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Tuesday, August 9, 2011

All my single girls

Apartment living is boring. It seemed so glamourous coming into the summer: living on your own, with your best friends, in a "city" (come on, give Lancaster a break, it is a city, especially compared to farm-town-Harford County). My days are usually organized as follows:

wake up
breakfast
watch a TV show on the internet (I went through phases, June was True Blood, July was How I Met Your Mother, and now that its August I'm breaking into Entourage)
work out
go to work
sleep
repeat

On the off chance that I don't work, which compared to my June schedule is a fair amount of time, it goes like this

wake up
go back to sleep
wake up
sleep some more
wake up
watch TV
throw a workout in at some point
more TV
bedtime

I officially feel like a bum. But all this down time has given me lots of time to think about the blogging that I haven't been doing. It has also made me realize a few things about myself

Reasons I know I'm a hardcore single girl right now
1) When I got my new phone I downloaded a horoscope app...took me about a week to realize it is dumb and should get rid of it.
2) There is a dent in the exact middle of my bed where I sleep. I deliberately take up as much space as possible in said bed, for as much time as possible.
3) I rarely have leftovers.

I threw together quinoa, artichokes, tomatoes, roasted red peppers, chickpeas...and I think thats it. Salt and pepperzzz to taste.

4) When I'm bored I ride my bike to the library, alone, and get a library membership to a county system I don't technically belong to, simply so I can borrow books like Pride and Prejudice and Wuthering Heights (I find the romances of stolen looks and touches very refreshing).
5) I make Single Lady Pancakes via Joy the Baker on a morning off.

recipe below


6) That same day I treat myself to a Single Lady cook-out meal. Pasta salad, potato salad, and a veggie burger for one, please?

recipes below alsooo

 7) I get unexpected visitors and they unfortunately find me either dancing in the kitchen while listening to N'Sync or Backstreet Boys while making some sort of quick bread because they're the easiest thing in the world OR I'm listening to the Joy the Baker podcast and laughing a lot. Regardless, embarrassing. 
8) The most texted person in my phone is mah main bitch from home, Big G.
8) I do impulsive things like getting my ear pierced and buying pet rats.

Yes, you read that correctly. I now have 2 pet rats in my possession. In my, and their, defense, rats are very good pets in the category of rodents. I grant that their tails are a bit freaky, BUT once you get past those, they're cute, eat like little munchkins with cute little mouths, and are supposed to be super companionable. Mine still don't like me very much...we're working on our trust issues.

I'm actually currently sitting with them...well I'm sitting on the floor, and I've created this walled in area in my room with lids from plastic bins, and I'm trying to get them to come out of their cage and explore (apparently rats need lots of exercise).

This is Remi. She was the first one I got, then I bought Charlie. They're both girls...don't worry. I'm not trying to have my pet rats get more romance than I do.
 I overestimated their curiosity. They've only made it about a foot out of the cage before they run back inside. It's unfortunate because I was banking on this time to get a cute picture of the little buggers, but they continue to hide underneath the wheel they refuse to use.

I've done cool single girl things, like go home randomly for friend's birthday parties.

Photo cred the handsome fellow in the middle. It wasn't his birthday, I just love him dearly, and Big G on the other side of him. Also this was after a night shift so yes, I notice that it looks like I have no hair because it is pulled back. Its OK.

I got my hair done again, its darkkkk and ILIKEIT. A lot.

I plan to go to a Slightly Stoopid concert on Friday with some besties from school that I havent seen in a while and will not see for a while because we're all going abroad during seperate semesters. This makes me incredibly sad and a little anxious when I think about it, so I try not to. Maybs I'll write a post about them when they leave and I'm wallowing in grief. Lolz jokez, but really I miss these ladies, and "miss" won't be able to encompass how I'll feel when I don't have the prospect of seeing them for at least 6 months, which is a big reason I'm going to the Stoopid show. Also because Stoopid is slightly cooler than sitting at home on a Friday night (see what I did there) and I saw them in high school and they were greatttt.



I'm crying a little.


Recipes

Single Lady Pancake
Adapted from Joy the Baker

1/3 cup Whole Wheat Pastry flour
1 tbsp dried oats
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp buttermilk substitute (I did this much almond milk with a splash of apple cider vinegar)
some vanilla extract (she says a dash, but I always seem to do vanilla to taste)

Mix dry ingredients, then whisk together wet. Combine in a bowl. The mixture will be thick.

Heat a small frying pan or normal skillet with oil or a bit of butter (vegan). Pour batter into pan and spread out with a spoon, spatula, or whateva you got. Cook over medium heat until the famous pancake bubbles appear and pop.

Flip that sucker. She says it doesn't have to be perfect..well obviously, but I'm going to gloat here. Mine was the most perfect pancake flip I've ever had. Probably because I wasn't under any pressure as I was the only one enjoying it. 

Cook that baby until its golden brown.

I topped mine with chocolate chips, banana slices, and a drizzling of peanut butter. I chowed down to the extreme and it was deeeelish. 

Vegan Macaroni Salad
adapted from The Vegan Stoner

However much pasta you plan on eating
Veganaise (I used grapeseed)
Chopped red pepper
Chopped white onion
Dill pickles (chopped)
Green beans...you guessed it, chopped
salt and pepper to taste


I basically just combined all these as I saw fit. There was no real rhyme or reason to it. Sorry I'm not sorry. 




I took the Potato Salad from Tracy at shutterbean.com and nixed the parsley and used basil instead. Om nom nom.