In part, porque I don’t believe in diets. In part, porque the Nilla supply ran out.

In all seriousness, yesterday someone Googled “nilla wafer diet” and landed on my blog.

Hmm, a nilla wafer diet? I feel compelled to address this.

Dearest anonymous Nilla wafer enthusiast,

While I clearly love the Nilla as much as the next chica, I do not advise constructing your diet around its sweet, wafery glory. If, however, you are set on doing so, see this post for some Nilla foodspiration.

Sincerely,

An advocate of Nillas-in-moderation

I realize my last post boasted a whole lot of Nilla, but I (sort of regrettably) assure you, Nilla wafers and I do not see each other on a daily basis. We’re more a one night stand that recurs every few years. And this, I believe, is for the best.

Need evidencia? I present to you a full day of no-Nilla, normal foodie eats.

Nilla-free breakfast: Black and White Cookie Yoatgurt

El negro: 1/2 cup oats cooked in 1 cup water, scoop of almond butter, 1 tbsp. cocoa powder and Truvia. La blanca: 1 container plain Fage 2% con cinnamon.

You’ll have to take my word that there were no Nillas layering the bottom of the bowl.

This early Chinese New Year-inspired, yin and yang creation was the most delicious way I’ve started my día in quite some time.

The only problemo: It was almost too filling. Have any other yoatgurt lovers found this? Perhaps I’ll have to 86 the nut butter or use 1/3 cup oats instead of 1/2.

This is not to say I didn’t fully clean this mess up.

And enjoy every last creamy, chewy bite.

This was my first bowl of yoatgurt since Miss Janetha introduced it to blogland, but I’ve actually unknowingly been enjoying this so-called yoatgurt for years. For as long as I can remember, whenever I stay at hotels with continental breakfasts, I’ve combined a pack of instant oatmeal with a container of whatever yogurt they have on hand. I’m happy it now has a formal name because I’ve certainly gotten my fair share of “what are you eating?”s over the years. Now, I can smugly respond, “uh, yoatgurt” and witness non-food blogger confusion reach new heights. Bueno.

Despite feeling as though I’d never be hungry again, that was, shockingly, not so.

The star of lunch was my favorite veggie tuna mix, which, like pollo, I’d not had in over a month. No idea why. But I missed it.

In the mix: 4 oz. tuna, 2 dollops of Fage, 2 tbsp. honey mustard, lemon pepper seasoning, krazy salt, red peppers, onions and celery.

…which was clearly too much for my dos pieces of  honey whole wheat toast.

So an open-faced sandwich it became. Mi boca didn’t mind this, as I believe it thought it was getting dos sandwiches. My shirt was pretty feliz, too, as it didn’t leave the table decorated in tuna.

Served con a whole lot of asparagus. A few green cheetahs. No Nillas.

Just in the nick of snack time, I stumbled upon this mouth-watering recipe and made the executive decision to step away from the trail mix and bake up a double-punch, fruit-and-veggie treat.

Roasted Butternut Squash Con Manzana

Butternut stump, de-seeded and filled with one chopped honey crisp. Topped with 1 tbsp. water, 1 tbsp. maple syrup and cinnamon. Covered in tin foil and baked for one hour at 400°.

Por favor, make this now.

This is quite possibly the most delicious way I’ve ever eaten a butternut squash, and I’m mildly depressed that I discovered this just as winter squashes are going out of season. Triste.

My squash baby kept me full well into the dinner hour. But, come 10 p.m., I got hungry (and felt sort of gypped on the cena front). So I whipped up dinner in less than 5 minutos.

Despite looking moderately sophisticated, this was actually one of my go-to college meals.

1 bag Uncle Ben’s 90-second Brown & Wild Whole Grain Medley, topped with leftover roasted eggplant and a generous pour of Soy Vay!

This rice is the most flavorful, quickie brown rice I’ve found. And its ingredient list is pretty innocent, too. Bueno!

And the Soy Vay! You all know how I feel about Soy Vay. It has an uncanny ability to make anything taste better. Anything. But especially veggies.

And since an entire bag of brown rice clearly didn’t meet my carbzilla requirements, I had half of a freshly baked, super fluffly whole wheat pita with melty Jarlsberg. On my finest china.

Dessert was, oddly, not popcorn. Nor Nillas.

Rather, it was my new favorite super salty store brand mini pretzel rods and big scoop of creamy Barney Butter.

Oh, sweet and salty flavor combinations, you never cease to woo me. Be mine?

