Some Recent Kitchen Experiments

I know I’m not the only person who logs into Pinterest when they are bored and tags a dozen delicious-looking dishes and then signs out. But this past week I was bound and determined to try out some of those recipes! Check out the links and my feedback below:

1. Cinnamon Protein Waffles

Ingredients

• Serves 2 – makes 4 waffles
• 1/4 cup oat flour/ground oats
• 1 scoop vanilla or unflavored whey protein
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
•  1 tablespoon sweetener
• 1 banana
• 2 egg whites

Instructions

1. Put ingredients in a bowl and mix with a hand blender or put all the ingredients in a food processor to mix. This is important or else you won’t get a nice thin batter, mix until you get a smooth batter.

2. Pour a 1/4 of the mix into each of your waffle moulds, cook for approx. 5-6 minutes.

3. Serve with your favorite toppings.

Per serving (2 waffles) 173 calories | 2.3g fat | 0.2g sat fat | 23.9g carbs | 15.4g protein.

I’ve been looking for ways to cut down on carbs and increase protein in my life. But I LOVE carbs. All of them. So I thought this recipe might be a way to up my protein while satisfying my carb craving… and my breakfast craving. I was ultimately underwhelmed though 😦 The first issue was that I thought the recipe looked too small for two people to share, so I doubled it. Well, that made a LOT of waffles. Too many. The cinnamon and banana flavors smelled amazing and while the waffles were cooking, they made our mouths water. But when we went to eat them, they were just a bit dry and a little too dense for me. I will say that we had them for dinner one night with sausage and they were just as good the next morning with eggs and turkey in sandwich form. I can definitely play with the batter proportions for next time, but I might just scrap this recipe and look for another one.Do any of you have any suggestions?!

2. Simple Turkey Burgers

1 lb. ground turkey meat (prefer thigh meat)
1 medium red onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup fresh parsley, minced (or whatever fresh herbs you like)
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
cheese (optional)

Mix ingredients together and form 4-6 patties. Grill on medium heat for 7 minutes a side. 2 minutes before burgers are done, place a slice of cheese (optional) on each patty. Serve hot.

In addition to breakfast and carbs, I also enjoy Greek-style cooking and ground turkey. Frozen turkey burgers from the store lack a bit of flavor, in my opinion. So I wanted to try to make my own patties and it helped that my mom just gave me a Tupperware container made specifically for pressing and freezing homemade patties! This recipe ended up making seven patties for me from the 1.08 pounds of ground turkey. So that patties are a great size as far as portion-control goes. I used my George Foreman to grill them, since my oven has been out of commission. One turkey patty on an English muffin, topped with cucumbers, spinach, and tzatziki sauce, was the PERFECT dinner. I am so sorry I didn’t take a picture of the whole ensemble but I’ll try to remember to update the blog the next time we have them. I thought the spices gave the burgers enough character to hold their own and it was super easy to make. The best part? Having five extra patties to put in the freezer for another meal. I highly recommend checking out this recipe for quick and yummy burgers!

3. Zucchini Carrot Oatmeal Muffins

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 large eggs + 1 large egg white
• 3/4 cup oil
• 1 cup grated zucchini
• 1 cup grated carrot
• 3/4 cup raisins

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl and set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs and oil. Stir in grated zucchini and carrots. Add to dry ingredients and stir until combined.
3. Fill muffin cups about 3/4 full and bake for approx. 20 minutes. They are done when a knife inserted comes out clean, and tops spring back when lightly touched.

 

My love of carbs and Greek-influenced foods drove my decision to make the first two dishes I shared tonight. But my DISLIKE of things is what drove my choice to make these muffins. Now, I do like muffins and I’ll eat zucchini. But I actively do not like carrots. Cooked or uncooked. Dunked in hummus or stir-fried with broccoli and cauliflower. None of it. They just aren’t my thing. I also don’t prefer oatmeal. It’s grainy and borders the “hot liquid” category that I avoid like the plague. But, I am trying to sneak more veggies into my meals and swap out white flours for brown or whole wheat flours. I will say that once I got started on this recipe tonight, I realized that there was still a LOT of sugar and a mixture of flours. Baby steps, right?

