Back from Break

Thanksgiving Break Recap:
-way too much food
-3 days of running (1/2 hour-ish)

I'm working on my dad's cold, so I didn't run or anything this morning (also, it was too early), but since it was the start of my challenge, I had fun in the kitchen today.  Currently sitting in the mini crock-pot is Pumpkin Apple Butter (3 apples peeled and sliced, couple scoops of pumpkin puree, cinnamon, nutmeg, drizzle of honey).  Also on the counter is whole wheat bread that's trying to rise (made with honey instead of sugar, and milk instead of water and dry milk).

I only ate about half of this, for the record.

I ate a bunch of fruit today mostly--plain greek yogurt with fresh blackberries (yay sale!) and a little honey to sweeten, banana and natural peanut butter, another frozen banana blended with pb and cocoa powder and uncooked oatmeal and milk.  The piece de resistance of my cooking today was dinner though.  Roomie #1 and I had tilapia and asparagus (both also on sale).  Considering how much basil I stripped off my poor plant for pizza the other week, I had a decent amount for the fish.  I went light on the garlic though, because ours was old, and we used cherry tomatoes.  The asparagus was delicious but I added way less lemon than my recipe called for.  Both probably could have used less olive oil than called for, especially the tilapia, but everything tasted good.  Roomie #1 wasn't a fan of the asparagus, but she doesn't like it crunchy nor is she a fan anyway, so my ego isn't too bruised.

Pizza!!

So tonight we executed the pizza pretty much according to plan, and it was basically fabulous.  I took the pesto from yesterday (and a tad bit of J-Roomie's store bought pesto) and stuck it in the magic bullet with black beans and tomatoes.  The onions i stuck in my handy dandy cast iron pot to caramelize, then added the mushrooms to cook up a bit.

I did pre-cook the dough for three minutes, then used the pesto as sauce, topped with sliced tomatoes, the onion/mushroom mix, the bit of leftover parmesan, and some grated white cheddar. My half has some spinach on it (Roomie #1 wasn't sure if she would approve).

First slice!  Delicious.  Roomie #1 used some of the marinara leftovers from last week as a dipping sauce.

Pizza Procrastination

In an attempt to take my procrastination skills to an entirely new and culinary level, I'm working on pizza ideas for tomorrow.  I've been browsing various recipes and contemplating my ingredients for a few days, and since tomorrow is my day to cook, it's even productive! (I wonder if my professor would excuse the lack of paper if I give him something I cook?)

Finished product: pesto/black bean/tomato sauce topped with
spinach, tomatoes, mushrooms, and caramelized onions. 

My ingredients:
-some fresh basil growing
-some chopped hazelnuts
-lemon juice
-partial bag of frozen spinach
-bag of frozen corn
-can of black beans
-two large tomatoes
-some shredded parmesan
-small hunk of white cheddar
-olive oil
-garlic
-various spices/herbs
-onion
-stuff to make pizza  dough

So.  Today I made as much pesto as i could (not much), decimating my poor basil plant.  I put some olive oil, hazelnuts, tiny bit of parm, dash of dried thyme, dash of lemon juice, and about a clove of garlic.  I only had about a cup of basil so again, small amount.

I plan to use this dough recipe, or some variation thereof.

So my idea, cobbled together from recipes like this and this one, and the black bean pesto dip, is to blend up the tomatoes and pesto and black beans (and possibly some herbs and such) and spread it on the pizza, then top with cheese, caramelized onions, spinach, and corn.  We'll see how it turns out..maybe i post a picture tomorrow.

In other news, I ran up and down the basketball court about eighty thousand times this morning for class.  I hadn't realized how much I missed basketball.

Paper: 2 paragraphs/6-8 pages (due tomorrow)
Procrastination: homemade pesto, pizza plan

I think procrastination is winning.

Sleeping In

I had unexpected time this morning (sleeping in!!) since I usually leave around 7am to babysit.  However, I wasn't needed until 2, so I got to sleep in.  My ankle is still wonky, more so since I went to the CJ Club self-defense class Wed. night.  (on the plus side, dumping my prof on her tail was the funniest thing I've done in a while).  Ergo, I'm waiting until at least Saturday to run on it.  So what do do with my extra time?  Wrap presents! 

I'm not posting pictures of actual present projects yet, but the present wrapped in dictionary and magazine pages is for mom.  The bow is also made out of magazine pages via this tutorial.  

