Birthday Celebrations

I'm such a bad girlfriend, I almost forgot to write about Cody's birthday this last Thursday. Whoops!

But hey, at least I didn't forget it!

For breakfast I made some yummy french toast with a blueberry compote/sauce. I completely forgot that we were out of syrup when I planned on making french toast, but thankfully Cody and I are chefs and could figure something out with what ingredients I had. I ran the problem by him and he came up with a blueberry sauce/compote (pretty much the exact same thing I was thinking of). When it came time to make the sauce it was pretty simple: blueberries, white sugar, and some water to loosen it up. Cody had never actually made this sauce before and started the pan up high, thankfully I had taken enough pastry classes and seen enough catastrophes that I turned it way down so the sugar didn't burn. Good thing there were two of us around! It's a nice balance having a chef and a pastry chef in a relationship, one of us will know the answer to a food problem!

The sauce was super super delicious!

Once breakfast was done I started the German chocolate cupcakes Cody requested I make.

German Chocolate Cupcakes

Recipe by Martha Stewart

Yields 24 cupcakes

3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temp

2 cups cake flour, sifted

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/3 cups sugar

3 large eggs, room temp

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup buttermilk

5 ounces dark chocolate, melted and cooled (It's supposed to be semisweet, but I used dark chocolate)

Coconut-Pecan Frosting (recipe follows)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Spray cupcake pans with nonstick spray. Whisk together cake flour, baking soda and salt.

2. Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in vanilla. Slowly add flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with 2 additions of buttermilk, beating until combined after each. Beat in chocolate until combined.

3. Fill cups about 3/4 full. Bake, rotating pans halfway through, until a cake tester comes out clean, 20 minutes.

4. Once cooled, split cupcakes in half horizontally. Spread a heaping tablespoon of frosting on top of each bottom half; replace top halves. Spread more frosting on top of each cupcake.

Coconut-Pecan Frosting

Yields: 4 cups

3 large egg yolks

1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk

1 1/4 cups packed light-brown sugar

3/4 cups unsalted butter, cut into small pieces, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 package sweetened flaked coconut (I used shredded since that's all I had)

1 1/2 cups pecans, toasted, and coarsely chopped

1. Heat egg yolks, milk, brown sugar, and butter in a saucepan over medium, stirring constantly, until thick, about 10 minutes (should be consistency of sour cream). Strain through a fine sieve into a bowl.

2. Stir vanilla, salt, coconut, and pecans into frosting. Let cool completely, stirring occasionally. 

 They were freaking amazing!! I overdosed on sugar and ate two of them in one night.

The birthday boy enjoying his homemade cupcakes

We spent the morning baking and watching Despicable Me, went out to see Brave again (it's the best Disney princess movie...go see it) and then relaxed to watch Gladiator until we went out to dinner at Chilis.

We shared chips & guacamole for an appetizer

I had margarita grilled chicken with beans and rice. It was pretty damn yummy and something I'll get again if I ever go back to Chilis. Big IF right there, Cody and I both got sick after dinner.

Cody got chicken fajitas

After dinner we went home to rest and try to feel better so we could go to a comedy show downtown. 

The comedy show was pretty good, some not so funny ones, but mostly pretty funny. There were 4 girls next to our table that had to comment outloud in the middle of the comedians act and it got pretty freaking annoying. I had the best rum and coke I've ever had (yes, I just turned 21, doesn't mean I haven't had alcohol before, I'm a rebel).

Once the comedy show was done we headed home where we indulged in those delicious cupcakes and then promptly passed out.

Happy (couple days late) Birthday to an awesome man!

WIAW: Dancing Back on the Wagon

I finally made it back to Zumba. I'm pretty amazed with myself. I haven't gone in...a few months. They changed teachers for when I was able to go and I just didn't mesh so I waited until my work schedule changed. And thankfully I can now take the 2 classes she teaches! Whoot!

I knew going into Zumba that I was going to get my ass kicked, no doubt about it. I've been slacking in the exercise department and I knew jumping back into an hour long dance class was going to cause me to huff and puff. It got to the point that I couldn't even lift my arms for a bit. I was so exhausted, but I had a smile on my face the whole time and that's what counts.

