All Hallows Eve

For some people Halloween is a time to dress up in sexy costumes, go to parties, eat lots of candy and get spooked. But my Halloween was slightly different. It was a day to stay home, dress up in a comfy onsie and make doughnuts.
I think the majority of the world will agree with me when I say doughnuts are fantastic. They just are. There's no arguing with the facts. But, store bought doughnuts are also fantastically bad for you. And let's be real, they taste fake. Please don't kill me for saying that.
It has been around three years since I've had a store bought doughnut and over a year since I've had a homemade one... Scary, right? It's also lovely though. But yes, I have been craving doughnuts lately. They always look so yummy, yet sooo gross too (again, sorry).
Now, of course there's a simple solution to that problem: make the doughnuts myself. It's been on my mind for weeks but between school and rehearsals I haven't had a spare moment (sad, yet true). But it being a Saturday and a holiday I had the day off from school and rehearsals (happy to have time off, but I still managed to miss the theatre).
I convinced my mum to buy be a doughnut pan because frying them in oil was just a bit too much work and a bit too...oily...for me. I found a lovely pumpkin (duh) cake doughnut recipe and threw it together (it was quite simple actually) crossing my fingers the whole time that they would taste like real doughnuts.

The pan only help six at a time, so it took a bit to cook them, but in all honesty it wasn't that bad. My sibs were watching Star Wars, Return of the Jedi, in the next room so I just popped back and forth between the two (the Ewoks are the most adorable thing ever, well next to kittens and pandas. Can I have one for a pet?).

But anyways, doughnuts...oh yes, so they got all done and I ate them. The end, right? Not quite. I've still got more to say, no trying to cut me off.
The problem with not eating doughnuts for an extended period of time is you forget exactly what they taste like. So as I'm eating my doughnut, I'm sitting there questioning it. Does it taste like a doughnut or does it just taste like some random pastry? What makes a doughnut taste like a doughnut? Ahhh! My mind was spinning from the questions! I thought I would implode! No, actually that's not really true...but I have to dramatize my life somehow... So just go with it.
I think they tasted like doughnuts, or at least decently so. I do think the baking instead of frying does make a difference though. Makes them healthier, yet also not quite exactly like a real doughnut. Humph, I'm just not sure. But who cares. It was yuuuuuuummmmyyyyy.

Oh also, they didn't rise too terribly much, which was odd. So they were rather small and pathetic looking.

And yes! This is my adorable panda onsie. I'm literally in love with it. Panda's are some of my favorite animals. They're adorable and cuddly and cute and I want one. Christmas present?! I'll keep it in my room and we can cuddle. But anyway, I may just wear this onsie for the rest of my life...so please don't expect me to ever wear real clothes again. I'm much too comfy and warm to change.

~Alyssa <3

I dub thee...

Pina Colada cake. No this post is not about dashing knights and damsels in distress. Though that might be more interesting... But I'm sorry, it's only about divine cakes and well...okay fine, you could say it's about damsels in distress.

A while back was my mum's birthday and for some reason she decided to give me free reign over the cake. No guidelines, no nothing. Just me, my mind and the internet to come up with a satisfactory cake. Hehe, yessssssss! I love the freedom that gives me, to be completely creative and not follow any set ideas.

With my mind still in Hawaii, and my stomach full from the chocolate cheesecake my mum had just made the day before, I decided on a fruity slightly less overly-sweet cake. But than I looked at the fruit we had in the house...apples...for some reason that was all the fresh fruit we had. Apple cakes though very good, are boring. Been there, done that, you know what I mean? So I stuck my head (and shoulders) into the freezer and dug around until I found the frozen fruit: a few mixed berries, some blueberries and pineapple. And that's when it hit me in the face (no not literally, I'm not THAT clumsy...), I wanted some pineapple...and some coconut. Because...well sometimes you just get these cravings and you just have to satisfy them. Like at 2am when you just need some chocolate ice cream and you have to sneak into the kitchen and grab the tub and a spoon and satisfy the craving so you can get back to sleep (don't try to deny that this has happened to you before, we all know you're lying.)

