Hey!

I hope your Fridays have been off to a lovely start! Mine started later than I anticipated when I rolled out of bed at 10:00. I got 7 hours of sleep two nights ago when I tried to “sleep in”, so I guess my body is finally accepting the fact that I can sleep in!

Yesterday’s breakfast was green, creamy, and banana-peanut butter-y — some of my favorite adjectives (in proper context).

Amanda’s cookie dough oatmeal smoothie plus spinach + Greek yogurt for dippin’

For lunch, I knew I wanted avocado toast, because I missed that green food also. On the side I had some of my mom’s homemade salmon and tofu curry with mushrooms and bamboo shoots. Home cooking makes my heart sing fa la la la laaaaaa la la la la.

Sing along with me!!

While I was eating this lunch, my baking binge began. I mean, the last time I baked something was during Thanksgiving, which wasn’t long ago, but the Christmas season (along with the one billion recipes I have bookmarked) gave me the URGE.

I wanted to use up some unsweetened, unsalted sunflower seed butter that tasted like pasty nothingness. Arman’s paleo cranberry walnut cookies were perfect for transforming the pasty sunflower seed butter into something mighty tasty!

Not before this happened though…

Cleaning up an egg is messy business.

There are only four cookies left now if that says anything about how good they are. No, I wasn’t the only one who ate them.

I visited my high school and met up with several friends in the afternoon. It felt weird, different, and the same all at once. I had to remind myself that it has only been six months since I’ve been at the school. I’m only barely an alumnus, but once you pop that high school bubble, things just aren’t the same because you’ve experienced so much more!

Then I made a trip to the grocery store to get more baking ingredients because I have a problem. I ate more curry for dinner, went to my high school’s winter concert, and came home to bake again at 10 pm.

First up was Amanda’s pumpkin gingerbread bars. My brother requested something pumpkin pie-like, and when he saw the pictures of Amanda’s bars, he pointed to it and said, “make that one!”

Being me, I forgot to add the brown sugar to the pumpkin filling, so halfway through baking (when I realized I forgot to add the sugar), I poured about ¼ cup of maple syrup all over the bars to sweeten them. That’s why the bars look kinda dark and splotchy on top. Luckily, my desperate measures worked, and the bars were perfectly sweet and delicious!

My mom and I had our heart set on some bread-like treat, so I also made Kylie’s healthy pumpkin gingerbread since many of the ingredients for it were the same as those for the bars. It was past 11pm when I finished the batter for the bread, so I made muffins instead of a loaf to speed up the baking time. Also, muffins are cute.

I made 12 in this mini Bundt pan, plus five more in a regular muffin pan. I contemplated having mine with vanilla ice cream, but I decided on a more nutritious accompaniment for a late night snack— Greek yogurt and peanut butter!

YUM.

Now I need to share the bounty of baked goods! Or at least…I should share…

After the muffins, I finally turned in the whisk for the night and chilled out to Christmas music with my brother before going to sleep.

Upon rising late this morning, I made myself a fancy brunch! I whisked together one egg and two egg whites with some salt, pepper, dried thyme, and dried sweet basil. Once it set in the pan, I added fresh spinach and parmigiano reggiano cheese. Then I topped the omelet with cranberry sauce because I’m a fan of the sweet/tart/salty flavor fiesta. I OD’d on it though, so I only had about half of the amount of cranberry sauce you see in this photo.

On the side was a pumpkin gingerbread muffin and banana!

I ♥ brunch.

Ahhhh it’s past noon already! I am determined to be productive today. I’m hoping to work out, make a Christmas playlist for our road trip to Florida next week(!), and see some more friends. I’m having dinner with some dance friends tonight too! Pumped.

Happy Friday!

So tell me:

Do you ever go on a baking/cooking binge?

Pumpkin bread or gingerbread?

What do you want in an omelet this very minute?