Trick or Treat! Peanut and Pumpkin Butter Cups

So in honor of the rescheduling of Halloween because of Sandy, I decided to make Peanut Butter cups, and since I've been on my pumpkin kick I through in some pumpkin ones, too!
The recipe is super simple. I altered the original recipe it a little to make it somewhat healthier and fit the ingredients I had in my room.

Here's what I did:

Ingredients:Peanut Butter Cups:

• 1/2 cup (125 grams) creamy peanut butter

• 1 tablespoon coconut oil

• Approx. 1/3 cup (55 grams) confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar (I put in the half a cup the original recipe called for, but thought it was too sweet and had to counter it with more PB and cocoa powder, so maybe start with less and add to taste. If it's sweet enough, but not thick enough, add cocoa powder)

Combine the PB ingredients by microwaving a bit to help the PB and coconut oil mix better. I did mine for 30 seconds 2 or 3 times.

Pumkin Butter Cups:

• Use the same pumpkin butter I've been using all week :) (You might want to sub powdered sugar for the agave so it's a little thicker, but I think it will work with the agave too. Stevia should work as well)

Chocolate Coating:

• Approximately 18ish ounces of semisweet chocolate chips (I had no way to measure ounces from my giant costco bag of chocolate chips)

• 1 tablespoon of coconut oil

If you don't like dark chocolate, you might want to sub out half or all of the chocolate with milk chocolate. I LOVE dark chocolate plus it's healthier for you, so I used only semisweet (yes I know semisweet isn't truly "dark", but for tis purpose it counts)

Instructions:

I didn't have a mini muffin pan, so I made GIANT PB cups in a cupcake pan. I melted the chocolate mixture in the microwave, poured some into the bottom of the cupcake liners, put a spoonful of the PB mixture or Pumpkin butter on top...

...and then top it off with more chocolate (enough so that the filling is covered). You can flatten out the top of the cup but holding the edge of the liner and shimmying it back and forth a bit. 

Then put it in the freezer or the fridge for a bit to cool, and there you go! They'll take less than half an hour to harden in the freezer.
Mine were too frozen when I pulled them out, so I'm not sure how long they actually take.I decided my cups had too much chocolate to PB ratio, so you might want to make sure either your chocolate layers are fairly thin and/or you add a very large spoonful of PB.

These were a hit! My friend Abdul said they were the best thing I've made all year! I responded that they're also the least healthy thing I've made all year, but hey, sometimes it's good to treat yourself! It's still a million times better for you than all the deserts at the dining hall.

Here's the original recipe (in case you were wondering)

Ingredients:

Peanut Butter Cups:

1/2 cup (125 grams) creamy peanut butter

2 tablespoons (28 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (55 grams) confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar

Chocolate Coating:

9 ounces (255 grams) semi sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

9 ounces (255 grams) milk chocolate, coarsely chopped

1 tablespoon (10 grams) shortening

Instructions:

Peanut Butter Cups: Line 36 miniature muffin cups with paper liners.

Place the peanut butter, unsalted butter, and salt in a microwaveable bowl, and heat in the microwave for about one minute or just until soft, but not melted (check and stir the ingredients every 20 seconds). Stir in the confectioners sugar.

Melt the chocolates and shortening in a heatproof bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water.

Drop a teaspoon of the melted chocolate into each of the paper lined miniature muffin cups. Top with a scant teaspoon of peanut butter mixture. Then top with another teaspoon of melted chocolate. Refrigerate until set. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Pumpkin Schmere

So I bought a thing of cashew nut butter from Fairway a while back, and I decided to mix my pumpkin butter into it. It was amazing!! I literally couldn't stop exclaiming "This is soo good!" But I couldn't share my excitement with anyone because none of friends like pumpkin apparently. Now I'm not one to buy into the whole vegan "cashews taste like cheese" thing, because cheese is magical and if it's not cheese usually it doesn't actually tastes like cheese. But this stuff actually almost tasted like pumpkin cream cheese! It was amazing, and simple! just the cashew butter and pumpkin butter mixed together. You could also use almond, peanut or any nut butter. Obviously the flavor would be different, but it'd probably still be delicious.

I ate mine with matzo and pretzel crisps, but it would go well with lots of things, maybe graham crackers, a bagel, or apples! I don't know. Get creative! Let me know what your favorit pumpkin treat is, or how you decide to use your pumpkin butter!

