Raspberry Breakfast Bars

My perfect weekend usually involves a tasty dinner on Friday night. Saturday morning kind of early with coffee, a slow and tasty breakfast with the dog and the hubby, grocery shopping, reading a good book in a coffee shop, then walking the dog around our neighborhood. Lazy Sunday, more reading and coffee, some baking, some TV, and a little bit of work to remind myself of the upcoming week. 

See the theme? Lots of coffee and lots of reading. This is why I was so happy with the recent New York Times article about how fiction influences how our brain develops and how we view the world. Reading, for me, is a totally different experience than TV. It's engaging with a story on a whole new level. Being able to get into the minds of the characters, commiserating with their feelings, hating that you can see where they are coming from, slowly falling in love with a originally despicable character. It provides a totally different level of entertainment. 

More so, I wholeheartedly agree with school of thought that believe reading fiction to children at a young age, and allowing them to explore books, will help them learn how to navigate social situations in the future, and develop their empathy skills. When you read Ramona and Beezus, or a Wrinkle in Time, the evocative description allows you to enter the mind of people perhaps wholly unlike yourself, and see things from their perspective. 

Anyways, you can see what books I've read/am reading on my Chopdio page. My tastes usually run towards the young adult fantasy fiction (think Hunger Games, rather than Twilight). I'm currently reading Once a Witch, great book if you're into the Wiccan world!

Anyways, this schpeel on books and fiction was prompted by an amazing breakfast bar I made this past weekend: Raspberry Breakfast Bars!

These bars are are layered...you get the initial granola-brown sugar situation, then a burst of tart raspberries, then finished off with another layer of rolled oat goodness. Super simple, quite tasty, and healthful!

Raspberry Breakfast Bars

modified from smitten kitchen

Crust and Top Layer

1 cup all purpose flour (you can also do 1.5 cups all purpose flour)

0.5 cup whole wheat flour 

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1.25 cups rolled oats

0.75 tsp. salt

0.75 tsp. baking powder

0.5 tsp. baking soda

0.5 tsp. cinnamon

0.75 unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces

Filling

0.25 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 lb. frozen or fresh raspberries

1 tsp. lemon zest

0.5 tsp. cinnamon 

0.25 cup lemon juice

2 tbsp. butter melted and cooled

Preheat oven to 350F

Line a 9x9 or 9x13 inch pan. In a bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients for the crust and mix together.

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Add in the cubed butter, and get your hands in there and smoosh up the butter until you get pea-size pieces of butter mixed in with the flour, etc. Reserve 1-1.5 cups of the mixture for the topping, depending on how much you like. Now, take the rest of the mixture and dump it into the pan, and push it down into a crust. You can use the back of a spoon to make sure it's flat. 

Then in a separate bowl, mix together the filling ingredients. Mix well, and then toss that on top of the crust, and carefully, so as to not damage the crust, spread it evenly. 

Then top it off with the rest of the topping. Use the back of a spoon to flatten the whole bar situation.

Pop it in the oven for around 45 minutes. Every 15 minutes, rotate the pan. You'll know it's done when the sides are bubbling a bit. You can top it off with a sprinkle of brown sugar. Wait till it's cool, and cut them up into pretty bars!

Spring Break + Avocado Cream Pie

March 12th - March 16th, Spring Break 2012. Now, you may think this will be another post about a week on the beach in Galveston...but you'd only be partially correct! This year, the stars aligned, and all of my family had time off at the same time. This seems easy to accomplish, but with my brother and his wife in their medical fellowships, they basically never have time off. So we decided: Family Vacation!! 

The fam minus dad, on a hot air ballon ride

We packed our bags, including little Krinkle, left behind Jacques in the care of our awesome neighbor, and trekked over to San Diego! We spent 3 lovely days in a beach house, over looking the ocean, with a jacuzzi, and a grill! FYI, when vegetarians see a grill, we go CRAZY. I mean...crazy. I think it's the need to break the stereotype that vegetarians don't grill (we, my family, don't). So we immediately began thinking of stuff we could grill! (Shish-kebab Tofu anyone?) Actually, it was pretty amazing, we grilled asparagus, avocado, tomatoes, onions...well, I digress. 

