Gone Swimming

It's been too long!

My head has just been swimming with too many things. I feel like I've been going through this summer with something constantly in my peripheral vision but I can't turn my head to figure out what it is. I'm not sure that really even makes sense, but to sum up, I feel overwhelmed with lots of *things* going on and can't seem to quite ever feel caught up. Know what I mean? 

But, the one thing that is not confusing me is my love for food. Especially yummy, healthy food!

I guess I was feeling patriotic?

Actually, I was just really excited when I came downstairs to find my dad home from a Costco trip with huge containers of fresh strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, melon, and Fage in tow. It was like Christmas!

Chocolate makes everything better.

Applesauce + cinnamon + Naturally More. 

I mixed mine up, but I don't recommend it - the pb got totally lost and I could barely taste it! No worries, there will be a next time.

Who's up for some reviews??

A Chobani that passes the sideways-spoon test!!

This was very tasty and enjoyable - like regular plain greek with a little sweet kick. I did like it, but to save $$ I'd rather just throw a little vanilla extract into some plain Fage. Just sayin.

You may recall my recent road trip. Road trips = LOTS of bar consumption.

This was disappointing. Very dry and very date-y. Not that I mind dates, but when I pick up a bar touting the name chocolate prominently in its title, I'm expecting lotsa cocoa, not so much date flavor. The chocolate chips helped, but I wouldn't buy this again. Plus, brown rice syrup was the first ingredient - not ok for having such a dry, crumbly texture!

My second Odwalla had better results.

Love that bad hotel lighting.

I was not expecting much after the chocolate one, but this was a horse of a different color! The coffee-chocolate balance was dead on, and it was pleasantly oaty and not dry or datey in the least. Loved this guy! Perfect dessert after a loooong day on the road. (And I mean long - 500 miles in 9 hours!)

Tried some new (to me) Laras as well:

This was just lovely! Reminded me of lemonade. Very refreshing! I had my doubts, but they were all put away after the first bite. The lemon flavor came through loud and clear, but were not at all clashing with the dates, and the cashews added the perfect creamy flavor and crunch in texture. A perfect summer snack!

I'm a bit ambivalent about this one. The banana flavor tasted almost too overripe for me. But overall, it definitely tasted like banana bread, and I loved the almonds! I'm always impressed with the Larabar flavor - always so real and genuine and such a teeny tiny ingredient list. 

Along the same lines...

Clif C boasts only 9 ingredients and a whole serving of fruit. I've reviewed the raspberry and tried the blueberry & cherry pomegranate with varying results, so I was interested to try this last one. 

I liked it. It had cinnamon, which was a very wise addition. I do like the texture of these - chewy, with the crunch from the bits of chopped nuts on top, reminiscent of Nutrigrain bar fillings. But, I wouldn't pay the $1.29 per bar. Just not that good. But, it's always fun to try new things!

I have one final review left:

FROSTING!

I don't remember if I've mentioned it before or not, but I have a bit of a problem with frosting. The problem being that one bite and I am compelled to scrape it off the entire cake and leave the cake itself naked. It's one scratch recipe I've never made well and it bothers me. All in good time, right? In the spirit of trying new things, I picked this up at Whole Foods. I couldn't resist - toffee vanilla by a company named Namaste?!! Yesplease.

You just mix the bag with 6 T of butter, margarine, or the like and add water as needed to get the right consistency. In one of my baking storms, I whipped some chocolate cake a la Dreena (halved the recipe and made it all one layer) and topped it with this gooey goodness. It was wonderful - this chocolate cake recipe rocks my baker's socks! I wish there was a similar one for vanilla cake. I figure it can't be hard to figure out, just may take some experimenting (my fave activity!). And the frosting? Very toffee-y! I was really impressed with the toffee flavor. In a testament to how good it was, my brother ate one tupperware full last night, and ate the second tupperware this afternoon. Sometimes my parents worry that I bake too much for the house to eat....I don't know why.

Hope you're all surviving the heat! I'm only semi-melted.

~Namaste~

What's in a Name...or Post Title

Welcome to...

My yard. 

A.k.a, the Gillianasana photography-practice site.

No Flash

----->

 w/ Flash.

Couldn't decide.

All my mother. I bake, she gardens. Hobbies are important.

Especially when they become your career! Yesterday I zipped down to Providence, Rhode Island to check out the Johnson & Wales culinary school campus. It hopped to the forefront of my list when I read about their Culinary Nutrition program and decided it was definitely worth a visit. It was indeed, and I got a lot of really good information and now have way too much thinking to do. I'm going on a college tour road trip with my brother (a senior-to-be in high school) and madre this coming week, and on the way back we are stopping in Hyde Park, New York to check out the holy land  CIA - Culinary Institute of America. It's the big one, where you go to be in the food industry. It scares me. 

