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

‘Twas a tasty Tuesday that seemed to zip by

Cravings were aplenty, and I was eager to comply

But my eats were a bit uncharacteristic. (We’ll soon have a gander.)

And I couldn’t help feeling like Derek Zoolander

When I found myself questioning, “Who am I?”

Worry not. I’m not having an identity crisis. But, go figure, the day after I dedicate an entire post to how my foodie personality is predictably the same as it’s always been, I experience a day full of “this is so not me” eating.

My first inkling that some other foodie spirit had repossessed my body came with my mañana cup of coffee.

My kitchen’s currently boasting a pretty extensive selection of coffee. But I’m pretty faithful to my tried-and-true favorites, those usually being some jazzed-up version of a vanilla or hazelnut base. Ayer, I wanted none of that. I awoke in a chocolate state of mind.

Now I know what you’re thinking. That’s not really grounds for a “who am I?” moment, as I’ve recently realized and confirmed my fondness for cocoa. However, while I’m certainly acquiring a taste for chocolate, I’ve yet to seriously crave it or favor it over my veteran front-runners. Until yesterday.

No deliberation necessary. I wanted chocolate coffee.

Specifically New England Coffee’s Chocolate Cappuccino. I tried this last week, and I’m pretty sure it’s been on the brain ever since. But because I’m a save-the-best-for-last OCD freak, I’ve been rationing it until I can locate and hoard several more bags.

But there was no fighting that chocolate feeling yesterday. I gave into my moment of chocolate cappuccino weakness. And it was glorious.

This coffee is so bueno that I drank it straight up.

Moving along… I was ready to shake the whole “who am I?” hindrance with breakfast. I already knew what I was making, and it was very me.

Or so I’d intended.

I’ve been wanting to make Tina’s “Baked” Pumpkin Oatmeal” since I first laid eyes on it. I doubled the recipe porque I know mi estómago, and one packet of instant oatmeal would keep me full for approximately 20 minutes.

Looks a little diferente from Tina’s, right? On a whim, I decided to add cocoa powder. Seriously. WHO AM I? I had a perfectly delicious, pumpkin-y concoction sitting before me, and I chose (read: needed) to chocolate-ify it?

I’ll stop whining, though. My case of the “who am I?”s worked brilliantly here. This. was. AMAZING.

Los ingredientes: 2 packets maple brown sugar instant oatmeal, 1/2 cup canned pumpkin, 1/2 cup egg whites, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp. agave and 2 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder. Mixed and microwaved for 3 minutes. (Or 2:59 if you’re weird like me.)

Chocolately pumpkiny perfection. Make. This. Ahora.

Sometime after that bowl of deliciousness, I G-chatted with hermana and learned that she, too, was eating out-of-character.

Melissa: you’ll be happy to know the brownie rampage has continued at school

snowstorms mean 8238928329329 brownies

me: jealous

i made CHOCOLATE OATS for bfast

like, i was CRAVING chocolate

WHO AM I!?

Melissa: um i made waffles and eggs with spinach and laughing cow for bfast

like what? i made myself a real breakfast… WHO AM I!?

At least we’re in this together, hermana.

Lunch parte uno was a pretty standard Sarah sandwich.

On a toasted sandwich thin: laughing cow, Sabra hummus, roasted eggplant and roasted red peppers.

It was during lunch parte dos that I had to step back and ask myself, “who am I?”

Apparently I thought I was a 5’10 blonde with a snacky disposition.

On my undeniably plagiarized snack plate:

The leaning tower of red bell pepper.

Filled con salsa.

Manzana con cinnamon.

Which christened this fresh tub of Greek Olive Sabra.

This is currently my favorite Sabsession. But I’ve yet to try the caramelized onion flavor, which I suspect may change my life.

Post-lunch came errands, a writing project and some at-home pilates. If you follow me on Twitter, you know I slept through my Tuesday clase. So, I attempted to do some mat stretching, scissors (because they’re naughty) and rollovers (because they’re fun) en mi cuarto.

‘Lates ended up looking like this:

Yea, somewhere between stretching and scissors, I got lost in blog-reading, which somehow led me to get lost in Cherry Garcia. My newfound sweet tooth is really confusing me.

For dinner, I decided it was acceptable to have dos. Who am I?

Ok, fine. That food decision is entirely characteristic of me. But both of my cena components were large and in charge, and I’m sort of surprised I was able to eat it all. Sort of.

First up: una ensalada enorme.

I realize that doesn’t look so enorme because it’s on a plate. But I assure you it was massive. In fact, I have proof it was massive. But we’ll get to that later.

In the mix: baby spinach, red bell pepper, cucumber, celery, apple, brie, grilled shrooms, green cheetahs, asparagus, grilled onion and fried egg whites. Predictably dressed in a honey-balsamic blend.

The increible trifecta of fried egg whites, green cheetahs and grilled cebolla in the center.

And the no-fail combo of manzanas y brie dispersed throughout.

One more cebolla shot because grilled onion doused in sweetened balsamic is both aesthetically and gastronomically mind-blowing.

So much so that it was the star of dinner numero dos: savory Asian oats.

1/2 cup oats cooked in 1 cup water and 2 tbsp. soy sauce. Topped with grilled onion and asparagus.

I’d sort of forgotten how much I love savory oats. One bite into that creamy, soy saucy creation, and I fully remembered.

Messified deliciousness.

Onto that evidencia that my ensalada was one of great size.

I couldn’t eat it off the plate. Seriously, it was imposible.

So, into my hugh jass mixing bowl it went.

Oh, and if you’d like evidencia of my aforementioned save-the-best-for-last approach to eating… this is how I eat my salads.