The little one is a stocking stuffer for my grandmother.  That gift actually isn't homemade, and since I have no fear of my grandmother reading this, it's apple tea.  I found it at the Apple Barn in the Smoky mountains.  Anyway.  The bag is the wrapping paper (yay college budget!)  and the ribbon we found for a dollar.  Michael's is our current obsession, being the nearest craft store.  I made the bow out of the bag also, by knotting two pieces together and twisting them around the knot.  Mod Podge to the back!  And...the label is a paint chip.

For breakfast, I had melty chocolate no-bake cookies.  

Yeah no I'm lying, I would never be that unhealthy for breakfast (or would I?), but it was chocolate, and it did taste pretty daggone good.  It's based on a 5-minute Chocolate Oatmeal recipe, but I had no milk, so I just used water.  I also added peanut butter, since that makes everything better.

Hello Childhood

See? The hill is far away.

I have terrible ankles.  I always twist them, roll them, sprain them.  Then I broke one sledding down a hill on a saucer.  I crashed into a fence.  Before you inform me I'm an idiot, please bear in mind that the fence was a bazillion miles away from the bottom of the hill.  Had it not been icy and I on a saucer, it never would have happened.  Yes, I tried to bail.  Since I'm not one to do things halfway, I broke both bones bad enough to require surgery.  A plate, 8 screws, and 5 years later, I still have crappy ankles (did I mention I sprained the other one at the same time?  try using crutches like that) that have a propensity to roll at the drop of a hat.

So clearly, I should watch where I'm going, especially while jogging, right?  Especially since, bad ankles aside, I'm terminally clumsy.  Well this morning, I got up early to walk/jog around campus before class, because I'm awesome.  I was feeling very proud of myself, so clearly, falling over was inevitable.  I stepped on a rock.  My ankle rolled and I ended up sitting on the asphalt with blood streaming from my palms and knee like I was 5 years old again.  To add the the embarrassment, the construction guy helpfully stopped to check on me.  Then I stubbornly walked to the health center the long way so I could finish my walk.  Also to delay the inevitable moment when I would have to explain to the college health center receptionist that I fell and need large bandaids, since I'm clearly too challenged actually have some.  I don't even have small ones I could jury-rig.  Fail of the morning.  On the plus side, I'm now determined to do it again, just to spite the rock.  (Don't laugh--it's clearly trying to sabotage me being healthy.)  I soothed my injured ego with Snickerdoodle Oatmeal, though, so the morning wasn't all bad.

Starting Point

I like to have things well organized before I start them.  However, I'm not a particularly organized person, which consequently results in me not starting a lot of things I decide to do.  In order to avoid that, I'm just going to make my first post--no back story or explanations.  In church this week there was a quote that I really enjoyed:
“If we refuse to rest until we are finished, we will never rest until we die!
Sabbath dissolves the artificial urgency of our days, because it liberates
us from the need to be finished.”    ~ Wayne Mueller
So...I'm being liberated from the need to finish before I start.

Recently my roommate and I have been trying to get healthy, which includes exercise (blech!) and experimenting with food (which may or may not actually make us healthier).  Somehow this has evolved into a general sort of craftiness and homemade Christmas presents. I blame pinterest.com, and yes presents already. Don't judge.  If it can snow in October, I can decorate for Christmas.



Roomie-who-loves-roses (this is how name-challenged people identify others haha) just had a birthday, which means presents.  So Roomie #1 and I spent our hour gained by the time change making chocolate roses! I even made the box from a plastic utensil box covered in our new love, mod podge, and pages from a thrift store dictionary.  I got the recipe/instructions for the roses here.

Since J-Roomie had a ton of unused marshmallows leftover from the marshmallow bowl, we decided to try our hand at making marshmallow fondant.  We've also decided that it would be insanely cool to make Cake Boss-College Edition a reality.  We need to practice more first, but considering I've never actually decorated an entire cake, it wasn't bad.  The cookie, random leaves, chocolate chips, and name were J-Roomie's contribution.  Also, she made the cake.  Since this blog is mine, I crossed out her work.

Ok, no, I lied.  I just haven't asked Roomie-who-loves-roses if she wants her name on the internet and I don't want to get sued.  (I'm lying again, she wouldn't sue me.  Unless I made her too angry.)  Anyway.  I used the same general principle as the chocolate roses to make the fondant ones.  It was a little harder to work with since it was softer, but seemed to work reasonably well.  To make the colors we just kneaded in food coloring.

The marshmallow fondant recipe (here) was a lot of fun to make although my fingers were completely encased in marshmallow for a while and there was powdered sugar everywhere.  It still felt super sticky when i finally decided to get my hands out (quite a process!) but after i washed them off and went back to it, the fondant was actually pretty smooth and not so sticky.