That said, tomorrow we leave for Philadelphia and will be on the road until Friday night! I am bringing my mini laptop and will hope and pray to find hotels with wireless access or computers - but just in case I can't, I promise I WILL return! With pics. LOTS of pics. I'm looking at this trip as a good time to practice my [food]photography skillllllz. 

Speaking of which...breakfast anyone?

Melon is one of those foods I could (and often do) eat every day and never get sick of it. Especially this kind:

Tuscan melon!

It is a lot like canteloupe, only smaller and I find a little sweeter and stronger in taste.I had this in, where else, Florence, and fell in love. Look for those indented lines in the rind. It's amazing.

Blueberry Acai Dannon Light & Fit

Yes, another new flavor I was powerless to try. I actually really liked this - I could actually taste the acai and it blended wonderfully with the sweet blueberry! It's kind of a hard flavor to pinpoint, but I find it a little tart and a little sweet at once, a bit like pomegranate. The only issue, other than the ingredient list, is the awful fake-sugar aftertaste. WAY too sweet. I wish it had just been sweetened with real fruit! Oh well, I 'll just have to do it myself.

Nothing like a waffle on a Saturday morning (er...afternoon...)

AB-squared: apple butter + almond butter. A perfect combo.

Did some shopping at Old Navy. Ugh, shopping. I can never find exactly what I want. BUT, I did get a pretty cute dress 50% off because one of the straps was broken! Sewing won't even be necessary. LOVE that!

I came ravenous. Nothing a smoothie can't fix - especially when it involves this:

Amazing Grass's Amazing Meal Chocolate Infusion protein powder.

I used half the packet + 1 c. frozen mango + 1 c. almond milk + splash vanilla. I should have added a little extra cocoa powder, but didn't.

Aglow with healthy goodness!

I didn't love the Amazing Meal - it was a little too spirulina-y for me. But I didn't hate it either, and liked it with the mango very much. Of course, I like pretty much anything with mango....Either way, as far as Amazing Grass goes, the Kidz Wildberry and Original Superfood powders are in the lead.

The liquid health theme continued with this:

I got it on sale at WFs last week. As usual with Kombucha, I have no idea what to make of this! What I love about it is the complexity of the flavor - it changes every second it's on your tongue and definitely keeps me interested. This one went from berry-sweet to flowery and then very pine-y. I probably wouldn't but it again, but it was a fun try. I wish the Honest brand would go on sale again!

Because my mother, brother and I hit the road tomorrow, we had to have Father's Day a little early.

Dinner on the patio!

Including:

My grandmother's salad: romaine, tomatoes, avocado, red onion in red wine vinegar+olive oil and S+P.

Grilled eggplant, marinated in balsamic + olive oil. Melt-in-your-mouth amazing. Probably one of my favorite things.

Roasted taters

Fresh pasta in a vegetarian sauce for me, lamb for the fam. [Don't worry, I had some tempeh for protein ealier!]

And my present to the man of the day:

Chianti, straight off the boat plane.

YUM!!

Tippy agreed.

For dessert, I whipped up some peanut butter-chocolate chip cookies (Dad's fave)  using the Supercharge Me cookies recipe:

The first batch was gone before the second even left the oven. I think they liked them. 

Dessert also included this newbie:

Chobani Champions honeynana!

It's not thick at all; it's basically like regular yogurt, but I suppose that could very well be more appealing to kids which I assume are the target consumers here (although I know plenty of "grown-up kids" who would be attracted by the cartoony design). The flavor is great though! Unlike the chocolate, the cane sugar taste blends  in very well. It reminded me of a yogurt I ate all the time when I was little, but I can't remember exactly which one - I think it was Yoplait Custard-Style Vanilla. SO good. Gotta love nostalgia foods :)

Time to go pack, pack, pack! 

~Namaste!~

P.S. Remember that surprise I mentioned? Check out the sidebar --- I'm a Foodbuzz Featured Publisher!!! Dancing most definitely ensued when I got the email. I love Foodbuzz, and my absolute favorite blogs are all a part of its awesome community, so I'm super excited and proud to be too. Share the foodie love!

All My Single Ladies

I think it's about time I introduced some of the ladies in my life:

Daphne, the newest addition to the Gillianasana family. We even like the same music ;)

And a traveling chica of a different sort:

Isabella the Polka-Dotted Moka!