Before I go, in an attempt to avoid another unannounced hiatus, I wanted to give you a heads up that I’m not sure what my posting schedule will be like next week. I haven’t mentioned this, but post-kitchen renovation, we decided to continue on and renovate the living room. So, for a good part of next week, I am being forced to evacuate the premises to allow los chicos to do the nitty, gritty construction stuff. In other words, I’ll be couch surfing and may not have my computadora and/or internet. However, when I return, I have some very exciting news to share. It involves comida. And vida. And those were the most pitifully vague hints ever, so you’ll just have to wait it out .

Feliz fin de semana! Feliz Dia de los Enamorados! Feliz Chinese New Year! Any exciting plans? Anyone attempting to combine Valentine’s Day and Chinese New Year festivities?

Amor,

Sarah

(I realize that most of you are mujeres, but I’m feeling a little alliterative so you’ll have to bear with me.)

Let us weigh in on Wednesday, which was a little wacky. Mostly because my mañana commenced con my crazy, crass pilates instructor. After yesterday’s class, I think I have to change her nickname to crazy, crass, perverted pilates instructor.

This pensive pre-breakfast awakened an awesomely alliterative answer.

Allow me to present…

P.B. Pudding Pumpkin Oats

1/2 cup oats cooked in 1 cup water. 1/2 cup pumpkin stirred in at the end. Topped with 1/2 cup vanilla pudding and a PB spoon.

Peanuty, pumpkiny, puddin’ perfection.

Please produce promptly.

Ok, I’ll stop with the alliterative annoyance (after that) because I’m having trouble enunciating my enthusiasm over this breakfast without a simple “THIS. WAS. SOOOOOOOOOO. GOOD!”

When things got messy, all of the flavors and textures melded. And I’m pretty sure I oohed-and-aaaahed from start to finish.

Oh, and it was ridiculously filling.

So filling, in fact, that between the breakfast and lunch horas, no snacks were had. This is a rare occurrence en mi vida.

Eventually hunger reared its ugly always-welcome head, and I threw together an amazing almuerzo.

Los innards:

On a whole wheat wrap: Greek olive hummus, jarlsberg slices, honey turkey slices and marinated kalamata olives

Onto el griddle for a hot minuto.

Y voila!

I got my fruits and veggies in with a salsa bell and an army of apricots.

Cena may look familiar.

After spoiling my unstoppable appetite with a double dinner on martes, el estómago was not about to settle for a single cena last night. So I gave it an encore.

Except this time, I opted to make la ensalada my Asian component. (Apparently I think that my dinner’s have to be half-Asian. Perhaps paying homage to my ethnic makeup?)

Ensalada Asiática

In the mix: baby spinach, steamed carrots, asparagus, cucumbers, celery, marinated shrooms, red bell pepper, grilled onion and a clementine.

And this beautiful Caucasian face was responsible for taking this ensalada to ridiculously delicious Asian heights.

Looove this dressing. And Sir Newman, of course.

Cebolla y clementine center.

Con the clementine peel. Not for decorative purposes. Simply because I got the peel off in one piece, and I was proud.

Grilled onions + clementines + amazing Asian dressing = boca-gasm.

Onto cena segunda: Savory Double Cheesy Oats

1/2 cup oats cooked in 1 cup water for 2 minutes. Dos Laughing Cow wedges added and microwaved for 1 more minute. Topped with the great urine funkifier.

The key to ridiculously creamy, cheesy oats is the two Laughing Cow wedges. One will give you the flavor, but dos gets you the texture. (Which, if you need further convincing, is on par with cheesy risotto…)

My popcorn-tooth returned after Tuesday night’s hiatus. Phew.

But I managed to take care of newfound puddin’-tooth, too.

Happy almost weekend, mis foodies! La hermana is coming home tonight, so I won’t be back ‘til lunes. You know, brownie duty calls…

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

One week completely removed from el mundo de los blogs has felt like an eternity. I know that sounds a bit dramatic—but I feel SO out of the loop. Needless to say, estoy muy feliz to be back. I kid you not; opening Windows Live Writer—despite our precarious past—just gave me the butterflies.

(Edit: Those quickly dissipated when WLW decided to pull the ‘error’ card for the past nueve horas.)

So, here’s where we catch up, right?

