Monday, December 31, 2012
Christmas 2012
One day, I'm going to sit down and really update. I have pictures from Fall break, Cooper's 3rd birthday, and leading up to Christmas, but for now, I'll leave you with a picture of Cooper's big gift that was left at Pops and YaYa's house:
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Someone's Been Pinteresting
And from the looks of it, you'd think it's Cooper. If you've been on Pinterest, you've surely seen the pictures of the cute/perfect/whimsical (add whatever other adjective) food/craft/wreath (add whatever other noun) coupled with the "fail" picture someone has goofed up. That's what happens in most cases with me and Pinterest.
At the top, you will see cupcakes I made for my department's open house. You will see I attempted to make Christmas trees, wreaths, and Rudolph and you will see the attempt failed. Thankfully not so bad that I felt the need to remake them (or call Muddy's for an emergency order), though others may disagree.
Next are pretzel, Hershey Kiss, M&M bite things. I don't think or know if they have an official name, but I didn't screw these up as much as the cupcakes. Hooray! Lay out some square pretzels, put Hershey Kisses on top of them, let them melt slightly in a 350 degree oven, then smush a M&M into the kiss. So easy even I can do it. These are also for the open house...my poor co-workers.
The last picture was one of my contributions to Thanksgiving. It was a Weight Watchers friendly Pumpkin Spice Trifle. I really went out on a limb on this one, not only making something other than congealed cranberry sauce and Sister Shubert rolls, but in tweaking the original recipe I found and not trying it out before I served it to others. Certainly not the prettiest, but I'm pleased to report that it was a hit.
I've got all kinds of things pinned for the holidays and Jeff can tell when I'm a roll when the grocery list gets longer and more obscure. He laughed at me decorating cupcakes so much I started getting a complex.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Dijon Lime Chicken
Another day, another Pinterest/Weight Watchers recipe. This time, it was Dijon Lime Chicken. I liked it, but the jury is out on Jeff. I got "It doesn't taste like I thought it would." and "It doesn't have much flavor, but I like it."
Not exactly a glowing recommendation.
So if you decide to throw caution to the wind and give this a try, here's the recipe:
-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
-3 tablespoons dijon mustard
-2 tablespoons lime juice
-1 tablespoon lite mayonnaise or Miracle Whip
-1 teaspoon black pepper
Preheat oven to 400 degress. Lay chicken on greased baking dish. Mix dijon mustard, mayonnaise, lime juice, and pepper together and spread on chicken. Bake for 45 minutes or until done.
It took ours about 50 minutes to be done. The picture looks like I burned it, but oddly enough, I didn't.
We'll see if this actually gets added to the rotation. What you see pictured will be tomorrow's dinner, so maybe a decision will be made by then. It's 5 Weight Watchers points a serving, so if nothing else, it's well within Jeff's point allottment for the day.
Not exactly a glowing recommendation.
So if you decide to throw caution to the wind and give this a try, here's the recipe:
-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
-3 tablespoons dijon mustard
-2 tablespoons lime juice
-1 tablespoon lite mayonnaise or Miracle Whip
-1 teaspoon black pepper
Preheat oven to 400 degress. Lay chicken on greased baking dish. Mix dijon mustard, mayonnaise, lime juice, and pepper together and spread on chicken. Bake for 45 minutes or until done.
It took ours about 50 minutes to be done. The picture looks like I burned it, but oddly enough, I didn't.
We'll see if this actually gets added to the rotation. What you see pictured will be tomorrow's dinner, so maybe a decision will be made by then. It's 5 Weight Watchers points a serving, so if nothing else, it's well within Jeff's point allottment for the day.
Monday, October 1, 2012
Does this look Weight Watchers friendly?
I'm not completely positive it was, even though my Weight Watchers recipe expert website, Pinterest, told me it was only 3 points a serving. When you follow the recipe perfectly, it probably is.
Butterfinger Pie
-Low fat graham crackers (I used chocolate)
-2 containers Fat free Cool Whip
-1 Butterfinger bar (I used a bag of fun size)
-Sugar free caramel sauce
Lightly grease a 13"x9" Pyrex pan. Line pan with graham crackers. Chop up the Butterfinger, mix with Cool Whip, and pour on top of the graham crackers. Pour caramel sauce over Cool Whip mixture. Refrigerate.
