Don't do something because you have to.
Do it because you can.
Totally changed my outlook on my tough, tough run yesterday. :)
May 15, 2013
May 13, 2013
Toblerone Scones
It's Monday. It's MMAZ time.
When Heather announced that dark chocolate was the ingredient this week Iwept for joy was really excited. Then I went to the grocery store and spotted a dark chocolate Toblerone and it spoke to me.
Toblerones and I go way, way back. My (first) senior year (whoops) of college, I traveled to Scandinavia with the choir I was a member of (nerd alert).
3 things about Scandinavia!
1. It's really expensive there. Really. Really. Expensive.
2. It's also absolutely gorgeous.
3. Their candy situation is out of hand in the greatest way possible.
It was there that I first tried the Toblerone and it will always have a special place in my heart forbeing the only food I could afford it's flawless chocolate and crunchy almonds pieces.
I've been wanting to try and make scones forrreevvverrrr (Sandlot style) but was always nervous because hello! They seem pretty complicated. Until I realized- they're just breakfast biscuits. I can make biscuits! I love sweets! I can do this!
And then I did.
Toblerone Scones
Makes 12 scones
3 c + 2 Tbs flour
1/3 c sugar + more for sprinkling
1 Tbs baking powder
1/2 heaping tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
13 Tbs butter (1 stick + 5 Tbs), VERY cold (I put mine in the freezer)
1 c buttermilk
1 delicious Toblerone candy bar (3.5 oz size, about 3/4 c chopped)
1/2 c sliced almonds
2 Tbs butter, melted
Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.
In a separate bowl, using the large slots of a cheese grater, grate the butter. (you could also do the regular old "cutting in" of the butter, but holy moly, grating butter is kind of fun, and made the process a lot easier).
Dump your grated butter into the dry ingredients and mix until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Add in buttermilk and mix until JUST combined. You don't want rock hard scones! Don't overmix it!
Fold in the chopped up Toblerone and almonds carefully.
Divide the batter into two. Take each half and shape into a small circle, about 7-ish inches. (I found working this part on a floured surface made it very easy). Cut each circle into 6 wedges using a pizza cutter or sharp knife.
Brush each wedge with a little melted butter and sprinkle with sugar.
Place in oven heated to 425 for about 13 minutes.
Almond Honey Glaze
glazes 12 Toblerone Scones
1/2 c powdered sugar
1 tsp honey
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
1/8 tsp almond extract
2-3 Tbs milk
Mix honey, vanilla bean paste, and almond extract together.
Stir in powdered sugar and 1 Tbs milk. Add more milk as needed until you reach a glaze consistency.
After the scones have cooled for 15-20 minutes, drizzle with glaze.
Make sure you have friends to share with or else you'll end up eating a whole stick and a half of butter. Not that I would know....
Go check out all the other AMAZING recipes from this week. You won't want to miss it. I mean, come on guys, it's DARK CHOCOLATE WEEK!!
When Heather announced that dark chocolate was the ingredient this week I
Toblerones and I go way, way back. My (first) senior year (whoops) of college, I traveled to Scandinavia with the choir I was a member of (nerd alert).
 |
| Joel and I in dark blue- we were just babies back then! |
3 things about Scandinavia!
1. It's really expensive there. Really. Really. Expensive.
2. It's also absolutely gorgeous.
3. Their candy situation is out of hand in the greatest way possible.
It was there that I first tried the Toblerone and it will always have a special place in my heart for
I've been wanting to try and make scones forrreevvverrrr (Sandlot style) but was always nervous because hello! They seem pretty complicated. Until I realized- they're just breakfast biscuits. I can make biscuits! I love sweets! I can do this!
And then I did.
Toblerone Scones
Makes 12 scones
3 c + 2 Tbs flour
1/3 c sugar + more for sprinkling
1 Tbs baking powder
1/2 heaping tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
13 Tbs butter (1 stick + 5 Tbs), VERY cold (I put mine in the freezer)
1 c buttermilk
1 delicious Toblerone candy bar (3.5 oz size, about 3/4 c chopped)
1/2 c sliced almonds
2 Tbs butter, melted
Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.
In a separate bowl, using the large slots of a cheese grater, grate the butter. (you could also do the regular old "cutting in" of the butter, but holy moly, grating butter is kind of fun, and made the process a lot easier).
Dump your grated butter into the dry ingredients and mix until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Add in buttermilk and mix until JUST combined. You don't want rock hard scones! Don't overmix it!
Fold in the chopped up Toblerone and almonds carefully.
Divide the batter into two. Take each half and shape into a small circle, about 7-ish inches. (I found working this part on a floured surface made it very easy). Cut each circle into 6 wedges using a pizza cutter or sharp knife.
