Celebratory Salad

Today we got back our graded math exams, which we took last week. I was confident about my answers last week, but you know how it is: you wait and you wait and then you start doubting yourself. Or you remember all those experiences where you thought you'd get an A, but it turned out you got a D (not like that happened with my Philosophy exam or anything...I got a C on that...). Plus, let's be honest, I've never gotten a perfect score on a math test. And this is college, how am I supposed to suddenly expect to be good at math now that I'm in college?

Yet, despite all these last minute doubts, I got a perfect score. Raising my grade from probably a B+ to an actual A. At which point, I realized: I definitely have an A in choir, I've got an A in Public Speaking, I have an A in Early US History, and now I've got an A in math - that means I have A's in half of my classes! Of course I've got a B- in Intro to Ed, probably a D in Philosophy, and probably a D in French...but, hey, I've got A's in half of my classes!

This called for a celebration. So, I gave myself a typical college student celebration. (You drank? - No, I did not consume alcohol.) I ate. (Oh, so like chocolate cake or something, right? - No, not exactly). I ate salad. (I know, you couldn't tell from the title or anything. And I know, I know, I'm a loser, but, seriously, it was good).

See, yesterday my lunch consisted of a granola bar and a string cheese. And I knew that, though I wasn't hungry, I needed something more. So after class ended at 4, I went and picked up a salad from the cafeteria. I nibbled at it a bit, and I picked out all the tomatoes and Swiss cheese. Then, I got a text from a friend asking me to join him for dinner. So, of course, I put away the salad, did some homework, and joined him for burritos at the cafeteria. Which left this salad just sitting in my fridge, begging to be eaten. And that's what my celebration today was. Eating salad. I didn't pick up salad dressing yesterday when I bought it, so I just used my own. The salad itself had lettuce, ham, turkey, hard boiled egg, black olives, cheddar cheese (and at one point tomatoes and Swiss cheese - ew).

So, I know what you're thinking. That's all she did to celebrate? The short answer is yes. The long answer is, no. I drank one of the strawberry-melon flavored drinks that I lifted from my family's free bagged lunches during orientation (which have been sitting in my fridge ever since). And I did my French homework (will be doing my French homework after I finish this). Oh, and I can celebrate by watching choir practice and taking notes on what I want to (and need to) be learning. Yeah, the true celebration is going to be put off for a while. But next week after all my midterms are done and all my essays completed, I will be heading home (after a short detour to the Washington coast), at which point I can truly celebrate. And before that, I'll be seeing my boyfriend, my best (guy) friend, and my sister on Sunday, which is its own type of celebration. That will be a "congratulations, you've started studying for midterms! Let's take a break!" type celebration.

Dorm Food

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Superstitions

Today is my first college choir concert. I want everything to go right. But of course, besides actually practicing and focusing in effort to make things perfect (which I've been doing, kind of), there's only one way to ensure perfection: superstition. So today when I woke up I knew one thing: I am not going to have any dairy today. Now, for many singers, this is not superstition. Milk, cheese, and other dairy tend to coat the throat and mess with any chance of singing well that day. However, I do not have this issue. Possibly because I sing low, but possibly, too, because it just doesn't effect me. Which is nice. But, still, I am superstitious. So I don't eat it anyway. I want everything to be perfect.

So, I woke up knowing I couldn't have cereal and milk, couldn't have a bagel and cream cheese, couldn't have toast and nutella...which left me with fruit. My happy little fridge happened to have pineapple and raspberries just waiting for such an occasion. Thus I made this:

Doesn't it look delicious? It's actually nothing fancy, literally just pineapple chunks and raspberries. But, man, I could just eat the entire thing right now.

I took my first bite.

Didn't taste quite right.

So I took my second. Then looked up how to tell if pineapple from the jar has gone bad. Guess what?

My pineapple fermented. And I wasted all my raspberries on this fruit salad. And by this point they are covered in pineapple juice and completely ruined.

So now I have no breakfast.

But my superstition above the one about not eating dairy is eating breakfast. Ok, so not really a superstition, I just happen to know all the important information about why you should eat breakfast in the morning. Like the fact that carbohydrates eaten in first hour of your day are used for building up and strengthening the cells in your brain (eating breakfast makes you smarter). And the fact that breakfast starts your motabolism - you cannot burn calories until you have first eaten them (eating breakfast makes you skinnier). And the fact that breakfast tends to be one of the most well rounded meals of the day, with carbs, proteins, milk fats, calcium, and fruit all at once (eating breakfast makes you healthier). But I get none of that today because my breakfast is: 2 bites of fermented pineapple, which makes me no longer hungry for anything ever again.

I feel like I've just wasted a whole heck of a lot. This darn pineapple was supposed to stay good until November. The jar said so! But, perhaps that means it'll stay good until November, if left unopened...which it was not. Shucks. That's probably what it meant. Well, I guess that's a college student mistake that everyone must make at some point in their life.

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A Salady Salad

So today was a salad day. Mostly because I realized I have a lot of vegetables in my fridge that I haven't been eating yet. And because I really need to use up the salad dressing that's been in the soda can holder in the door. So, I decided to use all the vegetables I have (which isn't very many, sadly, as my mushrooms and green beans are off to a better place...aka the trash).

