Happiness Is...

Fresh baked cookies (Oatmeal Raisinet... if you were curious)

And yes... they are delicious.

Speaking of Veggies

Was I speaking of veggies? Oh right, my lunch today. Well, if you thought that was good, you should see what dinner was last night. The theme? Eat Your Colors!

We had a "Make Your Own Salad" Night with tons of veggies and some chicken on the side.


We had J and M over to dinner and of course, had to play a little Wii

Hubs, riding his Harley


J, having a good time


M, upset about losing


Ok, we played this game Raving Rabbids TV something or other. The first time I played, I lost. Spectacularly. I mean, dozens of points below everyone else. Last night? Hubs and I tied for FIRST but it listed me first so it said I won. I WON! HA HA! I told Hubs to leave the TV alone while I took a picture with the final score and he didn't. He said I didn't "win". This is my reaction.


Whatever. I won.

It Ain't Easy Bein' Green

I was pulled to green things for today's lunch:


Veggie sandwich on a bagel thin with hummus, cheese, spinach, bean sprouts, green bell peppers and feta cheese. With a side of edamame of course. GREEN!

What did you have for lunch today?

Breakfast

Guess what was for breakfast? mmmmmmm


and guess who made it?

Hint: It wasn't me! Spoiled spoiled spoiled girl, I am!

We Did a Bad Thing

You guys.... we did a bad thing tonight. Everyone knows that if you get a Christmas present, you don't use it until after Christmas. It's like wedding gifts. Don't use it until after you're married. It jinxes it! (It totally doesn't but it made sense in my head before I got married)

But my mother in law got us this popcorn maker for Christmas. Oh man, do we love us some popcorn. Before the Scrooge rehearsal and performance madness, we would have popcorn almost every night. But the thing is, our microwave is small. Tiny. And our bags of popcorn wouldn't turn. And they would burn. And burnt popcorn is not good, people. (Ohhhhh us and our first-world problems!)

So we asked for this popcorn maker and so we could honestly tell her that we use it when she asks us on our visit next week.... we tried it out!

First, measure out the oil.


Then measure out the popcorn.


Trial and error, we'll definitely use less next time.


Pour popcorn into the bottom of the popper.


Snap on the lid (that's also a bowl!) and wait in eager anticipation.


Watch it heat up in there and the bar spinning the kernels around.


Get impatient.


Then it gets good... it was like a mini fireworks show!


A minute later, it looks like this...


Flip it over, careful, it's hot!


And enjoy!


Verdict: It's great! Only a few burnt kernels but I think it's because we used too much popcorn on our first time out. I can't wait to get different kinds of popcorn and seasonings. It tasted more like movie popcorn, which I love. Thanks to MIL for the fun present. Now we can actually say we've tried it.

This is Why I Married Him

Conversation at approximately 10:30pm Saturday night.

Hubs: I'm going up to bed.

Me: Ok, I'm going to make marshmallows and then I'll be up. (mind you, I never mentioned my desire to make marshmallows at all during the day. It just CAME to me, you know?)

Hubs: Ok.

The man didn't even blink. Any other guy probably would have questioned my motives or wondered why I was thinking about doing that at 10:30 at night.

Nope. Not this guy. And that's just one of the many reasons why I married him.

Sunday Sweet

What do you get when you take this:


and add it to this?


mmm. Heaven.


Apple crisp with caramel sauce.

My Heaven

After church on Sunday (see Hub's big performance here) we headed down to the Mission Inn for Cupcake Camp! All proceeds went towards Breast Cancer research. I'm down with that but you know what I'm MORE down with? CUPCAKES!




This group was cute: Cupcake Mama's. They had their kids with them too.


I was a bit dissapointed with Casey's Cupcakes. The frosting tasted like it was from a can!


There were cupcakes everywhere!




This guy was sporting his pink shoes for the cause.


The whole room set up. It was absolutely packed.


$10 got you 4 tastings and all the coffee, milk and water you wanted. Our loot:


The drinks. The coffee is definitely mine. Not the Hubs.


Digging in!
Chocolate and Raspberry Lemonade


CHOMP


Om nom nom nom.

That one was my favorite. Pumpkin and chocolate. Not too sweet. Perfect.

Overall, the cupcakes were just ok. I think I'm spoiled by My Delight Cupcakery. Their cupcakes are some of the best I've ever had. But it all went to a good cause. If they were to do it again next year (and they should!) it should probably be in a bigger place. It was kind of a turn off to be pushed around just to get cupcakes.

Go Cupcake Camp!

Ab Ripper

I think this might be slowly becoming an exercise blog. Hm. Not sure how I feel about that.

The exercise part is great. Although, I was complaining last night that I had been working out about 5 days a week for the past month and have yet to feel any different. The Hubs said, "It's because you haven't been doing the Ab workout". I got completely weirded out because he's always gone for work before I start my workouts. How did he know I wasn't doing it? He said he knew I wasn't doing it because I wasn't complaining about how my abs hurt nearly enough.

It's true though. I haven't been doing Ab Ripper X. I guess it's because I've been working out for an hour already and I don't feel like doing anymore. Or maybe it's because I like my extra 15 minutes of free time when I get ready in the morning.

