carmelitas

i made these carmelitas for work today and everyone went bonkers.  

that's the technical term.  

ma famillia de korea...i'll have these waiting for you with a glass of milk.

cheese please.

i've made this twice now.  love love love soup season!!

and so ends pizza month.

last weekend we went to settebellos for pizza and dropped by capo gellateria for dessert.  our relationship with great food is incredibly satisfying.  just saying.

we capped off the month with pizza from dominos monday night.  and just giving you a heads up, dominos pizza crust is now really really amazing.  when did that happen?

pumpkin donuts.

yes.

i think these are in store for this weekend.  mmmm.

the reward.

31 days.  i did it :)

honestly, it wasn't too difficult.  i recognize now that i definitely self medicate with sugar.  we all knew that but i didn't know to what extent!  with sugar not as an option, i either recognized the craving and had something a little healthier - fruit, sugar free pudding cup or just drank some water and a mental pat on the back.

so.  what now?!

well danya had the awesome idea to stay sugar free except for holidays.  loved it.  nycole said she'd find new friends :)  now i'm thinking no sugar save saturdays/holidays?

right now i'm just going to see how everything goes.  maybe i have this whole gorging, reward, craving thing under control...but seriously, who are we kidding.  i'm the sugar empress.

anyway.  i'll keep you posted.


oh!  my reward :)

mmmm...

i am 24 days down in my month with no sugar.  over all it has been relatively easy.  although seeing all the halloween candy out has made my mouth water for my most constant love...reeses.

only 7 days to go.

wisconsin cauliflower.

i love the wisconsin cauliflower soup at zupas.  love it.  i also like the chicken enchilada chili but the wisconsin cauliflower...mmm yeah.


so did you know zupas has a blog?  that has recipes and stuff?  unfortunately not the wisconsin cauliflower soup recipe but other good stuff.


italian sausage spaghetti sauce


enchilada style lasagna


uhh....s'mores pancakes


anyway...cool stuff.  kind of excited...still...about the wisconsin cauliflower soup.

more smores please.

it's august and i haven't had made smores yet this summer. blasphemy.

however...a group of girls from my church are having a cookie swap this week and maybe i should indulge in cookie smores?  

tarte aux pommes.

for harry potter day i decided to make an apple tart...it's no treacle tart but i thought it would suffice.  


i used the recipe from smittenkitchen.com and it was so so yummy.  next time i would sprinkle sugar before turning over the pie crust edges and add a little cinnamon.  and i think i could probably just disregard the syrup step...mine was juicy and sweet regardless.  of course in my haste to trelawney my hair i forgot to take a picture (so i borrowed the smittenkitchen one).




p.s. special thanks to miss polly girl who helped make it with me...although i don't think she ever got a taste :(

cookie.

the cookie that ate a cookie.

[ pic ]

cupcake lasagna.

june has been all about using what i have and spending little to no money on food.  therefore...nycole had a tub of ricotta cheese, i had a jar of cannery spaghetti sauce, we have a ton of cheese (as nycole mentioned last night..."we have a whole shelf in the fridge dedicated to cheese") and so i went out and bought wonton wrappers to make, cupcake lasagna.  

i made them twice, once for nelson and ginnie...then again for nycole and me.

first time...too little sauce, second time too much.  live and learn yeah?  oh and we do have frozen ground beef in the freezer but i was lazy and didn't use it.


and i may have an awesome camera but my tendency day to day is pull out the cheapo japanese one...hence the blurry yet colorful pics.

quadruple chocolate cake!

1 pkg. duncan heinz devil's food cake

4 eggs

1 pkg. instant chocolate pudding mix

1 1/4 cup water

1/2 cup oil

mix/blend 2 minutes. place in greased and floured bundt pan. bake at 350 degrees for about 50 to 60 minutes. allow to cool. heat container of chocolate frosting to desired runniness and pour over cake (acquire the skills of lamia if able). add sprinkles. eat with ice cream or glass of milk.

mmmm.

update: eek! i forgot the fourth bit of chocolate. add half a bag of semi sweet chocolate chips just after mixing then pour into greased/floured bundt pan :)

mmm chicken.

for dinner last night i made breaded chicken, rice and broccoli. i used this chicken recipe from the blog, dinner: a love story. it turned out really really yummy. and since we don't have an oven it's a chicken recipe you can do entirely on the stove which is fantastic.

