College: Raw

I Moved!

2010-11-07T21:43:00.000-05:00

Hi blogworld!

I decided to change routes a bit in blogging and created a new blog. Now that I've got an actual kitchen, I can make a lot more recipes, so I feature those along with some fashion (but for the guys out there, not too much!).

Come check it out at http://www.unbelloappertivo.wordpress.com .

Hope to see you there and thanks for reading!

A Triumphant Return!

2010-09-03T19:51:00.000-04:00

Finally...I haven't posted in a while because I've been traveling and getting ready for school and weddings and life in general. I'm thinking about perhaps changing the focus of this blog, since my focus has switched away from all-raw. Now that I have my own apartment at school, I finally have a kitchen, which makes for quite the creative time. I've missed cooking for the past two years, and it's finally nice to make something for myself.

I've found that cooking really lets me be creative. This past week I've just been throwing together things to make meals without recipes. And I've learned that cooking and buying food for yourself ain't cheap.

I'm slowly learning what my pantry essentials are; not my mom's or my family's, but my own. In addition to little bags of bulk spices that I got at Whole Foods a few days before I left for school, I'm thinking my pantry essentials will look something like this:

Salsa. Food of the gods. (source)

New favorite snack?

Salsa + this. (source)

Chickpeas. Useful beyond belief. Hummus, soup, salad...the possibilities are endless. (source)

Mint chocolate. Not really a your traditional staple...but I find that mint chocolate is the most satisfying flavor of chocolate for me, even over just plain ole dark chocolate... (source)

Polenta. Truly versatile. (source)

Quinoa. I used to not like grain salads, but the one time I was swiped into the dining hall this year, they had this terrific cranberry quinoa salad (kind of like the one at Whole Foods), and I've gotten a major quinoa craving ever since then. (source)

I'm sure I'll be adding to the list sometime very soon...well, as soon as the paycheck comes.

What are your pantry staples?

The City of Blinding Lights...

2010-07-21T04:18:00.000-04:00

One thing I love about Italy is that most of the time, their fast food is, dare I say it, healthy. Yes, sure, there are the pizza and french fries and other friend options, but I can always count on getting a plate of roasted potatoes, or patate al forno. I discovered, partially by accident, something I already knew. Have you ever done something like that before?

I had some balsamic vinegar left on my plate at dinner once from my salad, and sitting next to it was a pile of roasted potatoes. The potatoes had started to soak up the vinegar, so I decided to try it. Wow. I thought I was on the edge of a new discovery when I realized it's pretty much the same thing as malt vinegar on fish and chips. Oh. Total letdown.

And again, once there were mashed potatoes for dinner. Some balsamic mixed in with those potatoes, along with some leftover salad greens. Another new discovery? Nah, pretty much the same thing as Irish colcannon.

Oh well, let's just call it a personal discovery, shall we?

While waiting for my delayed flight to Paris, I got a little snacky-snacky. I headed over to the fast food place and grabbed some roasted potatoes. For just under 3 euro, I got a huge plate of potatoes. Granted, they weren't spectacular, but the fact that they had chili powder and vinegar made my day. And it made quite the tasty combination.

I took a little detour in Disneyland Paris. We ate dinner at one of the buffets and it was delicious. The lighting inside was really crappy, so the pictures didn't turn out the way I wanted, so please bear with me.

Fresh tomatoes, baby radishes, carrots, a chopped veggie salad, heavy on the dressing, red cabbage slaw (it had a horseradish tang to it that was absolutely amazing), and a beet salad with a mustard dressing.

Plate #2: watermelon, marinated cherry tomatoes, curried cabbage slaw, mixed bean salad, and some veggie terrine (what it was made of I have no idea...any guesses? It had a layer of green, white, and then light orange...)

Last plate of real food: eggplant caponata (too much cornstarch or something), grilled veggies, potato wedges (doesn't that sound better than french fries?), and scalloped potatoes (good, way really rich).

My strategy with dessert was to take a little of everything and just have a bit or so. It's not worth it to eat the whole thing if you don't really love it. That being said, I'll only show you the pictures of the desserts that were worth mentioning.

This was some sort of coconut cake-tart-thing...layers of custard between cake (which you really can't see in the photo).

Lemon tart: it was perfect - not too sweet and with just the right tang. I didn't eat the crust because I've never been much of a crust person anyway, and I think it takes away from the flavors of the dessert.

I knew I had to try a crepe in France, even if I was in Disney, so the next day I got one of these babies.

Can you say chocolate much?

I'll leave you with this picture that cracks me up every time I see it. And slightly embarrassing.

Me at Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin...pure concentration, haha.

Questions: Are you a Disney-lover?

I have a blog detailing my time here in Italy, but the focus is more on travel, not food. If you'd like to read it, though, just send me an email or post a comment and I'll send you the link. I think it definitely shows my personality a little bit more, haha.

Feeling "Desserty"

2010-07-13T14:03:00.001-04:00

I fear this is a little late, but I had a wonderful Italian 4th of July. Just take a look at these fireworks. I could see them from the balcony in my room and they were set off right on the edge of the lake.

Pretty awesome, right?

I promise I've been eating lots of tomatoes and arugula and rucola, but I can't help but taking pictures of my desserts. I've had the opportunity to go out nearly every weekend, so some of these desserts were shared and some were all for my little self, haha.

This was called "salame cioccolata" or chocolate salami. It's basically biscotti cookies set in a semi-hard chocolate base. For reference, they were about the size of an index finger. I have to say they were delicious, but I passed on the whipped cream, per my non-dairy pledge (but hey, we're excepting gelato in that deal, haha).

This was called "torta melone" or melon cake. I had a different idea of what it was going to be. It turned out more like a whipped cream filling with a melon topping. I'm not a fan of whipped cream to begin with, so I couldn't finish this. And I'm the type of person that hardly ever finishes her dessert. Oh well...

This tiramisu was the best I've ever had. The cream part was really thick, and the coffee had really infused the lady fingers, so it was kind of a soggy mess of deliciousness. My non-dairy thing was pardoned for this tiramisu. It makes me really want to work on making a raw one.

A chocolate and pear torte. It had a crust, layer of raspberry jam, chocolate, pears, and finally a thin layer of pastry on top. It was one of those desserts that's just perfectly put together. I would totally eat this again in a heartbeat.

So, while I've been enjoying all these desserts, I've also been working it off with INSANITY. Want to know my thoughts?

It ain't that bad.

Yes, it's tough, and yes, I have to take a lot of breaks, but for anyone out there who's on the fence, it's definitely doable. Like I said, I normally don't swear, but sometimes I think INSANITY is going to drive me to it. Shaun T., you're a tough one.

If anyone's got any questions about it or my experience with it, feel free to comment or email me!

Questions: How's your experience with INSANITY been?

Do you prefer a more traditional 4th or are you down with doing something different? I think I'd prefer something different every time, but I also like having something to look forward to that's the same every time.

Going Wild

2010-07-12T15:10:00.000-04:00

This weekend, I did something wild and crazy. Okay, so it wasn't that wild, but it was one of the those once in a lifetime things. So what'd I do?

I went cliff-jumping.

Not this cliff-jumping:

(source)

But rather this (less intense) version:

Cool, right? We went to a beach for the weekend. It was excruciatingly hot; it was over 100F with humidity. I was sweating just sitting doing nothing. Needless to say, I spent some quality time reading a rather strange men's fashion magazine in the shade with a bunch of other old Italian peeps.

I've also enjoyed some terrific food. My mother and sister came to visit, and we stopped by this trattoria that had this wonderful mushroom dish. It was layered in a casserole dish: baby greens, tiny toasted bread cubes, matchstick zucchini and carrots, and topped with porcini mushroom slices and a teensy bit of melted cheese. Seriously, it was quite delicious.

Since it's July here in Italy, that means super sales! I tried to buy this skirt (okay, I confess, I wanted to buy the whole store) at ZARA, but it wasn't on sale. Sigh. I had to settle on H&M instead.

I'm rocking my 3 euro sunglasses from H&M at the gardens in my work-hotel. Lady Gaga, no?

I've also been enjoying these delicious chocolate almonds (confetti) from the wedding of one of my coworkers. They've been insane.

Toffee-almond filled...

Plain-jane chocolate-covered that was anything but plain-jane...

White chocolate-orange almond...

I'm going to try, try, try to post more often...I still have a plethora of food pictures to share with you!

Questions:

I'm begging you, what are the new hottest songs in America? Most online radio stations don't work in Italy. Please share!

Something to listen to: one of the hot summer songs in Italy.

I'm Back...with Exciting News!

2010-06-28T16:08:00.001-04:00

Whew...my posts are getting few and far between. Sorry about that, but sharing a computer and skype with a roommate while I'm halfway across the world (not really, but you get the idea) makes blogging a bit difficult. However, I've been faithfully keeping up with photos of my eats. I think I'll just make this post a deluge of pictures and let them speak for themselves.

And want to know something exciting? Find out after the pictures!

My absolute favorite meal is fresh tomatoes dressed with fruity olive oil, freshly ground pepper, and salt. It's to die for.

I'm not a drinker by any means, so when the waiter poured me this little bit of wine, it took me the whole dinner just to finish it. Not a fan...

Panna cotta shared with a friend. It was the first time I've had it, and it was pretty good, but my favorite part was the berries.

Seriously the best gelato I've tasted. It came from a gelateria in Milano that has biodegradable spoons (can you read it on the spoon in the picture?) and uses only seasonal ingredients. And the best part? That chocolate gelato is dark chocolate AND dairy-free. Wow.

Minestrone. I'm not used to eating off of such big spoons, haha.

Rosmary roasted potatoes. The outside was crispy; the inside was creamy. I've never had such perfectly cooked potatoes in the US. I can't wait to get back and experiment.

Some non-food happenings abroad (because I know you're all dying to know, haha...):

A fashion exhibit from the 50s at one of the villas...

I was all excited and ready to try out for the X factor (the European version of American Idol), until they told me I had to have an Italian identity card. Boo...what a bummer.

Prada...modeling, haha.

Il Duomo in Milano...isn't it beautiful?

Gondolas in Venice.

I've been working a lot (boo unpaid internships), but I love being abroad.

The BIG news. Ready?

Are you really ready?

Okay...

I just completed my first day of INSANITY.

It was only the fitness test, so it really wasn't that bad. But I'm waiting for Shaun T. to kick my butt. I can't wait. ;-)

The Unexpected

2010-06-16T14:00:00.000-04:00

When traveling, I've come to expect the unexpected. That being said, I've encountered quite the array of unexpected things. Take this evening, for example, when I sat down to eat by myself but was joined shortly thereafter by one of the concierges, and we had a nice chat (albeit a cursory one limited by my language skills). Below are some other surprising things.

The first time I took an orange from the dining area here, or mensa, I was expecting a regular orange, but was I ever surprised to peel one open and find this:

It might not look like much until you check this out:

It's like a partial blood orange, and let me tell you, it was quite juicy and delicious.

That's right, McDonald's bottles its own mayonnaise to sell...gross...

And look! You can make your own chocolate panini with these slices of chocolate that are eerily akin to individually wrapped cheese slices...

That may look like a hunk of cheese in the middle of grilled veggies, until I discovered when I poked it with a fork, this happened:

Oozy, gooey cheese reminiscent of a runny sunny-side up egg.

And I've learned that when you order the 3 euro bruschetta on the menu, you'll end up getting something that looks like a pizza.

Finally, the best unexpected surprise, which (surprise! or not) involves gelato:

The flavor on the left is one of the most delicious I have had: pompelmo, or grapefruit.

Deliciousness.

You scream, I scream, we all scream for...GELATO!

2010-06-09T12:49:00.004-04:00

I've decided it's time for a gelato post.

As most of you probably already know, gelato is NOT ice cream. It's pretty similar, but more creamy and less icy than, well, ice cream. The name gelato is a form of the Italian verb "to freeze," and it typically has less fat than ice cream. Another fun fact: the plural of gelato (or double-fisting gelato) is gelati.

And for more a definition, in steps Mr. David Lebovitz: "...The machines used to make gelato move very slowly as they churn, introducing little air into the mixture so the finished gelato is dense and thick. Unlike standard ice cream-making machines, usually the 'dasher' (paddle) moves up and down while the canister turns, so little air is whipped into the mixture while it churns. Also the storage freezers used for holding gelato tend to be kept a few degrees warmer (up to 10 degrees F) than a normal ice cream dipping cabinet, so the gelati keeps its silky, creamier texture."

Thanks David; you're the best.

So far in my journeys this summer, I've tried quite a few gelaterias and have experienced mostly the good, but, sad to say, bad gelati can be found. Just like bad ice cream (think: store-brand vanilla-flavored ice cream).

So far the best was one of the most expensive. I guess you get what you pay for. Anyway, it's the gelateria a five minutes' walk from my work and humble abode. The first time I passed it, I thought, "We HAVE to try that...look at the heaping mounds of smooth gelato just begging to be eaten." To look for a good gelateria, check out the colors of the gelati, especially the banana flavor. If they're brightly colored in an artificial way, or if the banana is a yellow instead of a tan color, it's probably a good idea to skip it. It's pretty common for gelaterias to decorate each flavor of gelato with a "symbol" of it's flavor, such as slices of melon, sprinklings of nuts, or streams of caramel. It's kind of like picture books for kids; everyone can tell what it is without speaking the language.

(source)

This is a pretty good picture of what I'm talking about.

Typically you pay the cashier before you pick out your flavors. Copetta for a cup, cono for a cone. Piccola, media, or grande for the sizes. The best part is that it's normal to pick out two or three flavors, depending on what size you're ordering. Typically I pick out two flavors, and I'm pretty sure you're supposed to pick out complementing flavors, but I really just get two that I'd like to try. Maybe one day... ;-)

Gelato melts quickly. I held a friend's cup for a few minutes while she used the bathroom, and I had to lick it to keep it from melting all over my hands. Hope she didn't mind, haha.