Grilled Asparagus!!

More grilling!

Anyways, the last day of spring break is today. Last year, I went to Galveston with my BFF Sam and my not so hubby at the time, Tyler. This year, San Diego. I was very thankful to be able to spend time with my whole family. It's a completely different dynamic when everyone is there:


Sonali and I putzing around with food, and getting excited! Getting lost in a grocery shop...
Mom, me, Sonali, and Tyler going on a hot air balloon ride(!!)
Bhai, my father, and Tyler riding around on segways on the beach!
My mom and I reading on beach chairs over looking the ocean...
All of us in the jacuzzi, complaining how overly hot it is (it was turned up to max)
Grilling anything and everything we could get our hands on
Playing monopoly and me, as usual, getting overly competitive 
Watching True Lies and reciting almost every line

The view!!

The hot air balloon

Me and the ocean!

There are so many memories...and it just reminded me how thankful I am to be able to go back to Boston in a few months and have part of my family near by. One of the hardest things about living in Texas, or really any state besides California, Massachusetts, or Arizona, is that I don't have family nearby. I never really realized that until I moved to Texas, and it made me even more thankful that I had Tyler with me. Someone who knew me inside out, and loved me. Anyways, I know that in medical school I won't have a ton of time to spend with them, and most of my "free"time will be spent with Tyler or with myself, knowing that they are there, being able to see them once or twice a month, will make me incredibly happy. 

So! To commemorate spring break this year, I decided to try out a recipe of my own...Avocado Cream Pie...and boy was it good. With avocado season in full swing, I figured it would be a good idea. The crust is a take on the vanilla-scented crust, with whole wheat. The filling is made with avocado, greek yogurt, and cream cheese. The whole sha-bang is smooth, creamy, pretty, and with a subtle avocado flavor. I loved the color too, light green. It's a great introduction to spring. Be adventurous...try it!


Avocado Cream Pie


Vanilla-Scented Crust (part whole wheat)


0.67 cup all purpose flour
0.33 cup whole wheat flour
0.5 cups melted butter
0.25 cups powdered sugar
pinch of salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F
In a bowl, mix together butter, powdered sugar, and salt. Then mix in the vanilla and the flour. With a rubber spatula, mix the dough together. Press it into a tart pan or a spring form pan. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Pull it out and let it cool

Crust coming together

Avocado Cream Filling


1 ripe avocado
5 oz. cream cheese
0.25 cup white sugar
0.5 cup greek yogurt
2 eggs


Lower oven heat to 250F


In a stand mixer, blend together avocado and cream cheese until smooth.

Add in the sugar, and make sure it's well mixed. Add in the greek yogurt, mix in well. 

Then add in the eggs one by one, making sure to mix well after each addition. Pour the filling into the cooled crust. Make sure it's cooled, otherwise the eggs will cook as soon as it hits the tart crust, and you'll have a scrambled eggs in your pie...bleh. Bake the pie at 250F for 20-25 minutes, or until the pie is still jiggly, but more firm than liquid. Let it cool, and serve it with an avocado slice as a garnish!

Nigh Kayaking and Pecan Pina Colada Oats

So for the past few weeks, Tyler has been going kayaking/boating with our friend Raleigh. He'd always come back desperately tired, but full of smiles and stories of how many times he rolled over in his boat in the water, or how he went down a rapid upside down...my thoughts were always...yes, fun. Upside down in water stuck in a boat? My idea of a good time.

Now, sarcasm is difficult to determine in writing, but that was definitely sarcasm. I was baffled by his general excitement about the boating situation. Until yesterday. Yes my friends, I did it, I went boating on the San Marcos River. And it was AWESOME.

Basically, you put on a swim suit, and then proceed to add on three layers of safety gear so that fools such as myself do not drown when they flip over multiple times. Oh...and flip over I did. Twice on purpose to get me used to the feeling of being upside down in the water, trapped in a boat, and confused. Banging on the side of my boat for someone (Raleigh) to flip me up. Oh the joys.

Then...about four times not one purpose.

Time 1: Going down a mini-rapid (which in my head was honestly a class 5 or 6, yes a new category of rapid for this monstrosity). This was fine, I got flipped up, and was only mildly disoriented.

