Overnight oats

Its Thursday! Now that I’m working that has a whole new meaning!

I will start with Dinner because it was too delicious not to share and end with breakfast (hmm may not have thought that one through). Last night I made spaghetti squash with lazy-man meat sauce. I roasted the spaghetti squash (directions can be found here), sautéed 3 cloves garlic (I was making for Chris), then browned 1/3 pound ground beef with the garlic and added 1/2 a can of Ragu. Super easy and plop it on your spaghetti squash boat with a sprinkle of feta and walah!

Clearly oatmeal is my favorite breakfast food and may even work its way into just one of my favorite overall foods. I just can’t get enough of it. However, making oatmeal in the morning is super annoying, because I prefer stovetop oatmeal it really eats into my mornings and usually causes me to be late. To fix this I have started making overnight oats.

So what are overnight oats? Not too surprising, they are oats you prepare the night (or a couple hours early if enjoying them for lunch or dinner) before, stick them in the refrigerator  and then Bam your breakfast is ready to go, the next morning and travels very well if that appeals to you. So now nobody has the excuse not to eat a nutritious breakfast!

Is the sound of cold oatmeal super appealing? If it is, then keep reading because overnight oats will be right up your alley. If not (which I’m prepared will probably be the majority) then also keep reading, and have  just a little bit of an open mind, because I believe I will convert you by the end.

The key to overnight oats are chia seeds. They start out so little and absorb fluid to swell and thicken the oatmeal to make a creamy consistency.

Really if you have the base ingredients you can play around to get the consistency you like best, I don’t like my oatmeal super runny so I use less milk and yogurt. Just personal preference.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup oatmeal

1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or skim milk)

1/2 cup plain greek yogurt (watch out for flavored yogurt it is full of added sugar)

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp chia seeds

miscellaneous add-ins: frozen fruit, smashed ripe banana, peanut butter, raw nuts

Mix all the ingredient together and add in your desired flavor. My favorite is frozen raspberries. They are cheap and then in the morning they are thaw and perfectly sweet and juicy. But oatmeal mixture in an airtight container and store in refrigerator. Wait at least a half hour for it to thicken, the longer it sits the creamier it gets.

Here is a picture from The Yummylife that shows just how creative you can get with these! Have fun and enjoy!

 

OMG Date Balls

Happy Tuesday Everyone! I hope you all had a great three-day weekend!

Chris and I went to my Uncle Tom’s cabin in Grand Rapids, MN for Saturday and Sunday to enjoy the HEATWAVE! People, it has been almost 90° here! While that temperature may not be surprising for those of you who live in more southern states, it’s the fact that it went from 40° to 90° pretty much over night.

The weather was amazing and the company even better. It’s so great to spend time with my aunts, uncles, cousins, grandma and of course Christopher. The time seems to fly by.

So speaking of summer time hot weather, if you are looking for a perfect dessert  that requires like no work and no oven, than look no further and pay attention! Ok you don’t really need to focus that hard, because the recipe is super easy and there are only 3 ingredients!

Ingredients:

2 cups of raw walnuts

1 cup pitted dates

4 tbsp cocoa powder

These date balls work best with a food processor, and will be done in seconds. First, dump the walnuts into the food processor and blend until the walnuts are very fine and there aren’t any big chunks. The finer the walnuts, the better the consistency of the final product will be, so don’t skimp on this step! Now add in the dates and cocoa powder and blend until it has a dough like consistency and is starting to stick together. Then, with a melon baller or spoon scoop the mixture and roll into balls with your hands. And now you’re done!

*Sometimes we add a little peanut butter and blend it into the mix before forming the balls…if you’re a big peanut butter person. You could also role the formed balls into coconut or powdered sugar if you’re heart desires (I have a heck of a time finding unsweetened coconut in northern MN so I usually don’t). Store in the refrigerator and enjoy!

