Saturday, May 1, 2010

crazy lazy

After a tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiring day I was reunited with one of my bestest old friends last night… the savory cottage cheese bowl.

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I spent most of the day ushering the Asia family around the library book sale (locals: George Mason library is having their semiannual book sale this weekend. Kids books are insanely cheap- Moony was getting them for like 40 cents a pop- and I personally got two cookbooks and An Anthropologist on Mars, which I’m super stoked to read, for $11) then to lunch in Oldtown (I was so mad- the La Tasca in Clarendon is fantastic but the one in Oldtown is mediocre at best) then more shopping.

I didn’t feel like cooking and I was feeling under-vegged and over-fatted from lunch. So, I made an impromptu trip to the grocery store JUST FOR COTTAGE CHEESE. As an obsessive meal planner, that is a testament to how strong this craving was.

The mix:

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Low fat cottage cheese (I can’t do the nonfat, it feels like there’s acid burning my mouth!)+ carrots+ green pepper (my faaaave ingredient in savory cottage cheese)+ edamame+ Sriracha+ a sprinkling of Bragg's sea kelp delight which I have a free sample of and keep forgetting to use and is actually delightful.

Today I’ve been laaaaaaaaaaaaaaazy! I stayed in bed reading and so on til 9:30, which is, sadly enough, late for me, then had a leisurely breakfast, leisurely read the paper, took a leisurely walk in the park.

Then I got to thinking how EVERYONE ON EARTH (or at least the food blog world) has seemingly been making granola this week.

Far be it from me to stay away from the trend. Ultimately after combing through a gazillion recipes I (as usual) winged my recipe, but was definitely inspired by Allie’s carrot cake granola!

First:

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2 c rolled oats, 1/3 c. flax meal, 1/2 c. shredded carrot, 2 T wheat germ.

Then:

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1/4 cup chopped almonds, 1/4 c. chopped pecans, 1/4 c. maple syrup, 1 tsp. vanilla extract, 1/2 tsp cinnamon.

Baked for 30 minutes on some greased parchment paper at 300, giving it a few stirs, yielded:

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I broke it in on top of some plain yogurt.

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Mmm mm! Not mega sweet, not mega clumpy, but also not dry (I think a good deal of credit goes to the carrots- go Allie!) and pleasantly nutty (I love pecans so hard). Straight up, it tastes healthy. Cause it IS healthy!

I try to shy away from calorie math but because granola can be so variable I at least estimated this and it’s approximately 245 calories for a half-cup. So make of that what you will.

I had it with a smashing salad.

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Spinach, mushrooms, insanely ripe and beautiful avocado, red onion, and hummus. I made spicy orange hummus again. I can’t stay away. I always come back to it!

Finally, I’ve been slackin’ on my reviews.

The latest:

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Okay imagine you’re in horrific pain and receive some kind of intravenous sedative. I imagine that sensation is a lot like eating this chocolate, except you don’t have to go through the pain first.

This is really, really, REALLY chocolatey chocolate. Oh yes.

Also:

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So I eat Oreos. I mean, I don’t buy them cause I can’t actually conscionably spend money on something so horrible for me (I try to keep at least SOME relationship between cash spent and nutrients obtained) but if I’m at a party or a friend’s house, I’m like “Hey! Score!”

They are not really “food” in my mind but more of a pleasurable combination of chemicals that I can ingest in frighteningly large quantities.

But anyway- these Newman O’s? They taste like COOKIES! Like… there is an outer layer of cookie that has a pleasant crunch when biting in that then yields the taste not of cunningly combined chemicals but of chocolate and sugar! And there is a filling that rather than NASA space food actually tastes like sugary icingy deliciousness!

Total. Revelation. They are awesome.

9 comments:

Tamara Marnell said...

Darn it. If I had known you were in the market for autism literature I could have coerced you into buying it from the disability library that "let me go" yesterday. I had to pull and code up hundreds of books that we weeded, but as far as I know nobody has actually purchased anything yet! Of course, it would help if the librarian would actually put my updates on the dang site.

runnerforever said...

I am totally like you with cookie/"junk food". I tend not to want to pay for junk, but I have a really hard timing turning it down if it is given to me which is quite frequent :-0

Heather (Where's the Beach) said...

Very interesting cottage cheese concoction. I love all the ingredients so I imagine it'd taste awesome. Gonna have to check out the spicy orange hummus. Sounds...different (but in a good way). And sometimes we all need a good lazy day!

Anonymous said...

Oh my gosh, my bf brings Newman O's into the house regularly and I.MUST.STAY.AWAY!!! They are so freaking delicious!

Jess said...

Everything looks SO GOOD!! Delicious.

<3 jess
xoxo

Anonymous said...

I've never tried any of the Newman products but some other company makes a healthified oreo cookie and it is SO good. Nom.

Molly said...

I am with you I think I do not have 'snack' food that often in my kitchen because I do not want to pay for it. It is not a necessity and I do not necessarily need to be eating it.

That granola sure looks good. I never eat granola and only do when I am given it.

Anais said...

I have to say, I also love oreos. With milk, they are simply awesome. But like you, I try not to eat them that often. I actually can't remember the last time I had one!

Tara said...
This comment has been removed by the author.