It seemed to go over well at dinner, although I have a sneaking suspicion my mother thought it was too sweet. Whatever...Jeff seemed to like it and he's the one on Weight Watchers, so we're going to consider it a success!
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Skinny Funfetti Cake
In Jeff's continuing quest to lose weight, I try to find Weight Watchers friendly recipes. I have to brag on him- he's done amazingly well. He started at the end of February and as of last Wednesday, he has lost 84 pounds!
I'd love to say I jumped right in and not only made Weight Watchers friendly recipes each night, but perfected my cooking skills simultaneously.
That did not happen.
I have found a few recipes we've added to our rotation, but Jeff deserves all the credit for exercising more and finding ways to make "everyday food" fit into his Weight Watchers plan. This has become more difficult as the weight has come off because you start with a certain amount of points, but those decrease as your weight drops. He's accepted the challenge and does really well managing his portions and points.
I thought this recipe might be a good compromise between easy for me and good for Jeff and his point allottment for each day.
Skinny Funfetti Cake
*1 box Funfetti cake mix
*12 ounces Sprite Zero
*1 container Lite Cool Whip
*1 large box vanilla Jello pudding mix
*Sprinkles (optional)
Preheat over to 350 degrees. Mix cake mix powder and Sprite Zero together. Pour into greased 13"x9" pan and bake until golden brown (about 40 minutes for our oven). Mix Lite Cool Whip and vanilla pudding powder together. Spread over cooled cake, then sprinkle with, well, sprinkles if you want.
Jeff deemed it a success. It's definitely not as good as the full fate version, but it will satisfy a sweet tooth. Now I'm interested to see if the "icing" can be made into a chocolate version.
I'd love to say I jumped right in and not only made Weight Watchers friendly recipes each night, but perfected my cooking skills simultaneously.
That did not happen.
I have found a few recipes we've added to our rotation, but Jeff deserves all the credit for exercising more and finding ways to make "everyday food" fit into his Weight Watchers plan. This has become more difficult as the weight has come off because you start with a certain amount of points, but those decrease as your weight drops. He's accepted the challenge and does really well managing his portions and points.
I thought this recipe might be a good compromise between easy for me and good for Jeff and his point allottment for each day.
Skinny Funfetti Cake
*1 box Funfetti cake mix
*12 ounces Sprite Zero
*1 container Lite Cool Whip
*1 large box vanilla Jello pudding mix
*Sprinkles (optional)
Preheat over to 350 degrees. Mix cake mix powder and Sprite Zero together. Pour into greased 13"x9" pan and bake until golden brown (about 40 minutes for our oven). Mix Lite Cool Whip and vanilla pudding powder together. Spread over cooled cake, then sprinkle with, well, sprinkles if you want.
Jeff deemed it a success. It's definitely not as good as the full fate version, but it will satisfy a sweet tooth. Now I'm interested to see if the "icing" can be made into a chocolate version.
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Ole Miss, White After Labor Day, and Being a Sorority Girl
Ole Miss instituted a "Goodbye to Summer" tradition by inviting (also known as "ordering" or "strongly suggesting") everyone attending their football home opener to wear white because every good Southerner knows you don't wear white after Labor Day.
Unless it's "winter white" then it's totally okay.
I had to share this with my big sis from KD, Leigh the Supermom- then we discussed how difficult it must have been to find a white dress. In Oxford. At the end of summer.*
As the article pointed out, the poor girl who couldn't find a dress? She's probably blacklisted from the "good" sororities and won't be able to drop out of school from embarrassment because recruitment is after the drop date. This might have been me. I was the girl bawling on Bid Day because I didn't get my first choice of sororities. Memphis did recruitment before school started way back when, so I could have slipped easily into the commuter student abyss and never been seen or heard from around Greek Life again. I stuck with it, Leigh took me under her wing, and we're very close to this day. My college experience wouldn't have been near as fun without Greek Life.
