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Attune Breakfast Summit/Fitbloggin Local Part 2!

September 24, 2011 by 17 Comments
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I love blogger meetups. I love them even more when they involve food and fun people, which luckily, they absolutely always seem to do. Today was Fitbloggin’ Local Meetup #2, also known as the Breakfast Summit so graciously hosted by Annelies and Attune Foods. They welcomed ten lovely bloggers into their beautiful office for a morning of breakfast and chatting.

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There were two breakfast bars set up, each featuring a variety of Attune cereals (one collection was gluten-free), fresh fruit, different milks, and yogurt.

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We all helped ourselves to breakfast, and then sat down around the table to eat and chat.

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My bowl had vanilla Wallaby yogurt, two different kinds of gluten free cereals (I’m not gluten free, but ended up at that breakfast bar and the cereals were still great), blueberries, and strawberries.

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Supplemented generously by some cinnamon graham crackers and Justin’s honey peanut butter (or was it almond? Either way it was delicious). I LOVE graham crackers. I could eat those things all day.

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In attendance were a few familiar faces from Fitbloggin’ Local Part 1 back in late June…

As well as some new friends I was happy to meet!

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We had a chat led by an RD, Jae Berman, about the importance of breakfast. When I first heard we were talking about “the importance of breakfast” I thought it might be a “duh” type of moment (“breakfast is good for you!”) but it was way more than that! Jae was really informative and engaging and made me really want to continue to learn more about nutrition, and, more importantly, what kind of nutrition works best for ME. I really need to reconsider reintroducing animal protein again, but that’s another story for another blog.

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It was a great morning at Attune and well worth getting up at 6:30AM on a Saturday for. And check out the swag!

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A big things to Annelies and Attune, Justin’s Nut Butter, Wallaby Yogurt, Strauss Family Creamery, and Pacific Natural Foods for making it possible!

After breakfast, we headed out on an adventure to the Ferry Building Farmer’s Market. I just posted about this market recently because I was kind of just there, but it’s great every single time. And even better with bloggers because I don’t feel as lame taking photos of everything on my iPhone!

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I walked away with a bag of blue potatoes (random purchase) and, of course, a vegan donut from Pepples. Requirement.

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I had a great time today and am looking forward to getting to know some new people and that I keep meeting through blogging, which is just the coolest. It makes me really excited for the Bay Area Blogger Meetup I’m trying to put together for October 8th, too!

The rest of the day was an exhausting shopping spree that merits a whole post in itself.

Gotta get ready for a run in Half Moon Bay tomorrow… goodnight everyone!

What’s your go-to breakfast food?

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    Survival Essentials: Oatmeal

    March 7, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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    There are many popular healthy-food choices that are completely unavailable in Mozambique, but after discovering here that oatmeal is healthy, filling, yummy, and most importantly, AVAILABLE, it has become an essential staple in my diet (breakfast at least 5 times a week). I can’t believe I avoided it in the States! I never ventured outside of Quaker instant oatmeal packets before this, but stovetop oats are much easier than I had thought.

    Assemble the staples:

    For me this means oats, peanut butter, vanilla, and cinnamon (all South African produced minus the guest star cinnamon from the great nation known as Target).

    For me, I measure 1/2c oats, 1/2c skim milk, and 1/2c water in the pot. The milk/water combo makes the oats much creamier and is definitely worth it. I also almost always cook the oats with a banana, cut into smaller pieces. Cooking with the banana mixed in results in creamy deliciousness that no words of mine could ever accurately describe. Stir periodically (making sure it doesn’t burn or get stuck to the bottom in the late stages) until the liquid is all absorbed. For runnier oats (that sounds gross), add more liquid; if you like your oatmeal a bit drier/cakier, subtract some.

    Now that you have your oatmeal base, here comes the most important part: toppings! I almost always stir in 1 tbsp peanut butter, for protein, creaminess and flavor. I also like to add cinnamon and vanilla extract and sometime sprinkle some brown sugar on top, it caramelizes a bit which is absolute heaven. But you can really add anything… any kind of nuts or nut butter, jellies and jams, nutella and other spreads, raisins and any other dried fruits like cranberries or blueberries, nutmeg, sugar, honey, berries, canned pumpkin (a blogger favorite, which has eluded me in Africa), coconut, chocolate chips, chia seeds, flax, granola for crunch, anything! My personal favorites are the PB/cinnamon/vanilla combo as well as peanut butter and jelly oatmeal. Here are a few of the creations:

    Apple pie oatmeal (warmed apple chunks with cinnamon and vanilla, plus nutmeg, sugar, and granola)

    Blueberry oatmeal with peanut butter and almonds!

