Baked Banana Oatmeal Courtesy of Tina

Breakfast

Good morning! Mission accomplished last night, I got some quality rest! I still woke up feeling tired though and strangely, I just didn't feel like having oatmeal for breakfast. I needed to do something different so I went to my all time favorite blog Carrots 'N' Cake and found a recipe for Baked Banana Oatmeal. It was perfect! I combined all the ingredients in this bowl. It called for walnut pieces but I used pecans cause that's what I have. It also called for almond milk but I ran out last night. Darn!

While I whipped everything up I sipped on this mug of peppermint tea.
Why have I never cut a banana like this before?!?
Before...
After! 30 minutes in the oven at 350 did the trick.
It looks just like Tina's!!
I made sure to take my Women's Once a Day too. It was pretty darn tasty. Good thing this makes two servings, I'm going to look forward to that second one!
Lunch

Here's the lunch crew:
It's going to be a long day and I'm basically stuck on campus until 8PM :( so I thought I would put lunch up in advance.

I have my first lesson of the quarter today and I'm anxious to see how it goes! I probably won't get to post until later tonight, ugh!

Hope your day is more flexible than mine!

The Much Anticipated Eggplant Casserole Was a Success!

I can't believe I didn't blog at all today! Not even breakfast! Well here it is, the whole day.

Breakfast

I made myself a mocha this morning which is quite a treat. I was just in the mood I guess!

For the main course of the morning I made Cinnamon Apple Oats, and old staple. In the mix

• 1 sliced apple
• 1 cup water
• 1 handful raisins
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1 tsp. chia seeds
• 1 tsp. milled flaxseeds
• cinnamon
• vanilla extract
• drizzle maple syrup
• splash soymilk

Can't go wrong with Cinnamon Apple oats, Mocha, and a Women's Once a Day!
After I turned in that crazy paper, Savannah and I walked our bikes instead of riding to soak up the sun. Today was HOT! It hasn't been warm like this in a while and we were really lovin it. We stopped and got Blenders! I got a baby blender tropical Guava minus the sherbet, added soy. Delish!

Lunch

For lunch I had a spinach salad with avocado, pre-made chickpeas, a little of Annie's lite Italian dressing, and carrots and hummus on the side.
For 'dessert' I enjoyed this Chocolate Chip Z Bar.
I love these!!

Snack

I've been having some weird stomach things going on lately where I can't tell if I'm hungry or if I'm having a stomach ache or what! I decided to try out this juice (which had a coupon woohoo!) called Good Belly. I measured out exactly 8 oz. which is supposed to have like... a bazillion live cultures in there to help my stomach!
I also gave these seaweed chips a try just out of curiosity and they were well priced.
They were surprisingly good and I gobbled them up!

Dinner

For dinner I decided to finally make a recipe of Susan's from Fatfree Vegan Kitchen that I have been drooling over for quite a while now: Creamy Creole Eggplant Casserole. I thought making a casserole would be good for this week because it would supply me with plenty of meals and only one night of cooking yessss!

Eggplants are alien plants! I cooked these for 40 minutes and 425 F.
Chopped up celery, green bell pepper, and white onion.
Chopped up garlic and mushrooms.
Alien guts! I mean, eggplant :)
Chickpeas and spiiiiices!
I cooked the onions, celery, and pepper till they were soft...
Then added the mushrooms and garlic. Then a little while later added the chickpeas, eggplant, and seasonings.
While this cooked I prepared in the blender a mixture of silken tofu, cashews, nutritional yeast, salt, garlic powder (it was supposed to be onion but we didn't have any!) and water. Then I added that to the veggies and it cream-ified everything!
I placed everything in this dish, covered the top with bread crumbs, and voila! This pretty baby filled up the whole house with the smell of something delicious! I was so ready to dig in.

It was sooo good. Even a little spicy which I wasn't expecting.
Seconds! I have a feeling this is one of those dishes that is going to be even better tomorrow.
For dessert I followed suit with my favorite gals Kath and Tina and made ice cream out of frozen bananas! All I used was

• 1/2 frozen banana
• less than 1/3 cup silken tofu
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. agave syrup
• chocolate chips
• pecans

It is so satisfying and creamy! I do think this shall become a new staple!
It's bed time for bonzo. I really want to get up and run tomorrow morning and get my day off to a good start. I also have a killer breakfast planned, a.k.a. motivation for getting out of bed!

G'night!!

Homemade Granola- Gone Already!

Massive catch-up!! I guess with finals and everything catch-ups are to be expected this week.

Breakfast

Homemade granola, banoonoos, blueberries, and the last of my starbucks.

I am obsessed with with blueberries and this granola!
Seconds!

Lunch

Savannah and I went on a crazy apartment hunt that afternoon before I had work. I made myself a quick lunch before work when we suddenly stumbled upon another apartment option! Pretend the hummus isn't even in this picture because I barely got one scoop before we zoomed out of the house!

Snack

30 grams of nuts is not that much but nuts are just so satisfying!!
I also treated myself to three of these crystallized ginger pieces. The texture of these are really satisfying. I just can't eat them too quickly because they start to get really spicy!
In the car on the drive to the choir concert I ate a chocolate chip Z bar.
So chocolaty!

Dinner

After the choir concert the girls and I stopped at Freebirds! It's a very popular, 24/7 burrito place. I pulled a Tina when I got home. I split my burrito and put it in a container for lunch before I even took a bite!
It was ahhhhmazing!

Breakfast

Finally at today! For breakfast this morning I made a chai tea with sugar free vanilla syrup and homemade granola with bananas and blueberries. And of course a Women's Once a Day!

I am really feeling this sugar free vanilla syrup. It's so powerful I don't even need that much!

I really loaded on the blueberries. I love 'em!

Yuuuum!

Lunch

I had the other half of my burrito for lunch today. I heated it up for about a minute and took it to eat outside. It was so beautiful today!

Snack

For a snack later that afternoon I made a parfait. I layered cherry soy yogurt, granola, and blueberries, then repeat. So good!
I decided to just finish off the granola and piled on the blueberries!

Dinner

For dinner tonight I made a grilled sandwich with

• Eggplant burger
• mushrooms
• scallions
• red bell peppers
• spinach
• cilantro
• hummus
• avocado

With sliced kiwi on the side!
So tasty!
I feel a dessert post in my future!!!