Ah, the latest impulse...

Scene one: last night, Ken goes to the pharmacy to pick up my prescription. I give him my bank card to do so.

Scene two: this morning.

Me: Where's my bank card?

Ken: I put it in the Rx bag to be nice.

Me: You mean the bag that I threw away?

Ken: Did you take the trash out?

Me: No, did you?

Communication fail at its finest. Since neither of us take out the trash until it's piling up, falling out, and gathering on the counter...we were safe. 

Coffee, red bull, and donuts down. Getting up early has never been so easy...

It keeps happening. What you don't see are the brownies in the oven.

Banana bread - Ken said it smelled funny and asked what it was made with. Health, I told him. Health. Whole wheat flour, honey, and applesauce...

Dinner is served: cherry pie (half eaten because, well...Did you know it takes a long time to make whipped cream?), homemade whipped cream, boston cream cake, and marble cake.

You get up for one second and your spot gets stolen...have to give her points for being cute about it. She knows what she did.

Interesting...I'll stick to regular pop tarts though. They skimped on the frosting.

I'll bet you can't wait to see them either!!

Glad I left my wallet in the car or I'd be wearing these donuts on my hips...

Wish I could photoshop dad in here!

Cuddles and a bad movie :: Heist

"You'll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine." --John C. Maxwell

Back to work full speed!!

Happy Halloween!!

From my family to yours!

I got the recipe from here:

http://undressedskeleton.tumblr.com/post/64862000686

They are little oreo balls: one package double-stuf oreos, 1/4 cup cream cheese, 1 tablespoon water, vanilla almond bark, and candy corn. If you couldn't tell by my last post, I am venturing out into the world of cooking. I thought this would be a fool-proof recipe because it didn't require any cooking. Once again, I would learn that the world we live in is simply just not perfect. 

While these turned out super great and still tasted good, I ran into a snag where my dough was too try. First of all, I only added 1/8 cup of cream cheese without realizing it. I fixed my mistake but the mixture was just not forming into dough. I added a touch more water which helped. However, the dough still cracked and fell apart when trying to roll them into balls and didn't look at all like the pictures from the website. I rolled them anyway and they turned out fine. 

The recipe said this would make 32 1/2 tbsp sized oreo balls. So when I counted up my 55 oreo balls, I was a little taken aback. Did my pampered chef measuring spoon fail me? It's one of those all-in-one measuring spoons where you adjust the plastic guage for the correct tbsp or tsp measurement. Did I not have it on the right setting? It said I was at 1.5 tsp, which is 1/2 tbsp. Am I crazy?? Why can't I make these recipes work for me??

The candy corn topper is a nice touch and for whatever reason seems to go really well with the oreo mixture. I will absolutely make these again and experiment with more cream cheese and/or water for a better dough. Look out holiday family gatherings. There will be oreo balls for everyone!

Cumin Overload

In an effort to learn to cook and season things well, you have to learn from failure. Lots and lots of failure. For example, burned garlic:

I set the heat under my cast iron pan to medium-high heat, just like the recipe called for. I pressed the garlic through the press into the pan, looked away to clean out the press for the next garlic cloves, looked back at the pan, and panicked. All in a matter of, I don't know...5 seconds? I took a deep breath, scraped out the ruined garlic, took the pan off of the heat, and tucked my little lesson into the back of my head for next time. Cast iron gets hot. Fast. Oddly enough, I felt I knew that already though and  my garlic still burned.

Onto the next lesson. By the way, I followed this recipe:

http://fitmencook.com/turkey-meatballs-wilted-spinach/

The recipe called for six ounces of turkey. Since I was cooking for two, I used 16 ounces instead. I  doubled the amount of seasoning used for the six ounces of turkey in the recipe, and worried that it would be under-seasoned because my turkey was more than double what the recipe called for. I would be wrong about the seasoning, but more on that later. Here are the turkey meatballs, browning in the pan: 

After browning, I threw some fresh spinach on top, covered the pan with aluminum foil, and threw it in the oven for six minutes. I toasted my pine nuts in the oven with the turkey. The timer went off, out it came, and I plated the food, adding some pico de gallo and the toasted pine nuts. Let me tell you something. It smelled phenomenal. Like, super good. Like, so good that I silently cheered and fist-pumped in my head because I was pretty sure I nailed the recipe.