Pumpkin Lovin

So I'm kind of obsessed with pumpkin. I get so excited when pumpkin comes back to Starbucks. I literally walk into the store exclaiming, "Pumpkins back?! I'm so excited!!"

So in light of pumpkin season I bought a can of pumpkin and decided to make pumpkin butter.

This "recipe" is super simple. All I did was take my can of pumpkin and add cinnamon  nutmeg, allspice and ginger (aka pumpkin pie spice), agave, and vanilla. Just stir it up and keeping adding stuff til you like the taste. 

And enjoy....

I can just eat it with a fork, but I also have other things I'm planning to try...

- Pumpkin microwave muffcake (aka a muffin in mug, or microwave muffin, but I don't really think it tastes like a muffin, so I decided to give it a new name)

- Pumpkin chia seed pudding

- Pumpkin spice late

- Pumpkin cereal (I made this last year and was obsessed)

- Pumpkin cashew butter dip

Any other ideas?

Blogglovin

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/3953907/?claim=t84aqpsugdm">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

I love Blogglovin! It makes it so easy to follow blogs! I get an email from them daily with the posts from the blogs I've followed, and it's set up really nicely with a picture, the title of the post, the blog it was posted in and a little blurb about the post.
Now you can follow me on Blogglovin!

Campus Vegan Experiment Day 4 & 5

Sorry I didn't post this earlier. It's been like a week since I was a vegan. I've been going crazy with my waitressing job and not having time to do anything.
So I went home for my last days as a vegan, so they don't really contribute to the experiment, but here it is anyway:

More soy, fruit, and peanut butter for breakfast, but that day I had rice crispy's and cinnamon raisin toast

Chia seeds with passion fruit juice and water. Obviously not found in the dining hall, but it's great power food

Then I went home and my dad's girlfriend... oh excuse me, his fiance (they just got engaged :)), made me breaded eggplant with tomatoes and spinach...

And acorn squash with coconut oil, and agave I think

In the morning an almond milk latte from my dad's fancy espresso machine...

and these amazing chocolate banana Peanut Butter Pancakes! MB is amazing!

For lunch she made this squash and spinach puff pastry which was so delicious and I was so surprised it didn't have butter!

Anyway my last couple days didn't really further the experiment, but I'm seriously reconsidering starting it back up because I feel so much better when I'm not eating all of the crappy food on campus. I'll post more about what I learned from the experiment soon!

Campus vegan experiment day 3

Here's what I ate today...
Pumpkin bagel with PB

Oatmeal and PB (and sweetened a little, I used stevia) and fruit

Some of this microwave apple cobbler thing I made (recipe to come)

Hummus and tabbouleh wrap from cafe diem

And my go to after work meal, rice beans and guacamole.
Then I made more of that cobbler for everyone and ate lots of that. It's pretty darn delicious! And my friend Katie who's allergic to nuts and raw fruit among other things, was able to eat it.
PS I'm posting this on the blogger ap and it doesn't give you much control with the pictures, so sorry they're in reverse order.

Campus Vegan Experiment

I am not a vegan because I don't have the will-power to do that permanently give up cheese, but I fully believe that if make sure you have a balanced diet, veganism allows your body to run so much smoother. I have done cleanses were I was vegan for extended amounts of time and I had so much more energy. Anyway, although I myself am not a vegan I believe that it should be possible to be a healthy vegan on campus without making all your own meals and still have some variety.
so i decided to do an experiment. Become a vegan on campus for a week and see what options the dining locations provide.
So I'm now onto day 3, but here's what I ate days 1 & 2 and I'll post day 3 tonight.
Day 1

Breakfast: oatmeal with syrup, fruit of the day/ honeydew, coffee with chocolate soy 

Lunch: salad with veggies chickpeas and oil and vinegar, vegetable rissotto (which i want to double check that it was really vegan because it didn't seem like it), pineapple. and french fries (I shouldn't have had these but the computer asked me if I wanted them)

Dinner: Flour tortillas all night during work, and chips guacamole and black beans to take home (I'm a server at On The Border)

Day 2:
Accidentally slept late, so just a raw revolution bar for breakfast

Lunch part 1: tabula, veggies and hummus, and this curry rice with asparagus

I didn't like the tabula, so...

Lunch part 2: Vegetable fried rice with brocoli, bean sprouts, water chesnuts, and bamboo strips (I didn't like the bamboo strips, but the rest was really good)

"Desert": Banana and apple with peanut butter

I've been neglecting you!