Back to the cake though. I found a splendid, moist pineapple cake that called for canned pineapple and pineapple juice. And well, all I had was frozen pineapple. Improvising time! Did you know if you put boiling water in with frozen pineapple it ends up kinda making pineapple juice? Sort of... Good enough anyways :P

The recipe called for a vanilla seven minute frosting (basically just egg whites and sugar all whipped up). I mean booooooorriiiiiiing, right? Can I get an amen?! Besides, it's a waste of egg whites in my oh so humble opinion. Just kidding, it's not humble. Who am I kidding?  No one Alyssa, you're not kidding anyone. Fair enough... Now be quiet so I can move on.

Anywho...I went and grabbed a decent looking coconut cream cheese frosting recipe and whipped that up. And than I tasted it...and grabbed a spoon and made my mum taste it. I believe she muttered a "that is divine" as she drooled over the delectable mouthful. Stop exaggerating Alyssa! Your mum didn't drool and say that. Stop sensible voice in my head! You're ruining the story. But fine, she wasn't drooling per-say...but she did call it divine. And I completely agree. It was fantastic. Quite possibly the best frosting I've ever tasted. I'm sorry for all you coconut haters, you're missing out big time here.

And the best part? There are leftovers. Hehehe...totally not going to eat them whenever I get sad... Nooo... I wouldn't do that... Pshh, who do you take me for?

But yes, all put together the cake was fabulous. Not too overly sweet, which is always lovely. You don't want to finish your piece of cake and than feel like you're going to be sick. Or get that sugar coated feeling in your mouth that makes you feel dehydrated but water does nothing to help... Know what I mean? It's gross.

This cake was honestly one of my favorite cakes ever. And this leads to the damsel in distress part...To eat the whole cake and not share or be the kind, proper person and only eat a piece? Humph, I hate logic. I mean give me one good nice illogical reason that I can't take that cake to my room and consume the whole thing while I cry tears of joy? One illogical reason and I'll probably agree with you. But all this logic of "you'll be sick", "that's not nice", "sharing is caring", "no one should eat that much cake". I mean just stop talking mind. I'm not listening. Or rather I am and I don't like what I hear. But fine, fine, yes I did share the cake. I mean it was for my mum's birthday... So I kind of had to... But forget that part. Lets just attribute it to the goodness of my heart instead. That's much more flattering. And a little (a lot rather) flattery is always good.

~Alyssa <3

End of Summer Basil Harvest

Earlier this summer when I was wandering around Trader Joe's (like a kid in a candy store, I absolutely love TJ's) I found a basil plant. And I took that basil plant home with me, I planted him in my garden and I named him Basil.
I've borrowed a few leaves from him over the summer to make pesto or put on pizza but the summer is drawing to a close now and Basil was going to seed. It was time to say goodbye to Basil, he had lived a good life, but it was drawing to a close.

With tears in my eyes I began to harvest basil. I slowly picked every single one of his fragrant leaves and I breathed in their delicious aroma.

Goodbye Basil, I'll miss you. But you will taste seriously amazing so maybe I won't miss you too much... Sorry.

Now what to do with two buckets of basil you might ask? Pesto, duh. Eight recipes of it. Mmmm!

  All picked through, washed and ready to be used. I had to throw out a considerable amount because of how old some of it was. Really it should have been picked when I was sunbathing on the beaches of hawaii...priorities.

Yes, that is four cups of Romano cheese. Hehe, so much cheese, but you know what? It's worth every little bit of it. 

The finished product. I shipped one batch off with my parents for a party they were going to. Yes I did share my pesto. Amazing, right? Shocking too. 

I froze the rest to be pulled out on rainy, depressing days this winter when I really need a bit of cheering up. So maybe, just maybe if you come visit me this winter I'll pull out some pesto and we'll sit around shivering, crying and eating pesto. 

~Alyssa <3

Goodbye...

June 13th 2015. A day I will never forget. One of the best but also one of the saddest and most emotional days of my life. The day I had to say goodbye to my dance studio.

