Granola Love

I've been eating a lot of messes lately.
Like this bowl of PC Omega Fruit and Nut Granola with PB.

And this one .

Same granola. Sans peanut butter. Addition of skim milk .

This was delicious but my stomach hated me for it.

I never drink milk . I use it sparingly in cooking but never actually have amounts like this. I don't understand why it bothers my stomach so much . I eat a lot of cheese and my stomach enjoys that.

As you can see I really love this granola. So much so that I teensy dipping bowl of it while putting off cooking dinner :)

That's all I have in me for now.

DONE like this Nature Valley Dark Chocolate Granola Bar. More like an oat-y chocolate bar.

What's your favorite "junk-y" granola bar?

-A

Flowers and Staying Power

Hola,

Yesterday I went and wrote my exam. I think I over studied but you can never be sure.
I went grocery shopping and congratulated myself for the tonne of studying with this.

I have no idea what kind of flower it is. But it's pretty which is the most important thing. Then I lugged everything home and devoured this english muffin w/ pc celeb .Love english muffins.

This morning I intended to make a usual big weekend breakfast with bacon and eggs and such but bf had to go to work for a bit .

I wanted something with staying power that wouldn't make me snack-y all day. So of course it was oatmeal .

Organic peanut butter ( sooo thick ) , Bob's Organic Oats ( the usual ), some water and a splash of International Delight's Vanilla Creamer.


THe fun stuff! The toppings. Half of a crumbled Kashi Dark Chocolate Coconut Bar ( omg so good) and a tsp of the PB.

All together .

1/3 cups oats

1/2 kashi dark chocolate coconut bar

1 tsp organic pb

1 tbsp vanilla creamer

Since I knocked the grocery shopping off yesterday I really don't have much to do this weekend.

What are your plans for the weekend?

What's your favorite food with staying power?

Breakfast-y or Lunch-y

I felt like this on Sunday at the cottage.
I really wish I could have been like Harken and just taken a nap until next week .

Unfortunately before I could even leave the cottage , I had to deal with this mess.

Yup. That's all me . Mostly clothes and random things tossed on the bed . I was barely there two days and you should be grateful I didn't show you the floor.

I didn't like the look or sound of the rain this morning so I extended my weekend. This was my brunch/accompanionment to Bravo's Wind At My Back. Sadly , I love that show.

In the bowl :
-Bob's Red Mill Organic Oldfashioned rolled oats ( i think) ( a bit more than 1/4 cup)
-half a banana
-tbsp of Maranatha's Almond Butter
-tsp of Organic Honey hiding beneath the bananas.
:)


This was the first thing I ate today and I had it at 12 ish . I can honestly say that it kept me full until around 4:30 when I had the other half of the banana on an unpicture slice of really soft italian bread with a bit of natural peanut butter.
I think it was a peanut butter and banana day at our house because the bf ate two sandwiches for his lunch consisting of them because there were no leftovers as I didnt cook sunday dinner last night :(

What's your favorite breakfast/lunch/brunch whatever you want to calll it food ? Do you prefer more lunch-y stuff or breakfast-y ?

Hunger Strikes and Repurposing

Hey :)

Yesterday turned out to be a really relaxing Sunday and because I'm on break from classes, Monday turned out to be too.

Yey for lazy days spent doing laundry , cleaning and watching a marathon of Intervention on A&E. I could watch that channel all day everyday .

I had planned to leave the warmth of the apartment today to get my hair cut and roots dyed but when I called to make an appointment , I was told my lady wouldn't be in tomorrow . So I'll get it done tomorrow at 12pm. I can't say that I wasn't pleased even though I did want to get it out of the way .

Yesterday's eats involved a crock pot creation that turned out to be a ridiculous shade of orange. It was delicious but hideous and messy . It consisted of some chicken breasts, low fat cheddar soup, onions, celery and garlic . I cooked it on low all day .

The chicken turned out moist and so tender it fell apart. I was lazy so I just served it with rice and some steamed broccoli and asparagus. I sprinkled some fresh Canadian Cheddar cheese that the bf had picked up at the cheese factory on his way home. It's made daily!

I don't mind it melted on veggies but it's pretty squeaky and I prefer and older one.

I also had an english muffin that was delicious but didn't hold me over because I waited to eat breakfast too long.

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I had a craving for this guy though , so I threw 1/3 cup in the microwave with water.

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I really wanted something similar to banana bread . I would have made muffins or banana bread but I had no eggs. I did however have tonnes of frozen bananas in the freezer because I am always throwing over ripe ones in the freezer for baking .

I sliced up probably 1/4 of a frozen banana and put it in with the oats while they went in the microwave.

