WINNERS! (and Blueberry Yogurt Pancakes)

I think my butt hurts from sitting on it so much today.

Usually if I say that, I’m half kidding, knowing I didn’t just sit all. day. long. But that’s really the extent of what I’ve done, save for the 15 minutes I decided to do random workout moves so I could regain feeling in my limbs.

I had a bunch of work to get done today for one class in particular, a ton of work on a top-secret mission of mine that is proving to be quite a project as well as designing some things for a couple of lovely bloggers, and add to that the fact that we had company coming at 11:00 and a Bruins game on at 12:30, I knew I was going to have to work hard to make the most of my morning.

Yes, the Bruins game does take precedence over everything else on that list. D’uh!

I was fueled by the best, however. Maybe it’s weird, but I hate using this yogurt as a snack/part of a meal/whatever. It just seems too expensive to eat all at once. Is that normal? Instead, I like to make “sauces” with it for pancakes. Or heck, add it to the pancakes.

Usually I get vanilla, but they were out of stock of it last time I went. Major bummer. Either way, I also put off eating these for the said price reason. The best-by date was nearing, though, and I figured that it being blueberry flavored and the fact that I caved and bought frozen blueberries the other day was pretty much destiny.

I am frugal. Slash cheap. Sue me. I have high hopes for this summer’s show season with the boy.

Oh, right; the recipe. Because you’re not sick of my pancake recipes yet. (that’s a joke.)

Blueberry-Spice Yogurt Pancakes

• 1/4 c. flour (I used graham, based on my obsession)
• 1 T. (generous) cornmeal
• 2 t. chia seeds + 2 T. water (mixed in a small cup)
• 1 1/2 t. baking powder
• 1/2 T. shredded coconut
• 1/4 t. cinnamon
• 1/4 t. ground nutmeg
• 1/4 c. seltzer water
• 2 T. blueberry yogurt
• 1/4 c. blueberries (I used frozen blueberries that were uuuuber tiny – you might need more/less)

Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl. Add in the chia egg, seltzer and yogurt. Fold in the blueberries.

Pour onto a preheated, greased skillet and cook until golden brown on both sides.

Blueberry-Cashew Butter Yogurt Sauce

• 1 T. cashew butter
• 3-4 T. blueberry yogurt
• almond milk, to thin as desired

Whisk everything together. That is all.

The seltzer water is a baking trick I learned from Sarena. I wouldn’t say it is critical for the recipe – if you don’t have it, just use a milk of your choice (don’t sub plain water!) The carbonation makes them a bit lighter than they would be otherwise, though.

Does life get any better than blueberry pancakes?

No. Well, maybe it would had I used fresh lemon zest and juice – but I’m saving the lemons I have in case I need them to make lemon poppyseed cookies for a winner.

Yes, I’ll get to the winners.

But first: I think I’ve deduced that the Nasoya tofu is better when you are looking for more of an eggy-type dish. For me anyways – everyone else seems to love it so I think I just have high tofu standards.

There could be worse personality traits, don’t you think?

Barbecue scrambled tofu a la Matt.

Of course, after I added spinach, shallot and garlic, I realized I essentially made a deconstructed BBQ Spinach and Tofu Sammie.

Old loves die hard.

Onwards and upwards: The real reason you’re all reading this/”reading” this but really just skipping down to this part:

Did you know that wordpress has a little “hide/show kitchen sink” button in the add new post screen? I never had any idea, and had been missing Windows Live Write solely because I knew how to change font color and size as I saw fit.

Oh, right. Giveaway winners.

First winner issss…

Comment #45, Averie!

And secondly…

Comment #54, Mary!

And seriously, wordpress needs to number their comments or something. There’s nothing like counting down 50 comments on a computer screen.

ANYWAYS! Congratulations, ladies! Your wish is my demand. Shoot me an e-mail with your choice and I’ll hop-to.

Thank you to everyone for entering, though – I was shocked at how many people got involved with this giveaway!! So I will definitely be doing another one sooner rather than later 🙂

Drunk on Brownies

It’s a heat wave!

I think I finally see the light at the end of the tunnel that is the deep-freeze of January and February. It reached 30* today, and isn’t supposed to be below 20* (during the day) all week.

I am a happy girl.

Who had a wonderful ride on a happy pony.

Life is good.

And so is BBQ spinach and tofu.

My white balance, however, is not so good. Just pretend otherwise for the time being, m’kay? Please?