Now this may seem rather melodramatic of me. You're probably thinking something along the lines of "Calm down Alyssa, it's a dance studio, not that big of a deal." Wrong. It is a big deal. It's the biggest deal ever. Like a huge deal. A ginormous deal. A magnormous deal (ya, that's a word now). But I think you get my point. For me, this is hard. Really hard.

About six years ago I decided it was time to move on from taking dance classes at my church. I knew there was a dance studio about five minutes from my house but hadn't checked into it as when I was young I wanted to take classes with my friends. But I thought I'd give it a shot. My mum and I dropped in to meet the teacher (Jill) and watch a class. Little did I know that I was meeting someone who would become much more than just a teacher to me. 

Soon after that I started attending classes at Laurel Valley School of Dance Art. Best. Decision. Ever. 

At the same time my little brother also started taking the creative movement class. During his class I would sit and wait for him so that mum didn't have to wait there. A couple weeks into the term Jill turns to me and asks if I want to help her with the class since I was sitting there anyways. And that was the beginning of some of the happiest times of my life. I've never once regretted hopping out of my chair and teaching those little ones.

About three years ago I started developing major joint problems, every time I would dance (or do any other strenuous activity) I was in major pain. I knew I couldn't continue dancing as much as I was. And so for a whole year I cut back to only teaching. I wasn't dancing at my level but at least I was still able to be at my studio. Eventually I started slowly adding in classes again. Bit by bit I worked back to being able to dance more. Jill would modify combinations and make up special ones just to strengthen specific muscles to help me. She never once pushed me to do anything that would cause me pain, or even discomfort. I got to the point where I could take lyrical and a fairly basic ballet class that didn't perform.

Sometime this fall Jill looked at me and said "why don't you come in for the second half of class and than you can perform with us". I looked at her in shock. Wait, I could do that? Really? Well than YASSS! No strenuous bar which kills my body, just center floor which I could do fairly easily without pain. I was back in the game. Performance here I come!

But than reality struck. We moved. Moved from being less than five minutes from my studio to being about 1 1/2 hours from it. "Pshhh we can do the drive, it's not that bad" I said. And well we did, for over three months. But after those three months I realized that I couldn't continue doing that drive. It was taking up too much of my time and I needed to focus on other things. I had to make a hard decision. I had to say goodbye.

Goodbye to one of the best things in my life. Goodbye to people I had spent hours of every week with for five years. Goodbye to a family really. And I knew I was going to miss them. But it had to be done.

And so this year was my last performance with LVSDA. And my school did everything possible to make it memorable for me.

The first half of the performance was a school wide ballet: Appalachian springs. When I told Jill I was officially leaving she wanted to give me a special solo to say goodbye. And so at the very end of the ballet the whole school was on the stage, I slowly made my way to the front of the stage and called my little classes up one at a time. First creative movement, they come up, they make a circle around me, we bow our thank you's to each other and they slowly exit the stage. Than Ballet one comes up, makes a circle around me, we arabesque together then bow our thank you's before they walk off. And then ballet two does the same, they make their circle, we make our bows and then they leave the stage. And then slowly two by two the rest of the dancers leave the stage. Leaving me all alone in the center of the stage. The lights went a dark blue/ purple color leaving the atmosphere rather sad. I slowly finish the dance, take my final pose, the lights dim, the curtain closes, it is finished.

I barely held myself together through that. As my little students circled around me I felt my lips trembling, as the rest of the students left the stage I felt a tear roll down my face, as the curtains started to close I felt the sobs coming, and as the stage went dark and the curtains fully closed I broke down. But the thought of my stage makeup running down my face made me pull myself together. I had to be back out on that stage in just a couple moments for teacher introductions and I wasn't about to cry on stage in front of everyone (ha!).

After all the teachers were introduced the microphone was handed to Jill. She commenced to talk about me. Little old me. At this point I can't remember most of what she said, I was half in shock. She said some of the sweetest things I've ever heard said about me. I cried. And when I say cried I don't mean a single tear rolled down my face, no I mean I legit sobbed. The words that most stick out to me was when she said "Alyssa is like a sister to me". I think that's where I completely lost it. At the end of her speech, she asked the audience to give me a round of applause, I have never received that loud of applause for anything I've done before. I feel like writing this all for you to read is self-centered but I don't mean it to be. This isn't about "I'm awesome look at me", this is about how much love is in our little community.