Today also marks when I could pick my kitten up from his overnight stay at the vet for his neutering surgery. I was so upset yesterday when I dropped him off and caught myself sleeping how I usually do to accommodate him. I was very excited to pick him up and he thankfully wasn't crazy drugged up when I got him. When we parked at my house his little lungs started meowing like crazy at me. He's been pretty normal since I brought him back...except now he lies like this

 Poor little guy wants to snuggle with him, but can't lie comfortably on his tummy.

And since it's Wednesday that means it's What I Ate Wednesday with Jenn @ Peas and Crayons

These are Monday & Tuesday's eats

Breakfast: Vanilla Greek yogurt w/ granola & fresh blueberries~~Multigrain toast with blackberry jam

Snacks: Fresh peach~~Garlic hummus with pita

Lots of water!

Lunch: Turkey, bacon, and pesto on multigrain bread~~Egg flower soup & sweet and sour chicken

Dinner: (I only remember to get 1 day) Chicken fried steak

Tuesdays are my day off so I tend to eat all over the place (hence 1 slice of toast for breakfast and Chinese food for lunch) and dinner is usually an afterthought for me. I really need to get that figured out.

Any quick fast dinner-for-one suggestions?

Marvelous in My Monday: Delicious Cookies

Happy Monday everyone!

I'm finally joining Marvelous in My Monday since I actually remembered (pretty marvelous right? Ha!).

I decided to finally publish these amazing marvelous cookies I made awhile ago and just remembered never got put out there for the world to enjoy.  I originally got the recipe from Betty Crocker, but tweaked it to punch up the nutrition. I'll highlight the ingredients that I changed from the original recipe.

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
yields: 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

2/3 cup granulated sugar

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce (instead of shortening)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

3 cups old-fashioned oats

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour (instead of all all-purpose flour)

1 cup dark chocolate chips

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F.

2. In large bowl, beat all ingredients except oats, flour, and chocolate chips with electric mixer.

3. Stir in oats, flour, and chocolate chips

4. On ungreased cookie sheet, drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart.

5. Bake 10-13 minutes or until light brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.

6. Enjoy!

How were they?

Delicious! They're super moist from the applesauce and have a nice chew to them. The chocolate chips are nice and melty and just the right amount of sweetness. Using whole wheat pastry flour rather than regular whole wheat flour keeps the cookies soft and you'd never know you've got whole wheat flour mixed in. Try these for a yummy healthy cookie!

Children at Heart

I confess, I'm 21 and I still enjoy Disney princess movies

Like I'll gather every princess movie I have and watch them for fun.

I'm not the only one right?

Cody got his paycheck on Friday (gotta love money coming in) and he asked me to check out movie times for Brave for that night. Definite winner right there! I was incredibly excited to go see the movie so I looked up a time and planned out dinner so we could get there ASAP. I was like a little kid wanting to get to the movie as fast as possible, but secretly I wanted to score the two lone seats in the back so I wouldn't be surrounded  by little kids. Once I got off work we headed to my house so I could change and then headed out to this pizza place right next to the theater. I've been dying for fettuccine alfredo, but unfortunately they didn't have fettuccine so I had spaghetti alfredo. No big deal to me, gimme some pasta in creamy sauce and we're good. Once we finished eating we headed over to buy our tickets and stand in line. We may or may not have been the only adults there that didn't have a kid or two attached, but hey, we're kids at heart so that counts.

It was freaking amazing! My all-time favorite Disney movie. It was funny and yet was so touching it made me cry. Cody is already demanding we go see it again. A man after my heart.

 Go see it now!

Saturday I spent a good amount of time taking my mom's dog, Boogie, for a walk. I blogged about it here.

Sunday I started watching How I Met Your Mother since Cody has been finding it on t.v. lately and I've been failing at ignoring it while I'm trying to fall asleep. I love it! Any other How I Met Your Mother fans out there? After dropping Cody off at work I went home to catch up on some chores while trying to fight my cat off the bed so I can make it. I was tempted to just make the bed over him and see what he'd do, but I was afraid for my sheets so I just kept tossing him towards his toys to occupy him. Nothing worked so I made my bed in record time.

