Elliot Stabler Came in a Box Today

For the past few nights I have been suffering from a major case of insomnia. Despite that, I have been more cheery than usual. Or I could be delusional. Whatever. zzzz….

For breakfast I had Archer Farm’s Strawberry Granola with Flax and organic low fat vanilla yogurt. I also had two tangerines. I have been trying to eat larger breakfasts, because I have been so hungry by dinner time. Plus, I needed energy after only a few hours of sleep.

After some apartment cleaning, I decided to make some chocolate chips cookies for Lars’s road trip. Honestly, I just wanted to wear the vintage apron I got for Christmas.

I don’t know who Bev is, but she can make a freaking good cookie. I decided to make a healthful batch of chocolate chip cookies from Eating Well: Bev’s Chocolate Chip Cookies. These cookies call for only whole wheat flour. These cookies ask you to grind up rolled oats.  These cookies were delicious. This was a better version of those good Kashi cookies. I used Hersey’s Special Dark Chocolate Chips, which rock obviously. These were so good. Lars ate a lot of them. I hope I have some left. Thanks Bev, whoever you are.

I was famished after baking, so I made breakfast for lunch. I toasted reduced-fat cheddar cheese in a wheat pita, then filled it with turkey bacon and scrambled egg (one egg with yolk, one without). I cut up some carrots for my veggie fix. Of course, I needed coffee.

Lars leaves this evening and he knew I was afraid to sleep in our spooky apartment alone. I got a box in the mail today, opened it, and found a cute teddy bear with a sweet message from Lars (sorry for the mush). I guess this little guy will protect me. I’ll name him Elliot Stabler.

Come back tomorrow to hear about my first night. I’m sure wine will be involved.

My oven has no soul.

Okay, listen. I’ve been trying to convince myself that my house is not haunted. I ignored the basement with the secret door. I ignored the torture-chamber design of my basement. But, I will not–I WILL NOT–ignore a clearly possessed oven.

I decided to host a brunch for the new graduate students. It started off fine. I made a healthful granola. My blueberry crumble bars were their usual fantastic. Lars and I planned on making our favorite breakfast pizza and a spinach, green onion, and guoda quiche. We prepared the quiche first and popped it in the oven at 350 degrees. After 35 minutes we pulled it out. Liquid. Freaking liquid! Liquid like the fire pits of hell. Damn you oven. Lars and I checked the oven terminator: 150 degrees. What the mother? Right? We tried to save it, but it was a disaster. We ended up serving a quiche donut, because we had to cut out the soggy middle.

Then we made the breakfast pizza. We made it perfectly, and carefully slid it into our oven. It was 375 degrees. After 20 minutes, we checked on it. It was almost burnt! The temperature had moved up to 45o degrees.

At this point, I am expecting “I will ruin all your cooking, Ashley” written in Pam on my oven door tomorrow morning. Creepy shit, fo sho.

I was so upset, I could barely speak at the brunch. I kept waving my fist at the oven.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the clean apartment and the brunch layout, both of which may never happen again.

We had a bread tray with Honey Wheat and Mama's Old Fashioned Apple Bread from Great Harvest. We served it with some local spreads.

I hate that oven. Grr. My oven is the furnace from Home Alone. I hate it. Hate it.

The Hungry Scholar Becomes Scholarly…finally

I have missed you, blogging world! Today was my fist day of teacher orientation. This week I go on campus from 9 to 4 to prepare myself to teach college composition to some freshmen. Although this week will be extremely stressful, I am excited to bond with the other graduate students I’ll be spending the next five years with. I am exhausted. I walked a hour to campus with this HUGE backpack. I had Lars pick me up. Tonight I’ll be doing a lot of homework, and doing it all over again tomorrow.

I have no food reports today, because I’m eating leftovers I made yesterday. Travel back with me.

It is Sunday. Lars and I made Mexican for dinner. We made tacos with ground turkey and pico de gallo. I made my own taco seasoning using a recipe from the blog One Fugal Foodie. Lars used fresh produce to make a pico de gallo from Cooking Light. It was a nice fiesta in my mouth before watching the sexy fiesta that is Don Draper.

