Chunky Minestrone

I have become besotted with this. I mean, how can I not be? The cover is lime green and the pictures inside are almost painfully pretty. Added bonus is that all the recipes are vegan, something I have found myself more and more interested in. I spent a good chunk of the afternoon exploring this cookbook. In honor, of Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan I bring you a completely non-vegan recipe. Baby steps, my friends...

Chunky Minestrone

1tbsp olive oil

1 onion

1 cup carrots

1 cup celery

handful of spinach

a can of beans (I used garbanzo)

4 cups chicken stock

Parmesan Cheese

Salt/Pepper

In a high-sided sauce pan or dutch oven heat up the olive oil. Put in the chopped onion and saute until it becomes translucent. Add chopped carrots and celery and cook until the vegetables soften, about 10 minutes. Cover with the stock and add the beans. Let the soup simmer for about an hour, adding the spinach right before you take it off the heat. Add parmesan cheese to taste.

In light of the first part of my post, feel free to make this vegetarian by using vegetable stock. Nix the cheese to make vegan.

One of the things that I love about minestrone is that you can pretty much throw anything in your fridge into the soup. So, feel free to make this an improvise where you feel necessary. Odds are, it will turn out wonderfully!

Banana Walnut Oatmeal

Hi all, Jen here!

Despite the weather being ridiculously hot, that did not stop me from having a bowl of oatmeal this morning. Usually I'd prefer having just cereal or something light when I know I will be outside in the heat for awhile and will be walking around a lot. I tend to feel weighed down otherwise.

Like I said though, today was a bit unusual but it was totally worth it. On my oatmeal I threw on some walnuts, bananas and then some chia seeds. It was the perfect combination because the bananas became a little soft, almost melting into the oatmeal while the walnuts and chia seeds gave it some great texture. I am going to try this combination with some Overnight Oats because then I can get the best of both worlds: oatmeal and banana-walnut!

I'm making myself hungry.

Even though I just had something to ea which consisted on a green apple with a a side of vanilla yogurt with granola!

I don't know what's with my love for things resembling oatmeal lately, oh well!

But I will guarantee I won't have anything that resembles oatmeal for dinner so expect to see something quite tasty for dinner after that is, once I go grocery shopping to get some staple items.

What is the one item you always buy when grocery shopping?

Perhaps there will be pictures taken of that too. :)

Have a great rest of your day!

Sunday Bumday

Today is Sunday Bumday, in the words of my friend Kirstin.

Last year when we were living in the dorms together, Sunday was the day that we would simply lay around in the common room in sweats and complain about how much homework we had. Somehow Sunday Bumday never really stuck true to its name.

Today is no different with the one exception that I am in my sweats still. I was productive today however, getting many of my lengthy reading assignments completed but alas there still are more.

I am going to skip the workout today because yesterday was very workout heavy, cardio wise anyway. I ran 3 miles on the treadmill at an average pace of 9:22 which is pretty good considering I don't feel super in shape still. I also walked there and back to the fitness center which is a mile there and back.

So today is just going to be a light Pilates video followed by some Yoga.

For some reason today I am feeling very energized, perhaps it is because of the delicious lunch I had?

Mixed greens with light balsamic vinaigrette dressing with a side of Wasa crackers. Wasa crackers were topped with a mozzarella cheese stick and then topped with mango salsa.

I really didn't think it would keep me full but turns out it hit the spot!

I think I also found a new favorite combo with the Wasa crackers because the melted cheese on top was the perfect way to spice those babies up.

My roommate thinks the Wasa crackers taste like cardboard, if you've tried them what did you think?

Anywho, for dinner tonight I think I will be making pasta but that depends on how stuff I have to do until the chapter meeting for my sorority but whatever it does wind up being, there will be pictures. (Unless it is a lean cuisine and then I made no promises ;) )

Hope your Sunday Bumday is great :)

Eat, Pray, Love

Hello everyone! Liz here :D

I saw Eat, Pray, Love last night and despite hearing mixed reviews I absolutely loved it! I thought all of the actors did an amazing job and my man Ryan Murphy adapted the book to screen beautifully. The thing that I have to talk about, though, is of course the food. I want to go to Italy. And only eat. Forget culture. Forget history. All I want to do is sit in a café with my carafe of wine and bite into a piece of pizza with crust so thin it's like a chip. That's what I want.

