Vegan Cupcakes

I have a bit of a sweet tooth.  I can resist cookies and a lot of other deserts but anything having to do with cake or cupcakes, all will power goes out the window.  Luckily they make vegan cupcakes at Sprinkles!!

The strawberry ones are what I REALLY wanted…oh how I love strawberry anything!

 BUT, they weren’t vegan so I got Red Velvet.  Normally I don’t like red velvet, but this one was surprisingly good.  I am going to try and bake some vegan goodies soon!  Look!  They even have a little V and everything!  The icing was sooooooo good.  I think I like icing more than the cake part. :)

Reese’s, Hershey’s, and Pretzel snacks

My work was having a Blend Season kickoff party at work last week and we were all encouraged to bring a dessert (they provided the pizza and drinks-Arnold Palmers at the ‘blending station’-a little oil and gas humor for you).  Anyway, I decided to make my usual dessert of that everyone loves and that doesn’t require a lot of time (15 minutes).  They are the pefect blend of salty and sweet.

I found this on Pinterest (follow me!) and I usually adapt it to whatever season

What you will need:

-1 bag of square pretzels (get the square, otherwise the chocolate will melt through)

-1 bag of Hershey’s Hugs and Kisses (you can use regular ones but these are prettier)

-1 bag of chocolate candies (Reese’s for Halloween/fall, Red/Pin M &M’s for Valentine’s day, Red/Green/White M&M’s for Christmas, ect.)

-Oven

-Baking Sheet

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Put wax paper on the cookie sheet and spread the pretzels out flat

Add Hershey’s Hugs and Kisses to each pretzel

Pop in the oven for 4 minutes (set timer-it goes by quicker htan you think).  Yes, only 4 minutes.

Immediately add candies to the top of the chocolates, pressing down

Let cool and add to a serving tray or Tupperware container

Eat!

My Next 30 Years

It's been almost 2 months since I celebrated my 30th birthday in May.  I completed 29 out of 30 items on my 30 under 30 list, and also have created a bucket list.  I was driving home from dinner tonight and heard the lyrics to Tim McGraw's My Next 30 Years.  This song is old and I have heard it a gazillion times, but today I listened to the lyrics all the way. 

Here are the lyrics, but with a few changes (in red). 

Tim Mcgraw My Next Thirty Years Lyrics

Songwriters: VASSAR, PHIL

I think I'll take a moment, celebrate my age
The ending of an era and the turning of a page
Now it's time to focus in on where I go from here
Lord have mercy on my next thirty years

Hey my next thirty years I'm gonna have some fun
Try to forget about all the crazy things I've done
Maybe now I've conquered all my adolescent fears
And I'll do it better in my next thirty years

My next thirty years I'm gonna settle all the scores
Cry a little less, laugh a little more
Find a world of happiness without the hate and fear
Figure out just what I'm doing here
In my next thirty years

Oh my next thirty years, I'm gonna watch my weight
Eat a few more salads and not stay up so late
Drink a little lemonade and not so many beers margaritas
Maybe I'll remember my next thirty years

My next thirty years will be the best years of my life
Raise a little family and hang out with my wife husband
Spend precious moments with the ones that I hold dear
Make up for lost time here, in my next thirty years
In my next thirty years



In my next 30 years I want to travel more, forgive more, love more, find something I am passionate about, add and complete items to my bucket list, and much, much more.  What about you?

Fueling for a marathon

Last year at this time when I was training for my half marathon I had attempted to eat healthy, but the temptation of cupcakes and frozen yogurt was a bit too much. :/

This time around for my marathon I am going to make more of an effort to have healthier foods around.  I have tried to cook foods in bulk over the last few weeks and then freeze them, buy more nuts, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables.  I am trying to go out to eat less (which is only halfway working) and eat less red meat (‘white’ meat=lean protein).  I am trying to eat less packaged foods with fewer preservatives and stick to fresh made foods in the deli section at my grocery store or foods I prepared myself.  Experts say that you should stick to the outside areas of the grocery store and only go into the aisles for spices.  Get foods with an expiration date that is coming up.  If it is 2012 and the food doesn’t expire until 2015, then that might be full of crap that you don’t need to eat it, if you can’t pronounce words on the label then you probably shouldn’t eat them!

