adventures in candy making.

the other day, i set out to make some classic caramels. i was pretty excited given that i had a brand new candy thermometer in hand and a full on sweet tooth ( so much for all that thanksgiving pie ).

i faired pretty well. although i may have let the candy get past the desired 248〫mark. according to me, and the rest of my family who can't seem to get enough of these sweet treats, this is definitely a recipe for the keeps.

next up: salted caramels!

dirty recipes.

in my opinion, there's nothing better and more honest than a recipe with stains and spills and spots spread all over it. i prefer the kind that are barely readable, so worn that you can almost squeeze the oil from previous nights spent preparing the dish.

i give you:

you've gotta love the french. you really do. especially when it comes to food.

this was a seriously laborious recipe, but one that proved worth the work. it was in the new issue of martha stewart living. love her recipes, so detailed in direction. if she's not explaining the exact details of how the food should look while cooking it, she always gives a good time estimate for how long each step should take. love her.

so here it is. my adventures with this famous french dish. we served it over egg noodles but i can just imagine how good it could have been with a hard crusted chunk of sourdough from here.

and finally:

happy monday.

tonight.

alice waters was my best friend.

after a longstanding fear of roasting a WHOLE chicken, i faced it. i stood up to what i expected to be ultimate defeat. and then. and then i found her. hiding on my cookbook shelf, waiting to help me make my easiest dinner yet.

//recipe//

SO easy that i was even able to sneak away from the house for a bit to enjoy a few sips of this with a friend. so thanks alice, until we meet again.
and oh yeah! this little stink butt decided to be my sous chef for the night. such a big help.

***i wish i could show you photos of the finished product but this family of three gobbled it all right up. yeah, it was that good.***

almond milk and polka dot jeans.

and lots and lots of other things.

{recipe: here}

almond milk: love the stuff. so why WOULDN'T i try to make it at home? well, i'll tell you why. because it's  a pain in the booooooTAY. my broken chemex proved to be a perfect straining container since all of my bowls were to shallow to allow the leche to strain properly. but that still didn't simplify it enough to convince me to make this drink again. i barely produced one cup and even though it was probably the best almond milk i've ever tasted, buying it by the carton is way easier. and cheaper too {i think}.

and onto some other weekly happenings....

:: a 'thank you' for a project i'm helping a friend with ::

:: pants i currently eat.sleep.live in ::

:: the only cup of milk i got to enjoy ::

:: mila gettin' some work done ::

:: and finally FINALLY a good run ::

and some links to give you something to do when you shooooould be way more productive than you want to be.....

my new go-to party site for m's first

where i got those polkas

an amazing source for lots of her clothes on this show

wonderful way to waste time and find sweet things

oh sunday.

you make me do things that i really do regret. like eating a five guys burger. it sounded like a good idea but i immediately regretted our decision to go there. so last night i indulged in some frozen bananas for dessert and set out to make these. do y'all ever get these from whole foods' bulk section? i have to take the long journey from my house all the way out to the heb plus on the southside in order to get these little treats. so you can imagine my excitement when i found a recipe for the exact same thing. they can also be purchased online.

i didn't have enough sesame seeds so i added some flax and pumpkin seeds to make up the difference. and i had a little help from this one.

you my friend.

are on my 'to do' list*.

{blackberry macaroon tart

courtesy of my bff, ms. stewart}

*in a completely non-perverse way

happy monday!

a wee bit of some kitchen q.t.

with these...

{creamy banana and blueberry popsicles
from miss martha}

..because of this three-step recipe:

• puree  1½ cups almond milk, 1 banana, 1½ cups frozen blueberries and  ¼ cup agave syrup in a blender until smooth
• pour mixture into popsicle molds and freeze

some pasta salad that i've been missing ever since i finished the final leftovers from our shower for miss mila a few weekends ago.

(thank you crystal for posting the recipe}

and you...

