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Thursday 31 October 2013

Happy Halloween!


Halloween is hubby’s favourite holiday and so it’s a pretty dig at our house.  We have some decorations up but have to wait until the last minute to see what the weather is doing before we go all out… so far the rain has held off but I have to wait until I get home to see what hubby has done.  Last year it poured with rain, we couldn’t keep a pumpkin lit and we got three trick or treaters.  This year I have no clue how many we’ll get so even though we got a box of 50 chocolate bars (and managed to only eat 15!) I am stopping on my way home to get more.  
I have already had my share of Halloween today… being on our social committee at work I had to dress up.  I don’t actually mind dressing up as long as I’m comfy (I got over the slutty costumes about  a decade and 20lbs ago) but my yoga pupil idea (also known as my weekend comfy clothing) didn’t go over very well so I decided to be a Big Bang Theory nerd. 


Nerding it up with my friend "Wenda"
 
I didn’t win the best costume contest but I did take 2nd place in the pumpkin contest!  There were only three people who entered but hey, I didn’t get 3rd.  It probably also helped that it wasn’t really explained clear enough that people had to bring in their pumpkins already carved, not that we would be carving pumpkins as a big happy group in the office.  Oh well, I’m $50 richer J
Meet my pumpkin Mumford
 
This is how much crap I had consumed by noon.  I know I’m headed for a major crash in an hour or so but I’ll be nursing it with a glass or five of wine or so maybe it will even itself out.  One thing in my future is clear – I will be sporting a headache at some point, hopefully while I’m drooling on my pillow.
 

Happy Halloween everyone, be safe!

S.

Tuesday 29 October 2013

Grocery Store Porn


A new grocery store recently opened up a few blocks from our house and I needed to grab something on Saturday so decided to give it a whirl.  The place is gorgeous and the sampling options (and portions!) rival Costco at noon on the weekend… it has a Whole Foods vibe and must be one of a national chain’s attempts to mimic said store.  They are doing a pretty great job, especially because the pricing is still reasonable.

Anyway, I stuffed my face with half a cupcake, salami, pepperoni, fancy cheese, etc. enjoyed a few treats and then went down the aisles in search of the crackers I needed for the artichoke dip I was making.  I found the peanut butter and then happened to glance across the aisle and saw this:

 

I couldn’t believe it (hence me actually remembering to take a photo) and I so wanted to buy it, but which bag?  Would I buy the bag with the woman because I am a woman?  Or the bag with the man because I wouldn’t kick him out of bed for eating crackers or whatever that saying is.  But let’s get real – I would have to buy both bags.  And I wouldn’t eat them; I would keep them forever for as long as I could before hubby made me throw them out. 

If I want to get really real I would just admit that I will be going back and I will be purchasing… the man?  The woman?  Both?  Thoughts??

What is the weirdest thing you’ve ever seen at the grocery store?

S.

Monday 28 October 2013

Definitely a 2+ Cup of Coffee Day…

Currently battling a major case of the Mondays…


Mondays


I hope you all had a fantastic weekend!


Sxxo.

Thursday 24 October 2013

Gettin Quirky With It

I was doing my usual blog tour today and one of my favourites, Erin, had a list of her “quirks” which I thoroughly enjoyed and then I thought, hey do I have quirks too??  Can I actually somewhat relate to this twenty-something hip chick living the life in Manhattan??  Not in a gazillion years Maybe but pretty sure mine are ‘weird’ quirks and not ‘cute’ quirks.  Let’s see shall we?

  1. When shopping (for groceries, clothes, magazines, whatever) I never take the item from the front/top, I prefer to take one from at least two places behind/under and I always look for creases, dents, rips, etc.  This drives hubby nuts (he enjoys telling me when he grabbed something from the front when I was in a different aisle) but I totally rubbed off on one of my besties… and then I found out she rubbed off on someone else!  It’s a cycle.

