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The May Vacation

5 Jun

A cat in a booster seat.

A playboy bunny image made out of snow.

A lot of Tim Hortons.

A carnival in transport.

A couple stops at Peter’s Drive In.

A best friend’s wedding.

And of course…food. Lots and lots of yummy food.

Those are but a glimpse of what made up my little May vacation.

I drove one province over to attend, and take part in!, my best friend’s wedding. I say “I” but it was really “we” since I go nowhere without the cat. He spent his 13 hours in a booster seat designed for dogs (don’t tell him that!) because there is a serious lack of travel items designed for cats.

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Silent protest – something he is very very good at!

Sidenote: if anybody has start up money and wants to invest, I have some great ideas for a range of products to make travelling with your cat easier, lol.

Back to the trip!

On the way there we saw pieces of a carnival being transported who knows where, a muffin disaster at a Tim Hortons in Golden BC, a Playboy Bunny logo made out of snow on a mountain, oh, and there were a couple escape attempts by the cat when silent protest was deemed too calm of a way to show his displeasure.

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I have been trying oh so hard for six months or so to not screw up so I would be able to fit in my bridesmaids dress and yay me, I fit! I did however get so caught up in the day I forgot to get a full length picture of me in the dress, sigh. So the best you’re gonna get is this selfie…

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Gratuitous selfie.

I’m not going to share pics of the wedding, because well, that would be a lot of people to track down to ask if they are ok with their pics going on this blog and ain’t nobody got time for that! πŸ˜‰ Rest assured, it was beautiful. It was an outdoor ceremony at a mansion, pictures were done on location and also in an area with a great city view as the background. The reception was in a hall that I and others helped decorate the day prior. I gotta say, my friend is quite the savvy shopper. She got the place looking exactly how she wanted without breaking the bank.

Instead of a wedding cake there were doughnuts from some fancy bakery. Brilliant idea if you ask me!

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I didn’t actually get to eat my doughnut, *pout*, as a drunk groomsman took it out of my hand as I was about to take a bite and ate it. Ate my doughnut. The doughnut that belonged to a lady who’d be dieting for 6 months. I’m impressed I didn’t jump him like a crazed animal.

Instead I ate a slice of pizza, that was second dinner, and oh my god was it goooood! Handmade crust by the caterer that was hired, seriously best crust I’ve ever had. I ended up eating a couple bites from three different slices, which makes me sound like a jerk but it is actually that the servers were just too darn efficient.

See, I had a slice, took one bite, someone was all “you’ve got to come dance!”, so I put the pizza down (on a plate I mean), went and danced, and when I came back it was gone. So like any normal person I used this as an opportunity to try a different kind of pizza, grabbed a new slice, took a bite, and basically the same thing happened, except I think it was me that was all “I love this song, I must dance!”, and yeah, when I got back the rest of my slice was gone. Not to be thwarted I grabbed a third slice, ate the crust first (the crust is the best part and I’d not managed to eat any of it yet lol), had a couple bites of the part of the slice that had toppings, and then threw it out so I could go dance.

Have you figured out yet that I like to dance? πŸ˜‰

I decided in total that equals to me eating one full slice, right?

I spent the day after the wedding wanting to die lol Hung over and sun stroked, my poor body was having none of it and I basically slept the day away on my parent’s couch. Aren’t I such a stellar example of being a grown-up! lol

Once I was feeling better things were pretty normal for one of my trips there. Visited with friends. Did some shopping. Chilled with the parents.

Granted, there was the day where a slice of cheesecake was both my breakfast and lunch which was pretty awesome…

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From the Spinelli Italian Centre Shop. Go there. It’s worth it!

But ya know, other than cheesecake overload things were pretty normal.

The return trip was fairly uneventful. The cat and I finished our audio book, he didn’t seem at all surprised by the ending. πŸ˜‰ We got a milkshake at Peter’s Drive In, which if you are ever in the vicinity of Calgary AB you must must must go to Peter’s.

Best. Milkshakes. Ever.