Incorrecto. Despite spending seis días doused in deliciousness, I documented close to nada. No, really. I returned to NYC with six pictures—of two meals—on mi cámara. When I get into vacation mode, I have a tendency to abandon el Blackberry y la Canon. The only reason why I have my fotos of those dos meals is because my friend suggested that they were extraordinarily blogworthy. They are—so I figure I’ll give you a quick recap of Monday’s munchies, and then share those two gems.

Monday mañana kicked off with an early flight from Orlando to NYC.

YO ODIO airport food, so I made sure that I was well stocked on the breakfast/I’m-bored-in-the-airport-so-I-guess-I’ll-just-eat front.

I packed a nut mix, a Mountain Mix Mojo bar and an undocumented (because, you know, that’s my new thing?) bag of Publix pretzel rods. (I firmly believe that Publix’s generic pretzel rods taste better than any other brand I’ve ever tried. Much to my dismay, no hay Publix anywhere near NYC.)

But my star breakfast component was this amazing trail mix.

Cinnamon toast crunch, dried cherries, dark chocolate espresso beans and Flipsides.

FLIPSIDES. Half pretzel. Half cracker. FULL ADDICTION.

I enjoyed that Ziploc o’ goodness alongside a monster Starbucks iced coffee. I always go for the venti with iced coffee because I’d kill a tall in .5 seconds—but this iced coffee monster was a venti on ‘roids. The airport Starbucks ran out of venti cups, so—until they got more in—they borrowed 36 oz. slushie cups from the neighboring smoothie stand. I had no problemo with this.

Terminado in approximately cinco minutos. Two random chicos came up to me and told me they bet $20 on whether or not I’d finish the giant coffee before my flight; winning chico was grateful for and impressed by my tank-like talent for chugging.

I flew Delta—which is a big deal because I’d say I fly JetBlue (EL MEJOR!) 99.9% of the time. I booked my flight with Delta for this trip because it was so last minute, and JetBlue was uncharacteristically pricey.

JetBlue SO MUCH > Delta.

HOWEVER, Delta has a leg-up on one cosa…

BISCOFF.

I’m obsessed. I ate one straight-up, and the other dunked in coffee (for soggifying pleasure).

I returned home to the blissful lingering scent of, uh, polyurethane. I guess we’re at the floor-finishing point of kitchen/dining room renovation. Bueno because this means kitchen-access is nearing. Malo because this means several days of a very chemical-scented casa.

I was starving, which was slightly problematic since I couldn’t breathe downstairs long enough to even throw together a sandwich. I quickly scoped out the fridge situation to see if there was anything ready-made that I could eat.

Leftover sesame chicken to the rescue.

There’s really no way to make that look pretty; but it was delicious.

When the “if I breathe this in for more than 30 seconds, I’m going to die” smell grew fainter, I microwaved a bowl of Banana Nut Bear Naked granola in almond milk and then topped it with dried raisins, cranberries and cherries, banana slices and cinnamon.

Bueno pero it occurred to me that a nut buttah spoon would take bueno to buenismo—always a good thing.

I opened the jar of cashew butter that la hermana so graciously bestowed upon me last weekend.

I’ve been fantasizing about my first spoonful of cashew butter since I found out such a wonder existed, as el cashew is my numero uno nut.

I believe any taste test should commence with a straight-up sampling (in this case, spoonful) to ensure an uninfluenced-by-other-flavors verdict.

I was underwhelmed. It was good, but not great. I’d enthusiastically opt for almond or peanut butter over cashew any day—which is loco because I’d attack a bag of cashews over almonds or peanuts, no deliberation necessary.

I’ll definitely try a different brand because I want to love cashew butter. What are your thoughts if you’ve tried it? Any brand recommendations?

Nevertheless, it delivered in the way of making my already delicious granola bowl even more so.

Gracias a mi amiga, Little J, for giving me the idea to warm granola in milk. SO splendidly soggy; I’m not sure I’m interested in dry/cold granola any longer.

Dinner was delayed by some muy importante kitchen appliance shopping. I am so excited for la cocina nueva! It should be finished just before Thanksgiving, and NO PUEDO ESPERAR.

Kitchen shopping made me hambre; or maybe it was just the fact that it was dinner time. Either or, I wanted cena, and I wanted it quickly.

UNA ENSALADA MONSTRUO from an amazing salad bar.

I really can’t recount everything that was in there, but I know it involved wheatberry raisin salad, couscous, garbanzos, black beans, banana peppers, olives, hummus, wasabi peas, egg, corn, sun-dried tomatoes, Asian crunchies and lots of uninteresting raw veggies beneath it all.

