Week 1: Cleaning out the Cabinets.

This post is going to be long.  I have been super busy studying for a Marketing Exam and battling with my advisors to sign up for the last classes I may possibly ever take.  One advisor I met with almost gave me a fright when he told me I had 18 hours left when I calculated I only needed 12.  For about 10 minutes I thought I wasn't going to graduate on time.  But then he made a phone call or two and realized he made a mistake...I only needed 12.  So after I dried my tears I came home to calm my nerves with a bottle of Chianti I picked up in France when I was 13 years old.  

It took a couple of tries but we got it done!

Look at the cute glass my mom picked up at a winery.  Richard has one too with an "R".

Early in the week I create a dish I can reheat during my busy days/nights.  I am such a lover of Autumn I have been taking advantage of all the fresh in seasons vegetables.  As I was going through my cabinets for spices I realized how much food I have in apartment.  I tend to go to the store often leaving me with food that goes bad so I decided to challenge myself and not go to the store until almost everything was cleaned out.  The challenge is to see what I can come up with.  

Roasted Vegetables with Apples

This is my tiny apartment shoe-box kitchen.  One day I will have a huge kitchen.

Ingredients

brussel sprouts

broccoli

sweet potatoes

carrots

zucchini

apple

onion

3 T olive oil

salt

garlic salt

Directions:

400 F for 40 minutes.

For simple easy dinners I don't like a lot of directions because I want to use my time wisely to study.

The apple brings a sweetness to the dish.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Bread with chocolate and Orange Glaze

It's no secret I love Halloween.  So it's no secret I have to have everything pumpkin.  Pumpkin coffee, pumpkin blizzard, pumpkin cheesecake cupcake.  I have had it all so I can't leave this season without making some pumpkin bread!

Ingredients

1 3/4 cup (1 15 oz. can) pureed pumpkin
1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup butter
3 eggs
2 all-purpose unbleached flour

2 cups whole wheat flower
1 tablespoons baking powder

1 T baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
all spice
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions

1. Mix pumpkin, sugar, butter and eggs together.
2. Set aside.
3. Mix all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda,cinnamon, all spice and nutmeg.
4. Add dry ingredients slowly to wet ingredients.  A few tablespoons at a time and mix.
5. Fold into any cake pan.
6. Top with cinnamon and nutmeg
7. Place in oven at 350 F for about 40 minutes.  Check occasionally, oven times vary.

Optional: After I let it cool I took confectioners sugar and red/yellow food dye.  I also melted some chocolate.

 Not Optional: Drink a pumpkin beer while finishing your pumpkin bread.

Optional: Add spider rings before going to your Halloween party!

Time to spend time with my dad who is home from China.  He lives and works there.  More about that later.

HAPPY HALLOWS EVE!

Kansas City Half Marathon

I ended up running the Kansas City Half Marathon.  I signed up for the full but the Kansas City heat was brutal and training dwindled.  I had only ran 4 miles before this half marathon but I knew from previous races that running was mostly a mental activity.

I finished in 2:27.  Not my best time which is 2:15 from Hospital Hill but the course was brutal and my legs kept asking me "What the heck are you doing?" but I survived.

I don't recommend running a long distance race without training.  I was out for two days.  My energy had depleted and my legs cramped but because I am in pretty good shape and workout daily I was able to recover fast and about three days later I was back to my normal workouts.

So it's true you can do whatever you put your mind to.

Halloween Week

I absolutely love Halloween; the crisp cool weather, scrumptious goodies, costumes, falling leaves.  I love it all.  I especially love all of the vegetables that are in season.

Roasted Fall Vegetables

Ingredients

2 small apples

2 carrots

1 spaghetti squash

2 sweet potatoes

Marinade

2 T extra virgin olive oil

1/2 t ginger paste

1.2 t garlic paste

1 t all spice

1 t nutmeg

pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Dice all vegetables and fruit in bite size pieces
2. Set aside.
3. Mix together all the ingredients of the marinade and put over the vegetables.
4. Place in refrigerator until ready to roast.
5. Set your oven to 400 F and roast for 40 minutes.  

Oven times to vary so check on them about every 10 minutes or so.  For a side dish I had some fresh spinach that was going wilty so I sauteed it up.  I heated olive oil, basil and garlic salt and then added the spinach.  May I dare say this was one of the best dinners I have ever had!  Easy and quick and totally made it up. Next time you go into your produce section of your local grocery store I dare you to pick out some of your favorite vegetables and create a dish at home!

Excuse the yellow light.  My shoebox apartment doesn't like my photography.

I am trying to soak up as much Fall as I can before it is over in a blink of an eye. Fall gets only a month of time to shine so you must get all the festive activities in as you can so my boyfriend and I spent Sunday afternoon doing the most Halloween activity of all.

And Sophie helped

I got a little photo happy but look at that face!

You have to have pumpkin beer when carving pumpkins.  It is a rule.

I didn't let these bad boys go to waste.

Shortly after our pumpkin carving extravaganza.  I washed the pumpkin seeds.

Halloween Pumpkin Seeds


Ingredients

• Pumpkin seeds
•  Salt
• All spice
• Nutmeg
• Cinnamon
• Ginger

Directions

1. Dry pumpkin seeds for 10 minutes at 200 F.
2. Take out of oven and put all the spices on the seeds.
3. Bake at 275 for about 20 minutes.  Check on them every 5 minutes.

Dinner tonight involves brussel sprouts and these guys.