The cupcakes and the weekend

I spent most of the day Saturday baking cupcakes to take to our friends who were having a dedication ceremony at their church. Take 2 of the frosting worked. I let the ingredients sit out for 2 hours and then didn't use any heavy whipping cream. Just cream cheese, vanilla, butter, powdered sugar. We stayed at the father-in-law's who just put in a new pool - I'm super excited about this.

Pinterest and cupcakes

At Easter, the hubs' cousin was telling me all about her new favorite site and how I just HAD to join and see what it's all about. She sent me an invite later that night, but I didn't join right away. I had to check it out first. If you've never been on Pinterest, you should really get in the know. It's a seriously cool site and I love it already. It's basically an online bulletin board that you "pin" links to stuff you like. I read a lot of food blogs, so I think it's a great way to gather recipes in one place, as well as save random stuff that I want to buy but don't "need" so it's also a way to have a "birthday list" ready to go when my mom calls and asks what I want. I think of stuff all year and then when my birthday or Christmas comes along, I can't think of a darn thing to tell her.

So, while roaming Pinterest, I found this recipe for cupcakes. While this is not diet friendly, I had to bake a "practice run" before we go to our friends' party this weekend (and good thing I did!). The cupcakes turned out AMAZING, but I am not good at frosting. I've tried three times now to make it from scratch and every time it does not turn out well. However, everyone at work said my non-fluffy, drizzle frosting was still really good and that they wouldn't want much more because it was sweet enough already.

A little overboard

Today, I saw one of my kettlebell buddies at a personal training session today at 11. Those usually last an hour. Then, she came to kettlebell at 4:30. That lasts 30 minutes. I went back upstairs after kbell (I work above they gym at work) to finish up some stuff and walked back downstairs about 5:25. I saw her on the elliptical machine, sweating like crazy.

Maybe I'm a wimp, but I was thought the amount of her workouts in one day were a little overboard. I try to go with a little bit more of the "balance" approach - working out and eating healthy but also still enjoying myself and enjoying life. I don't like it when we go out to eat and I'm "that girl" who won't touch a fry or dessert at ALL. It's all about moderation people!!

Now, could I stand to work out a little bit more, and indulge a little less? Of course. Obviously, I'm not dropping tons of weight with my 30 minutes of working out today, but I'd rather come home and make dinner (eggs, bacon, hashbrowns and asparagus) with my husband.

WHAT is that?

I'm pretty sure that is a callous from my hard work in kettlebell class this week. I work at a computer all day so it's pretty rare from me to get one of those babies.

Funny hits

Similar to "kids say the darnedest things," I think it's funny that people searching the "goog" search for the darnedest things.

These folks all visited my blog after searching:

• bacon tooth sweet tooth
  
• big tooth sweet tooth 5k july, 2011
• break a sweet cycle
• pictures of praying mantis teeth
• how to draw almonds
• good morning sweaty

I hope you found what you were looking for.

Derby party!

Last weekend, the hubs and I made the trek to Columbus, GA to visit some friends there and attend their Kentucky Derby party. While the weekend was not good for my diet, it was awesome to spend time with friends and the weather was beautiful. I did manage to go for two quick runs around the park near their house. I really wish we lived close enough to walk to a park here, and from the discussions we've had lately, I doubt that will happen any time soon.

I did want to share a few of the food photos I took from the party. Jess is an amazing cook and I always look forward to eating her concoctions. The first night we were there, she made pasta with asparagus and tomatoes, a great spinach salad and the boys grilled chicken on the Weber. I didn't take any photos, but take my word for it that it was really tasty.

I didn't get to the bacon-wrapped little weenies fast enough - those things are like crack!

Three kinds of mac n cheese - Jess was testing recipes. I liked "plain" the best. Other options were chipotle and Italian.

The dessert/Jimmy John's spread.

The appetizer spread.

This was by far my fav - marinated cheese. Cheddar and cream cheese soaked overnight with olive oil and some fresh herbs and some other stuff.

Strawberry Trifle

A new cupcake entered my life - the Hummingbird. Apparently it's a southern thing, but was basically banana bread mixed with pineapple and nuts of some kind with cream cheese frosting. I loved it.

Mashed Cauliflower

My sister and her husband like to do the "no carbs" diet. While I whole-heartedly disagree with this lifestyle (because you cannot sustain it!!), she did tell me about a new veggie dish to try.

It seemed pretty easy, so I bought a head of cauliflower, boiled it, and put it in the food processor with a bit of cream cheese (about 1T), some shredded parmesan (about 1/3 c) and a teeny bit of garlic (1t).

It was awesome!!! And pretty tasty with some pork tenderloin. Seriously. Go try it.