Thursday Tid Bits

1. Hello 3rd Trimester! I am officially in my 3rd trimester. I can't believe how fast this pregnancy is going. Now if we could just speed up the process because I am starting to get a little uncomfortable.  

 

 

2. Got a new 4th generation Ipad for my birthday and I absolutely LOVE it, even if Mia thinks it is hers and says, "I wanna play on my Hi-pad"

3. Before I really even took it out of the box I waited until my otterbox cover came. And my ipad has already been dropped several times. Love that cover!!

4. Had an amazing birthday weekend (even though it snowed), especially on my daddy/daughter date to the fancy escoffier dinner.

 

 

5. Now that I have an Ipad I FINALLY joined instagram. Hallelulejah!!! Now just can't wait to get an iphone. (T-mobile is finally getting it on April 12th) Yep, you can even follow me if ya want! 

 

Avocado Berry Smoothie {Vegan}

A couple of weeks ago I taught a group of 8 year old girls about eating healthy. After the lesson we made healthy smoothies. I searched online and found this delicious Berry-Cado Smoothie. All of the 8 year old girls said they did not like avocados but I told them to keep an open mind. Turns out they absolutely loved the smoothie, and so did I! What a clever way to add protein and all the other health benefits of an avocado into your everyday diet. Adding the avocado is not only healthy but it makes the texture of the smoothie extra creamy instead of having to add yogurt- making it vegan. Since then I have made the smoothie a few times and even tried it out on my hubby who hates avocado (gasp). He loved the smoothie too. I decided to play around with the recipe and came up with this slightly different variation that I happen to love and am actually sipping on right now as I type. Yum.

Avocado Berry Smoothie
1/2 ripe avocado
1 banana
3/4 C FROZEN strawberries, mango, peaches, pineapple (I bought a bag of frozen mixed tropical fruit)
1/2 C FROZEN blueberries
4 ice cubes

Blend until smooth, sip, and enjoy!

And a shout out to Nicole, Princess Nicole, Colie. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! Yes how cool is that? We are blogging sistas and share birthdays only 3 days apart. Love ya like a sister!

It's your birthday.

 

Happy Birthday to the best blogger sista friend.

I know nothing could ever compare to last years b-day shout out from the

VampireDiaries boys I threw together. So I had to opt for some cute pics of us.

 

Hope you enjoy your day!!

 

 

 

 

 

Friday Letters

 

 

Dear Amsterdam, I'll be coming at ya in April. I'm so excited to be able to see the tulip fields right in their prime blooming season. If any of you friends have good advice on visiting Amsterdam let me know! Dear March Madness, you are taking over my life. I stare at my bracket just about every 8.7 seconds, and then text my brother about the wins and losses all day long. It is a sick addiction right now in my life. Dear Warm Weather, where ever did you go? It was sun bathing weather a week ago and now look what you've you done. You've given us snow. Dear Birthday, I can't wait to be 21 so I can do lots of crazy things.... oh wait just kidding. I actually just can't wait to open presents and begin my birthday week celebration, which will consist of lunch at caffe molise and a stop at Eva's bakery. Blog posts on those stops will be coming.

 

 

 

Loving Lately

A few things I am loving lately:

 

These handscraped hard wood floors, and they are on sale. I think we just might buy them and put them in our house! Seriously in love.

 

Avocados. In any form. I recently tried out an avocado berry smoothie. Recipe to come soon.

I was loving the warm spring weather until it decided to snow today. Boo.

Loving that it is my birthday on Saturday and I turn 26...and I am 26 weeks today. 26 weeks pregnant turning 26 years old.

(Picture of my 22nd birthday cake)

 

And I am hoping to get one of these:

 

 

What are you loving?

Thin Mint Mini Cupcake

About a week or so ago I blogged about how strong I was at resisting the urge to buy Girl Scout cookies. Well, that didn't last long. At a family get together last week I found out that my cousins cute little girl is now a girl scout and was selling cookies. How could I not support her?? So I bought two boxes. You would be proud to know that I didn't eat them all in one night and there is still more than half of each box left! Today I was in the mood to do some baking and decided to try something new so I decided to attempt to make a Thin Mint Mini Cupcake. I crushed up what was left of my Thin Mint cookies and threw them into my favorite chocolate batter, topped it with mint buttercream and dipped them in Chocolate Ganache. Delish, going to take some to my mom later today and I know she is just going to love them.

