Lemon Cake w/ Orange Marshmallow Icing

A week or two ago I saw an awesome looking cake on How Sweet It Is, which by the way is one of my all time favorite food blogs! Anyway, Jessica made a lemon cake that was topped with a marshmallow icing and some coconut. I couldn't get the idea of lemon and marshmallow out of my head, so I thought I'd take her recipe, and switch it up a bit based on what we had here at home.
We really like citrus, so I added just a tiny bit of orange zest to the frosting, and it turned out really well. I also nixed the coconut , because I didn't want there to be too many different flavors going on. Thanks, Jessica for the wonderful inspiration!!!

(Props to my sister for decorating the cake!)

Lemon Cake with Orange Marshmallow Icing

Ingredients:

Cake

• 2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled (ours was salted)
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• zest of 3 lemons 
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons milk 

Icing

• 4 egg whites
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 
• orange zest to taste (I zested a whole orange and just added a little bit at a time until the icing tasted the way I wanted it to.)

Directions:

Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9 inch pan. 
2. Stir together flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. 
3. Whisk together eggs and sugar until combined, then add butter and vanilla. When these are all combined, stir in the zest, juice and milk. Add the dry ingredients slowly, stirring after each addition until everything is just combined. 
4. Pour into pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until the cake tests done. 
5. Let cool completely, frost, and enjoy!

Icing

1. Combine egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar in a heat-proof bowl. Place on top of a pot that has simmering water, and whisk for about 4 minutes or until the sugar has dissolved. 
2. Transfer immediately to the bowl of a stand mixer and beat, starting at a slow speed and gradually increasing, until the mixture is glossy and forms stiff peaks. 
3. Add vanilla and zest, beat until combined!

I hope you all enjoy this cake as much as we have!!!

If you do try this recipe, please let me know what you think!

Daring Bakers----Crackers and Flatbreads!

Good afternoon!!!!

 Sarah from All Our Fingers in the Pie was our February 2013 Daring Bakers’ host and she challenges us to use our creativity in making our own Crisp Flatbreads and Crackers! 

(source)


I've been a little absent from the blogging recently....apparently finishing up your senior year of high school requires a bit more concentration than usual. But, when I saw this challenge, I knew that I had to do it!!!! If you're wondering, I made cheese straws!!! I lightly adapted a smitten kitchen recipe and we all really loved how it turned out!!!! I didn't get a chance to take pictures....they were mostly gone before I got to a camera!Then, of course I dropped the remaining cheese straws and broke them! Anyway, we really loved this recipe, and thanks for the great challenge Sarah!

Cheese Straws
(we got about 36 cheese straws!)

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup flour (plus some for dusting)
• 1 2/3 cup freshly grated Cheddar cheese
• 4 tablespoons room temp butter
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 teaspoons red pepper (we like spicy! feel free to use 1/2 tsp or less!)
• 1 tablespoon milk

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. Combine flour, cheese, butter, salt and pepper in a food processor. Pulse until the mixture resembles coarse grains. Add the milk and then pulse until the dough comes together. 
3. Place dough on a lightly floured surface and roll out into a rectangle about 1/8 in thick. Cut into strips (ours were about 1/8 in thick) and gently transfer to an ungreased baking sheet. 
4. Bake for 12 minutes or until the edges of the cheese straws begin to brown. Let cool and serve!

Again, these were delicious and we loved trying out a new cracker recipe!!!!

See you soon!

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

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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?

Spring Rolls and SAT

Good morning! Hope everyone had a nice Memorial Day!

So last night, we had some leftover Chinese stir fries with fresh fried rice and....homemade spring rolls!! It was actually my very first time making them, but they turned out really well!!!! And the fact that I enjoyed eating them too was awesome...because they were fried; something that just a short while ago would have kept me from eating them! Anyway, I did get a pic, not a great one, but at least I'm remembering to take the pictures now! hahaha Here's the recipe:

Homemade Spring Rolls

Wrappers

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 egg
• 2-4 tablespoons of water (start with 2 and add more 1 at a time if necessary...I needed 3)

Filling

Ingredients:

