Cooking with Cannabis

Photo Credit

With the legalization of Marijuana in California and being in Humboldt County where marijuana is a thriving business I thought it would be a good idea to incorporate it into my blog. found a good tutorial online on herb.co that walks you through everything you need to know on cooking with cannabis.

They also provide the estimated amount you should use a long with what you should eat when you’ve eaten too much! Things that contain citrus acid such as lemons, oranges or grapefruits.

Depending on your recipe you may use cannabutter, canna oil, or cannabis coconut oil in place of your standard butter or oil.

On the website there are links showing easy beginner recipes

• Stoner French Toast (I might have to try out this one)
• Special Brownies
• Space Cake
• Cream of Cannabis Soup
• Acapulco Green

Smoothie Recipes for Different Needs

Smoothies can be an easy way of getting different nutients into your body at once. However, there are many different recipes that can be fine tuned to your fitness/weight loss goal.

Luckily for me I have a Nutribullet which makes smoothie making fast and easy.

superskinnyme.com  has a great guide with pictures that has helped me throughout the semester when coming up with ideas while being informative with all the reasoning.

Indian Spiced Egg & Spinach Wrap | Gordon Ramsay

I don’t know if you are much of a foodie as me because I find myself looking at street food from around to world on Youtube often. India is infamous for street food and a breakfast wrap like this seems so delicious, especially when Ramsay is preparing it. Only thing holding me back on this recipe is the Indian spices used, which could perhaps be found at the local Co-op.

Healthy Snacks for on-the-go

 

There are snacks easy to carry to and from school, the blog 100 days of real food can show you help you cut out processed food from your diet. There are also many options depending if you want to be considerate (loud crunch) to those around you or not!

Lisa the author and writer for 100 days of real food separates the snacks into categories very nicely for us, I’ll choose which ones sound the most delicious!

Ill be starting with Fruits and Vegetables first.

1. Apple (good with peanut butter)
2. Banana (good with peanut butter)
3. Carrots (good with hummus or ranch dip)
4. Celery (good with peanut butter and raisins a.k.a. “Ants on a Log”)
5. Mango
6. Pear
7. Grapes
8. Strawberries (good with yogurt)
9. Blueberries (good with yogurt)
10. Raspberries (good with yogurt)
11. Oranges
12. Peaches (good with yogurt)
13. Plums
14. Kiwi
15. Mashed Sweet Potato (good with butter and cinnamon)
16. Raw Sliced Bell Peppers (good with hummus or ranch dip)
17. Cucumber Slices (good with ranch dip)
18. Jicama
19. Cherry Tomatoes (good with ranch dip)
20. Cooked Snow Peas
21. Frozen Peas (frozen…no cooking necessary!)
22. Raw Cauliflower

Second comes Whole-Grains

1. Whole Grain Crackers (like Triscuits, Multi-Seed, Ak-Mak, Whole-Wheat Matzos, Brown Rice Crackers/Snaps, Whole-Grain Rye Crackers topped with cheese, peanut butter, or a cream cheese and jelly combo)
2. Oatmeal (served warm in a Thermos if sending to school)
3. Shredded Wheat (look for brands that contain 1-ingredients)
4. Arrowhead Mills Puffed Whole Grain Cereal (corn, brown rice, wheat or millet variety)
5. Brown Rice Cakes
6. Whole-Wheat Pretzels
7. Whole-Grain Toast

Other random snacks

1. Garbanzo Beans
2. Hard-Boiled Eggs
3. Cheese (cubes or sticks…with or without crackers)
4. Plain Yogurt (flavored with a little honey or maple syrup and vanilla extract)
5. Organic and/or Local Bacon

If your looking for more ideas or looking to cut out processed food from your diet i suggest taking a look at her website!

Video game inspired drinks

With dead week approaching and with parties being thrown, why not surprise people with cool looking drinks from video games people have played.

I decided to keep the video game theme going for this post following video game inspired food. The following content came from gameranx.com where they post 25 video game inspired drinks, but I’ll be choosing the coolest looking ones! Make sure to check out all 25 drinks, although beware it might knock you out with so much alcohol.

Ingredients:

-1 part grenadine

-2 parts Menthomint Schnapps

-4 parts Blue Curacao

Directions: Pour in the grenadine first. Then layer the Mentholmint schnapps and Blue Curacao on top, in that order.

Martini = Dratini thought it was pretty creative

Ingredients:

-1 1/2 oz gin (Bombay Sapphire Gin used)

-1 1/2 oz Hpnotiq

-splash of blue curacao

Directions: For this variation of martini, mix and stir in the ingredients over ice, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Place a dollop of whipped cream on the side of the glass as a garnish.

Video game inspired desserts

Buzzfeed‘s 21 Mouthwatering Video Game Foods In Real Life has some video game foods and with links to each recipe. If you’re a video game fan like me you will enjoy making and eating these. Although I’m going to be honest I don’t many of the Single player games because I’m a multiplayer type of gamer.

I chose a couple that stood out to me or from games that I played and have wanted to try out the food showed in it!

