rhubarb bars (with cardamom + pistachio).

Have you ever not eaten enough during the day and gotten massive stomach cramps?

This happened to me recently and I swear, I would not wish this pain on my worst enemy. A long day at work meant 7 hours of not eating, followed by the really bad stomach pain. By the time I was able to scarf down an apple on my drive home, it was just too late.

vanilla strawberry chia seed pudding. (paleo, gf, vegan)

Have you heard of chia seeds? I reviewed them before. They have an insane amount of fiber, and make their presence known by texture more than taste. Dry chia seeds are crunchy. When soaked, the seeds absorb the liquid and develop mucilage - which just means they get a little polysaccharide gelatinous coating.

This property is vital in order for chia seed puddings to work. In all the variations I've found, chia seeds are mixed with a non-dairy milk (probably to retain the vegan aspect), and let sit, with occasional stirring. After a couple hours (or overnight), the mixture has thickened substantially, forming a "pudding." Fruit, purees, nuts, and flavorings are added afterwards.

whole wheat carrot zucchini muffins.

The two busiest weeks of my senior year ended today, and I cannot be more at peace. Before 9pm, I had washed my face, brushed my teeth, climbed into bed, and was watching a movie, and IT WAS GREAT.

I figured I would blog since I had the time, even if I made these muffins a while ago.

hummingbird cake: birthday edition.

(Pictures coming soon ... actually that's a lie, we finished the cake off yesterday. Oops, sorry!)

My birthday was in January. My roommates made me a cake ... it's tradition, we've talked about this.

First we went out to Jose Tejas for a belated birthday dinner. The wait was pretty long, as they don't take reservations (why), but it was soo worth it. Their food? Very good. I recommend the swordfish tacos veracruz, with fresh mango salsa and grilled avocado. I also recommend at least one margarita, preferably strawberry. Delicious and dangerous if taken on an empty stomach. 

The very fun night ended with us chilling till late, talking and joking around while picking out of this cake, in traditional fashion. 

cranberry walnut stuffed french toast.

Sometimes you want to forego the oatmeal and cereal for a hearty, sweet, satisfying breakfast. This definitely fills all those requirements.

whole grain superman muffins.

It's half past midnight (do people tell time like that anymore?) aka - far too late for me to be awake during break.

I just ate one of these muffins. There are so many good things in here. Whole wheat flour, oatmeal, bran, flax, wheat germ, yogurt, cinnamon. Yeah man, cinnamon has minerals and stuff. I added "0.25 tspn ground cinnamon" to my iProfile when I was keeping record, and it boosted my mineral counts incredibly. Winnnn.

I could eat these little baby muffins all day. This for breakfast, and the chicken chili with bell peppers & fresh tomatoes atop brown rice pilaf with lentils I had tonight for dinner every evening. And whatever for lunch. My day would be awesomeeeeeee.

birthday cake for two.

Oh Monday. Every week, I wake up to you, so determined that the day will be good, a strong start to the rest of the week. And every week, without fail, I end the day exhausted. tired. not in the mood to yoga & workout, but I usually do anyway.

Well I give in this week, okay? My day started at 6:40. I put on winged eyeliner despite the way it made my sleepy eyes burn. I went to all my classes despite my intentions of skipping every single one. See this bear cake? (Third one down. Below the creepy as hell Cookie Puss.) A friend of mine and I ate it all. Including the nose, which consisted purely of crunchy bits ... so good. I went to Rutgers Club with Andrea. I ate massive amounts of German Chocolate Cake. I ate buttery pecan bars. I ate two rainbow cookies. After all that, I skipped yoga & the usual hourly gym session I have. I walked back to my dorm from Sonny Werbs instead, to digest ... hair curly & down. plus incredibly windy. equals bad. I later went to Shoprite to find that they did not have challah. #upsetting. I bought birthday Oreos and ate one instead to continue with the theme of fatass for the day. It was so sweet.

How was my Monday? Long. So long.

That's what she said. But I wouldn't end on a bad note. Complaining sucks (hopefully the above narrative was at least slightly amusing. funny how one's pain is another's amusement, right? whatever works.), so I am here to tell you how my Monday turned up.

blueberry hazelnut coconut oatmeal.

