Cardio and Cooking: "Clean out the fridge", he says.

I slept in a bit this morning by accident, so I needed to put together a quick breakfast. One of my summer go-to's has been the 3-cup cereal routine featuring blueberries! Boy, do I love blueberries...I am saddened that they are almost out of season...but that's why you selfishly stock up on them and freeze them. Frozen blueberries are great on their own, as additions to salads, smoothies, toppings on frozen desserts, and substitutions for ice cubes!

Things I learned today about blueberries:
- You should check to see if there are still stems in your blueberries while washing them so that you aren't surprised while eating your cereal.
- Blueberries might be the only things to get me to eat cereal. I suppose oats are a cereal too...in that case, smoothies will get me to drink cereal, but the chances are increased infinitely if there are blueberries in the smoothie.
- Wikipedia says that blueberries are native to North America! Yay us! :D

3-cup brekkie: 1 cup fresh blueberries (may contain stems), 1 cup Honey Nut Cheerios, and 1 cup unsweetened soy milk.

3-Cup Breakfast
1 cup cereal
1 cup fruit
1 cup milk (non-dairy for me)

Add all ingredients into a bowl and consume before the cereal gets soggy.

If I eat cereal and milk without fruit or other fixings, I will have two bowls - one for dry cereal, and one for milk. When eating it, I will sprinkle a single layer of the cereal onto the milk and eat all the pieces of cereal floating in the milk before adding another layer. I will continue doing this until all of the cereal in my bowl has disappeared. I do not like soggy things. To me, breakfast cereal only tastes good when it's crunchy. Putting oats into a smoothie is a different story because you generally blend the smoothie until it's homogenous and you don't have single gritty grains of oats. I am a very texture-y person. I like foods and objects based on textures.

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Pesto, like most foods, tastes better when consumed within three days of being made. I'd been working through the pesto for my lunches. On Monday, I tossed a couple tablespoons of pesto with a half cup of gnocchi, and the second half of the red bell pepper from my omelette that morning. On Tuesday, I tossed another couple tablespoons of pesto with the remaining half cup of gnocchi, and half of a zucchini, chopped and stirfried with some black pepper. As well, I packed pesto with some spaghettini and the other half of my zucchini for my mom (she likes pesto because she thinks it's super fancy). As an attempt to switch things up, I thought of using the pesto as a sauce for flatbread. My brother, V helped me assemble these beautiful personal pan pizzas for everyone's lunches tomorrow. This required the making of some flatbread...

Things I have learned today about flatbread:
- Flatbreads can be made quickly without yeast, although yeast would provide for an airier, more elastic flatbread. Buuuut...I still had piano practicing and reading to do tonight. (I did do it before writing in my blog, I swear.) Generally, the yeast-free recipes entail cooking the dough in a frying pan or griddle. I could try using the panini press for this too, I'm sure. I remember there being a setting called "griddle".

I think life would be easier with a toaster oven. Some day, when he's not looking, I will steal E's. >:)

My brother is good at topping pizzas. Mmm...

It's funny how the first one we made was the closest to a circle we had. The shape of each pizza became more and more irregular as we progressed... We'll just say they're Neapolitan! That's why no one pizza is the same! I learned that from Famoso. Don't get me wrong though - Famoso is awesome. :)

Quickie Personal Pan Pizzas (based on Griddle Flat Bread from About.com)
(Makes 4)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting and shaping (remember when you follow a recipe that uses flour, that Edmonton is super dry.)
3 tbsp corn oil, plus more for cooking
1 cup water
5-6 ice cubes
2 tsp table salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
4 tbsp pesto (if you use another kind of sauce, you probably want more...It's just that pesto is rich, so less is better.)
4 slices of deli blackforest ham
*Of course you can add whatever toppings and however much your heart desires.

1. Measure 1 cup of water before adding ice cubes so that you actually have at least a cup of ice water, and set aside.
2. Prepare two baking sheets with parchment paper and preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
3. Mix flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a bowl.
4. Incorporate ice water and oil into the flour mixture in small additions, until you have a soft dough. You may or may not need all of the water.
5. Divide dough into 4 equal sections. Flouring your hands in between, shape each dough section into a ball, and flatten it into a round disk with your palm.
6. Lightly brush both sides of each disk with oil and use a fork to stab holes on the both sides of each as well. This helps the dough puff up while cooking.
7. Cook each flatbread individually in a pan on medium heat until golden brown on each side, then remove from heat and place on a baking sheet. I put 2 flatbreads on each baking sheet for convenience and efficiency.
8. Once griddled, have your brother spread 1 tbsp of pesto on the top of each flatbread and also have him cut each slice of ham into smaller pieces to put on top of the pesto.
9. After he finishes artistically topping your pizzas, bake for about 8 minutes so that the parmesan in the pesto melts a bit, and the ham crisps up on the edges like..."healthier bacon".
10. Cut each pizza into 4 slices and set onto cooling racks until ready to put away into tupperware containers.

Things I cleaned out of the fridge today:
- Fresh blueberries
- Soy milk
- Deli blackforest ham
- Pesto

You're welcome, Dad.

- M