My favorite part of the movie was probably the Italy portion primarily because there was so much food loving going on that I could barely contain myself. That pasta scene? I'd read about its controversial nature (how dare an actress eat and enjoy herself!) and thought every second of it was fantastic.

And then there was Javier, of course, and he thankfully was not sporting anything resembling his No Country For Old Men haircut so I was a happy, happy girl.

I really can't say that there was anything about the film I did not like. I loved the food. I loved the spiritual aspect. And I LOVED Ketut. My only complaint was that I saw it at 10:00 at night which meant I couldn't eat a huge bowl of pasta afterwards.

Have you all seen Eat, Pray, Love? How did you like it?

Sweet Sixteen

So you know how I said I was going to work on getting all of my homework done this morning? Well...that didn't exactly happen because I got distracted by MTV.

Normally I do not like the channel in the slightest but something got over me when I saw the show 'Sweet Sixteen'. I was shocked how much these teens spent.

Maybe it is because I am older and wiser now and $300,000 seems like way too much to spend on a party. If I had that kind of money lying around I would definitely be using it for something more long-term. A little shopping of course would be included but not that much. I am a girl of course. You do the math.

Which prompts me to my next question; Did you have a sweet sixteen and if you did what was your favorite part of it?

As I was watching the show I ate my lunch which was an Insalata Caprese with spinach leaves instead of basil. I didn't have homemade Mozzarella so I just cut up a low-fat cheese stick and melted it on top of the tomatoes.

Seeing as I had just gotten back from my hour workout or running two hours and doing weights, I was still starving. It felt more like a snack and less like part of a meal. So I also had a cup of yogurt which I added a tbs of chocolate protein powder topped with Special K Almond cereal.

Now it may have been because I just got back from working out or the fact I just was starving, but I was hungry about two hours later so there is an unpictured apple.

Fortunately the apple filled me up aftwerward so I managed to complete one homework assignment while staying full and focused.

A Time of Relaxation

Hello all, Jen here bright and early this morning.

I can not tell you how happy I am that it is Friday. Like many people it is one of my favorite days of the week because I do not have class and that means I can bum around my apartment until I decide what I feel like doing with myself today.

Well of course while deciding what to do this morning I poured myself a big ol' bowl of Blueberry Muesli courtesy of Trader Joe's. I topped the bowl off with a sliced banana and a side of coffee. Despite the fact I slept in, I still felt the need for have a cup of that wonderful brew.

On a sad note, I have very little of the deliciousness left so I will have to find a replacement muesli.

Any suggestions?

After eating my breakfast, I finally deciding that although it is my day off, I should be productive. At least for a little bit.

So after I finish blogging, and clean up my room I will be completing some homework and then take the walk over to the gym with a friend, hit up the weights and then walk back. Today is probably going to be a light gym day because I ran around 3 miles yesterday. I always like to have a day or so in the week to recover.

I will be back later after my workout and lunch.

Have a great day :)

Rigatoni with Sausage, Spinach, and Sun-dried Tomatoes, and

Hello!

I started off my Giada experiment by making a pasta dish of hers and then changing half of the ingredients. Typical. haha So, I guess I sort of made my own recipe.

Rigatoni with Sausage, Spinach, and Sun-dried Tomatoes

Rigatoni Pasta (or anything tubular)

Sausage (I used vegetarian!! SO GOOD)

Spinach

Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Basil

Parmesan Cheese

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Boil the pasta and prepare the sausage. If you are using a vegetarian one you can just zap it in the microwave. Meat eaters? You're gonna have to remove it from the casing and brown the meat. In a sautee pan heat oil and then add the spinach. Once it is wilted add the sun-dried tomatoes. Next, add the boiled pasta and toss with the spinach and sun-dried tomato. Combine with the sausage and then add basil and cheese to your liking.

I was super impressed by this dish because the veggie sausage tasted JUST like Italian sausage. Now, I am an Italian girl and I know what good Italian sausage tastes like. I swear this tasted just like it! My only complaint would be that the texture was a bit soft. Overall, though, I really liked it! I'm excited to try out different meatless meats. I bought some veggie protein crumbles and am excited to try that!