Portal Cake

You know you’ve always wanted to try the cake at the end of Portal. This time the cake won’t be a lie 😉

Photo taken from Buzzfeed

Kingdom Hearts Spark Lemon

Wish i played kingdom Hearts enough to enjoy this masterpiece. The focus on the green sparks is really on point and makes my mouth water as I imagine this in the summer time.

Photo taken from Buzzfeed

Minecraft Cake

This cakes looks better IRL because there seems to be strawberry cream in the middle. Hostess should hop on some type of partnership to create this with Minecraft.

Photo taken from Buzzfeed

Meal Prep for College Students

Meal planning for college students can be pretty difficult, especially if you are living on your own and don’t really know how to cook things because you’ve been dependant on your family. Don’t worry because sixpackbags.com has a perfect guide for every step of the way!

The best things I pulled from the guide that I didn’t think about.

• They suggest taking a picture of what you have in the fridge so you don’t over buy things when you second guess on what you have
• Educate yourself on serving sizes and eating the right portions. If it’s healthy food then u shouldn’t have much of a problem over-eating.
• For those who feel the need of more nutrients, feel free to buy a multivitamins. (Student health center on campus could give you tips and tell you what exactly you might need!)
• Use an app to help you with meal plans! The one below is called Paprika, this approach helps people eat healthier, plan our meals, even has a variety of recipes from which you can choose. A neat feature the app provides is an interactive recipe option where you can cross off what you’ve already done while cooking.

For more tips on college student meal planning check out their website!

Food for People (Humboldt food bank)

Food for people is the Food bank for Humboldt County. They provide food to those in need and is ran through a lot of volunteers. I just recently found out about them and wish I had another semester to volunteer.

What astonished me the most is the variety of programs that are offered if you or someone you know in Humboldt county isn’t financially well enough to shop for food.

• ALL PROGRAM SCHEDULES
• Emergency Food: Eureka
• Emergency Food: Humboldt
• CSFP for Seniors (Age 60+)
• Senior Brown Bag (age 60+)
• Homebound Delivery
• Backpacks for Kids
• After School Snack
• Children’s Summer Lunch
• Free Farmers’ Markets
• Mobile Produce Pantry
• CalFresh (Food Stamps) Help
• CalFresh Task Force
• Recipes & Nutrition Education
• Food Drives
• Gleaning & Plant a Row
• Emergency Food & Disaster

One that stood out to me is the Children’s summer lunch program. The sites where the program meets is at parks found throughout all of Humboldt, they teach children not to be wasteful and can make the learning experience fun and exciting because of how interactive they are. For more information check out the links above to see how YOU can get involved or be helped.

“53.3% of all Humboldt County school children qualify for the free or reduced price lunch program during the school year, but what do these young people eat when school is out?”

Meal-prep for those working out

I recently got into going to the gym and working out. It’s difficult having time for school, staying fit, and having healthy meals ready. This is why meal planning can be a helpful with saving money, time, and eating healthy to gain muscle or stay lean.

NerdFitness has a good step by step process for those who don’t really know where to start. I will overview what they mention and recommend to look throughout the website for those of you who want to meal plan a variety of things.

It provides a sample shopping list

• Frozen veggies (pick what veggies you like the most
• Any kind of Chicken (usually grab whats on sale)
• Sweet potatoes
• Seasoning of choice (usually salt and pepper)

Photo taken from: NerdFitness.com

The website provides steps 1 – 6 with all the cooking instructions and what is needed (like an oven safe making sheet and tupperware needed to pack and put into the fridge). The final product will keep you eating healthy while saving money along the way. This is good habit to keep for supplying your working body with the supplements it needs and not be lazy and fall into temptations for frozen foods and fast food!

Photo taken from: NerdFitness.com

Kebab Cafe Review

Humboldt State University’s The Lumberjack had recently reviewed the food and gave me a reason to try out this Mediterranean restaurant. Walking into Kebab Cafe there is heavy aesthetic focus on Greece and Turkey. For my drink I asked for water, I wish they gave it to me cold or with some ice because it felt straight out the faucet. On the Lumberjack the writer ordered Dolmas are grape leaves wrapped around seasoned rice, which are only 98¢ so i decided to try them out! Unfortunately my tastebuds didn’t like the olive oil or vinegar that they were covered in. They left a bitter taste in my mouth, however the seasoned rice inside was good. It felt like a waste but I was only able to finish one before my main dish came.

Dolmas

The lamb Gyro came out pretty fast! I’ll be going from top to bottom starting on the vegetables and ending on the Pita bread. I ordered without onions but the vegetables were very fresh, the lettuce had a nice crispness with every bite and the tomatoes were juicy. The waitress had mentioned there was cucumbers with it but barely had some in it and were not as fresh, my suggestion would be adding more cucumbers and less lettuce. Tzatziki sauce was okay I might try out the Red sauce next time to change it up and give it another flavor profile. The lamb meat was tasty but could have used a little bit less salt. The good thing about the meat was the softness because of the thin slices they provide you with. The pita bread need to be held with the paper because it would fall apart because of how stuffed the gyro was. The bread did help out balance the saltiness of the meat which was a great move on the establishment. Overall it was a good dish that gives you an idea of the Mediterranean, but there are better Gyros out there (Maybe not in Humboldt).

Lamb Gyro with lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes and Tzatziki sauce