Revelations

Diet desserts suck. End of story. I mean, how many years of trying to make "healthy" brownies will it take me to learn? Apparently at least 3. 

Ok, seriously though, I'm done making these fake desserts. With you all as my witnesses, from now on, if I want to bake something yummy and satisfying, it will be something that is actually yummy and satisfying. Not fat-free, sugar-free brownies. I won't even provide the link to these because I feel bad trashing someone's healthy blog ideas, but enough is enough. 

I am ALL for cooking better (I mean seriously why would anyone ever need to sautee an onion in 2 sticks of butter???) but for baking, you need some fat and sugar to make it good. I always end up making these desserts, and either eating 5x the amount necessary, or needing to eat something else to quell my sweet tooth. 

Dessert should be decadent, something you savor and drool over. So from now on, that's what I'll do.

So un-gooey and non-fudgy : (

On a MUCH happier note:

Wheatberry Oatmeal. Holy crap, this stuff is like crack. Or at least what I imagine crack would be like. I am OBSESSED. And it is unbelievably filling, I finished eating ages ago and am still a little uncomfortably full. If I was actually listening to my body I would have stopped eating halfway through the bowl but that would be blasphemy.

And to make this amazing-ness even better, this morning I melted in my Adora dark chocolate calcium supplement. Dark Chocolate Banana Wheatberry Oatmeal=heaven. 

And I just drooled on my computer, a little bit.

Yummy Weekend!

This weekend has just been full of amazing food. Weekends are always nice because my mom is home and does a lot of the cooking. This worked out fabulously last night because when I got home from working an 8-hr on my feet day, I was NOT in the mood to cook. Fortunately my mom was in the mood and dinner was on the table within 10 minutes of my arrival. 

We had picked up Tilapia when we were at Whole Foods the day before (WF=my favorite place on earth, more or less). For dinner it was coated with parmesan and bread crumbs. Fish can be tricky to cook because it's hard to get it the perfect "doneness" but this was a success. It wasn't over or undercooked, and was so flaky and flavorful. Delicious! The fish was served with whole-wheat couscous with raisins, and a yummy arugula and white bean dish made with tons of garlic. This was really flavorful as well. The couscous was nothing special, but overall dinner was great.

 

Today for lunch we decided on pizza! We made a whole wheat dough in our bread machine. The recipe made 2 doughs, so here is one:

and the other is in the freezer for another day.

The pizza toppings included carmelized onions with curry and balsamic vinegar, a bosc pear, and brie cheese. Here it is before going into the oven for 20 minutes at 400*

And after:

It was seriously amazing. The flavors were so great. It was really sweet from the pears and carmelized onions, and the brie was very creamy and melty. The curry wasn't overpowering but was a really nice background flavor and gave it a little something special. We couldn't stop making "mmmm" noises the entire meal. Afterward we tried thinking about whether there was anything we would add/change for next time, and we couldn't come up with anything. It was perfect!

To go with our pizza, I made a delicious, fresh, colorful salad. It's full of lots of good fruits and veggies. I really love adding fruit to my salads, I think it just makes it so light and summer-y.

Finally, I tried WHEATBERRIES!!! for the first time. I had been hearing rave reviews about them, especially from Kath's blog

I soaked them overnight and then cooked them while I was working out this morning. It was perfect timing and they were ready just in time for my breakfast.

I added some of the wheatberries to my oatmeal and it was fantastic. I had thought that my oatmeal was already the absolutely perfect dish, but I was wrong. NOW it is perfect. The wheatberries added such a great chew and made the oatmeal even more satisfying. Rather than being just creamy wonderfulness with pillows of bananas, now it is all that PLUS chewiness. Amazing. I don't think I will ever be able to go back to regular oats again (and lord knows I will NEVER EVER resort to instant again...) I cut down on the amount of dry oats that I use by half to allow for the wheatberries, and honestly this kept me fuller for longer than usual. And I also think that the wheatberries slowed me down in eating. Usually I gulp/slurp down my food, and oatmeal is no exception, especially since it is so creamy and liquidy. The chew from the wheatberries helped with this. 

So in summary. Wheatberries = SUCCESS!