Clean(er) Eating

I am in love with food, and just want to taste anything and everything I can. I'm constantly watching the Food Network, and am in love with reading food blogs. After going off the meal plan on campus two years ago, I decided I wanted to cook as much as I could- while still maintaining school and other life obligations. And I've succeeded for the most part on those counts, by perfecting certain dishes and working on newer and more exciting palettes.

However, there's a discrepancy in what I eat, and how I lead my life. As someone who isn't the most active person, I tend to eat tons of junk food. If I can put cheese in a meal, I probably will. Pasta dishes are a weekly- even daily- occurrence. And we won't discuss cookies. (I'm practically the cookie monster.) It's definitely difficult to eat healthier, especially when a lot of the things I enjoy eating are more appealing to my really unhealthy eating habits.

(This is an all too common occurrence...)

I've never been a big fan of going on diets. While I say I can live off of salad, I really truly can't, and find myself reaching for a bag of potato chips maybe an hour after a salad. This being said, I think I've slowly started to transition to healthier/cleaner eating habits. Incorporating salads as a side to a meal, cutting back on baking cookies, and simply having more fruit has helped a ton.

However, I feel that since I'm training for a small run, and will soon be incorporating more running into my daily life, eating like I have been will not be suitable. (I mean, how many runners do you know will douse their cheesecake in whipped cream?) So while this change will be difficult, it'll be for the good in the long run.

Ideally, I would definitely follow a clean eating model, where you eat a ton of fresh and non-processed food, that lifestyle is too intense for me. I need my chocolate cookies, and Ben and Jerry's ice cream for those nights where I put off writing a history paper. I want to be able to eat healthier, without sacrificing too much of what I already eat. I've decided to work with portioning, and resizing meals. So if I'm going to make a pasta dish, I will make sure that I have double the size of salad I eat than the amount of pasta I eat. I won't eat chips and dip while marathoning How I Met Your Mother. (The struggle will be very real.) Small changes in my life will help me get into a healthier state. So naturally I typed them up, and signed my name (and made my roommate do it too).

(Framed in neon pink tape, and posted on Instagram for more serious guidance?) 

Let's see how long this lasts right? (It'll last I'm sure.)
Sheilly

Three Things: Being Home

I've found it difficult in the past, to really get into different forms of projects around the house. Usually, when I'm home, I go on cleaning sprees and reorganize everything in my mom's kitchen... which drives her nuts when she's looking for something. This year, I've hit a road block in the cleaning/organizing because I can't get my hands on an over the door spice rack. 

I can't find them anywhere. 

So, in order to circumvent going stir crazy looking for this spice rack, I've decided to do some other house projects like painting some terracotta things my mom bought in India. This picture was from when I was still in the middle of of painting it, but it's done now!

I've also taken a new fancy to taking a lot of outdoor shots of New Hampshire as well. This one was taken as I was going into the Michael's near my house. 

I've also been baking a lot! I keep finding myself in baking aisles at Grocery stores and picking up random things, without any idea how to use them! However, I've experimented a lot, and cookies are definitely something that I've really enjoyed playing around with. So far I've made some cinnamon chip cookies, nutella stuffed chocolate chip cookies, and a pomegranate dark chocolate chunk cookie! Playing around with ingredients is definitely a lot of fun, and I love playing around with new flavors and foods. I'm going to make a peppermint mocha cookie this weekend, and if all goes well, I think I'll do a week of delicious cookie recipes for you all! 

I hope everyone's been having a great January so far!-- Sheilly

Pomegranate Limeade

If you haven't noticed, I'm a bit obsessed with pomegranate. Last year I found some interesting ways to utilize the fruit after putting them in a salad for Friendsgiving. While some didn't go as well (pomegranate salsa...), I still haven't given up! Today I tried making pomegranate limeade, and it was so good!

Now every recipe I've seen for this limeade has always utilized the pomegranate in juice form. And while I love pomegranate juice, I find it too sweet at times and I just love pomegranate arils and how juicy they are!

Needed: Pomegranate arils, one lime, sugar, and ice.

Start by getting the juice from your lime. I found cutting it in fours and squeezing them out worked better than any other way. After that add sugar and water, to your liking.

For the pomegranate portion, I took a couple of the arils out, and put them in a little cup of water with sugar to create a syrup. I let that sit for a couple of minutes before combining it with the limeade. Once I stirred the syrup and limeade together, I served it with ice and pomegranate arils.

Some fun things you can try with this recipe is to freeze the arils just a bit before serving. Put them on a tray and stick them in your freezer for like 10 minutes. It makes this drink so much more refreshing.

--Sheilly

Fresh Guacamole

This is by far the tastiest guacamole I've ever had.
And the best part? I made it myself!
I'm not sure why I never thought to make my own guacamole ever because it's really so simple. An avocado, two jalapenos, some chili powder... seriously why I have I never tried to make my own guacamole before?
Next stop, salsa? I do have a big bag of chips to devour... -- Sheilly

Ramen Noodles with Eggs and Veggies

I have found that I am really bad at eating well if I'm fending for myself. If you look around my room at any given moment, you will most likely see candy, potato chips, and cookies. While the last two years, I've gotten away with the excuse of "Oh, well I have a pre-paid meal plan, there's really no reason for me to make my own *healthier* food," but that's not the case anymore!

I love eating Shin Ramyun noodles. They are my go to whenever I need a quick meal, that is fast and easy. But I've found that you can't really eat soup year round. So what do you do? Well, usually I have eggs and some form of veggies around, so I make fried noodles. Today I'll show you how to make them, as well! 

