Bitter
First and foremost, A BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY DAD! LOVE YOU, DAD 🙂
No, the title of this post does not refer to me. Although, I can be known to be bitter at times. Today, however I was referring to my eats.
I tried something… wierd? different? unique? out there? Yeah, I think it would qualify as all of the above.
Don’t judge.
I blame Gena for having tried this Raw Banana Breakfast Sushi. Call me crazy, but I woke up Wednesday morning and peanut butter covered beet greens just sounded good.
Alright, that really does sound crazy.
I used one banana and 3 smaller beet leaves, each spread with a different nut butter.
That would be maple cinnamon almond butter on the far left, regular peanut butter in the middle and chocolate hazelnut butter on the far right.
Maybe you’re thinking this is the part where it tell you it was gross and beet greens don’t belong in a breakfast recipe but surprisingly, it was good!
Really, though, what isn’t good coated in nut butter?
I probably should have read the leaf folding tutorial better though. Mine did not look like Gena’s.
I don’t know how often I could eat this breakfast though. I missed my oats and I missed being held over until lunch without a snack.
P.S. The stem of beet greens is sliiightly bitter, hence the post title.
I kinda want to eat them with peanut butter like celery. Weird?
Want to know what’s more than slightly bitter?
Blood oranges.
Yeah, remember this little beauty?
It’s gross.
This is where it ended up. You can find the recipe here, but after I complain about it I’m guessing you won’t really be dying to get the recipe.
Beet, Blood Orange, Kumquat, and Quinoa Salad.
I was bitter about the fact that I didn’t read the directions very well and stirred the beets in instead of putting them on top. I mean red food is fun-looking and all but it doesn’t make for the best pictures.
It looked better with some avocado on top, though!
When I took my first bite I was confronted with an extremely bitter taste. Bleh! I ended up picked all the orange pieces out but I could still taste it. If you like grapefruit, by all means, go ahead and make this.
Good thing I had some vegan chocolate banana bread to wash it down with 🙂
On the school front:
I learned about carbs, proteins and fats. Did you know you burn fat when you’re at rest and carbs when you’re active and when you run about of carbs you start burning protein? Okay, maybe you did.
Also, my teacher was talking about how we have to do a blood panel for our class project and as he was telling us about how to ensure that you don’t pass out after you get your blood drawn, a kid in the back of the class fainted.
Poor kid!
Off to finish homework.
Blood Red
As I surveyed my pictures from today I realized a common thread. A red thread, if you will.
Allow me to demonstrate.
Red bowl.
I even remembered the vegan chocolate banana bread. And I was so glad I did.
Mmmmm. A spoonful (of banana bread or peanut butter or both) goes a long long way.
Oh and before consuming this bowl I did a 3-mile run and bolted back to my apartment because I was so hungry. Believe it or not, this hunger was a welcome sensation as my early morning appetite has suddenly disappeared and eating when I don’t feel hungry actually makes me feel really cranky.
By the way, I lost my mind this morning and mixed some walnuts into my oatmeal.
Yeah, I know I’ve been complaining about hating walnuts and pecans but after loving the nut loaf I though I’d go a step further and add some walnuts to my breakfast. Plus I’ve realized I need a mix in that I can enjoy in every spoonful.
Coated in oatmeal, chocolate and peanut butter they weren’t too bad!
Can I just say I love not having class until 2 in the afternoon? It’s true.
I got to read an article called “Unhappy Meals” by Michael Pollan. I got lost at times but his basic argument (“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”) is something I can totally get behind and I loved the part where he explains what he means by “food.” You can read the article here. And then you can do my homework assignment for me here. Okay, that’s not really a link.
After reading about real food I was inspired to make some.
I’ve been trying to find a way to wash quinoa for months. Joey suggested trying our produce bags. Genius!!
And now my life is complete.
With that obstacle conquered I moved on to some blood oranges.
Talk about bright and beautiful!
And I tackled another bright and beautiful food: the beet. No, it wasn’t the first time cooking beets but it was the first time I cooked it and it came the way I wanted it to.
I’ll share with you the answer to cooking the perfect beet, my friends, because I, myself, was quite excited.
Steaming.
If you already knew how to steam a beet, pretend you didn’t and I’ll pretend I just blew your mind with the answer.
Simply place the beets (with “tails” trimmed and leafs removed) in a casserole dish and cover with water then cover the dish with foil and bake on 350 for an hour. The skin peeled off sooo easily. I was giddy with delight.
If only I knew the answer to getting rid of beet stains on my hands. I’m sure looking like you just murdered someone is the way to make friends in your new classes.
You’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see where those blood oranges and beets went. I’m cruel, I know.
Work leftovers = nut loaf and brussels.
Brussels cooked in olive oil just aren’t as good as brussels cooked in coconut oil.
Maybe it was the fact that I had to stare at this note on the new plastic olive oil bottle.
That Joey is a comedian, I tell ya.
I also brought some carrots to snack on and wondered why carrots that haven’t been peeled taste so crappy. Am I alone in thinking so?
It’s 11 PM, my head hurts and I’m exhausted! One class will do that to a girl 😛
Happy Wednesday!
Cauli-flower
I survived the first day of school. But just barely. Let the stress begin!…for one more semester EVER.
I nixed my morning workout because the roads were snowy and the highway was at a crawl so I knew I needed to leave extra extra early.
Plus I needed time to enjoy some oats.
I think I need to lay off the chocolate oats. Normal oats aren’t tasting sweet enough lately…
Don’t remind me I said that when you see me eating chocolate oats later this week.
I meant to crumble some vegan chocolate banana bread over my oats but I totally forgot. Oops! There’s always tomorrow.
Between class and work I go from 11-7 on Mondays so I needed some good lunch fuel.
Cue the nut loaf.
I can’t get over how good this is! I think I’ll cry when the leftovers run out.
We ate this last night with cauliflower. Are you a fan of cauliflower? I love eating it raw and dipping it in hummus but when it’s cooked it tends to be a little flavorless/lackluster/gross, take your pick.
But!…
This cauliflower recipe was awesome. I remember my mom making “mashed potatoes” out of cauliflower a few times when I was younger and I always loved it. This recipe just takes it up one more notch!
Smooth & Simple Mashed Cauliflower:
Ingredients:
- 1 head of cauliflower
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
- Steam cauliflower till extremely soft.
- Puree in a food processor with coconut oil and nutritional yeast. Scrape down sides as necessary.
- Add salt and pepper to your liking.
So easy and it results in some seriously smooth “mashed potatoes.”
I think even a cauliflower hater would like these.
Tales from the first day of the semester:
- I left my apartment at 9:15 and made it to class by 11. I hate you, public transportation.
- I thought I was taking contemporary women writers but it turns out I’m taking “Topics in Advanced Theory: Music, Networks and Digital Media,” which doesn’t sound nearly as fun.
- I’m taking a class called “Hip Hop Poetics” and we have a class DJ and a class MC and my teacher definitely performed some Rapper’s Delight midway through class.
- I walked into my “Health & Nutrition” class and board said “What should I eat?” so I can already tell I’m going to like that class!
I don’t have class till 2 PM today so running will be done!
Lauren Loves Good Food 