Secrets of the trade

In the past few months I've lost about 20-25 lbs. I'm not complaining and neither are my chubby ass cheeks but in all honesty, all I really eat is crap. A lot of baked goods and ice cream and chocolate and salt & pepper potato chips.

I've kinda/sorta been attempting to bump my body back into healthy eating habits. I swear I wasn't always such a sugar-aholic. Who knows. In this little "hey, I wanna be healthy" stint mixed with my boredom at work and googling 'diet tricks' 'how do I lose weight' and 'I don't want to be fat anymore,' I found this tip that walnuts can help you tame your hunger! This leads me to my main point: I don't know if it's working but I've been eating 6 of these babies half an hour to an hour before I'm gonna eat a meal and hoping for the best.

If you try this, I'd suggest getting raw unsalted ones! I know the point is to eat less but I accidentally ate half of my baggie one day. It's the good kind of fat, though, right?

DENVER

There is too much to even get into about our trip but my boyfriend and I had the most amazing time and ate the greatest food. (This list is no way in order of best spots or even in lineup of when we went to them.)

1. El Diablo

We went to this restaurant located on Broadway the first night we arrived in town. It was delicious and way packed full of hipster kids and drunk people. In the top left corner you see the three salsas we got to which my boyfriend claimed that one of them tasted like bar-b-que sauce, one was normal, and the green was weird. In the middle was my Margarita Especial that had agave syrup in it and it was SO good. Now to the tacos...I got El Pastor tacos and they blew my mind while Matt got some spicy concoction with steak marinated in spicy chipotle sauce that ended up leaving my mouth and tongue in pain but he says were "insane!"

2. ROCKET FIZZ

Where do I even began??? This was the candy store of my dreeeeeams. I was recommended this store by my friend Ben who lives in Denver and I'm super glad I took his advice. Immediately upon walking in, my boyfriend and I were taken aback by the amount of old school glass bottled soda collection going on! I've never seen that much in one spot nor that much root beer together.

Our first trip we settled on a white chocolate Toblerone, a supreme peanut butter marshmallow heaven bar, some GooGoo cluster thing (a fancy Snickers, really) and Matt's favorite the Cadbury crunchie bar, also of note the Sprecher cherry cola and Philadelphia diet cream soda.

Our second trip (we almost went three times but our last day it snowed, was windy, and we were tired) we got the original Toblerone, another Supreme peanut butter bar, Cadbury white chocolate buttons, Cadbury Caramel bar, another Cadbury crunchie bar, topped off with a Boylan's creamy red birch beer and my Frostop diet root beer.

3. Mexico City

We went here to get the "famous" fried tacos. They were oily. And fried. Yeah.

4. Illegal Pete's

If you love Chipotle then you have to go to Illegal Pete's. It's Chipotle, only BETTER. I got the pork carnitas with black beans burrito on a whole wheat tortilla with rice, sour cream, cheese, mild salsa, and lettuce. Matt got a chicken fajita burrito on white tortilla with the green salsa, and cheese. AND THEN THEY MIXED ALL THE INGREDIENTS TOGETHER BEFORE ROLLING IT UP!!!! Can you tell how much this made a difference?! It was so freaking good. SO good. We also got chips and guac and yep, the guacamole was just as good here as at Chipotle. If you make it to Denver, do yourself a favor and go here! It's on the 16th St Mall downtown.

5. Larkburger

Pros: TRUFFLE OIL AND PARMESAN THIN FRIES. Yum! Cons: way, way overpriced.

6. Homemade pizza night!!!! Just mine and Matt's style.

We started with a bunch of stuff Laura (my boyfriend's sister) brought home from Whole Foods and we ended up with......

Pizza 1: Homemade sauce, prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, organic fresh mushrooms, topped with arugula and drizzled with truffle oil

Pizza 2: Pesto sauce, seasoned chicken, sauteed onions, fresh mozz, and cheddar (the picture was pretty gross so we'll leave this one to your imagination)

7. Mountain Sun Pub

On Thursday of our trip, Laura got the day off from work so we trekked out to Boulder.

And ended up at Mountain Sun. Boulder (and this spot) were a huge weed smoking, hippie, vegan fest but my sandwich was delicious and the service was happy, smiling, and gave Laura her beer on the house!

I got the Tempeh Reuben (if you get this, I'd advice to ask for no tomatoes; it comes with some kind of tomato-paste-hummus-spread and it's a bit overwhelming) that came on awesome Rye bread and instead of chips I got the side spinach salad that had walnuts, blue cheese, and onions. The food was great!! And the burgers Matt and Laura got (hers came with date paste!!!) were just as on point.

