Thank you so much for all of your supportive comments in response to yesterday’s  back to escuela announcement. I was grinning from oreja a oreja (ear to ear) all day as I read through your enthusiastic words. I’m so excited to be taking this "next step" en mi vida, and I’m even more excited that I get to share my journey with all my favorite foodies.

Before I write another essay, let us resume regularly scheduled Foodie Diaries programming. By that, I of course mean más food, menos philosophizing.

Martes morning, while characteristically cold, was uncharacteristically sunny. Since I was working from mi cama, beneath a wonderfully warm down comforter, I wasn’t so concerned with the frigid outside world’s temperature. I was just elated to have sun beaming through my windows.

En serio, yo amo el sol. You know how everyone swears by the exercise-endorphins correlation? I’m a more emphatic proponent of the sun-endorphins correlation. Sun, even more so than warmth, makes me ridiculously feliz. This may have something to do with the fact that I often embrace the presence of sol as a sign that I should be drinking iced coffee.

Such was the case ayer. 40° outside? Ain’t no thang when the sun is shining.

Apparently good moods create delicious desayunos.

En el bol: 1/2 cup oats cooked in 1 cup water, with 1/3 cup egg whites whisked in. Topped with a tasty triad of: 1/2 container Chobani, a sinfully grande scoop of Barney Butter and a “let’s see how much I can squeeze into my fist” serving of trail mix.

I have midget manos, so it took a lot to successfully transfer that much goodness from the trail mix container into the bowl. You gotta do what you gotta do.

In le mix de trail: pepitas, sliced almonds, walnuts and dried cranberries. All good things.

The other two components of my tasty toppings triad were, I suspect, the culprits behind the unwavering fullness that followed this glorious bowl.

Perhaps it wasn’t the toppings themselves—but rather my heavy handedness with the Barney Butter scoopage.

No, your eyes are not playing tricks on you. My Barney Butter “scoop” is definitely the same size as my yogurt mound. Woops.

‘Twas a delicious “mistake” that, come lunchtime, left me too full for “real lunch.”

What’s a foodie to do? Eat fake lunch.

Otherwise known as a snack.

Here’s where we get to the title of this post.

Yesterday, I popped my CCCherry (Cottage Cheese Cherry)! Lo siento for the vulgarity—but I couldn’t resist the alliteration, acronym and pun potential of cottage cheese cherry.

I know, I know. I’m the last person en el mundo to try cottage cheese, but, for some reason, I’ve always convinced myself that I wouldn’t like it. (Actually, I know the exact reason. At sleep away camp, during a sex ed talk, the counselor referred to cottage cheese when explaining a yeast infection. TMI? Maybe. But I’m sure you understand why I fomented a negative association with that chunky wonder.)

Moving along, I knew that my lunchtime snack was going to feature cottage cheese. But, CC novice that I was, I didn’t know the best way to eat it.

Wanting to ensure that my first time was both special and pleasurable, I sought out C.C.concoction suggestions from la princesa de CC.

She graced me with muchos options via tweetvice, so I just went with the one I’ve seen grace the pages of her blog most frequently.

1/2 cup cottage cheese and cinnamon on an English muffin.

Be advised that the remainder of the cinnamon bottle was added post-photo op.

¡AY, DIOS MIO! I had no idea that cottage cheese was so ridiculously thick and cheesy (go figure). I’ve always pictured it far more watered-down. This was so rich and sort of reminded me of ricotta.

Just a forewarning. I’m pretty sure I’m in love with cottage cheese. As in, I sort of want to eat it for every single meal. I’m doing my best not do this. But lo siento if I can’t fight the urge.

I couldn’t have imagined a more delectable first time.

Since my plate was all cinnamon-coated, I decided to get double use out of it before throwing it in the dishwasher.

Enter manzana con canela y azúcar.

I was going to slice it in a photogenic manner. But then I got lazy.

Eventually, the fullness afflicted by breakfast and fake lunch subsided, and I was ready for a real savory lunch.

En el plato: 3 egg whites, queso americano, a flatulently grande serving of black beans and salsa.

I didn’t intend for this to be an open-faced omelet, but it was necessitated due to a heavy hand with the bean scoopage. Apparently I really like my beans and Barney Butter. There are worst vices.

Cena was a bowl duo of blogger staples that can be had sweet or savory.

I opted for savory on both fronts.

First up, a veteran concoction here on The Foodie Diaries: savory oats.

As always, the grilled cebolla was the star.

And, as always, things got gloriously messy post-photo op.

Parte dos was on my mind all día.

After falling in love with my first taste of sweet cottage cheese, and perhaps having a few small scoops throughout the day…

…just to be absolutely positive I liked loved it, I wanted to try a savory cottage cheese concoction.