• About 2 cups assorted chopped or diced veggies (I used a mixture of onion, bell pepper and carrot because that's what we had)
• 2 tsp oil
• soy sauce to taste
• pepper to taste 

Directions:

1. In a bowl, combine the flour, egg and 2 tablespoons of the water. The dough should not be too sticky, but should hold together when pressed, almost like a pasta dough. If it is too dry, add water one tablespoon at a time until it reaches the right consistency. 
2. Split the dough into fourths. Roll out one of the fourths into a rectangle about 10 in long and 6 wide on a surface heavily dusted with cornstarch (don't use flour because it will get worked into the dough and make it thicker and tougher). The dough should be very thin. Cut the dough into 4 strips. Set aside onto a plate dusted with cornstarch and repeat with the remaining sections of dough. You will have 16 wrappers. 
3. Make the filling by combining all of the ingredients in a small skillet and cooking over medium-low heat until softened. 
4. Spoon a couple of teaspoons of the filling into each wrapper, topping with a thin slice of cheese if desired. Fold the long edges of the wrappers in to cover the filling and roll from the short end. To seal, brush a small amount of water on the end of the wrapper and finish rolling it. 
5. Heat about 2 inches of oil in a pot or wok until the spring rolls sizzle as soon as they go in. Cook up to three at a time for about 2 minutes on each side or until they are golden. 

So there ya have it....homemade spring rolls!! I don't know how great my instructions are about the whole rolling process, so if you have any questions, just let me know! :D

Anyway, something else I've got going on is the SAT this Saturday. There's an American school here in Recife, and Saturday morning I'm going there to take the SAT again. I took it as a sophomore a couple of years ago when we were in the States, but I'm retaking it to see if I can do better than I did last time...especially on the math part. As a sophomore, there were a lot of math principles and formulas that I didn't know yet. So I'm curious as to how I'll do on the test.

Well, other than that, not too much going on around here....

Hope everyone has a nice day!

This is so exciting! (Giveaway)

Heeey everyone!!! I know I just posted yesterday, but I have an announcement to make:

Musings of a Healthy Chocoholic is hosting a giveaway (for the second time!)!!!

A couple of weeks ago I learned about PB Crave through another blog, Bess Be Fit and was immediately interested in trying out all of their fun peanut butters. So I contacted them about maybe hosting a giveaway on here and the very next day, got an email back with all the info I needed about hosting a PB Crave giveaway. My samples won't get here for a while....waiting on a group to come visit later on this year, but I will review the pb once I do get it, and one reader is going to get the CoCo Banana Variety pack:

CoCo Bananas: "A tropical blend of yummy bananas, cocoa and wild honey, this peanut butter adds a taste of island paradise to any kitchen."

Cookie Nookie: "A mouth-watering mix of chocolate chips, cookie dough flavor, wild honey and premium peanut butter-it's two classics together as one." (I happen to be super excited about trying this one out.....I'm thinking maybe it tastes like a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie!)

 Razzle Dazzle: "A twisted blend of red raspberry, wild honey, cool white chocolate and rich dreamy darkness-this peanut butter offers a magical mix of deliciousness."

Those are the flavors that one of you will get to try out!!!! 

PB Crave is a very interesting company. Not only are their peanut butters all natural and made without artificial preservatives or hydrogenated oils, they also donate a percentage of all sales to Project Peanut Butter; an nonprofit organization that works to feed undernourished children around the world. Cool, huh? :D

So, to enter you must:

1) Like PB Crave on Facebook  and leave a comment telling me that you did

You will get extra entries for doing each of the following and leaving separate comments telling me that you did:

2) Following PB Crave on Twitter

3) Follow or repin PB Crave on Pinterest

4) Tell me what flavor of PB Crave you want to try the most.

5) Follow Musings of a Healthy Chocoholic on Facebook.

6) Retweet this giveaway: "I want to win PB Crave from @GenniferDeLille!" 

I'll announce the winner on Saturday! :D

Back to Blogging

Hey everyone!

So you might have noticed that over the past couple of weeks I've completely "checked out" of the blogging world; no commenting, no posting. I really needed some time off....not only did I just finish a bunch of finals, I also wanted to take some time off to think about where my blog has gone and where I would like it to go.