Time 2: Trying to get my boat back into the water. I got it back in part way, proclaimed "VICTORY IS MI--" and flipped over.

Time 3: Once again getting my boat into the water. This time I had it for a solid 15 seconds, before I flipped. I believe Raleigh cursed and paddled towards me to flip my sorry butt up right again.

Time 4: The epic time. I was trying to get into a current and then back out successfully...but unfortunately, as soon as I managed to get into the current, I got excited like a small puppy and forgot to paddle out. Yes, I have now learned paddling is important. Instead, I went down another rapid, backwards mind you, and then flipped over. This time, I didn't have a moment to breath in, so I was out of breath and under water. Of course, the best thing to do when you're underwater right below a rapid is to open your mouth. Yep, I did that. Yep, 3-4 giant mouthfuls of water were shoved down my throat and trachea. When Raleigh came over to once again flip me over, I proceeded to cough up a good deal of water, and then a large amount of the spinach ravioli I had for dinner.

Food for fishies! Yeah, it was pleasant. But the amazing thing, was all the while, Raleigh was totally calm! She was like, "Okay, you're going to go down that rapid backwards" or "Okay, you threw up in the river" or "Okay, let's flip you up for the...fifth time..." It was awesome, and I felt totally comfortable going out there again with her and Tyler.

Moral of the story: If you haven't gone kayaking, do it! It's fun, you might throw up, but just look at it as giving back to the fishies, for using their home space to play/flip over in. And also, when someone asks you, "Do you want to learn to flip yourself upright?" Always say yes. Always.

On to food. Specifically breakfast. So I'm not a huge breakfast poster...or even a huge breakfast fan. Someone people love it, some people hate it, I'm ambivalent.

But, I do recognize that it's healthy and therefore compel myself to eat it. One thing I've found that I really love is steel cut oats.

What are steel-cut oats you ask?

Steel-cut oats are whole grain groats (the inner portion of the oat kernel) which have been cut into pieces. They are commonly used in Scotland and Ireland to make porridge, whereas rolled oats are used in England, other English-speaking countries, and Scandinavia. They are sometimes named after the grade of cut, e.g. pinhead oats; steel-cut oats from Ireland are sometimes called Irish oats.

Taken straight from Wikipedia. What I know about them is that they have quite a low glycemic index, so they are healthier for your since they don't spike your blood sugar as much. Also, they are super easy to make, and tasty. Also, they're gluten free!

I've made tons of variations on this, but Pecan Pina Colada is latest creation, and I like it! So I figured I'd share. They are pretty malleable, so you can change the amount of the ingredients depending on what you like (sour cherries fan? Sure, toss 'em in! Hate coconut? Omit it!)

You can make these oats at the beginning of the week, and have them for breakfast every day with some greek yogurt and lemon curd or jam, or even a small bit of nutella. That's what I do :-)

Pecan Pina Colada Oats


1:2 steel cut oats to water (1 cup oats, 2 cups water)
0.25 cup unsweetened coconut flakes (or sweetened if that's what you have)
1.5 handfuls of pecans, whole or coarsely chopped
2 dried, sweetened pineapple rings, coarsely chopped

Optional but tasty:
A few table spoons of brown sugar     OR
A big dollop of honey         OR
3-4 tbsp. coconut milk         OR
1 tbsp. Butter                    

Heat your oven to about 275F

In a 9x9 pan, mix all the ingredients together. Put it in the oven for 20 minutes. Check on it, if it needs more water, add it. Should be done after another 20 minutes depending on how crunchy you like your oats. Allow them to cool, cover with foil, and stick in the fridge for the week! 

Caramel Walnut Tart with Chocolate Glaze

Hello readers, I have a story to tell you...it's called, "How the Baker Got Her Groove Back"


Once upon a time, there was a baker. She lived in a cute little house, with two cute little dogs, and a cute little husband. She would pitter patter around the kitchen in a cute little apron, adding olive oil to this, and sugar to that! She would bake confection-y delights, and present them gloriously to her students, administrators, neighbors, fellow teachers, dogs, and even husband. Yes, it was amazing. 