Brush each wedge with a little melted butter and sprinkle with sugar.
Place in oven heated to 425 for about 13 minutes.
Almond Honey Glaze
glazes 12 Toblerone Scones
1/2 c powdered sugar
1 tsp honey
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
1/8 tsp almond extract
2-3 Tbs milk
Mix honey, vanilla bean paste, and almond extract together.
Stir in powdered sugar and 1 Tbs milk. Add more milk as needed until you reach a glaze consistency.
After the scones have cooled for 15-20 minutes, drizzle with glaze.
Make sure you have friends to share with or else you'll end up eating a whole stick and a half of butter. Not that I would know....
Go check out all the other AMAZING recipes from this week. You won't want to miss it. I mean, come on guys, it's DARK CHOCOLATE WEEK!!
May 8, 2013
WIAW- Dinner Waffles
Happy What I Ate Wednesday!
I haven't done one of these in awhile, and since I knew we were having something EPIC for dinner last night, it just seemed like the thing to do.
You don't want to hear me ramble, so let's get to it.
Breakfast!
Overnight coffee oats with almond butter and TJ's chocolate coffee grinder sprinkles. For the oatmeal, I mixed 1/2c oats, 1 Chobani chocolate coffee bite, 1/4tsp instant coffee, and about 1/4 cup of almond milk. SO GOOD.
Coffee!
Mini almond joy creamer + whole milk = happy mommy (x2)
Morning snack!
Mixed berry Mueller greek yogurt with granola. And a side of Bubbie.
Whoops! How did this picture get in here? ;)
Mid-afternoon snack!
TJ's white bean and basil hummus and some delicious baby carrots.
Dinner!
The main event. You guys, this has changed the way Thanksgiving will be done in my house for the rest of our lives. Are you ready?
Stuffing. Waffles.
Make your stuffing mix as usual, but instead of putting it in a pan or stuffing your bird, put a big ol' heap on your waffle iron and let it get all crispy and DELICIOUS for 8 minutes. Put gravy and turkey on it and then pass out from sheer awesomeness.
Dessert!
No turkey dinner is complete without dessert. Even though this might be one of the worst pictures on the internet, let me say that it was SO GOOD. We make this when we want pumpkin pie fancied up. This is the recipe, and I apologize for your pants not fitting any longer in advance.
So those were my eats yesterday! You could also throw in a handful of grapes and a few teddy grahams. When toddlers feed you, you just can't deny it.
Question:
Would you try stuffing waffles? (please say yes)
Favorite kind of waffle?
I haven't done one of these in awhile, and since I knew we were having something EPIC for dinner last night, it just seemed like the thing to do.
You don't want to hear me ramble, so let's get to it.
Breakfast!
Overnight coffee oats with almond butter and TJ's chocolate coffee grinder sprinkles. For the oatmeal, I mixed 1/2c oats, 1 Chobani chocolate coffee bite, 1/4tsp instant coffee, and about 1/4 cup of almond milk. SO GOOD.
Coffee!
Mini almond joy creamer + whole milk = happy mommy (x2)
Morning snack!
Mixed berry Mueller greek yogurt with granola. And a side of Bubbie.
Whoops! How did this picture get in here? ;)
Lunch!
Spring salad mix, coleslaw mix, red peppers, snap peas, TJ's spicy asian dressing, TJ's roasted red pepper spread, and a handful of honey roasted peanuts.
Lunch dessert!
Pretty self explanatory.
TJ's white bean and basil hummus and some delicious baby carrots.
Dinner!
The main event. You guys, this has changed the way Thanksgiving will be done in my house for the rest of our lives. Are you ready?
Stuffing. Waffles.
Make your stuffing mix as usual, but instead of putting it in a pan or stuffing your bird, put a big ol' heap on your waffle iron and let it get all crispy and DELICIOUS for 8 minutes. Put gravy and turkey on it and then pass out from sheer awesomeness.
Dessert!
No turkey dinner is complete without dessert. Even though this might be one of the worst pictures on the internet, let me say that it was SO GOOD. We make this when we want pumpkin pie fancied up. This is the recipe, and I apologize for your pants not fitting any longer in advance.
So those were my eats yesterday! You could also throw in a handful of grapes and a few teddy grahams. When toddlers feed you, you just can't deny it.
Question:
Would you try stuffing waffles? (please say yes)
Favorite kind of waffle?
May 2, 2013
Quick Check-In!
Howdy folks.
How is it a) Thursday and b) May?
Hey! 2013! I like you! Let's slow things down a little!
I have been busy this week enjoying the BEAUTIFUL weather that has finally arrived.
