Keep on shoveling snow

Something naughty happened at the coffee shop... Carlye and I ate Sarah's cupcake. I'm sorry, Sarah!!! It just... happened.


I had what has quickly become my favorite dinner: Gliding Calm baked tofu, a sweet potato, and kale (or spinach, but kale tonight :-) ). I mixed it up a little bit by making maple mashed sweet potatoes: I melted B&B, maple syrup, cinnamon, ginger and cloves together then mashed them together with a hot sweet potato. I will definitely be making this again, it was delicious!


My favorite kale: tossed in a rice vinegar/toasted sesame oil/ginger/sesame seed dressing.



Sarah's "frozen yogurt" (and yes, that is Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 in the background)


So, we're supposed to shovel our sidewalks, but being a silly little city girl, this is proving to be more difficult than it seems! Feel free to make fun, but after 20 minutes I'd barely made a dent and my fingers were numb, so I gave up and went back inside. Is there some kind of snow-shoveling secret I don't know about? BAH.

Edited to add: My Poetry prof is hosting a pot-luck on Monday and we're each bringing something. Does anyone have any ideas on what I could make to bring?

Variations on a theme

Good evening poppets! Sorry about the delay; the internet in my house wasn't working all day (so much for that $20/month WiFi...).

Lunch from the club:

L-R: pineapple, honeydew, canteloupe, grapes, strawberries, artichokies, red and yellow peppers, red snapper (too "fishy" tasting so I only had half), cukes, beets, cured beet/horseradish smoked salmon.


Dry English muffin with strawberry jelly:


Darjeeling tea- I usually drink this with milk and sugar, and it tasted a little strange to me without it.


Bite sized desserts! They call these "prayer bars;" magic on left, three-layer fudge (DELICIOUS) on right:


Dinner was leftover-based, but completely different from last night's. I only used a little spaghetti, and at the very last minute added two big kale leaves so they were soft but not wilted. I heated some of the squash in the microwave, tossed it with the drained pasta/kale mixture, and grated fresh parmesan on top.


I also had a Morningstar Farms sausage patty for extra protein:





Yogurt/honey/ banana dessert:



I'm in a very florescent room in the library, with a stack of the work I need to get done and a little help from my friend Mr. Bull.


I'm only now regretting the relaxing weekend I treated myself to... hopefully tonight won't be too brutal. I only hope I can keep myself awake long enough to get things done!

They're a- creepin'

The holidays, that is! Target started their Christmas display on Halloween morning, but I've waited until now to start feeling the cheer until this afternoon. With no apologies, I love the holidays. I do! I love to watch the Macy's Day Parade and bake with my mom on Thanksgiving morning, gear up with winter movies, belt out Christmas jingles... I'll have it all and then some more, sir.

I watched Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town while I peeled and chopped tubers and squash. Somehow, I'd never seen this all the way through before... whenever it's on TV I usually flip until I find something with live action. But, it was pretty adorable, including the German dictator who wanted to steal all the children's toys and arrest them for playing games. Hmmm...

I've been wanting to make roasted vegetables for so long, but I just haven't had the time to do the prep for it. Since I'm still not feeling so hot, tonight was perfect since I decided to stay in.

Here are the stars:


Roasted Winter Vegetables

1 acorn squash
1 small butternut squash
1 delicata squash
1 sweet potato
2 tbsp olive oil
salt, pepper
herbs of choice (I used dried sage and rosemary)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2/3 green pepper, chopped

Preheat oven to 400. Peel veggies and remove seeds and stringy insides. Chop to bite-sized pieces and combine in bowl. Add olive oil, herbs, salt and pepper on top and combine with hands to evenly coat. Pour into a large baking pan and bake for 20 minutes. Remove pan and add garlic and pepper. Stir thoroughly. Put pan back in oven and bake for 20 more minutes or until veggies are tender.



While the vegetables were roasting, I had two rye crackers with 3 types of cheese: goat, Manchego and pepperjack. A bit of a splurge, but I felt like I deserved it today.


I also made some Gliding Calm baked tofu (toasted sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, ground ginger, crushed red pepper) and added sesame seeds at the very end.


