think before you throw out

Note to self: Find another way to get rid of chocolate cake. The trash can was a bad idea. Now every time I throw something away, I get a whiff of chocolate cake and the matching craving to go with it. Good thing there is now dirt and other trash on top of the cake or else I would have been fully capable of digging in there for a piece.

Well I did make a smoothie on Saturday morning:

But... I didn't get the chance to blend it all the way before my blender decided to crap out. Also, it had too much liquid. So between the noticeable chunks of clementine fibers and the unpleasant texture, it wasn't very satisfying.

The dead blender:

There was some rubber part that made the blender go, and every time I used it, it would leave me some nice droppings:

Good riddance, I guess.

I complemented this mediocre breakfast with a slice of bread with some peanut butter and honey. I don't get what the big deal is with that combo - didn't think it was anything spectacular.

Needless to say, I was looking forward to some better food throughout the day. I had a delicious salad out with my friend. It included: spinach, chicken, avocado, gorgonzola, bacon (which I did not eat), and a yummy dressing. Dinner was Pad Thai - always a winner!

Food-wise, Sunday is turning out okay. Breakfast wins the best-bang-for-your-buck(/Points) award: oatmeal, milk, brown sugar, and berries. So delicious and really sticks to your belly! Perhaps I should buy a microwave to be able to make some myself. Yes, I know, it is possible to make oatmeal in a saucepan, however, it requires too much effort. Yes, that's right, too much effort. I'm lazy.

Lunch was nothing spectacular: an egg, pasta, and fresh mozzarella. I added lots of paprika for flavor. The trash can smell forced me to have 2... well okay 3... well actually, 4 pieces of chocolate. And I defrosted a blondie brownie that I made a few weeks ago. But come on, how can you possibly expect me to smell chocolate every time I throw something out and not give in to my chocolate craving? Just be thankful I didn't dig through the garbage can, mmmkay?!

I will leave you with this hilarious video. It is completely unrelated to food, but absolutely worth sharing. Enjoy!

back on the wagon

Tomorrow, I'm back on the wagon. What wagon, you ask? Oh, right, I haven't told you. Well, that's because I don't like to tell people. But luckily, no people read this, so I can say it: I'm on a diet. More specifically, on Weight Watchers. And the reason I don't like to tell people is because I usually get this reaction: "but why?" Because I want to learn how to juggle, of course! (For anyone who didn't catch it, that's sarcasm.) I want to lose weight. I don't feel well at my current weight and I know that I can be smaller and feel better. However, getting to this point is hard. No one ever said it wasn't.

I haven't done well all week, but yesterday was the kicker. With those mini cupcakes shown in my last post came a lot of batter-tasting, then frosting-tasting, and followed, of course, by final-product-tasting. And there is a whole other cake that you don't even know about... well, until now. I still had a lot of coffee left so I tried another recipe. It didn't make it on yesterday's post because it was a disaster. I had no cocoa left so I substituted melted chocolate, which meant I had to reduce the shortening. (Just saying, that's a lot of tweaking...) But melted chocolate doesn't do well with cold milk because it hardens. No biggie though - I figured tiny chunks of chocolate in the batter could actually enhance the cake. What did not enhance the cake, however, were the chunks of flour that never blended in the batter. I saw them, I did, but I decided to ignore them. Laziness is not forgiven in baking and so, the cake is gross. It's not appetizing and it doesn't taste very good. Not exactly the result I was going for. The biggest problem in all of this isn't only the result of the cake, but the fact that I have actually been secretly eating it!!! *Sigh* I think this right there disqualifies me from being a "foodie." Who eats an unappetizing and not-very-good cake just because it's there!? Not a foodie! Oooh, foodie-in-me, you are too well hidden.

Pictures for the benefit of full disclosure. Look at those flour chunks, people!

I had to end the mindless cake-eating. The cake's final resting place:

I have a plan. Tomorrow morning, I am making myself a smoothie with those clementines I'm trying to finish up (yep, still working on that crate). I'll have a salad at our lunch outing, and be careful at dinner. I need to psych myself up because this week is going to be hard: I'll be on a business trip all week - in ORLANDO! Perhaps the possibility of getting into a bathing suit will scare me into a little healthy eating!? Stay tuned!

coffee anyone?

Yesterday's weather prediction of 4-6" of snow, ice, and rain turned out to be 16" of snow!! It was gorgeous and enabled me to work from home today. Which leads me to the food story of the day... bear with me, please.