Yes, I consume the 3 pounds of baby spinach first and save all of the well-marinated goodies for the end.

And now, for my final and most profound “who am I?” moment of el día: I wasn’t in the mood for popcorn for dessert.

My fridge is currently harboring a massive tub of vanilla pudding, and I was inexplicably drawn to it post-cena.

Con grahams, of course.

This was SO GOOD. Just to forewarn you, I feel a pudding kick coming on. Though, if my popcorn addiction doesn’t return by tonight, I may have a full-blown “WHO AM I!?” meltdown.

Do your food cravings ever throw you off? Up until very recently, my sweet tooth was non-existent. And its frequent presence is really freaking me out. Clearly, though, I’m embracing it .

Amor,

Sarah

I think my first-day-of-December eats sanction this statement.

I woke up with the always-gratifying feeling of knowing exactly what I wanted for breakfast.

“Pumpkin pie” addiction.

Delicioso as this may be, 1 egg white + 1/2 cup pumpkin + a dollop of greek yogurt does not equate to breakfast.

So I threw together a grande bowl of cereal. This, admittedly, does not fit the Thanksgiving eats theme—but the colors are quite autumnal, aren’t they?

Kashi Honey Sunshine, almond milk, PB chips and a spoonful of cashew butter.

I’m still not feeling the cashew butter. I figured I’d give it another shot, but it’s really too understated a taste for my liking. Very triste.

Luckily, I’d anticipated that it wasn’t going to be any better this time around and included the PB chips for a nut butter boost. Sometimes I’m inteligente.

This desayuno was still wondrous due to my cereal superstar, Honey Sunshine. I’m really not a cereal person, but this better-than-Cap’n Crunch Kashi creation hits the spot every time. The addition of the PB chips took it to a Peanut Butter Cap’n Crunch level.

But back to Thanksgiving-esque eats.

Lunch featured my favorite new jelly.

Cranberry pomegranate pepper jelly. Sweet, spicy, pepper seedy seduction. It really needn’t be said, but I’m in love.

Mi amor nuevo played the role of cranberry sauce in this Thanksgiving leftovers-that-didn’t-actually-utilize-any-Thanksgiving-leftovers wrap.

In the whole wheat wrap: thick layer of cream cheese, thicker layer of cranberry pomegranate pepper jelly, honey maple turkey and pumpkin.

This flavor medley was ridiculous. I don’t want Thanksgiving eating to end. Ever.

Afternoon snackage stayed the TG route.   

1 cup applesauce, 1 cup pumpkin, 2 tbsp. maple syrup warmed in the microwave.

AMAZING. Please try this ahora.

What’s that in the center? Oh, just a Food Should Taste Good CINNAMON chip.

Another cosa that your taste buds need to become acquainted with A.S.A.P. These chips seriously taste like churros. I’d intended to eat my pumpkin applesauce with that spoon—but cinnamony churro chips ended up serving that function .

Dinner appears to have nothing to do with Thanksgiving. However, it was an assortment of TG weekend leftovers… so I’m ruling that it fits the theme.

First up: Pearl Room leftovers.

Mucho leftover vegetable risotto.

A tiny bit of hummus salmon.

And to keep things interesante, leftover Chinese.

Peanut chicken and string beans over brown rice from Lai Yuen.

  Sorry for not plating la comida—but I think leftovers taste mucho mejor when eaten straight from the container .

December 1st ended on a similar Thanksgiving note as it began.

What’s under that marshmallow layer?

Mas pumpkin pie, of course.

Except dessert didn’t end there porque…

…when leftover banana strawberry nutella french toast is delivered to your doorstep, you embrace this season of delectable eating and oblige.

And there you have my first-day-of-December, I’m-still-in-a-Thanksgiving-state-of-mind eats.

Lo siento for such a rushed post, but I was busy all day and now I’m rushing off to a hot date with a stunning, snack-loving amiga. I’m sure you’ve got an idea who I’m dining with esta noche .

Amor,

Sarah

Shocker, I know.

Before I get to jueves, tengo una pregunta:

Have you entered my Nutridel giveaway?

No? Probablemente you should do that today.

Porque those galletas are DELISH.

And also FREE! For what more could you wish?

Now that I’ve gotten that hankering for un poco self-promotion and poetry out of my system, let’s discuss ayer.

I rolled out my yoga mat, fixed a cup of coffee and plopped down to tackle my Google Reader.

Within seconds of opening my Reader, I learned of Vegan For a Day and was immediately intrigued.

Intrigued, but not sold.

So I sipped some (coincidentally) vegan-friendly coffee as I looked to some of my favorite vegan bloggers for affirmation.

You can spy a little OhSheGlows action behind coffee cup numero dos.

And it was actually Angela’s A.M. post—specifically the fact that she’d be posting her meals and me encanta the way that chica eats—that convinced me to go Vegan Por Un Día.

Veganism has always seemed entirely doable for me; but it’s never seemed desirable. It’s seemed doable in the sense that I have very strong will-power, and I’m a very competitive person. So, if I commit to something, I commit. However, it’s never seemed desirable because I love food. And a lot of the foods I love fall into non-vegan terrain. I so admire all of the vegans and vegetarians that commit to these dietary lifestyles for their ethical and social importance—but I’m not sure I could ever make the commitment.

That said, I figured one day of veganism—even if I hated it—was nada in the long run. Plus, like I said, I love a little competición.

I partook in a several ridiculous Google searches in an effort to come up with vegan breakfast.

I got lost in that for about 30 minutes—but still had no idea what I wanted.

Actually, I knew exactly what I wanted.

Greek yogurt with melted banana and granola.

But since Greek yogurt is, you know, dairy—that was a no-no.

