Subliminal Messaging

Did everyone else get to enjoy beautiful weather today? Vermont was certainly graced with some beautiful sun and warm temperatures! Given the time of the year it is I should be crying that it was nearly 40*. Lately all I've been wanting is snow, snow, snow. We have none! But since beautiful sunshine came along with the warmth, there was no way I could complain.

I should have known it would end up being a beautiful day after seeing the subliminal message in this ridiculous bowl of banana cream pie breakfast:

Anyone else see the heart?!Not intentional.

This craziness involved the usual whipped banana bowl of grains, topped with more banana, coconut, walnuts, raisins, and whet germ. The chia-seed yogurt icing had some mashed banana, too! And almond butter and a maraschino cherry, just for good measure, of course.

I thought I'd died and gone to heaven after eating this.

I grabbed the buffalo turkey wrap out of the fridge that I'd made for lunch last night, an orange, a carrot, and a Z Bar and made my way to school for classes.

After my first one I learned of two amazing facts: 1. Int. to C.J. was cancelled, and 2. Photo would just be a "work day" if we so chose! Luckily I learned both these things in e-mails, so decided to do my own photo class by driving round Rutland and finding sketchy places to take photos. Strangely, I've never just walked around downtown with my camera with the intent to take photos. I learned that sometimes you overlook some of the neatest places!

I've got quite a few photos to go through to keep me busy tonight, tomorrow, and the next day! Hopefully I got one or two good ones. 

While I was in town, I took advantage of the time to explore our co-op! I've never actually been in there - another shocker, right? I told myself I wouldn't buy much. And I did great until I got to the bulk section, where everything...uh...sort of added up. There's so many fun things, and still feel like I hardly got as much as I wanted! haha. Finds included goji berries, other dried fruits and nuts, almond "mozzarella," oikos, applegate farms turkey hot dogs, some bars, and some cookies! What I really wanted to find was coconut butter, but no such luck. My other stop was my favorite little organic deli/cafe, the Back Home Again. I about lived there all summer long, until I started school. (Then "Jess's Budgeting Act" cut-off so much buying of meals, and encouraged the making & packing of meals. It's ridiculous how much I spent a week buying lunches rather than packing my own!)They make amazing breads, and I needed some Spelt bread. They also sell yerba mate and mate energy bars, which are amazing. So I picked some of those up as well. Bliss. 

By the time I was done spending money and taking pictures, it was around 1:45 and I had only eaten all my snacks. They held me over so luckily I wasn't so tempted by any of the delicious wraps and sandwiches at the BHA and decided I'd just enjoy my wrap grilled once I got home!

Look familiar? It hasn't gotten old...but I'm almost out of those meatballs! I do miss hummus and veggie wraps though, so it's all good :)

Dinner was to incorporate one of my interesting co-op finds!

I had planned on just getting some really good marinated mozzarella when I went grocery shopping this weekend (I am picky about my mozzarella. Go big or go home. No skim over here.) but was quite fascinated when I saw this! Never even heard of it before, so of course I had to give it a try. I'm not lactose intolerant, vegan, or anything requiring me to avoid real cheese, but I was quite intrigued. And it's quite good! But we'll get to that.

On the agenda tonight was a Sausage Polenta Bake. I'd been tossing ideas around in my head all morning, and initially wanted to do sausage-apple, but wasn't sure what veggies I had that would go well with that.

So, for 1-2 servings (my mom and I shared it but each had another sausage & sauce on the side) I prepared the bottom polenta layer with:

1 Pesto-Chicken Bilinski Farms Chicken sausage, diced

1/3 c. polenta/corn grits

1 c. water

minced garlic

diced scallions, red pepper, and yellow pepper.

garlic salt, pepper, and basil

I just prepared the polenta as usual and when it was beginning to pull from the sides I added everything in. Poured and spread into a mini casserole dish, and baked at 400* for 20m.

Pre-baking:

Then I decided on a middle veggie layer:

baby spinach - 1 c.?

broccoli crown, chopped

1/4 c. cream of broccoli soup

minced garlic

dijon mustard

salt, pepper to taste

Sauteed in a pan until cooked down & soup about evaporated. By this time your polenta should be about done, so go ahead and put this layer on top.

Top with some sort of marinara/tomato-based sauce on top, and then some mozzarella shreds. (or, in my case, almond mozzarella)

I initially thought I was going to have to make my own "sauce" with diced tomatoes and seasonings like I usually do, but my mom actually had a pot of spaghetti sauce on for some pasta and sausages she was making, so I just stoled some of that. Convenient!

