57 recipes down

I haven't included a "days to go" on this post, because I am sharing 2 recipes I made a couple days ago, and on seperate mornings. I don't want to cause any confusion.

I have only gotten the chance to type a post up today...

Friday, December 4th.

I didn't make the breakfast I was planning to make this morning. In fact, I didn't do anything that I was planning on doing this morning. My morning workout, special fall breakfast, and nicely plotted out homework chunks all fell to the wayside when at 7:30pm, Thursday night, my mom reminded me of a doctor's appointment I had. I totally did not completely forget. "I expect your butt to be in the car at 7:40am. Don't be late." So much for the luxurious and productive morning I'd envisioned. When I asked when we'd be getting home, she said best estimate around 11am. Turned out to be 12pm.

Really, I have gotten slightly better at adapting. Slightly. It was only a minor tizzy I had over this new influx of information. A minor twinge I experienced. Plus this was an important doctor's appointment. A long awaited one, to hopefully finally figure out why I haven't had my period for over a year. Totally not worrisome. Was I enlightened to what the problem was regarding my reproductive system? Nope. And now I'll be having to take another frickin blood test. My first blood test was quite a scarring experience. I squirm and scream in my head at the mere thought of another one. A shot I can handle. A needle stuck in my arm for who knows how long, all the time feeling my life blood being sucked out. And being told that I'm not supposed to move my arm. Not supposed to move my arm?! I can feel you sucking my blood out! Last time the woman told me to count to 60 and it would be done. Gosh, that was the longest minute of my life right there. I can sprint, hold plank, listen to horrific screeching; literally anything else other than that please.

My mom told me that I should be grateful that it is even possible for me to be able to take a blood test, there are places in the world where people don't have this privilege. You know what I thought? Can I live there?

Yes, what a terrible, selfish thought. There are people in the world who are truly suffering needing treatment, and don't have access to basic health care, medicine, and the possibility of a gosh darn blood test. Look at me moping at my immense privilege.

Anyways, my one saving grace is that maybe, just maybe, I'll get chocolate chip pancakes. That would sure be nice.

Let's get back to the matter at present. The question I had was, What am I going to have for breakfast?

raw buckwheat breakfast porridge

Oh She Glows

This is all how I ended up making this buckwheat porridge for breakfast. It kind of reminded me of overnight oats. Raw buckwheat groats were soaked overnight and blended with almond milk and a couple other ingredients in the morning to make the so-called porridge.

An aside on raw buckwheat groats: I have be looking for this ingredient on Amazon, Whole Foods since the very beginning of this vegan challenge. The darn thing has never been available. In my search results I would get things like buckwheat waffles, and cereal, and whole bunch of other things that weren't what I was looking for, gosh darn it. You won't believe my luck, when this out, out of mere curiosity, I yet again typed raw buckwheat groats. I had to rub my eyes to make sure I wasn't imagining things, when in the first row, there it was. Bob's Red Mill, organic whole grain buckwheat. What a saving grace that brand is. Literally almost all of the many, many different grains and flours now accumulated in my pantry are this brand.

I wasn't actually planning on making any recipes using this ingredient this week. But I got it anyways. I mean... of course I did. Is there even a question? It's not like it would be going bad anytime soon. Who knew if it would be available next week, or ever again?

When I realized I would have but 10 minutes to spend on breakfast in the morning, if I wanted to wake up at a reasonable time, this recipe immediately came to mind. Really, I could have just made toast. Avocado and nut butter toast are what I have all the time for breakfast when I'm in a crunch. Really they never get old. But for some reason, I felt inclined to make a recipe, this recipe.

We had fresh raspberries and blueberries in the fridge, which I saw she'd topped hers with in the recipe picture. It couldn't have been more perfect timing. I barely had time to snap a photo before grabbing my stuff and running out to the car. It was a car breakfast morning. Gosh, I've forgotten about these mornings... no longer having to drive to school.

Not bad. It was a bit of a strange consistency at first. Nice flavor. I got used to it after a couple spoonfuls. It was gone faster than I'd have liked. The crunch of the walnuts contrasting the smooth, creamy thick, lightly sweet porridge was the best part. Aren't nuts great? The recipe said it makes two servings, but I probably could have eaten it all in one. Except we were already a good 15 minutes away from our house and the container in the fridge holding the rest. I guess maybe it was pretty filling, I lasted all the way until 12:00 pm when I finally got home, without any hunger pains.

Saturday morning, I had the rest. I'd gone on my power hour (run) that morning, and felt I needed a bit more oomph to the porridge bowl to be filling. I reverted to my ultimate favorite, classic combination: banana and peanut butter. Really, what is better? I sprinkled on some walnuts for good measure.

Very sumptuous and filling. I didn't have a thought about more food in my mind after the final spoon-licking.

I would say the porridge turned out a success, and provides a good future option to mix up my morning rush toast.

Sunday, December 6th.

When I made the special fall breakfast I was planning to make all along...

maple-cinnamon apple and pear baked oatmeal

Oh She Glows

I've made baked oatmeal before. Probably my favorite one I've made was this peanut butter zucchini one. I've also made two different vegan baked oatmeals, which turned out nicely as well: this one and this one.

I've got to say that this one beat them all. Something about the mix of fall spices, soft baked oats, and juicy-sweet pieces of pear and apples. I ate much more than the half of the bowl shown in the above picture. In all honesty, I ate over 1/3 of that whole casserole dish, by myself, that morning warm out of the oven. It was 10:30 by the time it was done and cooled. I was hungry is an understatement. My stomach was growling that morning. That's one reason why this is a special, out-of-ordinary breakfast, because it takes a loooong time to bake. But it is sooo worth it to make every once in a while. Baked oatmeal knocks a bowl of instants oats right out of the park. It's not even close. And it was so delicious that I had no ounce of self-control to resist getting another heaping bowl-full. Help, please! I just couldn't stop eating it. I ended up being absolutely stuffed, and didn't eat lunch until 1:30 that day.

The recipe said it served 6, but probably because of my lack of my, ahem, self-control, on that first morning, it ended up being 4 days worth of breakfast. I had the last of it this morning (Wednesday).

Sunday, I ate it straight-up. It was perfectly sweet and delicious on its own without any drizzle of maple syrup on top. I did take up her suggestion of adding a splash of almond milk to my bowl Monday morning. I found it quite nice, reminiscent of cereal, kind-of. But better. I had my bowl Tuesday and today with a scoop of yogurt on top. I used plain, non-fat greek yogurt, because it is the kind we keep in our refrigerator. I know: not vegan. Good thing, I'll probably never restrict myself to eating only a certain diet. The yogurt was a nice extra boost. I added it in hopes of satisfying myself from craving more. It worked well in doing that. The yogurt more so than the almond milk, made me feel full and satisfied.

I'm sorry it's gone. I'll be making this special fall breakfast next year. And maybe I'll take up her suggestion of changing it up by using two large ripe bananas and 1 1/2 cups of blueberries in place of the apples and pear.

I didn't even mention that I was hoping to make this over break, but the pear took so damn long to ripen. It was rock hard when it arrived. The opposite problem of the persimmons, haha.