Food that Tastes like Fall

Today I spent the day with my wonderful partner/boyfriend watching football (and watching the Cleveland Browns win! Seriously, I said "win"). Before all of this, I had the overwhelming urge, not sure what brought it on, to make something semi-sweet and tasty.

I decided to make some bread. I looked around to see what we had on hand at the house (I definitely did not feel like going to the grocery store this morning, so if I didn't have the things to make bread I would've figured out something else that didn't require spending any additional money).

I am not really one to get into the seasons. To be quite honest, I do not know that I have a "favorite," nor do I feel any particular connection to weather or nature; however, I do love the flavors generally associated with fall--you know, slightly sweet, spiced and warm.

What is better than cinnamon and ginger? Nothing. Seriously. NOTHING.

So, I decided to make carrot bread. I looked up a few recipes on teh good ol' Internets, combined them to suit my wishes and came up with a scrumptious result:

 

This was taken after warming it up and spreading on some Earth Balance. AMAZING.

Recipe: Nik's Fall-Flavors Carrot Bread

Wet Ingredients:

1/3 c. agave nectar or honey
1/3 c. oil
1 mashed-up over-ripe banana
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2-3 grated carrots (I used 2 medium and 1 small)

(Mix these together quickly in a small bowl)

Dry Ingredients:

1 3/4 c. flour (I used regular old unbleached all-purpose, but I am sure whole wheat for half would be great and actually nutritious)
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 Tbs. ground flaxseeds
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
Dash of cloves
1 tsp. nutmeg
Fresh grated ginger (probably around 1 tsp. or so)
Dash of pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp. salt
Handful or two of raw pepitas

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Mix wet ingredients into the dry. DO NOT OVERMIX. I mixed gently with a spatula. It seemed a little dry to me, so I added about 1-2 tbs. of unsweetened applesauce (you could probably add soy milk or water).
3. Spread evenly into a greased bread pan and bake for 30-35 minutes.

I would recommend, as noted above, serving it warm with a little bit of Earth Balance or other butter substitute. It's already half-gone, so I would definitely put this one down as a major fall flavor success! I think that this would also be good without the carrots as a spice bread; however, it would need something else added to it (I am thinking pumpkin would be delicious).

Comfort Food....

So, this past week has been busy, per the usual. For some reason, it seemed to hit me harder this week than usual. To make up for this fact, I made some comfort food on various nights. One such night, I even took a picture.

Coming home from work at a reasonable hour (I skipped the gym, so I got home around 6:30) means I make food. Not wanting something too elaborate, and wanting something salty and full of comfort-food goodness, I decided on a tempeh burger (no, I didn't make it, I bought them from the co-op and they are AMAZING), a salad w/corn and black bean salsa w/gazpacho dressing and potato "chips" with plenty of seasoning. Since I hadn't planned ahead, I didn't have a bun to put the burger on (and after a stressful day, it is not 5 seconds within entering the house that I have put on pjs and have resigned to not leave again for the rest of the day) so I just toasted some whole wheat bread. Actually, I think I may like burgers better on bread than buns.

When I ate this, I did not forget that some of my students had been lazy and/or obnoxious that day. I also did not forget that I had to give up some of my paycheck for bills after eating. However, for the time it took to eat this, I was mesmerized by the greasy goodness. 

Not much tops that.