Pop back in the oven until your cheese is melted, and dig in! (Caution: Contents Hot)

Basic, but good :) I still like my sausage-apple polenta casserole idea, though. Soon!

Now, however, it is time for dessert round 2 (round 1 was a mate bar!): chia seed pumpkin pudding!

If you have a local co-op, what's your favorite find there? 

Or, if you're grocery shopping, do you end up trying way more new things than you went there with the intention of purchasing? 

I know I'm guilty of having a grocery shopping new-foods problem!

'Night everyone!

Back to Basics

Happy Humpday, everyone! Belated Humpday, almost...

This morning started off with a Back to Basics bowl of brekkie.

[Can you tell I have no idea what to call my breakfast mix? It's not oatmeal...and I'm not calling it porridge. Porridge sounds so unappetizing. So it's a bowl of brekkie. Ya dig? haha]

The normal mix con shredded coconut, choco-chia "icing," raisins, rasperry jam, chopped walnuts, and almond butter.

I couldn't make up my mind what I wanted so I decided I'd just do the normal whipped banana bowl. No matter how simple or how complex, it is always so good, wouldn't you agree?

I never really looked at walnuts for their health benefits - I always thought almonds and peanuts were superior! So I was shocked when I learned that Walnuts are actually king! This is because they are loaded with omega-3s, and an insane amount of antioxidant activity levels. They are also a large part of Meditterannean diets because they are very heart healthy, helping to reduce total as well as bad cholesterol, increase artery elasticity, and help to keep the hardening of arteries at bay. [Source]

Work and car-ride eats, in case you were wondering:

My wrapping skills are becoming better by the day.

Repeat of a buffalo turkey meatball wrap, ranch dressin' on the side, carrot sticks, orange, Z Bar, and crack. Remaining nanner and some spelt toast with almond butter just for good measure.

Buuuut, I was able to print some of my film today :) Nothing super impressive, but a couple fun ones:

and....the downside of film:

A big ole scratch, right on my emulsion! Ah well. 

Dinner tonight was simply superb. Planning out meals has worked so well. I was hesitant about doing so, since my cravings can change by the second, but I've found that when I look at what I've got planned for dinner the night before or the morning of, I start off just wanting that anyway! I'm allowing some mixing-up of meals; it's more of a "here's 5 meals ideas, here's the ingredients, now just cook them whenever." lol. And all the look-up work has been done when I have time to do it (versus when I get home from work - because that wsn't happening. hah!), so I'm going through all these recipes I've been wanting to try, too! I'm also getting better at knowing when to make extra for leftovers, and when not to. The meatballs worked out great for lunches this week, so besides the strata, I've been making just enough for dinner. Go me! haha. [okay, sometimes there's a littttle left, but not enough worth saving. as you can imagine, Kaia isn't complaining.]

How do you go about your meal planning? On a whim, or planned in advance?

Anyways, back to tonight's Pumpkin-Honey Curry Chik'n!

Served with sweet potatoes and baby spinach.

Ingredients:

-1 c. Quorn Chik'n Tenders, or 1 cup chopped, cooked chicken

-1/2 carrot, chopped

-1/4 c. each chopped yellow and red bell peppers

-1 T. honey

-1 T. honey mustard or dijon mustard

-1/3 c. almond milk 

-1 t. Curry Powder

-2 T. pure pumpkin puree

-1 sweet potato, sliced into rounds

-salt and pepper

-baby spinach

Destructions:

-Place sliced sweet potato rounds on panini press/grill, spray with non-stick spray, season with salt and pepper, and allow to cook.

-Meanwhile, combine chik'n, veggies, honey, mustard, milk, pumpkin, and curry powder in small frying pan. Allow to simmer until sauce thickens slightly/chik'n absorbs it.

-Plate baby spinach, top with sweet potatoes, and then the curry mixture.

Enjoy!

In addition to your meal planning strategies, what is your favorite go-to meal?

'Night everyone!

Twos.

I bet you could guess what you'd be seeing again this morning...

Yep! French Toast again! I'm telling you...I find one thing to latch on to and can eat it over and over and over. I don't think you'll see this again for a couple days though, with work and school. It's super fast to make and not a big mess, but doesn't french toast just seem so weekend-y?

Anyways, a bit different than yesterday: this was french english muffin! I love using english muffins as the bread. So good. The trick is poking them and letting them soak up the liquid so they get nice and eggy. For the egg mixture, I used 1 egg + 1 egg white, splash vanilla, cinnamon, splash soy milk, and applesauce. Yes. Applesauce. Don't hate. Just try it. And be amazed. I also decided to throw some raisins on them while they were cooking, but it looked funny so I flipped them upside down when I took the pic! Had a side of all-natural unsweetened applesauce with cinnamon and s.f. syrup, too - for dipping! As my step-mom would say, "I'm a dipper. You like to dip stuff." Sounds funny, but when I think about it, she's right. I like to combine foods rather than keep them separate. My last room-mate said it's because I'm Polish. Hey, I'll take it.

