Banana ice cream

I made banana ice cream.  I know most people call this "nana" ice cream, but I refuse to call it that.  It's a stupid name and what some people call their grandma.  So, no, I did not make "nana" ice cream, I made banana ice cream.

Ingredients:

Frozens bananas (as many as you like)

vanilla (optional)

all the toppings you want

Now that we got that out of the way, here's how to make it.  You take bananas, however many you want, I used two, cut them up into bite sized pieces and freeze them for at least a couple of hours.  The riper the banana the better.  Then, once they are frozen, take them out and put them in a food processor and pulse away until it is nice and creamy.  

Super easy and super good!  I topped mine with some homemade almond butter, but you can go as crazy as you like with the toppings.  

Almond Butter

While I continue to binge watch Scandal on Netflix (I've gotten through two and a half seasons in about 4 days), I also continue to eat.  I loved my homemade peanut butter I made the other day.  It's been delicious on bananas, oatmeal or spoons.  It's so good that I've decided to experiment a little with nut butters.  I'm going crazy now with almond butter.  It's made the same way as the peanut butter, so it really doesn't take much skill.  

Ingredients:
Almonds (as much as you like, but enough so that the food processor has enough to puree)

Take some almonds, put them on a single layer on a baking dish, place them in a 350 oven for about 15-20 minutes.  Make sure to toss them around a little while they are baking.  Then, once they are nice and toasty (you should be able to smell them at this point), pull them out and put them in a food processor and blend them up until it's nice and smooth.  You might have to scrape the sides down a few times.  It takes a while, it first becomes like a bread crumbs but just keep blending and you'll get there.  It would also make a great gift, just a small jar of homemade almond butter.  Or, you can just enjoy it yourself, which is what I do obviously.

Tofu "fries"

I love tofu!  I know people hate people who say that, but I'm being completely honest.  I like it plain, sautéed, with sauce, well, it's obviously better with sauce.  This is a delicious, easy and most importantly healthy snack.

Ingredients:
Tofu
Oil (just to spray the tofu, not necessary)

Preheat oven to 350.  Meanwhile cut the tofu into strips.  Gently press a paper towel on the tofu to soak up any liquid you can.  Lay the strips on a baking sheet, making sure the tofu is not touching each other.  Spray the tofu with a little oil and pop it in the oven for 15 minutes.  After 15 minutes flip the tofu over and cook the other side for about 15 minutes or until the tofu crisps up a little and the sides are golden brown and delicious.

I served mine with a little sweet chili sauce on the side and it was absolutely delicious!  You could also cut and bake the tofu into cubes to toss in salads or for an easier way to eat them on the go.

Now, go enjoy your tofu fries with a little TV on the side!

It's oats, for breakfast!

Alright, so I already posted about my oatmeal before, but I thought I might as well post again.  I think the picture is prettier this time too.  Oatmeal is super easy to make and a really healthy and filling breakfast.  I use my rice cooker, but you can do it on the stove too.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup oats
1 cup water (or 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup milk)
whatever toppings you want to add

Rice cooker instructions:
Put the oats and water in the rice cooker and turn it on.

Stovetop:
Put water in a pot on stove and when the water starts boiling pour in the oatmeal and stir.  Then, turn the heat down and cook a little longer until the oats are exactly how you like 'em.

Then top with whatever you want.  I used dried cranberries, almonds, blueberries (sorry mom for taking a few of yours, needed them for the picture) an raspberries, of course a little brown sugar too.

I've been watching Scandal and I liked it at the beginning, but it is getting kind of old. I was really into Dexter and I highly suggest it if you haven't seen it!

Also, if you don't already, follow my instagram @theresnotvinmydormroom for all the latest photos of ma food!  Enjoy!

Homemade Peanut Butter

It's been a while since I have posted anything.  I really have no excuse except I'm incredibly busy finishing a season of Scandal a day (that is not a lie, by the way, I watched a whole season in one day and I'm almost done with the second).  I've been really into food instagrams and was inspired to make my own peanut butter, which is incredibly easy.  I think you're supposed to roast the peanuts first but I didn't and it turned out fine.  I used pre-salted peanuts.  If you roast them first, just lay peanuts on a tray and put them in the oven for like 30 minutes or until the oils have started oozing.  Then place the peanuts in a food processor and blend it up until it is nice and smooth.  It's absolutely delicious!  Also, check out my new instagram where I will post only food photos: @theresnotvinmydormroom

On another note, Kim Kardashian's wedding was a couple weeks ago and from the photos I saw, it was absolutely over the top and beautiful!

Footloose

I haven't really had time to eat/ make incredibly good food lately so I really haven't blogged in a while.  Well, my sister would say I have plenty of time because I am not pre-med, but still in my free time I seem to pretty much do nothing.  I watch a lot of TV, but I realized, I also watch a lot of movies.  How exciting!

Anyway, the reason I am telling you (I only have one follower, thank you) that I watch movies is because my sister had a genius suggestion to review the movies I watch.  Warning: I watch really trashy, bad movies, but you're lying if you say that you don't like to watch these movies too.

So, my first movie will be Footloose, the new one.  I have seen the old one (twice) and I have seen the new one, now three times.  In fact, I am currently writing this post as I am watching it again.

**Spoilers ahead** (but seriously, knowing what happens really doesn't ruin the movie at all).

Plot: Pay attention now because the plot is a little tricky.  Imagine a town where everybody seems to be very religious and the only thing those hoodlum tweens want to do is dance, but they can't!  The teenagers in this town are rebels, breaking da law... that says they can't dance.  There are no school dances, which to me really shouldn't matter.  I only went to one of my school dances and I didn't even want to go to prom.  So, these kids sneak out on Friday nights and go crazy...dancing.  I mean, this movie is incredibly unrealistic, but whatever you deal.