Anyhoo, I hope you all have a wonderful night! I will see you tomorrow with the next recipe :D

Motivation!

Usually when I don't get a lot of sleep I never have any motivation to do anything, besides sleep that is. Today was not one of those days though, in fact even when I got back from class super early, napping wasn't even on my mind.

Of course, I grabbed another cup of coffee because let's face it; when there is half a pot of coffee left just waiting to be reheated, you can't just stare at it.

In my apartment if you don't drink the coffee yourself, expect it to be gone very shortly. In retrospective it is a great system because there is never any wasted coffee :)

For breakfast today I had to try Allie's No Bake Oatmeal because when I first saw it, I was practically drooling over my laptop.

It only took a little time to make it and I am happy to say that I am still full! Great for those long days!

I didn't add in any mix ins but topped them with blueberries and strawberries. As a make-shift syrup I used my non-dairy hazelnut coffee creamer. I really would like to try different creamers with this as well.

If you drink coffee, what is your favorite flavor of creamer? If not, what is something you like to pour on your pancakes besides maple syrup?

All the creamer just soaked into the 'pancakes' leaving me wanting more. Fortunately I resisted temptation but expect these to show up again!

Have a great day and I will hopefully see you all at lunch.

Giada and I

Everyone has their favorite chef. For some it is Julia. For others it is Rachel or Bobby. My favorite, without a doubt, is Giada.

Best Thing About Giada: All the Faces

I still remember the first show of hers that I saw. She made Baked Penne with Roasted Vegetables and my immediate reaction was: I need to make this. A couple weeks later I made it for my family (the first real meal that I had cooked for them) and it was an instant success.

Since that first afternoon in the kitchen I have made many, many of her recipes. There was the Chicken Marsala that my underage self had to sneak in contraband wine to make. Then the lemon ricotta cookies that were like little pillows and tasted divine. I still have people asking for that recipe.

This school year my goal is to cook through the three Giada cookbooks that I own while still keeping up my generally healthy lifestyle. So-prepare yourself for some delicious, beautiful Italian food. I will of course chronicle my adventures on here for you all to read! Imagine it as another Julie and Julia-but with less swearing.

So, now I want to know who is your favorite chef?

Farewell Blender

Hi all, Jen here.

Today is a very sad day. Today we mourn the loss of my blender. Cheryl (I just named her now) had a very long life. She was passed down the family line until today where she could take it no more and finally cracked. Literally, I am afraid. The whole of my apartment will mourn her death only until we get a replacement. That is life. You must learn to let go. So thank you Cheryl.

Which leads me to the question of; what would be the one appliance you couldn't live without?

Enough with the tragic sadness that was Cheryl because she will be remembered fondly especially with her last gift of my banana chocolate protein smoothie post work-out.

My workout today was around 45 minutes of another session of Total Body Conditioning. I actually did not intend to go to that class, in fact my friend Sarah and I wanted to attend the Yoga Pilates Fusion class but apparently we misread the times and well we got a different kind of workout. It was still a lot of fun and the music is great!

Post workout I made myself some barbecued tofu on an Arnold Sandwich thin with a side of frozen grapes. The tofu was definitely an experiment and I think I might have to try out different ways to still cook it. The barbecue sauce made it a little sticky and while it left a good outer shell, it lacked some flavor. I may have to first cook the tofu then toss it with barbecued sauce. We'll see.

My dinner of course was demolished and I even convinced my meat loving roommate to have a piece of the tofu. She liked it so I'm going to give myself a little pat on the back. Just a little one though.

While eating my frozen grapes I watched Top Chef which as always inspires me to try new things and if they fail, they fail. It is all about experimenting!

Now that I am all stuffed and happy it is off to do some homework before bed time :)

Night all!

Dorm Food

Hi Jen here.

So I finally did my grocery shopping! And I was surprised how much I actually bought and I spent under 45 dollars! Granted I had a few things that I located at the back of my pantry but I still got everything I had on my list.

Thank you Michelle for putting up the series about grocery shopping. It really helped a lot especially when making the list according to the meals I was planning on eating. I managed to only hit two places: Aldi and Meijer. Right next to one another meaning I was also being fuel efficient. Score!