And also trying to organize my life/pack up toys that get scattered on the floor moments after they've been put in a box/train for a marathon.
So at night when the blog calls to me, I tell the blog to get bent and I go to sleep instead.
Never underestimate the importance of sleep. (or my laziness)
I have one more big run planned for Saturday (20ish miles. I have 23 on the schedule but really if I get to 20 and I'm tired I'm just gonna stop andeat a lot hmm no I guess that's right, eat a lot) and then it's TAPER TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!
Most people hate taper, but I am really looking forward to it. This training has been a killer and I'm looking forward to having more time with these crazies.
Love them.
That's all I've got- see you soon!
How is it a) Thursday and b) May?
Hey! 2013! I like you! Let's slow things down a little!
I have been busy this week enjoying the BEAUTIFUL weather that has finally arrived.
And also trying to organize my life/pack up toys that get scattered on the floor moments after they've been put in a box/train for a marathon.
So at night when the blog calls to me, I tell the blog to get bent and I go to sleep instead.
Never underestimate the importance of sleep. (or my laziness)
I have one more big run planned for Saturday (20ish miles. I have 23 on the schedule but really if I get to 20 and I'm tired I'm just gonna stop and
Most people hate taper, but I am really looking forward to it. This training has been a killer and I'm looking forward to having more time with these crazies.
Love them.
That's all I've got- see you soon!
April 29, 2013
Asian Ravioli- MMAZ
Happy Monday everyone! How was your weekend??
Mine looked a little something like this....
Sorry, is that too much rainbow for your Monday??
Don't answer that.
Confession- I didn't eat cabbage (except in egg rolls!) until like, 3 years ago. How sad! I freaking love cabbage!
So for this week's MMAZ I thought that I would go on back to my Asian roots with cabbage, but make a nice hearty, veggie asian ravioli.
Full disclosure: The raviolis are really good. And I don't like to toot my own horn. But! The sauce may not be everyone's cup of tea. I had a 50% likeability factor (out of 4 people). I really, really loved it, but I wanted to put it out there that if feeding to a crowd (especially a crowd that's not too keen on asian cooking like my sample audience), you might want to find a more.... mild, less aggressive sauce to use.
I can ramble about running forever, but when it comes to food, I just want the recipe. So that's what I'm gonna do.
Asian Raviolis with Peanut Hoisin Sauce
makes 24 raviolis
For the Raviolis:
1 package wonton wrappers
1/2 T sesame oil
1 T rice vinegar
1/2 tsp fresh minced ginger
1 T olive oil
1 T tamari
1 c fresh mushrooms, chopped
3 c cabbage, chopped (I totally cheated and used coleslaw mix)
1/4 c bamboo (in a can)
1/4 c water chestnuts, chopped
1 T freshed chopped cilantro
In a medium sauce pan over medium heat, saute sesame oil and garlic for about 2 minutes. Add rice vinegar and ginger, and saute for another 3-5 minutes, until ginger softens.
Add in mushrooms, tamari, bamboo, water chestnuts, and 2 1/2 cups of the cabbage. Cook for 8-10 minutes, or until the cabbage and mushrooms are soft and completely cooked.
Add in cilantro and remaining 1/2 cup of cabbage, and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes. (you can add all of the cabbage at once when you add the mushrooms, but I enjoy the texture of a little of the cabbage being undercooked- whatever your preference! :)
Take a heaping teaspoon of mixture and plop it onto your wonton wrapper. I am TERRIBLE at explaining things, so you should go here or here or here if you'd like a step by step on how to fold those babies up.
I cooked my raviolis in an asian steamer, but you could boil them in shallow water, fry them in a little olive oil, or even bake them! The choice is yours, and yours alone my friends.
For 'da Sauce:
3 T rice vinegar
1 T tamari
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 T peanut butter
1 tsp lime juice
1 1/2 T hoisin sauce
7 T half and half (or non dairy product of your choice)
1/2 T cornstarch
1/2 c vegetable stock
Combine rice vinegar, tamari, sesame oil, garlic, peanut butter, lime juice, and hoisin sauce in a medium sauce pan and bring to a simmer.
Add 6 tablespoons of half and half slowly, whisking as you do.
In a small dish, mix remaining 1 tablespoon of half and half with cornstarch. Sloooooowly add to the simmering sauce, stirring constantly as you do.
Stir sauce until thickened. Now, slowly add vegetable stock until desired consistency.
These were even better the next day. I heated them up and threw some left over cabbage on top for a little bit of a crunch!
Head over to Heather's blog to see all the other amazing cabbage dishes everyone cooked up this week!!