Characters: There is the rebellious boy from Boston, with his accent, coifed hair and white t-shirts.  He strolls on in and the preacher knows he is clearly here to cause some trouble.  Little does the preacher know, however, that his own daughter is off there shaking her little booty (she is played by Julianne Hough so she is in fact very "little").  I am never for low-rise jean shorts/pants/skirt with a crop top, but that seems to be the only thing that this girl has in her closet.  Very interesting because you would think her preacher father would not allow her to buy these clothes, but I'm guessing she snuck out one night before she went dancing to some store and bought them, just a guess.  Also, her hair seems to always be in a bump it and her eyes are like way too blue.

The worst though is her dress for the dance at the end of the movie, like it is so hideous.  It hits right above the knee, which I learned in middle school it really a horrible look (see below), and pink and has these flowy parts.   Just all around horrible.  She also has her ex boyfriend who looks like he is about 15 years older than her and causes a lot of trouble.  One time she goes crazy and starts hitting his car with a pole.  The only good character is Wren's (the guy from Boston) friend who is dorky and the only somewhat funny character in the movie.  

 (This is me in middle school.  I like to think of it as an optical illusion - is it a girl or a middle school boy?  I mean, I have a nice belly and some moobs.  The reason I am showing this picture is to demonstrate the length of her hideous dress, which clearly should not ever be used.  I don't look like this anymore.)

I don't really know what other parts there are to a movie review, but I will look some other stuff up so that next time I write one I have more to say.  The lines in this movie are incredibly cliche and I realized I really didn't like the movie, but I will most likely watch it again.  It is the type of movie that you watch by yourself, somewhat like while you're watching it, hope nobody comes in, if they do you start making fun of it so that you don't feel so uncomfortable.  I seem to watch these types of movies a lot.

"Limen" Poppyseed Cake

I've been wanting to make this cake for a while.  If any of you follow me on Pinterest, I went through this lemon poppyseed cake posting binge.  Luckily, I found a lot of good recipes to use for when I did finally make it, which happened to be today.

Well, my lemon poppyseed cake might not actually be lemon.  As you have probably read in the title, this is a "limen" poppyseed cake.  My sister planted a tree in the yard and then she forgot whether she planted lemons or limes.  Now, you probably think it should be pretty obvious to decide which one it is by the color, but, the outside of these are mostly yellow with some green and the inside is a light green almost yellow.  Very tricky.

Anyway, they are a citrus and I used them.  I used this recipe:

http://liza-messycorner.blogspot.com/2013/08/lemon-yoghurt-n-poppy-seed-cake.html

It is pretty simple and really tasty!  I actually made it in my rice cooker because I have been wanting to use the cake function for a while now.  Of course, you can just follow the recipe and make it in the oven and I'm sure it would be just as (if not more - but probably not more) delicious.

First things first, lay out dem ingredients because not only does it make what I think is a good picture, but it also just makes everything a lot easier when baking.

You will need:

1 1/2 cups all purpose-flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup whole milk plain yogurt
1/2 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (or in my case "limen" juice)
zest of two lemons
Poppyseeds

Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together.

Next, in a separate bowl, mix the sugar, oil, yogurt, eggs and lemon juice and zest together.

Make sure to get all the zesty goodness from the back of the zester.

Also, this is my "limen."  See what I mean by the color on the inside, yet the outside is yellow.  Very confusing indeed.

Make sure to squeeze all the juice you can.  It is a lemon cake after all and you want to make sure you can taste all that lemon flavor.

Then just mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients in batches until the dry ingredients and wet ingredients become one.

Get those poppy seeds (is this one word or two?  I wrote it as one on my instagram but then I edited it.  You get what I mean).

Put as many as you want.  Hopefully you use poppy seeds that are not stuck to the bottom of the bottle because let me tell you it is very difficult to get them out.  I have big hands and long fingers and I thought I would have been able to just use my fingers to get the extra out but it didn't work so I used a spoon.  

That story was incredibly boring I realize, but I am too lazy to erase it so it's going to stay.  I'm funnier in person.

Give it one last mix and then pour the batter into either a buttered and floured baking dish or your rice cooker if you want to experiment.  

I just cooked mine until a toothpick came out clean.  I think it took me like 40 - 45 minutes, but I wasn't really paying attention.  The recipe says bake it at 350 for 40 minutes.

It's a beautiful golden brown when you take it out, but I thought that looked ugly and so I turned my upside down later so that the poppy seed top was showing instead.

I made a glaze to go with it, which was pretty simple.  Just a little bit of warm butter with lemon juice and few tablespoons of water and powdered sugar.  Make it to taste and the consistency you want.  

I poured it over the cake and it fell on the sides and I thought it looked terrible.

I was tired tonight and that didn't help.  I started pouting and was really upset (don't I sound like a ball of fun?).  Anyway, I had to take it off the plate with the hideous glaze around it and move it to another plate.

The poppy seed top is so much prettier anyway.  The cake is SUPER moist and really delicious.  I bet my mom is agreeing right now as she is reading this.

My US Weekly came in today too so I obviously read that while I ate my dessert.

Unfortunately, I go back to school this weekend and so I probably will not be making food/ blogging about it so much anymore.  Hopefully I'll find some good restaurants that I can write about, until then, enjoy!