a self-focused summer

Something that I know for sure?  In the end, you really only have yourself.  Yes, you can fill your life with family, friends and mentors.  Allowing yourself to rely on others is important as it helps to share burdens and makes you accessible to loved ones in return.  The issue is that relationships change, people die and priorities shift.  The only relationship that is 100% guaranteed is the one you have with yourself, which is why it is so interesting that this is the relationship most neglect.

New workout program: Kayla Itsine's Bikini
Body Guide.  My face after day one… ouch.

I have recently felt disconnected from people in my life.  Most have become self-focused in order to concentrate on various life changes.  I felt forgotten until I realized that I could use this opportunity to also become self-focused.  In this spirit, I have been invoking changes to increase the happy and decrease the unhappy.  I am dialing back my spending because being broke makes me unhappy.  I started a new workout program because I missed feeling like a boss.  I am trying to say "yes" only to things that I want to say "yes" to.  I'm going outside as much as possible.  I am watching Full House reruns whenever they are on Nick@Nite.  I am conducting a thorough soul searching mission to identify what more can be done to get my joy back.

To fuel up for big life changes, I needed a big breakfast today.  However, my typical Sunday pancakes, high in refined carbohydrates, probably aren't the best foundation to support all my grand plans.  Therefore, I gave the new "it" breakfast a try.  The three ingredient pancake is all over the Internet and it was only a matter of time before I succumbed to the trend.

My favorite traditional pancake recipe is Barefoot Contessa's sour cream banana pancakes.  My 3-ingredient interpretation uses the same flavor profile.  Only problem?  My ingredient count is at five.  So here is Katy's Five Ingredient Three Ingredient Pancakes (say that five times fast… or three times fast… or five times three times fast?)

Ingredients: 

• 1 medium banana (3/4 mashed, 1/4 small dice)
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• Spoonful of plain greek yogurt
• Dash of vanilla extract
• Almond meal (about 1/8 - 1/4 cup, just enough for pancake batter consistency)

Directions:

1. Preheat greased pan over medium heat
2. Combine eggs, mashed banana, yogurt and vanilla in small bowl, mix well
3. Add almond meal slowly while mixing, stopping when desired consistency is reached
4. Fold in diced banana, reserving a few pieces for garnish
5. Pour batter into pan and cook pancakes until golden brown, then flip (time depends on your pancake size, mine took about 5 minutes)
6. Plate pancakes, cover with desired toppings such as local organic maple syrup and 'nannies

Do you have any self improvement goals on the docket?

Mopey Monday

Nothing is worse than a Monday morning after a long holiday weekend.  I delayed going to bed last night because "that made it real". I went to the gorgeous Palace Theater in Playhouse Square last night to catch Book of Mormon with friends. Step 1: hilarious. Step 2: wish it were longer since I could have sat there laughing all night. Step 3: I want to be a chorus singer/dancer in Broadway shows. I'd settle for quirky (!) off Broadway productions. Heck, maybe I'll just start dancing and singing in the street wherever I go and cross my fingers that a bunch of people join in, knowing the words and steps.  That is how it works in ALL my favorite movies.

At least back to work means back to a routine. I ate myself silly this weekend. Homemade popcorn balls, anything grilled, anything carb-related. Nom noms. What started the eating frenzy? Homemade zucchini bread. I had about five medium zucchini from my CSA program and figured turning them into two spicy cinnamon loaves of awesome was my best bet. I ate both loaves within four days. Oops. No joke - I froze a loaf only to thaw it within 36 hours.  Make your own binge worthy bread by following the recipe below.

Katy's Spicy Zucchini Bread

5 medium zucchini - grate or shred in a food processor.  Roll up in baking towers and squeeze out as much water as you can.  Set aside

1.5 AP flour

1.5 wheat flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1.5 tsp baking powder

3 tsp Saigon cinnamon

Whisk above ingredients together and set aside.

3 large eggs

.75 cup white sugar

.75 cup brown sugar

3 tsp vanilla extract

Whisk together fervently (or put in a mixer with whisk attachment) and beat until pale yellow and fluffy.

1 c. whole milk – whisk into egg mixture.

