So on Wednesday, I was welcomed home from gorgeous California by the dry dessert known as Colorado.  Colorado is actually in the dessert area of the U.S. and after returning from lush California, I definitely know why!

So over the next month, I will be doing very little (if any) blogging/posting/commenting.  I definitely did not want to type that, but I have the ACT in about a month, and I really need to focus and do well on it.  I will try not do disappear completely, but if I do (which is likely), I'm very, very sorry.  I will be back, I just don't know when.

But for now, let's rewind and look at some foodie pictures.  Using my awesome little time machine, let's start by visiting last Saturday, before the California adventures had even began.  I behold:

Made with:

And with a side of:

The shake is Katie's Cake Batter Milkshake with about two teaspoons of cocoa powder because as I've said before, I just can't follow any recipe to a T.  Seeing as it is one of Katie's recipes, it is a given that it was incredibly delicious.  It didn't really taste like cake batter, but it didn't need to!!  It was delicious in it's own fabulous way, and it is definitely something I will make again! :D

Now, accompany me as I past forward to last Tuesday. Aka my last day in California. :(
The day was started wiiiiiiith.... oatmeal!!!  I was able to find oatmeal all most every morning I was gone!! :) :)

Lunch was celebrated at this restaurant:

With this amazing salad that contained spinach, quinoa, corn, beets, fennel, roasted brussel sprouts (!!), red onion, and a fabulous balsamic dressing!

It was huge, but I somehow managed to eat all of it ;)
After lunch I went my first ever (enter drumroll here).....

Awwww.... I was SO, SO excited!!!!!  My haul:

PUFFINS AT LAST!!!! :D :D (I was SUPER excited, can you tell? ;)  I also found the chocolate area!!  Dark chocolate lover's 85%, 70% dark chocolate (I wouldn't normally get chocolate with such a low content of cocoa - low for me anyway - but as soon as I saw the words "Smooth Belgian," I melted like a chocolate bar ;), and a chocolate brownie Pure Bar.  Now that's what I'm talking about!! 
Now lets past forward to present day in order to examine a few of these products.  Firstly, Puffins!! (I can't get over how fun that is to say!)

Who says cereal has to be for breakfast?  I have a feeling that my box of puffins will not last long.  Does anybody have any they are willing to give up once I polish of mine? ;)  
And now for some chocolate (down to the important things in life)

This is stuff is delicious both on top of oatmeal...

And melted into oatmeal...

I'm sure it's also delicious on its own, but I had to experiment with oatmeal first.
And you see this little bottle?

Those little guys floating around in there are incredibly addicting.  Both my mom and I can attest to it ;)

Well, that's all I have for you lovely people for now and possibly for the next month.  Oh well... I guess you gotta do what you gotta do.  Farewell!!! <3

Helloooooo, lovely people!!  So yesterday was like the best day ever because I had my first blogger meet up with the beautiful Nicole of Of Cookies and Carrots!  As soon as I found out that I was going to be in the same area that she is going to school in, I knew that we just had to meet each other!! (And she was thinking the same thing) And so we coordinated a time...
I knew I would love Nicole, and (to put it plain and simply) I sure did! :)  She was like the sweetest person EVER!  And I loved her chattiness :D

(Isn't she adorable?!)
First, she gave my dad and I a fantastic tour of her gorgeous college campus.  It very much made me want to go to college somewhere in California!

And then, it was time for dinner, and so we went to a little Thai restaurant just a few blocks away from the campus.  I tried the green papaya salad (I have a slight obsession with green papaya salads after having an amazing version in Hawaii) :

Awww... so light, tasty, and refreshing!  Nicole had this really yummy (she was kind enough to let me try some :) Tom Yum vegetarian soup:

It was in a bowl that had a flame shooting out the middle!!  Isn't that so cool and unique?  I had never seen such a thing before!!

Right before we said good-bye, Nicole surprised me with some home baked cookies (I told you she was the sweetest! :D)

To be perfectly honest, I think these may have been the BEST cookies I've ever had!!  The flavor is chocolate-peanut butter, and the texture is soft and just plain wonderful!!  I may or may not have eaten waaaay more than one - but better to eat them while they're fresh, right? ;)  Nicole really is a cookie genius!!! :D

It was sooooo much fun to meet her!!  And I sure hope it won't be the last time we meet! :) 

The daily question: (If you read Nicole's blog, which you really should if you don't, you've probably already answered this question, but it's just the perfect question! :) Have you ever had a blogger meet up?