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I topped it with a tbsp or so of Kraft All Natural Peanut Butter. This picture is small but the taste was soo good. Almost as creamy Kraft's regular Creamy Peanut Butter. Love that stuff and wouldn't bake with anything else. I was defintely full after this . It took me right until dinner's crock pot creation.

Today dinner is in the oven bubbling and browning away. I used some of the Spinach Tomato Sauce from yesterday and made a lasagna of sorts, replacing the lasagna noodles with spiral pasta. It smells delicious although I unfortunately don't know how to cook for 2 people and now have a large lasagna pan full of it !

I'm off to take part in my favorite night of TV watching .

Big Bang Theroy

How I Met Your Mother

and Two and A Half Men

and of course to taste test my work .

What's your favorite go to pasta dish ? What do you find yourself throwing together quickly time after time when hunger strikes?

-A

Coffee With Spinach Tomato Sauce

A lot of this happened yesterday. Actually a lot of this happened this morning too .

A lot of this happened yesterday too. This jar times about 5. I justed reused rinsed/washed pasta sauce jars.

The house smelled amazing all day while this stuff simmered. Unfortunately spinach tomato sauce does not make for a very appetizing photo . It doesn't even look much better in the jar so I refrained from photographing the finished product. Also I was lazy.

Spinach Tomato Sauce

5 medium tomatoes , de-seeded 1and diced small

large handful of spinach , chopped ( i used baby spinach)

2 cloves of garlic , minced

about 1/2 cup of chopped onion ( I have a very large onion so I just cut a chunk off of it )

2 tbsp of white sugar

pinch of salt and pepper

1/2 can tomato paste

1 1/2 cup to 2 cups depending on how you like your sauce ,water

Heat about 2 tbsp oil in pan or pot ( i used a stock pot ) over medium heat. Add onions and garlic. Cook for 2-3 minutes.

Add tomatoes . Cook for 6-8 minutes or until the tomatoes begin to loose their consistancy. Add sugar . Cook for about 5 more minutes. Add salt and pepper , tomato paste, spinach and water.

Lower temp to 2 or 3 and cover. Leave for 3-4 hours. Turn on low until hour before you want to eat it . Then remove from heat and let sit. Enjoy.

I served this last night with chicken parmesan. I forgot I had run out of eggs so I ended up using a calorie wise ranch dressing on the chicken prior to dredging it in the Italian breadcrumbs. It turned out awesome although the bf didn't even notice the ranch !

Today I have the apartment to myself and it's a really cold and grey day outside. A good time to couch it with the laptop, trashy tv ( Celeb Sex Rehab ) ,maybe a good book and good food. Took out some chicken breast for a crockpot creation .

Are you a fan of crockpot cooking ?

What's your favorite or go-to crockpot/slowcooker recipe?

-A

Cookies and To Do Lists

Hi ! :)

This picture although it represents the current status of my kitchen table , it also represents the status of my to do list.

I've been baking !

A lot.

Christmas oranges , as I call them have been a mainstay since the crates started appearing at Loblaws/Superstore. I don't eat them but the bf devours them . He's picky though. He prefers half the crate in the fridge crisper and half at room temperature. I don't mind . They look cute.
Please to be ignoring the random papers on my kitchen table. I am running out of space for my textbooks/work from previous courses and have yet to figure out a plan of attack.

Williams Sonoma Berry Muffins

2 cups flour
1/2 cup white sugar ( i used splenda for baking but use what you're comfortable with)
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup milk ( I used 2 % for the bf's sake but I've used skim and it's fine)
1/2 cup "butter" ( I used PC celeb aka light becel )
2 large eggs
1 cup berries of your choice. ( i used mixed frozen berries that i had defrosted)

Preheat oven to 400 . Whisk together milk , butter and egg. Add flour , sugar and baking powder and soda, salt and cinnamon . Add berries. Bake 15-20 minutes.

Shortbread Cookies

These cookies are typically cut into slices or just in simple rounds. I rolled mine out and used cutters.

1 1/3 cup butter
2/3 cup white sugar
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp vanilla
3 1/3 cups flour

Preheat oven to 275.
Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add salt and vanilla. Beat to combine. Add flour one cup at a time.
Press into pan OR roll out and cut.
Bake until pale golden brown . 70-85 minutes .

I topped these with a simple cream cheese frosting. Dangerous I know . Basiclly took half of a small container of philidelphia cream cheese, added a splash of milk and about 1/2 cup of icing sugar. I added the icing sugar gradually. You may find you don't need as much . I took half of the finished product and put it in a sandwich bag for "piping" and used the rest to be spread with a spatula.
Top it off with sprinkles or whatever decorations you choose. If you want the icing to be festive, drop in a bit of food coloring when mixing up the icing . Let the icing set for a bit before packing up the cookies.