Anyway, I made this recipe exactly as written and it was DELICIOUS! I got 18 muffins out of the batter, so I’ll have some to freeze and keep for later. I haven’t had dinner yet but I couldn’t wait to try the muffins so I snuck a hot one off the pan. Everyone knows that’s when they are the best anyway 😉 I could actively taste the oats and carrots, but didn’t mind them! There were also raisins in the batter, which I considered leaving out, but decided to keep everything as prescribed the first attempt. They were moist and flavorful and yummy! I can’t wait to have another one as a side to my chicken dinner tonight.

Sochi Inspired Life

As most of you know, I spent ten days on the East Coast. I posted some pictures on Facebook that you are welcome to check out, but the bottom line is that I saw a ton of awesome people, I saw a LOT of snow, and I was cold 🙂

Since I’ve been back in sunny (and warm) SoCal, I’ve been really focusing on starting and finishing projects that have been on hold for months. For example, I submitted my passport for renewal (who wants to travel once I get it back?!). I’ve really kicked off organizing my scrapbook supplies with the goal of making my Briar Woods book in the coming weeks. I’ve also watched a lot of the Olympics. Like a lot a lot. Using Mom’s Verizon password I have access to NBC’s Live Extra app on my iPad which allows me to watch hours of coverage of the events. I’m basically in heaven. Because I’m basically obsessed with the Olympics.

So what else have I done today? I have Growth Group tonight which is the weekly Bible study that ties to the sermon from the past week. Growth Group is something I love most about my church. But I digress. It’s my turn to bring dessert tonight, so I figured I would keep with my Olympics theme and make a Russian dessert… Ha! After much searching on Pinterest, I stumbled across this “easy” recipe for Sharlotka, a Russian apple cake that looked delicious and fairly straight-forward. It also looked like something people would actually want to eat. So here we go!

First, the peeling and coring and dicing of the apples… I was over it before the first apple was done. I also don’t really love apples, so that may have had an affect. You’ll also see that I opted for the 9×13″ option over the 9″ round, basically because I had this and I don’t have that.

Once that was done, I had to mix up everything else. No big deal here, got to use my blender and my mixing bowl with a lid (it’s one of my favorite kitchen tools). I was watching men’s skier cross during this part of the process. Technology is amazing 🙂 Once the batter was done, I folded in all the apple chunks and we were good to go!

Then I just had to pour the mixture back into my pan and throw it in the oven. I taste-tested the batter left in the bowl and was happy that I at least liked the taste of that. Since I was using the bigger pan, I didn’t have to cook the dish as long, which was an added bonus of my choice.

While that was cooking for 20-25 minutes, I sat at the table and worked on part two of my dessert plan. So I figured Russian apple cake would taste good with the option of heating it and adding a scoop of vanilla ice cream, which I bought. But I also wanted an option for people who might not like apple cakes, or trying new things. So I decided to take five bowls and sort M&M’s into Olympics rings colors. Then I could have a bowl of round pretzels as well to carry out the rings theme… nerdy, I know. But here is a shot of my sorting process anyway, because it made me happy. As a side note, I was watching women’s skiing half pipe… not to dis-credit these women, they are Olympians and I’m not, but this event is SO different from the men’s event. They just aren’t comparable at all. Which didn’t stop me from watching it while I sorted.

And yes, if y’all were wondering I DO feel a little bad for the orange ones because they aren’t going to the party. But I’m sure my roomies and I will snack on them this weekend. Please also notice the two cutie oranges on the table, which is to prove that I didn’t eat the chocolate and stuck with the fruit instead!  Additionally, if you are curious there is officially NOT an even distribution of colors of M&M’s in a 42 oz. bag. Poor yellow and brown (shown here as the black ring). When that project was finished, so was my cake!

I still need to add a light dusting of powdered sugar (or dare I say “snow”) to the top but overall it looks good! I hope my Growth Group appreciates my Olympics themed dessert tonight and I’ll have to let you know how it tastes once we cut into it. Overall I am happy that I forced myself to create a new dish and to expand my cooking inventory. Happy Sochi Days!!

Das Schnitzel Schmeckte Gut

Translation: The schnitzel tasted good. This past Tuesday night we decided in German food for dinner and I chose to take on making schnitzel. I wanted to try frying in my new, bigger skillet! I will admit that I cheated and bought my pork already filleted and tenderized from Tip Top meats. But I did then go through and trim some of the bigger fat chunks off the edges.

