fall into pumpkin

although my neighborhood looks like fall has already come and gone, once you leave my street the trees are still in full autumn colors. the reds, oranges and yellows are gorgeous, and they make me think of- pumpkin and all sorts of pumpkiny goodness that can be baked and eaten:D

 this recipe comes from simply recipes. i tweaked a couple things- i ran out of granulated sugar, so ended up using about 1/2 cup of granulated and 1/4 cup of brown sugar (you'll see in a bit why i used less sugar). then i substituted unsweetened applesauce for the oil (and since the applesauce is sweet less sugar needed). plus, i'm still lacking allspice in my pantry so i dashed a bit more cinnamon and nutmeg.

the bread is super moist. and pumpkin with cinnamon and nutmeg is about the best combination ever. is it pumpkin pie time yet?

i couldn't help but take a picture of the fruit, probably the last strawberries i'll see/eat until next summer, but honeycrisp (they're juicy and kind of tart) apples will keep me company while it's cold.

vegerific

somehow reading more about nutrition for my class makes me feel like i'm still not getting enough vegetables in my life (although as a vegetarian it is very easy to just sustain yourself on carbs). so here's some food ideas of the week (minus the carbs b/c i'm going through a bit of a detox after birthday celebrations). these are really small servings b/c i'm basically eating every two hours. which is really fun and good for people like me who like to graze:)

red pepper stuffed with tuna, diced onion, black beans and of course spiced with oregano (i love this stuff). it would be great with some quinoa or wild rice and an egg probably would have held it together better. you can blanch the pepper for a couple minutes first, then stuff and then bake for about 10-15 min (or longer for beef or chicken ingredients).

stir-fried peppers and onions, scrambled eggs spice w/ oregano! i had some other veggies but they weren't quite as pretty.

oh, and i finally watched some videos on youtube for swimming technique. tried them out this morning and man am i sore. hopefully, once i can swim more than the 8 or 10 laps with the correct technique i can improve my mile time.

s3's birthday

it's technically not s3's birthday until tomorrow but we celebrated a bit early. i forgot my camera for dinner but we went to zaytinya's (in d.c.) for dinner. the food is very good and the pita bread they have out for noshing is even more dangerous:D we can't celebrate a birthday without cake! made chocolate matcha bundt cake for her birthday.

the swirls came out really pretty as i filled the bundt pan (note to self, the bundt pan needs serious greasing and cocoa powdering)

the cake is delicious and bakerella is right, it tastes so much better warm. i just wish i had a kitchenaid to get the mix nice and mixed because i felt mine was still a little lumpy with hand mixing. plus, i think bakerella's texture looks much more fluffy and mine def came out dense. dense but tasty!

i love fall and probably because it means i can bake to my hearts content AND heat the house. these are a brownie mix with some canned pumpkin tossed in. i attempted to make spider webbing designs on the top but forgot that the pumpkin would sink into the brownie and that the brownie would rise and make the spider webs look funny. but as usual, they were eaten

is it too early to eat?

since M and D get up before the crack of dawn and stop eating by 3 or 4 pm i suppose it's okay to eat something like this at 7 am:) it's super easy and delicious! i got this recipe from Eating Well and based on what i had in the pantry it became more of a "mexican" lasagna. and even with all the changes it tastes good!

Mexican Lasagna (serves about 5-6, or one and a half M's)

1/2 Tblsp oil
1 medium onion, diced
1/2 zucchini, diced
about 9 oz of black beans, drained
1/2 tsp cumin
about 9 oz salsa of your choice
3-4 small whole wheat tortilla wraps, quartered
1 cup grated pepper jack cheese

Preheat oven to 400 F. Lightly grease a 9 x 9 pan. Heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook until brown (about 5 minutes). Add the zucchini, black beans and cumin and cook for about 3 more minutes. Make a layer of tortilla wraps on the bottom of the 9 x 9 baking pan. Top with the vegetables, then a layer of salsa and then cheese. Repeat. Bake covered for 15 minutes. Bake uncovered for about 7 minutes or until the edges bubble and the cheese is melted.

and with all the tortilla wraps left over nothing like baking them w/ some olive oil and sea salt to make a stacy's pita chip kind of goodness.and to round out a productive cooking/baking day made a loaf of banana bread! running out of my breakfast granola bars (finally) so i went back to banana bread. i made a few changes again.

