Homemade Granola

So, I have been really busy with finals and sleep and TV and everything, that I haven't had time (or energy) to make food, let alone blog about it.  But, I'm back!

I'm on my winter break, which lasts about a month, so I'm stoked.  I caught up on all my shows, and even started some new ones (Summer Heights High and Ja'mie Private School Girl anyone???).  So, to go along with these shows, I've made one of my (and my family's) favorite snacks to have in the house - granola.

This granola recipe is literally amazing!  It comes out delicious every time and is devoured in like, 3 days.  I have no idea where we got this recipe, but I'm glad we got it.

First thing to do, is get out all your ingredients and lay them out.  Well, you don't NEED to lay them out, it just makes it easier and cleaner.  But, whatever floats your boat.  If you want to run back and forth from the counter to the cupboard and break a sweat while you're cooking, be my guest!

Ingredients:

-non-stick cooking spray
-4 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (not instant)
-1/2 cup whole-wheat all purpose flower
-1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
-1 teasponn baking soda
-1 teaspoon cinnamon
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-2 teaspoons vanilla
-2/3 cup butter, softened, cut into cubes
-3/4 cup honey
-whatever dried fruits and nuts you want to use (I used: raisins, cranberries, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, almonds)

Step 1:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with tinfoil and spray with non stick cooking spray.

Step 2:

Mix all the ingredients except the nuts and fruit together with a mixer (eventually you will have to use your hands, like me).

(I have giant hands, and there was no way of making my hands look small in the photo)

Step 3: 

Mix in all the nuts and dried fruit you want!

Nuts on nuts… delicious.

Step 4:

Pour all the delicious, I guess you call it "batter," into the pan and bake it in the oven for 25-30 minutes.  It turns a delicious golden brown color and looks and smells amazing!!!

Step 5:

Enjoy!!!  

This is seriously so delicious, and my family absolutely loves it!  Sprinkle it on top of yogurt with some honey (and a couple OREOs - mega stuf of course - on the side) and you have yourself a somewhat healthy and delicious dessert.

I'll try to write more, although I still don't think I'm writing for anybody but myself.  I hope you love it as much as I do!

**EDIT**

I tried the granola this morning on my smoothie bowl (there is a recipe for one I made a while ago on this blog, just click the link on the side) and OH MY GOD!!!! It was so good! 

Add some bananas on the side to make it look pretty and dig in! 

Spaghetti Squash

I haven't done a blog post in so long! This is for many reasons, but mainly because I have not had any particularly stellar food and so I had no reason to blog.  I'm home for Thanksgiving (Happy Thanksgivukkah) and so that means I am eating a lot of good food.

Actually, what happened on Thanksgiving, is I filled up on bread and cheese (as usual) and was really full by the time dinner came around.  Anyway, Thanksgiving was delicious, and I must have gained probably 10 pounds.  Whatever, when I go back to school it will hopefully go away.

My sister made a cake and I decorated it.  Usually I am good at decorating cakes, but for some reason this cake looked like poop.

It looked nasty, but it tasted great.  I am currently finishing the cake as I am writing this.  But, this is not what my post is about.  My post is about the spaghetti squash I made this morning.

First, buy a spaghetti squash, and put the whole squash on a baking dish.  

Put the squash in the oven at 375 for 45-50 minutes.  Once that's done, take it out and cut it in half.

Scoop out the seeds from the middle with a spoon.  This can be a little messy, just to warn you.  

Next, take a fork and scrape down the squash from the skin and you will see the spaghetti strands forming.

You will get a nice bowl of, what looks like, spaghetti.  Now, here is where you can experiment with whatever you want! 

I took the spaghetti squash and put some in a pan and on the stove.

Then I added this amazingness!!!

Yes, that is butter olive oil.  And it is amazing.  But, of course, if you don't have butter infused olive oil (I feel like Ina Garten, eeeeks), you can always just use butter, which I am sure would be even better!  I also added a little salt.

Then you just serve it up. 

