A New Kind of Brownies

My friend, Chelle, has been put on a special diet of late. She can’t eat dairy, soy, wheat, sugar, corn, or anything delicious, basically. So, for fun, I decided to try a new recipe – a sugar free, dairy free, gluten free brownie. I’m not going to put the recipe on here, because I don’t know of anyone that wants it, (if you do, hit me up in the comments, and I can post it, I suppose) but it contains pumpkin puree, eggs, almond milk, rice malt syrup, coconut oil, vanilla, coconut flour, unsweetened cocoa, cocoa nips, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Combine it all together, and it makes a brownie.

Unfortunately, with no real binding agent here, the brownies wouldn’t stick together, so I had to just scoop them into a cupcake liner, and hope for the best.

There was supposed to mousse to put on the top, and that had avocados, cocoa, almond milk, rice malt syrup, coconut oil and vanilla as well, but it was just so awful, I couldn’t subject other people to it. Eating it myself was bad enough.
So, the end result of the brownies is thus: they are very bitter. Not sweet at all. They’re not bad, not necessarily, but they’re just very...bland, bitter brownies. I have a few changes that I’m going to make the next time I make them, but for a first attempt into this kind of baking, I have to say, they’re not that bad.

Juicin’ It

For Christmas, we were gifted a juicer. I’ve never used one before, it’s never really occurred to me to ever have one. Nothing against a juicer, or even juice, but it just seems like so much work, to make your own juice. When I got home from work Thursday, Husband had made a batch of juice. It was pretty good. Then Friday morning, he made some more. Friday evening, another batch. This morning, another. Basically. we’re going through fruits and vegetables like crazy, and we’re basically running the dishwasher non-stop, because it uses so many dishes to make some juice.

I do like the juice though, and I’m learning what makes a good juice. I don’t know why he did this, but Husband juiced a banana. That doesn’t juice well, in case anyone wonders. Apples juice well, of course, but juicing a pineapple, while delicious, makes the pulpiest juice ever. Mangos are good at making it thick, and oranges you have to be careful pulp-wise. Husband went on a fruit spree this morning, and bought a lot of fruit, so I’ll keep you all updated on what makes a good juice. And for right now, I’m probably so healthy, getting all of my fruits and some veggies. Happy drinking!

Foto Friday

It occurs to me that I never included the pic of how my upstairs room looks now. I know that you probably don’t really know what it looks like before, but here’s what it looks like:

I took a panoramic view of it, so you can see the whole view. I know, we need to find something for this corner now that something isn’t there, and so far, I don’t know what to put there. But it is growing on me, and I don’t hate it as much as I did anymore.

Pies

Tonight after work, I ran a few errands, and when we were finished, we just grabbed some dinner, since it seemed way easier than making it when we got home, since it was late anyway. Husband and I were trying to agree on a pie to get, and we never do. So instead of getting just one pie that we could agree on, we got two different pies. Two different WHOLE pies. As we were driving home, I was like, how dumb are we? We’ll never even finish these! It helps that right now, we have twice as many people living here with my sister being here, but still, 4 people for two pies? The pies we got were the Pumpkin Supreme Pie

And the Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Can you guess which one is my choice? The rhubarb. I really like that pie, and I don’t know that many people who like it. None of my people here seem to, so every time I get one, I’m basically eating it alone. Hopefully this one will get eaten soon, so that I’m not trying to finish it a week from now. Has anyone out there had this? Do you love it?

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Christmas Toes

Today, after work, I went and got a pedicure after work with Michelle. I was wanting one, since my toes were getting too long and grody, so it needed to get done. We went there, and even though there was no line, and we didn’t have to wait at all, it still took forever! They did a good job, but holy cow they just went so slowly. I wanted something Christmassy, even though it’s already over after tomorrow, but I don’t care. Here’s what it looked like:

Cute, eh? And now, I’m ready for Christmas in this regard. Merry Christmas Eve!

Miscellaneous Monday

I am in full panic mode. Christmas is in 2 days, and I have nothing done. Ok, that’s an exaggeration, I have some things done, but not nearly what I need to. There’s a Christmas gift I still need to finish, and while I am close to it, I’m not nearly close enough. I need to wrap every single present that I’ve bought still. I have to get everything finished...by tonight, since there probably isn’t going to be time tomorrow. I am panicking big time.

Another thing to add to my panic is that my car wouldn’t start this morning. And then Husband wouldn’t answer his cell phone when I called him (he had left about 2 minutes before this happened). 3 times. So then, I did what anyone would do, and wake up their pregnant sister that’s staying with them and ask her for a ride. Which I did. I didn’t know what else to do! Luckily my sister is a champ, and did so, but I felt bad. Hopefully we can figure out what’s going on with it tonight.