So, I AM exercising but I guess I'm also kind of being lazy about it. There are workout plans for a reason.

I woke up early this morning to go running but it was so early that it was still dark out. And I don't like that at all. But I hauled myself out of bed and did Ab Ripper instead.

He was right. I was complaining like crazy when I was finished but I think it will really help in the long run. I haven't been doing hardly any core workouts and the core is the most important part of working out.

Oh my gosh, am I boring anyone else? I feel like I'm putting myself to sleep too.

Because I don't want to be all crazy-workout-look-at-my-fitness, here are the adorable cupcakes my past students delivered to my office today. They are too cute (and too yummy. seriously, I had to give them to my coworkers because I could not be trusted with all of them).


I also made a Gooey Butter cake for our potluck Wednesday dinner and holy crap. You guys, this recipe is amazing. Like, sell your first born for a piece, amazing. They should call this "Get a Man with this Gooey Butter Cake" or "So Sweet it Will Make Your Teeth Hurt Gooey Butter Cake". Go make it this weekend. Do it. Oh! and make it the day before you need it. And put it in the fridge. Trust me, it makes it better (if you can believe it).

We Need a Better Name for This Gooey Butter Cake
taken from allrecipes.com
Ingredients
Cake
1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Topping
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups confectioners' sugar

Directions
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2.Mix cake mix, melted butter or margarine, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 2 eggs with a spoon. Pat into a 9 X 13 inch pan.
3.Mix cream cheese, 2 eggs, and 1 teaspoon vanilla with an electric mixer. Slowly beat in confectioner's sugar (I only used about 2 and 1/2 - 3 cups). Pour over cake layer. Will be a little runny.
4.Bake for 40 to 45 minutes. Cool. Put in fridge overnight.

And He Cooks Too!

Last week, I had to go out of town for work (just to San Diego, no big deal) but it meant that I missed our Wednesday night Glee party. I was definitely bummed as I always look forward to Wednesday nights. I asked the Hubs if he was still going to go and he was all, "I'm bringing dessert!"

Well, alrighty then.

He has a few specialties but one absolute favorite are his chocolate-peanut butter Rice Krispie Treats. Oh yes.

Only problem was that when he was melting the marshmallows, he realized he bought the wrong cereal. He needed this:


But bought this:


See the difference? So I ran out and bought the good stuff and he got to work.

Anyone else things it's weird that there's a mirror in our kitchen?

Ohhh yeah.


There were so many leftover, we ate them until we were sick. I love it when he cooks.

Finger-lickin' good

So there's this place. It's in San Diego, it's BBQ and it's worth it. Anyone from San Diego knows that if you want BBQ, you go to Phil's. So for my brother's birthday in September, we went to Phil's.

It's actually kind of ridiculous because the line to GET IN was an hour long. And you just stood there in line, creeping towards the entrance. We got to see a family just sit there and rub it in us poor souls who just wanted to eat that they were there and they were not moving. Then, to add insult to injury, they pull these tiny dogs out of their bags and let the dogs EAT THEIR SCRAPS. In the restaurant. You should have heard us. Not only were they totally done with dinner and not budging but they brought their DOGS to the restaurant and then they let said dogs climb up on the table and eat their food. Luckily a staff member came by and told them to knock it off.

Anyway, the food. That's what you're all here to see right? Vegetarians, you may want to turn away.

Hubs got some random order of ribs that was really innocent in it's description but ended up being the biggest pile of ribs any of us had ever seen.


I got the pulled pork sandwich which was so good but honestly, I could only eat half of this. It was that much food.


The birthday boy, lovin' it.


The boys were all watching numerous football games.


We were so full!


So yes, 3 thumbs up for Phil's. If you're in San Diego, you gotta go!

Blobbity blob blob blob

You guys, I've been eating like crap lately. Every time I went to the store, I would buy chips... just this once. Then it turned into baking like I used to (but now there's only two of us instead of a household full of people to get rid of my stress-baking delights), coffee cake every weekend, makeshift dinners full of fat instead of yummy veggies.

Yesteryda, I was putting around the kitchen when I had a piece of candy and it just didn't taste good anymore. For everyone who knows me, I KNOW RIGHT?! That's totally crazy. I can down candy like a crazy kid on Halloween. oooooo Halloween. That's coming up, huh?

So today I made a special trip to Stater Bros. which has the most decently priced produce.

And holy cow, we're in the money. I made a pepper salad complete with all three color peppers, red onion and cucumber. I made Mexican veggie lasagna for last night's dinner. We have a bowl full of apples, peaches and nectarines on the dining room table. I have canned pumpkin with grand plans to bump up my Green Monsters in the morning. I also had oatmeal and man was that good. I'm going to try overnight oats and then check back in with a review.

Oh yeah, I also worked out with Jillian Michaels yesterday. People, I am SO out of shape. It's absolutely insane how 2 months with nothing and I can't make it through a 20 minute routine. But today is another day and I'm excited to get back into a routine. And now that I work from 9-6, I can get up at the same time but can now fit in a work out. So yeah, I'm pumped.

This was my kitchen before dinner. Yum. I've missed eating food and still feeling great afterwards.




Have you ever just through in the towel and started eating right? I just missed how fruits and veggies taste and it was like a light switch going on!