Sickness

So I was going to post a new recipe. But then I got sick. And right now, I can't do a good update because I am sitting in a hospital waiting room. My mom was admitted this afternoon for some heart trouble. Waiting to go and see her in the ICU. Love you all and I should get a recipe up soon! For cupcakes. Mmm.

Ttfn!

Do You Like Cinnamon Rolls?

I love cinnamon rolls. They are my favorite guilty pleasure. I can never eat just one. Sometimes not even just two! I don't think there's anything better than a fresh-out-of-the-oven, drizzled-in-icing, ooey-gooey cinnamon roll. But this post isn't about cinnamon rolls.

Whaaaat? No. It's about cookies. The most amazingly deliciously looking cookies I have ever laid eyes on. I will more than likely be making these later on today (as it is 2:00 a.m. right now).


Thanks to the amazing maggiefiasco of Reddit.com, while browsing Reddit and trying to fall asleep, I stumbled across these bad boys. I asked Ms. Maggie (as I will now call her) if I could borrow the recipe she graciously posted as long as I gave her credit. Here is what she said: 

Actually I modified this recipe that I found on this blog, who found it and modified it from another blog, which was adapted from this blog, who doubtless found it somewhere else entirely...
I find that recipes are an endless passing down of knowledge with tweaks along the way. The current incarnation I have published in my previous comment is with my own modifications and additions.

She happens to have a very good point but again I asked if I could use her version. She said sure! So now, I can share this calorie-ridden, guilt-laden, coma-inducing, butter-friendly recipe with all of you lovely people! Yum!


The Dough:

• 1 1/4 c. flour
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 4 T. unsalted, soft butter
• 1/3 c. granulated sugar
• 1/3 c. light brown sugar
• 1 egg white
• 1 tsp. vanilla

The Filling:

• 3 T. maple syrup
• 1/3 c. dark brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

The Glaze:

• 1 c. powdered sugar
• 2 T. milk
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• dash of cinnamon

Directions:

1. Combine the dry ingredients for the dough in a medium sized bowl and bring together with a whisk. Set aside.
2. Cream the butter and sugars together in a large bowl. Add the egg white and vanilla.
3. Add the dry ingredients by thirds, mix until just combined.
4. Roll between two pieces of parchment paper or wax paper to form a 12-inch square. Chill for about 30 minutes.
5. Carefully peel the bottom paper off the dough. Flip the dough and do the same with the other paper. Top the chilled dough with the maple syrup and then sprinkle with the cinnamon and brown sugar.
6. Carefully roll the cookie dough up in a spiral and wrap in plastic wrap. Freeze until firm.
7. Preheat your oven to 350.
8. Slice into 1/4-inch slices and bake on a parchment lined sheet pan for 8-10 minutes. Place the sheet pan on a cooling rack and allow the cookies to cool on the sheet pan for about 10 minutes. Remove them from the sheet pan and continue cooling them on a cooling rack.
9. While the cookies bake, mix together you glaze ingredients. Should be slightly sticky. After cookies have cooled on the sheet, drizzle glaze over them.

Turns out, I had to make a couple of modifications to the directions because the way they were written didn't make sense to me. So the wheel turns...

I hope all of you lovelies enjoy this recipe as much as I'm sure I will! Can't wait to get the ingredients and make them later! But alas, I know I will eat way too many and then I will feel guilty and have to go to the gym. Oh well! Totally worth it!

Oh, and pertaining to the gym thing... On my diet, I have so far lost 10 pounds. I dropped that the first week and then gained some back (had to eat a little fast food) and lost it again. I am hoping to lose a total of 70 pounds by August 3rd. There's a certain event I will be attending that I'd love to wear a bikini for.

I have been taking SlimQuick as well as eating fewer than 1200 calories a day and exercising at a beginner level. As far as I can tell, it's paying off. I feel more energetic and a little stronger honestly. I know I have a long way to go to "healthy" but I already feel so much better than before I started this diet.

I'm really glad I decided to take care of my body but honestly, who could resist a recipe like this?

Again, my credit for this amazing recipe goes to MaggieFiasco. Thanks Ms. Maggie!

Cocoa powder goodness.

Do you ever get a weird craving for things? Today, I had to actually go to the store (in awful weather I might add) just to satisfy an intense craving. I knew I wouldn't be happy 'til I got it.

Brownies. Specifically, a brownie sundae. I was going crazy needing one of these. So off to the store I went to buy cocoa powder and eggs.

I tried out a new recipe actually. While mixing, I was a little worried because the batter was very thick. After eating one of these... oh my goodness. I will definitely be making these again.

Fudge brownies:
   • 1 1/3 cups butter
   • 2 2/3 cups sugar
   • 4 eggs
   • 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
   • 1 cup unsweeted cocoa powder
   • 2 cups flour
   • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
   • 1/2 teaspoon salt
   • Powdered sugar (optional)
Preheat your oven to 350º F. Using a mixer (I used my Kitchen Aid with the batter attachment), cream together your butter and sugar. Add in eggs and vanilla. Blend well on 4. Turn down to 2 and add your dry ingredients, blending well. Grease a 9 x 13 pan and spread your batter in evenly. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out relatively clean. Top with a dusting of powdered sugar (optional).

