Food

I've made some pretty awesome food lately - in my own opinion, anyway. It's "health" food too. Kinda.
First, buttermilk and oat pancakes (it's the "and oat" that qualifies this as health food...the peanut butter and real maple syrup that I drowned them in notwithstanding): http://www.mydailymoment.com/recipes/super_buttermilk_oat_pancakes.php. I didn't add the cinnamon, because I thought that sounded weird. These were the first pancakes I've made (and I've made LOTS of pancakes) that actually rival the pancakes you get at a diner. Soft, fluffy, melt-in-your-mouthy goodness, and the oats were barely noticeable. I ended up soaking them for two nights, because of a surprise invitation to dinner at my parents' house.
My advice on the buttermilk is to buy powdered buttermilk, to which you just add water. They have it in the grocery store (even Fareway) in the baking aisle. You can also make buttermilk with regular milk and lemon juice or vinegar. Put one tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice in a measuring cup and add enough milk to get to one cup. Let it sit for five minutes and then use it in your recipe. I don't think this turns out as well as the powdered stuff, but it means that you don't have to plan ahead quite as much.
Next, homemade pizza. I was going to make a homemade crust, but I wanted a thin crust, and when I read the instructions for thin crust online, I got a little bit intimidated. You have to refrigerate it overnight and roll it with a special rolly tool, and it sounded like something best left to my friends at Mama Mary's. I bought their thin whole wheat crust (there's the "health" component) and added:
Red sauce
Grape tomatoes (plus a few cherry tomatoes from our garden)
Sun-dried tomatoes
Green onions
Basil from the garden
Mozzarella (I grated a chunk of it - way better than the pre-shredded kind)
Feta cheese
I think I liked this way more than John did, but he was too nice to say anything. If I had a goat, I would have added goat cheese. Hint, hint.

And finally, the Dulce de Leche cheesecake, which I made with Stevia in the Raw (just screams "healthy", doesn't it?): http://splenda.tastebook.com/recipes/1397040-Dulce-de-Leche-Cheesecake. Supposedly, Stevia is "natural" and therefore better than Splenda. I have to say, I would never have known that this wasn't made with real sugar. And it was easy, because you can substitute Splenda or Stevia in any recipe in a 1:1 ratio to the amount of sugar it calls for. Check out my artistic photography:

Speaking of artistic photography, I was very sad to learn that the only DMACC in Iowa that offers a photography class - in the fall 2011 semester - is in Ankeny. I thought it would be cool to take a class with my stepmom, who is already a great photographer but has a love-hate relationship with her digital camera, but it doesn't look like there's anything available. Anyone have any ideas? An online class just sounds so boring and unhelpful. Do photography studios offer this? Starving artists? Starving high school art teachers??