2012: Bring it On!

And so begins the 2012 Bucket List. It’s ambitious, but hey, what’s life without a challenge?

(Note: I’ve replaced some names with first initials for personal privacy purposes for the time being!)

Do

• Go to Sweet Green
• Go to Wisey’s
• See National Holocaust Museum
• Go to Eastern Market with S
• Go into the city at least once per week
• Run or bike the C&O Canal Road in D.C
• Rent a bike via capital bike share
• Attend a concert in D.C. or elsewhere
• Host a fancy schmancy dinner party
• Plan a brunch with friends
• Remember to take vitamins more often
• Keep track of finances via a spreadsheet
• Call or skype family/friends at least once per week
• Keep in touch with friends from home via Facebook inbox
• Go to Disneyland with the Fab Four
• Go on another insane 20 mile bike ride with Blake
• Run a race or something of the sort
• Find a way to do yoga at least once per week, either in 506 or at a studio!
• Try meditation at the meditation center
• Host the Inaugural Food Party with Family Swag
• Plan to spend a New Years Eve with Family Swag sometime in the future
• Dance like nobody’s watching (with H :) )

Work

• Get a job for the spring semester
• Get a job over the summer
• Apply to The Corp
• Write for another blog or publication

Blog

• Bake or cook something once per week...and blog about it!
• Attend or organize a blogger meetup
• Blog once or twice per week
• Continuously update recipe index

Travel

• To Philly to visit E
• To Maine to visit H
• To San Diego to visit S
• Invite H/B/E to visit California
• Go on a trip somewhere on the East Coast (perhaps New York?) with S
• Plan a roadtrip with B+E and/or Family Swag
• Go on a trip with Mom

Be

• Mindful when it comes to food
  • Eat when hungry. Stop when full.
  • Eat real food. Your body is only as good as the nutrients you put into it.
• PUNCTUAL! Nobody likes a later tater.
• Kind to your skin.
• Willing to share
• Present right now
• Okay with taking a break from work

Eat

• Founding Farmers
• Bus Boys and Poets
• Paul French Bakery and Cafe
• Le Pain Quotidien
• Java Green
• Kafe Leopold
• Soul Vegetarian’s Exodus
• Everlasting Life Cafe
• Senbeb Cafe
• Food for Thought Cafe
• Sunflower Restaurant
• Biagio Fine Chocolate(Art gallery + artisan chocolate + free samples = <3)
• Sweet Green
• Restaurant Week
• Ethiopian Food
• Indian Food
• Something in Alexandria?
• Baked and Wired/Sprinkles
• Great Sage
• Go back to Busboys and Poets with S
• Try  2 new cuisines
• Go back to Au Lac

Cook/Bake

• Belgian Liege Waffles
• Lemon-Ricotta Pancakes
• Protein Pancakes
• Donuts
• One of Nati’s recipes
• Recipes from Claremont McKenna
• Homemade seitan
• Tempeh that doesn’t suck
• A freakin’ amazing veggie burger
• Homemade pasta
• Bomb diggity whole wheat bread
• A snazzy coffee drink that puts Starbucks to shame
• The perfect choco chip cookie recipe
• A vegetarian sandwich that ROCKS

Before Going Back to Georgetown

• Trip to San Diego
• Grab lunch with the cousins
• Take a dip in the Pacific Ocean
• Go on a hike!
• Go to Disneyland
• Get indian food with friends from home
• Finish a Georgetown reflection I’ve been working on

2011 in Review (According to Wordpress!)

<<Note: I mean, generally, I wouldn't share this kind of stuff, but I thought this was so interesting! Hats off to Wordpress for this snazzy little gem :) >> The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here's an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 3,400 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 57 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Recipe: Caramelized Banana Bread Rice Pudding

<<Note: This is actually also serving as the Dining Hall DIY sample post that I’m submitting as a part of my Contributing Writer Application for Small Kitchen College!>>

You skip into the dining hall, waltzing with excitement after your latest encounter with “The Cute Boy Who Shalt Not Be Named.” And then you stop in your tracks—hit by the tsunami of sloppy joe aroma that, unfortunately, you know a little bit too well.

