What Kate is Cooking

In some ways, I can’t believe January is almost over, and in other ways, I can’t believe it’s still winter. The weather this weekend was absolutely gorgeous! Sunny, hot, and clear skies. I went for a hike with my sister yesterday to soak it up.

When I was walking down a hill, I somehow really screwed my knee up with just one step. It’s feeling better today, but it still really hurts to bend it. Figures- I had literally just been thinking about how I could fit in some running this week when I hurt it.

I started prepping food for the week when I got home so I didn’t have to spend much time cooking after work. I roasted a ton of butternut squash (about the equivalent of one and a half butternut squashes) and I ended up eating most of it! Whoops.

I made my favorite healthy dinner- cinnamon roasted butternut squash (that I ate about five more servings of), kale chips, and pan-fried tofu. And because my dinner was so healthy, I had to balance it out by having ice cream after. I almost made it through the month of January with no dessert, but ice cream has a real hold over me.

Since the oven was already on, I made a batch of granola and roasted a pan of broccoli to snack on. I ended up burning the granola a tiny bit and burnt the hell out of the broccoli

Slow clap for me. I HATE to waste food and I will eat terrible, disgusting things to avoid wasting anything, but even I couldn’t choke this down. Heartbroken.

Speaking of unpleasant things-

I sucked it up and went jean shopping again and got this pair of pants at Old Navy. I normally don’t trust Old Navy pants but I had a coupon that had to be used, so these ended up being 20 bucks. Not too bad!

What’s the weather like in your neck of the woods? 

I’m pretty positive I would work out twice as much if I didn’t have curly hair. I don’t even want to think about how long I’ve spent blow-drying and straightening my hair all of these years.

This is my hair on a good hair day (and at least an hour with a hair straightener)-

And here’s what it looks like when I wake up-

(Source)

Yeah, it’s a real pain in the ass. I wake up early every day for work or school, debate working out before, and then realize that my hour long workout will cost me another hour and a half by the time I shower and do my hair. My alarm went off at 6 this morning under the assumption I was going to go for a run. I ran one hand over my hair, realized my  hair was still relatively straight from yesterday, called off the run to avoid washing my hair, and went back to sleep for an hour.

I’ve experimented with dry shampoos in the past, but I get SWEATY when I run. Like, sweat dripping off my ponytail sweaty. No amount of dry shampoo in the world can make my hair look decent after a run. Also, when my hair gets wet it reverts back to bushy curls, and then I have to straighten my hair all over again.

I’m planning on going for a run tonight and going to cycling tomorrow morning to avoid straightening my hair. The things girls do…

How long does it take you to do your hair?

This week can’t go by fast enough!

I made chocolate pudding oats in a jar for breakfast. Old picture- no coffee this morning, although I could have used it.

I was out of the house from 8 a.m. – 8:30 p.m. at work / school today, so I loaded up my trusty lunchbox for lunch and dinner.

This was the only picture I got- today was insane. I went to class, drove straight to work, drove straight back to class, and just got home.

I packed a wrap with spinach and hummus, an apple, yogurt, soda (juice? sparkly juice?) and a mix of butternut squash, tofu, hummus, and broccoli. I stuffed the wrap in my face when I was driving to work and ate the rest right before class.

I just ate a huge bowl of cereal and I’m thinking of going to bed already. My new job is exhausting- I forgot how tiring standing / running / walking around for so many hours at a time is. It brings me back to my days as a barista in high school. I didn’t work out today but I definitely stayed active!

Is your job active or sedentary?

My family doesn’t just hoard pasta- apparently we hoard puff pastry and sliced almonds.

SO many almonds, all half full.

And seriously, where did all this puff pastry come from? Or more importantly, what to do with it?

The only thing I could think to do with these two ingredients was to add Nutella. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any (the horror!) so I made a sweet, buttery filling instead.

Puff Pastry with Almonds

Ingredients:

One package puff pastry, thawed
1 cup sliced almonds
2/3 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

Combine butter, sugar, and cinnamon in a saucepan over medium heat and stir until dissolved.

Cut the pastry into five or six rectangles. Spread each rectangle with butter mixture and sprinkle with almonds. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

I also made whipped cream out of heavy cream that was about to expire. I never really measure it, I just combine the cream with sugar and vanilla and whip. I did it by hand and it was way better than beating egg whites by hand!

How were they? I don’t know, I didn’t try them. I unintentionally started a no dessert streak and I want to keep it going for as long as possible (or until I buy a jar of Nutella.) My family liked them, though!

Do you or your family hoard food?