Yesterday, while someone slept….

I made MUFFINS!

Dashing Dish’s Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana (gluten free!) Muffins to be exact.

I KNEW, as soon as I saw the recipe that I had to make them, like make them immediately.  I think her website is down, but I’ll post the proper link as soon as it’s back up.

And best part (which I’m guessing is true for you as well?) I already had all the ingredients in my kitchen (except for the yogurt, but that was so easy to pick up).

I’ve never baked with a blender before- have you?

It was sort of fun to mix everything with the blender (ingredients are oatmeal, sugar, cocoa, peanut butter, mashed banana, egg whites, greek yogurt, baking soda & powder, and hot water)

I added chocolate chips, cause that’s just what I do.  And modified it slightly, but not enough to call it my own, so just check out Dashing Dish.

They came out yummy! So moist (even the next day). And they’re pretty healthy.

I’ve already eaten four (two yesterday and two for breakfast today)…. And that’s four full size and not mini (oops).  And guess what, they’re awesome.

After swimming two miles this morning, here was my Ironman’s breakfast.  I think he could use some protein, don’t you? (and what is the spoon for? beats me…ha)

I see more muffins in my future!

–What’s your favorite type of muffin?

What I Ate Wednesday, Valentine’s Day eats!

Thanks for hosting, Jenn!

These are my eats from yesterday– Valentine’s Day!  Since the day is known for its chocolate intake, getting veggies in took a little more thought than usual.  Cocoa beans grow on a tree, right?  How come chocolate isn’t considered a veggie?!

Breakfast:  Since I had such a chocolate-filled night last night, I thought I should prob get some veggies in early today.  I made a big ol’ green smoothie with the usual- spinach, banana, and blueberries.

Never fails, these always fill me up!

I drank this after I had a few cups of coffee, because in typical me-style, I woke up early to bake a Valentine’s Day cake!  I am a total habitual 6am baker (yes, I bake in my pajamas).  I sipped on coffee while mixing.  It actually worked out well because I could shower while the cake was in the oven.

Chocolate & Coffee....yuummmmm

And to continue the good morning, I woke up to these.  Beautiful, huh?

I'm a lucky girl! Best bf ever

My commute was a breeze this morning.  I think everyone played hookey for the holiday?

LUNCH:  I didn’t have time to make lunch before work, so I went over to Trader Joe’s around noon and picked up one of their pre-made salads.  This one had chicken and beets.   Their salads aren’t very good and never have much lettuce, so I bought an extra bag of organic romaine to add to it.   The salad wasn’t anything great, but it did the trick.

Also bought carrots and eggplant hummus to munch on.  (Have you tried their eggplant hummus?  Really tasty and less calories/fat than reg hummus)

There were a ton of sweets in my office today– Godiva chocolate and cupcakes– but I managed to hold off.  I wanted to save room for the cake.  So, yogurt for a snack instead.

EVENING:  For Valentine’s Day, Jared and I decided to stay in and cook together.  We made spaghetti and meatballs (his family recipe). We snuck some spinach into the sauce to up the veggie count and ate garlic bread on the side.  We had fun cooking together, ate by candle light, and the finished product was delish!

And of course, dessert!  Heart shaped chocolate cake.

It was already evening when I took these, so couldn't get the lighting right or any good pics sadly

Turned out cute though, huh?

Ended the day very full and happy.  I think my veggie count is only up to 4, but that’s not too bad for a chocolate-eating-holiday!

Were you able to get many veggies in on Valentine’s Day?
Do people bring in lots of chocolate and sweets to your work?
Do you ever bake in the early mornings?  Late at night?

How’s that for a random title?

Do you like the flavor of lemon?  Even a little bit?  If so, then you MUST make this.  Trust me.

My mom loves everything lemon: lemon tarts, lemonade, lemon chicken, etc.  So for her birthday, this was the perfect recipe. I got my bake-on yesterday afternoon.

This was a fun, not-so-difficult recipe.  My only fail was that my mixer somehow broke JUST when I was starting the frosting.  At first, it got a mind of it’s own and started increasing speed without me touching anything– speed 1-7 in ten seconds and no control.  Then it just stopped working alltogether.  I’m so bummed.  I love that thing, use it all the time, and it’s not very old (2 years).  I have to check the warranty.