It is just so interesting to me how what started out as mostly a fitness blog with some recipes has turned into the opposite : a recipe blog with some fitness thrown in here and there. I don't really mind that....I actually think that this change shows that I've gotten more comfortable with baking new things, which was something that, due to my eating disorder, I wasn't when I started this blog.

However, I also feel like when I first started blogging, I shared a little bit more about my actual life than I do now. I always love reading about what is going in in ya'll's lives and really don't want to become a "tired blogger". Basically, I don't want to get to the point where I'm posting recipes or workouts just because I feel like I should because I always feel like that sort of blog or that sort of post lacks real heart and feeling. I realize that not everyone necessarily looks for heart and feeling in a blog, but it is something that is important to me. I started Musings of a Healthy Chocoholic as a way to talk about my struggles and triumphs in relation to my eating disorder and to chat about life in general, sharing recipes and workouts along the way. While I am doing so much better emotionally, I think that maybe I've gotten away from the initial intent of this ol' blog.

I may not write the most popular blog, but I do want to write about what is important to me: my friends and family, God, and yes, cooking and fitness in general. So, to sum things up, I'm so glad to be back and am looking forward to this new blog phase!!!

So, before I go, I have a couple of questions for you guys:

I'm seriously considering doing a vlog soon.....what would you like to hear about? Life or would you like to see me make one of my recipes?


I've recently really switched up my workout routine...doing a lot more bodyweight circuits and seeing some cool results. Would that make an interesting post????


Also, I'm thinking about doing a day in the life post again, should that be in Vlog form or picture form?


Thank you all for your patience over these past weeks!!!!

God bless!!

Where I've Been

Heeey everyone!!!! So I realize that I did not post at all last week....Tuesday was a holiday, so I wanted to hang out with the family, and the rest of the week I put into getting ready for tests this week! It is my last week of school!!! So I took some time off from blogging in order to get ready! What have you been up to in the past couple of weeks?


Besides school, not a whole lot has really been happening....another reason I didn't blog. I just really haven't had a whole lot of stuff to talk about....hahaha I'm so boring! :D I actually hadn't really baked anything until this morning! My sister and I did try out a new recipe yesterday (red velvet fudge! :D) and it turned out wonderfully!! I got the recipe for that off of another site but we modified it slightly so if ya'll want, I'll post the recipe!!!!  I'm going to share this morning's recipe with ya'll today....muffins! :D

Banana Lemon Muffins
makes 12

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 4 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 3 medium ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350. Combine flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a medium sized bowl. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars until fluffy. Add eggs, banana and lemon zest, stir to combine. Pour the butter/sugar/banana mixture into the flour mixture, stir gently. Pour the milk and vanilla into the mixture as well, stir until everything is combined.
3. Divide batter between 12 greased muffin tins, bake for 25-30 minutes or until muffins test done with a toothpick. 

These muffins turned out pretty banana bread-like and the lemon isn't extremely strong, so if you want a more lemony muffin, feel free to add in some more zest!!! As is, the recipe is like a banana bread muffin with a slight lemony flavor to it!!!! 

Sooo I have some fun news....I am now on Instagram..finally! :D You can find me here. We actually just got wifi, so now I'm going to attempt to do a better job at taking pics....if not always for the blog, at least on instagram! :D 

Well, I gotta get studying...

What do you have going this week?

A Very Special Day

Morning, everyone!!!!
So yesterday was my mom's birthday!!!!!!!! We hung out, sang happy birthday, and went out for dinner!! It was a good day. I'm sooo thankful for my mom and for everything that she has done and it was really great to get to spend some time with her on her birthday! :D

So a couple of  days ago, I made up a new superset workout while at the gym and ended up really liking it! It was pretty tough and I tried to focus on the legs this time around because usually when I work out I feel like I never actually work my legs very much....typically I focus on arms, abs, back, etc. So, I decided to switch things up a little and loved it! Here ya go:

You'll probably notice that the word "squat" is featured in almost every superset....the hardest were definitely the bulgarian split squats...ouch! 

So yesterday I was alone for part of the afternoon...getting some studying done (finals are coming up). Well, the kitten must have been helping me study or something because after a while, I found her passed out asleep on the couch! She lives such a hard life! 