And no, I didn’t get a picture, I was too busy driving and drinking the milkshake to take one. πŸ˜›

We got home super late, I took care of essentials – like putting the milk and wine in the fridge and having a shower, then we crawled in to bed where we both slept the way only travel weary people and cats can. I woke up briefly around 10 am (we went to bed at 4am so no judging!), looked at the time, said “nope”, rolled back over and went back to sleep. The cat didn’t even bother to wake up, he just stayed asleep until I got up at 3pm. Neither of us care for the whole waking up part of our day, we are well matched like that lol πŸ˜›

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We wake up under protest, daily.

There ya have it! Our little road trip sadly is over, but we have memories and pictures, and a little more body fat, to remind us of all the fun we had. We are both back to routine, me with my two jobs and dragon boat practices, he with all his cat chores. The only big thing that is a constant reminder of the trip is the suitcase I still haven’t put away but I’m determined to do that tomorrow!…says the woman who has been putting it off for 6 days…ah well, it’ll get done eventually! πŸ™‚

Cherry Chocolate Trifle

13 May

I experimented on some friends a week or so ago and made them Cherry Chocolate Trifle. It was a spur of the moment thing, mostly I came up with it because I needed to do something with a bunch of left over chocolate cake.

The cake was also a bit of an experiment…what can I say, I was in an experimenting kind of mood, shrug.

So the trifle!

I’ve never made a trifle without alcohol in it but the only alcohol I have ever used in a chocolate trifle is either Baileys or Kaluha and since I don’t like either of those, nor have them on hand, these trifles ended up being non-alcoholic.

I ripped the left over chocolate cake in to small-ish pieces then mixed in cherry pie filling. This is normally where the alcohol would be added, instead I just used all the cherry pie filling, which full disclosure, I was lazy and bought a can of pie filling instead of making some. Hey, don’t judge! We’ve probably all been there at some point!

Once the pie filling and cake are well and truly mixed I put equal amounts in to these clear plastic cups I had on hand. I bought them from the dollar store for a different layered dessert I was going to try and commandeered them for this instead. You could put the entire cake & pie combo in to a large serving dish, preferably one with clear sides so the layers can be viewed, but I wanted these to be easy for my friends to take home, hence the individual cups.

The next layer is chocolate pudding – fairly self-explanatory.

The final layer is whipped cream, which yes I whipped myself, I didn’t buy the stuff in the can or use cool whip. Not that I am dissing cool whip, I love the stuff! I know that not everybody does though so I went with whipping cream instead, seemed easier, even though I swear eons pass while you are beating the stupid stuff and turning it in to, ya know, whipped cream.

I was going to finely chop some chocolate and sprinkle it on top of the whipped cream, more for the visual than taste, but I was running late (thanks to how long it takes to whip the cream!) so it didn’t get done. Ah well, not everything can be perfect every time!

I forgot to take any pictures of the final product so my amazing friend kindly sent me a couple that she took. It is hard to see the different layers, but trust me, they are there! The feedback from all who ate it was two thumbs up, so I’m labeling it a keeper!

I would say don’t make your A-Level chocolate cake when doing this trifle, after all, the cake gets mixed with so many other things it stops being the main part of the dessert and becomes one of many parts. One of many yummy parts. Mmm! πŸ˜‰

Oh, and in case it didn’t work out I made my A-Level chocolate cake for the same night…and not to be all braggy or anything but it turned out amazing, as it always does. For such a delish cake it sure has an easy recipe…which is probably one of the reasons I love it so much lol I however didn’t have anything summery to decorate it with so the red and green sprinkles got pulled out and well, made it look a bit Christmas-y. Ah well, who says you can’t channel some Christmas vibes in May? Not me! After all, there are only 226 days until Christmas (as of May 13th)…not that I’m counting or anything. πŸ˜‰

A Little Recap

26 Apr

Now you may be thinking because I haven’t posted in a little bit I have fallen off the wagon in regards to the fitness challenge I am in, you my friends would be wrong!