Gradually stir in dry ingredients into wet until just combined.  Don’t over mix! 

Stir in zucchini and divide between two buttered and floured loaf pans.  Bake at 350 for about 45-50 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

My only other recommendation? Plan to give one away!

Friday Pizza Night

I am a creature of habit. I think it is my Type A personality that causes me to find comfort in rituals. A new ritual is busy season Friday pizza nights.

It all started because Friday is the day, especially in busy season, that my fridge is the most bare. After working on Saturday, I run my errands and go grocery shopping. On Fridays, my team works a "normal" 9-10 hour day and when I come home I need a dinner that is quick, easy, and made from ingredients I still have within my hardly stocked kitchen. Pizza night was born.

I found an online pizza dough recipe that only takes about fifteen minutes to rise:





Easy Pizza Dough:

• 2.5 cups bread flour (or all purpose but add a tad more yeast)
• One packet of instant yeast (I buy a jar and keep it in my fridge so I always have it)
• 1 cup of warm water
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Seasonings (optional: I like to add Italian seasonings like oregano and basil)

Stir the yeast and sugar into the water and allow to proof for five minutes (will foam up- if it doesn't, your yeast is dead!). Whisk flour, seasonings and salt together in large bowl. Add olive oil and yeast mixture. Stir until combined. Dump onto floured surface, knead for five to ten minutes, place in an oiled bowl and allow to rise in a warm place for ten to fifteen minutes.

This dough is a fast and perfect base to my Friday pizza. I usually cut the dough into four pieces and freeze three of them. Preheat the oven to 450-500 degrees. I am the proud new owner of a pizza stone and allow it to preheat for about 20 minutes and can bake my pizza directly on it. The thing is awesome and I wish I had bought it sooner. Prior to the pizza stone, I would preheat a cast iron skillet - it makes a perfect personal pan pizza! Bake for 12-15 minutes depending on your bubbliness and crispiness preferences.

I'm so brain dead by Friday, I can't muster the intellectual capacity to get too creative with my Friday pizzas. Usually, it is just a mixing of cheeses and a local Italian restaurant's jarred sauce. I cut it into small pieces and wolf it down while catching up on my DVR. I really should let it cool slightly before eating, but apparently I love burning the roof of my mouth each week, which heals just in time for me to scar it all over again the following Friday.

I justify my weekly pizza nights by saying "at least it's homemade" and "whatever gets me through busy season". Whatever my rationalization is, whenever I fire up my pizza stone and smell melted cheese, I know that I only have 5 hours of work left for the week before my Saturday evening and Sunday of freedom.

Do you have any food rituals?

My Sunday

My Sundays typically embody my "Susie Homemakerness".  I putter around my apartment stripping sheets from my bed, starting loads of laundry, tidying up and cooking for the week.  It is not uncommon for me never to leave my apartment on Sundays.  I run my errands and go grocery shopping on Saturdays so, unless someone is forcing me to be social, I change out of my pajamas only to put on a new pair of pajamas.  So classy.  If I really want to "over share", I typically listen to polish polkas or "Sounds of Croatia" on local radio stations while doing all the aforementioned chores.  It makes me feel connected to my ethnic roots and reminds me of a time when these sort of activities were what women were expected to do - now I just do them because I enjoy them.  I can sense the feminists gathering their stones which to cast upon me.

