Eat My What?!

When I was searching for a way to organize recipes a few months ago, I spent several days looking at all different types of websites to find what I needed.  One of those websites was called Eat Your Books.  At the time it wasn't what I needed, but I thought it was a great idea -

and I knew just the person who could use it!!

The basic idea is that you can make a virtual Library with all of your cookbooks and cooking magazines, as well as your favorite blogs - then you can search the My Bookshelf section for a recipe and it will search each of these sources for you!!  It will even keep track of the magazines you subscribe to and automatically add it when a new issue comes out.  

 Now, some people like to look throught their cookbooks for just the right recipe or search online for all the different ideas out there - and that is just fine!  I do both depending on what I'm looking for.  I have about 20 cookbooks, I love to use Pinterest and when I'm in a hurry I just Google it.  For me alone, this site is cool but wouldn't really be worth the $25 yearly fee.  However, remember I said I knew someone it would be perfect for??  That person is Felicia - she has a great collection of cookbooks!!  The downside to having all these great cookbooks is that she rarely gets to use all of them as much as she would like.  This site is perfect for her - and the bonus is that Jamie and I get to use it too!  We can add the cookbooks we own to the bookshelf and search all of them at once.  The biggest disappointment is that you can't get the recipes directly on the website - but that makes sense.  If all you had to do was add a cookbook and you had access to the recipe - why would you buy the cookbook to begin with?  So, what you get when you select a recipe is where to find it (including the page) and the ingredients list.  You can plan what you want to make, buy your groceries and pull out the right cookbook when you are ready!        

I have been waiting for the chance to get this for Felicia - and I finally had a great excuse - it was her birthday on Monday!  It isn't her only gift (it isn't really a gift if I want to use it too) - but I wanted to buy it for all of us to try out.  Now we just have to get all of the cookbooks we own into the Library!!

Have a great day!

Beth 

 p.s. If you want to try it out for yourself, you can sign up and enter up to 5 cookbooks for free.

Birthday time...

It's my birthday! I turned 34 on Monday. I really don't feel like I'm in my 30's but here I am. My husband surprised me with a mini vacation to Alderbrook Resort in Union WA. They have exceptional landscaping here.

I love this sign they have posted!

On top of getting a surprise vacation, our good friends agreed to watch our son for one of the nights. I don't often get to sleep in. I didn't really sleep in but I didn't have to get out bed and that was fun. I sure do miss my little guy though. He cracks me up every morning. He sings songs, he asks if I'm ready to get up and he pretends play with his toys.

We had a wonderful time here. The first night, as the sun was going down, my husband and son dipped their toes into the canal. My son keep playing and they they threw rocks into the water and he was extremely happy! We got to take him swimming in the indoor pool. He is a water boy for sure. The next day it was just my husband and me and we rented a paddle boat and putted around in front of the resort. The paddle boat is a slow moving ride. At least the one we use was. We decided to go back to our room and watch movies and eat pizza from a local cafe! It was so good!

Now it's time to pack up from our little home away from home. I had leftover pizza for breakfast, it's still delicious! I hope you all have a great rest of the week!

Lazy Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Cookie (Just One)

Is there anything better than melted chocolate and peanut butter?  It's one of my favorite combinations!  One night I was having a major craving for something sweet, but I was also feeling pretty lazy.  Luckily, this recipe is both easy and yummy! 

At first I was just going to make peanut butter cookies, but then I started thinking about how to add chocolate to them (My first thought was using mini chocolate chips).  Then I decided I really didn't want to spend a lot of time making individual cookies, so I thought I would try making a large cookie.  (Which I realise makes it a bar instead of a cookie, but I like the visual of a large cookie lol)  So, yeah - laziness totally created this recipe.

I used the following cookie recipe from here, and then made changes :)   

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar or 1/4 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Choose your baking dish and use parchment paper to line the bottom. (I used my small, round casserole dish, but there was enough cookie dough to put it into a 9" square dish)  Put a layer of chocolate chips on the bottom of your pan.

In a mixer, combine butter and peanut butter. Add the granulated sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, and baking powder. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in the egg and vanilla until combined. Add the flour and mix until combined.

Spread your cookie dough evenly over the chocolate chips.  Bake until top is browned.  Peanut butter cookies don't set until they are completely cooled, so the center may look slightly undercooked. 