Soo sorry I haven't posted at all!
College life has gotten away from me, from getting into the swing of classes, auditions for semester's shows, and starting a new job I've barely been sleeping and still haven't posted! I'm drinking like 3 or 4 cups of coffee a day and still falling asleep on my homework!

Anyway, updates!
So campus closet exchange didn't happen YET, but it will happen! I didn't realize that I needed to reserve the lounge space and it wasn't available when I was planning on doing it, so now I need to pick another date, which is fine because it gives people more time to get clothes and I can promote it more!


SO my iPhone was lost/ stolen recently which partially accounts for the lack of posts because I lost a bunch of pictures of food that I made. So now I need to remake everything and take pictures. Vote in the comments which recipe you want me to remake first;
1) Chocolate Almonds
2) No-Cook Black Bean and Quinoa Burger
3) Chia Seed Pudding
4) Magic Pop with PB and Chocolate
5) Frozen banana and Raspberry Breakfast bowl

Campus Closet Exchange Update

So I postponed my Closet Exchange to allow people to go home and get clothes, and to give more time to promote, let people settle into campus a litte more, ect. So now it is officially next Monday, and I am going to post a few of these flyers around campus to try to get more than just the people I know personally involved (and maybe get a little promotion for my Blog while I'm at it).
Here's my Flyer:

I took a picture of my actual closet and edited it in pic monkey (basically another version of picnik now that picnik is no more) for the background and then added the necessary information. It's much wordier than I would like a flyer to be, but the everything I wrote is important for people to know. The details are also not terribly easy to find online, so it was important that it be on the flyer itself. To combat the downfall of wordiness I tried to make the important stuff much larger to grab people's attention, and then anyone who's interested can read the details. I also printed them on recycled paper, in good Wholesome Dorming fashion :)
I can't wait! It's gonna be fun! The first ever Wholesome Dorming event!
Here's the link to the FB page: https://www.facebook.com/events/263260860458227/
I expect to see all you MSU students there, even if you don't have clothes to bring!


On another note right now Amazon Local is $30 at Goodwill for only $12. Super exciting! Expires tomorrow, so if you're in the NY/ NJ area get one before you can't anymore! http://local.amazon.com/nyc-midtown/B0098NE7P4?cid=share_em

Dorm Recipe Building Block: Quinoa

Quinoa is on of the best grains you can eat. It has lots of fiber, magnesium, and other things, but what I love about quinoa is that it is a complete protein, which is extremely rare in a plant derived food. The only other vegetarian food that I know that is a complete protein is soy/ tofu. If you know any others I'd love to hear about them, so please comment bellow! It's technically a seed and not a grain, but it acts kind of like a couscous or rice or other small scale grain. I to sleep at some point, so that's all I'm gonna say about the background of quinoa, but if you'd like to know more about the awesomeness of quinoa, go to this website where I did most of my reading, or google it :)

Anyway, now how to make it!
Quinoa is really simple to make and can be made in a microwave, so it's perfect for dorm cooking!
So all you have to do is put two parts water to one part quinoa...

Stick it in the microwave for four minutes, take it out and stir it, then put it back in the microwave for another minute.

If you take it out, there aren't little rings around the quinoa, then you probably need to put it back in for another minute. If there are rings, let the quinoa sit for a few minutes to let the rest of the water absorb.

See the rings around the grains? This quinoa is cooked

Then taste it. If it's nice and soft and not too al dente, the viola, you have quinoa. If it's still a little crunchy, you may have to put it in for another minute and possibly add more water. But that's all there is to it! Now you have a super protein packed grain that can become the foundation of so many meals!

What kind of meals you ask? Well this time I added cilantro and olive oil while I was still cooking the quinoa (as you can probably see in the pictures) and then I had made salsa and forgotten to buy tortilla chips. So I poured the salsa over the quinoa and had a refreshing meal.

My go to quinoa meal is to add olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and all kinds of fresh veggies to it to make a quinoa salad. I usually then take a tortilla, slather it in hummus, add the quinoa salad and make myself a nutritious wrap that is soooo delicious I can't even tell you! Even my mom likes it and she doesn't usually like my healthy recipes.
You can even use quinoa as an oatmeal substitute and flavor it with cinnamon and agave/ stevia/ honey/ whatever sweetener you use and eat it for breakfast. There are many other options to flavor quinoa for breackfast like fresh berries, dried cranberries and almonds, or my personal favorite, cocoa powder and peanut butter! It tastes like reses for breakfast, but it's actually pretty healthy! Don't forget to sweeten it though, because cocoa powder is very bitter.
Those are just a few of the things you can do with quinoa. I plan to post a more detailed description of these quinoa meals and others, so subscribe!! And if you like to use quinoa a certain way, I'd love to hear about it! Post in the comments bellow!