I don't know why anyone would say that we spoil our cats...do you? hahahaha 

Well, I'm going to get back to studying...see ya'll later!!

What have you been up to this week? 

Apple Braid

Good morning!! How did your weekend go? Ours was nice....extremely quiet but very nice!

Last night, my sister and I decided to bake our version of this apple braid that I had seen a while back. We changed up a couple of things, and for some reason ours didn't stay braided, but everyone really liked it and we're definitely planning on making it again!!! :D Here's what we did:
Apple Braid

Ingredients:
For the apple filling:

• 3-4 apples (3 medium or 4 small)
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice

For the bread:

• 2 1/2 cups flour, plus more for dusting
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon instant yeast
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup warm water
• 2 1/4 teaspoons oil
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the glaze:

• 1/3 cup sugar 
• 3 tablespoons heavy cream
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• pinch salt

Directions:

For the apples:

1. Peel and core apples. Cut them into thin slices and then cut the slices in half. Toss with the sugar, cinnamon and lemon juice, place in a buttered dish and bake for 15 minutes at 350. 

For the bread:

1. While the apples are baking, combine all of the dry ingredients for the bread in a large bowl. Stir in the water, oil and vanilla. Mix until smooth, adding more flour if dough seems too sticky. 
2. Turn out onto a floured surface, knead a couple of times to make the dough smooth again. Roll out to a rectangle about 12 inches long and 6 inches wide. Transfer dough to a greased baking sheet.
3. Using a sharp knife, cut strips 1 inch thick along both sides of the rectangle, leaving about 1/3 of the dough in the middle uncut. Spread the apples down the middle section of the dough. 
4. To braid, fold strips of dough into the center, alternating sides. When you reach the end, pinch seams to seal. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until the bread is golden brown. For more information on how to braid the bread, click here.

For the glaze:

1. While the bread is in the oven, make your glaze, by combining all of the ingredients in a small saucepan. Heat until simmering and cook until it thickens, about 2 minutes. If after 2 min, it still seems thin to you, add more sugar by the tablespoon, while cooking the mixture over low heat until the glaze is the right consistency for you. When the bread is done, brush the glaze over the top and serve! 

So there ya have it....our version of the apple braid!!!!! :D It was sooooo yummy!!!!! The apples tasted like pie filling and the bread was really awesome too!!! The main difference in our version was that we used a little more sugar than in the original, because our apples aren't too sweet and we also really like sweet stuff! :D Also, the glaze was completely different but that's only because I didn't happen to have any confectioner's sugar on hand so I had to make a warm glaze. It turned out nicely, though! 

Well, I'm hoping that my slice of apple braid this morning will fuel me through some school work.....only two more weeks left! whohoo!! What are you up to today????

See ya'll later! 

Happy Anniversary to my Parents!!!

Good morning!!! So, as you may have guessed from the post title, today is my parents' wedding anniversary! 26 years! :D My dad bought my mom a gorgeous bouquet:

This thing is huuuuuuuge....and really pretty too! :D 

So nothing much has gone on this week around here....although I did go to youth group last night with some friends!!! It was really good! The house where our group meets is really close by so a friend of mine comes by here and we walk there together! I've gone a couple times so far, and definitely plan on going most Wednesdays!

Other than that, it has pretty much been a quiet week....I've only got 3 more weeks of school, so I'm starting to get all my end-of-the-year projects and stuff. I can't believe how fast my junior year went by!!!

Well, that's really it for today....what have you been up to this week? 

Easiest Biscuits Ever!

Morning! How's that for a creative post title??? I bet it comes as a complete surprise that today I'm going to share a biscuit recipe with ya'll....hahahaha! 

Anyway, before I do,my here's what went on this weekend. Saturday, my parents went on a mini (read: one day) vacation. It was my mom's surprise for my dad because their anniversary is in a few days. So, a friend of ours came and hung out with us for most of Saturday and yesterday. We had a lot of fun! My sister and I made churros with this recipe and they were awesome!!! We also made a chocolate dipping sauce to go with the churros! :D So fun! 