Le sigh.

After finishing your dreaded, wannabe (wo)manwich, you stare ruefully at the empty plate before you.

At this point, you’ve come to accept that there is only one type of food that can possible cheer you up: dessert.

Oh yes, dessert—da King Kahuna, the Elvis, the knight in shining armor, the love of your life and perhaps mine as well. But which dessert to pick?

Cake? Not New Year’s resolution approved.

Cookies? You can do better.

Soft Serve? Problem: Nameless cute boy does not dig ice cream mustaches.

Caramelized Banana Bread Rice Pudding? Oh *&%#! Swoooooooooooooooooooon.

Innocently sexy. Gourmet and guaranteed mustache free.

Oh, and did I mention perfect for sharing with “The Cute Boy Who Shalt Not Be Named”?

Lexi is a freshman at Georgetown University, where she is considering an International Business/Management double major and proving that not all business school students have to end up on Wall Street. A nutrition aficioncado and laid-back vegetarian, she is a connoisseur of healthy baked goods, lover of farmers’ markets, and expert in freakishly cheesy puns and one-liners.

Caramelized Banana Bread Rice Pudding

Serves 1

Sweet, gooey, and banana-y, this rice pudding will surprise your friends with its simple deliciousness and impressive nutrition profile. Because it combines whole grains, potassium-rich fruit, and healthy fats/protein, it also makes a wonderful breakfast that will keep both your snobbie inner foodie and stomach going for hours.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup brown rice, cooked
• 1 medium ripe banana, sliced
• ½ cup milk (Note: I use almond or soy milk, but feel free to use any kind you like!)
• 1 ½ tsp cinnamon plus extra for topping
• Pinch salt
• 1 tbsp nut butter (e.g. peanut butter), for topping

Directions:

1) In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients except nut butter.

2) Microwave for 2 ½ minutes on high. Remove and mash until the mixture is mostly smooth. (Some small banana bits are okay, but try to mash the big chunks.)

3) Microwave for additional 30 seconds to 1 minute, or until mixture is warm and pudding- like. Add an extra drizzle of milk and stir, if the mixture is too thick for your liking.

4) Top with a sprinkle of cinnamon and nut butter, and enjoy!

When I’m not away at school, most of my rice puddings begin more like this…

The almighty to-go box.

After our family goes out for Asian food of some sorts (usually Thai), we end up with a heaping box full of brown rice leftovers. By that, I mean we always seem to end up with a disproportionate amount of rice: curry.

Thanks family…

And let’s be real now—a girl can only pretend she’s Mulan eating plain rice for so long.

Then again, I guess that means more Caramelized Banana Bread Rice Pudding for me!

Mwhwhahahaha

Have a wonderful New Year’s Eve!

Recipe: Pumpkin-Quinoa Granola

There’s plenty of mornings where breakfast goes something like this:

No time to make oatmeal, no bread to make toast, no willpower to make pancakes.

Then suddenly, a light shines down from the heavens and spells C-E-R-E-A-L.

5.12749 second later, almond milk is whipped out of the fridge and applied to cereal like a category 5 hurricane.

Talk about inclement weather.

But just like pizza, I don’t like any ‘ole cereal. Nope, my bowl of cereal (which is usually a melange of multiple varieties) has to meet some pretty strict requirements.

It has to be:

1. Delicious, duh!
2. Both of good quantity and quality
3. Capable of keeping me as full and energized for multiple hours

I generally gravitate towards “healthy” cereals, but such cereals often a) taste like cardboard and/or b) are full of wacky ingredients that hardly qualify as healthy.

Of course, their sugary counterparts like Lucky Charms and Trix don’t fare much better. Though addictively munchable, these cereals neither offer much in the way of nutrients nor keep me satiated for more than a few minutes.

Then there’s granola. In a wonderful category of its own.