    Yum.

    The standard with a granola/cranberry topping.

    One of the best things I have learned from food blogs: Oats in a Jar! When you have a jar of nut butter (or nutella…) that is down to the dregs, mix your oats inside and make the most of every last drop. You have no idea how excited I get now when I have an empty peanut butter jar. Yum.

    Peanut butter and strawberries.

    There you have it… pictorial evidence of how I survive in this country. If I can make oatmeal every day and love it, it’s definitely worth a try wherever you are. : )

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    Weekend Baking: The Great Crepe Adventure!

    March 6, 2010 by Leave a Comment
    crepes1

    Who plans meals by what is about to go bad in their fridge? For me, it was the delicious last few slices of pepper ham in the fridge. Combined with the bundle of bananas I had just bought that were already “sweating” (does this happen anywhere else??) How to bring the two together while also baking something delicious… answer: crepes! I was a bit nervous about this–the thin batter and the kinda-pancake-but-not are a bit of a turnoff–but thoughts of Nutella pushed me forward.

    Also, crepes remind me of happy places: Paris and Vegas. Sure, there’s a great crepe place I have frequented right off the Third Street promenade in Santa Monica, in my old stomping ground of Los Angeles, but I first fell in love with crepes in the City of Lights itself. I spent a few weeks in Paris in the summer of 2007, and adored every moment. We were staying right on the Seine at a crappy little apartment-hotel place, but it was what was outside the hotel that mattered. Every day we walked out, turned left a couple of times, wandering through a small nearby neighborhood which called us for two reasons: 1. a wine store where you could get a bottle of delicious Rose for 2 euros and 2. the best crepe place ever. I had so much fun in Paris and can’t wait to go back, which I have a feeling will be sooner rather than later.

    With my best friend and travel buddy Amanda, right outside of our apartment

    Apparently this place is famous!! Who knew??!

    Who doesn't love a city where this comes with lunch?

    Starting my climb up the tower, with a foot strained so bad I couldn't walk that week. POOR CHOICE. Totally worth it.

    view from the tower

    At a concert and celebration on Bastille Day. Note: celebrating other countries' national holidays in those countries, is awesome.

    I am SO living on this street someday.

    Au revoir, Paris and your delicious food and wine that is cheaper than water. Sigh.

    Regarding Vegas: I have a deep and profound love for Vegas that seems uncharacteristic for my personality, but it shall be explained in great detail someday on this blog, I’m sure. But basically, I usually stay at a hotel called Bally’s which is attached to a hotel called Paris, which not only has an Eiffel Tower of its own and mixed adult beverages served in only slightly smaller tower replicas, there is also a creperie. And a quite good one I add. Saturday and Sunday morning breakfasts are always there for me. Sweet and savory menus, but I’m always a sweet person. There are still too many choices!

    Anyway, on to the actual crepes. No more reminiscing, por enquanto.

    The simple recipe I used called for:

    3/4c flour

    1/2 tsp salt

    1 tsp baking powder

    2 eggs

    1.5c milk

    1 tsp vanilla

    DISCLAIMER: THESE PHOTOS ARE UGLY AND NOT VERY APPETIZING. I AM A NEW FOOD BLOGGER IN A HOUSE WITH NO NATURAL LIGHT AND SOME OF THESE INITIAL EXPERIMENTS ARE COMING OUT UGLY. I AM SORRY AND I AM WORKING ON IT :(

    The recipe called for mixing the dry and wet ingredients separately, pouring the wet into the dry, beating quickly with a “few swift strokes”, and ignoring the lumps. No problem. Next sentence: “Allow to sit for three hours if you have time.” WHAT?? I’m hungry. But I figured for this first experiment I should at least try.

    After a couple hours, I removed the batter from the fridge. It had separated a bit, but a little whisking whipped it right back up to shape. I cooked them in a small frying pan with a little drop of oil and they actually turned out pretty decent! I really need to work on my food photography:

    Now for the best part: fillings! It was supposed to be lunch, and the ham was the inspiration, so I figured I had to do something savory (normally my sweet tooth is insatiable): one piece of pepper ham, half of a Laughing Cow cheese wedge, a smear of avocado, and half a tomato:

    Then it was time for the real deal. I cut up a banana, sprinkled it with some cinnamon and vanilla, warmed it up, and threw it in a crepe with God’s Gift to Crepes/everything (Nutella!) Result:

    DELICIOUS. I could eat nutella on everything.

    Crepe experiment: Success!!

