Lily

Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownie Cups

February 7, 2011 by Marci 9 Comments

With one week to Valentine’s Day, here’s one recipe sure to wow your sweetheart (or just bake for fun anytime). It’s simple, chocolate-y, and has secret peanut butter chips inside. And it only uses one mixing bowl.

I got this recipe from a book called “100 Best Cupcake Recipes.” I thought this was a sure pleaser. Just look at the name. I didn’t make any modifications to healthify; this one is no good for you. But it’s still good for you because chocolate and peanut butter makes for happy bites.

Ingredients:

1 C unsalted butter (2 sticks)
2 C sugar
2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
3/4 C Hershey’s cocoa
1 3/4 C all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 2/3 C (10 oz) Reese’s peanut butter chips

Instructions:

Heat oven to 350*. Line 18 muffin cups with baking cups.
Melt butter on stovetop or in microwave. Add to mixing bowl and stir in sugar and vanilla. Add eggs and beat well. Add cocoa and beat in. Add flour, baking soda, and salt. Beat all together.
Stir in peanut butter chips.
Spoon into muffin cups and bake for 30 minutes. I think ours went for about 35 minutes. Remove and cool completely.

This was my audience while taking pictures on our balcony. She is such a beauty queen. Doesn’t even try, wind in the fur, look at those cheeks.

How could you not enjoy peanut butter, chocolate, butter, eggs, and sugar? Cakey, gooey, cracked on top. These are perfect little brownies made to look like a cupcake. Or a muffin. I won’t tell.

Other housekeeping blog news–I added two new features you may have noticed.

On the right side of the page where the scroll bar is, there is a link to follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, or follow me on Stumbled Upon. That is a new site I am getting familiar with. It’s great for literally stumbling upon new blogs that suit your interest. You can set up a profile and recommend posts you read where the feature is set up. At the bottom of each of my posts, you can submit a post. If you’re already on Stumbled Upon, follow me and I’ll follow back.

I also added a feature where there are three auto-generated posts at the bottom of each post. The feature recommends three other posts you may like. So click around and see some old posts. You might find something you like. To see this feature, you must be in the post, not just on the homepage. Get it?

Happy reading, happy Monday.

Filed Under: Dessert, Lily · Tagged With: Baked goods, chocolate, Holidays, Lily

Quinoa Tabouleh

January 18, 2011 by Marci 7 Comments

This week’s ingredient challenge with a group of bloggers if featuring quinoa. I made tabouleh using quinoa instead of bulgur, which helps add protein instead of just a wheat-y starch. This dish was very simple, can be served with hot or cold quinoa, and easily cooked ahead of time. It’s also colorful and great to be paired with chicken, fish or chickpeas to beef it up as a main course. Check the jump for the recipe. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Dinner, Lily, Lunch, Vegetarian · Tagged With: Lily, quinoa

Colors of Fall

December 21, 2010 by Marci 2 Comments

It might be snowy where you live, but in tropical Houston, TX, it sure looks like pretty Fall weather. Here are some pictures from our block. Colors of the rainbow.

We decorate with snowmen here too. They’re just not real.

A dog’s life.

Hey stop with your pictures.

Filed Under: Houston, Lily · Tagged With: Houston, Lily

Guest Blog by Lily, Part 3

December 8, 2010 by Marci 5 Comments

Hello to my mom’s blog readers,

My name is Lily, and I am the pet shih tzu of the house. Perhaps you have read my other blog posts here and here. I joined them last April, and now I have them wrapped around my finger. They do anything I say.

My mom is resting from her big run (yay mommy!), so I said I would help out and write a post for her since I can’t rub her feet.

You see, I have a pretty good life. Just this weekend, I went to Dallas with my parents to visit my mom’s parents and I asked my dad to cook me some eggs for breakfast. Look how happy he is doing it. I should do this more often. I am looking on in case he does something wrong like put dog food in the bowl!

What? Don’t take my picture while I’m eating.

I also decided that Hanukkah is my favorite holiday so far. I have celebrated Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Thanksgiving, and now Hanukkah. They left me alone for the 4th of July so I didn’t get to hang out with them for that one.

This one is great! My mom’s parents got me a dog bed for when I visit (it’s actually a couch because I don’t sleep in it at night. I sleep in real beds). They also got me new toys! I love this holiday. They are really nice to me when I visit. I don’t even have to walk much, they carry me.

This is me with my new menorah dog toy. It’s squeeky and soft.

Now let me show you this little photo shoot. My parents got a cool new camera for Hanukkah (how boring, they should ask for toys), and they got some neat shots of me with my Flossie. If you are a dog reading this, you should ask for Flossie’s for Hanukkah next year. They are SO GOOD. I love them. I could eat them all day and night. They are so nice in my teeth. My parents say it smells a little, but I don’t think so! Look how ferocious I look with my teeth.

