Stress Relief
As I turned the lights off in my kitchen yesterday night it was hard to imagine that just hours before it had been a crazy mess of food and dirty dishes.
Now all that was left behind were neatly packed containers and the smell of pumpkin and garlic.
Also left behind was any stress I had been feeling earlier in the day.
Yes, I cooked away my stress with quinoa wraps for the next day’s lunch
I made these by cooking 1/4 cup quinoa, then splitting it in half and mixing one with pesto and the other with tomatoes, basil and hummus. I then cut an Ezekial wrap in half, spread one half with pesto quinoa and the other with hummus pesto then rolled them both up.
Secure with toothpicks
Wanna know what else relieves my stress? Knowing I don’t have to take up an extra minute of my already hectic Wednesday morning to peel carrots.
Ever wondered what yellow carrots taste like? Almost exactly like orange carrots. Bummer, I was hoping for something more exciting!
Eating a yellow carrot in a yellow shirt is quite fun, however.
Next on the menu for stress relief: making the best mashed potatoes ever (compliments of Angela)
Wash and chop potatoes then throw them in a pot of water and cook on low-medium heat till tender. I think mine took about 45 minutes.
Meanwhile process 2 cans of navy beans (or 1 can if that’s all you have) + 5 cloves of garlic + 1 tsp each of salt and paprika.
Move over mini there’s a new processor in town! He may be 30 years old young and technically belong to my mom but nevermind that for now.
OH.MY.GOD. Did this really go from this
to this in a matter of seconds?!
I swear I was this close to crying tears of joy. My mini processor does NOT work like this bad boy.
Once you’ve recovered from processor shock and the potatoes are done mash them with some milk of choice and butter of choice. The add in the bean mixture and try not to eat the whole bowl.
These will be making an appearance at dinner tomorrow.
And with the completion of my next few meals my stress vanished, leaving me free to enjoy today’s eats without a care in the world.
Of course there were oats
And peaches
And snacks
And althought it’s not Monday and therefore shouldn’t be Bean O’Clock I ate a big bowl anyways!
What’s less stressful than popping open the freezer and thawing dinner?
Nothing, I say!
How do you relieve stress?
What’s a girl to do
When she has zero homework and 40 free minutes?
Make the next day’s dinner ahead of time, of course!
I’ve seen so much pumpkin floating around the blogosphere lately that I knew I needed to get me some and incorporate it into my cooking. Not that that Pumpkin Spice Latte yesterday morning wasn’t enough pumpkin (or caffeine, for that matter).
Thank you Rachel for making pumpkin pasta look too creamy and delicious to turn down.
The recipe, which you can find here, called for 4 cups of dry penne. This box claimed it contained 6 cups of dry pasta. I didn’t believe it’s lies, so I bought an extra box just in case.
Turns out it had atleast 4, but…
There was NOT 2 cups left in that box. They shorted me a whole cup of pasta. I want my money back.
It wasn’t Libby’s but at least it was organic. And at least I could find pumpkin at all!
I wonder what a sinkfull of spinach is equivalent to
I wonder why I bought this crappy can opener…
Believe me, you’ll want to dive into this sauce
I told you.
Here’s where things got a little messed up.
I was supposed to use a 4-quart dish and used a 2-quart instead. I also thought the layers were noodles, spinach, noodles, spinach. Turns out I had one to many layers of spinach. I could have just taken it off, but I had already gone through the trouble of washing and shredding it, plus a little extra spinach never hurt anyone, right?
Now all that needs to be done is the baking part. I probably won’t be home till semi-late (in terms of dinner eating) so I left these lovely directions for Joey. Now I can come home to a piping hot dinner 🙂
Speaking of dinner, what’s a girl to do when her boyfriend’s dad sends out a dinner invitation followed by a Rockies game?
Insist on going to Vine Street Pub, of course.
Her beer — 8 oz. Annapurna Amber
His beer — 16 oz. of something gross (he he)
I went halvsies on the “Boom Boom Sandwich” — portabello, roasted red pepper, mozzarella, greens, some kind of mayo sauce. Both times I’ve been to Vine I’ve ended up making a total mess while eating. I was dripping sauces everywhere and my napkin was near soaking.
Food this good is worth the mess!
Joey got the Basil Blue Burger. It’s a blue cheese and basil sauce on top a burger. The sauce was pretty.darn.good!
What’s a girl to do when the Rockies are already down 2 by the time you get to the game?
Ignore the game and admire the scenery.
Apparently this sign is hilarious because if you did trespass onto the field you’d have to fall down a 20 foot drop first.
Happy, Joey?
What’s a girl to do when she gets home and it’s already passed her bedtime?
Crash into bed 🙂
8 is Great
Aren’t you amazed by my title creativity? I know, me too. Clearly my 8 mile run went well, but we’ll get to that later.
We won’t, however, be getting to pictures from Proto’s because that outing never actually occurred. Sad, I know but it just didn’t work out. We settled for breakfast the next morning instead.
Welcome to Louisville
Obviously we dined at The Huckleberry. We’ve been going here as long as I can remember, even back when it was another restaurant but it’s always maintained that quaint calm atmosphere that keeps us coming back for more.
Did you see that guy looking out the window at me like I was crazy for taking pictures? No, you missed that? Better go have a second look.
Another thing that keeps MANY people coming back (I assume) are their mixed berry crepes. Thanks for allowing me to take pictures of your breakfast, Mom.
Mom: “Take a picture of mine because it’s the best”
Joey and I surprised ourselves by ordering scramlettes that we guessed the other person would have chosen.
Mr. Mexican Lover ordered the Garden Scramlette
Miss Veggie Lover ordered the Mexican Scramlette
With a side of green chili, generously shared by Beanie.
Talk about delicious biscuits. But really, what biscuits aren’t delicious?
Came home and threw all this in the crock pot.
How cool looking is okra? I’ve only seen okra in the south so it was much to my surprise/excitement when I saw these at the FM
A good boyfriend knows when to lend a helping hand so blogger girlfriend can get a picture of her crock pot in natural light.
Okay so I stole this recipe from Kath and she called it Smoky Bean Soup but I’ve decided on So Long to Summer Soup
Her directions said to leave the crock pot on low for 4 hours. Due to a combination of forgetfulness and beans that didn’t seem to want to cook I left mine on low for about 6 hours… and the beans still could have been softer if you ask me!
Blame my forgetfulness on the fact that I did an 8 mile run and after that all brain power disappeared.
- Mile 1 – 10:05
- Mile 2 – 9:45
- Mile 3 – 9:54
- Mile 4 – 9:56
- Mile 5 – 12:12
- Mile 6 – 9:55
- Mile 7 – 10:06
- Mile 8 – 9:57
We finished in 1:21:55 and we had estimated an hour and 20 minutes so we were pretty much spot on. Obviously something happened during mile 5. Turns out it was pretty hot and my legs started to tingle. Rather than risk passing out we just decided to take a little walking break. Once we started running again and I realized we only had a measly 5K left, I was good to go!
I came home and jumped in the shower proceeded to take embarrassing pictures of myself standing in the bathroom, dripping sweat and giving a thumbs up but upon further review of the pictures I just couldn’t allow myself to post them.
Two grocery stores and wayyy too many bags of bulk food later and we had cooled down enough to really enjoy our bowls of fall soup 🙂
Ohhh this was good. We used some tortilla chips for scooping and you better believe I devoured that bowl.
Commence self-imposed isolation so I can finish The Mill on the Floss. This will be completion of book #3 this semester and it’s only the beginning of the 4th week of school!
Enjoy the few precious minutes left of your weekend 🙂
Lauren Loves Good Food 