Next, I set about prepping the coatings. On the left is flour and on the right is breadcrumbs. I realized I only had Italian seasoned crumbs, but we rolled with it. For the center mix, I blended three eggs, a cup of milk, and three tablespoons each of salt and pepper. I felt like that was way too much? But my sou chef Sean said to go with it, so we did. I should pause to mention that this was not a healthy entree on any standards, but I did try to substitute healthier ingredients where I could.

Next up was the coating and frying process! I wish I had a picture of my hands after dipping the meat first in eggs, then in flour, then back in eggs, and finally in the breadcrumbs. I did get smarter after the first two rounds and just go ahead and dip the last four all at the same time so I didn’t have to clean my fingers each time. After it was battered, I dropped the meat (carefully) into the hot oil and watched it sizzle!

The frying process actually took a lot longer than I thought, but it was also a lot cleaner too. Of course there were a few splatters on the stove too, but I didn’t get hit at all and nothing got on my clothes, yay! After checking each side and flipping and guessing and discussing, we finally concluded that about 5-6 minutes on each side was the ideal time. I had the oven on 200 degrees with a baking sheet in there, and put each piece in to keep warm since I was frying one at a time.

Once all the pieces were done, and our delicious asparagus (Sean’s contribution), we grabbed our glasses and sat down to eat. I should mention that we had sangria, which is very un-German because I am going on a cruise in June and we can take two bottles of alcohol on each. I don’t love regular wine though, and I saw this sangria at Costco the other day and wanted to try it. The boys saw it in the fridge, so away we went! Oh, and not shown in the picture below is the amazing German chocolate cake Xavier brought for dessert. I wasn’t a huge fan of the coconut mixture on top, but I did really like the cake and it was the perfectly sweet ending to our slightly Americanized German dinner!

Last Cooking Class :(

Monday night I had my last Japanese cooking and conversation class.  It really was bittersweet because I’m glad to have my Monday night back, but I loved making these dishes and getting to know my classmates.  We made three dishes this week, a full meal in fact. Miso soup was our appetizer, then we had fried rice as the main course, and mochi as the dessert.

Starting with the miso soup. Those of you that know me know that hot liquids or soups are not my thing. But I did sample this at the end, once it had cooled off for a while.  It wasn’t bad and the tofu in it was pretty good, but I probably won’t make it again until someone requests it. I can’t even really remember what was in it because I was prepping for the fried rice dish while others in my group made the miso.  But I do have the recipe so I could recreate it if necessary. Above is the boiling pot cooking and below is my individual sample cooling off.

Next, was the fried rice dish.  I was really excited to make this because it seems like a good freezer dish for weekend dinners. We started with all the veggies and cooked them on our “stove”. We used carrots, green beans, peas, and corn. Then we added in our meats, which were chicken and ham but you can use almost anything. Then we mixed in the already cooked rice and some soy sauce for seasoning.

After this part of the dish had been properly fried, we removed it from the heat so we could attend to the eggs. We first mixed the eggs with some sugar and salt, then cooked them on the stove. Once they were done, we chopped them up and layered them on top of our dish. Then some green onions were sprinkled on the top. We added some red ginger shavings as well, but I took the picture below before that and forgot to go back and take another one.  This dish turned out great and was SO good. I could’ve eaten the whole pan if I had tried. Will absolutely make this again.

Our final dish of the evening was mochi. Now, I’ve only ever had the ice cream version of this so I didn’t know what to expect. We made our own first, which were basically rice cakes fried on the stove for a minute, then seasoned and wrapped in seaweed.  I won’t lie, they weren’t sweet enough for me to consider them a dessert.

Then, one of our classmates had bought a variety of bean-filled mochi from a Japanese market near her house. So we had a sampling of all of these different varieties of mochi.  They were a little better, but again I prefer the ice cream version which comes in green tea or strawberry or chocolate 🙂

Again, I absolutely LOVED this class and our instructor was adorable. I would recommend it to anyone in the SoCal area! I’m sad it’s over but my stomach is also glad because it was stuffed every Monday night for the last six weeks, lol. I hope you all have enjoyed reading about all these yummy dishes and be sure to go back through my Cooking/Nutrition category to read about our past creations!

