Howdy ya'll! I hope everyone's week was fabulous and that everyone has some great plans for the weekend!  My week was busy as usual, but better than last week.  I think this weekend will be busier than the week!  Think college applications, essay due Monday, Spanish quiz Monday... yeah, I'm sure a lot of you know exactly what I'm talking about.  But I'm going to make sure to squeeze some fun in there.  As much as I, um, love writing essays and, um, studying for quizzes, it's not exactly my idea of fun. ;)

Okay, so today's post will be full of foodie pictures!!  Beginning with the Spanish food.  If you're new to my blog, you may not remember that I had a culture project to do for Spanish class, and I chose to cook a Spanish meal! :D

For the appetizer: Bread with Mushrooms and Aioli

This is the aioli I used:

I could have made it by hand, but I mean, this one was actually from Spain and it wouldn't have been if I had made it.  (Laziness radar going off about now ;) 

Pre-baked:

Post-baked:

Taste-test time!!!!

Wow!  I want to host a party now just so I can serve those (and eat them! :P ).  You wouldn't expect much from a piece of bread topped with garlic mayo and sauteed mushrooms, but I guess this just proves that you should expect a lot from such a dish!

For the main course: Vegetarian Paella

We all loved this!  Another fabulous dish for sure!

For dessert: Cinnamon Ice Cream

The final product:

And, of course, the taste test:

Lol!!!!  Crazy hair, crazy eyes.... but super happy taste buds!!

The Spanish food making experience was a success!  Everything was loved by all. :D

Okay, so now for the random eats!

Ashley's Vanilla "Funfetti" Oat Bake topped with her Cake Batter Cashew Butter:

This. Was. In. Cre. Di. Ble.  Make it.  Devour it.  Love it.

OIAJ, but not just any old jar... a Cake Batter Cashew Butter jar!!  Tears may or may not have been present when I scooped up the last bit of amazing-ness from the jar. ;) (Topped with loads of wheat germ of course!)

One dinner was at the Mt. Everest Cafe, a Nepalese buffet.  It's one of my favorite places to eat!  (My absolute favorite is Taj Mahal, an Indian buffet downtown.)

As I'm sure many of you know, it was Katie's birthday this past Tuesday, and so I celebrated with her Brownie Batter Pancakes topped with her Coconut Banana Butter and, of course, sprinkles!!!  And then, to make it a true Katie meal, I ditched the fork and snatched the chop sticks!

An incredible meal to honor an incredible person!  Seriously, my taste buds would have such a dull life without her. ;)  And aside from her crazy amazing cooking skills, she really is a wonderful, sweet person!  Happy [belated] Birthday, Katie!! :D

Last, but definitely not least, I made my own nut butter again!  This time it was Kathleen's Vanilla Spice Almond Butter!  Of course, the important thing is how it tasted.  Pre-taste test: 

Down the hatch:

Post taste-test:

From excited to in love!  Really in love!! :P  If you want an amazing, nicely spiced, addicting nut butter, make Kathleen's almond butter!!

Okay, if you've made it this far, congratulations!  Oh but wait, you're not done... first some questions. :)

Questions:
Any Spanish food making experiences?  Please tell!
What's your favorite restaurant/buffet?  Do you like Indian-type food?
Nut butter: homemade or store boughten?  I really love both!  It's fun to make your own because you can make it whatever flavor you want, but I love my certain brands of store boughten too!

Have a great weekend, and remember to have some fun! :D

<3

Hey hey, everyone!!  Ten days since I've blogged?!  No, I refuse to accept the truth.  School just makes life so busy!!  I'm sure many of you know what I'm talking about.  But at least (for me anyway) school's been pretty fun!  I'm especially excited for my culture project this weekend (more about that at the end of the post), and leading a group discussion about a short story on Monday.  Luckily, I've somehow found some time for cooking. ;)  But unfortunately haven't had as much time for pictures.  I also really wanted to make my peanut butter spelt bagels again before school, but the horse show (which was soooo much fun, by the way - the highlight was winning our western pleasure class!) stole all my time.  Maybe I'll get to it next weekend - this weekend is going to be super busy! 

So, onto the food!  

Honestly, I don't eat a lot of frozen food because fresh just tastes so much better!  But there are a few products that I do like, this being one of them:

The entire meal:

Burrito close-up:

I made a huge, fantastic salad one night!  This one included mixed greens, chickpeas, dried cranberries, goat cheese, tomatoes, Greek yogurt, and Colorado green chile.

With a side of bulgar (love that grain!):

So when I saw Ashley make Cake Batter Cashew Butter, I simply couldn't contain myself (I mean, sprinkles were involved!), and so later that day, this became a new addition to my pantry:

Um, you have to make it!  That's about all I can say.  Seriously, it actually tasted like cake batter!  I halved the recipe when I made it because I didn't have a lot of cashews, but oh how I wish I had doubled the recipe!

On Thursday, my family and I were craving Greek food, and so we went to our favorite, local Greek place:

I ordered the falafel wrap on a whole wheat tortilla with Greek salad on the side (sorry for the flash - the taverna had awful lighting!):

Now seeing as falafels, hummus, and a salad with lettuce was included in this "Greek" meal, this meal wasn't really Greek at all, but that doesn't mean it wasn't fabulously delicious.  That wrap was the definition of incredible! :P

Last night's dinner:

You all have got to try cottage cheese on pasta.  SO good!!!  Especially when followed by dessert:

Now, I love Reese's and I don't mind having one every once in a while, but I'm always on the lookout for a bit of a healthier alternative.  These were quite tasty!  The flavor was pretty much the same, but the problem was that there wasn't a lot of the peanut butter making it a bit chocolate-y.  Now I love chocolate, but for this purpose, I wanted a little more peanut butter flavor.  Still very tasty though!

And finally, we have this morning's breakfast!  I knew that I was going to want oats in a jar this morning, but there was only one problem - no empty jars!  So, I made my own!

I plopped some peanut butter into the bottom of a glass, smudged some onto the sides, and put the glass in the fridge overnight.  This morning:

I filled it with steal cut oats and topped it with lots of wheat germ (about 100 times what's shown - love my wheat germ on oats!).  Wasn't exactly the same as real OIAJ, but still might tasty.  I ate my oats with a juicy nectarine and a big glass of green tea.

And now about my culture project!  It's for Spanish class and I'm going to make an appetizer, main course, and dessert.  The appetizer is going to be mushrooms on an aioli spread bread, main course will be vegetarian paella, and dessert will be cinnamon ice cream.  I'm. So. Excited!!  I'll being taking pictures throughout the cooking process, so I'll be sure to share them!


Questions:
Do you ever eat frozen food?  If you do, what's your favorite?
Do you like to make your own nut butter?
Have you ever made Spanish food?

Everyone, have an AMAZING weekend, and that's an order! ;)

<3