Photo dump 3.

A (very cold) trip to Bishop, CA.

Then yeah..it snowed…

And finally, crab cooking adventures with Matt! (Not my camera but these photos will suffice.)

It’s really hard to make half a cooked crab look presentable.

CAKEEEEEE.

Check out that focus.

…and then the longest 5 minute wait of our lives.

SO GOOD.

= food coma.

Dreaming of…

Photo dump Round 2.

Turkey day!

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:

The Perennial Plate: California Produce Gleaning

&

Did you know SLO county has it’s own gleaning program?

As you can see, SLO Foodie has received a little makeover (what do you think of the new banner above?).  While I catch up from my blogging hiatus with some photo dumps, also check in with my RECIPE page because I am going to make an effort to update it more!

Also, a big thank you to those of you who have encouraged me to keep writing SLO Foodie posts. You know who you all are. It’s so rewarding to know that people actually read this and hold me accountable for keeping it up!

French onion soup courtesy of Megan.

Matt’s apple themed 22nd birthday dinner w/ sister Meghan and brother-in-law Jonathan (oh, and Pat & Megan). So sad my camera battery was dying so most of these came out blurry!

Megan’s parents came into town and made us dinner one night, which was very much appreciated.

Complete with bananas flambé, which is now one of my favorite desserts. We have tried to replicate it since then, but have decided Megan’s mom makes it the best…

Go, Shmeggs!

I made some homemade applesauce with apples from Farmer’s Market. So easy!

That’s all for now! Don’t worry, more photos to come.

In the meantime, here’s some “food for thought”…would you ever dumpster dive?

Before I get to anything else, I would like to send out a formal shout-out to my lovely Roomies, Natalie and Shmeggs, who made me birthday dinner this weekend.  Even though, yes, my actual birthday was a month and a half ago. This marks the end of officially the longest birthday celebration ever! Whew, not sure how much more birthday I could get.

Anyways, they shut me out of the kitchen for a few hours so they could prepare a beautiful meal for me. I am so blessed.

Artsy mock “Lemondrops.” Sounds classier than lemonade right?

This quiche was incredible! Packed with veggies. They sure know my taste.

Flourless chocolate cake for dessert.

All birthday’d out now, I promise.

Now let me just a say a bit about my Wednesdays.  I love Wednesdays this quarter because I have no class or work! Gives me a nice day in the middle of the week to catch up on homework or do some projects.

Yesterday started out with a juice, of course.

Wasn’t sure how this combo would turn out but it was delicious and actually ended up kind of on the sweet side.

After getting’ juiced (heh), I started to tackle The Great Lasagna Project. That’s what I like to call it, at least.  Lately I’ve really wanted to make some pasta from scratch and it probably has something to do with the fact that Natalie brought a pasta machine with her!

*Cue excited shiver*

I had used a pasta maker once before in one of my Friday Food Labs last year but since then, the prospect of doing it on my own has honestly intimidated me.  The ingredients are simple but there is hard work involved!

So I started step one of The Great Lasagna Project (TGLP?): making noodles.

This would probably be better off as a two-person job: one to feed the dough through, and one to turn the crank.  Or maybe even three-person, if you want someone to hold the camera.

1.5 cups of flour, 2 eggs, a bit of water, and a sore arm later, I ended up with what looked like dough that could pass for lasagna noodles.

Time to drop in the tester.  I actually felt an adrenaline rush at this point.  Who knew pasta making could be such an on-edge experience?

Anddddd…? It ended up like pasta! Relief.  (I’m not really sure what else I expected to happen…)

With the intimidating part down, I got to making some veggie filling.  Mushroom, onion, zucchini, garlic, spinach.  Sauteed with some basil and oregano.

Then mixed with ricotta cheese. Mmm this stuff was prime taste-test material.

And then came the layering! Noodle, pasta sauce, veggie-cheese mixture, repeat.

Then ready for the oven.

For 45 minutes I sat with bated breath.

Actually I just did dishes since making this wreacked havoc on our kitchen.

Was TGLP a success?

I think yes.

As you’ve probably guessed by now, the new school year has started and is full force already, leaving little time for the proper lovin’ this blog has been lackin’ lately.

But I am back! And with updates.

1. If you direct your attention to the right of the page, you’ll see my brand spankin’ new Featured Publisher badge through Foodbuzz!  I could not be more excited.

2. As of a few weeks ago, I now have all my roommates moved in and the 3 of us are just one big happy family.

3. My latest obsession: JUICING. Okay I know it sounds like a major fad (I am just so mainstream and hip) but now that we have the beloved VitaMix, getting a juice going in the morning a few days a week really kick-starts my day.

This was my first juice and admittedly, one of the more hardcore ones I’ve made.  Any guesses as to what it contained?

• 1 small beet
• 1 large carrot
• 1 medium green apple
• squeeze of lemon juice
• ice

Blended and then strained through my nutmilk bag to make it really smooth and creamy. So delicious!  Of course it’s not a replacement for real whole fruits and veggies but I think it’s a good way to get a variety of antioxidants in your bod first thing in the morning.  It was a little messy and time-consuming, and I can see how it would get expensive to juice every day, but definitely worth it a few times a week!  My other favorite has been carrot-orange-lemon. Mmm

4. FOODIE PHOTO DUMP:

5. This is what a happy fridge looks like.

Let’s not even get started on the fruit bowls. Yes, bowls, plural.  Just one isn’t enough for the fruit monsters around here.