As I start to run more and exercise/cross train more I am going to be hungrier, but right now this is what I have been getting from the grocery store to fill me up for the week.  I haven’t been able to find a good farmers market or farm close to where I live now (I loved Froeberg’s Farm in Alvin by my old house) so I have to make do with the supermarket foods.

This is my typical day of eating lately:

Breakfast

1/2 cup of oatmeal with a fruit (usually either blueberries or banana), chia seeds, unsweetened coconut flakes, cinnamon, and honey.  I just purchased ground flax seed and I am going to start adding them to my oatmeal routine.

or

2 eggs and either a side of toast with jelly or a piece of fruit

Lunch

 Sandwich-either pimento and cheese (fresh from the deli-not the packaged kind-and I know that it isn't the best, but it is really tasty and better than a burger) or PB&J sandwich on whole grain bread.

Vegetable-either steamed (with my favorite microwaveable steamer) or raw with hummus Fruit for ‘dessert’-lately it’s been cherries, mango, banana, or apple

Cheese-sometimes a Gouda Babybel piece (love!)

or

Leftover frozen bulk item I cooked (Chicken Spaghetti, meatloaf, 15 Bean Soup, Lasagna, etc)

Dinner

It depends on what time I get home to decide if I am going to eat a big dinner or not.  Usually it’s leftover items I cooked or some fruit if I got home late and I am not hungry.

Snacks

I usually get hungry around 9:30-10 am so I eat some nuts that I keep in my desk, and then around 3 or 3:30 pm I get hungry again and have some more nuts, or sometimes I bring an extra piece of fruit with me.  FYI: A serving on nuts (get unsalted!) is a shotglass size.  Don't go and eat a huge handful of nuts, that's a lot of calories.

Drinks

When I do go out to eat I try and stick to water (plus it saves you like $2.50 each time you go out) or if I do get another kind of drink I get unsweetened tea.  In my tea I used to add 1 packet of Sweet n’ Low, then when that go too sweet I switched to ½ a packet.  Then I started hearing all sorts of things about Aspartame and tried to nix it from my tea all together.  Now I get tea with lemon, but honestly it tastes like water almost so I might as well save the money and get water…working on switching over 100%)

Hydrating drink-During and after a workout I have been drinking a sports drink called Nuun and I love it!  Nuun comes in dissolvable tablets (like Alka-Seltzer) that you add to your water bottle, let dissolve for 2 minutes and drink!  Super simple and it comes in a ton of flavors.  The best part is it’s not really sugary like Gatorade or PowerAde and is still really tasty and hydrating.

Margaritas-I have stopped drinking over the last few weeks in preparation of my triathlon and marathon.  Maybe in a few months I will go back to drinking something every once in a while, but overall I am trying to stop the additional calories and dehydration that alcohol brings. If I do happen to go out once in a while I won’t be that girl who orders water (unless I am driving) at the bar so I wouldn’t mind getting a drink then, but I am trying to reduce unneeded calories that will hinder my progress towards weight loss/marathon training.

That is my food for this week!  Let me know what you guys are eating, or if you have found any healthy foods that you can’t live without.

***This item has been done for a loooong time, but I have been lazy about posting it!  Enjoy.

Over the weekend I went to my sister’s house in Spring and baked a Cake from Scratch with my nephews, Hunter and Cole.  I love these boys!

#8 on my list is to bake a cake from scratch (and enjoy it) and I completed it!  For those of you who are counting, that’s 6 things off my list…24 more to go!!!

I looked online to find a recipe to make and I couldn’t decide which one I wanted to make.  Strawberry? Pineapple Upside Down Cake? Lemon? White? Yellow?  Pumpkin? (my favorite option) Coconut?-Yuck! My neighbor even said I could borrow her cookbook that had cakes from scratch in it.

Then I called my sister and told her my dilemma of which cake flavor to make and she said “Fruit and Cake do not belong together” and if I wanted to do it over there it would need to be chocolate.  BOOO!!! She then suggested that I use this recipe that her Mother-in-Law always makes for parties and get togethers.

These are all the ingredients needed for this recipe.  I included pictures of each step so if you are like me and cannot cook a thing you can follow this easily!

First up:  Wash your hands.  Hunter has included a visual of how to make a soap bubble with your hands for your enjoyment/learning.