But back to the story. Jill than handed me a gift from the school. A pair of my old pointe shoes signed by all of my fellow dancers.

And a framed picture signed by each of my students.

And that's when I just couldn't hold it together anymore. I hugged Jill and all I could get out was a very broken "thank you, thank you so much". After that I just got off the stage as fast as I could. When I left the stage and got back to the dressing room I fell into my dear friend and fellow dancer's arms. As I got myself back together several other of my fellow dancers came and gave me huge hugs. I'm going to miss them at all so much.

Now at this point my biggest problem was I was sobbing, my makeup was a mess and we were only at intermission. I had to make it through the second half on the performance. And because, well, a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do I pulled myself together, reapplied my makeup and got ready to go back onstage.

I made it through the second half of the performance with no tears. I'd like to say with no mishaps but well this is me we're talking about. About two seconds after I go on stage to perform en pointe I got the worst foot cramp ever. I don't get foot cramps! So what was this, just some special little surprise for me? Wow, thanks body, you're the best. But I succeeded in smiling my way through the dance while making it look like I wasn't about to die (I hope).

With the performance over the time had come to say goodbye. Or rather to take my leave for a short period of time as I told myself. I'd be back to visit so it wasn't a real goodbye. Yup, I hate "fake" goodbye's just as much as real goodbyes. You gotta remember some of these people I've been seeing 1-3 times a week for five years. They're like sisters.

One of the girls I've danced with since the beginning has a thing about hugs. No not a "HUG ME PLEASE" thing like I do, but a "Don't you dare touch me" thing. For years I've been sneaking up behind her and hugging her, poking her, hugging her when she's not paying attention and just honestly doing whatever I could do annoy her. I don't remember a single time I've ever seen her voluntarily hug someone. But after the performance she comes running up to me and gives me the biggest hug ever. Not just a awkward quick hug, no this was a real hug. A "let me squeeze you and hold you tight for a really long time" hug. And the waterworks start again...

Nikki: Do I really have to say goodbye to this one? She and I have had the best times in class together. We goof off (sorry Jill), we talk, we dance (might be scary to watch at times). We were awesome together. Might have been torture to have in class but hey, we always learned what we needed to, right? I will miss this girl so much. Thanks for letting me cry on your shoulder throughout the whole performance. You're the best.

Jill spent most of the day not even looking at me. At one point she said "If I don't make eye contact with you don't be annoyed, it's just because I can't or I'll start crying." Even when I went to give her a gift and say thank you for everything she would barely look me in the eye. I'll be back to visit Jill, I promise! And I'll help with all the performances and hey, I'll even drop in for some classes on occasion. Thank you for everything, for your teaching, your love of dance, your friendship and your mentoring. You gave me so many amazing opportunities while I was at LVSDA and I will never forget them. Thank you for everything you taught me, whether that be dance related or not. I learned so many valuable lessons from you. Thank you.

And so another chapter of my life has closed. But I  will not cry, I will not despair, I will go on and read the remaining chapters with joy in my eyes. And if I ever feel lonely, or sad I'll go back and reread a bit of this chapter, as I'm sure it will remain one of my favorites until the day I die.

~Alyssa <3

Birthday Buzz

Yes, I am 18! I know my b-day was two weeks ago, so yes I know I am dreadfully behind in announcing this wonderful fact. But you know I've been busy...okay fine in reality we all know that that is just an excuse and I'm really just a lazy little person who deserves a nice hug and pat on the back. Or maybe a slap but I'll go with the hug.

But enough of that. Yes, I am an adult. I don't know how I feel about this. Half of me says "eww" and the other says "aww ya!". So basically it comes down to me being a conflicted mess who just needs to realize that she has no choice in the matter and needs to accept it and move on. Do I know this? Yes. Am I going to follow my own advice? Haha, no.

I wasn't really in a... well, celebratory mood this year. I wanted a low key birthday. I really just wanted a day to chill. Did I follow through with that? Well not completely but sort of.