These brownies were so absolutely delicious that I'm surprised there's still some in the pan. If any of you try them, please let me know how they came out for you.

For the record, I topped my brownie with Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla ice cream, Smucker's Hot Fudge and a maraschino cherry. Yum!!!

Crochet?

Today I decided to start crocheting. I want to make a blanket. So I bought some yarn and a crochet hook and just looked it up online. Now I'm sitting on the couch and already have one and half rows done. I'm happy with it. It looks nice for my first time.

Dog Park Buddies

My two Great Danes love coming out to the park. It's about two miles from my house and we drive down almost every afternoon at 4:00. They normally have a lot of friends here but the weather has been yucky so they only have two friends tonight.
Luna is the black and white one and Bella is the white one that isn't fluffy. Luna is 6 years old and Bella is a year and a half.
So now that the introduction is out of the way, I'd love to share how much my dogs have improved since coming to the park. We've been coming since mid July of 2012.
In just these few months, Luna, who used to have panic attacks every time she got in the car, will jump into the car the second you open a door. She rides without a sound and after a couple of hours of playtime, she'll curl up in the backseat and go to sleep. She runs and plays with the other dogs which has helped her lose a lot of weight. She will walk right by your side without a leash and comes right back if she wanders off and you call her.
Bella is deaf and has been since birth. The only dogs she's ever been around were her littermates and a puppy I had adopted when she was 3 months. So she was very skittish around other dogs and people.
Since bringing her to the dog park, she has learned to play with the dogs. She also comes right up to people and lets them pet her. She even licks some people in the face.

Both the dogs have grown so much from their experience at the park and I'm so proud of how well behaved they are. We even took them out to the mall to get their picture with Santa Paws. That picture is included below. I hope you all had a wonderful day.

Banana Bread Heaven

After getting that first post out of the way, I was trying to figure out what I wanted my first... real (?) post to be about.

And then I smelled banana bread.

Earlier today, I went grocery shopping and bought some fruit. When I went to put some in the fruit bowl, I noticed some over-ripe bananas. After finishing putting away groceries, I pulled out some flour and baking soda and got to work.

Here is my tried and true recipe for the best banana bread I've ever tasted. There are no nuts because, honestly, my family is nuts enough already. My grandma actually first used this recipe and she passed it down to her daughters and my mom passed it to me. I have made one small change. I use a no calorie sweetener to make it a little more diet-friendly. Also, I use my Kitchen Aid Stand mixer but a hand mixer works just as well.

• 3 very ripe bananas (I mean almost completely brown)
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups of flour
• 3/4 cup of sugar (no calorie sweetener)
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of salt

Preheat your oven to 350 F. Using the batter attachment for your mixer, blend the bananas and eggs on setting 4 until they are well blended and runny. Turn the mixer down to 2 and add in flour, sugar, baking soda and salt until well blended. Grease 3 mini loaf pans and pour the batter in, filling about 2/3 of the way. Place in the oven and bake for an hour.

My favorite way to serve this bread is warm with some homemade honey butter. If you've ever been to a Texas Roadhouse, you know what this deliciousness is. So here is a bonus recipe for the best butter in the world.

• 2 sticks of room temperature butter (preferably salted)
• 1 cup of powdered sugar
• 1 cup of honey (I use clover honey but it really doesn't matter)
• 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon (or more if you're like me and love cinnamon)

Using the whisk attachment for your mixer, whip the butter until it's fluffy. I used setting 4 for this. Then add your powdered sugar and blend well (still at 4). Throw in your honey and cinnamon (5 points if you hit the bowl from the opposite side of the kitchen! Just kidding. Don't literally throw it in. Honey isn't fun to clean up.) and turn the speed down to 2. Let it blend for about a minute then scrape the sides down and blend some more. You can leave this butter out on the counter or store it in the fridge. It's easy to spread if it's left out.

It took me forever to get this recipe right. I knew about the honey and cinnamon but the powdered sugar was what stumped me. I tried regular sugar and that was... not pleasant. Finally, when my friend and I made cornbread one day and decided to try this recipe again, she got the idea to used powdered sugar. And I was like, oh. DUH! And have been making it ever since. Sometimes I cut the recipe in half; it depends on what I'm using it for.

I already have some of this delicious butter made up so, please enjoy this post while I enjoy a nice slice of banana bread, fresh from the oven!

My First Post!

So this is my very first blog, which makes this my very first blog post! In this blog, I will be covering what happens on a normal day in my life. There will be recipes, fitness tips, beauty reviews and probably lots of other random things. Because my life is pretty random. And I love it. I wouldn't change the course of my life for anything.