Another favorite part of the gelato experience is the spoon you're given. If you haven't seen it before, it's a tiny little thing, akin to the miniscule forks they give out in Greece to eat french fries with.

(source)

For reference, they're about the size of your index finger.

Alright, so finally the picture of my favorite gelato so far:

I got amaretto and crema. This gelato was dense, creamy, and just delicious. It wasn't too sweet either, which can plague some gelati. The amaretto was garnished with some sort of stewed cherry, which the woman behind the counter was gracious enough to scoop one up for me. I can't describe the flavor, because it didn't quite taste completely like amaretto, but it was delicious nonetheless. The crema is by far my favorite. It tastes just like creme anglaise. I could eat that all day, which is surprising because it's not chocolate.

And this was the worst gelato I had, but ironically, the best picture of gelato I've taken so far. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

I really love the lighting...but notice how it looks like ice cream? That's what it tasted like. Melted and refrozen ice cream.

Song of the day:

Florence Eats: the Good and the Bad

2010-06-06T04:02:00.000-04:00

How's your weekend going? I think it's kind of funny how my night is the morning in the US, which makes for some odd skyping times...

While in Florence, some Ben and Jerry's workers were passing out flyers for free ice cream from 5-7pm. What a coincidence: when we passed by the Ben and Jerry's, it was between 5-7pm. We were really going to grab some gelato at the GelatoFest 2010, but when presented with the choice between paying for tickets to the Fest and getting something free, we chose the free route. And apparently so did many Italians. We waited in a pretty fast moving line and I made a split second decision to get the coffee and Chunky Monkey flavors.

Two spoons for extra scoopage.

I'd have to say, Chunky Monkey is one heck of a flavor. I'm sure I can make an all natural, honest-to-goodness recreation with a variation on banana ice cream.

Breakfast in the hotel the next day was interesting...I got what I thought was orange juice, but it turned out to be apricot. I'm really not a fan of bread, and the two pieces of bread/pastry below reminded me why. Not good. I suppose someone who likes flaky, dry pastries would appreciate that one, filled with chocolate, or someone who likes a crusty white roll would be all over it, but I just wasn't. And again, not being a cheese person, I'm not sure why I took so much cheese. Needless to say, I didn't consume it all.

But now for the positives. The stewed prunes? Amazing! They still have the pits in, so I had to cut around them, but they were oh-so-tasty. I went back for seconds. The kiwi here are delicious as well. I like to eat them with their skins on, and that way they taste a little like grapes. I've noticed that the Italians here cut all the skin off their fruit. I love the skin; sometimes I think it's the best part of the fruit, especially on apples.

I ordered a mixed salad for dinner in Florence, and it came with shaved carrots, mixed greens (in which they use a lot of arugula...I've never really had it, but I love its peppery bite), corn, olives, and cucumbers, and I dressed it with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

I ordered some white beans in tomato broth as a side. It was alright, but the beans tasted like they came from a can. Interesting dish, though.

Surprisingly, the one bad meal we had in Florence had the best bread. This was quite delicious.

I had high hopes for this pizza...all I really wanted were the grilled veggies and I thought I'd nibble on the crust. The veggies were alright but a little oily. The crust? It was more like an American pizza. In fact, it tasted a little like the "wheatzzas" (wheat flour pizzas) my mom used to make. And that's not a compliment, haha...

Today I'm heading to church (I actually was planning on going earlier, but when I got there I found out that it wasn't till 11...maybe that's what I get for trying to interpret the Mass schedule in Italian, haha) and then going to explore the surroundings with some friends.

My First Week in Italy

2010-06-03T17:07:00.000-04:00

Hello bloggers!

It's only been a week, but I feel like I've been missing for a lifetime. I haven't read or commented on any of your blogs, and I probably won't get to that for a while, but I do miss reading them.

Some of my meals here have been spectacular, others have been so so. The first few days I exclusively ate out because the meals at my hotel hadn't started yet. (For those of you that don't know, I'm working in a hotel in Italy this summer, which I live in. But don't worry, even though the hotel is a five star hotel, my room looks and feels like a regular dorm room because it's in staff housing. I do get meals in the "mensa" three times a day.)

This post is going to rather picture heavy, so bear with me.

You had to preorder vegetarian meals, which I didn't, so I just ordered the chicken, since the other option was beef and pasta and I figured the chicken would come with some veggies. However, the picture isn't even worth rotating...

L'insalata con pere e nocce (or in other words, deliciousness. The pecorino cheese was delicious, and I'm not a big cheese eater). Coming from a girl who normally eats no cheese or bread, I've had a heck of a lot of both during my time here. Oh well...

Grilled veggies without seasoning, so I added some pepper and salt. A little olive oil would have been great too, but that didn't occur to me at the time, haha...

My breakfast at one of the hotels (not mine): tomatoes, cucumbers, some kind of soft cheese (see, there I go with the cheese thing again), nutella, a pear, fruit salad, and reconstituted (or stewed) prunes. I was stocking up because I knew I wouldn't have a big lunch that day.

Polenta con funghi...the mushrooms were absolutely delicious, but the polenta was so-so. Surprisingly, it wasn't creamy enough.

Around 5:30 my Italian friends and I had an appertivo, or a before dinner drink (mine was non alcoholic as I don't really enjoy the taste of alcohol often). A really nice thing that goes on in bars (which are less trashy than American places...they tend to sell good quality snacks and coffee and stuff like that) is that during this time they have a lovely spread of food. It's not at all like bar food in America; it's like legit food, such as tomato and mozzarella skewers, fresh fruit, pasta dishes, potatoes and dip, and so on. On my plate I had the tomato and mozzarella, potatoes, grilled zucchini, various tomato salsas, fruit, and nuts.

My friend's salad at McDonalds...it was actually quite fresh looking and came with breadsticks!

Did you know: McDonalds sells pineapple on the euro menu? Weird...

The bread looked pretty good so I had some. The olive oil in Italy tastes so much better than here in the States. It's much more fruity and light.

I saw a woman at a nearby table eating this and I knew I had to order it...

These potatoes were perfectly cooked: steaming and crisp on the outside, creamy on the inside.

At the Piazzale Michelangelo after a bus adventure at night.

I hope you enjoyed this deluge of pictures!

Question: What's one "ethnic" food you've always wanted to try?

A Quickie

2010-06-02T02:47:00.000-04:00

Ciao everyone!

I am in Italy now and this is really the first chance I've had a internet, so I apologize for my absence (and the lack of pictures). Let's just say technology is not my friend. I'm heading off to work now, but hopefully later today I can post some pictures of the Italian eats I've had.

I hope you all are having a wonderful Wednesday!

Fun...and Not Fun

2010-05-26T15:32:00.000-04:00

I'm up in the air right now, but got the time to write this post before, so enjoy!

In the past few days there have been some fun and not so fun things...let's take a look:

Fun:

The beautiful lighting illuminating my mother's meal at Pei Wei in Dallas....

Not Fun:

The horrible lighting not illuminating my meal...but the coconut curry was so good.

Fun:

The hummus at Cosi

Not Fun:

The hummus I made...too garlicky and dry.

Fun:

The carrot juice I had; it's so creamy!

Not Fun:

My berry smoothie, but it was marred by the fact that there was a pit in one of the cherries that got pulverized into tiny pieces by the VitaMix. Thus every spoonful had a hard little piece of the pit in it...awkward.

Fun:

The socca I made, inspired by the Twins.

Not Fun:

The sister pan of socca...as you can see, it really didn't want to come out of the pan...

Question: What were your fun/not fun moments of the day?

Buon Viaggio!

2010-05-25T08:57:00.000-04:00

I had a spectacular post planned...buuut I didn't have to time to type it out between the running around and packing and assuaging of my harried mother. So this will have to suffice until I write my next post from ITALY!

What Foods I'll Miss in Italy (but I won't be missing out on good food!)

Enjoy the rest of your week! See you all soon!

Exciting News!

2010-05-23T11:15:00.000-04:00

I've got some exciting news that I'm finally ready to tell the blogosphere...but first, some random eats.

I bought a plantain a few weeks ago (after my DC trip inspired me) and just didn't know what to do with it. I looked at some recipes online, but then the convection oven in my dorm was out of commission, which subsequently cancelled all of those plans. But when the end of finals week was approaching, I knew I HAD to use it up, so I got myself a bowl from the dining hall and called up a friend in another dorm to see if her convection oven was working.

When I got the all-okay, I sliced up that plantain, greased the bowl with a little coconut oil, and popped it in the convection oven at 400 for about 25 minutes. They smelled fantastic, but I let them cool a little before I ate them. The verdict? I think they were way better than the fried plantains at Whole Foods. If you haven't had plantains before, please try them! Super delicious.

Like bananas, the skin needs to be black or near black for it to be super sweet.

Unfortunately, the naked plantain is not much to look at, haha.

I was surprised at how much yellower they were than bananas...

I have a secret: I flipped all the plantains over so you could see the crispy, caramelized bottoms. The tops? Not so much.

Close up of the deliciousness.

Still with me?

I also used up some random snacks:

I won't bother with the explanations and I'll just get to the exciting news.

This summer I'll be working abroad in Italy in a "luxury" hotel. It's part of a program through my college that you have to apply and be selected for, so I was very happy last April when I found out I made the program. I'll be leaving on Tuesday and I'm not sure when/where I'll get internet access, so my posts will probably be more sporadic during the summer. I'm thinking the tone will change to focus more on my travels, but don't worry, I'll be sure to take copious pictures of my food too! I am very excited and just can't wait to be abroad. I've been to Rome twice, Greece, and Mexico, but never to this particular part of Italy before, so it should be an adventure.

These last couple of days I've been running around buying things for my trip, and I think today I've got to pack everything. Eeek! I'm trying to bring as little as possible so I don't have to lug it all around, haha.

Have a wonderful Sunday! I finally made homemade hummus, so I'll be posting a picture tomorrow?

Questions: Have you ever been abroad? If so, where? Did you like it?

Pleasantly Surprised

2010-05-19T18:32:00.000-04:00

Ah, I got back home yesterday and today is my first full day home. I woke up bright and early this morning and drove to the gym. I had been talking to my friend who mentioned that she ran 10.5 miles yesterday, and that got me all excited to run today. I haven't really run since after the beginning of April because running on the treadmill just wasn't fun anymore and the weather where I go to school is generally crappy all the time.

I wasn't expecting much when I decided after a 20 minute elliptical warm up to do a little running on the track. I decided to push myself for the first mile and see where it would go, since lately my shins have been hurting. I ended up making just over a 8:30 mile, while breathing heavily, haha. I walked a lap and decided to take the next mile easy. When I looked at the clock after running the second mile, I was astonished. Another 8:30 mile, but it felt so easy! I walked another lap, then ran at the same easy pace because I was a bit skeptical, thinking I lost count of the laps or something. Nope, this one was right on par. I was pleasantly surprised. I just assumed I'd run slower if I weren't on a treadmill, but I actually prefer being able to change my pace whenever I want to.

I think I tend to focus more on how fast I'm running as opposed to how far I run. Having once been able to run a 7:00 minute mile, it's kind of discouraging to not be able to do that anymore, but I guess it's better for me to run 6 or 7 miles at a 10:00 minute mile pace rather than 3 at a 7:00 minute mile pace.

My weekend eats:

Congratulations to my sister on graduating! Do you think we look like twins? We used to get that comment all the time, but we hadn't for a while until today, when a woman asked us if we were twins. Perhaps we look like sisters, but definitely not twins...

After the graduation we went to eat at Cool River. One thing I love about eating vegetarian and sometimes vegan is the mix and match style of eating. I love to order a bunch of little dishes, like the side dishes or appetizers, which give me a little taste of everything. We shared the fire-roasted artichoke for an appetizer.

Very messy to eat...the heart is clearly the best part... ;-)

For my entree, I ordered the broccoli and the sweet potato hash.

The meal...I didn't take an individual shot of the broccoli because I thought it would be rather boring, haha.

My mom also ordered the hash, but hers wasn't nearly as crispy and caramelized as mine was...the hash was on the sweeter side and had a hint of warm spices in it.

The chef came out during our meal, since the restaurant was pretty much empty. He asked if we were celebrating anything, and when he found out it was my sister's graduation, he had this sent out to the table:

The slice was ginormous! My sister cut it up and doled it out to the family.

We were so surprised! They even wrote congratulations and her name around the edge of the plate in chocolate. The cake was decorated with a strawberry cut like a rose and grape "flowers." The cake was a little dry. I was more interested in scraping off the chocolate writing and eating that instead of the cake, haha. The service was really excellent and very thoughtful, and it was a great way to celebrate.

Dinner was a pretty uneventful stop at Sweet Tomatoes.

I'm hoping on making a few things during the week I'm a home, so hopefully I'm able to and can share them here with you. I'd like to make dinner a couple of times, so I'm putting together some menus in my head.

Questions: Have you ever been told you and your sibling(s) looked like twins?

Runners, have you done a half marathon? If so, what motivated you?

Treadmill or outdoor running?

Up in the Air

2010-05-16T17:29:00.000-04:00

I'm in a hotel room is Dallas recovering from my sister's graduation this morning. Let's just say I was not made for the warm weather, haha...

Between flights yesterday I stopped to get some dinner. I was walking through terminals, deciding on a place to get a good salad (since the dining hall decided not to put out any salad greens on the last day, WHAT?!?), when I came upon a store called Cibo, a Gourmet Market. Ooo. Gourmet. I had to stop in. And the first thing that greeted me? Green & Black's chocolate bars. But at $5.99 each, I couldn't afford that airport mark up. So I moseyed on over to the refrigerated section and picked out a lovely grilled veggie salad. But chocolate kept calling my name. So I agreed on a Chocolove peppermint chocolate bar...and it was only a dollar cheaper, but somehow I could justify that price, haha.