Getting Fat in Class

As y’all know, I LOVE my Japanese cooking class on Monday nights! You should check out my past creations in the cooking/nutrition category over on the right. We made two dishes again last night in class, one that I loved and one that wasn’t so much my thing but was still good.  I’ll start with the only okay dish 🙂 We made curry rice with beef in an apple/honey curry mix. It was kind of a stew, which is why I didn’t love it.  But the veggies were good! We used carrots, potatoes and onion.  The big dish is below, without the rice base that we served it with.

The second dish we made was way more my speed! I have an undying love for breakfast foods, of all kinds, at all times of the day.  So I was very excited when I heard we were learning how to make Okonomi-yaki, which are Japanese pancakes.  I won’t be able to describe all of the ingredients because some are quite Japanese, but I’ll try!  The batter started with a powder mix similar to American pancakes, but then we added in cabbage, green onions and eggs. This made a thick batter, super thick. I should’ve taken a picture of it.  Next step, we cooked cut up strips of pork on the griddle and then poured the batter on top in a circular (ish) shape.

After cooking on both sides, we spread a secret sauce on top and then sprinkled with seaweed flakes.  There was an option to add mayonnaise as well but thankfully we didn’t do that (gross!).  Here are two shots of us cooking the pancake and then the final product being cut on the plate!

Following in the breakfast theme, I finally got around to making donuts this morning! I got a mix for apple cinnamon donuts for Christmas and I have donut baking pans, but I just haven’t gotten around to it.  So this morning I mixed it up, tossed them in the oven and let them bake! Honestly, the hardest part was spooning the batter evenly into the pans without covering the area for the hole.  Sorry for the wonky camera angle on that shot, by the way.

I was a little hesitant about the baking because I wasn’t sure if they would be too heavy versus the light donuts I love so much. After they came out of the oven I tossed them in cinnamon to really make them delicious. And after eating a few, I was happy with the result! They were light enough, not fried in oil, and were “only” 90 calories each which is way better than the average donut that clocks in at 220. I can’t wait to see what other donut recipes I can find to try in my sweet pans!

Stir-fry and Salmon Times Two

Week four of Japanese cooking class and we got a little fancy. Our sensei split the class into two groups and had us each cook a different recipe. I was in Team Beef Teriyaki with six others while the other half made Oyakodon.

This was a dish similar to the Katsudon we made last week. It’s called Oyakodon which means parent-child dish because chicken and eggs are used, lol. The cooking dish is above, the green being spinach. The pinkish food on the right of the bowl below is “fish cake” so kind of like a fish meat sausage. Weird texture but not a terrible taste!

But our side made our own teriyaki sauce which was very good, a little garlicky for me but good. Then we stripped and cooked the beef and served over a bowl of rice. It was really good and tender, but not anything too special. Our pot is below!

This week for Thursday night dinner I filleted a salmon on the grill. I seasoned it with lemon and a little olive oil and rosemary. The rosemary was from our bush in the backyard, can’t get fresher than that! And I was just proud of myself for not burning the house down with the grill 🙂 The other salmon was baked in the oven and stuffed with a crabmeat concoction. This was a Costco special, but really tasty as well! Images are below, enjoy!

Cultural Culinary Creations

The first part of this will be about my third week of Japanese cooking classes.  Be sure to check out my first two posts about fried noodles and sushi too!  This week we prepared Katsudon, a traditional fried pork dish.  This was a great “all-in-one” dish that could serve as an entire meal.  The first step was to bread and deep-fry the pork chunks. They came out looking like Chick-fil-a nuggets 🙂 In the future, I would probably just bread and bake these pieces to make it a little healthier.

Then we seasoned and cooked the veggie parts of this dish. Then we dumped everything into the frying pan, well at least the veggies and fish bullion and pork bites.  After it cooked for a while and the veggies softened, we added the weirdest part: raw eggs. We literally just cracked eggs and dumped them on top of the whole dish.  We let it simmer for a few minutes so the eggs could cook, then topped it all with some green onions for color and flavor. Here’s the final product, ready to serve eight people.

The second half of my cultural adventures this week take us to Ireland! This Thursday for dinner, the boys stepped up and volunteered to make corned beef with cabbage and carrots. I’ll be honest, I’ve never had corned beef and didn’t even really know what to expect. This was another slow-cook recipe, but it came out way better than my last attempt.  I thought the meat was really tender and delicious! The veggies weren’t bad either (for veggies). Here’s a shot of our whole spread.