This was amazing, and such a salad monstruo that I almost couldn’t finish it.

Almost doesn’t count.

I may have made room for some cinnamon raisin bread—and a second baby plate of pasta ensalada.

And maybe some dessert.

I can’t be blamed for this one; I opened my fridge to find a mysterious bakery box of tarta de queso.

Naturally, I went for it.

What’s that hiding behind the cheesecake?

Oh, just a monster pile of chocolate whipped cream.

Since cheesecake clearly isn’t indulgent enough on its own.

Now, I suppose I’ll share those two coveted Floridian meals.

But not before I mentally scold myself once more for neglecting to document some of the amazing things I ate. It’s possible that I attended a Food & Wine festival—and essentially did a dessert crawl involving gingerbread strawberry ice cream sandwiches, peanut butter fudge honey cinnamon ice cream, red velvet cupcakes and delicacies of the like. A.K.A. un grande LO SIENTO for flaking on what would’ve been some X-rated food porn.

I hope these dos comidas gain me some bonus points.

Stuffed Butternut Squash and Stuffed Pollo

Stuffed with what, you may wonder?

Well…

Cheesy Veggie Oat Bran & Hummus Stuffed Bnut

Butternut squash halved, scooped and baked at 350 for 1 hour.

While that was in the oven, I cooked 1/2 cup oat bran in 1 cup water. As it was almost at its desired consistency, I added 2 Laughing Cow wedges, garlic, spinach, sauteed onion and olives.

Once the squash was almost done, I split the oat bran mixture (which was really hard not to polish off while waiting for the baked bnut) into the two scooped out areas and added a big dollop of hummus on top. I broiled the halves for an additional 5-8 minutes.

OOOOOOOOOHMYGAH.

El pollo was stuffed with LC, garlic, sauteed onions, artichokes and sun-dried tomatoes.

Otro más OOOOHMYGAH.

Stuffed Bnut + Stuffed Pollo = STUFFED Sarah.

Next up…

Pretzel Sandwich

My friend was inspired by a pretzel sandwich that Bennigan’s used to offer—and suggested we recreate it after taking note of my newfound obsession with Publix pretzel rods.

If you could only grasp my amor of pretzels, you’d understand how I fell in love with this masterpiece.

This is quite possibly the only eating premise under which I equally enjoyed the outards and innards. I never want to eat a sandwich on regular bread again.

Since I know you want to see the innards…

One soft baked pretzel was baked with salt, pepper, seasoned salt and garlic. The other was baked with a layer of cream cheese and the same seasonings. After four minutes, layers of honey maple turkey, sun-dried tomatoes and jalapeno havarti cheese were added to each side and baked for another two minutes. Final addition was stone dijon mustard.

I really don’t have any words.

Just a final plea: If you love pretzels and sandwiches, por favor make this!

Again, lo siento for the lack of a recap. And otro lo siento for this abnormally late post; delay brought to you by the hot ‘n cold WLW.

I’m off to make a dent in my Publix pretzel stash.

Hasta mañana,

Sarah

(I also hope I’m not the only “adult” who automatically associates “7 Things” with Miley.)

Something I do hate? Windows Live Writer.

Once again, that female pup of a publishing program decided that she hated both me and my eats yesterday. So, I apologize for the hump day hiatus.

I also apologize if this post seems rushed, but I am ridiculously busy for once in my unemployed life. This is a good thing, and I should have a few life updates to share within the next few weeks.

(Food bloggers are all about the teasers lately, aren’t they?)

So, yesterday, in between writing and re-writing posts, cursing Windows Live Writer and, you know, living life, I managed to do a bit of eating. Shocking, I know.

Despite the fact that it was, perhaps, the windiest day ever in NYC, I started my day with iced coffee. Plus a plum to eat while pondering breakfast possibilities.

Because I had some brown rice left over from my veggie burgers, I decided to make brown rice breakfast pudding. I’ve read several articles mentioning that this is one of celeb chef Bethenny Frankel’s go-to breakfasts—and I’ve been meaning to try it.

I’ve never been big on rice pudding, but something about this breakfast sounded really good to me. And it was.

Bethenny simply cooks 1/2 cup brown rice with 1/4 cup milk (I used vanilla almond milk), maple syrup, cinnamon, raisins and almonds for 5 minutes. I doubled the recipe because I somehow suspected that 1/2 cup of rice wasn’t going to be enough for breakfast.

