French Toast with Fried Apples

This was the view from my window this afternoon. Much better than a beige cubicle wall. It's not the brilliant red it was a few days ago and the leaves are thinning, but it's still pretty.

The only thing about working from home? I feel like such a slug. I haven't left all day. How do people do this day in an out? If I maybe had a significant other it might not be so bad because someone would be at least around at some point, but I definitely don't think I could do this every day. But every once and a while (especially on a Friday) it's nice to work outside of the office.

The temperature was a lot easier to deal with, that's for sure. We're having an Indian summer kind of day.. near 80 degrees. I had the apartment all opened up it. It was beautiful. This is exactly why fall is my favorite season.

Unfortunately, my dinner plans didn't work out. I intended to make a slow cooker beef stew, with the warmer temps it didn't sound good at all. Time for plan B.

Breakfast for dinner.

A few days ago or so I came across this recipe for fried apples. The pictures were drool-worthy and I knew I had to make these as soon as humanly possible.

I was tossing around the idea of making French toast with the last of the 12-grain bread from Nature's Pride that Foodbuzz sent me.



This was softer and nuttier than the whole grain, but has less fiber. Usually I buy bread that has at least 3 grams of fiber per slice, but this was probably tastier than the whole grain. And it made a really great French toast. The nuttiness was perfect. Especially topped with these amazingly good apples. I love apple pie and these are basically the filling of the pie (i.e., the best part). There's not even maple syrup on these.. just the delicious syrupy apples. Perfection.

See for yourself:

Butternut Squash Quesadillas

Tomorrow I'm working in my pajamas. It's a work from home day. I'm so ridiculously excited I can't even describe.

But let me attempt. Reasons I love working from home:

• I can actually "make" lunch — not just reheat. I did this all the time when I lived 2 miles from work and I miss it.
• I can be comfortable. Hello sofa and fuzzy slippers.
• No commute. I'm up at 7 a.m. so I can be done earlier than normal. YESSS!
• I don't have to risk getting my coworkers' germs. The dude in the cube across the aisle was out most of the week with the flu, but he was back today — hacking up a lung. (Hand sanitizer and extra disinfectant wipes for my cube are definitely on my grocery list this week!)

The day should be uneventful, even quieter than today. I'm so glad my job isn't stressful every day of the week. It may not always be this way, though, so I should definitely enjoy it while I can. My boss is super laid back and isn't so bad to work for, so hopefully even though they're reorganizing my area I'll still be working for him. In two jobs, I haven't ever worked for a micro-manager, and I don't think I want to.

Tonight's dinner was, um, lazy. And junk food. So I won't talk about that. Just know that I'm not perfect and while I generally tend to think natural = better, sometimes chemical-laden pre-packed convienient junk food is really, really good. I just can't help myself.

So, instead of taking a photo of something not picture-worthy, I'll share a meal from a couple of weeks ago: Squash Quesadillas. Truthfully, I'm not sure I like squash. I want to like it, but sometimes I just don't.

I've heard you should introduce your kids to a new food at least 10 times before you give up. I guess it could take that long for them to develop at taste for it? Anyhow, I fully subscribe to that. There's all kinds of things I wouldn't eat as a kid: raw tomatoes, broccoli, peanut butter!?!, and the list goes on. Point is, I eat all of these things now because I didn't give up. I kept trying them until I found a way I like them.

Butternut squash is no different. I've tried:

• Golden Winter Soup - Liked
• Butternut Squash Risotto with Pancetta - Didn't like
• Butternut Squash Ravioli - Liked
• Squash and Apple Soup - Sort of liked

And now, in Squash Quesdillas. I won't lie, I was unsure about this recipe. It didn't get fantastic reviews and it was really simple.. maybe too simple. But I had tons of leftover squash and I had to do something with it.

I was completely surprised. These were deliciousness. It now makes three squash recipes I like. Five more recipes to go before I can "official" decide if I like squash.

Now it's your turn to 'fess up. What's your favorite "junk" food?

In praise of frozen dinners

This doesn't look like a frozen dinner does it? Well it is. A homemade one.

A few weeks ago I attempted to make a slow cooker meatball dish that went awry. It dried out majorly, the meatballs fell apart and it ended up a thick meat sauce that wasn't even that good.

I had a ton of it so I froze it anyway. It was a good idea because it became dinner tonight.

After another long day at work I stumbled in hungry and not wanting to cook. Buca was giving away a pound of dried pasta with some special deal on Monday and my coworker didn't want it, so I decided to quickly defrost and heat the meat sauce to go with it.

I thought it was dry before I froze it and it was even drier after defrosting. To make it more saucy I threw in a can of diced tomatoes.



Not the best meat sauce, but it worked well tonight given my mood. And sometimes that's the most important.

What frozen dinners do you have in your freezer?