Now I'm off to relax and inhale eat some trifle my parents brought home yesterday.

Am I the only adult who has Disney princess marathons?

Anyone else seen Brave yet? What did you think?

Saturday Afternoon Walks

I was introduced to 23Paws over at Eat Pray Tri and I was excited to brag about my little fluffballs. I mean really, who wouldn't want to gaze adoringly at pictures of my incredibly cute pets?

So here goes!

Lemme do a quick intro of my 3 fluffers

This is Boogie, he's my mom's dog. He's a miniature poodle and my mom adopted him from the shelter last month. Poor guy is 2 years old and spent a majority (I'm talking like 90%) of his life in shelters. He loves jumping on your lap and snuggling. He also loves playing with my little kitten--they're buddies.

This is Link and my little baby. He's 2 months old and freaking cute. He loves perching on my shoulder like a little parrot and running all over my keyboard while I'm trying to do stuff. He squeaks a lot as he hasn't mastered the meow yet. He's super playful and when I need a break I take him over to Cody's to play with his cat.

And finally this is Ari. She's actually Cody's cat, but I'm kind of like her pseudo mom. She's 2 years old and very cuddly. She likes to wake me up at 7 am with face nuzzles and nibbles so I'll feed her. Occasionally we have stepmom/stepdaughter troubles, but we still love to cuddle.

Now intros are over I'll talk about Boogie today. My parents are out of town for the day and I decided to give Boogie a nice long walk. I'm still getting over my soreness from my training session on Tuesday (I'm an idiot and didn't stretch) and didn't want to overdo myself at the gym. I still wanted to get out and do something so I strapped the harness on Boogie and took him on a long walk to hopefully tire the little guy out.

He has troubles with other dogs so when I take him out for a walk I try to find the routes that there aren't many dogs on. We took quite a long walk and even got to walk along the cliffs by my house.

It was a gorgeous day out and Boogie was having the time of his life. Eventually we made it back to our house, but not without running into 4 dogs that we're either pitbull or rottweiler mixes. They weren't too happy to see Boogie and I definitely wasn't too pleased to be snarled at by these big dogs. We made it home safe and sound and Boogie dashed to his water bowl and promptly passed out. I took his little legs on a loooong walk!

Any fun pet stories?

Regrets

I usually berate myself for not going to the gym like I should be. I mean, hey I pay for the sucker every month, I should probably haul my ass over there. And don't get my wrong, I do love working out, it's the getting to the gym part that I struggle with.

And today I'm really regretting not forcing myself there more often.

My trainer kicked my ass yesterday and my body is definitely feeling it. I can barely lift my legs or arms and my core feels like I got whacked a couple times by a baseball bat. Ouch!

I brought it on myself and I know that. I'd mentally kick myself, but even my body in my head aches.

I wanted to include the workout my trainer put me through, but I was crazy light-headed so I can't remember what he called the exercises, nor how many I did. I was desperate at the time to not pass out so the little details didn't seem to stick. Excuse my strange explanations for some exercises.

• Assisted weight pull-ups
• Pushups with your hands on 2 weights & knees on a bosuball
• Up pushup position with 2 5# dumbells, lift one arm up and twist to the side so you're chest turns the side. Know what I mean?
• Lunges with two 10# dumbells. Do a bicep curl, press up, down to curl, straighten arms down
• Bosuball roll to pop with a 6# medicine ball
• Bosuball elbow to knee crunch
• Mountain climbers
• Box steps with two 18# kettlebells
• Squats with two 12# kettlebells (this was my last exercise and was about to die so we had to cut back from the 25# ones he wanted me to use)
• Hold two 12# kettlebells in each hand, bring one knee up and swing it back to an arabesque behind and lean forward with weights

This was also all smashed into a 30 minute session. I didn't realize how much I did until I've written it all out. Holy crap.

After the torture training session we sat down to make an appointment for our next session and he lectured me on coming in more often to gain my strength rather than killing myself once a month.

In other words he was telling me this needs to be my new saying

After my crazy workout I hobbled out to my car to rest a bit until I had to drive over to cheer practice. I was definitely exhausted, sweaty, and just plain ready to crawl into bed and call it a day. But no matter what I wanted I had to haul my butt to practice to torture train the girls. They're lucky I'm easier on them than my trainer. Ha!

