Blending In

I can't decide if I actually like what I just made, or if I'm just used to the taste because I keep drinking it.

Either way, I made a smoothie. We're not talking about the hey-let's-put-all-this-yummy-fresh-fruit-into-a-blender-and-make-some-kind-of-tropical-tasting-smoothie, but more of a lets-get-weird kind of smoothie. So if you're feeling weird, this one might be for you.

Side note: Ever since a smoothie place opened up in close proximity to where I work (or if you're reading this as a seasoned smoothie drinker), this post is nowhere even close to how weird things can get.

But I digress...

What goes in:

• More strawberries than I used. I used only about 8, but after adding everything else, it ended up severely lacking in the berry-flavor category. You should also really use fresh strawberries, and use them right away before they go bad. If you have to freeze them, make sure you cut off the leaves first, otherwise you'll find yourself trying to hack through a frozen strawberry (speaking from experience). 
• Less peanut butter than I used. One spoonful is probably enough, but I used two very generous spoonfuls because I love peanut butter. In an effort not to make a bad pun, just take my word for it and only use one. Also, use organic peanut butter: it's not as sweet and it's also wayyyy better for you.
• A half cup of oats (yay fiber!). Oats lower cholesterol, help to prevent heart problems, you'll feel fuller for longer, etcetera.  
• A couple squeezes of honey from the little bear (in more specific terms: probably a little more than a tbsp)
• A cup of soy or almond milk. I would have preferred to try this with almond milk, but alas...
• Since I used fresh, yet frozen, strawberries (I had to work and didn't want them to go bad) I didn't use ice, but feel free to add ice or even sorbet (raspberry or blood orange could work). 

And the rest is pretty self explanatory. 

The end result is a thick, pink, cold smoothie that is super healthy, and filling enough to be an entire breakfast in itself. If you're feeling ambitious enough to make this, let me know how you like it, because hopefully it turns out better than mine...not that mine is bad, all I'm saying is it's a little heavy on the nuts. 

(I really, really tried to avoid making some sort of joke)

(...no I didn't)

Butter No Parsnips

Well guys, I finally cooked something and it doesn't matter that it took me an hour and a half, or that I broke a plate in the process, or that I actually had to google what a parsnip looked like in order to find it in the produce section.

What I used:

• a whole bunch of carrots (but not the whole bag pictured above)
• a bunch of butternut squash
• 4 red potatoes 
• 2 parsnips
• 2 onions
• pretty much a whole clove of garlic
• a thing of spinach 
• a cup of rice
• olive oil
• hint: you can use whatever vegetables you want, I just chose the more seasonal, wintery, root vegetables.

What I did:

• after peeling/cutting up the carrots and parsnips, potatoes, onions, squash, and garlic, I put them in a big glass casserole-type cooking vessel, drizzled some olive oil over it, added some thyme and rosemary (parsley and sage are optional...if you get the reference) and put them in the oven that had been preheated to 420 degrees (Fahrenheit). 

• After putting it in the oven, I made some rice, which is pretty easy to do so I won't expand (and since you're mostly just waiting for the rice to absorb the water, it's a good thing to start if you're waiting for something to cook in the oven for 40-45 minutes). 
• When the veggies looked like they were getting ready (after about 40 minutes) it was time to quickly sauté some spinach, with the ingredients I had prepared pictured below (minced garlic and olive oil)

• Turns out, it's pretty hard to determine how much spinach to use since it shrinks up kind of fast in the heat, so put a pretty decent amount in the pan. 
• Hint: make sure you have plates ready to put the spinach on, otherwise you might take out some big dishes from the cupboard in a rush, and in your haste, not realize that there is a glass bowl on top, making you drop it, and as it shatters on the floor, your spinach making is almost completely foiled...until your friend steps in and finishes up with the spinach while you sweep up the bits of broken glass that are now all over the kitchen floor. 
• After you sweep up the glass, take the veggies out, and pour yourself another glass of wine, it is time to enjoy an awesome dinner. 

Side note: I perfected this dinner by accident. I used to make this dish with the veggies covered with tin foil so that they wouldn't dry out in the oven, but one time when I was roasting vegetables I ran out, and not wanting to leave my apartment, I did without. I left them in the oven for what I thought was too long, and when I took them out I almost cried. There were my vegetables, all shriveled up and burned looking, and I was still hungry. What a waste. I decided to try to eat them anyway, and I realized that they were better that way, and I was astonished. The veggies had caramelized and it was like eating little candies...little vegetable candies. 

This is not meant to be a recipe type blog, by the way. I'm not going to delve into using precise measurements of anything, mainly because I don't really use measurements and usually just "eyeball" ingredients (which has it's advantages and disadvantages). And I know I'm not telling any of you guys anything new by explaining how to roast vegetables, or saute spinach. This is a learning experience for me, so for all of you who already know how to cook things, maybe you can at least be entertained by my indiscriminate cooking attempts. 

Thanks for reading!

Better Things Are Coming

I read something the other day, and since 2014 has started, it makes sense:

"Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one".

(And so far the first few pages are quite spectacular)

Being me, and wanting an over-the-top fun way to ring in the new year, I surrounded myself with some new found friends and had a BLAST and for the first 36 hours of 2014, I did not sleep. Mainly, because it gets to a point where you realize it's better to just stay up than to sleep through what little hours of the night you have left, which is what happened right before I worked a 10 hour waitressing shift. Then I came home, changed, and went out again to see a concert.

Ever have a night so fabulous, you only take one picture?

Like I tried to say in my last post, life happens. Good things, and bad things. And when bad things happen, you need to be able to pick yourself up and keep going...which has been my main mission for the past month or so.

Feeling like I'm getting closer to the person that I want to be (whatever that means), I've noticed that I need to keep myself busy. The past few months I've been battling a self-diagnosed stress-induced insomnia, which completely wipes you out during the day (since you stay up all night staring at the ceiling while your brain is going a thousand miles per hour going over every tiny detail of every obstacle that has gotten in your way while most of those obstacles are things you couldn't even control anyway), steals away all motivation, and makes you want to say "fuck it" (sorry mom) as you throw in the towel, bury your face in your pillow, and hide under your comforter from the world.

So! Let's be positive...What is something that I can get into that will keep me busy while also being a learning experience?

FOOD!

I have cooked a grand total of two, count 'em, TWO meals since moving in on September 1st (Mainly because pasta, cereal, and sandwiches are the way I live). So I want to get better at that. We're not talking about getting fancy pasta or trying to get an asian stir-fry going-that's what I normally do. We're talking about roasting some vegetables, and putting things together that may or may not taste good, and making some damn good smoothies, and I don't know...making...soup? I've never made soup before (other than heating up some Campbell's). So this month is going to be a trial and error sort of month, once I finally get the courage to face the snow. There will be yummy things, and maybe some not so yummy things, but I'm looking forward to seriously using my kitchen.

pasta primavera with chicken

This actually started yesterday when I decided to make a smoothie. All I had was a pineapple, and a few apples, so I chopped up the pineapple, added two apples, a decent pour of apple cider, blended it, and it was soo tasty. (You may remember a far simpler yet far more gassy post, when all I had to eat for lunch one day this past summer was a zucchini?)

When the snow isn't as bad I know exactly what I'm going to try next.


And on an embarrassing side note: you can now follow me on Pinterest. (Funny thing about that site...yesterday I was set on building myself a DIY bed canopy...then I slept on it and what was I thinking?)