Souvenirs

May 15, 2009February 6, 201511 Comments

Ohh my goodness, I have so much to talk about today!

First, I ate the last serving of muffin-cauliflower oat bran for breakfast.

This was not, however, any regular old cauliflower-muffin oat bran. Something special (and I’m not even talking about the cauliflower or the muffins here) was hidden inside the creamy depths.

Lucuma powder!

Lucuma is a fruit that grows in the South American highlands. Everything was lucuma-flavored when I lived in Peru last summer: yogurt, ice cream, cookies. Proof:

(Yes, I saved all my cookie/candy/ice cream wrappers from the trip. Obviously.)

It took me a while when I was in Peru to even figure out what lucuma was. A spice? A candy? Its flavor is not particularly fruity. I finally asked my host family, as I was chowing down on my 15th lucuma cream-filled sandwich cookie, What the heck is this stuff? When I found out it was a fruit, I wanted to go hunt it down so I could see it in person, but they explained that it wasn’t really sold fresh because it’s kind of hard and inedible in its fresh form. So I have still never come across a live lucuma. However, I was super-excited when I found out that Navitas Naturals had a lucuma powder, and I immediately put in a request. And I was so happy to see such Peruvian love all over the packaging!

While lucuma is not my favorite flavor in the world, tasting it brings me back to my perfect Peruvian summer. It’s a worthy sacrifice.

I mixed 1 tbsp of the powder into the muffin-cauliflower oatbran and enjoyed it atop 1/2 cup yogurt decorated with re-hydrated goji berries. I added the last 2 tsp of Artisana madademic-cashew butter as icing for my lucuma mountain.

Ohh, memories. Dear Peru: I will be back.

After breakfast, I did some bedroom organizing/spring cleaning and then threw on my gym clothes (I plan to exercise eventually today) and went out for errands, some of which were food-related. I stopped at the grocery store because I read on Soap & Chocolate that blackberry sales in the city were in full swing. Diana was right! I got two bigger-than-normal (but still pretty small) containers for $4. I also hit up the post office to pick up some belated birthday treats from my sisters!!

They know me so well 😀 Emily sent me running sleeves (those crazy-colored things spilling out of the “sister present ball”) that I can roll up or roll down depending on the weather, and Allie sent a bunch of tasty goodies: cherry pie and cashew cookie larabars, plum-flavored gummy candies, and yerba mate. Plus this perfect birthday card:

I tried a plum gummy right away:

Yummmmmmmm.

Followed by yerba mate, which I prepared with soy milk and honey as per the recommendation on the package (gotta follow instructions, right?).

Delicious! Smoky and sweet — I love it. Thank you, amazing sisters!

Side note: the honey I used for the tea came from some Smuckers sample honey packets that my mom collected for me from various hotel breakfast buffets (like mother, like daughter). But, the point of this side note is that the baby Artisana nut butter jars are perfect holders from the honey, since I rarely use a whole packet in one go. My five packets of honey perfectly filled up two little jars, and now I don’t have to worry about how I’m going to finish that honey packet before it spills all over everything in the fridge.

This just in: Look how green the mate turns as it cools!

Also, you can get free chocolate today if you hurry (Thanks to Erin Gunn for the tip!)

What’s the craziest “souvenir” you’ve saved from a trip?

Can it be true?

May 13, 2009February 6, 201515 Comments

Guess what!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s DONE.

At 11:02 this morning, I officially finished my LAST paper of the semester. It happened way sooner than expected, and I am thrilled. Now, for the next 2.5 weeks, I am completely free of school AND work (except for two more Thursdays of class and one half day retreat for work).

For breakfast while I worked this morning, I had half an apple sprinkled with cinnamon because I still had plenty of food in my belly from last night.

When I finished, I had a celebration lunch of muffin-cauliflower oat bran. I made cauliflower oat bran yesterday morning (thanks to Heather for inspiration, once again!) and was a fan, so I decided to jazz it up today with some extras. I actually prepped the bran yesterday by immersion blending these ingredients:

That’s one cup of steamed cauliflower, 1/2 cup raw oat bran, 1/4 cup unsweetened soymilk, and 1.5 cups of chopped frozen pumpkin muffins and bran muffins. These muffins did not make the strawberry birthday cake cut the other day because they were too seedy:

In addition to the above ingredients, I also blended in 3/4 cup water, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. All of that sat in the fridge overnight.