Notice that my mixer was working here

Oh well.  Despite the frosting looking a little funny, the cake still came out delicious.  Fluffy, sweet, lemon-y.

Cooling cakes next to lemons used for the frosting......oh so good.

I would make this recipe again.  It’s gluten free, by the way.  NO ONE NOTICED (and I didn’t tell them! haha, sneaky me).

We celebrated her birthday last night with a Murder Mystery Dinner!  It was circus themed.

Started with circus themed appetizers– Mini Corn-dogs, flavored popcorn, peantus, etc.  My sister did a great job with the apps.  My dad put circus decorations all over the house.

Corndogs, popcorn, peanuts. Where's the cotton candy??

We dressed in costume for our characters.  I was the bearded lady (who it turned out was actually a man!).

See the strong man?

Even Charlie had a character

Ate dinner inbetween clues.

Plus chicken and rosted veggies and a yummy roll

And then, of course, dug into dessert.  Luckily, we let the murderer eat dessert too.

Especially because the murderer turned out to be the birthday girl!

The birthday mom in her gypsy circus outfit ready to blow out candles

This was a fun way to celebrate.  Happy Birthday, Mom!

Like lemon?  Think I should have told them it was gluten-free?
Have you done a murder mystery party?

oh yeah…..and Football too, of course!

Scenes from the weekend:

Charlie and I went to the beach on Saturday morning.  He is sooo in love with the beach.  Doesn’t he look so happy and content in this pic?

His normal beach behavior is:  First, he jumps in the water and swims for a minute.  Then, he spends about 10 minutes rolling in the sand, covering every bit of his body.

I’ve seem other dogs roll in the sand of course, but not for 10 minutes straight.  Other dog owners always look at me with sympathy and say something like, “Gonna be fun to give him a bath later….ha”

Truth is, most of it shakes off when he dries, so it’s not so bad.  And he just seems so happy doing it, I can live with the sand.  Yes, I spoil him.

He's a nut.

Saturday afternoon:  Baking time.  Cupcakes.    I’m a chocolate girl all the way, but I just love these.  Funfetti makes me want to smile…..and then take a big bite.

Sprinkles=Smiles

Saturday night, we hosted Game Night.  Clue, Pictionary,  Uno, and many games of (somewhat competitive) ping pong.   My horrible drawing talents weren’t so bad and our team did really well at pictionary– totally fun group game.  Highly recommend hosting a game night!

Pictionary skills are much better with italian cookies

Sunday morning- Tree planting at the Free Farm.  SF is covered in community gardens.  They are all volunteer-run and the food grown (kale, lettuce, strawberries, etc) is given out free in a low-income area.  pretty neat.  We planted plum, peach, and pluot trees.  I’ll have to go back in a couple months and check on them

See our pretty tree?

And Sunday afternoon was football, of course!  We’re on west coast time, so the Superbowl is an afternoon event (not an evening).

Go Giants!

Watching football at a bar means way more TVs, but way less superbowl snacks.

Ahhhh, good weekend with plenty of outdoors time and relaxing time.  Weekend done, workweek ahead……off to tackle Monday.

Hope you had a good weekend!

This moring, I got up early and did the thing that makes every day start off great– I baked cookies!

Yes, it was before breakfast, before the sun came up, and well before I even showered.  But it made me happy– nothing like the smell of cookies in the morning to start the day off right (and of course, cookie dough and warm cookies is the best breakfast anyways).

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Chip Cookies.
Delicious.  It’s an adaptation of Nestle’s Cookie Recipe.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups Flour
• 3/4 cup Sugar
• 3/4 cup Brown Sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 sticks of butter, minus 2 tablespoons
• 1 tbs vanilla (or even a dash more– vanilla makes the cookies great!)
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/4 cup chocolate chips
• 1 1/4 cup peanut butter chips

Into the red bowl.  Mixed altogether

Add chocolate chips.  Then Peanut Butter chips.  Stick a few in your mouth, just for test purposes.

Plopped it onto the baking sheet

Into the oven.

Wait 11-14 minutes while enjoying the sunrise.

Voila!

Eat one immediately.

Best breakfast ever!