If you assemble your coffee in the morning, there really isn’t too much advantage between coffee machine and French press.
- Both require assembly.
- Both require 5 minutes of time.
- Both require cleaning.
The factor that converted me back to coffee machines was that Karen (my mother in law) assembles her coffee the night before. When we lived together this summer, I had such fun participating in the process with her. She puts the grounds in after dinner, which leaves the kitchen with a faint air of coffee and makes one already excited for breakfast. And when she’s ready for coffee in the morning, she just flips a button.
[Side note - Karen actually doesn't put the water in the night before because she thinks it gets dirty 
. I say do it - all or nothin'!]
Since I don’t have to be at work by some early hour, it never occurred to me to assemble my coffee at night. Why would I if I had time in the morning? I’m not one of those people who fumbles until I drink my coffee, so there was no problem figuring out how to put it together in the morning. But I never realized how fun the ritual of night making would be. And how easy flipping a button is.
The process of using a coffee machine is now as romantic as that of the French press!
Coffee, perfected
I also like the idea of pulling my pre-made overnight breakfast out of the fridge and digging in!
Remember granola planks!? I think every bowl of oats I ate for 6 months contained granola plank and barney butter the first year I blogged. Honest Foods is now Earnest Eats and their granola planks are back. They sent me a few as a reminder of yesteryear.
Last night’s overnight oats contained:
- ~1 tbsp Nutty’s residue (yeah, I just got this jar – but Matt ate 2/3 of it while I wasn’t looking!! There will be more coming – a fun program I’m working on
)
- 1/3 cup oats
- 1/3 cup plain yogurt
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1/2 tbsp chia seeds
- 1/2 banana
- Pinch salt
- Splash vanilla
- Granola plank topping
Gonna be a blue sky kinda day. I’ve got a freelance project that is taking up my morning and a few appts. this afternoon. Get on crackin’!
by Kath on September 2, 2010
tagged as overnight oats in Breakfast
Afternoon
= more biking in the hot sun! I think I need to affix an umbrella to my bike! We biked to the east side farmer’s market and picked up:
- Eggplant
- Zucchini
- Chard
- Peppers
- Nectarines
- Asian pears
- Apples
Yums! All for about $14 – not too bad.
Yogurt Update
[FYI, I've done this before but have not documented it on KERF]
About 24 hours later we had….
What some call "yogurt cheese." A thick slab of yogurt with the whey pressed out. It’s more the consistency of cream cheese than greek yogurt and still retains the regular plain yogurt tang (so the flavor isn’t as great as greek yogurt) but the texture is super fun
Matt is so disgusting. He drinks tuna can juice, pickle juice…and he tried the whey
He said it tasted like a tart slimy oil. He did not like it as much as tuna juice!
I stored the yogurt cheese for a rainy day
After yogurt, I made breakfast!
Overnight oats in a jar for us both – see you tomorrow!
Then we made dinner…
On the right… roasted eggplant and Twin Oaks Tofu (herbed) simply seasoned with a little olive oil and salt/pepper. Baked for ~30-40 minutes.
Best tofu on the face of the earth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It tastes like pizza. Incredible. [I also <3 eggplant]
And on the left side of the plate… a spring mix salad topped with red quinoa and a Yogurt Curry Herb Sauce with a few airplane crushed peanuts. Out. Of. This. World!
For the yogurt sauce, I blobbed in about half a cup of Stonyfield Low-Fat Plain regular yogurt plus about a tsp of yellow curry powder and half a tsp of garam masala (just use a touch of cinnamon if you don’t have any GM)
And then the secret ingredient.. a Napa Valley Herb Rub that I think dates back to last year’s Foodbuzz Festival swag. I’ve carried this with me through the move and I have no idea why. We don’t use rubs that much (since we don’t eat meat all that much at home) but something told me to keep this guy.
SO GLAD I did. The mix is a combo of fennel seeds, dried lavender, dried lemon, dried tomato, dried chile, and spices plus sea salt, which is the secret ingredient in the secret ingredient.
I never thought to use it in something that wasn’t going to be cooked, but it was so good in this (and would probably be excellent in a salad dressing!)
All stirred up
The quinoa warmed the sauce, but the greens underneath stayed room temp. Worked out so nicely!
Feelin’ like a piece of chocolate. Better go get it!
by Kath on September 1, 2010
tagged as Eggplant, Quinoa, Tofu in Dinner