I have not done any homework since I have been home, even though I definitely have some to do.  Instead, I have been watching a lot of TV, which of course, is way more important.  

Soooooooo, I ate the spaghetti squash while watching a romcom, my favorite type of movie.  I watched Sliding Doors, and it had Gwyneth Paltrow in it.  I really can't stand her, but the movie was good I guess.

I need closed captions because my hearing is actually awful.  I would definitely recommend this spaghetti squash.  It's super easy and healthy so enjoy!

BLT

One of my favorite sandwiches is a BLT.  They are kind of a pain to make, only because the bacon is an annoying food to make - the house smells for days and the pan is super greasy.  But, if you can get over this, then you've got yourself a good sandwich.

I went to this restaurant the other day and ordered a BLT.  It came with a salad on the side, with this really good dressing.

The bread was toasted perfectly, and crunchy and delicious.  What I really liked about the sandwich was that it was a surprisingly light BLT, which is very hard to do.  

It also had homemade mayonnaise on it, which like the whole sandwich itself, was divine.

                   

The sandwich was really good.  I don't really have much more to say.  I came home this weekend and got to watch TV.  It was bad because I literally got no homework done, but I did get to catch up on a lot of my shows.

El Salvadorian

Why does ugly food always taste good?  It really makes it difficult when trying to write this blog because, I already suck at taking photos of my food, so to have to try to make ugly food look good in a picture is nearly impossible.  So, just to warn you, the photos on this post are worse than usual.

Ok, last night.  I went out to dinner (obviously because I can't cook here) to this El Salvadorian place.  I was super excited to go, mostly because I hadn't eaten much yesterday and was literally starving (well, not literally, but I was really hungry).  The dinner was late though, it was at 7:30, and I normally eat at like 5:00!  They served a bunch of different food, and I wanted to try all of it.  Luckily, I was with a big  group, and the two things that I did not order but that I wanted to try other people ordered so I got to try them.

I ordered pupusas, which is a thick corn tortilla stuffed with stuff.  I got two, one with cheese and chicken, the other with pork, black beans and cheese.  I have masa at home, and realized that I could make these, instead of arepas, which is what I usually make.  Arepas are made from corn flour, but you can kind of think of them as a really dense english muffin.  You put whatever you want in them.  They're good if you've never had them, and if you get the masa flour they are super easy to make (just flour, water and a little salt and you're good).

Back to the pupusas, they were good.  They were definitely not beautiful, but they tasted good.

To make them a little less boring, although boring is great, I put some of this spicy sauce they had at the table.

                   

I also got tamales, with nothing in them.  I personally love just the corn part of the tamales and so I was really happy they had these.  It was really good!  It was soft and was just amazing.  I really don't know how to explain tamales.  They are probably one of my favorite foods so I would definitely order them if you've never had them before.

We also got plantains for the table.  I was expecting tostones, which is a fried, smashed plantain with garlic.  I get these at this restaurant where I live and they are so good!  I don't like the sweet plantains, they are like caramelized bananas which I really don't like.  Anyway, I didn't get what I was expecting, but they were still good.  Not so crispy, they were still kind of soft on the inside.  They came with beans and sour cream.  I couldn't get a picture of the whole plate of them because everyone ate them too fast and I wasn't about the ask everyone to wait so I could take a picture for my blog (trust me, it was embarrassing enough taking the photos of my food the whole meal).  

                       

The best thing I had at dinner would have to be the drink.  I ordered an Atol de elote, which is a sweet corn drink.  It was like drinking thick, pureed corn.  It was sweet and really delicious!  I mean, I want another one.  I did burn my tongue, which was not too fun, but it was worth it.  Again, it was the same boring color but just know that it tasted better than it looked.

The food was good, not great, but definitely good.  Oh, and if you haven't already noticed, I think my cleanse kind of stopped working.

Avocado Sandwich

First, I want to show you what someone gave me:

That is a pound (plus) of chocolate!  I have already started it and love it.  This is also the picture I instagrammed because of course, with a filter, every iPhone photo you take looks better.

