Crypt of th Living

Good afternoon everybody. I hope that your Wednesday in Five Flavors of Fantastic!!! I've been a diagnosed insomniac for a couple of years now. It hasn't been bad at all lately. They non-sleeping habits come in cycles. I was doing great since I've moved to Louisville in November, and here in the past 3 days, 2 of them have been sleepless. I am just sooooo tired.

Once I knew that sleep was not coming and the sun was going to come out I headed to Wal-mart, and picked up some things for the new place. Basic stuff; sponges, drain cover, dish-rack, and ice cube trays. Nothing exciting. I need to get some stuff for some very innovative storage. After the trip to Wally World stopped by the new place, and dropped off all the goodies. Came home painted for a few hours. I realized I was starving.




2 eggs with hot sauce and pepper. and a piece of cinnamon raisin Ezekiel.

Back to primer-ing over all the old paint. This red is taking 3 coats of primer. I had to buy one of those 5 gallon things of Kilz. My apt is starting to look very sterile. I HATE white walls. Once I was sufficiently sick of it, I went to the new apt, and started putting together the new furniture. I didn't get too far, I should've brought a few tools; adjustable wrench, and screwdrivers. Again, I realized hungry I was, and by the way my arms are ON FIRE.

After debating what I wanted, it dawned on me Whole Foods

Vegan General Tsau's "chicken", basami rice, sesame kale, and asparagus. I swear that their "chicken" is the only imitation meat product that I actually enjoy. I love it more each time I eat it. I also had an "all-natural" energy drink from there. I looked at the ingredients. It looked the same as Red Bull, I just want it to kick in shortly. I honestly feel as if I could pass out with my head on the keyboard. Unfortunately I have to be at work in an hour. So, I need to keep busy until then.

Ooohh, before I forget. I made the best smoothie EVER yesterday.


Berry Me
1 1/4 cup mixed raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, and blueberries (frozen)
3/4 cup almond milk
1/4 cup vanilla Silk Soy yogurt,
1 scoop chocolate soy protein powder
Granola to garnish.

Cooking It up

So my day wasn't too eventful. Did not accomplish anything around the house except dishes and starting a load of laundry. I have yet to put up the 80,000 clean baskets. I did an hour workout at the gym, no fun... I'm beginning to get bored. After my 7 hours at work, I came home made a simple chicken alfredo with carrots, peas, and broccoli. Tomorrow morning I'm going to go up to the furniture store and finally pick out my new tables. Also to complain about my dining set now. AYE AYE AYE. I swear I will never buy anything else from there. Its all junk.


I also planned my dinner menu for tomorrow. The guy is coming over for dinner. Normally he does the cooking.

Polenta: makes 6 side-dish servings

Ingredients

• 6 cups water
• 4 tsp Salt
• 1 3/4 cups yellow cornmeal
• 3 T unsalted butter, (cut into pieces)
• 1 tsp plus 1/2 cup Olive Oil
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 cup Marinara

Instructions

• Bring water to boil. add 2 tsp salt, then gradually whisk in cornmeal. Reduce heat to low and cook, stirring often. Mixture will thicken and become tender. About 15 minutes
• Coat an 11*7 baking dish with 1 tsp olive oil. Transfer hot polenta to baking dish, spread evenly to 3/4 inch thick. Cover and refrigerate until cold and firm. About 2 hours.
• Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Cut polenta into 2*1 inch pieces. In a large heavy skillet, heat the remaining 1/2 cup of oil over a medium-high flame. Working in batches, fry the polenta pieces until golden brown on all sides, about 3 minutes per side. Using tongs, transfew the polenta pieces of paper and drain. Place the polenta pieces on a baking sheet and keept warm in the oven while cooking the remaining batches.
• Transfer the polenta pieces to serving platter. Sprinkle with parm cheese and salt. Serve with marinara.

