Daring Bakers--Twelve Days of Cookies!

Good morning, everyone!!
Its time for another Daring Bakers challenge!!! This month we were challenged by Peta of Peta Eats to bake some yummy cookies! One of the recipes needed to be from the 12 recipes suggested by Peta, and the other could be a family favorite or just any other cookie, bar, or candy.

For the first part of the challenge, I chose to bake coconut chocolate cookies!!! Originally, the cookies were supposed to be like little drums, but due to our different flour, my first batch spread out like regular cookies, so we baked the second batch in mini muffin tins. Not as cute as the original, but still yummy!

Recipe (taken from Baking Glory)

Ingredients

Coconut Filling
• 6oz / 175ml Cream Cheese, softened
• ¾ cup Sugar
• 1 Egg Yolk (the only thing that I changed was to omit the yolk, and the filling still came out great!)
• 1 ½ tsp Vanilla Extract
• 2 ¼ cup Coconut Flakes, unsweetened
Cookie Dough
• 1 ¾ cup All Purpose Flour (I ended up using about 2 1/4 cups and my dough still wasn't stiff enough)
• ⅓ cup Cocoa Powder, sifted
• ½ tsp Baking Soda
• ¼ tsp Salt
• 1 ½ sticks Butter, unsalted
• 1 cup Sugar
• 1 Egg

Preparation Instructions

Beat the cream cheese with the ¾ cup of sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolk, and vanilla extract and continue mixing for another minute.

Add the shredded coconut and continue beating until everything is well incorporated.

Preheat oven to 375° F / 190° C.

In a medium size bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking soda. In the bowl of a mixer add the butter and sugar and beat together until light and fluffy, add the egg and beat until smooth.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until the mixture is stiff but still pliable.

Using a tablespoon, scoop some of the cookie dough into your hand. Flatten the dough into a circle that’s about 2in to 3in (5cm to 7.5cm) in diameter, add about a teaspoon of the coconut mixture into the middle of it and then fold the sides of the dough but do not seal it at the top.

Repeat this with remaining cookie dough.

Place the cookies on a greased cookie sheet and bake the cookies at 375° F / 190° C for about 18 to 20 minutes

Cool on a wire rack.

All in all, these coconut cookie s were fabulous and we all really enjoyed them!!!

Next up, I made two versions of pb cookies. My dad's birthday was this month, and he requested peanut butter!! The first recipe that I made was a traditional peanut butter cookie recipe, and the next, was a peanut butter cookie with peanut brittle that I found here. And here are the recipes:

Peanut Butter Cookies w/ Peanut Brittle (I halved the recipe and got 8 cookies)

Ingredients:
Brittle: 

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup chopped peanuts

Cookies:

• 6 T room temp butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 T corn syrup
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup + 3 tablespoons flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/16 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 recipe peanut brittle

Directions:

1. First make the brittle but pouring the sugar into a heavy bottomed saucepan and melting over medium heat, being careful not to stir too much in the beginning so that the sugar doesn't crystallize. Once it is more melted, start to stir so that it doesn't burn. Cook until deep amber, about 3 minutes. Once melted, remove from heat and stir in nuts, immediately pour onto a well-greased baking sheet. It will start to set really quickly so try to get it as thin as possible. 
2. Then, start on your batter by creaming the butter, sugar and corn syrup together for  2 minutes. Scrape the sides of the bowl and beat in the peanut butter, then the egg and beat for 30 seconds on high. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat on medium-high for 3 minutes. During this time, your batter should double. 
3. Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly add flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix no longer than 1 minute just until dough comes together. 
4. Crush half of your brittle by putting it in a ziploc and rolling with a rolling pin. Then add to your cookie dough, mix on low for 30 seconds. 
5. Using a a1/3 cup measure (I didn't fill mine up all of the way), portion out dough onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet at least 4 inches apart and refrigerate for at least an hour. 
6. Preheat oven to 375 and bake for 16-18 minutes. They should still be soft in the middle. 

These tasted best on the second day because the texture of the brittle really came through by then!!! These were probably everyone's favorite of the three that I made and were really, really delicious!!! 

Finally, the traditional peanut butter cookies were delicious too!!!! I just used a recipe that was in our family Better Homes & Gardens cookbook....basic cookies, so I'm not going to share here but I really , really enjoyed this challenge and making two cookies that were so unique and different!!!