So, this morning, I was up pretty early and decided to try something that I've never really been great at baking...biscuits. For some reason, mine always are either too flat or they don't bake in the middle. Anyway, after some online searching, I found a recipe that looked awesome....plus a lot easier than most biscuit recipes that I had seen before. There actually isn't any butter in the biscuits...just some brushed on top before baking! Sooo here it is:

Easy, Yummy Biscuits

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour (plus some for dusting)
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar 
• 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions:

1. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Gently fold in 1 1/4 cups of the heavy cream and add the remaining cream in by tablespoons just until the dough comes  together (I used about 3 tablespoons of the remaining 1/4 cup). Gently fold all the ingredients together, making sure not to overwork the dough. 
2. Turn out onto a floured surface and pat out the dough until it is about 3/4 inch thick. Cut out rounds of dough and set on a buttered or lined baking sheet. Gather the dough scraps and make more rounds until all of the dough has been used up (I got about 9, but I cut my biscuits a little large...the recipe originally said 10-12). Brush the tops of the biscuits with the melted butter. 
3. Bake at 425 for 12 to 15 minutes or until they are golden. Serve with butter, honey, jelly, etc! :D 

These were really great, and easy as well! 

Is there a recipe that you had trouble with when you first started baking? 

For me, biscuits are tough for some reason....I'm pretty sure that I always overwork the dough because I'm nervous about the ingredients not being incorporated enough...haha. :D Even these weren't perfect....I guess I just have to bake some more biscuits then! 

Well, I had better get going.....got school to do!

How was your weekend?

Switching up my Routine

Good morning! :D Thank ya'll for the comments on my last post! I'm already thinking about the brazilian-style recipes that I want to post at some point in the future!!!! 

This week so far, I've pretty much studied and hung out here at home. Sort of the same routine that I've had for the past couple of weeks.....which is why I'm trying to think of ways that I can switch up my routine so that I'm not always doing the same exact thing. Even if that means just walking up to the park to study a little, I want to really change things up some. It is always nice to do something different! :D 

One thing that I have managed to "switch up" is my workout. I did go to the gym on Monday, and while I did a superset/circuit style workout, which I have been doing, I came up with a brand new one containing some new-to-me exercises! I actually really, really liked it, so here it is!

Here are the exercises that I hadn't done before, or hadn't done in a while:

Side-to-side lunge (I hadn't done these w/ weights before)

Exercise Bench Pushups (I just tend to avoid anything with the word "push-ups" in it!)

V Raise (I added a squat)

Crescent Lunge and Row (I actually really liked this one!)

Sooo, as you can see, I tried out some new stuff, workout-wise! :D 

My next goal is to change up my study routine, like I mentioned earlier! 

Soo, what have you been up to?

Do you have to make yourself break out of a routine, or are you good about switching things up naturally?

That's about it for today....see ya'll later!

Writer's Block

Morning everyone!!!!! Sorry about really not posting very much at all these past couple of weeks.....I've really not done a whole lot. Mostly school.....and I don't believe that biology, business math and economics make for very interesting post topics. :D I honestly don't even have any new recipes or anything like that to share!

Anyway, how was everyone's Easter weekend? Mine was pretty great! We hung out at home for most of Saturday and yesterday we went to church. Not too much going on, but it was still fun! My sister and I attempted to make strawberry candy, but evidently our candy thermometer was a little off and the candies ended up being softer than we were expecting them to be. They still taste really good though! :D Also, we have decided that at one point in the near future we will be baking some petit fours....the whole nine yards with the cake, simple syrup, filling and icing. It is our next "big project"! Do you like having "baking/cooking projects"? Every once in a while my sister and I decide to make something big (like the eclairs we did a while back) and then we spend a good chunk of a day working together to make it!

Well, I do have a couple of questions to ask ya'll, so here they are:

What would you like to see on the blog? 

More vlogs, specific recipes (anything that I have mentioned before but not actually posted a recipe of), what life is like here, etc. Also, if you have any questions, put them in the comments and I'll see if I do another Q&A vlog!

What are you up to this week? :D

Aaand before I go, here's our new family picture!