So if the boys took lead on the entree, what in this picture did I do? I took this opportunity to try out a fruit dip I’ve been wanting to try.  So I picked out all green fruits (to keep with the St. Patrick’s Day theme) and whipped up the dip.  It was really easy and a vanilla yogurt kind of flavor.  Not the healthiest dish I’ve tried so far, but it was good!

 

Oh, and I also purchased Irish soda bread from the store, because I was too nervous to attempt this on my own.  And because it was baked fresh just for me earlier in the day.  It was AMAZING. Raisins and warm and yummy and I could’ve eaten the whole loaf myself. And I brewed my first batch of Passion iced tea, like for real boiled hot water and steeped it and then cooled it in the refrigerator.  It’s the red drink in our glasses above and it was really good actually.  I will continue this process in the future for sure.

Oh! And how could I forget the surprise ending to the meal? One of the boys homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream that was delicious! Seriously, so good. I am glad I don’t have the machine he does, because I would get fat for sure… but I also can’t wait for the next batch he makes sometime in the future!  Overall, this was a good week for food from other places.  I tried new stuff, liked all of it, and just had fun eating it with my good friends 🙂  Happy Ides of March everyone!

Chicken and Sushi and Such

Last week I tried another crock pot recipe, since my last one was such a success. This one though… not so much.  I had planned to make a pineapple chicken dish.  It was really simple, with chopped onions layered on the bottom, then chicken, then pineapples.  All covered in a chicken broth with soy sauce, etc. The problem was that even though I set the timer for less than suggested, the chicken dried out. It was under layers of pineapples so I couldn’t see it while it cooked.

And I think the reason was that I tried to cram too much chicken into the pot. I wanted to ensure everyone had a piece of breast but I think I should have put in less meat and then just shredded it.  But everyone was gracious enough to say it didn’t completely suck.  And the truth is that topped with the onions and pineapple, it wasn’t half bad. Not sure I’ll try chicken in the crock pot again for a little while though, just to be safe.

So then on Monday I had cooking class again and this week we were rolling sushi. This was SO cool! But it is certainly a lot of work for just one meal.  We first went through all the prep steps for each of the ingredients.  We steamed rice, mixed that with vinegar, salt, and sugar.  Then all of the inside stuff.  We cooked eggs, carrots, and beans. Then we cut those, avocados, and cucumbers into strips to make it easier to roll.  For meats, we used imitation crab and tempura shrimp.  Using seaweed as a wrap, we learned how to assemble and roll our sushi.  There are a few pictures below of the process.

My rolls weren’t awesome at first, meaning not that tight, but they got better.  Once rolled, our sensei told the class that it was most important to cut the rolls with a wet knife.  That was probably the hardest part. Traditionally, the ends of the roll were given to the family while the inside pieces were given to the guests. I could only eat one of my rolls so I brought the other home for my roommate to try.  He’s a sushi snob, but even he said it wasn’t bad 😉 It would be kind of fun for a dinner party to have all the ingredients and then let everyone put whatever they wanted in their rolls.  Thursday night dinner in the future?

My latest cooking attempt was a side dish, for a change.  I want to be able to make complete meals in the future, so I tried a vegetable casserole this week. It was broccoli and cauliflower, tossed in an alfredo-like sauce that I made. I mixed it all in a casserole dish and then topped it with bread crumbs. After cooking it in the oven for a while, it came out looking pretty good! It certainly wasn’t anything fancy, but was a good compliment to a chicken dish and it even reheated well the next day. I’d make it again for sure.

We’ll see what dishes I decide to try next week as my cooking experiments continue!

Cooking and Conversation

Last night I went back to college! That’s a little misleading, but I have enrolled in a six week course on Japanese cooking and conversation. It’s on Monday nights at the local community college and I love it 🙂 I have to admit that I was a little nervous, particularly about signing up alone, but I have studied so much Japanese history and want to continue expanding my cooking skills so it just felt right.

