Five Things Friday: TGIF
PIN IT!HELLLO WEEKEND! Oh my sweets, I am SO thrilled it’s Friday. This week has been exhausting. Um, plus, we are having a very special guest stay with us for the weekend! I’ll give you a hint. Her name rhymes with schmannon and she was one of my bridesmaids.
[via Richard Israel]
She’s gawwwgeous, right? I haven’t seen her smiling face since the wedding, so I’m really pumped! Now onward to five things about my silly life.
1. I’m confidant that I was meant to live as a flapper in the 20’s. Don’t believe me? Check out my homage to Gatsby inspired dresses and a feathery purse on my wedding blog. Plus, they rocked the COOLEST headbands.
2. Last weekend, my really good friend Heidi got married in South Bend and I’m still shocked it’s almost been a week already. I bet she’s feeling the same way. I remember a week after our wedding I was completely amazed at how quickly the time flew. I had such a great time at her wedding and was so happy I got to spend some time with my family, too. My parents and brothers live in South Bend, and with it being a 12 hour drive, I don’t see them often! Her color was pink and I absolutely loved the floral arrangements. The bridesmaids carried bright bouquets that were made with pink, white and green flowers while the bride carried an all white bouquet made of all roses. She wore a gorgeous statement necklace (which, as you know, is my thing) and had bright pink shoes to match our dresses! Once I’m done editing the rest of the photos, I’ll share em!
I’m so excited to hear all about their amazing honeymoon in Aruba 🙂
3. I’M GOING TO MY FIRST BLOGGING CONFERENCE NEXT WEEKEND! I’m so excited to attend the Healthy Living Summit and finally meet some of the bloggers I’ve gotten really close with. (I’m looking at you Gretchen!) In addition to the summit this weekend, I was also invited by Foodbuzz (my publishing partner) to attend their annual conference this November in San Francisco! I’m so so so excited because it’ll be my first time in the amazing city and I get to meet (and crash with) two of my favorite bloggers, Stephanie and Kita! In addition, I get to see my big brah, who is a golf pro there! I haven’t seen him since March so it’ll be a really nice to kick it with him in his side of the country! Oh, and I’m going to stalk Mrs. Jacin of Lovely Little Details and Lisa of With Style and Grace too 🙂
Me and my brosifs + hubby. Vinny, my older one, is the one on the left! [Photo via Richard Israel]
4. I’m really, really happy my hair isn’t purple anymore.
5.
[via Pinterest]
I couldn’t agree with this more and it speaks so true to me now. I’m so blessed to have a job that I love. I don’t wake up with dread anymore, I don’t go to sleep with tear soaked eyes. I wake up excited, motivated and happy to go to a place where the people respect me and my expertise, where they offer words of encouragement and support and where we all actually WORK in a team and not just say we do. Looking back, I’m not shocked that I gained weight, picked endless fights and was generally negative and rude for the past 2 years, I was miserable at a place I was spending most of my time! So guys, PLEASE, if you ever take any pieces of advice from me, GET OUT IF YOU’RE MISERABLE! I don’t care who you are, what financial state you are in or where you are, life is too short to spend 8 hours of your day completely miserable. No paycheck is worth that, friends.
Oh and one more thing that couldn’t be more perfect. After all, it’s a beautiful day in MY life, this crazy, unexplainable, silly, ridiculous, fantasticly brilliant, undeniably sad and all around MAGICAL life. And honestly, I’m so incredibly thankful for every single second of it. [Even when the metro craps out and delays my commute, I burn a cheesecake or lose my favorite blouse].
[via Pinterest]
Now go check out Layla & Steph’s five things!
Eat Skinny Be Skinny: Oil/Butter FREE Peanut Butter Choc. Chip Cookies
And I win for the longest title in the history of blogging! Wahoo! Does anyone have a badge for that?
So friends, I had full intentions of blogging the amazing dinner I made on Tuesday today, BUT, I got sidetracked and found something else to talk about [what a shocker, right?]. But trust me ya’ll, this recipe I’m about to show you is totally worthy of stealing the spotlight.
Oh hey there, you delicious looking pile of cookies. BUT, do not be fooled. These aren’t your typical peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. They have super powers, you see. They are made with NO butter, NO oil and NO weird applesauce cohesive AND still taste absolutely incredible. Yep, told you, they are MAGIC!
I had a mean craving for something sweet but didn’t to derail how well I’ve been doing weight loss wise (down 2 pounds this week!) so I decided to try this recipe that I had bookmarked from Handle the Heat. First off, please check out that blog. It’s absolutely the cutest thing ever. Secondly, make these cookies. Thirdly (is this a word?) eat them. Oh and you have to serve them with a glass of cold milk. I mean, who doesn’t eat their cookies with milk?
