Carrot Cake Oatmeal

I have been eating oatmeal a lot lately. Getting up to go to the gym before work, I discovered an extra half hour of time in the morning allows me to make something for breakfast instead of shoving a bowl of cereal in my face on my way out the door. My usual combination for oatmeal is:

*1/8 cup oatmeal

*1/8 cup oat bran

*~1-2 Tablespoons ground flax seeds

*1/2 mashed banana

I cook all that with 1/4 cup water on the stovetop until it gets nice and thick--this doesn't usually take too long. It's probably about 5 minutes.

Then comes the fun part: adding shit in. My go-to is Peanut Butter & Jelly oatmeal, which entails the above ingredients and spoonful each of jam and peanut butter (about 1 T each). I have two peanut butters right now from PB & Co. One in particular is absolutely transcendent: the White Chocolate Wonderful. Oh my god. It will change your life.

Ok, not really. I hate grandiose statements like that. But it will taste delicious. I also have the Cinnamon Raisin Swirl, which is ok, except the raisins in it are really small and hard--not so good. The cinnamon is sortof grainy in the peanut butter, which is actually ok with me.

Anyhoo, I've been inspired to make a lot of different kinds of oatmeal by the following bloggers: Kath, Tina, Heather and Caitlin. This particular idea came from Kath (find it here).

I started with my usual base, then added in:

*3/4 of a grated carrot

*splash of vanilla extract

* 1-2 T brown sugar

*1 T raisins

And here's what I got:

I even made the "frosting" by mixing a little nonfat Greek yogurt with 1 T maple syrup.

So I pretty much was not a fan of this oatmeal. I did not really get any "carrot cake"; it pretty much tasted like oatmeal with carrots in it. I didn't use the mango or pineapple like Kath suggests, so maybe it was missing an extra element of sweet, but I don't think I'd try this again.

I was definitely original, though!

Zucchini & Potato Cakes (& a salad too)

I got a lovely zucchini from my garden! Finally! It was a pretty decent-sized zuke, too, because it was ready to pick, but we left it on the vine while we were gone for four days. So it was rarin' to go when we got back!

I was looking for a different way to prepare zucchini since it's so versatile, and found this recipe, courtesy of the Pioneer Woman.Thanks, Ree!

I started off by grating about half my zucchini (it was big, people) and three baby purple potatoes into a bowl. Then I made cookie monster squeeze out all the liquid so the cakes would not be watery. I know this looks like coleslaw, but trust me, it's not.

Meanwhile, I started one of my favoritist summer salads: warm tomato salad. I concocted this recipe last summer when my mom had enough cherry tomatoes to make tomato sauce that could satiate Italy. Seeing as how shipping costs for tomato sauce to the entire country of Italy were a tad astronomical, I opted instead to use the bounty of tomatoes in a new way. Thus, this salad was born. I always start off by sauteeing the vegetables we have on-hand at the time. This time, it was zucchini (surprise!) and some delicious sugar snap peas, also from our garden. Since I also had some tempeh that needed to be used up (really. Have you ever smelled rotten tempeh? Blech!) and to add some protein, I cut that into chunks and sauteed it up too. Then I added the tomatoes, halved if they were big, and let it cook away.

Meanwhile, back at Zucchini Potato Central, the lovely crimson Lady Purple Potato and Lord Zucchini were introduced to good ol' predictable Ms. Salt and Ms. Pepper, the sturdy and versatile Mr. Egg and his son, Mr. Egg II, Fru Danish hard yellow cheese and the unpredictable addition of Rabbi Matzo Meal, since I forgot Signore Breadcrumb Italiano's invitation in the mail. It was a quite the rockin' (and diverse!) party!

...And back to the salad! It's like a TV show focusing on two different plot lines. How will they intersect? [Cue suspenseful music]
After all the veggies were sufficiently cooked through, I added a clove of chopped garlic, wilted in some spinach and basil (guess from where?!) and added a handful of bleu cheese.

Here, our cast have joined into a flavorful ensemble and are cooking away a small amount of olive oil. Sorry, P-Dub, just can't use the amounts of butter you do in your kitchen. My thighs cling to it like they may never see butter again.

Everyone outta the pool!

Oh yeah! I made garlic toast too! I spread some sundried tomato and basil Alouette cheese onto some bread and topped with a little parmesan, then toasted 'til it looked like this.

Wow, my whole mouth just filled with saliva.

And here we have our dinner!

The zucchini cakes were frickin' awesome! They were starchy from the potato but still very light, with just the right amount of cheesiness (from the cheese I think was Danish fontina, but can't remember) and they had a very mild zucchini flavor. Cookie Monster even liked them, and he hates squash! Ding ding ding! We have a winner!

My New Favorite Website

Wow, have I got a new website for you! 

It is hilariously funny, witty, biting, sarcastic, clever and funny, all in one nifty little package (and yes, I am aware I said funny twice). If you don't like it, you're dead inside.

I give you: Cake Wrecks.

You're welcome.