Well, it’s official guys- I’m moved into my new apartment for the summer! I started my job on Monday and now I’m two days down.
Right now I’m just mentally drained though and it’s kind of hard to put coherent lines of thought together much less actually stay awake past 9:00 PM (I’ve already dosed off twice tonight. Bedtime is just around the corner…).
It has already been far too long since I posted something on here though (four or five days I think? The horror! ).
I figured what could be easier than some good old fashioned link-ups with two of my favorite bloggers? That’s right: another two for one special with Peas and Crayons and Jessie Bear What Will You Wear. A mash-up of WIAW and Together Tuesdays (because it is completely possible for Tuesdays and Wednesdays to occur on the same day in the blog world).
I give to you:
WHAT OTHER PEOPLE ATE (and what I not so secretly wish I could be eating right now too):
You’ll never guess the ingredients until you click the recipe.
Like I said… Eyes currently drifting close. Time for me to publish, shut down and hit the hay.
This Friday you can count on a post. Not sure what (hopefully a recipe AND review?). Either way, hope to see in the comment sections across the blog world tomorrow. Happy Wednesday!
——————————————————————————————————————- Questions for you:
Are you tired right now?
Where is the strangest place that you have fallen asleep?
Any amazing recipe finds to share from this week?
Sharing makes the world go round. So go ahead... Spin it!
Hey everybody! Thanks for all of your comments on Wednesday.
I don’t have much time to chat today as I didn’t get back until late last night and I have another doctor’s appointment today (where we hopefully can make some headway on all of my stomach issues)- a review of everything of course coming next week!
As someone with a lot of food allergies as well, this is a cause very near and dear to me so I want to share a few links about food allergies in honor of this special week.
Here is a page full of resources for those with food allergies or for those who know someone with food allergies: http://www.foodallergy.org/most-popular-resources. One of my favorite parts is this website’s facts and statistics about food allergies. Here are a few that I thought were interesting and would be neat to post:
Researchers estimate that up to 15 million Americans have food allergies.
Every 3 minutes, a food allergy reaction sends someone to the emergency department – that is more than 200,000 emergency department visits per year.
Teenagers and young adults with food allergies are at the highest risk of fatal food-induced anaphylaxis.
Eight foods account for 90 percent of all reactions: milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, soy, wheat, fish and shellfish. Even trace amounts of a food allergen can cause a reaction.
Another thing that I thought would be beneficial to include was this infograph which dispels the top 10 allergy myths (for both food and environmental):
This infograph shows really well why so many people are confused and do not understand how dangerous food allergies really can be.
Here are three blog posts that also provide some very relatable insights into the minds of the food allergic population:
As most of you already know if you read my blog on a regular basis, right now my diet is very limited and I’m not able to eat much food at all, no matter if I am allergic to it or not. However, before then I did find quite a few good recipe websites for people with food allergies:
Here are also three of my favorite allergy-free cookbooks that I’ve rented from my local library and tried out some of the recipes. I really like these cookbooks because unlike most that claim to be allergy-free, there are many recipes in these that are actually free of the top allergens AT THE SAME TIME, not separate recipes that are free of nuts but contain eggs, wheat and soy which can be very annoying for people with multiple food allergies.
(Tip for no matter if you have Autism or not– Autism cookbooks are usually gluten and dairy-free, and sometimes even free of other allergens as well!)
And finally, I want to share a few of my favorite food allergy cartoons. Having food allergies can be very hard to manage and as such sometimes I get into a little funk when I realize all of the things I can’t have. Simply put, having food allergies is stressful. These cartoons help to lighten the mood and never fail to make me laugh:
I just want to thank everyone for taking the time to read this today, even if you skipped over a few of the lines (don’t worry, I do that sometimes too ). Regardless, every step that we take as a community to increase awareness about food allergies is such a tremendous help and I know that those with food allergies will thank you for being more understanding whenever this topic arises!
As I write this it is Thursday morning and I’m sitting on my living room love-seat The smell of sweet, baking bread floods the house. Coupled with the aroma of my mother’s vases upon vases of freshly cut lilacs, everywhere I turn I get a whiff of something wonderful.
The oven says that there is still 13:36 minutes to go, but I’m not sure that I can wait that long to take a peak at what’s inside. After mixing up the batter for my experimental bread loaf I popped it in the oven, set the timer, and in an unusual self-restraint I haven’t opened the oven door even once.
