Cooking with Kayla

It is common knowledge that I am no chef. In fact, I’m sort of terrified of cooking.
Usually my excuse is that my Manhattan kitchen is smaller than my closet

I kid you not:

itty bitty kitchen

epic closet

we all have priorities of what we want in an apartment…. some people want a roomy, deluxe kitchen… I wanted room for my extensive dress collection. Priorities…… BUT ANYWAYS…..

I have no excuse now, the kitchen in my childhood home is easily 4 times the size of my Manhattan kitchen and well stocked with every type of pot, pan and spice I could ever need.

and so begins of summer of trying to find more “every day” recipes that even the most clueless chef, me, can handle.

My inspiration for brunch the past two days has been courtesy of Fit Foodie Finds: delicious and filling Banana Oatmeal with Berry Sauce

Despite being terrified of cooking, I decided to experiment and embellish the recipe a bit.

There were strawberries in the fridge so I added them to the sauce

the fruit isn’t as ripe as I would love it to be, so I’ve been adding a pinch of sugar to sweeten it up. I’ll warn ya, at first I was worried that the sauce wouldn’t come out as thick and beautifully purple as shown in the photos with the recipe, but give it time on the stove and eventually you will have a pretty colored berry sauce.

as for the oatmeal, I didn’t have an oat bran in my pantry. I will definitely have to go get some, but until then I added 3 more T of oatmeal to make up for it. I also added a lil bit of brown sugar. I’m usually not such a sugar addict, but since I was little I’ve always had oatmeal with brown sugar and it just doesn’t taste the same without it to me!

and I topped it off with a few peanut butter puffins (because no meal for Kayla is complete without some peanut buttery goodness)

this recipe gets two thumbs up from me– relatively quick, easy, and a filling meal after a morning spent at bootcamp. So good I’ve already had it two days in a row! If I can make it without starting a fire or getting food poisoning, I guarantee you can make it too….