Can't wait til next month!

Two Years

So I just found out that today is my two year blogiversary!!! Wow! I can't believe it!!!!

I've definitely had times where I posted more than others....I've switched from wordpress to blogspot.....joined the daring bakers (!!)...the entire blog has changed and grown so much in the past two years that it is almost as if this weren't even the same blog. I've grown up some, and have learned a lot!

I may not have the biggest and definitely not the best blog ever, but I have loved the experience and "meeting" several people through the blog world!!! To celebrate my two years of blogging, here's a yummy smoothie recipe that I've been working on! I was inspired when I saw a post somewhere a while back on an orange push up smoothie, and adapted it to fit what is available here!!

Creamsicle Smoothie (makes two or three smaller smoothies...or one really huge one!)

Ingredients:

• 200g frozen citrus juice concentrate (ours comes in little pouches of 100 grams each...I used tangerine, though orange, mango or anything like that would work)
• 2/3-1 cup milk (depending on the consistency you want your smoothie)
• 1/3 cup sugar 
• 1/2 to 1 cup ice

Directions:

1. Combine your frozen concentrate, milk and sugar in a blender. 
2. Blend until fairly smooth and the sugar has dissolved.
3. Add ice and blend until smooth.
4. Pour into glasses and enjoy!!!! 

Microwave Brownie Cake

Heeeey! Long time no see, huh? I've been coming up with some recipes....and didn't want to post until I had at least a couple in the works.....

I'm sure everyone has seen those microwave mug cakes at some point before.....I know I sure have! I actually made a couple a few years back, and while we all liked them, I have been looking for something a little more brownie-like, since I'm actually not the biggest cake person. I tried out a couple basic recipes for mug cakes to see which worked best and tasted best and from those experiments, came up with a pretty decent fudge brownie cake. 

I've made it a couple of times so far and it has turned out well, one thing I will say is that a little bit of baking powder goes a long way...the amount in the recipe below makes a very dense treat, while just adding a little bit more makes it much more cake-like. So it really depends on personal preference. For example, I preferred this version, while some of my family thought that, while tasty, it was almost too dense. 

Fudge Brownie Mug Cake 

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/4 cup flour
• pinch salt
• 1 heaping teaspoon cocoa powder
• 1-2 tablespoons sugar (depending on preference)
• 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 egg yolk
• 1-3 teaspoons milk (or until batter reaches a good consistency)

Directions:

1. Melt the butter in a mug or ramekin in the microwave.
2. Stir in the flour, salt, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, and egg yolk. Add milk until the batter reaches a consistency similar to that of a  thick brownie batter or cookie dough.
3. Place in microwave and cook for 45 seconds. If not done, cook in 5-10 second increments until it is. Top with some melted chocolate and enjoy!!

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

Daring Bakers October....Mille Feuille!

Hello!!

Hope everyone is having a nice Saturday so far! If you remember, a couple of months ago I said that I had joined the Daring Bakers club and made the cappuccino eclairs. Well, I haven't been able to do any challenges since then, so when I read what this month's challenge would be, I absolutely had to do it!! We're making mille feuille, also known as napoleons or custard slices, which are basically layers of puff pastry, custard, and an icing.

  Our October 2012 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Suz of Serenely Full.
Suz challenged us to not only tackle buttery and flaky puff pastry, but then take it step further and
create a sinfully delicious Mille Feuille dessert with it!

Well, since I'd never made puff pastry or anything like this before, I didn't want to stray too far from the traditional dessert, but instead of a regular vanilla creme patisserie, I decided to incorporate a local fruit that is in season right now, the delicious passionfruit! I got three of the fresh fruit, boiled them with the milk and sugar for the creme, and then strained out the seeds to make a delicious, beautiful creme patisserie! Here's my full recipe:

Passion Fruit Mille Feuille

For the pastry:

• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup cold butter, cubed
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons cold water 

        beurrage:

•     14 tablespoons room temp butter
• 3 1/4 tablespoons flour

Pastry Directions:

