Just Can’t Stop

From now on when people ask why I run, I’m just going to answer with one word: Sally.

SALLY! What are you doing to me?!?!?!

I CANNOT stop making your recipes. And you have no idea the anticipation I have for your cookbook. I will be pre-ordering the first day that I can.

Yesterday was my Bible study (LOVE), and it was my week to make treats. I got my chance to dive into my ‘must make’ list of Pinterest recipes. By the way, that ‘must make’ list is about a mile long. Looks like I need more people to bake for, anyone interested?! Craig will probably kick me out of the house if I keep baking like this.

Of course more of the baking involved Nutella.

With the way I’m going through it lately, I should buy stock in the company. At least I could feel good about my constant need to purchase it.

First up, I felt the need to share the Puppy chow love, so I made MORE Salted Nutella Peanut Puppy Chow. Come to my house & this is what I will feed you. You will never want to leave because you CANNOT stop eating it.

And once again, I had to make sure Craig stayed away from it. I came downstairs after putting Gabriella to bed & I looked at the batch that I had just made & noticed a TRAIL of powdered sugar…and then I looked at Craig. He was being unusually quiet for some odd reason. …his mouth was full of the stuff. Boy is HOOKED. He’s lucky I saved him a little container of it. Wife points

And yes, more Nutella recipes.

There was one recipe I had been eyeing for a while, but didn’t want to make it for just Craig & I only because I KNEW we would eat the whole loaf in a day. YEP, ONE day.

Nutella Swirled Peanut Butter Banana Bread

A recipe worth EVERY.SINGLE.CALORIE. I promise.

Can you see how amazingly delicious this looks?? And even though I really hate the word ‘moist,’ it’s the only way to describe it.

If you like banana bread, I HIGHLY suggest trying this. And then grab your stretchy pants, because you won’t be able to stop at one slice. Hey, it DOES have whole wheat flour instead of white…so it IS healthy, right?!

Last but not least, blueberry muffins.

Not just any blueberry muffins, but sparkling blueberry muffins. They are ‘sparkling’ because they are topped with sugar. I didn’t have any course sugar like the recipe called for, so I just used regular granulated sugar. I thought they turned out just as well.

I like how fluffy this muffins were, a nice complement to the heavy (but delightful) Nutella bread. The recipe is intended for jumbo muffins, but Sally also gives instructions on how to make them for smaller muffins- regular size & mini. I used the recipe for regular size, but had extra batter left over so I got 10 mini muffins as well.

As I was taking that picture above, this happened immediately after:

Oops. Life of a blogger  

Remember those extra wife points I earned from the puppy chow? Well, I cashed them in for making SUCH a mess in the kitchen. It’s a good thing Gabriella loves being in the kitchen with me- we had PLENTY of dishes to wash & counters to clean!

After a busy day of running errands & baking, Gabriella was a sleep little thing! We are currently doing ‘sleep training’ with her- more on that in a different post- but she is doing really well & woke up in a happy mood.

I love a happy baby!!  

Happy Friday to you!

Any fun plans for this weekend? My Mom is coming down to spend the weekend with us, and I’ll be taking her to a ‘CSI’ exhibit- it was part of her Mother’s Day gift. We are looking forward to seeing her & letting her have some Grandma time with her ‘little peach pie.’

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A Weekend in the Kitchen

Sorry I haven’t written part two of my labor story…I have left you hanging. But this weekend has been non stop!

Saturday was an AWESOME day! I started out with a run- 4 miles in 33:30- less than a month after having Gabriella! I feel like I’ve got my running mojo back 😉 Usually I take G with me in the jogging stroller, but yesterday since Craig was home he said he would watch her while I went running. It was kind of weird not having the stroller…but nice- it’s tough running with a stroller!

Once I got home I was able to take a shower & shave my legs….you have to understand it’s the little things that make SUCH a difference with a newborn 😀 So to have Craig on baby duty so that I could have some free time was really nice.

The rest of my Saturday was spent hanging out with G, cleaning, cooking dinner, then hanging out with Craig when G went down for a nap.

Today was BUSY BUSY BUSY!! Craig’s office has their holiday breakfast tomorrow & people from his group pay me to bake a bunch of breakfast items because they know how much I love baking…and it’s easier for them 🙂

So right when I got up I got to work in the kitchen- I knew I would have minimal time between watching G, feeding G & trying to get all of the items baked…so it was go time right away!

