Tag: tea

Not gone yet!

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For breakfast this morning, the leftover pineapple-ricotta-pie-turned-pumpkin-pie-pudding made yet another appearance! Mom and I decided that it might work well in oatmeal pancake form, so I added 1/2 cup rolled oats, 1/4 cup fat free cottage cheese, the rest of the candied ginger, a bit of baking powder, and an egg white. Lest you worry that the yolk went to waste, I fed it to the cats (my mom has 5!) for their breakfast dessert: 

egg-yolk

I used two cookie sheets with canola-sprayed foil and baked the pancakes at 400 for 30ish minutes. Here they are just out of the oven:

pancakes

Set up on our plates with half an orange each and a ramekin of eggnog sauce (plain yogurt + splash of light eggnog + sprinkle of nutmeg) for topping:

2-breakfast-plates

My plate, sauced:

plate-with-sauce

It was just too pretty, and I couldn’t stop taking pictures:

sauce

This food photography is addictive! There were about 6 pancakes left, so I bagged them (eating lots of “crumbs” along the way) and put them in the freezer to take back to Brooklyn with me this weekend. Expect to see these guys again sometime soon!

Repurposing leftovers, part 3 (and finally caught up!)

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It is Monday night, and I am actually posting my Monday night food … finally on schedule!

Before I get around to my dinner concoction, I present to you the most re-gifted item from my family’s 2008 holiday season. This little guy started off as a present from my stepmom’s brother to his mother. Mere hours later, step-grandma had it rewrapped and waiting in my present pile. The trend continued when he reappeared at the Hannukah swap yesterday as my contribution. Unfortunately, the lucky recipient left him behind, so we seem to be stuck with him. Here’s my mom demonstrating his impressive jellybean-pooping skills:

sheep1

sheep3sheep41

I ate the jellybean :-).

For dinner, I attacked the leftovers once more. Yesterday, we had crudites: veggies1

 

 

 

And tonight, I roasted all the leftover raw veggies (carrots, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, and radishes) along with half a turnip I found in the bin, olive oil, red wine vinegar, sea salt, and freshly ground black pepper. Here’s the result: 

veggies-roasted

Leftover lettuce topped with the roasted veggies, feta, and a sprinkling of chopped chestnuts I also found lurking in the fridge.

 Seconds (roasted veggies + feta):

seconds2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For dessert, we had more pumpkin pie pudding from this morning’s project and a square of the apple-cranberry pie, also left over from yesterday:

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With decaf Earl Grey on the side:

dessert

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grand total of eliminated containers of leftovers for the day: 10!!!

Repurposing leftovers (yay!)

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This morning, I woke up still full from last night. Seems to be a theme lately! My dad picked me up around 8am for another trip to the gym. We treadmilled together and then moved onto some weights. When I got home, I set right to work on my project for the day: repurposing leftovers from the party! Again, I have a crazy preoccupation with making sure that all food goes to good use. We had soooo much left over from yesterday — the fridge shelves were overflowing, and I just knew that things would start getting lost behind other things and rotting if I didn’t take action quickly.

My first order of business was to find a more palatable form for my mom’s failed pineapple-ricotta pie. Something had tasted a little too bitter in the pie (perhaps lemon zest?), so I needed to find a way to counteract the offensive flavor. I tossed all the left over pieces into a big bowl:

pineapple-bowl

I added 3/4 a can of pumpkin, unsweetened applesauce leftover from yesterday’s latkes, a ripe banana, and loads of cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Then, I subjected the mess to an immersion blender:

blending

I added a bag of cranberries and spread the whole thing in a roasting pan to bake for 30 minutes at 400.

baking

The final result? Breakfast! Delicious warm pumpkin pie pudding, topped with fat free cottage cheese and served alongside my standard tea (more Nutcracker Sweet today) with skim.

breakfast1

Yum!

Back on the wagon

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I woke up the morning after Christmas bright-eyed and ready to listen to my body’s hunger cues, yayyyy! I started with a mug of Celestial Seasonings Nutcracker Sweet tea (mmmm!) with skim.

tea

My dad was planning to pick me up on his way to the gym around 11, so I just had a light snack when my stomach started to get a little rumbly:

grapes!

grapes!

My mom and stepdad decided last minute to come along for the gym excursion. Here I am during the cardio portion of the workout with mom and dad:

gym

Back at the house, my mom heated up some of her special oatmeal for brunch:

with yogurt and cinnamon on the side

with yogurt and cinnamon on the side

She can never remember what’s in her oatmeal since she just throws in whatever she can get her hands on, but we’re pretty sure it contained the following: bananas (obviously), pears, oat groats, quinoa, millet, walnuts, cumin (try it!), pumpkin pie spice, turmeric, allspice, fresh cranberries, and an itty bit of masala curry powder. It was delicious!

There’s always such an abundance of produce when I’m visiting home, so I went back and refilled my bowl with some freshly cut pineapple:

pineapple

We had big plans to go to my dad’s house for a very blended family dinner (dad, stepmom, dad’s sister Mary, mom, stepdad), so I just had a couple of snackies throughout the rest of the afternoon:

apples and cinnamon with a T of almond butter

apples and cinnamon with a T of almond butter

 

fresh veggies with Hannukah well underway in the background

fresh veggies with Hannukah well underway in the background

 Next up: one crazy family dinner!

Two new things:

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A digital camera and a blog — neither of which I quite know how to use yet! Please be patient with me during this period of experimental posting :-). Let’s begin with a sampling of treats from Christmas day, mmmmm …

Following family tradition, I stayed at my dad’s house Christmas Eve night, up in the guest room with my Aunt Mary. We woke up bright and early around 8:30am and chatted about the mysterious footsteps we heard in the middle of the night. Ghosts?? Sufficiently spooked, we headed downstairs to start poking around for breakfast.

I started with a steamy and festive mug of Earl Grey tea with skim:

earl-grey3

I found out that my stepmom was planning to heat up a couple of quiches. Not being a quiche girl, I set to work making fruit salad for everyone (using fruit left over from dessert the night before!) and oatmeal for me.

oatmeal plus about 2 cups of fruit salad with nonfat vanilla yogurt

My spread: oatmeal plus about 2 cups of fruit salad with nonfat vanilla yogurt

Obligatory zoom on the oats, made with fresh cranberries, 1/2 banana, more vanilla yogurt, a crumbled gingersnap thin, and a hidden spoonful of pb!

Obligatory zoom on the oats, made with fresh cranberries, 1/2 banana, more vanilla yogurt, a crumbled gingersnap thin, and a hidden spoonful of pb!

We got to opening presents, and somehow this tin appeared on my lap. I had one and quickly removed them from my sight!

cookies

Knowing we were headed for an enormous dinner at my stepmom’s family’s house, I tried to restrain myself for the rest of the morning/afternoon with probably 7 more mugs of tea and these:

Small handful of baby carrots (x5!!)

Small handful of baby carrots (x5!!)