This one was inspired by Miss Janetha.

In the mix: 1 cup cottage cheese, 1/2 cup garbanzos, red bell pepper, celery, taco seasoning, chili powder and seasoned salt.

CC obsession confirmed. I’ll take it sweet, savory, any (legal) way I can get it.

Much like my veteran savory oats, newbie savory cottage cheese had a star: garbanzos.

No, wait. The beans were bueno. But the cottage cheese was definitely the star. I think I just said that because the garbanzos were the most prominent part of the photo. Fibbery.

In truthery, much like savory oats, savory CC gets gloriously messy post-photo op.

Nada new about dessert.

Kettle corn with a side of Twitter in a sea of down=life is good.

So, por favor, tell me: What are your favorite ways to eat cottage cheese? Do you have a favorite brand? Also, there are so many different types (fat content, salted, unsalted). Which do you like best? I just grabbed a random brand and chose 2 percent because I didn’t know if fat free was gross/if 4 percent was too thick. Any CCadvice is greatly appreciated!

Amor,

Sarah

If not, I’ll leave you hanging ‘til my weekend recap. But I have a feeling most of you will get the whole “the one” part.

But, yea, yesterday I didn’t snack. At all. This is muy muy raro for me because I always graze between meals. I don’t always photograph my in between snackage because it’s usually a predictable pretzel, nuts or something-to-dip-in-hummus shebang. Pero, evidencia o no evidencia, you can be sure I wear my snackface on a daily basis.

Except yesterday. Yesterday I was in and out of the house all day, mostly just stopping in for meals. I think my brain/stomach/respect for my mood knows when snacking isn’t going to happen—and makes up for it with grande meals. At least this was the case ayer.

La mañana commenced with cafe.

No, I don’t live in a cool padded room. (Though, I suppose that wouldn’t actually be cool because padded rooms usually translate to psych wards…) My coffee just happens to be sitting pretty atop my new sticky yoga mat.

After laying on my yoga mat, chugging sipping several cups of coffee and Reader-ing (that’s a verb, right?), I broke for breakfast.

Sweet ‘n Salty Oat Bran

In the mix: 1/3 cup oat bran cooked in 1 cup water, 1/2 banana and vanilla extract; topped with 1/2 microwaved honeycrisp (cooked in cinnamon and almond milk and topped with maple syrup), superrrr salty nuts, raisins and a packet of Truvia.

Come closer.

And admire that heaping mound of sweet ‘n salty goodness.

Oooooooh my gah. This OB bowl was so ridiculously satisfying and FILLING. I did have the other 1/2 of the honeycrisp on the side—but this kept me perfectly full ‘til I had lunch at 2. Considering I did no snackage, this is sort of an anomaly for moi.

I have feeling the magic was in the nuts… .

Lunch wasn’t glamorous—but it was good and quick and microwave-friendly. All things muy importante to me right now.

A big bowl of minestrone soup.

Like biiiiiig. This bowl is massive, and my eats almost never surpass the half-full mark. This soup almost reached the top.

Mmmm, I love big bowls of soup. This felt never-ending—which I enjoyed because it was so delicioso.

On the side I had a whole wheat bagel with cream cheese and melted vegan American cheese.

If you’ve never combined cream cheese and American, do it. I initially yucked una amiga’s yum when I saw her eat a bagel with these toppings; but upon trying the combo, I fell in love. You will too.

Dinner has more parts that unusual—likely due to the fact that I did less snacking than usual.

Part Uno: Ensalada Enorme

In the mix: mucho baby spinach, roasted red peppers, honey maple turkey, cucumbers, orange bell pepper, steamed broccoli, balsamic-marinated shrooms, FSTG lime tortilla chips.

Lo siento for that condensation but I decided to branch out from my balsamic dressing combos (you know, honey balsamic and spicy mustard balsamic) and try one of those creepy spritz spray dressings. No me gusta. I couldn’t even taste the dressing—despite using 2 servings worth of sprays. So, I ended up dousing la ensalada in balsamic to undo any dressing damage.

Did the trick. As always, this was GOOOOOD. As always, the FSTG lime chips made the salad. The honey maple turkey was pretty clutch, too.

Part Dos: 1/2 whole wheat pita with melted French Onion Laughing Cow.

In case you didn’t know what LC looks like?

Or needed to be updated on my current polish choice?

I let the microwave heat things up for 30 seconds while I busted out the roasted red pepper hummus.

The cheesy pita got real friendly with the Sabra, and before I knew it… Sabra was no more.

Part Tres: Orange Overload

I know I should’ve been done with dinner at this point, but such was not the case. I was still hungry, and I’d already planned on it being a cheetah night. My cheetah lovahs know that once you tell your taste buds they are getting some cheetah action, the craving doesn’t subside ‘til they get their fix.

