Brinner

I love breakfast, but I especially love breakfast for dinner.

Enter, brinner:

Tonight’s dinner was three pieces of cinnamon french toast topped with vanilla yogurt and syrup! For me and probably the rest of the world, dinner is usually a more savory meal. However, today my sweet tooth was raging, so I went with it! The warm syrup made the yogurt all melty and yummy.

Okay, now this picture just cracks me up. I am the kind of person who continually adds more syrup to my french toast/pancakes/waffles as I eat them. So of course, when I got to my last piece of french toast, I needed more syrup. I poured the syrup in one spot, and accidentally made my yogurt/syrup look like a fried egg! Don’t you think so?! I love food that looks like other food. Meatloaf cupcakes with mashed potato frosting anyone?

So that was my most exciting eat of the day. Now onto other things…

Today was a super happy day. I took a scary exam this morning that I’m so thankful to have behind me. The last week or so has been really stressful and busy. Today I finally felt the return of normalcy (which will be short-lived thanks to my approaching final exams). The weather was beautiful! I was able to just lay out in the sun, relax, and clear my mind for a little while.

But even on beautiful, relaxing days, I still have to make time for academics.

This is my friend and I in bio-organic chemistry lecture today. We should probably pay better attention so that we don’t have to repeat the labs five times each before getting them right….

Nah.

This is a page from today’s bio-organic chemistry notes. After I took this picture, I was thinking to myself, “When did I become such a bad student? I was so studious in high school…” Then I realized…no, I was exactly the same in high school. I just had all the teachers fooled into thinking I was studious! I admit it, I fell asleep in Spanish 4 every day. Also, I may have skipped VHS on occasion for coffee.

Oh who am I kidding…I’m hardly a slacker.

I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend! I might be setting a new personal distance record on Saturday, so I will let you all know how that goes!

XOXO,

Jamie

You Won’t Believe It’s Not a Milkshake

Okay, I have to get to a chem review session in 20 minutes, so this post is going to be super quick.

I present to you The White Chocolate “Milkshake” that is SO DAMN GOOD You Won’t Believe It’s Actually NOT a Milkshake and is Actually Super Healthy.

Whew…that’s quite a mouthful, but no other name would do this creamy, frozen beverage justice. When I brainstormed this gem, I had super high hopes for it. I LOVE white chocolate. The outcome completely exceeded even my wildest expectations.

It all started a couple weeks ago when I was browsing the internet for new smoothie ideas. I kept reading about how a pinch of xanthan gum makes smoothies super thick and creamy…so I made a super major impulse buy and spent $10 for xanthan gum on Amazon. TOTALLY WORTH IT!

Today I got my xanthan gum in the mail, and I made this. I must warn you, the ingredient list is a little scary. Trust me on this one though!

White Chocolate “Milkshake”

1/2 cup cottage cheese

6-8 ice cubes

3 tsp stevia (or other sweetener of choice)

2 tsp Jello Brand Sugar Free White Chocolate Pudding Mix

1/2 tsp xanthan gum

enough soy milk (or milk of choice) to blend everything together (probably about a cup)

Put it all in a blender and blend. Enjoy bliss.

XOXO,

Jamie

 

The bestest healthy strawberry milkshake you will ever have the pleasure of drinking!

Alright ya’ll. I have a good one for you today. Yesterday I made the best smoothie ever. It tasted like a thick, creamy milkshake. It was so good, I made it again today. And I want another one right now…..but…..it’s past 8:00 pm.

I force myself to stop drinking liquids at 8:00 pm. If I don’t, I am up all night going to the bathroom. No lie. Even when I don’t drink anything past 8, I still get up once in the middle of the night. Sad times over here.

Was there ice cream in this aforementioned smoothie/milkshake/hybrid you ask? No… This smoothie is a super healthy snack and can easily be turned into a meal on the go with the addition of protein powder.

So I didn’t have a glass massive enough to fit all that smoothie in, and I hate doing dishes so I figured why not solve both problems by drinking it directly from the blender!? Roommate got a kick out of this one. I told her my blog is called CollegeGirlCooking for a reason.

Strawberry Milkshake Amazingness

1 cup frozen strawberries

1/2 cup cottage cheese (SERIOUSLY! You will love this I promise!)

3 tsp sugar or stevia or whatever sweetener your heart desires

enough milk of choice to reach desired consistency. I probably used about a cup of 2%. I never measure the liquid I add to smoothies. I just add a little, then keep adding more until is it justtttt rightttt.

Put everything in the blender. Blend. Voila. Super protein packed delicious milkshake-esque smoothie. The cottage cheese makes the smoothie super creamy and more like a milkshake rather than a smoothie. Like I said, you can add a scoop or two of protein powder and make this smoothie into a meal on the go.

Also, random thought, but some cocoa powder could also be a super great add in. Chocolate covered strawberry milkshake? I might just have to try that out tomorrow.

