I heart my 8x8 pan :)

I also heart pictures.

Here is my day in food and photos:

my overnight oats the next morning. I had these before going to Zumba and abs blast.

I heated up my oatmeal bar in the microwave, and it tasted even better than usual. Plus the pear was ripe, sweet, and juicy. yumi.

Here's my batch of oatmeal bars for the next week! These are perfect to make. One thing I do is let them cool like this, then flip them over so the bottoms can 'dry out' and cool so they don't get soggy. Definitely do this- no one wants soggy oat bars.

Amidst my baking frenzy, I didn't realize it was time for a snack like I usually do! Here's my impromptu snack:  a banana with almond butter. Anther great food item; I really like almond butter.

And making dinner! I got some mushrooms from the salad bar, and needed to cook them. As it turns out- they cook AMAZINGLY in the microwave. Who knew?? One minute, stir, another minute, and you're good to go! Mine had little tiny bits of bacon stuck to them which added even more flavor. These go into the casserole I made..

As-you-like-it breakfast casserole (my style)

5 eggs

1 cup milk

1.5 cups cheddar cheese, grated

3 pieces whole wheat bread cubed

1/4 cup mushrooms (about that much)

1/8 cup bacon pieces (again, about that much)

Salt & Pepper to taste

Italian seasoning (found some in the kitchen- made a nice addition)

Beat the eggs in a big bowl. Add the milk and cheese. Stir. Add the bread, and mix carefully so the bread doesn't disintegrate. Then add the extras (mushrooms, bacon, salt, and pepper). Pour into a buttered 8x8 pan, sprinkle seasoning over the top. Bake at 350 for 50 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes, and then enjoy!! 

original recipe here

before & after

My dinner:

Evidence of today's success in the kitchen, and proof of my love for my new pan haha

Almond Butter French Toast with Honey and Bananas

This Sunday I wanted to cook breakfast. I've done the whole eggs thing, and I can make oatmeal or toast any ol' morning. The only problem was that I (still!) had no money, so had to figure out what to make from what I already have.

After poking around on a couple of "healthy eating blogs," carrotsncake.com and katheats.com, I stumbled across a recipe for french toast like my dad makes, stuffed with peanut butter! (Though the website used almond butter, which I have and used).

I also did not have any syrup, money, and definitely did not want to knowingly ingest any high fructose corn syrup. I did want my french toast to be sweet though! So here's what I did.

I made an almond butter and honey sandwich with my whole wheat bread using about 1-2 tablespoons almond butter (the chocolate chips were a morning pick-me-up):

Mix together:

1 egg

1 tbs. milk

dash vanilla

dash cinnamon (mine's organic!)

Pour half of this mixture on one side of the sandwich, flip it over pour the other half on the other side. Try to make sure as much of the eggy batter gets absorbed as the bread can take.

Put a teensy bit of butter in the pan, and cook evenly on both sides until it looks something like this!

Add a sliced banana on top for extra goodness and sweet, and enjoy. This was so amazing.

For the original recipe click HERE.