I woke up early and after getting dressed and doing my hair and makeup I left my room and went out to get breakfast. When I got to the dinning room I saw a box on the table. When I went to open it I saw a piece of paper. I barely read any of it before I started sobbing. I didn't even know exactly who it was from until hour later. I knew it was friends but I couldn't see the names through my tears. As I looked through the box full of my favorite things I kept trying to go back and read it so I could see who was so amazing, but every object I looked at brought about a fresh wave of tears. Yes, I am an emotional person who cries when people are kind to me. It was an amazing present. The hugest of "thank you's" to my dear friends who put that together for me. I love you all so much more than you'll ever know. Ya'll are amazing.

After going back to my room and wiping the mascara off my cheeks and reapplying all my makeup (thanks guys ;P) we headed off to mass (best way to start a birthday, or any day really). That afternoon I went and saw Cinderella with a darling friend (sister from a different mister rather) of mine. I can't believe I waited so long to see that movie. I absolutely adored it. Not only was there a lack of anything "bad" in it, it was full of "good". Do you get what I mean? I feel like so much of the time I end up watching movies only because there's nothing "bad" in them, not because of the "good of the movie". I can say without a qualm in my heart that I was 100% pleased with Cinderella. Fangirled over it. The acting was brilliant, my only complaint is that they made it without waiting for me. Seriously they should have waited a bit and casted me instead of Lily James. ;)

After the movie I came home and baked my cake with my mum. I think that's my favorite part of my birthday. Just spending time with my mum baking.
My cake this year? Well I didn't take any pictures...sorry. It was too boring looking. But! That does not mean it was a boring tasting cake. It was an amazing cake, a splendid cake and a perfectly me cake. Carrot cake. I love that stuff.

I have been craving a good piece of carrot cake for months. It all started a while back when they had a carrot cake sample at New Seasons. I tasted heaven that day. It had been much too long since I had eaten something that... well, perfect. When I was younger I had carrot cake for my birthday for at least three years in a row, but than my tastes changed and I wanted something... fancier. So for years, I dabbled around in different cakes, mainly focusing on the decorating. But this year to go with my simplistic wants I went with a very simple carrot cake, no decorations no fluffy unnecessary sugar. Just a simple carrot cake with a whipped cream dream cheese frosting.

Now I know almost any carrot cake recipe would be splendid, but my favorite is the Nourishing Traditions recipe. If you're not familiar with that cookbook, it's a wonderful book. It's all about soaked grains and making food more easily digestible. The carrot cake is a very dense one. Not a light fluffy cake. Rather heavy, dance and extremely moist. Oh and did I mention, not excessively sweet? In the past we've always used a normal cream cheese frosting recipe with this cake, but I really wanted something lighter, and less sweet. So I found this great whipped cream, cream cheese frosting recipe. It only had about a quarter cup of powdered sugar in it. So barely sweet at all. I loved it. There was none of that feeling sick afterwards because of the sugar overload. Just a mouthwatering delicious semi-sweet cake. Perfection in my humble opinion.

Okay, now I'm going to shock you all. I did not blow out candles, avoided all but one awkward picture and I even avoided being sung "happy birthday" to! Yes, yes I know ya'll are probably glaring daggers at me now. "What's a birthday without candles and being sung to?" Well, it's a much less awkward event I can tell you that. No weirdly sitting there while everyone stares at you, no huffing and puffing at 18 candles that don't want to go out. It was good. And no one can tell me otherwise.

To finish the day after the kids went to bed I crashed with my parents to watch the last episode of season 5 of Downton Abbey. A very good way to finish a very good day. Now we just have to wait till September for the next season...

So to everyone who made my birthday special: Thank you. You guys continually surprise me with your love and affection. I am so blessed to have each and everyone of you in my life. You are all in my prayers and I thank God for you all. Cheers to another year!