Applesauce=another random kick of mine lately.

This ended up being the perfect breakfast. Delicious, easy, and held me over for a super long time. I wasn't really ready for lunch nd hardly snacked at all, but definitely wanted this:

Toasted WW Sandwich Thin spread with half a laughing cow french onion cheese wedge, dijonaise, and franks, then carefully piled with 2 hardboiled eggs, sliced plum tomato, red pepper, romaine, and dill pickles.

Another shocker, right? Honestly people. If Subway employees consider themselves sandwich artists, yet can't make me a sub half as good as this, what does that make me?

Hardboiled eggs = heaven.

'Nough said.

It does make my mom laugh a little how I carefully slice and pile everything though. Hey, it's gotta be balanced! There really is an art to it :) I admit a wrap would make this easier x10. Should probably get some o' dose, even though I have been loving me some Arnold Sandwich Thins as of late.

And here I am, nearly 3:00 on a Sunday afternoon and I have done absolutely nothing productive today. At all. Well, besides laundry and cleaning. I wanted to bake so so  badly, but luckily pushed through the desire. WAY too much food in the house! Also looked up booklists for the semester starting Tuesday. Only two books I need, but they're both pretty pricey :\ I usually wait until class starts to make sure I need them before purchasing them ever since I bought a $150 one only to show up and have the teacher say "DON'T BUY THE TEXTBOOK!"

You win some, you lose some. I lost.

Tonight = Clean Out The Fridge, Edition 20.

Check out my flickr uploads from yesterday until then!

Love My Saturdays...

Shortly after uploading everything, I had to break for lunch.

All I wanted was a repeat from last night!

Except, take two was made way better - didn't know that was possible!

My mom had hard-boiled some eggs earlier so I stole one and sliced it up to put on this sandwich thin with Cedar's sundried tomato hummus, Cedar's Mild Wild Salsa, mushrooms, red pepper, romaine, and pickles. With, of course, carrots on the side. Not sure where this newfound carrot obsession is coming from. I used to hate gnawing on carrots...I felt like they were a food you'd just chew...and chew....and chew...before actually being able to eat it. Lately I can't get enough of their crunchy goodness, though!

Photo editing resumed as well as random grazing, though for some reason I haven't been that hungry today. I've been all about hot beverages, though! In place of hot cocoa (which we have none of) I've been drinking hot jello pudding. Uh, come again? Yeah...sounds weird. But seriously; it works! Just put a spoonful of jello pudding mix in hot water and drink! It's not thick since the water's hot...and is a good sub if you have no hot cocoa or unsweetened cocoa powder mix, lol.

When dinner rolled around, all I really wanted was a breakfast "burrito"! I was on my own for dinner - mom & henry are at an auction and so they ate dinner realllly early. Whenever we eat together I love making an intricate meal, especially since when I get home late during the week I never get the chance to make anything super exciting for myself (but, since I am easily satisfied, as you can tell, it doesn't bother me too much.  I do miss cooking, though!)

But anyways; breakfast for dinner is just what I had! I love having a craving for something and being able to have just that, especially when it's so simple :P In the eggs was a splash of soymilk, salt, peppa, and mustard, poured over sauteed red peppers, cajun andoille chicken sausage, mushrooms, green pepper, garlic, and cilantro. Scrambled to perfection, and then added a laughing cow cheese wedge and the remaining Cedar's Mild Wild salsa. All stuffed in a Joseph's flax pita that I had pan toasted while the eggs were a-cookin'. Hey,so maybe it's not a "burrito" but it's durn close! This made me so full. Thought for sure I'd need a "Part II" to this meal, but not yet. Sure to have my nightly bowl of apple-granola-etc though, hehe...

Right now it's NFL playoffs (not really by choice - moreso "Why is there never anything good on television anymore?") and still going through photos :) Really getting into this HDR stuff.

What are your thoughts on HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography??

and if you're here for the food - Are you one of those "easy to please" eaters, or do you always need to cook up something new and exciting? Don't get me wrong - I love being able to make new and exciting and healthy meals. But I also kind of luck out in that I'm content with  delicious hummus sandwich or breakfast burrito for dinner when it comes to working later :P

Upgradin'

Upgrade numero uno came in the mail today!

