The semester is finally getting underway

The semester is finally really starting up. My classes are in full swing. I’ve got plenty of assignments to keep me busy. I’ve started shadowing a local pediatrician. My first day was last week, and I absolutely loved it. And my research job is getting underway. I, along with two professors, am studying abortion discourse in Kenya revolving around their new constitution which has a more progressive abortion law (although abortion is still illegal there except when the health of the mother is at stake).

A busy girl needs lots of fuel, so here’s a few of my recent eats:

Friday, my roommate (and amazing friend), Emma bought a popcorn popper. You just pour kernels in and it pops them! Besides getting to eat delicious (and healthy) popcorn, you also get the added entertainment of watching popcorn fly from the chute. This girl is easily entertained, obviously.

This morning’s breakfast: pumpkin pie oats! I love that canned pumpkin is finally hitting the shelves! This oatmeal consisted of 1/2 cup oats cooked in 1 1/2 cups water on the stove. Once my oats were at the thick, pasty consistency I love, I added 1/2 cup pure canned pumpkin puree, 2 tsp cinnamon (I love cinnamon!), and a packet of splenda.

Now, what is that shiny stuff on top of my oatmeal? MAPLE SYRUP! I drizzled maple syrup on top of my oats, and microwaved the whole bowl for about 15 seconds to warm up the syrup. The syrup takes this bowl of oatmeal from amazing to “omg I love fall and pumpkin and syrup in all its glorious amazingnessssssssss.“

This evening’s dinner: a grilled chicken breast, shredded and combined with about 2 cups of sauteed veggies (bell peppers, brocolli, carrots, mushrooms) and topped with a lot of Parmesan cheese. I love pairing tons of veggies with any form of protein.

Alright, well I have a lot of background reading to tackle for my research project, so everyone enjoy their Monday evening! Dancing with the Stars premieres tonight! <—- totally going to use this as a homework distraction.

Have you eaten any foods recently that remind you of fall or the holiday season?

Do you use television as a distraction?

What show are you super excited for this fall?

XOXO,

Jamie

Spur of the Moment Muffins

It’s 8:00pm Tuesday night. I’m done with my homework. The thought of studying anymore MCAT is nauseating. I’ve already caught up on all the episodes of Dance moms and Pinterest no longer holds my interest. Whats a girl to do when late night bordom sets in?

This girl bakes.

What’s a girl to do when her apartment has zero baking ingredients?

Make a trip to the grocery store in her pajamas.

I really hope my PJ pants put a smile on someone’s face! The picture is kind of blurry, but the hearts are shaped from candy canes. September officially starts the holiday season right?

I planned to make pumpkin muffins with a box of yellow cake mix and a can of pumpkin. Unfortuately, the grocery store was out of pumpkin! I had to improvise. I picked up a box of Devil’s food cake mix, unsweetened applesauce, and cinnamon. When I got home I poured the cake mix in the bowl, added about 15 oz of applesauce and 2 tsp. cinnamon.

The result:

Big gooey, chocolate, apple, cinnamon muffins. It is seriously hard to mess up a boxed cake mix. Add enough wet ingredients, and you’re bound to end up with an edible product. These muffins have an interesting flavor combo, but they are super good. The chocolate and cinnamon together is delish!

My breakfast this morning:

A bowl of vanilla yogurt with muffins crumbled on top. Yum! I’m feeling pretty great after this breakfast. It’s time for me to head to class now though! Have a great day!

XOXO,

Jamie

 

Healthy Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

Ever since last spring I’ve been dying to get my hands on some canned pumpkin to make a pumpkin pie smoothie. Apparently, when you live in the smack dab middle of no where Ohio, pumpkin is purely a seasonal item. My little heart broke every time I went grocery shopping and saw the “temporarily out of stock” sign where the canned pumpkin should be. What’s a girl supposed to do when she’s having a pumpkin pie craving in the middle of summer!? Suffer I suppose…

 

Until one day I was visiting Darren. He lives in a bigger city where there is an amazing grocery store similar to Whole Foods. They had organic canned pumpkin! I could have fallen over and died in that moment. I really didn’t think I’d be getting any pumpkin until Thanksgiving!

