Back to Oberlin

I just got back to Oberlin a couple hours ago. After unpacking, eating dinner, and making a quick run to Drug Mart for a toothbrush, I’m finally all settled in writing this post and watching some good Sunday night television. I am quickly falling in love with the show “Once Upon a Time” on ABC.

The end of breaks are always so bittersweet. I’m not looking forward to the stress that will inevitably come with class, but it does feel good to be back in my apartment hanging out with the roomies.

So…My sister gave me her old DSLR!

Hi! I’m so happy to have a decent camera! Notice the super cute headband and shower curtain.

And now for tonight’s dinner…

Yay for pretty pictures of food! This is just some veggies sauteed with balsamic vinaigrette and some leftover noodles thrown in. I’m going to get back to my tv watching for the night. Everyone have a great Sunday night and Monday!

XOXO,

Jamie

What is Food for?

I do my best thinking when I’m laying in bed. It’s true. Maybe my bed is magic or maybe more blood gets to my brain when I’m laying down. Either way, all my good ideas, paper theses, personal epiphanies, etc. come to me right as I’m about to drift to sleep.

Last night I was laying in bed, thinking about my struggles with food, the recent resurgence of my disordered eating feelings, and how to once again find peace with food. I’ve struggled so much with eating in the past few years. As I was laying in bed though, I realized that food isn’t something we should fight against. We shouldn’t restrict ourselves or make ourselves go hungry just to be a size zero. It’s not worth it.

Food is not about self-control, deprivation, and being skinny. Food is supposed to give us energy, allowing us to live our best life possible. Food is not the end result. A perfect diet or small size is not something to be achieved. Instead, the food we eat is simply what enables us to achieve the end goal, that is, life.

Now this woman, she knows how to live!

XOXO,

Jamie

Skillet Cookie

Just a warning, this is a super yummy recipe, but a super emotional and personal post. I’m going to talk about my eating disorder, so read at your own discretion. The recipe is really delicious though, so if you skip the body of the post, I suggest at least looking at the recipe

I’ve been in a funk lately. School is no longer exciting, but instead, stressful and annoying. I’ve been really hard on myself lately. There is one class this semester that is absolutely killing me. I could put in a reasonable amount of work and easily manage a B+ in the class. However, I insist on torturing myself because I refuse to accept anything less than an A. Crazy right?

And as much as I hate to admit it, my eating has gotten super disordered. I know relapses happen to people with eating disorders, but it’s just super discouraging. It’s been months since I’ve even thought about what I was eating, and all of a sudden, I’m restricting and binging again. Feeling super crazy.

I’m committing myself to getting through this phase.  I just need to give myself time and compassion. I need to listen to my body. I need to take a break when I need a break. I need to accept  a B+, because really, it is so not the end of the world. Sometimes I get so caught up in trying to be perfect I forget to step back and ask myself whether everything is really worth it. Is it really worth my health and sanity to go from a B+ to an A? Probably not. Can I be successful and still find balance in my life? Definitely. I know it’s possible. I’ve been recovered for a while now, and I refuse to submit myself to the torture of starvation or the self-guilt of binging. I’m worth way more than that.

So now that I’ve been completely honest with you all, I’ll be using my blog as a place to help myself get out of this weird, scary, relapse I’ve been in for the last few weeks. I’m looking forward to getting back to the place where food is no longer an issue, and I know writing will help me get through this.

Onto a much more lighthearted topic…

Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie

Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie

via The Pink and Blue Blog

What You’ll Need:
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 egg
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup chocolate chunks

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter in an 8 inch cast iron skillet set over medium-low heat. Stir in sugars and vanilla and remove from heat. Let rest until pan is warm, but no longer very hot, about 5 minutes.

2. Crack an egg onto the butter and sugar mixture, and use a fork to whisk it well into the mixture. Place flour, baking soda, and salt on top, and very carefully stir into the mixture until smooth and well-mixed. Stir in chocolate chunks. Place in the oven for 15 minutes, or until starting to turn golden on the top and around the edges, but soft in the center. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Yes, these were delicious. I ate a slice warm and gooey, straight from the pan. I prefer the taste of bars to cookies because their texture is much chewier. Also, these have a unique flavor because of browning the butter in the skillet. These are definitely a treat. I’m already thinking this would be a perfect alternative for me for a birthday cake since I don’t love cake.

XOXO,

Jamie

A new way to dress up your oats

I’m home on fall break! You know what that means? Lots of novels, relaxing, spending time with family…and unfortunately, studying. Even when I’m on vacations from school I never feel like I can fully relax because I still have so much homework and studying that I could be doing. I still have a million projects and exams looming over my head for the rest of the semester. Does anyone else feel like they can’t relax when they still have projects and deadlines on their mind? How do you deal with it? I struggle with this a lot and definitely let my anxiety get the best of me.

Anyways, onto my recent breakfast obsession: pudding oats. I just microwave 1/2 cup oatmeal with 1 cup water. Once they’re done, I stir in a little carton of pudding.

