The Dangers of Undercompensating

Can an elaborate and tasty breakfast be assembled at 7 am in a library?

Why yes, it can.

For some reason I’m always afraid overnight oats won’t keep me full till lunch.  They always do but still I have that fear!  I think it’s because they don’t leave me as immediately stuffed as hot oats do.

Lunch was the opposite of breakfast.  As in it never filled me and I was starving an hour later.  I knew I hadn’t packed much of a lunch but I was feeling lazy Monday night and knew I only needed something to hold me over for one more class.

Greens with heirloom tomato

And dressing-in-a-baggy

Plus a Gala apple and hummus.  I broke down and bought a giant container of Tribe.  I couldn’t help it!  Oh and these apples from the FM are SO good!!

In short, I’m an idiot for thinking this would hold me over.  I raced home to Whole Foods because I need arborio rice for dinner

But because I was hungry I ended up with more than what I went for…

THEN I raced home and proceeded to stuff myself with cereal while I waited for this to chill in the freezer.

Cereal = best snack ever.  Gotta love that crunch!

After removing all traces of hunger I popped in and out of the gym in 10 minutes.  I prefer my lifting sessions to be short and sweet.

Dinner involved this baby.

And this recipe.

I cut the butternut in half, peeled the skin off, sprinkled it with s & p and baked it on 400* for ~50 minutes inside up.  Then I ate a few pieces right out of the oven.  Yum yum yum!

I’ve never actually made my own risotto from scratch so it was quite the event!  I started out with 1/4 cup onion, 1 garlic clove and 1/2 cup of rice in a skillet with a little evoo.  Meanwhile I had a pot of veggie broth and water (1 cup broth, 1/2 cup water) simmering.  I added 1/4 cup white wine to the rice and waited for the liquid to absorb then added the broth mixture 1/3 cup at a time, waiting for the liquid to absorb before adding more.

You end up with a thick, gooey ricey concoction that smells awesome.

As the rice was finishing up I was slicing the squash plus 3/4 lb. cremini mushrooms.  Then I threw them in a pot with evoo, salt and spinach.

Final step: Top the risotto with the mushroom/squash mix plus a dash of thyme and parmesan if you have it one hand (we didn’t, of course).

The dangers of undercompensating during lunch are that you will OVERcompensate once you get home and not be hungry for dinner till after 8 pm.  Oops!  Dinner was good nonetheless.  The squash, despite being delicious on its own, tasted a little weird mixed with the risotto and mushrooms.  Oh and I also ended up adding an extra 1/4 cup rice because I had a hungry boyfriend on hand.

Ever made risotto from scratch?