While I waited to be struck by vegan brilliance, I decided to go for the melted “banana nuggets”—as Allie’s dubbed them.

I’ve been wanting to try them since first drooling over stumbling upon them on her blog—and I figured they’d be a good hold-me-over-til-I-think-of-something-divine nosh.

1 banana, nuggified—then microwaved in a tbsp. maple syrup for 22 seconds (I always pick random numbers because I’m a loca like that) and topped with cinnamon

SO GOOD. So good that I knew I had to integrate them into whatever fabuloso breakfast was to come.

When I realized that I’d officially pondered breakfast for 1.5 HORAS—to the point that I needed a pregame—I decided to keep cosas simple and just throw my new banana amor into a trusty bowl of oats.

1/2 cup old-fashioned oats cooked in 1 cup water, 1 tbsp. maple syrup and 1/2 a thinly sliced banana. Topped with the other 1/2 of the banana, nuggified in another tbsp. maple syrup (microwaved for 16 seconds since it was only half) and cinnamon. Devoured with a peanut butter spoon.

Banana nugget center. Maple syrupy magic.

Drowning in syrup, sinking banana nuggets.

Drowning in syrup, sinking PB spoon.

I usually leave my PB on la cuchara [spoon] to ensure a little with every bite—but since it was melting/sinking, I decided to get crazy and mix it in.

Which was una buena idea because there were PB pools like the one below covertly dispersed throughout the bowl.

So, this breakfast kept me full for close to five hours. When I eventually broke for lunch, I wasn’t even actually hungry.

I’m not sure if it was the fact that breakfast included two grande bananas, or if this was just a very powerful oat combo, but if you ever need some trusty staying power—hit this desayuno up.

Throughout the morning, I sipped some sugar cookie sleigh ride.

Which I knew was vegan porque esta chica downs it like it’s her trabajo.

As did I. I had tres copas—one with Truvia, which was divine. Sugar cookie sleigh ride sweetened takes it to a whole new level.

Oh, and then I almost blew Vegan For a Day on a VITAMIN.

Juuuuuuust before unwrapping that little chocolate chew, I thought to myself, “Chocolate? Dairy?”

So I checked the ingredient list.

Correcto. Nonfat milk. Along with lots of terrible ingredients that I now know I consume on a daily basis.

Lucky for this vegan temp, I had these little guys.

Which after a little label reading…

..and a lot of Googleing, I learned were vegan.

Vegan bears? How ethical.

When it was getting into the almost-too-late-for-lunch realm, I turned to my favorite soup.

Which I quickly learned was vegan!

BUENO.

This Amy’s Alphabet soup is hands-down my favorite canned soup—and it literally kept me alive during college.

You’d think that after four years of overdosing on a canned good, I’d never want to touch it again.

But you’d be mistaken.

It’s a tomato-based veggie soup filled with alphabet pasta.

What more could a 22-year-old who wishes she were still 10 ask for?

My lack of comida throughout the first half of the day caught up with me during the second half.

Vegan snacks included:

My new favorite nut mix.

And a massive bowl of grapes and fresas.

After spending so much time coming up with a vegan breakfast that I was in the mood for, I did not want the same to happen con cena.

So throughout the day I conjured up a delectable dinner of cheetahs, green cheetahs and carrot fries—a fry trifecta, if you will.

Except when I checked out my sweet potato stash, I found this.

MOLD.

Mucho, mucho mold.

Malo.

Dreaming a perfecto meal—and mentally tasting cheetahs all day long—only to have mold snatch them away from you is triste.

However, sweet potato sob story was upsetting but not tragic, as I still had my green cheetahs and carrot fries.

Wrong.

Whichever power circuit supports my toaster oven went out—and me attempting to fix that on my own just wasn’t in the cards.

Apparently the fry gods were pissed that I was trying to create so many faux fry versions and decided to run a little interference.

I forfeited and went on to think up a no-kitchen, no-toaster oven dinner.

Ensalada was the obvious solution—but I’d gotten myself so in the mood for cooked/baked veggies that a raw veggie salad sounded entirely unappealing.

So I decided to take my standard veggie ensalada down a path I’d not ventured since the seems-like-forever-ago summer.

Una fruity ensalada.

Baby spinach, onions, sun-dried tomatoes, cucumbers, red grapes and strawberries.

I threw some hot salsa en el centro for an interesante sweet and spicy flavor contrast.

And I switched up my normal honey-balsamic dressing mix for a vegan-friendly maple syrup-balsamic concoction.

This ensalada was excelente. The spicy salsa went so well with the fruit—especially the strawberries.

And I looooooved the maple syrup substitution in my standard honey & balsamic mix.

Again, the strawberries worked so well with this flavor. I love marinating strawberries in balsamic vinegar—and the maple addition complemented this sabor [flavor] interaction so wonderfully.

La ensalada obviously wasn’t going to cut it for dinner.

So I made something I’ve been thinking about making for quite some time.

I introduce to you…

H2Oats (Hummus & Hot Sauce Oats)

I cooked 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats in 1 cup of water. When it was finished, I stirred in 2 tbsp. hummus and steamed baby spinach. Then I topped with mas baby spinach and, obviamente, mas hummus. Sriracha hot sauce atop.

Ok. HUMMUS + OATS = BRILLIANTE.

With a Sriracha cherry on top.

I’d initially planned on adding mucho mas Sriracha post-photography, but a little bit went a long way for this bowl. Having just a hint of hot sauce allowed the Sabra to be the star that it is.

The creaminess and flavor of our beloved hummus blended into our beloved oats is something I wish I’d discovered long ago.

If nothing else, THANK YOU Vegan For a Day (and the sweet potato and toaster woes) for leading me to finally try this.

Anyhow, you know what I wanted for dessert.