So remember how I’ve been saying I was now only going to buy the Vermont Soy tofu that I’ve proclaimed my love for?

Well, I guess I lied. For the sake of convenience (as well as the fact that I’m cheap and had a $1 off coupon thanks to the heads-up from Matt) I picked up some Nasoya Plus on my shopping-trip-gone-wrong yesterday.

I’m not gonna lie. I think I’m a Vermont-Soy-only kinda gal. Nasoya just doesn’t hold a candle. I’m not sure if I’m just spoiled or what. But the Vermont Soy tofu is so much easier to work with. I’m not sure that the taste is a huge difference, but at least I don’t need to press it for about five hours with my body weight in paper towels. And it gets a better “crust” and has a better texture all around. I’ll step off my soapbox now. One last thing, though, since every story has a moral…

Moral of the story: Vermont Rawks.

But I made do with what I had.

I hate to make a big deal out of a sandwich, but this simple combination is stupid good. And with it having a combination of onions and enough garlic to kill a cow, it lets you see who really enjoys your company enough to still hang out with you after eating it.

For one sandwich:

• 1/4 of a small yellow onion, sliced
• olive oil, for sauteeing the onions
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 “serving” (a.k.a. however much you want) tofu
• salt and pepper, to taste
• hefty handful spinach
• 1-3 t. barbecue sauce, to taste
• 2 slices bread
• earth balance/butter/whatever for grilling the bread

For maximum efficiency, you can do everything pretty much all at once: preheat a small pan over medium heat, adding enough oil to thinly coat the bottom of the pan. Add the onions and sautee, stirring occasionally, about 7-8 minutes, or until golden brown/beginning to get carameliz-y. Or just a little burnt if you’re like me…anyways. Meanwhile, preheat another large pan or griddle over medium heat. Place the tofu on the pan and spread a little earth balance/butter on one side of each of your slices of bread. Add to the pan with the tofu. Cook the tofu until it gets a little bit of a crust on it, and the bread until golden.

When the onions are done, transfer to a dish and add the spinach and garlic to the same hot pan. Cover and allow to wilt, stirring in the BBQ sauce. Once good and sloppy (trust me, it will be) assemble your sandwich by layering the onions on top of the bread, followed by the spinach and then the tofu.

After eating this, you’ll be a greasy grimy mess, but you’ll still have the satisfaction of knowing it’s really not all too greasy and definitely not grimy.

And because I wanted to be really stinky when I start sweating tomorrow, I decided to polish off the day with onion rings in which I used garlic salt in the breadcrumbs instead of regular salt.

And thanks to L, I even had real breadcrumbs to complete this mission with! I was as happy as a kid in a candy shop.

Who’d-a thought this turned out to be way easier than crushing a bunch of pretzels.

Oh, and by the way – cutting that onion totally reduced me to tears. I have been so sensitive to cutting onions lately. I don’t remember always being this way but I guess I should just be happy that I’m getting pretty skilled at slicing onions with my eyes clenched shut. I even got them nice and evenly sliced!

I’m kidding.

I am now proclaiming myself an onion ring fiend.

It’s just a shame I can’t find them this good anywhere else.

Badoom-chh!

Luckily for you guys, this is a recipe that Isa chose to share on her website.

Second on the plate: no, I will never tire of sweet potatoes.

I’d call it a rut, but I prefer to call it a groove.

That gross looking yellow plop?

Curry hummus. Oh kale yes I went there.

I can’t take the credit for this genius, though – I saw it whilst flipping through Eat, Drink and Be Vegan. I did simplify it, though:

• 1 can chickpeas (I used a 19 oz. can which I think is a little larger than most?)
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 t. curry (the curry powder I have is a sweeter curry, I think. I’m not a curry connoisseur, though.)
• pinch salt
• hefty pinch dried chives
• handful raisins

Drain the chickpeas, reserving the liquid in a cup or bowl. Add all ingredients except raisins to processor. Blend until smooth, adding in the reserved liquid as necessary. At the end, add the raisins and pulse a few more times to combine.

The “reserved-chickpea” trick is from Appetite for Reduction. I am a cookbook fiend lately, obviously.

By the way, try to stop eating this by the spoonful after your tenth spoonful straight from the processor. It’s really good on sweet p’s or onion rings and does deserve to show you that.

And since I was on a pieces-parts theme for dinner, tofu also made an appearance. Kind of.

Most of it was eaten before it made it to the plate. Sorry. I was waiting for the onion rings to finish cooking and it was right there! I couldn’t resist.

