Gothic Granola

If you're vegan or vegetarian, you've probably stared at a plate like this often: cooked grain, beans, and greens. Videre licet , lentils and rice.  Nota bene the rice was cooked with cumin and saffron.

These peanut butter oatmeal protein balls have been taking over the interwebs. I put my own twist on the recipes found in Dr. Phoenyx's Instagram and Gimme Some Oven .  

Cake and smoothies, cake and smoothies...they're all I seem to have posted about lately, and they are amongst what I eat, pretty much every day.  Let's get real about energy drinks. While all the B vitamins, taurine, caffeine, and sugar in Monster give you a temporary boost (and a serious crash), energy drinks don't address the real issue(s) underlying fatigue. Don't want to go to sleep? Or do you just not want to wake up because of X, Y, Z happening the next day? Feeling powerless to solve a problem and so you can't sleep but lie awake worrying about it? Daily tasks not challenging enough so you have excess energy? Think about that the next time you find yourself reaching for that fourth cup of coffee or that Red Bull. Constricting your blood vessels with caffeine probably isn't the long-term solution to why you're feeling tired. I'm not you, so I don't know what's going on in your life. You know your life best; you have the power to adjust thin...

...For when you have cranberries, but sauce seems like too much of a project and pie or bars or muffins are really too much of a project. Juice is also a project. But you have to eat breakfast, right? Why not make a smoothie?

TC had surgery last week and has been drinking all the smoothies. While I haven't made this one for him yet, here is the pineapple-loaded smoothie I plan to make for him.     Why pineapple? Pineapple contains bromelain, an enzyme shown to reduce inflammation. Since post-surgery care involves keeping swelling and inflammation to a minimum, this smoothie is a good way to get some natural inflammation-reducing bromelain in your system. Feel free to add a scoop of protein powder if smoothies are all your "patient" will eat.

I learned a trick this week, and I'm going to extrapolate several explanations for why it works.[1] Then I came up with a tea drink, and a way to make my date-based chocolate syrup.

Before I had my licence/parents would let me drive, for the super-early National Honor Society morning meetings, Ownie Mom would drive me to school. As usual, she gave me breakfast: a thermos of Earl Grey tea, a pot of Stonyfield Farms organic, low-fat yoghurt (chocolate please!), maybe an apple, and a bag of enhanced trail mix. Trail mix with more stuff became my vice in later years: GORP, M'n'Ms, peanutbutter-filled pretzels, and Quaker Oatmeal Squares. Of course I ate it to stay awake in 2006-2008. I made it for myself and ate it to fill some hunger for the same love and care for my success in 2009-2010.

Today was Hoodie-Hoo Day, according to WellCat.

I'm in the midst of a juice fast. I don't have a juicer, just a Vitamix, so it's more I'm on an "obliterated fruits and veggies" fast. While checking out Khepra's Raw Food Juice Bar online recently, I found their   juice fast  instructions. Says I, I've got a Vitamix and some cash to spend on raw materials.  Off I went in hopes of resetting my portion size concept and purify my diet.

For a theme of "curry," I made peach plum coconut chutney. While it may not meet the Wikipedia definition of chutney (which I have no doubt is authentic; no sarcasm here) as it is uncooked, it's delicious. I would serve it with something plain, like tofu or noodles, since it is vibrantly spicy. You could add a hot pepper or some cayenne and take it up to your desired level of spiciness. The curry powder you choose also influences the heat.

My assignment: Go maketh something tasty with the One-Day Deal item, strawberries. I wanted Mexican food, so yesterday I made strawberry salsa, which included avocado at the behest of the marketing team leader. Mango and pineapple salsas are a thing, so why not strawberry salsa? Aguacates y fresas son frutas tambien.

No pictures, again! Greetings.  Busy week, but what can I say.  The going-to-class part of the semester is almost over and done with.  Exams, however, will not conclude until the end of January.  Great Scot!  My undergrad years better be the last time I go to a school that has exams after winter break.

Speaking of flesh, my mom and I made chilli side-by-side last year, she making carnivorous chili and I making vegan chilli.  Chilli is one of those dishes that I think people can get really up-in-arms about since everyone knows someone who makes a good one.  Or they make a good one themselves.  I offer a chilli recipe that’s been adapted for the dorm.  I found a recipe on the interwebs sometime last April and neglected to bookmark it.   I have no pictures of the chilli so all food pictures have been replaced with cats.