What's Cookin'

Me! Or I've been trying to cook a bit, lately. I don't like cooking that much but eh, I can do it ok and certainly well enough to support my curves and then some.

Last week I remembered a fairly healthy snack that I used to like to make and probably got tired of at some point, but I decided to resurrect it: roasted chickpeas.



These are a bit burnt/overdone.  I used:

• 2 cans of garbanzo beans, drained
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• garlic pepper, garlic powder, and a bit of splenda for grins

Mix and dump onto a baking sheet and roast at 400 deg F for 30 minutes (I left them longer than that and I probably shouldn't have.)  Then turn off the oven and leave them overnight to get crunchy.  I am trying it again now but I've doubled the recipe and added more pepper, some tabasco, and a couple of tbsp of brown sugar splenda mix.  Oh and a couple dashes of vinegar.  My cooking is always heavy on the experimentation (and consequently sometimes heavy on the fail.)

I also made a double batch of these Baked Oatmeal Squares to grab for breakfast during the week.  I used applesauce instead of the oil and brown sugar splenda instead of the sugar.  I wouldn't substitute 1:1 with the sugar vs. splenda next time, they're a little sweet for my liking.

Also got a bulk shipment of quinoa from Amazon Grocery because it's good and good for you.  I have heard of people being allergic to it which makes me sad because I think it's pretty delicious.  I cook it in the rice cooker, 1 cup quinoa to 1 cup chicken broth + 1 cup water.  Awesome rice substitute and makes a yummy salad with black beans, corn, onion, and a hit of olive oil and vinegar.

In other news, I got to see my friend Kimmy yesterday and one of the best dogs in the world, Jamberoo


Isn't she adorable??? Such a little spazz too. I love dogs so much but in most cases, I am happy to play with them and then go home to my lower-maintenance kitties. Who are sadly also much snobbier than dogs. But life's a trade-off, yes?

We also cruised the cute little shops on Southport and I picked up this piece after much dithering and first-world whining over which necklace was prettier.



This week, I wasn't able to make it to class with Christina King :( and my other teachers are on SPRING BREAK luckyawesome vacations.  I am getting down to Naperville on Tuesday night to catch one of my most favorite authors, Christopher Moore, at a signing for his new book, Bite Me.  SO EXCITED!!!  AND I have the day off Friday and will do some much-needed cleaning.  And sleeping.  Let's be honest, more sleeping.

Cheers,
D