oatmeal for dinner [ recipe ]

After being a crazy woman for the past 8 weeks, it feels SO weird to not be studying right now. I can sit back, relax, and not feel guilty about watching old America’s Next Top Model episodes.

Other things I don’t feel guilty about… eating oatmeal for dinner. Since I’m leaving the city Tuesday for vacation and haven’t had much time to plan out meals there’s very little food in my apartment…….

And sometimes you just want a comforting warm bowl of yummy oatmeal on a cold and rainy new york evening.

good enough for dinner apple cinnamon oatmeal

ingredients:

• 1 cup + 1/2 cup of almond milk (I used vanilla for extra flavor)
• 1/2 cup oatmeal
• 1 tablespoon chia seeds
• 1 apple, cut up
• lots of cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon of honey

directions:

1. In a medium sized sauce pan heat 1 cup of almond milk, the oatmeal, chia seeds, the apple mix with a few shakes of cinnamon over medium heat.
2. Keep stirring the mixture until it starts to thicken (if you’re like me you will probably freak out that it’s soooo watery and you did something wrong. Don’t worry, it will thicken!)
3. Once the mixture thickens add the addition 1/2 cup of almond milk and honey.
4. Stir until the mixture becomes thick once again. Add additional cinnamon if desired.

I keep telling myself, “I’ll start going legit food shopping once I’m back from vacation”. Until then I’ll enjoy oatmeal for dinner instead 🙂

 

What’s your favorite way to enjoy oatmeal?

For me this is definitely my favorite hot oatmeal recipe I’ve ever made, but in the summer time I’m a huge fan of overnight oats

livin’ la vida loca + [lowerlegworkout]

Things are definitely a bit crazy over here. Life is currently a balancing act of work, studying and trying to have a tiny bit of fun on the side. I keep telling myself that this craziness will die down soon enough and my life will eventually return to a steady routine– just the way I like it. But for now, shit is cray.

Something I’ve tried to maintain throughout this craziness is my daily fitness routine… which let’s be honest isn’t too difficult when you work at a gym :). I’m definitely loving the little perks of being a personal trainer like wearing yoga pants all day and getting to workout in my downtime.

 

This morning I decided to give myself a bit of extra time at the gym before taking my favorite zumba class and squeeze in some strength training. My shoulder has been acting up since taking a yoga class earlier this week, so I decided to focus on lower body instead

lots and lots of squats. I didn’t want to completely destroy my legs before zumba, but I definitely felt the burn.

I’ve noticed that more often than not I’m the only female surrounded by a bunch of intense men in the free weights section of the gym. Come on, ladies! let’s step it up!

 

 

Slowly I’m starting to clean my apartment and stock my fridge with fresh and delicious food. I might’ve convinced myself today that lugging heavy bags of groceries from Whole Foods counts as an upper body workout.

Trying to eat healthy and cook at home can sometimes be tricky in the city– getting delivery is incredibly easy and convenient compared to dealing with my itty bitty kitchen, and on top of that the boy was here all weekend which means we wanna go to our favorite restaurants in the area.

For dinner tonight I attempted to make a new dish inspired by one of my favorite bloggers, Julie.

In a skillet a I cooked 1 apple with some butternut squash (pre-cut thanks to Whole Foods, yay for being lazy!) and apple chicken sausage in olive oil. Besides a minor mishap with the knife that left me with a bloody ring finger (I was more concerned about my manicure getting ruined than the fact that I sliced my finger pretty badly….) it was a delicious and easy dinner.

side note: when buying chicken sausage make sure to read the packaging if you don’t eat pork! some brands use pork casing, even with chicken sausage.

After this picture was taken I added a bit of honey and cinnamon which might not sound like it would taste good with chicken… but I promise you it does! See, I can still make healthy meals in my itty bitty kitchen… even if it means risking my ring finger’s life.

Hope you all had a good weekend. While I’m sad the weekend ending means my boyfriend has to head back home, I’m actually pretty excited to head back to work tomorrow. Let the work and studying craziness continue…..

[recipe]: big kid chicken tenders

hey all! hope everyone had a lovely thanksgiving!! I had a great weekend of eating copious amounts of food, spending quality time with the extended fam and catching up with friends from high school and work.

 

As much as I love cooking dinner with the boyfriend, it doesn’t end up happening very often. For starters, my apartment kitchen is too small for two people to cook at once. On top of that, trying to find a dish that will satisfy both of us is tricky– the only meat I eat is chicken and turkey. He’s a lover of steak . I avoid dairy foods and of of course want to cook something relatively healthy. He does not….

This weekend we found a recipe that satisfied all of our requirements: chicken based, dairy-free, and healthy but doesn’t taste healthy. And boy was it tasty.

Who doesn’t love chicken tenders?

big kid baked chicken tenders

recipe courtesy of here

serves 3-4. reheats very nicely in the toaster oven 🙂

ingredients

• 1 lb chicken breast (I used thin sliced)
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup panko bread crumbs (we ended up using more)
• 3 eggs
• 1 tbs dijon mustard
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 2 tsp paprika
• veggie spray or pam

directions.