8. Tee and Cakes

Later in the day while still in Boulder, we stopped by this adorable shop and got our sweet fix in.

Mmmm mmm YEAH! I got the red velvet and L got a triple chocolate cupcake. We left very happy and ready to continue our search for her perfect snow boots.

9. Shells and Sauce

I could go into major detail here about how absolutely in brunch heaven we were here and how funny it was that originally only Laura and I were gonna go and Matt sat in the car until we called him to tell him there was an extra seat but let me just leave you with this:

2 very champagney, beautiful, refreshing mimosas
Omelette stock full of wild mushrooms, fresh goat cheese, and truffle oil
Hashbrowns

10. TACOS DE MEXICO, Y'ALL

If you go only one place in all of Denver, GO HERE!!!! And get the marinated pork tacos. If you're reading this Braces, thanks for the heads up on this place!

*No one really speaks English here, I never got my drink, they only take cash, the service is horrible but these were by far the best tacos I've ever had in my life!

11. Taki Sushi: no description needed other than this was our last meal in Denver.

12. Wild Eggs

French toast stuffed with sweetened cream cheese, blueberries, strawberries, and topped with fresh whipped cream and cinnamon. Matt got 'The King Would Eat These' pancakes. If you need to know, check the site. Total thumps up from us both!

This last picture is just to show you guys where all this good quality eating got us....a wonderful airport lunch date at Popeye's.

I'm beyond happy to be home in my own bed but at the same time I'm already feeling the need to get up and go again. Thank you so much to Laura and Ben for all their hospitality. And to Hunter. We miss you already.

I'm addicted

P.S. An absolutely way too long post on my trip to Denver will be up tomorrow. SO much food to talk about!!!

A flashback to 2011

This past December I became egg nog obsessed. I'll admit it. I wanted to put it in EVERYTHING.

Okay, let's get real for a minute, even before my December epidemic I was even more infatuated with pumpkin. As soon as September creeped in I was doing any and everything possible to get pumpkin into my life. I made pumpkin cookies, cheesecake, brownies, hot chocolate, lattes, pancakes, bread puffs, pasta. You name it and I wanted it. If only I had taken more photos of what went down. Alas, we'll have to stick with the documentation I do have.

Vanilla Cupcakes with Egg Nog Icing

Uhhh....so, I would really love to give out a recipe but I made these with a friend and she used a boxed mix for the cupcakes and some rando recipe for the icing.

And now that I'm re-reading what I've written, I'm pretty grossed out by my previous egg nog confession and I'm just gonna leave this awesome photo of mine up here for you to stare at while I spend my next 8 days in Denver, Colorado!!! It's paid vacation time, y'all. See ya!!!

It's Thursday

And last night my best friend Diane came to visit before she leaves me for South Africa! What the crap? Who buys a one way ticket to SOUTH AFRICA? Actually, I'm super jealous but I'm going to miss her like crazy. Plus, this is the coolest and most spontaneous thing she's probably ever done. 

Here's my point: due to my sadness, we ended up at NY Deli and as you can see, D had a good night and I don't drink too much anymore so after two $3 margaritas I was good to go (notice the top left corner.) LOL she's gonna be so mad I put this picture up!

Can we focus on the food in that picture for a second? Joe's Inn. Yup. I try not to question the fact that the sausage and homefries at Joe's are always the best, the service never disappoints, and if you go around lunch time you need to get the club sandwich. If you live in Richmond and you haven't been there, you're doing it all wrong.

Ok, back to business. Cookies part 2! I've been searching around for a few months now trying to find a really awesome low-fat chocolate chip cookie recipe. Unfortunately, I was not blessed with the ability that my boyfriend has to eat any and everything and not gain a pound. In lieu of the traditional butter and fat-filled enticing cookies, I FINALLY have a recipe I am in love with! I messed around with the original a few times before finalizing it and so I present to you....

Low-fat (full-fat tasting!) Chocolate Chip Cookies
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup Earth Balance light softened
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg replacement (I used 1 tbsp Bragg’s apple cider vinegar mixed with 1 tbsp water)
• 2 tbsp REAL maple syrup
• 2 tsp Simply Organic brand vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups Arrowhead Mills brand organic enriched unbleached white flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp Kosher salt
• Chocolate chips (I tend to use more than normal...) but avg amount is 3/4 cup

Preheat oven to 325°F.