I'm hoping I can motivate myself enough to get to the gym more often.

And hopefully remember to stretch afterwards so I don't feel like I've been run over by a semi

What I Ate Wednesday: A Day Off

It's Wednesday which means it's WIAW time with Jenn @ Peas and Crayons

I combined two days worth of food, which didn't include dinner every night because I forgot to take a picture. Whoops!

On to the eats!

Breakfast on Monday:

Brown sugar oatmeal from Burger King with dried fruit

I went grocery shopping on Tuesday so I wouldn't be stuck eating random food for breakfast and mostly buying oatmeal from BK. I always feel so happy once I go shopping and fill up my fridge and pantry with yummy foods.

Lunch on Monday:

Spinach salad with bacon and a hardboiled egg from Trader Joe's

So freaking yummy.

I inhaled ate the whole thing

Snack on Monday:

Veggie sticks

These things are sooooo delicious

I may or may not have kept snacking on these all afternoon at work

Breakfast on Tuesday with le boyfriend:

Scrambled eggs with crumbled sausage

(This was Cody's plate...I inhaled 1/2 my plate before realizing I hadn't taken a picture yet)

A good tip with eggs I've discovered is using one egg and one egg white when cooking eggs. That way I still get the yummy flavor of the yolk, but not as much cholesterol. Sneaky sneaky

Lunch on Tuesday:

Cody and I went out to Betty's Burgers and I got a veggie burger on a whole wheat bun with bacon and cheddar (What? Don't judge)

We split a basket of sweet potato fries and a small cake batter milkshake

Post workout snack while driving to cheer practice:

Chocolate brownie Pure bar

Oh goodness, so freaking delicious. I'm really liking Pure bars and may have to snag some more next time I go shopping.

Dinner on Tuesday:

2 baked sweet potatoes and white corn

Today I also had a training appointment and I regret not going to the gym everytime I have a session with my sadist of a trainer. He even lectured me today about not going to the gym more often. Ooops. Guess I'll be hauling my butt there more often now. I'll post about it more specifically tomorrow!

What do you think of Pure bars?

Any fun healthy cooking tips?

Something New

Today I decided to look at my blog and see what I've been writing about and I've noticed all I've written in ages are What I Ate Wednesdays.

Which is fun, but apparently I don't exist the other 6 days of the week?

I've been super lazy and haven't posted anything else which makes for a very boring blogger.

I'm trying to change it up and talk about something other than what I ate one day a week.

Since I turned 21 last Tuesday my brother came into town on Saturday so we could do a family lunch/boozefest.

When my brother finally showed up we headed out to the restaurant Cody works at for some delicious food and drinks. My brother had a whole menu of drinks for me which thankfully we didn't go through. He took me up to the bar to order one of the drinks and the bartender was super rude about making us any of the drinks my brother wanted. I understand she was running around at a busy bar, but damn, no need to act condescending when we ask about a drink.

So instead of the drink my brother wanted her to make she decided to make something else because she didn't feel like making what we wanted. (See what I mean about rude?)

So Cody, my brother, and I had what's called an Oatmeal Cookie and it was freaking delicious.

We got back to our table and ordered our food and then my brother started ordering the booze. Rather than explain everything in detail, lemme give you a list of everything I drank that afternoon.

• Oatmeal Cookie shooter
• 2 shots of Patron Silver
• 1 Adios Motherf*cker

 The disgusting amount of alcohol consumed.

The blue drink on the right is mine that I refused to drink because the bartender didn't understand how to mix and AMF correctly.

After lunch we headed home and soon after I took a little nap since my cat feels that 6 AM is the perfect time to play on my face. 

Once Cody was off work we went home so I could snack on The Laughing Cow spreadable cheese wedge thingies (nice terminology yes?) and some crackers. Aaaaaaaamazing. So delicious...go eat some...now.

Sunday Cody and I went out to breakfast and went out to buy his birthday gift. It was early, but he was super excited to get his own Kindle after playing with the one he bought me for my birthday. Great minds think alike :)

After that we went home to relax until he headed off to work. Relaxing included me curled up in bed watching The Food Network while my cat ran all over me and Cody set up his new Kindle and ignored me for the most part. At least I know the money was well spent.

