Pizza, Banana Cake, and a Concert

Sunday...it was a busy day, which made up for my hibernating the rest of the weekend. I really just didn't want to dig my truck out of the snow-so, I restricted myself to go only places that I could walk. That meant work and yoga. I did a lot of movie watching and reading in my papasan chair wrapped in a blanket. And of course...cooking.

So, back to Sunday...we had tickets for the Ingrid Michaelson and Josh Radin concert which was happily a block from my house so it, too, required no driving. Brittney's friend was going with us so she came over for dinner with a bottle of wine and I made two kinds of pizza and Mexican Monkey Cake.

The pizza was on a whole wheat crust that I made in the bread machine. On one I put homemade tomato sauce, mozzarella, sundried tomatoes, and sauteed baby portobello mushrooms. The other had olive oil, mozzarella, artichoke heart, roasted bell pepper, sundried tomato, and kalamata olives. The crust was crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside-I was a little scared with using only whole wheat flour-but it had really good balance. I love pizza so this meal made me happy.

We've had overly ripe...I mean black....bananas around for about a week and I was just waiting to be inspired by a recipe. The Monkey Cake came out amazing-in my opinion, Ghiradelli chocolate chips alone bring any dessert up about two points. The only change I would make would be to omit the sugar in the "topping". I think the cake is plenty sweet without the added sugar. The cinnamon in the recipe is essential though. All around delicious.

The concert was great-both artists are wonderful live. If anyone has the chance to go see them it's definitely worth it. I was a little bummed that my poor planning caused me to miss the Oscars but the alternative ended up being a really good time.

I don't really ever make sandwiches anymore. They used to be a daily meal but since I don't really eat meat anymore-they take more effort to be exciting. Don't get me wrong, PB&J are always wonderful but I guess it's a lot easier to make a nutritious vegetarian burrito than a sandwich. Yesterday, however, I felt compelled to put in that extra effort and it was definitely worth it. It's a recipe I used to always make with tuna-but I'd forgotten about it until I came accross this curried egg salad recipe. I toasted some locally made wheat bread and rubbed it with garlic-then along with the egg salad, mounded avocado and sprout. After some leftover monkey cake I went to my afternoon class very satisfied.

Pink Cookies?

I'm snowed in. Class was canceled(yay!) due to the 8-14 inches of snow that fell around Flagstaff last night. I'm kind of hibernating anyway because I've been sick(I have never sneezed so much in my life!) It's been a lot of lemon, ginger, honey tea and warm, yummy foods. Yesterday, I made an Indian Biryani(pilaf) and Aloo Paratha(potato-filled whole wheat flat bread) from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything: Vegetarian. It was spicy and delicious; but I didn't take any pictures...
This morning I woke up and made some carrot and beet juice. At Tap Root in Anchorage, I've had carrot cookies that use the left over carrot pulp from their juice bar. They are cakey and slightly sweet and totally satisfying. In an attempt to recreate these little treats I , per my norm, googled a recipe to work from. I found a carrot pulp cookie recipe and looked forward to the brilliant color the beets would add. Sure enough, these cookies carry the signature pink of fresh beets, which translates to: very good for you. I love that they're whole wheat and could be made vegan with an easy egg and honey(I used turbinado sugar) substitute. Basically, these won't last long around here.
So, for the rest of the day I will enjoy not having to take the test that was scheduled in my first class today and maybe I'll do some reading. Should be relaxing and wonderful.