 

 

 

Thin Mint Cookie Mini Cupcakes
1 1/4 C all purpose flour
1/4 C unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 C shortening
1/2 C sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 egg yolks
2/3 C cold water
2 egg whites
1/3 C sugar
about 14 crushed Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookies

Preheat oven to 350.

In a medium bowl stir together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Set aside.

In a large bowl beat shortening with an electric mixer on medium high for approximately 30 seconds. Add 1/2 C sugar and vanilla. Beat until combined, scraping sides of the bowl as needed. Add egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each yolk. Alternately add flour mixture and water to shortening mixture. Beat on low speed just until combined.

In a large bowl beat egg whites on medium speed until soft peaks form (tips curl). Gradually add 1/3 C sugar and beat on high speed until stiff peaks form (tips stand straight). Fold 1/4 of the beaten egg whites into chocolate batter. Gently fold in the rest of the egg whites until combined. Fold in chocolate chips. Divide batter into mini cupcake liners.

Bake for 10 minutes, rotating tins halfway through. Remove from tins and let cool completely on wire racks.


Peppermint Buttercream Frosting
6 C Powdered suger
1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
1 tsp peppermint extract
1 tsp vanilla extract

Green Food Coloring

Blend butter and sugar together until frosting consistency is reached. Add extracts and blend to combine. Keep in the refrigerator if not using immediately.

Pipe frosting onto mini cupcakes and dip into Chocolate Ganache Glaze.

Chocolate Ganache Glaze
Recipe from Martha Stewart

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 6 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon light corn syrup

Directions

1.      Bring cream to a boil in a small saucepan.
Remove from heat, and add chocolate
and corn syrup. Let stand for 5 minutes. Whisk until smooth. Transfer to a bowl, and let cool, stirring often. Use immediately.

 

white chocolate chip cookies

I know there are every sort of cookie recipe out there claiming to be the best cookie you've ever had, and I am not here to argue with any of those... but I am here to give you my personal favorite.. go to chocolate chip cookie recipe. They are super soft and chewy and melt in you mouth... what more do you need? And since I don't like chocolate, everybody say weird, I use white chocolate chips which once you try these cookies with the white chocolate you'll have a hard time not wanting to eat another.

Choc. Chip Cookies

2 1/4 C. flour
1 ts. baking Soda
1 C. butter softened
1/4 C. sugar
3/4 C. brown sugar
1 ts. vanilla
1 pkg (3 1/2 oz.) instant vanilla pudding
2 eggs
1 pkg. white chocolate chips. (12 oz.)

Directions:

Combine flour and soda; set aside. Combine butter, sugars, vanilla, and pudding: mix and beat till smooth and creamy. Beat in eggs; add flour mixture. Stir in choc. chips.
Bake at 375 for 10 minutes or until lightly brown.

*try different kinds of pudding and chips
ex. choc pudding / peanut butter chips
      butterscotch pudding / butterscotch chips
      vanilla pudding / mini m&ms
      banana cream pudding / white choc. chips.

Happenings

Pardon me for not blogging all week long but my sister is in town and I have been spending every minute possible with her and her kids. Here is a snippet of what we have been up to:

Cheering Daddy on at his soccer games

Playing, running around and visiting animals with BFF cousin Jaida

 

And of course holding hands and making up songs together

And growing an extra large baby bump (Me @ 25 weeks)

 

 

Girl Scout Cookies

I resisted the urge to buy Girl Scout cookies today at the grocery store. I wanted them oh so bad, but I knew that if I bought them I would just end up eating them all. I literally had a debate going on in my head about how I would be supporting them and how I would be able to stop myself from eating an entire box all by myself, etc. But let's be honest, I would probably have opened the box in the car and had a handful. It was painful but I made it past the Girl Scouts without purchasing some cookies. If I see the Girl Scouts again I'm not sure if I will be able to stop myself. But it got me thinking about a post I did last year about Thin Mint *FakeOuts*.  They are delicious if you wanna try and make your own. Check it out.

I hope you are all having a fantastic weekend! My sister flies in tomorrow night- WAHOO!

24 week Bumpdate

How far along: 24 weeks
How big is baby:  Grapefruit
Maternity clothes:  Started wearing a few maternity shirts that I bought online from Shade Clothing. They were only $5 and oh so comfy. I mostly love them for their length.
Best moment of the week: Not only feeling more movement but actually seeing my belly move!
Name: No Name yet.
Food cravings:  None really
Movement: He moves quite a bit. Especially at night and early in the morning...prepping me for no sleep already.
Gender: BOY!!
What I’m looking forward to: Seeing his little face.   
What I miss:  Haven't been sleeping well the last few nights, so sleep. And being able to run without feeling like I might die!
Next appt:  March 28

Juice

When my dad ordered an Omega juicer a few weeks ago I laughed and thought he was joking, come to find he wasn't. We made fun of the ridiculous purchase he had made every day. Finally the juicer came last week and he was beyond excited, like little kid at disneyland excited for reals. He had researched every little thing about juicing in the weeks prior, so he was fully prepared to tell me all about it every time he juiced. It's awesome, I can now repeat everything he has learned. So here are a few tips to juicing.