Hola my wonderful blogging buddies!!!!  I'm here in California at last and loving it!!  It's soooo beautiful!  Ahhh.... so this is what love is?? ;)


Food first since, well, food is pretty important ;)  The day was started with.... airport food!!  And guess what??  I found ooooooatmeal!!  Yippee!  I was so excited! :D

It came topped with fresh strawberries, fresh banana slices, and some brown sugar, and I topped it with roasted peanuts and dark chocolate chips that I brought from home.  Pretty good for an airport meal, don't you think?  And of course, the morning was not complete without some green tea: (yes, it made me happy)

After we landed, found our hotel, and settled in to our room, we headed out to see the town of Cupertino!  While out, we visited the Big Apple.  Wait!  Did I get on the wrong plane?  I thought I was going to California, not New York!!  Ohhhh..... Wrong Big Apple! ;)  I visited this apple:

Even better - after all, I wouldn't be blogging without that apple!!! (Yup, I'm a Mac girl)


One of the things that I think (rephrase: know) I am loving about California is all the flowers and other plants!  Yes, I looooove plants (and not just to eat ;)  Shhhh.... don't tell anyone I have a very black thumb.  Like REALLY black!!  Do you know anyone who has shriveled at least six cactuses to death?  You do now!  (And please believe that it wasn't on purpose.  It just happened :(

And then there's some other things that aren't pretty but just plain scary...

Don't they want people to come to their store????  I don't know about you but those tooth-bearing creatures make me want to run and hide!!


After looking at a few different restaurants, we settled on a Mediterranean restaurant.  Look at the water!!  I guess lemons weren't good enough ;)

And I loved the bread they served!  Definitely nothing like I've ever had before, but still delicious and extremely moist!

For my main meal, I ordered the "sampler."  It came with tzatziki, hummus, and a red pepper dip.  And pita bread for dippin'.

Oh, how I love Greek food!!!
After dinner, we were in need of something on the sweet side.  So we settled on something I don't think I've ever had before - frozen yogurt!! (ooops... I think my eyes are closed)

Of course, as soon as I saw the chocolate flavor, I just couldn't resist.  And then I just had to top it with fresh raspberries since chocolate and raspberries are like best friends forever.

So I know you guys are probably sick of pictures by now, but I had to save my favorite picture for last.  It just proves there's nothing you can't see in California.  Who knows?  Maybe there's a favorite movie star somewhere under all that fur ;)

Have I mentioned yet that I love California? :D


Ok fabulous people, I will talk to you all later!!!  I hope this week will find each and everyone one of you doing amazingly well!


P.S.  Please keep Japan in your prayers.  I was watching the news while I was writing this post, and the damage done in Japan is truly heartbreaking!

I am freeeeeee!!!  I don't even have to think about school for over a week!!  Mid-terms are officially OVER!  Woooohoooo!!  (Can you tell I'm excited ;)

And, even more exciting, I will be in California in less than 48 hours!  I'm hoping to be able to post Sunday morning before I leave, and I might even take my computer and blog from California, but if not, this will be last post until next Thursday (I can't think of it - too depressing!)  Instead of contemplating that, I will move on into my top eats of the week (although honestly, I love mostly everything I eat!)  

I didn't have a lot of time to cook due to finals, but I did manage a few different eats.  Take this yummy pizza for example:

For my brother's birthday (which, by the way, I wanted to thank all you amazing people for wishing my bwudda a happy birthday - I got a genuine smile from him when I told him about your comments :D ) we made pizza!!  We bought fresh pizza dough from Whole Foods (I used the whole grain variety) and topped mine with pesto, fresh basil, tomatoes, olives, onions, and LOTS of broccoli (and cheese, of course)  Homemade pizza is way too good!!

Another yummy eat?  How about my banana scramlette?

I love this even more every time I eat it!!!  And it's the perfect post-workout snack! :)

And I just found my second favorite sandwich (pesto still comes in first)

I topped a piece of Rudi's 14 grain bread with baked sweet potato, coconut butter, carob chips, and another piece of bread.  Wooooow you guys!!!  That was out of this world amazing!!

We also made spring roles this past week!!  I <3 spring roles!  But my favorite part?  My Creamy Peanut Sauce!


Creamy Peanut Sauce
(Adapted from Vegan With a Vengeance)

Ingredients:
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon Asian chile oil
Peanut butter (i just add spoonfuls until it gets kind of thick and creamy)

Directions:
Whisk all ingredients together in a small mixing bowl.

Spring rolls are way too much fun! :D

Then last night, I threw together something really quick, and it turned out to be one of my favorite dishes that I'm sure I will make again and again (and again... ;)


Quick, Cold Pasta

Ingredients:
1 serving cooked pasta
A handful of cherry tomatoes, sliced
A handful of fresh basil, torn
1 ounce of goat cheese, crumbled
Olive oil, to taste (I recommend a generous amount)
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste)

Directions:
Place all ingredients together in a bowl...

.... and give a good mixin'!

