Tricky Treats

Okay, for those of you at MOPS yesterday who wanted to know how to make the cute little pumpkin cakepops, here you go.

First, no I'm not that creative. I didn't make these up, I'm just good at copying. As you can see, the originals look much cleaner than mine. I'm not sure how she gets the candymelts that smooth. If anyone has any tips, please share. I wish I had a picture of mine but, thankfully, you ate them all up! My cakepops were a combination of these amazing treats invented by the ever so talented and widely famous Bakerella...


And these sweet treats inspired the insides of my pumpkin pops...

Thanks and full credit for the pumpkin spice cake idea go to Bridget at bakeat350.blogspot.com. LOVE her site. She is so talented and I found her blog courtesy of my sister-in-law Montee. Okay, so here's what I did.

1. I bought and baked a pumpkin bread from a mix right out of a box (no cans of pumpkin or anything hard like that). I let it cool completely and then crumbled it all up with my hands in a large bowl.
2. I used about 3/4 of a can of ready made cream cheese icing and mixed it completely with the caked. It ended up looking like a bunch of mush. Add the icing a little at a time so you don't get too much. You want it to be sturdy enough to shape it.
3. Shape the mixture into truffle size balls and put on wax paper on a cookie sheet.
4. If you're going to do pops, dip the tip of stick in a little bit of melted orange Wilton candymelts and then still into the cake ball.
5. Put the whole thing in the fridge to let them get a little more solid and sturdy.
6. Dip the balls in melted orange Wilton candymelts and then stick pops in styrofoam to dry. If you're not making pops, just put them on more wax paper. Bakerella used tic tacs for the stems, I used green cereal pieces from a sugared kids cereal. You could also probably use pretzels for stems. Stick on the stems before the candy can harden.
7. When everything is completely dry, use an edible pen from Betty Crocker to draw on faces. Done.

I got the lollipop sticks and orange Wilton candymelts in the craft section of Walmart. I got the pumpkin bread mix, icing, and edible ink pens in the baking section of Walmart. It was really super easy and fun and here are some examples of some of the other spooky treats Bakerella made.

You can use any cake mix and icing so I am going to try some different combos. Red velvet cake with cream cheese icing dipped in white or dark chocolate, chocolate cake with chocolate icing dipped in a minty dark chocolate coating...the possibilities are endless. Let me know if you try these and how it works out. If you want more detailed instructions, check here.

Kids Meal Deals

I recently wrote a post for isurfsumner.com on Kid's Meal Deals. To find a list of weekly deals for eating out with kids, check it out HERE. Please feel free to add any additional deals you know about in the comments section. I'm going to print out the list and keep a copy on my fridge and in my car. Today, we were all in the car at lunchtime and Jeff said, "Hey, let's go eat where the kids are free." Turns out Tuesday is a big day for kid's meal deals. We ended up at Dos Margaritas where kids eat free all day. I was so glad I had done the research and thanks to all those who helped compile the list! Check it out!

Breaking up is HARD to do!

A while back I wrote a post about breaking up with my butt. Well, I've been trying to break up with my butt for two LONG months now. It hasn't been easy. It seems like if I relax even a little bit, there it is, trying to lure me back. There have been some challenges along the way. A visit to my sister in Wilmington, NC...the Bon Jovi concert...the Preakness of course. How can a person be expected to diet while doing these things? Then there was that short but beautiful two weeks I participated in the dinner exchange. I teamed up with three other girls and each person took one day, Monday through Thursday, and made and delivered dinner to the other three families. It was kind of crazy but I love to cook and the other three days you had a wonderful meal delivered to your door. There were two major problems. The driving was killing me because we just lived too far apart. And the food!!! Not conducive to breaking up with that butt. Among the most tempting were baby back ribs, spaghetti pie with tons of oozing, melted cheese, and some kind of dessert that had snickers bars in it. Ahhhh! That stupid butt was using my friends to try and come back.

Then there's the running. I'm shocked to say, I actually started to like it. I even planned to run a 5K on Memorial Day. Eventually, I got a little muscle pull in my left quad which I continued to run with. It turned into a hip flexor pull and hurt so much it was waking me up in the night. So I stopped running for two weeks in order to let it heal. I want to feel good when I run and it was getting more and more painful every day. So, since I wouldn't be running away from my butt and regularly listening to my motivational break up music, I needed a plan. I'm a little more than halfway to my GREAT REWARD and I refuse to stop now. I also noticed that even though I was losing weight, I wasn't necessarily losing all fat. I want to get leaner so I started doing some research. EVERYTHING I read about cutting fat said you had to cut carbs. My worst nightmare. I love carbs. I love sugar. I love bread, pasta, dessert. But...that butt...I had to try something drastic.

After two days I was completely miserable. Tired, hungry, and not sure it was even working. You can eat all the meat and lean proteins you want but last night I couldn't even finish my grilled chicken breast. You can even have one of my favorite things, cheese. But woman cannot live on cheese alone. I was starting to think I could just find a way to settle for that butt. Forget the cookies and bread, I have never thought a banana sounded so good. Well, after one week of torture, I do think it might be working. I haven't weighed myself yet so we'll see but I'm willing to stick it out a little longer at this point. I will, however, be visiting my stepdad this weekend in Miami. That could be a challenge. That butt may be lurking around every corner.

With my reward in sight I keep pressing on. I started running again yesterday and the pain is back but I'm not quitting until I get to the end. I get through it by dreaming of one more thing. When I reach my goal weight I have a special day planned for myself. A day of gluttony. Is that bad? It probably is. Kind of like a one night stand with my old butt. But in my mind right now I see myself eating out three meals and baking all day. I'm making a mental list of all the indulgences.