Still deciding on a new lens; I'm not in a huge rush but I think I'm going to go for the 55-200mm Nikkor VR if I can't find a 200 or 300mm D lens (a D lens will work on both my cameras) It's pretty inexpensive but has great reviews.

I thought I was going to be kind of creative with b-fast this morning by mockly broiling bananas, but it didn't turn out quite as pretty as I'd hoped.

Pardon the ugly blue plastic bowl...

See, I thought I'd "fry" the bananas and blueberries in some stevia, syrup, and cinnamon and they'd get all carmeliz-y and pretty, but they just got soft and, while delicious, weren't golden and crispy, haha. Not sure how my thought process works sometimes...

The concoction did taste great, though! In the mix was Brown Cow atop a cubed hunk of homemade whole-wheat bread, syrup drizzle, half a crumbled Kashi Raspberry Graham cereal bar and half a Clif Apple Cinnamon Z-Bar. And some wheat bran...and a couple more slices of banana to make it a little more visually appealing for you :) Coffee = Van Houtte Macadamia Nut. Not a big fan of the Van Houtte brand.

Ran into town to hit up the post office, Rite Aid, and Price Chopper (yes, for the third day in a row) for a couple ingredients for tonight's salmon!

Came home and did a mini fridge-and-freezer clear-out for lunch:

uhh...once again, not too visually appetizing, eh? hah...

Freezer-burnt P.C. veggie burger in a Joseph's pita with romaine, Cedar's Mild Wild Salsa, dijonaise, mushrooms, and a lovely side of snap peas and carrots. Luckily it only tasted half freezer burnt. Probably should have just chucked it and started in on the box I had just brought home, but hey. There's starving kids in Asia. Can't bring myself to toss it unless it's moldy or something. It really wasn't that old. hah.

Then I played with my new toy :) That camera is getting so heavy. Wait until the new zoom lens is on it. hehe...

Check out the photos on this blog.

The black and white portrait of the child in the tub on the front page? Amazing.

The amazingness continues on her flickr.

See yas for dinner! I've gotta go warm up; It's finally broke 30* here but for some reason this house feels so chilled!

Hi, I am a lens addict...

I've had camera equipment on my mind nonstop lately!

I bought a battery grip for the new camera a couple days ago and am eagerly awaiting its' arrival. Now I'm searching for a 300mm zoom lens. I have an okay 200mm lens that did what I needed it to last year, but now I'd like to upgrade. There are just so many choices! You camera geeks: do you prefer the Nikon D, G, or VR series? I'm leaning towards VR, but the D also interests me so that I can use it on my film camera as well.

But back to the food!

I <3 my Keurig Brewer! Timothy's Irish Cream today.

Who would have guessed; Greek yogurt and camera lenses?!

I warned you all that I am a creature of habit! Sorry for the yucky photos today. It's always dark at my meal times on days I work! Makes for unpleasant fotografs.

Typically I don't like surfing the web while I eat breakfast - it makes me not want to get ready! But I caved this morning.

Lunch packed = delicious leftovers. I swear those Joes are better the next day! They did need more Frank's though. I took it easy on the hot sauce since I'm the only  spicy foods lover of the family - if I were to make these for just myself, I think I would have doubled the Frank's! I also snacked on Wheat Thins flatbreads and an Apple Cinnamon Clif Z-Bar. I think I am in love. These bars are soooo chewy and oaty and amazing!

I had to run to the Price Chopper near work to pick up some VitaTops; I've been craving them and the PC 5 minutes away doesn't carry them :\ Nor do they carry my beloved Newman's Own Honey Flax Flakes, which is kind of a pain. I make it work. Whilst there I took a peek at the rest of the frozen foods aisle because I wanted to see what they offered for organic/healthy(ish) frozen dinners. Hey, cut me some slack. I can't remember the last time I've had a frozen dinner, and I was kind of craving one! That price chopper actually had a pretty impressive selection of Kashi and Amy's dinners as well as a large "health foods" section in general, but I spotted some organic chicken egg rolls and realized I had to have an egg roll. I don't know where the craving came from so suddenly. hah! I can't remember the name, but I proudly left price chopper carrying two vita-top boxes, egg rolls, and Kashi TLC Raspberry Graham cereal bars. (I have a bar addiction :\ ) I use self checkout during these instances because I feel like a cashier would think I'm strange. Everything was advertising how many calories they had!

I had one of the Kashi bars on the commute home (it takes me at least 45 minutes to get to and from work) and was impressed. Clif may have some competition...

