Fast Food B-Gone Challenge

Anyone that knows me knows that I love McDonald's.   Obsessed about it?  Possibly.    Willing to eat it more than once in a day?  Occassionally.   Eat it more than twice in a week?  Often.   You healthier folk are certainly cringing right now, I know I know.  It's TERRIBLE for me.    Ironically, it was McDonald's that in the Summer of 2000 gave me food poisoning so severe that required a shot in the rear to cease vomiting - it was so not awesome.    I have not ingested McDonald's chicken products since.    I easily could give up everything at McDonald's except their fries and their coke.   OH SO DELICIOUS!

Now, my fast food menu is not exclusive to McDonald's.  No I also happily am willing to entertain food from other drive thru establishments like Taco Time for example.   Sometimes we've even been known to do a medley meal.  The general point being - I eat a LOT of fast food.  Anything with a drive thru while the food isn't a culinary treat always (ok rarely) it is a convience.  Not having to get out of the car with two kids and even getting food that the boy can eat locked in his carseat (he eats so much faster when in the car with little distractions!)   Convinence often as of late has won out over healthy.   Bad news! 

Now an additional factor to this plight of convienence eating is the cost factor.   Drive thru ain't cheap!  The ironic part to this is that aside from the drive thru eating (and dining out) when we do buy food and make it at home we're almost nearly 100% organic, no high fructose corn syrup, and no perservatives.   Although we still enjoy our Kraft Mac & Cheese on occassion and occassionally certain juices that are just too yummy to not enjoy.   We're not hard-core but aware of labels certainly.     That being said the food that we purchase isn't the cheapest, so it remains to be seen if drive thru vs increased grocery bill actually is a cost saving element but we shall see because the month of May is the month we've chosen for our Fast Food B-Gone Challenge. 

So for the next thirty one  thirty days and counting we will be eating out a maximum five times a week.   It seems like a lot until you look at past behavior and expenditures.  In the week leading up to this challenge I went out to coffee, drive thru, or sit down dining 15 times. This seems average and thus why we've decided to engage in this challenge for the month of May.  While I don't plan to fully eradicate McDonald's from my life entirely,   I certainly hope to decrease my extreme codependence on drive thru dining and as a result we should be healthier and maybe a tad richer for it.  

Now in full disclosure this challenge (or scientific experiment as Loving Husband refers to it) comes with an incentive for me;  because I'll be honest "health" and "savings"  just isn't enough motivation for me to go cold turkey from the convinence of the drive thru.  I needed a bit more motivation, does this make me a weak person?  Maybe.   But honest certainly!   If I can successfully execute this challenge then I will earn myself the Canon Macro lens that I have been drooling over.  Oh the things we do for our hobbies health... definately our health.  :)

Wish us luck!  I'm not twitching yet as a result of no McD's but that could be that it's only been 48ish hours since my last fix.   I'll check back in a week or so from now and let you know if cold sweats or anything have developed.  Cheers to health!

Lemon Crinkle Cookies

I absolutely love to bake - the problem is that I also like to eat it all (but I didn't say of what... it doesn't matter.)   See when I cook I tend to think my efforts yield a sub par result.  My taste buds by the time I'm done with a main course are not salivating but are often underwhelmed by all that effort that was just put in.   That is not the case when it comes to baking.  Maybe it's the high contents of sugar and butter involved, but any way you go about it I love to bake and consume what is baked.  

I am always looking for something new to try and whip up when I find the time.   Between a lack of sleep and a lack of motivation derived from sleep deprivation baking is often on the back burner (ha!) of life.    Every now and then I come across a motivator (often found on Pinterest) that gets my creative juices flowing and I head to the kitchen. 

Yesterday that was a lemon crinkle cookie.   After the kids went to bed I got to work.  For a brief moment I thought that I had run out of sugar and while I searched the cupboard for some I laughed at the thought of having to go to the neighbor's house to borrow a cup of sugar.   Eventually I found my massive bag tucked in the back and refilled the easy access container that lives on the counter top. 

Next I started to zest a lemon.  I have to say I find zesting to be a really fun activity.  Don't ask why, I don't really know... but I love it.  With all the ingredients out and measured - the mixing began!  With two sleeping children - that often don't sleep with any duration or regularity I find having everything premeasured before beginning the mixing process works great.  This way if I am interrupted I can either ask the husband to dump stuff in OR more likely, I won't be distracted and dump in tablespoons of salt when teaspoons were asked for.  