So about the avocado sandwich.  The name is a little deceiving, because in fact this sandwich was not purely or even mostly avocado.  It was still good, just the name should have been different.  My friend and I went to this cafe near the school.  I had passed the place many times and it always looked too busy for me to want to go in (when a place is too busy it makes me stressed, people behind me in line get angry because I'm new and don't know what to order, and when I finally do order and I get my money back I don't think I have time to put the money back in my wallet because the cashier literally throws it at me and I never pay in exact change because I am too worried about holding everyone up behind me!!!! yeah, I don't really like busy restaurants).  Anyway, this place was really good, and I'm glad my friend made me go.

I got the avocado sandwich and a cantaloupe agua fresco (I think this is just cantaloupe juice).  The drink was so good!

The sandwich was served with a side salad that had this sweet mustard dressing on top.  The dressing was so delicious (I dipped my sandwich in whatever dressing I had on my plate).

The sandwich itself is pretty simple, I mean, I realized after I bought it that it's the same sandwich my little sister (a middle schooler) makes like any time she wants a sandwich.  It is just avocado, mozzarella cheese and tomatoes (this sandwich also has onions, my little sister doesn't put onion on hers).

Although it was simple, I understand why my little sister likes it so much, it's really good!  The salad was, like I said, really tasty too.  It was just lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber and onions (I guess they like onions there, I'm not complaining because I like onions too).  

I ate all my onions actually and my breath smelled like onions for the rest of the day, not the best when you talk to people.  I was covering my mouth a lot for the rest of the day, and I'm sure people thought I was really weird, if they didn't think that already.

Here is a nice blurry picture of my meal:

Overall, I liked it.  I would definitely go back, but I would probably order something different because I can always just ask my little sister to make this sandwich for me.  Definitely make this sandwich though at home, it's easy and really good!

Chi chi chi chia!

Day 3 of my "cleanse" and I'm still eating a lot.  Yesterday I went to the gym.  I did a zumba class which was so much fun!  I mean, I can't really move my hips like the instructor could, but it was still fun.  Anyway, the reason I am telling you I went to the gym (besides just to brag) is because when I was there, people were passing out... just kidding, people were passing out these chia pods.

I was like, "I like chia kombucha, and it's free and I'm Jewish, so I think I should get one."  I took one and my friend took one and we went to the gym class.  After the class my friend was like, "I'm probably not going to eat this."  So I'm like, "I'll take it!"  This has happened to me so many times, someone doesn't want their food so I just offer to eat it, like I'm a food vacuum or something, I really don't know why I do this.  

I had no idea when I would eat this because although it looked like pudding it was definitely not going to be my dessert.  Then, this morning I needed something to eat, and I remembered I put this pod in the fridge.  And so I tried it.  

I didn't really like it.  I mean, I was totally fine with the texture, which I'm sure would have turned people away immediately.  I like chia kombucha so I knew what to expect.  If you have never had chia before, it is kind of hard to explain, but it is (are?) slimy seeds pretty much.  I love it, people hate it.  But, don't knock it 'til you try it (that's the saying right?).

The package says the pod is "nothing but sun ripened chia seed, coconut milk, real vanilla bean and real cinnamon."  Those are all things that I normally like, but for some reason when they are put together they taste really weird.  

This of course didn't stop me from eating the whole thing.  I have another one that I will probably try to eat again, maybe it's an acquired taste.  I don't know if I would suggest this to anyone.  It's vegan and probably not hard to make if you really are craving some.  

This was definitely not as good as my green tea freddo from Peet's.  I love these!  It is pretty much a milkshake, and I always get whipped cream on mine so it is really like a milkshake.  One suggestion when you order this drink (which I highly suggest you do), do not order it with non-fat milk.  It's not worth it.  Think about it, it is bad enough for you, and if you are already getting whipped cream (which is a must), is a little bit of whole milk really going to add that much fat?  