*

One thing is almost off of my to do list. I have two more items to bake for my Christmas baking and then that is crossed off the list. I have about 4 more presents to buy and my shopping is done.

TO DO THIS WEEK:

• Buy some festive plates and colored cellophane wrap to wrap up Baked Goodies.
• Finish Christmas Shopping. Would like to get some done prior but on Friday morning me and a friend are going to trample the mall. I'm thinking of it as getting all the last minute stuff. I do NOT want to be shopping the week of Christmas!!
  
• Finish wrapping
  
• Find a recipe for Artichoke and Asiago Dip ( cold ) . Anyone know of a good one?
• Homework and school work. I managed to get my homework done incredibly early today and even managed to get a day ahead. Hopefully I can keep this momentum up until Thursday which is my last day before Christmas break. YEY for 2 weeks off !

• Hair cut and dye on Thursday. Need it. Desperately. I've been putting it off because I wanted as little "roots" as possible for Christmas pics. Hate Christmas paparazzi family members.

What's on your Christmas to-do list?

What are you baking or bringing to Holiday get togethers?

-A

Personal Snow Day

The idea of partaking in this , this morning was not appealing .

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So after walking about two feet outside the apartment , I said a curse word or two and a prayer for my cardy uggs that were getting wet! and turned around and went back inside.
Threw off the clothes I had just put on and replaced them with super comfy soft ones I wouldn't want the public to see, emailed my homework to a class mate to hand in for me and I'm taking a personal snow day today.

To homework doing,blog reading, apartment cleaning, warmth and this :

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Something Awesome:

ETA:

Quinn is giving away a torture device. Sound awesome? No ? I promise it's better than it sounds. Go see for yourself.

The new PomWonderful aprons are out and they're hilariously cute. Want one? Go tell Tina of Carrots 'N' Cake why you need one in your life.

Why I need one in my life ?
It's hilariously cute and a conversation piece. Also I always seem to be wearing black when I bake and end up looking a mess afterwards.

What's your ideal way to spend a snow day or a day off ?

For me I am happy just staying in where its warm . Doing around the house type stuff. Cooking , cleaning , yup a housewife :)

Do you like winter weather ? Hate it ?

I'm a horrible Canadian who just can't take the cold. The snow is something else altogether . It's just a big inconvenience to me . Nothing worse than having to spend your day in half wet clothes because you didn't anticipate the snow .

-A

Quick Food and Review

Hey :)

Just a quick review of a post for today as I'm swimming in school work and need to stop procrastinating online. I learned one thing today, tort law may be interesting but it's also a hell of a lot of reading .

While at the grocery store yesterday stocking up on loads of veggies ( big tubs of organic baby spinach for 3.00!!! ) and the like, I also stocked up on my curious obsession. Clif Bars!! I got the Carrot Cake , Peanut Toffee Buzz ,Choclate Chip Peanut Crunch and a repeat of the Chocolate Almond Fudge ( I already tried this one and loved it so much I got it again. My thoughts on it will be up in the near future.

I had to get up incredibly early for me for my new class schedule. 6;30 am . Compared to waking at my leisure and being in class for 1 pm , I now have to be there for 8 am . I downed most of a bottle of water and grabbed the clif bar and a travel mug of a new dark roast coffee I picked up yesterday. I had some International Delight toffee vanilla creamer in it as well.

I didn't end up digging into this bar until almost the end of class when my stomach was being very loud. I didn't really feel like something snacky . I kinda wanted a sandwich but I made due with what I had.

I have to be honest and say that I didn't have high hopes for this bar initially, packaged. I bought it because I wanted to really like the peanut crunch one but didn't and I love peanut or peanut butter flavored things , so i figured I 'd take the risk again but really didn't think it would be any better.

I only had about 2 large bites towards the end of my class , of this bar but I loved it !!

I thought the texture was fantastic and I really really liked the flavor . Did I mention I really like this particular flavor?

It will definitely go in my buy again pile.


Tonight's meal is in the process of being made. I took some boneless skinless chicken breasts and made a homemade mix resembling Shake and Bake which the bf loves , stuck a rack in a casserole dish and put it in the oven to bake. I 'm making a big salad of baby spinach, mixed greens, shredded carrots, shredded cheese, garlic and cheese croutons , bacon and hardboiled egg.
'Til tomorrow.

Question ( to no one , really ) : What flavors do you like and dislike food wise? I know so many people that can't stand anything mint but I love mint flavored chocolate.

-A