  2. I too, like Erin, cannot remember movie or sitcom lines to save my life.  I’m not even that good at remembering plots, especially movies, so I can watch things again a few months later and it’s almost brand new again.  Good for me but hubby quotes Seinfeld like he played Jerry George and I never know what he’s talking about and he gets a tiny bit frustrated.

  3. When I am done eating my plate needs to be gone, it cannot be in front of me anymore.   What drives me nuts is when a restaurant insists on clearing plates when everyone is finished – are you kidding me??  It's torture

  4. I always sit cross-legged.  Always.  At my desk at work, at the table (in restaurants and at home!!), as a passenger in a car, etc.  For this reason I rarely wear skirts.

  5. Whenever I eat sandwiches on bread or toast, I tear the crusts off and eat them first.  For some reason, I think the middle tastes better and I eat it last because I want the best flavour to be the last thing I remember.  This sometimes backfires on me however, when I am too full to finish the middle :(

  6. French fries must be eaten in pairs or in three, and the pieces must be approximately the same length.  (I didn’t even really realize this one – hubby pointed it out after a couple months of dating!).


Well that covers round 1!  More to follow...

is everyone ready for Friday?? I am!

Sxxo.

 

Wednesday 23 October 2013

From Riesling to Boxed....

My Pinterest addiction is one of the only things that comes close to comparing with my wine addiction, so I am always happy when I can incorporate the two!

I came across this gem the other day and I love it.  I am trying to decide how I can add one of my favourites, Gewürztraminer which I think it gets "forgotten" a lot because no one can spell it or pronounce it correctly... I cut and pasted from Google and I avoid saying anything but “gertz”!  Once I figure out how to add it I either want this to be our Christmas card or I need some sort of giant business card.  Everyone will get one just because I love this.

Wine Type

source


I would love to see different versions – have you see any??

Happy Hump Day!

Sxxo.

Tuesday 22 October 2013

Smoothie Fuel

I love spending Sundays mucking around in the kitchen and doing some sort of cooking or prep for the week. I always make my breakfast smoothies for the week (well the majority of them) and then I just grab one from the freezer each evening and it's a quick process getting their for the morning.

I have my quirks though:

1) I don't like things icy cold so I always thaw the fruit in the fridge overnight, it's still buts but not ICY cold

2) for reasons explained above, I never add ice to my smoothie, I add water

Breakfast smoothie ingredients

Breakfast smoothie ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup raspberries (I use fresh or frozen, whatever works out to be cheaper!)

  • 1/2 cup blueberries

  • 1/2 banana (I cut up 3 and divide between 5 shakes)

  • 1/4 cup plain nonfat Greek yogurt

  • 1 tbsp ground flax seed

  • 2 cups spinach


My process:

  1. Combine berries, banana and spinach into 4 bags and a bowl bags wash out and reuse the bags!!)

  2. Put the bags in the freezer and put the fruit in the bowl into my blender and store in the fridge

  3. In the morning add flax, yogurt and 1.5 cups water and blend like crazy! our blender shuts off automatically after 1 minute and it's perfect!


[caption id="attachment_221" align="alignnone" width="223"]My freezer ready bags and bowl for Monday! My freezer ready bags and bowl for Monday![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_222" align="alignnone" width="223"]Breakfast deliciousness! Breakfast deliciousness![/caption]

I take my smoothie with me and am finished by the time I get to work and they keep me full until lunchtime! then I'm starving that make bad food decisions... If only I was as disciplined at lunch!!  But the truth is my smoothie tastes great and is easy to have on the go.

I am pretty boring and rarely change it up (when I get crazy I switch from raspberries to strawberries) bit I would to try something new... Maybe I should even start doing a lunch smoothie!  Any suggestions?  Do you have a breakfast or lunch smoothie, or possibly even both?  What do you put in it?  I would love to hear different options!

Happy Day!

S xxo.

Monday 21 October 2013

The Signs Were There... Where Was I??