Unfortunately my workout will have to be tomorrow because I had a late night class so I wasn't able to squeeze it in. At least I have food now. You can pretty much guess where my mind is right now, huh?

As I promised in the morning I have the pictures from my lunch and my dinner.

Dinner was from the dining hall because it was close to the building where my class was located. I was pleasantly surprised with all the vegetarian options they had. I had a portabello stuffed mushroom and grilled vegetables. Sadly the mushroom was not that good, in fact it was quite rubbery so I didn't eat much of it.

Thank goodness my lunch was filling. (Sorry this is out of order for all of you anal-retentive people)

I had a whole wheat tortilla with organic peanut butter and a cut up green apple. For some reason I was craving peanut butter all day!

Well I will have to apologize for such a short post but I am off to bed because well, early morning classes call :)

Goodnight!~

Simple Summer Bruschetta

My uncle sent us a plastic baggie full of produce. Inside were two large cucumbers and an array of grape tomatoes that were so darn cute that I almost didn't want to eat them. I have never been one to pass up good food, though, so I threw a bunch of it together into an easy bruschetta.

Simple Summer Bruschetta:

Grape Tomatoes

Cucumber

Basil

Olive Oil

Balsamic Vinegar

Salt/Pepper

Combine all the ingredients. Take any left over basil and steep in some water. It makes a refreshing drink!

You Know You're in College When...

When...

1) You only stay for fifteen minutes for a three hour class because your teacher is stuck in Malaysia till following week

2) You run out of the door in a hurry only to realize that you purposely set your clock ahead so you wouldn't be late

3) You rely on public transportation to make your truck across campus more bareable...only to find that the bus is late so you are forced to walk anyway

4) Taking a nap is the best part of your day

5) You open your fridge only to find half a gallon of soy milk and some brown rice and somehow make a meal of it

6) You think the extra difference between having an 8 o'clock class and 9 o'clock class is huge!

Ha, this right here folks is the story of my life. Especially the first one. My class started at 8 this morning and while I like the fact I am back here to blog, after this blog and reading other's I still don't have class until this afternoon. I would rather just get my day over with than puts around my apartment. Call me crazy.

Anyway on my agenda today is the following:

1) Go grocery shopping

2) Get in a short but fulfilling workout

3) Get all my supplies for classes

4) Go to recruitment practice for my sorority

5)Find sometime to make dinner

I highly doubt these will stay in this order but it's worth a shot. When in question, improvise!

Oh and speaking of improvising that is exactly what I did with my breakfast. I really had a taste for something sweet but seeing as I still have to go shopping, I made do. I used my brown rice that I had left poured in some vanilla soy milk and then zapped it for a minute or so. I then used a couple dashes of cinnamon and a splash of vanilla extract. I sort of adapted it from Bethenny Frankel's brown rice breakfast with what I had at the time.

Unfortunately I did not have my camera charged but I assure you it will be all set for lunch!

Have a fabulous day.

-Jen

Breakfast for Dinner

Ever have one of those days when breakfast for dinner just sounds better than anything else in the world. Well today happened to be one of those days so I immediately dove into my refrigerator grabbed my typical two eggs, onion, spinach and tomatoes.

I am still getting used to my new cookware so my omelet was sort of in two pieces. Even though it was in those two pieces it certainly did not change the taste at all. And of course, being the sodium addict I am sometimes I added a handful of sea salt on top and then paired with a piece of wheat bread. One word: heaven!

After dinner I had my workout at the rec center with a friend in which we did a total body conditioning session which was absolutely awesome. It was just taught by an exercise and nutrition grad student and we worked everything from our backs to arms and then even got some cardio in!

I will probably be sore tomorrow but it will be totally worth a toned bod.

While I got my workout in, I have yet to do my laundry yet nor go grocery shopping so that has to be completed as soon as physically possible. There is only so long I can survive on cereal, Lean Cuisines and frozen vegetables.

Well I'm off to go watch all the drama and cat claws associated with The Real Housewives of New Jersey. Obviously I need homework.

Goodnight.

Coffee = Life

Hi, Jen here and I am enjoying the rest of my day because I am done for the day with all of my classes. I don't know about you but I throughly enjoy syllabus week because it means you get back into the swing of things.