Sweet and oh-so-addicting. Unfortunately, it’s not so impressive in terms of bang-for your-buck, as it can be quite high in sugar and oil. Maybe a good dessert but as for breakfast?

Not so much.

Lucky for you and me, granola is easy to make and unfussy enough that you can tailor it exactly to your own desires. Oh yes, your desires.

I do believe I just made my version of granola sound sexier than a Victoria’s secret fashion show.

Don’t tell me you’ve never dreamt about a good bowl of granola. Seeing as you’re still reading this, I’m guessing you have.

Because how is this NOT seducive:

High protein and low sugar? Check.

Full of REAL ingredients? Check.

Filling, delicious, and charmingly seasonal? Check-check-check.

Sexy? Oh you know it.

Pumpkin-Quinoa Granola

I’m not a big fan of additional “stuff” like nuts and berries in my granola, so I left out the pepitas and cranberries from the original recipe. However, feel free to toss a handful in if you so desire; granola is hardly tempermental. To make this a little bit healthier for a power breakfast, I also reduced the sugar a tad and added quinoa for a whole-grain protein boost. The result is even more addictive and crunchy than store-bought granola, minus all of the ill compromises.

Slightly adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod, originally from Baking Bites

Ingredients:

• 5 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup quinoa (uncooked)
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• ¾ tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• ½ cup (heaping) pumpkin
• ¼ cup applesauce
• ¼ cup maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325° F, and grease a large baking sheet.

2. In a large bowl, combine oats, quinoa, spices, and salt. Mix until all dry ingredients are evenly distributed.

3. Whisk together brown sugar, pumpkin puree, apple sauce, maple syrup, and vanilla extract until smooth. Pour wet ingredients into oat mixture, stirring until oats and quinoa are well-coated.Spread the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet.

4. Bake for 20 minutes, and then, remove the pan from the oven and stir. Bake for an additional 15-20 minutes, or until the granola is golden and crisp (but not hard!). Let cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Tip: Take the granola out of the oven 1 or 2 minutes before you think its ready—it will continue to cook even after removed, and you don’t want granola rocks.

This granola came together in under five minutes and was delicious both dry and with milk.

It also managed to get me out of bed every morning for a week…which is nothing short of a miracle.

In other words, please go make this.

Before pumpkin falls out of favor (so punny ).

Before you pour that second bowl of Lucky Charms.

Before you’re inclined to go asked Justin Timberlake who’s bringing sexy back.

2011 in Review

Before getting into resolutions and the like, let’s chat about 2011. For now, let’s stick to the light-hearted stuff… and maybe tomorrow, the more serious.

A shortlist of the BIG things that happened in 2011:

• Started blogging!
• Applied to 9 top-tier colleges in what was one of the most nerve-racking processes of my entire life!
• Had my heart set on attending the University of Notre Dame
• Ended up being accepted to Georgetown University and made the hard decision to go there instead (an amazing decision in retrospect!)
• Graduated from high school as a valedictorian
• Finished my term as editor-in-chief of the newspaper that meant everything to me and held a BOMB 80-person brunch to celebrate it
• Attended and completed a Georgetown preorientation program called Leadership & Beyond (L&B)during August, during which I met ~30 amazing people that have sincerely changed my life and shaped my college experience
• Met my roommate, Helen, who became one of my best friends!
• Became incredibly close to 3 other friends via L&B, without whom I can’t imagine life now
• Finished my first semester in college (and somehow pulled of an A- in calculus…whatup!)
• Came back to the West Coast for Christmas and began blogging again
• Got my wisdom teeth pulled
• Realized that I learned more about myself this year than the last 17 years of my life
• Ate tons of delicious food.

Riiiiiiight, the food. Let’s take a brief glimpse at that, shall we?