For lunch today, I scooped out 1/2 cup of the cauliflower-muffin oat bran and heated it in the oven for 30 minutes while I addressed some long-neglected cleanliness issues in the kitchen. My stomach was still feeling confused from last night’s feast, so I decided simple would be better with the bran. All I was really wanted was a big, melty pile of nut butter, so I pulled out yet another gem from Artisana.

When the oat bran was ready to go, I served it to myself on a bed of 1/2 cup plain yogurt and topped it with that big tbsp of pecan butter, lots of cinnamon, and some strawberries:

Hit the ol’ spot!

I’m off to take care of some other long-neglected necessaries. I have two weeks to get my life under control before it becomes unmanageable again!

What is long-neglected in your life?

Caked

May 11, 2009February 6, 201520 Comments

I’ve tried to be consistent with my birthday food theme today (theme = must eat cake at every possible moment). After breakfast #1 (pumpkin pie flax-oat bran), the gym, and breakfast #2 (cake and frosting tasting), it was time for breakfast #3!

While at the gym, I got an exciting idea for carrot cake custard pudding, and I set right to work when I got home. The custard involved two grated carrots, 1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut, a chopped package of Peeled apricot-a-lot, and a chopped date:

The above ingredients got immersion-blended with an egg, baking powder, a couple splashes of soymilk, 1/4 package of silken tofu, vanilla, nutmeg, ginger, and LOTS of cinnamon. I poured the batter into two greased ramekins and baked for 20 minutes at 350.

To ice the custards, I blended some of the leftover strawberry-cake frosting from earlier today with this baby jar of Artisana walnut butter. Brillllllllllliant! But wait, by the time I finished making my carrot cake custard pudding, it was time for lunch! Hang on carrot cake, I said.

I was excited to eat lunch because I few days ago, Vani dropped off this package of organic wheat Ramen noodles for me to try. She had mentioned the noodles on her blog and offered to donate her other package to me when she saw how excited I got. I was excited because, growing up, I pretty much would not eat anything aside from Ramen noodles. We called it Ruthie Soup in my family because my cousin Ruthie loved to eat them when she was a baby. Whenever I went to a birthday party, I take along a package of Ramen because I didn’t like pizza! I thought the Ramen would be an ideal way to celebrate the first lunch of my 28th year.

While the Ramen cooked, I steamed a broccoli stalk and two sliced carrots and then sauteed them with garlic in canola oil. At the end of all that, I mixed everything together and had half for lunch over a big bed of arugula and topped with homemade parmesan and freshly ground black pepper:

This healthed-up version was not quite the Ramen I remember, but it was good enough!

My carrot cake custard pudding then became lunch dessert:

It was incredible!! It tasted a ton like carrot cake, and the frosting was sooooooooo thick:

I am excited I made two of these!

Now it’s time to head up to class with all my cakes. I hope they get eaten because I do not want to bring any of this stuff back with me. My freezer needs a break!

What needs a break in your life?

O-L-D

May 11, 2009February 6, 201534 Comments

How did this happen??? 27. Twenty-seven. twentyseven. It even looks old.

In order to make my birthday feel more like a celebration, I’ve spent the last couple of days rounding up all the things that really need to be moved along (i.e. all the frozen cake and cookie bits in my freezer) in the name of a baking experiment. Here’s the collection, separated into chocolate-based goods, fruit- and spice-based goods, and frostings.

You might be wondering how I was able to chop all of those amazing goodies and have them sitting out on the table without nibbling on them as I worked. I wasn’t.

For the first project, I very loosely used this recipe for Strawberry Layer Cake from Cooking Light. Obviously, I didn’t quite follow the recipe, especially since I had four cups of the fruity baked goods (mostly blueberry muffins, pumpkin muffins, and lime sugar cookies) to incorporate!

