Amanda tagged me in another blog questionnaire! I love these things, such great distractions…

8 questions:

1. Favorite flavor of ice cream?

Ginger ice cream from Scoops in Edgartown on Martha’s Vineyard. Hands down best ever!

2. Do you say soda or pop? Or something completely different?

I’m from the Midwest so that would be pop.

3. If you could travel anywhere for a month, where would you go?

I would go to Fiji with a great camera, running shoes, books, my lap top (for blogging purposes) and a ton of food. I would only require a two room house. One room for sleeping and one room for cooking. That would be the best vacation ever.

4. Favorite thing about blogging?

I love that blogging motivates me to try new things and push my culinary boundaries. I also love meeting other wonderful bloggers! The healthy living and food blogging community are full of wonderful, supportive people. Def the best part of blogging.

5. Do you prefer tricks or treats?

TREATS! We all know how I feel about treats!

Yep. I’m a treat girl.

6. Are emoticons annoying or fun?

Fun, unless in a creepy way. Some people just shouldn’t use them.

7. Would you rather spend your vacation relaxing by the beach or hiking through a rainforest?

Relaxing on a beach.

8. Have you ever been stung by a bee?

Yes. Twice. The first time I was probably like 8. I was in Kentucky attending a family reunion and it was the day before my birthday. I was stunk while riding horses or watching horses or something to that effect. It was so upsetting I believed I said it was the “worst birthday ever” while sobbing in a kitchen. The second time was in Boston in the courtyard of Harvard Medical School. There was much less crying.

Per my last post, the past few days have been Stree-vember. But never fear, I have not yet surrendered to frozen meal. Lets be real: I’ll never eat a frozen meal unless it is a Barefoot dish I mass produced myself. I just can’t do TV dinner. Finals are depressing enough without depressing food. However, I have been playing around with how to make quick versions of my favorite dishes. I have a couple in mind I hope you’ll enjoy!

Remember last week when I made Squash Pasta Bake? Well it was really good and last Monday I really wanted some. Issue: I had so much work to do. I could only spare about 30 mins to cook and eat. Solution: I made a quicker dinner with all the same ingredients.

First, I roasted squash, eggplant, onion, and garlic at 425 with salt, pepper, and EVO for 20 mins.

While the veggies are roasting boil one serving of brown pasta and drain. Benefit of this approach? Lots of time off to do reading!

Once the veggies are done roasting combine them in the pasta pot with pasta, a small amount of EVO and cheddar cheese (clearly the best part of the dish). Then I topped with prosciutto. Yes, impending finals brings back my love of prosciutto.

Yum. This is pretty similar to the original dish but was executed in a fraction of the time. Cheese and prosciutto is the ultimate comfort food, right?

Because I can’t get enough butternut squash, I made another recipe. I know. I know. One of these days I will cook without butternut squash. One day.

I love making baked pasta because its hearty and it freezes and reheats well. Always looking for a way to get leftovers as lunch. I also like pasta bake because you can throw in whatever you have in the kitchen.

Last night I used eggplant, butternut squash, and regular green and yellow squash.

I chopped and roasted at 420 degrees for twenty mins with EVO, S&P.

While roasting I cooked the pasta. I used two servings worth of brown pasta.

While the pasta cooks, grate cheddar cheese. Multitasking people! Use as much of as little as you like.

Set the cheese aside and drain the pasta. Once the pasta is drained put EVO in the bottom of the pasta pot and cook the onion (1/2 cup) and garlic (1 clove).

Take the squash and eggplant out, once the garlic and onion are done cooking combine everything BUT the cheese. Then in a baking pan layer the cheese and the pasta mixture.

Before

I let it bake for, oh, 25 mins? I set the timer for 20 mins and checked on it to see how well the cheese was melted.

After

Yum! I wasn’t sure how the cheddar and the eggplant and squash would turn out but it was pretty dandy!

I think the most essential step is pre roasting the squash and eggplant. It really gives it that extra something special. I would definitely make this dish again. I ate a little less than half and had the leftovers for lunch today. Pasta bake always reheats so well. I love looking forward to lunch.

In other news: my Halloween box from my mom arrived! No one puts together a holiday box like my mother.

I got this awesome headband.

Blair Waldorf meets Halloween anyone? I love it.

I also got some delicious dessert!

Chocolate Bon Bons!

They were huge! I only had one last night and I had one tonight.

They were amazing. Thanks Mom!

Tomorrow night is my big going out night for Halloween. I am going to be a witch in a business suit (Christine O’Donnell anyone?) and hit the bars and parties with my Glendale entourage.

This is really just continuing a theme. I present Halloween, Senior year of college.

Yep. I was Sarah Palin (note: this is pre weight loss). What can I say, I like to dress against type. For those who don’t know me I am a uber progressive liberal in a very progressive race studies program. I’m just a fan of irony. At this rate I’ll be Sharron Angel next year.

Something is winging its way to Boston…

What do you do when you are cooking way too many treats? Send them to your good friend Carolyn obviously. Don’t worry, I’m getting treats in return! I can’t wait. I have found that when I bake I need to share with the people around me. I live alone and if I don’t share then I will eat them all myself. While I would like to live on an diet of creme fraiche, I don’t think that is a good idea for nutritional purposes. I can’t wait to get my box from Boston!

In other news: I got new running shoes! I logged way too many miles in my prior ones to still be wearing them to run. I’ve had some minor heel problems recently that really drive home the point that I needed new shoes. I had been wearing New Balance 1064’s which I love. They were pretty special because I ran my first race in them and did my first really exciting long runs in them. I need to stop. I’m starting to sound like a horder. I would have liked to get another pair of 1064’s. However, they are very expensive so I bought Brooks Ghost 3 instead. I went to FrontRunners in Brentwood and they were very helpful.

Apparently a lot of people really love these shoes, according to the Runner’s World forums. I wanted to try them today but it was rainy and I didn’t want to sully them in the mud.

I will report back after I have run in them!