i went into hiding

1. School is overtaking my life - while I LOVE this, it makes for a very sleepy Chelsey
2. I may or may not have made one of my best dinners to date, which took every ounce of my being to do so.
3. Leonardo DiCaprio entranced me and created an inception in my brain to go see his new’ish movie.

But, before we get to all of that, I did have a request (from none other than my bestie) for a recipe for overnight oats. Someone at her work wanted to try it, so I must put it into my recipe page. Now, I cannot take full credit for the overnight oats craze, for the immediate credit needs to go to Angela at Oh She Glows. However, everyone does make their overnight oats a little differently, so I suppose I can share mine.

• 1/3 cup oats (I use Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Oats - any variety will be sufficient)
• 1/3 cup almond milk (or milk of choice)
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 tbsp flax seed meal (Again, I use Bob Red Mill’s - if you don’t have flax, don’t worry about it!)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 banana smashed

The night before you want to eat your oats, you have to prepare them - so, you must have a little bit of foresight into the fact that you are craving them for the following morning. You’ll want to combine all ingredients except for the 1/2 banana. Smash that banana in a separate bowl, cup, etc… and add it after it is smashed.

Stir this concoction (with the banana) into your favorite breakfast bowl.

You will want to then put this bowl in the fridge (COVERED) over night. There is a reason for covering it. Some foods you may keep in the fridge (onions, garlic, etc.) have a tendency to make their way into other dishes if uncovered. You don’t want to wake up in the morning and have your oats taste like onions… unless you’re into that.

In the morning, uncover the beauty, and add your favorite toppings. Some toppings can include:

• fresh fruit
• dried fruit
• cinnamon
• coconut
• nut butters
• the possibilities are ENDLESS!

Yesterday for my lunch break, I went to an awesome cafe called Fresco’s for lunch. I was supposed to be meeting my friends from my old school, but we forgot to take into consideration that because we were all in meetings all day, our lunch breaks may be different. They were different… mine was from 11-12, theirs was from 12-1. So, when I got there… crickets could be heard. At first I was a little disappointed, but I can never get enough “me” time, so I ordered anyways and sat and relaxed by myself. It was actually quite perfect.

I got a salad that originally had chicken in it, so I subbed it out and got artichokes instead. The girl at the register tried to charge me 2 dollars on top of the $8 the salad already costed to add artichokes. When I spoke up about how I was subbing it for chicken, the owner heard me and she got in trouble. Whoops! Sorry cashier girl, but I’m not paying almost $11 for a vegetarian salad.

It was really nice - it wasn’t too busy yet as it was still kind of early for lunch, and I had the opportunity to people watch. When I got back to work, I was quite refreshed!

After meetings all afternoon and our “Meet the Teacher” event at 2, I was famished! Sidenote: I am pumped for this year - all of my kids seem lovely!

To combat my hunger, I pulled an apple out of my bag and met with my 5th grade team to talk about what we were going to do for the first day of school. I absolutely love how much my team collaborates and is cohesive across the grade level. I also love how my new building mentor got me that awesome pink bedazzled stapler. Does she get me or what?!

I got the first headache I have had in such a long time yesterday. Before I discovered my food intolerances, I would get migraines EVERY SINGLE DAY. I am not kidding you when I tell you I used to have to pop more Excedrin Migraine than you would even believe. It was absolutely horrendous, and we had no clue when my migraines would occur. Since learning about my intolerances, I can tell when I’ve accidently “slipped up” because I get an instant migraine among other symptoms. I think my brain was just fried yesterday and I had hit the wall.

I had a little surprise on my doorstep when I got home from school yesterday…

When I got home, I had one thing on my mind: paninis! Steak and Gorgonzola for the husband, and a veggie one for me!

This actually took more prep work than it looks. When you make everything (meat, veggies, etc.) before hand and do NOT buy prepackaged ingredients, it actually is a bit tedious. But… it was well worth it.

Eggplant Panini (serves one)

• 4 slices of eggplant
• 2 slices roasted red pepper
• 1/4 cup sauteed onion
• 1 handful baby spinach
• hummus of choice
• 2 slices bread of choice (I used millet, which is gluten free)

First, I had to roast my red pepper. I had never done this before, but it was so easy!

After the red pepper is roasted, you must immediately put it in a bowl and cover it with plastic wrap. This cools down the pepper and also traps the steam into the bowl so the pepper will be easier to peel. I set that aside for about 10 minutes while I got to work on other tasks (such as cooking the husband’s steak for his sandwich)

I also chopped and sauteed onions in about 1 tbsp olive oil, and I sliced my eggplant to be cooked in the saute pan as well.

Once all my ingredients were ready to go, I set up an assembly line of sorts (sorry I didn’t take a picture, but my kitchen has HORRIBLE lighting right now).

I toasted my millet bread (since it was frozen), and piled all the ingredients onto the sandwich. Since I don’t have a panini press, I improvised by placing a fry pan over the griddle pan I was using and then placed a tea kettle full of water on top! It worked great. I spread some vegan margarine on both slices of bread as well.

Cook on medium-high heat for 3 minutes on each side.

You’ll get this as your final creation.

It was so good - I believe I exclaimed after dinner that “I want to eat this every day for the rest of my life”. The husband laughed, but I was totally not joking.

His turned out just as good!

Along side our paninis we had “french fries” and broccoli

No, they weren’t fried.. they were baked at 450 degrees for 30 minutes flipping once. I wish I would have taken a picture of the white potato french fry. They were so tasty.

After dinner, we scrambled out the door to make a 7:30 movie to go see Inception! That movie blew my mind! It was awesome.

This morning, I woke up to take on my breakfast… and another 10 miler.

I’m off to go do this run. I hadn’t really thought about it that much this week, but 10 miles is seeminly daunting after a long work week. I can do it though!

Sometime today I WILL catch up with my reader… maybe.

I am also going grocery shopping today - what am i making for dinner next week? Submit your recipe and I’ll chose a few to feature!

Question: I’m still looking for things to make for dinner next week - what should we have? Have you seen Inception? What did you think about the ending?