So, you understand, these were necessary.

Cheeeeeeeeetahs. And, do you see another better n’ fries component in the back?

Carrot fries! There were like 15 because I burnt half the batch. My b.

So, pregunta, which do you prefer—carrot or sweet potato fries?

I’ve no answer to this query; they are both mind-blowingly good in my book.

So, that was my day of snacklessness. Clearly I deprived myself…

Oh, I forgot to mention.

I did have dessert. But that’s a different genre than the snack, sí?

Kashi 7 grain puffs with almond milk, Truvia, cinnamon and spoonful of almond butter.

Because clearly a three-part dinner wasn’t enough…

Ok, mis personas favoritas, I have to run (sorry if this post was rushed!) because la hermana is on her way home for a weekend visit. You know this means I’ll be back on Monday with some E.P.I.C. eats .

While I’m still not ready to reinstitute coffee art, I turned to several cups of rudimentary, expressionless coffee for my replacement warmth fix.

I love holding hot mugs when I’m cold. I also have a weird habit of holding them against my face. I can’t remember who said this the other day, but thank you for making me feel like less of a freak for enjoying some warm ceramic to the cheek.

Criteria for breakfast: (a) delicioso, (b) efficient hypothermia alleviant and (c) apple-friendly (since I’m currently rolling in the galas).

Apple & Cinnamon Oat Bran

In the mix: 1/2 cup oat bran cooked with 1 cup water, thinly sliced banana & cinnamon; whole gala apple chopped and microwaved for 90 seconds in almond milk & cinnamon; topped with whipped cream.

I liked the addition of the banana to the oat bran, and I loved how apple-y my bran was with a whole apple! (I usually use half.) Oh, and the whipped cream was okay, too…

When I got snacky, I switched to my second favorite breed of manzana: el honey crisp.

After playing with red hues for a bit, I did slice and consume it with a spoonful of almond buttah.

I was really tempted to dive into one of my Barney Butter jars—but I still have about 3/4 left in my MaraNatha container. I’m weirdly anal about opening a new item when I’ve not yet finished my last (not that all ABs are created equal!). In the event that I break some boundaries, do nut butters go bad once opened? I’m not sure I’ve ever granted a nut butter a long enough lifespan to go bad… so I don’t think this should be a problem.

I think I drank 15 cups of tea yesterday. This is another thing I do when the weather takes it wintery plunge: OD on tea. During the summer, I probably consume—without exaggeration—20 cups of water a day. During the winter, this dwindles to ~2 cups; the other 18 get replaced with water’s warm and more flavorful offspring.

I love green tea, and this vanilla flavored one on the left is amazing. I switched it up with a cup or two of that raspberry jam on the right, but it wasn’t very good. I’m not big on fruity teas.

When lunchtime rolled around, I’d already decided on my star ingredient.

Sun-dried Tomato Tapenade.

I made this on Wednesday during my salad dinner prep, using this recipe.

It was really simple, and essentially just involved boiling the sun-dried tomatoes and throwing the ingredients into the blender.

The result was everything I’d imagined it to be: very sun-dried tomato-y and kalamata-y. Hate to repeat myself, but these are two of my absolute favorite things to eat. And they are very agreeable flavor companions.

As my stomach’s brain started devising a tapenade-driven plan of attack, I polished off the last of my FSTG The Works chips.

The perfect grainy compliment to my salty sun-dried tomato concoction.

There wasn’t much left in the bag, but that aluminum emptiness is always a sad sight.

During lunch brainstorming, a light bulb went off and I remembered the meal that first brought sun-dried tomato tapenade into my life.

It was one layer of the best sandwich I’ve ever tasted from Jettie’s in D.C. Jettie’s is a really cute and unfailingly delicious little sandwich shop in D.C..

I reasoned that I shouldn’t deprive myself of the best sandwich I’ve ever tasted just because I relocated to a Jettie-less city and decided lunch would be a D.I.Y. Hummock Pond sandwich.

Hm, I’ve pulled the D.I.Y. card two days, two lunches and two sandwiches in a row. What gives? My name is Sarah, and I am a sandwich plagiarist. I do love getting creative and making up my own flavorful concoctions—but sometimes I feel like the best things have already been created.

I sort of feel the same way about life musings. Hasn’t it all been said before? There are no Voltaires or Thoreaus “of today;” we simply do our best to regurgitate what’s already been said in a wittier, pithier, more modern tone. Maybe that’s just me. Maybe I’m just a sandwich plagiarist and a thought plagiarist traipsing around under the guise of an innocent 22-year-old New Yorker. [Insert evil laugh.]

