The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

Orange-Pineapple Bread

This is one of my favorite quick breads. It is unique because you use the ENTIRE orange in it and you don't have to use a zester! It have a wonderful citrus flavor and is moist and very delicious. I changed the original recipe to include whole wheat flour, cut the oil in half and substituted applesauce, and skipped the nuts. You can see the original recipe here. I did add 4 scoops of unflavored protein powder, since I will be having it for breakfast. I have added dried cranberries before, and that is very yummy too!

A little ADD in knitting department...

I started a new project. Before I finished my scarf. Mainly because I started a new ball of yarn on my scarf and it is way less fluffy than the previous one, even though it is the exact same yarn, and it is going to look really stupid. So why bother working on it?

Lunch Today

Insanely Easy Chicken Salad (one 5 oz. can chicken plus 1 tbsp lite southwest ranch dressing) on sandwich thins, 6 oz. baby carrots, and 1 oz. honey roasted peanuts.

 

Shellac Manicure

I got a shellac manicure yesterday (with a LivingSocial deal, of course!). I was very excited to try it because I never paint my nails and this stuff is supposed to look great for 2 weeks without chipping or anything! I was going to get something more neutral but the lady talked me into a classic red...it is pretty cool!

I will post another picture in 2 weeks and see how it looks then...these pictures are from this morning.

Raspberry Greek Yogurt Popsicles

These little pops have 2 ingredients - raspberries and Greek yogurt. They are on the tart side, so you can add a little sweetener if you want. Makes 4 popsicles, only 67 calories each! I got the idea on Pinterest here; I just changed the ingredients a little bit.

3 Years Ago Today...

We were gettin' ourselves married!

I was enjoying looking at our wedding photos, so here are a few. See more here if you want.

I am excited to go out to our favorite Italian restaurant and celebrate tonight! I can't believe it has been 3 [awesome] years already, yet it also feels like forever...in a good way. I'm so glad I get to spend the rest of my life with my amazing husband! We have the best adventures together and I'm looking forward to many more :)

Oak Harbor Weekend

Again, pictures are in no particular order.


Next to the bridge by Deception Pass



Skagit Valley Berries!!!



Awesome Lunch



Leftover Whole Wheat Protein Pancakes with Smashed (Skagit Valley) Raspberries!!



Good start to the weekend!

Friday night date night...

We tried MOD pizza...yummy!

Mini Mini Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia ice cream!

We watched some House and Breaking Bad...good times!

Fitness Friday Update



Unrelated but nice picture of Seattle for you all















I have been working out almost every day for the last month or so. I go on the treadmill first thing in the morning (5 AM...yuck) for 50-85 minutes (burning around 400-600 calories), depending on if I also have yoga that day or not. Some days it feels really easy and some days it is the last thing I want to do...but I try to do it anyway. I have really noticed improvements in how long and far I can run at a time - I started running 5 minutes at a time (in between fast walking and incline) and now I am up to 10 minute intervals. Which is impressive given that I may or may not be sleep-running at that ungodly hour. Haha.

Victory Garden Update



2 little cucumbers now!





A little green pepper!



Tomatoes are getting tall but no flowers yet...



Blueberry Buckle

I love a good summer fruit recipe. Actually, I love most any fruit recipe...this recipe is from a little cookbook called "Baking with Spelt" by Barb Waldron. It calls for spelt flour (great if you are allergic to wheat, but it is not gluten free). I'm sure you could make it with whole wheat flour and get the same yummy result. I usually use frozen blueberries and there is no need to thaw and drain - I just use them straight from the freezer.

I added a sliced nectarine on top of the fresh blueberries this time and it was delicious!

2 Ingredient Chocolate Pumpkin Muffins

I saw this recipe on Pinterest here and decided to make these muffins tonight. Only 2 main ingredients (I added a few more for fun) and you have some quick, yummy muffins! I wouldn't exactly call these health food (boxed cake mix??), but they are low in fat and fairly low in calories too (under 200 per fairly large muffin).

These taste really good too! You can't even tell they have pumpkin in them - they are just a light, moist, yummy, chocolate-y muffin. Feed them to unsuspecting victims as you see fit.

Lunch Outside



Enjoying a lovely lunch outside...so nice!



Broccoli Salad

I bought a lot of broccoli on sale last week. I noticed yesterday that it was still sitting in the crisper drawer, staring back at me. There was too much to just steam and eat plain (obviously I am the only one in my household who eats broccoli...), so I knew I had to take drastic measures. This called for some...broccoli salad!! I made up my recipe as I went along, using ingredients I had sitting around.

Portland Weekend

Well, my pictures do not want to go in the order I want them to. So, here they are in random assortment!

Friday night

Chicken Pad Thai Takeout for dinner

Made the vegan muffins for my mom!

Friday Funny

(I'm not sure where this is originally from, I found it here.)

Victory Garden Update



Growing a little cucumber!!



In their pots and ready to grow!



