A finals tradition: carbs on carbs

While reading my blog, you must think to yourself Wow, she really cooks a lot, she must have a nice variety of meals each week. Though I do not want to shatter any sterling views you might have about me, sometimes I do not eat so lavishly.

The week before finals, and finals week don't allow much time for cooking. Even if I had the time to cook with all of the studying to be done, I would probably burn myself, or the apartment down, due to my lack of sleep. I don't want that to happen.

Instead, I forget that I am dieting and I survive on carbs. 

Morning: Cereal... see this to get an idea on what cereals are ht best.

Lunch: Cereal 

Dinner: Pasta

Now, here is the thing--I can't be bothered by actually boiling water, waiting for noodles to cook, and preparing a nice pasta dinner.  Instead, yesterday I made a whole box of pasta. I put sauce on it, I put some chicken in it, and then I put it in like three different Tupperware. Microwave and eat. 

This finals tradition is certainly not guilt free--when you realize you have consumed a box of pasta in 4 days, but I like to think of it as helping my brain run at peak conditions. 

Also, it would be a good idea to pair coffee with every meal. Don't believe me? I wrote this 3 years ago, and it still holds true today. 

Award Winning Cereal

I realize that I mentioned cereal in one of my earlier posts about the egg sandwich, and I apologize for not expanding on that thought right away.  I understand you have probably stayed up at night wondering what kinds of cereal I eat, and what kinds of cereal to avoid. Well, worry not my friend.  Today I am going to be discussing my take on cereal. Just to be clear, I only eat my cereal with skim milk--mostly because I have slight allergies to milk. I do think that makes a difference. My brother just bought vitamin D milk, he might as well be using half and half. Another thing--if you like your cereal extremely crunchy, my bowl is not the place to look.

So without further delay, here are my top favorite cereals:

1) Apple Cinnamon Cheerios: of all of the Cheerios in the world (and there are plenty) this kind is my favorite.  It has the perfect amount of sweetness and it makes your milk taste so good too.

2) Fruity Pebbles: obviously I was brought up on sugar cereal.  When I was young, my brother, my sister and I all had our own box of FPs because it was gone in a day if we didn't.

3) Honey Smacks: Not too soft, not too crunchy.  A hint of sweetness makes it delicious. Plus, it is small enough where it isn't going to hurt the top of your mouth like fruit loops.

4) Cinnamon Toast Crunch: The taste you can see. Enough said.

5) Raisin Bran: Not a sugar cereal, but it still is good.

6) Honey Bunches of Oats: Tastes good, and healthy!

Everyone has their own cereal preferences, and you by no means are constrained to mine.  Feel free to let me know what your favorite is!

The Egg Sandwich

The standard breakfast at the Ringger household is typically cereal.  However, when one deviates from the Fruity Pebbles, the egg sandwich is usually a top option. My dad has been making the egg sandwich as long as I can remember, and it has taken many different forms throughout my life. It is the perfect meal when your brother uses all of the milk, or he hides the Cinnamon Toast Crunch bag in the Kashi Go Lean Crunch box. Clever. Anyways, the egg sandwich does not require milk or sugar cereal, making it the infallible back-up plan.

Ingredients:
Bread
Egg

Seems pretty simple. The optional ingredients, depending on your preference (or food availability):
Cheese
Condiments
Meat (turkey, sausage, bacon, ham...)
Veggies

This is how we do it at my house:

1. Put 2 slices of bread in the toaster
2. Start to make two eggs on the griddle (or pan) and break the yolks up
3. Retrieve the toasted bread from said toaster, and put mayo on it (sometimes I like ketchup on it instead)
4. Flip the eggs
5. Sprinkle some salt and pepper on the eggs
6. Add cheese, and let cheese melt
7. Put the eggs on the bread
8. Eat

(Makes one egg sandwich)

Obviously there are many other ways to create the egg sandwich. So ditch the cereal bowl and fire up the griddle!

Sunday Morning French Toast

Since it was daylight savings time last night, I felt rather motivated to wake up and get going before I needed to rush to get to church on time. Since I had this free time where I did not need to be showering or doing my hair yet, I decided to make breakfast for Elliott and my dad. Since waffles are such an early morning cliche, I decided to go the french toast route. It was way easier than I thought.

This is what I did, and you can do it too:

Break a 3-4 eggs in a medium sized mixing bowl

Pour a little bit (half cup) of milk in with the eggs, and stir it all up

Add some cinnamon and brown sugar in the milky-egg mixture

Take a piece of bread, dunk it in the egg stuff and immediately put it on a greased griddle.

Let the toast cook on each side for about a minute, depending on how hot your griddle is.

Once it's done, there is nothing left to do but eat it! (With syrup of course)

Something I have been wanting to do with this is create an egg sandwich--using two pieces of french toast for the bread. More on that later...hopefully.

 Other french toast recipes :)

Eggs for breakfast

I wish I had my camera so I could show you what I made for breakfast...but my fiance is borrowing it for one of his classes. So, I will just have to do my best to describe it to you!

When it comes to salty vs. sugary I tend to take the salty road. I'm not saying that I don't often start my day out with a big bowl of apple cinnamon cheerios, but there are some mornings where I just want something salty. Unfortunately, I have not been able to bring myself to make a sandwich for breakfast (yet) but I do like to make eggs.

Now, if you want a perfectly formed omelette, I'm not the one you should talk to. Either go ask my roommate Katie, or learn here. I am much better at scrambling things. I feel like it is less pressure.

So this morning I made an egg scramble.

In a frying pan put a little bit of olive oil and sauté the veggies you desire for your meal (I chose a red bell pepper)
Then, if you want a meat, throw that in there as well--no raw meat, already cooked meat! (I put some chicken in)
Then, stir up some eggs in a bowl, and put those in the pan as well.

Let everything cook, and then to top it off, put some cheese on it.

Let the cheese melt, and enjoy!