4 fruit bowls, a veggie bowl, and a watermelon (??).  That’s not even counting the produce in the refrigerator.

6. Remember Friday Food Labs??? Just making sure.

7. Pizza is always the answer.

8. My Friday’s this quarter are still going to be plenty of fun!  While I won’t spend 3 hours cooking delicious meals and getting graded for it, I’m going to be a part of something really worthwhile.

Cal Poly’s STRIDE organization is offering a course through the Kinesiology department called Health Ambassadors.  I get to be a part of some fantastic community outreach events in nutrition, specifically a program called Pink & Dude Chefs which involves going out to a middle school and teaching nutrition and cooking lessons to students!

I’m really looking forward to all the opportunities I’ll have to get involved this quarter and should be logging tons of community service hours through the course, not to mention all the experience I should be able to gain in the field.

(Hey Poly students, you should check out STRIDE club for ways to get involved!)

9. A little home improvement?

This is our GARAGE near completion!  We wanted a good study/hang out space so we put down carpet, added some mood lighting, and softened up the harsh white walls with some fun draping cloth.

We’re pretty happy with how it has turned out.

Just don’t look in that corner just yet.

10.  10 is a nice, round, even number.  Check back for updates (no, seriously, do it!) because I’m planning on doing some blogging makeovers soon.  Playing around with layout and formatting and hopefully updating some links that need updating!

Have a wonderful week, it’s good to be back.

Have you ever tried juicing? Is there a concoction I should try?

What is your go-to meal during a busy week? (Mine’s pizza.)

With barely 2 weeks left of precious summertime, things are finally kicking into high gear around here!

Everyone’s moving back to SLO from wherever they were for the summer so it’s kind of like everyone is scrambling to catch up with each other before school starts.

The long Labor Day weekend involved lots of foosball playing, beach going, movie watching, and food making. As it should be.

Some highlights:

Quinton enjoyed a post-beach smoothie bowl for the first time, courtesy of Natalie and the beloved Vita.

With the works.  Go big or go home.  That’s how we do.

Natalie and I hosted our first dinner party…sorta Labor Day fajitas and mockaritas!

Natalie was totally in her element.

And I was in my element with these fajitas!  I used a recipe out of THE BOOK and they turned out really, really well.  Marinated chicken with homemade baked baja black beans and avocado salsa.  YUM.

(**Hey Katie, just so you know I’ve made at least 10 recipes out of it already.)

Build your own fajita bar.  (Best pronounced “fuh-JIE-tuh”)

“Okay now everyone look stoked on fajitas!”

Just perfect.

And as always, Matt was in charge of dessert.

Whoops.  Take 2.

There we go.  Lemon tart!

He also brought over some homemade kombucha which I am sooooo excited about because that means I will soon receive a “mother” to brew my own! Hooray!

All in all, a pretty successful weekend.

Now, gotta soak in the last bit of summer.

Did you have any fun Labor Day Weekend adventures?

& Has anyone else brewed their own kombucha?

Cool things going on around here. Cool things, cool things.

For one, Natalie is here now! Yayyyyy.

And even better than the fact that Natalie is here is the fact that she brought something verrrrryy special (just kidding by the way, Natalia).

That would be our brand new VITAMIX! [insert girly squeal]

For those of you who do not know how monumental this is, let me some it up:

Industrial. Strength. Blender. Lifetime warranty. One of the most powerful badboys on the market.  And it’s allllllll mine ours.

This morning I broke in that puppy with a massive smoothie bowl.  Nat worked at an acai bowl place so she taught me how serious the smoothie bowl business it.  If you’re going to be eating a smoothie out of a bowl, it’s going to have to be reallllly thick & creamy.  Only the Vita can do that job. (Great for banana soft serve by the way.)

Wow. Wanna know what went in it?

Smoothie: Frozen strawberries, frozen banana, rice milk, flax seed, fresh squeezed orange juice.

Topper: (Here we go) granola, chia seeds, banana, coconut shreds, almonds, goji berries, honey, and bee pollen from Farmer’s Market.

So I got a little excited and then ran out of time to actually eat it before work so it ended up being a smoothie in a jar and just as delicious.

I foresee a whole lot of smoothies-in-jars for this upcoming school year.

It might be love.

Anyways,

In other exciting news, I was recently able to Make My Man Eat Plants.

Tempeh Tamale Pie.  Courtesy of Mama Pea.  Loved, loved, loved this recipe and will be making it again and again.

Also, little does Mama Pea know that by teaching me how to make my man eat plants, she’s actually has actually unlocked the secret of how to make my man make me ice cream sundaes. Lucky me but I can’t take the credit for that recipe!

And in other other exciting news…

S.L.O. Foodie is going to be a published blog on Foodbuzz.com!  Cool deal right? I just need my #*%$@ printer to work so it will scan the documents I have signed.

But my shiny new badge should be on its way shortly.