In the kitchen queue today was homemade granola for the week to take to my staff and fresh vanilla almond milk.  Whenever I look at the ingredients of almond milk in the $4 cartons at stores, I am discouraged to find it is not simply filtered water, almonds, and whatever is used to flavor it.  Therefore, I decided to buy a $2 "nut milk bag" (go ahead and laugh, I sure did) and make my own.  I buy almonds in bulk at Sam's Club and keep them in my freezer.  The 9 cup bag is typically $15 and so much more economical than buying almonds in traditional grocery stores or specialty food shops.  I soaked about 1.5 cups of almonds in filtered water overnight.  Today, I drained them, rinsed them, placed them in my food processor with two dried unsweetened dates and some high quality vanilla extract (I wish I had a vanilla bean instead: memo for next time).  Adding enough filtered water to just cover the almonds, I cranked on my processor and pulverized it.  A few times, I scraped down the sides of the bowl and added water until I had the consistency I liked.  When making almond milk, it seems to be a balance between getting the most milk out of your almonds while maintaining fantastic flavor.  It will be a personal preference how much water you add.  I dumped the mixture into my nut milk bag and squeezed away into a carafe below.  Is it weird that it felt like I was milking a nut milk cow's udders?  I then let the bag hang over the cup so gravity could do its thing.  Once I buy my hydraulic press for juicing, I will press the almond mixture versus squeezing - it'll make getting every drop of milk out of the nuts easy peazy.  Results: super easy, super delicious, personalized based upon my taste and no weird ingredients or preservatives I don't know how to pronounce.  Whoopie!

Moving on to the granola.  Many of my coworkers give up bread, pasta and flour during Lent as a "feat of will power strength".  Therefore, once Ash Wednesday passes, my options for treats diminishes immensely.  Granola is a good "go to" because it fits the restrictions and my boss likes it.  Win win.  I don't really have a recipe.  I make it up as I go.  This time, I combined oats, unsweetened coconut flakes, chopped raw cashews and chopped raw almonds in a bowl.  With my hands, I mixed in a tablespoon of coconut oil and local Ohio maple syrup.  I spread the mixture out on two half sheet pans and baked in a 350 degree oven for about 25 minutes, stirring once.  Basically, just watch it and when you start to smell it and it turns golden brown, you are good to go.  To the hot granola, I added chopped unsweetened dried cranberries and apricots with a couple more splashes of maple syrup.  I then put the pan back into the oven, which I had turned off, and left the door ajar.  This allows the newly added maple syrup to dry out a bit and the flavors of the fruit to mix with the oats without them melting.  Let cool and store in an airtight container.

I also experimented with making vegan "cookie cakes" with my leftover almond pulp from the milk.  Not so sure about them.  I need to research recipes as there are loads of ideas of how to use the precious stuff left over on the web.  Well, I better get back to my puttering, my laundry, my cleaning, and making my dinners for the week.  Also, I may or may not go to the mall and buy this makeup I've been eyeing, which I totally don't need but since it is busy season I can claim "I deserve this" and "I should treat myself" in order to justify it all.  I just have to be back in time for the red carpet specials.  I don't really care about the awards.  I like dresses.  Really pretty dresses.

What do you fill your Sundays with?

Pure Bribery

I am in the middle of what are typically my most hectic two weeks of busy season, so this post is going to be short and sweet... with sweet being literal as well as figurative.

I am now starting to help run jobs at work, which requires overseeing staff and delegating tasks. I learned early on that leveraging my "Martha Stewartness" can help keep my workers happy, motivated and on my side. Yes, I bribe my teams with treats.

Long hours amps up the stress and brings out the crankiness in all of us. Therefore, one of my favorite bribes is "PMS Mix": everything one could want when it's that time of the month. Well, male or female, young or old, busy season essentially makes all of us auditors have PMS. If the name grosses you out, it can be called "white trash mix" or simply "white chocolate chex mix".  This is one of those recipes that is circulating everywhere, but here is what I use from a family friend.  Enjoy!

1. Cheerios - 3 cups
2. Rice Chex - 3 cups
3. Corn Chex - 3 cups
4. M&M's - 2 cups
5. Small pretzels (I like sticks) - 2 cups
6. Salted nuts (I use dry roasted peanuts) - 2 cups
7. White chocolate - 20 ounces

Combine the cereals, candy, pretzels and nuts. Spread in a thin layer on wax or parchment paper. Melt chocolate over a double boiler (or slowly in microwave in short increments on 50% power) until smooth. Pour melted chocolate over mix and toss to coat. Allow to harden and store in baggies or an airtight container.

I usually buy enough ingredients to use all of the cereal, but I warn you- it makes a LOT of mix. However, my coworkers and I normally don't struggle to finish it all over a work week. I can eat this stuff until I am sick to my stomach and then I eat a bit more. Oh, the joys of busy season.

So, does bribery work on you?