I finally got to make my pumpkin pie smoothie. YAY! It was delicious and definitely worth the wait.

Yummy, yummy, get in my tummy. This smoothie tastes exactly like a pumpkin pie, just in the form of a healthy smoothie!

And that is one happy CollegeGirl.

Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

adapted from Oh She Glows and Dashing Dish

• 1/2 C cottage cheese
• 1/2 C milk (I used unsweeted vanilla Almond Breeze, but any milk would work fine)
• 1/2 C pure canned pumpkin puree
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ginger
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• sugar to taste (I recommend a 1-3 teaspoons)
• a large handful of ice cubes

Place everything in blender, and blend until smoothie is smooth. Enjoy!

XOXO,

Jamie

Homemade Nutella

Now, as I’ve spoken about in the passed, I have an aversion to processed food.

Neon orange “cheese” powder- No thanks.

Chicken Nuggets- Exactly what part of the chicken is the “nugget”?

High Fructose Corn Syrup- It’s a cheaper sweetener than sugar, but PLEASE I JUST WANT SUGAR.

Processed foods are edible food-like substances. They diminish my eating experience, and leave me feeling a little blah.  Now that’s not to say I never eat processed foods, because I certainly do. I love bagged snack mixes like chex mix, but I make sure to eat them in moderation because of the high salt content. I also eat them in combination with nutrient rich foods.

Nut butter’s can be super delicious and nutritious. You have to be careful when buying nut butters at the store though, as the regular varieties are often questionable containing a lot of sugar, hydrogenated oils, and glycerides. The best nut butters keep it plain and simple, usually with two ingredients: the nut and salt.

I’m boring you all with all this talk of healthy nut butters, so I’ll leave it at this: Whenever you make your own version of a processed food, it’s bound to be better for you. And here’s to homemade Nutella…

Homemade Nutella

• 150g hazelnuts- Roast at 200º C for 10-15 mins until very fragrant. Pulverize in a food processor or blender until you get a very smooth peanut butter-like paste.

Add these remaining ingredients and continue blending until smooth:

• 100g milk chocolate, (I used 2.5 regular sized Hershey bars, melted and cooled)

• 2 tbsp cocoa powder

• 1/2 cup icing sugar

• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

• A few drops of vegetable oil

Store in a jar at room temperature. Enjoy on anything and everything!

Oh yeah, did I mention that the homemade is much more delicious than store bought? No joke.

XOXO,

Jamie

Double Chocolate (super fudgey gooey) Pancake (mess)!

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I planned to make protein packed, healthy, chocolate pancakes for lunch today. Well things didn’t go quite as planned when I accidentally added too much liquid to my pancake batter. Of course I wasn’t going to throw out the batter and waste all that food! Not to mention, I had used my last chocolate protein bar which is one of the ingredients. However, if you’re not a fan of protein bars, no worries! They’re totally optional in this recipe.

So back to the soupy pancake batter…I decided to try and cook it up like pancakes anyways. It kind of worked. Kind of.  The pancakes turned out super gooey and fudgey. They were delicious, but I can’t wait to try my hand at this recipe again, with decreased liquid to make proper pancakes!

Doesn’t that look like a delicious pancake mess!?

I have a confession to make. After these pancakes were in the pan cooking, I may have used a spatula to lick out every last drop of batter from the bowl. It’s true. The batter was that good. Next time, I might just eat this pancake batter raw. I wish I was kidding.

Double Chocolate Pancakes

serves 1

• 1/4 cup flour (I used oat flour made by pulsing 1/3 cup oatmeal in a blender until pulverized. However feel free to use any flour.)
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 T cocoa powder
• 1 T sugar (or 2 packets splenda)
• dash of salt
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/3 C milk (I used 1/2 C almond milk. Use the decreased measurement! Do not make my mistakes!)
• 1 chocolate protein bar, pulverized in blender or food processor (optional)

Combine dry ingredients, then add wet ingredients and mix.  I cooked half of the protein bar bits into the pancakes and topped my pancakes with the remaining half of the bar. Cook pancakes in pan or griddle, and enjoy!