I always thought we fed Milo pretty good… he gets a “dog muffin” and 1 cup of dry food every morning.  I make the dog muffins which are basically a meatloaf made from extra lean ground beef, brown rice, potato and other veggies.  I cook them in muffin tins and he gets one a day and he LOVES them, he gets so excited when I’m cutting it up for him in the morning.  And of course he gets treats but we try to be smart about it.

When we moved into our new place about 10 months ago, we noticed that Milo started licking/chewing his paws like crazy and we could not figure out what the problem was.  We couldn’t find anything in his paws but knew we needed to do something so I a) bought him booties (any excuse to go shopping right??) and he hated them, then b) started soaking his paws in a diluted iodine mixture that was recommended to us.  His licking decreased and he seemed to be a lot happier.

[caption id="attachment_214" align="alignnone" width="293"]The (clearance) booties we tried.  They failed. The (clearance) booties we tried. They failed.[/caption]

In the middle of the summer, his dry food was recalled so we had to switch brands.  We talked to someone at the store about the different kinds and what we were looking for and found something that we thought would be a good substitute.  Milo is pretty indifferent about his kibble; his dog muffin is what is important to him.

About two months ago, Milo’s ears started bothering him and he was scratching them and all over constantly so we took him in for his grooming as they always clean out his ears and check everything, and even asked them to check for fleas.  Our poor dog was practically one big itch ball and he looked so sad :(

Milo came home from the groomers so happy (so were we – no fleas!), his ears were cleaned and he got a special oatmeal bath and for a couple weeks he was pretty good.  We bought a special oatmeal shampoo to give him baths at home thinking he just had sensitive skin.  We thought we had a handle on the itch.

Then slowly he started scratching again… so I took him to the vet.  (I was convinced he had fleas…)

Result: Milo has allergies.  Bad allergies.

The vet looked in his ears, through the fur above his tail and asked me if he licked his paws.  For some reason, I hadn’t ever thought to connect the paws and the ears.  I feel a bit like a bad mom.

The treatment is antibiotics and an antihistamine for 10 days and prescription hypoallergenic kibble.  And that’s it.  No dog muffin, no treats and no human food.  Kibble, medicine and water.  Hubby is devastated and firmly believes that no one – including animals – should have to eat the same thing day after day because that would be so boring.  He really wants me to give Milo his dog muffin still but I refuse and am staying strong.   If he gets better in the next couple weeks we can slowly add things back in and his muffins will be the first thing, but until then all I want is for him to feel better and be happy.

[caption id="attachment_215" align="alignnone" width="145"]The only way Milo will eat his new kibble - by hand!) The only way Milo will eat his new kibble - by hand![/caption]

Does anyone else ever feel like a bad furbie-mom?

S xxo.

 

Thursday 17 October 2013

Big Family Love

Not only do I think my family is pretty great but I am also extremely lucky to have been blessed with amazing in-laws who accepted me as part of the family from the first time they met me over four years ago.  Hubby’s family is actually quite big… both his parents are remarried and have amazing significant others, he has two brothers that are both married (to lovely women) and each have two kids, plus he has two stepsisters, one of which is married and has two little girls and the other one, K, has become one of my best friends.  I haven't even touched on the grandparents, aunts, uncles and family friends!  And I love them all.

I am having a slight issue, no issue isn’t the right word… I don’t actually know what the right word is so I will just try to explain it… my mother-in-law (MIL) would like me to call her Mom and my father-in-law (FIL) would like me to call him Dad.  I need to clarify up front that I love them both and I actually feel (major cheesy moment coming, sorry!) honoured that WANT me to call them Mom and Dad.  My two sisters-in-law (SILs) both call them Mom and Dad but they have actually been around for about 18-20 years (my BILs both met these amazing women very young, have awesome relationships and I so hope that hubby and I are as lucky as them).  So again, I don’t not want to, I don’t mind it, but it feels kind of weird.