My sister and her husband made us Thai food tonight, from scratch. Usually I don’t like Thai food, at least, I haven’t when I’ve gone to a restaurant, so I only took a little bit, but then it was actually pretty good. I have such a sissiness when it comes to other cultures, I get nervous trying their food, but this makes me think that maybe I should be more open, and try other things more often. I probably won’t, but I have every intention right now!

Decision Made

We looked this morning at what we could do, and decided to just change up the room, and see how that looks. We took down the pictures on the walls, and moved everything around. After getting everything into a new spot, I don’t know if I like it. I don’t hate it, necessarily, but looking at it, I just...don’t like it. Maybe I just need to let it grow on me, and see how I feel after a week or so, but as for right now, I am just trying not to hate it. I know this isn’t even a big deal, in the grand scheme of things, having to get used to a new configuration for a couch, but for me, even with all of the holiday stress I have, this is one of the things that’s just getting to me a lot. I’ll work through it, though, don’t worry.

Couch Shenanigans

Recently, we bought a new couch at RC Willey. We were told it would be delivered yesterday, and it was, but unfortunately, the people at RC Willey sure didn’t tell us the truth. When I was buying the couch, I made sure to ask if they would move the previous couches out of the room, and the salesperson said they would. So when they came to deliver, they refused to move the old couches, said there was no way they would do it. So in turn, they decided against delivering the entire couch to the right room, because there was no room for the couches with the old ones up there. Instead, they left a giant piece in the front room, because that makes sense. We tried to call to complain, but our complaints fell on deaf ears. Today, we finally got a ragtag group of people together, and tried to get the couch upstairs. After many attempts, and not having any luck, we decided to try another approach. As we were trying this way, the couch hit into a low hanging light, and busted the light. It didn’t even hit it very hard, but it just shattered on the people down there. This is what it looked like after it broke:

It cut PJ’s nose, and the back of Husband’s hand. We had to stop to clean up the glass and blood, but then we FINALLY got the couch upstairs. After getting it up there, we learned the couch (it’s a sectional) is just a few inches too big for the room. At this point, my brain just broke, it couldn’t handle it anymore. We gave up for the night, and decided to tackle it in the morning.

A Road Trip

Today, I took a sort of impromptu trip to Colorado. Chelle was going, and I went with her. It was a blast. We left at about 1:00 in the afternoon Friday, and arrived there before 5:00, so we made some pretty good time. The drive there was fun, we listened to a book on tape, The Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites. It was a good book, listening to it made the miles and the time fly. The drive was pretty scenic:

And finally, we made it to the border!

we battled some fog on the way in, but other than that, no real weather mishaps. We watched a basketball game there, and it was fun, of course. A lot of yelling, and cheering, and good times ensued. I had myself a bag of popcorn as a treat, and Chelle had a pickle, and that just made me laugh. It was delicious though, I had a bite of one. We snapped a selfie during the game:

And before we knew it, it was time to head back. We hit the road again, and this time, we had some more fog, that made me nervous a little, but we made it back in one piece, just a little after midnight. It was an awesome trip, and it was just so fun and impromptu to just head to Colorado for a day and come back. Sadly, we didn’t get to finish our book on tape, but hopefully we’ll get to do that soon, because I just want to know how it ends!

A Post of Nothing

We’re more than halfway through the month, and I have nothing to blog about now. I’ve done my best. I’ve tried to be interesting, but here it is, and no, I have nothing. I’m busy preparing for the holiday, and trying to finish everything, and I am panicking. I don’t think I’m going to have time to get everything done. I’m going to work as hard as I can these next few days, and hopefully, I can finish everything in time! Wish me luck!

Vieve’s Videos

Ok, I know I just did a video last week, but after seeing this, I couldn’t resist. Chelle showed this to me at work the other day, and I just died laughing, and I keep showing people now.

Christmas Jammies

I wish I was half as clever as that! I don’t know how people think of this stuff!

Soup Night

With everyone in my house being sick right now, except me, and I’m holding onto my good health as tightly as I can right now. For dinner last night, I thought I’d make some chicken noodle soup, to help heal people (since soup has magical powers, of course) and because I just like to make it. My recipe is thus:

4 cups chicken broth
1 carrot, sliced
1 celery stalk, sliced
Dash of salt
1 cup cooked cubed chicken
½ cup uncooked egg noodles

Combine the broth, carrot, celery and dash of salt in a pot, bring to a boil. Stir in chicken and egg noodles, and cook for 10 minutes.

