baking anyone?

Carbohydrates are my friend. In the past few weeks I have baked more carbs than the rest of the year combined. I've made cake, zucchini bread and wheat bread.

The bread in this photo is a wheat bread. Somehow in the move I discovered 2 full pages of whole wheat flour. Since this is not a common every day baking flour, I had to be creative on ways to use it. I wish my braid would have turned out better. Maybe next time I'll post the photo of the finished product.

Anyway, I blame all my recent baking on the new kitchen. Our new digs have amazing natural light, so the kitchen is always bright. We also have a lot of space for spreading things out--perfect for laying out ingredients and recipe books.

My recent craze for baking is two-fold:

(1) I have been craving sweets and homemade items like a crazy woman. Since I enjoy baking and enjoy eating, I didn't need any other excuses.

(2) I wanted to test out the new oven and make sure it was working how it should be. Wouldn't want to move in & not make sure all the appliance work? A cardinal sin.

I have a feeling I am going to continue to get very good use out of the kitchen. This will kick off this weekend in my annual task of making a birthday cake/pie/sweet for pm's birthday. I just need to find the recipe of what he wants. Once that is done and it has been made, it will be posted.

breaking the rules

We've been on a hardcore detox/purge since coming back from Spain. The fun we had became noticeably present around the waist. We knew it would happen and we knew what we'd have to do when we got back.

For the past 10 days we've been doing the scarsdale diet. I admit I haven't been following it religiously--I need my sugars and my dairy. I also didn't enjoy Spain as much as my dear hubs. :)

Essentially this diet does 2 things:

1. You stop eating fats, sugars and oils. You don't cook with oil. You don't add anything to your toast. You don't indulge in sweets in between meals.
2. You limit the number of carbs you consume and you up the fresh vegetables & fruits.

All in all, it's not that hard to do . . . the first week. The second week, in my opinion, is hard. You lose energy. Loads of it. I have been craving the craziest things all week and since our cabinets are not fully stocked, I have had to do without. No biggie. I can live without cookies, hummus, tortilla chips, juice etc. We push forward.

Until.... tonight. I needed carbs. We had successfully gone a full 10 days without eating one of our weekly staples: pasta. So, as you may have guessed, we broke the rules. We made pasta. To our defense the sauce was 100% homemade with fresh vegetables and we measured the amount of pasta. I think I actually enjoyed tonight's pasta more than ever before. I enjoyed it because I was starving for it, starving for carbs.

While I admit we cheated (and am proud of it), it made me realize how trivial dinner can become without giving it some thought and effort. We need food to survive, but it is so much more enjoyable if you actually enjoy it. Naturally, I mean in moderation.

This is one thing I really want to strive for this year: to make a much more conscious effort of what I am putting in my body. pm had the idea last week to try to make more things from scratch when you crave them. For example: I want chocolate cupcakes with a chocolate ganache frosting. I could walk down the street to "Fivebucks" and buy one. Easy enough. Although if I really want it, I should force myself to make it. Chances are if I had to make every craving I have, I wouldn't consume so many useless calories.

New Year's Resolution #1: Play an active role in all meals. Give them thought and push the boundaries. Whenever possible, buy locally. Utilize cookbooks, experiment with recipes. Keep track & take notes along the way.

P.S. The other item not allowed with this diet is = no alcohol. Today we made an exception. pm is almost officially done with school forever. To celebrate we had a sherry: Pastora amontillado, medium dry. A solid 8 for breaking another rule.