Pancake Pantry for breakfast (Sausage and Cheese omelet with a side of pancakes)
Pizza for lunch (any pizza will do, never met a pizza I didn't like)
Mexican for dinner (again, not too picky here)

And then the sweets
Chocolate chip cookies, Caramel cake, Brownies, Blondies, Homemade ice cream, Chocolate covered strawberries (heck, chocolate covered anything), Donuts, I want it ALL!

Wow, suddenly I have visions of Veruca on Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and some giant golden eggs. Truth is, I'll probably feel sick by lunchtime and that will be the end of it. Anyway, I just want one long cheat day and then back to eating like a normal person. Back to moderation and maintenance. Back to sanity and satisfaction. Here's to kissing that butt goodbye and cashing in on my great reward!

Has anyone else out there tried the no carb thing? Did it work? How did you feel? What did you eat? What are you indulgences?

I Might Be Weird

Well, I'm back from visiting my sister and boy did I miss blogging! There are so many things to write about but I'm going to start with the dumbest. While I was there, I discovered something...I might be weird. I really think of myself as a pretty normal person but those late night girl talks after dealing with three high maintenance screaming little girls revealed some weird things about me. I've kept them mostly to myself but it's time to come clean...mostly out of a desire to find out if you might be weird too. Here it is.

DREAMS
I dream all through the night and I almost always remember my dreams. Sometimes I wake up tired because I felt like I didn't sleep at all. When I have nightmares, I always wake up on my back and have to actually turn on my side to be able to go back to sleep without continuing to have bad dreams. My most common bad dream is that I am driving a car at night on a windy road and the headlights keep going out. I can't see where I'm going and I can't stop the car. One of my favorite dreams is flying. This is not so weird, however, my other favorite dream is where I am stretching and I'm super flexible. In my dreams I can sometimes look in a mirror and decide I want my hair to be longer, my body to be thinner, I want to wear something different, etc. and make the change happen immediately. Just imagine what I can do! I have discovered that the often circulated idea that if you dream you're falling and you land, you will die is not true. I dreamt once that I fell off a building and then hit the sidewalk. In my dream it didn't hurt, I just couldn't move and I felt like I was pancake thin. And obviously I didn't die but maybe it did make me weird.

FOOD
I love to eat something dry and salty that really makes you thirsty and then having something cold and refreshing to drink. Just to do it. Somehow creating that desperate thirst and then satisfying it feels so good. I also like drinking water with no ice. That way I'm able to drink more of it and I don't get that brain freeze. I always eat peanut butter on my waffles. No butter, just peanut butter and then once the peanut butter gets all melty I put the syrup on. YUM! I like dipping my pizza in mustard but only when it's frozen or homemade. Somehow, when it's delivery (not DiGiorno), it's good enough on it's own.

THE REALLY WEIRD
I constantly trace things with my eyes. When I'm driving or riding in a car I am constantly tracing signs, the back window of the car in front of me, the billboards. All lines. When I watch TV I'm totally tuned into the program but I'm always tracing the letters of any words that appear on the screen, collars on shirts, jawlines, hairlines, everything. It's always best when it's something symmetrical. And it's always best if I can trace something in one continuous line. Again, I'm not thinking about it really while I'm doing it, it's just sort of something going on in the background all the time. When it occurs to me that I'm doing it I get really irritated and try to stop but before I know it, I'm doing it again. Does this mean I'm cuckoo? Maybe it means I'm a genius! No, probably cuckoo. I just discovered on this last long road trip that when I am actively listening to music, like singing along, I don't trace things.

So now that you're a little scared I have to ask. Am I weird or does anyone else do these things? What secret weirdness are you hiding? And don't feel bad, hey, maybe weird is the new normal.

Savory Breakfast

I recently discovered a blog called Foodmayhem. It's all things food so how could you not love it. The blog is written by a group mostly out of New York City. Each posting has a picture of the food they're blogging about. Sometimes it comes from a restaurant, sometimes a store, sometimes from their own kitchen. Anyway, I saw something I had to share. It may sound gross to some but it is my new favorite breakfast. Basically all you do is prepare one package of regular oatmeal and top it off with a fried egg and lots of salt and pepper. That's it! It's full of protein and fiber and I love it because I often crave something savory for breakfast instead of sweet. The runny yolk getting all over the oatmeal is so yummy. Anyway, if you want to see a picture (I didn't take a picture of mine this morning) go here. Enjoy! Let me know if you decide to try it.

Favorite Meals

I just wanted to share one of our favorite meals that is SUPER easy and delicious! I am a bit of a fish snob. I usually don't like it much unless it's fresh. However, I have found a great frozen product at SAM'S CLUB. It is Blackened, Seasoned Atlantic Salmon Fillets by C. Wirthy & Co. Each fillet is individually packaged. You just pull out what you need and thaw it in the package for about 30 minutes in a bowl of cold water. I just remove from package, drizzle a little olive oil on each side, and cook on the stovetop in my grill pan about 5 minutes on each side and WALLAH! It's that easy. It's not "fishy" like a lot of other frozen fish. With it we usually have another one of our favorite products from the local Super Walmart. Mann's Ready, Set, Steam vegetables. It comes in Stir Fry, Garden Herb, or Brocolli with Cheese Sauce. You just peel off the sauce packet, put the package in the microwave on high for 3 minutes, peel off the top of the package, add sauce, stir and WALLAH! Delicious vegetable in 3 minutes! I also usually make 10 minute brown rice to go with it. So you can put together a great, healthy meal in less than 15 minutes if you don't count the thawing time. Look out Rachel Ray! 30 minute meals HAH!