Let cool for 10 min and flip onto a plate.  You can either eat it right away or let it cool completely.  We did both, but Eric said he thought it was way better the next day.  If you eat it warm, it's all gooey and warm and yummy.  If you eat it cold (from the fridge), it's soft and crunchy and yummy.  I don't think you could go wrong either way!!

Enjoy!
Beth

No flour....really!

I made these peanut butter cookies last night. I was surprised there was no flour in the recipe. I read over the steps and then re-read them, I thought maybe they forgot to add it to the ingredient list. No they didn't, it really doesn't have flour! When they baked they smelled exactly the same as the recipe with flour. The only problem that I had, had nothing to do with the recipe, I didn't know my scoop came apart and a tiny little metal piece came off. Unfortunately Jerry, my husband, found it! Good thing he didn't break a tooth.

This is also a 1 bowl recipe!

1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
Generous 1 teaspoon vanilla

Pre-heat oven 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare a baking sheet or just bake the cookies right on to the pan like I did. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. I just scooped on to the pan, you can roll them into balls before putting them on the baking sheet. Then I got a small bowl of sugar and dipped my fork in the sugar then on the cookie a crisscross pattern. Bake for 8-10 min. They didn't rise very much, I really like them thin. I was thinking they might be thicker if I had rolled them.

My husband added some whip cream on the cookies, which we highly recommend. Jerry said he prefers this recipe, so yay I will add this to my recipe box!

I hope you enjoy your weekend! I know I will, my birthday is coming up so I'm excited!

Blah, Blah, Blah...

I have been spending a lot of energy on working out lately - so I really haven't been working on any fun projects to share!  I am getting home late and tired four days a week - I'm lucky if I still want to make dinner!  Although I have been hungry a lot lately, so I guess I shouldn't worry about not eating :)                   I thought that for today I would share some of the fun things that have been happining - some of them without any help from me...

One of the most exciting things for me is that I have zucchini growing!  I have already eaten some and I have 2 that I am going to be picking tonight for dinner.  I almost had a bad moment when the first few zucchini that started growing got to about 3" and then started getting yellow - I thought for sure I did something wrong - but it turns out they were not pollinated.  Since it's my first time growing zucchini I had no idea it will start growing before it is pollinated!  I don't seem to be having that problem anymore (I think it was just too hot for the bees before), but I do check them every day now.  Eric keeps getting confused and calling them cucumbers - I swear he is doing it on purpose now. 

I also have tomatoes growing.  I did not get huge tomato plants like someone I know and love, but I still got tomatoes!  My plants are between 18-24" and have at least a dozen quarter-sized romas growing already.  I planted my seeds directly outside in May, so they are months behind most, but I wanted to see how it would go.  I think next year I will start them inside, but we still have a few more months to see how they do.  My artichokes seem to be struggling but holding on.  I have to go out and thin them down to just a few plants, but it is so hard for me to knowingly 'kill' a plant that is growing.  I have grown artichokes before and I actually had them die back completely after transplanting and they regrew and even gave me a few artichokes to eat (the ants got the rest).  For now I water them and leave them to do their thing.  I also got one strawberry from my new patch - but by the time it turned red something decided it would be a tasty treat so boo...

We haven't made a ton of progress on our ongoing house projects - we have had a lot of events and random things come up the last few weeks.  I did get my cabinets ordered for the islands and pantry in the kitchen.  Now I just have to wait for them to arrive - should be 4 more weeks or so...We have also been working on finishing some small projects and planning what we want to finish before the end of the year.

The thing I have been mostly focused on recently is also the least fun - working out.  I have ramped up the amount I have been working out - I now do 2 days of 60 min cardio (Zumba lol - I am awful at it but it is fun and I sweat a lot!), 2 days of 45 min weight training and 30 min of cardio, and a day of moving (going for a walk, building a fire pit, some type of activity).  So yeah, 5 days of working out.  I am tired, hungry and sore all the time - and I have discovered I am incapable of eating healthy and working out at the same time.  I am easily swayed by food that smells good.  I also talk myself into eating more snacks/treats because I worked out and I hurt so I get a treat right?  All that aside, I have been noticing small differences in my arms, legs and face.  Eric says I look slimmer, but I don't really see that, and the scale is not helping because I gained 3 pounds last week.  I just keep telling myself it's muscle gain and if I keep going eventually I will lose weight.

Have a great day and enjoy the weekend!!

Beth