Red kale with a dressing made of rice wine vinegar, toasted sesame oil (notice a trend?), sesame seeds and ginger powder.



As promised, a delicious and nutritious meal! I did end up adding a little extra vinegar to the kale and tofu, and (yes), ketchup was inevitable on the vegetables. Halfway through the meal I started eating the kale and the veggies together; this is a match made in heaven!



Rice pudding and ginger thins for dessert:


I'm going to finish my movie, take a hot bath and read in bed. I don't have too much work to do, and I'll have some time tomorrow to get it done. It's nice to feel relaxed once in a while.

Enjoy your Saturday nights!

* Edited to add: I burned my arm (haven't burned my left side before, so this is a first!) taking the veggies out of the oven. I read in SELF that if you put honey on it immediately, the enzymes in it will help accelerate the healing process (or something...). I'll let you know what it looks like tomorrow; right now I just have a sticky forearm!

Life is a highway...

I wanna drive it all night loooong!








That song has [unfortunately] been in my head ALL WEEKEND. For some reason "Every Morning" by Sugar Ray is my go-to get-this-out-of-my-head! song, so I'm going to hum that to myself as I type this up and see how it works.



Dinner tonight was pretty fab. I made acorn squash, brown rice, sesame kale and baked tofu. Jalene's mom told us the best way to get the skin off squash is to cook it in the microwave for a few minutes first, then bake it. I halved the squash and put on a plate under paper towels, cooking it for about 5 minutes. The skin still didn't want to budge after that, so I just threw it in the oven at 350 with the already baking tofu (ginger, olive oil, honey, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper, sesame seeds), and baked it for about 5 more minutes.


The kale was delicious. Kath's husband had made a version of this a couple nights ago, and since I still had an extra bunch of kale, I was excited to cook this up. I mixed a dressing of 1 tsp ginger powder, 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar, 1 tsp toasted sesame oil, salt, and pepper. I tossed a few sesame seeds in for good measure.

I cleaned the bowl myself...


FOUND! Edy's Slow Churned Rich & Creamy pumpkin ice cream at just 100 calories and 3 g fat/ serving! Woohoo! With chocolate sauce and pecans:


I've been so freaking allergic today since I woke up. Hopefully it'll pass with sleep... if not, I have some good ole Allegra to help me out. We just watched Carrie as part of our Halloween gear-up.... I know the prom scene so well from books and other movies that I felt like I'd already seen it before! I'm going to spend some quality time with Edith Wharton in bed get up bright and early tomorrow to start my homework! What could be more fun?

Monday night BBQ

An apple a day makes my bones grow o-kay...



Just me for dinner tonight. I've been itching to cook all weekend, so I "fired up" the stove and watched an episode of Greek. I made two things I've been wanting to have for a while, just lacked the proper ingredients: kale chips and barbecue tofu.


I think I'm going to fiddle with this recipe the next time I make it, but here's what I did:

Preheat oven to 350. In a bowl, combine 3 bunches of leafed 1-inch pieces of kale with 1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar, 1 tablespoon salt, 2 tablespoons oil. Mix well. Spread kale on cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes or until crispy.


I liked these, but I'd like to tone down a little of the kale's natural bitterness with a little honey or maple syrup. I'd also probably use half of the oil net time, even though this recipe asked for twice what I used.


While I was making the tofu, I had a glass of Shiraz and a rye cracker with goat cheese, manchego and a couple grapes.



To make the tofu, I used Annie's original low fat bbq sauce.



I rubbed half a block of pressed tofu in a tablespoon of toasted sesame oil, then slathered the pieces in two tablespoons of bbq sauce. I cooked the tofu at 350 for 30 minutes, turning once after 15 minutes. I ate it with steamed broccoli and a little extra sauce. Delish!


Dessert was a cup of sugar free Jello rice pudding in crême brulé. It was surprisingly good and didn't have that gross artificial sweetener taste I hate.


I'm going to get in bed and watch Mostly Martha.... I've had it from Netflix for over two weeks! It's the original version of No Reservations, that cooking movie with Aaron Eckhart and Catherine Zeta-Jones.