Healthy Cooking

Lately, I've been trying some healthier recipes out. I have made my oat bran muffins a thousand times (which taste quite good despite having the word bran in the title), so today when I needed a healthy snack I decided to try something new. I went to one of my favorite recipes sites (Allrecipes.com) and found an interesting new thing to try, a vegetarian chickpea sandwich filling. I love anything I can put on a pita, and I really love falafels (the main ingredient for a falafel is also chickpeas) so I decided to give it a shot. It turned out to be really easy to make.


Next time I would probably chop the celery myself to add more texture (the food processor completely pureed it). I also would probably add some tomatoes to the sandwich itself to give it a little extra. Overall I thought it tasted pretty good (especially considering how little time and effort I had to put in). I'm not sure I love it as a sandwich though (not quite enough substance). I think tomorrow I'll toast some pita triangles and use it as a dip on pita chips :)

Here's the recipe:
(Or look at the original web page to see the original recipe as well as other people's versions and tips)

• 1 (19 ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• A little less than 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon dried dill weed
• garlic to taste
  
• salt and pepper to taste

Basically you throw everything in a food processor and blend.

My next post will be about my infinitely more successful cooking adventure: Braised Balsamic Chicken!

Currently: thinking about my next NON-healthy cooking project, chocolate chip cookie dough cup cakes

Extracurriculars

Every year I try to take a class that's not specifically in my major. You know, something you've always wanted to try, but never had the time to do. In the past I've taken jazz dance, modern dance, drawing, and sewing (that one was really hard for me!).This semester I took contemporary dance, oil painting, flexibility, and piano. This is way more than I usually do, but I figured this would probably be my last chance to take some of these classes. I only have two semesters left, and they will be crammed full of classes I need for graduation. And all of these little "extras": ended up being a great experience.

My flexibility class was AMAZING. It was so relaxing. We would stretch for about 35 min. and then end the class with a power nap. Plus, we compared beginning of class measurements with end of class measurements, and I improved! This is saying a lot since I am probably the most inflexible person on the planet!

My oil class was a little bit of challenge. I love art and have been doing it for some time, but I have never done oil paint before (usually my medium of choice is pencil or soft pastels). Now some of them did not come out so good, but I feel like overall I improved so much. Plus now I have a better idea of what I would want to paint.

Here are my paintings! Note that I showed you the whole painting experience, not just the successful parts, lol. The top two paintings were both in class still lifes. The one on the left was a giant cube structure made out of scrap wood (we were supposed to match the colors). The bottom two I did outside of class. The one on the left was a picture of La Defense. It was a really good picture, a really good sketch, and a really bad color choice (oh well I know better now). The one on the right was inspired by Steve Roden. He does abstract pieces based on musical scores, amongst other things. My work looks nothing like his, but I did base it on a musical score.

I also really enjoyed my piano class. I used to play when I was younger, but I didn't keep up with it once I went to college. Then one day I was sitting in my house and I got the urge to try and play a few songs. That's when I realized that I missed it! So this semester I enrolled in private lessons and started practicing again. I even participated in a little recital with other Piano 160R students (The picture on the right is of me and my teacher, Nicole, at my recital). I'm so glad I stuck with the piano for as long as I did and that I have the chance to keep working on it.

My family lives in Texas, none of them could make it out to my recital so I thought it would be fun to record the songs I worked on this semester for them. Chaconne was my official recital piece that I memorized. Keep in mind that I'm not super advanced, and you will hear a mistake or two.

All right, the point of this is not to make you look at my oil painting attempts or to convince you to take up the piano. It's just that when I started doing all of these things, and was having so much fun I asked myself, Why didn't I do this sooner?! I mean I definitely wasn't amazing at everything I tried, and some of it was a lot harder than I thought it would be. But I'm still glad that I did it. So, if you are lacking motivation here it is: If there's something out there you've always wanted to try, just do it!! If you're lucky like me, you'll have a really great time in the process.