I followed the concept of this recipe for the ‘fu, but basically just reduced it to a combination of cashew butter, lime juice, salt, pepper and dijon mustard. It needed a hint of honey, but was otherwise just as good.

Rounded out by a spot o’ wine.

Okay, so maybe not quite. This cabernet brownie was in the Foodzie box I received yesterday. As you know, I’m usually saying I’m not a brownie person, but lately I’ve come to appreciate chocolate rather than feel it’s overrated.

See guys, there’s still hope for me!

I was surprised to discover I actually really liked it! Probably because it uses a weird flour. I’m a sucker for any  kind of different flour.

Like most things like this, though, it was so sweet after a couple of bites! Mreh, well.

At least if you have it you can say your drunk on brownies, whether you are or not. It’s got a ring to it, don’t you think?

What’s a simple sandwich combination that you love?

*****

DON’T FORGET! You have until tomorrow to enter my giveaway!!

Three-Sixty

Heyyyy lovess. Early Tuesdays! In case you’ve forgotten 😛

I’m so glad we’ve finally got sunshine back – and I hope you do, too! It didn’t start out that way, though – I did not want to get out of bed this morning for anything! I even “slept in” (aka. 6:30 – but I dragged it to 6:45) and was still groggy. The thoughts of having to go to class were not helping my mood, and I woke up with a slight headache. Not a happy camper. But – don’t worry – this isn’t going to be a whiner post! You’ll see 🙂

After much grumbling and stalling more, I dragged my bum into the kitchen and rocked some cherry oats.

By “rocked,” I mean that the base was equal parts oat bran and rolled spelt flakes, vanilla extract, frozen cherries, trail power, and topped with flax, chia-acai icing, crystallized ginger, dried currants, coconut, and frozen cherries simmered in almond milk and some chopped almonds. Additionally, even I couldn’t deny the fact that this bowl was deserving of a couple dark chocolate chips!

But the real star of the show?

Remember how I mentioned I ordered 3 nut butters from Naturally Nutty way back when I placed my order? Well, I’ve stil only had the White Chocolate Coconut because I don’t like having toooo too much open at one time. Well – I’d be a fool to not use White Chocolate Cherry Almond Butter while it’s sitting in my cupboard! And I was not prepared for what I saw upon opening:

Uhm, are you KIDDING me?! Naturally Nutty, you’ve outdone yourself. I already thought you were simply amazing for your White Chocolate Coconut peanut butter – but can you believe that cherry goodness in this jar?! Me neither. But how did it taste? Oh, you know, no big…just similar to how winning the lottery would taste. I cannot wait to try every single one of their flavors. I need to step up the nut-butter consumption so I have justification to order again soon.

It was so frigid out this morning. I guess not by Vermont standards – but by recent standards, for sure! It’s been relatively warm in the mornings – 25 or so – but not this morning! I snapped these photos as fast I could, and had to microwave the bowl before digging in.

This meant I also wanted to nuke my coffee – and this operation turned into one gigantic fail. Try fitting a square bowl and a cup of nearly full coffee in a microwave (re: a turntable microwave, as most all are) and imagine the outcome when the plate tries to turn and there’s not enough room for both objects. Got it? Okay, if you’re imagining correctly, you’re seeing coffee all over the place. Yeah – not my brightest moment. And given that I was still in a “I hate school.” mood – this did not help.

Eventually, I sat down and generated a list of reasonable excuses to not attend class:

1. It’s supposed to be nice out today.

2. I don’t feel like it.

3. I have better things to do. Like…watch morning talk shows. Or something.

4. I could design my business cards.

5. See numbers 1 and 2, and repeat twenty times.

Enter voice of reason: Jess, you’re going to class. Go get ready.

Eventually, my funk started wearing off and after changing my outfit and trying to get a reasonable hairstyle situated, I decided I was just going to make the best of my day. I mean, I was already up. And what else was I going to do all morning? That’s what I thought.

Still – I would need some motivation on the drive in.

Enter: music...music can either totally pump me up, or totally bring me down. I needed some Jay-Z to kick off my morning commute. Never mind that Eric Clapton’s Layla came on immediately afterwards – it made me happy just the same. More Jay and some Matisyahu kept my mood up as I thought about going for a run after class. Ooooh, a run!