Mine looked a little something like this....
Don't answer that.
Confession- I didn't eat cabbage (except in egg rolls!) until like, 3 years ago. How sad! I freaking love cabbage!
So for this week's MMAZ I thought that I would go on back to my Asian roots with cabbage, but make a nice hearty, veggie asian ravioli.
Full disclosure: The raviolis are really good. And I don't like to toot my own horn. But! The sauce may not be everyone's cup of tea. I had a 50% likeability factor (out of 4 people). I really, really loved it, but I wanted to put it out there that if feeding to a crowd (especially a crowd that's not too keen on asian cooking like my sample audience), you might want to find a more.... mild, less aggressive sauce to use.
I can ramble about running forever, but when it comes to food, I just want the recipe. So that's what I'm gonna do.
Asian Raviolis with Peanut Hoisin Sauce
makes 24 raviolis
For the Raviolis:
1 package wonton wrappers
1/2 T sesame oil
1 T rice vinegar
1/2 tsp fresh minced ginger
1 T olive oil
1 T tamari
1 c fresh mushrooms, chopped
3 c cabbage, chopped (I totally cheated and used coleslaw mix)
1/4 c bamboo (in a can)
1/4 c water chestnuts, chopped
1 T freshed chopped cilantro
In a medium sauce pan over medium heat, saute sesame oil and garlic for about 2 minutes. Add rice vinegar and ginger, and saute for another 3-5 minutes, until ginger softens.
Add in mushrooms, tamari, bamboo, water chestnuts, and 2 1/2 cups of the cabbage. Cook for 8-10 minutes, or until the cabbage and mushrooms are soft and completely cooked.
Add in cilantro and remaining 1/2 cup of cabbage, and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes. (you can add all of the cabbage at once when you add the mushrooms, but I enjoy the texture of a little of the cabbage being undercooked- whatever your preference! :)
Take a heaping teaspoon of mixture and plop it onto your wonton wrapper. I am TERRIBLE at explaining things, so you should go here or here or here if you'd like a step by step on how to fold those babies up.
I cooked my raviolis in an asian steamer, but you could boil them in shallow water, fry them in a little olive oil, or even bake them! The choice is yours, and yours alone my friends.
For 'da Sauce:
3 T rice vinegar
1 T tamari
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 T peanut butter
1 tsp lime juice
1 1/2 T hoisin sauce
7 T half and half (or non dairy product of your choice)
1/2 T cornstarch
1/2 c vegetable stock
Combine rice vinegar, tamari, sesame oil, garlic, peanut butter, lime juice, and hoisin sauce in a medium sauce pan and bring to a simmer.
Add 6 tablespoons of half and half slowly, whisking as you do.
In a small dish, mix remaining 1 tablespoon of half and half with cornstarch. Sloooooowly add to the simmering sauce, stirring constantly as you do.
Stir sauce until thickened. Now, slowly add vegetable stock until desired consistency.
These were even better the next day. I heated them up and threw some left over cabbage on top for a little bit of a crunch!
Head over to Heather's blog to see all the other amazing cabbage dishes everyone cooked up this week!!
April 26, 2013
Five Things Friday
Alliteration!
I was actually going to post this yesterday, and do Three Things Thursday, but, surprise surprise, I didn't get around to finishing it, and now I have to come up with 2 more to make it 5. Damn you procrastination!
1. My last post was my 100th one! Holy moly!
Maybe I'll do a giveaway formy thousands of readers the 5 people that read this! I'm thinking a package of my favorite things, like muffins, Trader Joe's shtuff, cereal, pictures of my kids, and Bradley Cooper.
2. This week in running has been ROUGH. That is putting it so, so mildly. I've caught some sort of plague from the children that also might include strep. I should probably go see a doctor.
Anywho, whilst running I kind of just want to crawl up on the sidewalk and go to sleep, but with there only being TWENTY NINE days til the marathon, I've gotta push through this last week, and then I caneat boxes and boxes of Honey Bunches of Oats take it easier. I can't wait to taper it up.
3. Gross alert: I feel really BA because I'm on the verge of losing my first toenail from hardcore running, with two others close behind. I'm aware that since this kind of excites me, this makes me really, really weird. I'm okay with that.
4. Speaking of TWENTY NINE days til the Buffalo Marathon, I haven't mentioned to youfive that a week after that, the kids and I will be moving back to Texas! Joel's been hard at work down there for a few months, and I cannot cannot CANNOT wait to be together as a family again. Before I become a sobbing mess, let's move on.