I am here today to introduce to you - delicious oatmeal.

No sugar. Plain oats. Simple things combined to make the classiest breakfast you've probably eaten in a while, unless you have the good fortune of eating at Café du Monde every morning.

But us normal folk tend to either not eat breakfast (bad!!!) or eat breakfast sandwiches or something portable and convenient.

I won't necessarily concede to the fact that this is portable (although it could be! in a paper cup, I've eaten it that way for two years straight in high school .. while driving. so no excuses.), but it is quite easy. If you have ten minutes, I highly recommend it.

pumpkin oatmeal + veggie burger.

So the other day I woke up early, by break standards - 7:45 am - and drove about an hour to the greenhouse where The Garden of Eden meets to plant, water, and harvest organically grown lettuce. I ate breakfast around 9 am, as I was driving. We worked at the greenhouse till around 2 pm.

At the end, I was eating the arugula that had been picked because I was hungry and wanted to munch on something, even if that meant eating these really bitter (the flavor was much more pronounced) tiny leaves.

With the knowledge that Thomas Sweet was in close proximity, I proceeded to spend about 15 minutes getting lost on Route 18 and going who knows where to park in a spot that was most likely illegal. But I mean, I wasn't going to be long or anything.

inside-out german chocolate cake.

So I have awesome friends. Who I do awesome things with. And who also make me awesome birthday cakes! I'll let Danielle do the rest of the talking - yuppp. This is a guest blog post!!

I'm in the black dress; Danielle's wearing red!

Hey friends!  This is Yat's suitemate, Danielle, and she asked me to do this guest post… she likes to show me off sometimes.  Not really, but after helping bake her birthday cake, I have been given the honor to make an appearance on here (so much pressure!). 

Celebrating Yat’s birthday is fun, because her birthday is over winter break, so we try to make it a surprise.  And when’s the best time to make a massive cake?  Obviously in the middle of finals when we’re all stressed to the max and can use the cake to 1. Honor our friend’s birthday, and 2. Eat all our feelings away. We’re nothing if not efficient.  Andrea found a recipe for this beautiful inside-out German chocolate cake, and we decided we would bake it in the small time frame between our organic chemistry final and our friends’ holiday party.  So to give an idea of what went into baking this masterpiece, I will tell it in the form of a dramatic narrative.

spiced sweet potato cookies - rum-soaked raisins optional.

Yay for pictures! I took enough this time. These interesting cookies were definitely worth it.

tell me about: Ghirardelli Triple Chocolate Cookie Mix!

I am home. That means I'll probably go crazy making things, now that my stress has significantly decreased and I actually have some time. What a concept!

perfect golden colour. 

However, I eased into baking one morning by making cookies using a mix that I had seen sitting around our house for far too long. It originally was on this shelf that was just too high for me to reach, which was enough resistance to prevent me from making them. But then I came home and my mom had moved them down to the countertop. Ahh, much better.

orange cranberry loaf.

Yes. I am aware that it is 82 degrees out. I did my, what is becoming more common, 4.2 mile run around noon, and got a sense of what the weather is like. I also got visibly more tan in the fifty or so minutes I was outside.

That is why, immediately after returning from my run, I made popsicles (more on that later). Right after drinking some cold water, and before taking off my shoes, showering, or even wiping my face.

Despite all that, I did, a few days ago, make what is traditionally a fall and winter staple: orange cranberry walnut loaf.

homemade clif bars.

Yesterday I ran for 50 minutes straight. Well, jogged.

I haven't continued that long without stopping for ... a very, very long time. The whole route was about 4.2 miles, according to my Google Maps calculations. So that's not fast or anything, but considering there were slopes, the scent of roasted garlic wafting out of nearby Italian restaurants, and my overall terribly out-of-shapeness, not too bad, I guess.

The run also reminded me of the 5K I promised to do with two of my suitemates this upcoming September. And how I will probably not be able to do it because I am so slow.

LOOK AT ALL THAT HEARTY GOODNESS. 

But that got me thinking of pre and post - workout fuel. That raised my spirits! I immediately thought of energy bars. And that reminded me of the energy bars I saw for sale at the gym where I recently got a membership. And how the bars cost $1.50 - $3. Um ew.

almond bundt cake.