Anyway, here’s my copycat D.I.Y Hummock Pond sandwich, which—in the name of being a proper plagiarist—I will rename:

Sarah’s 7-Layer Sandwich

Insert the following seven layers between two slices of toasted whole wheat bread.

Layer 1: Slice of Jarlsberg swiss cheese (best swiss EVER!)

Layer 2: Grilled, balsamic-marinated baby bella mushrooms

Layer 4: Roased red peppers, warmed in your grill pan

Layer 5: Black bean salsa

Jettie’s sandwich uses black bean & corn salsa—which I’d strongly suggest using. I only had regular salsa and cooked black beans on hand, so I mixed 2 tbsp. of each together for a little makeshift bean salsa.

Layer 6: Sun-dried tomato tapenade!!! Be generous; this layer makes the sandwich.

Layer 7: Another slice of jarlsberg, for a necessary abundance of melty cheese.

The result:

You didn’t think that was the money shot, did you?

Perfectly packed with seven delectable layers.

The lighting was weird so here’s  a picture with the flash.

OH MY GOD. Dear Jettie’s, I love you. Like, seriously, if I could marry the owner of Jettie’s, or Jim Halpert, I would be the happiest girl en el mundo!

If you have any semblance of love and respect for your tummies and taste buds, you will construct this beauty in the very near future…

Just as I was getting snacky, my Kashi sample finally came!

I’m not much of a cereal eater. But when I do enjoy a bowl, I rarely eat it with milk (with the exception of Golden Grahams, Rice Krispies and Corn Pops—because all of those taste magnificent soggy). I opted for a greek yogurt mess.

I loved Honey Sunshine! It sort of tasted like a honey-fied, healthified version of Cap’n Crunch!

When it came time for dinner, though it was World Vegetarian Day, I felt like I’d lagged in the protein department. So I made a big tuna salad mix to have on a bed of greens.

In the mix: 3 oz. tuna, two heaping dollops of plain greek yogurt, 1/3 gala chopped, dried cherries, slivered almonds, very quick honey drizzle and krazy salt.

I had a few spoonfuls before plopping it onto my salad because it was SO good. I sort of just wanted to eat it out of the bowl, but that would’ve made my salad entirely undesirable.

My salad base was 3 cups fresh spinach, English cucumber slices, sweet onion, celery and cherry tomatoes.

With the star in the center of it all.

I rarely use bottled dressing, but for some reason, my balsamic-honey combo didn’t sound good. I thought Cranberry Balsamic would go really well with the sweet tuna salad.

Correcto!

Perfect bite of the night goes to a cucumber slice harboring onion, cherry tomato and an all-inclusive dried cherry, apple and almond tuna dollop.

Mandatory dessert was a few bowls of popcorn, which I seasoned with garlic and chili powder. 

It was really good—especially the chili powder.

But, a few handfuls in, I needed my sriracha. I’m a creature of habit. And hot sauce.

Ok, so I wanted to pass along that bloggie award today, but, again, I’ve managed to write a book of post. Any advice on keeping posts shorter? I’m all about constructive criticism, so have at me .

I’m going to leave you with this EVIL picture that my cousin just texted me. He’s visiting my grandparents in Florida and being fed the best food by the world’s greatest cook, a.k.a. Nanny. When we visit, she puts out a wine & cheese, veggie & dip galore for lunch. I was considering going down with him this weekend—but decided to stay in NYC. Here’s to regret.

I’m missing out on: my adorable Nanny & Poppy, and what looks to be lots of fresh fruits, dippable veggies, hummus, guac, salsa, crab dip, FSTG, and Jarlsberg(!) among other cheeses. And that’s just what I spy from this iPhone pic.

I hope all of you are eating well like my Floridian familia and have fun weekend plans!

-Sarah

I don’t usually venture into colored fonts, but that blue was necessary to represent my current state of hypothermia. (I hope you’ve caught on to my tendency to exaggerate, and perhaps let it rub off on you…)

I am, however, cold enough that I’ve busted out my winter warm-me-ups. If I cared to commit social cyber suicide, I’d document and share my absurdly heinous—yet effectively toasty—outfit. Think the opposite of Ms. Snackie’s nuevo outfit segment, and more along the frumpy lines of camp sweatpants, a men’s North Face fleece and dead sexy wool socks. I know, I know, I’m such a catch.

I promise I do not don this get-up when I gallivant the streets of New York; its oversized, homeless-chic glory is reserved for immediate family, close friends and boys I’m certain won’t be scared off.

Anyway, I’ve been procrastinating writing this post for a solid two hours because looking at yesterday’s food pictures are worsening my hypothermic state . Alas, I kind of like you guys, so I’ll brave the cold and do this thing.