5 minute Banana Bread Rice Pudding

Angel Hair Pasta with Gorgonzola

Cheezy Portabello Steak with Angela’s Creamy Avocado Pasta

THE BEST Banana Bread

Golden Cornmeal & Blueberry Muffins

Mom’s Best Carrot Cake

Angela’s Cheezy Savory Oats

Chocolate-Covered Katie’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Oatmeal

Whole Grain Graham Crackers

Whoa, I had a lot more food to share than expected. To be continued in the a.m. along with a possible recipe! For now, it’s back to icing the cheeks for this chipmunk

Recipe: Orange-Yogurt “Tyler Place” Pancakes

I woke up this morning and realized that wisdom was finally upon me.

As much as I would like to say I was spiritually enlightened, nothing of that sort happened.

In fact, there’s very little that is enlightening about the fact that as you read this, I’m uncomfortably squirming in a chair while I get my wisdom teeth yanked.

Thanks…I didn’t want that wisdom anyway. In fact, the only thing I really wanted this morning was pancakes.

Problem: Not allowed to eat breakfast before the surgery.

Solution: You can go make them instead. A wise decision, I promise!

When I was a kiddo, my family used to vacation at a small, family resort on Lake Champlain in Vermont with friends. I can’t remember everything from our trips, but I do remember one thing for sure: I loved it. I loved spending time with my family and hanging out with kids my age, playing games, swimming in an amazing indoor pool, and laughing and running around like a maniac, swimming in the lake, and enjoying some really darn good food.

Oh the food. The “kids’ food” was good, but the “grown-up food” was swoon-worthy. Intricate and gourmet but still home-cooked and prepared with love.

In truth, I don’t even remember all of the food. But I do remember the pancakes.

Ah yes, the pancakes. As if breakfast/brunch wasn’t already my favorite meal, they hooked me in with pancakes. And not just any ordinary pancakes—orange-yogurt pancakes. Heaven on a plate.

A few years later, we stopped going to Tyler Place due to a combination of factors. It was expensive, and my parents wanted to travel elsewhere once we were older.

Tyler Place faded into my memories, and everyone forgot about those delicious pancakes. Until one morning.

I came downstairs to my dad buzzing around the kitchen, a sly grin on his face. Minutes later, I was greeted by a strangely familiar sight: Tyler Place Pancakes.

One bite sent me straight to pancake nirvana, and I quickly consumed my weight in those fluffy cakes. They’re easily my favorite pancakes and probably the favorite of everyone else in my family as well.

Divine. Moist. Dense, yet fluffy with a hint of orange. Always lovingly filled with memories of childhood summers.

Tyler Place Orange-Yogurt Pancakes

These pancakes will forever remind me of their namesake—Tyler Place, a family resort located on the banks of a lake in Vermont. Unlike their buttermilk or blueberry counterparts, these orange pancakes get a perfect hint of fluffiness from the combination of baking powder and soda, while remaining incredibly moist and dense due to the yogurt. If you’re a pancake aficionado like myself, these pancakes are simply a must. Perfectly acceptable for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or really, anytime.

Adapted from Tyler Place

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp fresh orange zest
• 4 tsp sugar
• 3/4 cup orange juice (fresh squeezed is a must, even if it means juicing 1 orange)
• 1 1/2 cups nonfat plain yogurt
• 2 large eggs (Don’t use a vegan sub. These pancakes really benefit from the eggs)
• 3 tbsp melted butter (or margarine)
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

1) Combine orange zest, yogurt, eggs, sugar, orange juice, and butter in a large mixing bowl. Beat until well-combined.

2) In another bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Add yogurt mixture, and stir well just until a smooth batter forms. Do not overmix!

3) Heat a griddle and cook pancakes, flipping once each side is golden brown.

I can just about promise these pancakes will not disappoint. No wisdom required.

Think of somewhere tropical, somewhere homey, somewhere warm and comforting when you eat them. Think of Tyler Place or Dad or Sunday mornings. Or think of me, wriggling around like a Mexican jumping bean and hoping you like these pancakes.

Yes, do that. And cross your fingers and hope that I don’t come back looking like too much of a chipmunk..

At least I’ll still have my sarcasm teeth