It’s so nice to be able to write that cause let’s be honest, it is so easy to say yes to a challenge and after a week kinda slack off. I think in part I am sticking with it because (1) I made up the challenge, and (2) there is an end goal of looking good in that bridesmaid’s dress…vanity can be a great motivator! πŸ˜‰

Since I last wrote my team (I compete in dragon boating) won bronze in Division A at a regatta. πŸ™‚Β  It was this particular regattas first year and it went really well. I don’t mean it went well because we won a medal *rolls eyes* but that the regatta was run well. It went smoothly, no real glitches to be had…that I know of anyways lol They were rushing the races to get as many of them done before the afternoon as possible because afternoon water conditions were less than ideal due to lower tide levels than normal for this time of year. Our last race of the day was in choppier water but I kinda liked it, made it more fun! And yes, I know I’m a bit of an odd ball lol

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The Twisted Hips, 2018 Roster

The medals are definitely original. Normally they are made of metal but this regatta, in honour of the races being held on Earth Day, hand crafted the medals out of three types of wood. So one person made all the medals, by hand, in his basement…we know this because he was reminding everyone all day lol

Then it was back to normal life for a couple days before a little overnight trip to Whistler. Yay for it being late enough in the season it is no longer law to need snow tires to drive up there! πŸ™‚

I went with a bunch of friends, we all went up at different times based on our schedules. So I got there about a half hour before two people had to leave, which kinda sucked, but the majority of the group was still there so it all worked out in the end.

My FitBit was very happy on Wednesday, with all the walking to the Village and around the Village (twice!) and my quick gym session, I got a hella lot of steps. And we all know FitBit owners live to make their FitBit’s happy lol Proof that even when in Whistler you can keep to a fitness challenge!

It was a pretty chill trip, one of our group is moving away (lame!) so we did this trip to give us all a chance to hang out before she leaves. It was mostly spent playing board games, lounging by the pool (that part didn’t include me since I’d burn in a stupid short amount of time, sigh), going to the Village to shop and eat dinner, and I dunno, just being in each other’s company.

Both the bear and the scenic picture were taken on the walk to the Village. The sign the bear is holding basically says please don’t feed me, or my cubs, and keep your dog on a leash..just ya know, in a cuter way lol It was so sunny and summery and lovely, I took a picture of the river? Creek? The water, I’ll just call it water, but my picture doesn’t do it justice. There are chairs set up on both sides so you can just sit and enjoy being there…which I actually didn’t do because well, we were on our way to the Village so we were going somewhere and also, I don’t voluntarily sit out in the sun, that would be the equivalent of me putting a target on my back and daring the UV rays to come get me. πŸ˜›

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The sheep are too cute!

This is purely a picture of cuteness…especially the sheep on the right side. They are bombs, which I don’t actually know what that is, some sort of chocolate something or other, I just wanted to share the cute. πŸ™‚

And lastly, a picture of me touching snow, who’d of thought you’d see the day! πŸ˜‰

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In case you’re thinking it mush be sort of chilly because I am wearing a long sleeve top, no-no, I am wearing long sleeves as sun protection…hence the hat! It is easier to wear long sleeves than reapply sunscreen every hour and a half, and less messy, so I spend a lot of the sunny months in long sleeves. But forget the clothes, look at the snow! It was so odd, the snow ends right at the cement, it is on the hills for the snowboarders and skiers but nowhere else. Kind of a random thing to see…I’m used to seeing snow covering everything – when I do see it that is.

Besides my fun random days I’ve been going to dragon boat practice, hitting up the gym, taking walks, all sorts of things to keep up with the 44 Day Fitness Challenge. There are only 30 days left!…not that I’m panicking about that or anything… πŸ˜‰

Day 43 – Protein Smoothie Bowl

13 Apr

Before you ask, yes I will be posting updates randomly about my 44 Day Fitness Challenge here. Why? Well, I have to be held accountable somewhere, because if you think I can hold myself accountable and not cheat you obviously don’t know me very well lol πŸ˜‰

Day 2 in the bag! Or day 43…whichever way you want to count it. Down. Up. It is all the same to me!

Today was a gym session after work, leg day! I always forget other people go out and have social lives on Friday nights. When I get to my gym there are always a decent number of vehicles parked there and I internally start to bitch about how many people are going to be in the gym at 10pm but then I walk inside and there are maaaaybe 6 people? And that is a generously high number. Which is when I realize that the parking area is also used by people going to nearby pubs. Oops?