I went to find a secluded gate to sit at and eat, since I was intending to take pictures and I didn't want to field the awkward stares. As soon as I sat down to devour the salad, I realized I hadn't gotten any silverware. Bummer. So I packed everything up and went to the first food place I saw: Starbucks. I felt bad just asking for silverware, so I ordered a vanilla roiboos tea. I never knew how to pronounce that until I read it on the back of a tea can: ROY-boss. Good to know, good to know.

Then I headed back to my little spot and had a lovely time after dinner, sipping tea and nibbling chocolate. That's my perfect way to relax.

I promptly removed the soggy pita chips...

It was only $6.95...totally worth it!

The last apple I filched from the dining hall earlier in the day...

I love the taste of this tea...it kind of tastes like apple juice with a vanilla aftertaste...

Ah! Mint + chocolate = Claire love.

There are little hearts imprinted on each square of chocolate...

I would have rotated this picture, but uploading is taking quite a long time on this hotel connection...but anyway, each chocolate bar has a love poem in it, and this particular one was from Romeo and Juliet.

I'll be helping my sister pack up all her stuff and hopefully experiencing some fantastic eats. Perhaps Indian? Have a wonderful Sunday!

Questions: What's your favorite way to relax?

Have you ever tried roiboos tea? Did you like it?

Easter Throwback

2010-05-13T17:18:00.000-04:00

So, I've been meaning to write this post since Easter, and in the spirit of finals' week, I'm doing it.

This is quite a throw-back, actually. I made baba ganouj again, but we didn't have any sesame seeds to make tahini, and I was too lazy to go out and buy some, so I just used sesame oil instead. It just didn't have the same taste, but it was still delicious.

The rest of the appetizer spread: salsa, organic corn chips, carrots, hummus, guac, baba ganouj, and some sort of pastry thing my aunt brought...

For dessert we usually have a lamb cake: pound cake with coconut frosting, cut and pieced in the 3D shape of a lamb. When I was little we would always buy the Sara Lee family size pound cake and cut that up. We'd frost it with canned frosting and coconut flakes. But after I caught the baking bug, I'd make the pound cake myself. Each year I'd try a different kind of frosting. This year I flavored the pound cake with coconut and almond and made Italian buttercream. I really do enjoy making complicated desserts and spending hours in the kitchen. But....no picture. Whoops.

Anyway, I wanted to make a raw dessert, and landed on this Twins' recipe. Perfect. I tweaked it a bit (how, I have no idea because I stupidly didn't write anything down, haha), but basically stuck to the recipe.

Before the dehydrator...

After the dehydrator...(ooo, apparently lights aren't my friends...)

Funny thing: someone had turned up the temp on the dehydrator, so I ended up baking the little cupcakes as opposed to dehydrating them...whoops. Hence they were a little dry. But had I not messed up, I'm sure they would have tasted much better!

I think it was ashamed of its dryness, so it was attempting to hide in the dark...

I wanted to concoct some kind of "cream cheese" frosting for them, so I blended some cashews with agave and some nutritional yeast. How did it taste? Just okay. It looked good, but it was really rich. I wouldn't do that again.

But I ate them! Apparently they are tasty to dogs, as I had one in my purse on the floor and my friend's dog snatched it out and nearly ate it, plastic bag and all. Haha...

Question: What's the biggest kitchen mishap or recipe mistake you've made?

Once I forgot to put eggs in a cake batter, which made the cupcakes turn out like cookies...but they didn't taste too bad!

If you do mess up a recipe, will you eat it or do you just throw it out?

For me, even if it tastes horrible, I'll probably eat it because I think I feel personally responsible, haha...

Guest Eats Appearance

2010-05-12T12:44:00.000-04:00

Hey, good news! The final actually wasn't that bad. Whew. Four down, two to go.

I jumped out of bed this morning and ran to the gym, but it wasn't open. Okay, so I was there 20 minutes before it technically opened, but that's when I usually go because ROTC is there then. But apparently they weren't there today, haha. So I stretched while I waited for it open. I was going to do some HIIT, but my poor little shins weren't feeling it, so I ended up walking for 10, running for 5, and then doing 45 on the elliptical with my physio notes. Good times.

So, without further ado, I present the first ever appearance on this blog of what I eat in the cafeteria. I'm not going to lie, I pretty much eat the same thing everyday. Sure, I vary it up a bit here and there, but I love my hummus and spinach so much that I get it sometimes twice a day. Exciting, right?

I had a lovely dinner date with my best friend, Accounting, so I didn't have to explain any random food picture taking to my friends. Regardless, it was still a stealth picture.

Spinach, carrots, grape tomatoes, pine nuts, artichokes, and, you guessed it, hummus. And yes, you can see that I love hummus so much that it's engulfing the artichokes.

Lucky me, they had homefries!

After reading this delicious post, I had a hankering for homefries. These obviously weren't the best, but hey, at least it's something! Another point on the hummus: they usually have two or three flavors. That day they had regular and basil/pesto hummus. The basil one is my absolute favorite. It's got a great greenish color and a wonderful flavor.

I usually also have some fruit, but their fruit wasn't looking so hot, so I took a pass.

Beautiful, right? ;-)

Well, I'm off to study some more and eat lunch.

Question: What's the one thing you absolutely have to eat everyday? (besides chocolate, haha)

A Diminutive Break

2010-05-11T10:30:00.001-04:00

Good morning everyone!

I just took one of my exams and have an hour and a half until my next two, including my (and this is a direct quote from my teacher) "Mangerial Accounting Final Exam from HELL." Thanks. That makes me feel great. Haha.

So I don't think I'll be able to eat lunch, so I stocked up on some food in the meantime, including this:

Thanks Magic Bullet!

What is it?

Well, it started off as these:

The perfect ripeness...

Plus some carob, some peanut butter, and a drizzle of agave gets you this:

So thick in all it's caroby goodness...

In case you couldn't tell, that's supposed to look appetizing, not like dirt, haha.

It's a variation on Katie's banana butter, but I like to think of it more as pudding. Carob is a natural thickening agent, which makes this pudding so thick and creamy after refrigeration. Yay! I love it. I can't wait to try it with almond next.

Anyway, I should get back to some last minute studying. Stay tuned for an exciting, never seen before...thing! (and that's what studying will do to you, but really, it's a bit exciting and a bit lame. Bear with me.)

Question: How far ahead do (or did) you study for final exams? I like to start a week ahead and then review the information towards the end, but then again, that doesn't always happen...haha.

A Recipe Sucess!

2010-05-08T20:49:00.000-04:00

Ah...blogging is the perfect form of procrastination during finals week. I hopped on the bus to the grocery store today, hoping to get some great finals snacks. The trip was pretty much fail, since all I really wanted were figs and dates. But the figs were hard and not fresh and the dates were too shrively looking. So I reluctantly took a pass. I bought some other chocolatey things but not any chocolate bars, because I just wasn't feeling it. I used to crave sugar (and I mean the processed stuff) ALL THE TIME, but ever since I started eating raw-ish, I really haven't. I still crave sugar, but the natural kind of sugar, such as in figs. Figs = love.

And sidenote: the bus driver was such a friendly guy. I was planning on studying on the way there, but he was so friendly and talkative that I figured, what the heck? Life's too short. So we had such a lovely conversation. He was so genuinely happy and fulfilled in life that it made me happy too. Have you ever had an experience like that?

I have to conserve my dining hall meal swipes this week, since I'll be able to actually eat there more times this week than in a normal week, so I had to forgo a solid meal today. Which meant a lot of snacking. And pretty much all I want right now are fresh veggies, but I don't have any...(actually, that's a lie. I have carrots, but I'm really craving spinach or broccoli).

But, while I was at the store buying some veggie brown rice sushi = love, I picked up some extra soy sauce packets in hope of recreating this tasty dish. Sweet potato salad with miso sauce.

Can you spot it? It the dish smack dab in the middle in the very back of the photo, creepin' by the teapots and my friend's shirt...

The convection oven finally got fixed in my dorm, so I hopped on down and baked up two lovely sweet potatoes for an hour and then cooled them in the fridge. I'm finding that I like the taste of cold sweet potatoes a lot better than warm, which is quite odd. I mixed up some pb, soy sauce, and agave with a little water to thin, then gobbed it on the potatoes, which I had diced.

Start with one unassuming tater, baked up...

"Ah, I'm naked!"

Apparently I need to work on my dicing skills...

What you can't see here is the fact that I mixed it up in the lid of my grapes container...recycling at its finest.

Gobs of goodness...

All mixed up.

The verdict? Deliciousness.

In other news, I have a creeper. His name is Accounting and I can't seem to get rid of him. He's ALWAYS around and pretty much monopolizes all my time. Oh wait, I think he's knocking now...eugh...

Ode to the Mini Food Processor

2010-05-07T11:39:00.000-04:00

My friend sticks with me through and through,
And when inspiration strikes, I know just what to do.
I haul him out from his hiding place,
Set him on the counter and clear the space.

With a dash of that and a whir of this,
I add ingredients, making sure that I miss
None of the goodness they have to give,
After all, I don't live to eat, I eat to live.

Though his diminutive size is less impressive,
The masterpieces he churns out are quite obsessive.
Who could imagine such tasty creations
Could be made with my fruit and veggie nations?

And nations I do mean, as you can see,
This pile of bananas is all for me.

They're destined to become some banana butter,
Or the PB-banana combo that makes my heart flutter.

My next creation needs quite a freeze,
Before it can be turned into a masterpiece.
Plain or mint flavored, I'll enjoy it today,
That's banana ice cream, made my way.

And finally for something of a different style,
It requires no stacks of bananas in a pile.
Instead the humble avocado I will use,
Whose heart-healthy fats have been lately in the news.

A pudding I'll make, adding some carob powder,
And I'll turn on the machine louder and louder
Till it produces a decadent cream
And to it, "delicious!" will I deem.

I hope you've enjoyed this little ditty,
And found it funny and rather witty.
Smile and be glad that it's finally Friday,
And you have the weekend to frolic study away!

"Doe" a Deer...

2010-05-06T09:06:00.000-04:00

Sorry for my prolonged absence...I've been rather busy with my last week of classes and the beginning of finals week.

I've been eating a lot of these:

Bosc pear.

And these:

Organic gala, how I love thee.

And most importantly, a TON of these:

Adorable, right? His name was Percy.

Funny thing: When I was studying at my desk in the morning, I heard lots of car horns honking, so I glanced out my window and saw three deer crossing the highway. Awkward. So what did I do? What any normal, easily distracted from studying student would do: stand in front of the window for five minutes and attempt to capture a decent picture of them. And guess what? I did. Lame, right?

Good... (I love the truck in the background...)

Better...

Best!

At my dinner Sunday night we went to a sushi restaurant called the Fuji Grill. I knew I wanted sushi, but I also wanted to try something different, so I ended up ordering the avocado salad, mixed veggie roll (with brown rice, yay!), and seaweed salad. I was most excited about the seaweed salad because I needed some greens in me! I don't have pictures from the restaurant, but I did have leftovers...

The avocado salad was basically a mixed iceberg salad with a half avocado sliced on top, sprinkled with sesame seeds. A ginger-orange-carrot dressing came on the side. The veggie roll was your standard carrot, cucumber, avocado filling, but it did have some sort of pickled veggie in it, though I couldn't identify it. It also was light on the brown rice, which was excellent because I don't really like rice. But the seaweed salad? Delicious. It had a sesame-soy dressing on it and was again adorned with sesame seeds. It didn't taste fishy or anything, just delightful. I think I've found my new favorite.

The remnants of the avocado salad atop the seaweed salad...

I ate it with chopsticks...beautiful.

My food processor and Magic Bullet have been busy this week...I'll show you what I "made" in the very near future. Don't get too excited, though. The convection oven is still not fixed, so I did all I could with what I could take from the dining hall, which is...fruit, haha.

Have a great Thursday!

Questions: Have you tried seaweed salad? If so, what do you think of it?

Military Ball Recap

2010-05-02T18:47:00.000-04:00

I hope all of you had a wonderful weekend! The military ball last night was a lot of fun...I wore my prom dress from senior year (because I love it so much, haha).

Voila! I would post a picture of my date and I, but I didn't feel like divulging my blog, so you'll just have to imagine a man in uniform... ;-)

When we got our place cards for the table, mine had a bowl of lettuce on the back. I had a blonde moment and it took me some time to figure out that that meant I was getting the vegetarian entree...haha. Because it was at an Italian banquet hall, I figured the entree would probably be pasta, which I was a bit bummed about, but my date was super sweet and said, "Don't worry, I'll take care of it." How sweet. But when they brought out the entree, it was a pile of stir-fried veggies with two mounds of white rice. I passed on the rice, but the veggies were ever so delicious! I was quite pleased with the whole thing.

Now I've had this song from the dance stuck in my head, ALL DAY.

But yesterday before the dance, I was chilling in my room and felt really, really thirsty. So I drank water. Lots of water. But perhaps too much, as I started to feel odd and a bit light-headed. I realized I probably should have been drinking something other than water too, so I ran to the campus store to get some sugar. Luckily, I found some watermelon, so I grabbed that, but I also wanted some chocolate.

Unfortunately, all they had was this cheap stuff, but I bought it anyway.

Let's take a closer look:

Hmmm..."a little something for everyone?" I don't think so. Not unless it has my Green and Black's Maya Gold chocolate bar, haha. But the watermelon and chocolate helped and I felt much better, just in time to begin the process of getting ready. Ladies, can you sympathize with the amount of time it takes to get ready for a special occasion?

I've also been going through apples like none other.

My favorite: organic Gala

And what would you expect? More Naked. And guess what? I found a flavor I don't like. Shocker, I know.

I picked up this baby, thinking it would be something like Green Machine, since it had veggies in it. And the color was amazing.

So I sipped it. It had a nice first taste with a good, thick texture, but then I got to the aftertaste. What was that horrid flavor? I looked at the ingredient label:

What's that? 91 kernels of sweet corn? That's what I was tasting, and let me tell you, it was NOT pleasant. Please do yourself a favor and don't buy this kind. Yuck.