But after mucho tiempo Googleing, I learned that neither Jolly Time’s nor Orville Redenbacher’s Kettle Corn popcorn is vegan-friendly.

So, I had fresas y azucar.

Which I usually love.

But when you want popcorn, and you eat strawberries… strawberries and sugar are suddenly very disappointing.

So, pensamientos on Vegan Por Un Dia…

I loved the idea of trying something new food-wise—especially something that has such important ethical and environmental causes attached to it. However, I can’t shake the fact that eating a vegan diet felt like a diet the entire time.

You guys know how I feel about diets. And yesterday brought me right back to my South Beach-in’ sixteen-year-old self, going loca over carbs and what was and was not allowed.

At so many points throughout the day, I knew what I wanted but ended up thinking way too much about something else to eat—simply because I “couldn’t” have it. I really honor the whole “follow your body’s cues” approach to eating—and I didn’t like the feeling of denying myself what I was craving.

That said, I can’t stress how much I support and respect those who commit to making these sacrifices—be it for their personal well-being, or the well-being of animals, the environment or our society.

It was divertido—not to mention discovery-provoking (HEEELLLOOO, banana nuggets & H2Oats)—to experiment with veganism. And though I know—as I knew before yesterday—that right now, it’s a dietary style that’s not for me, I’d definitely be interested in further experimentation. I think I’d do better with it and be less frustrated by the dietary limitations if I tried it out for a bit longer—and was doing it with the goal of finding out if a dairy-free diet did anything to benefit my health.

One more gracias to all the vegan bloggers on whom I relied for foodie inspiration yesterday. And to todas who participated in Vegan For a Day!

Bueno, I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

-Sarah

(Lección de español: The above sentence means “Only three more days ‘til the weekend!” Pretty boring en ingles, if you ask me…)

I know we’re not halfway through the week yet—but I’m trying to be positiva .

Lunes began on a positive, pumpkin note.

Mama Pea’s pumpkin spice latte, con extra pumpkin spice.

For breakfast, I re-created an oat bowl that a pretty, pretty peanut butter princesa concocted months ago: Flipz Oat Bran.

Fun fact: I used to be head over heels for yogurt-covered pretzels—so much so that, on my 19th birthday, a friend decided to buy me a 5-lb bag of them. What seemed like a never-ending yogurt pretzel stash dwindled embarrassingly quickly. And I’m pretty sure I ODed because I just haven’t loved them the same way since. For the past few years, I’ve replaced my yogurt pretzel addiction with an equally delicious chocolate pretzel addiction. I secretly suspect that yogurt pretzels are still my numero uno; my taste buds just need to miss them long enough to crave a comeback. In the meantime, I’m all about the chocolate-covered goods.

And so, I flipped when I first read of this oat bran brilliance, and I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to make it.

PB&Jenny-Plagiarized Flipz Oat Bran

1/3 cup oat bran cooked in 1 cup water and 1/2 banana; topped with a trifecta of Truvia, Chocolate Better ‘N PB and honey wheat pretzels.

You can go two routes when consuming this prodigious pretzely oat bowl: (1) Keep it neat, and enjoy perfectly concocted sugary/chocolatey/pretzely bites or (2) throw aesthetic concern to the wind, make a mess and let the magic forces meld.

I chose door numero dos.

This was amazing. The pretzels got wonderfully soggy—which is always a good thing if you’re weird like me and love soggy textures. Seriously, I let my cereal “marinate” for a few minutes because I either like it dry—with no milk—or super leche-soaked. Soggy = mejor in my libro.

Speaking of letting cereal marinate… when I got snacky pre-lunchtime, I chopped up a manzana monster…

…and made fruit cereal.

Giant honeycrisp + almond milk + pom arils + Truvia + flax + cinnamon = AMOR.

It went in the fridge to marinate in the almond glory for about 10 minutes, and then, like every time I taste this simple wonder, I oooooh and aaaaaaaah and try to remember what life was like before fruit cereal…

I can’t recall, but I bet my days were comparatively tragic.

When lunch rolled around, I made the executive decision to go Greek.

I’ve been wanting to re-create the Greek wonder I made for la hermana on Sunday ever since I sent her off with it (read: seriously considered “forgetting” to bring it out to her car…)

So I busted out my newest Sabra goodie and got to work on a giant Greek wrap.

Giant is a key word here because—despite a double breakfast, of sorts, I was starving. Just one of those days, I suppose.

As usual, here’s an innards shot since my wraps are always too stuffed to stay closed.

Don’t believe me?

Here’s an action shot of my possessed wrap opening on its own…

This tzatziki sauce is incredible; I’ve been dipping everything in it.

Along with tzatziki, into the whole wheat wrap also went: laughing cow, hummus, spinach, hummus-coated baked chicken, roasted red peppers, oil-cured black olives, onions and cucumbers.

And I wonder why my wraps don’t close…

I prepped a little too mucho Greek stuffing for even an un-closeable wrap, so I threw the extra innards onto a bed of spinach for a side Greek ensalada.

It wasn’t so much a side as it was a legitimate salad that I’d usually eat for dinner. But greens are bueno, so I let it slide.

So, funny story… Despite a double breakfast and a double lunch, I was ravenous come dinner. And since all this double action wasn’t cutting it for my ridiculous appetite yesterday, I decided to make dinner a triple.

First up were some cheetahs.

About 1/4 of which went into course numero dos:

C-Cubed (Cream Cheese Cheetah) Wrap

Whole wheat wrap with Laughing Cow wedge, 1/4 medium sweet potato (cheetahfied) and honey mustard.

Ohmygod. Best. Combo. Ever. I’ve got a feeling; this is going to become a staple.

