Girl's Night

I had a much needed girl’s night with some of my girlfriends Saturday night.  We kicked back, relaxed, watched Bridesmaids, ate some yummy sweets, and celebrated one of the girl’s birthday!!

My friend Allison and I ventured out to Panera to have a light dinner so we would have lots of room for treats.  I love Panera and have become sort of a creature of habit getting a Greek salad and Mediterranean veggie sandwich.   It was my friend Amber’s birthday so we wanted to stop and get her a cake (even though we had plenty of goodies back home) because who doesn’t love birthday cake?  Well all the birthday themed cakes were HUGE so we finally found a few smaller sized round cakes, but they were a fall harvest theme.  We did the best we could with it and Allison decorated it once we got back to my house:

 It was definitely the thought that counts here!!

Bridesmaids was good, but not in a what I expected kind of way.  I am a die hard fan of The Hangover and it was a little weird to me to see this kind of crude humor coming from girls.

I tried a new recipe I found on SkinnyTaste for meringue cookies and they turned out to be delicious! More on the chewy side verses crunchy, which I really liked!

Black and White Chocolate Chip Clouds:

3 large egg whites (room temperature)

1/8 tsp cream of tartar

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

Heat oven to 300°F. Cover cookie sheet with nonstick silicone pad or parchment paper (I used a silicone pad and it worked wonderfully)

Using a mixer, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar together in large bowl at high speed until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar a little at a time, then vanilla, beating well after each addition until you get stiff peaks, the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is glossy.

Fold in chocolate chips. Drop mixture by tablespoons onto cookie sheet:

Bake 35 to 45 minutes or just until dry:

Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet. Cool completely on wire rack. Store covered, at room temperature.

Makes about 30 cookies

My friend Allison brought something she called pumpkin fluff (which I would personally call pumpkin crack because it was so yummy).  I recreated it last night--I haven’t tried it yet, but I brought it for a snack today with graham crackers.

Pumpkin Fluff:

1 can pure pumpkin puree

1 container fat free coolwhip

1 box sugar free/fat free cheesecake pudding mix.

Defrost the coolwhip in the refrigerator then mix all the ingredients together until well combined.  This made a little over 5 1/2 cup servings.

And since I am on a pumpkin kick I thought I would mention that Betty Crocker has a new seasonal cookie mix called Pumpkin Spice (Allison brought these over too and they were awfully good with the pumpkin fluff).  I picked up a bag at Target the other day after work to have on hand. 

Favorite Things--August Edition

I have decided to do a new post at the end of each month that recaps some of my favorite things for that month.  Obviously I am a little late on the August edition, but that is just because I thought of it last night :)

#1 Luna Chocolate Dipped Coconut Bars

These bars are delicious!!  I have loved every flavor of Luna bar that I have ever tried, but these are slowly becoming one of my favorites!  I am trying to eat less processed foods, but I still think these are great to be able to grab quickly for breakfast or a hearty snack.

#2 Lacroix Coconut Flavored Sparkling Water

Do you see a recurring theme here? I love all things coconut!!  When it comes to sparkling water I love Lacroix for a treat :) I have tried several flavors, but was super excited to try the coconut after seeing it mentioned online one day.  I found it at Target where all the other water is located.  It comes in a brown Lacroix box with 8 cans.  I found this to be the perfect summer afternoon treat to enjoy while I was sitting outside catching some rays and reading!

#3 Silk Dark Chocolate Pure Almond Milk

 I had tried Silk a few times before they came out with Almond Milk and discovered that their chocolate soy milk was pretty tasty.  I have also tried Blue Diamond Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk and found it to be delicious as well, but I started back using regular skim milk to get added calcium benefit.  While I was shopping at Kroger one day I saw this new dark chocolate almond milk by Silk saying that it had 50% more calcium than milk.  I first bought the individual 8oz servings

which came as a pack of 4 to try before buying a large carton.  I love it!!  And if you go to the website it looks like there is a coupon available (I haven't tried it so I don't know for sure).  I love this after a workout or in the evening as an after dinner treat!


I hope you enjoyed seeing my favorite things and maybe you will find a new favorite too :)  Leave me a comment about your favorite things!

College Football....Cheering for UT?!?

One of my good friends from a previous job invited me over this past Saturday to watch the University of Tennessee game.  I am not really a UT fan, not because I don't like them, but just in general.  I am a NC State fan through and through (GO PACK!!)  In an effort to spread some team cheer I found a super cute UT shirt at Target Friday afternoon:

And for your viewing pleasure here I am wearing it Saturday afternoon:

I also told my friend that I would make some sort of goodie and bring it over to have during the game!  I tried to think of a cute way to incorporate football and UT so I decided to make orange cupcakes with white frosting and an orange T.

Slightly healthier cupcakes:

1 box of moist style yellow cupcakes
1c no sugar added applesauce
1c water

Mix all the ingredients together in a medium sized bowl.  The batter was slightly yellowish at this point.  I decided to mix red and yellow gel food coloring together to achieve the orange color batter I was thinking about....it ended up more peach:

I filled each muffin tin up pretty full (the box says it makes 24 cupcakes and this version online said 12) and made 12 cupcakes that were quite large.  Next time I may make them smaller and see how many I come up with.  Bake at 350 degrees for the time suggested on the box.  I was actually impressed with the color once they were cooked:

They definitely turned out more orange than peach which was a good thing.  Using applesauce in place of eggs and oil makes the cupcakes extra moist!  I frosted each cupcake with a little whipped vanilla frosting and drew a T on each with some orange decorating gel (which I found in the Halloween section of Target):

I think they turned out really cute and everyone seemed to enjoy them during the game Saturday!