I'll stick with my Orange Carrot. ;-)

Sushi in a few minutes! Whoot! Enjoy the rest of your evening...Did you do anything fun this weekend?

A Social Butterfly

2010-04-30T14:30:00.000-04:00

Happy Friday!

Hopefully you have fun plans for the weekend, I know I do! This week was terribly busy, and I feel like it is the most social week I've had in a while.

There was the outdoor movie on campus:

(source)

Have you seen this? I thought certain parts were funny, but I don't think I'd watch it again. It wasn't bad...

Then there was an end of the year banquet for one of my clubs at this place:

(source)

It was pretty fun! We had our officer elections (next year the VP is yours truly), too. I'm usually not one for places with games like this, but it was quite amusing to watch my friends and club members rack up the tickets. It's kind of ridiculous how many tickets you need for the "big ticket" (pun intended) items, like ipods and such. I think it turns out to be more money-wise using the tickets than if you just purchased it in the store.

This afternoon I have my work-abroad meeting...the last one before I leave! Eek! More on that later.

Saturday afternoon/night I'm going to the military ball and Sunday I'm going out to dinner with another club.

Whew, it's going to be fun, but I'll have to fit homework in here somewhere...boo.

So, onto the food:

I picked up this salad at the grocery store last week; twas delicious.

Does it look boring? That's because all the goodness is hiding inside...

Don't worry, it's not chicken...it's cinnamon grilled pineapple. Holy delicious!

Herbed roasted carrots

Butternut squash. It's part of a pre-made salad at the salad bar that consists of the squash, dried cranberries, roasted onions, and spinach. But I'm all over the squash.

Can you see the wonderful berry medley that hiding amongst the veggies?

The salad was delicious! And on the subject of delicious things, I've been reading about PB & Co. for quite some time, so when I was at the store last weekend, I picked up a jar of this deliciousness: Cinnamon Raisin Swirl.

Step one: Open and observe the jar of deliciousness.

Step Two: Utilize a scooping utensil.

Step Three: Ensue scoopage.

Step Four: Taste the results.

I really liked this flavor. It tasted a lot of cinnamon and had little crunchy bits in it, which I assume were sugar? There were also raisins scattered in it, which I thought was a little weird. I like to keep my peanut butter in the fridge, so the raisins got hard and chewy. It was kind of odd to have that texture in the peanut butter.

The stats, if anyone's interested:

(source)

Funny story: I was looking forward to having tea this morning, but when I made it downstairs to the microwave, I found a sign on it saying that it was broken. Boo...I was still in my bathrobe, so I didn't want to go to another building. Oh well. The tea will have to wait for later.

Questions: Do you have any big plans for the weekend?

What's your favorite flavor of PB&Co., if you have one, or which one would you like to try?

I present: Five Things

2010-04-27T16:27:00.001-04:00

Good news! I got the urge to spruce up my blog, so I added an About Me page. Check it out!

I decided I need to make my posts a heck of a lot more interesting, so I'm starting "Five Things." Basically, I'm going to share five interesting things with you, whether it be about me or food or whatever. So without further adieu, I present to you:

Five Things That You Already Knew Were My Favorite Foods (creative, right?)

1. I am in love with Naked.

2. My favorite snack (and sometimes meal) is carrots and hummus. (which is why I quite frequently buy baby carrots in 3 lb. bags and then wonder why my grocery bill is so high...)

3. My favorite breakfast is carob/hemp protein cookie dough AND a sliced banana dipped in carob. Think I can get enough of carob already?

Seriously, this was one of the largest bananas I've had in a while. I thought an artsy picture was in order.

4. Sweet potatoes. Need I say more?

5. Chocolate covered almonds = my Pringles. Once I pop, I can't stop.

(source)

Hey, I couldn't find a picture of my own, but that sure looks like a Claire sized portion of chocolate covered almonds..

Did you like it?

My Addiction

2010-04-24T20:34:00.000-04:00

So, while browsing through my recent pictures to develop this post, I realized I have a theme going on. Then I looked at all my receipts from this week and realized I have an addiction. You probably can already guess what it is...

Hmmm...this is not good. Not good for my wallet, at least. Now I feel like I have to be a spokesperson for Naked now, I apparently drink so much of it.

Song of the day: You and I by Ingrid Michaelson

I found this song today and really started to like it...the banjo-esque instrument in the background makes me happy.

So, my friend (the one I went to visit in DC) gave me this to try, since he didn't care for it:

I'm not usually one for milk chocolate, but why would I ever turn down free chocolate? So I sampled.

Can you tell it went through a little melting ordeal before I got to it?

The inside....

The verdict? Not that great. There wasn't a pronounced peanut butter flavor and the chocolate was just okay. Perhaps some of it had to do with the fact that it had melted and re-solidified multiple times...I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt.

So I had some of the real stuff, some organic PB I bought (and finished the jar):

The PB was smooth, but it had flecks of peanuts in it, which made it taste like freshly ground PB, so good...

I feel a lot better eating organic PB than regular, but I'd rather have almond butter, but it's super expensive. I did go to the store today, so tomorrow I'll show you the loot. Yum.

Questions: What's your favorite kind of nut butter?

What's your latest song obsession? I'm always looking for new songs...

Bubble Tea, Foreign Films, and ... Peanut Butter

2010-04-21T22:53:00.001-04:00

To finish up my trip (I feel like I've taken a trip nearly every weekend this semester...I promise I actually do work sometimes, haha):

A few of the random things we did throughout the weekend:

- went to a classical vocal concert dress rehearsal

- saw a great movie, "Farewell," at the DC International Film Festival (it was in Russian and French with English subtitles, and was by the same director as "Joyeux Noel," another great movie)

- walked around Georgetown

- did some real estate browsing

- visited TJ's

-took the Metro a LOT...

-and I had my first bubble tea!

It was lychee flavored...delicious!

On Saturday morning we ate at Busboys and Poets, an activist cafe named after the poet Langston Hughes. The food there was terrific. I knew that later that day we'd be eating at a tea shop, so I didn't want to have too much (partially prompted by the copious amounts of chocolate and German cookies graciously offered to me by my friend). One of the first things I saw when I walked in were the homefries. They looked absolutely delicious and I immediately settled on having that, although the sweet fugi apple and gorgonzola sandwich with fig spread on walnut raisin bread (whew, what a mouthful!) was calling too. I also got some freshly squeezed carrot juice. It was so creamy and carroty; just the way I like it. I'm sorry I don't have pictures; we ate with some of his friends and it just would have been awkward to take pictures. I'd definitely go there again.

The restaurant highlight of my trip was to Teaism, a tea shop and restaurant. There are three locations, and we went to the one in Dupont Circle, which was right by Embassy Row. It was fun to see all the flags of the different countries there.

I like eating little portions of a lot of different foods, instead of eating a meal with say, three items of a normal portion. So we decided to do a tapas type thing and order a lot of their side dishes. First the tea. I am an avid tea drinker; NOT a coffee person at all, haha. We got the Africa Star tea, which was a fruity tea, to share. Next up, the sides. We decided on the:

Naan with mango chutney

Sweet Potato Salad with miso sauce

Asian Slaw with spicy mayo dressing

and

Palak Paneer: Indian spinach curry with homemade cheese, Indian brown rice & raita.

It was all very delicious. My favorite was the sweet potato salad, followed closely by the naan. My friend's was the Asian slaw. It was creamy at first, then you got the kick from the pepper in the dressing.
We saved room for dessert and got the chocolate tort with green tea gelato and a salty oatmeal raisin cookie (this one to go). The chocolate tort was alright; it improved on eating. The cookie was delicious; not too salty, but very oaty.

The spread...

The green tea gelato...

See the salt grains on top of the cookie?

I would highly recommend Teaism if you're in the DC area. I can't wait to go back again.

Haha, just a quick note on WF again. I forgot to mention in my last post that we tried the So Delicious green tea coconut ice cream. Did we like it?

We ate the whole pint.

That dinner was a wild one. I can now say that I've experienced peanut butter on brussel sprouts, citrus roasted potatoes, and green tea coconut ice cream. And you know what, it was pretty good.

Question: What's the weirdest/oddest food combination you've had? (Evan, I was thinking of you and PB with homefries...)

Checkout Madeline's giveaway for a tea press!

Trip Recap...Naked?

2010-04-21T09:42:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone,

Have you heard the song "Bulletproof" by La Roux? It's been stuck in my head ever since the weekend.

I had a really fun trip and most of it involved around food, haha. Isn't it nice when you have a friend that can share your love of food and puts up with you taking pictures of it?

I wish I would have taken more pictures, but some of the time we were with people who really wouldn't understand, so I decided not to freak them out and refrained from taking pictures.

Luckily I didn't have to eat at the dining hall at all since my friend lives 5 minutes away from a Whole Foods (score)! He frequents it so often that most of the workers there know him by name. It was kind of funny to walk in and have the workers wave and greet you like they were your friends.

We tried the new Naked coconut water Tropical smoothie.

I really didn't care for it too much. My initial reaction was that it tasted like Capri-Sun...yuck. Once I drank a little more, it tasted better, but I still wasn't wild about it. I wouldn't buy it again. I'll just stick to my good old Green Machine Naked.

(source)

And the salad bar at Whole Foods was our best friend. I have to say that I ate many foods this weekend that I ordinarily wouldn't have, but I don't really feel that bad about it because it was really a one time thing. And now I'm back to copious amounts of veggies...just how I like it.

A sampling of our salad bar finds from Sunday afternoon:

Cajun sweet potato wedges and samosas

Balsamic roasted veggies

Fried plantains

Since sweet potatoes are one of my favorite foods, I probably ate those every night. The Cajun sweet potato wedges had a kick at the end that was terrific! The samosas were pretty good too...the chutney that came on the side was a nice sweet addition. The roasted veggies were rather bland and not that great. And don't the friend plantains look just like chicken wings? I promise they weren't, haha. We got those every time they had them too, because they were just so delicious. Probably because they were fried, haha.

It was fun to go to Whole Foods that often, since I don't have one here by me at school, but I just have one thing to say: thanks, Whole Foods, for sucking all my money up.

Haha, but it was worth it.

I'll finish up the trip later today. See you all tonight!

Question: If you've tried Naked juices, what's your favorite flavor?

A Quickie

2010-04-15T23:30:00.000-04:00

Sorry readers, this will be a very short post because I have to get to bed! I'm going to visit a friend in DC and I need to get up at 4:15am in order to get to the airport on time. Let's just say I won't be doing too much sleeping tonight... :-)

Two of my enjoyable eats from yesterday:

An artfully placed carrot in a fresh container of Sabra...

Dried cranberries...yes, they're sweetened, but hey, I take what I can get... :-)

I basically ran around all day today to get ready. My plan was to do a bunch of homework, since I can't really this weekend, but that didn't happen, haha. My friend's dad ended up coming and taking us out to dinner, then a quick stop at the grocery store, and then I helped a friend with some cover letters (and got spoonfuls of peanut butter as a reward). Then I had to do my laundry, pack, charge all my electronics, and straighten my hair. Whew. Now I have to get to sleeping.

See you Monday!

Any exciting plans for the weekend?

Random Eats and My Workout

2010-04-13T17:10:00.001-04:00

The weather this weekend was absolutely beautiful, which was great, because my dorm and our two sister/brother dorms had a little BBQ outside with sports and games. Luckily the food ordering was done by the RAs in my dorm, so there were plenty of fruits and veggies. It seems like everyone knows about my eating habits...haha.

The view from outside my window...you can't see much but I promise everyone was out there!

I couldn't stay too long because I had to study for two massive tests for today. And thank goodness they're now over. In the middle of my last test, there was a fire drill. Really? That kind of threw off my concentration, but I still finished on time, whew.

I went on another grocery shopping run and somehow managed to consume all the "good" food already, haha. This whole day I've been craving chocolate, and the only chocolate they have at the campus store is milk chocolate, which I'm not really a fan of, but if worse comes down to worse... ;-)

Some of yesterday's eats:

My absolute fav...I had a whole stash of bananas in my room and I was just waiting for the exact ripeness: yellow with just a few brown spots. Yum. The rest I'm planning on perhaps making banana ice cream...

My other love: carrots and hummus. I usually just take hummus from the dining hall, but this time I got some Sabra Garlic Hummus. Ja, it's good, but I prefer homemade.

Dates: food of the gods. And me. :)

So I tried the Oatmeal Raisin flavor a while back during Lent, and I've been dying to try a chocolate flavor of theirs. I chose Chocolate Coconut.

It wasn't what I expected. It had a kind of funky taste that's hard to describe. It had little chocolate chips in it and I definitely could taste flaked coconut. But it was really sweet. A little too sweet for me. I don't think I'd buy this flavor again, but I'm not giving up on the bars yet!

This was actually from a little while ago, but why not include it?

I asked what you'd like to see on the blog, and Amy answered, "and about your posts, you're in college, so talk about how you overcome the obstacle of balancing your healthy diet and school. Do you workout? you should post some of that progress as well. "

Okay, my workout:

Every day (excepting Sundays, my rest day) I do 45 minutes of cardio, be it running, elliptical, or Zumba! Then on alternating days I do abs or weight training. Saturday is my mishmosh day: sometimes I do HIIT, the StairMaster, the ski machine (although I don't use that one all that often because it's so odd...), etc. The weather up here is not that great, so I don't get outside to jog very often. :-( But when the weather is great, there's a beautiful trail right by the Gorge that's fun to take. Back to the gym workout.

I usually get up around 6:30 and get ready to go. I get to the gym around 6:50 and get back to my dorm around 8:00-8:15.

On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays: Abs, abs, and more abs.

One of my friends is in ROTC and he taught me that ab routine that they do. It's basically a circuit of ten exercises with 30 reps each. I usually do 40 of each.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays: Weights

The bulk of my weight sesh is made up of 60 lunges and 60 squats. Then I dabble in some arms and butt stuff, but it's nothing too intense.

