Veggie Bake

I decided to throw together a little veggie bake when I had a few different kinds of vegetables on hand and a jar of pasta sauce open.

Veggie Bake

Ingredients:
- Roasted eggplant
- Sliced tomato
- Sliced zucchini
- Spices like basil, oregano, crushed red pepper, smoked paprika
- Pasta sauce
- Nutritional yeast

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly oil a casserole dish - I used a small one since I wasn't using that many vegetables.  First add the eggplant.

Then the tomatoes.

Then the zucchini.

Woops, blurry picture.

Then sprinkle on each of the spices.

And then pour pasta sauce over the top.

Followed by a very liberal topping of nutritional yeast.  You could definitely use cheese here instead, if you prefer.

Bake for about 30 minutes, until the sauce looks set around the edges and the vegetables are tender.

I enjoyed a portion with some delicious figs on the side.

I think it would also be great served with some noodles or rice, or with some crusty bread to soak up any extra sauce!

It reheats well, too.  This recipe is extremely adaptable - just use whatever vegetables you have on hand and as many or as few spices as you prefer.

I hope you're having a good weekend!  Here's some pictures from mine.

On Friday I had a rare day with no set obligations, so I decided to spend some time at the mall.  I had a coupon for free underwear (gotta love Victoria's Secret) and a coupon for a free tea from Teavana.  Other than that I just browsed and got in some mall cardio.  Oh and I treated myself to my favorite lunch - a chicken pesto crepe and some Perrier!  So good.

Last night I went out to dinner with some friends to a great place called Happy Dog.  It's pretty incredible - you choose whether you want a beef or vegan hot dog, and then you can choose AS MANY toppings as you want, and it all costs $5.  And you can also get French fries or tater tots with unlimited sauces for $3.  Um, yes please.  I got a beef hot dog with marinated cremini mushrooms, caramelized onions, sun dried tomato tapenade, and applewood smoked bacon.  I also got an order of delicious tots with homemade ketchup.  And an extremely delicious beer per my friend Laura's enthusiastic recommendation - Willoughby Brewing Co. peanut butter cup coffee porter.  Yes, you read that right - peanut butter cup coffee!!  Tasty.

In addition to delicious and affordable food, Happy Dog has live music, so it's basically my idea of a perfect hangout spot.

I got to hang out with some great friends, too - pretty good weekend in my book.

And here's a sunset picture because I can't resist.  Especially these days when anything other than a gray sky is a rarity!

Song of the day:

"Heartbeat" by Kopecky Family Band.  I'm going to see their concert next week and I'm so excited!

Hay is for Horses

Hey everyone!  How's your weekend going?  It felt good to slow down a bit and take things easy today.

Breakfast this morning was a classic bowl of oats - 1/2 cup 1-minute oats mixed with 1 cup boiling water, lots o' cinnamon, a sliced banana, and a spoonful of peanut butter:

Coffee with almond milk and cinnamon on the side, plus some delicious gummy vitamins.  And the 3rd book of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series.  I was so excited to pick it up from the library yesterday!

You know that saying "my eyes were bigger than my stomach"?  Well I think it applies to me in terms of getting new books to read and my ability/ time to actually read them.  And I have more on my Kindle!  Summer reading time.

I had a great lunch today - a big salad with grapes on the sides.

I finished off my huge bag of spinach and added some yellow bell pepper and a leftover chicken breast with apricot sauce from my dinner at Olive Garden earlier in the week, topped with homemade Italian dressing (and some unpictured sliced almonds).

It was delicious and very filling, which was good because I needed the energy to help out with some yard work.

My dad is planting some new grass around the yard and my job was to spread hay over the seeds.  It sounded pretty simple to me, but handling a couple big bales of hay helped me work up a sweat, and left me covered in hay.

**Update:  I was informed at dinner that I was actually spreading straw, not hay.  Very different, apparently!**

I shouldn't have worn my gym clothes for that.  But I figured since I had them on, I might as well go for a jog while I was already dirty.  People probably thought I looked like an escaped farm girl or something.  It was a really nice day so I was happy to be outside instead of in the gym.  I might try to do a few bodyweight strength moves like push-ups and some ab work this evening to round out my workout, though.

As promised, here are my purchases from yesterday.  I got this navy blue shirt from Aeropostale.  I haven't been in that store forever but the girl I was baby-sitting wanted to go in, and I thought this shirt was really cute (and fortunately not obnoxiously emblazoned with the brand name), and when I saw that it was half off, I couldn't resist.  No surprise there!