{perfect hard-boiled egg}

...because i love you and we have lots of you in the refrigerator right now.

weird.

today has been so up and down with my belly troubles...headaches...and all around tiredness. i sorta slept in, basically i didn't have to train so i was able to sleep until almost seven. key words in that sentence: "was able to". that's not exactly what happend. i woke up at about 5:30 and didn't go back to sleep. i met my mom at 'my favorite muffin' and had a little cinnamon raisin bagel with light cream cheese for breakfast. not the best option to start off my day but when my mom mentioned it the other day, i just couldn't get it out of my head- i had to have it. then i came home and got started on my sister-in-law's hooter hider. remember when i got the fabric for it over a month ago??? yeah, well, little baby aiden

is now over a month old and i just finished it. i didn't snap any pics of the finished product but i'm going to make sure rebekah {sis-in-law} takes a few while it's in use. then i headed out and got lots of errands completed. number one: nick is going to be the 'slap chop guy' for halloween so i picked up a blue apron and some iron-on paper so he can complete his look....now he just needs to buy that stupid contraption.
then i finally made my way on over to the dentist and got these little teeth cleaned. apparently with all these crazy pregnasty hormones running wild in my body, i'm really susceptible to gingivitis and gum disease so i felt really good about getting that done.
now i'm suffering from one serious headache {not related to my new dentist....i hope} and i'm refusing to take any pain medication. i know this is probably just a natural side effect of the little bean inside of me so i'm letting it play its course. i did however get to sun harvest to pick up a few incredibly random groceries

this 'pita pal' hummus is aMAZing. it's made in texas and i buy it at our local sun harvest but i would assume that most whole foods stores and of course sun harvest stores carry it...especially if you live in the texas area.
it's almost five now and i have to pick up the mister in just a few. hopefully he's not expecting a very active {and i mean that in the most g-rated way possible} evening tonight. i am just not up for it.
OH! how could i forget???! i also made these tasty little crackers

from a recipe i got over at 'oh she glows'....they don't seem as crunchy as i think they should be but i'm going to give them a try as soon as they cool off!!

to work out or not to work out. that is the question.

yesterday a little 'health and fitness blog' perusing gave me just enough motivation to spend a quality fifty minutes at the gym. today, it just doesn't seem like that's going to do it for me. i have at least stayed away from those vicious cravings that haunted me {and overcame me for that matter} over the weekend. lately, as soon as i wake up, i throw together a little bowl of kashi and bananas with a mixture of soy and almond milk.

i would love to be eating oatmeal instead, but cold cereal is just so much more refreshing. between 'lunch' and my early-early breakfast {that lovely bowl of cereal made it into my mouth at about 5:30 this morning} i snacked on plenty of purple grapes and two clementines. then i fought back any evil cravings that might come my way by loading a sauté pan full of the veggies that my diet has been seriously lacking lately.

my stomach handled this combo {tofu + spinach + carrots + onions + garlic + broccoli} pretty well. but immediately after eating my last bite, which took about twenty full minutes to get to, my stomach told me to lay back down. not a problem, especially since i took about a two hour nap. it's 2:30 now and i know that i need to get my heart rate up but i seriously cannot think of anything i want to do less. luckily i have these girls

{karena and katrina from "tone it up"}

to remind me how important it is to get some serious exercise on a daily basis.

if i find the energy.

i just might have to hop on into the kitchen to make this:

{apple and date ginger crisp}

• 4 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 4 tablespoons unsalted earth balance, melted
• 2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
• 4 pitted Medjool dates, chopped into 1/4-inch pieces
• 2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, halved, cored, and cut into 1/2-inch wedges
• 2 Macoun apples, peeled, halved, cored, and cut into 1/2-inch wedges
• 9 gingersnap cookies, finely crumbled (3/4 cup)
• 2 tablespoons chopped pecans
• 2 tablespoons old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1/2 cup thick unsweetened yogurt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, combine 3 tablespoons sugar, 1 tablespoon melted butter, grated ginger, cinnamon, orange zest, and dates. Add apples and toss to combine. Transfer mixture to an 8-inch square baking dish.
2. In a small bowl, combine gingersnaps with pecans, remaining sugar, oats, and remaining butter. Using your fingertips, work mixture to form a crumble topping. Distribute topping over apples. Cover dish tightly with aluminum foil. Bake until fruit mixture is bubbling, about 30 minutes. Uncover and continue baking until topping has browned and apples are tender when pierced with a paring knife, about 20 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes before serving with yogurt.