5. A few giggles to get you through the rest of your Friday:
28 Ways to live life like Lucille Bluth (man I love Arrested Development)
The Life of a Bills Fan (there's a few F bombs, so if that's not your thing, please feel free to mosey on down the road)
Everything in this post
The 23 Most Hilarious Sign Improvements Of All Time
If you only read one of these READ THIS ONE
Hope you have a great weekend!!
I was actually going to post this yesterday, and do Three Things Thursday, but, surprise surprise, I didn't get around to finishing it, and now I have to come up with 2 more to make it 5. Damn you procrastination!
1. My last post was my 100th one! Holy moly!
No, no not really.
Maybe I'll do a giveaway for
2. This week in running has been ROUGH. That is putting it so, so mildly. I've caught some sort of plague from the children that also might include strep. I should probably go see a doctor.
Anywho, whilst running I kind of just want to crawl up on the sidewalk and go to sleep, but with there only being TWENTY NINE days til the marathon, I've gotta push through this last week, and then I can
3. Gross alert: I feel really BA because I'm on the verge of losing my first toenail from hardcore running, with two others close behind. I'm aware that since this kind of excites me, this makes me really, really weird. I'm okay with that.
4. Speaking of TWENTY NINE days til the Buffalo Marathon, I haven't mentioned to you
5. A few giggles to get you through the rest of your Friday:
28 Ways to live life like Lucille Bluth (man I love Arrested Development)
The Life of a Bills Fan (there's a few F bombs, so if that's not your thing, please feel free to mosey on down the road)
Everything in this post
The 23 Most Hilarious Sign Improvements Of All Time
If you only read one of these READ THIS ONE
Hope you have a great weekend!!
April 22, 2013
Dressing up and some tasty granola
Happy Monday! How was everyone's weekend?
All of my friends are also turning 30 this year, so this weekend was my friend Ashley's partay.
There was lots of wine and cheese and wine and good conversation and wine.
I drank way too much wine.
It was super fun though, and I'm so lucky to have such great friends in my life!!
So today, to get me through the post party blues, I did what any normal person would do. I made granola.
This time around, Heather's Meatless Monday A-Z has gotten a little shnazzier. *jazz hands* The first week you create a new recipe using the weekly ingredient (I made blueberry muffins this week!), and the second week you make something that you saw either the previous week or something that caught your eye elsewhere. Though let's be honest, all the cool kids make their friends' recipes :) It's the nice thing to do.
So this week I took Nicole's Blueberry Coconut Granola for a spin.
And what a wild ride it was.
I love that it's super simple, not too sweet, and most importantly, DELICIOUS.
Of course I made a few minor changes, because that's what I do. I mess with sh** that doesn't need fixing. I can't help myself.
I'm allergic to walnuts, so I added honey roasted peanuts after it was done baking instead. Honey roasted peanuts are good on anything- fact. I also added 1/2 tsp of coconut extract, and used honey instead of maple syrup *sorry vegans!* Also I couldn't find dried blueberries, so I had to fake it and use Craisins injected with blueberry juice. Hey, you do what you gotta do.
It was faaantastic. Go here for the recipe and poke around, she has tons of other amazing looking goodies over there!
Question:
Granola- yay or nay?
-Yay. Times a billion.
All of my friends are also turning 30 this year, so this weekend was my friend Ashley's partay.
 |
| From the left, moi, Mags, and Ashley the bday girl |
There was lots of wine and cheese and wine and good conversation and wine.
I drank way too much wine.
It was super fun though, and I'm so lucky to have such great friends in my life!!
So today, to get me through the post party blues, I did what any normal person would do. I made granola.
This time around, Heather's Meatless Monday A-Z has gotten a little shnazzier. *jazz hands* The first week you create a new recipe using the weekly ingredient (I made blueberry muffins this week!), and the second week you make something that you saw either the previous week or something that caught your eye elsewhere. Though let's be honest, all the cool kids make their friends' recipes :) It's the nice thing to do.
So this week I took Nicole's Blueberry Coconut Granola for a spin.
And what a wild ride it was.
I love that it's super simple, not too sweet, and most importantly, DELICIOUS.
Of course I made a few minor changes, because that's what I do. I mess with sh** that doesn't need fixing. I can't help myself.
I'm allergic to walnuts, so I added honey roasted peanuts after it was done baking instead. Honey roasted peanuts are good on anything- fact. I also added 1/2 tsp of coconut extract, and used honey instead of maple syrup *sorry vegans!* Also I couldn't find dried blueberries, so I had to fake it and use Craisins injected with blueberry juice. Hey, you do what you gotta do.
It was faaantastic. Go here for the recipe and poke around, she has tons of other amazing looking goodies over there!
Question:
Granola- yay or nay?
-Yay. Times a billion.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)