 NEW FAVORITE BREAKFAST. Cinnamon vanilla almond-y brown rice, plumped-up raisins, extra almond crunch and a hint of maple syrup. What’s not to adore? This was incredibly easy to make—and a serious contender for one of my best DPAABs.

The only thing is, it didn’t keep me full for long. Even though I doubled Bethenny’s recipe, I was hungry 2 hours later.

At which point I opted for mas cinnamon and raisins.

I had one of Kim’s Light cinnamon bagels—half with cream cheese and half with Smart Balance. Because I think it’s mildly blasphemous to enjoy a cinnamon bagel sans raisins, I threw some on top.

Me gusta. Kim’s wheat bagel is still the front runner—but this one gets props for packing A LOT of cinnamon flavor. This always warrants bonus point in my book.

Lunch was an egg-white omelet with spinach, roasted red peppers and cream cheese. Doused in sriracha, of course.

To my fellow cream cheese lovers, if you have not yet introduced our dearly beloved spread to your omelets—PLEASE DO. It’s pretty life changing.

On le side I had a corn Vitatop.

The very generous Vitalicious people sent me too-many-to-count Vitatops, and this was my very first. I LOVE corn muffins, and this was certainly no substitute for one. However, for a 100-calorie muffin top, it definitely nailed the “corn muffin” flavor. Maybe it’s just because I’ve never had a Vitatop before, but I wasn’t thrilled with the texture. It was sort of dry and a bit grainy. If you’ve tried Vitatops, have you found this? I’ll write up a full review once I put more of a dent in the 293293828472842384 muffin tops currently residing in my freezer.

Dinner, Part I: a very disproportionate plate of green cheetahs and carrot fries.

Eight carrot fries, to be exact.

I may or may not have gotten lost in a riveting phone conversion and baked the carrots for an hour. This resulted in approximately 54 casualties. Que triste.

Dinner Part II: this.

Not really. That’s just a beautiful basil leaf, straight from el garden de Kev Thug.

Dinner Part II was actually…

pizza!

Who am I? I’m really not a liar; I legitimately do not like NYC pizza. But these pita pizzas? Whole ‘nother story.

This one was actually a whole wheat wrap (which I liked better than the pita!) with 1/2 cup vodka sauce, 1/3 cup shredded mozzarella and fresh basil.

Buenisimo.

Non-popcorn dessert was vanillia fro-yo & almond butter.

Sorry for the meltiness, but I forgot to take a pic til I was halfway through ze bowl. Slash I don’t have the self-control to stare at fro-yo + AB through a lens before digging in…

Ok, onto el premio.

Gracias to the lovely Whitney for passing this along to me.

7 things you didn’t know about me?

1. I suffer from chronic insomnia. This is self-diagnosed, but I’m fairly certain that WebMD wrote their insomnia description with yours truly in mind.
2. Despite the fact that I’m 22 years old, I have seen (and loved) all three High School Musical movies. I know all the songs. And some of the dances.
3. Equally embarrassing, I have recently developed an irrepressible, incredibly inappropriate crush on Justin Bieber.
4. Despite those last two facts, I assure you I’m not a child predator.
5. The first CD I ever owned was Alanis Morrisette’s Jagged Little Pill. I think it’s hysterical that, at age 10, I used to belt out Alansis’ most eloquent lyrics (i.e. “would she go down on you in a theatre?”) without any idea of their meaning.
6. I got kicked out of camp when I was 13 for sneaking to a boy’s bunk. Woops. The following summer, the camp tried to send me home three times, but Kev Thug refused to pick me up. Reason #1283232 he’s a thug.
7. I was ranked 7th in my high school class. On the “Top 10” page of the yearbook, where my fellow overachievers chose Emerson and Thoreau quotes to appear under their mugshots, I went with the always insightful “Why was 6 afraid of 7? Because 7, 8, 9.”

And, I’m pulling a Jenny and passing this award onto everyone because I’m seriously obsessed [not in a Swimfan way] with all of you.

T.G.I.T.,

Sarah

First, I present to you a little more Pleasantville photography, since it got such good feedback last time

If you can’t tell, I love the color red. So much so that, when I was 13, I begged my dad to let me paint my room red. My dad—wisely considering that (1) I was a pubescently moody and sassy teenager and (2) red is known to invoke anger—denied me this decorative freedom. So now, a decade later and still red room-deprived, I channel my crimson attraction toward my food photography. If the Pleasantville pics creep you out, father dearest is to blame.

Now that I’ve professed my love for a color, let’s move along.