Third and final dinner component: Sopa

I dug into the generous soup stash Dr. McDougall’s sent me last week.

They also sent some instant soups—which I’m saving for those inevitable just add hot water crunches—along with an amazing Crate and Barrel place setting.

Here’s the bowl; unpictured is a place mat and napkin/napkin ring. I adore it all, but I’m really obsessed with this bowl.

BIG BOWLS ARE THE BEST.

This one is so perfect because it can fit the entire carton of soup (a double serving); and when I eat canned/carton soup—especially on B.P.D.s like yesterday—I almost always eat the whole thing.

This is a habit I fostered in college when canned soups were often meals. I lived on Amy’s Alphabet.

Last night, I opted for the Vegetable Soup. Not because I wanted it the most; the soups that look the most appealing of the bunch are definitely the split pea, lentil and black bean. But, because I have this weird save-the-best-for-last O.C.D. tendency, I went for the veggie soup. I had three cartons of those, and only one of all the other varieties. I know, I’m weird.

Anyway, this tactic backfired (not actually, since I still have two more boxes) because I LOVED the vegetable soup!

It was so packed with veggies, potatoes, lentils and rice. I feel like vegetable soups usually lag in the starch department—particularly the lighter versions—but this had all of the good stuff in excess. Me gusta.

Another example of my save-the-best-for-last tendency: When eating brothy soups, I always eat all of the broth first and save the solids to eat at the end. Great tactic for this sopa because it was like eating an amazing veggie stew toward the end.

I was SO FULL after.

For about an hour.

Again, it was one of those days.

Nothing a bag of Kettle Corn + cinnamon couldn’t fix.

I am SO FELIZ to have this back in my life.

Gracias, gracias, gracias for this gift, hermana.

Before I go, I want to let you all know that I’ll be M.I.A. from blogland ‘til Monday. I booked a very last minute trip to Florida, y mañana I’m off! I won’t have my computer conmigo so lo siento for my absence. My Reader is going to be fuuuuuuuun to open on Monday…

Mucho 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 .

Once again…

And by computer, I mean Windows Live Writer. That pestilent publishing program went on a 48-hour post binge. Every time I wrote—and re-wrote and re-wrote—a post on Tuesday and Wednesday, WLW swallowed it. I’ve uninstalled and re-installed the program, and I’m crossing my fingers that this post finds its way into the blogosphere.

Some muy delicioso eats were had on Monday and Tuesday, but I’m sure you can understand that, after uploading those meals/writing the accompanying posts for the last two days, I have no desire to look at those photos any longer. Just takes me to a bad place…

Worry not. This simply means that I will have to re-create all of Monday’s and Tuesday’s goodies in the very near future .

While this appears to be a standard cup of coffee, it’s actually Mama Pea’s pumpkin latte.

My version didn’t get as wondrously foamy as hers due to my lack of a Magic Bullet, but it was magically pumpkiny nonetheless.

1/2 cup almond milk, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice and Truvia vigorously shaken and then added to a cup of coffee

Mama Pea, me gusta your version mucho mejor than Starbucks’ pumpkin spice latte. Even without the bonita foam .

Breakfast featured THE BIG APPLE. As in, you’ve got some serious competition, NYC. This organic New Zealand Braeburn was GRANDE.

Into the bfast mix also went a much more rationally-sized apple good: AppleBerry Vita.

And voila…

Peachy Keen Apples and Cream

1/2 of the Frankenstein Braeburn—microwaved in cinnamon, almond milk and brown sugar—and the thawed VitaTop got friendly with a container of cream peach yogurt for a 3-way yogurt hug, a la K.

Glorious. For once, I didn’t turn this bowl into a complete mess post-food photog. I’m finding I prefer keeping my Vitas in tact during loving yogurt embraces; it makes it easier to create perfect big-chunk-o-Vita bites.

As for the the AppleBerry flavor, it was bueno not fantástico. I’m not sure I’d ever enjoy a bran Vita on its own; but it is SO perfecto in the company of a little dairy amor. (This makes me wonder: would a Vita be good chopped up and eaten with milk? Curioso…)

I ate the other half of the world’s biggest apple straight up, and down to the core. While I love sliced apples accompanied by the always aesthetically pleasing nut butter drizzle or cinnamon sprinkle, it is so satisfying to just bite into a big one every now and then. (Channeling Michael Scott…)

I continued on this apple-venture when I got snacky before lunch. All out of monster manzanas, I went for a medium-sized honeycrisp.

Cinnamon Sugar Fruit Cereal

By now, you know how much I adore fruit cereal, right? I know I’m not alone on this one.

I usually add almonds, figs, raisins and whatever other dried fruit I have on hand—but I wanted the honeycrisp-cinnamon-sugar trio to be the stars of this fruit cereal bowl. (Those first-class figs always have a way of making themselves the featured flavor, don’t they?)

So this fruit cereal mix was simply:

1 honeycrisp, chopped; 1 tbsp. flax, cinnamon, Truvia and 1/2 cup vanilla almond milk.

I let it marinate in the fridge for about 10 minutes—G-d only knows how I mustered up that self-control—because I think fruit cereal is exponentially more flavorful when the fruit really soaks up the almond milk flavor.

Cinnamony, sugary Truvia-y Honeycrisp perfección

This bowl of flavor exquisiteness confirmed a theory I’ve been developing regarding Truvia. It is best enjoyed as a topping/sweetener in solid foods—oatmeal, fruit, etc. In coffee or tea? Eh, liquids really don’t amplify Truvia’s sweetness potential. It tastes so different when combined with solids versus liquids. This said, I think I’ll be sticking to either regular sugar or no sugar in my coffee, and enjoying this sweet stevia in oat bowls and such.