Turns out I was lucky to have picked those up, too; I would have been happy with Sloppy Joes, Round 3, but they were long gone, as expected. And these turned out to be quite good! Didn't taste greasy or overly processed whatsoever and the chicken was actually all-natural. The ingredients weren't bad at all, but I did nix the duck sauce. They're probably pretty high in sodium, too. Forgot to look at the sodium content since it doesn't typically concern me as much as everything else, but salt was pretty high in the ingredients list! Oh well.

Currently munching on a baked chopped apple and a cran-bran vita top. mmm!

Apple con raisins, granola, syrup, and cinnamon.

I am free from work requirements tomorrow, which means I'm in charge for dinner again :) Will probably have salmon or tilapia. What are some of your favorite fish recipes? I have two I love that I'm sure I'll be sharing in the not-so-distant future, but am always looking for more; love salmon and tilapia!

Favorite photo of the day?

I can't chose just one from Miliken Gardener's flickr photostream! Can you?!

Grocery Shopping: The NEW Time-Killer

Day off. What do I do?

...go grocery shopping. For some reason, if I get bored, I'll just go to Price Chopper. I'm lucky enough to have one 5 minutes away, even though I do live in the middle of nowhere! It's no Trader Joe's or Whole Foods, though :(

Among that, of course, I've been messing around on my Flickr and Etsy all morning. Other than that, I've done laundry and that's about all. hah!

What are your favorite boredom-breakers??

I woke up ravenous this morning! I think it had a lot to do with that fact that I slept til 8:30. That is super late for me. I'm usually up by 7 even if I'm not working. I enjoy it! I stayed up much later than usual though, playing on Flickr. These challenge games are addictive!

Made myself my new fave:

Shocker! Brown Cow Greek Yogurt, Blueberries, half a large banana, Kashi H2H, raisins (these really made it complete, I think!), maple syrup, and pumpkin pie spice. Oh, and half a spelt scone! It's hiding. 

Coffee this morn=Gloria Jean's Cappuccino. Not my fave, but not terrible. I save the "mediocre" flavors for days I don't have work.

Enjoyed while surfing Etsy! P.S. - check out my shop! please?

Insert random kitchen cleaning, laundry-doing, face-powdering, and grazing here, until I decided to steal Henry's jeep and run to el banko and aforementioned grocery store. Grazing = remainder of the banana and a Kashi TLC Pumpkin Pie granola bar. I can't decide if I love these bars, or if they have too much of the sweet coating "stuff" on top. But I think I'm leaning toward love.

Currently grazing on:

sugar snap peas con garlic, chili powder, and salt and a blood orange.

I was really excited to try my first blood orange but was a little let down :( They're not bad, but for some reason I was thinking they'd be like n out-of-this-world orange or something. Not really :\

I've got some "overnight oats" (that I prepared this morning, hah) waiting jusssst a little bit longer for me in the fridge. Gonna be grrrrr-ate. heh...

A random photo of the morning:

Taken October 2009 with my Nikon N90s and Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 lens on Ektar 100 film.

Catch ya lata, kids. I'm cookin' dinner tonight!

Slacker...

...I'm already slacking on my responsibilities! I was so boring today though. Same ole' yogurt bowl for breakfast, leftover fried bulghur in a pita for lunch with more veggies on the side, and a pita with tuna and tons of sugar snap peas for dinner. I had to use up leftovers! I can't deal with throwing good food out. I did have yummy snacks throughout the day, though - my fav being a clif honey graham cracker z bar. I wanna know why these are "just for kids!" I wanna play too, ya know.

My night so far has consisted of playing on flickr, baked apples, coffee, and toast. What a wild life I live!

Hoping to shoot tomorrow on my day off, but my stupid Jeep is in the shop. I only have one working door! So I'm not sure how long I'll be on house arrest for. Unfortunately, baking isn't really an option due to the fact that there is way too much food in our house right now! I think we have a problem, my mom and I. We both get bored and bake or cook, leaving our fridge packed and baked goods in the freezer for eons. le sigh...

by Athena Hahn

I leave you with this artwork by Athena Hahn. I think it's quite beautiful. What are your thoughts on it?

It Starts...

So. Here I go; taking the plunge, hopping on the bandwagon, what-have-you: food blogging. Over the past year I've become progressively more and more interested in healthy living, particularly in food and how it fuels the body. This interest has given way to a passion for healthy cooking, and a thirst for more knowledge of different fruits, vegetable, proteins, grains, and how to incorporate them into mine and my families daily life. I've been following multiple healthy living foodblogs, and when you take into account my long-time passion for photography, I just felt like it's time to start one myself! So let's see how it goes, no? This blog will be compilation of interesting eats, fun photoshoots, random babbling, and anything else that choses to present itself. Enjoy!