My FIL left me a message a couple days ago and had no problem saying, “Hi it’s Dad, give me call…” and my MIL left a similar message (and reminded me that my outgoing message still has my maiden name!) and I love that they think of me like that.  So why is it weird for me?  Does anyone else have that problem?  It feels awkward when I say it, but I’m not sure if they can tell.

I asked my sister about it because I have only ever heard her call her in-laws by their first names and she said she never would and in fact, couldn’t.

I guess it just takes time… and really, wouldn’t the problem be if they didn’t like me?  Trust me to complain about the opposite!

Like I told hubby yesterday: it’s better to a big family with too much lots of love than to have none at all.

Sxxo.

Linked Hearts

Tuesday 15 October 2013

I have had the worst sleeps the last two nights, so bad that I am barely functioning today at work and am down two coffees and a big bottle of Diet Dr. Pepper (that whole diet thing is going awesome to shit btw).  Add in a pounding headache and that is me, watching every minute crawl by.

Why the bad sleep?  No clue.  Well, I can see alcohol being a factor on Sunday night because my sister was in town and we had day drinks and then a big family dinner, but that is no excuse for last night.  I could barely keep my eyes open at 7pm and hubby made us hot chocolates and I just knew I was going to sleep like a log!  Except when I crawled into bed at 9pm I was wide awake.  I finally got to sleep around 11pm and proceeded to wake up every hour or so.  I stayed in bed with my covers over my face for another hour until I had to force myself out of bed…

Hubby has suggested I go for a run tonight and I am really hoping that helps.  I don’t want to take any sleep aids because they always make me feel so out of it.  So my plan this evening includes:

  • Run with Milo

  • Dinner (hubby has offered to cook!)

  • Morning prep (lunches and furbie food)

  • Hot bath

  • Bed


Does anyone else have recommendations?

I love being in bed but I hate going to sleep (I almost feel like I am going to miss something?!?) and am embarrassed to admit that I actually put the TV on sleep and fall asleep that way.  And sometimes if I’m not asleep enough, the TV turning off actually wakes me up so I have to do it again.  Hubby doesn’t get it but can sleep through pretty much anything so he lives with it.  The other thing I have heard that might affect my sleep is Milo sleeping on the bed with us.  But I don’t ever want that to change… maybe I am destined to hate mornings and never be a good “wake-upper”.

In happier news we tried an amazing new (to us at least!) wine at our family dinner on Sunday: Van Westen Vineyard’s Vino Grigio and everyone loved it.  It went really well with turkey :)

vino grigio

 
My apologies for the babbling post complaint but I do not do well when sleep deprived!

Tomorrow is Hump Day, make it a good one!

Sxxo.

 

Friday 11 October 2013

Happy Day!

sisters

I am so happy today!!  And not just because it’s Friday but because it’s Friday and MY SISTER IS HOME FOR THE WEEKEND!! Is it slightly pathetic that she only moved away three weeks ago?  But I don’t care because she and her fiancée are home for a few days and that makes me over the moon excited!

I haven't talked much about B on here because her sudden uproot and move kind of rocked my world (in a bad way).  I know, how selfish can I get it??  She moved for all the right reasons… her fiancée got into law school which has been his dream for like 10 years and B ended up getting an awesome job that pays her basically double what she was making.  So I am incredibly happy for her and I know this is an exciting new chapter in their lives but I am just going to miss her so goddam much.

B is (besides my hubby and in only a way a sister can be) my bestest friend, my rock, my champion and reality kick when I need one.  She is an amazing person - last year she worked her full time job, became a CMA and was my maid of honor (another full-time job in itself, sorry B!) AND she was still the amazing friend that she has always been.  That’s one thing I envy about B – she has developed some of the best friendships I have ever seen and is so loyal to those lucky people, me included.