Until one day...the medical school application process started. Soon, after she would come home from work, her days would be spent writing essay after essay about leadership ability, why she wanted to be a physician, what her biggest ethical dilemma had been, and other such poo-poo topics. And the kitchen sat empty. Sure she would cook, and bake...but pitter-patter? Nay. Soon, she was simply making brownies because it was an easy, quick, unchallenging delight. How her kitchen, and her tummy, sat in woe. 


But behold! The medical school process is over, the princess-cook (yes, she has transformed into a princess) no longer spends hours languishing over where she will be next year...she now has time to bake gloriously as she once did. But all the time out of the kitchen has left her feeling...unimaginative. What to make, what to make?! What is worthy of her great come-back dessert?? Then...she stumbled upon a blog long forgotten...and found her inspiration: Caramel Walnut Tart with Chocolate Glaze.

Soon the pitter-pattering returned...and within hours, a beautiful, sweet-smelling tart popped out of the oven and into her mouth. Ahh the glory. Make it, you'll feel inspired too :-D 

Caramel Walnut Tart with Chocolate Glaze
Adapted from Not Without Salt

Vanilla Scented Tart Crust


1 cup all purpose flour
0.5 cups melted butter
0.25 cups powdered sugar
pinch of salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F
In a bowl, mix together butter, powdered sugar, and salt. Then mix in the vanilla and the flour. With a rubber spatula, mix the dough together. Press it into a tart pan or a spring form pan. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Pull it out and let it cool

Caramel-Walnut Filling

1 cup sugar
0.25 cup water
1 tbsp. lemon juice
0.25 cup butter, cut up into pieces
0.25 cup heavy cream
1 cup walnut, chopped roughly

In a thick bottomed pan (I used a cast-iron saute pan) mix together the sugar, lemon juice, and water. Put it over medium-high heat and allow it to boil for about 7-9 minutes until it's a dark amber color. After that, pull it off the heat, and add in the butter and heavy cream, stirring constantly. It will bubble up, but it's okay. After that, stir in the walnuts. Allow it to cool for about 2 minutes, then pour it into the tart shell you made.

While that's cooling...make the chocolate glaze to go on top! It's totally optional, but it's good

Chocolate Glaze


4 tbsp. butter
4 oz. chocolate (milk, dark, semi-sweet)

In a saucepan (maybe the same one you made the caramel in), melt the butter and chocolate together, stirring with a spoon. When it's melted together, spoon it over caramel-walnut tart.

Allow it to cool, then eat a slice! 

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

There are so many things I could have blogged about in the past week:

• My thoughts on the birth control/insurance coverage dilemma
• How my awesome dinner par-tay went. It wasn't just a party, it was a par-TAY. 
• My dear hubby waking up, remembering it was Valentine's Day (Mita-Tyler Love Day*infinity) and saying "Happy Valentines Day!" first thing, in his sleepy voice. 
• The cheesecake I made with my 5 minuted microwave lemon curd
• The fun dessert sweet-swap at went to
• The awesome Pho restaurant I went to

But, the thing that really captured this week, double chocolate chip cookies I made. Super chocolate-y, sweet but with a small taste of salt that offset it, goo-ey goodness that hardens up into yumminess. Overall, great cookies, and quite easy. 

Anyways, Happy Love Day everyone. Take today to remember all the people (or animals!) in your life that you love, that love you, and to show some love. And maybe enjoy some chocolate :-) 

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

1.5 cup all purpose flours (180 grams) 

0.5 cup white sugar (101 grams)

0.5 cup brown sugar (light or dark, depending on which you like better) 

0.5 cup. butter, softened
1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla extract

0.25 cups cocoa powder

0.5 tsp. baking soda

0.5 tsp. baking powder

0.5 tsp. salt

0.5 cup semi-sweet chocolate chip cookies 

Preheat oven to 350F

Cream the butter and sugars together until it's fluffy (3-5 min on medium high in a mixer). Reduce the speed, and then add in the egg and the vanilla, mix well. In a separate bowl, sift the all purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and baking powder, and salt. While the mixer is on slow, slowly add in the flour mixture until it's all just combined. Then with a spatula mix in the chocolate chips. 

