Sweet, sweet mother of God, get thee to the closest Trader Joe’s and grab this sugar, chocolate coffee bean grinder thing. Total impulse buy on my part last week and now we’re inseparable. I was a little indecisive yesterday so I went one half cream cheese, one half almond butter on my bagel. That bowl also has a greek yogurt + cottage cheese mixture below all the fruit. I thought this was a pretty decent sized breakfast but somehow I was hungry by 11am. I’ll really never understand how some days I can last until 2pm and other days I want to eat my hands by 11. No rhyme or reason to it.
Lunch:
Sometimes we all eat leftovers out of tupperware containers standing over our sink, right?
Snackity Snack:
Please tell me you all have seen Katie’s cookie dough dip? Say yes. Otherwise, click that link and go make it!
I made a few tweaks, using cannellini beans instead of chickpeas and only adding about 1 tablespoon of agave as sweetener.
This stuff is good. It’s definitely not sickly sweet (especially because I drastically reduced the sweetener) and you’re not going to fool anyone into thinking this is real cookie dough, but it’s an awesome healthy take on cookie dough. Kind of reminds me of these Healthy Cookie Dough Bites in dip form.
There were quite a few chocolate covered pretzels and pita chips consumed and even a leftover pancake from Sunday’s breakfast smeared with this stuff. The second the logical part of my brain would tell me to stop, the other half (notice I didn’t call it illogical) would say, “but it’s made of beans! It’s healthy, eat more!” so, I did.
Dinner:
Here is where I completely spaced out and I forgot to take a picture. My excuse is that Ulysses came home after a 4 day unexpected trip and I got sidetracked.
Let’s visualize the veggie love instead…
A big serving bowl filled with lettuce and baby spinach, half a chopped red pepper, half an avocado, a handful of cherry tomatoes, pepitas, nutritional yeast and 4 toasted sweet potato goat cheese puffs on top. Dressing was just balsamic & extra virgin olive oil.
We tried to get into Arrested Development while eating on the couch but after 2 episodes, I don’t think it’s for me. I’m just not into that kind of humor. I hate “dumb humor” actually and I really don’t like the narrator voice going on from time to time in the episodes.
Any good TV show recommendations (on Netflix) while I wait (impatiently) for my precious Breaking Bad season 4.
Gina Matsoukas is an AP syndicated writer. She is the founder, photographer and recipe developer of Running to the Kitchen — a food website focused on providing healthy, wholesome recipes using fresh and seasonal ingredients. Her work has been featured in numerous media outlets both digital and print, including MSN, Huffington post, Buzzfeed, Women’s Health and Food Network.
Standing over the sink with some fruit dripping juice like crazy, a super crumby bread dropping crumbs everywhere, leftovers, breakfasts, every time I’m in a hurry, I eat with class like that. Awesome dip… Too good to be true.
I love your photos! I have seen the cookie dough recipe before…I might try it. I have been skeptical since it calls for beans. Why did you change the beans? Are they less strong tasting?
No real reason. I swap out cannellini beans for chickpeas in hummus a lot because I find it comes out smoother (which you can get with chickpeas if you peel their “shell” off, but who the heck has time for that!?) The taste isn’t much different, both are pretty bland white beans so either will work :)
We agree with Kaite! Your photos = amazing!
Thank you :)
Ooo I love cookie dough dip! Can I ask what kind of camera you have? Your pictures are so clear! I just got a Rebel but I still feel like I suck at using it!
Thanks Erin! I just have a T3 Rebel. Do you edit your pictures at all? The one editing feature that really helps with crispness is increasing the sharpness on your pictures. If you edit one thing, do that and I guarantee they’ll look crisper :) I don’t edit much at all and I only use the software that came with the camera (Digital Photo Professional-all Canon’s come with it on a disk) but sharpness is one of the few things I always tweak a bit.
Yes to the leftovers standing over the sink. Did it at 1030pm last night minutes before climbing into bed :) Is modern family on netflix? Love that show.
the pictures are beautiful!! I have never tried making a “healthy” cookie dough dip but now I am drooling over your pictures! And chocolate covered pretzels may be my favorite thing ever
Have you seen Dowton Abbey or Damages?
Just ran into you at the WIAW party and yes Katie’s, dip is sooooo good. I love it! YOur breakfast bagels look delicious.
Have you tried Friday Night Lights? Brent and I were late to the game on that one but ended up watching all five seasons late summer/early fall, and three months later I’m still mourning the absence of the Taylor family in my life.
Wow, Gina, your photos are INCREDIBLE!!!
I mean seriously incredible… you can actually see the fine detail on every single chip! I struggle so much with making that cookie dough recipe look pretty, but you made it look awesome!
(And it’s not just the cookie dough. Even your little clementine photo looks awesome ;).)
Thank you Katie! Considering your pics leave me drooling, that means a lot :) And thank you for the awesome recipe!
Wheeee! I knew I’d see this on foodgawker :).
Congratulations, lady!