The chill-inducing photos to which I’m referring mostly concern my morning java. Wednesday’s weather was equally as arctic (read: 59 degrees) as today’s. But, when I woke up, it was pretty sunny out. And, sometimes, I foolishly assume beaming sun = warm weather. Not so, kiddies.

Going with my assumption that we were having one of those “taste of summer” fall days, I opted for the iced goods.

Decked with whipped cream and cinnamon because I was still young and naive  disillusioned and giddy over the make-believe warm weather.

As I pondered breakfast possibilities and sipped on my summery beverage, my dear father came home from his run and informed me that it was (Kev Thug’s words) “freaking nippy out.” Initially I giggled because I’m an immature 12-year-old boy and think the word nippy is hilarious. Soon enough I was overwhelmed by a dark Zoloft cloud of sadness as I made the connection that:

• nippy is not actually a provocative word—but rather a descriptor for cold weather
• cold translates to my comfortably crisp fall day being a façade
• nonexistent warm weather makes decadent icy drinks sort of uncalled for and instantly less enjoyable

Womp womp.

Optimist that I am, I got over it pretty quickly and allowed for my decadent morning to continue in warmer form.

Oat bran, mi amor.

In the mix: 1/3 oat bran cooked with 3/4 cup water, salt, half of a thinly sliced banana and vanilla extract; on top: other half of the banana, PB&Co. Dark Chocolate Dreams and cinnamon.

Dreamy. That was my last sample packet of Dark Chocolate Dreams—which I haven’t been able to find in stores. Bummer—but not sure I’m enough of a chocolate fiend to justify ordering a jar. Has anyone tried Better ‘N PB’s chocolate PB? I see it everywhere and am imagining that it tastes similar—si o no?

At its best when the bowl’s a mess. I know most of you are oat bran pros, but for those who’ve yet to hop on the OB bandwagon, I highly recommend cooking thinly sliced banana into your bran. I’m really not a fan of cooking my oats with milk—but the melted banana adds the perfect amount of sweet creaminess.

I was pretty busy yesterday but I broke for a mid-morning snack plate of almonds, raisins and dried cherries.

I think this is the only time in my life that I’ve portioned out nuts (as opposed to my standard hand-in-the-can approach) because the almonds hailed from a 100-calorie pack. Not sure where those came from because I never buy 100-calorie anything—but I may need to start taking the portioned-out approach with my nut-munching (I don’t know why I intentionally select word combos that provoke immature smirks & the insuppressible need to blurt out TWSS). I’m pretty sure I usually consume 4x what was in the 100-calorie pack on a non-indulgent snack session. Probably not advisable.

Throwing the gluttonous revelation on the backburner, I’d just like to proclaim my love for dried cherries. These ones are from a pre-packaged bag and very good—but the best ones I’ve tried to-date are from Publix’s organic section. I discovered them on vacation in Florida, and now I have yet another reason to resent the fact that there is no Publix in NY.

Onto lunch:

While deciding what I was in the mood for, I snacked on some creepy gray apples.

…which weren’t actually creepy gray apples. They just happened to land on a fun-to-photograph red plate .

This was a crispy gala with cinnamon. Shocker. Galas are my numero uno apple. I’ve got love for some others—specifically Honey Crisps, Pink Ladies and Braeburns—but I’m very picky about my apple’s texture. I need it to be really crispy, and I detest even slightly mushy manzanas. Through my many years of apple eatin’, I’ve found that galas are the most reliably crispy. With that, I conclude my apple thesis.

For lunch I decided to dig into my bagel stash and recreate a sandwich that sort of got me through college. As I’ve said, I’ve never been big on bagels. However, on my campus, the easiest and quickest fuel option was Einstein’s Bros Bagels. They offered one bagel option that grew to be my beloved regular because it was so packed in the innards department that the bagel itself wasn’t overwhelming for a ratio-driven freak like myself.

This life-changing bagel-wich was their Tasty Turkey—an asiago bagel with turkey, a load of fresh veggies and an onion & chive cream cheese.

I’m pretty sure my tendency to try smearing cream cheese on anything at least once roots from my love of le Tasty Turkey. I don’t think I’ve actually had one since my sophomore year, so I decided to have a D.I.Y. Tasty Turkey for lunch.

I opted for one of Kim’s onion bagels—toasted.

Sandwich assembly got a bit challenging. How was I to fit this…

…plus turkey and cream cheese

…on this?

Scaling back on my already-chopped abundance of veggies was out of the question. So I worked it out.

On one side: turkey, cucumbers, onions and half the tomatoes. On the other: a generous smear of cream cheese and the rest of the toms.

Piled high, but all the goodies fit!

Not that they didn’t completely crowd the hole (TWSS, just in case you needed a reminder to watch The Office tonight… I also want to take this opportunity to say Hola and I love you to my amazing grandparents, who are avid readers and probably a little confused and grossed out by some of my distasteful humor.)