In a large bowl, mix butter and brown sugar until well combined. Add egg replacement, maple syrup and vanilla and mix until it's smooth.

Add the flour, baking soda and salt to the wet mixture and stir until mostly combined. Add the chocolate chips and stir but only until just blended. The dough is going to be super dry!!!! Don't be thrown off by this, it's okay, I swear.

Use your hands to make spoonful size balls and place them about 2” apart on a previously non-stick sprayed cookie sheet. Use your palm to flatten each one just a bit. Bake for 11 minutes, or just set around the edges but still soft in the middle. Transfer to whatever you have for them to cool.

*If you notice the photo above, these were even MORE delicious sandwiched around ice cream. In particular Stonyfield Brand Organic Creme Caramel!!

After the first two batches being a major success, I decided the next day to make them again just because, I mean, why not? It was all good until I realized I had no more chocolate chips in the pantry!!! And I had already promised my friends over at Absolute Art (shameless promotion -- best tattoo shop in Richmond) that I had cookies comin' their way.

This is what I ended up with. These were cool. I used the same recipe as above just replacing torn apart milky ways and threw in a hell of a lot of M&M's. I was pretty into these ones but guys, you really should just stick with the original chocolate chip style.

You know, the two cups of coffee I drank this morning have me feeling wild. I hope today goes by fast because I really just want to go run a mile or climb a tree or go on a hike or something. Instead I'm stuck at my desk. Happy thursday y'all.

The jump off

Cookies part 1

TRIPLE DECKERS. I wish I could explain how insane these cookies are with just words but you have to bake them to really understand what I'm talking about. I don't even want to give them an intro as to not take away from the experience but let me just say that I've made them multiple times and I have never had any complaints.

Triple-Deckers
(recipe from http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/triple-deckers-683426/ but I tweaked it a bunch)
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup Earth Balance light softened
  Sidebar: I know the packaging says not to use the light for baking but I do everytime and it works well for me!
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup all natural chunky (or creamy) peanut butter
• 1 egg (or egg replacement, I used 1 tbsp Bragg's apple cider vinegar mixed with 1 tbsp water)
• 1 teaspoon Simply Organic brand vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (don't use table salt, it's probably too harsh)
• 1 cup Arrowhead Mills brand organic enriched unbleached white flour
• About 18-24 mini candy bars
• 20-24 marshmallows in half

*In the above picture I used what I had chocolate-wise: mini crunch bars, York peppermint patties, M&M's, and mini milky ways but my favorite is to use mini Twix bars!
1. Heat the oven to 375. Place the softened butter and brown sugar in a large bowl and blend with an electric mixer (or your hand if ya need some exercise.)

2. Add the peanut butter, egg replacement, and vanilla extract, combining thoroughly. In a separate bowl, combine the salt, baking soda, and flour, then mix them into the wet ingredients.

3. Shape the dough into 1 1/4-inch balls and bake for 8 minutes on an ungreased cookie sheet. Meanwhile, break the candy bars into halves if you're using minis or pieces if using whole bars and use kitchen shears (or a knife like I did and it was awful and messy and stupid) to snip the marshmallows in half lengthwise.

4. Remove the cookies from the oven, top each one with a marshmallow half, and return the tray to the oven for an additional 3 to 4 minutes.

5. Finally, remove the cookies from the oven and place a piece of chocolate atop the marshmallows. Allow the cookies to remain on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring them to cooling racks. Makes 3 1/2 to 4 dozen cookies.

These are crazy. Make them now!!!!!

Up & running

“Half of life is fucking up, the other half is dealing with it.” -Henry Rollins

I feel like he's saying it all right there. It's at least describing my baking life pretty well.

So, hey what's up. Between this past weekend while hanging out with my Mom discussing that maybe I need to do something different with my life and before leaving that little guy up there at her house for the next two weeks (I'll go into that at a later time) and last night while my boyfriend and I were in bed and this was happening

(and by this I mean my babe of a boyfriend attempting to do my hair) I had this idea that maybe I should start a baking blog.

I'm 24, a recent transplant back from Scotland, UK and a graduate from VCU with an B.A. in English still living in Richmond, VA. I love to bake, I love my dog, and I love chocolate and for the most part it's all I ever want to eat. I figured why not write what I've got going on?

I'm blessed to have a boyfriend that doesn't mind my baking habits and lots of guy friends that are always looking for free food so expect to see lots of treats, pictures of my dog, and my goofy friends.