P.S. Dear Younger Generation, You will hate practicing your piano/cello/flute/french horn/ musical whatever at some point at your life, but just keep practicing anyway. One day in the future (it may be a far and distant future) you'll be sad that you quit. If that's not a good enough reason, do it for your Mama. She's not keeping you in lessons so that she can hear your stumble through practice every day. There is a larger plan at work. I promise.

Currently: Amazed by a girl who played Fireworks by Debussy at my piano recital. It is the craziest piano piece I've ever heard.

Along for the Ride

One of my favorite books is The Truth about Forever by Sarah Dessen. After reading that book I started reading more of Sarah's novels and she has become one of my favorite juvenile fiction authors.Two of her books were also made into a movie (They took characters and plot details from both books and combined them), How to Deal. Sarah Dessen released a new book last year, Along for the Ride. It finally came to my library, and I got to read it.

Screenshot from Sarah's website

I love reading Sarah's books in the summer (If only it was summer in Provo!) because most of her books are about the amazing, crazy adventures that happen only during the summertime. Along for the Ride is no exception. It's about a girl named Auden (No, they do not pretend this name is normal)who moves to be with her dad for the last summer before college. It takes place in Colby, a fictional town from one of Sarah's other books, Keeping the Moon. I hate to be vague, but I also really hate spoilers. So I'll give this very general description: Auden's summer doesn't exactly go as planned. She starts off her stay in Colby with a not-so-fun mistake, and then somehow ends up working in her stepmother's over the top girly botique. Her parents are exhausting, and she's also an insomniac who is bored to death wandering around in a small town all night. But lucky for her things get better. This book has fun characters, and a cute love interest, but what I really love about it is that it proves that everyone deserves second chances.

I really enjoyed reading this book(although The Truth about Forever is still my favorite). It was a nice chance for my brain to relax after all the textbook reading it's been doing lately.

Here is Sarah Dessen's website: http://www.sarahdessen.com/ She has the first chapter or two of every book up for free on her website (which I think is an amazing idea). If you need a fun book to read I suggest starting with one of these: The Truth about Forever, Lock and Key, Keeping the Moon, or Just Listen.

You can also see a video of Sarah reading a part of Along for the Ride on YouTube or read the reviews on Amazon ( I like this because you see real people's opinions as well as critics) or common sense media (this site is more geared toward parents; it talks more about the messages presented and what age should be reading the material, rather then the actual story).

Currently Listening to: Ingrid Michealson on Pandora

Student Film Screenings

So this semester the student film association (SFA) started doing screenings of student work. My friend Caity's husband, Bradley, is one of the SFA council members. The one I went to tonight was the third one of the semester and they've all been fun to watch. They show films of all different types and lengths ( the longest ones are usually 15-20 min.). The commercials are especially funny. This was the first semester they've done screenings; hopefully they'll keep doing them next semester.

Here are some of my favorites:

Richard and the Bats by Judy Simmons (3:37)
This is a super cute stop motion film about the day in the life of one frustrated little kindergartner with a crush on his teacher. People liked it so much they showed it at two screenings.

Inspection by Brad Hall (0:60)
This one is a short, but very clever commercial.

My Amazing Script by Phillip Goodwin (9:56)
This film kind of parodies the typical student film maker. It's all about how everyone thinks their work is always so "original" or "avant-garde". They have dramatic moments, big tears, and "edgy" dialogue, lol. Btw...Bradley helped make it and is in the last scene.

Clean Break by Chas Kelly (15:31)
This is one of my favorite documentaries that they screened. I'm just going to use the Vimeo summary for this one: "It is a documentary about a young man of the LDS faith booked in the county jail for some serious misdeeds. While incarcerated, he goes through a journey of self discovery as he serves out his sentence and prepares for his release."

The Magic of Taxidermy by Caity Wasden Cummings. (4:55)
This is a documentary on taxidermy that Caity made for one of her film classes. Don't be scared away by the initial screen shot! She does show some of the less, um, appealing (?) parts of taxidermy, but there are plenty of shots with no dead animals. I promise. Plus the interviews she does are pretty fun. I got to see this film in little bits and pieces as she was making it so it was great to see it all together :)

BYU SFA Blog

P.S. I survived April Fools without getting pranked!

Currently: Psyched for General Conference