I sometimes forget why I stop eating foods that I love so dearly. This sandwich was on point. If any of you love cream cheese as much as I do, I strongly urge you to get in the D.I.Y. zone and make this. (I do wish I’d had the onion & chive cream cheese, though.)

The onion bagel was really good. The wheat is still my favorite so far because I like its texture best—but this packed some always-welcome onion-y flavor.

En route to a meeting I had yesterday afternoon, I dug into this (lo siento for the crinkled wrapper but I dug it out of my bag after devouring the bar).

Clif Mojo Mixed Nuts! How have I never eaten this before!? The bar was essentially whole pieces of cashews, almonds and pecans—plus PRETZELS! I’m a little freaked out because I sort of feel like Clif tapped into my foodie fantasies and created a dream-come-true bar out of my most revered ingredients. I haven’t had any of the other Clif Mojos in a while but I think this might be my new favorite.

While preparing dinner, I ate my weight in figgies.

Figs are legitimately gorgeous. You know they’d win the best looking superlative in fruit high school.

I currently have a loco amount of zucchinis, so dinner part I was one zucchini, sliced and grilled to charry perfection with some ketchup for dipping.

This is my interpretation of cheetahs that have ODed on green monsters . They were INCREDIBLE. I reeeeeally love charred zucchini.

So much so that I added an entire second grilled zucchini to an amazing grilled salad.

In the mix: approx. 4 cups of fresh spinach (in hiding), one zucchini sliced and grilled, grilled onion, balsamic marinated roasted shrooms, grilled cherry tomatoes, hard-boiled egg white and black beans. Dressed in the standard celery salt and honey-balsamic uniform.

The salad had an entire layer of grilled zucchini—which made it easy to get some in every bite!

And this beauty?

One very thick slice of sweet onion—grilled on each side for 3 minutes (and clearly doused in balsamic).

Last night’s perfect bite: a little spinach (just because it was there), shroom, cherry tom, zucchini, beans and egg. In other words, almost every ingredient in the salad pushed onto a fork.

I don’t know how many times I can profess my love for grilled veggies in salads before you start tuning me out—but the combo is SO GOOD!!!

I was really full, but lately I need something post-dinner. I’ve never been a dessert person, and I’m not sure when this little habit came to fruition. But, somewhere along the line, I’ve developed a “what’s next?” attitude to dinner.

At least last night’s next was healthy—albeit summery and probably not the most effective remedy for my hypothermic condition…

Creepy gray watermelon.

Gotcha again.

Normal pink watermelon that wasn’t very vibrant or photogenic (probably because it wanted to remind me that ‘tis no longer the season for H2o-melon).

It was actually sweeter than any watermelon I had this summer, and muy delicioso—so there’s a little rebuttal to NYC’s decision to skip fall and dive head-first into winter weather.

Ok, this was the longest post ever. I’d intended to thank the lovely Whitney for an unexpected Kreativ blogger award—and pass it along to some of my favorite food blogistas. But, since I’m already on the verge of publishing a novel, I’ll save that for mañana.

Enjoy La Oficina tonight!

-Shivery Sarah

Dearest readers, please don’t go into disarray,

When on days beginning with “S,” I go M.I.A.

At the start of each work week, you’ll get a re-cap

And learn what edible discoveries fell into my lap

If the rhyming threw you off, that was my way of (1) reiterating my apologies for vanishing every weekend and (2) informing you that I’ve decided to re-cap my weekends in discovery-form. (See last weekend’s discoveries, if you missed the first edition.)

During this Rosh Hashanah weekend, I discovered…

-Foccacia tiles… featuring two of life’s greatest toppings/ingredients/foods-to-be-eaten-by-the-handful: olives and sun-dried tomatoes. Incredible. And something I need to re-create in the near future.

FYI: Foccacia bread is not usually a pre-Rosh Hashanah dinner snack. But my reformed Jewish familia doesn’t discriminate against non-traditional eats. Jewishness is not a pre-req; deliciousness is.

Back to the discoveries…

-Oatmeal beer.

My family also opts for swapping out the Manischewitz with a lot of beer from Long Island’s Blue Point Brewery. Since I don’t have a taste for even the most interesting of lagers, I stuck to vino—which leads to my next discovery…

-My lack of portion control when it comes to snacking also applies to wine. Hmmm, l’chaim?

The rest of my Rosh Hashanah eats are re-discoveries. I’ve had ‘em all before, but I’m not one to pass up an opportunity to fall in love all over again.

Apples and honey, for a sweet new year

Raisin challah. Holla.

Matzo ball soup. Golden rule: the more balls, the better. Easiest ever TWSS.