1. Cut the 1/4 cup of butter in to the 1 3/4 cups of flour and salt until the mixture resembles dry crumbs. 
2. Add the water to this mixture, kneading on a lightly floured surface for about three minutes or until the dough is smooth.
3. Chill the dough for 30 minutes. 
4. While the dough is chilling, combine the room temp butter with the small amount of flour. Place between two sheets of plastic wrap and work into a 4in square. Chill for 10-15 minutes until the butter slightly firms up. 
5. Roll the chilled dough into a 6 inch square, place the beurrage in the middle, with each corner of the beurrage touching the center of one of the sides of the dough. Fold the corners of the dough over the beurrage and seal the edges. 
6. On a well-floured surface, roll the dough until it is a rectangle with about 1/4 in in thickness. Fold the right side towards the middle, and the left side over that, so you have a thin rectangle with three layers. Repeat the folding process, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for thirty minutes. 
7. Do two more folds and chill for 30 minutes.
8. Do the final two folds and chill until needed. (Note: If your kitchen is really warm, like mine, you might want to just do one fold at a time and refrigerate)

For the Pastry Cream:

• 2 cups milk
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 whole passionfruit
• 3 egg yolks
• 2 whole eggs
• 1/4 cup butter, cubed
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pastry Cream Directions:

1. Combine 1/2 cup of the milk with the cornstarch, whisk until fully incorporated.
2. In a medium sized pot, combine the rest of the milk, the sugar and the pulp of the passionfruit (including the seeds!). Bring to a boil, remove from heat, pour mixture through a strainer to remove seeds and set aside. 
3. Add yolks and then the whole eggs to the milk/cornstarch mixture, whisk to combine. Pour in about 1/3 of the warm milk mixture, always whisking in order to prevent the eggs from cooking. 
4. Bring the remaining milk back to a boil, add egg mixture, whisking as you pour. Cook, whisking constantly, over medium heat until it thickens. 
5. Beat in the butter and vanilla until incorporated, whisk until cream is smooth.
6. Pour into a bowl, place plastic wrap on the surface of the cream to prevent a skin from forming, and refrigerate overnight so that the cream will thicken. 

For the chocolate sauce:

• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup sugar
• 8 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons flour

Directions:

1. Heat milk, butter and vanilla in a medium pot. 
2. Combine sugar, cocoa and flour, and when the butter melts, add the dry ingredients to the pot. 
3. Stir constantly until the mixture thickens, about 5 minutes. 

Making the Mille Feuille:

• 1 batch pastry dough
• 1 batch pastry cream
• 1 batch fudge sauce
• 2 cups icing sugar 
• 2 egg whites
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice

Directions:

1. Roll the dough out into a 12x18 in rectangle and cut into 3 equal parts. 
2. Place one of the sections on a piece of parchment paper and refrigerate the other two, place paper on a baking sheet, top with another piece of parchment and a pyrex dish. 
3. Bake at 400 or about 15 minutes, remove the pyrex and top layer of parchment, bake 10 more minutes or until dough browns. Repeat for the other two sections. 
4. Once the pastry has cooled, place one sheet on a flat board or dish, spread with half of your chilled pastry cream, place another sheet on top of that, top with remaining cream. Place the last sheet of dough on the top of everything, place in the fridge. 
5. While the pastry is chilling, make the royal icing. Whisk the whites and the lemon juice until frothy, stir in the sugar. It should be thick enough to make trails across the surface. If not, whisk in a bit more sugar. 
6. Remove pastry from fridge, pour glaze on it. Immediately drizzle the chocolate sauce over the top and refrigerate for a couple of hours so that everything sets. 

Carrot Cake Cookie Sandwiches

Ok, I realize that it has now been two months since I last posted.......and I said that I was planning on getting back to posting regularly. I'm sorry. A lot has been going on, and I really didn't know in what direction I wanted to take this blog. I actually am still not 100% sure, but I do know that I have been having fun not just following recipes, but creating them and coming up with different flavor combos and testing them out. So, one thing that I know for certain is that I want to share some of my recipe "wins" with all of you invisible internet people out there. :D I'm really getting comfortable with cooking, and it is something that I love.

I probably will also include fitness-related posts here....that is one of my passions. I am planning on going into college next year as a pre-Physical Therapy major, so fitness and health will obviously be a large part of my academic career as well as my professional life. I want this blog to reflect not who I was two years ago when it began, but who I am today. Yes, I have dealt with an eating disorder and definitely still struggle with negative feelings. But I am also a whole lot happier now, more content with myself, and really able to explore areas that I love, and I want to be able to talk about that.