It wasn’t always that way… B is four years younger than me and when I was a teenager that was a pretty big age difference.  And I’m pretty sure all sisters fight but I’m also pretty sure certain I was quite the bitch and not the nicest person to my little sister.  But thankfully now that we are ‘adults’ we have an amazing relationship and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I can’t wait to see her tomorrow and hubby and I are having some people over as a farewell for B & A because everything happened in about 6 weeks and with everything involved, we didn’t really have a chance for a proper send off.  So I am looking forward to hugs and laughs and good times and many, many drinks… and then doing it all over again on Sunday with the family!  Hopefully I’ll get some good photos too.



B and Me
B and me


Have an amazing weekend everyone!

Sxxo.

Thursday 10 October 2013

Purple Pot Cooking Cheesy Goodness

You may recall that I recently got a purple pot (one of those heavy duty cast iron ones) and last weekend I wanted to christen it with a tasty Sunday dinner… but I was clueless as to what to make.  I did some Pinterest searching on Friday night and decided I wanted to make beef stroganoff and planned to visit the butcher on Saturday.

And then wine happened.

So there I was on Sunday afternoon, almost recovered but in no mood to go anywhere and hubby asked – what are you cooking in your purple pot?!  Back to Pinterest I went...

[caption id="attachment_120" align="alignnone" width="225"]My purple pot :) My purple pot :)[/caption]

I can across this Cheesy Bacon Chicken Casserole recipe and worked for two reasons: 1) it was quick and easy, and 2) we had all 7 ingredients in the house (or at least ones I could substitute).  I did cut the recipe in half because there are only two of us.

Ingredients:

  • 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into bite size chunks

  • 4 strips of bacon

  • 1 can cream of mushroom soup (original recipe called for cream of chicken but we didn’t have any)

  • 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (original recipe called for Monterey jack cheese and I’m sure it would have been yummy)

  • 1 tbsp garlic poweder

  • Salt and pepper to taste


Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°

Start making pasta according to directions – I made the pasta in my purple pot  :)

Cook bacon and then set aside

Cook chicken IN BACON PAN – so delicious, use those drippings!

[caption id="attachment_187" align="alignnone" width="225"]Chicken in bacon drippings!! Chicken in bacon drippings!![/caption]

Once chicken is cooked, add garlic powder and then salt and pepper to taste

Drain pasta and return to (purple) pot

Add chicken, cream of mushroom soup and ½ cup of cheese – mix well*

Crumble bacon and put on top

Add remaining cheese

[caption id="attachment_188" align="alignnone" width="300"]Ready for the oven... Ready for the oven...[/caption]

Bake for approximately 20 minutes until cheese is melted and browning on top

[caption id="attachment_189" align="alignnone" width="256"]Cheesy, bacon chicken goodness! Cheesy, bacon chicken goodness![/caption]

*The other recipe tells you to spray a 9x13 baking pan with cooking spray and then pour the pasta and chicken mixture into the dish, but I wanted to use my purple pot so I just left it in there.

This cheesy casserole was perfect for a lazy Sunday night dinner and we even had leftovers.  I love mushrooms and next time might consider actually adding a few, but I will also try it with the cream of chicken soup.  I think this is the kind of cheesy goodness that you can mix up a few ways and enjoy!

Any other suggestions for purple pot cooking?

Sxxo.

Tuesday 8 October 2013

Snack Attack

I found these gems at Walmart last week and I am now addicted to them.  I haven't seen them in years and then I was stuck in line at a random Walmart and picked up the snack pack (I am a marketer's sucker dream, they always get me with the register displays!).  I devoured the snack pack.  Then I was in the Walmart by my work and I saw the full size for ONLY 50 CENTS MORE THAN THE SNACK PACK!!  I had to buy it right?  That is totally a bargain!

I actually may have bought two.

Except now I have them in a drawer at my desk and I can't stop eating them.

I have now banned myself from Walmart on my lunch break.

2013-10-08 13.55.28

 

How do you manage your snack attacks?

Sxxo.

Monday 7 October 2013

Another Weekend Come and Gone

This past weekend was another great one which meant it was that much harder to wake up and get out of bed this morning.  Mondays… a bad day to begin with and only made worse because two fun days were over.