Our sensei is an adorable Japanese-American woman who is firm but patient with the sixteen of us enrolled in her class. We meet in a chemistry lab and use hot plates since there is no formal cooking lab on campus. I was a bit curious to see what the demographic of students would be, but we have a fairly good mix. There’s a couple my age, four guys my age, a couple in their sixties, and seven women in their forties or fifties. And me! Everyone is super nice and there was no awkward silence, which I think was helped by the fact that this is a very hands-on course.

On the menu for last night were onigiri (rice balls) and yakisoba (fried noodles). We were divided into teams, given recipes and ingredients, and put to work. First up was yakisoba, which is like a stirfry dish. Different groups had pork, chicken, or beef and we all had cabbage, onions, carrots, noodles, and sauce packets. Our sensei emailed us a list after class of the best Japanese or Asian markets to find some of the more unique ingredients for our future reference, which is awesome.

I really liked this first dish! Mainly because its a drier stirfry, so no heavy sauce (which I typically don’t prefer). My favorite of the meats was beef but that could’ve been due to their slightly heavier seasoning 🙂 While eating, our sensei taught us basic Japanese vocab for everything we were using and general salutations and words that would be helpful while eating (more, delicious, etc). We were instructed to bring notebooks so we could annotate the recipes with tips and to document new words so we can be “tested” next week.

Then we constructed rice balls, which are typically given for school lunches or field trips. We discussed rice steaming techniques and shaping strategies to get the perfect presentation. A combination of spices was hand-mixed and seaweed provided the base. This would be a cool way to have a side of rice during a meal but wasn’t anything too unique. They are also more triangular in shape than round, and the seasonings were good. We started with a few easier dishes this week to get to know each other and the routine of class. We also had a nice question and answer session at the end to ask about other words and cultural traditions in Japan. I can’t wait for next week when we learn how to roll sushi!

And for those of you in SoCal: yes, I do plan to have a meal after my last class to practice and display my new culinary skills 😉 Sayonara!

Thursday Night Dinners

I may have mentioned this in previous posts, but I have started having Thursday night dinners. What does that mean? It means that I choose a dish I have never made before, tell my friends in North County what I’m making, invite them to bring a dish that compliments it and join me. It’s fun for me because it forces me to make things I’ve never tried before and see if I like them.  It also teaches me new cooking terms and techniques, like zesting lemons or mincing garlic.  I’m having to find new stores for unique ingredients like andouille sausage or ground lamb (I have a meat market nearby that is amazing!).

It’s also really nice to be able to cook for more than one person, so I don’t have tons of leftovers and I don’t have to eat it alone.  It gives me motivation to spend time in my kitchen and build my cooking resume.  One of my 2013 resolutions is to cook two new dishes a week, and Thursday dinner ensures I get at least one.  We also end up hanging out after eating, usually playing a game or Wii, which just adds to the fun of Thursday nights.

Jambalaya early in the cooking process

So what have I been making lately?  Well, a few weeks ago I bought a crock pot because everyone raves about these things and it seems like a good way to make dinner without being rushed because you can do it in the morning and it’s ready when you get home. I decided to tackle jambalaya for my first crock pot dish.  I love Cajun seasonings and sausage and shrimp and chicken, so it seemed like a good plan.  I found a recipe on Pinterest, deleted the tomatoes/sauce and doubled the chicken stock (I don’t do tomatoes).  It cooked on low for eight hours, which made the house smell great! I think it was a success, and coupled with the cornbread, veggies, and dessert that others brought, it was a perfect dinner.

Lamb meatballs rolled and ready to cook

This week I decided to go Greek themed because I’ve really been on a Greek kick lately.  So I offered to make lamb meatballs from scratch, while others brought pita/hummus, a Mediterranean rice, grape leaves, apples with Greek yogurt, and mochi (not so Greek, but SO good).  It was fun to hand mix all the seasonings into the meat and then roll it into balls for baking.  I have collected quite a seasoning/spice rack through these meals, which makes every week a little cheaper because I already have some of the ingredients.

I also successfully made my first batch of pumpkin bread ever! Those of you who know me know that I love it, SO much, but I’ve never actually tried to make it myself.  I just rely on friends or family to make it for me.  But my first attempt went really well and I had six mini loaves to share for dessert one week, with hopefully more on the way.  And I have been making batches of healthy chicken salad for lunches, which my roommate and I consume faster than we should… I am starting to enjoy cooking and I can’t wait to continue after my next big trip (more on that soon)!