And I got this maxi dress from J. Crew.  I really didn't think I could pull off a maxi dress (still not sure I can) but I do love the look, so I figured I would try this on.  The girl I was with said that the dress was pretty and convinced me to get it.  Twist my arm, why dontcha?  :)  AND it was a great deal - originally $98, I got it for $32.04 after the sale price and my student discount!  Bargain hunting is just so satisfying.

Time for dinner with my family and then I'll probably get sucked into The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.  Have a great night!

Song of the day:

"East Harlem" by Beirut.

Whirlwind

Phew, this week has been crazy, hence the lack of blogging.  Tuesday was a great first day of summer, and then things really picked up.  On Wednesday, I started my summer job in the morning, spent time at my grandparents' house in the afternoon, went to see The Hunger Games (excellent!) and to Olive Garden with my other grandma (that salad and those breadsticks never get old), and went to the gym for some cardio that night, and yesterday I had a full day of work.

Today was another busy one, but also really fun.  I baby-sat a ten year old while simultaneously doing some work and running errands.  Multitasking!

Mother's Day is approaching, so we had some arts and crafts time.

Then we had to go to a muffler shop for some work on my car.  Don't these candy machines just make you happy?  The simple things.  I gave the girl I was watching a quarter so she could get some candy - she was so patient and read her book and played on her iPod while we were waiting, and I worked on typing a document for work.

Everyone at the muffler shop was so nice and friendly!  I even managed to do some networking.  And one customer came in with his pet snake hanging out around his neck!  Check out this sweet car that one of the other customers brought in:

It's a '68 Pontiac Bonneville.  I learned to drive on a Bonneville, but I can assure you it did NOT look like that.  It was a great car, but one of my dad's friends nicknamed it "The Marshmallow" because it was white and rather large and puffy :)

After the muffler shop, we ran some more errands and then went to the mall for some lunch and shopping.  I had the best lunch - a chicken pesto crepe and a fresh juice (carrots, beets, cucumber).  So good.  I could easily eat crepes every day.

Shopping with a ten year old = lots of bright colors and sparkles.

It also means fun things like scented markers!!!  They're back and apparently better than ever - there were so many options!  Scented pens, markers, pencils, even highlighters.  I'm going to have to keep those in mind for back-to-school shopping next year...  And they weren't just in kids' stores - they were in American Greetings and Papyrus, too!

I did get some grown-up things... even though I was not planning to buy anything.  I can never resist a great deal!!  I'll post pictures soon of what I got.  The girl I was watching was a great shopping buddy.

Our errands and shopping wore us out, so we turned on a movie when we got back.  Recognize this image?

Matilda!  One of my all-time favorites.  I never get tired of it.

I ended the night spending time with family and friends at my grandparents' house.  Unfortunately mall-walking was pretty much my only exercise today, but tomorrow I should be able to get in a quality workout.

Hope you all had a good week!

Song of the day:

"Good Girl" by Carrie Underwood.

Oops I Did It Again

I've been trying to really watch my spending lately, but I gave into temptation when I saw an amazing deal on Rue La La.  I have quite a weakness for good deals.  And online shopping.  And pretty things.  And bright colors.  You get the picture.

This huge box came for me the other day.  It was unnecessarily large, though - it contained these beauties:

Ah, my beloved Le Creuset bakeware.  A couple pieces closer to my dream of having a kitchen full of their gorgeous pieces.

The thing is, I definitely had buyer's remorse.  Even though it was a great deal and I had free shipping, I felt really guilty about buying them.

But then, something amazing happened.  Rue La La emailed me saying that the dimensions they had listed in the description were much larger than the dimensions of the actual dishes (which I had noticed and was disappointed about) and because of that, they were refunding all purchasers IN FULL.  What?!  So I got those dishes for free!  It was definitely my lucky day.

Part of the reason I had buyer's remorse was because I also bought something else that arrived the same day as my new dishes.

This one was actually a necessity, though.

Not quite as fun as my Le Creuset package, but I had been meaning to get a fire extinguisher since I moved into my apartment almost 2 years ago.  It only took seeing the building across from my apartment catch on fire recently to spur me to finally get one.

Usual happenings over here today - gym (cardio), studying, review session, more studying.  I did start out with an exceptionally good breakfast this morning.