These oats are topped with Boston Creme Pie pudding. Such a yummy, creamy breakfast.

I love oatmeal because you can give it so much variety with what you add to it. Other add-ins include nut butters, syrup, fruit, cocoa powder, coffee powder, protein powder, cottage cheese, yogurt, and granola. I’ve also crumbled muffins on top of my oatmeal. So good!

XOXO,

Jamie

What I Ate Wednesday!

Can you believe it is Wednesday already!? I cannot! This week is (thankfully!) flying by. I know that I should cherish every moment of my life, and not wish time away. Next week is fall break though, so I get to spend an entire week at home! Needless to say I am excited! There will be a lot of baking going on.

Also, can you believe I actually remembered to photograph all my eats today!? It’s been super fun. I’ve loved everything I ate today, so enjoy

Coffee Oats! Yep, I cooked my oats with water, then added instant coffee powder and lots of sugar. Today was my first time trying it, and I’m glad I did.

Do you think coffee in my oats stopped me from having coffee between classes? Nope! I needed some fuel for my discussion in virology today. This large coffee with soy milk did the trick.

Lunch was a mixed green salad with sunflower seeds, onion, snap peas, turkey, and balsamic vinegar. I also had some cottage cheese and grapes on the side.

Mid-afternoon snack while studying virology. Noticing a theme here? My life is being taken over by school.

This dinner came together so quickly! The garlic butter sauce on the pasta was delicious and there was just enough to give you amazing flavor without being overwhelming or heavy. I sauteed up some extra broccoli and mushrooms to amp up the volume of the meal. I’m already looking forward to eating the leftovers tomorrow!

I’m sure I’ll get some late night hunger after a long night of studying and pinning Snacks could possibly include oatmeal with biscoff spread, yogurt and wheat puffs, or a smoothie…we’ll see what my belly wants when the time comes. A glass of wine could also be on the agenda tonight.

XOXO,

Jamie

Pumpkin Muffins/Cupcakes/Whatever you want to call them!

Now, onto the yummy pumpkin muffin recipe I promised you. I have an issue with Muffins…they are totally just cupcakes without frosting. Anyways, these pumpkin muffins taste just like pumpkin pie. They are super ooey gooey, pumpkin, spicy, delicious.

These are my pumpkin muffins! All they consist of is a box of spice cake mix mixed with 15 oz canned pure pumpkin. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes, and voila!

My sister also made these muffins, but she frosted hers, and made them look super cute!

My sister is a lovely photographer! (And she is still in high school!) Check out her other work here! I certainly miss food styling. I can’t wait to get my second hand DSLR, thanks to my aforementioned lovely photographer sister, and get back into my food photography!

Make some quick and easy pumpkin muffin/cupcakes! It’s soooo not fall without eating pumpkin every day!

XOXO,

Jamie

Spaghetti Squash Lasagna: A great fall dish!

Darren and I love to cook together. I give Darren all the hard tasks involving knives while I get to do all the fun, easy stuff! I’m pretty sure using sharp knives makes him feel manly though, so he doesn’t mind. I also love to bake with Darren, but I’m not sure Darren enjoys it quite as much as cooking. I’m very particular with my baking methods. I tend to bark orders at my baking assistants and then end up doing everything myself when their measuring, mixing, piping, etc. doesn’t live up to my perfectionist standards.

Darren visited me this weekend, so naturally, cooking and baking adventures ensued. We made a delicious spaghetti squash lasagna, yummy pumpkin muffins (which I will post the recipe to soon), and terrible pumpkin pancakes. I will spare you my recipe for the failed pumpkin pancakes. They were terrible. So yucky. I don’t know how I managed to make pancakes taste so bad!

Anyways, enough talk of failure, and onto the successes!

This spaghetti squash lasagna was so delicious. It had all the great flavors of traditional lasagna, just with spaghetti squash instead of noodles. This entire pan was gone within 24 hours. Needless to say, this recipe was a winner with both me and Darren. If Darren loves a recipe, it’s totally man approved. Just don’t tell your man how super healthy it is It will be our secret.

Spaghetti Squash Lasagna

Recipe by SkinnyTaste

Ingredients:

• 2 cups marinara sauce
• 3 cups cooked roasted spaghetti squash
• 1 cup part skim ricotta
• 8 tsp parmesan cheese
• 6 oz part skim shredded mozzarella (I used Sargento)

Preheat oven to 375°.

In a 9x 13, ladle 1 cup quick marinara sauce on the bottom of each dish. Top with of cooked spaghetti squash and spread evenly. Top each with 1 cup ricotta.

Sprinkle 4 teaspoons of grated parmesan cheese and 3 oz mozzarella on each.  Add the remaining sauce, parmesan and mozzarella cheese.

Cover with foil and bake for 15 – 20 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and the edges begin to bubble; uncover and cook an additional 5 minutes.

Stay tuned for those pumpkin muffins!

