I have no idea what this whole initiation entails, but he’s been gone since 7 so I’m picturing skulls and daggers and lots of candles. Do you think the Knights of Columbus haze?

This morning I decided to digress from the smoothie and settled on overnight oats:

• 1/2 Cup Plain Yogurt
• 1/2 Cup Milk
• 1/2 Cup Old Fashioned Oats
• Blueberries
• Sliced Almonds
• Granola

All drizzled with honey this morning:

Today I took the kids to Pump It Up, which is basically a giant building filled with moon bounces and all of this inflatable equipment that they can climb on. Why didn’t they have places like this when we were kids?? Though we used to spend literally EVERY DAY in the summer at Wet ‘N Wild. Ah, good times.

Lunch was very 3rd-grade-sack-lunch: roasted turkey and provolone on whole wheat with a sliced apple.

Since Brian was being “initiated,” I headed to dinner with my parents, Jill, Robert and Jill’s parents. We meet up once a month or so at one of two restaurants in Deep Ellum because both have half-priced specials on Tuesdays: Monica’s Aca Y Alla and the Allgood Cafe. Tonight we ended up at Monica’s and I had my usual Mexican Lasagna: corn tortillas filled with corn, black beans and cheese and topped with tomato coulis and verde sauce.

Beat that for $5:

So remember how I was Foodbuzz’s 1500th subscriber on Twitter? Well they sent me my prize: a $50 Amazon gift card!!! Can you think of a better gift card to receive? You can pretty much buy anything with that. I probably should have found something food related but jumped at the opportunity to buy this, per Supermom Sammie’s recommendation. My back has been killing lately so I’m pretty dang excited about this pillow. Thanks, Foodbuzz!

I’m giving up on Brian and heading to bed with Chloe (who will not stop licking my leg… damn body lotion) and The Time Traveler’s Wife. Later kids!

-SURVEY-

Best summer childhood memory?

First off: Pumpkin Oats

• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup skim milk
• 1/2 cup pumpkin (added towards the end)
• vanilla extract, cinnamon, nutmeg and a little salt

Topped with some unsweetened coconut, raw trail mix… and a few chocolate chips for flair.

Today was GORGEOUS. It was in the 70′s most of the afternoon, so I did a little patio “pleasure reading”. Just kidding; it was all about handwashing procedures- 20 seconds at 100 degrees- and buying seafood from reputable sources… for class, obviously.

Lunch was random. I just threw some leftover brown rice, lentils, steamed veggies (from Chinese takeout on Saturday), baked tofu, guacamole, plain yogurt, sriracha and pickled jalapenos in a bowl.

That looks kind of gross. But it was tasty, I swear.

I never knew you could buy canned lentils! Not as good as home-prepared, but good in a pinch:

Since it’s Slow Cooker Monday, I decided to try this recipe from Food Network for Slow Cooker Chicken Chili. I couldn’t find any ground chicken at the store, so I used 1.25 lbs of lean ground turkey instead. I also added a few extra ingredients: Chipotle Tabasco, an extra sweet potato (to make up for the lack of meat), and some Liquid Smoke. Cooked on high for 4 hours and served with a couple of Hodgson Mill Whole Grain Cornbread muffins.

It was good, but thinner than my usual chili. The sweet potatoes were a nice touch.

You’ll notice that the recipe calls for 3/4 cup of beer to be added before serving. What did we use?

Rahr Ugly Pug Lager, of course! Chloe’s cuter than that guy, right?

Awwww… we’ve embarrassed her. I have no idea how she breathes like this.

Off to bed- 5:45 track workout in the AM: 5 x 1200′s. Night!

Blueberry-Banana Baked Oatmeal

• 2 C Rolled Oats
• 1 C Milk
• 1 C Blueberries (I used fresh. If you use frozen, thaw and RINSE them first- unless you want blue oats).
• 2 Ripe Bananas, Mashed
• 3/4 C Unsweetened Applesauce
• 1/2 C Egg Substitute
• 1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp Salt

Optional:

• 1/2 Banana, thinly sliced
• Brown Sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients (except sliced banana and brown sugar, if using) in a large bowl and pour into a greased 8×8 inch baking dish. Bake for 35 minutes. Remove from oven and place sliced bananas on top, if using. Sprinkle liberally with brown sugar and place under broiler for about 2 more minutes, until sugar and bananas have carmelized. WATCH IT because the dish goes from “carmelized” to “charred” really fast.