I made a few adjustments to the recipe. I added vanilla and some chopped walnuts!
Yields 12-14 cookies.
Butter/Oil Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
CLICK HERE FOR THE PRINTABLE VERSION OF THIS RECIPE.
What You’ll Need:
- 1 cup of low fat smooth peanut butter (I used SKIPPY! because I like the name)
- 1 cup of brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup oats
- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla
- 1 teaspoon of baking soda
- 1/2 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips
- 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1-2 tablespoons of crushed walnuts
How to Make Them:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a cookie sheet using cooking spray.
- Mix peanut butter & brown sugar in a small mixing bowl with an electric mixer until fully blended.
- Stir in eggs, one at a time until fully mixed. Then add flour, baking soda, vanilla, cinnamon, salt and oats until fully mixed. Stir in chocolate chips.
- Using an spoon, scoop balls onto the cookie sheet. Press the cookie balls down with the bottom of the spoon to press them down. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until tops are golden brown.
- Serve with milk and extra chocolate chips!
I absolutely love this recipe because it has NO added fat. You get that fat and protein from a much healthier source, the peanut butter! These definitely rival my low fat chocolate chip cookies.
Nutritional information per 1 cookie: 150 calories, 7 grams of fat, 18 grams of carbohydrates and 4 grams of protein.
What I Ate (and Plan on Eating!) Wednesday
Just a fair warning, today’s “at work” eating will be a lot less than normal because I’ve shoved myself into a very tight dress. I love it, and at one time it fit me like a glove. Now, it’s a bit, snug around the waist area. I will carry on though. I mean, seriously, who needs to breathe or eat during the day? Over-rated 🙂 At least I look cute, right?
The dress in question. Don’t judge the chin situation. And that isn’t my stomach exploding out below, the fabric is flowy, I swear.
Breakfast
Breakfast always begins with coffee, lots and lots of coffee. Plus lately, I’ve been forcing myself to eat something with my caffeiene so I’ve been bringing corn flakes! They definitely work to hold me over until well past noon.
Lunch
I apologize for the photo, it’s hard to creepily take an iPhone photo of your food when you are in the CENTER of an office. For lunch today, I’m having a cheesy chicken/broccoli rice steam fresh bag. I had full intentions of bringing last night’s amazing dinner as leftovers, but if you follow me on Facebook, you’ll know I ate that last night as a second helping. What I like about steamfresh bags is that they are perfectly portioned (I have about a full cup here) and are about 350 calories and 8 grams of fat, which is perfect for lunch.
I know, soda is the devil and I’m an evil person. I just NEEDED a pick me up. I promise I won’t do it again, okay?
Snacks
Now, I normally snack on almonds, peanuts or rolos (the guy by my desk has a candy stash, now he’s the evil one!) but since I’m uncomfortable in a trendy dress and need to lose 20 lbs, I’m switching to a banana! (PS, I have no idea why this coloring is so wacky. I blame the fake lighting.)
Dinner:
Tonight is going to be LIGHT, that’s for certain. I’m really working hard on shedding poundage and make a concerted effort to watch how much I eat. Plus, a gal needs a break from cooking every once in a while, right?
My favorite asparagus recipe. Lemon roasted with white wine, carmelized onions and parmesean cheese. We have leftover asparagus from yesterday’s dinner (recipe up tomorrow!) so this will be a great way to use it up and have a great, light meal.
I also clearly plan on enjoying this with it, duh.
What are ya’ll eating today?
Eat Skinny Be Skinny: Black Bean Burgers
Confession time, before yesterday, I’d never had a black bean burger. The closest I’ve gotten to a vegetarian burger is trying one of E’s spicy ‘chikin’ boca burgers. Typically, when I have a craving for a burger, I eat a burger. But we all know read meat and myself aren’t friends anymore, so I’m having to get more creative with my burgers.
Seriously ya’ll, why wasn’t I eating these before? They are SO delicious and flavorful, especially when they are spiced up with red pepper, chili powder and a dash of cumin. Although, I must admit, when you bite into them, the insides kind of look like a science experiment.
Or looks like you mashed together a bunch of different colors of play dough. I have a funny story about play dough. Actually, more or less an embarrasing confession. (I’ve had a few of those today, haven’t I?) When I was a tot, I thought play dough was edible, aka, I would eat everything I made with it. Sometimes, I just ate it straight out of the jar. I don’t remember who caught me, but eventually I was told I couldn’t play with it anymore.
Luckily, these don’t taste anything like play dough. Which, if I remember correctly, tasted really salty.