For this recipe I looked at several different ones around Pinterest and ended up doing my own adaptation of ingredients and amounts of them, but as far as directions I followed Lauren's Latest

Ingredients (makes about 2-3 dozen):
½ cups butter, softened
1 C. sugar
1 t. Vanilla Extract
1 egg (room temp)
1 organic* lemon zested (about 2 T. worth)
2 T. fresh lemon juice
¼ t. salt
¼ t. baking powder
⅛ t. baking Soda
1 ½ C. flour
Powdered Sugar

Directions:Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In the mixer using the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whip in vanilla, egg, lemon zest and juice. Scrape sides and mix again. Stir in all dry ingredients slowly until just combined, excluding the powdered sugar. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly. Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on baking sheet, squish it down a bit (I know totally a technical term!)  and repeat with remaining dough.

Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies look matte {not melty or shiny}. Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack. If using a non stick darker baking tray, reduce baking time by about 2 minutes.

This recipe made 29 cookies... by the time they were cooled and ready to be put away for the night there were 18 remaining.   They were delicious, lemony, and soft (my favorite!) The lemon wasn't over powering and it wasn't "lemon scented" as one friend of mine described about some store bought lemon cookies the other day.     YUMMY!  I actually went and bought more organic lemons so I could make more later this week.

Ok one more picture of my cookies with a lemon...because it's the thing to do.

One last thing!

* You want to use organic anything if you are putting the outer shell of citrus into whatever it is you're cooking.   The pesticides that are used on non-organic lemons (oranges, grapefruits, etc..) are not held to a edible standard by the FDA because that part of the fruit is not consider part of the edible fruit.  Therefore, no amount of 'mild soap scrubbing' is worth the what-ifs associated with what else you're zesting into your cookies.  Bleck!   Buy organic, at least for zesting if not for other reasons.  :)

Favorite Photo of April

As a bonus in this here post, since I failed to post either February or March's favorite photos - I've included them here just for continuity sake.  :)   I love my sweet snow angel in the soft black and white edit and it's even more fun next to the vibrant shot of Mr. Peacock that I shot at the zoo in March.  Both make me happy and I think that is a key component in the making of a 'favorite' photograph. 

A Sunny Walk

In early April on a sunny Saturday, Mae went on her first walk with her dada (and the rest of us came along too!)  Her big brother has long enjoyed walks with his father and now Mae gets to enjoy them too. We walked to a local park and played on the playground, picked flowers, ran across the fields and enjoyed a sunny weekend afternoon as a family.   It was delightful. 

A Sister for Kaylee

I have been woefully slacking in the announcement department.  I'm not sure why, but I would be remiss if I did not document the arrival of my second niece with equal fanfare and excitement that I did when Kaylee was born!    Megan Alexis was born March 6th weighing 10lbs 11oz and 22" long. 

She arrived early, but healthy and happy.   They kept mommy a bit longer to help make sure that her blood sugar was acting appropriately, but I think Jennifer would agree that the delivery of Megan was a much more idyllic situation than her first delivery with Kaylee.    Hooray for happy and healthy. 

Grammie was probably equally if not more excited than the proud parents.  You see, grandbaby #4 was the first that she got to meet BRAND NEW!   Yes, with both Ace and Mae they were over a month old before she got to meet them, and when she met Kaylee she was nearly two months old, so to meet hour-old Megan was a special treat and a special experience just for Grammie and Megan to share. 

Megan has of course been thriving and at her one month appointment was pretty similar in weight but had stretched long, just like her daddy.   She is a good sleeper and I am told she loves to be hugged and cuddled.  

When Megan was just a few days old, I finally got to *meet* her... via Skype.   Sadly it hasn't worked out just yet to make a trip there personally.  Still trying to work that out.   Ace and Mae both enjoyed seeing both of their cousins.

Megan has already enjoyed her first holiday and season change which has included evening walks with the family, trips to the park with her big sister, mommy and other Auntie, and lots of warm weather to get used to.  :)

Kaylee is a great big sister and loves her sister and Derek is loving being a dad of two.  Here is my favorite picture of my little brother to date.   Cuddling in the rocking chair with his two daughters.

Welcome to the world, sweet Megan!   I've enjoyed every picture of this little girl that I've been given and can't wait to meet her in person!  And after nearly two months they have finally given me a family of four picture!  

Babycakes Cake Pops

I recently purchased the Babycakes Cake Pop Maker and the Babycakes Cake Pop Cookbook.  I had previously seen the machine for sale and thought that would be neat, but I quickly dismissed it because I figured it wasn't worth $25 to just make cake pops every now and again.  Then I stumbled upon the cookbook and the fact that I can cook appetizers and other things specifically recipe-calibrated for this machine.   Hooray, I bought away! 

