We Cook, We Eat, We Feed.

I took my first nutrition class at Cal Poly this quarter- FSN121. The Fundamentals of Food.

As the first official Food Science & Nutrition class on my path to becoming a registered dietitian, it was a lot of fun and was the perfect course to start off with. 

I had a great group of lab members--Kendal, Peter, and Matt. Even though we always finished late, we always had a ton of fun cooking and eating and singing to music together in class. I'm really glad that we ended up in the same group because it wouldn't have been the same without them.

We learned how to make a ton of different food in the class. There's nothing better than being able to taste and eat while you cook. The best day was probably the day the huge chocolate wheels were brought in. You know we definitely ate TONS of that stuff. SOOO DELICIOUS! 

My favorite thing we learned to make was pasta. I had always wanted to make homemade pasta because I love pasta so much. It was so easy and so fun, and I really really want to get a pasta rolle now. We even went extra and made fettuccine on top of the ravioli we had to make. Go team!

The best part of the class was that we had it for 3 hours right before/around dinner time. So we were always well fed on Wednesdays because we got to eat everything we made in class :) And of course there were always leftovers for us to take home with us too!

Super Simple Smoothie

This is the smoothie I made this morning. Anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely LOVE smoothies. Love love love love love them. They're sooo easy and quick to make. They taste delicious. You can put anything you want into them. In one smoothie, you can potentially put all your daily servings of fruits and/or veggies in case you don't have time to eat them that day.

The smoothie I made today only contained 3 ingredients. Raspberries, banana, and a touch of honey. It could have been a 2 ingredient all-fruit smoothie with just the raspberries and banana. But the raspberries were a little more tart today, so the honey cut down the tartness a little bit.

I'm a big big fan of fruit smoothies. Especially all-fruit ones. Vegetable smoothies, not so much. Blended up veggies?? No thank you. I can handle 98% fruit, 2% vegetable smoothies though. You know, the kind where you sneak just a little bit of spinach inside. Just a little bit though. But if you try adding beets or carrots, forget about it. I'm not on that level yet.

Also, I'm super loving this new little blender I got off Amazon. I didn't want to cart off my huge Ninja blender to SLO with me, so I got this little one. And it's perfect for helping me not make the perfect amount of smoothie, just about 1 tall glass, each time. Plus, it's also my favorite color :)

Movie Night & Homemade Popcorn

This past weekend, we had a movie night at Aunt Cherie and Uncle Yvan's house, where Trisha, Arianne, and I finally watched the masterpiece SILENCE OF THE LAMBS.

Of course, no movie night is complete without popcorn. But we decided to make it ourselves. 100% homemade and 100% delicious. Sure store bought bags of popcorn are easier, or even the kind you buy and stick in the microwave. But they're full of butter and sugars that you don't really need/want. Plus if you make it at home, you can create your own flavors and basically customize the whole thing. Popcorn is actually a pretty healthy snack, but we decided to splurge a little and make some chocolatey concoctions for the movie night. Of course, this would be just as delicious without the chocolate (believe me, we tested it!) haha.

We made 3 different flavors based on what everyone liked. We popped a whole bunch of the popcorn kernels in a little bit of oil, then mixed in the different toppings. We melted up some dark chocolate We didn't add any butter, and just a little sprinkle of salt.

Flavor 1: Dark chocolate (for Dylan who's allergic to nuts and doesn't like cinnamon)

Flavor 2: Dark chocolate with cinnamon (my favorite one!)

Flavor 3: Dark chocolate with chopped up Twix bars and crushed almonds (for the milk chocolate and caramel lovers)

The popcorn was delicious and so simple to make. So simple even Dylan and Kaia helped us make it!  This is probably one of my new favorite snacks to eat. Next time if I want a healthier version, I'll probably just make it plain with cinnamon. And the movie was really really good too. Suspenseful, kinda creepy, but I actually didn't find it to be scary at all. Probably because I can deal with scary movies that involve psychotic killers and gore, but I really cannot handle paranormal scary. I can never ever do paranormal scary. I literally can't sleep for weeks after watching one of those.

IT'S FINALLY HERE!!! Sunday FOOTBALL, Lots of Anxiety, & Breakfast of Champs

A yummy breakfast fitting for Sunday football. YESSS I AM SO HAPPY FOOTBALL IS BACK!!!