I was quite surprised by the lack of homework I had, but don't get me wrong I was happy to because I have quite the list of things to do.

Oh woe is me the poor college student.

Ha, okay enough of the feeling bad for me because I am all about keeping positive this year and getting out as much as I put in. I think it is extremely important to stay focused on school but also participate as much as I can in the college experience.

So along with my new found love for organization and positivity I going to go to the rec center as much as I can because I refuse to let school just the best of my active life :) Exercise is important after all. I can sleep when I am dead.

For breakfast today I had a delicious bowl of oatmeal in which I also put some egg whites in so I could stay full. That of course, didn't stop my stomach from growling obnoxiously during the middle of class.

Mixed with chia seeds and Amaretto creamer and of course coffee on the side

Speaking of coffee I am currently on my third cup which I think is a tad ridiculous but alas I can't help it. I am pretty sure I am going to have to find a replacement like some tea.

Fortunately I don't have anything that requires too much energy tonight besides doing laundry, possibly grocery shopping and cooking dinner so that means I can avoid the coffee maker the rest of the night.

Lunch was pretty blase so I figured I wouldn't bore you with the details and just come back later for dinner and hopefully my first tale with the rec center :) We shall see.

Hope you all have a fabulous day!

Ice Cream Sundae Cupcakes

Hello everyone!!

I have a recipe today for you. If you all have been reading this for any length of time, you know that I have a burgeoning love affair with cupcakes. I love them all. Delicate white cake. Dense and moist devil's food. Add some buttercream frosting and I am a goner. This recipe that I am going to share with you is one of my favorites. It is very easy to make and turns out beautifully.

Ice Cream Cupcakes

Ingredients:

Flour (1 cup)

Sugar (3/4 cup)

Baking Powder (1 tsp)

Baking soda (1/2 tsp)

pinch of salt

Butter (3 tbsp)

Egg (1)

Whole Milk (1/2 cup)

Vanilla Extract (1/2 tsp)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar into a mixing bowl and cut in the butter until it is well incorporated. To cut in the butter simply use two knives and work at the butter until it is incorporated (like when you make scones). Pour in half of the milk and use a mixer to combine.

In a separate bowl whisk together the vanilla extract, egg, and remaining milk. Add this to the flour mixture and combine. Pour into a lined cupcake pan and bake for 20-25 minutes. When done, a toothpick inserted at the center of the cupcake should come out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool.

Chocolate Ganache:

Ingredients:

Semi-sweet chocolate (3/4 cup)

Heavy Cream (1/4 cup)

Directions:

Bring the heavy cream to a simmer and then remove from heat. Pour over the chocolate and let sit for a minute. Stir together the mixture and let it thicken. In about ten minutes the ganache will be ready.

Assembly:

Take the cooled cupcakes and smear the ganache on top. Next add a dollop of whipped cream (homemade or store-bought) and sprinkles. Take one maraschino cherry (previously washed and dried) and place it on top.

** Don't fret over those cupcakes shown without whipped cream. They are the same as the others, I simply ran out of whipped cream. For the record, they taste just as good :D

School is Officially Starting!

Jen here!

So it's that time of year again! At least for those in school like myself; the first day of school is tomorrow. I am entering my junior year and boy is this year going to be swamped but also quite exciting!

Tomorrow I start bright and early at 8 o'clock in the morning which is perfectly fine because frankly I am a morning person and I like getting my day over and done with as soon as possible.

Are you a morning person or a night owl?

Seeing as I still am on the topic of breakfast, I'll just tell ya' what I had for breakfast. Since I was staying at my boyfriend's for the weekend and he likes to treat me to good breakfasts I found some pancakes and eggs waiting for me in the morning.

Yum and as for lunch/dinner I had a piece of banana bread I made with a strawberry and banana smoothie with some granola on top. (We woke up late so breakfast was more like a lunch) It was a great summer meal especially because it was so darn hot out.

Although I didn't a workout in a fitness center this weekend, I did walk a lot this weekend. It was quad day at my boy's college in which everyone and their mother along with their second cousin twice removed was there! The cool part of quad day were the amount of activities a person could join. I didn't even attend that college and I wanted to join so many of them! There was a Fitness Peers and a Human Nutrition Club, who wouldn't want to join!?