You will take one bite and think Oh My Goodness (OMG) how can something so simple be so good. They are delicious and will satisfy your sweet tooth while providing healthy fat and rich dark chocolate flavor.

~Alyssa

 

Faith Friday: Frozen Homily

Hello everyone and happy Friday to you all!

Before I launch into this Frozen business I have to share with you what happened to me yesterday. I started my Clinical Dietetic Internship at St. Lukes hospital in Duluth, MN! I arrived anxious and left totally overwhelmed. This summer will challenge me a lot and keep me out of my comfort zone, but I am excited to start this new phase that will take me one step closer to my dream job (Dietitian)! I will update you as I do more, yesterday was mostly just orientation stuff and a tour of the hospital. Let’s just say I would appreciate a lot of prayers that this goes smoothly!

Now onto the heart of the matter, Faith Friday! The lovely Carol (who has been MIA lately due to intense Notre Dame finals) sent this homily to me ages ago to share with all of you. Due to my finals and crazy traveling/moving life I am just getting around to publishing it (so sorry Carol!).

I will set the scene for you, this is Easter Sunday and this lovely homily is delivered by Deacon Pat Reidy,  who is now Fr. Pat Reidy, as he was just recently ordained in the Congregation of Holy Cross! Father Reidy emphasizes the importance of the self sacrificing love of Jesus. Please take a few minutes to sit down, have a cup of coffee, healthy snack (apples & pb, yogurt and granola…etc) and watch this wonderful and insightful homily found here.

Blessings on your Friday.

~Alyssa

Wheat-less Wednesday: Nature Box

Another week, another Wheat-less Wednesday! I’m really excited to tell you all about this new fangled snack invention that is the focus of this edition.

So my wonderful fiancé, Christopher, got me a 3-month Nature Box subscription as a thoughtful gift for finishing my first year of grad school. I had looked at the Nature Box site a couple times, but was so pleasantly surprised that he got the subscription and excited to try all the cool gluten free snacks.

Let me tell you a bit about Nature Box. Overall it is a company that sends healthy snacks right to your door. First you pick the length of your subscription, and they send you one box a month. Then, you pick what size box you would like, 5,10, or 20 snack bags. Once you have signed up you have the option to pick the snacks you want or you can put surprise snacks in your “pantry”. The best part is you get to personalize your pantry by making it gluten free, low cal, low sugar, or low fat and then they match snacks to your preference!

I chose flax crostini bites, chipotle maple almonds, pear praline crunch, baked sweet potato fries, pb&j granola. They are all very good! My favorite so far is a toss up between the crostini bites and pear praline crunch. The pear praline crunch is a good mix of sweet and salty making it a perfect snack to satisfy most of your cravings.

I will admit I haven’t tried the granola yet, because that was the one thing that Chris requested so I am leaving it for him. The sweet potato fries were a bit of a let down. They have an odd texture, but whenever you are making gf crackers I shouldn’t be surprised about this.

Here is my snack line up for the next shipment. I’m excited!

 

If you are a snacker you should definitely look into this, or if you are in need of a gift to support someone with healthy lifestyle choices, I would recommend Nature Box, it makes a great gift!

~Alyssa

Portland Part 2: Rollin

Well Hello there everyone! It has finally come time to recap the second half of my trip to Portland (better late then never!).

Before we get to that I will just show part of the reason I have been so busy lately! On Wednesday after my last final my skinny, kind mother came to help me clean up and pack my tiny apartment! I had to say goodbye to my 5 by 5 feet square room, but got to check off one of my life goals of being able to live with one of my best friends since kindergarten!

Here is Linda in my tiny, now squeaky clean room. I swear it looked bigger with all my furniture in it, but that’s just me, I maybe crazy.

So now rewind back a weekend and the recap starts on Sunday. Our third day in Portland began with Church at a Proto-cathedral in Vancouver, WA. We had to look up what that was, it just means it used to be the cathedral. The church was gorgeous, and so were the flowers that were blooming everywhere!