....and who knows, the ginger could do a serious quelling effect on my tummy!

as you can imagine.

the content of my daily readings has changed quite a bit over these past two days {and THAT is an understatement}.

a few of those came as recommendations from my lovely cousin norelle {who just recently had a beautiful little girl and definitely shares many of the same ideologies as nick and me} and the rest just common from common sense {'you: having a baby'? uhhhh- dr. oz is adorable and the pictures in his books never hurt}. i've most certainly enjoyed reading these but would love ANY input on some other books i should pick up.
the weekend started off just perfectly. nick's good friend came in town so we headed to the beach house so the boys could do a little hunting and fishing. didn't have a problem relaxing my pregnant little self in front of this gem of a backdrop.

the next morning my mom brought me some green tea {this coffee thing is not going to be easy....as long as people keep their aromatic cups of pure gold away from me, i think i'll be ok}, while i made some delicious breakfast sandwiches. oroweat double fiber english muffin + egg/egg white + low-fat cheddar cheese = possibly the only breakfast i eat for the next few months....basically delicious. after my mom left, the soon-to-be grandfather showed up and we did a little fishing off the pier. nick didn't catch anything but he took some time to clean the trout he caught the night before.

once we got back into town, we did a quick workout {another thing that doesn't seem to be going very well....or at least not very effective it seems, but more on that later}, visited with his mom, did some grocery shopping and then enjoyed some barbecued chicken in front of saturday's pathetic excuse for good television.

after finishing dinner with nothing to watch but more football {yayyyy!!!....sensing any sarcasm??} we opted for a classic: 'the big lebowski'. haven't seen this in years and i think i laughed harder this time than ever. 'you're out of your element donny!'....that never gets old.
now that the INITIAL {not the overall of course} excitement has subsided jusssst a bit, i'll be back to my normal posting routine. i promise.
j

pre-training dindin.

had to train at six tonight {blegh}. i don't know why i do this to myself. i absolutely hate training late in the day but every time a new client asks if we can work out after five i agree. and then every day that the sessions roll around i dread and dread and dread it. BUT- it did give me an excuse to make a 'quick' meal before i left the house. i bought some ground turkey the other day that HAD to be cooked. so at about five i made some turkey 'burgers'...absolutely delicious.

that yummy looking side dish is a quick black bean salad. i didn't use a bun for the burg since i had some black beans. you should definitely give both of these a try!

turkey burg-shizzle-
mix 1/2 pound ground turkey with 1/4 of a chopped red bell pepper, handful of chopped fresh spinach, little bit of diced onion, 1/4 cup instant oats. throw in a dash each of lawry's seasoning salt, ground pepper, dry mustard and chopped garlic flakes. top it off with an egg-white. i like to just squeeze turkey and mix-ins between my fingers so it gets really well-combined. divide the mix into three and grill on a pan with rivets or outside on a bbq pit.

black bean salad-
put 1/3 cup rinsed canned black beans, 1/4 diced cucumber, 5 chopped baby tomatoes, 2 tablespoons of cilantro and a simple vinaigrette {1:2 balsamic vinegar to olive oil, tablespoon each of lemon pepper and dehydrated garlic flakes}.

after i trained my client, the mister and i headed to heb for some grocery shopping. uhhhhh- i dread the grocery store sometimes and tonight was one of those 'times'. but i sucked it up and got the shizzzz-nit we needed {aTm vs. osu tomorrow so we're havin' a few peeps over to hopefully watch the aggies triumph the cowboys!!}

hope everyone is having a great evening, i think i've finally beat this bad mood!!

obsessed with.

turkish apricots and barney butter.

tina over at carrots n' cake is always raving about how good barney butter is. a jar of any nut butter that costs almost nine dollars has never been something i needed but the other day at sun harvest it was on sale. the mister usually prefers peanut butter over the almond variety but he actually LOVED this kind! recently one of my snacks has involved me standing in the kitchen dipping these deliciously dried fruits in the jar {when nobody's around of course}. it is SOOOOO SOOOOOOOOO good. once that jar is empty i definitely plan to soak up the last bits of goodness with some oats in a jar.
today my mood has definitely gotten better, i had another date this morning with ms. anderson then did shoulders at about noon with nick. i got my shoulder routine from muscle and fitness hers magazine. normally i'm a lover of oxygen and women's health but 'm and f hers' just has better all around weight workouts {rather than just talking about how to magically get rid of that belly fat and flabby wave, they get down to business and tell you HOW to do it}.
here's how it went:

seated overhead press

dumb-bell lateral raises

front raises with a weighted plate

bent-over lateral raises

***three sets of twelve for each exercises***

***between each SET of EACH exercise, i jumped rope for thirty seconds***

....i'd say that i deserve these apricots + barney buttizzle!!

