WIAW: Best of Breakfast
Happy Birthday to my big brother, Gabe!
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Oh hey, it’s that time of the week again.
Go thank our hostess and check out the other WIAW partiers.
This may come as a huge shock to you, but…
I love breakfast. Like a lot. Can you believe there are people out there who don’t even eat breakfast? (I’m looking at you, Mom) And can you believe I even used to be one of those people??
Actually, even I don’t remember not eating breakfast. Maybe I always have eaten breakfast, but seeing as I can’t remember what I used to eat, it clearly wasn’t very good.
My how things have changed.
When your boyfriend brings home red velvet cheesecake, throw it on some oatmeal and call it breakfast.
Friends, there’s a very thin line between breakfast and dessert. Very thin.
And for me it gets thinner every day.
While I’ve stopped doing the whole “Surprise, here’s another bowl of oatmeal I had for breakfast” thing, I still secretly snap pictures on an (almost) daily basis.
You know, in case someone should doubt that I actually eat a giant satisfying breakfast.
Or if I need a reminder as to why breakfast is the best meal of the day.
Hot oatmeal has been sneaking in lately.
I could lie and pretend it’s because it’s been rainy or chilly or something, but really it’s because I’m too lazy to throw oats, milk and flax in a jar at the end of the day.
My energy is replenished enough by morning time to cook up some oats on the stove.
Toppings should always be a plenty.
Overnight oats topped with crumb cake, granola and peanut butter.
Like really a plenty.
Sometimes a girl just needs to go back for more toppings.
Aforementioned toppings plus homemade jam and coconut butter.
And when oatmeal is too labor intensive, there’s always pancakes.
Which only requires staring at the stove and patiently waiting… oh wait, that’s exactly how oatmeal works too…
Doughy pancakes, layered with homemade jam and granola and topped with chocolate hazelnut butter, maple syrup and what-do-ya-know, more jam.
Watch out for that nut butter waterfall. It’ll get you.
Please ignore the watery milky overnight oats. I clearly don’t know how to adjust my oatmeal to milk ratios.
Instead, focus on how the amount of peanut butter in my breakfast has slowly but surely increasing.
And I’m totally okay with it.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned this week, it’s that I need to be reading this blog.
CCK’s Snickerdoodle Cookie Pancakes.
Katie wasn’t kidding about this recipe making “super-fat pancakes.”
And then this happened.
Chocolate hazelnut butter, almond milk and maple syrup microwaved for a few seconds and mixed together.
And then some granola found its way in there.
Healthy never tasted so decadent.
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What’s the best breakfast you’ve had recently?
Weekend Recap: 4th of July Festivities
GOOD MORNING!
I’m clearly in a good mood (and/or buzzing on my new addiction: iced coffee sweetened with vanilla and a splash of soy milk). I just went on a lovely 4-mile run and caught up on everyone’s holiday weekend happenings. I firmly believe happiness is infectious, so reading about all the fun everyone had has certainly added to my good mood. Let me pass on the love 🙂
Tomato salad, courtesy of my mom.
Let me be honest and admit that I’m guilty of having big expectations for the 4th of July every year, only to be disappointed when rain pours and plans fall through and I end up spending the night bored at home. This year was different.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my (almost) 22 years on this Earth it’s that:
Big expectations —-> big let down.
So this 4th of July I just went with the flow. No plans, no expectations. Just a positive attitude.
And good food!
Oh pancakes, how I missed you.
And since it was a holiday and all (and yes, the whole weekend counted as a holiday), I decided to let loose.
Soda? Who am I??
I felt like the 4th of July wasn’t complete without some cold cream soda. And hey, the ingredient list wasn’t half bad.
And while I’m usually against frozen packaged foods, I couldn’t resist these.
Or this.
This should last me all of a week.
Sunday night dinner (hey, I cooked!) consisted of burgers and watermelon.
These chickpea burgers are hands down the best bean burgers I’ve ever made. Joey agrees.
And yes, yes that is the famous garlic scape pesto.
Nothing says summer like fresh juicy watermelon.
And because I hadn’t gotten crazy enough with the cream soda and frozen fries, I went ahead and had a bratwurst on Monday.
“Lauren, you don’t eat meat!”
“Au contraire, mon frère ami!”
Bratwurst = 4th of July staple.
Red, white and blue potato salad.
After chowing down on some BBQ goodies, the family and I ventured into Boulder to catch the fireworks show at Folsom Field (the University of Colorado football stadium).
It was actually a lot of fun!
We participated in a giant sing-a-long.
Why is there a wolf on the stage?
Watched Ralphie the Buffalo (#1 mascot represent!) run across the field.
Whoops, blurry!
And enjoyed a spectacular fireworks show, albeit one with the worst accompanying playlist ever.
And it was at this point that I realized trying to get firework pictures was just a waste of time.
Enjoying fireworks in real time > trying to get a decent photograph of them.
It’s going to be a great (and short!) week, my friends. I’m off to turn in some paperwork at our new apartment (hurray!) then to get my haircut (double hurray!) before leaving for our trip to Santa Fe at the end of the week (yet one more hurray!).
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What did you do this weekend/4th of July?
What puts you in a good mood?
A Kale Horror Story
Hello, friends. I hope you’re all out enjoying this holiday weekend and not inside reading blog posts. Except maybe this one. I’ll keep it short, I promise.
Joey and I visited no less than 7 apartment complexes yesterday hoping to find somewhere to move. I think we found a winner but I’ll fill you in on the details when we know more.
But enough about apartments. Let’s talk about kale.
This salad looks good doesn’t it?
Last weekend, Joey and I picked up some kale at the FM. Upon first seeing it, I exclaimed “Ew, it’s covered in cobweb!” to which Joey assured me it was “no big deal” and we could “just wash it off.”
Fast forward to Wednesday when I spent at least half an hour detangling cobweb or cotton or something gross from my kale.
And then another 15 minutes pulling strands of cottonweb (yeah, I did just make up a new word) from the salad as I tried to toss it.
And yet another half an hour of de-cottonwebbing while I attempted to eat this salad at work.
Thank goodness no one was watching. Or at least I hope they weren’t.
I’m mostly bummed because this salad had the makings of a masterpiece.
- Raisins
- Cashews (subbed for walnuts)
- Sesame seeds (subbed for hemp seeds)
- Celery (subbed for carrots)
- Tahini-lemon dressing
- Bell pepper
- Tomatoes
- Cucumbers (don’t even get me started on the bitter cucumbers that I also picked out)
And because it looked great.
And mostly I’m bummed because I don’t think I can ever eat kale again.
At least not for a while.
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Have you ever had a bad experience that turned you off of a certain food? I still cringe when I think of drinking gazpacho out of a Styrofoam cup in the 4th grade. I’ve hated it every since.
What are your 4th of July plans/how was your Canada Day (for my Canadian readers out there :))? Despite the fact that it’s been rainy and uneventful for as long as I can remember, I always get excited for the 4th of July. I think it has something to do with my birthday being so close behind it!
Lauren Loves Good Food 