Salad making is pretty easy, so I really wonder why I don't do it more often. Anyway, this is my salad:

First, I created a bed of 50% mixed Spring Greens and 50% Spinach. This just happened to be what I had in my fridge, but it actually works really well for a salad like this.

Next, I rinsed some of my broccoli. This time, I think I used a full serving of broccoli. I then toor the ends off in punches and scattered them amungst my bed of greens.

Then, I rinsed my baby corn. Apparently you can get it fresh, which is healthier for you, but I have never heard of fresh baby corn (I just amused it grew from the ground into a can). However, canned baby corn tends to have lots of added sodium. And with all the yogurt covered pretzels I've been having lately, I don't really need more sodium. The can I got contained over 10% of my daily sodium intake, in just one serving of baby corn. After rinsing the baby corn quite a bit, I added it to my salad.

Then, I added a few Caesar Parmesan croutons. Not too many since the point of the salad is vegetables, not starch, and baby corn was already an added starch. Plus, I'm not terribly fond of the croutons I bought.

Next, I added just a bit of Caesar salad dressing. I have yogurt based dressing because a) it's half the fat and calories of normal Caesar salad dressing, and b) it's new, so it was on sale when I went to the store. Cheaper = better. However, since the yogurt makes the taste a bit sharp, it's actually kind of important to use less of it. Otherwise you won't be able to taste the rest of the salad.

Finally, toss it up. Eat, enjoy, and clean up the mess. All of the veggies and the dressing need to go into the fridge (even the baby corn). If your baby corn is in canned form, cover it with a bag and put it in the fridge. If you don't have sandwich baggies, it's totally fine, I don't either. I just use whatever plastic bag I can find (an old fruit and veggie bag from the store or a plastic grocery bag will work fine...I used an old Fuego bag, which worked great. The important part is just keeping air out).

Your final product might look like this:

I really liked this salad. I think my favorite part was the baby corn, followed closely by the broccoli and spinach. My least favorite part was the croutons. What's wrong with this picture? I kind of wish I had black olives for this salad though. This is two recipes in a row where I wish I had black olives...perhaps I need to invest in a can or two...

If you need further reasons to eat this salad, besides the fact that it is DELICIOUS, here are some health benefits of each ingredient. Spinach contains vitamin K, folate, iron, and beta carotene (spinach is one of the best sources for beta carotene, which converts Vitamin A in the intestines and liver). The mixed spring greens include quite a bit of antioxidants, as well as even more folate. The broccoli is a rich source of vitamin C, calcium, Vitamin K, and Vitamin A. Baby corn, which is not actually a vegetable, contains about 30% of your RDA of folate, close to 20% of your vitamin C, 15% of Vitamin B6, 10% RDA of riboflavin, and 10% RDA of fiber. The yogurt-based dressing contains a little less than 5% RDA of calcium and about 2 g of protein...which isn't bad for such a small amount. And a serving of Caesar parmesan croutons contains 1 g of protein and carbohydrates. Pretty good for something that actually tastes good, huh?

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Yellow Fruit Salad

I went to the grocery store last week and bought a ton of fruits and veggies. Which is great. Except for one thing: I didn't eat them all. It's also been in the 90's all week and my fruit was left out of the fridge because I ran out of room. Thus, some of it started to rot. So, I decided to take what was salvagable and turn it into a fruit salad. Originally it was going to have kiwis and pluots as well, but that bag was completely rotted and starting to smell. Thus, what was left was a yellow fruit salad, which is pretty cool sounding.

1. Remove the skin and all the rotting parts of a pear. If you don't have a pearing knife, it's ok. I used a regular knife and was fairly successful. It might be better do do this on a softer pear (this was one of the hard pears the school provided us in our lunches last week...but it eventually became quite soft). It should look like this when you're done:

2. Slice the pear vertically into reasonable pear pieces. Avoid the core. It doesn't really matter what shape the pieces turn out to be because after this, you must cube the pear into half-bite-sized pieces. Put these pieces into an individual sized bowl.

3. Peal one banana (I used two because both of mine were going quite bad and only 1/2 of each were salvageable). Then, slice the salvageable pieces of the banana into cute little round slices. Avoid the stuff that sticks on a banana after the peel is removed (those darn stringy things make me so mad when I'm eating a banana). Add these pieces to the bowl.

4. Add pineapple cubes (I have so much of this...mmmm). Avoid the juice as much as possible because the pear and banana pieces are already soft and will become squishy and unpalatable if they're surrounded by too much juice. Use how ever much you want, but note that the acidic flavor will transfer quite a bit to the other pieces of fruit. Now it should look like this:

(I have no idea why this is turned like that...it shouldn't be...sorry guys).

5. Eat, Enjoy, and Clean up. Remember, the pineapple is acidic so your dishes should be washed right after you're done. Also remember to put any leftover pineapple or other sliced fruit into the fridge.

This was a decent recipe. It probably needs some touch-ups but I have no idea what to do to it. Personally, I'm fine with just eating pineapple by itself, so I probably won't be making this too often. But, it is a good use of fruit that would otherwise just be thrown away.

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