Easter Treats

Afternoon, everyone!  It is an absolutely GORGEOUS day in NJ.  Lots of sunshine and SLIGHTLY warmer temps.  Holy very UN-Good Friday.  I remember all the Good Fridays when I was a kid being rainy & gloomy.  Or maybe it was what the Catholic school nuns made us envisionJ  Either way, I'm ready to break out all my pastel-y Easter Bunnies tomorrow to get ready to celebrate.  And speaking of celebrate, here are some great recipes to make for Easter day or all spring long!

Decadent Breakfast:  Carrot Cake Waffles with Maple Nut Cream Cheese Spread

Anddd the Healthy Breakfast:  Carrot Cake Baked Oatmeal

"Cake" for breakfast?  Ummm...OK!

Make Ahead breakfast:  Pina Colada Stuffed Waffles

Just make up some coconut flavored waffles.  Whip some cream cheese with coconut, coconut extract & pineapple.  Layer the 2 and bake until warm in the morning!

Our Traditional Easter meal:  Homemade Ravioli

My Mom, Katie & I will be whipping these up tomorrow.  Or at least Katie will be helping outJ  Here she was "helping" at Christmas this past year...

DESSERTS

Perfect way to use up an abundance of leftover Peeps:  Peeps Rice Krispie Treats

Anyone else ONLY like STALE PEEPS, like me??

Give yourself a minute to make this one!:  Lemon Curd Crepe Cake

And if you want to make something in 10 seconds:  Super Easy Lemon Ice Box Cake

Perfect for ALL dessert the next few months!

The Ultimate Decadent Carrot Cake:  Sweet & Salty Ultimate Carrot Cake

My God, this thing is GOOD!

Carrot Cake on the 'lighter side':  Weight Watchers Carrot Cake

LOVE me some Lemon AND Coconut:  Lemon Glazed Coconut Bars

A Unique Twist with fresh herbs:  Lemon Thyme Bars

Great for summer when thyme is CHEAP and abundant at the farmer's marketJ

Well, that's all I have for you today!  I'll be back Monday with our holiday wrap-up!  Have a wonderful weekend & holiday, everyone!

PS- you can find all of the recipes linked to my Pinterest page, as well!

Two for one...

Hey everyone!  So, sorry I'm a day late...but after the day getting away from me yesterday, I realized that Tuesday & Wednesday were nearly IDENTICAL anywaysJ  So you get a DOUBLE recap for the dayJ

Breakfast:  Tuesday- Pineapple smoothie & Wednesday- Almond Joy oatmeal (with banana)

Pineapple Smoothie

• Pineapple Chobani
• 1 cup unsweetened coconut milk
• 1 teaspoon coconut extract
• Chia seeds

Lunch:  Hummus, pretzel sticks, low fat cheese sticks & mini turkey pepperoni

I whipped up a quick hummus since we were CLEAR out!

• 1 can drained & rinsed chickpeas
• 1 tablespoon tahini
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 garlic cloves
• salt to taste
• olive oil, to create desired consistency

Combine everything in a blender & mix until smooth.  (slowly adding olive oil until smooth)  

I don't know why I continually buy hummus when homemade is sooo easy & SOOOOO good.  And BONUS:  Katie INHALED this!

Snack:  So after "Easter Bunny" shopping just happened to coincide with one of those endless Target-browsing sessions (you KNOW what I'm talking about!), I stumbled on these AND tore into em right in the aisle!  Very tasty and saved me from passing out in aisle 12J

(PS- Easter Bunnies who are delivering goodies to YOUNG kids...Target had really cute little Sesame Street books in the $1 bins.  Just a heads upJ)

Dinner:  Spaghetti Squash Casserole 

Yep, thanks to Scott working EXTRA late the last couple nights...dinner both Tuesday AND Wednesday was Spaghetti Squash Casserole.  Yes...that casserole has feed us 2 dinners + dinner for my MOM + 1 leftover serving!  It was the gift that kept on givingJ

(Sided with a little leftover stuffed cabbage last night tooJ) 

Our favorite add-in's to the casserole at the moment is roasted broccoli & spinach...but I already have a plan for my NEXT casserole.  And it MAY just involve those mini pepperonisJ  Stay tuned... 

And dessert last night:  A slice or three of my Mom's famous "Easter sweet bread."  

You just can't have enough of this stuff this time of year! 

 

Katie agreesJ

Workouts:  Tuesday- my first day off after EIGHT days in a row (wohoo!) & Wednesday- TOUGH Power Yoga...as in, "I still don't know how I carried the baby out of the gym after that class" tough!  I can't even count how many chaturangas & BONUS push-ups were doneJ

Alrighty, I'm thinking maybe tomorrow I'll switch it up & share some Easter recipes that you might use this weekend.  Preview:  It involves lots of SPRING LEMONS!J

Have a great Thursday, everyone!

Not sorry...

Monday Recap:

9:30am:  Breakfast- Banana Bread

Couldn't resist having another pieceJ

10:30am:  Coffee with creamer

12:00pm:  Lunch- Apple with peanut butter

WAS STILL HUNGRY...

2:00pm:  Snack #1- Dark Chocolate Carnation Instant Breakfast with Coconut Milk 

AND WAS STILL HUNGRY..

4:00pm:  Snack #2- Strawberries

And after these MAMMOTH strawberries, I FINALLY felt full!  My metabolism was HOPEFULLY humming today. 

And, as usual, I had to shareJ

5:30pm:  Dinner- Chili Baked Potatoes & Roasted Cabbage

Chili potatoes are one of our favorite uses for leftovers.  Just bake a potato, toss on some leftover chili & dinner is served!  Besides...chili is better when it's leftover anywaysJ

Chili potatoes are pretty filing enough to be a meal on their own, but I had some leftover cabbage & thought I'd try roasting it up... 