{unplanned} weekend hiatus.

it's only saturday but already it has been quite the weekend. the mister and i arrived in our city away from home at about six yesterday. since a lot of the work that our architecture firm does comes from schools, we hosted a dinner last night at the 'strip house' for all of the south texas school board members. the dinner was delicious {i had the salmon} and also got to wear a new necklace i got by tracy tenpenny {former interior designer turned jeweler who is based out of austin}.

{tracy tenpenny}

although i didn't get any compliments on it {thought i would}, i don't care because i think it's lovely. today we woke up early and while nick shmoozed with some school board members, i enjoyed a nice coffee with a friend in the highland village area. when i got back to the hotel, we immediately went to the grove at discovery green for brunch. we go to this restaurant almost every time we come to houston. today i kept it small with a soup and salad.

{the grove}

the restaurant is just minutes from the hotel we stay in and it's right in the middle of discovery green {a huge 'green' development project in the heart of downtown houston that plays host to free yoga classes, all kinds of stuff to do for the kiddos, summer concerts and even a mini library that's part of the houston public library system}. my lunch was a lot prettier when the waiter brought it to me but i took a couple of bites before i realized i wanted to share it with you! the house dressing is a mustard shallot vinaigrette that was tossed with the lettuce and just perfectly evenly dispersed. i would definitely order this again. i found a recipe for a similar dressing online that i hope is very similar to the grove's. can't wait to try it when i get home!

tomorrow we're going to the houston texans v. dallas cowboys game. i'm sure i will procure quite a few interesting pictures...hopefully as good as this one.

hope every one is having a fantastic weekend!

j

i was a vegan in my former days.

with all the high protein and carnivorous meals i eat now, it's hard to believe that at one time i was an all veggies-fruit-grain eating vegan. if you've read the book, you should understand why the girls from skinny bitch sparked this veganism.

{skinny bitch}

not only did they make me seriously disturbed by the meat industry but they made me realize {i sort of knew already} just how good veggies, fruits and grains can be for our bodies. aside from food, it was also the chemicals they picked on. from saccharin to coffee to aspartame and soda - they really don't hold back. so in hopes of getting pregnant {or maybe BEing pregnant right now} veryVERY soon, i went ahead and bought 'skinny bitch: bun in the oven'. it brought me back to my former vegan days. while i'm not going to take the plunge into that vegan pool any time soon, it did make me realize that i just might be eating TOO much meat and have become TOO concerned with the amount of protein i consume.
as a person who exercises strenuously nearly everyday and is seriously concerned with lean muscle mass/loss, you can definitely understand my predicament. how can we go wrong if lean protein is involved??? on this note, i'm incorporating a much higher veggie to protein ratio than i have recently been doing. hence this heaping batch of tofu.

this is the simplest stuff to make, it's vegetarian, still high in protein and takes great with ANYthing.
i use the extra firm organic variety, marinate it in a very small amount of sesame oil, bragg liquid aminos, pepper, and dried garlic flakes. leave out overnight draining over a cooling rack then stick it in the oven the next morning. i really feel that the cooking time/temp is based on your tofu preferences. some people don't mind the gelatinous texture while others can't get past it. if you're like me and sorta sit in both camps- bake it at 350 for about 30-45 minutes. but for those that need some more firmness, increase the bake time and check on it every few minutes by pressing it with your finger.
hope for all of you meat eaters that this allows you to reflect on the amounts of veggies and fruit you're incorporating into your diet and possibly make a few tweaks!!
j

officially obsessed.

remember when i made that vegetarian lasagna last week? wellllll, i was lucky enough to have some leftover butternut squash to snack on {can you believe that was the FIRST time i'd ever roasted this gem of a vegetable?}. i ended up eating all four extra slices and was still left wanting more. so today i made MORE.