I mean c’mon, who wants to go to a pub when you can go to the gym? On a Friday night. Almost like you have no social life or something. Ok never mind, this is gonna go dark fast if I don’t start blabbing about something else lol

Protein Smoothie Bowl!

protein smoothie bowl

Granted, not the prettiest looking food item I’ve ever posted on here. But I’m sure it isn’t the ugliest…maybe…

It is a scoop of protein powder, 1 cup frozen mixed berries, 1 small banana, and a tablespoon or so of plain almond milk. Blend until it hits a consistency you like, I prefer thicker so I’m eating it with a spoon rather than making it a drink. This way I can pretend I’m eating ice cream, only ya know, not as tasty.Β  Aww man, now I want ice cream! But even I, with my special quirky ways of interpreting things, can’t find a way to make ice cream an acceptable post workout meal. Too bad though, cause that would be an awesome post workout meal…don’t mind me while I daydream about ice cream for a minute…

Ok, done! For now at least lol

So yeah, two days sorted, only 42 more to go! πŸ™‚

 

44 Days

12 Apr

44 days until I put on a bridesmaid’s dress and celebrate my best friend’s big day.

44 days.

That is not a lot of time to magically improve myself so I look ok in that dress. And yet, if I was counting down to vacation and it was 44 days away I’d be moaning about how far away that is.

Funny how your perspective can change huh?

Now I know that the big day is not about me, and I should only be thinking of her and how much I want it to be awesome for her. But let’s be real here for a sec ok? I’m vain and I want to look good in that dress lol and so while a big part of me is focusing on how she is getting married and I want it to be amazing another part of me is wondering if it is a realistic goal to have 44 workouts in the next 44 days.

In case you’re wondering, I think it is a realistic goal.

I used to make challenges, or find challenges online and follow them. I’ve done 30 day fitness challenges, I’ve done “Lose a Pant Size By (insert date here)”, I’ve done Paleo challenges, I’ve done seasonal fitness and food challenges. Basically, name a challenge and I have either already done it or am up for trying it. But I haven’t made my own challenge in quite a while. The most recent one I took part in was the “100 Squats a Day for 30 Days”, which in case you’re wondering about that, I did it, it was fine. I squat a lot anyways so it wasn’t that hard of a challenge for me. In fact I’m doing a second round of it because a friend wanted to do it and I decided to do it again so she’d have a squatting buddy. Which sounds weird when typed or spoken out loud lol

While sitting here ruminating over the realization that the wedding is only 44 days away I realized I needed a plan. A concrete, have goals and a way to meet those goals, plan. I was recently reminded that having vague goals in terms of fitness (or anything else) doesn’t really work. You need a way to measure your progress towards reaching your goal so you can modify your plan along the way, giving you a better chance at achieving your plan, hitting the mark, grabbing your star, whatever cliche works for you… πŸ˜‰

So, I made a plan. And because I like visuals I made a tracker to put on my fridge. It isn’t anything special, just a 3 column, 15 row, chart that counts down from 44 to the day of the wedding. Each box has enough space for the number of days left, and room for me to write what workout I did that day. I also left space to make a comment about my eating for that day. Not enough space to list my food or anything, just enough space to make a comment about if I did well food wise. I suppose I could put my caloric intake there, be better able to track if my eating is matching my activity levels…I dunno, we’ll see what I do there. Mostly it is to track my workouts because I feel I’ve been dropping the ball with those lately and need something to help motivate me.

I pre-filled out my dragon boat workouts, because those are a given, and certain gym days that I always do. The rest of the days will be a combination of extra gym days and other workouts, so maybe one day I do a workout dvd, or go for a hike, or I dunno, walk the seawall. I’m not creating set-in-stone rules for what constitutes a workout, I feel that would be too limiting, and I want to leave room to listen to my body and what it wants. If I say only going to the gym counts as a workout but I have a day I can’t get there I don’t want to feel like my dragon boat practice, or a long walk, or even some body weight work at home, doesn’t count, or worse, is a failure, when it is in fact still a workout.

I’m trying to be less rigid in my definition of what counts as a workout…I don’t know how well I’ll manage it, but I’m gonna try!