The possibilities are endless with these pancakes. You could leave out the protein bar, and add in chocolate protein powder. You could nix the added protein all together if that’s not your thing, and add chocolate chips!  You could top these with this peanut butter dip. You could add coconut! Seriously, the sky is the limit.

XOXO,

Jamie

Healthy (enough) Banana Muffins!

Before getting to these delicious muffins: If you haven’t already, become a fan of CollegeGirlCooking on facebook!  Thanks and love ya’ll!

Now back to our regular scheduled programming…

Bananas do not get eaten in this household, yet my mom continues buying them.  When it comes to fresh fruit, my favorites are apples and strawberries. Bananas are kind of far down on the list…

Since bananas are always turning super brown in my house, I’ve found several ways of using them. The browner, the better!

1. Oatmeal

2. Banana Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

3. Smoothies

4. Pancakes

When I came upon four super brown bananas sitting on my counter yesterday, I knew I had to do something to remedy the problem. I hate throwing away good food!  So, as the saying goes, “when the bananas get brown, the bakers make muffins.”

–Okay so maybe I made that up. Anyways, these muffins are super moist and full of banana and cinnamon flavor. They’re also pretty healthy for a muffin! Good taste and healthy too! It’s a win/win.

Look at all those yummy browned banana bits!

I seriously cannot wait to put one of these into my belly as part of lunch.

Banana Cinnamon Muffins

via The Pastry Affair

Yields 12 standard size muffins

1/3 cup unsalted butter, room temperature (I used margarine)
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
4 over-ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 cup milk (I used unsweetened almond milk, but dairy/rice/coconut/soy would also work)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour (I used white AP because that’s all I had on hand, however I bet whole wheat pastry flour would be great)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a muffin tin or line with baking cups.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and continue to beat. Mix in the mashed banana. Stir in milk and vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Fold dry ingredients into wet until just blended.

Spoon the batter evenly between the muffin cups and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool and store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Satisfy your muffin craving with these treats at home. Your body will thank you.

XOXO,

Jamie

Super Filling Oatmeal Bowl

Hey everyone!

It’s been a really productive day here at CollegeGirlCooking. Firstly, I’d like to say that there is now a CollegeGirlCooking fanpage on facebook!

Please like my page on facebook here!!: CollegeGirlCooking fanpage

Other than that, I’ve made about a zillion organic chemistry flashcards in preparation for the mcat. What’s worse than making a zillion flashcards? Memorizing a zillion flashcards…

It will all be worth it in the end when I (hopefully) rock that 5 hour long exam right? Right!

After a morning’s worth of studying, I needed to refuel my brain with some food. My normal lunch combos didn’t sound all too appealing today for some reason. I normally have a sandwich with some combination of pretzels, crackers, fruit, and/or veggies. Today I wasn’t feeling that though, so I made an oatmeal bowl. It was yummy and super filling.

This oatmeal bowl would be the perfect alternative for kids who eat too much cereal like Fruit Loops and Cocoa Puffs. My oatmeal bowl contained oatmeal, almond milk, cocoa powder, a ripe mashed banana, and a dollop of this peanut butter dip. The peanut butter, chocolate, banana combo is totally appealing to kids. Yes, my lunch was more of a second breakfast, but I just love my breakfast food!

Oh yeah, I also had a scoop of ice cream to round out this delicious lunch

Super Filling Oatmeal Bowl

1/2 cup oats- you can use whatever kind of oats you prefer and however you prefer to cook them. I ate mine cold, but this bowl would also be completely delicious with cooked oatmeal.

enough milk to cover oatmeal or cook it in- you can also use water.  I used unsweetened almond milk

1 very ripe banana, mashed

1 Tbs. cocoa powder

1 Tbs. peanut butter- I used this peanut butter dip

sweetener to taste

Cook oatmeal however you prefer. I used this method for overnight oats. Stir in mashed banana, then add cocoa powder and peanut butter. I left my cocoa powder and peanut butter on top, but you can also stir it in. Add enough sweetener of your choosing to taste, depending on your preference and ripeness of the banana.