Now, about the cookies. I don't know if anyone else has already made some like these....I'm probably not the first. But, this recipe I created by myself and am really proud of it. So, without further ado, here's my first completely original (to my knowledge) recipe:

Carrot Cake Cookie Sandwiches (makes 18-20 sandwiches)

Ingredients:
For the cookies:

• 1/2 cup butter 
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 medium carrot, grated
• dash of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1-2 teaspoons cinnamon (or more if you are like me and really, really love cinnamon!) 

For the filling:

• 1 egg white (I just used the leftover white from the cookies)
• 7 tablespoons sugar
• 3 1/2 tablespoons water
• pinch cream of tartar
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (optional....but really, really yummy!)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in egg yolk, beat until incorporated. 
2. Gradually stir in flour until a dough forms. Add vanilla, carrot, salt, baking powder and cinnamon, mix until fully combined. 
3. Drop onto a baking sheet by rounded teaspoonfuls, giving the cookies 1-2 in space. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the edges of the cookies have browned a little bit and the middles are set. These cookies are on the soft side, so they may not look completely done, but if the edges have browned, they will set up after cooling. 
4. While cookies are cooling, make filling. Combine the egg white, sugar, water, and cream of tartar in a small bowl and set over a pot of simmering water. Whisk for 3-5 minutes or until the sugar has dissolved. Transfer mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer, add in vanilla and cinnamon, beat on high until stiff peaks form, another 3-5 minutes. 
5. Spread filling onto half of the cookies, top with the other half. There will be filling left over, but it keeps for a few days in the fridge. Enjoy!!!! 

A funny story about these cookies...when I was asking my family for ideas for what to call the cookies, my dad said: "eye candy". When I asked him how he came up with the name he said that carrots are good for your eyesight, the cookies were sweet, plus they were pretty! Anyway, they were a hit over here, so if anyone tests these out, please let me know what you think!!!

August 2012 Daring Bakers--Filled Pate a Choux

Hey everyone!!!!! So, to begin my blog revamp I am super excited to say that I'm now a part of the Daring Bakers! whoo! There's a new challenge every month, and this month's happened to use pate a choux. If you remember, I have made eclairs before (check the recipe tab!) and enjoyed that, so I was really looking forward to trying something new with pate a choux. 

Kat of The Bobwhites hosted this month's challenge and encouraged everyone to get creative with the shapes and fillings of our choux. She made some cute swans, and here's the link. 

Yesterday, my sister and I made these and everyone loved them!!! We don't really have anything that we could have piped the swans with, so we just used some cookie cutters and made hearts and stars!Also, we had been wanting to try making faux caviar for a while and found a recipe here that didn't require any special ingredients, so we incorporated some chocolate "caviar" into the mix as well. Here's the recipe:

Cappuccino Cream-Filled Eclairs with Chocolate Ganache and Chocolate "Caviar"

For the cappuccino creme patissiere:

• 1 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 teaspoons very hot water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons instant cappuccino mix

1. In a bowl, combine 1/4 cup of milk and the cornstarch, stirring until smooth.
2. Heat the rest of the milk in a saucepan until boiling. Remove from heat.
3. Stir first the whole egg, and then the yolks, into the milk/cornstarch mixture. Add about 1/3 of the hot milk to that gradually, whisking the entire time. 
4. Put the saucepan back on the stove over low heat. Pour in the tempered egg mixture in a stream, whisking constantly. Continue whisking until cream thickens and boils, to avoid lumps. 
5. Stir in the butter and vanilla.
6. Combine the water and cappuccino mix, stir into the cream. 
7. Pour cream into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, making sure that the wrap touches the surface of the cream. Refrigerate. 

For the choux:

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup flour
• 4 eggs

1. In a medium sized saucepan, combine water, butter and salt. Bring to a rolling boil, remove from heat. Dump in all of the flour at once and stir until it forms a smooth paste. Cook a little bit longer until the flour pulls from the edges of the pot. 
2. Dump dough into a bowl, work for a few minutes until it is cool enough to touch. 
3. Add eggs one at a time, beating a little bit after each addition. Beat until a smooth, thick paste forms. 
4. Preheat oven to 375, grease or line baking sheets. Spoon or pipe out paste into desired shapes, making sure to smooth down any edges before baking.
5. Bake until golden and puffy. 
6. Remove from baking sheets, let cool completely before filling. 