Some other staples: Kasha, garlic spinach, string bean casserole, brisket, pulled turkey and corn.

All together now. The gold medal went to the kasha, but the pulled turkey was phenomenal. I usually skip the turkey during holiday meals in an attempt to make room for more veggies (ahem, dessert), but whatever sauce this was marinating in was highly addictive. As in, I went back for seconds.

Shortly after pulling the “I’m too full for dessert” card,  I spied this and discovered…

-I’m never too full for cheesecake.

Juuuust in case the apples and honey didn’t ensure a sweet new year…

***

Throughout the rest of the weekend, I discovered…

-Boy breakfasts and girl breakfasts are breeds all their own.

Even when the ingredients are identical,

the results differ.

(As you can see in the more masculine egg creation, I’ve still not mastered the art of properly stuffing a wrap…)

-Whomever decided that cream cheese is a spread,

clearly never experienced it as a dip.

Seriously, pretzels & cream cheese might change your life.

-You are what you eat.

So by way of consuming Yogi cereal, I should be a yogi in no time.

In all seriousness, this may have been my favorite weekend find. Not only was it addictively delicious, it’s packing some impressive nutrients.

-Salt & Vinegar almonds

Just as addictively delicioso as the yogi cereal, with slightly less impressive nutritionals (i.e.: almonds, plus 1. artificially flavored, minus 1). As a lover of all things s&v, I’m willing to consume a little extra sodium diacetate (yum) in the name of the best tasting almond in existence.

Lastly…

-I may have nailed down a recipe for the easiest, cheesiest “I know it’s healthy, but no one else can tell” mac & cheese ever.

Not to be a total c-tease (that’s cheese tease, perverts), but I want to run this by a few of mis amigos with superb mac & cheese taste before changing the world with the debut of this recipe.

Muahahahahahahahahaha,

-Sarah

There once was a man named Bikram

Whose practice I tried out on a whim

Though I’m feeling quite sore

I understand its allure

For yoga’s sore beats the bore of the gym

And that was my roundabout, limericky way of telling you that Wednesday morning delivered just as much soreness as Tuesday’s. And that I liked it? Perhaps it’s because exercise hasn’t made me this sore in a while, but I’m sort of taking pleasure in the discomfort. Now that I officially sound like a masochist, let’s redirect our attention to yesterday’s eats.

Hump day kicked off with some coffee art.

I want to assure you that the above montage is one cup of coffee, not four. Given my current state of soreness and, uh, the whole 90 minutes a day in a 105 degree room thing, I’m not trying to further dehydrate my body with my typical “I lose count of how many cups I’ve had” coffee habit.

After my java-fix, I went on to break-ify one of my favorite childhood snacks:  Fig Newtons. While other kids indulged in Mallomars and Moon Pies, I had a serious thing for the Newtons. I’ve still not gotten over them entirely, but these days—when the reminiscent craving hits—I go for the hydrogenated oil-free Newman’s Own version. That said, I present to you…

Newman’s Sarah’s Own Fig Newton Yogurt

1 cup of plain greek yogurt, sweetened with honey and cinnamon + fresh figs

+ 1.5 graham crackers, which—if you’re lucky like me—will be the last of your bag and make for easy, mess-free crushing

=

Sarah’s Own Fig Newton Yogurt! That bodacious breakfast bowl took me right back to my childhood love affair…

I can’t lie and say that once you mix it all together it tastes just like a Fig Newton. Because—let’s face it—Fig Newtons do not contain grahams, yogurt or fresh figs. But it was an absolutely delicious blend of figgy flavor.

And I “mmmmmmmm”-ed at every single bite.

I ate my lunch in two parts in an attempt to not be too full for my 6 p.m. yoga class.

Warning: Lunch Part I looks a whole lot like breakfast—but I assure you, it’s a different fig-imbued bowl.

It is, however, nearly identical to last week’s “fruit cereal.”

In the mix: ginormous Ginger Gold apple, 2 fresh figs, raisins, dried cherries, slivered almonds, ground flax, cinnamon and almond milk.

All the usual suspects with one “fruit cereal”-changing ingredient: dried cherries.

These added so much flavor to a bowl I’d previously deemed perfection. I stand corrected. “Fruit cereal” featuring dried cherries = perfection. If you’ve not yet jumped on this bandwagon, I urge you to board promptly.

Warning #2: Lunch Part II is not nearly as attractive as Lunch Part I.

Warmed Granny Smith +

Warm cream cheese-packed WW pita =

Something not nearly as delicious as I’d imagined. Foodie foul.

If you recall, this past weekend, I discovered that sliced apples, LC and warmed WW pita are a delectable combo. So, cream cheese lover and baked apple feind that I am, I envisioned a warmed-up, cream-cheesy remix that would put my prior concoction to shame.