So there you have it. I'm usually a hot, sweaty mess by the time I finish, but that's how I like it.

Happy Tuesday!

Giveaway for Everything Raw bars!

Questions: Do you have any suggestions for spicing up my ab or weight routine? I don't want to get stuck in a rut...

What's your favorite type of chocolate?

And as always, if you have any suggestions for the blog or any questions for me, feel free to email!

A Math Lesson

2010-04-11T07:49:00.001-04:00

Thanks for all your comments...and now I think I have everything figured out.

As I said, my friends and I were going to watch a movie. Sorry Gabriela, but Titanic didn't win out with everyone...We ended up watching Pretty Woman instead, which I had never seen, so it was okay with me. I hadn't had dinner, so I cut up two sweet potatoes and went down to put them in the convection oven, but I discovered that it wasn't working. Apparently the plug it was plugged into wasn't working, so I was a bit bummed until an ROTC guy came by and offered to move the oven to a different spot for me so I could plug it in a different plug. And it worked! Always nice to have help from a hunk... ;-)

They may look dry and unappetizing, but let me tell you, underneath all that was a sweet, smooshy texture, just like how sweet potatoes are supposed to be.

And I think I must be dreaming, because the dining hall keeps having fresh berries, what is that? So I took back some blackberries for snackage.

I also bought one of these Naked juices:

Compared to a regular smoothie, it's super sweet, but I really love the thickness of it.

Remember how I said I wanted to create something? Well, this juice spurred me on. Ready for a math lesson?

How did it taste? Surprisingly delicious. Most chia puddings have nut milk in them, so using juice as the liquid was something quite different, but it worked. Obviously it didn't turn out creamy, but it was still good.

Yesterday I went double shopping: clothes AND food. I'll post about it later, since I need to get some work done before church. Have a wonderful Sunday morning!

Don't forget to enter Katie's giveaway.

Averie is also having a Chocomize giveaway.

Chelsea's Barney Butter giveaway.

Tea and a Mild Crisis

2010-04-09T09:24:00.000-04:00

Ah...I didn't post last night because I'm having a crisis with my major. Haha, it sounds so dramatic, but to put it simply, I have to choose between two concentrations, and I can't. I'm notoriously bad at making decisions, so something that actually matters like this is killing me! It would probably help if I knew what I wanted to do after college, but I don't. The first choice involves taking extremely boring classes, but it may be more applicable to other job areas after graduation. The second choice involves easier, more interesting classes, but probably will be less applicable. I feel that if I do the second option, I'll be selling myself short. Sigh, I'm going to talk to an advisor today about and hopefully I'll come up with an answer. Well, I'll have to because registration is 8:30 am on Monday!

But enough about that. On to happy eats! I'm hoping to bum a ride (or take the bus) to the grocery store because I really need some snacky foods. And by snacky foods I mean carrots and hummus (and on-sale Easter candy, haha.). I'm itching to create something, but I can't because I don't have the right ingredients. I was rifling through the bins where I keep my food, protein powder, etc, and I found a smidgen of this protein powder left.

So, I decided to make protein cookie dough, aka protein powder mixed with water.

Wow, I didn't realize how completely unappetizing that looks.

It tasted just okay, probably because the container was open for...a long time. ;-)

Next up was tea time! I love tea, but sometimes I forget to drink it. And I'm a little lazy to walk down the stairs and heat up the water in the microwave, then walk all the way up. I know, tough life, right? ;-) But last night I made a point of bringing home this tea from the dining hall:

I love that it's organic!

I seeped it in my favorite mug:

With some quality homework in the background...

Delicious. This morning I got motivated again and made myself some tea that a friend sent to me for my birthday. It's from Germany and it's called "Adventsstern" (Advent Star). It has apple, hibiscus, orange, anise, cinnamon, almond, and vanilla in it. It smells heavenly, like licorice, and it's a pretty rose color.

I loved the way it perfumed my whole drawer, and I'm sad to see it go...I don't know if you can read it, but the inside lip of the mug says, "Promise you won't forget me. Ever." :-)

This morning I woke up and had some obligatory protein pudding/cookie dough made the regular way:

And an orange. The oranges they have in the dining hall are teensy tiny! Tonight I think my friends and I are going to rent a movie, any suggestions?

Clean Eats, Day One...

2010-04-07T21:07:00.000-04:00

So, today was a pretty successful clean eats day. The only "non-clean" thing I ate was some espresso chip ice cream. But how could I not? They rarely have that flavor at the dining hall and it wasn't like I pigged out on it, haha.

Breakfast: My usual hemp powder/carob pudding/cookie dough/whatever.

It's kind of an acquired taste, but I think I've acquired it.

Lunch: It was a different story today. I go straight from 10:10-5:00 on Wednesdays, leaving me little time for a proper meal. So I ended up eating a banana between class and my tutoring job, some grapes grabbed between tutoring and another class, and a Cinnamon Roll Larabar, another banana, and my last squares of chocolate from Easter.

I always choose the heaviest container of grapes so I can get more for my money... ;-)

This was supposed to be Cranberry-Almond, but I really wasn't getting any cranberry or almond flavor. It tasted mostly like dark chocolate, with the extremely occasional piece of almond or cranberry. I don't think I'd get it again. I'll stick with my mint chocolate.

What's this?

The chunky Larabar I like! It's always a nice surprise to have a whole raisin or nearly whole almond peak out in the bar. It pretty much tastes like a cinnamon roll too; all sugary and soft.

Dinner: I have meetings and such from 6:00-8:00, so I usually don't eat until after then. Boy, was I hungry. I had a lovely salad with sunflower seeds, cranberries, chickpeas, and hummus, with a side of broccoli and fruit salad. Then came the espresso chip. I kind of didn't even want it, but it was more the principle of the thing. I probably would have preferred dates instead, but that is one thing the dining hall doesn't carry, haha.

I'm not really finding the motivation to study and do homework at the moment, but I've spent far too long on blogs tonight, haha.

I'm thinking that my posts need some spice in them...any suggestions?

Too Much Candy, a Good Surprise, and a Bad Surprise

2010-04-06T22:15:00.000-04:00

Sigh...I've done it again. I've eaten too much candy. I told myself that once I finished my Easter candy, I would practice some restraint, but apparently that didn't process, as I went out and bought myself more candy. So, to really motivate myself, I am vowing to eat cleanly for the next two weeks.

There. I said it. And since it's in the blog world, it's official. ;-)

Why two weeks, you say? Well, that's because that's when I'm going to do a crazy thing. Well, it's really not that crazy, just slightly crazy for me. Last week I spontaneously booked a flight to go visit my friend for the weekend. It was totally not planned, but it will be so nice to see him again because I haven't seen him since early August and he'll be in Germany through the summer and all next year. I had to book it using my mother's credit card, which leads me into my next dilemma.

I demagnetized my credit card. Stupid me. And I forgot the password to my online account, so I didn't want to use it because then I obviously couldn't pay the bill online. So I need to call the people to help me out. So...I better get on telling my mom that that $250 charge that I really can't afford is legit and will be coming her way in the very near future, haha. She probably won't be too thrilled.

So, those are my two updates. I hope that wasn't a bore!

Now for some of today's random eats:

The dining hall had BLUEBERRIES! Can you believe it? I was so elated that I took some back to my room, bowl and all. They were so delicious.

For a snack I had one of my favorites, banana slices dipped in carob powder. It's like chocolate, only not.

Step one: Slice the banana on the fancy schmancy banana peel plate.

Step two: Open the bag of carob and inhale its wonderful goodness.

Step three: Fork a banana slice, dip it in carob, and enjoy...

Between copious amounts of the aforementioned candy (I am giving the rest away so this does not happen again, haha...practice self control, Claire), I had this little rabbit that my aunt gave me. Apparently one of her neighbors made it.

I'm not sure you can even tell this is a rabbit anymore...

So, recap. I think I need to put this down. No more candy. I know I just gave it up for Lent, but I'm going to stick it out for two more weeks. Besides, I think I just ate two weeks' worth of candy.

Clean eats. Fruits and veggies are my friends for snacks, not candy. (Do you see a pattern here?)

Question: What's the one thing you can't get enough of?

Bleh...plus Notre Dame Visit!

2010-04-05T20:46:00.000-04:00

Well, Lent is officially over.

Therefore I could eat chocolate again.

And I did.

And now I am paying for it.

BIG TIME.

But that's another post. Here's a recap of my ND visit.

I took the commuter train into DT Chicago, and I had to switch to the South Shore Line, located at a different station (Millennium Station)that I had to walk to. So I took a train to the city that I thought would give me enough time to walk to Millennium, since I had never walked there before. To fuel my frustrations with Metra, true to its nature, the train arrived late. Fourteen minutes late. I was freaking out because I thought that I was going to miss my connection and the next train wasn't for another five hours. So I ran.

I have no idea how far it was, but it took me like fifteen minutes to get there. By the time I did, I was a hot, sweaty mess. I got some interesting looks from people in the train station as I, breathing heavily with sweat rolling down my face, bought my ticket. I ended up arriving about a half hour early. Whoops. Guess I didn't need to run after all!

I brought some tasty snacks with me on the train, since I knew I wasn't going to be having lunch.

The snack bag

Exhibit A:

Carrots and hummus. My ultimate snack.

Exhibit B:

A rather large apple. I forgot what type it was, but it was a nice, crispy one like a Gala.

Exhibit C:

A Gingersnap Larabar. It was quite spicy. I bought it, thinking it was the Cinnamon Roll flavor because it's usually chunky, but halfway through I realized it wasn't. (I saved the lemon flavor for later)

There was construction on the tracks, so I ended up having to get off the train and onto a bus to ride into South Bend. I arrived and my friend and her boyfriend picked me up. She had some meetings to go to, so I attempted to walk around campus until I realized I had two, big, beautiful blisters gracing my little heels. In retrospect, it was an awful idea to run in Chicago in my wedges. So I had to settle on perusing the ND bookstore. I bought my dad a dri-fit ND shirt for Easter and a hat for my little cousin.

After her meetings I met up with my friend for dinner at the dining hall. Supposedly Notre Dame is the number two college campus for food quality. I've eaten there before, and they did have a large selection of food. I had a salad with hummus, chickpeas (slightly redundant, right?), tomatoes, pickles, beets, and sides of potatoes and stir-fried veggies. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they had kiwis, so I took one. I love eating kiwis, skin and all. They taste like tart grapes! I don't mind the skin at all...

The food quality was definitely better than my campus, but for being number two, I was expecting a lot more. Maybe I'm just too picky?

Later on we met up with some other people we went to high school with. I had one of these:

Bolthouse Farms Vanilla Chai Tea (source)

I perused the ingredients and was pleased to find there wasn't any sugar, excepting the apple juice concentrate. It tasted very sweet, so sweet I kept checking to make sure there really wasn't any sugar. I think I would have liked it a little less sweet.

The next day we went to two of her classes, lunch (which was basically the same thing again, plus a banana), and Holy Thursday Mass. Her parents came up to take her brother to an interview, so we drove home with them and stopped at an Italian restaurant on the way. I wasn't too hungry, so I just had minestrone (boo for the pasta in it) and when I got home I had some lovely dates. I love those little gems.

It was nice to see my friend again, but I had to prepare the house for the arrival of my aunt for Easter. Cleaning is definitely not one of my favorite things to do. I always say that I'm going to hire a cleaning lady when I get my own house, but something (the angel on my shoulder) tells me I'm too practical to spend money on something that I could do myself, while another thing (the devil on my other shoulder) tells me that it's all about opportunity costs...haha.

I'm back at school now, and I can't wait for the banana fest to begin. I've been dying to wear this cute high-waisted skirt that I got last year at H&M, but I can't button it. I really don't think I've gained any weight...can it be ab-muscles? Has this ever happened to you? (Obviously not that same situation, especially if you're a guy, haha...) Help me!

I hope you're having a wonderful beginning to your week. Easter eats coming soon!

The Shower and some Whole Foods Fun

2010-03-30T23:35:00.000-04:00

I survived the baby shower.

It was by far the longest shower I have ever been to. We helped set up around 11, and the shower actually started at 12. It was held at an Italian place, so I kind of figured what the menu was going to hold: pasta, pasta, and more pasta. Even before eating mostly raw, I never liked pasta. At all. Call me weird (and some people have), but pasta was never my thing. Even when my family traveled to Italy, I still did not like their freshly made pasta (however, the panini and pizzas were delicious, haha). I was partially right: there were two kinds of pasta with red or bolognese and a pan of chicken parmigiana, but they had this gorgeous salad laid out, full of romaine, onion, tomato, and olives. No cheese, yay! I had a small plate of salad and then a dinner plate of salad when everyone else went up for the pasta/main course. They women at my table kept commenting, "Oh, you're so good. Look at her." It did make me a little uncomfortable, but I brushed it off.
Thank goodness for Lent, as I could use it as an excuse for not eating any of the HUGE shower cake. It was very pretty, though.

My cousin ended up opening gifts for (and I am not exaggerating) THREE hours. No joke. It was pretty painful. And ridiculous. It made me not want to have kids.

Yesterday I went shopping at Whole Foods with my mother to stock up on produce. I LOVE grocery shopping. I would grocery shop for other people if I could. I love the little fruit samples they have at Whole Foods. Sometimes I get lucky and they have chocolate covered almonds, sushi, or some other little treat that I'd like. This recent trip they had haroset, a Passover dish consisting of dates, apples, walnuts, raisins, and honey.

(source)

It was pretty good. We purchased my favorite: figs.

Who took at bite out of this guy?

These beat dates any day. Speaking of dates, I've consumed my body weight in figs this past week. So many, in fact, that my mother bought THREE containers. Oh boy.

Date heaven...

And guess what turned up at Costco? My other absolute fav (I know, I know, it seems like I have a lot of absolute favorites...)...

Slightly dark, but I'm sure you can tell what these juicy babies are...

