Slight.Food.Crush

Moving Day!

Well the time has come. With fifty-eight posts down, moving day has arrived. 

Yep, I have relocated and redesigned my blog. It is simpler, cleaner, and more "me". I'm still working on a couple of things, and aspects of it may change, but I like the way it's coming together. And I am open to opinions and ideas. What kinds of things would you like to see?

I am still going to be keeping this place open, so that you can still access previous entries. 

Hope you will all make the move with me! www.slightfoodcrush.com 

Sunday, I Liked You Today

Boyfriend + New shoes + Starbucks = Wonderful day! Is it really Sunday? Because Sundays are usually not my favourite. I tend to be very unproductive on this particular day. So, I am determined to do more. Visiting a cafe, heading to a library, exploring an ethnic food market, or even just spending more time with my family are all ways I'd love to spend a Sunday afternoon. Anything to evolve this once lazy, uneventful day, into a more fulfilling, meaningful day. And today was an excellent start to this. Granted, I had great company, so it may be hard to top ;)

 Oh, and I made delicious dinner to boot. Have a peak see! 

A Rose by Any Other Name

Or, a peanut butter in any other form would taste as delicious. Here's why: 

After a few shipping issues, I finally received my PB2 from Bell Plantation. It's peanut butter in powdered form, with one quarter the amount of calories per tablespoon. And the best part is, it's all natural! It is hard to believe that anything that is transformed into a powder can be natural, unprocessed, and free of additives, but it's true! PB2 is powdered peanuts with all the oils removed, which is why it has so little calories - no fatty oils. So to get it creamy again, just add water. However, the oil found in peanuts are the good, healthy mono- and polyunsaturated fats which the body loves, so don't rely on PB2 alone to get your peanut butter fix. Even though it's good, it doesn't replace the real thing. It's just good when you want to indulge in four times the amount of peanut butter for the same amount of calories. Haha, I can live with that!

So, I've been experimenting quite a bit with my new peanut butter, and one of the first things I wanted to try was mixing it into my oatmeal. And it tasted fantastic! Couldn't even taste the difference. 

Belated Goodies

Well it's a new year - welcome to 2011, all! Hope everyone had a fabulous New Years Eve! Mine, though not as originally planned, was great. Went to the spa with my best friend, then spent the rest of the night taking care of my sick Adam. He rarely gets ill, and to keep him from celebrating New Years Eve, he must have been really sick. So instead of going to our friends' house party, we spent it together on the couch, wrapped up in blankets, and sipping juice. I loved every minute of it - minus seeing him so uncomfortably sick, of course. But I wouldn't have wanted to spend it anywhere else. There was no question in my mind. However, I am starting to feel a little achey today. Oops. I may have contracted a bit of his sickness. Oh well, it was well worth it. Might need to take care of me now, hunny ;) 

So thinking we were going to our friend's place, I prepared some snacks. They took a little longer then I had anticipated, keeping me up past midnight and waking me up before seven to accomplish (as I had to work during the day). I tackled 3 recipes - all something I've never really attempted before: truffles, toffee, and blondies. Amazingly, they all turned out. A few minor problems, but nothing to complain about. 

Eating for Tomorrow's Eve-ning

Here's a quick and healthy dinner - need to eat as healthfully as possible to prepare for tomorrow's New Years Eve festivities. Going to start working on some snacks tonight, which means I need to trek across the street to the grocery store to pick up a few items. Hope I don't screw up these goodies like I did with my Christmas cookies. I added double the amount of butter that was needed. Haha, they literally melted as soon as they entered the oven. Quite funny looking back on it, but I was not impressed at the time. Showed up empty handed at Adam's family's Christmas dinner :( Definitely won't make the same mistake next year. Well, I'll try not to!

Proud New Owner Of...

...a "dot-com" website!! No longer do you have to type .typepad in the address to access my blog. Just slightfoodcrush.com! One of the many wonderful Christmas gifts my boyfriend got me. Also to help with my blog, he got me a beautiful aqua-colored Canon camera. No more pictures taken with my flashless iPhone camera. I'm still a little rusty with all of it's functions and do-dads, but it takes great pictures!

And what better way to commemorate my new gadget then to include it's first photo on my blog with a recipe involving peanut butter! Makes perfect sense to me. So, here's a breakfast quinoa recipe with raisins and Peanut Butter & Co. peanut butter.  

Cookies for the Beanies

Tout fini! All Done! Albeit a little sore from yesterday's exam (my hand, that is, from constant writing), I'm finally free to enjoy the holidays. But it really doesn't feel like I'm done. I only had to write one exam. Yep, don't hate me, just one. I didn't get off that easy though - I had a straight week and a half to stress over it as my exam fell on the second last day of the exam period. Talk about torture! So that's why I don't feel done, don't I have more to write?  Nope! It's 3 days till Christmas, school is out. Ahhhh, feels good!

Anyway, enough about school. This morning, I woke up early so I can bring some cookies into work today for my lovely beanies. What's a beanie? I work at a coffee shop called the Human Bean, and so we (coworkers and I) have aptly named ourselves "beanies". Original, hey? ;) Seriously, I work with the most beautiful people. And these cookies are a little, teensy, fail-in-comparison way to show how much I love them. 

Round Two

I'm keeping this one short, as I should be studying, but I wanted to share my second take on "breakfast for dinner" oatmeal. This one also has a sweet component to it, which made for a delicious balance. 

Breakfast for Dinner

Anyone who knows me, knows I am obsessed with oatmeal. I'll eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! But I always have "sweet" oatmeal - your traditional breakfast varieties. Up until today, that is! When I first saw this version of "savoury" oatmeal (recipe below), I was a little weary and even a little perturbed. "Why on earth would anyone want to transform the beauty that is oatmeal?", I thought. But hesitantly, I gave it try. And...

...OH EM GEE!!! It was so incredibly delicious! I am going to be making it again, and again, and again. Everything about it was perfect. The caramelized vegetables, the salty cheese, the comforting oatmeal - perfect! Now I'll save "sweet" oatmeal for the morn, and it's savoury counterpart for din! Please give it a try! 

More Cookies!

Mmmmm, today was a fabulous day. Why? Because I got to spend it with my most favouritest person - my booooooyfriend, Adam :) Everything's just better when I'm with him. Yep, he's that special. Really.

Another thing that I love (but not AS much) is baking cookies. I am becoming more comfortable and confident in my baking abilities, that now all I want to do is make cookies! I am not very artistically creative (i.e. drawing, crafts, writing), but I am discovering that I am not too bad at combining a little flour and sugar. Which is great, because I can now bake cookies for others! I love watching as they take a bite into my sugary creations. I have yet to receive a bad reaction - which is a good sign (unless they're just being nice). So, here are two of my latest batches.