Unplanned Is Better Than Not As Planned
In case you missed the weekend:
- Friday I got groceries and ate from Whole Foods and gave nut butter recipes
- Saturday people weighed in on an awkward and moralistic gym situation.
- And Sunday was the big Mother’s Day brunch
I live off to-do lists and plans(you should see my to-do list for today. Yikes!). It should then be understandable that I’m no happy camper when things don’t come out 110% like I planned.
Vegan Tiger Fudge
The “new recipe” I alluded to was vegan tiger fudge: a layer of vegan chocolate fudge with a layer of peanut butter fudge on top. After a few hours, the top never set, so while this was tasty, it wasn’t wholly “fudge”. Boo 😦 It’s back to the drawing board for that recipe. On the bright side, my vegan chocolate fudge tastes as good as ever.
As opposed to not-according-to-planned, things that are unplanned have seemed to have great success recently. Betty White never planned that she would actually get on SNL, and she was hysterical. Amy Adams in Leap Year didn’t plan to fall in love with the Irishman she hired to take her to Dublin(even though it was the most predictable plot-line ever), and that worked out for her. And this dinner, while completely made on the fly, was fantastic:
EVOO Seared Sweet Potato And Chickpeas
EVOO Seared Sweet Potato And Chickpeas
How could something so simple be so good? This was just sweet potato chunks roasted and then seared in a little olive oil with the chickpeas added at the end to finish them off in the oil, and heaped on spinach. It was 5 ingredients with the salt(gotta have the salt), and that was all this needed. Best of all, it combined two of my favorites: sweet potatoes and chickpeas. Love it! Anyone else want to boast a kitchen success story out there?
Oatmeal With Chocolate Peanut Butter
Cascadian Farms Organic Vanilla Chip Bar
Maple Sugar Maple Leaf
It was certainly unplanned that I turn in to the carb king between dinner and breakfast this morning(add in the tiger fudge from before and you’ve got yourself a few meals there). And I’ll admit: It had me feeling a little down. Until I realized what those unplanned carbs could do for me.
12.1 Miles In 1:46:48
As a sort of “Last Hurrah”, I ran on the treadmill watching The Today Show and my other morning television for a strong and unplanned 12.1 miles. Hurrah! My entire gym set up is a luxury of convenience I will sorrowfully miss over the Summer.
Mighty Maple Oatmeal, Pineapple Chobani, Gingerade Kombucha
After all that, I’m happy to be sitting and having a well-balanced, moderately-sweetened breakfast with Mighty Maple and a pineapple Chobani. And, yes, that would be a Gingerade Kombucha at breakfast no less. It’s the only thing keeping me sane today between my to-do list and walking up and down 3 flights of stairs to cook and do laundry.
What do you do when a recipe’s a flop? My gut response: Call the neighbors over. If it’s something bready, I can usually crumble it over yogurt and call it granola. But with anything chocolate and sweet, just hand me a spoon and let the pity party commence.
Food Makes Fun Fuel 
I try to salvage it as much as possible. If it’s a dinnery meal, there is nothing a little cheese can’t fix!
Madeline - Greens and Jeans
May 10, 2010
my new banana bread trial this weekend came out amazing! that’s one success lately. and my biscuits Saturday morning were good 🙂
that fudge looks so good!
brandi
May 10, 2010
chick peas+sweet tater+spinach=exactly what I had for dinner last night! i opted for coconut oil, orange juice, fresh ground black pepper, cinnamon, and chili powder. this is my new favorite meal. a.ma.zing.
even though it didn’t come out perfect, that fudge looks damn good.
Ilana
May 10, 2010
Fudge is tricky. When we made it in culinary school, half the batches failed (including mine). I’d just drizzle it over ice cream 🙂
Great job on the run!!
HeatherBakes
May 10, 2010
What a fun post. 😀
I totally loved the movie Leap Year despite its oh-so-predictable plotline. Sometimes a feel-good kind of movie is needed. 😀
Oh, and despite the peanutty fudge not really every setting, it still looks fabulous and perfect. 😀
Sarah (Running to Slow Things Down)
May 10, 2010
holy goodness. The oatmeal-choco combo is what I want.
Yum Yucky
May 10, 2010
Ahhh the Maple Sugar Maple Leaf… I saw a TON of those (and other maple syrup goodies) for low prices recently when I was visiting the land of the best maple syrup, in Quebec! loooove it.
jenny (green food diaries)
May 10, 2010
I feed it to my human garbage disposal – my husband.
Jessica
May 10, 2010
I’m a huge planner too and I don’t like when things don’t go my way, I guess that is one of my flaws. But I’m amazed that you did an unplanned 12.1 miles. Dang!
Michelle
May 10, 2010
I have the bad idea of using my guests as guinea pigs! Fortunately, most of my new creations are successful. It happens however once in a while that it turns totally unexpected. I then spend the whole evening talking about what I should have done different. We usually all end-up laughing about it.
Veronica (lifewithnature)
May 10, 2010
Honestly, I usually get pissy and throw a fit! haha! Hey no one said I was mature all the time! 🙂
Kelly
May 10, 2010
Those sweet potatoes look perfect indeed. And I think Kombucha at breakfast is brilliant!!
Anna
May 10, 2010
I tend to be bummed but eat it anyway and use it in other ways than planned…sometimes I can surprise myself by making it better than it was the first time.
Agree, sweet potatoes and chickpeas are a tasty combo…had some for lunch today!
clairedille
May 10, 2010
well, your non-fudge fudge looks amazing! The sweet potato/chick pea salad does too! It’s a great idea, maybe I’ll use the sweet potato sitting on my counter for this!
Lisa @ Early Morning Run
May 10, 2010
Aren’t chickpeas and sweet potatoes an amazing combination?! It’s one of my favorites.
I hear ya on missing the convenience of gym access!
BroccoliHut
May 10, 2010
Great looking salad! I am going to try and recreate that this week!
Matt
May 10, 2010