1. preheat oven to 425 degrees fahrenheit
2. clean the chicken and cut up into smaller strips. Season with salt and pepper.
3. In a medium sized bowl add 1 cup of flour and season with 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper.
4. In a second bowl add 3 eggs, 1 tbs dijon mustard, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper and 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper. Whisk together.
5. In a third bowl add 1 cup panko bread crumbs and 2 tsp paprika.
6. To bread the chicken first place the tenders into the flour mixture and coat. Shake the tenders and then dip into the egg mixture.
7. Finally, place egg drenched tenders into panko crumbs mixture.
8. Place the breaded chicken on a greased rack over a baking sheet.
9. Once all the tenders are breaded, spray both sides lightly with veggie spray/ pam.
10. Baked for 15-17 minutes or until the chicken is cooked and the breading is nicely browned.

The boy and I give this recipe 2 thumbs up: it was easy to create, I already had all the ingredients minus the chicken, and it was super tasty.

 

 

As lovely as it’s been to spend some time at my parents home and live 5 minutes away from the boyfriend, I’m getting really excited (and nervous!) to move back to the city this week and begin my new job. Hellooooo real world!

do you like cooking with your significant other?

anyone else have difficulty finding recipes that satisfy both peoples diets?

 

comfort food: matzoh brie recipe

(aka sometimes I eat things besides pancakes for brunch)

Whenever I am at my parent’s house there’s a few comfort foods that I always beg my mama to cook for me. One of my favorites is matzoh brie. For those of you unfamiliar with this Passover favorite it’s basically the love child of matzoh + scrambled eggs.

Yup, there is a year ‘roud supply of matzoh in my house. This salty block of carbs is tasty even when it’s not Passover…

my mama’s matzoh brie recipe

ingredients:

• 1-2 eggs whisked (depending on how egg-y you like your matzoh brie)
• 2 boards of matzoh
• shake of salt & pepper
• pat of butter or earth balance
• a splash of milk or water

directions:

1. Heat the pat of butter (or vegan option) in a frying pan

2. Mix together the eggs, water/milk, salt and pepper in a medium sized bowl.

3. break the matzoh into bite sized pieces and combine with the batter.

4. mix it all together to coat the matzoh.

5. pour the whole mixture onto the heated frying pan and keep mixing until the eggs are cooked

 

In other news…

I spent all day trying to motivate myself to go for a run outside. Yeah… it’s cold out, that wasn’t gonna happen. I convinced myself that my new awesome running jacket with thumbholes would keep me nice an toasty

clearly I was delusional and forgot how cold New york is when I bought this jacket in California last week because it’s nice and all, but definitely not enough to keep me warm. After spending the summer training for a 5k I really miss running outside. I’m trying to convince myself to sign up for a nearby turkey trot this Saturday but am a bit worried about freezing to death (I’m so wimpy when it comes to cold weather)

Besides that it’s been a relaxing day lounging around the house and studying. I know things are gonna get crazy and fun now that a lot of my friends from high school and work are home for the holidays.

what comfort food do you always make your mother cook for you when you come home?

any recommendations for cold weather workout clothing?

help a freezing cold gal out….

Pumpkin Flaxseed Pancakes + the final day

When life gives you pumpkins, you make flaxseed pumpkin pancakes……

For whatever reason I have been on a serious pumpkin + pancake kick. Ole faithful pumpkin almond pancakes has basically become my go-to lunch (and on occasion dinner) for the past few weeks. Unfortunately I ran out of almond flour and 1. its real expensive. 2. trader joe’s and whole foods didn’t have it and 3. I knew I wouldn’t be able to use up a whole thing of almond flour before heading back home… so I decided to opt for flaxseed flour, a cheaper standby to almond flour. It changes the consistency and flavor, but sure does the trick and makes a tasty, health pancake

Pumpkin Flaxseed Pancakes

Makes 1 serving

ingredients

• 3 tablespoons flaxseed flour
• 1/4 cup canned pumpkin
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon honey
• a few shakes of cinnamon
• a few shakes of pumpkin pie spice

Mix the ingredients in a bowl and pour onto a heated skillet. I tend to use a ladle to scoop out 3 medium sized pancakes. These pancakes are super thin so be careful that they don’t burn and use caution when flipping.

I’m also boring and only ever enjoy my pancakes with maple syrup on the side.

These bad boys definitely did the trick– provided me a filling lunch and used up the last of my canned pumpkin. I DEFINITELY gotta stock up on that stuff when I get back to new york.

—-

It’s been a less than stellar final day here in Los Angeles complete with my first ever parking ticket. Thanks California, I really needed that.

On the bright side, I did get to spend one last day at Runyon Canyon

this will definitely be the place I miss the most in Los Angeles. Nothing like it in New York.

Packing is driving me insane. Remind me to never move across the country again…..

My final day here is winding down. It’s been a crazy 2 months, and not quite the 2 months I expected, but none the less I got to live out my childhood dreams and be a resident of California.

With that being said, I have never been so excited and ready to go home. I cannot wait to see my family, hug my boyfriend, laugh with my friends from college, high school and work, eat at my favorite restaurant, see a broadway show, walk around Manhattan, and truly revel in the fact that New York is my home, New York is where I’m meant to be at this time. I feel it in my gut. I feel it in every inch of my body. California has a lot of great things to offer, but New York is what I need right now.

All day I’ve been singing Green Day’s Homecoming in my head– there is not a more fitting song for how I feel right now.

and now it’s time to sit back and watch my last Los Angeles sunset.