Here are the items that I made:

Cranberry Bliss Bars (by my lovely twin, Liz…not really my twin…it’s a long story. 🙂 )

Mini Eggnog Doughnut Muffins

Red Velvet Santa Hat Brownies (which I found yesterday on beloved Pinterest 😉 ) Oh & this made a lot more, I just didn’t get them all in the picture.

Andes Mint Cookie Bars- used the recipe on the back of the Andes Mint chips (near the chocolate chips)- but made them into bars into of cookies.

Starbucks Iced Lemon Pound Cake Copycat Recipe 

I have had this before & it’s REALLY good!! I decided to make it into a bundt cake instead of using two loaf pans. I had not iced it yet ..only because I will ice it in the morning before Craig takes it in. You know glaze doesn’t really look good the next day.

Triple Berry Coffee Cake – a recipe that I have made for the past three years for his office. This is always a request 🙂

I am also making a monkey bread in the morning- I’m sure you all know what that looks like.

Because I was making all of this, I had to taste test each recipe just to make sure everything tasted ok 😉 I can honestly tell you that I HIGHLY recommend ANY of the recipes above! Hopefully they will all be a hit with his co workers as well!

Gotta say I definitely don’t mind spending an entire day in the kitchen…in fact I love it! 😀

As you can see, I’ve had a busy, but wonderful weekend! It’s also fun to see how much Gabriella is growing- I tell her to slow down everyday. Lately she has been ROCKING her ‘tummy time!’ This girl is a pro!

She’s been holding her head up for over a minute & she is just so alert- I love it!

I hope you all had a great weekend as well- hard to believe it’s already December! I promise that part two of my labor story will be coming very soon!! 🙂

Two Ingredient Greek Yogurt Cake

So do you want to know the easiest, healthiest cake recipe ever? 

Yep, it’s true. Only two ingredients. (well, ok, it’s really 3, if you consider water an ingredient 😉 )

I used Pillsbury reduced sugar cake mix, but you could also use regular. I just happened to have this one in our pantry.

I was trying to decide what flavor I wanted to make this cake. You can definitely use plain Greek yogurt in place of flavored, but I wanted to have a flavored cake. As I got to thinking, orange just sounded really good! And the best part is that it is one of Chobani’s new flavors! I just can’t get away from cooking with these flavors lately. They are all just too good!

 

Now to make the cake all that you need to do is combine the cake mix, Greek yogurt & 1 cup of water.

Mix it up really well & then bake according to package directions. (you may have to reduce the time a bit, just keep an eye on it!) I baked it in a 13×9” pan.

Once baked, I wanted to add some kind of topping. Keeping with the orange flavor, I made orange whipped topping combining cool whip, 5 tbsp. of orange juice & 1 tsp. orange peel.

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Just mix it up really well & top the cooled cake with it. I also sprinkled the orange peel over top of it, because I LOVE orange flavoring…the more the merrier 😉

EASIEST, Healthiest cake recipe EVER!

The best part is that when I calculated the calories in this recipe, it’s only about 150 calories per piece. (I calculated it based on a 13×9” pan, cut into 12 pieces)

Not too shabby, right?! I LOVED the cake. I could of eaten about 3 pieces, rather than just one. (thank goodness for self control 😉 ) Craig also tried it & said it tastes more ‘pudding-ing’ than regular cake. He said it was really good, just the consistency was a bit thicker. But he had no problem polishing off his cake 😉

When the sweet tooth strikes, at least you have a fairly healthy way to help it subside.

My boss’ wife told me about this recipe last week, and as soon as I heard it, I HAD to give it a try. She is also into healthy eating & staying fit, so I love getting new recipes from her. My boss brought in black bean brownies last week for us that she had made & they were the BEST ones that I have had yet! I have tried them before & thought they were just ok. But her brownies were actually REALLY good!! I will have to get that recipe & share it with you. I promise that NO ONE will know there are black beans in the recipe! (just don’t tell them, they might think you are bit loopy 😉 )

As I was making this orange cake, I was thinking of all of the other combinations that would be really good. I’m thinking I will have to try a strawberry or blueberry cake with the yogurt & real fruit chopped up in it. How good does that sound?!

Kind of reminds me of JELL-O cake!
(source)

Jell-O cake used to be my favorite when I was younger. I would always request it for my birthday, and then probably eat about half the cake with absolutely NO problem! 😉

What is your favorite type of cake?