Skinny Black Bean Burgers
What You’ll Need:
-
1 can (12 ounces) of black beans, drained
-
1/2 green pepper, diced
-
3/4 medium yellow onion, diced
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2 teaspoons of crushed red pepper
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1 teaspoon of chilli powder
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1/2 teaspoon of cumin
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Dash of salt and pepper
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1 egg
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3/4 cup of bread crumbs (or more, depending on consistency)
-
hambuger buns
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Olive oil cooking spray
How to Make Them:
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Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a baking sheet with olive oil cooking spray.
-
Pour beans into a bowl and mash with a fork until fully mashed.
- Mix in onions, green pepper and spices. Add in egg and bread crumbs and mix until fully combined. Mixture will be cohesive. If still sticky, add more bread crumbs.
- Form mixture into four patties and place on greased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes on each side. Garnish with ketchup, mustard or bbq sauce (or whatever your heart desires) and enjoy!
All kidding aside, these are really flavorful and incredibly healthy. Enjoy with roasted potatoes or baked french fries without guilt!
Nutritional information per burger (with buns): 250 calories, 5 grams of fat, 30 grams of carbohydrates and 13 grams of protein.
How to Deal When Your Recipe Fails
Before we begin, a little shameless self promotion. My first article on Skinny Benes is live on the amazing website She Knows. I’d love your feedback so check it out!
I love food blogging. I do. It’s one of my FAVORITE parts of every day. I love editing photos, finding new recipes to try, making up my own recipes, styling shoots, taste testing and, best of all, writing all about the experience. Cooking isn’t just done to get a meal on the table. Cooking is done out of love, excitement and passion. I’m not Emril Lagissie yet and don’t have a catch phrase like BAM!, but I do like to say I’m a passionate cook and baker.
Now, passion is a good thing on many, many levels. For one, it really makes sexy time worth it. I mean, seriously, have you ever had a non passionate lover? Think of the first time Carrie & Burger hooked up on SATC. Yep, it’s like that. Secondly, it shows dedication and committment. If you have PASSION for something, you are fully committed to making it the best it can be. Whether that be a recipe, a job or artwork. Third, it’s nice to have something you care so deeply about. I, of course, am passionately in love with my husband, but it’s nice to have a hobby that I care for a lot too. Plus, my husband reaps the benefits from both passions (if you know what I mean, aye, aye). But, as wonderful as passion is, it can also severely come back to bite you SQUARE in the arse.
Off topic for a hot second, did any of you see P.S. I Love You? Well my favorite part of the movie is at the beginning when they are fighting and Gerry (Gerald Butler) says “Kiss my arse!” and Holly (Hillary Swank) responds with “Yeah, well kiss mine! IN ENGLISH!” Not sure why that relates to anything, but it gives me an excuse to share a picture of Mr. Butler below.
Mmm.
But back to the topic at hand, having passion can be a downfall too. Because of how invested you are, your sense of expectation is very high, therefore, if it fails, you take it VERY personally. Like, for example, you start sobbing because your cheesecake came out a big bloppy mess and take a bottle of wine to the face. Or you stomp out of the kitchen and fix ramen for dinner because your chicken turned out dry and your Alfredo hardened. Purely made up examples, here. One thing us passionate nuts don’t realize is that sometimes, no matter how well we followed the rules, some recipes just don’t work.
Take this sad batch of cookies n cream fudge I made a few months ago.
As you can see, the fudge started melting into a huge puddle AS SOON as I took it out of the freezer. And what’s worse, is that I had it freezing for almost 8 hours! I followed the recipe TO A T and it still failed miserably. I was really, really bummed. It tasted really good but the composition just didn’t work. Safe to say, I wasn’t very happy.
Failed recipes stink, but what stinks more is when the recipes are something you conjured up yourself. I’m no recipe genius, at all, but I get great joy out of making something up, on a whim, and finding out it actually tastes great. Well, this attempt at bacon buttermilk waffles was NOT a win.
They look REALLY good, don’t they? Unfortunately, they did not taste as good. In fact, they tasted like dirty, salty bacon grease. And I have no clue why. The batter was made using this recipe and I just added a few pieces of crumbled up bacon. I’m not sure if the batter was just too salty or sour, or the bacon was way to greasy, the taste was pretty disgusting. I think I spit them out and then proceeded to chug 2 cups of coffee to get the taste out of my mouth. I was not only bummed, but pissed. I wasted a few good pieces of bacon! And as you know, I’m a lover of the pig.
When your recipes don’t turn out well, it’s hard NOT to take it personally, especially when you are a self proclaimed foodie. You kind of feel like a failure. Trust me, I get it. But one of the things I’ve learned is that we all make mistakes, I mean, we’re humans not robots. Some days we are going to have AMAZING cooking days (hello roasted cauliflower of the heavens) and some days we are going to have major flops. And ya’ll? That’s perfectly okay. The mistakes are what make us better chefs, I think.
And on those awful, cooking days, remember one thing. You always have wine.