After a boring class, I was still super-duper pumped at the thoughts of going for a run, and my mood had done a complete 360*. I was in the best mood! I credit it to the drive in and making the best of everything. I was almost floating – not to toot my own horn or anything 😉

I did have some quick grocery shopping to do, for some produce and fruits – and fueled with a nanner.

nanner lovin'. can we just look and laugh at my stray hair on the right there for a second, though? kthanks.

haha I’m so weird. Uhhhh – anyways. Grocery shopping happened quite possibly the fastest I have ever done it. No joke – I was so pumped! And I didn’t want to lose my motvation. I was in and out of there in twenty minutes. (Hey – it only took that long because it’s really hard to fit kale in those dang produce bags.)

Once home, I grabbed a quick snack

half a bagel thin with Rumi’s and dried apricots. These organic dried apricots I picked up from the co-op are handsdown the best I’ve ever had. I think the ones from the bag I’d been eating previously are a joke, or something. They are so…uh…not dry…and have this awesome, vanilla-y flavor. Heaven. Dangerous addiction. I made a side note that this would make a really good sandwich.

Laced up my choos – and off I went!

I’ve been saying a lot lately how I want to get back into horseback riding and/or running. I decided I want to start and see how I like running. It’s been quite a while since I’ve gone for a run, so I set myself goals:

1. Don’t push yourself so it’s not fun. I want to see if I enjoy this – I’m not doing it for weight loss or anything like that. Simply to get a little more physical exercise in my routine, and enjoy the outdoors and feel good.

2. Start out easy. You don’t need to even run a mile.

3. Walk when you want to. It’s your first time in a while. While I’m not unfit – I’m still relatively active – once again, I want to see if I enjoy this, and if I don’t – I’m not going to do it. There’s plenty of forms of exercise that I do find enjoyable.

In addition – I decided I would just do walk-run intervals. So basically, I didn’t exactly work-out much – I went a little over a mile, but again – did walk-run intervals – but I loved being in the fresh air, enjoying myself. It did get a little unpleasant towards the end, but only because of a n00b mistake: it was pretty windy, and my ears got quite cold. I always have had this problem when running, though. I almost wore a hat, but then didn’t. I think if I were in the sun more, it would have been fine…and I almost drove into town so I could run a little loop – but didn’t feel like going out again. Next time!

Once back, I did some stretching (since, you know, that was oh-so-strenuous…hah) and some quick sit-ups, bicycles, and push-ups. I should have reversed that order – I stretched last. haha.

And then feasted! This is where you realize that I’m really totally awesome, or really totally wacked.

Aw, yeah – look at that waffle lovin’. But what did I concoct this time? oh, you know – just a spinach buckwheat waffle with the lovely Mae‘s humnut cheese…

And hardboiled egg whites, red pepper, and roma tomatoes. Remember when I made these waffles? Well – I made enough dry mix for two meals knowing it would come in handy. I was planning I’d have it for dinner tonight – quick and easy! But got way too excited to wait until then when I thought of this during class 😉 I know spinach is pretty unnoticeable in green monsters (not from personal experience – just from hear-say!) and bought a huge thing of spinach last time I went shopping. Wanting to pump up my waffle and use some spinach – I just blended some handfuls with some almond milk, added some fresh basil and a garlic clove, and added that to the mix in addition to some egg beaters!

I won’t lie – my first bite was cautious. It didn’t smell so hot. It smelled quite spinach-y. I was nervous that this ended up being a drastic fail. Um, no, sir, not at all! No taste of psinach whatsoever. Just deliciousness! I love buckwheat. Although – I do hate how it looks, hah. Wouldn’t these be such a pretty green if it was a spelt flour or WW flour base?! Oh, well. Beggars can’t be choosers. Or something.

Additionally – loved the humnut cheese. I was just going to do hummus and melt some mozzarella – but then I’d realized I’d never tried the humnut cheese, and this would be the perfect humnut cheese vessel! Although – I still don’t have any tahini, so I went without. Ah, well.

So – have I completely weirded you out yet, or not? Heh – sorry guys 🙂 Love me?

So – this is it from me for today! I’m craving a tempeh-almond butter-jam sammie for dinner – that one from Sunday was delish! So I may do that. And if I don’t…you won’t be missing anything exciting, either way. But it’s way easier for me to not have to worry about blogging Tuesday nights! I hope you all have a beautiful rest of the day, and a great night!!

What’s your favorite music to listen to when you need to get motivated, or “out of a funk”? Or are there other things you do to motivate you?

If you’re a runner – how did you get into it?