I have noticed that at around 10 AM on snow mornings, the plow guy clears my parking lot. And the best way to use this knowledge is to go outside, clear off my car, and move it to a spot he has already cleared so he can fully clear "my" parking space. Everyone wins! Well there was so much snow today that I couldn't just back out of my spot but actually had to clear some of the snow behind my car and tires. Not so easy without a shovel, but I dug in with my hands. Seeing this, the nice plow man stopped his truck and proceeded to dig me out with his shovel. So nice! We started chatting and he told me that he had been working since 9 PM the previous night. Ouch! I thanked him and moved my car to a cleared spot.

Once inside, I felt that my simple thank you just wasn't enough. I decided to bring him some snacks and coffee. I brought out my coffee machine and started brewing. (I need to remind you here that I don't drink coffee. Ever. So I don't know how to brew it.) So once it was done and looked pitch black, I figured that I may have put slightly too much coffee. I added more water to the coffee machine, but that went through the filter again and it still looked really dark. I ended up adding plain water directly to the coffee, thinking to myself that this is probably taboo to a coffee drinker. I took a tiny sip to make sure it didn't taste awful, but really, it did, which is how coffee always tastes to me. I couldn't tell if there was a difference from the "normal" awful.

As I brewed the coffee, I pondered how to get it to him. A mug? This could be problematic: I pictured much splashing and scalding as he maneuvered back and forth in the parking lot. Plus, then he'd have to get the mug back to me. I didn't want to make him waste any more time than needed - I was sure he was just dying to get home. I searched my cupboards for something suitable, but found nothing. Finally, I decided to use a big, plastic water bottle. I folded up a paper towel, then taped it around the middle so he wouldn't burn his hands.

With the coffee situation now under control, I scrounged up some snacks. I grabbed a banana, two clementines that looked like they might still be tasty (ever try to get through a whole crate by yourself? It's tough), and then I heated up two pieces of blondie brownies that I made last week and froze in single portions. To my goodie bag, I added a little baggie of sugar, a little baggie of almond milk, a bottle of water, a small can of pineapple juice, and a napkin.

Feeling satisfied with my offering of thanks, I set out for the parking lot in search of the nice plow man. But to my dismay, he wasn't there! I walked to the next street, then the next one, then the next one, and after walking through the whole neighborhood, I had to admit to myself that he was truly gone. Oh, what a disappointment! Nice plow man, I know you're not reading this because no one is, but I am sending a big thank you out to universe and I hope you will catch wind of my gratefulness. I know you must have been exhausted after working for so long, and I want you to know that I really appreciate you digging me out so efficiently and nicely. Next time it snows, I'll be ready for you.

Which brings me to the food part. (I told you to bear with me... thanks for doing so!) Now I was home with a huge pot of coffee and no one to drink it. I decided to do something with it - I couldn't just throw it out! I searched allrecipes.com for recipes that called for brewed coffee and settled on Simple 'N' Delicious Chocolate Cake with Coffee Butter Frosting. I was quite excited about the chocolate cake actually, because our family recipe for decadent chocolate cake has the secret ingredient of coffee. Instant and not brewed, though, so I couldn't make that recipe. Both the cake and frosting turned out pretty tasty, although neither has a strong coffee flavor, which is fine by me. I made the cake into mini cupcakes to easily bring to work tomorrow - it's someone's last day so it's the perfect excuse!

Funny how my first post talked about my quest for healthier eating and my second post is about baking! Aaah, my sweet tooth (teeth, really) will never stay hidden for long.

where have you been all of my life?

I'm not really sure when I started being more interested in eating healthier and more varied foods. A few years ago, I guess. And in the last few months I've been reading a bunch of foodie blogs (see which ones on the right). But what set off this foodie tendency in me is a kale/banana/mango smoothie eaten at Strawberry Fields in Phoenixville, PA. Why didn't I know about kale before? It's my new favorite vegetable. Think of it like spinach, but with more flavor.

I went home from the smoothie-eating experience and decided that I, too, could make smoothies with kale. The first one was so-so, but the second attempt... YUM! The secret, for anyone who wants to try, is to blanch the kale first.

Without further ado, the smoothie:

Ingredients:
- kale, probably about 1/2 c. after blanched, which is maybe 2 cups raw
- 1/4 c. of juice (I used v8 pomegranate + green tea)
- 1/4 c. of mango sorbet
- 3 clementines, peeled
- 1 banana, peeled
- 1/2 c. frozen papaya chunks
- 3.5 oz Greek yogurt
- 2 Tbsp. flax seeds (optional)
(or really, whatever you have on hand. I just happen to know that this combination is a winner.)

Directions:
Blanch the kale. (Here is how to blanch it... and what to do with the leftovers)
Add all ingredients to the blender and blend for a loooong time.

Makes 2 normal servings or 1 big, delicious smoothie.