A drizzle of olive oil, a dash of Worcestershire & a dash of salt and into the oven for 25 minutes in a 400 degree oven.

Another great way to use the oven to create "veggie magic."  Roasting just manages to bring out the BEST flavors in ALL veggies (wayyyyyyyyyyy better than boring ole' STEAMING, in my opinion) 

6:30-7:45:  Beginners Power Yoga class

And after yoga, I drove RIGHT to the store to quell one of the cravings I've had for MONTHS!  DEFINITELY a splurge but OH. SO. WORTH. IT!

I love you, coconut crack...but there are just some things that can only be cured by the originalsJ hehehehhehehe

I enjoyed every spoon of coconut cream & tossed the bottom shell.  That's gotta save me about 100 calories...right??  RIGHT?? 

Gotta get some "Easter Bunny" shopping done today.  Can anyone else believe how FAST that crept up?  I feel like 3 minutes ago we were decking the halls!  Sigh...I already can't waitJ

Too soon?

#sorrynotsorryJ

Have a good Christmas...I mean, Tuesday, everyone!

A few secrets to pass on...

Hey everyone!  Hope you guys had a great weekend.  We had a pretty great one from start to finish...even if, as usual, it went by in a FLASH.  I feel like 2 seconds ago it was Friday night.  

And what a delicious one we had!  After partying like rock stars (aka-getting our taxes done!), we headed over to Lambertville, NJ to take part in restaurant week.  Restaurant Week is when you get to sample Prix-Fixe menus of various restaurants in that area for a fraction of the normal cost.  And in the 11th hour, we were able to snag reservations at one of the best, Lambertville Station.  With it's dark wood interior & delicious menu, it makes for a great, cozy, 'fancier' night out.    

And for $19.95, I got to sample...(sorry for the bad pictures...it was VERY low lighting)

...LS's complimentary coconut bread.  Which, obviously, I LOVE!

...their light & delicious tropical salad made with slivered almonds, Mandarin oranges & their house honey mustard dressing... 

...a dinosaur bone.  I mean, braised short rib with spinach & garlic mashJ

...and the only 'drawback' in the restraint menu:  a very scaled back dessert menuJ  But the apricot-rosemary sorbet piqued my interest enough to end my meal.  VERY unique & refreshing!

The paltry dessert menu is why Scott decided to be WILD & CRAZY and order off the NORMAL menu for the night:J So I also got to sample this awesome flatbread smothered with bacon, caramelized onions, craisins, arugula & smoked mozzarella... 

 ...the absolutely phenomenal Gorgonzola & caramelized onions covered pork chops & perfectly roasted potatoes...

...and the piece de resistance:  the purely decadent Dutch chocolate covered ice cream truffle enrobed in a THIN hidden layer of cookie crumbs.  Oh man, this thing was soooo good! 

As was our entire dinner, that we got to enjoy in a quiet corner with an extremely friendly & attentive waiter.  Really great dinner...especially for the restaurant week price!

And our Sunday was spent with 2 recipes I think I may have to keep secret to pass onto KatieJ  

One was for my 'infamous' (well, in our houseJ) banana bread with cinnamon-sugar crustJ  I'll pass this one onto Katie telling her it was one of the first things I made for her Dad...which may have helped me snag him...hahahahahahaha J

The other was one of my ALL-TIME favorite meals:  Stuffed cabbage!

My Grandmom used to make this quite often and it was always one of my FAVORITES!  I can remember the EXACT taste, but her recipe book leaves a 'less than desirable' recipe. 

It's literally a list like this:

Stuffed Cabbage

Boil cabbage

Meat

Rice

Tomato sauce

salt & pepper

Yeah...so I didn't have much to go on, but the memory of what they tasted likeJ hahahahhaha

I started by layering the rolls in my slow cooker... 

 ...which was going well until I realized I had started them too late and we wanted to eat ASAP.  So I had to bust out the BIG GUNS in the form of my Grandmom's ORIGINAL roasting pan to finish them off in the oven!

Tell me how 'loved' that thing looks???  Don't even get me started on the amaaaaaazzzzzzzzzzziiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggg roast chicken with potatoes & peas that used to come out of that pan!  NO ONE has EVER been able to replicate it's absolute perfection!  Sigh.

ANYWAY, I think I did pretty damn good on my rolls!  Even Scott, while liking hummus & tabbouleh, was EXCESSIVELY reluctant to try stuffed cabbage...and LOVED THEM!  Yay!  That means I can make them wayyyyyyyyyyy more often!  Wohoooo! 

In other news, I had to share that I had challenged myself this weekend to an extra 'cardio' marathon this weekend & succeeded!

Thursday:  1 hour Body Jam class

Friday:  1/2 hr. dance/jog/weights & 1+ hour Power yoga class

Saturday:  1 hour Body Jam class

Sunday:  1 hour Zumba

Soooo many times I go into the weekend saying "I'm gonna do ALLLLLLLLLL these classes" and come Sunday night I'm still on the couch having done NADA.  So this weekend I was super proud I got it done AND felt awesome in the process.  The key to exercise is to DO. WHAT. YOU. ENJOY!  None of these felt like 'the dreaded workout' because I enjoyed every minute (OK, not EVERY minute...but you get what I meanJ)

And in MORE other news...how bout that snow out there, NJ??  Seesh...even I can't believe it on MARCH 25!  But it does look pretty though...

OK!  I'm OUT!  Have a great Monday, everyone!J