Truly amazing!!!  Especially when accompanied with lot's of steamed brussel sprouts! :)

Now lets take a look at some recent breakfasts....  
Here we haves some cold cereal!!!!  SO exciting, I know ;)
But actually, it is kind of exciting for me since I only eat it like once a month.  I find if it kind of funny that most of my friends would give anything to not eat cold cereal in the  morning, and I find it exciting :)

1/2 cup kashi go lean granola + 1/2 cup Ezekiel golden flax + a handful of roasted peanuts = an amazing mess of goodness swimming in a pool of almond milk.  Have you ever had peanuts in your cold cereal?  If not, then do!!!  Really, it's AMAZING!!

Oats in a jar.... amazing as always!

And I also did a spin on oatmeal using Katie's blended grain technique!!

Sweet Potato-Peanut Pudding Oats

Ingredients:
1/2 cup rolled oats
Liquid for cooking the oats (I used about 1 cup of water)
1/2 cup cooked sweet potato
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
A spoonful of peanut butter (probably about 2 tablespoons?)
2 tablespoon to 1/4 cup almond milk (depending on how thick you want it)


Directions:
Cook the oats according to package directions.  Next, dump the oats and the remaining ingredients into a blender and blend away!  

There's nothing like pudding for breakfast!!  Thanks, Katie, as always for your amazing recipe ideas!!!  And I'm definitely making your cake batter milk shake tomorrow!!! :)  SO excited - I know it will be absolutely fabulous!  Your recipes ALWAYS are!! :D

And finally, I took my breakfast to shcool this morning!!  I went early to start my chemistry final, and I knew I couldn't do it on an empty stomach.  So I made my breakfast the night before, stuck it in the fridge, and away it went with me the next morning!

I'm probably the only one at my school who gets excited about taking their breakfast to school ;)

Oh, oooooone more thing, if you aren't bored to tears yet (I really hope you aren't!)  I finally tried a (wait for it)....

I think it's very safe to say that these little guys will be making frequent appearances in my life! ;)

Ok, enough about me, what about all of you wonderful people?  How was your week?  Did you have finals?  Any particularly fabulous eats?


Have a great weekend everyone!!  Love you guys!

Yep, it's my brother's 18th birthday today!!!  In case you do read my blog, brother, I hope you have an amazing birthday!!  I know we don't always get along perfectly (how boring would that be?), but I hope you know that you are like my best friend!  Seriously, I feel like I can tell you anything!  Thank you so much for being the best brother EVER!!!  I'm going to miss you more than anything when you go to college next year.  I love you!! :D

Everyone left such nice comments on my last post! I can't thank you guys enouph!  You are the sweetest!!  
You may have noticed that I didn't reply to any.   And that's because my blog has a really bad commenting system that doesn't allow me to reply to individual comments.  If I ever get that fixed, I will be back to replying!  Until then, I will just comment back on all of your awesome blogs!  Does that sound all right?

I've tried a lot of different foodie combinations in the last 24ish hours (does anyone else use "ish"?). Let's go in chronological order, shall we...
Friday night, I was kind of in a rut.  I was starving for some dinner, but it was dinner time, and it seemed as if I had nothing to eat!  But if I'm hungry I always find something to eat.  So lo and behold, I did!


Salsa Chickpea-Rice Bowl

Ingredients:
About 1/2 cup cooked chickpeas (I used canned)
About 3/4 cup cooked brown rice
2 tablespoon salsa
1-2 tablespoon orange juice (adds a nice touch of sweetness)
Garlic powder/onion powder/ground cumin

Directions:
Combine all ingredients together in a bowl and dig in!

Just perfect for a quick, delicious dinner!!
With a side of steamed veggies (sorry for the awful picture!)

And then for dessert, I had one almond butter cup:

Love those little guys!

The next morning, I tried something that I will be having again without any doubt!!!  Behold Kathleen's Almond Joy Pizzert Babies!!!!!!  Go ahead and clap.  These little fellas' deserve a major round of applause!!

I just can't get over how cute they were!!!  I topped mine with almond butter, peanut butter, and Greek yogurt! (And chocolate chips, obviously) I also used brown rice flour in place of the whole wheat flour, so they were also gluten free!  My mom thought they were absolutely adorable too!  Oh, have I mentioned yet that were like mini cakes sent from heaven?  Yep, that incredibly delicious!!!!!

And guess what??  I've had socca at last!  I used Heather's recipe and topped it with a spoonful of salsa!