Yesterday morning I woke up with no idea what I wanted for breakfast. I hate uninspired mornings because I hate settling on something I don’t really want to eat. That said, I slowly (and not prematurely) sipped a big cup of coffee and enjoyed a soon-to-be-out-of-season dinosaur plum while I waited for breakfast brilliance to strike.

Well, brilliance never showed—but presents did!

Muchos gracias to Kim Bensen, the creator and owner of Kim’s Light Bagels, for sending me such a generous sample package of her 110-calorie bagels to review! After losing over 200 pounds, Kim, a self-proclaimed bagel lover, couldn’t find a healthy, good-tasting bagel that fit into her maintenance plan. So, she created her own. I’ve been e-mailing with Kim to set up an interview so I can give you all some insight into the woman behind bagel

Once I try all of the six flavors, I’ll write up a full review. But, for now, I’ll let you know what I think on a flavor-to-flavor basis.

I decided to use one of Kim’s wheat bagels for the basis of my still unbeknownst breakfast.

But before I divulge how I dressed it up and what I thought of the bagel, let me address the title of this post.

Yesterday was a day of foodie hypocrisy—from start to finish.

As a New Yorker, I always feel sacrilegious when I tell people that I don’t really like bagels and pizza. Who doesn’t like bagels and pizza? Especially NEW YORK CITY bagels and pizza. I think it’s because I’m such a fan of the innards of my eats (innards sounds so gross) that I don’t like super bready-based foods that take away from the stars of the show. For example, on a bagel, I like to taste the cream cheese more than the bagel. The same goes for the cheese on my pizza. And don’t get me started on sandwiches. I do not like sandwiches on focaccia or any bulky breads because they mess up my innards:outtards(?)ratio of preference. God, I sound like a bread diva, but my stomach just has a keen perception of its likes and dislikes

That said, I ate bagels and pizza yesterday. And, understatedly, liked them both. First, the bagel.

I topped half of a toasted Kim’s whole wheat bagel with peanut butter and the other half with raspberry preserves. Atop both halves went an overripe banana, mashed to perfection.

Overripe naner=amazing spread.

Uncharacteristic of my PB-lovin’ self, I liked the mashed banana & preserves half better!

As for Kim’s Light Bagels, I think I may have met my bagel match. Because the bagel was light—and by nature a bit flatter and smaller than your average NY monstrosity—its doughiness wasn’t overwhelming and gave my toppings their due spotlight. I really liked the texture of the wheat bagel, and I think it’d be a great sandwich base. I can’t wait to try out the other flavors and figure out if yesterday’s bagel loving was a one time fling or the start of something special… (Why is it so easy to romanticize food? Maybe that’s just me…)

Lunch was Tuesday night’s Mediterranean potato salad—which was exponentially more flavorful after marinating overnight. It took everything in me (read: the fact that my contractor was over) not to lick the bowl.

Alongside I had half a whole wheat pita stuffed with hummus and roasted corn. I LOVE this combo.

‘Twas a perfect way to make a dent in my Sabra stash. (P.S. I got a bajillion comments and emails inquiring into exactly how I acquired so much Sabra. Well, the hummus hoarding was not my doing. As is the case with my attraction to red-hued photography, my father is to blame—or in this case, thank.)

When I got a little snacky, I busted out some rice cakes to satisfy my voracious popcorn craving.

Have you ever tried Mother’s rice cakes? I found these at WF a few months back, and it was love at first bite. I’m not usually a buttah-girl, but these are GOOD.

Onto foodie hypocrisy #2 of el dia. Pizza. I’ve seen these pita pizzas popping up on some of your blogs—and, in the spirit of trying to cleanse myself of my usual pizza and bagel-hating blasphemy—I decided to try ‘em out.

Hello, my name is Sarah, and I LOVE pizza. Well, pita pizzas, anyway.

Seriously, check out those toppings.

Veggie Packed Pita Pizza:

• Lightly brush one side of a whole wheat pita with EVOO and season with salt. Bake for 6 minutes at 375 degrees. Brush & season the other side, and bake for another 6 minutes.
• Remove from oven. Top with 3 tbsp. hummus.
• Top with veggies of your choice. (I topped with broccoli, grilled mushrooms, roasted cherry tomatoes, and sautéed onions & red bell peppers.
• Top with 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese.
• Return to oven and broil for an additional 3-5 minutes, depending on how crispy you want your pita “crust.”

I seasoned mine with my favorite salt-blend, Jane’s Krazy Mixed-Up Salt.