Sounders FC vs. Chelsea FC

Once upon a time, there were two happy crazy kids named J and V. One day, J and V got married and then went on an awesome honeymoon in London. In Chelsea, to be exact. They had a super wonderful awesome time they will never forget.


The apartment we rented...lower right side of this building




J and V circa August 2009

Easy Pudding Protein Bars

And the quest for portable protein-y breakfast continues...these bars don't look that appetizing, but they do taste good! They can be made really quickly in the evening and then they just refrigerate overnight and await you eating them in the morning.

They have a hefty 23 grams of protein and only 260 calories each. The only downside, which is not that big of a deal, is you have to eat these with a fork. They are pretty sticky and gloppy and would be impossible to eat by hand. I really like the consistency though; it is kind of like pudding and the oats get really soft so it's not hard to chew. And I guess the Jello pudding isn't exactly health food, but hey, you can't win on every count every time...

French Bread Pizza

This is not a healthy recipe, but it is super easy and really yummy. I don't think I've had french bread pizza since high school hot lunches, but it sounded really good so I thought I would make it! Great for those days you can't or won't or don't want to cook a "real" dinner (um, every day for me?!).

Cold-Brewed Iced Coffee



I halved the recipe and used 8 oz of coffee and 4 quarts of cold water



Let it soak overnight



Give your pitcher a cool turban



Here is how to make some good cold-brewed iced coffee. This recipe comes directly from the Pioneer Woman blog, which has lots of other great recipes too! Here is the actual recipe link.

Vegan Whole Wheat Blueberry Bran Muffins

I'm not vegan. Or vegetarian. Nor will I ever be either. But I do find it interesting to make (usually bake) things using "different" ingredients and see how they turn out. I do not have a problem with weird ingredients - I just want the results to be decent and not taste like pig slop (is that offensive to pigs? It's what they eat, right?).

I was looking for a healthy whole grain blueberry muffin recipe and I found one on food.com that happened to also be a vegan recipe. I added protein powder and specified oat bran because it is yummy. I thought it would be fun to take a break from the norm of eggs/milk/other non-vegan things in muffindom and give this a try. (When we visit Portland and go to Voodoo Doughnuts, I always see the vegan doughnut selection and wonder if they are any good...haven't tried one yet, though.)

Friday Night = Date Night!

Appetizer Quesadilla = yummy!

Fun Saturday Activities

Jeff modeling my not-ready-to-wear-yet scarf (it's a little pointy!)

Brown Rice Pudding

When I was growing up, my mom used to make German Milchreis (white rice pudding) a lot and we would spread it out thinly over large plates and sprinkle it (heavily) with cinnamon sugar, and it was super yummy! (Also I used a fork to make rows the entire length of the plate and pretended it was a farm and I was going to plant it with seeds. And then I ate it. Good times!)

Teriyaki Chicken and Brown Rice

Cook some brown rice

Hot Power Vinyasa Yoga Class

I went to a new yoga class last night - it was a 60-minute hot (though only 95 degrees, not 105!) power vinyasa class.

Vinyasa means "flow", so basically you flow from one pose into the next in what is supposed to be graceful movement. I found it harder than regular hot yoga because you have to really know the poses in order to do them in quick succession correctly. Also, there was a lot of arm strength stuff (side plank, lots of pushup position into other poses, etc.) that was challenging for me too.

Valerie's Victory Garden

Or it might be more of a defeat (wannabe) garden...we will see how it goes. One of my coworkers has a large garden/greenhouse and she had lots of plantlings to give away. I took a few tomatoes and cucumbers and a basil plant. They look very happy now and I know they have had a happy life so far. I hope to continue that trend so they feel comfortable enough to produce some yummy veggies!

The Best Crock Pot Turkey Chili

This is one of my favorite recipes to have for Sunday brunch with my family - it makes a lot and I always have yummy leftovers for lunches. It is also easy to make while I'm at work since it cooks for 8 hours. It makes the beans super soft, which is great because there are few things worse than crunchy beans (besides gory movies and the dentist). You can keep all the ingredients on hand -- ground turkey in the freezer and almost everything else in cans -- so another easy meal to whip up with minimal effort.

You can find the original recipe here. (I always omit the onion and no one notices, but I suppose most people would add it so I left it in...) Makes 9 servings - 260 calories each (303 grams). Serve with your favorite toppings -- cheese, cornbread, tortilla chips, etc.

3 Ingredient Creamy Pineapple Dessert

I saw this dessert on Pinterest here and thought it was too good to be true (not really, I just thought it looked easy and yummy!).

Can you guess the three ingredients? Hint 1: one is in the title; Hint 2: see next picture.

Sunny Weekend

Got my hair cut on Friday!

Date night! Jeff had fish and chips and caesar salad

I had cobb salad...really good but I'm not a huge fan of blue cheese...

Today we went for a bike ride on the Burke Gilman Trail. Gorgeous day!