Now seriously, go make this oatmeal bowl for breakfast. Your stomach (and your kids!) will thank you!

XOXO,

Jamie

 

Taking a Rest Day and Peanut Butter Dip/Sauce/Spread/Deliciousness

Hello lovlies!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Thursday. My Thursday started out fabulous with a delicious breakfast I will tell you about later on. However, the day quickly went downhill as I attempted to study for the MCAT. I was super productive for about an hour, but then, I could NOT focus.

I tried all my tricks for focusing. I took a break. I had some caffeine. I went for a walk. I sat back down to study, and my mind was just screaming “NO!”  So, today was a light day on the studying front, and I’m not planning to do anymore studying the rest of the evening. I’ve been hard-core studying for the past three days. Today, my mind finally needed a rest.

Today my body also needs a rest. I haven’t talked too much on the blog about my exercise habits. In the past, I’d force myself to run miles and spend grueling hours sweating it out at the gym. I no longer force myself to workout. I DO exercise though. I move when my body feels like moving. As I just mentioned, one of my favorite tricks for getting focused on a task is to go on a walk. It gets the restlessness out of me and allows me to sit and focus. My boyfriend and I also love going on walks together.

Recently though, I’ve been feeling sort of weak, and I wanted to find a light strength training activity. Lucky for me I found something I love! I rented a DVD from my library called Iron Yoga.

Iron yoga combines weights with power yoga poses for strength training. I’m actually really surprised at how much I love Iron Yoga. I don’t really like yoga, and I don’t really like lifting weights, but the combination of the two is great! It’s an amazing workout. I did half of the DVD Tuesday and the other half Wednesday. Today I am sore! I want to do yoga today because I have some much fun doing it, and I feel so great afterwards. I know I need a rest day though.

Now, onto my delicious breakfast. I kind of love peanut butter. It goes great with just about everything. My favorite way to eat peanut butter is dipping apple slices in it. However, I find that I can easily eat about half a cup of peanut butter doing this. One problem is that peanut butter is super thick, so instead of thinly coating my apple slice, I end up with a huge glob on PB right on the end.  I’m getting really technical on this peanut butter rant. I’ll just skip to the good part.

To the left is creamy dreamy PB sauce, and to the right is my breakfast. It consisted of wheat puffs layered with yogurt and my creamy dreamy PB sauce.  It was amazing. I haven’t even had dinner yet tonight, and I’m already looking forward to this breakfast tomorrow!

Creamy Dreamy PB Sauce

adapted from Oh She Glows

Yield: Approx. 28 tablespoons or 1 and 3/4 cup

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup natural peanut butter
• 3/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk
• 1 tbsp pure maple syrup
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon, or to taste

Directions: Blend everything in blender until smooth!

This Creamy Dreamy PB sauce was great on my breakfast parfait.  It’s creamier than peanut butter alone, so it is perfect for dipping. It would also be good on oatmeal, toast, fruit…basically anything. Also, you can customize it with your own add-ins. Omit the cinnamon and add chocolate chips or cocoa powder. Dream up your own favorite combination.

XOXO,

Jamie

Oatmeal Pancakes

Exciting news here at CollegeGirlCooking!  I just found out that I (and my Avena Shake) were featured on Glamour.com! You can see that article here: http://www.glamour.com/health-fitness/blogs/vitamin-g/2011/07/breakfast-at-your-desk-avena-s.html

 

I thought I’d take today to share a few things I’ve been loving recently:

1. Sweet Cherries- Yum! I hadn’t tried sweet cherries until about a week ago, and now I’m totally in love.  I’ve eaten about 2 pounds in the last 4 days. I seriously can’t get enough.