Easy, right? I did some modifications. I think I did like, 6 or 7 cups of broth, 3 each of the carrot and celery, a half a bag of egg noodles (just using it up) and for the chicken, instead of cooking and cubing it, I just bought a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken from the store, and shredded the chicken off of that. It was really pretty good though, and I’m betting it made my people all feel better. If not, I don’t care, it was still delicious, and I gave it my best shot.

Miscellaneous Monday

People in my house are getting sick. Husband was starting to feel sick on Saturday night, and it went into a full-blown cold/whatever Sunday, and today, my sister is also sick. I am trying to avoid them both, basically. I feel like I finally am just now all the way over my cold. I have been done with it for a bit, but now, the cough is all the way gone, and my voice is back to normal – I can sing and everything finally, so I don’t want to get what they have! I know it’s not nice to avoid people, but in this case, I think its ok.

Yesterday in church, they announced the new time change when church will start in the new year, and we’ll be moving to 9:00 church, which means I’ll be having an infinitely harder time getting to church on time. I know, I know, the time of the church shouldn’t matter, and I would be awake anyway at that time, but I just like to be lazy on a Sunday morning. Church at 9:00 means awaking and actually getting right up, and hurrying to get around. Church at 11:30 (I am right now) means getting up...hanging out in my PJ’s...eating breakfast...having a run...getting ready...and going to church. I just will miss the lazy Sunday mornings come January 1.

On Friday night, after eating dinner (ribs, yum) I had many much rib bones left over, so I thought I’d be nice to the tiny dogs and give them a small treat. When I was walking down with the bones, and Cookie was so JAZZED about what was about to happen, she jumped higher than any dog has ever jumped ever, and bit my hand. Maybe bite is the wrong word, because her mouth never closed, but her tooth grazed my finger, cutting it open, and it bled a whole lot. I dropped the bone, which she of course grabbed right away, so I guess her plan worked. I’m still waiting for this cut to heal by the way, several days later.

Slim Pickings

I went to Bath & Body Works on Saturday; I needed to pick up a few things. I went to the nearest mall to me, and after getting in there, I couldn’t find a single lotion I wanted, they were all sold out. I went to the other mall, in the hopes I could find it. As I searched the store, my balloon was deflating. It was nowhere. I was standing in front of a display, lamenting my bad luck, and a worker popped his head around, and asked me what I was looking for. I told him, the Warm Winter Apple, and he quietly said, “I have some of that hidden.” He turned away, grabbed some bottles, and came back over to me. I was so happy; I thanked him profusely, and went on my merry way. I was looking for the last bottle of lotion that I needed, and I did find it – hidden behind the body sprays. I was so glad my purchases worked out! As I was checking out, I hoped that they would let me use my coupon along with the sale I was already getting, and they did! It was a merry night at Bath & Body Works, and I was glad I made the last minute choice to shop there as well. Good luck with all your purchases, friends!

Winter Coat

Today, my sister’s dog was acting lethargic, and not full of its usual energies, so my sister was convinced that her dog had caught a cold. Whether or not that’s true, I don’t know, because I don’t know how to tell if dogs get colds, or even if they do, or what to do when they get one. We went to Petsmart at 9:30 tonight, to find the dog some clothes. She was sure that if she only got the dog a sweater or coat, it would be healed, and would never be sick again. She spent some time, comparing the clothes, and finally, chose a few. This is one of them, an extra small plaid coat with a hat, in case the dog wants to protect her ears.

As soon as she put the coat on the dog, we took this pic, because the dog looks both ridiculous and adorable. Hopefully the coat stops the dog from getting anymore colds.

Foto Friday

I have made this recipe before (link to blog) but I wanted to make some cookies last night, and ended up making these. It took me like an hour to decide what cookie to make, because every cookie sounded good to me. Finally I made these, and improvised on the frosting, and they ended up looking pretty good.

A Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookie with Cinnamon Frosting. Yum

Vieve’s Videos

I saw this video on Facebook, and I’ll admit, it had me teary eyed.

Santa

I don’t even know why, but when things like this happen, I just wish I had been there to see it! I would have loved to play the secret Santa here, and hurried to get the presents that everyone got, and seen their faces when they opened the presents. What an awesome thing that company did! I hope you enjoyed it like I did.

Stampin’–Christmas Style

Last night was the delightful Stamp and Chat, full of fun like always. Lets cut to the chase and show the pictures:

How cute are these?! I had a little trauma here, with the Christmas tree, when I was trying to punch the star through it, I ripped a hole in the entire page, and then it ripped all the way through, to the top of the page. I’m not explaining that right, but it was so dumb of me. Chelle had to fix it for me, because I couldn’t do it. But they all ended up being cute, and we had delicious treats to boot!

