I need to get me some real internet...

I had lost my internet connection for the past few days and therefore, not being able to blog. Well, I hope you were aware that Tuesday was Mardi Gras! Whether you celebrate the holiday because of your religion or celebrate it just to celebrate a holiday (like me), Mardi Gras is a fun holiday to look into. People celebrate the holiday differently all across the world, but here in the states, it is very popular in the south east. Because of that, most foods commonly eaten on that holiday are southern foods. Also, the history of Mardi Gras/fat Tuesday is to eat all the fats and sugars around the house in preparation for lent. Pancakes are traditionally made on this day because of that.

This year I didn’t make pancakes because there were still a good amount of muffins lying around the house. Also, King Cake is a traditional dessert to be eaten on this day. I made it last year, but I wanted to try making something new for this year. So, we had a mini Mardi Gras dinner party. And I mean, it was pretty low key, like, two dishes, low key. We made a huge pan of Jambalaya (chicken, chorizo, and shrimp) and beignets. How could you possibly go wrong with some man-catching beignets?! Haha.. oh how I love the movie The Princess and The Frog.

Wednesday was the start of lent and I wanted to do it again this year. Last year I didn’t eat anything with processed sugars (not including cane juice, honey, or things of that sort). This year I’m doing the same, abstaining from processed sugars, and also going running every day. I’m trying to train for a half marathon that is in May. So this will help me decide whether or not I will be capable of signing up for the race.

Also, this year, I found out that people celebrate lent differently. Some people go the whole 40 days strait with their goal, others give there self a weekend break, and then there are some that end the weekend before Easter. Last year, I think I did it the last way I mentioned. This year, I think I’m going to give myself the weekends off. I just feel a bit guilty, like I am one of those Christians that only go to church on Easter Sunday. Well, what am I saying?! I’m not doing lent for religious reasons! Haha.

Thursday was international chili day and so I made myself a chili salad! I didn’t have all the right ingredients for chili so I had to improvise. Here, let me share with you how odd I am when it comes to improvising… In my chili I had added the following ingredients: extra lean ground beef, garlic, tomato sauce, mushrooms, black beans, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, red cayenne powder, fiesta lime seasoning blend, and salt. Interesting enough? I think I went a little overboard with the cayenne pepper because it was—spicy! I love spicy foods, but this was a bit much.

Friday, I made some sweet potato quinoa cakes and sweet potato dinner rolls with a friend. The quinoa cakes are vegan burgers full of healthy grains and savory seasonings! Quite colorful, don’t you think? The dinner rolls are so fluffy soft! If you really wanted, I guess you can make a very sweet potatoey sandwich! Yum!

Saturday, I went and gave myself a sugar high because it was the weekend! Lent break on weekends is looking pretty nice. So after my morning run (I guess I decided not to take a break on all of lent) I started prepping for my sugar endeavors. I took the left over beignet dough and made them into monkey bread in the evening! I didn’t realize there were several variations of the recipe and none of which seemed to be like the one I fell in love with. There was this one time that I had made monkey bread with a friend, and the way he made it was by melting sugar and butter and then pouring it on top of the individual balls of cinnamon sugar. I didn’t see any recipe like that so I kinda made it up. With my friend’s recipe, the monkey bread was super gooey soft on the inside and caramelized crisp perfection on the outsides. I have no idea how he did it.Okay, I do, I mean, I did. But I don’t remember! Mine turned out decent. People liked it a lot, but I wasn’t completely satisfied. It turned out with only the top (which is essentially the bottom –because you turn the cake upside down) and the only super gooey part was on the bottom(well, the top, when you flip it over).

Next time (when ever that will be) I’ll try using white sugar for the poured sauce. I think he doubled what I did for the sauce, but that’s a bit much for me, so I’ll just have to be content with the amount of gooeyness I have with my recipe. Needless to say, I just about devoured half of the pan of monkey bread…And I enjoyed ever single bite of it!

Sunday came around and I had left over strawberry puree that I had from my strawberry cake! Yeah, it’s been some time. So I happen to have a tab open on a recipe that could use this strawberry puree loven’. It’s this chocolate raspberry cheesecake. Of course, insteadofraspberries, I used strawberries. This recipe is not very cheesecake like, because of how few ingredients it uses. But it’s pretty simple and vegan (minus my crust… Oh yeah. And my cream cheese.). I changed it up a bit because, well, I decided to. I left out the coconut oil that was to go into the filling. Then I added this thin layer of Greek yogurt with more of my strawberry puree, on top of the filling. Then I added the chocolate swirl on the very top. It turned out ok. Not anything special really. Might not make it again.