I wanted to have granola for the week, so I made a batch of Cooking Light‘s Power Granola. This my chance to use the local honey I got from the Farmer’s Market. I liked the recipe  because it incorporated oats, flax, and nus. I chose not to include the cranberries. This was a fantastic back-to-school breakfast this morning!

I’m off to visit your blogs! Have a good Monday night.

Who do you think the sexiest man on television is?

Wine and Berries in a Gnome’s Home

Okay, I promised a tipsy post. I am rather sober, surprisingly so. Am I building up a tolerance? Possibly. Could it be because I ate too many blueberry crumb bars, thus absorbing all my alcohol? Yes. I got the recipe from Smitten Kitchen for Blueberry Crumb Bars. This recipe has a nice lemony kick, which I like. It is very “Pow! I’m a summery dessert, bitches” bar. It was easy to make in a very scary way. I kept questioning if I did something wrong, because I didn’t screw up once. Not once! The only changes I made was that I used whole wheat white flour and I took the pan out 8 minutes early.  Some mentioned in the comments that their bars were too crumbly to cut. Although I did not have this problem, I think it would still make a good cobbler-like dish (with ice cream of course). If Fox Mulder came in fruit bar form, this would be it: it was spooky, sexy, and addicting.

I brought these bars over to my friend’s tiny house.

No really , it is tiny. It is in an alley too.

He is looking into building an even smaller house on his own. He was inspired by the guy in this video that lives in a 89-square-foot home. It is pretty awesome.

Once I entered the keebler elf tree, I was offered fresh berries and homemade granola. It was made in his small oven in his small house. Along with my blueberry crumb bars, it was a berry extravaganza.

We talked about school, our summer, and attractive people while we sipped on the oh-so-classy three-buck chuck.

I took this picture of his home. I have a theory he staged this apple art, but I only appreciate him more for it.

A good summer night. I’m going to catch up on K. Griffin and head to bed.

Pudding Cures

I am feeling much better, thanks. Now, I may actually cook for dinner.

I took a long, long nap. When I woke up, I had a craving for something sweet. I found a vanilla, low-calorie pudding cup in my fridge. Hm, great…BORING! But then I thought: Chocolate Granola!

So I sprinkled some chocolate granola into my vanilla pudding cup. It rocked my world. I’m going to run some errands and pick up some things for dinner. Have a good afternoon!

Boring Breakfast and Film Recommendation

Breakfast was boring, but yummy. I was going to make oatmeal, but my apartment is HOT. So I had some leftover yogurt parfait: low-fat vanilla yogurt, chocolate granola, and raspberries. I also grabbed an apple. It was a perfect simple summer breakfast. Do you have a favorite summer breakfast dish?

Yesterday was my roommate’s birthday, but today she is having a HUGE party at our apartment. I’d rather relax, but I’m sure once the party starts I’ll have fun. I have the worse trouble at parties: the desserts and the drinks. So my challenge: enjoy a party in moderation. To help win this challenge, I have decided to make some healthy desserts and treats so that I can “behave” at the party. I have a feeling the blogging will help.

Time for a film recommendation!

I recently watched this documentary and I thought you should all know about it: America the Beautiful. The movie is about the price (monetary and otherwise) of being a “beautiful” woman in America. It is narrated and created by a man, which I think is interesting. He does an excellent job of showing how beauty is socially constructed though advertisements, film, and internet sites. His interviews are really great, too. I know this is a well-covered topic ,but I learned a lot. It is free on netflix, if you have it . I have put a preview below.

Sleeping In Parfait

Lars and I woke up at 9:30. It was a fantastic sleep-in. We went to bed at 2, which was necessary because we were watching Mad Men (which we continue as I type this). Lars and I went to the grocery store to buy food for our Mad Men Marathon. I was still out of it, so I bought a small nonfat iced latte from the coffee shop in my grocery store.

I decided I wanted a yogurt parfait for our brunch. I instantly was attracted to this chocolate granola:

I thought it would go best with some fresh raspberries and low-fat vanilla yogurt. It was surely a treat!

It was awesome. Lars even said it was “fantastic.” Back to Mad Men! We’ll be back at lunch with some pizza .