Oh yeah, there is nothing better than cake for breakfast.

I’ve had about 8 out-of-season honeycrisp apples in my fridge for a month now because they were sour and not good for eating out of hand. This week I’m vowing to use them up in various baked preparations that will bring out their sweetness.

First use: Emily‘s recipe for cinnamon apple glazed cake squares that was featured on Eat Live Run recently.

I made a ton of substitutions to work with what I had. Apple butter rather than apple sauce, chickpea flour rather than whole wheat pastry flour, a little oil to fill in for not having enough butter, added an extra apple, and used real eggs rather than flax eggs. I also tried baking it in a 9×9 pan instead to make them fluffier, and with 20 extra minutes of baking it worked!

These cake squares are so, so insanely good. I fully intended on making the glaze that goes with them but after trying them naked I decided to leave it alone.

With a hot cup of tea, inspected for quality by Liam, it was a fantastic breakfast.

3 apples down, 5 more to go.

What’s your favorite baked apple recipe?

June 24, 2011 Alayna Discussion 4 comments

Good morning!

Another nanner for breakfast today. I’m really starting to get addicted to this nut butter, I love how salty it is!

Last night I made a pan of enchiladas in green chili sauce. They’re filled with brown rice, vegetarian refried beans, black beans, salsa, and pickled jalapenos. I ended up going back for another half of one, so good!

And yesterday afternoon I made a recipe that I intended to write as a separate post, but it didn’t turn out so I’ll have to try it again.

These are Chines tea eggs, essentially boiled eggs that are marinated in an aromatic sauce. The marbling effect comes from cracking the shells before marinating, but I might not have cracked them hard enough because they didn’t get as intensely marbled as they’re supposed to.

They taste great, but I want a better picture for the recipe page so I’ll try them again when I get more eggs.

I did manage to complete some of the blog changes I mentioned yesterday but I’m having some issues implementing them, so I’ll probably have to wait until Jeff get’s home today to get some help with it. My Blogroll page has been updated though, if you wanna check it out!

Workout time!

June 22, 2011 Alayna Discussion 8 comments

Lots to do today. I have a couple of blog changes planned, I hope I can finish some of them so I can actually make the updates today. Very excited.

Breakfast was a gargantuan banana topped with maple Wallaby yogurt and Lovegrown apple walnut granola.

I made a really tasty dinner last night. Normally I suck at making pastas but this one turned out pretty great. Whole wheat tagliatelle with roast turkey, burst tomatoes, and peas.

Yesterday afternoon I roasted two turkey breasts with the skin on to retain juiciness. I just rubbed them with olive oil and salt and put them in the oven on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 40 minutes at 400 degrees. When they’d had time to cool, I removed the skin and pulled the turkey apart into shreds with my hands.

To make the sauce, I sauteed 6 large cherry tomatoes and a few cloves of chopped garlic in olive oil. I pricked the tomatoes with a knife so they wouldn’t explode and added about a half cup of prepared tomato sauce and a small dollop of cream cheese. When the tomatoes were blistered and splitting, I crushed them with the back of a spoon and grated over some parmesan. I just tossed in some of the shredded turkey and added boiled pasta and peas for an easy dish.

First task of the day: Photo shoot for a new blog header image! Gotta get it while the lighting’s good.

June 21, 2011 Alayna Discussion 2 comments