DNA and Dessert

Monday, December 5, 2011

Wonderous Waffles

This morning started off with a bang!

When I woke up at 8 I was pretty darn tired but I grabbed an apricot with peanut butter…

…and headed out to the fitness center. I did 3.77 miles in 35 minutes and then a 5 minute cool down. It felt really great though honestly working out in the morning kind of threw the rest of my day off because I ALWAYS work out after class. This sort of flipped my whole day on its head. When I got back to the apartment and had showered I opened up my brand new, thanks to Black Friday and Joshua, waffle maker!!!

It looked super snazzy and was just dying for some batter to cook up. Enter these—>

Vanilla Protein Waffles
A DNA and Dessert original recipe.

A perfect base that can probably stand some add ins. Great thing about it is the protein content: 12g of protein per waffle! Makes about 2.5 waffles on my iron (maybe 8 inches across).

Ingredients:
2 tbsp protein powder (I used 15g)
3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp flour (I used 105g of a wheat/all-purpose mix)
3/4 tbsp baking powder
1/4-1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup Stevia (or sugar)
2 tbsp melted butter
1 egg
1/2 cup milk (I used unsweetened vanilla almond)

How to:
1. Preheat your waffle iron.
2. Combine the protein powder, flour, baking powder, salt, and Stevia.
3. Add in egg, butter, and milk. Mix well. I ended up adding about 2ish tbsp of water to thin out my batter but it really depends on your flour, your protein powder, and your preference. Your call!
4. Spread batter evenly over your iron and cook until the iron says it’s done!
5. Repeat until all the batter is gone.
6. Top it with all sorts of yummies or eat it plain but either way, ENJOY IT.

I topped my waffle with peanut butter, maple syrup, wheat germ, and chia seeds. Seriously, it was stellar and I stuffed my face pretty much. Loved it and I can’t wait to eat my leftover half a waffle this week for breakfast. Sadly, I only got one and a half usable waffles today because the directions tell you to pitch your first one since the iron was brand new. Oh well. =D

I worked on homework/role play/presentation prep all morning and then packed up my cookies for the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2011.

I then marched my booty down to the post office and mailed them. It took a bit longer than expected and was honestly a bit more money than I expected but I suppose it was worth it for the experience. I will say though I will seriously consider how much money I spent the next time I contemplate participating. On the subject though, I received two shipments of cookies in the last two days.

Waiting on one more! I actually had one of each selection for dessert later in the evening.

They were delicious. Anyways, back to school, right? I had to hoof it to Metabolism class after the post office and it was of course raining. Ugh. Note to self: never walk in the rain in a non-waterproofed down coat. I was a bit damp on the inside when I arrived at school. Class was fine and we learned about peroxisome disorders. More bad news is what it boils down to…please Lord don’t ever let me give birth to a “floppy” hypotonic baby. Nothing good can come from it, that’s for sure.

In between Metabolism and Human Genetics I had my lunch. I packed a turkey, baba gannoui, and garlic mayo sandwich along with sesame sticks, bold chex mix, and everything bagel pretzels.

It was the perfect interlude taste-wise though it probably wasn’t good timing. I honestly fell asleep for a good half hour. Ooops. After class I hopped the bus and munched on a cookie bar (made by me for the Cookie Swap!) while heading home.

Because I had worked out early in the day I spent the whole afternoon working on homework, again. Man, I hate the stressful feeling that creeps up on you when you realize you have some major exams coming on in less than a week. Blah! Around 6:30 I realized just how hungry I was so I broke for a bit and made dinner. I boiled some whole wheat penne rigate and combined it with chicken sausage, peas, tomato & basil pasta sauce, and feta cheese.

Yum. After my first bite I added some onion powder though because it needed a bit of a kick. It worked and I scarfed it down while watching Once Upon A Time on DVR. More work followed, both academic and non-academic. My extracurricular activities centered around food. I bought some organic tempeh at Trader Joe’s the other day and decided I should try it out, do something with it.

So I made up a marinade with soy sauce, liquid smoke, sesame oil, and some spices and brown sugar and I’m going to let it soak overnight and probably a little more. Presto: tempeh bacon!

