In Support of Crazypants Baking, and The Best Muffin I've Ever Made

What's going on in this picture?

I'll give you a hint: we have midterms starting Wednesday. 

Yes, there is serious Sabbath stress baking going on here. How I love it when the sun goes down on Friday.  Things to notice in this picture:

1. There are muffins on the rack to the right of the oven. 

2. There's a tray of something else IN the oven. 

3. That big white bowl contains dry ingredients for a different batch of muffins.

4. The KitchenAid bowl has cookie ingredients in it. 

5. There's a chocolate block bigger than my head next to the peeler. 

6. I have somehow covered every surface in this rather substantial kitchen. Katie - I apologize that you had to make dinner at the table. 

7. My computer (far corner of the island) is well within the radius of clumsy danger. I live on the edge. 

So this was Friday night. This morning brought an 11-mile run (making me feel better about the amount of sampling done last night), and then some delicious breakfast love:

Cold quinoa + 1/2 cup yogurt + frozen berries + maple syrup:

And THEN two more recipes were made (that brings us to 6 in the past 15ish hours).

I'm a stress baker. This is not a secret, I've mentioned it before. However, it is a reasonably recent development. I've just started liking to bake in the past year.

What is it about baking? You put on some music, throw things together, make a bit of a mess, and you get order and deliciousness out of it. When school brings me down, I can count on a successful adventure in baking to lift my spirits.

Exactly what I've been baking is partially secret (for now) - there's another birthday coming up, but I do have one recipe I want to share, because it's without a doubt the best muffin I've ever made. Better than Pumpkin Muffins. I know, blasphemy, but true.

Triple Berry Lemon Muffins

Made 8 full-size and 3 mini muffins, or about 9 full-size. 

159 calories each, or 53 for mini ones.

All-purpose flour: 1.5 cups (188 g)

White sugar: 1/2 cup (96 g)

Salt: 1 tsp (6 g)

Baking Powder: 2 tsp (9.6 g)

Almond milk, plain (or other non-dairy milk): 3/4 cup (6 oz.)

Oil: 2 tbsp (1 oz.)

Lemon yogurt: 3 tbsp (1.5 oz.)

Zest of 1 lemon

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Frozen berries (used the Costco Triple Berry Blend, don't thaw first.): 1 cup (126 g)

-Preheat oven to 400 degrees F-

1. Combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a bowl. Just whisk it around with a fork.

2. Add almond milk, oil, yogurt, and lemon juice to the bowl, stir. 

3. Fold in the berries and lemon zest. 

4. Scoop into a muffin tin. 

5. Bake 25 mins, or 17 for mini ones. 

The best part of midterms baking?

I now have all this deliciousness around me and I certainly can't eat it all myself. I would try, but you'd have to roll me into my test next week.

So what to do?

Feed my frazzled classmates of course. These are going into the school tomorrow, and I hope they all disappear, goodness knows we all need some brain fuel. 

Truth be told I AM one of the frazzled ones this set of tests. I'm feeling very unprepared and anxious. With the rest of my Sabbath I'm going to cook up some nice healthy meals (a lasagna? a stew? a curry?) for next week when I don't have time to cook, and then spend some more time just hanging out with God, praying for Japan, and resting my brain. 

Day by day, I have to believe we'll get through this. 

Coffee Shops and Choirs.

Breathe a sigh of relief. It's Sabbath. We made it.

I looked in the mirror this morning after my shower and thought, "Oh, look at those dark patches. I must have some of yesterday's mascara under my eyes."

After a good scrub with the makeup remover, I was no closer to removing the dark circles. It's been that kind of week.

My run was 4 miles this morning, and I felt so slow and tired through the whole thing.

After a few hours of studying/class, we had a meeting to talk about signing up for what order we'll do our rotations in next year. There are 7 required rotations during the third year: surgery, pediatrics, OB/GYN, family, neuro, psychiatry, medicine (and a 2 week elective). We have to turn in our preferences for the order in which we do them. There are lots of pro/cons, I'll post about that once I think about it a little more.

Afternoon brought some coffee shop studying. I am a Starbucks gold member, only because of all the Friday afternoons I've spent there studying. Snack was a mini Clif Bar - Blueberry Crisp. I like the mini ones for snack (100 calories). The full size ones seem like way too much unless I'm actually climbing a cliff. Side of herb & supplement pharmacology.

On Fridays I quit at sundown for Sabbath, 5:47 pm today. I whipped up a quick DIY rice bowl with stovetop tofu, steamed teriyaki broccoli and Trader Joe's lime rice. 

Then this evening the University Church had the Cal Baptist Men's Chorale come for a vespers service and it was awesome. I don't actually know anyone in the choir, but I can still say they did an awesome job. 

Tomorrow boyfriend will get here midmorningish, and (do I need to say it again?) I'm buying a bed!

I hope I wake up less tired, but either way, after 2 years, it's my last night of sleeping on this piece of memory foam. 

Weekends Fly Don't They?

Where did my Saturday go?

All of a sudden I'm sleepy, it's dark, and I haven't learned nearly enough. I guess it was a good day. I did lots of cooking so I'd have good leftovers available for my busy week of studying and tests.

After my previously mentioned Carrot Cake Pancakes, I pretty much just relaxed. I believe I watched: The Social Network, Vampire Diaries, CSI, CSI:NY, I Used to Be Fat and possibly others. Sometimes that's the kind of day I need.

I managed to leave the house for some groceries, and I had to go to two stores, because rice noodles were surprising hard to find, but that was the extent of my outside adventuring.

For lunch, I made Pad Thai from The Vegan Table. It has tofu and broccoli along with the rice noodles, bean sprouts and peanut sauce. I've never attempted my own Pad Thai before, but I'm so glad I will have leftovers of this for a while. Next time though, I'd cut the noodles and double the veggies. Actually that's how I like pretty much everything.

Cilantro and lime wedge on top. Now I just need a salad roll. I'm putting that on the list of things to make soon.

Dinner was more brown rice and homemade curry. 

Hello shadowy dark kitchen. Thanks for making my food look so great.

And for dessert, hot vanilla soymilk. I also had an apple, a carrot and a serving of Cinnamon Life Cereal as snacks.

Workout: Not so much.

Boards Prep: 30 practice questions, 20 review questions. I'm back on track to be caught up Thursday! I'm just not sure how easy it will be to stay caught up with board review while studying for the midterms (which start Wednesday). I just have to decide that it's a priority I guess. I mean, that's how I fit in exercise. If I only did things I felt I actually had time for, I wouldn't cook, exercise or sleep. I'd just study. That's the atmosphere I guess. 

And now to sleep. My full day of nothingness as worn me out.