The one exceptionally awkward photo my dad managed to capture. Enjoy. ;)

~Alyssa <3

Vegan Lunch

A dear vegan friend of mine came over the other day and we cooked up a delicious vegan lunch. Now if ya'll know me, you know I love meat. I kinda live on it. I'm rather skeptical of the whole vegan/vegetarian diet because to be quite honest, with all the other things I try not to eat I'd probably starve to death. But none of that goes to say I didn't enjoy this lunch, I very much did and plan to make it again soon. It was extremely tasty and fairly easy too.

Veggie Burgers
This is sort of one of my own creations. I found some recipes and didn't have most of the ingredients so I kind of combined a few different ones and hoped for the best. And I hoped correctly. They were amazing. Veggie burgers are ridiculously tasty. And this is soy free which is great because of the may health issues of soy. (aluminum, gmo, etc.)

VEGGIE BURGERS

¾ cups beans

¼ cup diced onions

1 clove garlic

½ cup sweet potatoes

½ cup chopped kale

1 T + 1 t olive oil

1 t red wine vinegar

2 t ketchup

1 t soy sauce

½ t basil

½ t oregano

½ t paprika

½ t pepper

¼ t salt

½ cup oats

¼ cup walnuts

Saute onions and garlic in oil until soft. Place all ingredients (one or two at a time) into food processor and process until combined. Shape into patties (makes about six). Put oil into pan and cook patties for until slightly browned. Flip halfway through.

Sweet Potato Fries
Can I just say yum? I must admit I am completely, totally and irrevocably in love with sweet potato fries. I love sweet potatoes in any form but fries are perfection. This recipe had that bit of spicy bite to it without being too much. Well the original recipe was spiced more but I have a fear of making things too spicy so I lowered the cayenne. I also really kinda dislike cumin so I put in very, very, little.

Fries
2 sweet potatoes
2 T olive oil (or a bit more)
1 t paprika
1 t salt
1/2 t garlic powder
1/2 t black pepper
pinch cumin
pinch cayenne pepper

Cut sweet potatoes into 1/4 inch strips and toss with the rest of the ingredients. Spread on baking sheet and cook at 450 for 25-30 minutes.


Kale
To finish it up we just steamed up a little Kale in olive oil. Yes, as you might be noticing by I have a tiny little obsession with olive oil. I must admit I have a hard time cooking without it. It just makes everything better (really is does)!

Kale
1 head of kale
olive oil (the more the better ;) )
salt to taste

~Alyssa <3

Banana Ice Cream

No it's not summer, but you know what? The cold never bothered me anyway... Okay, sorry not sorry about the frozen quotes, I'm still kind of in love with that movie. And it's not true, the cold does bug me. Quite a lot actually. I seem to be continually wearing warm sweaters, wrapping up in fuzzy blankets, sitting in front of fireplaces and complaining about the cold. I really am a summer person, and yet I live in Oregon... Oh wait, I don't anymore actually. I live in Washington now. :/ Still in denial about that. I'll just keep telling myself I'm in Oregon, it's close enough. ;)

But the other day, I found myself craving something yummy, sweet, healthy and cold (yes, I crave healthy things, weird right?). I knew I didn't want ice cream and that is just too sweet and much too much dairy. I never feel too great after eating that much sugar and dairy together. Which is quite sad as I love, love, love ice cream. So that got me thinking, there's got to be a non diary, no added sugar substitute for ice cream. And sure enough there is!

The secret? Bananas. No seriously, just bananas, nothing else. The great thing about this is it can count as your fruit for the day, not have a bunch of added sugar, and still be quite yummy.

All you do is slice a banana into thin slices, freeze it over night and than puree it all together in a food processor. And voila! All done! That simple. Is it as sweet, creamy, and mouthwatering as real ice cream. No, not quite, but is anything? Is it a quite good substitute for vegan, dairy free, and/or no added sugar people? Yes!

I must admit I was actually quite surprised at the texture. It was surprisingly like ice cream. If you want it a little more solid and frozen (haha, frozen pun again XP) you can put it back in the freezer for a while, but when I made it I wanted to eat it then, not later. And it was quite good just like that. :)

~Alyssa <3

My New Obsession

Guys I want to introduce you to my latest obsession: coconut water. This stuff is amazing I'm telling you. It's even better than coconut milk. If you don't know the difference, coconut milk is made from pressing the juice out of the coconut meat while coconut water is found in the center of the green coconuts.