Sadly I could not join those societies but perhaps I will start my own. What do you all think?

Well I think I am going to get ready for school and make my grocery list since I am sadly out of produce and bread! What ever shall I eat?

See you all tomorrow :)

DC, oh the memories!

Good Morning! Sorry that this is a day late. I had the best intentions to get this posted yesterday but I am leaving for school Tuesday (eek!) and the monster known as packing kidnapped me. I have a feeling he will stage another visit later today. Eeeewwwww.

Anyhoo, last week from Saturday to Friday I was in Virginia. It was a very interesting trip with lots of good food, family, and an unexpected trip to the Emergency Room. I'll touch on that last one a bit later.

I'll start with the trip to DC because it leads wonderfully to that trip to the ER. We took public transportation down to DC and started the day around 11 down there. It was a beautiful day-HOT, but beautiful.

One thing I immediately noticed was that a lot of the walkways were not paved. Um..really?? Excuse me, Mr. President, this is our country's capital. Think ya could do a little something about all that loose gravel?? Okay, maybe my irritation stemmed from the fact that I was wearing flip flops and had to walk like I was on hot coals or something to keep the gravel away from my toes. But I think I have a pretty valid point.

We went for about an hour walk when we first got there visiting a bunch of the sights. We went to the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, and a beautiful area dedicated to WWII veterans. There was actually a tour of veterans there at the capital that day and watching those men look at their monument was one of the most touching things I have seen.

The brother and I in front of Lincoln's Memorial

Lincoln's Memorial

Capital Building

After our walk we grabbed some lunch and then checked out the Smithsonian. There are actually several Smithsonians in DC but we focused on Natural History and American History. And oh boy, was there a lot to see!

An elephant which I am pretty sure was in "Night at the Museum II"

The Hope Diamond

THE Julia Child's kitchen!

Carol Burnett's dress from her spoof of "Gone With The Wind"

Dorothy's ruby slippers

After a long day in DC we headed back and grabbed some food at an Italian restaurant near our hotel. The walk back is where the ER comes in. We jaywalked to get to the hotel quicker and my mom tripped in the street and hit her head. There was no serious damage but she suffered a gash right above her eyebrow and had to be taken to the ER for stitches. What is the lesson here, my friends? Don't jaywalk. Especially at 10:00 at night.

The drama and all put a bit of a damper on the trip but as my mom recovered the trip gained steam and we ended our stay in Virginia with the greatest (and cheapest) meal. This is a food blog, after all, so I figured I would end this post with a little Pho.

Are you drooling yet? I am. This Pho was seriously good. It even made me sort of get past my cilantro-hating self and that is a huge feat. The tofu was perfectly cooked and the broth SO flavorful. I used srirachi for the first time in it. Oh, the memories!

Well, I am off to see my grandparents. Gotta fit in all the visits before I am carted back to school! Enjoy your Sunday!!

I'm Back!!!

I just returned from lovely Virginia.

There was a little of this.

And a lot of that.

Full recap in the morning!!

Cooking for Real

So Jen here and I have been enjoying cooking in my new beautiful kitchen. I have recently found out that I can not stand a messy kitchen at all. It is quite unfortunate that my roommates have been perfectly clear that they are disasters in the kitchen!

Is anyone else bothered by a messy kitchen?

Enough about my OCD with a clean kitchen, it is more important what I made inside my kitchen. I recently went to my local natural food grocery called 'Naturally Yours Grocery' which was absolutely wonderful but I am going to have to budget a bit better because as a college student I really can't afford to buy Seitan, tofu and the like without sacrificing some of my delicious vegetables and fruit :)

But despite that, I did pick up a healthy block of extra-firm tofu. I soaked it in a little bit of egg and then tossed it in bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese then pan fried it. I also tossed some tomatoes in olive oil with minced onions in the pan.

I had also just finished watching Iron Chef so I tried to make my plate look pretty by putting the tofu on a bed of baby spinach.

The best part of the night I think were the margaritas we had a my friend's while scrapbooking. It was fun and they were colorful! How could I not love them?

Although I would have enjoyed another one of these babies I decided to hang out at my apartment because tomorrow I am going out. And when I say going out I mean going with my lovely sorority sisters to see the movie 'Vampires Suck'.