When I’m with you, every day is a vacation :)

I read in Cosmo (I admit it, I breeze through my roommate’s Cosmo every month. There is actually some good info in there!) that the happiest couples feel like they are on vacation when they are together. Both partners feel more relaxed, have more fun, and find joy in simple things. That definitely describes Darren and I. We are happy together.

Darren visited me this weekend, and I had an amazing time as always. Maybe the fact that I’m so carefree when he’s around is a part of the reason I hate when he leaves. We did lots of fun stuff like cooking, baking, eating ice cream, drinking coffee, watching movies, and watching football…

Well, Darren watched football. I read…and then napped. It was glorious. Especially because I get zero sleep at night with Darren snoring in my ear.

He cares too much about Michigan football and he snores. I guess if those are his biggest flaws, I can deal.

Be looking forward to a post about our cooking and baking adventures from the weekend.

XOXO,

Jamie

Homemade Wheat Thins

Alright, so I totally meant to do a What I ate Wednesday post today, but I completely forgot to photograph my food. Alas, I can at least provide you with a totally delicious recipe for homemade wheat thins.

Is anyone else a huge cheap-o when it comes to buying groceries? If my mom is buying, I’m all for getting my expensive foods like coconut milk and protein bars. When I shop for myself though, I refuse to pay 4 dollars for a package of crackers. But I love me some wheat thins, so I took matters into my own hands!

 

Okay, so they aren’t quite as pretty as store-bought, but they have a very similar texture and flavor. AND NO PRESERVATIVES!

Homemade Wheat Thins

I got the recipe from sweetpeaskitchen

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt, plus extra for topping
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, stir together the flour, sugar, salt and paprika. Add the butter and toss with a fork to coat with the flour mixture. Mix on medium-low speed until the texture resembles coarse cornmeal, with the butter pieces no larger than small peas. Add the water and vanilla and mix on low speed just until the dough pulls together. (My dough was still pretty dry so I had to add slightly more water before it came together.)
3. Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces, cover with a towel so they don’t dry out. Working one piece at a time, on a lightly floured work surface, roll one of the dough pieces into a large rectangle, 1/16-inch thick. Using a pizza cutter, cut the rectangle into squares about 1 to 1 1/2 inches wide.
4. Transfer the dough squares to the prepared baking sheets. You don’t need to leave much space in between the crackers-they don’t spread at all in the oven. Sprinkle lightly with salt and cover with a towel. Repeat the rolling and cutting process with the remaining 3 pieces of dough. Save all of your scraps under the towel and reroll them all at once to create a final batch of crackers.
5. Bake the crackers, one sheet at a time, until crisp and browned, about 5-10 minutes.  Check the crackers after 5 minutes to remove some of the thinner ones that are browning too quickly and return the remaining crackers to the oven to finish baking. Transfer crackers to a wire rack and allow to cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

Yields: about 64 crackers

Source: adapted from Tracey’s Culinary Adventures, originally from King Arthur Whole Grain Baking Cookbook

When I made the recipe, I left out the paprika, simply because I didn’t have any. They still turned out great! If someone bakes them with the paprika let me know how they turn out! Also, I’m thinking these would be delicious with a little more sugar and cinnamon added to them…sweet crackers

XOXO,

Jamie

It’s finally the weekend…

And I can take a breather.

It has been an exhausting week, as I’m sure you could tell from my lack of posting. This weekend isn’t going to be super exciting either since I have to study for a virology exam, revise a literature paper, and prepare for an oral report, but I’m determined to have at least a little bit of fun!

This evening, Emma and I went to Walmart to pick up some much needed groceries. Ice cream, hot chocolate, and baking supplies…totally essential. We both needed to satisfy our pumpkin cravings, so we did a little baking this evening.

I made pumpkin granola!

It turned out so great! I can’t wait to eat some of this on top of yogurt or oatmeal….or just eat it plain with my fingers because I’m classy like that

Pumpkin Granola

from shopcookmake

serves one (I doubled this recipe in the above photos!)

1/2 cup Oats
2 tbsp Honey
2 tsp Water or Apple Juice
1/4 tsp Cinnamon
pinch of Nutmeg
pinch of Salt
2 tbsp Pumpkin Puree

-Mix all of the ingredients in a small bowl, make sure they’re well incorporated.

-Place in a baking dish, bake at 300 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Keep an eye on it, granola burns fast!

Emma had something a little different in mind for her pumpkin.

PUMPKIN MUFFINS! She made these simply by mixing a box of yellow cake mix with 15 oz. of canned pure pumpkin and baking for 20 minutes at 350 F. I haven’t tried one yet, but she said they rock! And I definitely have my eyes set on one for tomorrow’s breakfast.

Tomorrow I’m going to see a play with my brother and his girlfriend. Sometimes my brother is such a bone head, but then out of the blue, he invites me to see a play, and even bought my (expensive) ticket! I’m super excited to spend the day with him tomorrow. Then in the evening, I’ll be hitting the books…hard.

Have a good weekend everyone!

XOXO,

Jamie