Cloudy days and baking {plus a recipe!}

When it comes to sleep, I am really a blessed individual: at bedtime, I can usually fall asleep easily within 20 minutes of my head hitting the pillow.  I rarely wake in the night, and when I have a healthy sleep cycle (aka, I’m not pulling all-nighters for homework purposes) I usually wake up with ease when the alarm goes off.

But last night was NOT THAT WAY: I couldn’t fall asleep for the life of me! Then this morning I didn’t have any commitments (hooray!) and I didn’t set an alarm. So I slept in…far later than I like to.

And thus began this strange day.  It is overcast and dreary outside, warm inside, and I have been just one big lethargic lump. So I decided to bake something. Our fruit bowl has been filled with persimmons recently: a farmer’s market find from a few weeks ago. They were on the verge of spoiling, but still had some integrity left so I decided to experiment. I made persimmon bread with a little twist. Here's the recipe I used:

Ingredients:

1 cup persimmon pulp

3 cups granulated sugar

4 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

1 ½ tsp. cinnamon

1 ½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. ground nutmeg

2 tsp. baking soda

3 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup water

½ cup diced dates

½ cup chopped pecans

My version of the directions:

(Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.)

*Because I started out with whole persimmons, I peeled them and put the pulp through the food processor to create an even texture. Then I placed the pulp in a small bowl, mixed in just a couple pinches of sugar so the persimmons would get juicier!

*In a separate mixing bowl, mix together sugar, eggs, oil, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg and baking soda.

*Alternately add flour, water, and persimmon pulp to the mixture above.

*Here’s the “twist” part: the recipe I was using called for one cup of walnuts but we didn’t have walnuts on hand. Instead I chopped up ½ cup pecans (one of our family favorites!) and ½ cup dates and folded them into the batter. We happen to have a ton of dates on hand because one of my mom’s student’s has a date orchard or some such thing… so we have had dates coming out our ears!

*Evenly divide batter into 2 or 3 greased loaf pans (depending on how large you want your loaves to turn out.) Bake at 350 degrees for one hour.

I wasn't able to get a photo of a full loaf because we had mice. Big, hungry mice in the kitchen. Their leftovers were not as pretty to photograph! ;)

The result was delicious! (well, at least the five of us think so.) One thing I didn’t expect was that the bottom crust of the persimmon bread went through a sort of caramelizing process which ended up having a slightly chewy texture. This hasn’t happened to any other specialty bread I’ve made before! My family decided that they like it that way so I’m not too upset by the surprise. If I were to make this bread over again, though, I’d place a piece of greased parchment paper on the bottom of the loaf pan just to help with the process of taking the loaf out! 

A slow transition

In the last several years my family has become more health conscious.  My younger brother began a health and fitness regime about the time he was a freshman in high school and he successfully shred his puberty weight (it's a family curse). He felt, and still feels, so much more comfortable in his own skin! I have hovered around the same weight -- give or take a few pounds -- for the same amount of time.
I tend to gain weight when I live at home because I have access to much more food, and because we  have multi-dish meals. When I live alone I tend to make a big batch of one thing (example: split pea soup) and I eat it for lunch and dinner for days until it is gone. 
Now that I am living with my family once again, I have realized that my family's diet has changed some for the better! For instance, we have hummus far more often than we have sour cream. We use almond milk instead of dairy. And we almost never have ice cream or soda.
I often get really annoyed that my family doesn't just jump fully on-board with an eating regime such as the "whole foods" concept exemplified in the documentary Forks over Knives. But today I stopped to recognize the slow progress to healthier living that my family has made.
I am thankful for their willingness to change.

Also, they don't know it yet, but they'll be eating cauliflower pizza for dinner tonight! ;-)

Study food

This weekend has been such a reprieve from the scattered busyness that seems to consume most my days. I've stayed in, done massive quantities of homework, and cleaned; all the while wearing sweats and a sweatshirt with my hair up in a messy bun and a tribal looking headband to keep it all out of sight. Yeah, it’s been awesome.
Anyway, that’s beside the point I actually set out to make in this post. And that point is: FOOD!

Here's a list of the food that's been powering my studying brain this weekend. {For better or for worse.}

• Split pea soup—at least one bowl a day. {Yes, I made it myself in the Crockpot without a recipe. I win.}
• An entire loaf of French bread {Of course I didn’t eat the whole thing by myself! Ahem, actually I did. Bring on the sit-ups.} Speaking of bread, when I have the time I want to try this recipe.

• Spoonfuls of peanut butter and nutella. YUM.
• Sunflower Seeds

• Soy Protein shakes, chocolate flavored. {I may or may not have added some chocolate chips to it too.}