Our Friday evening got off to a slow start as I was stuck on the parking lot highway following an accident on the bridge and it took me over an hour to get home.  Needless to say I wasn’t in a great mood when I got there and proceeded to snap hubby’s ear off.  This continued until the grocery store when I finally relaxed (I was surrounded by food and planning the bad for you yummy snacks I was going to devour eat all weekend!) and realized hey, IT’S FRIDAY!!  After grocery shopping we picked up dinner (best butter chicken EVER) and headed home to enjoy… at 8:30pm.  I managed to get hubby to stay up until after 10pm so all in all it was a good evening :-)

Saturday started with my usual bliss (Carolan’s coffee and PVR’d shows in bed) and then I finally got myself out of bed and dressed for… I can’t believe it… a run.  Yes, I finally started running again on Saturday.  I am starting slow with the C25K (couch to 5k) app and I have to say, I felt great after.  And Milo obviously had a blast so it was a win-win.

[caption id="attachment_176" align="alignnone" width="200"]First run of the program completed! First run of the program completed![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_175" align="alignnone" width="225"]Someone is very happy he gets to run again! Someone is very happy he gets to run again![/caption]

 

The weather this weekend was amazing (most likely our last tank-top acceptable weekend of the year) so after my run I poured myself a nice big glass of wine and sat in the backyard until hubby convinced me to run a quick couple errands with him.  Then my friend/SIL came to hang out with me and we took over the living room to watch girly shows on the PVR (at least once a month we sing to watch Pitch Perfect but this time it was Drop Dead Diva) and we managed to polish off two bottles of wine AND break into the box of wine I finally got smart enough to buy for midnight later in the evening when we no longer have any tastebuds.  Which lead to…

An epically hungover Sunday morning.  I don’t often get the real bad put-me-out of my misery hangovers but when I do, they are vicious.  What made it worse was the sun shining even brighter than Saturday and the fact that my mom was coming over to help me do some organizing in my house (clean out my car, sort (and finally get rid YAY!) all the random crap lying around, clean out my closet and organize the spare room).  I managed to get myself together and outside by the time she showed up with a Starbucks white chocolate mocha (now this drink is amazeballs PSL people!).  It was GORGEOUS outside!  Thankfully we were doing some stuff outside so we got to enjoy the sun.

[caption id="attachment_178" align="alignnone" width="225"]Gorgeous sunny weather!!  (Apologies for the horrible iPhone pics!) Gorgeous sunny weather!! (Apologies for the horrible iPhone pics!)[/caption]

I have to say that hangover aside,  it felt so good to get some stuff done around the house and I also have the best mom in the whole world (seriously, she rocks) and by the time she left I felt great.  Not pour a glass of wine great but wow I accomplished stuff this weekend great.  The rest of Sunday was spent trying to stay awake relaxing on the couch.

I made a casserole for dinner and will post the recipe this week :-)

What did you get up to on your weekend?

Sxxo.

Friday 4 October 2013

On Friday mornings I always treat myself to a tasty coffee and maybe a breakfast treat... I rarely go to Starbucks because at 7:30am I much prefer a drive thru and the one closest to my house doesn't have one.  Plus I don't really love their breakfasts choices and my coffee house of choice has amazing sausage breakfast sandwiches and to do for french vanilla cappuccinos.

But a few days ago a colleague gave me a coupon for a Starbucks pumpkin spice latte.  I have never had a pumpkin spice latte but every social feed I have has been blowing up since the "PSL" came back in September, and I know people LOVE these things.  Now I'm not a huge pumpkin fan... I don't have pumpkin spice candles (I don't really have any candles, I buy them occasionally and then put them away until I buy another one a go to put it away and find the other candles I bought a year earlier), I have maybe a sliver of pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving but it's covered in whip cream (one of those 'would you like some pie with your whip cream?' scenarios) and it's ok but I really just eat it because I feel like I'm supposed to.  I am however the type of person that doesn't want to be left out of something amazing so I was like, I have to try this pumpkin spice latte and with this coupon to get it for $2 I felt like a force bigger than me was urging me to get one this morning.

