The beast is dead.

So this morning I woke up and had one mission for the day.

Conquer the beast.

The pantry beast.




DO YOU SEE THAT?!!

I have been living with that for WEEKS now and it has been driving me INSANE.

So the very first thing I did when I got up was take WiFi to go potty. Set some water on to boil. Take this picture. Make some coffee with the aforementioned hot water + fat free half and half + cinnamon + nutmeg + sweetener (30 calories). Put on my war paint. And then I grabbed a chair from the kitchen (cuz I am a midget practically and cannot reach the top shelves) and went to work.

After fixing the top shelf I realized I was gonna need some food so I soaked some sticky rice and then eventually put it into the steamer and just let it cook itself while I got back to work.

About an hour later... The beast lay slain.




By the way. I promise I do not steal cups from Starbucks. My husband works there and when they come out with new logos/etc. for the cups they let the employees take all the old ones home.

Super useful.

That griddle on the floor in the blue long box? Bought that last Black Friday. Still have yet to open the box. Oops.

There is also a deep fryer and a hand mixer in there. Same story.

Well. I WOULD use the deep fryer... but it turns out I am terrified of it. Like... the oil is gonna jump out of the fryer and try to eat me.

I... don't... know...

But that is why I haven't done anything with it yet.

One day I will. I promise. I think.

Also? Check out my rad collection of teas. Mostly Tazo because it's good and free. (For me. Thanks Starbucks perks!)





So at the bottom of the closet I found this.





Cast iron dutch oven. I won a gift certificate awhile back and ordered this. Except there is a small rust spot on the inside bottom and I need to try to get it out. I read various techniques on the interwebs about how to do so but never actually did it.

Now that beast is sitting on my kitchen table so I will be FORCED to do it. Probably tomorrow night.

I also found random bird cage stuff... (RIP Mojito) and a Tassimo machine. Gonna Craigslist those bad boys because they are just taking up space.

I threw away a Pampered Chef snowcone maker and a random... grill type... thing. Like a George Foreman? But... not useful. I want a George Foreman. Sort of anyways. Mostly I want a panini press.

So a few things I realized/found odd while cleaning out my pantry.

1) Why the hell do I have THREE jars of peanut butter when I do not even like peanut butter and my husband hardly ever eats it? My only guess is that I made peanut butter cookies 3 times in the last 8 months and didn't bother to check if I had any peanut butter so just bought a new jar each time.

2) Same kind of situation with molasses. Two practically full jars of molasses. The only thing I have ever made with molasses with was barbecue sauce. And... yeah. I made it twice in the past 8 months. Surprise surprise!

3) I have 3 bags of flour in various states of fullness. Also 5 bags of sugar in various states of fullness. Not 2... not 3... but 4 boxes of powdered sugar. Also, all of them opened.

4) I don't know why on earth I thought it was a wonderful idea to buy 10 cans of kidney beans. I use pinto beans and black beans all the time. But kidney beans? Practically never.

So I'm thinking I need to come up with a recipe that uses kidney beans, molasses, powdered sugar and peanut butter...

Just kidding.

Or am I?

Finally it was "breakfast" time at 11 am.

Sticky rice with lite coconut milk and sweetener.




200 calories of awesomeness. I LOVE sticky rice. You will probably quickly notice that.

I then quickly cleaned up a bit, took the trash out and made my husband spaghetti for lunch.

Off to work.



Ate this. Half a homemade naan bread with some garlic sauce smeared on, grilled chicken from a shish kabob and two random mushrooms. To round it out, some green beans. I guesstimate 350 calories.

Next time my husband grills I'm going to fill 5 skewers with just mushrooms. Grilled mushrooms are amazing. I want to eat them now. Like... by the handful.

This lunch (besides the green beans) was better than I have ever had at any greek restaurant. I swear. That sauce is just... oh my god. And the bread... oh my god again. And the the chicken... perfection.

I drank a bit of coffee at work. 20 calories.

I came home and quickly chopped up a whole ton of fruit and veggies. Popped 'em in the oven and then an hour later this came out.

Roasted beets (the verdict? WIN!), carrots, cauliflower, pears and plums.

Mmmmm roasted pears are delicious. The plums aren't very sweet but I think they'll be good mixed into oatmeal or... ya know... sticky rice with coconut milk. <.<

While the veggies roasted I made green curry. It was freaking yummers.

Super spicy. Next time I'll use full fat coconut milk and a little bit less of the curry paste. I also had some unpictured sticky rice on the side. (I told you I'm a bit obsessed. Just a bit.) 400 calories.

We went somewhere from 7-9 during which time I 1) Ate a ginger candy which was 20 calories and 2) realized I was out of coconut milk.

OH NOES!

So after we were done I made my husband take me to the grocery store.

All I wanted was coconut milk and some coconut flakes.

One cartful of frozen blackberries, frozen peaches, fat free half and half, reduced fat feta cheese, canned pumpkin, coconut milk, lite coconut milk, cannelini beans, light mayo, white beans, black olives, evaporated milk, red wine vinegar, white wine vinegar, water chestnuts, pearl barley, black eyed peas, flax seed, nutritional yeast, cashews, oat bran, raw sugar, polenta mix, dried tomatoes, hazelnuts, pumpkin seeds, coconut flakes and boxed kraft mac and cheese deluxe later...

We left the store.

I love how my shopping cart is full of reduced fat dairy, nuts, stuff like nutritional yeast and flax seed and then BOOM box of mac and cheese. My husband slipped it into the cart when I wasn't looking. Not that I would ever tell him what he can and cannot eat... I just thought it was awesomely out of place and didn't realize it was there until we were in line to check out.

When we got home at 11 pm I was all excited and made this.

"Pizza" on a flat out wrap. Except I took two bites and was like "Yuuupppp. That IS still disgusting." Meaning the wrap. Gross.

So I scraped off the sauce and cheese and squash and ate it by itself. Went back for seconds of it, actually. 200 calories.

Now I'm just blogging away and sipping a pumpkin spiced "latte".

It's not exactly how I like it yet.

1300 calories for the day.

I give today an 8 out of 10. I ate a ton of veggies so I get girl scout points for that.

That veggie lasagna is so gosh darn amazing. O.O

I'm going to bed. Gotta wake up suppperrrrrr early. Ughs. I'm dreaming about my breakfast though. Cannot wait. <3