Cut into 6 large squares. I usually wrap up each individual serving and then zap it in the microwave before eating. Here’s my little bedtime snack:

Tonight we met my parents and Grandmother for dinner at Mi Cocina, our neighborhood Mexican joint. Mom and I split veggie fajitas (yum). Unbenounced to me, my Grandmother has been reading Heather Bakes! The verdict? She likes the blog, but chastized me for overutilizing the word “crappy”. My Dad chimed in to say that he thinks I say “sucks” too often- to which my mom replied, “I don’t like that word, Heather.”

Well, you know what?

I think it sucks that I can’t say crappy.

So there.

(I’m kidding, of course! Love you, Mom! Love you, Dad! You too, Grandma!)

• 1/2 C Old Fashioned Oats
• 1/2 C Fat Free Plain Yogurt
• 1/4 C Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze
• 1/4 C Skim Milk
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
• Palmful of Raw Trail Mix (from Sprouts’ bulk bin)

I mixed all of that last night and let it chill in the fridge.  This morning I added raspberries, blueberries, a drizzle of honey and some sliced almonds. Voila:

Chloe even cleaned the bowl for me after I was done eating.  So thoughtful, that pug… and she had a little yogurt soul patch afterwards.

So I tried a couple of new snacky foods today before heading to class.  A mini-meal, if you will.  First up: Pacific Natural Foods Roasted Carrot Soup.

It was tasty.  Not as good as their Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato flavor (which, to me, is as close to la Madeleine’s Tomato Basil Soup as you can get without the accompanying 729 fat grams), but still good- if you like soups that are a little on the sweet side.

Next in line were these random little Viktoria cracker/crispbread jobs that we bought at Ikea, of all places.

Unfortunately I didn’t have any caviar and shrimp on hand, per the suggested serving photo on the bag, but I did have hummus.  These are pretty substantial little biscuits! Here’s my pre-class meal. Notice that I didn’t even use a plate AND I’d already taken a bite out of the cracker:

So as I mentioned, today was PIE DAY! We prepared several flaky crusts that have to set overnight, but we did get to take home 3 different graham cracker crust pies.

My masterpiece, Chocolate Cream Pie:

And my all-time favorite flavor, Key Lime Pie:

Surprisingly, the recipe indicated that you should mix raw egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk and lime juice and just let it set in the fridge for a few hours. Apparently the acid in the lime juice “cooks” the yolk, no baking required.  For the sake of time- and sanitation, I’m sure- we just went ahead and baked ours at 350 for about 20 minutes.

Finally, Cream Cheese Pie with Sour Cream Icing… not to be confused with cheesecake:

Shoot, long posts these past few days! I’m probably boring y’all to death.  Busy day tomorrow- we have our written midterm tomorrow night so I’ll be studying all day… and hopefully cleaning the house at some point. Fun times.

Night!

Despite being pretty much the easiest recipe ever, the first try was kind of a disaster.  I only had a couple tablespoons of real butter, so I improvised with Smart Balance.  In my defense, I checked the Smart Balance website and it said that the original version is fine for baking…  but since these were NO BAKES (duh), apparently that rule didn’t apply.  That batch didn’t solidify at all. They just ended up as these nasty-looking little piles of chocolate and oats. So into the trash they went- despite Brian’s protests: “But they TASTE fine!”

So after a quick trip to Super T I ended up with about 3 dozen perfect no-bakes. They don’t look very appetizing but trust me, they were delicious!

No Bake Cookies

• 1/2 C Milk
• 1/4 C Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
• 2 C White Sugar
• 1/2 C Butter (cut into large pieces)
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1/2 tsp Cinnamon (optional)
• Pinch of Salt
• 3 C Quick Cooking Oats
• 1/2 C Peanut Butter (I used Super Chunky)

In a saucepan over medium, combine milk, sugar, cocoa powder and butter. Stir constantly until mixture comes to a boil.  Boil for 1 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla, cinnamon, salt, oats and peanut butter.  Drop by spoonfuls onto wax paper.  Let cool for about an hour- or until solid.

Enjoy!