Then we stopped at Starbucks! Woo nothing like church, coffee, and Chris in the morning. We meandered over to a farmers market a couple blocks away where they had the most beautiful bouquets of flowers. I super wanted to buy one for my mom and (soon-to-be) mother-in-law for mothers day, but unfortunately I don’t think they would have traveled well.

After tasting some hummus, trail mix, yummy popcorn, nuts, and salsa we obviously needed to eat some more and headed out in search of brunch place. We stumbled upon a quaint diner and enjoyed omelets and fresh fruit before heading out to Multinomah Falls!

The falls are only 30 minutes from Portland and we causally arrived a mere 2 hours after leaving Portland city limits. Why you ask? Well we had a few difficulties. Mistake #1: we figured there would be a place we could change out of our church clothes at the park….WRONG (well that’s what we thought at this point)! So we turned around in search of a gas station of McDonalds to change and grab some water for our hike. Mistake #2: In an attempt to not have to backtrack so far we decided to go to Cobet country store in the middle of nowhere. No, they did not even have a bathroom. So Chris changed in the porta potty and I discreetly changed in the car. Mistake #3 there was a scenic highway that lead to the falls, we figured we might as well take that….WRONG! We ended up on this TINY (like closing eyes every time we pass someone) road that practically hung off the side of a cliff. And the worst part was it had no exits! So we were stuck careening around hairpin turns for about an hour. But we finally made it!

Needless to say there was some crabbiness, but we had to take advantage of the photo-ops!

We hiked a little over a mile to a higher falls…

The waterfalls were gorgeous and the sun was shining. It really did turn out to be a great day.

We headed back to Portland in search of some ice cream, and stumbled upon the best part of the trip! A totally gluten free bakery, Back to Eden. Oh man I was in heaven, I could get anything I wanted and it all looked so good. So I chose a cinnamon roll and chocolate donut (Chris tempted me so much with the Voodoo donuts).

The cinnamon roll definitely stole the show! I have been wanting a cinnamon roll for awhile and it satisfied all my cravings and just melted in my mouth. Sooo GOOD! I have been dreaming about it ever since.

We finished the day with fancy ice cream at the Salt and Straw. Look at all the fancy flavors, like Strawberry Honey Balsamic with Cracked Pepper or Mint leaves & Sea Urchin Meingues. I ended up just getting chocolate, I know super lame. But I did try the strawberry with cracked pepper and it wasn’t too bad. I think I would rather stick with my boring chocolate or vanilla though. Moral of the story I don’t think I’m quite hipster enough for fancy ice cream.

 

I would definitely go back to Portland, it was a great weekend and fun to explore with Chris!

~Alyssa

Wheat-less Wednesday: Cereal Edition

It is time for this weeks Wheat-less Wednesday! Wow that is a lot of w’s (some would even say a whopping amount). If you came expecting Portland Part 2, I apologize, there are just so many pictures to sort through, but it will be up soon! Anyway this Wednesday is a bit bittersweet. You see yesterday was the last time I walked to campus from my current apartment, crossing over this bridge…..

And my last spin class…..

After my final tomorrow I will be immediately moving out and moving up (nothing like moving in and mooching off the parentals).

Anyway, now to the task at hand…cereal. When I am not making oatmeal for breakfast, it is nice to have cereal on hand for a quick and nutritious start to the day. Gluten-free cereal is hard to come by, except for rice krispies and corn chex that have a lot of sugar and about zero fiber or sustenance to keep me full to lunch time. So instead I have turned to Erewhon Supergrains. 

And buckwheat and hemp is my favorite flavor, it may not sound enticing but trust me it’s delicious.

One cup comes in around 220 calories and contains 5 grams of fiber and only 6 grams of sugar and not to mention it tastes great. It has a great nutty-grain flavor when paired with yogurt or milk and berries makes for a great breakfast.