I've been waiting and waiting and waiting, and now it's finally here. What better way to celebrate having massive anxiety again than by eating pancakes? And not just any pancakes. Banana walnut pancakes drizzled with chocolate and syrup on the side. Plus some truffle oil eggs and freshly squeezed orange-grapefruit juice. 

Yup, this breakfast will definitely give me enough energy to watch football (the Saints!) and get massive anxiety over the game and fantasy football. I feel like I'm going to hyperventilate already.

Caramel Apples, But Not.

I love apples, but I'm not always a fan of eating them if that makes sense. It kinda gets tiring eating a plain apple after a while. 

For breakfast this morning, I really wanted to eat apples though. But not plain apples. Oh no. 

So I made these apples, drizzled with lots of melty peanut butter and sprinkled with cinnamon--two of my favorite things ever. And I ate the whole plate without getting tired of it. Success! 

They kinda remind me of caramel apples, but healthier. And I don't like caramel that much anyways. Side note: these would also make a really delicious and easy snack too. This takes like 2 minutes to make, tops.

Friday Favorite | The Special Ratatouille Pasta Sauce

I love to make this sauce. It's sooo yummy. It's basically the recipe that my mom and aunts used to make spaghetti sauce when I was younger, but I added my own twists on it over the years. And somehow it became this sauce! It's a good pasta sauce for basically any type of pasta, or even if you love eating sauce alone (like me!) or with some French bread. My aunt and uncle say it's similar to a ratatouille, so now I'll just call it the Ratatouille Pasta sauce. I'll take that as a compliment because my uncle is French so he would know his French food. It's definitely not vegetarian like real ratatouille though because my family loves meat and really meaty meat sauces. The only issue I really have with making this sauce is that I ALWAYS make way too much because it's so hard to make only a little bit of sauce. But this is a good thing because the only thing better than this sauce when its fresh, is this sauce as leftovers for another meal or a snack.

The Ingredients:

Note 1: We like our sauce spicy and this sausage is definitely spicy, but you can use non-spicy sausage. You can actually use any type of meat you prefer: ground beef, ground turkey, etc. and then just add spice later if you like.

Note 2: You can add any vegetables you like into the sauce too. And any type of jar sauce. Basically this sauce can be tailored to suit anybody's taste buds.

Surprise! When I was cutting open the bellpepper, there was a mini little bellpepper inside. 

Cut everything up to around the same size!

Cook low and slow. The longer the better. I let this pot cook for just under 2 hours. If you need it done faster, it'll still taste good after 30 minutes. But it will taste even better if you leave it to cook for longer. 

AND IT'S DONE. 

Backyard Orange Harvest

My backyard has some orange trees. And during the summer, the trees churn out bunches of oranges. They're soooo good. It's weird because they're perfectly sweet, yet perfectly sour at the same time. I'm normally not a huge fan of orange juice, but freshly squeezed orange juice made from these oranges is one of my favorite drinks of life. 

The recipe is so simple. 

Just pick some oranges, cut them in half, and squeeze out the juice. That's it! There's no need to add in extra sweetener. It's already perfect.

On a normal day, I probably get like 10% of the Vitamin C I should be getting. But on a summer day when these oranges are lying around, I probably get like 400% haha. And now, I'm getting thirsty just thinking about this.

Friday Favorite | Fantasy Football and Homemade Salsa

I am super excited for football season to start again. Except I really don't know if I'll even have a TV when I move, so I don't know how that's gonna work out. Watching on a laptop or a small screen just isn't the same thing. At all.

And I'm playing fantasy football for the first time this year!! YAYYY. I have NO IDEA what I'm doing. Thankfully, I did manage to get the two players that I absolutely knew I wanted to have--Drew Brees and Jimmy Graham. HOORAY! They were literally the only 2 players I really really wanted on my team because I LOVE THE SAINTS. Everyone else on my team I pretty much picked based on who had a nice-sounding name or who had the coolest name. Also, my laptop totally froze during the middle of the draft, so two of my players were autodrafted for me. At least they have cool names. Fingers crossed xx

But even though I'm a fantasy football noob, one thing I do know how to do is make delicious fresh salsa. Trisha and I whipped together this salsa for the draft yesterday. It's the same recipe my family has used ever since I was little, but now Trisha and I have taken over the salsa-making duties at parties. It's so easy to make.

Fresh Homemade Salsa
Tomatoes
Onion
Jalapeño
Cilantro
Limes
Salt
Pepper

Depending on how much salsa you want to make or how onion-y or tomato-y you want it, buy more tomatoes than onions or vice versa. Obviously the more spicy you want the salsa, the more jalapeños you add, or you can pick a spicier pepper like a habañero.