For me it’s not how the bread is going to taste, because I am 100% confident that the taste is spot-on. It is very impossible to go wrong with such simple ingredients. No, my main concern is how it is going to look and cut. Is it going to be too soft, too dense. Will it crumble when the knife slashes through the crust? Will there even be a nice golden crust that is pertinent in calling any baked good recipe a success?
Right now though, I’m satisfied to just simply sit in content smelling the amazing scents wafting from my kitchen. I’ll worry about how it actually turns out 9:56 minutes from now. While we wait together though, how about we chat a moment about smells? Obviously I have a thing or two to say about them since the introduction to this post contained such words as “aroma,” “whiff” and “scents.”
Isn’t it amazing how various smells can bring up so many wide-ranging feelings? For instance, whenever I smell cinnamon rolls my mind drifts back to Christmas mornings of my childhood where we’d pull out a few rolls of Pillsbury Dough Boy cylinders and have cinnamon-filled, frosting-covered pastries ready before my parents even came downstairs to open presents. On the other side, whenever I smell baked parmesean cheese I can’t help but remember the time in a fancy restaurant where my waitress accidentally spilled my arriving entree of spaghetti all over my entire lap much to my embarrassment as well as her’s.
According to some scientists who did an experiment in 2009, there is actually a reason behind why smells can provoke such vivid memories. Using a variety of odors, images and an fMRI scanner (to measure brain activity using changes in blood flow), the researchers tested 60 participants to uncover the scientific basis behind what the reporting article calls “memory aromas.” What they found was one week after being exposed the first time to the aromas and images, the participants elicited the same brain activity patterns. A graduate student, Yaara Yeshurun’s concluding remarks in regards to the study was “As far as we know, this phenomenon is unique to smell. Childhood olfactory memories may be special not because childhood is special, but simply because those years may be the first time we associate something with an odor.” (Psych Central).
Armed with that dose of scientific knowledge and the timer just going off, I’m going to go check on my bread and will report back soon!
2 cups almond flour (replace with sun flour to make this nut free)
1/4 cup poppy seeds
1 tsp salt
3 eggs
1/4 cup ghee, butter or coconut oil
1/2 cup honey
1 small mashed banana
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (from approximately 1 1/2 lemons)
2 tsp freshly grated lemon rind (from approximately 2 lemons)
1 tsp vanilla extract
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a large loaf pan (9″x5″) with parchment paper to prevent sticking.
In a small bowl combine the almond flour, poppy seeds and sea salt.
Then separate the eggs, dropping the egg whites into a food processor and the egg yolks into a large bowl.
Turn on the food processor and let it run until the egg whites are stiff.
Meanwhile, add the ghee, honey, mashed banana, lemon juice, lemon rind and vanilla extract all to the large bowl of yolks and combine well.
Next, using a spatula carefully fold in the whipped egg whites to the egg yolk mixture. Add the flour mixture next, folding it in just until combined (make sure to not over-mix or the egg whites will deflate and the bread will not rise as much).
Pour the bread batter into our lined loaf pan and bake for 45 minutes. Cover with aluminum foil to prevent the top from getting too dark (I dropped the ball on this part! ) and bake for approximately 45 more minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean and the tops springs back to the touch.
Let cool completely before removing and slicing. Enjoy!
Note about the recipe: On GAPS you are not allowed to have baking soda in the beginning, so none of my baked goods recipe for GAPS include this ingredient. Thus why I have to whip the egg whites (it replicates the rise that baking soda causes). If you want to make this easier to make or make it vegan (by replacing the eggs with flax eggs), skip whipping the egg whites and add a tsp of baking soda to the dry ingredients. I haven’t tried it this way, but it should probably turn out fine.
Well, it was obviously a success! So much so that I’ve made it twice so far as my family gobbled up the first loaf in less than a day… The bread smelled just as wonderful out of the oven as it did while it was baking. Just heavenly! I literally leaned over the slices just to smell it since I wasn’t able to actually take a bite myself This recipe is the perfect way to kick off the warmer months ahead when lemon is all the rage… Lemon slices in your water, lemon popsicles, lemonade. And now lemon poppy seed bread!
Thanks Jenn for letting me share my recipe with WIAW today!
As per my title, I am one week down with one week left to go until my internship! This week I’ll be cleaning up all of my stuff from college while simultaneously packing in preparation to move into my new apartment.
Here’s how I spent last week, courtesy of Week in Review with Meghan:
The weather was so beautiful and warm all week long. Even though I didn’t make it into town much, I made sure to go outside everyday and soak up the sunshine. Some days I went out on our deck to read the two books that I mentioned on Friday (I am actually half way through another book that I’ll share about soon!).