We took this yesterday after church..fun stuff! :D haha

Good to be Back

Morning everyone!!!!!
How did ya'll's weekends go? Mine was pretty great! Yesterday we visited a new church and had a nice time meeting new people!
So I was a little bit absent from the blog world last week.....just been really busy with school and stuff...plus I actually didn't have any new recipes/workouts to share. Sometimes it helps me to have a little something like  that to get me going on a post and then I just sort of go off on tangents from there. :D
Anyway, I do happen to have a recipe for ya today...the world's easiest cake! It is plain though, so you can either frost it and serve as a dessert, or do what I did and leave it plain and serve with jelly, honey, butter, etc for breakfast! Anyway, I do want to warn you that the texture of this is not a traditional "cake" as it is actually a brazilian recipe and I got my basic recipe from here. Because of the condensed milk in the cake, it is almost like a flan consistency but with flour, if that makes any sense at all. Also, the batter is very thin.....I was pretty worried when I first put it in the oven, but it does bake nicely!

Condensed Milk Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
• 2/3 cup + 3 T flour
• 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 eggs 
• 3 1/2 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350. Butter a 9x9 baking pan, set aside. 
2. In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients. Beat very well until there are no lumps in the batter and everything has been incorporated. 
3. Pour batter (once it again, it should be runny!) into the prepared pan. Bake for 22-28 minutes or until the cake tests done with a toothpick. 
4. Remove from oven, let cool. Top with powdered sugar, frosting, more condensed milk, jelly, butter, etc! :D 

This was a seriously easy cake to make! Like I said before, the texture is a little bit different, so for that reason I don't think I'll make this all the time, but for a treat every once in a while, it is nice! I even made a lemon curd this morning to go along with it (I woke up at 5:30 today for no reason and I bake when bored). It was actually my first time having lemon curd, and I loved it!!!! I'm already thinking about the other citrus flavors I could use in the recipe! :D 

Easter is less than a week away. It is such an important time of the year. Not only is it a time to spend with friends and family, for Christians, it is also a time to remember Christ's death for us and His resurrection .  

It is a special time, and  I am definitely looking forward to having some quiet family time later on this week. Do you have any Easter plans? 

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

What are you up to this week? 

Long Time No See

Morning everyone!!! I've been sorta absent from the blog world so far this week.....I had gotten a little bit behind on school, so I took some time off to sort it all out. Also, I really haven't been up to too much.....no new recipes or anything, really! I did bake some sugar cookies for my sister's birthday and made some muffins yesterday, but they're both old recipes...what have you been up to so far this week? 


So one thing I did do is try out a new workout...it was pretty tough! As always, if anyone tries this out, please let me know what you thought! Also, definitely modify anything if you feel like it! :D

 

I did do both "optional" cardio segments and the entire thing took me about an hour....oh and I just noticed my typo up there....I meant "Weighted Russian Twist"...whoops! Anyway, the most difficult exercises for me were the russian twist and the dumbbell lunge + overhead press because I tried to up the weight that I was pressing! 

So, I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago, but I have been doing Blogilates workouts a lot recently. I've been absolutely loving them, and have been actually taking sort of a break from the gym and from the workouts that I was doing beforehand. I noticed a couple of days ago, when I tried out this particular workout that I had more energy and was able to up the weight in a lot of the exercises that I did. 

I really think that switching up my workout routine helped break the rut that I was in, so I did some quick googling and here is what I came up with.

We are animals and so our bodies are highly adaptable.  In other words, when we first start an exercise program our body will work very hard to maintain homeostasis because exercise stresses the body initially.  However, as we continue to exercise our body will begin to adapt to this stress and therefore, it will require less energy to perform the same exercise for the same amount of time.  This is or maybe was a great characteristic, especially years ago when we were hunters and gatherers and we needed to survive.  However, in today’s society where this is not the case, and most of us are trying to maintain our weight or lose weight is has become more of a hindrance.  Because it means it becomes harder and harder to maintain or lose weight since our bodies will use less calories for the same exercise session we did when we started.  This is another reason why it is so important to change up your exercise routine so that you force your body to adapt again.

Tired of the same ol’ same ol’?

You’re not alone. Many people find that doing the same workouts over and over becomes monotonous, and as a result they may begin to lose their desire to continue to exercise on a regular basis. Research has shown however that adding variety to an exercise program can help to improve adherence. Exercise scientists as the University of Florida observed that individuals who modified their workouts every two weeks over an eight-week period appeared to enjoy their workouts more, and were more inclined to stick with their exercise programs when compared to individuals who followed the same workout regimens week after week.