Enjoy... not so much the chia pod, mostly just the green tea freddo.

Day 2

It is hard to find good food for breakfast here for a couple of reasons.  One, I really don't feel like waking up earlier than I have to, to go to the dining hall to eat yogurt and fruit (it's not worth it).  I also don't have the energy to go out and buy breakfast food to keep in my dorm.  I do like oatmeal, however, and the day my mom came in, she brought me a big bag of it.  Usually my oatmeal at home looks like this:

I like my oatmeal super sticky and gummy because I'm weird.  I think normally people like it when you can actually see the oats.  To make it my way (the better way), I use one of my favorite kitchen appliances - a rice cooker.  My rice cooker has an oatmeal setting because it's fancy (I'm kidding, I don't know if it is actually fancy, I just like to think it is).  The ratio is 2:1 (2 cups water, 1 cup oats).  You put the ingredients in the rice cooker and turn it on, and when it dings or stops or whatever yours does to let you know it's done cooking, you open it up and serve.  I put walnuts, brown sugar and cranberries (or raisins, I just don't really like raisins that much) and mix it all up.  I always have a nice big bowl (or two) because it's oatmeal, so it healthy?  Anyway, my oatmeal at home is amazing, but my oatmeal at school is anything but that.

                  

I make it in a jar by putting some oatmeal and hot water.  I put almonds in it while the water is hot and let them soak up and get a little plump because it gives it some sort of flavor.  I have no brown sugar or cranberries, so I am pretty much eating plain oats.

I guess it doesn't look too bad, but trust me, the one I make at home is way better.  I miss my rice cooker and griddle and magic bullet.  I like eating more than I like cooking (not that I don't like cooking, but eating is way more fun), but all I want to do right now is cook my own food in my own house!  I am making a list of a bunch of recipes I want to try when I go home and can cook.  

I don't want to end this post with the ugly picture of my school oatmeal so here is another photo of the good oatmeal:

Try it for your next breakfast because it is super filling and actually kind of healthy.  

Happy eating!!

Is a mini burger diet?

So, I was supposed to start my cleanse today, and it kind of worked I guess.  I mean, I enjoyed my dinner which is more important than it being super healthy right?  It wasn't like it was bad for me, it's just probably not what you think of when you think of a cleanse.  Anyway (yes, it's anyway not anyways!  Do not add the extra "s," it's wrong) my dinner.  I went to this Italian restaurant, which had pizza and really beautiful gourmet sandwiches.  I got the mini burger made with homemade sausage.

It was slightly spicy, but just perfect!  Not only did it look beautiful, but it tasted amazing too.  It had warm tomatoes and zucchini (which you would think would have been weird, but was surprisingly good) a little bit of olive oil and arugula.  Arugula is always delicious on sandwiches if you've never had it before.  It is slightly spicy and way better than romaine lettuce, definitely try it on your next sandwich.

It was served on this wood cutting board and so it was absolutely stunning!  Here are all the photos I took of it:

I think this is the best photo of it.  You can see all the zucchini and tomatoes and yummy deliciousness.  

My dinner was divine, and not too bad for my diet.  But then I was like, "I think I need something more."  I just quoted myself because it's a cool thing to do.  So, I went to get a cinnamon bun, and OH MY ACTUAL GOD it was so good!!! (It was so good I had to put three exclamation points)  I got the original cinnamon bun, I wasn't really feeling the cookie dough it just looked too heavy.  It was warm and soft and the icing was so sweet and good.  It was vegan, does that make it part of a cleanse?  I'll say yes.

The picture doesn't do it justice, it was seriously such a good dessert.  My cleanse is going fine, I mean, like I said before my cleanse is not really a cleanse.  I feel better than I did last night when I had two doughnuts so that's a good sign.