Blueberries! I've waited so long and they taste delicious. I eat blueberries like someone would eat popcorn. Tomorrow I'm heading off to Notre Dame to visit a friend for the night. I've eaten in their dining hall before, but I can only remember breakfast. It's supposed to be really good, but I'll be the judge of that, haha...

Today's been one of those days when nothing I eat seems to hit the spot. I've been snacking around for the past hour, but nothing tastes right.

Questions: Do you ever have those days where nothing tastes right?

What's the most painful event/shower you've had to go to? (and I mean painful as in torturous, not emotionally painful, to keep it light...)

The "Last " Meal

2010-03-26T12:47:00.000-04:00

So, last night I got a bit hungry and decided to use up some sweet potatoes I bought, since my spring break starts TODAY! I sliced them up to facilitate faster baking, then stuck them in the dorm's convection oven and waited. And waited. And waited. It took forever.

Sort of dried out...

A slightly darker close-up view of an especially tasty little gem...

They didn't turn out exactly how I wanted, but it was the best I could do with a convection oven. I ate them straight up, with no condiments or anything. It was only after I ate them all did I remember I wanted to try them with peanut butter, per Evan's suggestion. Whoops, sorry Evan. But don't worry, I guarantee there will be a next time.

I'm heading off to my cousin's baby shower, then finally home. I'll probably be visiting my friend at ND for a night too. I'm looking forward to fresh food and my mom's stash of dates (I've been dying to have some, so I asked her to bring them with her to the shower, haha). I can't get enough of sweet potatoes, dates, and figs right now. You know when people ask what your "last" meal would be? Most people might answer "pizza" or "a hamburger," but mine would probably consist of the above list.

Questions: What foods can't you get enough of? What would your "last meal" be?

Have a wonderful weekend and I'll be back on Monday!

The Best Breakfast Ever

2010-03-25T09:19:00.001-04:00

Who doesn't love bananas and peanut butter? Not me, for sure.

(Notice the lovely banana peel and my computer in the background...)

I pretty much re-discovered its deliciousness two weeks ago, and I think I'd had it everyday since then. I love slicing up the banana and spreading it up with creamy peanut butter. I would rather use almond butter or another nut butter, but I'll take what I can get here. (I didn't want to run out to the store with only a few days left until spring break) The cafeteria has these little packs of peanut butter that come in these adorable cups. I have a horrible sense of estimating sizes and amounts, so I naturally thought that each of these little cups was a tablespoon. Um...a few days ago I realized I was pretty much wrong. Whoops. Guess I shouldn't have eaten four of them... :-/

I know a lot of you are fans of oats in the morning, but I just can't get into them. Oatmeal has never been something I've liked. I would love to just eat the toppings that all of you garnish your oatmeal with, but I don't think it would keep me full, haha.

Today my friend and I are going to set up an appointment with one of the execs on campus to talk about a possible revamp of our dining system. We had written a proposal detailing how the hospitality students on campus would run the whole dining facility (getting credit for it) and presented it to the Hospitality dean, who surprisingly went for it! We were so happy. He suggested presenting it to the next level, so that's what we're going to do today. Hopefully the project works, because better dining would make college SO much better AND keep more money in my wallet, so I don't have to keep running to the grocery store for sustenance.

So, what's your normal breakfast? Anything you have to religiously have everyday?

It's almost Friday...hooray!

Enter this awesome giveaway for Funky Monkey freeze-dried fruit!

NYC, Part Two

2010-03-23T17:28:00.001-04:00

First off, I'd like to say that I've finally added an email to my blog, so if you've got any questions, feel free to email me. I love getting mail and answering your questions! I also decided to add a face to the name, so you can see my picture at left. It's from a few years ago, so I look a tad older, but I couldn't find any "good" pictures recently.

Okay, so for day two.

I woke up early in the morning and went to the hotel gym. Since it was a conference center, I was expecting a pretty nice facility. This it was not. It was a long narrow room with 3 bikes, 6 treadmills, and 4 ellipticals on one wall and a few weight machines on the other. I was surprised that there weren't more people there either, since it wasn't that early (7 am). I did my usual half hour run and extra fifteen minutes on the bike. I ran back and showered, since I was eager to get out and explore the city.

My first stop was the cute little grocery store that I spotted the night before. I knew I was meant to go there when the first thing that greeted me when I walked in was a giant display of FIGS, on sale! What can get better than that? I swooped up two packages, then browsed the rest of the store. I munched on figs while I watched the bustle of the city. I stopped into any juice bar or little grocery store I could find, just to look around. I ended up getting a few snacky things, since I knew that my food options were pretty low.

Snack #1: A Ya Pear. The consensus? Not that great. It was crunchy and tasted like an unripe Asian pear.

Snack #2: Dried Figs. The consensus? Pure deliciousness. I enjoyed these so much that I had to run back the next day and buy more, with the intention of squirreling them away to enjoy in my dorm. Let's just say that they didn't make it that far...

Snack #3: Wild Blueberry PURE bar. I've heard a lot about these around the blogosphere, and I wanted to try it. Consensus? It was pretty good. The texture was a little odd, kind of grainy, but the flavor was nice and blueberry-ish. I still prefer Larabars, though.

Snack #4: Trail Mix. Consensus? Delicious. This was an unexpected purchase. I went into the bulk section (see this post for an interesting take on bulk bins) to browse, and a store worker asked if I wanted to sample. I declined, but he insisted, so I asked for some of this. After he watched me eat it and was so happy when I proclaimed it good, I felt horrible. So I ended up buying a bit.

Snack #5: Honeydew. Consensus? Obviously not in season, but still pretty decent. I was just a hankering for some melon, since I hadn't had any in a while.

After I got back from wandering around, I went to a few sessions at the conference, and then we went exploring. We walked the Brooklyn Bridge, visited Ground Zero, saw the Wall Street Bull, and went to Times Square.

It was quite a long walk!

Isn't she beautiful? I wish I could have gone to see her.

Development at Ground Zero.

He was VERY popular when we were taking pictures...

Times Square at night

We ended up eating at the ESPN Zone, where I had the most delicious salad, the Bleu Cheese, Apple Walnut Salad (romaine, red peppers, walnuts, white balsamic dressing, minus the cheese and plus avocado). I hadn't eaten since breakfast (since I passed on the pizza for lunch, and surprisingly this restaurant ONLY served pizza, nothing else), and this hit the spot. Sorry for no picture, but if you go on this website, it's the salad that is pictured under the "Salads" tab. We walked around for a bit, and then took the subway home.

The next day was pretty uneventful, as we just presented our poster, packed up, and drove home. Of course, I went to the gym and visited the store again (for the aforementioned figs). I was beyond glad to get back to my regular eats.

I love cities, and I can't wait to live in one when I graduate. I'm definitely NOT a country girl, haha.

Question: Do you prefer the country or city? Or are you a little of both?

Raw Revolution Giveaway here!

NYC, Part One

2010-03-21T09:17:00.001-04:00

Sorry for the delay in posting...as usual, I had a busy week and this weekend I am visiting a friend, so I'm a bit short on time.

Now for my weekend in NYC.

I had never been to NYC, even though I've visited relatives there many times, so I was very excited. I went down with some other psychology students to present a poster at the EPA (Eastern Psychological Association) conference in Brooklyn. We drove down there, which took about seven hours. Somehow I got appointed as the navigator, helping my professor with directions. I usually think of myself as "directionally-challenged," but after successfully guiding him through the streets of NYC and hearing everyone's affirmation of my apparent "skills," I think I'm going to reevaluate my thoughts about it. :)

After we checked into our hotel, we went in search of some food. On the way there, we stopped at Mickey D's. Of course, I'm not a fan, but I had a fruit and walnut salad (sans yogurt). When I'm on the road, I don't really like to eat a lot...do any of you feel that way too?

We ended up going to a Chinese restaurant called "Andy's." What a name for a Chinese restaurant! I had steamed veggies and brown rice. The rice was actually pretty tasty, considering I'm usually not a fan. At the end of the meal they brought out little dishes of pineapple and toothpicks for the table to share. Apparently no one else was into the pineapple thing, so I got to enjoy three dishes of lovely pineapple (no picture).

Sorry for the picture; the lighting was not all that great.

When we were walking back, I passed a cute little grocery store with bins of fresh fruit, and I made a mental note to come back there in the morning to buy my breakfast. We attended the keynote speaker, who was good but his talk was slightly graphic (dealing with the Abu Ghraib incidents), so I didn't stay for the whole thing.

I'll continue with part two later tonight or tomorrow, as it is time to get ready for the day (and my computer is running out of juice).

How was everyone's St. Paddy's Day?

Dallas Trip, Final Part

2010-03-11T18:02:00.001-05:00

On the last day of my visit, we planned a big day of SHOPPING! My sister had an appointment to go to early in the morning, so I went on another adventure run through Dallas, then came back for the usual apple/banana/cinnamon combo for breakfast. Yum.

I didn't know that my sister was planning on visiting Bliss Raw Cafe and Elixir Bar so early, but she wanted to go as soon as she got back at 11. I wasn't that hungry, but that was okay. We piled in the car, put on some tunes, and followed the directions. It's in a slightly sketchy part of town, and it's tiny! Much, much smaller than expected. The dining area is basically a covered patio, which I guess they can get away with in the winter because it's Dallas, not New York, haha.

I don't know about you, but raw food restaurants always have that certain smell. It smells like "clean" mixed with fresh veggies. It's pretty much delicious. Has anyone else noticed this?

Anyway, that's what Bliss smelled like when we walked in. We were the first customers there, and we were kind of apprehensive about the whole thing, until we saw more families and couples coming in. All their drinks looked super delicious, but we just ordered a pot of rose tea to share.

Aren't the little tea cups cute?

I was having trouble deciding on what to get. I love kale, so I was contemplating the kale salad, but I thought I should probably get something that I couldn't easily make at home. I didn't want anything too heavy on the nuts, either, so it was down between the Coconut Kale Enchiladas, the Greek wrap, and the Sea Salad Sandwich. I have trouble making decisions, especially when they involve yummy food, so this one was a doozy. My sister decided on the enchiladas, so it was down to the wrap or the sandwich. I decided on the sandwich because it sounded sooo interesting!

And this is what arrived:

I wasn't expecting such a big sandwich!

The sea salad was made out of celery, pickles, dulse seaweed, apples, onions
on black sesame sunflower bread. I think the salad that came on the side was a kind of raw pickle relish...but anyway, it was delectable.

It was pretty messy, but worth it!

Close up of the relish...

It didn't quite taste like tuna salad, but it did have that "fishy" taste (in a good way) and I liked that it was basically nut free!

The enchiladas were excellent; Mexican food always translates well raw. It was spicy but not too spicy. The guacamole was fresh and the "beans" tasted just like refried beans.

After that we hit up the malls, but I didn't really find anything except this dress, which reminded me of Lady Gaga (hence the Lady Gaga finger thing...)

It was fun to try on, haha!

We also visited Central Market for dinner. It's pretty much an amazing grocery store, like Whole Foods, only bigger. I love their orange samples...they have so many kinds to choose from!

(Source)

We had the salad bar and some sushi, which was delicious. I picked up an Asian pear to eat on the plane the next day. I love Asian pears, but I think they're an acquired taste. Does anyone else feel the same way?

I had loads of fun on my trip, and I can't wait to go back for her graduation!

Here's the lineup for my next posts:

Bar Sampling
NYC Trip
Perhaps a "Naked" juice post?

I hope you have a wonderful Thursday! I can't wait to hear all your comments.

P.S. GIVEAWAY! Averie over at Love Veggies and Yoga is having a raw cookbook giveaway!

Dalls Trip, Part Two

2010-03-07T09:16:00.001-05:00

Ah, on to day 2!

So I woke up to a banana and small gala apple doused in cinnamon. I love sliced apples with cinnamon; it beats apples and nut butter, and this is coming from a girl who absolutely LOVED apples and peanut butter when she was little.

I followed my sister to two of her classes, then came back when she went to her three hour thesis session. I didn't think I'd be able to sit there for that long! I went back to her apartment and decided to go on another adventure run. When I got back, I made myself this:

Delicious! And I did eat it with a spoon...

Since my sister had some raw cashews and almonds sitting in her fridge, I decided to make her a little thank-you gift. I concocted two kinds of nuts, an Asian chili ginger flavor I put on the almonds and a spiced almond flavor I put on the cashews. She doesn't have a dehydrator, so I just popped them in the oven on a low setting. They made the little apartment smell amazing. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture before we gobbled them all up.

That evening we planned to go see "Valentine's Day" (not my kind of movie, but I knew my sister really wanted to see it, so I of course agreed). We were going to see it at an Indian movie theater that had Bollywood movies playing too. It was a pretty cool place.

We ate dinner at the place I've been dying to try for forever! (Well, actually, since last summer... ;-) ) It's called the Chaat Cafe, and my sister informed that it is a legit Indian restaurant, since late at night lots of Indian come in to eat. So it was good that it was authentic.

Don't worry, I did not eat all of this food...our two meals combined, haha.

I ordered veggies (peas, potatoes, cauliflower, carrots, and I think green beans) in a curry sauce (but I forgot what it was called) and decided to get the dinner, which came with extra sides, so my sister could take the rest home for another meal. The sides were naan, rice, lentils, and Indian cheese with a spinach-y sauce over it.

My entree

Let's take a closer look...

The main dish was yummy! I really don't like rice, especially white rice, so I gifted that away. I tried a piece of the naan but really didn't like it that much. Ever since I stopped eating bread, I just don't have a taste for it. Which I guess can be a good thing...The lentils were tasty and tasted very similar to refried beans. Finally, the Indian cheese came in little cubes the size of dice and the spinach sauce tasted a bit like spinach and artichoke dip. Yum.

The lovely sides....