So what’s in it for me?

Aside from alleviating boredom, varying your exercise routine can also help you stay physically challenged. Many of the body’s physiological systems (e.g., the muscular systems) adapt to an exercise program within approximately six to eight weeks. Failure to modify your exercise routine will cause you to reach a plateau, as your body will have adapted to the repetitive training stimulus.

source
 So there ya have it....changing up my exercise routine helped not only kept me from getting bored, but it was also helpful in giving me more energy to go back to doing superset style workouts! Do you like to change up your workout routine? If so, how often? 


I leave ya'll with this picture. My kitten has apparently decided that she loooooves taking naps in the sink. It is just her size.....

Very Special Day

Morning!!
Today is a veeery special day in this house! It is my sister's birthday!!!!!! After school, she and her best friend are coming here for dinner and then the two of them, my mom and I will go to the premiere of The Hunger Games later on tonight! Then tomorrow, we're going to have a little bit of a family celebration! So, so excited!!!! :D

Well, in other news, I have a yummy breakfast recipe to share with you guys today! It is another coffee cake....this time with chocolate!

Chocolate Swirl Coffee Cake

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 3 T sugar (only if cocoa is unsweetened)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350. 
2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. 
3. In a medium bowl, combine flour and baking powder. In another bowl, combine milk and vanilla. 
4. Add about 1/3 of the flour mixture to the butter/sugar mixture, then add about 1/3 of the milk to that. Continue alternating between adding flour and milk to the butter mixture until everything is incorporated. 
5. Combine cocoa and sugar. In a greased 9x9x2 pan, pour about 1/3 of the batter. Sprinkle about 1/2 of the cocoa mixture on top of the batter. Spread another 1/3 of the batter on top, sprinkle on the rest of the cocoa, finish with the remaining batter. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the cake tests done with a toothpick.

We all liked this cake because the cocoa isn't to sweet and balances out the cake very nicely. Also, the cake itself was very easy to assemble and was pretty, too! Gotta love cute food! :D 

I don't think that I've got too much going on today....school, spin and Hunger Games is pretty much it, I believe! SO glad that today is Friday!!! I'm definitely looking forward to the weekend! What do you have going on this weekend? Tomorrow we're going to watch the Memphis Grizzlies game here at home and celebrate my sister's birthday some more! Speaking of her birthday, check out what I made her (it was her idea originally) last night:

A homemade gummy!! I googled the recipe and combined a couple to make this! Anyone who knows my sister knows that she LOVES gummy anything, and so I made her one with her favorite fruit flavor (passion fruit)! It was actually super easy and took about 30 minutes start to finish, so if anyone wants to make gummies, let me know! :D

Well, that's about it for today....see ya'll later! 

Pretty Nails and Random Thoughts

Wow! Can't believe that it is already Wednesday!!! The week is just flying by! Weird, because I haven't actually done anything out of the ordinary.....oh well. :D How your week been so far?

Last night, my sister and I stayed at home while mom and dad went to visit another church. We ended up hanging out and she did my nails!!!! I saw the idea on Pinterest a while back and have been bugging her to do my nails ever since....what a great sister I am! :D Anyway, here's the final result:

Cute huh? :D I'm hoping that I can actually get them to last.....usually whenever I paint my nails they begin to chip in about 24 hours....I'm hoping these last until Friday at least! 

Anyway, I didn't have any recipes or workouts to share today, so I thought I'd just share a little about things that have been on my mind recently. 

I've really begun to feel comfortable with they way I look. The interesting thing about that is, even when I was at my thinnest, I wasn't happy with myself. Not that I always thought that I needed to lose or even gain weight, I just wasn't happy with me. I didn't always complain about the way I looked....sometimes I was upset about a minor mistake, or frustrated with something/someone else and somehow managed to blame myself. I ended up taking not only my problems on myself, but those of everyone else around me....all while managing to find some way to blame myself for most of it. No wonder I wasn't happy. 