Now, lunch gets to the title of this post.

You know how I’ve been sort of obsessed with cheesy savory oats?

Well, yesterday, I ventured back into Asian savory oat-dom.

The first bowl of savory oats to ever woo me was of the Asian persuasion—so I feel guilty for neglecting this delicious breed in favor its cheesy brethren as of late.

And so, I decided it was time for the Chew and the Asian savory oat bowl to reunite.

In the mix: 3/4 cup old-fashioned oats cooked in 1 cup of water, 1 tbsp. soy sauce and—a new HIGHLY RECOMMENDED addition—1 tbsp. Soy Vay; topped with steamed baby carrots, broccoli and sriracha.

Soy Vay is majestic. Whenever I go without it for a while, I forget how incredible its flavor is—along with the fact that it makes anything taste better. Seriously. Anything.

I’m not going rank Asian oats against their cheesy contender. They are both unfailingly satisfying and flavorfully impressive. Special in their own ways .

Shortly after, I got snacky with some highly addictive Newman’s Own Organics protein pretzels. I was just about to dub them the best of Newman’s pretzel line, but it looks like Fitness Magazine beat me to the punch, going a step further by naming them the best healthy pretzel option. Congrats, Newm!

I might even like these as much as my beloved Snyder’s Organic Oat Bran babies…

Later, dinner gave into a little Asian persuasion. Mostly because once the Soy Vay hits your lips, the craving sticks .

This (re)creation fed off my penchant for plagiarism. My favorite wrap from my favorite local healthy salad/sandwich shop, Nature’s Grill, is called the Teriyaki Terrific.

So last night, in the midst of my plagiarism process, I decided to 86 the rice and add some Sabra.

Whole wheat wrap, roasted red pepper Sabra hummus, fresh baby spinach, diced chicken, roasted red peppers, steamed broccoli, carrots, and sugar snap peas. Doused in Soy Vay—to ensure teriyaki terrificness.

I love how Soy Vay is so filled with sesame seeds! Mmmm.

Magic en mi boca.

On ze side: carrot fries & honey mustard.

These little guys were actually baby carrot fries. No kitchen=no peeling of the big boys, so baby carrots had to suffice.

Tasted the same as the big brother carrot fries. Shocker.

They were cuter, though.

Dessert options have been ridiculously unsatisfying because I am still out of popcorn. ALL I WANT IS POPCORN + SRIRACHA.

However, my pop-ish snack last time was wonderful.

Barbeque Popchips! Barbeque is my favorite chip flavor—so these had some seriously savory shoes to fill. I LOVED them! I think they are tied with the sea salt and vinegar—both incredible!

Oh yea, I also had these.

After a weekend of Halloween-induced INDULGENCIAS, I’d intended to swear off candy (particularly Kit Kats, Reese’s and Twix) for a while. But, my Pilates instructor pawned these off on us—and I hadn’t had any Skittles this weekend, sooooooo…

Ok, amigas, I am glad to be back! Hope everyone’s Thursday is delicioso y divertido!

-Sarah

In the event that you need a little ayuda translating this post’s título:

“y el ganador es…” means “and the winner is…”

¡Sí! The time has come to reveal the winner of my sopa giveaway! Well, not quite yet. I’m obviously going to make you endure my recap of yesterday’s eats before getting to the good stuff.

(“Make you” is quite a relative expression considering you have full capability to scroll to the bottom of this post. If you do this, por favor, make your way back up here for some good eats .)

Tuesday morning began with a cup of sugar cookie sleigh ride tea and…

Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride Oat Bran!

I’ve been meaning to try cooking oats in flavored tea—and as soon as I tried this flavor, I knew it’d be the perfect tea constituent. It was!

To expose and enhance the sugar cookie flavor, I cooked 1/2 cup oat bran in 1 1/4 cup brewed tea. I stirred in a little vanilla extract, brown sugar, Truvia and cinnamon—and topped with a spoonful of raspberry preserves.

Come a bit closer.

Closer…

See the Truvia crystals? They made the bowl. This was actually my first experience with Truvia, or any stevia sweetener. I’ve been meaning to try stevia in my efforts to scale back on the Splenda front, so when Truvia offered to send me a sample—you know I obliged.

I’ve yet to try it in my coffee—but it worked its sweet magic in this bowl of oat bran. Because I was trying to capture the essence of  a sugar cookie, I thought both brown and “white” sugar were necessary. The preserves were just added because I thought the bowl was lacking aesthetic panache; but they, too, worked some serious sugary magic.

I will definitely be re-creating and further experimenting with sugar cookie oats; I’m thinking a raisin addition would work splendidly. Any suggestions?

Alongside my sugary oats, I has another sweet component.

HUGE Honeycrisp!

Since I haven’t been putting much effort into my manzana consumption, I opted for a photography-friendly change from my current chomp-to-the-core approach.

Massive manzana con PB. Delicioso, como siempre.

Lunch continued down the sweet route.

Honey-licious wrap.

In a whole wheat wrap: Garlic & Herb Laughing Cow, Honey Maple Turkey, 1/2 honeycrisp apple, spinach and honey mustard.

Boar’s Head honey maple turkey > any other brand. I think I’m experiencing a mild case of honey maple obsession—because it’s all I’ve been craving. Also, I’m sort of weird with meat, and I’ll only eat it within several days of its purchase. So, honey maple obsession + meat eating idiosyncrasy=expect a lot of turkey in the next few days. Lo siento, vegetarian and vegan amigas.

Con another bigger-than-the-wrap half-sour pickle.

This obsession is full-fledged, and always in effect. Me encantan pickles.