Hopefully now I'll keep up with blog posts rather than showing you what I eat. I promise I do more than eat!

WIAW: Turning 21

I figured I'd do my WIAW about my birthday eats so thanks Jenn @ Peas and Crayons for hosting the party!

Yesterday was my 21st birthday and while a lot of people like to spend their 21st getting hammered, I had an incredibly low-key birthday and I couldn't have been happier.

It's all thanks to my wonderful boyfriend :)

I started my birthday off at midnight with my first legal drink

Sex on the Beach as recommended by the bartender

It was pretty yummy

After my first legal drink Cody and I went home so I could crash and sleep in which I desperately needed.

Cody then made me a delicious breakfast with mimosas

French toast and bacon with mimosas. Yum!

While we waited for the sun to come out from behind the thick fog cover we watched The Princess and the Frog. Second year in a row I've watched a Disney princess movie on my birthday.

Once the fog cleared up we trekked down to the beach to enjoy some sun. Unfortunately the wind decided to blow like a damn storm was coming in, but it eventually subsided and warmed up pretty fast.

By the time we got to the beach and settled it was lunch time so we broke out our yummy sandwiches Cody made for us and munched away.

Turkey, avo, and bacon sandwiches on whole wheat
Funyuns and water

After we got enough sun on the beach we hauled our butts back home to shower and relax before dinner at a super nice restaurant I've been dying to go to.

I got this delicious pan seared chicken breast with rosemary & truffle compound butter on top and roasted root veggies and fingerling potatoes. Holy crap it was amazing.
Cody got a panko & coconut crusted halibut which was flavorless so I gave him some of my chicken.
We also each got a glass of wine. Pinot Grigio for me--I was expecting to get carded and I didn't.
But our waitress did know it was my birthday thanks to Cody so I got some free dessert

Peanut butter cheesecake with a layer of chocolate ganache
It was heaven

It was an amazing birthday all thanks to my wonderful boyfriend!

And of course I have to show off my awesome birthday presents!

And my parents got me this gorgeous vanity table for my room which I don't have a picture of.

It was awesome and I'm so blessed to have the people I do in my life to make it wonderful. Including these two fluffballs

My poor cat doesn't like baths.

WIAW: Back on the Bandwagon

It's Wednesday!

The first Wednesday of June too!

I love me some summer--delicious produce, beach time, and my birthday!

And since it's a new month Jenn at Peas and Crayons has a new challenge

I've definitely got this one.

Now on to the eats!

Some various breakfast choices:

Whole wheat bagel with strawberry cream cheese

Homemade cranberry pomegranate scone (recipe coming soon)

Cinnamon rolls

Hibiscus cranberry juice

For lunch:

Homemade pasta salad made with TJ's Hummus Salad Dressing

So delicious!

 Random snacks:

June's WIAW theme is about sensible snacking and considering most of my snacks are fruit I think I do pretty damn well

Strawberries

Cantaloupe and cherries

Maple cookies from TJ (holy crap yum)

thinkThin white chocolate bar 

On a quick side note--I tried thinkThin bars recently and I'm not too impressed with them. The texture is a little dense

 Recent dinners:

Baked sweet potato with raw green beans

Lasagna with herb focaccia bread

Amy's mac and cheese (best frozen mac and cheese ever)

And just because I have a big sweet tooth

 Desserts!

TJ's vanilla ice cream with p.b. cups and caramel on a cone

Cannolis

I finally went to the gym on my own without having a torture training session. I was going back and forth about going and I kept trying to convince myself of reasons to not go. But when I got home from work I reasoned with myself (I argue with myself a lot, no big) and forced myself to tie my Nikes on and get my butt moving. Once I got to the gym I was completely motivated to get my sweat on. I find getting myself to the gym is the hardest part. Since I have been to the gym in ages I had to lighten the weights up and in some cases less sets. In the end I still could barely lift my arms or legs and that always makes me feel I did a good workout.

I'm happy to be getting back into the swing of things and hopefully keep it up.