recipes

Mel’s Minute-and-a-Half Microwave Cake Mess

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Ingredients:

  • 1 tbsp coconut oil
  • 1 egg
  • 4-5 tbsp flour
  • 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
  • sweetener of choice (I used the blue packet because it’s what we had…probably would use one or two stevias next time)
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 tbsp milk
  • peanut butter

Put 1 tbsp coconut oil in coffee mug and microwave until totally melted.  Add all other ingredients except PB.  Beat furiously (but carefully, lest you powder your counter) until thoroughly mixed.  Put a big dollop of PB on top.  Microwave for about ninety seconds.  EAT UP!!

This is great for when you’re really craving a sweet and don’t have anything in the house. I’ve used wheat flour in place of white flour, almond/soy milk in place of the milk (or even water in a pinch), a myriad of sweeteners, and other nut butters.  This is a highly adaptable recipe that I based from the wealth of “microwave cake” recipes available online.  It’s pretty tasty:)

I would have taken a picture, but both Joey and I inhaled ours too quickly.

It has been a rough day, but nothing bloggable right now.  I’m also missing Puss…she’s been gone for almost 2 1/2 years.  Between that and the day in general, I’m in need of a break from the world.

But at least there was good cake!!  🙂

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Recipe: Simple Roasted Root Vegetables (+ Brussels Sprouts)

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I’ve had some turnips in the fridge since…well, Christmas.  I squeezed them a couple of days ago and they were still firm, so I decided that we should do some simple roasted Root Vegetables for easy meals.

First, I know Brussels Sprouts aren’t root vegetables, but it needed something green.

Ingredients:

  • 4 turnips
  • 5 carrots
  • 5 red potatoes
  • 2 onions
  • 2 bags of frozen brussels sprouts

Instructions:

  • A couple of hours before cooking, thaw the brussels sprouts in a colander in the sink.  The colander will allow excess moisture from freezing to drain.
  • When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 425*
  • Cut vegetables into medium-sized chunks (probably around the size of your thumb).  Leave the onion chunks together (rather than separating the layers)
  • spray a baking sheet (you may need two or three depending on the size)
  • lightly salt the veggies and spread out onto one layer on the baking sheet.
  • Bake for about 45 minutes or until the vegetables are tender but have some dark “roasted” spots.
  • Serve warm with whatever seasonings you’d like!

The first time I had them this week, I added ketchup.  For lunch today, I added a little garlic powder, onion powder, basil and oregano, salt and pepper, and some parmesan cheese.  Yum!

Grocery Budget Win, Dinner Win, Fitness Win

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Ah…I finally had a day where I wasn’t super-overwhelmed by school and work and home and just everything.  Once I got my discussion posts done for yesterday, I was feeling pretty good, but now that I’m done with my one for my Asian American Lit class too, tonight’s gonna be a good night!!

Despite my misjudgment of the cheese situation, we still came in at under $45 for the week in groceries.  I’m really happy about this; this’ll be the second full week that we will have eaten all of our meals at home and avoided takeout.  We’ve had a couple of shifts this week as far as the menu plan went, but I’m doing my best not to get all perfectionist-paranoid on myself and to remember that it’s just a blueprint and that the important part is that we’re cooking and that we’re eating better.

I made falafel again tonight and made a few changes; I used cornmeal instead of the flour and I added two very big cloves of garlic.  It was still pretty good.  And here’s a food pic for you:

Yeah, I know…it looks kind of weird and gross.  It’s a Pumpkin Pancake!  After we did Brinner on Sunday night, I started thinking about how much healthier it would be to use something like solid-pack pumpkin in place of the liquid with the pancake mix.  So, the next morning, I took about 1/2 cup pancake mix, 1/2 cup solid pack pumpkin and a little sweetener (and just a splash of water) and made some very thick batter.  I had to actually smoosh the pancake out on the griddle  so it’d be thin enough to cook.  I added a little sugar-free maple syrup and Da-yam was this good!  I’ve done it twice this week and I’ll probably do it again tomorrow since I have a little pumpkin left to use.  Next, I’m going to try it with some of the frozen b-nut squash that I cooked back during my kidney stone debacle.

And my final triumph for the night?  We finally got back to the gym!  I almost punked out at the last minute, but Joey told me that, since I was already dressed and had tied my shoes (and was about a foot from the door), it was too late to back out.  I was glad that we went; I did the Random Hill program on the recumbent bike for about half an hour (set at Level 8…my calves are dying).  We also ran into two friends whom we hadn’t seen in a while!  We won’t go tomorrow because Katie’s coming over, but we’ll definitely head back Saturday.

That’s all I’ve got today, peeps.  It was a pretty decent day!  I’m always thrilled for those, especially since they’re happening more frequently these days.

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I hope this shows up the way it does in my blog uploader.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a picture of the whole rainbow together, so I had to take a pic of each side, and you can imagine the middle.  It was so amazing to see a full rainbow…you know, you usually just see a little streak of one, or maybe even half of one, but to see the entire rainbow across the sky…it’s just really cool.  I was glad I got the pic when I did…as soon as Joey and I came back outside, it was gone.

So, I went to the Southern Christmas Show yesterday…got some novelty socks and some flavored coffee and sore feet, but that was about it.  Mom got some really pretty jewelry, though.  And, of course, nothing says “Christmas” like hoardes of rude people, pushing you out of the way and running over your feet with their giant double strollers for their screaming children.  We had a wheelchair for Mom, just because her leg tires out quickly due to her back issue, and I was totally amazed by the amount of people who would push in front of us so they wouldn’t have to be behind the wheelchair.  I wasn’t even going slowly…geez.  Anyway, after having had my Christmas spirit roundly squashed, we left a few dollars poorer.  I did get my spirit back today, though, after listening to the Trans Siberian Orchestra CD that my mom got and didn’t like.  MAN, I wish our Church would do something like what they do next year…a fusion of our orchestra and our band from The Lift…it would be freaking awesome!

It wasn’t a totally terrible week-in-food, although I can probably pretty safely say that I managed to get derailed about once a day, which sucked.

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This was my lunch one day…just fresh broccoli, green peppers, cabbage, and some roasted red pepper hummus.  I made that hummus last most of the workweek (after having a little on Sunday at lunch).

There were oats:

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Of the chocolate peanut butter variety…this had just a spoon of unsweetened cocoa powder and some natural Jif PB.

And, of course:

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Oats-in-the-jar ala Heather.  There really wasn’t enough PB left to try to scrape out to take with me to work, so I just tossed my dry oats in the PB jar and added a little hot water and let them soak for a while at the office…then, a breakfast of PB goodness:).

Also, I ate copious amounts of leftover chili:

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I have to say, I did a good job with this chili, seriously.  I just did two cans of each pintos, red beans, black beans, and ro-tel, a 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes, half a can of corn, 2 diced onions, and handful after handful of chili powder, cumin, and garlic, and a splash of honey.  I would have made it spicier, but we were having a friend over who doesn’t do very well with spicy food.

I have GOT to get my relationship with food under control…I don’t even know how or where to begin, really..it’s just so overwhelming, after years and years of food being comfort to try to think of food as fuel.  And, since I’m such an emotional person anyway, and someone who needs a constant feeling of security, I find myself looking for comfort in food way too often.

What are your methods for making sense of the mind/body connection in regards to food??