pancakes and plants

I almost never post breakfast, because 90% of the time, it is PB+B oats. However, after making the avgolemono soup, we had leftover egg whites. So I made Kath's oatmeal pancakes. Last night I measured my egg whites and there was about 1/3 of a cup, so I added 1/3 of a cup of oats. Here’s how that looked this morning:

Then I added cinnamon, 1/3 tsp baking powder, 1/2 a mashed banana, and in a stroke of genius (?) 2 tbsp cottage cheese:

It went beautifully into the pan but flipping it was a HOT MESS:

However, the finished product was YUMMY. I shmeared the other banana half on top and then had half with PB and half with cranapple butter.

Because my usual oats portion is 1/2, not 1/3 of a cup, I needed a little somethin’ somethin’. So I had a bit of cereal and milk. Perfect!

So I’m going to Asia in a week.

EE!

Since I’ve been in a rawther miserable climate for the past several months, I’ve been covering up. Lots and lots of body-camouflaging layers.

However, now that I’m going to be in Bangkok, which according to weather.com will be in the NINETIES (!) I am going to be wearing substantially less clothing. So I want to, ahem, *tighten up* a bit in the next week.

To that end, I want to adjust the all important vegetables to cake ratio. It’s been skewing towards the cake end lately! Not no cake, but LESS cake.

To that end, yesterday I was in a cook-y mood. Project #1 was one I’ve made before with excellent results: Squash soup with miso and ginger.

Began with warming some red pepper flakes in olive oil:

Added onions, garlic, ginger, and taters:

And roastey roastey squash! (I used kabocha, what I had).

Note: the recipe calls for a lotttttttt of miso. Maybe white miso is milder than the stuff I have, but I used half the amount the recipe called for, and it was plenty miso-y.

Part of this plant-filled lunch :D

(this bowl was MASSIVE and I actually couldn’t finish it! The soup is super filling)

With yellow peppers and white bean dip:

And sliced apples and PB

Dinner, also plant-y, was a new recipe, inspired by this recipe for a Moroccan tomato and eggplant sauce to top pasta.

I used canned tomatoes instead of fresh, and gave ‘em a roastey roastey:

Then tossed my chopped eggplant with olive oil (I cut WAY BACK on the oil called for in the recipe- yes it’s healthy, but 6 tbsp for TWO SERVINGS is excessive- I tossed 1 T with the eggplant and another 2 t. in the final sauce). I also added some of the tomato liquid from the tomato can.

While the eggplant roasted, I tossed together the rest of the ingredients:

Out came the eggplant:

And e’erbody all combined:

Quite delicious!

I’m seriously proud of myself because yesterday was the first day since coming home from break (on DECEMBER 22) that I have not had dessert.

I ended my day with a pear and a Yogi tea with a slogan even more stupid than usual:

Yeah, whatevs yogi.

Also related to the Asia trip: I would love to post from there, and at the very least will post when I get home, but I would still love some guest posts while I am gone. If you are interested, feel free to email me at leleinthesky@gmail.com!

Finally, like everyone else I'm sure my heart is going out to everyone in Haiti right now. Here is a link to where you can donate to relief in Haiti, where I made my donation. It's through the Clinton Foundation, which I think is a good one to support, regardless of your politics, because they spend only a tiny portion on administrative/fundraising costs- 95.9% goes to actual programs, which is really really good for a charity.