I'm kinda majorly obsessing over this stuff. Why? Because it's hydrating, good for you and tastes amazing. Also since I don't drink soda, energy drinks, sports drinks or sweetened tea, and only drink minimal coffee I often miss having something besides water (or tea) to drink. Will this satisfy your sugar craving? No. Is that a bad thing? No. It is slightly sweet but far, far from the overly sickeningly sweet taste of most "mainstream" drinks.

Health benefits? Yes. Coconut water is much more effective at hydrating than sports drinks or energy drinks as it has high levels of potassium and electrolytes.

Down sides? It's kind of expensive.  And some people may not like the taste. I was told it was an acquired taste, I acquired it very quickly...before I even drank any actually. But I can't promise everyone will like it. I can only say you should give it a try. It's oh so tasty and satisfying.

~Alyssa <3

"No Ingredient" Cookies

Okay, okay, they have some ingredients just not most of the 'normal' cookie ingredients. No wheat, dairy, eggs, sugar, chocolate. Okay not all cookies have chocolate, just the best ones do. ;) But yes, these cookies are really made without any of these ingredients. Wow, right? I agree.

I've tried several different recipes and I wasn't really pleased with them. They never tasted good enough. The first ones I tried were mainly oats and just didn't taste good enough. They were okay, but more like granola bars not cookies.

So after much trial and error I finally found a recipe that was pretty good, changed it a little bit and than it was perfectly splendidly wonderful. The first batch I made I ate in like two days. Bad, I know, but oh so good.

Because of the oats these cookies may or may not be gluten free. If you want them gluten free just make sure you are using gluten free oats. I didn't bother as they were all for me and I'm not gluten free, I just tend to shy away from eating lots of wheat.

Yes, they are also vegan. No, I am not going vegan but I do find the idea fascinating. I find most weird diets/foodstyles fascinating though.

"No Ingredient" Cookie Recipe (Yes, I'm finally remembering to actually give you a recipe XP)

1 cup peanut butter
2 bananas
1/3 cup ground flaxseed
1/3-1/2 cup oats
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons coconut sugar (optional)
1/3 cup dried fruit (cherries, cranberries, raisins, basically whatever you want)

~Alyssa <3

Paleo Pesto Chicken

With Hannah home over Christmas break I thought it would be cool to try some of her weird paleo food and maybe clean my diet up a bit that way. So we started looking around on pinterest and other places and found a recipe for paleo pesto chicken. To be quite honest with you, I laughed. Right, we're totally gonna make pesto with no cheese. Haha, no. But well, my curiosity got the better of me. I had to try this. Yes, I was assuming it would be pretty pathetic, nothing can be nearly as good as real pesto. But for my weird paleo sister I would try it.

So we made the pesto with me shaking my head the whole time. I know pesto, and this, this was not pesto. But I mainly kept my skeptical comments to myself. It does not go well when you insult someone's eating choices I've found. So we whipped up our "pesto", cooked and cooled and chopped our chicken, mixed it all together and than came the important part: tasting it. Would it taste like pesto? Or was I just gonna gag? Hmmm, okay, not as good as real pesto, but ehh, still quite good. Worth eating. ;)

We served it on whole kale leaves with some toasted pine nuts sprinkled on top. Mmmmmm!

~Alyssa <3

Green Smoothie

A few months back I had a rather bad experience with green smoothies. I had decided to just make up my own with no recipe and hope for the best (typical me, right?). Well without going too much into detail, about two bites into the thing it was poured down the drain never to be mentioned again.

So after that experience it took me a little while to build up the courage to try again. But with trying to get in shape for my dance performance and just feeling like trying something different I finally tried again. This time with a recipe though. ;)
I decided to go with a simple, basic smoothie to start with. I know a lot of green smoothies have tons of veggies in them, but they also taste like it. I figured I would go easy on myself and start with something more...edible?
The recipe I found which I believe was called "beginners green smoothie" (perfect, right?) was made from only a few ingredients.