Something I think I should do though is create an overall workout plan, so X number of leg days, X number of shoulder & back & arm days, X number of cardio sessions a week, that way I know that even with my broader interpretation of what counts as a workout I am still getting in a certain number of sessions per muscle group so my odds of hitting my goal increase.

Which, speaking of my goal, I do have them, goals beyond just fitting in the dress better I mean lol They are quantifiable, can be tracked and measured, and my progress towards them will be tracked and measured over the next 44 days. And if I don’t quite make it to those goals in time for the wedding, well, I’ll keep working on them, because ultimately I suppose it isn’t really about fitting in that dress (though part of it is!), so much as it is about getting in better shape and feeling better about myself.

So if anyone wants to join the challenge, feel free! I know 44 days will seem an arbitrary number to anyone not counting down to this specific wedding, so feel free to alter the number to your own deadline. Think of it as a very customizable challenge – pick your length of time, pick what you think counts as a workout, and commit to one workout a day for the length of time you chose.

Remember, success is 10% physical and 90% mental, it’s not your body that is tired and wants to quit, it is your brain and you thinking you can’t keep going. So keep going. Push farther than you think you can go, to prove to yourself you can keep going, and next time it’ll be a little easier and you’ll be able to go a little farther.

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If a meme says it, it must be true.Β 

Triple Berry Cobbler

25 Mar

Last week I went to a pot luck and me being me I took a dessert.

The only rules were not to bring too large of a dish as it was a smaller sized gathering and to bring something healthy.

A healthy dessert. That soooo isn’t how I bake lol One of the other people going suggested cobbler and that was the end of my hunt for a food idea. Of course it immediately started a hunt for a new recipe, but hey, who doesn’t like scouring through recipe ideas online until they find the right one?

I didn’t want to spend a lot on fruit, unfortunately for me it is not optimal fruit season so all fruit is expensive, all fruit except frozen! Well, to be fair some frozen fruit is stupid expensive, it should be illegal how much I spend on one bag of frozen raspberries. *sigh* WalMart came to my rescue though and I was able to buy a bag of frozen berries in a family pack size, which means I now have frozen berries for the rest of my life…or a month or so…ya know, if you want to get technical. πŸ˜‰

The recipe I found is from Pinterest and is specifically for frozen berries. Yay for cobbler recipes that are specifically for frozen berries! Way to make my life easier lol

I’ll leave a link to the original site but fair warning, her post goes on forever about her dog and school and vacation and omg it takes her ages to get to the recipe *rolls eyes* To save you scrolling through all that I’ll write the recipe here…says the lady who wrote forever about potlucks and online recipe searches πŸ˜›

Berry Filling:

4 cups frozen mixed berries, not thawed

3 Tablespoons granulated sugar

3 Tablespoons all purpose flour

zest from one lemon

pinch of salt

Oat Crumble Topping:

1 Cup old fashioned rolled oats

1/2 Cup brown sugar

6 Tablespoons all purpose flour

1/2 Cup salted butter, cold, cut in to small cubes

The Deets:

Preheat oven to 350C

Make the berry filling by combining all ingredients and tossing.

In a separate bowl make the oat crumble by combining all ingredients. Use your fingers to pinch the butter and incorporate it with the dry ingredients. Keep pinching and mixing together with your hands until evenly combined. You will have some pea sized pieces of butter in the mixture, that’s ok.

Pour the berry filling in to a 1-1/2 quart baking dish (or 8×8 baking dish, a pie baking dish, basically anything that can go in the oven). Top with the oat crumble topping, and spread to an even layer.

Bake uncovered until the berry filling is bubbling, and the oat crumble is golden brown, about 1 hour.

Let cool for 1 hour before serving. Serve at room temp with ice cream. It will keep covered at room temp for about 3 days…if it isn’t all eaten by then.

The berry mixture I used had strawberries, blackberries and blueberries but really, you can use whatever fruit you want.

I’d love to be able to tell you how this dish turned out but I didn’t actually get to eat any of it. I had to leave before we got to the dessert section of the evening so I left it with the group and crossed fingers it was edible. I did tell them to feel free to compost it if they wanted, I wouldn’t be offended.

