy birthday goes out to my dad:

My dad's on the left - original gangsta.

Song of the day:

"Never Meant to Know" by Tally Hall.  Love this band - they're all incredibly intelligent and so witty.  Plus they have a song about Mary-Kate and Ashley, so obviously we're meant to be together.  All of us.

Pizza! Pizza!

Do you remember those commercials where a little cartoon guy would say "Pizza pizza!" really fast?  I tried looking it up and there's a chain called Pizza Pizza, but it's Canadian, so I don't think that was it.  Maybe Little Caesars?  Hmm, mystery.

Anyways, I was craving pizza recently (probably because at my school you can find free pizza somewhere on any given day of the week), and I decided to try my hand at making my own.  I wish I had a pizza stone, but other than that it turned out really well!

I mostly followed this recipe for the whole wheat pizza crust, but I couldn't find any whole wheat bread flour so I used whole wheat pastry flour instead, and I added some chopped fresh rosemary to the dough (so good!!).  I also baked mine in the oven instead of on the stove.

I made my own pesto sauce using basil I had previously cut from my basil plant and pureed with a splash of water in the food processor, then stored in the freezer.  Along with the pureed basil, I added spinach, 4 cloves of garlic, 1/2 cup toasted walnuts (just lightly toast them in a dry, nonstick skillet on medium heat until they start to brown and become fragrant), olive oil, parmesan cheese, and milk - all of those ingredients went into the food processor until the mixture became smooth (I like to add the liquid ingredients while the food processor is on).

I spread the pesto on top of the unbaked dough, then I added spinach, grape tomatoes (cut in half), sauteed mushrooms, sundried tomatoes, and kalamata olives.  That went into a preheated 425* oven for about 15 minutes.  I should have let it go longer, so I would suggest increasing the time to about 20 minutes.  I had 1/3 of the pizza when it was fresh, and then had the leftovers for 2 more dinners.  I think the leftovers were actually better because I warmed them up in the oven and they cooked a little more. 

Since today is Presidents' Day, the rec center/ gym where I belong is closed (but we still have school - doesn't seem quite right to me).  I decided to do a workout DVD for some cardio this morning before class.  I did Denise Austin's Fat-Burning Dance Mix DVD, which incorporates jazz, latin, "club funk," and ballet moves.  It was pretty good and I worked up a little sweat, but it wasn't an intense cardio workout.  I always have fun pretending I can dance, though.  Back to the gym tomorrow!

(Source)

So tomorrow is Fat Tuesday, which means Lent starts on Wednesday.  I've given up something for Lent for a very long time now, and sometimes I got pretty intense.  I've given up all TV, just reality TV, entertainment TV shows, chocolate, all sweets, Facebook, beauty magazines, internet gossip sites, online quizzes - even blogs!

This year I've decided to give up chocolate, and also try something new:  doing something every day rather than giving it up.  I'm going to track my expenses daily, which I've been planning to do for, oh, I don't know, 5 years now?  So hopefully this will start a regular habit, even after Lent is over.  For the past few years, I've given up all sweets, so I think just giving up chocolate will almost feel like "cheating"!  Not to say that I won't sorely miss chocolate, though.

Are you giving anything up for Lent?

PS I finished I've Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella last night... and I just got it from the library on Friday.  I tried to pace myself, but I could not put it down!  So if you're looking for a very entertaining, funny, enjoyable read, check it out!  But beware that you might not get much else done once you crack it open.  

PPS Monday night TV!!!  2 Broke Girls and Hart of Dixie - who else is watching with me??

Song of the Day:

"Don't Gotta Work it Out" by Fitz & the Tantrums.  This is off their 2010 album Pickin' Up the Pieces, but it sounds like it's out of the '60s.