After our Indian food we hit up Jamba Juice for a tasty smoothie. I never order off the menu; I prefer to just have fruit juice and fruit in my smoothies, so I figured I'd create my own. I like to get carrot juice as my base (this tends to make the smoothie more like a juice, because I still haven't figured out how to get the people to just make a little bit of carrot juice, so the smoothie is thicker) and then add in banana (for thickness) and some type of berry. This time I got carrot, banana, and raspberry. Yum! It would be nice if Jamba actually had frozen pineapple to put in smoothies, but unfortunately, they only have pineapple sherbet. Boo...

Day 3 is coming (which a visit to the raw restaurant Bliss)!

And don't forget to enter Averie's Celestial Seasonings Giveaway!

A Random Mishmosh of Eats

2010-03-03T22:05:00.000-05:00

Hi readers,

I haven't had time to compile the continuation of my Dallas post, so I thought I'd tide you over with this one. I've been loving my new salad dressing on my kale and fennel salads, so I just had to have another one.

Oooo, ahhh...

And a much closer pic:

Twas delicious.

My go to breakfast in the morning after I work out is this mixture of hemp protein powder and carob. Depending on how much water I put in, the consistency turns out to be like pudding or like cookie dough. I usually add a pinch of stevia for sweetness, but I have tried it without (since carob is naturally sweet) and it tasted a bit like dark chocolate. Yum. It's rather unattractive, but it does taste delicious and does the trick for protein!

I've also been loving bars. I actually bought myself some for a trip that I'll be taking to a conference where I'm presenting a poster. However, they did not last that long. Whoops.

First I tried the Peanut Butter and Jelly Larabar.

I had heard about it, but never tried it, since it has peanuts in it and I didn't like the peanut butter cookie flavor. All it has in it are: dates, peanuts, unsweetened cherries, and salt. It tasted like peanut butter and jelly, but I just wasn't a fan of the peanuts. Not at all. The texture just wasn't right and it was a tad too oily. I probably wouldn't buy it again.

I also had a Pecan Pie Larabar, but the wrapper slipped out of my hands before I could take a picture. ;-)

I've really been wanting to try the Raw Organic Food Bar, so when I spotted them, I snapped one up. Most of the flavors had some form of chocolate in it, and since I gave it up for Lent, I chose the only other flavor, Cinnamon Raisin.

It was a bit oily, but the texture was very nice. Since it has sprouts in it, it gave the bar an almost oatmeal-y texture, so I felt like I was eating an oatmeal raisin cookie. I like how it was all raw: organic cashew butter, organic dates, organic agave nectar, organic brown rice protein, organic biodynamic raisins, organic bio sprouts in quinoa and flax, and organic cinnamon. The only qualm I had was the size. It was tiny! I'd love to try the chocolate flavors next.

So I'm off to my conference, but I'll see you all on Sunday!

My Dallas Trip, Part One

2010-02-28T08:54:00.001-05:00

I was anticipating this trip for a loooooooooong time, and I'm so happy I was able to go. I was visiting my sister in Dallas as she finishes up her last semester of undergrad. I left on Wednesday afternoon, which coincidentally happened to be Ash Wednesday (a day of fasting and abstinence for Catholics, where one regular sized meatless meal and two snacks are "allowed" ). That was good for me, since I wouldn't have to be around food and thinking about being hungry, haha. I brought an orange with me, snacked on the nuts from the plane, and then my sister so graciously cooked this up for me:

It was very simple food, but very thoughtful of her, as broccoli and sweet potatoes are two of my favorite foods. The amount of broccoli in the bowl didn't look like much, but as I was nearing the bottom, I commented on this and found out that it was an entire bag of frozen broccoli she had cooked. Whoops. I thought I was supposed to be fasting. I spice up the flavor, I through on some onion powder first and then some curry powder. I think I just should have stuck with some simple lemon, though. The sweet potato was beyond delicious, and I ate it plain, just the way I like it.

The next day my sister had work, so I got the car to myself and went to explore the area around her work. For breakfast I had an unpictured banana and a green drink. I met her for lunch at a cute little chain restaurant called La Madeleine...I had eaten there once before and loved the ambience. I was a-hankering for some spinach, so I decided to get the spinach salad, minus the bacon and with dressing on the side. However, I didn't realize that a "regular" size would be so small. I guess I'm used to eating ginormous amounts of salad.

It was so lovingly thrown together, not. We shared the fruit salad on the side. The person getting the food first gave me a fruit cup the size of a tennis ball, and since we were sharing, I asked for more. He put the contents of the cup in the bigger bowl and then added a few pieces of honeydew and cantaloupe. It would have been nice if he had been a tad more generous. But the meal was good. I hardly ever eat cheese, but my sister loves it and gave it up for Lent. A copious amount came on her salad, but she ate it anyway!

After my smallish lunch, I got hungry, and the nearest food place was Walmart, so I ventured in and looked for something remotely healthy. I found this:

The cashews were delicious! The little hint of spiciness from the chili married perfectly with the sweetness of the pineapple. Most of the ingredients were organic, which I liked. However, I would have preferred there not to be peanuts or cane sugar. A closer look:

There also was a juice bar right nearby, but I didn't find out about that till after I bought the cashews. I figured we could always come back later if we wanted some dessert.

For dinner we went to a great restaurant that we also have back home, called Sweet Tomatoes. When you walk in, there's a huge salad bar, cafeteria style, that you can load up on. In addition, they have pizza, muffins, an icecream machine, dessert, soups galore, steamed veggies, pasta, baked potatoes, and in certain locations, my beloved sweet potato. I didn't take any pictures, but I had a large salad with spinach, sunflower seeds, beets, carrots, jicama, pickles, onions, and this side salad of green beans, asparagus, and roasted potatoes. To supplement that (as if it needed supplementing), I had a sweet potato and some steamed veggies (mostly broccoli, yum!).

More to come about day 2...

Don't forget to enter Averie's awesome Naturally Nutty Giveaway! You have tons of chances to win!

The Looooong Weekend...

2010-02-25T18:09:00.000-05:00

Hi guys,

Sorry for not posting in a while; this week has been insane! Last weekend I went to visit my sister in Dallas, so I have a lovely post coming up with my eats last weekend. But, I just bought this new salad dressing and I was dying to try it, so even though I was going to head down to the dining hall later last night, I couldn't resist trying it. I cut up some kale and fennel bulb, and dressed it with this bad boy:

Twas delicious. It didn't really taste like "Lemon Goddess." It had more of an Asian flavor, but it was soo good. Most of the ingredients were organic, and all of them were recognizable! And the stats were pretty good too... I think I'll try some of their other dressings as well.

I think I put a little too much dressing on, however. I don't like my greens swimming in dressing. When I go out to restaurants, I actually prefer getting my dressing on the side and just dipping my greens in ever so slightly. I don't like a lot of dressing. But I think my eyes are too big for my stomach (aren't all of ours?), so I tend to overdress my salad. Bummer.

How much dressing do you like? Does that ever happen to you?

Anyway, here is the finished product:

It really hit the spot.

Have a great Thursday evening and the Dallas post will be coming soon!

The Chocolate Post

2010-02-16T17:49:00.000-05:00

Ahhh...what you've all been waiting for! My mother was sweet enough to send me a package of goodies...but I ate them before Valentine's Day. Naturally, I went out and bought more. ;-) However, I am giving up chocolate and trying to watch how much sugar I consume for Lent, so I figured it was my last big hurrah. Without further ado, the eats:

These were chocolate covered banana pieces; they were different than I expected. They were good, but they tasted a bit either like plastic or alcohol, I can't decide, haha. They looked like chocolate-covered raisins.

I had to be a representative for my club at an accepted students' reception at the college, and they had the most delicious appetizers: wine-marinated grapes, endive with walnuts and cranberries, and these beautiful chocolate-covered strawberries. They were oh-so delicious.

And again. Look at that yummy chocolate drizzle and strawberry juice oozing out!

Next up, these babies:

Chocolate covered almonds. I like these because they have a thick shell of chocolate around the almond, and the chocolate is pretty dark and not that sweet, like it should be! ;-)

It looks like a turtle, but it's not. It's a dark chocolate cashew cluster. It was pretty good, except a little too salty for my taste.

The inside, with a mammoth crater from where a cashew used to be...

Has anyone tried this flavor yet? It's Maya Gold ("bittersweet dark chocolate with orange and spices"). It's super delicious and almost as good as mint chocolate.

Hmm...where did it all go? :-)

And finally, my MOST FAVORITE dessert of all. I could eat these all day (well, not really, but I do enjoy them so!).

Carob-covered raisins, how I love thee!

Those little babies are delicious beyond belief! Too bad I won't have them for another 40+ days...

Of course, I did not consume all of these things in one day, though I would have liked to. I think I would have been all chocolated out if I did! I don't eat any other candy (non-raw, that is) but chocolate, and I prefer to have it as dark as possible.

Did you enjoy the chocolatey goodness of the post? What are your favorite chocolate candies?

The Mystery Squash

2010-02-14T09:29:00.001-05:00

While at the grocery store the other day, I decided that I was going to buy a squash and bake it in the convection oven in my dorm. Not that that's odd or anything. (Side note: Yesterday a floormate commented, "You're so different from anyone I've met, in a good way. You eat so differently. You're the only person I know who makes salads in her room." Haha, what can I say?) Anyway, I was going to buy an acorn squash when I spotted this one:

What kind of squash is that? It was unlabeled, and I hoped with all my little heart that is was a kabocha squash that I've been hearing about. I cut it open, and it looked like this:

Then I baked it:

And the verdict? It tasted...squashy. I don't think I baked it long enough. Was this the elusive kabocha? I bought a real kabocha last week, so I'll be able to tell for sure if it really was it.

P.S. The chocolate post will come tomorrow. I may or may not have had chocolate for breakfast. ;-) Happy Valentine's Day!

Check out this raw giveaway...it sounds delicious!

The Long Post: Eats and Running

2010-02-13T21:01:00.000-05:00

Yum, yum, yum. Valentine's Day is tomorrow and I have a sweet-filled post planned (actually, mostly chocolate). I can't wait!

Lately I've been eating a lot of hummus and carrots; who knew what a delicious combination that is! My eats have been a little random, but have been including:

Sweet potatoes

Kale and hummus

Chocolate ;-)

Raw trail mix

Bananas and carob (this is seriously one of my favorite things to eat...I just slice up a banana and dip it in some carob powder; soooo delicious!)

However, when the dining hall had some dried cranberries, I snagged a few for a kale salad. I attempted to recreate a salad they have at Whole Foods, which I ate liberally during break. It's super simple, comprised of kale, olive oil, lemon juice, dried cranberries, chopped tomatoes, and pine nuts. I had to forgo the pine nuts and tomatoes (I just wasn't feeling sunflower seeds in place of the pine nuts), but I came up with this:

I was pretty pleased with the taste, though the pine nuts would have made it even more delicious!

I also bought myself a German Chocolate Cake jocolat Larabar. The ingredients: dates, pecans, almonds, unsweetened chocolate, unsweetened coconut, extra virgin coconut oil, cocoa powder. Sounds delicious, right?

The verdict: not that great. I was expecting something with a bit more pizazz, and this just tasted like the chocolate coconut version they have. I think I'll stick with my Lemon Larabar flavor.

On the exercise side of things, I made a resolution this year to get back into running. I ran cross country freshman year of high school, and then things got hectic, so I only ran sporadic 5ks. Once I got to college, I occasionally ran, but towards the end of last year, I did something to my knee and couldn't run on it. All last semester I basically did the elliptical (which is excellent if you want to study and work out at the same time...call me a nerd, I know!). But after reading so many blogs where running seems to be a mainstay, I vowed to get back into it. I started out running 20 minutes, and now depending on how I feel, I can go up to 45. The distance I cover at the speed I'm going at is nowhere near how fast I used to be in high school (which is a real bummer), but I'm going to try to get it there. Seven minute miles, here I come! I'll be working abroad in Lake Como, Italy this summer, so I figured I'd run before work in the morning, which I am very excited to do. So far I haven't had too many "bad days," which really keeps me motivated.

I also don't run with an ipod. I have one, but I prefer to use it on flights or whatnot. When I run outside I just like listening to what's going on around me, and when I'm inside, I just concentrate on the thoughts inside my head. Running is kind of therapeutic, so I don't want to tune out my thoughts with music.

I'm not really a fan of my current running shoes, though. They look awesome: black with pink swooshes, but I really, really like my old cross country shoes. I still have them (I know, I know...time to throw them out), but they're so comfortable! Unfortunately, they've been discontinued, so I'm still on a quest to find better shoes.

There are tons of giveaways to enter...these are two non-food related ones:

1. This is my favorite...make someone's day with a random act of kindness!

2. What are your simple pleasures?

Have a wonderful day and stay tuned for some delicious Valentine's Day love!

Kale...

2010-02-07T09:15:00.001-05:00

I bought a large bag of kale pieces the other day, and I was super excited to eat it in a salad. So I grabbed a bunch, washed it, and plated it with some hummus and horseradish mustard for dipping. And I ate it with my fingers... ;-) It was delicious!It almost tasted like cheesy kale chips, only not crunchy, haha. I also tried the carrots-with-hummus combo; have you tried this? It's soooo delicious!

In my stocking at Christmas I got one of these:

(as you can see...it met it's demise before the picture was taken...) It was...just okay. There was a lot of pineapple in it and it made for quite a chewy texture. It wasn't my favorite. I still prefer the lemon one. Oh, and by the way, I purchased a jocolat German Chocolate flavor, and I can't wait to try it!

Around the blogosphere:

Katie has another giveaway! It's for NuNaturals Stevia. I've only tried the powdered kind, but am excited to try the liquid!

Michelle and Lori have this delicious raw apple pie recipe I am dying to make!

And finally, the Voracious Vegan has a new blog and a wonderful Zukay salad dressing giveaway. Check it out!

Sushi-licious

2010-01-30T15:47:00.000-05:00

I. love. sushi. But only the veggie kind, of course. I've never been a fan of rice, so when I go to Whole Foods or some place similar, I always check to see if they have brown rice sushi. But raw sushi? It's the best. I love how jicama can stand in for the rice and the sushi still tastes like sushi. I find it has a slightly sweeter taste, though.