Ya'll might have realized this, but I am an extremely type-A person......a perfectionist. According to this website and many others, that personality trait can be very dangerous and act as a major factor in eating disorders. Here's some info from the site:

What if you were surrounded by media messages inferring that, "people will like you more if you have the perfect body, the perfect smile, the perfect skin.....?" You would then learn that, "being perfect makes people like you." If your life felt chaotic, you might feel safer by forming rules for yourself. 

In contrast, individuals with the negative form of perfectionism exhibit the opposite characteristics. Goals are extreme, rigid, and inflexible. Rather than taking individual preferences and strengths into consideration, "negative perfectionists" often set goals according to external standards or impossible internal standards. When these goals are not achieved, the individual's sense of identity is threatened and they feel like a failure.

So, what is the connection between perfectionism and eating disorders? An eating disorder is an example of negative perfectionism played out in its most destructive form. In this case, the rigid, inflexible rules apply to eating habits, appearance, and body weight regulation, the effects of which are varied and pervasive. The physical consequences, such as low body weight and poor nutrition, affect concentration and motivation. Interests narrow, energy wanes, and the desire for self-exploration deadens.

That's just some of the info on the site....it is really very interesting. And true.

So, to finish, I think that something I am learning and growing in is to accept myself. It is ok to try to do my best, but when I beat myself up for every little thing, I just become miserable. I have been truly blessed by .....God to have a family who saw that before I ever did and that has helped me realize that no, I don't have to be perfect. After all, no one can be.

Well, I had better get going....if you stuck with me for the whole post thanks!!!! :D See ya'll later! :D

Recipe Inspiration

Good morning! Hope you all had a great weekend!! We didn't do a whole lot, but still had a good time! What were you up to this weekend?


Sooo today i wanted to share with ya'll a recipe that
my mom and I made yesterday. My grandmother's chicken and dumplings (or dumplin's, as written in the family cookbook :D)!

That's the only recent-ish picture that I could find....she doesn't really looove cameras. :D 

Anyway, my grandmother has been making chicken and dumplings forever and they're pretty much one of my all time favorite comfort foods! When I was little, almost every time we went to her house, she'd have a big pot of dumplings, some biscuits, and some other stuff and we'd all fill our plates up and sit down at the table (which is actually in the kitchen at her house) and go to town. When I was really struggling with my eating disorder, sadly enough, this was one of the dishes that I had the most trouble eating while we were in the States. So, when my mom and I made it for the first time a couple of weeks ago, I was so proud that I could enjoy the food again! When we make it, everything is from scratch....even the broth, but if you don't have a whole lot of time, you can use store-bought and just add some shredded, cooked chicken to it. Here's the recipe for ya'll:

Homemade Chicken and Dumplings

(not my picture..:D)

Ingredients:

• 8 cups chicken broth (more or less)
• 1 whole chicken or 4 to 6 breasts plus 4 thighs
• 2 3/4 cups flour (plus additional flour for kneading)
• 4 tablespoons oil
• 1 cup ice water
• salt, pepper and poultry seasoning to taste

Directions:

1. Boil the chicken in water seasoned with the salt, pepper and poultry seasoning for 1 1/2 to 2 hours (or until chicken is very tender). Remove chicken from pot, cut into pieces or shred,  set aside. Save broth for boiling dumplings. 
2. Mix flour, oil and ice water in a large bowl, and work dough just until everything is incorporated. Take about half of the dough and roll out on a floured surface to "pretty thin" (my grandmother's words). Cut the dough into strips, and drop small chunks of strips into boiling broth. Repeat with the other half of the dough, stirring with a fork every once in a while to prevent sticking. Cook 35-40 minutes, stirring every so often, until the dumplings are tender. Turn stove to low heat and then off. Add diced or shredded chicken. 

And there ya have it....my grandomma's chicken and dumpling recipe!!! We had ours last night with some pasta.....it absorbed all the extra broth from the dumplings, almost as if the broth were a sauce, and was really tasty! Also, these are best when served with some sweet tea! hahahaha

What's a meal that is a sort of comfort food to you??? For me, chicken and dumplings and potato soup are some of my favorite comfort foods! :D Oh and anything chocolate as well. hahaha

Well, I should get studying...see ya'll later!