• Buy organic, when you juice you use twice as many vegetables or fruit.. the pesticides in conventional fruit isn't good in large amounts.
• Drink your freshly juiced juice immediately after juicing... otherwise the nutrients will oxidize and you want all the nutrients you can get.
• Don't mix fruit and vegetables, they don't mix in your body well it will cause gassiness.... the only fruit you should mix with vegetables is granny smith apples... dad says they are amazingly packed with nutrients. plus they taste good
• If juicing carrots use the left over carrot shaving for your carrot cake it would be delicious.
• Don't try to eat the left over shaving in hopes of getting added nutrients because it is just fiber.
• Sometimes the color is a little intimidating... obviously green and orange isn't made to result in a beautiful enticing color. 

So I know you are looking at this thinking really.... this is just some stupid health thing. Okay so maybe it is healthy and that's why I kept drinking at first. BUT honestly I'm picky and it wasn't all the bad. Here is my suggestion and this is what I did, my first try at this I had one swallow because I was nervous it turned out to not be horrible sweeter than expected, but just weird. That's all I had though was a swallow I didn't want to overwhelm my tastebuds with weirdness, instead work into it. The next time I just had a small glass full and I drank that up and actually wanted more but I just kept to the small glass full, and this time I had a larger glass full and I am hooked. So it was halfsies the nutrient packed drink idea that got me to try it, but I love it! It is weird I won't lie, but the carrots and apple really sweeten this up. Here it whats in this brown juice.

Super Juice.

2 1/2 to 3 cups of kale (kale is nutrient packed and I don't like it but in the juice it's great)

1 cup of Spinach (another nutrient pack food that you'd never know was in this mix, feel free to add more spinach)

4 regular Carrots

1 Granny Smith Apple

Put into juicer and let the juicer do it's job.

Read

I love to read. Like seriously, love it. I hadn't read a book in a few months so when the book club that I am a part of (but have really been slacking at attending) mentioned they were going to read The Dark Unwinding I was intrigued and immediately borrowed it from my neighbor. It is about a young girl in 1850 Great Britain who is sent to her Uncle's estate to send him to the insane asylum so that her evil Aunt can gain the inheritance. After spending time at the mysterious estate she learns more about her strange uncle and the magical/scientific world that he has created. I was not sure about the book at the beginning but really fell in love with the story and cannot wait for the sequel to come out in September of this year. Check it out!

 

Weekend

My Weekend started off on Thursday evening. After spending the day at my doctor's appointment and hanging out with my mom I came home to see a giant elk head in my living room. Hubby and our good neighbor hung it up that night. I knew it was inevitable, I just wish we had somewhere else to put it (you know, like the garage?). This is true love people- when you let your hubby hang this on the wall.

 

Mia and I had a shopping trip to Costco yesterday. She was such a good girl and while we were there she spotted this pretty dress that she kept saying how pretty it was and that it was just like Princess Belle. We had to get it and of course she put it on as soon as we got home.

I bought a new computer armoire and hubby started putting it together. It will be so much better than our clunky old desk.

And FINALLY...Breaking Dawn Part 2 came out on Redbox. I saw it and HAD to get it. I had tickets to a private showing when it came out back in November but Mia was really sick that night and we ended up taking her to Primary Children's hospital. I kept meaning to go see it but never did. My thoughts? It was ok. Bella is terrible in it. What is wrong with her yelling voice? Sounds way too forced to me.

 

And Mia woke up at 7am this Sunday morning. (Her new wake up time) Since she was up I had her help me make fresh blueberry muffins. Yum. Then we are off to church and hanging out at home together, just me and her!

 

It's been a fantastic weekend. Hope you are enjoying yours just as much as I am mine!

Dear Friday

Dear Friday, I'm feeling like a copycat. I wanted to be like Whitney so much that I bought a polka swimsuit. Dear Shadeclothing, Thank you for the polka dots. Dear  Summer, Now that I have a swimming suit will you just hurry on up. Dear Friends, Can you tell what is on my mind?