I bought her in Florence because we had one in our apartment and these seriously make some incredible coffee - and it's TOO easy!! I almost squealed out loud when I saw Whole Foods actually sells them. I highly recommend if you only drink a cup or two a day, because they're easy to clean (NO soap, just good rinsing), fast, and the taste is bravissima! Unfortunately, they only have the regular one here, no polka dots...all the more reason to pop over to Italia, no?

I've met a couple other singles...

Raspberry Goji Dannon Light & Fit

Unfortunately, I did not like this enough to put a ring on it. It was just kind of a vague berry flavor. Admittedly, I can't think of what gojis alone taste like - haven't had them enough - but all I could taste was a strawberry-raspberry-ish flavor. Oh well. Made for a decent enough snack.

The next one was slightly more likely to be a keeper:

Chobani Champions! I guess these are the greek-yogurt-for-kids attempt. I personally am a fan of the starburst design.

Normal Chobani consistency - not super thick, but enough to be called a respectable Greek yogurt. The flavor was, well, cocoa+vanilla+cane sugar, which is pretty appropriate considering that's basically what it is. I liked it and it made for a fun little dessert, but to be honest, I could make this on my own by just mixing in cocoa and vanilla to plain yogurt and be just as happy, if not more (the cane sugar taste was a little much for me). But, the package also comes with a "honeynana" flavor which sounds quite promising, so stay tuned!

And finally...

This Odwalla Sweet&Salty Peanut bar may have been single, but I wasn't really lovin' it. It had a very peculiar flavor that reminded me exactly of spirulina? It was muted but strong enought o distract me with every bite from the sweet & salty peanut goodness. I was in my car when I gobbled it down, but it looked pretty much like a wider, flattened Kashi TLC chewy bar. This was odd. And when I wasn't distracted by the mystery flavor, I noticed it was almost all sweet and very little salty. Oh well. 

Being single is all well and good...but couples can be pretty cute too.

What could be mingling with the Fage?

MANGO!!!! Oh, yum. These were perfectly ripe and juicy and wonderful. Despite my obsession with them, I don't often buy them fresh because they tend to be pricier. But as I walked into Whole Foods, lo and behold - cart after cart of mangoes on display for 5/$5!! It was a good day.

That mango is a bit of a philanderer - he was also seen canoodling with oats last night:

[Almond milk, flaxmeal, and cocoa powder may or may not have also been involved.]

And he didn't leave 'til this morning!

Scandalous!

Ridiculously long-stretched metaphor aside, this was a seriously delicious bowl of overnight oats. Mango + chocolate=love. Maybe star-crossed lovers?

The next mingler was:

Amazing Grass Green SuperFood in Lemon Lime - the "energy" drink powder.

Schmoozing with frozen banana and cherries, almond milk, spinach, vanilla and a dash of cocoa powder.

I actually kinda liked this. The combo wasn't perfect (but actually I liked the cocoa powder), but it was pretty tasty. I definitely think it gave me energy, though - I drank this before leaving for a dinner party I was helping the caterer with (serving, plating, etc.) for some more food service experience. When I came home, I was still pretty wired and not as wiped as I expected for being on my feet for 4 straight hours! Quite impressive, Amazing Grass!

Speaking of that dinner party, please at some point this summer make these:

Grilled peaches. Cut in half, place on grill. Easy, pretty, delicious. Emphasis on the latter.

On with our couples!

Justin's Honey Peanut Butter.

First spotted with sprouted-grain toast and cinnamon...

Then getting friendly with a cracker...

 The verdict? I liked this much more than the honey almond butter - I could taste the honey a little better. Overall, it's a really decent peanut butter. Nice mouthfeel, and a very classic taste - you think peanut butter, this is that flavor. But, it wasn't good enough to knock over my dear Naturally More, so I probably won't be purchasing the jars. Those packets sure can be handy, though! And I've heard about Justin's Chocolate Hazelnut butter...NUTELLA with natural ingredients??? YESPLEASE.

I have also discovered that tempeh makes a wonderful sandwich.

Just a leftover block of tempeh with spinach, mustard and S+P on sprouted grain bread. This is my favorite kind of thing to eat because it does leave me full, but not heavy. It lasts me a long time but I never have that super-full-feeling in my stomach. Love that :)

Single Taken Smoked Salmon salad:

Spinach + arugula + smoked salmon + tabbouleh + capers + mustard + balsamic. The only thing it was missing was goat cheese...other than that, yum. Sure made this single girl's tastebuds happy!

Now puts your hands UP!

~Namaste~