I'm in love with this socca!!!  Thanks so much for the fabulous and simple recipe, Heather!  I may or may not have gone back for another piece ;) 
And then for dinner, I was craving some more socca!  So I spread some spicy dijon mustard on it (for some reason, I hate regular yellow mustard but love honey mustard and dijon mustard).  Then I topped it with lettuce, a Sunshine burger, and a juicy piece of tomato.  Another fantastic use for the socca!  (Although I'm thinking the socca would be fantastic used in anything! :)

Now wait!  What are those little round bundles sitting at the back?  Well, they are:


Cinnamon Grilled Bananas

Ingredients:
1 teaspoon coconut oil
Cinnamon
1 smallish banana, sliced

Directions:
Melt the coconut oil in a small, not-stick pan.  Put the cinnamon in a small bowl and coat the flat side of each banana slice in the cinnamon.  Place the banana slices in the pan and cook for a few minutes on each side.

Loved them!!!

Something else I love?  Katie's Banana Brulee Oats!!!  My add ins were vanilla extract and cinnamon!  (And topped with peanut butter because a day just can't start without it!)

Katie, I know I've said this before, but you're a genius.  You just plain are!  The brulee oats were out of this world amazing!!  If it weren't for Katie, I would have never thought to blend my oats, but it's the most amazing idea since..... Well, actually, it's just the most amazing idea, period!  I felt like I was eating pudding for breakfast.  It just doesn't get better than that!

Sorry for this very long, chatty post!!  I guess I'm just in a chatty mood this morning!

Just one more week of school and then spring break!!!  Woohoo!!  In a week, I will be just about on my way to California for a college visit!  Can't wait!!!


The daily question:  Are you going anywhere/doing anything special for spring break?

Hello blog friends!!  Hang on, it's going to be a long, bumpy ride! (Well, it's actually only long - not bumpy.  But long and bumpy sounds way better than just long, don't you think? ;)  Start with a recipe?  Sounds good to me!


So when I heard that this week was celebrating pancake day and peanut butter day, I decided to celebrate both them at once and maaaaaaaaake....


Peanut Butter Pancakes!

Ingredients:
1/3 cup buckwheat (or other) pancake mix - my savior on school days!
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons wheat germ
2 tablespoons peanut butter
3 tablespoon unsweetened applesauce
1/3 cup + 2 tablespoons almond milk


Directions:
Combine all ingredients together in a bowl and cook away!

Why are pancakes so good?


More pesto oats with steamed broccoli and carrots:

Awesome as always!  Another food that's awesome?  My Apple Spice Brown Rice baked!  Baking makes this dish 10x better!

Let's see.... What other munchies have I been enjoying lately?  Ah yes!  Yummy nummy green [purple] smoothies!  This one contained Greek yogurt, chia seeds, LOTS of spinach, blueberries, almond milk, and cinnamon.

I also tried this bread that I bought way back when I was in Hawaii!  It still isn't moldy - maybe because it was like vacuum packed?  There aren't any preservatives, but it's still kind of creepy...

Creepy but delicious!  Slathered in coconut butter:

For lunch I've been loving pesto sandwiches (simply pesto spread between two pieces of bread).  So simple yet my favorite sandwich ever!

Peeking in is some raw carrots, fresh tomatoes, and steamed broccoli/cauliflower/brussels, fresh mango, and Endangered Species 88% dark chocolate (I switch between that and Baker's 100% each day).


And this is my latest obsession:

If you haven't tried banana chips yet, you must!!!  WAY too good!


And, another recipe!  Behold, pesto and chickpeas combined to form:


Pesto Chickpea Enchiladas

Ingredients:
2 corn tortillas
About 2 tablespoons pesto
About 1/2 cup chickpeas
Chopped onion
Enchilada sauce
Greek yogurt for topping (optional)


Directions:
Spray the bottom of a small baking pan with non stick spray and spread some of the enchilada sauce on the bottom of the pan.  Spread about one tablespoon of pesto down the center of each tortilla and top with about 1/4 cup of chickpeas on each tortilla and sprinkle on some chopped onion.

Roll up the enchilada and place, seam down, in the pan.  Repeat with remaining tortilla.  Spread some more enchilada sauce on top and place in a 350 degree oven for about 20 - 25 minutes.

Yet another incredible meal! 


And now I want to mention a few non-food related things (what did she just say?  NON food related?!)


So first, in chemistry yesterday, we had a yoga brain break!  We stopped class for about 5 minutes and our teacher led us in a sequence of yoga.  How awesome is that?!  I really think that yoga brain breaks should become a part of everyday class ;)  Honestly, I felt SO much more concentrated after the yoga!


Second, check out my really cool school project!

Yes, it's a mole falling down a waterfall.  There's the Moletnomah Falls (based on a falls in Oregon spelled Multnomah) and there's Mole T. Nomah (the mole) falls.  Did you get the pun?  I had so much fun with that project :)


The daily question:  Have you ever had a yoga brain break in school?  Which food picture above do you think looks the yummiest?


Have a wonderful weekend everyone!