I've been eating too much

Like the title of this post suggests, I've been eating way too much!  It's not even that I have been eating too much good food, it's that I have been eating too much mediocre food and dessert (although the desserts have been very satisfying).  Sorry, there are no pictures on this post, I just wanted to say that I am going on a "cleanse diet."  I put this in quotes because my "cleanse diets" are not real "cleanse diets."  I only mean that I am going to eat less garbage (like, I will not have two doughnuts like I did last night, although they were absolutely delicious - I even heated them up in the microwave!).  I want to get rid of all the garbage food I have been eating this week.  This would be so much easier to do if I had something to distract myself besides homework (like TV!), but I don't have TV so this is going to be a difficult diet.  I will let you know how it goes, although I don't really know who "you" is besides my mom because she is the only one that reads this blog I think.

I lied, I will show you a picture of the doughnut that I cannot have for a little while!  I ate the other one too fast and so I didn't take a photo of it.

Yes, that is me sitting on the floor eating my second doughnut.  I cannot be doing this all the time (like I have been).  I realize also that I need to learn to take better photos with my iPhone.  

Not enough falafel

I am pretty sure my favorite food is falafel.  If you've never had one, that's too bad, you're really missing out.  They are a fried chickpea (garbanzo bean, does it matter which one I use?) ball served with hummus and tomatoes and onions and whatever else you want.  Seriously, I love them so much I had them three days in a row... and I could have had them four days in a row, I was just too lazy to go out and walk to get one.

I went to this place that claims to be "the best falafel in town."  That is a pretty big claim, right?  Well, it was pretty good.  I would not be opposed to going there right now to eat another one, let's put it that way.  I got a falafel plate, which came with hummus, tomatoes, pita bread and a side I could choose from (I chose rice).

The hummus was so good! It was creamy and just amazing.  The falafel itself was also delicious, crunchy, and really brought me back to the one I had the day before.  Looking at the picture is really making me want another falafel plate.

I don't want to be that person you always see taking photos of their food, it looks stupid.  That is why my photos are not that great.  Had I been eating this in my room, which would have been a really depressing atmosphere and unenjoyable, the photos might have come out a little nicer.  I mean, the falafel still looks pretty tasty to me.

I've tried to make falafel before with my sister.  They were good, but these were REALLY good!  Also, the pita bread was warm and soft and with the hummus and falafel... oh my god, I want another one!  I am hungry right now as I am writing this, probably not the best idea.  Careful with falafel and hummus though, make sure you don't have to go out or anything after you eat this because, I really can't say this any other way, you'll have gas.  Besides that, it's great!

I want s'mores

I haven't posted anything in a while.  I've been busy, not so much with schoolwork (because I'm procrastinating too much to be busy with that).  I also haven't really had any amazing food recently that deserved blogging.  But, last night I did!!

My favorite desert is creme brûlée (because I'm obnoxious like that).  I seriously love it so much and whenever it is on the menu I will order it.  Why do I like it so much?  Because, how could you not?  It's sweet and creamy and crunchy all at the same time and it is just amazing.

Last night there were food trucks by my dorm, and my friend told me about this food truck only for creme brûlée.  Obviously that was my favorite food truck there (even though I hadn't actually tried it yet).  We went to the gym (I'm super sore right now) and then after we walked to the food trucks.  Nothing like a nice creme brûlée after a good workout, am I right?  There were so many flavors to choose from, but I chose s'mores.

Yes, they had s'mores flavored creme brûlée and it was... amazing!!!  It was chocolate creme brûlée with toasted marshmallows and cinnamon toast crunch cereal on top.  It was crunchy and creamy and just all around delicious.

It was the perfect amount of sweetness (I personally don't like my deserts too sweet).  I want another one so badly right now, but I have to wait until next Monday to get one!

I got my own individual creme brûlée, which I loved because I don't really like sharing that much.  I can't wait to go back next week!

I could not watch TV last night, but I could read.  I didn't read, but I could have.  Why read when I can eat my creme brûlée right?  I want to watch TV really badly though, all the new seasons of the shows are starting soon and I am going to feel so behind.  At least I have one thing to look forward to every week now, my individual creme brûlée.