2.  Finishing the novel “Everything Matters!” by Ron Currie Jr. – This book was a really good read.  It’s about a boy who is born knowing when the world will end.  While I loved this apocalyptic book, I did not love the apocalyptic nightmares it gave me.  I’m thankful that I won’t have to endure more dreams about being eaten by dinosaurs.

3. Yoga for Strength- I am weak. I do not enjoy strength training. I can’t do a push-up. I did, however, find a strength training workout I enjoy-YOGA! While some yoga routines focus on flexibility or relaxation, others focus on strength. Look up “yoga for strength” on youtube, and you’ll find a lot of videos.  I did 15 minutes of yoga, and I’m still sore 2 days later.

4. Delicious protein packed breakfasts- I’ve been really into my breakfast shakes lately, but today I switched things up and had oatmeal pancakes.  They were so amazing and quick to make!  These oatmeal pancakes are full of protein and fiber to keep you going in the morning.  I topped mine with yogurt, wheat puffs, and pear slices.

Oatmeal Pancakes

adapted from www.motherof2andloverofshoes.wordpress.com

1/3 C. instant oatmeal (uncooked)

1 egg white

1 tsp. baking powder

Dash of Cinnamon

Dash of Sugar

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Add a splash of water to thin out the batter. Divide batter in two and place batter on heated non-stick skillet.  Cook until eat side is slightly browned

The possibilities for these pancakes are endless. You can add your favorite spices and toppings to the pancake batter.  You could use your favorite flavored instant oatmeal and omit the cinnamon and sugar.  You can top these pancakes with anything: syrup, peanut butter, nutella, pureed fruit, chocolate chips, chocolate syrup, etc.

Enjoy!

XOXO,

Jamie

 

Learning to Love Myself & Peanut Butter Shake

Many people hold the misperception that eating disorders are solely about food.  In reality, food (binging/refusal of food/purging) are all symptoms of the REAL issue.  Refusing food or binging is the way people with eating disorders learn to cope with something that would otherwise be unbearable.

For me, I was super unhappy my freshman year of college.  To distract myself from my depression, loneliness, and severe homesickness, I (unconsciously) told myself that if I was skinny I would be happy.  I focused all my attention on losing weight.  Keeping my focus on dieting and exercise distracted me from the real problems going on in my life. My eating disorder was self destructive, but I needed a coping mechanism and it was all I had.

The number on the scale kept going down and down, but I still wasn’t happy. Of course I realize now that being skinny doesn’t constitute happiness.  I’m happier now at my healthy weight than I ever was when I was extremely underweight. This happiness came to be because I finally stopped to search for what in my life was really making me unhappy.  It wasn’t my weight.

After determining the causes of my unhappiness, I made changes in my life.  I transferred colleges.  I no longer force myself to study 24/7.  I give myself breaks whenever I want them.  I’ve learned to tell people “no”. I’ve slowed down the pace of my day and have learned to appreciate the beauty in things around me.  Essentially, I’ve learned to love myself.

This isn’t to say that my life is complete bliss because that’s unreal for anyone.  I still get stressed over schoolwork. I still worry about my future. Sometimes I still get lonely.  I’ve learned to cope with these things though in a much healthier way.  I call Darren or my sisters if I’m stressed.  I talk to my parents about growing up, and they assure me things will work out okay. And when I get lonely, I escape into a novel.

So now that I love myself and I’ve learned to take care of myself, I only feed myself things my body loves! Lately I’ve been loving these protein packed breakfast shakes.  I recently made a peanut butter shake.

Peanut Butter Shake

1/2 C. cottage cheese

10 ice cubes

1 Tbs. peanut butter

sweetener of choice (a couple teaspoons sugar or a couple packets splenda/truvia)

1/2 C. milk (I used almond milk, but dairy will work too)

Blend everything in blender until ice is fully crushed and everything is incorporated.

XOXO,

Jamie