{butternut squash + olive oil + salt/pepper = perfection}

this stuff is delish. buttery. nutty. positively perfect side dish. with only sixty calories per half cup, three grams of suga' AND three grams of fiber, i definitely didn't feel guilty when i went back for an extra slice {okay two extra slices...FINE, three}. nick's mom's and my workout was good but not as intense as my usual so i'll probably head back to the gym later today. since nick's out of town my daily activities are significantly diminished {no LYing around watching the boob tube with the mister for me today}. i think this lunch

{grilled chicken + butternut squash + spinach with garlic}

is near-perfect fuel for that later workout. especially after the stupid mini pumpkin muffins i had after dinner last night.

not much to report on.

today i have to take the mister to the airport for his mini trip to boston. thennnn i'm gonna head out for a workout with my mother-in-law. she's working out with me this morning so she can decide whether or not she wants to sign up for a membership at the *new* platypus.

this morning i did manage another success in the kitch: ohsheglows glonola!!! last time mine burnt, luckily i didn't have anything to compare it to so it still tasted pretty delish. but now that i've had the real deal- there's no burning this stuff again. i will say that for the last ten minutes i tossed the granola every TWO minutes. with this bowl i could taste every delicious nut and seed as well as the dried fruits. i also picked up some cacao nibs at sun harvest last week which kept any melted burnt chocolate at bay. the result:

granted it wasn't made in my dream kitchen {which i think would inherently improve the taste}

{alice waters}

i still think it turned out fantastic.

j

oats in a jar success.

after reading about oats in a jar. here. here. and here. and trying them numerous times minus any measure of success, i finally conquered them. isn't the whole point of these things to be 'easy'? maybe i'm just picky about my oatmeal consistency but after each attempt i was either left having to microwave the oats {heated up plastic = HELLO cancer!} or just tossing them away. but last night i had an idea. what if i added HOT soy milk/water to the mix??? the result?

those are some creamy overnight oats in a jar. my plan worked and allowed me to end up with this.

that is one empty peanut butter jar. i still don't know if this 'warm milk' approach is actually my idea or if i'm just missing a step on all the overnight oat recipes i've read. i added most of my fixings before i put the oats in the fridge and threw in a few more this morning. here's my perfect oats recipe.


overnight oats in a jar
in a near empty jar of peanut {or any nut} butter, add 1/3 cup old-fashioned oats, 2/3 cup of a warm soy milk:warm water mixture {1:1 ratio}. then throw in some chia seeds, flaxseed, a squirt of flax oil {if you're like me and you workout a lot, this extra boost of flax oil helps to regulate your lady cycle} and a heaping spoonful of cinnamon. put lid on jar, shake and place in fridge. in the morning, take oats out of fridge and add a few raw cashews, pepitas, sunflower seeds, 2 dates and 1 turkish apricot....plus a squirt of sugar-free maple syrup.

j

rainy days are here.

and in corpus, that means 'fall' is upon us. absent the cooler weather, the darker skies at least give me visions of warm-colored falling leaves, cozy sweaters, fireplaces and the smell of baked goods in the oven. today those baked goods came in the form of the power house glonola from 'oh she glows' and some vegetarian lasagna that i pre-made for my sister-in-law who just had a baby boy. unfortunately, like every other time i've tried to make granola, mine came out a little burnt.

that stuff is so testy. i always think i'm not baking it long enough and then, before i know it, it's black. however, i did follow angela's instructions when temptation got the best of me and i HAD to immediately eat some.

{her picture not mine}

the recipe was amazing but i did make a few minor adjustments. i couldn't find cacao nibs at the grocery store i went to, so substituted carob bites instead. i don't suggest this- they melted immediately and therefore made the glonola look even more burnt than i think it really was. i mistakenly used ground flaxseed MEAL instead of regular flaxseed. i don't think this makes much of a difference but the next time i think i'll use the norm. and lastly- i was just short of the suggested half-cup measurement of pure maple syrup so i had to use a little bit of my sugar-free maple syrup. i don't think this changed the consistency too much. next time i'll probably use ONLY sugar-free maple syrup in order to cut down on the sugar.

we've yet to make it over to my sister-in-law's so i'll have to wait until tomorrow night when should have some images of my lasagna.....i will say that the roasted butternut squash i put in it was DELISHous {yes, i'm aware that is not how you spell delicious}.
j