Back from Vacation, Back to School

So my vacation was lovely! I did not post in St. Thomas because I was enjoying a nap on the beach.

Over the past week and a half I learned how to surf, improved my flowriding skills, met new friends, ate lots of ice cream, and went to Disney World.

But now its back to school! Today, or I guess yesterday now, was move in day. Oh the chaos as things get organized!

But now things are finally starting to come together!

How was you're move in? Any stories to share about move-in or summer fun? Post a comment!

Peace, Love and Wholesome Dorming!
Christy :)

Bon Voyage!

Hey dormers!
I'm leaving on a cruise today, so I probably won't be posting anything until I get settled back at school the first week of September. I might try to post when I'm in St. Thomas (there's no outrageous roaming charges because it's a US territory), but realistaically it might not happen. I am on vacation :)
To get notified as soon as I'm back, please follow me! And comment bellow to tell me what you'd like me to post about when I get back!
So anyway, if I don't post before you go to school, I hope your move in day goes smoothly!
Peace, love and wholesome dorming!
Christy :)

Little Black Thrifted Dress

I know I haven't done any posts about food yet, but right now I have a kitchen, so I don't have a reason to make dorm friendly recipes. I'm trying to enjoy my last days with appliances. You understand... :)
So I got this dress at the thrift store that was very long, very 90s, kind of old lady looking, but it had this awesome back and I thought to myself, "If I just hem this, it would be really cute." And it only cost like $6, so I got it, hemmed it and now it looks loke this...

Cute right?! Despite my poor quality photos, the dress is totally fresh, young and modern! I love back details!

Then I got this idea to take the transformation even further... "What if I turned it around?"

... so I put on a bandeau, turned it around and.....

An awesome look for a night out! Totally unique and sexy without being skanky (sheer black fabric will do that). I plan to wear it with these high heeled black ankle boots that I have, and continue to steal my mom's gold collar necklace, which was only $6.99 at h&m, so I should probably get my own now that I'm going back to school.
Just another example of an awesome thrift store find!

Campus Closet Exchange

Hey guys! Especially those at Montclair, I hope you'll join me for a Campus Closet Exchange right after move-in!
So I was looking through my closet as I was starting to think about packing up to move into school and I thought, "Wow, I have a lot of clothes here that are perfectly good, but they're really not my style anymore." I could just donate them to the thrift store, but I thought that it would be an even better idea if me and a bunch of friends all brought our unwanted clothes back to school and then did a closet exchange! It would be so much fun if one day, very soon after moving back to campus we all brought our clothes to the common room and everyone would be able to pick as many items as they had brought as an exchange. If there were items left after that we could open it up to allow people to pick more than they had brought and people who didn't bring items. Then anything that was left over I would put into bags and bring to the Salvation Army (or the closest thrift store/ clothing donation bin). It's like having an on campus thrift store, but even better because it's free! So you guys with me? Even if you aren't I'll still let anyone take from what I would bring. Here's a sampling of what I plan to bring:

I LOVE that floral dress, but alas it's too short on me, so hopefully a friend who's a little shorter than me will enjoy it!

This blue shirt doesn't have the best hanger appeal at the moment, but its a great shirt! I happened to have modeled it when I worked for the company who sold it, Sakura Rose (which, unfortunately went out of business). Here it is on me:

These are all cute clothes, but for whatever reason I haven't worn them in a long time, so it's time for them to leave my coset and hopefully make their way into one of yours! So fellow Montclair students, are you with me? And my other readers, I hope your inspired to Campus Closet Exchange at your school!

Greener Back to School Shopping: Rented, Used, and Digital Textbooks

Avoiding new text books is better for your wallet in addition to being better for the earth, so it's definitely worth taking the time to look into finding places that rent college textbooks or sell used books.

You probably didn't need me to tell that renting books or buying used books will save you green, while also making you more "green" (I know, it's a terrible, un-original play on words, but, hey........nope I got no excuse), but it's a little harder to know where to find said used and rented books. Yes, there are a limited number at the university bookstore, but sometimes they run out, and often you can find the books cheaper from other retailers. I personally prefer used because you have more freedom to highlight and underline, less worries about returning by a certain deadline, you can sell it at the end of the semester to get a little money back ect., but sometimes you find a better deal with a rental. It varies depending on the book or even just whats available at the time.