Yes, the life of a junior in college is so exciting!

Now I am off to possibly make some banana bread :)

See you all in the morning!

New Apartment

Hello folks! Jen here and I can not tell you how excited I am!

I am officially in my new apartment for the school and I have completed my grocery shopping so my area of the pantry and my shelves in the fridge and the freezer are all set for food consumption. Everything looks so delicious and I have to resist eating it all.

The highlights of my pantry and refrigerator include:

-Butternut squash soup

-Tempeh

-Seitan

-Tofu

-Tons of fruit

I am really quite proud of my first shopping trip and although I spent quite a bit of money I spent a lot of it on bulk items that I intend to use only a couple times and I expect them to last a long time.

So for breakfast and lunch they were quite bland and not all that interesting but for dinner I made a delicious cucumber sandwich made with fat free cream cheese with onions and of course with dill weed. On the side I had some grapes and strawberries with a topping of lightly salted almonds.

As a side note; I currently have to give up facebook for three weeks for my sorority recruitment so you can expect to see me posting on the blog a lot more and hearing about my food exploits and my new workout plan. I have joined the rec center at my school which includes fitness classes so I am very excited to get some of those classes in.

I'll let you know how that goes! :)

Well I am off to finish cleaning my apartment before making it an early night so I will see you in the morning :)

Pack, Pack, Pack

Good morning!!

As you all may remember, I went to Vegas two weeks ago. Well, now I am off again to go to Virginia and Washington DC! My brother is going to George Mason for grad school, so the family is driving him up there so he can keep the car.

13 + hours in a car with my family. I better have some good songs on my Ipod.

Anyhoo, I am very excited to go to Washington purely to see the Smithsonian. You may not know this about me, but I am a HUGE Gone With The Wind fan. I have a blanket. I have two copies of the movie, three of the book. And pretty much anything else that I find pertaining to it.

That book is a 1950s Book Club edition I found in an antique store. I was beyond excited when I found it.

The Smithsonian has Gone With The Wind memorabilia. And I can hardly wait.

Okie dokes, now that I have officially weirded you out with all my GWTW talk I will give you a quick peek at my breakfast and then run off and start packing.

Homemade yogurt with Blueberry Muesli and peanut butter. Delicious.

Have a wonderful day!!

Oreo Cupcakes

My dinner was blasé so I leave you with another recipe. This one is not nearly as healthy as the last. And it is one hundred times better. Why, you ask? Well, this is a cupcake and nothing can ever, ever compete with its dense, delicious, whipped cream topped goodness. Did I mention that there are Oreos involved?

Today's treat is an Oreo Cupcake. I found this one at Annie's Eats (one of my obsessions) and have made it several times. One of my friends liked them so much that she ate seven in one night. If that is not a testament to the wonders of this cupcake, I don't know what is.

Oreo Cupcakes

Ingredients:

Flour (2 1/3 cup)

Unsweetened Cocoa Powder (1 cup)

Baking Powder (1 1/2 tsp)

Baking Soda (1/2 tsp)

Salt (1/2 tsp)

Unsalted Butter (12 tbsp)

Light Brown Sugar (2 cups)

Vanilla Extract (2 tsp)

Eggs (4)

Butter milk (1 1/2 cup)

Directions:

First off, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line 2 cupcake pans with paper liners. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a medium size bowl. Using a mixer with a paddle attachment, beat the butter until it is fluffy. Gradually add the brown sugar, making sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Once the sugar is incorporated beat in the vanilla and then each egg.

Gradually add the dry mixture in three batches, alternating with the buttermilk. Begin and end with the dry mixture.

Feel free to stick in your finger and taste the batter. Salmonella be damned!

Distribute the batter equally between the all the cupcake liners. Put in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted at the center of a cupcake comes out clean.

Next, time to make the whipped cream.

Ingredients:

Whipping Cream (1 3/4 cup)

Powdered Sugar (3 tbsp)

Vanilla Extract (1/2 tsp)

Crushed Oreos (6 tbsp)

Add the first three ingredients to the mixer and mix until stiff peaks form. Gently fold in the oreos.

**Optional- halve 12 oreos and place on top of the frosted cupcakes.