Sarah Cooks Breakfast: Baked Nectarines with Oatmeal

"Tomorrow, I'm going to bake nectarines."

I'm starting to feel organized in my tiny kitchen. I haven't cooked a lot since I moved to L.A. in September. Let's just say they know me at Lemongrass Thai. Since implementing a daily cleaning meditation, however, I've taken command of my space and I'm learning to enjoy cooking in it.

One morning, I set out to copycat a baked nectarine dish I saw on Pinterest. Only...I didn't have the ingredients, so I made up a new dish!

Baked Nectarines with Oatmeal

Ingredients:

3 Nectarines, halved and pitted

Apple, chopped

1 packet maple brown sugar oatmeal

1/2 cup hot water

Coconut oil

Brown sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix oatmeal and water in glass baking dish. If it looks dry, add more water.

2. Place nectarines and apples on top of oatmeal mixture. Coat with coconut oil. Sprinkle with brown sugar. You can stir it all together or bake layered.

3. Cover with foil. Bake for 20 minutes. Let cool for 1-2 minutes. Serve with toast, yogurt, ice cream, or by itself!

It smells A-mazing. It is super sweet, so if you aren't a sweet tooth, you can make it with more oatmeal and add something savory. What's that savory food everyone loves with maple? Oh yeah! Bacon! Or if you're like me, veggie bacon. (No exclamation point there. Veggie bacon's less exciting. I'm aware.)

It feels great to start the day with a creative task like cooking. Cheers to many more mornings like this one!

Today's Curated Art Print: "Apricot/Nectarine/Peach" by Abby Galloway

Fat Girl at Dunkin Donuts: An Intuitive Eating Perspective

"Tomorrow, I'm going to enjoy play food for what it is."

A couple weeks ago, I saw an event posting for the opening of a new Dunkin Donuts franchise. I'm always on the lookout for fun, local, social activities, so I RSVP'd yes!

And then I had to deal with these thoughts:

People are going to make fun of me for being fat.

People are going to think I'm fat because I ate too many donuts.

People are going to think I don't care about healthy eating.

People are gonna take pictures of me and make fun of them.

I better dress up so at least they don't think I'm lazy.

I'm grateful that at least now my negative thoughts about my size are mostly about how I'm perceived by others. It sucks, but at least it's better than actually believing those things about myself, that I'm unhealthy or lazy or unworthy of belonging because of my size.

Well, no one in line made judgmental glances. No one made negative comments. Actually, I chatted the whole time with two women in line about normal-people things (any-size-people things) like weather, traffic, careers, places we've lived, pets, and of course, which flavor of donut we wanted to try. And I realized something, no one goes to a donut shop opening unless they appreciate play food.

What is play food? According to Intuitive Eating, it's food that has little nutritional value, but is enjoyable to eat. It is morally neutral, meaning it's not good or evil. It's not even "healthy" or "unhealthy." The idea is that once you're tuned in with your body's cues to hunger, fullness, and energy, you'll naturally eat the types and amounts of food that are best for you.

I was content with my one donut and small hot chocolate, genuinely content, because I knew I could choose to eat a second or a dozen without internal shame. It did feel playful, fun, indulgent in a good way. I wasn't thinking about how to burn off those calories later. It was pure gratitude:

These flavors, textures, and smells are pleasant.

Active businesses are great for our city.

I could be friends with these women I met in line.

It's fun how many people came out for this. I'm glad I'm a part of it.

I am good enough to be a part of whatever I want to be a part of.

Part of me knows it was luck that there weren't any bullies out that day. Or well-meaning "fitness" advocates. I also know that happiness comes from within. I hope I can build up enough self-love and gratitude to stop fearing the disapproving glance once and for all.

~

I'm not affiliated with Dunkin Donuts. It just happened to be the perfect setting for this message so I didn't bother changing the name.

To read more about Intuitive Eating, check out the book by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch (Amazon Affiliate link).

Today's curated art prints are "Fruity Donuts" and "Donuts in Balloons" by Ivy Niu. There are 41 pages of donut-related prints on society6, if you can believe it. Ivy Niu's stood out to me as charming, imaginative, and meaningful. They make me smile.

The Hazards of Combining Flavors: Espresso Cheesecake Brownies

“Tomorrow, I will combine everything I like about dessert into one mega-dessert!”

This dessert is a crazy mixture of several other desserts.  There is a layer of very chocolatey brownie.  Then there is a rich cheesecake, flavored with coffee. To top them off, there is a sweet-tart layer of sour cream.  

Combining flavors is a risky business.  You never quite know what will be delicious and what will fall flat. And the more flavors you combine, the greater the chance that you will choose one that people don’t like. As a result, I wasn’t able to give these brownies away very quickly. Coffee haters and cheesecake haters both spurned these brownies.

Dessert: Delicious yet Devious

For me, this dessert was a dream come true.  I love coffee, I love chocolate, I adore cheesecake (especially in small amounts), and sour cream was literally the icing on the cake.  

Make It Yourself: Chocolate Blackberry Ice Cream

“Tomorrow, I’m going to make homemade ice cream.”

The first time I made ice cream, I announced my creation on Facebook, as proud as a first time mother posting baby pictures.  Moments later an incredulous acquaintance replied: “You can make ice cream?”

Of course you can make ice cream! It’s right there in the name: ice+cream=ice cream.

The awesomeness of homemade ice cream isn’t cost effectiveness (it’s more expensive), nor necessarily quality (you can’t quite recreate the smooth, easy to scoop industry texture at home).  The awesomeness of homemade ice cream, sorbet, and frozen yogurt is this:  You can do whatever you want to it.

You can put literally anything you want in your ice cream.  You can go wild.  I once made strawberry ice cream using sour cream instead of cream.  I froze thick homemade strawberry lemonade into a sorbet.  Actually, those things weren’t that whacky, but they were certainly not standard strawberry ice cream!

Maybe you’re more daring than I and will try something truly crazy.  Hot sauce? Bacon? Curry? Garlic? Anything, my brave friend.

This recipe marries blackberry and chocolate, and the marriage is a very happy one. It isn’t the craziest of combinations, but it is different from plain old chocolate!  It is very dense, very rich, and delightful.  Feel free to play around with it all you like.

Blackberry Chocolate Ice Cream
(makes about a pint)

5 oz good quality bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
½ cup heavy cream
1 cup 2% milk
3 egg yolks
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons blackberry jam

In a saucepan, bring milk and heavy cream just to a boil, and remove from heat.
In a separate bowl, whisk together egg yolks and sugar.  Whisking vigorously, very slowly pour the milk mixture into the egg-sugar mixture.
Return the egg-milk mixture to the stove and set over medium heat. Cook, whisking constantly, until the mixture has thickened. When finished, if you take up a spoonful and run your finger down the bowl of the spoon, the custard should not fill in the track left by your finger.
Place the chocolate in a bowl and immediately pour the hot custard over it.  Let stand for two minutes, then gently stir the mixture with a spatula until chocolate is completely melted.
Chill custard.  Freeze in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions.  During the last few minutes of churning, add the blackberry jam.  Pack the ice cream into a container and store in freezer for at least two hours before serving.

Source: Adapted from “Unbelievably Good Blueberry Ice Cream” from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.