Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Currently cooking...

After having lunch @ a friend's house yesterday, I came home inspired to try out my month-old-but-unopened Deceptively Delicious cookbook. Here's our first attempt:

Applesauce Muffins

Topping
-2/3 cup old-fashioned oats
-1/4 cup firmly packed light/dark brown sugar
-1 tsp cinnamon
-2 tbsp margarine spread, melted

Batter
-
1.5 cups all-purpose flour
-1 cup old-fashioned oats
-1 tsp baking powder
-1/2 tsp baking soda
-1/2 tsp cinnamon
-1.5 cup unsweetened applesauce
-1/2 cup skim milk
-1/2 cup butternut squash or carrot puree (we used carrot)
-1/2 cup firmly packed light/dark brown sugar
-1/4 cup egg substitute

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Coat a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray or line with paper baking cups.
  2. To make the topping, stir together the oats, sugar, and cinnamon in a bowl. Stir in the margarine.
  3. To make the batter, combine the flour, oats, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl or zipper-lock bag and stir or shake to mix. In a second bowl, mix the applesauce with the milk, vegetable puree, sugar, and egg with a wooden spoon. Add the flour mixture slowly, stirring until just moistened. Do not overmix - the batter is supposed to be lumpy.
  4. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups and sprinkle with the streusel topping. Bake until the topping is lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of the muffins, 18 to 20 minutes. Turn the muffins out onto a rack and serve warm or cold.
They're actually fantastic!

Tonight we're having the Spaghetti Pie - I'll keep you posted. The only downside is that I spent Josh's ENTIRE nap today steaming & pureeing vegetables for future recipes. Plus the steamed broccoli made our entire house smell like farts. Other than that, I am already a fan.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

I'm in love...

Omigosh have you checked out Etsy? My friend Daedra is selling stuff there. So far I've only bought (a little too much, admittedly), but my mind is spinning with all the possible things I can sell. I even called a friend who makes adorable little toddler bathrobes to tell her about it.

Check it out - everything is handmade. What a cool way to support artists and small business owners!

Monday, January 7, 2008

Who is that masked man?

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Live from Lake Buena Vista...

more to follow, but here's just one of Josh's MANY performances @ WDW.

It's Magic Man!

Friday, December 21, 2007

Have a look...

Totally unedited, but most of the vacay photos so far are in Flickr.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Merry Christmas everyone!

We're off to Disney World - we'll be back in a week. I'm overcoming the last looming date this week - my due date. I was due w/ Isabel on Christmas Eve. I've felt a lot of dread as we've come closer, and now it's almost over.

Have a great Christmas everyone - and thanks for hanging in with us this year. I know the blog has had some fairly rough-reading over the past few months, and we've had some major highs & lows. Thanks for sticking with us and for all your love & support.

Friday, December 7, 2007

Christmas card photos



Seriously, how fabulous is Lauren? I love them!

Monday, December 3, 2007

Wheeling & Dealing

Do you love Christmas shopping? I do - and I manage to do about 90% of it online. I usually end up spending a total of 1 or 2 hours out at actual stores, and the rest is done in an hour or less online. The best part about online shopping is the COUPON CODES! Love love love to feel like I'm getting a better deal...

So here are my two fave sites for coupon codes: Naughty Codes and Retail Me Not. In the last year I think I've only bought things a handful of times without some sort of discount.

As an added bonus, I get to see the UPS or Fedex guy almost daily in December. They're often my only link to the outside world, so that's always exciting. You gotta love mail time!