Reading List
I went through this stage where I “hated reading.”
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn? Oh please, I had better things to be doing during high school. Like eating Oreos dipped in peanut butter for breakfast with my girlfriends. Even then my peanut butter addiction had no bounds.
It’s funny that after “hating reading” for so long, I ended up as an English major. Who practically lived, breathed and ate books. Figuratively speaking, although if a book was dipped in peanut butter I might consider eating it.
Eventually, I went back to my roots. My 8-year old “I have to finish just one more chapter of Sweet Valley High before I go to bed” roots and have fully embraced my literature loving self. So when I finally finished Atlas Shrugged on Sunday morning (please don’t look back to see when I started reading that book, I’ll be embarrassed and it would probably take you hours to look back that far), I was at a loss because I had nothing to read next. The horror.
Solution: Phone call to Mom.
Now I have a list.
I have another list, too.
Things I’m not reading:
- Anything longer than 600 pages… tops
- Anything by Jane Austen
- Anything with political undertones
- Anything about sparkly vampires or love sick teens who can’t have physical contact because they might be tempted to drink each others’ blood
- Anything by Alice Sebold — sorry to all you fans, but The Lovely Bones was thee worst book I’ve ever read…period
Everything else is fair game.
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Have you read any of the above books?
Do you have any other recommendations?
Do you enjoy reading? I believe everyone likes to read, it just might not be novels 🙂
Meal Plan Monday
How was everyone’s weekend?
I’m not proud to admit that I didn’t turn my camera on once all weekend. And it wasn’t because I didn’t do anything fun. Friday night I went to dinner and then saw the Lion King musical at the Buell Theater in Denver. In a word, it was amazing. Probably tied with Rent for the best show I’ve seen at the Buell. And if you know how much I love Rent, you know that’s really saying something.
And yesterday I went to a baby shower for a co-worker turned friend. It made me feel old. And made me wish I was better at identifying celebrities from their baby pictures.
Anyways, all lions and babies aside, I thought it would be fun to give you a sneak peek of my meal plan for this week because A) I got nothin’ else and B) Everyone likes getting meal inspiration, right?
This Week’s Meal Plan:
1. Pasta with Oven Roasted Eggplant, Goat Cheese and Mint
Mint that I may or may not have bought over a week ago. Don’t judge.
Also, I frequent this blog more than you’d probably like to know. Can you say obsessed?
2. Creamy White Chicken Bean Chili + “Cowgirl Cornbread”
For the chili, I just nix the chicken. It’s seriously delicious, therefore, I double it.
And the cornbread is from the Peas and Thank You cookbook.
3. Cornbread Dressing with Tempeh Bacon, Cherries & Portabella mushrooms + baked sweet potatoes + broccoli
Is it portobello or portabella? I never know.
Nothing competes with my mom’s stuffing, aka hands-down my favorite food…ever, so if I’m making stuffing it has to be completely different from hers. Tempeh bacon probably sounds like blasphemy to her, so I think it’s safe to say they’ll be no way to compare the two.
4. Roasted Pumpkin Quiche with Caramelized Onions, Gorgonzola and Sage + Fall Kale Salad
Like I said… obsessed.
I could not for the life of me remember why I had kale on my grocery list and almost didn’t buy it. Luckily I did!
5. BBQ Chickpea Pizza + green beans
In the game of “Do I buy what’s in season, or do I buy what’s cheapest?” cheapest usually wins, hence the green beans. Or maybe they are in season?? I’m clueless.
And the pizza was solely a ploy to use my new pizza pan. Plus that pizza is just awesome.
I’m making an effort to repeat recipes lately. So many times we make something we truly love and never see it again because my “recipes to make” list is too long. I’m learning that remaking things we know we like it totally acceptable.
Happy Monday!
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What was the best part of your weekend?
What do you plan on making this week?
Do you repeat meals often?
Double Chocolate Mint Cookies
I’m having all sorts of epiphanies today.
Epiphany #1 being: I suck at to do lists.
I made one full of things I need to do this week on Monday and out of 10 things, I have two crossed off. It’s only Friday, right?
But I did make cookies and so what if that wasn’t on the list.
Epiphany #2: If it’s snowing, I’m baking.
And as I perused all my recipe sources and sipped my tea I came to perhaps the most important epiphany of the day.
Epiphany #3: Peppermint rocks.
And I realized I needed to venture out into the snow for peppermint extract. No, it couldn’t wait till tomorrow — see epiphany #2.
And in the end I had 24 fudgy mint cookies that I then had to hide from myself. Word to the wise, that trick doesn’t work.
Double Chocolate Mint Cookies
Adapted from here.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp peppermint extract
- 1 1/2 cup AP flour
- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour*
- 1/2 cup cocoa
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips*
Method:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Whisk pumpkin and sugar together. Add eggs and peppermint.
- Add flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt and mix with a wooden spoon.*
- Mix in chocolate chips then wet your hands and roll dough into 24 small balls. Place dough balls on the baking sheets and flatten slightly.
- Bake 9-10 minutes then let cool for 5 minutes.
*I used 1/2 cup whole wheat flour because I ran out of AP, but you can totally use 2 cups of regular old flour.
*I used 1/4 cup regular chocolate chips and 1/4 cup white chocolate chips, which means I divided the dough into 2 at the end and mixed the chips into the separate chunks of dough. You can use whatever chips you want!
*Put some elbow grease into the mixing or use a electric mixer if you have one. I don’t know about you but my sole motivation for strength training is being able to mix batters/dough by hand.
Epiphany #4: You don’t need butter to bake.
Which is good because I used my daily butter allowance while trying to create pumpkin pie oatmeal.
The pumpkin gives the cookies a fluffy effect, which looks cool and tastes even better. You should make them because they taste like the holidays.
And like I said, peppermint rocks.
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What is your favorite cookie flavor? I’m an old-fashioned chocolate chip oatmeal girl myself, but even I like a little change now and then.
Have you ever used pumpkin in a baked good? You know, other than in pumpkin bread.
Happy Friday!
Lauren Loves Good Food 