I like Jane because she can spell Krazy with a K, and she can like it. (I know at least some of you listened to Something Corporate’s ‘Konstantine’ in high school…)

Baked hummus, grilled veggies, and melty mozz, oh my!

I cut it into quarters to ease devouring consumption.

I was really, really full after dinner, but somehow mustered up the appetite for a baby bowl of chocolate raspberry cheesecake fro-yo and a not-so-baby dollop of whipped cream.

This was my attempt to ward off my popcorn addiction. But, I’m realizing, craving popcorn for dessert is probably the least of all junk food evils. Perhaps I shouldn’t be forcing a sweet tooth upon myself when I’m really a staunch salty girl? Not saying this wasn’t delish…

Happy Thursday, amigos. Almost everyone’s favorite day!

-Sarah

I kicked off Tuesday morning—a.k.a. the first day of fall!—with my favorite autumn drank—chai tea, with a little creamer & honey.

I developed an innocent addiction to Starbucks’ vanilla chai lattes during college, so I do my best to re-create it sans the creepy powder they use. Not saying I don’t enjoy Starbucks’ version in all its artificial glory, on occasion

I intended for the chai to be my coffee replacement, but I ended up succumbing to my caffeine cravings and having a cup. I’m still bitter about the whole burnt tongue thing, so I’m not giving coffee art any spotlight until I’ve gotten over its seductive trickery.

For breakfast, I was on a mission to get creative with my oat bran for Ms. PB’s Best Of Oats week. And, I must say, my visionary breakfast brilliance came out in full force. If you are hungry, on a diet or currently dissatisfied with your lunch, I suggest you stop reading now. If not, I present to you…

Boston Creme Oat Bran

I can’t remember the last time I had a doughnut. Oh, wait… But, in all seriousness, I rarely eat doughnuts. Partially because I don’t want to die of a heart-attack at my ripe young age, and partially because they simply aren’t my favorite dessert. I do, however, have a resilient love for Boston creme doughnuts. I can pass up the fried dough, but I’m a sucker for creme fillings. (Do I even have to say it? Okay, TWSS.)

So there lies my inspiration for this decadent DPAAB (dessert parading around as breakfast, if you missed inception of that acronym). She’s beautiful, isn’t she?

I brewed my oat bran on the stove with: 1/3 cup oat bran, 1 cup water, salt, 1/2 banana sliced thinly, vanilla extract and truvia. Then, I topped it with several dollops of cheesecake pudding and drizzled a packet of Dark Chocolate Dreams.

The cheesecake pudding was pre-made and organic (thereby healthier, right? ), and I had a sample packet of PB&Co’s Dark Chocolate Dreams. I’d never tried either product prior to this breakfast, but their presence in this particular creation was clutch, for lack of a better word.

I’m quite sure cereal for breakfast is never going to cut it after experiencing this.

I fall-ified Monday’s dinner by making a roasted veggie salad for lunch.

In the mix: spring greens, sun-dried tomatoes, oil-cured olives, grilled shrooms, roasted cherry tomatoes, grilled onions, celery, corn and grilled chicken. Dressed, as usual, in balsamic + honey and celery salt.

My ode to summer salad was good, but I really prefer cooked veggies in salads. Halfway through, I remembered that I have an ungodly amount of hummus to get through.

Those added dollops were the perfect complement to the roasted veggies & balsamic dressing. I always forget how amazing the hummus + salad combo is.

Since there was SO much hummus to be had, I busted out my favorite pretzels, Snyder’s Organic Oat Bran.

I was never a “pretzel person” ‘til I tried these. I usually eat them straight up, but my go-to dips, as of late, are cream cheese and hummus. Neither ever disappoints.

For dinner, I made a mediterranean salad that Tina featured last week. I halved the original recipe since it serves 10—but I used the full amount of artichokes and onions since I had a lot on hand.  I also used red potatoes instead of gold yukons. 

Last night’s perfect bite: sauteed pepper, onion, roasted red potato, artichoke and kalamata olive. I can’t pretend I didn’t strategically get all those goods onto the fork, but ‘twas a magical bite, indeed.

As usual, I made a notable effort to eat fruit for dessert.

I do love dinosaur plums. But, one of the perks drawbacks of decadent breakfasts: their taste lingers. A.k.a., I had puddin’ on the brain.

Since it was cheesecake pudding, I had to top it with grahams for an as-close-to-the-real-thing experience.