I've been making a lot of things with almonds recently. Good thing I can pronounce it now.

I bought two Solo Almond Cake & Pastry Fillings a while ago because they were 2 for $5. That was actually a good deal though, I know sometimes two-fors are meant to drag people in and make them buy things they don't need simply because it's on sale. I think that sort of thing has gradually, in this consumerist nation, turned into human nature. The quality has joined the ranks of greed and eating as much as possible to store food for possible hibernation should any future disasters occur. And it's hard to fight human nature. Just ask my waistline. (just kidding)

creamy almond & walnut face exfoliating mask!

I think my toner is making me break out. That, or Revlon Colorstay. Or both.

Or none of it, and my bad diet is the cause behind all my woes.

I dunno.

Oh yeah, this isn't a food post, if you haven't gotten already. But if you're looking for a way to use items from your kitchen to help your skin, keep reading!

"almond joy" pie.

Hello, dear friends. I am not a fan of fibbing when it comes to food. If I'm minding my own business on tastespotting and see some tender vanilla cupcakes topped off with an orange-tinted frosting, I get excited and think, oh maybe it's mango frosting! what a novel idea! mango? in frosting form?! that sounds amazing! And the hype continues for the entire 1 second or so it takes for the page to load & for me to scroll down and see that my hopes & dreams have been shattered by reality. Because in reality, that frosting was neither mango nor papaya. It wasn't even orange. It was artificial coloring that allowed cream cheese frosting to masquerade as something so much more than it actually was.

I hate that.

And so I'm going to keep it real here & tell you from the beginning (I would say "get go," but I am entirely unsure of where that phrase originates/what it even means) that this pie is not some fabulous translation of a favorite candy bar into a delicious pie.

Let me rephrase that. This pie certainly IS fabulous. But it is very loosely based around the idea of an Almond Joy.

german chocolate cake, vanilla version.

I just assembled the cake about five minutes ago. I do not have the slightest idea of what I will write about in this post to you all (well that's not so unusual), and there are walnut skin things all over the place.

But after a little of the frosting got on the back of my hand and I absentmindedly licked it off, I had to share my love with the world. I am aware the world does not read my blog, but let me pretend it does for this time, okay?


This frosting. This caramel, walnut, coconut frosting has blown my mind. German chocolate cake has been my favorite cake ever since my surprise sixteenth birthday party, when my mom (moms know all, srsly) arranged for a 1/4 sheet cake of German Chocolate Cake to be my birthday cake.

date-walnut bread with lots of other good things inside.

When I was younger, I used to think I was really clever that I knew what dates were and my 10-11 year old peers did not. The dialogue would continue as follows:
me: don't you just love dates?
friend: uh ... sure?
me: they're just so good.
friend: yeah, i guess. ... wait, you mean with like two people getting dinner or something right?
me: nahh bruah, the dried fruit!
friend: what?!
explanation followed.

I wasn't so snobby (or ghetto), I was actually really quiet. But I was proud of myself for being aware of this random piece of food knowledge. To this day, I enjoy knowing everything about food, although I don't flaunt it as I did in the past. And yes, to this day, my stories generally continue to lack a point and/or climaxes.

bovine & walnut-ricotta cake with orange curd.

A goal I recently made is to travel to Tibet & raise a yak. Why Tibet? Well, in one of my courses, I learned about how the North & Northwest areas of China are not getting enough water to sustain the population there. As a result, there are methods being implemented to direct water from the South & Southeast areas to the North & NW. There are many problems and expenses associated with this endeavor. For example, eastern India & Bengal would suffer, as would Tibet.



And if water was less readily available in Tibet, then the inhabitants of Tibet would be detrimentally affected. The people would not get as much water as they need. The yaks would not get the water they need. They would only get minimal water, and in turn, their ordinarily luscious fur would turn mangy. Now, my goal is to raise a yak in Tibet. My baby ain't gonna have NO MANGY FUR.

Therefore, Northern Asia better get their act together if they intend to avoid my angry letters & protests regarding the health of the yaks in the Tibetan region.