In addition to the extra baked goods, other changes to the cake involved 5 oz. whole wheat pastry flour in place of 10 oz. all-purpose, no sugar (there was plenty in all those cake pieces I was mixing in!) intead of 1.5 cups, 2 tbsp canola oil in place of 1/2 cup butter, 1 cup plain yogurt in place of 1 cup buttermilk, and the addition of the last 2 tbsp of homemade berry jam and 3/4 cup fruit salad. I immersion blended everything together and poured it into two sprayed 8-inch cake pans:

I also baked a mini strawberry cake so I could taste test:

It passed 😀

I almost followed the instructions for the icing. But instead of 1/3 cup cream cheese and 1/3 cup butter, I used 1/2 cup extra-strained homemade Greek yogurt. Instead of 3 cups powdered sugar, I used a red cup of jello that Myrna gave me at work last week. And instead of 2 tbsp Grand Marnier, I used 1 tbsp Amaretto. And for fun, I threw in a bunch of unsweetened shredded coconut, 1/4 block silken tofu, and some cinnamon. Taste test:

Finished:

For the second project, I (again, very loosely) used this recipe for Glazed Chocolate-Avocado Cupcakes from Vegetarian Times that I found via VeggieGirl. Once again, the recipe required some alterations as I had 3 cups of chocolate-baked goods to use!

Changes involved using 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour in place of 1.5 cups all-purpose flour, 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder in place of 3/4 cup, and no maple syrup (once again, the 3 cups of chocolate goodies had enough sugar!). I immersion-blended everything together and spooned the super super fudgy batter into 30 paper-lined mini-cupcake cups:

Obviously, a taste test was in order for these, too.

Successfully chocolatey and fudgy!

I followed the instructions for the glaze, except I used chocolate from various scraps I had around that were most definitely not vegan, including the rest of my Newman’s Own Organics Dark Chocolate Orange bar. Finished:

Frosting these cakes became birthday breakfast #2 (birthday breakfast #1 was pumpkin pie flax-oat bran) after I got back from the gym this morning. You can rest assured that quite a significant portion of the frosting made its way into my mouth! One of the perks of being the birthday girl and the baker on the same day 😀

Thank goodness I have class tonight and can hopefully unload all of this decadence there!

Who is your favorite person to feed?

One down …

May 10, 2009February 6, 201518 Comments

I’m almost there! Just one more paper due Thursday, and I will be temporarily free. Plus, since I got tomorrow’s paper done already, I will be free to spend my birthday lazing around and feeling sorry for my elderly status before I have to go to class 😛

Today, however, is NOT my birthday (although one premature facebook “happy birthday” seems to have started a chain of people unintentionally wishing me happy birthday a day early). Today is Mother’s Day and my sister Allison’s birthday! Soooooo …

Here I am with my mama in December:

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom! I love you.

And here I am with my Allie, meeting our first niece, Ella, in 2005:

sf ella allie smile

Happy happy birthday, Allie! I love you, too 🙂

Unfortunately, I could not spend the day with either of these two ladies, as one is in Massachusetts, one is in San Francisco, and I am in New York! Instead, I spent the day writing a paper and fueling my way through the drudgery in the following manner. (Once again, this is an incomplete representation of all I ate, so don’t start to panic that I’ve stopped expanding or anything. Expansion is still
quite in progress. Excellent.)

Today’s overnight breakfast cookie actually involved the last 2/3 cup cooked couscous-lentil mix from dinner at Quercy. Because the couscous was already cookied and quite moist, I needed to add dry things! Into the cookie went a package of freeze-dried strawberries and bananas from Just Tomatoes (it was sooooo hard to keep from eating all of these straight out of the package — they were delicious and crunchy and perfect), 2 tbsp dry milk, and 1 tbsp homemade pineapple-coconut-ginger peanut butter. My plan worked, and the cookie had firmed up successfully by this morning.

I frosted my cookie with a mix of plain yogurt and Artisana cacao bliss, and I topped it with fruit salad:

Later, I had the rest of my spicy spicy Indian food mixed with lots of yogurt and arugula. I sopped up the sauce and yogurt left in the bowl with some pieces of cornbread liberated from the freezer:

In the afternoon, I had some pumpkin pie flax pudding with a dollop of the two butters of the day:

I also did some serious baking in honor of the three special occasions going on, but more details will be arriving tomorrow. Just know that I ate a lot of batter.

“Dinner” at this point ended up being more pumpkin pie flax pudding with oat bran immersion-blended in, chopped strawberries, and the two famous butters once again:

Are you celebrating special days this month?

Tales of Expansion: Baby Butternut Edition

A Natural(ish) Parenting & Food Blog

Tag: fruit

Souvenirs

Can it be true?

Caked

O-L-D

One down …

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: