Simple as That

Whoops! Guess who slept in a little later than expected? In my defense, I had a massive headache when my alarm went off at 9 that made me want to scream or split my head in half or something. My roommate and I had planned to get up and go to the Uffizi, but her alarm didn’t go off, so I just rolled over and went back to bed. It felt so nice, even if I did sleep later than I intended. I’m soaking it in while I can; April is going to be insane! Exciting, but insane.

Spring Break is winding down! Come 2 AM, we spring forward, and then it’s back to school. I’m looking forward to the longer days. It always gets me excited for summer.

Lazy vacation days always call for oats!

oats made with tropical juice (don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it!) + orange yogurt

I’ll be honest, I was not a huge fan. It was perfectly edible, I just really don’t like orange flavor (clementines, however, are a horse of a different color!). BUT I buy the 8-pack of yogurt to save a little money, and it includes 2 orange yogurts, so I have to get creative. And, when all else fails and my creativity expires…add chocolate. Seriously, it fixes everything.

Just in case you think I’ve been totally ruined for “normal” food, here is my lunch:

Soft boiled egg on toast. Sometimes – more often than not, I think – simple is best.

Check OUT my coffee today:

Swirly, almond-milky goodness!

Dinner continued the simple theme:

Whole wheat penne (~2/3 cup?), tomatoes, garlic, and LOTS of spinach topped with a heavy powder of grated pecorino romano. Mmmm, spinach 🙂

Ok, ok, booooorrrring post. But even in Italy, sometimes boring days are necessary. So, I will leave you with a perty picture, and promise to return with something to say!

Simple.

~Namaste~

The Talk

Well, today’s the day – Florence and I need to have “the talk”. You know the one I mean. I’ll give you the abridged version:

Me: Oh Florence dear, we need to have a little chat.

Florence: Ok, let’s do it now. Give me five minutes.

Me: No, this is important. Have you ever heard of the birds and the bees?

Florence: Well, it rings a bell – how do you say it in Italian?

Me: FOCUS dear. Let me see if I can jog your memory. Birds and bees are two different, yet similar species. And why are the similar?….

BECAUSE THEY COME IN THE SPRING. You  know spring? Primavera? That season where it gets WARM and SUNNY?????

Florence: Hmm, yes I think I’m familiar.

Me: Fantastic. Wells, here’s the deal: It’s March. Spring happens in March. Needless to say…GET IT TOGETHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I woke up to snow flurries, which progressed to sleet for the better part of the day. And the wind is nasty. I wanted to get out and walk around…but it was downright miserable. Oh well – snow or sleet, it’s still in Italy. That automatically makes it considerably more bearable.

Breakfast involved another NaturaSi find:

Apple-carrot sauce! I had to – this sounded WAY too interesting to not try.

Whipped up some cinnamon oats…

And voila!

I loved this stuff! WHY has a U.S. company not thought of this yet????

Dear Musselman Applesauce: Please add an apple-carrot sauce to your lineup. Kthanksbye.

Really other than that little experiment, not much to say about today. Researched stuff for a paper, stared longingly out the window wishing for the sun in vain. 

I did make a pretty tasty pre-yoga snack:

Soft-boiled egg on a spelt cake – like a rice cake, just different grain. Another thing a U.S. company needs to pick up on. Come on Whole Foods, don’t let me down!

This yoga class is really starting to grow on me. It’s very relaxing and meditative, and I really like getting into th meditation side. It’s such an important part of yoga and I don’t feel like I’ve ever got much of a chance to delve into in during a class, so I am enjoying the emphasis on it here.

In keeping with last Tuesday, we decided that it was ethnic Tuesday again and went to a Greek place just down the street – partly because we wanted hummus, and partly because it was 2 minutes away, meaning less cold to bear.

Unfortunately, there was NO hummus on the menu – total blasphemy in my opinion! What is Greek food without some tahini and garlic-infused chickpeas??? But the pita was warm and yummy, and almost made up for the lack of hummus. Almost being the key word there. 

I ordered the octopus salad, which is basically the octo in some olive oil and lemon. Very simple, but very tasty. It did the job.

Tasty tentacles 🙂

This early AM class kills me – I come back from dinner, sit down to do a little more work and talk to the fam, and BAM! It’s 11 o’clock. Rather frustrating. That said, I’m off to bed.

~Namaste~ 

Exhaust Fumes

I hate to start out a post on a sour note, but I have to be honest – I am NOT doing so hot over here. I don’t feel sick, I just feel like I’ve been hit by a sledgehammer. Like someone drained every ounce of energy out of my body. Look at the weather today:

And all I can think about is bed. I’m hoping it’s just a travel hangover – Rome was rougher on me than I knew. It will be an early night.

Italian this morning was a little rough. I just could NOT get myself to focus. I deal with tiredness a LOT, but even this is rare for me. Our teacher told us the legend behind panettone, a sweet bread eaten at Christmas here. She even brought some for us to try – it helped. It was delicious, and I’m going to ask around for a good recipe. It’s very fluffy with a strong vanilla flavor and dotted with raisins. Even through my exhaustion haze, I could tell this was GOOD. Project: Panettone will soon be put into action.

I dragged myself back to the apartment and immediately went back to bed. I slept for a solid 2.5 hours straight, and the oddest thing is I slept fine last night, just not enough.

You don’t want to hear whining, you want to see some good eats! And as promised, here is my breakfast experiment:

Overnight CEREAL!

You see, I was totally the kid whose favorite part of the bowl of Cheerios was that last bite of completely milk-saturated Os. And, being a lover of oats, I figured, “hey, why not apply the overnight soak method to regular cereal?” The results: I’m a fan! It was a consistency very similar to oat bran, which I actually prefer to oats and miss very much 🙂 Very thick, almost pudding-like, especially after I added the yogurt. I sprinkled cinnamon over it before putting it in the fridge and it really seeped throughout and gave a great flavor boost. Now obviously if you like your cereal super crunchy, this is not for you – but it was a fun experiment and I’m definitely going to try it again!

I was still a little hungry (it was a small bowl – it was, after all, the first trial), and so I made b-fast #2:

Tea, toast & eggs. Quickly becoming my new favorite snack. And as you can see, I was much more successful with peeling this time…

Blogged a bit and did some emails while staring longingly at the beautiful blue sky, and then made some lunch:

Very light salad, just to keep my energy up for some errands.

I felt a little better once I was out and went for a short walk before yoga club. Did some window shopping…

Ooooh so perrrrty:)

 And had to snap some pics:

Oh Duomo, I’m going to miss you so in a few months!

Hit up the grocery store, came home, made coffee, went to yoga. I knew that if anything would help this exhaustion, yoga would. And it did – we held shoulder stand for a gloriously long time. There is something about seeing the world from upside down for a while that just makes a difference.

One of my favorite poses:)

Tonight was deemed Sushi Tuesday in our apartment after we tried to go last Monday, only to discover that essentially every single sushi place in Florence is closed on Mondays. I haven’t had it since the day I boarded my plane here – I was ready for some maki!

We went to a take-away place pretty close by. We ended up waiting for a good 25 minutes, which seemed a little excessive considering the phone didn’t ring once when we were in there and we were the only customers, and there were 4 of us. I just got a salmon roll and a cucumber roll, nothing special but I like the simple rolls more anyway. Sushi is one of my favorite meals because it involves fish and it never fails to leave me satisfied but not never heavy-full. Because we waited so long and then walked back to the apartment, I ripped into it before thinking to snap a picture! But I promise, it looked very similar to this:

(Pretend that tuna is salmon or cucumber.)

I reaaaally wanted some gelato, so I dragged a couple of my roomies out with me. The place we had in mind was some random recommendation and I didn’t think it would be particularly picture-worthy (which was silly – is gelato EVER not worthy of a photo? no. silly gilly!) But the place was closed, so we went to Grom in hopes that the March flavors would be there. It turned out that the March flavors are…the exact same as the February flavors, but Grom is pretty amazing in general, so I wasn’t complaining. I was sad that I forgot my camera, though 😦 I got pear and Bacio, which is essentially Italy’s Hershey Kiss – it’s a popular chocolate with a whole hazelnut in the middle. Trust me, it was GOOD. Hit the spot.

I definitely need to hit the sack soon, but I couldn’t resist the call of the blog:) Tomorrow I’m going to Mercato Centrale (I’m out of my beloved pecorino! The horror!) and out to lunch to my new Wednesday spot, Sergio’s. A domani!

~Namaste~

Carpe Diem Tuesday

Ciao a tutti! Smile – it’s almost hump day!

I had a rather difficult morning. I barely slept, which is especially frustrating since I was exhausted and even got to bed at a reasonable hour. I walked to class in icky rain. My Italian class went pretty well today though – we had a subsitute teacher and there was something about her I really liked. She seemed to move at a faster pace, which helped energize me and get me out of my lack-of-sleep fog.

When I came home I was faced with a dilemma of dire proportions: go back to sleep or make breakfast? I attempted sleep first, but my stomach got the best of me. Oat-time it was!

Today I used this delectable comestible from the1- euro store:

Apple-blueberry sauce!

Add it to cinnamony oats…

Appley, blueberry-y, cinnamony goodness!

Not long after, I started crashing and gave in to the nap-urge. It was either that or do nothing productive and think about all day. Slept for about two hours, which got me up to a grand total of maybe 4 hours? Ick. I’ve dealt with worse though, I’m a tough cookie 🙂

I got up and made some coffee. Made a second breakfast that got a little messy…

I have resolved to turn myself into an egg person, at least while I am here, because it is a perfect protein, cheap, and protein is generally a bit lower for me. Carbs, though – noooo problemo. Got those covered. ANYway, I have been experimenting with soft-boiled eggs and I have yet to conquer the cracking skill. As you can quite clearly see. No matter…

It still tasted good! Those little toast things are all the rage in Europe. They are like little mini toast crackers, about the size of my palm. When I was at my homestay in France and lived with a little old French lady named Monique, I had these every morning with nutella and her homemade strawberry confiture. Mmmmm 🙂

I was determined to not let this Tuesday turn into another day of ‘blah.’ After breakfast #2, I worked on my scrapbook. I brought a journal with me, but since I started the blog, I haven’t felt the need to write in it as often, so I have turned it into my study-abroad scrapbook. I’ve been holding on to various tickets, tags, business cards, etc. for this purpose and it’s been piling up. It’s gonna be a prettttty sweet scrapbook!

Then, I took a walk. I will NOT be in Florence sitting on my butt all day in the apartment because I’m tired. Nope. So out I went! The great thing about this city is that you can just walk anywhere and there is so much to look at. I really had no earthly idea where I was going or where I was, but it didn’t matter. And my golden rule here is “all roads lead to the Duomo,” which semi-true. After about 45 minutes it occurred to me that I was starving, and so I found my way to the Duomo and headed on home. I passed by our favorite bakery on our street and as usual noticed the interesting looking olive-studded rolls that I have been dying to try. I walked by, figuring I would just wait to go home, and then I stopped – if not now, WHEN? I turned right around and got me one:

I was expecting a crispy, crunchier bread, but this was light and fluffy and olivey. Yum! It felt GREAT too, to just do it and stop saying “oh, next time.” Carpe diem was my theme today 🙂

I decided I needed something a little more substantial before yoga club, so I threw some spinach and parmeggiano reggiano in a pan, and put it over a little (we’re talking half a cup max) whole wheat penne and tomato. It fit the bill quite nicely.

Yoga was really nice. The style is a little new to me, but it is a very relaxing, meditative class and I love it. The teacher is really cool too. And on my walk home, a little old man was playing the accordion in the street. It was like being in a movie. Made me smile.

As part of my ‘carpe diem’ day, I picked something up at the grocery store that I have been eyeing: SQUASH! I have wanted to make roasted squash for ages because I adore roasted sweet potatoes (SO far superior to french fries) and today was the day!

I cut some up into long wedges and some up into little, chunky wedges, just to see which one I liked better. I seasoned them with a little olive oil and sea salt, and then cinnamon + a sprinkle of cane sugar on some, cinnamon + honey  on some, and rosemary on some. I love playing with my food 🙂

I ended up liking the little wedges a little more – they got crispier and held the flavors better. The bigger ones didn’t quite cook enough. I like a little char 😉

I have a good bit of reading to do, but I still feel good about today because I stopped thinking, planning, making excuses and started DOing. It’s an awesome feeling.

Tomorrow I am wandering over to the other side of the river to check out a market there and see if I can find the restaurant the fam and I ate at when we visited Firenze a couple summers ago. And, hey, who knows what else will happen?!

~Namaste~

Nevica in Firenze!

It is ICKY outside today. It’s raining right now, the hardest I’ve seen it come down since we got here. Hence, I am inside, in our teeny warm kitchen, blogging.

I am feeling MUCH better today – I made a concerted effort to get my butt in bed by 11:30, and I swear just being in a horizontal restful state for 8 hours makes a HUGE difference in my energy levels. My 8 AM Italian class is a little rough, and the past few days have been pretty brutal. I got about 2 hours yesterday and had to come home and go right back to bed, which bothers me – when I get up, I like to stay up and keep my day going, but there was no “going” in my state. Today was quite a horse of a different color, thankfully.

***We interrupt this blog post to report…it is snowing! Not pretty snow though, just wet, heavy-looking stuff. Good thing I have no reason to be outside for the rest of the day!…Now back to your regularly scheduled blogging.***

After a rather frustrating Italian class, I stopped at the grocery store and went home to make my oats & green tea, which has become my habit from Tuesday to Thursday after Italiano. Today was chocolate-banana oats:

Clearly, I didn’t like it at all…

Bowl-licking may have ensued. We don’t talk about it.

Then it was off to my cooking class! I just adore this class. The teacher is awesome. In fact, as we were eating today, he was talking about how he came into this job (which I totally want.). He has been cooking since he was 12, went to culinary school, then got a degree in English & Film Studies, and quickly realized that it is not possible in Italy to make any money in the film industry. He turned back to cooking, but was frustrated by the restaurant/cooking industry – no time off ever, endless working days, mediocre pay, and you work under a chef who tells you what to do. He loves teaching because “there are no secrets” – chefs like to maintain their stash of secret recipes, but as a teacher he doesn’t have any secrets. He learns from his students, and vice versa, and loves it. Amen.

MMM, and we made some GOOD STUFF today. It was in the theme of aperitivo, which is a popular Italian custom. It’s basically a pre-dinner drink/snack to “whet your appetite” – or as my teacher said, the Italian Happy Hour. I have done it twice so far. Most bars/cafes in Florence offer it, and it’s great for students; they charge you a set price and you get a drink and as food as you want for about 7 or 8 euro. The first time I did it, I randomly got red wine (which I’m still just not into at all) and the food was very appetizer-like. My roommate and I tried a place across from our apartment Tuesday night though, and it was really good. HUGE buffet with lots of variety, and this time I ordered my newfound favorite…

Prosecco! 

(Pretty picture, right?! I discovered the “close-up” setting on my camera. Makes quite a difference.)

ANYway, to get back to my class we split up into groups to make different Italian finger foods (the best kind, trust me). 

One group was in charge of involtini di melanzane alla mozzarella, which involved super thinly-sliced eggplant briefly in a salted (prevents sticking) pan. Then they placed a thin slice of mozzarrella and basil on each eggplant slice, rolled it lightly in breadcrumbs + parmesan cheese, and baked it.

Another group was in charge of the Spanish omelette – basically, you cook tomatoes + bell pepper in one pan, potatoes in another, combine it with eggs in a baking pan and bake it just til its done (sprinkle a little parm on top to make a nice crust).

I’m regretting not taking a picture of the middle – the vegetables made a kind of mosaic in the middle and it was perrrty. Sorry, I’m a beginner with this food blog thing – live and learn!

Another group was in charge of the bruschette, which I’m sure you’re familiar with – zucchini, bell pepper, tomato, basil cooked together and piled on bread drizzled with olive oil and toasted in the oven. But really, I have never tasted bruschette like this. It was a serious flavorgasm.

A different group made almond biscotti. They were probably the best I’ve ever had, because the flavor was spot on, not too sweet, and the texture was perrrfect – not doughy but not break-your-jaw crunchy like biscotti often is.

I and another girl was in charge of the “Mediterranean doughnuts.” Now, before you start getting any crazy ideas and yelling at the screen “hey, I thought this was supposed to be a nutrition class!”…let me explain. They’re not really donuts – in fact, they are not even sweet. My teacher simply called them that because they are in a circle-with-a-hole-in-the-middle shape. They are meant to be eaten as a kind of “cracker” with the Spanish omelette. It’s basically flour, a liiiiittle sugar, olive oil, yeast, and then cinnamon and fennel, poppy and sesame seeds. The recipe only calls for fennel but we added seeds to up the fiber and nutritional profile of them. I had so much fun making these – kneading dough is a very zen activity. As for the taste? HOLY COW! This was my favorite part of the meal. The fascinating flavor combo of the doughnut with the texture and flavor of the omelette was to die for. Don’t worry family, I’m making this when I come home!

Fresh from the oven!

The spread.

Now, this is an Italian cooking class, and no Italian meal is truly complete without wine. Much to my surprise and delight, it turns out that the classic drink served with aperitivo is…Prosecco! Twice in one week! I’m doing rather well, no? He also explained how to tell if it is a high quality prosecco – the more bubbly, the better the quality of the wine is. MMMMMM!

Sorry it’s a bit out of focus – as I was clicking my teacher started talking and I turned around right as the picture took. Like I said…I’m a beginner.

Here is my plate:

It doesn’t look nearly as appetizing as it did in person. Guess I’ll just have to make it for you when I get back…

[P.S., I had another biscotti and another bruschetta after this. SO. GOOD.]

Another reason I love this class is that the meals we make never leave you feeling heavy or stuffed to the gills. I always leave perfectly satisfied, knowing I have enough food in my body to last me a while but I will also be hungry for dinner. It is truly the best way to eat.

After class I went to a little clothing store that I love and bought a wintery jacket, and just in time – it was only a few minutes after I came back to the apartment that the rain turned into sleet which turned into snow! My Floridian roommate was overjoyed…whereas the other 3 of us Northerners were, er, less than thrilled. I am READY for some spring weather, Florence!

Made dinner, another crazy Gillianasana concoction – chickpeas, garlic, balsamic vin, olive oil, tomatoes and pepper cooked together and thrown on top of some arugula. With some of my new obsession grated on top – pecorino cheese. Yes, Mom, I am willingly and happily eating cheese. Italy does crazy things to a person, I’m telling ya. But it is so goooooooood. 

Actually, this random concoction was pretty tasty. I am definitely, however, a baker at heart. Hopefully my cooking class will help me a little bit though. I’m loving the book:

It’s really interesting, for a nutrition geek anyway. I’m loving it!

Oh, I did a baaad thing. I looked into that Apicius, the Culinary Institute of Florence…they have a baking/pastry one year certificate program…uh oh, the idea has sprouted…

Ok, I reaaaalllly have to do homework. I’m “facilitating class discussion” on the readings for Monday’s Food & Culture class. Actually, it’s completely and totally fascinating, about female identity and how food affects it, and how “food rules” are evident in different cultures…ok, I’ll stop before I even start. This post is long enough.

Oops, one more thing – you may notice that on the right of the screen there is a list of links called the “Blog Roll” – it’s just some of my favoritest blogs, not all the ones I read, but it’s a start. Just in case anyone has been bitten by the food blog bug *wink wink*.

~Namaste~