Starting the Morning Off Right

Every morning I walk into the kitchen and think, "Dammit! I meant to make some oats last night!" I adore steel-cut oats, but they just take so, so long to cook that I've been wanting to make them in the evenings to have in the morning. Until I get distracted by Lauren or cooking dinner or something shiny and then forget, of course. I've been eating whole wheat toast with a little peanut butter, which is good but no substitute for oats.

Finally, last night I remembered what I wanted to do, so I made another recipe from The Great American Detox Diet: Hearty Morning Oatmeal Porridge. Basically, it's just whole oat groats (pre-steel cutting), simmered for a (really, really) long time in water and a little orange juice with some nutmeg and cinnamon. When it's done, you stir in some maple syrup and top with chopped nuts. I used almonds and walnuts and also added a little flaxseed oil and raisins. It was delicious and kept me full right up until lunch time.

Pre-fixing up. Not very pretty, but delicious!

From Drop Box

Tonight's dinner was awesome. I made the Spinach and Sweet Potato Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing from Food Matters by Mark Bittman. I mean, c'mon, everything is better with bacon, right? It was heavenly, and was certainly enough to eat for dinner. I highly recommend it! Now, what was it I said about maybe going vegetarian?

Once again, my photography talents make the food look much less appealing than it was, but you get the idea!

From Drop Box

I picked up two new cookbooks tonight at the library that I'm excited about. One is an old familiar: Mooosewood Restaurant New Classics. I also got Skinny Bitch in the Kitch which is actually a vegan cookbook. I never would have guessed from the title, but there you go. You can't judge a book by its cover, right? I'll let you know when I try some of the recipes out!