(Go on, say it…)

Soon after, Mr. Postman delivered this:

The sticky yoga mat I won from Erica! I’ve not been doing yoga, but perhaps this new goodie will motivate me. Any at-home recommendations?

I took it out and laid on it without any yoga intentions—simply because I’m a child and can’t not open a new toy. However, this faux yoga session reminded me that I had a Yogi tea to try out!

Mi amiga received this when she got a massage this weekend, and she thoughtfully offered it to moi because she knows I’m a tea fiend.

This was my first experience with Yogi tea, and I loved it!

I love flavored variations of green tea, and blub always works.

But the whole “suppresses appetite” thing?

Yea, I don’t know about that…

Food Should Taste Good lime tortilla chips, inconsiderately stuck right into the communal Sabra.

Love this FSTG flavor! Again, none of the flavors have been as good as the Multigrain or The Works, in my opinion; but I loved the hint of lime. (PS: I only have one more flavor to try ‘til I can give you a full FSTG review!)

The bag remained by my side during this blogging-from-bed Sabra session—so, needless to say, I did a bit more FSTG damage than what’s pictured here.

Dinner started with a simple ensalada.

3 cups baby spinach; shrooms, 1/2 honeycrisp, baby peppers, red onion, celery salt, honey balsamic dressing and habanero lime salsa.

Best flavor melding of the night goes to the sweet honeycrisp/spicy salsa combo.

I knew dinner’s main event was going to involve brown rice—because I had a ton left over from way too much Chinese take out this weekend.

In an attempt to not just re-heat the never-ending stash of sesame chicken, I made a Thai Peanut Rice Bowl.

1.5 cups brown rice; 2 cups broccoli; 1 cup pineapple. Douses in my homemade peanut sauce.

If you haven’t noticed, I really like the peanut + pineapple combo.

Since the sauce wasn’t really showing in the pictures, I added an extra spoonful.

For picture purposes only. I, of course, hated the peanut-y addition…

I dug into my Newman’s Own Champion Chip Cookies for dessert. I have to preface this opinion by reminding you that I’m not a big chocolate person; I wasn’t crazy about these. They were sort of hard, and very average.

So, I channeled one of my favorite cereals from my childhood to salvage them.

Cooooooookie Crisps! I simply dumped some Newman’s cookies in a bowl and doused them in almond milk; I let them marinate for a few minutes ‘til they were perfectly soggy. And devoured,

Problemo solved.

Ok, so who won my Campbell’s sopa giveaway? The random integer generator spewed out #64; that’d be…

Katie from A Joy in Class!

One of my favorite new bloggers! Felicidades, chica! E-mail me at thefoodiediaries@gmail.com with your address—and I’ll get your goodies on their way!

While we’re on the topic of giveaways and, more importantly, favorite bloggers, check out my taste bud gemela Katharina’s 101st post giveaway!

Hope your Wednesday night is absolutely GLEEFUL .

-Sarah

Today’s 70° weather trumps yesterday’s 65°—and has also made me even more predisposed to spending the entire day outside. So, again, I’m stopping in for a late quickie and then departing to gallivant the balmy Brooklyn streets. Also, I want to preemptively apologize for any coffee/sun-induced hyperness/loco-ness/senselessness that finds its way into this post.

Wednesday morning kicked off with something else that never fails to induce happiness and hyperness.

Paquetes!

Numero uno was from Lindsey—whose giveaway I won last month.

Highlights included TJs bars, Hermits (exciting—since I’ve nearly polished mine off), Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride tea (which I’ve been dying to try since spying some celeb loving it often) and…

What’s that Ziploc in the back right corner?

Oh, just the most delicious Vegan Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Ever.

In the process of transferring these little wonders into Tupperware, I enjoyed a couple as a breakfast appetizer.

Numero dos was from Corinne over at Popchips.

I’ve only ever tried (and LOVED) the salt and vinegar flavor—and I can’t wait to see if the other flavors are as good!

I passed on these as a breakfast component, and instead brewed some coffee and considered los posibilidades.

As the calming aroma of java permeated my construction-crazed casa, inspiration struck.

Coffee Oats!

I know it unappetizingly resembles baby food—and also what baby food looks like post digestion, if you catch my drift. But I assure you it was increible!

I simply cooked 1/2 cup oat bran in 1 cup coffee—and then drizzled this pantry newbie on top.

It’s no DCD (which I’ve not been able to find)—but it’s pretty good. Very sweet and very peanut butter-y.

I wish I had some magic Photoshop tool to make these oats look delicious because I can’t emphasize (or illustrate) how amazing they were! This bowl—combined with about 3-4 cups of coffee—had much to do with yesterday’s hyperactivity.

Lunch was a quickie because I wanted to enjoy every minute of Wednesday’s wonderfully warm un-October weather.

Un gran wrap mexicano

In a whole wheat wrap, I layered: French Onion LC; roasted red pepper hummus; avocado slices, lettuce, turkey, roasted red peppers and habanero lime salsa.

Spicy y delicioso.

On the side I had an enormous pickle.

It was legitimately bigger than the wrap halves.

After being the giddiest New Yorker en las calles  yesterday, I came home HANGRY.

I brewed some Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride tea (my newest obsession; I had 3 cups).

And snacked on a disproportionate trifecta of deliciousness.

2 vegan pumpkin oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and the BIGGEST pluot I’ve ever seen. This was the size of a GRANDE apple, and I loved it.

As I look at my pictures from dinner, I realize they are as misleadingly unappetizing as my coffee oats. You’ll have to take my word that dinner—despite its appearance—was amazing.

PPP: Peanut Pineapple Pizza

On a baked wrap: homemade peanut sauce, frozen spinach, pineapple, roasted red peppers, sesame seeds, garlic, krazy salt and más peanut sauce.

