Random Weekly Eats

Thank you guys for all the sweet comments regarding my kitty passing away :( It feels weird not having her to greet me when I get back home or to wake me up in the morning to feed her. She did have a comfortable life and I hope that all is well in kitty heaven. My mother actually took her body to the vet and there is a service where they will cremate it. There's an option to get a urn with ashes but we decided no to get one; it didn't feel for some reason. Instead the remains will be buried in a cat/dog graveyard within Ontario, so may she rest in peace.


On a brighter note, life goes on... Things haven't been going well in the lab. I've been waiting a lot for my primers & restriction enzymes to come in just to find out that they sent me the wrong restriction enzyme! My super fly PhD student supervisor has been uber busy because he needed to re-submit a publication today, so things have been all over the place. It was nice to have a break from the lab especially with the last month being very busy with medical school applications and midterms. However, I needed to stay occupied or else I'd think about Chernucha too much :( Hence, to remain sane I've been catching up with my stem cells readings, doing a bit of cooking, and doing research about different graduate programs as a back up option.

In terms of food :P I picked up some pumpkin right after my run on Sunday and my grandpa made some delicious pumpkin millet kasha. By the way kasha means cooked grains/cereal in Russian not buckwheat. We have oat kasha, buckwheat kasha, semolina kasha, millet kasha, rice kasha... you get the point :P I'm not sure how did that whole misconception start. In terms of making that pumpkin millet kasha all I can tell you is that it was 5lbs of pumpkin, about 2 cups of dry millet, water, a bit of sugar, milk, and cinnamon. Sorry I didn't actually make this one but I did actively participate in its consumption :D Always happy to help when a spoon is involved!

Topped off with Greek yogurt, peanut butter, granola and a pear on the side :P

Just another view ^^

I also made red lentil kale soup but unfortunately I didn't take a picture. Hence, I will be making it again in the near future :P

Another delicious eat was oat risotto. Honestly, oatmeal is already so creamy! Boy can you imagine what happens when you add cheese (Havarti with jalapeno peppers to be exact) :D I've been on a kale roll so I added that in as well. I'll still be tweaking the recipe so I'll post more details about that later.

Lastly I made my soy-free milk-free cream of broccoli soup. A green concoction in my tummy! Not to forget it's full of healthy fats so it's heard friendly too ^^

Ingredients

• 1 lbs of broccoli (2 heads)
• 3/4 cups of dry rice
• 1 avocado
• salt/ pepper/ chili pepper

Directions

• Wash the rice and soak overnight
• Next day bring 2 cups of water to boil
• Over-blanch the broccoli in that water (about 5 minutes)
• Remove broccoli and transfer to a food processor
• Meanwhile overcook the rice in the remaining water. You want the rice to be fluffy and have have no resistance upon biting. Add more water if necessary in the process.
• Transfer rice and water to the food processor
• Puree everything until smooth. Start from a low speed and build it up until desired consistency is reached. 
• Add in a whole avocado and blend it into the mixture
• Adjust salt, pepper, and water levels. Add a touch of chili pepper :P
• Can then bring let the mixture simmer to intensify the flavors or eat it the way it is ^^