1 cup Spinach
1 cup Frozen pineapple
1 Banana
1 cup coconut milk
1 Tablespoon chia seeds (optional)

Literally all you have to do is throw it in your blender (in stages if your blender is as pathetic as mine) and blend it all up. Making sure that it's all well ground up, you don't want bits of spinach in your smoothie (eww).

Well let me tell you this IT WAS AMAZING. It didn't taste weird at all, in fact it just tasted like a normal smoothie, except better. I can't wiat to make these next summer with fresh fruits and veggies form my own garden. I guess that means I'll actually have to get my lazy self up out of my bed and plant a garden though...hmm...

Here are a couple pictures of my "green martian goo" as my dear little brother called my lunch. :)

~Alyssa <3

Birthday Cake

So  about a month ago I threw a surprise birthday party for one of my best friends and I needed a cake. A perfect cake. Something spectacular. So I started thinking of all the flavors that she likes....chocolate...nutella...oreo...coffee... Hmm, well that's something to work with. So I hoped on my computer (no not literally) and started looking for a recipe. To my utter disappointment there was no recipe that combined all of the flavors. What? Come on, we must have it all. I will not settle for mediocrity. So I found one recipe here, and one there and combined them all into one cake.

I knew the frosting was going to be pretty sweet so the cake had to be a slightly less sweet chocolate. None of that sickeningly sweet milk chocolate stuff for me. I needed a good dark cake.  I've always had a hard time finding a good chocolate cake. I find that almost every single recipe is either, not chocolaty enough, crumbly or just plain odd. So wish trembling fingers I chose one off the internet. Would it work? Would it be good? Would it be perfect? The struggle is real guys, you better believe it.

So chocolate and coffee, check. Now I need nutella and oreo. Well nutella frosting was kind of a "duh". Because come on guys, what's better than a little (maybe more than a little...) nutella frosting? No I had never tasted it before but I knew that it would be perfection. Call it women's intuition. And for once my intuition was spot on. Making that frosting was quite possibly the best decision I have ever made, unless making sure there was extra counts as a decision...

Now the day I made the cake I went to my supplies and realized I had forgotten to buy oreos. I quickly collapsed on the floor in a flood of tears. "It was a tragedy. I couldn't make the perfect cake. There was nothing to do. Oh woe to me.". Don't you dare call me a drama queen! I was being completely realistic. Humph! Luckily my darling mother came to the rescue. Would half a box of oreos be enough? We (praise the Lord) had those in the house. I fell at her feet sobbing out my endless gratitude and jealously ran off with my precious oreos. Preciousssss, my preciousssssss. ;)

Now was half a box enough for my plans? Well we'd have to see. In any case it would have to suffice. I very, very carefully, like a brains surgeon, cut them in half. Gently, gently, one false move and a crack would enter the rest of the cookie damaging it for life. And than I could be fired from the job...and possibly sued... not good. Due to my great skill, they all came through with no complications. They were safe.

After placing them around the top of the cake I had plenty left, so I crumbled the rest and put them all on the top. But the rest of the cake just looked bare. Something was wrong. Noooo! But I must remain calm, "can we fix it? Yes we can!" No Alyssa, shut up, you're not Bob the Builder. You're Alyssa the Amazing"! Okay...no that was worse. Moving on. I realized that I had plenty of cookie crumbs on top of the cake, so why not remove some of the and place them around the bottom of the cake? Much better, much better indeed.

Now, now the cake was perfect, or as perfect as a cake can get. But would it taste as good as it looked? Well I had to wait for my answer until later that night when I got to taste the cake. The first taste. The thought running through my mind? "And in that moment I swear we were infinite". Okay, no not quite, I didn't really fall in love with a piece of cake...I promise. No, I'm not that weird. Not at all.

But anyway, enjoy the pictures of that mouthwatering cake. I wish you could smell it. Someone really needs to invent that don't you think? Hmm...anyone want to start working on that for me? Oh and than while you're at it why not just make it so you can reach into the screen and pull out whatever food there's a picture of... Like wow, we're in the 21st century, you'd think someone would have invented that by now, just saying.

~Alyssa <3