    Next on list: learn how to take pictures of food that actually make it look edible or even good. Sigh.

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    Weekend Baking: Oatmeal Blueberry Pancakes

    March 1, 2010 by 1 Comment
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    The weekend came and what does that mean: baking! Given my love of breakfast, of oatmeal, and of pancakes (if you couldn’t tell by the title of the blog), AND the fact that for the first time in the ~15 months I have been here, BLUEBERRIES appeared in the expat supermarket… I decided that oatmeal blueberry pancakes were in order! I don´t know if I will ever see blueberries again during my time here, so definitely jumping at the chance to (attempt to) bake something delicious.

    I used this recipe and just bumped up the cinnamon and vanilla (no bland pancakes here) and added some nutmeg. Here was the result:

    Presentation/photo quality: 1. Taste: 9!

    I enjoy oatmeal pancakes because not only do they taste delicious, but they are high in fiber and healthier than pancakes made with regular old super-refined white flour (the other option here in Moz). My one dislike: they just don´t get as thick and fluffy as all-flour pancakes. Perhaps I am doing something wrong? If anyone has any advice, I would appreciate it. But at least they tasted delicious. The nutella topping didn´t hurt, either : )

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    Weekend Baking Commences: Coffee Cake Muffins

    February 27, 2010 by Leave a Comment
    greased and floured. To think my roommate here had to teach me how to do this. At age 23. Is it too late to go to culinary school?

    Okay. I love baking. But I have no idea how to do it. I mean, really no idea how to do it. I think my extent of baking pre-Africa was “helping” my mom in the kitchen sometimes over holidays and during high school and by “helping” I mean “licking the bowl and eating the Hershey’s kisses before she can pop them into the peanut butter cookies.” So my skills in the area are low, but where there’s a will there’s a way, right? And there is definitely a will… I have ALWAYS loved baked goods–give me a cinnamon roll over a chocolate bar any day–and now that I can’t buy them it is time to learn how to bake. Random craving that I decided to start the experiment with: coffee cake! But in muffin form… that counts right?

    I spent a fair amount of time on AllRecipes.com perusing the variety of recipes available, but nearly every one had an ingredient inaccessible to would-be bakers in the bush of Africa–sour cream, usually, which apparently you can make here but I wasn’t ready for THAT experiment yet. Eventually I settled on this recipe from Recipe4Living which seemed doable:

    Cinnamon Coffee Cake

    • 3/4 C. sugar
    • 1/4 C. soft shortening
    • 1 egg
    • 1/2 C. milk
    • 1 1/2 C. flour
    • 2 tsp. baking powder
    • 1/2 tsp. salt

    And so the experiment begins. Visions of myself whipping up melt-in-your-mouth, moist, fluffy, exploding-with-flavor-and-sweetness pastries begin to dance through my head. A girl can dream, right? Preparations begin.

    greased and floured. To think my roommate here had to teach me how to do this. At age 23. Is it too late to go to culinary school?

    For my “filling” or topping I decided to use the following ingredients:

    • “Brown” sugar (about 1/3 cup) (“brown” is in quotes because it is the Mozambican version of brown–aka, not quite.)
    • Flour (about 2T)
    • A whole bunch of cinnamon
    • Bit of butter (like my exact measurements? I do. This Is Africa)
    • a little honey for good measure

    Mixed together, adding a bit of flour until it came out course and crumbly but still moist… looked alright:

    half of this made it onto the muffins...

    Then I decided to get really fancy and put in half the batter and then some filling in the middle (cuz that is the best part of coffee cake, anyways), then fill the cups up and sprinkle the rest of the filling on top. No pictures, sorry… I am pretty sure this is the weekend I decided to start a blog and thus was less committed to taking bad pictures than I obviously am now.

    Thrown into the oven (cooked at “whatever temperature my oven felt like heating up to that day” for “as many minutes as it took for the fork to not come out gooey”… yeah, I should really write a cookbook or something) and came out looking… not so good.

    Okay, visions of perfect pastries shattered. That didn't last long.

    I think all the sugar and honey on top caramelized and kind of burned. Fear struck deep in my chest. But after removed from the scarred muffin tray they looked alright:

    slightly better.

    And they were. They also made a pretty delicious breakfast with some fruit.

    But then again, if every time you crave something you have to make it from scratch, it BETTER taste amazing! But I guess it’s been so long since I’ve been to Starbucks, my taste buds don’t even know the dishes. First baking experiment: success. Maybe some day I’ll learn how to make something that LOOKS good, too!!

    moist coffey-cakey goodness. Now where's that Starbucks?...

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