Then I think I’ll either bake it or sauté “fry” it. Any thoughts? Dessert also constituted an extracurricular. I made a sundae and used it as a reward for working so hard.

Anyways, Tune Tuesday anyone??

Have an awesome night everyone. I need sleep, yo! I can’t keep sleeping in class…

Questions: Do you like waffles?
What are your favorite toppings for them?

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Nostalgia

This weekend was all about being back in my undergraduate town.

I got to see people I haven’t seen in a while. I got to go places I haven’t been. And best of all, I got to stay with my best friend and his parents, whom, you’ve guessed it, I hadn’t seen in a while.

It all started on Friday when I drove up to where I used to go to school. I worked the whole day beforehand (logged around 7.5 hours) so I didn’t end up pulling into Joshua’s driveway until 6:30p. When I did arrive we unloaded Greta (my precious car) and then headed right back out to try out a new Indian place. They started us off with their version of chips and salsa (cilantro sauce and some awesome Indian barbeque something).

Then we moved on to the entrees. I got the vegetable kofta and Joshua got the shrimp madras. We also split onion naan.

We, of course, shared our dishes so I had a bit of everything over some delightfully clove (maybe all-spice or something else) infused rice. Don’t worry, times this plate by like four and that’s what I ate.

My dish was incredible. Only sad part: I only got four of these small balls of greatness. Just look at the insides!

For dessert that night we headed to a new frozen yogurt place. The sign outside boasted 21 flavors of yogurt and 50 toppings. Can you say “yes, please”??

I ended up with peanut butter, Oreleans praline, birthday cake, and espresso frozen yogurt topped with everything from yogurt covered pretzels, Reese’s, Kit-Kats, and Twiz to sprinkles, caramel, fudge, and whipped cream.

Delightful! It is both a good and a bad thing that I no longer live around this place. Bad because I can’t scarf it down whenever I want and good for just that same reason…

Saturday consisted of the majority of my nostalgia in the form of dinner and dancing. For the last few years my old swing club has done a Thanksgiving/Christmas/Festivus style dinner to provide a chance for everyone to sit down with each other while enjoying good food and good company. Joshua has always been the chef in charge and I play his sous chef pretty frequently. This year was no exception. We cooked/baked up a storm and even managed to fit in a 4 mile run!

In the end, the spread included turkey, stuffing/dressing, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce (from scratch), corn pudding, mac and cheese, and a cheeseball with crackers. For dessert we made an apple crisp, derby pie, pumpkin pie, fudge, and the much requested homemade vanilla ice cream.

Joshua and I had bits and bites of just about the entire spread (gladly!) and we split a dessert plate.

All of it was amazing. Sadly, we cooked for 30 and 11 (including us) showed. So, needless-to-say, we had WAYYYYYYYYYYYY too much food and subsequently a ton of leftovers. Oh well. At least it all tasted good so I don’t think Joshua’s family will mind the leftovers.

The dancing was also great. I had some stellar dances with some super people. I miss dancing with them for sure.

I thought I would include one of my new favorite blues songs as of last night. Skip forward to about 1:30 and have a listen. It’s a live version but you get the idea. =D

This morning Joshua and I attended church. We joined my old Episcopal congregation to celebrate the 5th week of advent. We both had a great time though I could have used a different sermon personally. I always his that particular priest’s homilies to be sort of disjointed and lacking clear, central thought. Anyways, after church ended I headed out on a long list of errands. My list:

Winding Way health food store for fantastically priced bulk chia seeds ($6.59/lb)
Goodwill store for cookie tins and dress pants (actually found two pairs!)
Trader Joe’s for things like cheese and tempeh (<—trying for the first time)
Good Earth health food store for great bulk rolled oats ($0.90/lb)
Aldi for groceries

Four hours later I crossed everything off and had to take two trips from my car to my apartment to get everything. Haha. Worst part was that it rained the whole time. Blah. Anyways, here are some other miscellaneous eats from the weekend.

I am in the middle of working on my final video-taped role play prep at the moment so I should get back to it. I hope everyone’s upcoming week is looking alright. I know for me, and almost all other students, this is the last week of classes so it’s gonna be intense and then exams follow shortly after. Lord help us all during the next 14 days!

Questions: Have you ever tried tempeh? Recipes?
Where is your nostalgic place?