I’m going to relax the rest of this Wednesday evening. I totally need and deserve it after a day of super hard-core studying. I hope you all can have a restful evening as well.

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

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!

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

It’s WIAW time again :)

Hello lovelies!

These are my eats from Wednesday Tuesday!

Breakfast:

Chocolate Oats!

To make these oats, I prepared my oats as normal. When they were done cooking, I added two tablespoons cocoa powder, lots of sugar, a splash of coconut milk, and a dollop of whipped cream on top! Everything is better with whipped cream!

Lunch:

Grilled Turkey Sandwich with Laughing Cow Light cheese.

Celestial Seasonings Lemon Zinger Tea

Wheat puffs with vanilla yogurt and cinnamon sprinkled on top.

Snack: Lots of jelly beans that I forgot to take a picture of before I devoured them! I needed a sugar rush before my three hour stint shadowing Doc (I will now refer to the Doctor I’m shadowing by the name Doc because it conceals his identity, and it prevents me from having to repeat the phrase “the doctor I’m shadowing”….whew)

Dinner:

Veggies and white beans sauteed with a wedge of Laughing Cow Light

Hot Chocolate with whipped cream! I’ve been on a whipped cream kick lately. Yummmmm.

And now I’m off to probably make a smoothie or some other delicious snack. I’ve been revising a problem set for the last hour and I’m still on the first question. I need brain food…majorly.

XOXO,

Jamie

My Boyfriend Doesn’t Like Oatmeal

What am I going to feed him for breakfast?

My latest breakfast creation is caramel oatmeal. I simply make a bowl of oatmeal, add some cinnamon and sugar, and top the oatmeal with a sugar free caramel pudding snack. I actually stir in the pudding to blend it through the oatmeal, but I wanted you all to see all that caramel pudding goodness topping my oats!

Yummm. I love oatmeal. Let’s take a look:

1. pumpkin pie oatmeal

2. vegan overnight oats

3. super filling oatmeal bowl

I also have a few more oatmeal recipes I regularly make, but haven’t posted on the blog yet including banana bread oatmeal, chocolate oats, and apple pie oats.

I made caramel oats for breakfast Sunday when Darren was here. He is not a fan of oatmeal. I wanted him to at least try a bite though! He took a bite, and almost spit it out! He is crazy though because oatmeal+pudding=delicious! So instead, Darren drank a Carnation Breakfast. I need to find a form of oatmeal that Darren will like. I’m thinking maybe baked oatmeal?

He’s completely crazy for not liking oatmeal, but at least he’s kinda cute

Does anyone have any great oatmeal recipes?

Who else agrees that Darren is crazy for not liking oatmeal!?

XOXO,

Jamie

Pumpkin Obsessed

It’s that time of the week again! Can you believe it’s already Wednesday!? Technically these are Tuesday’s eats….but who’s really counting.

Let’s just say I’ve been a little pumpkin obsessed lately. Pumpkin has been impossible to come by in Ohio until very recently. I seriously can’t get my hands on enough of the stuff.

Breakfast:

Pumpkin overnight oats! These oats tasted like pumpkin pie. So good. Definitely will be having them again tomorrow. I mixed 1/3 cup oatmeal with 1/3 cup pumpkin, 2 tsp. cinnamon, a splenda packet, and enough coconut milk to blend everything together (probably a little less than a cup). Once all this was mixed, I placed it in the fridge overnight and had a wonderful breakfast waiting for me when I woke up.

Snack:

Yes, I prefer to drink my smoothies out of wine glasses. I’m just so classy like that…the plastic straw only adds to my illusion of class

<—there is my foot!

Banana Pumpkin smoothie! I blended together a frozen banana with 1/2 cup pumpkin, a teaspoon of cinnamon, a teaspoon of vanilla, 2 splenda packets, and about a cup of coconut milk. This smoothie was amazing.  Banana and pumpkin go together surprisingly well.

While I’m currently obsessed with pumpkin, I did however, eat lots of other yummy things today: grilled turkey sandwich, pretzels, grilled chicken, baked potato, jelly beans. Today was pretty good in the eats department, and was actually really great overall.

I had Renaissance Literature this morning which is actually turning out to be one of my favorite classes. It is super challenging for me, but the class is so exciting and fun. My professor is amazing and super enthusiastic about the topic. Then, this afternoon, I shadowed a pediatrician. I always have a lot of fun doing that. Every week I realize more and more that medicine is definitely what I need to do with my life. I had a lovely skype date with my boyfriend. Then I met up with some classmates to finish the Animal Physiology problem set. Now, I’m finally here, ready for some much need rest and relaxation.

Hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday!

What’s you’re favorite day of the week?

Don’t you think my sister should be super nice and give me her hand-me-down Nikon D40 so I can get back to beautiful food photography?

XOXO,

Jamie