On Thursday I finally ventured out into the real world to get a much-needed haircut. Here’s a before and after for comparison. Even with a nice trim though, my hair is still quite frizzy from all the heat. (Any tips to combat the humidity that doesn’t involve a full bucket of hair product? )
Friday morning I got ready earlier than usual to to attend my brother’s National Honors Society induction ceremony at 8:00 AM.
Then after I had lunch on Friday I drove into town to hang out with my friends at Taco Bell. We chatted for a little while and I headed to my old high school to help out with a track meet. Unfortunately it was raining so not many people came out for it, but fortunately for me that meant they had plenty of people in the concession stand and didn’t need my assistance!
I could definitely feel the effects of being cooped up all week in the house so come Saturday when my mom was home we went shopping!… Okay, so it was mostly grocery shopping, but it was still a bunch of fun. Here are a few things that I found at Meijer that I got quite the kick out of:
Later Saturday we also went looking for Mother’s Day presents for my grandma and aunt at the local nursery. I picked out the bottom purple/white hanging basket and my mom found the top basket full of red/pink/white flowers.
With my brother gone to a friends house and my dad asleep on the couch, my mom and I were free to pick whatever we wanted to watch on TV. We pulled up our instant cue on Netflix and found a pretty good movie to watch: My Boyfriend’s Girlfriend. Overall it was cute. Nothing spectacular. Just an overall feel-good film (shout out to Alyssa Milano from Charmed— one of my favorite tv shows in Middle School!).
Come Sunday morning I whipped up a new batch of pancakes for Mother’s Day (my dad got some too ). They’re really versatile and are great with pretty much any type of fruit!
Grain-Free Coconut Banana Pancakes
Grain/Gluten/Wheat-Free, Dairy-Free, Vegetarian, High Fiber, No Sugar Added, Paleo, GAPS-Friendly
Makes Two Servings (4-6 small pancakes each)
Ingredients:
4 eggs
2 ripe bananas
1 tsp vinegar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
dash of salt
dash of cinnamon
5 tbsp coconut flour
Optional fruit: blueberries, bananas or apples
Directions:
Separate the eggs placing the egg whites into a food processor and the yolks into a small bowl.
Whip the egg whites until they are white and stiff. Then add the remaining ingredients (including the yolks) until smooth.
Heat a skillet over medium heat. Coat in ghee or coconut oil to prevent sticking.
Using a 1/4 c. measuring cup pour out the batter into the skillet. Cook for approximately 2 minutes until the uncooked side is bubbly. If you want to add blueberries put them on the pancakes now.
Flip the pancake and cook for an addition 1-2 minutes or until done.
Repeat with the remaining batter and top with pan-seared apple slices, fresh banana chunks, and/or a drizzle of honey! Enjoy.
After breakfast my dad, mom, brother and I got ready and met up with about 15 other family members to celebrate Mother’s Day at a Chinese buffet again. Then the four of us watched Iron Man 3! If you haven’t seen it, you should. It wasn’t as good as the first Robert Downey Jr. Iron Man, but it was way better than the sequel. Plus, Gwenyth Paltrow’s role as Pepper Pots takes a pretty interesting turn in the movie! (No Spoilers here ).
Now it’s Sunday night and I’m about to hit “Publish.” Tomorrow my plans include some more unpacking and watching The Great Gatsby with some other friends at a matinee.
*Edited to add (because it was late and I forgot…):
I also wasted many (try six) hours this week watching The Voice and American Idol with my fan-girl mother. Here are a few of my thoughts in bullet form:
Nikki Minaj just needs to go.
Keith Urban is so cool with his Aussie accent.
The Voice beats out American Idol 10 to 1. No question.
Mariah Carey– what kind of music video was that? I didn’t even realize until half way through that she hadn’t even sung a note until my dad commented on it. And then she just flung up her skirt and sang a few lines for the rest of the time. No words.
Now I remember why I stopped watching these shows.
Please don’t ever bring back Christina or Cee Lo. It’s so refreshing to have genuinely nice people (Usher and Shakira).
Why is Nikki Minaj still here?
Also, we had a momentary freak out when my dog ate a coffee bean last night when as my brother was trying to glue some down to his poster about Brazil for Spanish. A quick search confirmed that yes- coffee beans are toxic to dogs, but alas our puppy is still alive and kicking. All good here
).