And the ingredients: Organic Whole Buckwheat Groats, Organic Brown Rice, Organic Brown Rice Syrup, Organic Hemp Seed, Organic Maple Syrup, Sea Salt.

Unfortunately I believe they may only be available at Whole Foods which is fairly limiting, but definitely the best gf cereal that I have found. I highly recommend it!

~Alyssa

Portland Part 1: Octopus Tree

Happy Tuesday!

This weekend has been a whirlwhind, but in the best way possible. It all started on Friday in the Msp airport. I got a latte and enjoyed catching up on all my blog posts that I had missed while being holed up for finals week. Then, I boarded, and let me tell you it was the fanciest flight ever!! Each seat had a plug in and a usb port to charge your phone and a tv. And I assumed that you would have to pay for all the movies or tv shows, but I stood corrected. Everything was free, so I watched Captain Phillipes and got sufficiently depressed before watching 2 episodes of HIMYIM to cheer me up. Chris picked me up from the airport and we drove into the heart of Portland.

On Saturday our day started off with some Starbucks, because oh man they are on every street corner and we couldn’t resist. We walked to Voodoo’s doughnuts and stood in line to get a taste of the famous doughnuts (well Chris got a taste).

They had every flavor you could ever want! Like cocoa puff, apple fritters (those were taunting me), coconut, chocolate, pretty much anything that is full of sugar you could find on a donut.

Yes, that is a maple bacon donut, and oddly enough Chris did not like it! Which is weird because bacon is definitely his favorite food. He did love the captain crunch donut though!

Our adventures brought us to forest park, after a stop at whole foods for snacks for the journey (of course). We went for a great hike up above portland in beautiful weather.

 

But the coast definitely stole the show! After our hike, we drove about an hour and half west to Tillamook. The ride there was a bit dicy, there was some serious lack of dramamine, but the views were beautiful. Once we got there, we were both surprised it was so gorgeous and the weather was a perfect 60°! Chris kept saying Oregon is so underrated and I would have to agree.

 

Haha the last picture is the octopus tree…and obviously that was me being an octopus!

And the wonderful day ended with dinner with an ocean view and a sunset on the ocean! Does it get any better?

 

I hope you enjoyed the millions of pictures, especially all the selfies, and there will be more to come tomorrow as we venture into Portland Part 2!

~Alyssa

 

Faith Friday: Finals Galore!

Why hello there! I apologize for being dead to the world there for about a week, but finals kind of kicked my butt. Let’s just say a little more preparation would have been helpful! And this was my diet this past week:

I am currently on route to Portland, which I’m super excited about. My sister says I will fit in great, because it is all about hippies and coffee. While I wouldn’t consider myself a hippy I do love me some coffee. I am excited to explore the coast and hopefully eat some great food….and oh yeah see CHRIS!

But anyway back to Faith Friday a busy/stressful week of school helps me to put into prospective how awesome God is and just how little, we as humans, could accomplish without Him. Some might ask, how do you personally make time for prayer when you are stressed beyond belief? Well, clearly I am not the gold standard, but one of my new obsessions are podcasts! They are great because I can listen to them while I walk to school aka deepening my faith while making it to class on time-ish.

If you didn’t already know I walk to school 4 days a week, which is about a 25-30 minute walk one way. So it’s about an hour round trip, umm light bulb I could actually be using this time productively. For the first 7 months of the school year I walked in silence, but for lent I started incorporating Father Mike Schmidt’s homilies, from the UMD newman center in Duluth, MN into my morning and evening commute. He is a great dynamic speaker and I definitely come away with something after each podcast. If you aren’t familiar with podcasts here is a link to find them on iTunes. And if you have an iPhone all you have to do is download the podcast app and search Father Mike Homily. He will having you rolling on the floor laughing.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/umd-newman-catholic-campus/id273537688?mt=2

 

So check it out and add some deeper meaning to your commute!

~Alyssa

P.s. some great recipes are coming your way soon, get excited!