Sift together Sugar, Flour, and Cocoa.  This step is important to SIFT together.  I thought you could just mix it together and be done, but no, it needs to be sifted. I actually broke my sister’s sifter and need to replace it.

This is Cole eating Butternut Squash and helping from afar.

Add Baking Soda and Milk then Stir.  Then add Mayonnaise and stir (can you already tell this recipe is low calorie? ;) 

Cole moved closer to help us stir.  He is having fun!

My sister greased the pan (important step, otherwise the cake will stick)

Pour the cake batter into the pan then an important step:  Lick the bowl clean before washing it

Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees, afterwards check with a toothpick, use a butter knife to separate the sides from the pan, and flip over on a cookie sheet

The icing: Add Milk, butter, and cocoa

Put over medium heat until it boils (big bubbles).  Constant stirring needs to occur.  Then add Sugar and blend together. Pour over cake (hurry, it gets thick fast!)

Enjoy with ice cream!!!

I had a wonderful day spending time with my nephews baking this cake.

 1 Cake + 2 Adorable Nephews = Happiness and a Rockin’ good time :)

Question of the day:

Have you ever baked a cake from scratch?  How did it turn out?

Last day

Today is my last day in my 20's and I am not exactly thrilled.  Yes, I have been doing my 30 under 30 list (more about that later, including a recap post!), but I didn't think I would be so anguished about this.  I have been sort of emotional lately and thought why?  Then I remembered!  It's all the old lady hormones. ;)

I know I will wake up with wrinkles tomorrow! haha.  I will keep you informed.

For now, I will eat a cupcake and anticipate turning 30 at midnight (technically I was born around 9 am). 

My pineapple cupcake is courtesy of my friend from college, Laura. :)  We had lunch and then went to get a cupcake.

Pumpkin Time

I have had such a craving for pumpkin  stuff lately!  I don’t know hwat it is, but pumpkin beer, coffee, cookies, muffins, cake, anything pumpkin!

I guess it is because it is everywhere and I can only find it this time of year. Who knows.  Well, this morning I was running late and didn’t have time to make breakfast so I stopped at Dunn Brothers Coffee in Freindswood to fulfill my pumpkin craving.

I would like Pumpkin Latte Drink (kind of like Pumpkin Frappucino) and Pumpkin Muffin please!

Yummy, Pumpkin Muffins!

Question of the day:  What is your favorite pumpkin item?

Running for Cupcakes

At work one of the guys were talking about this new cupcake store that opened in Friendswood called Rise Cupcakes, so I decided to check them out.  Since my race on Saturday I have not run at all this week, (Lazy, Lazy, Lazy Stephanie) so I decided that I was going to run to it last night. 

I thought the cupcake store was about 2 miles from my house, so it would be about a 4 mile total run.  I. Was. Wrong.  It is a 2.72 mile run ONE WAY!  That would be 5.44 miles total. YIKES! Obviously I know that I can run 6.2 miles without stopping so this should have been a problem, but it was.  Between my house and the road 2351 there is about .1 miles of sidewalk, and the rest is unpacked and uneven grass, brides (where you have to cross WITH the traffic-scary!), ferocious dogs, and cars!  Oh the cars!  Sometimes the weeds were to thick so I would have to cross the street so I could continue on.  Lots of criss crossing and waiting for cars to clear so I could cross.

Finally, after 2.72 miles I got to Rise Cupcakes!  The store is beautiful and very chic.  The staff was very friendly, especially since I walked in dripping of sweat and huffing and puffing.  They thought it was funny that I actually ran there, they said most people just joke about it but I actually did it.  They closed in about 15 minutes so I had to be sure and get my cupcake.

I really didn’t feel much like eating (I usually don’t after running) but I was determined to eat my freakin’ cupcake! I earned it.  They only had 3 flavors left since they ran out of all the other ones, so I had Vanilla.   Check out the menu from their website, it has all of the great flavors.

I wanted to eat my cupcake there (since I couldn’t take it with me) they put it on a really cute plate and I sat down to eat it with my water bottle.   I only ate a few bites before I couldn’t eat any more.  It was good, but I can’t really eat right after my run but I ate about ¼ of it (plus icing!) before I stopped.  Next time I will have to go without being tired from running.  I actually think we are going to go at lunch time today!

Everyone needs to visit Rise Cupcakes in Friendswood, I met one of the owner’s last night and she was super sweet.  Go check them out!