next time i'll need to crunch crush mash smash the corn flakes a little more.

and for the rice i used a lipton rice mix. you can get them on sale at groceries stores periodically but even full price they are only about $1.25. i ate these all the time while at university. they were perfect for two meals and i could always add veggies, chicken or tuna. last night, i had the chicken flavor rice on hand and added frozen broccoli.

by the time it was ready i just ate. didn't stop to take a picture :)

tres leches cake.

my church group is having a 'fiesta' activity saturday night. therefore, tomorrow i will be making three pans of tres leches cake:

cook yellow or white cake mix as directed on the box. once cake has cooled, poke cake all over with a fork. mix 1 can evaporated milk, 1 can sweetened condensed milk and 1/4 cup of cream. pour mixture over the top of punctured cake and refrigerate overnight. just prior to serving add whipped cream (and if desired strawberries).

yum yum yummy.

[pic ]

black bear diner.

matt told nycole and me about a new diner that opened up, black bear diner. we decided to go saturday night and loved it. the place was packed but they got us a table of 3 within 5 or so minutes. the food came quickly and the service was great (although we waited just a bit for the check). the atmosphere is what sold me.

the place is decked out (cabin-y style) with wooden bears everywhere. the servers wore funny teeshirts, our server's said 'bear with me' and they all work suspenders with bear prints. the menu looks like a newspaper with actually news on the outside circa 1976. the menu has something of everything available.

matt got breakfast which was huge. we're talking buscuits the size of burgers. nycole got a bacon cheese burger and i got a sourdough bacon cheeseburger. get this. my burger had parmesaen cheese toasted on the outside of the sourdough bread. then swiss cheese inside the burger. the fries had the perfect hint of seasoning. nycole and i split a shake (the server told us they come with the overflow in a tin and would be plenty for 2) and it was delish.

i'm always on a good quest for chili which they had available and i'll probably try next time. they also have small portioned pies (blackberry, cherry and peach...along with cream pies). as they say, the pies are generous for one and perfect for two. i just love that they're cute tiny pies :)

anyway. we loved it. we'll definitely be going back.

butter burgers.

i left texas to attend university and at some point after my departure they opened a culvers in flower mound. i think that every single time i would come home to visit i'd go to culvers with colton and polly.

specifically i'd get a scoopie kids' meal. it includes a butter burger with cheese (oh yeah...), crinkle cut fries, drink and frozen custard with a topping.

i even got to the point that when i grill my own burgers i add a little slice of butter at the end...mmmm so good.

well, color me surprised, i'm driving up i15 today and see that a culvers is listed as a restaurant option...in midvale. only 15 to 20 minutes away. granted it's not in flower mound, texas but butter burgers are now within reach :)

[pic ]

cheesecake + caramel + snickers

i believe that these snickers caramel cheesecake cookies might just be the cure to loneliness. this will shortly be confirmed through scientific tests...performed in my kitchen.

[source ]

i have ripening avocados and nachos are now all i think about...

[pic ]

so at the forrest yoga training we paired off with 'nutrition buddies'. someone that became an automatic friend/confidant. we talked about our nutrition issues (mine being sugar), we played the secrets game together, essentially it is someone that is available for support/to talk to during the training.

well one of our homework assignments was to discuss our own personal ethics and jenna (my nutrition buddy) and i decided to shop and eat while chatting :)

we hit up lululemon (b the w yoga teachers get 15% off everything...woot woot!) and ate at flat top grill for dinner. way yummy. you grab a bowl and it's buffet style stir fry. pile as much veggies, rice, noodles, sauces, etc, that you want and they stir fry it up for you. i got brown rice and noodles (in retrospect jenna and i both think we'd go with just noodles next time), asparagus, carrots, green peppers, pineapple, potatoes, broccoli, and chicken with garlic black bean sauce. so so so tasty. it's a flat price so we piled our bowls super high (the guy in front of us demoed how to get the most stuff in your bowl...noodles on top) and ate the left overs for lunch.

unfortunately i didn't take any pictures even though i thought about it and brought my camera. suffice it to say it was yummy and makes me want to have stir fry more often (lams and j-dawg remember the stir fry we had at the villa!? so good).

three more days of early morning intensive yoga practices. two additional days after that of instruction. it's crazy how fast the time has flown.

cucumber feta toast

saw this tasty treats a little bit ago and it's stayed on my mind. then again most things involving feta do :)

[pic ]