"And Then She Asked Me To Eat Green Paper"

My boyfriend thinks I am a nut job. I'm constantly cooking up strange concoctions and playing with food trying to make something healthy and tasty while also being low calorie and fairly high in protein. I also buy random things that also meet this criteria.

Such as seaweed snacks and tofu shirataki noodles...both of which I introduced him to this week. When I first offered him a piece of seaweed, assuring him they were delicious and totally addictive he stared at it and simply said, "and then she asked me to eat green paper....that's what I'm telling everyone tomorrow. I tell everyone about all the weird sh** that you make and try to feed me."
:(

seaweedy deliciousness

Well, Saturday night we decided to stay in for dinner and wanted something quick and lazy. I could have cooked but he wasn't in the mood so we decided on pasta. Even though I ran a long run Saturday morning, I just wasn't feelin' pasta (let's be honest...I just wanted to enjoy my carbs in the form of pumpkin beer..). So he boiled up some whole wheat penne for himself and I opened up a bag of these guys for myself. We both topped our noodles with some jarred tomato sauce but I mixed in a bag of steamed brocoli and cauliflower to mine. Suprsingly, he was intrigued by my dinner and to my shock he tried it!!!! Shocking me even further, he LIKED them!!!!!! Liked them so much that he said, "if you buy these...i'll eat them" (he later told my sister that they tasted like goo, but enjoyable goo, nonetheless). I felt a slight warming sense of accomplishment anyway :)  Anytime I can turn Dan on to one of my weird little findings I have to give myself a pat on the back. His enjoyment of whole wheat pasta took me just over three years!! Persistance, my friends.

Besides Saturday's dinner the rest of our weekend was pretty dang good! Saturday Dan and I headed out to a mall in New Jersey for some fall decorations and Target for a bag of candy corn. Then, we came home and made this monster:

teamwork at its finest

His mom got us the kit from Williams-Sonoma, so the gingerbread is actually really tasty (those two tombstones have been devoured already...along with some of the roof..).

Along with decorating that house (and consuming way too much candy corn...the pumpkin variety is ridiculous...I was sure to get the bag with the MOST pumpkins mixed in) we festively decorated the apartment! I'm obsessed with the cozy decorations and pops of pumpkin-orange fall colors!

lovin the lil pumpkin candles

is there anything cuter?!



For our first autumn-decorating experience I think we did pretty well! The following morning I was craving something pumpkin-y for breakfast so I made myself a bowl of pumpkin spice mush. I credit Dan for the creation of mushbowl.

thick goo

Into the bowl went 1/2 cup shredded wheat cereal, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, 2 tbsp raisins, 1 tbsp flax meal and a cup of almond milk. I stuck the bowl back in the fridge while I made and ate some egg whites (about 10 minutes). After the cereal sits for about ten minutes it absorbs all the milk and becomes super soft, thick and mushy. I stirred in a tbsp of canned pumpkin and another splash of almond milk. Thick, mushy goodness...that tasted like pumpkin bread dough. Amazing. Dan lets his mushbowl mush-ify right on the table but I like mine extra cold so I keep it in the fridge. Mind you, I'm not a fan of mushy cereal, I definitely prefer crunch, but for some reason this mushbowl is beyond addictive. Plus, soaking the raisins lends some extra sweetness.

Since I hit the gym at 5:30 this morning and it's now a little after 9am and I have yet to shower, I think it's probably time I go do that. ;)