I got a text later that night that all but one serving was gone and three people were eyeing it and by the next day I had a text saying it was gone. I guess it can’t be all that bad if it was eaten in under 24 hours lol

I baked it the day before, let it get to room temperature for an hour than covered it and put it in the fridge over night. We left it on the counter at the party so it could come back up to room temp but I’m sure you could warm it in an oven so you could serve it warm with some ice cream melted on top, yum!

It was super easy to make, which means I’ll probably end up baking one again, if only so I can try a piece!

 

Here is the link to the original recipe:

Easy Triple Berry Crumble Recipe (with Frozen Berries!)

Hello Quiche

13 Mar

Say hello to my newest kitchen creation, quiche!

quiche

Granted, not the best pictures out there of quiche, but they could be worse, theoretically lol

I did some googling and found multiple recipes for single serving quiche, hey now, don’t judge, some of us are single and cooking for one.

They all seemed to be pretty much the same. Sure some had you making your own crust from scratch, while others had you not using any crust, and the fillings got swapped out, but the general base of it seemed pretty standard and lucky for me, easy to copy.

I didn’t feel like making my own crust and was going to make the crust-less version only but this is me, and why do one thing when you can do two?

The mix, batter, filling, I don’t know what to call it, the quiche part? That is made up of:

2 eggs and 2 Tablespoons of milk whisked together, oh and add whatever seasonings you want before whisking…I put in dill and pepper.

Add 2 to 4 Tablespoons of stuff, by stuff I mean any combo of veggie, meat, and cheese you so desire. I did a mixture of diced super tiny orange pepper, diced super tiny mushroom, light marble cheese, and minced garlic.

Once it is all mixed together either evenly distribute it between tart shells or pour in to a greased (I sprayed with Pam) oven safe dish (I used my mini Corningware), and pop it in the oven at 375C for 20 to 30 minutes. My oven took 20 minutes and it was not quite at 375C, more like the halfway point between 350C and 375C. I was worried about the temperature because according to the tart shell box they should be baked at a lower temp for a shorter amount of time and I had visions of burning them and once again setting off my smoke detector. *rolls eyes*

Oh, so just to clarify, one combo of the above mixture was used in my mini Corningware, and a separate batch filled the 5 tarts.

When the timer beeped and I took them all out of the oven I realized I had no idea how to tell if a quiche is done so I poked it with a cake tester and it came out clean. Then I realized how stupid that is so I googled lol Google, and a friend I happened to be texting with at the time, both said if it doesn’t jiggle then it is done so I gave them all a good shake, decided I didn’t see any jiggling and declared them perfect.

The quiche mixture in the tart shells was super poofy when I first took them out of the oven but they flattened quickly, the mixture in the dish might have poofed as well but the flattening maybe wasn’t as obvious because it is in a dish and it was never higher than the edges, that and I was so distracted by the tart shell versions I kinda ignored the one in the dish lol

In case you were wondering, it turns out I make pretty decent quiche. πŸ˜‰ I ate one of the tart versions and the egg mixture was light, and fluffy, and quite good. I forgot to put the diced turkey in there, which I only clued in to once I was tasting one of them, oops! Guess that means I’ll hafta make them again and try a new combo of ingredients, such a hard life! πŸ˜‰

I was trying to find a link to my mini Corningware in case anyone was wanting one for themselves, I find them incredibly useful when cooking…course that could be a single girl thing lol…but I can’t find them on Amazon so instead here is a link to a simple Corningware 7 ounce ramekin which I think would also be pretty good for making a quiche in. If you click on the picture it should take you to the Amazon page where you can read the deets about them.

A Little Bran

3 Mar

Bran muffins, I love em! I never make them, but I love em. When they are warm, fresh from the oven, ripped in half with a bit of butter melting on the soft middle. Mmm!

Since I love them, and most of the ones you find for sale have raisins in them, and I hate raisins more than any other food on the planet, I figured why not bake some?

I asked my mom for her recipe, and she sent me three. I had, unfortunately, already found one online before she sent her three so I stuck with the one I found, figured I’d give it a try, and next time I bake a batch I’ll try one of hers.

