I did it again....

Well...I just completely checked out again, didn't I? Sorry about that!!! I really do promise to get back to a regular posting schedule again soon!!!!

Anyway, some pretty fun stuff happened this past week....so I'll do a little recap!

First of all, I've completely fallen in love with Instagram!!!!! Here are some of my favorite pictures that I've taken:

If any of ya'll have instagram, follow me at healthychocoholic please!!! :D 

Also, we had a friend over Saturday! We made cupcakes together!!!! 

She frosted several of them and put sprinkles on them all!!!!! The cupcakes themselves were a plain yellow cake with some chocolate sprinkles mixed into the batter. We were going to do funfetti, but the store didn't have colorful sprinkles so we just went with chocolate to see what would happen....turned out really well!! The frosting was seriously the best frosting I have ever had.....creamy and delicious w/o being too heavy. Both recipes came from my mom's old Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, so let me know if anyone is interested in the recipes!!!!

Also, yesterday was Father's Day (actually, brazilian father's day is in august) so we made my dad one of his favorite meals: chicken and dumplings!!! I also made a biscuit recipe that I recently tried out for the first time and loved! They are super fluffy and the whole recipe comes together in under 30 minutes!!! Here ya go:

Butter Dip Biscuits

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup milk

Directions:

1. Cut butter into chunks and place in the bottom of a small pyrex dish. Place in an oven preheated to 450 for about 5 minutes to melt the butter. 
2. Meanwhile, whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Pour in all the milk at once and stir until just combined. Dough will be very sticky. 
3. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and gently pat out into a rectangle. You may need to sprinkle some more flour on top of the dough in order to work with it, just don't overwork the dough. Separate dough into 12 small chunks (or more if you want bigger biscuits) and roll into balls. Roll each  chunk in the butter and place in the dish. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden. 

These biscuits are seriously so good!!! The dough is super light and fluffy, plus you save time by melting the butter in the dish instead of cutting it into the flour mixture!!!! 

Well, that's pretty much my week in a nutshell!! :D

What have you guys been up to?

Checking In

Morning everyone! I can't believe how long it has been since I last posted! I know that a couple of weeks ago I wrote about wanting to post only when I felt like I had something to actually talk about, and really, this past week, I was focusing on relaxing and hanging out with the family (we had a four day weekend!) and not on writing. Gotta say, it did feel nice to just "check out" for a bit and have fun.

Anyway, I have a couple of things that I do want to talk about today....so here we go!

First of all, over this past week, I have discovered the easiest chocolate dessert ever. It literally takes five minutes. It is called brigadeiro de colher, and is basically chocolate with the consistency of a dulce de leche! So, so good! :D Here's the recipe for ya:

Brigadeiro de Colher

\

Ingredients:

• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 heaping tablespoons sweetened cocoa powder (like for chocolate milk or something)
• 1/2 tablespoon butter

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients in a microwave-safe bowl. Stir to combine.
2. Microwave for two minutes, checking to make sure it doesn't boil over. When time is done, take the bowl out and stir the ingredients for a little while to cool them down. Repeat once.
3. Microwave for one minute. Remove bowl from microwave, stir again. The mixture should be fairly thick, and it will thicken more as it cools. Eat by itself or with vanilla wafers, fruit, etc!

If anyone tries this out, let me know what you think!!!!!

Now, I do want to talk a bit about something that I haven't brought up in a while....my workouts. I've really changed up my routine and have tried out some new workout styles. I still run and definitely still go to spin class, but I've also been incorporating more bodyrock type workouts.....more intense bodyweight circuit training. In the past couple of weeks, I have done more pushups than I thought I would ever do! :D hahaha I've definitely noticed an increase in strength, which is pretty cool. I'm still trying to find the right balance for me, personally. I noticed last week that I got a little burned out....I ended up taking Thursday off because I was just too tired to work out. So, my exercise routine is a work in progress, but it has definitely changed over the past few weeks. 

Soo, what did you do this weekend?

See ya'll later!

TV, Snacks, and Pizza

Morning everyone!!!! Happy Friday! :D

Not a whole lot has gone on since I last posted.....I did take the online SAT prep test and did ok, so I'm feeling a bit better about tomorrow. Other than that, I've been trying to enjoy my break from school....I can't believe that next year is my last year of high school!!! It will actually be a pretty great year, I think, especially because I'm only taking 4 classes instead of the usual 6, because a couple of years ago I took an extra class and only need four more credits. Also, I haven't decided on all the classes that I will take, but I think that the ones I have decided on will be really interesting!

So, a few days ago I saw a recipe for a healthy apple "crisp" snack and wanted to try to recreate it. I couldn't find the recipe again, so I ended up making up my own, and it was really good!

(you can't really see the oats in the pic....I had already sort of mixed everything in!)

Quick Apple "Crisp" (makes one large or two medium sized servings..I made two)

Also, this isn't quite a true crisp...more of a snack-y take on one!

Ingredients:

• 1 medium apple, chopped (peel the apple if you prefer)
• 2-4 teaspoons sugar (granulated or brown, to taste)
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon 
• 1-3 tablespoons oatmeal (depending on how "crisp-like" you want it to be)

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350. Lightly butter two ramekins, set aside.
2. In a bowl, toss your chopped apple with the sugar and cinnamon, then divide the mixture equally between the ramekins.
3. Sprinkle the oatmeal on top of the apple mixture.
4. Bake for 15 minutes or until the apples are soft and the oatmeal has crisped up a little bit. 

This was really a good snack, especially since it was raining that day and I had one ramekin pre- and the other post-spin!!!

Also, tonight we're having a meeting here at home with some of our ministry team and I'm making Chicago-style pizza!! Whoo!! We all really like it and it has been a while since I made it, so I'm looking forward to that! Also, none of the ministry team has actually tried the pizza yet, so it will be fun!

Finally, since I am on holiday, I've been looking for some good tv to watch. 

What are some shows that you like????

Well, that's it for today....

What do you have going on this weekend?