It honestly isn't a lot of work and its truly delicious. I don't need to make that much so I will half the recipe. I am going to premake the main course and pop it in the oven right before I serve the antipasti.

Eggplant Parmigiana makes 4 servings.

Ingredients

• 1 12oz eggplant, (small)
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 1 T water
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 T cooking oil
• 1/3 cup grated Parm cheese
• 1 cup meatless spaghetti sauce
• 3/4 cup shredded mozzerella cheese

Instructions

• Wash and peel eggplant, cut crosswise into 1/2 inch slices. Combine egg adn water, dip eggplant slices into egg mixture, then into flour turning to coat both sides. In a large skillet cook eggplant half at a time, in hot oil for 4-6 minutes (golden brown). Drain onto paper towels.
• Place eggplant in a single layer in an ungreased 2 quart rectangular baking dish. Sprinkle with Parm cheese, top with spaghetti sauce and mozz cheese. Bake uncovered at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes.
  

This can be stored for up to 2 days after-wards. So I will make the whole amount, and store the rest for leftovers. I am excited to make all this. As a side dish I think I'll just make 2 sweet potatoes and top them with goat cheese and hazelnuts. It's pretty decadent, so its kind of like a dessert as well.

The reason I chose these specific dishes is because I already have all the ingredients except two. Technically I could make marinara, but I just have so much other stuff to do that I would rather just buy it, and heat it up.

Life's Good

For a while there it seemed that my life was still at a stand-still. Here in the past few days everything has seemed to do a 180. I finally got a job. It's not the greatest job, but pay is pretty good and I only have to deal with it till March when the "real" job kicks in. Also, I've been accepted to UofL. So I'm super excited. I've recently met a guy, he's pretty cool.

Woke up at 8:30 so I could have ample time to get ready and look presentable for my orientation. Breakfast involved a Blueberry Bliss Luna Bar, and a cup of almond milk. I can't believe I've never tried that before. Almond milk is so delicious, it tastes about 50 times better than soy and less calories. It has a bit less protein, but let me just say this, WOW. Work seems simple enough. They made me fill out some paperwork and gave me a book to look over. I start tomorrow night.

Made it to the post office to mail Claudia a package of some goodies I picked up for her. Unfortunately, there is no Whole Foods or any remotely healthy grocery stores where we are from. So I sent her some stuff that she has been wanting to try, and her x-mas gift that I forgot when I flew down there in December.

I made it to the gym, I really pushed it out on the cross-trainer. I was super sweaty and dead tired when I got off after an hour. Normally in an hour I burn an average of 650 calories. Today it was almost 800. I made it home just in time to catch the latest episode of Burn Notice that I missed on Wednesday.

After my workout I talked to Ris, I was feeling so dizzy and shaky. I am completely out of fruit so I need to go shopping here in a few days. I think I was feeling like that because I have cut out pretty much all processed foods and sugars. So I grabbed another Luna. About an hour later I had a one cup of this Cambells healthy select soup. it was decent. Im saving the last half of the can for tomorrow.

I FINALLY put away that dreaded laundry. I think there is a belt loose in my dryer because its taking a bit longer to dry my clothes than usual.

Dinner was completely amazing. I've been creating this recipe in my head so I decided to try it out tonight. I was really scared it would turn out bad, and he would think I'm a horrible cook.

Pizza from Scratch

• Preheat Oven to 425
  
• Homemade pizza dough use gluten free flour instead
• Brush on small amount of EVO on rolled out dough
  
• Pesto from Scratch, Found recipe from Giada de Laurentis's Everyday Italian cookbook
• Light sprinkling of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• Mozzarella, freshly grated is best
• diced up Onions
• Roma Tomatoes, thinly sliced
• Salt to Taste
• Bake for 15 minutes

It was honestly one of the best dishes I've ever made. It also was really quick to prepare. I swear I love my Magic Bullet. He really liked it too, so that made me happy. After he left I got everything in the kitchen all cleaned up, and now I'm all ready for bed.