O-mazing!

I wish every day was Inauguration day! I had the live feed streaming in on my laptop all day and was overcome with pride, excitement, history, HOPE,.... and a little regret and envy that one of my closest friends and brother were down there in the midst of all that (crush of humanity) and that I turned down a ticket in the name of responsibility to my job/school/budget. It turns out that those two had kind of a crazy time and, like thousands of other people, they got turned away even though they had tickets (poor security planning for the ticketed area, overflow of people, etc.) but I'm sure it was CRAZY exciting being down there. It was all I could do not to answer my work phone: HAPPY OBAMA DAY! but it sort of didn't seem professional. Instead I only half paid attention to any conversation, meeting, etc..... and half hummed the national anthem and prayed that obama would stop walking outside his vehicle (WHY do they let him do that??)

Also I was sad I didn't have red, white, and blue fruit to put in my oatmeal. Actually I was pretty sad I didn't have a giant 4th of July jello cake with blueberries/strawberries on it, and an uncle sam costume.. THAT's how patriotic I was feeling yesterday. I did, however, use one of my absolute favorite food combos ever. When my brother and I were little we concocted a 'banana parfait' with bananas, PB, and chocolate...give or take marshmallows and honey. (he'll tell you it was all his idea, don't listen to him). Parfait sounded fancy so we used it, never mind that it's really only supposed to be applied to things with whipped creams and yogurts. whatev. Anyway I used all of those ingredients in my oatmeal and it was heaven. The chocolate melted right in and made it soooooo good.

The other day for lunch I had a turkey sandwich on wheat with Brie and apples. SO RICH. and really really good.

Today for lunch I had three of these veggie rolls.. YUM. I took sprouts, carrots, red peppers, zucchini and tossed it in Italian dressing. I put 2 Tbsp hummus on a wheat wrap and topped with spinach and the veggie mix. It hit the spot after last night's indulgent sushi outing with John where we consumed anything and everything deep fried and with cream cheese (so good and made me feel SO gross).

Tonight is class and then LOST season premier!!!!!!!!!! Get excited... Sawyer, I've missed you soo!

A trip to the Z-O-O

Sunday funday! After living in this city for three years and always making plans to go to the zoo (or at least saying out loud every time I pass by the exit for the zoo) I finally made the trip. Our zoo is dwarfed by other cities' fabulous zoos and I was a bit afraid it wouldn't be much more than a petting zoo. However, I was pretty impressed.

Also, much to the annoyance of my zoo companion, I was doing a lot of Lauren does Andy Samburg does Mark Whalberg talking to animals. Hey donkey. You're a donkey. What's up with that? I produce entourage. Say hi to your mutha fa me.


When we got back I was exhausted from walking all over Africa and and Australia to see wildlife and thought I'd have a simple, easy meal. Too bad I chose risotto which is actually extremely labor intensive, what with the constant stirring. Oh well, it was delicous.

Butternut Squash Risotto

• 3 cups vegetable broth
• 1/3 onion, diced
• 1 cup butternut squash, peeled, and finely diced
• 1 cup rice (can it still technically be a risotto if i only used white rice instead of arborio?)
• .5 cup dry white wine
• .5 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 Tbsp chopped chives or garlic chives

I think I used more wine than I thought, because it sort of overpowered things. I found the original recipe at simply recipes but wanted much smaller portions so I tried to adjust things as I went.

I did some other pre-week prep work too (in addition to FINALLY cleaning up from Saturday's soiree) Which included Monday's lunch: Veggie wrap

So, I am not exactly a vegetarian, but I do love vegetarian recipes. I signed up for a free starter kit from PETA, which included facts/figures/blah/blah/blah. The problem is although I generally oppose the idea of cruelty (don't we all?), I'm not in it for the animals. I like veggies, and it's healthier. End of story. That said, the starter kit had one of my favorite wrap combos eva. I love eating this, it has such a healthy delicous crunch to it... plus it gives me a reason to buy sprouts.

PETA veggie wrap:

• WW wrap
• sprouts
• red cabbage
• spinach leaves
• tomatoes
• cucumbers
• avocado (my favorite!!)
• tofutti fake cream cheese (real stuff would be yummy too, but i had the healthier version to use up in the fridge)

This morning I set my alarm early to make a glorious breakfast. However sleep sounded much better so I decided to slum it instead. Maple syrup/brown sugar oatmeal with dried cranberries.

My dad is in town this week, hooray! (and hooray for getting him to bring me my winter coats) ... so once I am through with class for the week and can reconnect with (oh.. kitchen..tv..life.. yoga..blog) I will likely be making him a meal. In the meantime, homework and work beckon.