Here's what you'll need.

• A pack of Ramen noodles. I personally love Shin Ramyun, but any will do just fine! 
• Some veggies! I really love getting a stir fry kit from Stop'n'Shop, because everything comes pre-cut, and all you have to do is wash it! 
• An egg, or two. 
• Olive oil
• Siracha (optional) 

Follow the instructions on the sleeve for how long to cook boil the noodles. If it has a vegetable pack, you can add it in with the noodles so it plumps up. Save the soup pack for later. You'll need it to season the eggs and noodles. ;)

As you're waiting for the water to boil and noodles to boil, you can chop up your vegetables a bit more. I like having bite size pieces of broccoli, rather than huge chunks, but it's really up to you! 

Get the eggs going, and season them with a little bit of the soup base. Make sure to de-clump the soup base! I accidentally added too much of it there, and it turned the eggs a little orange, but it was still delicious. Mix the egg around. Then add the vegetables and noodles. 

At this point you can put a little bit of Siracha in or you can serve it as is. Put on a plate, and serve! Delicious. :) 

--Sheilly

Pomegranate, Craisin, Spinach Salad w. Balsamic Vinaigrette

I still can't get over how well Friendsgiving went two days ago. I swear the taste of everything is still lingering in my mouth. We still have a slice of pie in the fridge, which is begging to be eaten right now.
Personally I can not get over the salad. The salad was just the most delicious salad I've ever eaten... ever. It was made so quickly, but it tasted so fresh and the balsamic vinaigrette was perfect.

Inspiration for the salad came from my favorite fall fruit: pomegranate. I truly do wish it were available year round. I suppose the freeze dried pomegranate candies I buy should suffice when the season is over, but til then? I'll buy one every week! Amanda and I also had a million bunches of spinach in our fridge. (Alright, I may be exaggerating, but we had a lot!) And as Amanda reminded me, you can't have a Thanksgiving feast without cranberries!

Pomegranate, Craisin, Spinach Salad w. Balsamic Vinaigrette. (AKA The best salad ever.) 

For the salad: 1 Pomegranate, A Packet of Craisins (Or dried cranberries, if you have them!), a bunch of Spinach leaves. 

For the vinaigrette: 4 1/2 Teaspoons Balsamic Vinegar, 4 Teaspoons Olive Oil, Some pomegranate juice. (optional), salt and pepper. 

Mix the vinegar and olive oil until the consistency is perfect, add in pomegranate juice if you want, add salt and pepper to taste! 

Thoroughly rinse spinach leaves, and roughly chop them up. Add in as much pomegranate seeds and cranberries as you wish. Drizzle lightly with the vinaigrette, toss gently and enjoy! 

-- Sheilly 

Friendsgiving 2012

My roommate, Amanda,  and I hosted our very first Friendsgiving this year. While my family has never been really traditional with Thanksgiving, we wanted to do something fun before everyone headed home for Thanksgiving Break. We managed to scrap together a whole feast of food this morning with only a couple days of preparation. We had a lot of help from some good friends, and over all it was one of the best things I've done this semester. :)

This was the menu for this afternoon. Finalizing the menu was the hardest thing, because my roommate and I just weren't sure what we were going to serve. You could very well say Amanda and I are practically vegetarians. It's not like we don't like meat, we just don't like dealing with raw meat at all. But you can't have proper Thanksgiving without some form of poultry, so I sucked it up and made some. 

While a lot of the things there I've made before (like the salad and the Apfelschorle), I've never in my life cooked chicken by myself! We literally slathered our raw chicken with mayo, and sprinkled a Parmesan herb packet over all the chicken.  Surprisingly it was a hit, and my parents are so excited for me to make it for them.  

Amanda was in charge of the stuffing and the corn and green beans. My friend Monica, who was my suitemate for the last two years, made the Crab and Corn soup. Victoria, another good friend, made the sweet potatoes. And I was in charge of the salad. 

Angela, who has been in almost every lab with me since the freshmen year of college, and I had the best time naming the salad. Although the salad took five seconds to make, we named it 

A Pomegranate, Dried Cranberry, and Spinach salad lightly tossed with Balsamic Vinaigrette infused with fresh Pomegranate Juice. 

Needless to say, it was one of the best salads I've ever made. The spinach was very fresh, and combined with the Balsamic Vinaigrette that Monica had hastily made, it was delicious.

 I think the funniest thing was that we didn't actually have turkey at a Thanksgiving  Feast. To make up for it, we had so many fake turkeys to make up for it. We had paper turkey centerpieces, turkeys to tape on the wall, jelly turkeys on our dorm door..  Each guest who came to the party got a hand drawn turkey as well. We had them personalized with everyone's names.

We had finished making, eating, and cleaning everything by 3 in the afternoon. After which, everyone had left to go back to their scholarly duties. Unfortunately the cooking, the cleaning, and the hosting was getting to me, and I was just about to pass out, but I had to get some stuff done too. Angela, Amanda and I started our next big holiday celebration-- Christmas. While we've come up with some silly plans, (Blingmas) I'm so glad I've got a great group of friends to do all of this silly stuff with. For that, I am very grateful. (Oh gosh, that's so cheesy!) Anyway, one tall iced peppermint mocha (see what I did there?) and a beautiful sky later, Friendsgiving had past, but with the promise of many more to come. 

I hope everyone has a good weekend! :)

-- Sheilly 

((Pictures courtesy of Amanda, Angela, and yours truly. <3))