Christmas Trimmings

Last night, I went over to Tai Pan to get some ribbon for my tree. I spent a little time to choose the right one, and home again to garland up my tree. I had my sister help me with it, since I had no idea what I was doing, and finally, when finished, this is what it now looks like:

It’s not too bad, but I just am struggling with my tree this year! Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to try a new color theme. And I do like my stockings on the fireplace this year, so you can see these as well:

Now my house feels complete and I am ready for the holidays – in that regard. Now onto shopping!

Miscellaneous Monday

Friday night was our ward Christmas party. It was a nice affair, good food. They did a program, of course, and Husband and I were asked to sing in it, with another gal. When we practiced, we sounded really good, not to be too prideful. But then when it came time to sing, I must have been so nervous, because I just sounded awful. Husband sounded great, and so did the other girl, but I was shaky and awful, so I regret it. I think next time I get asked, I’ll turn it down. No need to go through that again.

At work, Chelle has had a Christmas tree on her desk last year, and it was just so cute (link to her blog here) and this year, she happened to have an extra one, so she brought it in so that I could use it.

I think it’s really cute, I’m glad she decided to share with me.

I can’t handle all this cold weather. There is just too much of it, and I’m cold the SECOND I step outside, and I can’t seem to get warm inside. I know that it only just started, and we still have a few months with this weather, but already, I just want it to be warm and nice. The countdown to spring has begun. 100 days, everyone!

Santa Hats

Today, we found a hat around the house, a dog hat, bought by my sister, for her dog. I decided to put it on Cookie.

Look at that rage! She looks like she wants to kill me. Since we were on a roll, we put it on Cadence as well.

I think she just doesn’t know how to deal with life. These poor dogs. We basically do this to them all day long.

Festival of Trees 2013

I only realized a few weeks ago that it was the week of Festival of Trees, and it was ending today. So of course, I made plans to go there. The weather did try it’s darndest to stop me, but nothing could stop me. I was planning on going up in the early afternoon. RSL was playing Kansas City in the MLS Cup, and I was jazzed and ready. The game started at 2:00, so it would be over around 4:00. That’s not exactly how it went. Started at 2:00, didn’t really start at 2:25, and then it had a thirty minute overtime when we were tied 1-1 at the end. After the overtime we were still tied, and went into a shootout. After 2 shootouts, we lost the game, and it was just sad. So the game instead ended at 5:30. Then, the trip from my house in Orem to my SIL’s house in Provo took about 1 hour because of all the snow that has been dumped on us.

Finally we made it there after about an hour. We made it in, and it was all as glorious as it always is. We walked, ate a snack, walked, and ate a snack, walked around. I saw some really great trees, and I’ll share those.

There was one tree that I was really impressed with:

You can’t tell, but that tree is made out of soda rings. And the ornaments are made out of soda cans. I just couldn’t believe it when I saw it. That takes some serious preparation. I hope to maybe decorate a tree next year. I’ll start brainstorming now!

Foto Friday

With my sister moving in, so did her dog. The dog is a super weirdo. It looks a little bit like a cross between a bat and a rat. I like to torture it (not like, crazy torture) and I just laugh at it all the time. After doing some torturing last night, she was being a weirdo, and shaking either from that, or because she’s a Chihuahua and shakes all the time, or because my house is always freezing now. So I put her in my jacket, and she had such a sad sack look on her face, we had to take a picture of it. I tried to mimic her face.

What a freaking weird animal.

Christmas Tree 2013

Tonight I decorated my Christmas Tree, finally. We set it up on Monday night, and then just left it this whole time. I’ve just been so busy! I haven’t had time, all of a sudden, things were crazy. But I was told by Chelle that the ornaments were on sale at JoAnn’s, and I have been wanting to mix it up, so I took a gander. I decided on brown and gold, it just seemed so fun and different. I’m not sure it looks as good as I thought it would be. In my head, I imagined it very differently, and I don’t think it translated very well. But I gave it a go.

The lights take out the ornaments, for the most part. One of the best parts this year, was the addition of some new (newer) ornaments. We got these in Disneyland, and I love them.

Maybe they don’t mesh with the color theme, but I like them anyway. They’re fun, and they add some life. Merry Christmas everyone! 20 more days!