Banana Bread (Adapted from The Everything Cookbook)

Yield: 1 large loaf

1 2/3 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup instant oats
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
a little less than 2/3 cup applesauce (unsweetened)
2 Tblsp maple syrup
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup mashed banana
1/2 cup greek yogurt

Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray and flour a large loaf pan. In a medium bowl mix together the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl mix together the applesauce and maple syrup, add in eggs one at a time. Add the mashed banana. Add the flour mixture in thirds, alternately with the yogurt. Blend quickly and pour into pan. Bake about 45 minutes or until the center tests done.

i couldn't taste the maple syrup unfortunately, so i'm thinking next time of soaking the oats in the yogurt and maple syrup to really suck up the flavor. but probably the healthiest bread you could make that still tastes delicious. now i just need to get some pumpkin butter to mix with peanut butter and spread on top!

brrrr...time for lentil soup and other fixings

it's chilly enough here that i'm wearing all my winter clothes inside the house. and that just means it's time for warm and toasty fill-up-my-tummy goodness. i recently signed up for newsletters from active.com and this recipe is compliments of their site. it's a quick and easy recipe, really good source of protein and makes your tummy all warm and cozy. i did have to put an extra dash of salt and pepper into my bowl though. speaking of quick and easy. i'm trying to eat an actual meal after class instead of just running into the kitchen and haphazardly looking for food that can get into my mouth as soon as possible. b/c that leads to the peanut butter jar and then i just feel a bit sick afterward. this takes a bit to cook. toss in whatever chopped veggies strike your fancy (i have potato, zucchini, and broccoli) and then toss in pesto (i have a frozen jar of bj's pesto) and wrap in foil and stick in the oven for about 40 minutes (until all your veggies are baked, the potatoes do take a while, fyi). and now onto a bit of a food dump. never got a chance to upload pictures from our labor day cooking b/c my laptop is a bit unhappy. but it was delicious! eggs italiano and stuffed french toast. the bread was stuffed with a strawberry and cream cheese mix. the eggs italiano was a saute of tomatoes, zucchini and onion on top of a whole wheat english muffin and topped off with a poached egg (which is really fun to do!). smittenkitchen has a great picture how-to on poaching eggs. oh, and i just noticed how huge the cheese looks on top of the egg. this is what happens when you don't have a cheese grater...but it still tastes good:)

oops moment and macadamia flour

this past sunday s3 and i ran the bachman valley half marathon which is hosted by the WRRC. it's almost an hour drive to get there so i put on some flip flops so i wouldn't be wearing my sneakers on the drive up. as i stood in line to pick up my race number i realized that i hadn't put my sneakers in the car! thankfully, s2 wasn't running and she had on an old pair of her running shoes and we're the same size. so wha-la, i had socks in my bag and a pair of holey sneakers to run the race (too bad my lovely new inserts i had bought during training were now sitting in my sneakers at home). despite forgetting my shoes, rain right at the beginning of the race, it was a lovely course and well organized and i got a new PR (2:01:46)! Almost under 2 hours, the last couple miles a huge blister was forming on the bottom of my foot and i was just trying to push myself to get under 2 hours. next time. but i highly recommend the race!

had a bit of experimentation with macadamia flour from ecuador. i wish i had a picture but unfortunately my own computer is on the fritz so i'm pictureless. tried baking shortbread cookies and substituted half the white flour with macadamia flour. i wish i had nicer butter (or maybe it was the combination of the butter and the natural butteriness of the macadamia) and the texture was a bit too crumbly for my liking. i think the macadamia flour would be great for a good buttery crust.

breakfast (or dinner) of champions

along with the granola bars i decided to make some banana bread (what else would you use leftover sour cream for??) to also have as handy dandy breakfast on the go. the recipe is similar to what i've made before except this time i used sour cream and greek yogurt (in place of the butter). of course it was about 3/4 whole wheat flour and the rest white flour and it tastes really good. especially with some pumpkin butter spread on top. eum eum.
reading my nutrition book for my online class i feel more and more like i'm eating unhealthy. which i'm really not compared to how i used to eat or how most americans probably end up eating due to time and budget. so i finally cracked and made huevos rancheros b/c i've been talking about them forever and it's a complete protein and has veggies (sort of). plus it's really easy to make. i cooked the black beans earlier in the day (you can just get the canned version and just rinse the sodium from it) and a can of salsa (this is safeway's southwest salsa medium), eggs, and a tortilla wrap. there's something about having the runny yolk mix w/ the salsa and beans that is just sooooo tasty. i'm drooling just thinking about it again.