I heated up some baked oatmeal with some almond milk, and then added fresh strawberries.  So, so good. The oatmeal is good on its own, but it was really delicious with milk and berries.

I think I could eat fruit all day long.  Last night I had an amazing bowl of strawberries and kiwis - so summery!  The warmer temperatures can come anytime now.

Tonight I'm going to take the time to make a real dinner!  Finally.  Enjoy the start of your weekend!

Song of the day:

"Sea of Love" by Cat Power.  It took me awhile to get into Cat Power, but this is one of my go-to quiet songs now.  (I've got soft, quiet songs on my mind due to all of the studying lately.)

Taking a Bite (or Two) Out of the Big Apple - Part 2

My second day in NYC started out perfectly - enjoying a bagel and coffee outside (and people watching).

We decided to walk up to Bryant Park for breakfast, and I had a delicious whole wheat bagel with cream cheese and a vanilla hazelnut coffee.  It's been awhile since I had a bagel and this was ahh-mazing.  

I thought it was cool how these trees were all growing slightly to the left.  Bryant Park is where Fashion Week is held, and while we were there, people were working on clearing out the center area of the park where the tents had been set up, and it looked like they might be planting something right now.  

Bryant Park is right next to the New York public library, and although we didn't go inside this time, I've visited before and it's amazing!  There's nothing quite like a gorgeous, huge reading room with dark wood tables and accents, surrounded by books.  

After breakfast, we walked up Fifth Avenue and did some browsing on our way to get some treats and visit Central Park.  

We got two macarons and split them, but were very excited and forgot to take a picture of the first one.  We went to Macaron Cafe and got a lavender and honey macaron, then to Laduree and got a cherry macaron.  I had a Laduree macaron in Paris and was very excited to get the chance to have another one in NYC.

The cherry macaron definitely won flavor-wise, but the lavender and honey one was so pretty!  It kind of tasted like perfume, though - too much lavender.  

Our view - pretty amazing.  I'm still in awe that Central Park has these huge boulders.  We climbed up on one to enjoy our macarons and soak up some sun - I almost felt like I was at the beach!  

Failed attempt to center us, but at least you can see the boulders we're sitting on.  

After a slice of pizza (it's NYC, pizza is pretty much mandatory, and I had an amazing slice with black olives and mushrooms -so good!), we did some more exploring and went to another store I had been wanting to visit - Joe Fresh.  Joe Mimran is the creator of Joe Fresh, and well-known for launching Club Monaco.  I had my eye on a pair of red jeans I had seen online beforehand, but alas, they were nowhere to be found in the store.  I did get a few tops, though (a gray open-front cardigan, a yellow t-shirt, and a new workout top).  Grand total: $25!   Pretty exciting.  

We had one more treat on our list: Bouchon Bakery.  

I got a ridiculously decadent fluffer nutter cookie - two perfectly crunchy peanut butter cookies with a creamy peanut butter filling.  It was fantastic.

We ate our treats in Rockefeller Center.  I was hoping to spot Tina Fey, but no such luck.

After a day of indulging, lots of walking, browsing, and spending tons of time outside, we grabbed some salads to take with us for dinner on the bus ride home.  I also got some honey-roasted cashews - have you seen those Nuts for Nuts food stands?  I tried some last time I was in NYC and was amazed by how yummy they were, so I couldn't pass up the chance to enjoy some on our trip home.  

I also went home with a new ornament (I collect them from places I visit).  

And I forgot to post this yesterday - I picked up some tea samplers in SoHo the day before:  buttered rum, creme brulee, and "read my lips" (chocolate mint).  Can't wait to try them out!

Overall, it was a fantastic trip and made me fall in love with NYC even more.  Can't wait to go back!  I'm hoping next time I'm there (whenever that might be) I can try out a Physique 57 class.  

This is my last day in DC and then I'm driving home tomorrow.  I've packed a lot in, but the week has flown by!  

Reader question:  Do you collect any specific type of souvenirs when you travel?  I started collecting ornaments while I was studying abroad and I think they're perfect - I get them out once a year and have fun reminiscing while I'm decorating my tree, but I don't have unnecessary clutter out all year long.  

Song of the day:

"Barcelona" by Plastiscines.  They're an all-girl group from France and they're super cool.  I got to see them in DC and although I don't usually drool over girl bands, they were definitely girl-crush-worthy.