A Snowy Kind of Evening

Last night for scouts, we had a pack meeting, and it was decided many months ago that this pack meeting would be our caroling one – we’d all get to visit the elderly ladies in the ward, and sing some songs, and we all thought it sounded like fun. Then, as everyone noticed, the skies opened up, and snow just DUMPED all over everyone. Of course, we scouts are tough. About half of the kids showed up last night, I’m guessing parents just didn’t want to brave the elements. After handing out all the awards, and two of my favorite Webelos moving onto 11 year old scouts, and they both had their Arrow of Light ceremonies, it was time to go.

It was still snowing when we were out, which made things just cold. I was wearing a long sleeve shirt, my scout shirt, a fleece jacket, my winter coat, gloves, and a hat. But still, I was chilly. My feet were cold, my legs were cold. We went to about 7 houses, singing the same 5 songs, until finally we were finished. We all reconvened back at the church for some hot chocolate and donuts. We had lost about half of the scouts from the meeting to the singing, and that’s fine. It was cold, and if I was a kid, I would have just left. But hopefully we got to bring a little sunshine to some people’s hearts.

Mini Pumpkin Pies

I meant to post this last week, but the entries got away from me, so I am just going to do it this week. For Thanksgiving, I wanted to contribute to my dinners with a dessert – individual mini pumpkin pies. I found the recipe on Pinterest, of course, and finally made it. The recipe is as follows, if you’d like it:

1 15oz can of pumpkin
1 12oz can of evaporated milk
2 eggs
2 Tsp pumpkin pie spice
3/4 cup sugar
1/2tsp of salt
2 boxes of ready-made crust (how many you use will determine if you need three or all four)

You will also need a cookie cutter (or some sort of circle) that is about this much bigger than your muffin tin, both the regular and the mini one. Lightly spray your pans with cooking spray. Unroll your crust and cut out circles, lay the circle on top of the muffin hole and gently press down to the bottom. From there gently press the crusts to the sides, covering the whole muffin cup.

Once I cut out as many circles as I can with the pre-rolled out dough, I combine it together and roll it out again and again. Combine sugar, pumpkin pie spice and salt together with a whisk. Beat eggs and then slowly combine pumpkin and add sugar mixture to that. Once that is all combined, stir in the evaporated milk. I used a 1/3 cup measuring cup that wasn't quite full to fill the regular muffin cups. I used 1/4 cup measuring cup that wasn't quite full to fill each mini muffin cup.

Fill all your mini pie shells to just below level with muffin pan top. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes for the regular sized ones and 25-30 minutes for the mini ones. Check done-ness by putting a knife in the center, if it comes out mostly clean they are done.

Enjoy with some fresh whipped cream!

Now, it was pretty easy to make this, just very time consuming. I forgot to take a pic with the whipped cream on it, because come one, Thanksgiving is a busy day. But this is delicious! Make it next year, guys.

Miscellaneous Monday

On the way home from St George Saturday night, my mom texted me, to ask where we were. She had left about a half hour before us, and was letting us know where we were. A few minutes later, she randomly texted me what her mile marker was, and I let her know mine. Then she kept texting me hers, so I decided to have some fun with it. Instead of telling her what mine was, I moved myself up a few miles. Then hers again, and I would move mine up more. So after a while, I actually “passed” them, and just kept moving. Finally, she told me she was near home, and I told her my real location, somewhere near Nephi. Her reply text of “what?” made me laugh so hard. Thanks for letting me troll you, mama.

After getting home from St George, and having a family meeting of sorts, it was already 9:30 at night. I still had to go grocery shopping, so after getting into the house, and getting everything unloaded from the car, it was 10:15, but luckily with it being Christmas season, the store is open late, so I went grocery shopping at 10:30 at night. It’s fun to do this! The place is empty, it’s quiet, and you don’t have to worry about hitting into anyone. It’s kind of awesome.

After shopping so late, I had to get some food, because I hadn’t eaten anything since St George, at like, 3:30, and I was starving. I stopped at Taco Bell on the way home, and when I was trying to unload my car, I was more interested in my taco than I was to any situational awareness, so I smashed my forehead into the still-opening car trunk, and holy cow did that hurt. Even to today, 2 days later, it still hurts. Lesson learned – look at the trunk before you try to lean into it.

The End of One Month…the Beginning of Another

It’s officially over, friends! National Blog-Every-Day month is over, and finally, we’re done. Luckily, I didn’t struggle as much as I thought I would (or my standards for how lame my blog can be are getting lower) so hopefully, if you stuck with me all month, you didn’t suffer too much.

Unfortunately for everyone, in order to reach my goal of 250 blogs this year, I need to keep blogging every day. Hopefully things will stay interesting, or maybe I can find good stuff on the internet, but stay with me, guys. It’s only 31 entries until the end of the year, so maybe only half of those will be awful. Lets all cross our fingers that it won’t be too bad!