Really, I should have just tried one of her recipes, mom’s always know best, am-I-right?

It isn’t that there was anything wrong with the bran muffins, they just weren’t amazing, they didn’t live up to my expectation. They were a bit dry, kinda bland, I guess they perfectly fit the stereotype of a bran muffin…you know, created by those poor souls who have never gotten to eat a good bran muffin.

This recipe had such potential, sigh. I’m thinking that I should have replaced the raisins with some other fruit. The recipe clearly said I didn’t have to add the raisins and it would be fine…I think it lied to me…rude! πŸ˜‰

I won’t actually type out the recipe, since it didn’t turn out all that great, but I will bore you with some pictures of the finished product…

Ignore the different colours of the muffins, that is my poor kitchen lighting lol

Something fun that came from this little bran muffin experiment was that I got to use this lovely new tool…

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My new fave gadget!

I got this for Christmas and I love it! I’ve wanted one for a while but couldn’t justify buying one. I could of course justify putting it on my Christmas wish list! lol

So far I’ve used it for scooping cookie dough and the bran muffins and it is perfect. Everything being the same size without as much eye balling as in the past, I’m getting much more uniform batches of baked goods. Which is probably making you non-bakers roll your eyes but to me it matters. πŸ˜›

I believe the above one is from Michael’s, but don’t quote me on that. I found the same one, Wilton brand, on Amazon.ca and have put a picture just below. If you click on the picture it will direct you to the item on Amazon so you can check it out and purchase if you so desire.

So yeah, Bran Muffins: 1, Me: 0. But never fear! I will try again, and I will conquer the bran muffin challenge!

Accidental Brownie

21 Feb

Sooooo, I sorta made a brownie-in-a-mug this evening when I thought I was going to be making hot chocolate.

Oops?

Although, are brownies ever reeeally an accident? πŸ˜‰

My mom received a cute little jar with dry ingredients layered in it and instructions as to how to turn the contents in to a brownie-in-a-mug. She oh so sweetly gave it to me…mostly she gave it to me because she has stronger will power while I tend to go off the rails a tad more often, so really, I think it was to get temptation out of her pantry and put it in mine lol

For some reason when I read the tag I thought it said it was to make hot chocolate, which confused me because the instructions say to add melted butter, and why would I put melted butter in to hot chocolate? So instead of, oh I dunno, re-reading what it was, I just assumed it was some sort of fancy hot chocolate deal and tucked it aside for when I wanted fancy hot chocolate.

Today was the perfect day for hot chocolate! It was snowy, and chilly but not cold, a great day for being cozy inside with a cup of hot chocolate and a book. πŸ™‚

Again, without re-reading the name of what I was making I poured the dry ingredients in to a mug, added the milk and melted butter, popped the whole thing in the microwave and eagerly awaited my hot chocolate.

Now, the instructions say to let it cool because it will be very hot but you can’t let hot chocolate cool too much or it becomes not as yummy, plus I have noooo patience lol. So it was out of the microwave maybe 30 seconds and I took a spoon to it – I’m that weirdo that likes to drink my hot chocolate by the spoonful instead of sipping from the side of the cup.

I dipped my spoon in and came up with some mighty thick hot chocolate *rolls eyes at self* Not to be deterred, and hello, it is chocolate so no matter what it is going to be good, I tried it and oh man was it good!

Definitely not hot chocolate though! πŸ˜›

It turned in to a fudgey, gooey, chocolate brownie….that just so happened to be in a mug.

There were milk and dark chocolate chips in it, which did not melt, but they were soft so when you got one on the spoon that bite had a little extra Mmm! to it. The bottom part of the brownie was a bit more dry than the top part, but still delish.

I did go take a second look at the instructions that came with the jar and only then noticed that is clearly says “Double Chocolate Mug Brownie”…hey, I never claimed to be super observant…

cake in mug 2

How I thought “hot chocolate” after seeing this I do not know.

cake in mug 3

The little jar it came in. The doily was on top of the lid to make it cuter.

cake in mug 5

Trust me, it tastes better than it looks!

cake in mug 1

The back of the tag – who doesn’t go “awww” when seeing those two hug?

