This Weekend

From OmNom

My whole dorm room is on a diet.

From OmNom

There was some kind of party for international students on friday, and my Taiwanese roomie Antonia asked me to help her bake a cake like the blackberry one I made for Romina. She told me she wanted to add banana to it, so we mashed up some banana and put it into the cake batter. I used the same recipe as Romina's cake though. Inbetween the layers is a caramelized walnut mixed with a buttercream glaze and mushed up bananas. On top are those same candied walnuts, all cooled and hardened and two banana slices. Everyone was drooling in my dorm. We ate a big bowl of salad while staring at it... it almost felt like a weird ritualistic cult-ish meal. We didn't get to try it, but apparently it was a big hit.

From OmNom

Meanwhile I've been making soups and salads non-stop. This is a chicken broth based soup. It has shrimp, broccoli, carrots, chicken, onion, garlic, mushrooms, blackbeans and potato in it. It's my mission to make our diet delicious.

From OmNom

I made this for Jesse last night. It's a braised steak with a sherry-mushroom sauce. The asparagus has a peanut-curry sauce on top. Not exactly low-fat, but at least high-protein... for him! I'm trying to balance good fats with bad fats, so that's where the nuts come in. We also got two avocados that'll turn into guacamole sometime soon.