Then roll out the dough into 1.5 in. balls onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 8-10 minutes (depending on how soft you like your cookies). 

When they came out, I put little candy hearts on them, since I was taking them to a Valentine's Day theme party, but they taste great with a cold, tall glass of milk as well :-) Enjoy! 

Commentary: The Media's Abortion Blinders

Ross Douthat wrote an article this week claiming that the Komen Foundation was the real victim of the recent Komen vs. Planned Parenthood debacle. 


The basic gist of the issue was that the Komen Foundation pulled about $700,000 in funding from Planned Parenthood (PP) recently because, it claimed, Planned Parenthood was under investigation. This was peculiar because this is definitely not the first time PP was under investigation, and in this case it was from a Republican representative from Florida who wanted even further proof that PP was not using federal funds to perform abortions. 

Now, later in the week, due to massive outcry from the public, including a pledge from Mayor Michael Bloomberg of $250,000 to PP to make up their losses, the Komen Foundation backtracked and decided to give the grant back to PP. 


Mr. Douthat's issue seems to be that the media representation of the Komen Foundation was unfair, especially given that American seem split pretty evenly on the issue of abortion, based on Gallup poll. He goes on to list "truths" about PP, and ends with his disgust at journalists for not paying enough attention to those facts in their reporting, and therefore demonizing Komen though much of the public probably agreed with their actions. 


Okay, now that we're done with the summary, let me insert my opinion. 


If you askme whether I think there are more pro-choice or pro-life individuals in America, I'd hands down say there were more pro-lifers. Why? Because that's what the media shows. In my experience, they tend to portray pro-choicers as anti-life, rather than what we actually are about...giving women a choice in their own reproduction. In fact, even respected, intelligent media personalities like Mr. Douthat tend to portray pro-choicers as individuals who have,

"...no moral qualms about using surgery or chemicals to put an end to a growing embryo or fetus..."

He attacks Planned Parenthood by putting forth facts that are meant to scare the average reader. Let's analyze them:


1. Planned Parenthood is the nation's largest abortion provider.


Completely true. PP is a national not-for-profit that strives to provide women's health care in all ways to women of all socioeconomic backgrounds. That includes birth control, women's health exams, breast exams, vaccinations, and yes, abortions. Because PP is so ubiquitous now and is a trusted name, women who otherwise would have been forced to either go without care or visit a less reputable source (i.e. back-alley abortions) now have a safe, alternative option. People frequently poke fun at the idea that women in America would go to back-alley abortionists, but it's what used to happen before PP became a known, reliable presence. So yes, because of this, PP is most definitely the largest abortion provider. Not because it pushes abortions on women, not because it does not provide all the options and facts like Crisis Pregnancy Clinics, not because it revels in ending potential life, but because it is a trusted source for comprehensive women's care. 


2. "By way of comparison, the organization also refers pregnant women for adoption. In 2010, this happened 841 times, against 329,445 abortions."


Can't argue with those numbers. It's true, PP performed 300,000+ abortions, and only 841 women opted to choose adoption. The implication Mr. Douthat is making here though, is that in some way PP is pushing women towards abortion rather than adoption. After all, what else could a juxtaposition of those numbers mean? 


The fact of the matter is, Mr. Douthat does not want to see the numbers as women's choice. These numbers indicate that PP provides options for its patients, gives them the information they need to make an informed decision, and some do decide to go through with their pregnancy and move forward with adoption. It is difficult to accept however, that many women choose to abort their pregnancies in light of the facts. So instead, Mr. Douthat subtly suggests that PP must be pressuring them. He does not consider the emotional and psychological pain a woman has to go through to carry a child to term and then give it up for adoption or even the social stigma, monetary strain, and consistent check-ups the woman will face as legitimate reasons for a woman to choose abortion. 


3. Planned Parenthood’s critics have estimated, plausibly, that between 30 and 40 percent of its health center revenue is from abortion.