So yeah, not quite the treat I was expecting, but lovely all the same. Now if only I could figure out exactly what was in the dry ingredients and the quantities so I could make it again! I can figure out the basics, but I’ve had cake-in-a-mug before and it was never as good as this one so something is different here…just not sure what.

Looks like I’ll be forced to taste test experiments until I figure it out – oh what a hard life! πŸ˜‰

Chicken Pot Pie

10 Feb

Time for another recipe! Well…it was sort-of a recipe, more like recommendations of ingredients with vague comments about how to put them together lol

I wanted to try making Chicken Pot Pie, the kind with the biscuits on top, but had no idea how. So I did what I always do, I YouTubed and Googled and came up with lots of recipes but also lots of questions.

All the recipes mentioned needing whatever quantity of cooked chicken, but none of them said how to cook the chicken. Am I supposed to bake it? Grill it? Boil it? Why don’t these recipes start with “Step 1: cook the chicken in such-n-such a manner”? Won’t the chicken cook when it is in the oven mixed with all the other ingredients?

That was my main line of confusion, so then I did what I always do when confused by recipes, I emailed my mom. I basically sent her the questions I typed in the above paragraph with a desperate plea for help.

She took pity on me, probably while shaking her head wondering how I function as an adult when left to my own devices, and replied with the tidbit of information thatΒ chicken pot pie is designed to use up left over chicken, which is why the recipes don’t say how to cook the chicken.

Oops!

Then she sent a recipe for chicken pot pie she has from a relative…

1 can mushroom or celery soup (Aunt Jude used one of each as she was making a 9 x 13 pan)
Cooked chicken, cubed
chopped onion, celery, mushrooms
frozen mixed vegetables, or left over veggies
seasonings
milk
Mix soup and small amount of milk in a large bowl. Stir in cooked chicken and chopped onion, celery and mushrooms, add frozen veggies (or a mix of frozen/left over veg) till you like the quantity. Pour into casserole dish, top with pastry lid. Bake at 375 for 25 mins, or until pastry looks cooked.
This is not a recipe!
This has vague measurements, and even vaguer details.Β  A small amount of milk? What is a “small amount”? When I asked her she said “until it looks right”. *rolls eyes*
And uh, hello, “seasonings”…what seasonings? Which ones? How much of each?
Some of us need a detailed road map when cooking and the above recipe was not that!
Not wanting to admit defeat I attempted to make the recipe, only smaller as I didn’t want endless left overs. I used one can of the mushroom soup, 1/4 of a can of milk, half a bag of mixed frozen veggies (Compliments brand, they are meant for soup so lots of celery, carrots, things like that), a bunch of shredded chicken that I bought from Safeway, and for seasonings I used parsley, oregano, basil, and jalapeno red pepper flakes…what can I say, I wanted a bit of a kick to the flavour.
The kick didn’t really happen, it is a bit bland but not in a bad way, which sounds weird I know. It actually ended up tasting fairly good, it isn’t pretty but oh well. It also isn’t some strongly flavoured dish but I don’t think it is supposed to be and maybe it wouldn’t taste like chicken pot pie if it was…deep thoughts to ponder on some other day lol
I didn’t make the biscuits, or give it a pastry top. I was going to make an individual biscuit using the two ingredient dough that has exploded in popularity all over the internet but was too lazy and didn’t lol I didn’t want to make the biscuits or pastry lid like on traditional pot pies because I thought they would get soggy after being on there for a while and since it is only me eating this thing I was betting on the leftovers lasting for days, and days, and then being frozen to last a little bit longer…and none of that made me feel confident in the biscuit life span. Go figure, I’m a bit of a cynic πŸ˜‰
chicken pot pie
chicken pot pie 2
It turns out that the recipe that isn’t a recipe made a pretty good meal, that has fed me for daaaaays. Tomorrow will be my last serving of it and I’m gonna kinda miss it. I just might have to add this one in to my rotation of meals I make on a more regular basis…not that I actually have a list like that, but grown-ups seem to so maybe I should make a list…can putting “ordering pizza”on the top of a list like that count? Hmm…more deep thoughts to ponder… πŸ˜‰