Did I buy for a specific event in mind?  No. Have I ever eaten a cake pop before in my life? No.  Do I think I'll get $25 worth of use of it? Yes, and then some! Are they delicious? Yum! 

For my first attempt making any cake pops this machine made it super easy!  I decided that I'd make some for our community group when it came our turn to bring dessert.   I used their lemon cake recipe.  Considering I didn't have an actual lemon as called by the recipe and only the lemon extract part, they were still quite yummy.  Can't wait to try it with a real lemon! :)

The recipe is super easy, relatively small, and easy to mix together.  After everything was combined, I tossed everything into a ziplock back and cut the end and created a easy device to feed the maker (and throw away when I'm done!)   Finding the right level of batter to create the perfect sphere took a bit trial and error but overall it was very easy.

I have to say that the cookbook does a great job walking you through the ins and outs of the cake pop maker.  Tips on just about anything you'd come across, and I greatly appreciated that.  The cake pops cook quickly only about 4 minutes and they were nice and fluffy.   They pop out of the maker pretty easily too!   Now after doing a lot of reading about 'cake pops'  I have been enlightened that the Babycakes Maker does not make 'traditional' cake pops - which apparently involve regular cake crumbled and a frosting mixtured rolled into a ball.   Forgive me if I say THANK GOODNESS for that!  That sounds disgusting to me.   I like the nice solid cake center.  :)

The book walks you through how best to affix the sticks to your cake pops.  Oddly enough you don't just jam the stick in the cake pops.   After I completed cooking them all (so about 4 rounds of using the maker) - I tossed them in a bowl and put them in the freezer for 15 minutes.   After that I melted a little candy, dipped the stick in it and then speared my cake balls and then I tossed all of those back in the freezer for 15 more minutes.   Then it was time for the fun stuff!

The cookbook offers several recipes for toppings to use on your cake pops, but for this time I chose to use the Wilton Candy Melts. The cookbook also walks through good techniques for using the candy melts to get a less drippy effect, etc..   This part is actually a lot of fun :)  I'm not sure why I found it so exciting, but it was.

Next up to add some fun color I broke out the sprinkles and got to shaking.  For things like sprinkles you want to do it while the candy is still wet.  For other decoration you want to wait for it to dry, just depends on the technique.   I love that the making of cake pops can be so multifaceted.

After making a good portion of the pops white with sprinkles, I thought that I would add in some hot pink dye to the melted candy to make some pink pops.   Apparently that was a grave error!  As soon as the two drops of dye hit the melted candy it turned into this grainy sandy mixture.  Eventually by adding a LOT more candies to the mix and melting those in it finally yielded back into a liquid form.   I guess that's one way to ensure that you buy the specific bag of colored candy melts!   So baker beware - candy melts don't like traditional food dye.  They require an oil based dye and Wilton makes some specifically for their candy melts (of course they do!.)

Ace was my taste tester... he loved them... as said with a mouth full of cake.   :)  Next up was cutting a piece of Styrofoam and then the rest was simple arrangement.  I left several off the sticks and some even completely uncandied for variety sake.  I put those in mini muffin cups and in the end they were all devoured.  Yum!

This was a very fun project and the maker cleaned up with an easy wipe down and thus clean up was a breeze.  :) Can't wait for more occasions to try out different recipes and decorating techniques!  Babycakes has not sponsored this blog, but I'd happily do business with them if they did want to.  Their cookbook is full of recipes and what I find even more invaluable than that is all of the great tips on perfecting your baking and decorating experience.   Stay tuned on a post about making meatballs in the maker!

A Tea Party

Last Saturday a boy and his dad set off on a 7 mile hike, Ace's first!  They had a grand time.    Us ladies stayed home and had a tea party.  There were guests, hats, bracelets, purses, food, dishes and most importantly lots and lots of fun!

Mae enjoyed gathering all her babies to join us.  For a little girl under the age of two she certainly already has amassed quite the collection of baby dolls.   She loves them all and after gathering over TEN of them she hugged each one and shook her body back and forth in a rocking hug motion.  Adorable.  

Mae chose a less traditional method of getting 'tea' out of the teapot - less pouring and more scooping.  She enjoyed giving some to her dollies, but mostly herself and mommy.   It was delicious.

This made her very excited.   It made mommy smile an awful lot too.

Mae decided that tea time was over so she grabbed her purses and was off. Thanks for playing!

After a raging tea party she reclined back on her exersaucer and let her feet be her guide to some tunes from the tree.     It was a fabulous way to spend an hour with my favorite girl.  :)