Sorority Girl habits die hard. I've written several recommendations for former students, family friends, or relatives and I always get so excited for them. I despised recruitment, mainly because it really cut into my sleep schedule and our recruitment chair always decided camping or bunking at a livestock auction house was a great retreat idea, but I also remember how much fun those times were. And you better believe I'm writing those recs knowing exactly what's being said after parties end for the day.
Part of me realizes the Ole Miss white-out game and reasoning for delayed recruitment is insane. The other part of me wishes Memphis had been more like them because they end up having article written about them and their fashion choices for a football game. See what I mean about Sorority Girl habits?
Unless it's "winter white" then it's totally okay.
I had to share this with my big sis from KD, Leigh the Supermom- then we discussed how difficult it must have been to find a white dress. In Oxford. At the end of summer.*
As the article pointed out, the poor girl who couldn't find a dress? She's probably blacklisted from the "good" sororities and won't be able to drop out of school from embarrassment because recruitment is after the drop date. This might have been me. I was the girl bawling on Bid Day because I didn't get my first choice of sororities. Memphis did recruitment before school started way back when, so I could have slipped easily into the commuter student abyss and never been seen or heard from around Greek Life again. I stuck with it, Leigh took me under her wing, and we're very close to this day. My college experience wouldn't have been near as fun without Greek Life.
Sorority Girl habits die hard. I've written several recommendations for former students, family friends, or relatives and I always get so excited for them. I despised recruitment, mainly because it really cut into my sleep schedule and our recruitment chair always decided camping or bunking at a livestock auction house was a great retreat idea, but I also remember how much fun those times were. And you better believe I'm writing those recs knowing exactly what's being said after parties end for the day.
Part of me realizes the Ole Miss white-out game and reasoning for delayed recruitment is insane. The other part of me wishes Memphis had been more like them because they end up having article written about them and their fashion choices for a football game. See what I mean about Sorority Girl habits?
*Please don't misconstrue this as me thinking Oxford isn't a shopping mecca. If we strike it rich, I'll be shopping there all the time. What?!?! They've got super cute clothing down there. Oddly enough, I've never seen a white dress on the Square.
Monday, August 13, 2012
Vacation 2012
We recently returned from our annual trip to St. Pete Beach, FL. It was an odd year with Tada not being able to join us because of his new job and several of our friends were in the same position. Lots of our 75+ people group of friends didn't make the trip or had to shorten their trips because of work.
We left Memphis a little after 2am and drove straight through. Cooper was a champ the entire way. He watched DVDs, slept, talked with us, and looked out the window. We arrived in St. Pete at 7pm, just in time for a massive storm and a quick run to the grocery store before calling it a night.
The rest of the week was spent by the pool, at the outlet mall, walking to and from breakfast, looking for lizards, and having lots of fun. Jeff and I are really missing our morning swims with Cooper. He's growing up way too fast. More little boy than baby now- he's independent, talkative, and even though I'm biased, the cutest little kiddo.
We stopped in Atlanta to stay with my friend, Jenni and had a great time relaxing before the last leg of our trip. We got home at 3pm, which gave me time to knock out a bunch on laundry before starting in-service Monday. Our reservations are made and we're ready to go back for more fun in the sun, but for now, here are some pictures from our trip.
We left Memphis a little after 2am and drove straight through. Cooper was a champ the entire way. He watched DVDs, slept, talked with us, and looked out the window. We arrived in St. Pete at 7pm, just in time for a massive storm and a quick run to the grocery store before calling it a night.
The rest of the week was spent by the pool, at the outlet mall, walking to and from breakfast, looking for lizards, and having lots of fun. Jeff and I are really missing our morning swims with Cooper. He's growing up way too fast. More little boy than baby now- he's independent, talkative, and even though I'm biased, the cutest little kiddo.
We stopped in Atlanta to stay with my friend, Jenni and had a great time relaxing before the last leg of our trip. We got home at 3pm, which gave me time to knock out a bunch on laundry before starting in-service Monday. Our reservations are made and we're ready to go back for more fun in the sun, but for now, here are some pictures from our trip.
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