When I was younger, the only pizza I would tolerate was pineapple pizza. I think this creation was inspired by the fact that, now, pineapple reminds me of Thai food. And Thai food reminds me of peanut sauce.

The flavor combo was perfection. The peanut sauce made things really messy—which I didn’t particularly mind—but I think next time I’ll thicken it up with an extra tbsp. of peanut butter. Never hurts.

I had a pound of asparagus on the side.

That’s not an exaggeration; I don’t believe in portion control when it comes to veggies .

Nor with popcorn.

Dessert was a bag of butter popcorn doused in cinnamon and one packet of brown sugar. Ningunas palabras.

Before I head back out, yo necesito some advice. Several spots have opened to attend the FoodBuzz festival. I’ve made no arrangements, but I could stay with family if I go. Thoughts?

Gracias for enduring this spastic post, as well as the unappealing pics. I promise tomorrow’s post will be full of photogenic eats .

Casi viernes!

-Sarah

Speaking of nut butters, Monday morning welcomed a peanut butter first.

After a few cups of cinnamon swirly java, I tried a beloved blogland breakfast that, I’m sure, all of you have had many times by now.

Oats in a jar!

Proof that I am a behind-the-times blogger: I hadn’t tried overnight oats ‘til last week, and I hadn’t utilized an almost-empty jar as an oatmeal bowl ‘til yesterday! Ay, dios…

When I noticed my current jar of peanut butter nearing its end, I seized la oportunidad. Into the jar went 1/3 cup quick-cooking Irish oatmeal—cooked in almond milk, sweetened with maple syrup and topped with raspberry preserves.

Because there was a good amount of peanut butter coating the sides of the jar, I let the steamy oats melt the PB walls by returning the lid for 5 minutes and then violently passionately shaking the jar.

The result was PB & J oats in their most divine form. I think it was a combination of the glorious chewiness of Irish oatmeal and the mouth-watering meltiness of the peanut butter.

Hated it.

As I wrote up my Nutridel review (which you can read here, if you missed it), I had an almond Nutridel cookie topped with cream cheese and jelly.

Before:

After:

I can’t decide if I think the before or after shot is more mouth-watering. I suppose beauty’s in the eye of the beholder. What do you think? Does food look more appetizing when it’s well put-together or messy?

Lunch brings us to the tehehehini title of this post.

What ingredient made it into almost everything I ate for the rest of the day?

You guessed it.

I’ve always thought it was spelt tahini, but I’ve seen several brands spell it this way. Anyone know the explanation behind this spelling discrepancy? Merriam goes with tahini—but  maybe tehina is the authentic Mediterranean spelling? It’s really not normal that this is bothering me.

Anyway, lunch. I toasted a rye sandwich thin and topped half with tahini/tehina and crumbled feta before broiling for 2 minutes.

I topped the other half with one of my homemade rice & bean veggie burgers (which I’d frozen a couple of weeks ago) and roasted red peppers.

I heated it in the toaster for 10 minutes at 450°—and it tasted just as great. ¡Éxito! (That’s success en español.)

I had some pre-made frozen sweet potato fries with honey mustard on the side.

All together now.

Burger and fries? So not a me lunch—but it was delicious.

At some point in the day, I stumbled upon this New York Times article featuring—what do you know?—tahini. (By the way, I am going to spell it this way for the remainder of this post—because if Martha Rose Shulman says tahini, I’ll take her word.)

Shulman says she prefers tahini to nut butter as a toast topping—which I can’t say I agree with—but I took this feature as a sign from the holy food disciples that I should continue on with my tahini eats.

Plus, Shulman highlighted its health benefits: copper, manganese, calcium (mi favorito), iron, B1 and dietary fiber. Me gusta.

Dinner started with a big ensalada featuring a variation of last week’s hummus-baked chicken.

This time, I coated the chicken in tahini and then broiled the pieces for 7 minutes.

Again, SO GOOD.

In the mix: lots o’ mixed greens, string beans, red onion, 1/2 avocado, celery, roasted red peppers and tahini chicken—dressed in celery salt & honey balsamic.

The trifecta: tahini chicken, roasted red pepper and Haas avocado.

This avocado was extraordinarily creamy and flavorful. I know this is sort of blasphemous to admit in blogland, but I don’t love avocados.  I definitely don’t dislike them. And I do eat them frequently—but this is mostly for their nutritional benefits. In general, I find their flavor a little underwhelming. If you hate me for this, you should redirect your attention to another blogger who hates pumpkin…

Dinner’s other components were sort of random—but such is life sans a kitchen.

Flax toast with melted Jarlsberg (BEST CHEESE EVER), roasted red pepper and a tahini stripe.

Tahiiiiniiii. I think you’re the new hummus.

Ok, I take that back. But it’s a close second.

The only tahini-less dinner side was steamed green beans (by steamed, I obviously mean microwaved) topped with garlic powder and sriracha.

And because the sriracha spiciness necessitated a cold cooldown…

Vanilla fro-yo with Newman’s Own Organics mini pretzels and a Hermit.

Oooh my god. Hermits! How have I never discovered these before? They are like little bars of gingerbready, figgy goodness! I don’t care to show you the dent I’ve made in the box I only opened this weekend. I will say I’m addicted.

The fro-yo felt so good on my still sickish throat. And though I’ve still not fully recuperated from whatever stubborn flu-like illness has invaded mi vida, I’ve decided that (a) I am feeling much better and (b) I’m going to stop being a baby and just pretend I’m fully well in hopes that it’ll come true.

Before I go, una pregunta.

I may or may not be in the process of conjuring up a magnificent giveaway for next month. What would you love to win in a giveaway?

-Sarah