Out of Practice (and Ingredients)

Since I ended up making a spontaneous trip out for Mexican earlier today, my packed lunch went largely untouched. (I did eat the orange this morning, but that’s it.)  But have no fear: it didn’t go to waste, I just ate it for dinner instead.

{Peanut butter + Crofter’s organic pomegranate jelly on whole wheat, pear, cracked pepper + sea salt kettle chips}

I don’t know what kind of pears I got this week, but I sure wish I did because this one was terrible and I don’t want to buy them again. I don’t think I’ve ever said that before about pears, but this one was hard and had pretty much no flavor at all.

Also, sorry if you’re getting bored with all my sandwiches and frozen meals… It’s just been that kind of week. I guess if nothing else, it shows that you can still eat relatively healthy when you don’t have a lot of time/energy, but I’ll try harder once things settle down again.  Promise.  

All day, I’d been thinking about how I wanted to bake something tonight.  Remember how I mentioned that my peanut butter cravings were coming back with a vengeance? (Brought on, I think, by the overabundance of nut butter currently taking over my cabinet and fridge due to the fact that I somehow inherited all of Billy’s huge jars to add to my collection when we moved.) 

Obviously the first thing I could think of to do about that was make peanut butter cookies.  But besides peanut butter, I didn’t have very many ingredients to work with.  I know there’s a recipe out there that calls for peanut butter, sugar, and an egg… but I had no granulated – only powdered.  So, per my usual cooking style, I decided to improvise. 

And by combining about 1/3 cup peanut butter, 2 tablespoons confectioner’s sugar, 1 small egg, 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips, and 1 teaspoon chia seeds, I came up with what I thought was going to be a great baked good. 

I mean, doesn’t that batter look yummy?  (It sure tasted good!)

But the “cookies” that came out of the oven told a different story.  For some reason, they were literally swimming in some kind of boiling liquid.  The sugar melting away, I assume.

I immediately scooped them off the cookie sheet and onto a wire rack in hopes of saving them, but no such luck. 

Honestly, they weren’t that bad (yes I tried them), but definitely not good.  It’s a good thing I only made eight of these little suckers so I don’t feel as bad tossing them though. 

Oh well, it was worth a shot!

After that epic fail, I decided to take advantage of both my newfound down time and the beautiful weather and go for a walk to explore the area where I live a little bit.  I strolled through a few nearby neighborhoods for about 40 minutes and was struck by how every single house was perfectly manicured.  I mean, usually there’s that one neighbor that just can’t hang, but apparentlly that’s not the case around here.  I also love how the houses have that old New England charm – not terribly new, huge, or fancy, but well taken care of and sort of rustic looking.  I haven’t had an abundance of time to explore yet, but I like what I’ve seen so far!

When I got back, it was still light out, so I sat out on the balcony to do some blog reading, but the box of empty pots and the bag of soil at my feet kept nagging at me.  Plant me!  Plant me!  When we moved, I ended up dumping most of my plants since they weren’t looking too hot and I didn’t feel like worrying about a bunch of half-dead vegetation spilling over in my car.  But now that I’m getting settled, I hope to give some life to my outdoor space, and what better time to start than now?

The only seeds I had on hand were spinach, geraniums, and some other flower (lobelia, I think?) so we’ll see what happens, but once I have more time, I hope to get some herbs, colorful flowers, and possibly tomatoes. 

Not a hugely riveting Friday night, but it worked for me!  It’s only 9:00 and I’m already dead tired, so I’m sensing bedtime isn’t going to be too far off.  My dad and his girlfriend are coming out for the day tomorrow, and I’m hoping for a bike ride and maybe lunch downtown.

Happy Friday!