On A Smoothie Kick

Even before my new blender purchase I have been on a smoothie kick thanks to my new training plan complete with a meal makeover.  I find that adding protein powder to my smoothies really helps keep me full until lunch without being too heavy (now if only I could find a way to use up my cookies and cream protein powder....anyone have any suggestions?)

Strawberry Banana Smoothie:
  
1c skim milk
Aria vanilla protein powder (2 level scoops)
Frozen banana
5 whole frozen strawberries

This was my last smoothie with the immersion blender before switching to my new Ninja and I was really worried about using whole strawberries.  It took awhile to blend, but ended up being nice, thick and icy.  I think it worked the immersion blender a little more than I would like to normally so I think I will be sticking to the Ninja from now on.  Using frozen fruit works well in smoothie in place of whole pieces of ice!

Orange and Berry Smoothie:

1 and 1/2 cups orange juice (I used Simply Orange....well, simply because I love it)
Frozen mixed berries
Aria vanilla protein powder

I had gotten 2 of the small bottles of simply orange juice at Target the other day when I had a coupon and was trying to think of a creative way to use them up when it hit me try it in a smoothie.  I wasn't sure how the protein powder would work, but according to Google protein powder does well mixed with juice.  This was my 2nd adventure with my new Ninja and I will admit I had a bit of a mishap.  I put all the ingredients (I originally used 1c OJ) in the blender and went ahead and added about 4 ice cubes to make it nice and icy.  I didn't really think about having the frozen berries in there already so the added ice made it really thick.  I ended up adding another 1/2c of OJ, which made it just right.  I think 1c would have been ok without any additional ice.  This smoothie is another favorite of mine that I look forward to making again!

Pseudo-Banana Ice Cream:

I have a rather large sweet tooth that I am trying to work on so in my meal planning last week I tried to come up with some treats, but make them a little more healthy.  In an effort I came up with a pseudo ice cream of sorts.  I blended a frozen banana with 1c skim milk and 2 tablespoons of Hershey's Light Syrup.  I did not add any additional ice, but I'm sure adding it would just make it more ice cream like.  It was a nice treat without all the fat and calories of traditional ice cream :)

Pumpkin Pie...In A Glass?

I was browsing online and I saw several people mention making pumpkin smoothies and since I am on a smoothie kick recently I thought I would give it a try.

Pumpkin Pie Smoothie:

1c skim milk

1/2c pure pumpkin (I used Libby’s)

2 level scoops of vanilla protein powder

Pumpkin Pie spice

The first time I made it that is all I used because I was using my immersion blender and I didn’t want to use ice.  While it was good, it was not really that thick.  Friday I went to Target and studied the blenders for quite awhile and finally decided to get a Ninja Professional Blender for an early birthday present (PS: it is on sale this week at Target for $20 off).  Apparently the wattage is what matters when attempting to blend ice and the Ninja has 1000 watts---so far it has worked amazingly well and I am super glad I bought it.

So Saturday morning I got out the new blender to try it.  I used all the same ingredients, but added about 5 whole ice cubes.  Wow! What a difference.  The smoothie was thick and frothy and the ice made it seem like I was having more smoothie than before!

I am really loving all the smoothies I have been making recently and the addition of protein powder really helps me stay full until lunch time.  I either don’t have a snack before lunch or have an apple to help tide me over!

Pasta Salad and a Morning Smoothie

Orzo Pasta Salad

1/3c (dry) orzo

1 tbsp olive oil

¼ reduced fat feta cheese (I used Athenos brand) **I don’t recommend the fat free—it just doesn’t taste good

½ c sliced grape tomatoes

Salt and pepper to taste

Cook the orzo according to package directions in salted water (I used the time for al dente and it was great).  Once the pasta is cooked and drained I mixed it together with the feta cheese, olive oil, tomatoes, and pepper. 

This makes 1 serving, but I usually make 2 servings at a time and go ahead and divide them each up in a Tupperware container so I can grab them for lunch the next couple of days.  I eat this pasta salad cold, but I am sure it would be good warmed up too. 

(**One of my friends suggested making a vinaigrette with the olive oil and balsamic vinegar, but I haven’t tried that yet)

Chocolate Banana Smoothie

I have a new trainer at the gym and after looking at my food journal she has made several suggestions to my menu that I am trying to incorporate.  One is to have some protein at breakfast so I decided to try to make a morning smoothie using protein powder.  I tried this a while ago, but my protein powder was cookies and cream flavored, which doesn’t really lend itself to a yummy mixing of ingredients.

I got some Aria chocolate protein powder yesterday at Kroger.  It is reasonably priced and has about 16 servings per container (1 serving=2 level scoops).  I wasn’t sure how my immersion blender would handle ice so instead I sliced bananas and froze each banana to act as the ice component in my smoothie.  

For the smoothie I used:

2 level scoops of Aria chocolate protein powder

1c skim milk

1 frozen banana

1tbsp whipped peanut butter

I mixed everything together with my immersion blender and it was delicious.  3 hours later I am still full :)

I got some frozen strawberries, which I am excited to try as well.  I also saw a post online that mentioned using pure pumpkin puree to make a smoothie.  I think it would be ok with the chocolate, but I might invest in the vanilla flavor as well to have more options.