I may have just discovered my second favorite dessert to cheesecake. As in, I sort of want to crumble an entire box of graham crackers into that pudding container and have my way with it. I won’t, scout’s honor.

Before I go, I wanted to let you all know how my one-week foray into yoga went. If my limerick and expressed enthusiasm didn’t give it away, I LOVED YOGA!

I only ended up going five out of the planned seven days because of unfortunate fullness and quite fortunate Rosh Hashanah celebrations. But I actually think that was a good thing because the soreness was getting pretty intense. During my last class on Sunday, I got the Brooklyn Yogi again—who was equally as hilarious and obnoxiously Brooklyn-y. But the class was the most intense and rewarding of all the ones I went to it.

Having not done yoga for two days now, I’m craving it. I think one of the reasons I like yoga so much is because it’s so different from any other form of exercise I’ve ever tried out. I think that I, like most people, view exercise from a results-based perspective. We exercise to improve or maintain our health, appearance, fitness level, etc. The results-oriented aspect of yoga was so different than running or any other cardio exercise I’ve tried. I was drawn to yoga for the way it made me feel as I was going through the motions, not for the results that were to come. I’ve never felt so present or engaged during exercise before, and I loved that. What are the benefits you reap from your exercise method of choice?

From a physical standpoint, even after one week, I feel stronger and more stretched-out than I’ve ever felt before. As a prior yoga-skeptic, I’m thoroughly impressed.

I haven’t yet figured out where I’ll go with yoga from here. A monthly pass to the studio is really expensive—more than double what it costs for a membership at a premium NYC gym. So I’ve been toying with the idea of getting a membership to a gym that has yoga classes. I’m not sure if I’d enjoy standard yoga as much as Bikram because I really liked the heat component. Any thoughts on getting a gym membership versus sticking strictly to yoga?

Happy hump day

-Sarah

But before I tell you who Gigi is and what exactly she wants, let me tell you how my cupcake run went.

I really wanted to bake some homemade cupcakes for the birthday girl, but I was busy with errands all day and just didn’t have the time. (How am I going to budget my time when I actually have a job!?) Lucky for me—and Gigi, I guess—Plan B wasn’t too shabby.

My favorite cupcake joint—Little Cupcake—is a five-minute walk from my house and dishes out better cupcakes than I could ever create. On the walk over, since my iPod was dead and I needed to find some way to occupy myself, I snacked on a Gala.

Twas a perfect time-killer because just as I finished, I arrived here:

Where I purchased two of their best-selling, better-than-any-other-cupcake-I’ve-ever-tried Red Velvets.

I may or may not have enjoyed one on the walk home… No self control, I tell you.

Anyhow, back to the title of this post.

This is Gigi, the five-year-old birthday girl I told you about before. She’s my dad’s girlfriend’s daughter, and she’s just like a little sister to me. I’ve known her since the day she came to America (she’s adopted from Guatemala) when she was just 10 months old. She is probably one of the most adorable, animated kids ever, and, no, your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you. She bears a strong resemblance to Dora the Explorer.

So, Gigi had the honor of picking out the venue for her small family birthday dinner. Mind you we live in NYC—and it’s restaurant week—but a girl wants what a girl wants… And this birthday girl wanted…

Applebees! Womp, womp… and I had such high hopes for her future as a foodie! My beef with Applebees: I ate it way too much in high school (I’m talking several times a week), and now the place just makes me nauseous—especially the salads! Their greens really freak me out. I know, I’m weird.

Salads being off the table and all—it came down to either a chicken portobello sandwich or a cajun lime tilapia. The waitress said the sandwich was miniscule—at a chain restaurant!?—so I went for the fish.

I cannot tell a lie. I cleaned my plate, and I loved every bite. It was really blackened and spicy, and the corn and bean on top were pretty clutch. Perhaps there is some hope for Gigi’s foodie future…

Dessert was a super chocolate-y cake—that looked a whole lot like that cake from Matilda, right?

…which I passed on because—please don’t throw rocks—I’m not a chocolate girl. It really doesn’t do anything for me and my buds (as in taste, not amigos)—but please don’t hold this statement against me if you see me eating chocolate. It does happen on occasion—either out of boredom, lack of other options or inexplicably random cravings.

Although right about now, I’m feeling dessert-deprived, and there’s a good chance I’ll be making my way into the kitchen for a little late night snack. Decisions, decisions…

What are your go-to late night snacks? Come on, make my mouth water…

Buenos noches,

Sarah