Cut the tomatoes in half and remove the seeds first. Then dice the tomatoes and onion into small pieces. Finely chop up the jalapeño. Add the jalapeño (with the seeds if you want it spicy like we do) to the tomatoes and onion. Mix in a pinch of salt and pepper. Then add the limes. Start by adding one whole lime, and keep adding more until it tastes the way you like. Finally, chop up the cilantro (not the stems!) and mix it in.

There's no shame in taste-testing every step while making this salsa. We do it every single time haha. Just don't forget to have some chips ready :) It's the perfect salsa for football season, and also every season of the year!

Smoothie With A Spoon

This morning I felt a little adventurous and decided to make a smoothie. I put in banana, apple, dates, a big spoonful of peanut butter, and some ice. I didn't have any yogurt or juice, so it was just an all-fruit smoothie. With peanut butter haha. It ended up being a thicker smoothie. A smoothie you eat with a spoon. A smoothie with a spoon.

Taste-wise, the flavors went really well together. Texture-wise, I think I put too much apple in it because it reminded me a little bit of applesauce--and I don't like applesauce. This recipe is obviously still a work in progress. Next time, definitely less apple, more peanut butter (because I just love peanut butter), maybe add in some yogurt. We'll see how it goes.

Lesson learned.

How To Eat Breakfast Even When You're Too Tired

Sleeping Morning Breakfasts: Easy Edition

Truth: When I wake up in the morning, I'm grumpy and still tired. I'm hungry, don't feel like cooking, but I need to eat breakfast. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so I always start my day off with some kind of breakfast.

 This week, I made a run to the grocery store for some breakfast essentials and used them to make different breakfasts everyday. Each one took no more than 5 minutes to make--they were soo easy! 

What I bought: acai smoothie packs, a variety of fruit, wheat germ, plain Greek yogurt, slivered almonds, cacao nibs, and coconut shavings. I also already had honey and eggs at home. All it takes is combining different breakfast essentials to make different combinations. Even though it make seem a little pricey to buy all of those items, I didn't use them all up in a week and still have plenty left to make more breakfast this week. 

1. Acai Bowl

This was the first breakfast I made, so I went all out. The acai packs come sweetened or unsweetened, but I like to buy things unsweetened so I sweeten everything to my taste. I added strawberries and a banana, then blended it all together. I topped it with some more banana (I love bananas!) sliced on top, slivered almonds, coconut shavings, and cacao nibs. The cacao nibs are really bitter so I didn't add that many.

It's really delicious especially on hot summer mornings, and is even better if you freeze the fruit before you blend it all up so it's icy cold. I like to eat them in mugs.

2. Yogurt with "Granola" and Fruit

I love yogurt, but yogurt doesn't fill me up for very long on its own. So, on this day, I paired some yogurt with a fresh banana and a giant peach.

For the yogurt, I started with ~3/4 cup of plain Greek yogurt and drizzled in honey. Then I stirred it together really well because I don't like honey clumps in the yogurt. Instead of topping it with granola, I made my own "granola" using a couple spoonfuls of wheat germ, almonds, coconut shavings, and a few cacao nibs. So easy!

3. Hard Boiled Egg & Lots of Fresh Fruit

Hard boiled eggs are a definite breakfast essential for me. Make them in advance for the week and store them in the fridge. Plus, it's always really weird to boil just a single egg when you want to eat one, so you might as well just boil a few at the same time.

But a single egg is definitely not a filling enough breakfast. I was particularly lazy on this morning, so all I did was pair a hard boiled egg with a big bowl of cherries and fresh mangos. YES. This was the easiest breakfast of all to make because I really didn't make anything. Who ever said breakfast cheaters never prosper??

4. Breakfast Smoothie!

I absolutely loveeee smoothies. SOOO MUCH. I literally get brain freeze just about every time I have a smoothie because I try to drink them so fast, but they're totally worth it. This week I made a strawberry/banana/peach smoothie. I think that all smoothies should have a little bit of banana in them, or they just don't taste right or don't have the right consistency. But then again, not everybody loves bananas as much as I do.