I tasted a meatball before taking Ken his plate, just to be sure. My heart dropped. Way too much cumin and cayenne pepper. Usually when I over-season, the food is inedible. I took Ken his food and gave fair warning, apologizing in advance that we were going to have to go hungry. To my surprise, he loved it! He loves cumin and he loves cayenne pepper. He wasn't sure about it at first, but kept praising how good it was. He even asked to eat the half that I was saving to put in my eggs the next morning. I felt like he was being nice but you have to know that Ken would be the first to say if it wasn't good. 

I'd like to try the recipe again, with less cumin and cayenne pepper, and less cook time. I overcooked the meatballs and they were a bit dry. Other than that, this recipe was so easy, so fast, and so healthy. I would totally recommend making this, but seasoning it to your liking with spices that you prefer. I also recommend not burning your garlic.

Kettlebell Workout

I haven't worked out in about a week or so, mostly because I wanted to sit down on the couch with my latest BFF's: m&m's and Internet. BUT - I bit the bullet today and picked a full body workout so I could get max benefits instead of singling out one or two body parts. I pinned this workout a while back on Pinterest. It's a full body kettlebell workout and I used my 15 and 20 pound kettlebells. 

Also of note: I thought this would be easy; it was not.

That's Lorna Kleidman, the creator of this workout. Here's the article where the article, pictures you see here, and exercise descriptions are hanging out: http://greatist.com/fitness/lorna-kleidman-kettlebell-workout/.

It's an interesting read so it's worth checking out! I did all six exercises back-to-back and repeated for 3 sets total. I was surprised at how much this targeted my core and how quickly my heart rate rose (but that could have been that week's worth of m&m's I mentioned earlier). 

1). Double Arm Swing x 20

This was easy enough for me. I've done them a lot and incorporate them into my lower body workouts anyway. I've heard fitness experts say that if they could choose one total body exercise that provides great strength building and cardio in one, it's the kettlebell swing. 

2). Lateral Lunge, Open Arm x 10 Per Side

Lunges aren't my fave, especially side lunges. I'm blaming my shoes. I need to get a new pair and re-evaluate whether or not I like lunges when I have better spring action under my feet. 

3). Zip and Change x 10 Per Side 

This one was fun once I got the hang of it! It's a little tricky because you have to time your arms right and release the kettlebell at the top of the movement. However, when you figure it out and use a heavier weight, it's a great upright row movement that works your core and your heart. 

4). Backward Step and Pass x 10 Per Side

Again with the lunges...this was my least favorite of the exercises. 

5). Plank Row, Pass x 10 Per Side

I didn't think this one would be so tough! Maintaining a straight line from your ankles, to your hips, to your head was hard work. This exercise worked my core the most and probably broke up with any remaining m&m's. No one likes clingy friends. 

6). Kneeling Hinge x 10 Per Side

I don't know. This was confusing and I questioned my accuracy during all 60 reps. I even read the description before and after each set just to make sure. I think I did it right but it would have been helpful to know which muscles should be working. 

Now, for the most important question: is Lorna wearing super tight jeans while she works out or is she wearing workout leggings that look like jeans? 

Lunch Date! By Myself...

In the car. Anyway, found a sushi bar at Dillons. Woot-woot! They had so many options! I went for one of the healthier ones without all the sauces and white rice. It was pretty good, considering it came from a grocery store.

And then, dun, dun, dunnnn....I read the ingredients while I chowed down. Imitation crab, wheat starch, modified tapioca starch, sorbitol, sugar, salt, palm oil, crab extract, crab flavor, natural color, paprika oleoresin (so absolutely nothing real so far), and THEN the veggies...avocado, cucumber, tapioca paper (which is just fish eggs. Thanks, Dad.), leaf, lettuce, carrots, and something about mayonnaise.

Oh well. At least it wasn't a pastry and sugar-bomb drink from my usual choice of Starbs!!