For the ganache:

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 12 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 14 tablespoons sugar
• 6 tablespoons oil

1. Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan.
2. Heat until everything is combined. Pour into a container. 

For the chocolate "caviar":

• 2-3 cups oil (refrigerated overnight)
• 1/4 cup salt
• 3 oz hot chocolate (we made ours with milk and the ganache above) 
• 2 packs unflavored gelatin
• 3 tablespoons water

1. Combine the water and gelatin, stirring until there are no clumps of gelatin. Let sit while you prepare the hot chocolate.
2. Fill a large bowl with ice, add water till about 2/3 full. Stir in the salt. Pour the cold oil into another bowl, set inside the ice bath. 
3. Pour the hot chocolate into the gelatin mixture, stir until the gelatin melts. With a dropper, drop 2-3 drops of chocolate mixture into the cold oil to make a "caviar". Keep dropping the chocolate into the oil until the bowl is full. Let sit about 3-5 minutes, remove with a strainer and set finished caviar in another bowl. Repeat this process as many times as you can before your gelatin mixture gets too thick. 

For assembly:

1. Once pastries are cool, poke holes in each one that are large enough to pipe the cream into. Fill a pastry bag with some of the creme patisserie, and pipe it into each eclair until it is full but not stuffed. 
2. Once all eclairs are filled, drizzle some of the ganache on top, and then sprinkle with the "caviar".
3. Enjoy! :D

So there ya have it, our take on a "fun" filled choux! If anyone tries this, please let me know what you think!!!!

See ya later!

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?

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

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! 

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

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!

Chocolate Chip Cream Muffins

Good morning! How is everyone today????

I have never really liked Mondays very much......I mean who wants to go back to school/work after a nice, relaxing weekend? I know I don't! That's one of the reasons that I like to bake on Mondays......having something special for breakfast just puts me in a much better mood!

Something special like these muffins. Now I'm pretty sure that everyone who has ever had a muffin has either seen or eaten a chocolate chip muffin. Nothing new in that respect. However, I made these using my new favorite muffin base that I first tried out a couple of months ago with some mango cream muffins (recipe on the recipe page!). Before that, I had never baked muffins with cream in them......scones, yes, but not anything else. So, when I had some chocolate chips to use up, I decided to "wing it" and see if the cream base worked well with other muffin flavors. It did. :D

Chocolate Chip Cream Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 8 tablespoons butter, melted or oil
• 1/2 cup cream
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• about 1/2 to 3/4 cup chocolate chips....I just finished up a bag that we had opened already

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 400 and grease 10 muffin tins.In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. 
2. In another bowl, combine sugar, butter or oil, cream, eggs and vanilla. Stir until everything is combined. Add liquid ingredients to dry, mixing just until combined. Gently stir in the chocolate chips until they are more or less evenly distributed. 
3. Spoon some of the batter into each of the tins, you will fill them about 2/3 of the way full. Bake for 20 minutes or until the muffins test done with a toothpick. 
4. Serve with a glaze, butter or plain. Enjoy!!

As soon as my mom took a bite of these muffins she said that I had found one of the best muffin bases that she had ever had! So I'm thinking that I'll hold on to it! :D I've definitely got some more creative ideas floating around, but I wanted to see if the base would work with other ingredients before I got too crazy. 

So, in other news, my dad got home safely at about 1 AM Sunday morning. He was very tired but said that overall, he had a good trip. We were all glad that he was home......after having been gone for the better part of two weeks, it was really nice to spend all of yesterday hanging out! 

Recently, we got a box from some friends in the mail! Among other things, it had some movies in it! My mom, sister and I watched them all on Friday and Saturday, and last night, we rewatched one of them with my dad! We got The Help, Dolphin Tale and Midnight in Paris. I'm pretty sure that of the three, although we enjoyed them all, The Help and Dolphin Tale were our favorites. Both sad and sweet. We watched The Help with my dad last night and he enjoyed it as well. We're also already planning on watching the others with him soon!!!! Have you seen any good movies recently? If so, what were they? I loved the Help so much, that I've now got the book on my ereader!!! :D Already almost done, too!!!! I really think that they did a good job in adapting the book to the screenplay!!!! 

Well, that's about it for today....be back later on this week with some more fun stuff!! :D

Edited to add:

Musings of a Healthy Chocoholic just got a Twitter!!! Check it out: https://twitter.com/#!/GenniferDeLille

How was your weekend?