(Almost) Vegan Cinnamon Buns

I start my last semester EVER of college tomorrow - say wha??  On one hand, I'm stoked.  I just want to get this semester over with and be done with school already.  On the other hand, I'm also a bit anxious about this whole graduating and finally-being-an-adult thing.  I mean sure, I won't have anymore annoying papers to write or exams to study for.  But at the same time, I will no longer be able to travel and take vacations/"mental health days" as I please - I'm actually going to have responsibilities and work obligations (which I suppose I'm lucky to even have, considering most recent and soon-to-be grads still have to worry about even getting a job).

Anywho, even though I pretty much have a job for after graduation at a company I love, I'm still going to miss the travels, the escapades and the general bumming around I did over the past 8 months of glorified vacation (otherwise known as study abroad). 

Sooo....what does all of this have to do with cinnamon buns?

Yay for Chocolate! Chocolate Orange Bread and Chocolate Walnut Bars

We got our very first snow day of the season here in Baltimore today!  Though for "snow" it was a measly one inch of accumulation.  But the roads were rather icy so I was pretty much stuck in the house all day.  And you know what that means?  Mya Lwin goes on a baking binge!  Today I was in a very chocolately kind of mood (PMS?), and so I decided to bake not one, but TWO, chocolately treats!

The first is a yeast-raised chocolate orange bread.  Chocolate and orange is one of my favorite combinations of all time.  In fact, my favorite gelato when I spent three weeks last summer studying abroad in Venice was this chocolate-orange gelato from my favorite gelateria, Il Doge, which happened to be literally at the doorstep of my school.  There's just something about the combination of dark chocolate and orange essence that really works. 

Rum Spiced Hermit Cookies and 21st Birthdays

Guess who turned 21 this week?!

Yup, yours truly.  For my international readers, turning 21 may not seem significant, but here in the US, 21 means I am finally a full adult, and most importantly, I can finally legally buy alcohol! (Yeah, we're only about at least a couple years behind the rest of the world).  I celebrated my 21st this past Monday with some good friends at this Mediterranean tapas restaurant called Mezze in the Fells Point neighborhood of Baltimore.  Between the nine of us, we ordered enough tapas to feed a small village.  But alas, we were nine hungry girls.  And for my first legal drink, I had a glass of house sangria, which was decidedly a bit on the light side, but still pretty good nonetheless.  Overall, the food was good and the company even better - what more could a girl ask for on her birthday?

Bikram Yoga & Baked Vegetarian Samosas

I'm a total gym rat - going to the gym to get my daily dose of cardio is practically an addiction.  But lately I've also been really getting into Bikram yoga, which is 90 minutes of yoga practiced in a 105-degree F room.  Sounds fun right?  (Actually the heat is awesome in the winter time...not so much during the sweltering Baltimore summers, though)  Anywho, it's rather a nice break from the intense cardio workouts I'm used to at the gym, and my mind and body both feel awesome after the hot yoga sessions. 

The session I went to this morning felt especially good, and it sort of set me on a health kick for the rest of the day.  After the class, I had a tasty Moroccan-inspired spaghetti squash and chickpea salad and a baked sweet potato for lunch.  At the grocery in the afternoon, I was totally geeking out in the produce and natural foods section.  So when dinner time rolled around, I wanted to make a healthy complement to my mom's Burmese coconut curry noodle soup (sounds good, right?), and I was inspired to make some baked vegetarian samosas after seeing this recipe for chile pea puffs.

Lemon Glazed Avocado Pound Cake

Some girls love to shop for clothes and makeup.  Some girls love a good shoe sale. 

I LOVE to go grocery shopping, and you know what makes me really excited?  Awesome weekly specials at the grocery - like getting 4 four avocados for 5 bucks.  I know, I'm strange like that...bear with me.

So yeah, back to those avocados.  I never go on my weekly grocery shopping adventure with an actual game plan of what I plan on cooking/baking that week.  I just kind of wander around aimlessly (especially in the produce section) and buy whatever strikes my fancy and/or is on a really good sale, like those avocados.  But I totally forgot about those little suckers, as they were tucked away behind the bananas and oranges in the fruit basket.  So not wanting them to go bad, I knew I had to use them up immediately...but how?

Vegan Cowboy Cookies

I don't know about you, but I'm a huge fan of oatmeal cookies.  I love the fact that they're actually filling and have some substance to them.  But until recently, I have never heard of cowboy cookies - oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips, pecans, and coconut.  How the name came about, no one really knows, although I'm pretty sure cowboys have nothing to do with these cookies.

At any rate, these little suckers were a huge hit at my house.  I love that the addition of the shredded coconut - they give a nice texture to the chewy cookies.  And anything with pecans (and of course, dark chocolate) is fine by me any time.  Unfortunately, I was fresh out of pecans when I made these, so I had to sub in walnuts.  But I'll definitely be using pecans the next time (and there certainly will be a next time).

Venezia Nostalgia

This past summer, I had the amazing opportunity to study Italian language and Venetian maritime history in Venice, Italy, through a program at Towson University.  All together, there were 13 of us: our professoressa, 10 students from TU, and 2 more from other schools.   And over three magical, carb-filled, and wine-drunk weeks in Venice (and Florence and Verona, too!), we ate and drank to our hearts' content and bonded into one big happy (albeit a bit dysfunctional) family.  Oh yeah, we also learned some Italian while we were at it.

Our Venice group

 Venice was truly a dreamworld - I still long for every moment of it, and I still miss everyone in our group.  So when our professor invited us all to her house this past week for a reunion lunch, I was ecstatic.  Though not everyone could make it to the little soiree, it was still great to reunite with everyone else who were there.  And of course, what better way to reminisce our time in la Serenissima than over mimosas and authentic, home-cooked Italian food?