The fact that Mr. Douthat gives credence to these numbers baffles me. In numerous fiscal reports, PP, a not for profit organization, has noted that less than 15% of its revenue comes from abortions, which make up only 3% of the services it provides. The rest of the services are cancer screening and prevention, contraception, and STI screening and treatment. Numerous social conservatives have inflated the number so greatly to make it appear that though PP has a financial incentive to push abortions on women. After all, why else would a woman choose abortion if it was not pushed on her? Either way, this point made me particularly sick that a NYTimes columnist, who just wrote a piece about media bias would get his numbers from an article by Charlotte Allen, a know conservative with a strong dislike for atheists, who wrote a piece about rape that essentially victim-blamed, and has a passionate hatred for Planned Parenthood. Yeah, she's not biased at all. 


4. And finally, two quotes together that truly made my blood boil,


"Although mammograms, it should be noted, are not necessarily among them: the group usually provides referrals, but not the mammogram itself, which is one of the reasons Komen’s founder had cited for discontinuing the grant"


and 


"And if you think abortion rights are more important to female health and flourishing than the nearly $2 billion the pink ribbon has raised for breast cancer research, Komen deserved your scorn and Planned Parenthood deserves your donations."


Let's address the mammogram issue first. Over the past decade, the effectiveness of mammograms in preventing deaths from breast cancer has been called into question, with data suggesting it is  not as effective as we once thought. In light of this, many Planned Parenthood facilities have not purchased a mammogram machine and instead perform breast exams during their check-ups. When something is found to be problematic, they refer their patient to a doctor that can adequately look into it. I see no problem with this, but it sickens me that one would suggest that PP is somehow doing it's patients a disservice by not providing them a treatment that is no longer accepted as effective. Douthat's implication that PP is not truly providing comprehensive women's health services ties directly into my problem with the next quote...he boils all of Planned Parenthood's services down to their abortion services.


Yes, Komen raises billions for cancer research, which is completely valuable. But as someone put it, pink ribbons and pink spatulas don't provide care for people, health care providers do, like those at Planned Parenthood. The reality is that without PP, millions of low-income women would be left in the lurch, unable to take control of their own sexual and body health because they don't have easy access to the care. Millions would be without sexual health exams, STI screening, pre-natal care, and yes, birth counseling. For Mr. Douthat to sum up Planned Parenthood as Planned Abortion-hood is inexcusable and disgusting.


So, this is a really long post that took much longer than my other posts usually take to write, but it's because I was shocked at the hypocrisy and idiocy of the article. But I'm not sure what else I expected from Mr. Douthat whose many articles make it clear that he is not fully in touch with reality. 

The Third Jihad

A few years back, my husband compared his life experiences to mine, making the argument that because we come from similar socioeconomic backgrounds, we had similar life experiences. After living with me for a few years, and seeing what I see, he knows this is not true. In most cases, that is true. The most glaring difference however, is that he is white, and I am brown. 


I am fully American inside and out, my parents have achieved the "American Dream" when they moved here from India, yet I have been, and unfortunately will probably always be, treated differently than my husband because of my skin color.  


Before I even open my mouth, it is what you see on me. Some assume I am hispanic, other assume I am Muslim, others still assume I am vaguely middle eastern, and some get it right, Indian. Most of the time, the assumption leads to nothing, other times, it reminds me that no matter how integrated I am in the country, no matter that I was born here, no matter that I went to school here, went to college, am teaching the next generation--I am viewed as other by plenty. 


Like all the times I am followed around a department store, or the times I am told that clothes are "quite expensive" when I ask for help, or the times that people will ask me a question in restaurant and their friend will say "Don't bother, she probably doesn't speak english," or the times I am told I am less of a person because I am brown, or the times that people ask me if I am Muslim im an accusatory tone, or the times...well, I could go on. 


This came to my mind because of a NYT article about the NYPD showing a movie to over 1,000 of its police officers called The Third Jihad. This movie, which they had playing on constant loop for up to a year in some departments for 3 months to a year, conveys the extreme message that most American muslims are out to deceive Americans and infiltrate the country from within. It implies that American Muslims are something less than American. 


Showing this heinous movie over and over and over to an individual, no matter how devout they are in trying to remain unbiased or unprejudiced, would get into their brains. It just does, you know that, I know that. It's worse that it was forced on the people that are supposed to protect all Americans. 


I not even mad anymore, I'm just sad and disappointed that a group as large as the NYPD was stupid enough to propagate this stereotype. Shame on you, NYPD.