First, I blended together a whole banana, a whole peach, a couple of strawberries, and a few ice cubes. I like to blend all of the fruit together first--before adding in yogurt--so I can see how much yogurt I want to put in depending on how much fruit there is. Then I add in some yogurt (usually about a couple of spoonfuls),  re-blend it, and it's ready to drink! It's also good to add the yogurt last in case you put in too much fruit, or else you'll end up with a whole gallon of smoothie if you're not careful! I almost always end up making more smoothie than I thought I would.

5. Strawberry Yogurt 

Last but not least, I made a big bowl of strawberry yogurt. I started with about a cup of plain Greek yogurt and mixed in a little bit of honey. Then I cut up a cup of strawberries into small chunks and smooshed them into the yogurt using a spoon until the yogurt turned pink. Some chunks of strawberry remained, which is perfect. I added a lot of strawberries because I love them, plus it fills me up. Then I mixed in a couple spoons of wheat germ, and topped with almonds and cacao nibs. 

Yogurt with fresh fruit mixed in is always more filling than plain yogurt with granola topping, like I did on the 2nd day. So this was actually already a filling enough breakfast. 

So that was my week of experimenting with easy breakfasts. If you can't already tell, I really do love strawberries and bananas. So that's why I pretty much used strawberries and bananas in everything. 

The hardest part of the whole process was probably the cleaning up part, because I HATE CLEANING. But the breakfasts were all delicious and didn't take a lot of time or energy to make, so all in all, it was a successful week of eating breakfast :)

Baking Shortcut: Funfetti Cookies

How To Make Cookies Really Really Fast 

I LOVE to bake. Cookies are one of the first things I learned to bake from scratch when I first started baking around age 11 or 12. Since then, I've continued to bake cookies from scratch. But, I've also discovered a really quick and easy way to make cookies. The secret is to start with store bought cake mix. Baking anything, whether it's cookies or cake or bread, starts with the same basic ingredients for the most part. So, it's really easy to turn a cake mix into cookies instead!

You can use any type of cake mix to make any type of cookies, but this week I decided to make Funfetti cookies. Baking usually involves exact measurements to make sure that the product turns out the way it's supposed to. But when I'm making cookies from cake mix, I don't measure as precisely and just use my judgment for how much of each ingredient to add. With practice, it gets easier to do. 

Side note: I like my Funfetti cookies to be more fluffy and puffy than when I make other cookies. So, I add a little bit of baking soda to the dough. This step is completely optional and can be left out if you prefer cookies that aren't as puffy. I've made the cookies with and without baking soda before, and both ways result in delicious tasting cookies.

Ingredients

1 box Funfetti cake mix (any brand will do!)

2 large eggs

3-4 tablespoons flour

1/4 heaping teaspoon baking powder (optional)

1/3 cup vegetable oil (not olive oil)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees before making the dough. The dough is really easy to make and you'll want the oven to be ready to pop the cookies in.

Step 1:

Wet ingredients: In a bowl, whisk together the 2 large eggs and 1/3 cup of vegetable oil.

Step 2:

Dry ingredients: In a second bowl, dump in the bag of cake mix. Whisk well to get rid of clumps. Add a heaping 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda (if desired) and whisk together.

Step 3:

 To the dry ingredients, add 3 loose tablespoons of flour (don't pat it down). Whisk well.

Step 4:

 Slowly add ~1/3 of the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and whisk together. Continue to add a little bit of the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients like so, and mix.

Step 5: 

When the mixture becomes too thick to mix with the whisk, take out the whisk and mix the rest by hand. The dough should start to come together and form into a lump. If not, add another tablespoon of flour (or more) until the dough all clumps together. The dough shouldn't be too wet (like cake batter) or too dry (like pizza dough).

Step 6:

 Using a mini ice cream scoop, or a regular spoon, form ~1 inch round balls of dough and place onto a greased cookie sheet. Leave around 2 inches of space between each ball.

Step 7:

Gently press down on each ball to flatten them. Dough should be slightly springy.

Step 8:

Bake the cookies at 325 degrees for around 11-13 minutes or until the cookies are slightly golden brown. I usually don't use timers, but I'll know that the cookies are almost done once I start to smell them.

Step 9:

Once the cookies are done, take them out of the oven and let them rest for a minute or so. Then place the cookies onto a cooling rack to finish cooling. And they're ready to eat!

So, the most important part to remember for this recipe is to not follow the directions listed on the cake mix box. Because remember, you're trying to make cookies, not cake! But whether you're making cookies or cake, your house will smell delicious for hours after you bake. And I think everyone agrees that the smell of freshly baked Funfetti is one of the best smells in the world.