More from Monday

I spent most of the morning fiddling with this blog - I am STILL having a hard time with pictures (how to put them within the text and not just on top of text), how to get them to show up in the correct order, how to make links work, etc.... fascinating stuff :)

Early afternoon I wanted to figure out something to do with two leftover sweet potatoes that I had bought to grill, but that we didn't use. I LOVE sweet potatoes (mashed, fries, anything!!) but I find them to be a huge pain to cut. I'm no wuss, but my hand hurts when I'm trying to cut them with a knife to make fries! So I am trying to think of an easier way to make them.

Today I decided to stick them in the microwave without peeling them. I wasn't sure how long it would take, so I started with 5 minutes, then added another 5, and then another 5! It probably would have been easier to just steam them, but I hated to have two more things to add to the dishwasher and the microwave seemed easier.

After they were thoroughly cooked, I threw them into the blender with a half cup of Silk light vanilla soy milk, a few dashes of cinnamon and some pumpkin pie spice. It was very good!!! It tasted very similar to the gluttonous sweet potato + marshmallow + brown sugar + loads of butter dish that you may find a Thanksgiving, but is much lighter :) And super easy!

After devouring the sweet potato dish, I walked to the grocery store. I needed to stock up on some staples for Mike and I to have around (mostly produce), and I also needed to get the ingredients for the dinner I'm going to make tomorrow when we have company over.

Because it is a beautiful day, and to save gas money, save the environment, and to get some exercise and fresh air, I decided to take what some people (affectionately?)call my "homeless person cart" to the store instead of driving. The grocery store is about a mile from my place, so with the cart it's about a 15 minute walk - not bad. I got the cart when I moved to the city last fall and was living in the Gold Coast in a building that was literally right across the street from the grocery store, and it's been very convenient to have! For all you city dwellers out there, you can get one for about $25-40 at a Bed Bath & Beyond, Ace Hardware, Walmart, etc.

When I got home, I was anxious to make something with my newly bought groceries. I have what seems like thousands of eggs in my fridge (I went on a bit of an omelette kick for a while but kind of fell off that wagon...) so I knew I wanted to make something with eggs. I also had some green beans that were getting a bit old, so I made an egg white omelette with some green beans and about 1/4 cup of reduced fat BLUE CHEESE that was simple, but absolutely devine. I love me some cheese, and although it's hard to keep the basics (like cheddar or mozz) in the house because I can easily tear through the entire package, but when I have a more "specialty" cheese I find that I am a little better about making it last longer :)

Before I headed out for the evening, I had a pear and a nectarine.... and when that didn't fill me up, I decided to finally make my single serving sample size of the Amazing Meal mix, chocolate flavor! I had high hopes for this flavor - as well all know, chocolate makes everything better!! - but it still needed a bit of doctoring up. I mixed it up with one cup of vanilla soy milk, and I still didn't care for the texture too much so I through in a bit of acai juice and a bit of chocolate soy milk. This made it very drinkable and good :) so I downed most of it, and then a small portion of it into the freezer to see how it tastes frozen... I'm hoping like chocolate ice cream? Probably that's wishful thinking, but we shall see ;)

Tonight I went to visit one of my fellow coworkers from Turner-Drew, who is a Mary Kay lady (are they still called this? Mary Kay sales rep perhaps?). Her daughter is also a Mary Kay rep (and also started the Chicago Chocolate Tours company - can you have a better job than that?!?!), and she was hosting a Mary Kay event at her condo, which is a mile from mine in the South Loop and has the most spectacular view of the skyline I've ever seen. There, I learned a lot about the Mary Kay company, tried some new products, and snacked on cheese, crackers, and cookies, although I apologize that I did not take pictures.

Once I was home, Mike.... AGAIN... begged me to make him a Green Monster the minute I walked in the door!! I love turning people into Green Monster converts ;) However, he got tired of waiting for me to make him one that he turned to some Wheat Thins instead, haha. He then heard of my plans to make cookies tomorrow and his new request was for me to make them tonight so that he could sample the dough... since cookie dough is his favorite food of all time. So - coerced - I decided to throw the cookie dough together. I am basing this recipe off of one of Tina's recipes on http://carrotsncake.com/. Before I tell you the ingredients, I will tell you that I at first doubled this recipe, knowing full well that Mike and I would be sure to eat our weight in cookie dough, leaving little for the actual cookies. Well, this was still not enough, so in the end I found myself tripling the recipe!

Here's how I made them (for a single batch, but I guarantee you it won't be enough!):

* 1 c. pitted dates (I usually prefer the bulk bin Medjool dates from Whole Foods, but for this recipe I found that it was immensely more convenient to use the prepitted dates that are prepackaged, like the Sunsweet brand)

* 1/4 c. oat bran

* 1/2 c. shredded coconut

* 1 tsp. baking powder

* 1 tsp. vanilla

* 1/4 c. brown sugar

* 1/4 c. date sugar (you could use brown sugar for this too, I just love date sugar and it is much healthier!)

* 1 T. applesauce

* 1/4 c. soymilk

Blend all ingredients - at first I tried using my blender, but the poor thing must be worn out from all of my Green Monsters, because it simply refused to chop up the dates. So, I threw everything into my Kitchenaid mixer and it worked great! Then, bake at 350. I made bigger cookies and it took about 16 minutes.

Wow.... SOO GOOD!!!!! Way to go, Tina!!!!! I am super impressed that she made this recipe up. I just made a couple modifications to tailor the recipe to the ingredients that I had on hand, but the creative license belongs solely to her! This is a fabulousssssss vegan recipe, although I did non-veganize it by drizzling some melted chocolate chips on top. They truly did taste like the Girl Scout Samoa cookies... my favorite!!! Mike could not get enough of the dough, and now I'm going to go give him an actual cookie and I'm sure he will love those too :) Goodnight!