I use the second finest grater to shred the jicama, then I place it between a stack of paper towels. I sandwich that in a kitchen towel, then use a rolling pin to roll the heck out of that jicama. When I worked at the dining hall, one of the Asian chefs taught me how to make sushi, and while I am no means an expert, I think I have a pretty good grasp on it, though it's not hard to do at all. I simply spread the drier-jicama on the nori sheet, then top with julienned veggies (cut with a mandoline). It's delicious dipped in liquid aminos (even coconut aminos, thanks to this lovely lady) mixed with a little spicy mustard. Yum.

This was my latest attempt at raw sushi. I love how beautiful it looks. It has cucumbers, carrots, and avocado in it. I can't wait til I can have it again!

Chocolate-y Pistachio Goodness

2010-01-29T11:43:00.000-05:00

Okay, this is the LAST Christmas cookie post for a while...I promise!

I made these cookies last year in a non-raw version, and they were very rich but very delicious. Martha always knows how to come up with a good one! I loved them so much that I wanted to make a raw-version. For your viewing pleasure: my inspiration:

(Source)

Delicious, right?

So I tried my hand at it. They pretty much tasted the same, except for the chocolate part. I didn't have coconut butter or cacao butter to make smooth raw chocolate, so I just used cacao powder, dates, and a little water. As you can see, it didn't really spread that well. I wish I would have taken a picture of the inside of the cookie, but it looked just like the inspiration cookie.

Chocolate Pistachio Lemon Cookies

Makes: A LOT

Ingredients:

Cookie base:
0.75 cup shelled raw pistachios
4 Medjool dates
pinch Himalayan sea salt
juice of half a lemon

Filling:
1 medium avocado
1.5 TBL carob powder
pinch Himalayan sea salt
drizzle of agave

Chocolate Ganache:
Please use whatever works the best for you, as mine obviously didn't, haha...

1. Place all cookie ingredients together in the food processor and process until very smooth.

2. Scoop dough into a plastic bag with the tip cut off. Pipe into quarter-sized circles on a dehydrator sheet.

3. Dehydrate approximately 8 hours, or until the outside of the cookie is dry, but the inside is still moist.

4. Meanwhile, process all the filling ingredients together and place in a plastic bag with the tip cut off.

5. Pipe a small dot of the filling on one cookie half, then top with a plain cookie half. Place in freezer.

6. Make raw chocolate ganache. Carefully remove cookies from freezer and dip into ganache.

7. Garnish with pistachio halves. Freeze.

8. Enjoy! (Keep frozen or at least refrigerated until they're all eaten!)

They take some time to make, but they're amazingly delicious! And if you haven't already, Katie's VitaMix giveaway is ending very, very soon! Enter now!

G-g-g-g-ingerbread Men!

2010-01-24T22:33:00.000-05:00

So, I had a hankering to make raw gingerbread men, since everyone else seemed to be doing it. I was looking for a cookie recipe with some substance, and ended up modifying this one. I didn't use any of the almonds, instead making pecan butter and adding in chia seeds (I first ground them to a powder in the spice grinder) for thickness. I played around with some spices and ended up with a somewhat oily, but thick, dough. So I put the dough in between some layers of paper towels, put a bowl over it, and then weighed it down to press some of the oil out. It worked like a charm!

Then I rolled the dough out between two sheets of plastic wrap, and attempted to cut them into baby gingerbread men. However, the dough was being stubborn, so I had to resort to making giant gingerbread men. I popped them in the dehydrator for probably 8 or so hours, and the cookies came out chewy and delicious, though a bit too chewy from the chia seeds. But they were a success! I loved to see how the dough turned out; it was almost like real, non-raw cookie dough! Beautiful.

The Three Musketeers

Uh-oh...this guy was a little angry.

Tonight I went out to dinner with my aunt to celebrate my birthday (which is really Tuesday). I had a beautiful poached pear salad with walnuts, mixed spring greens, and mandarin oranges. I skipped out on the bleu cheese and had the Thai vinaigrette on the side. Delicious! I would have taken a picture, but the lighting was horrible. Yum, yum, yum. I want to eat that salad again! I would have had some of the vegetable du jour, but it was green beans, and I get kind of picky about how they cook them. Most of the time they're either limp or too oily. So I took a pass. I'd much rather have broccoli instead, haha.

Have a good night and start to your week!

A Beastly Salad

2010-01-21T17:16:00.001-05:00

I thought I'd take a break from the Christmas cookies for just a moment, so I'm going to show you the lovely improvisation I made on my salad today. Not wanting to eat at the dining hall, I walked over the student center to see what kinds of eats they had. Usually it's the typical sandwich-pizza-chicken fingers, but today they had a mixed salad with berries. I was pleasantly surprised! Of course, the woman who was dishing it out neglected to give me a lot of the "goodies," you know- the blueberries, strawberries, onions, and sliced almonds. Oh well.

I took this sorry salad back to my room (I took a pass on the HFCS dressings) and doctored it up, adding: sliced cucumbers, kale (my favorite, next to spinach, of course), and horseradish mustard for the dressing. It was delicious!

Before: (look at that poor, sorry little salad)

After: (like a salad on steriods, haha)

More Christmas cookies to come! And check out Katie's awesome VitaMix giveaway...what a real beauty! (both the VitaMix and Katie, of course... ;-)

New Look

2010-01-16T17:12:00.000-05:00

I finally decided to make the blog a little more colorful...do you like the new banner?

Continuing with the Christmas cookies theme, I had some leftover Samoraw filling, so I decided to concoct some sort of candy with it. Well, the only thing that came to mind was to make turtles, since technically, the Samoraw filling is supposed to caramel (with a hint of coconut!). So I took some raw walnuts that were chillin' in the freezer, plopped some filling on them, and squiggled some of the chocolate sauce on top. They actually weren't as tasty as I thought they'd be. I think it was the type of walnuts. The ones I get in bulk from Costco don't taste as good as the ones I order online, like from Nutsonline.com. But the best are the ones you crack open with a nutcracker...maybe they just taste so good because I had to work hard to get them, haha.

Raw Chocolate Turtles

Technically not a Christmas cookie, but I ate them like one...

New Year, New Post

2010-01-15T13:11:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone! Sorry for the quite long delay in posts. Though it's a bit late for this, I want to post the Christmas cookies I made. I actually haven't been doing much dessert making at home because I'm trying to cut back on nuts. Without further ado, my first cookie:

The Samoraw

Delicious, isn't it? I used a modified recipe from this one, with more almond pulp and some walnuts instead of the cashews and oats, and I used half of the coconut shreds called for. After dehydrating the base, I wished I'd made the cookies a bit thicker, as they were very fragile! But I was in a hurry to get them done before Christmas Eve, when my family usually partakes of the cookies for dessert.

I put all the filling into a plastic bag and piped it onto the cookies, instead of spreading it, when probably would have been a nightmare with those fragile cookies! I ground up some cacao and added it to the VitaMix with some maple syrup (not raw), coconut oil, and a few dates to make the chocolate syrup. I put this into another plastic bag and piped on the stripes of frosting. Yum.

They were a little messy, but for my first try, I thought they were terrific!

Stay tuned for my other Christmas cookies and my failed attempts at making a non-nut based pudding... ;-)

A Failed Attempt at Nut Cheese

2009-12-15T15:05:00.000-05:00

As the semester ends, my coffers of food are pretty much empty, so I'm eating rather poorly. I had some raw pumpkin seeds from Thanksgiving that I hadn't eaten (I seem to have had some sort of aversion to them, because whenever I think about eating them, my stomach turns). I decided to make nut cheese with them, since at home, it's one of the tasty things I love to eat with flax crackers. With my guacamole fixins and a red pepper, I attempted to emulate the red pepper almond nut cheese from home.

I lovingly chopped up some red peppers and onions, added it to the soaked pumpkin seeds, and threw in some lemon juice. Then, in the mini food processor, I blended. And blended. And blended. It never really seemed to get smooth. I tasted it. Umm...yum. (and that was sarcasm) So I let it sit, hoping the flavors would meld.

About 45 minutes later, I tried blending it again, but to no avail. I decided to sit down and eat it. It wasn't that bad, but it could have been a lot better. Much better, in fact. It basically tasted like water-logged pumpkin seeds with a hint of lemon. Needless to say, I only ate a little bit and devoured the rest of the uncut red pepper. The "recipe" isn't even worth posting.

A really crappy picture...but you get the idea.

This however, was pretty tasty.

I also made some guacamole for tomorrow, when I have three finals and know I won't have time to throw anything together. What's that you say? I should be studying? Oh, I just had to take a little break... :-)

The next time I post, I'll probably be home, enjoying lots of raw food. I may or may not be able to take pictures, but I'll try!

Green Feast

2009-12-06T18:20:00.000-05:00

So, I made a stop at the grocery store to stock up on a few things for lunches and the awkward times that I have to eat. I got all the fixins for guacamole, but I didn't want to buy a huge bunch of cilantro, since I wouldn't use it all. I got all excited when I saw little tubes of herb paste, but was disappointed when I checked the ingredients and saw that there was whey in it. Bummer.

But I chopped up some avocado, onion, tomato, squeezed a little lemon juice, then spread it on spinach, and sprinkled it with sprouts. Now, I'm not a fan of sprouts, but I know they're little powerhouses, so I eat them anyway. And this was the fruit of my labor:

If you haven't already, enter this giveaway from Pure2Raw to win some of their yummy goodies!

Mint Banana Ice Cream?

2009-12-03T17:30:00.001-05:00

I have good news and bad news.

First off, the bad news: I don't have any pictures of Thanksgiving food, which consisted of baked sweet potatoes, baked acorn squash, a relish tray, raw cranberry sauce, and applesauce. It was delicious.

Now for the second piece of bad news: I won't be posting any more dessert recipes for a couple of weeks, as I am trying to clear out my system from excess sugar. I'm not sure how interesting I can make veggies and nuts, but I'll try!

And now for the good news: I have one more dessert recipe that I hadn't posted! With the last of my frozen naners, I decided to see how it would taste if I put my Amazing Grass superfoods in it. I threw a scoopful into the whipped bananas (no sweetener),

and it turned a disgusting lovely shade of green. I took a bite and...

Surprisingly, it tasted just like mint chip ice cream! I was amazed. The next time I'll add some cacao nibs or carob to make it really taste like mint chocolate chip ice cream; yum!

Stay tuned tomorrow for my improvisation of a lunch...

P.S. Be sure to enter Katie's fantastic giveaway for coconut oil!

Race Day

2009-11-22T17:09:00.000-05:00

I did the Turkey Trot 5k on campus here today. The weather was perfect: sunny, but cloudy, not too warm, and thankfully, NOT raining. I rested up last night and wanted some quality fuel for the race, so I decided on some chia pudding with banana.

If that's not a powerhouse, I don't know what is! I figured I needed all the help I could get, since I haven't run in two weeks, and even then it was barely jogging. I didn't have any almond milk, so I just used water, but it still turned out pretty tasty. I'll post the recipe below.

I finished in 24:21...definitely not my best time, considering in high school I could run 22:00. I'm sure if I really trained I could get there again, haha. After the race I was going to grab the proverbial banana and bottled water, but they only had pizza and Gatorade. So I stuck around for the prizes (sadly I didn't win) and then went to get a salad. When I got back to my room and started on some research, I sat down with some straight-up chai tea (no milk or sweetener), an orange, an apple, and some coconut.

So now I'm being productive; yay!

Banana Chia Breakfast Pudding

Serves 1
Ingredients:

1 small banana
1/4 cup raw chia seeds
2 TBL of water (more or less to your liking)
1/8 tsp. stevia or other sweetener

1. Mix chia seeds, water, and sweetener together. Add half the banana and mush up till the banana is mostly incorporated.
2. Refrigerate until ready to eat.
3. Take mixture out of fridge and add remaining half banana, mushing it up slightly so it incorporates but still is chunky.
4. Enjoy!

Surprise!

2009-11-21T21:05:00.000-05:00

Well, I thought I was out of nuts. Not so, my friends, not so. I found a little bag of some walnutty crumbs, so I decided to, naturally, make cookies. I threw in some carob, the last of my almond milk, and some stevia. But I was a little heavy-handed with the almond milk. Whoops. The mixture was a little watery, so I added some coconut. It turned into more of a macaroon type cookie instead of what I usually make. I stuck it in the freezer to get a little hard (inspired by these babies). This is what came out:

Sorry for the poor quality picture; the lighting wasn't right. After I finished eating it, I realized that I had wanted to make Ani's carob cookies made with walnuts and raisins, since I had some random raisins laying around. Oh well, I'll be home and in a kitchen in three weeks, which will make for some exciting posts that don't all revolve around dessert, haha.

Oh, and for dinner last night, I had the most wonderful salad: spinach, mandarin oranges, sliced almonds, and feta cheese (I almost got excited and thought the cheese was goat cheese, but...it wasn't. Bummer.). Obviously not all raw. I've realized that I like the taste of raw almonds so much better than roasted almonds. To me roasted almonds have too much of a burnt taste. I can't wait until I can have some almond butter again. Then I'll resurrect the Banana Butter Cup Pie. Yum.

I've got a 5k tomorrow, so I have to rest up and fuel my body tomorrow morning. Wish me luck!

Fruit Salad

2009-11-20T23:11:00.000-05:00

Today I ate a heck of a lot of fruit, so I decided to dedicate this quick post to it. Living in a dorm and having access to a dining hall, you get creative in ways to "transport" the fresh fruit there to your room. I, for one, utilize a wonderful thing called, "Gladware." : ) I used my Gladware to take some of the fruit salad back to my room for snacking purposes, along with two pears and an apple. That's when a big purse comes in handy, haha... My favorite is the pineapple, which is usually very ripe and tasty. The melons can be hit or miss, but I usually eat it anyway...Here are the "fruits" (no pun intended) of my labor:

Yum.