Another option is ebooks. I personally love these because I usually carry my laptop around with me anyway, so having my text book on my mac saves me a lot of weight in my bag, and then I can have my book and my notes in one place and everything is easily accessible. Plus there's no paper, so there's no harm done to our earth!

Etextbooks are also often accessible on smart phones, which makes studying on the go convenient. I can't wait til the day when all of my textbooks are available digitally, so I don't have to lug around all those books!
You can find eTextbooks on Amazon Kindle (you don't need a kindle, just the kindle for mac, PC, or iphone/pad app), Chegg.com, Barnesandnoble.com, iTunes, ecampus.com, coursesmart.com, textbooks.com, ect. For etextbooks you're probably better off googling the name of the book + ebook and hoping something comes up. There are more and more books available digitally every year, but there are still many that are only available in paper form.

Now sometimes you get that annoying professor that requires the new addition of the book that costs you a fortune. I would recommend emailing that profesor to see how important it is that you have the latest edition. There usually isn't too much thats different and some professors are understanding about letting you get an older edition. They wont always be ok with it, but I think it's worth asking since getting an older version will save A LOT of money.

So I know you're wondering where to get these books. We already know the campus bookstore will charge you an arm and a leg, so we turn to the internet for better options.

Here are some of the most popular websites:

• Amazon.com (used, rental and ebooks)
• CampusBookRentals.com (rentals obviously, and you get 5% off for using my link)
• Chegg.com (used and rental and ebooks)
• eCampus.com (used, rental and ebooks) 
• Ebay (used books)
• half.com (used and rental)
• Abe Books (used and rental)

If you go to textbookrentals.com, it will list many of these sites and compare prices for you!
Also if you order anything from Amazon (text books, regular books, hazelnut milk, magic wands...), students are eligible for 6 months of Amazon Prime for free! Amazon prime offers free 2 day shipping on many Amazon products, so its definitely worth checking out!

One last option you have is to check your local library for some of the smaller books you'll have to read throughout the semester. As a theater major, I'm required to read a lot of plays throughout the semester, so I plan on getting most of those from the New York Public Library. Granted the NYPL has a much larger selection than most libraries, but it's worth checking to see if you can get the book for free. If not, you can usually get those smaller books used for only a few dollars at Amazon, Half.com and Ebay.

Well happy text book shopping, if that's possible. Even with rental/ used/ ebook discount textbooks are soo expensive, so hopefully this post will help you find your books as inexpensively as possible. Because it always great to be as green as possible while also saving as much green as possible (I did it again. I just can't resist. I still have no excuse. Sorry. haha).

Reblog: The Best Documentaries on Eating Green

I found this post on the blog  Organic on the Green, and it's an extensive list of documentaries about the food industry/ eating organic/ ect. I've only seen a couple of these, so I'll have to check more of them out!

http://organiconthegreen.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/food-inc-poster.jpg?w=300&h=200

The blog's description is "A blog to feed the organic revolution in campus dining." Pretty awesome right!? Montclair State University (my school) is far from being a part of an organic revolution, but maybe I'll see who I can ask about starting an on campus garden in the fall! Maybe Organic On The Green will provide some inspiration!

This Into That- Ocean Inspired Formal Dress

So I went to Puerto Rico a few years back with one of my best friends and left inspired to make a dress with the colors of the beautiful beaches with the movement of the waves and sea breeze. Well it took me to a few years to get around to making it come to life,  but I finally did it! It looks a whole lot like what I remember my original sketch looking like. I wish I could show it to you, but I have no idea where it is, if I even still have it.

How did I do it? Well, I started with this...

Then I un-seamed the sides, cut the hem to make it a high low skirt (it's also asymmetrical, so I didn't have to worry about messing up the cut), then I used the fabric from what I cut to add triangular panels to the sides and front of the dress (I made a cut right down the center front of the dress to insert the center panel). This made the dress flow more. If you'd like more details on this part of the process, comment bellow or email me and I'll try to describe it in more detail.

Then it was time for my favorite part... dyeing!!! But that's a whole post in itself.

Then I finished the hem added the strap and I had a great, one of a kind dress to wear to the Planet Connections Awards Ceremony! Planet Connections was the green theater festival I interned with this summer. Check it out!

Be sure to comment bellow or email me if you have questions about how I did this! Or if you have a This Into That project of your own that you'd like suggestions for! I'd be happy to help any way I can!

Here's some more pics of the finished product!