Erroneous on all accounts. While the cream cheese + apple flavor combo was on point, the “baked apple” got too mushy for a warm pita to handle, and things got pretty messy. Still, it was an edible mess—i.e. I cleaned the plate… but only because I needed pre-yoga fuel .

***

Foodie’s Foray into Yoga – Day 3

Yesterday’s class was the most challenging yet. It may be due to my soreness, but the stretches felt so much deeper than they did during my first two classes. I also got a lot of personal attention during last night’s class because there were only six of us. The accent-less (phew!) Brooklyn instructor gave me a lot of guidance on the proper form of each pose—which was really helpful because I could definitely feel my body working harder once I was doing the pose correctly.

It was also more challenging because I got nauseated (thanks, grammar lesson from Prof. SnackFace) throughout last night’s class. I have a feeling this had to do with lunch Part II being consumed a little less than three hours before class. When doing Bikram, you aren’t supposed to eat for 3-4 hours before class. I’ve been struggling to eat the right amount—and at the right time—so I don’t get hungry before class nor do I go to class too full. I probably should’ve skipped my failure of a lunch part dos because yesterday I definitely got to class too full. No bueno, people.

Still, if my limerick didn’t give it away, I am still loving yoga. I’ll do a full re-cap at the end of my one week challenge, but for now:

Day 3 verdict: Though my body feels like it endured the Battle of Saratoga, this foodie’s falling head over heels for yoga .

(While I warned you that I have a tendency to speak in poem, I never claimed to be good at it…)

***

Dinner last night was the monster salad I’d planned on eating Tuesday night before my chicken-craving hit.

In the mix: chopped romaine, grilled chicken, grilled & marinated mushrooms, grilled onions, grilled peppers, roasted cherry tomatoes, oil-cured black olives and feta.

You’ll notice a whole lot of grilled in there because, as I’ve said before, I love salads with grilled veggies.

One unusual suspect in last night’s salad was:

I almost never put feta in salads. I don’t know why, but I’m really not wooed by the cheese in salad thing. However, I realized that I currently have an abundance of feta cheese…

So I went with it. And, I wont lie, it was a wonderful little addition.

Another component worth pointing out is…

Though these resemble something that might be force-fed to Survivor contestants, they’re actually oil-cured olives. My favorite. Seriously, you can add them to anything or eat them straight-up. They do not disappoint. Ever. (I always weird myself out when I get that dramatic about food—but I’m being entirely serious.)

Oh, and that brown drizzle you see, that’d be my super simple honey balsamic dressing. 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar mixed with 1/2 tablespoon honey. It’s pretty amazing—and seriously simple.

The best part about eating salad for dinner is (usually) having room for dessert—which came in the form of my previous PB discovery…

Really, I only ate this since I didn’t give you guys a picture last time, and I figured you might need some visual incentive to take the PB&Popcorn leap. Although, probably not…

Happy Office-watching!

-Sarah

Jokes, people. That was the boring base of what came to be a veggie-loaded ensalada deliciosa. I know I’ve said this before, but it’s worth repeating. Salads should taste good! If you’ve ever created a Whole Foods salad—hot bar mix-ins included, of course—you understand the flavorful potential that every bed of lettuce holds. One of my favorite “breeds” of salad are the kinds that host a mix of veggies from both the raw and cooked disciples. I’m mildly obsessed with throwing grilled vegetables in my salad.

Tonight I added a veggie I’d not previously salad-ified into the mix, one of my fall favorites: butternut squash! It can be a pain to prepare—but it is seriously so rich and versatile. Tonight I steamed it without peeling it first, which completely took the pain out of the prep.

It literally just fell out of its skin after steaming for about 40 minutes. (Expect to see a lot of b-nut squash in the next few days because I’m pretty sure I have upwards of a pound leftover…)

Needless to say, b-nut was one of my cooked veggie components in this hot and cold mix. Its other hot brethren were peas and grilled zucchini. (Grilled zucchini boosts any salad’s savory status. Never fails.) The cold mix-ins were celery, yellow peppers, sweet onion and garbanzo beans.

Dressed up in balsamic and celery salt, and accompanied by a whole wheat pita. My new thing: smearing a LC wedge in the warmed WW pita and occasionally stuffing in some of the salad goods.

Halfway through, I realized I should’ve thrown these slivered almonds in…

So I did! You see, I do exercise control with nuts if I happen to be polishing off the perfectly portioned remainder of a container… That counts, right?

I am so in love with the grilled-meets-raw veggie salad combo right now. Like so contentedly in love that I’m not even thinking about dessert. Sometimes I freak myself out when vegetables invoke this level of elation…

Buenos noches, bloggies,

-Sarah