WIN!!

When I compiled my list of bonanzas, I did not know that fresh pomegranate season would soon be at its end. For a few days this put a kink in my plans to make the Pomegranate White Chocolate Chunk cookies for Valentine’s Day. I thought I would still be able to get them fresh at Trader Joe’s, since I had seen them there many times, but the seasonal quality of them just didn’t click for me until I read about it online.

I went there today, hoping to find these important (and pricey) seeds with the rest of the produce, but I was sorely disappointed (and not just about the pomegranate–there were no good apples or oranges left either *sadface*). However, I swung around to the frozen fruits and VOILA! Frozen pomegranate arils! I will live with the frozen if I can’t have the fresh, as long as I can still make these cookies. They will certainly be a wonderful break from my Chocolate Overdose Birthday Cake.

Saying that name just makes my mouth water! I finally have most of the necessary ingredients, save for the pan and chocolate I’m waiting on from Amazon and some extra granulated sugar because once again TJ’s didn’t have any (what’s up with that anyway, where is all the sugar you used to have?). They also didn’t have brown sugar or powdered sugar, but I don’t need that for my cake–I’m just running low and I want to make sure I always have some in my cabinets.

Anyway, I haven’t quite been refraining from baking, but I have been terribly lax in terms of photo documentation. Last Wednesday night I was itching for something chocolatey, and so I made my go-to brownie recipe. I must say, they absolutely hit the spot, and my friend almost dropped to the floor after a bite the next day. They were super fudgey and moist and chocolatey–perfection. Unfortunately they seem to have disappeared before a proper picture could be taken. Alas, I’ll guess I’ll just need to make them again sometime in the future.

I have also been lax in my proper food purchasing, and so I’ve been subsisting on cereal, peanut butter, oatmeal cream pies (only 1 left!), and pasta. I finally broke down and defrosted some chicken cutlets I had in the freezer, breaded them, and pan-fried them. Then yesterday I boiled up the end of my spiraly pasta (the name escapes me), and mixed in chopped up chicken, marinara sauce, minced garlic, and shredded mozzarella cheese to make my trusty pasta bake. I ended up eating it for both lunch and dinner yesterday, and now I’m craving some crunchy fruits or veggies after all that. I definitely chose the wrong time to go to Trader Joe’s today, because the produce department was sorely lacking because it was insanely busy there. I should have waited until after the Super Bowl started, because it would have been a ghost town after kick-off like one of the employees said. I’ll try again sometime soon, but right now I would kill for some apples, oranges, grapes, strawberries, celery, carrots or anything healthy, really. Wow, I never thought I’d say that on here. I think I should get some strawberries on Wednesday for the top of my cake, but NOT cover them in chocolate. I’m definitely gonna need the freshness to cut all the richness–and some fruit-consumption wouldn’t hurt either.