food only, no joke.

Thank you for all your well wishes on Charlie’s first day of school! We have quite an unfocused student on our hands — all he wants to do is socialize! We need to work on his distractions, that’s for sure! Once all his excitement got out, he was a fast learner. The Husband went into the training ring with him yesterday, so it was fun to watch them both get the hang of it. We just worked with him on sitting and staying when the doorbell rings (Guess who? It’s me!), and well, he’s really a fast learner. Not that I am biased or anything….

I’ll be honest with you about today’s post — it’s all about the food. After looking through my pictures today, they made me so happy. I could eat exactly what I ate today for breakfast and dinner again every day for the rest of my life. Why only breakfast and dinner you ask? Well, after Ashley wrote a post about taking DSLR’s out in the cold, I will never subject Roxy the Rebel to 10 degree weather for as long as she lives. It’s just not fair to her. Therefore, lunch was on the point and shoot, and I’m too lazy to get off the couch to get it.

Oh — breakfast. My favorite meal of the day. The Husband and I actually had a funny conversation about why the reason I wake up so early is because I love to eat breakfast so much.

Would you still be my friend if I told you that might be true?

In the bowl today:

• 1/4 cup steel cut oats
• 1 and 1/4 cup water

That was soaked overnight. In the morning I added:

• 1/4 cup almond milk
• 1 tbsp. flax
• 1/2 sliced banana
• 1 tsp. vanilla

I cooked that on the stove and whipped the oats so the banana would break apart. I topped it with:

• 1/2 apple, microwaved with cinnamon and vanilla for 90 seconds
• crumbled cinnamon roll (they’re still in the freezer from Christmas)
• coconut
• Maranatha Organic Peanut Butter

Just looking back at this reminds me of how I could eat it every morning for the rest of my life. This bowl was so good. If you’re wondering why I use so much liquid in my oats, that’s one secret to get really voluminous oats. With the banana and flax added on top of that, you will never fail to have super voluminous oats.

One of the best things about breakfast is I am by myself. It’s my alone time — I like it that way. The Husband knows to stay clear of me during breakfast if he wants to eat for the rest of the day.

Insert: teaching, lunch, teaching, driving, training with Jillian, and making dinner

Oh — dinner. My second most favorite meal of the day. And this one, my friends — this one was a dish to remember.

I eyed Gena’s butternut squash risotto last week, and I was bound and determined to make it. How could I not? It looked so good. So, I went out to the store over the weekend to gather the ingredients — butternut squash, basmati rice… wait. What? I can’t make risotto with basmati rice? That’s right — It’s from INDIA! Someone should have really told me this. Or, they should have made sure I read the recipe carefully instead of just “knowing” that was the right kind of rice to use. Fail #1.

However, I was bound and determined, remember?

I made it work. I reduced the liquid and stirred it a little less, but other than that the recipe stayed true. It was so good. So good in fact I exclaimed during dinner that I would “be happy if I could eat this and only this for the rest of my life”. I was actually expecting the Husband not to like this, so I put on my big girl pants and was ready for the negative feedback. However, even he gobbled it up and only pushed a few squash pieces to the side. I’d call that a success.

I also roasted up some beets. I’m showing you the same picture one more time because I ate two plates — it seems only right to do.

I’m probably going to bed dreaming of this dinner — leftovers tomorrow are going to be amazing.

Time to go turn up the thermostat and bundle up — it’s supposed to be below zero tonight with a —30 degree wind chill! Why was I born in Chicago again?

Question: What was the best thing you ate all day?

Tagged as: baked apple oatmeal, basmati rice, butternut squash, food, maranatha peanut butter, steel cut oats