So I did.

2013-10-04 08.13.27

Not a fan.

And before any PSL lovers out there attack me, let me just point out that now there is more PSL for you to enjoy!  What really sealed the deal for me was when I took my lid off about half way through (because of course I finished it, it's my Friday treat) and the coffee was orange!  ORANGE!  And it wasn't orange whip cream they were putting on it... so I think I will stick with my white chocolate mochas next time I hit up a Starbucks.

Tonight is a different story, my wine o'clock treat is one of my favourite Gewürztraminers from my favourite winery:

2013-10-04 07.23.27 2013-10-04 07.23.39

Cheers and Happy Friday All!

Sxxo.

Wednesday 2 October 2013

Hump Day Happiness

[caption id="attachment_164" align="alignnone" width="300"]Happy Hump Day! Happy Hump Day![/caption]

It's Wednesday, my fourth favourite day!  My favourite days are as follows:

#1 Saturday - because I get to sleep in, do nothing whatever I want all day, have drinks that afternoon night and still look forward to another day off the next day!  Approximately 10am on Saturday morning is probably my favourite time.  (Does anyone else have a single favourite TIME of the week or am I a little weird?)

#2 Sunday - second sleep in and recovery day off!  And there is always the possibility of a little Sunday Funday!

#3 Friday - I still have to wake up and go to work but I have so much to look forward to starting with wine at wine o'clock (about 7pm to be exact because hubby always makes me drive on our Friday night outings... he drives when we go away and to family dinners and events so I suck it up because I am so not a fan of long distance driving and staying sober at family dinners!).

#4 Thursday - the day before Friday and The Big Bang Theory is on, it runs a close second to Friday for the #3 spot because I love me some TBBT!

#5 Wednesday Hump Day - because when I kiss hubby goodbye in the morning he reminds me that when I get home that night we are more than halfway to the weekend.

And that's about it because Monday and Tuesday really don't even register on my radar and I just focus on getting through them!

It is my night to cook dinner and I usually stress about it (baking I love, cooking I find stressful) but hubby let me take out the last shepherds pie freezer dinner I made in the summer, so into the oven and throw together a salad, easy!

How is your hump day going?

Sxxo.

 

Tuesday 1 October 2013

Super Easy Coconut Macaroons

One of my most enjoyable addictions is Pinterest and I was excited to find a coconut macaroon recipe to try as I have been obsessed with lemon and coconut (together or separate!) desserts lately.  I found this 4 ingredient recipe courtesy of the Pepper Design Blog, click the link for the original recipe.

Ingredients (I was low on coconut so halved the recipe):
3 cups sweetened coconut flakes (I ended up mixing in half unsweetened and they were still yummy!)
1.5 egg whites
1/4 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1/2 cup milk chocolate discs (optional)

2013-09-28 21.50.07

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350° F (our oven cooks really hot so I next time I would preheat to about 325° F) and line cookie trays with  parchment paper and/or cooking spray

2) Whip egg whites, sugar and salt

2013-09-28 21.53.45

3) Add coconut and mix thoroughly

image

4) Use spoon to scoop into mounds on cookie tray (this method didn't work well for me so I scooped them up in my hands and tried to shape them into nice mounds... I really need to work on my form!)

5) Bake for 12-15 minutes (15 minutes was just a bit too long for my first set, 12 minutes worked much better.

6) While the macaroons are baking, melt chocolate to drizzle on top.  I melted the chocolate in a stainless steel bowl placed over a pot of water on medium heat.  Once melted I used a spatula to drizzle on top.

 

image

2013-09-28 22.41.32

 

 

 

Hubby and I both thought these were delicious!! I want to work on the form a little bit so lucky me, I get to make a few more rounds of these!  So quick and easy for a delicious treat.

What coconut recipes have you made?

Sxxo.