Oh man, that makes me hungry just typing this.

My mom wanted me to show you these other pictures she took with the new camera. She says it’s called a dSLR and it takes really crisp and clear photos where she can adjust the settings to take the best pic.

We liked this picture a lot too. The flames are so clear, you can see the ridges in the candles, and the front is clear and the back candy jar is blurred. Neato.

That’s about it for me. It’s naptime again! I love my life.

Bye!

Filed Under: Lily · Tagged With: Lily

A new love for Quinoa

November 11, 2010 by Marci 4 Comments

Since I’ve been back from Foodbuzz Fest where we went from meal to tasting to sitting to gala, my meals have been pretty simple. I know some people say they “crave vegetables” and that sounds so crazy, but the veggies were lacking over the weekend, so I craved vegetables. Here are a few pictures of some recent homemade eats.

Strawberry Oatmeal

I overdosed a bit on bananas while I was away, so I tried adding strawberries to stovetop oatmeal instead. I know the banana is important to the texture of cooked oats, so I thinly sliced 3 strawberries and cooked it in the pot.

I love raisins cooked so they can really puff up, and the oatmeal had a pretty strawberry hue. The texture was no different than with bananas.

Ingredients:

1/4 C steel cut oats
1 C water
1/4 C almond milk
1 tsp cinnamon
handful raisins
1 T shredded coconut, some mixed in, some on top
3 strawberries
drizzle maple syrup
Kashi Go Lean for crunch on top

Instructions:

Boil water, then add oats and whisk in. Then add milk and let cook for 5 minutes.
Add other ingredients and whisk together. Let bubble for 5 minutes.
Add cereal on top for crunch.

Quinoa

I have a few foods that I have been wanting to cook at home, and one is quinoa. I have had it in the Whole Foods salad bar, but rarely anywhere else. It seems like a rice or cous cous ingredient where you have to add something to it to make it good, so I decided to finally make it this week.

I really loved it and Jeffrey did too! I did not think he would try this grain, but he did, and liked it. It’s a grain success that I’m glad we can add as a pantry staple for us both to eat. The one cup of dry quinoa cooked up to a lot of volume that will last a long time for future lunches and dinners. It’s great cold too, and is easily adaptable. I really liked cooking with quinoa.

I cooked it like it says on the box.2 C water to 1 C dry quinoa. Then I added dried cranberries and feta cheese. Served with leftover acorn squash and vegetables of asparagus, mushrooms, and water chestnuts.

Why is the picture so yellow? Maybe no more blue plates when photographing indoors.

Jeffrey made chicken that he really liked (marinated in olive oil, Worchestershire Sauce, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onions, parsley, and then sauteed stovetop in olive oil. He said it had great flavor and he was very proud. He had the same quinoa and vegetables too.

And a cute action shot of Jeffrey feeding Lily a piece of string cheese. She works for that cheese!

Filed Under: Breakfast, Dinner, Lily, Recipes, Vegetarian · Tagged With: chicken, Lily, Oatmeal, quinoa, vegetables

Guest Post by Lily Part 2

October 8, 2010 by Marci 7 Comments

Did you miss Part 1? See it here.

Hi readers,

It’s Lily again. My mom follows me around with a camera a lot, so I thought I’d write to y’all again to get some facts straight. I don’t know what she says on here anyway!

I am quite the traveler these days. Recently I have taken trips to San Antonio to see my extended family (cousin dogs Molly, Cowboy, and Maggie) and to Austin for my first football game. I actually did not attend the game. How misleading! I wore the jersey and did my warm-up run down a street, but they left me by myself. They kept saying we were going to Austin for the game. I hear it was a bad one anyway. I am going to Dallas this weekend and can’t wait! I love it there. They are so nice to me and my mom’s mom really takes care of me. She carries me everywhere.

Here’s a video that my mom took of me playing fetch. I have ferocious teeth:

Lily Playing- Video

This picture is just for fun. Look how fluffy and cute I am. I’m even smiling.

This is me and my dad driving to Austin (don’t worry, he is a good driver. we were in a parking lot). I don’t really like the car but I like it when we get where we’re going. I usually sit on my mom’s lap and move around a lot. Hope she doesn’t mind.

This is me with someone they call “A.J.” introducing me to my cousin Molly. She was alright. But she ate a whole Subway sandwich with turkey and salami! I was so jealous of the salami! I really love it. She got in big trouble though.

See how good I sit? I got a treat with Cowboy and Molly from someone they call “Gigi.” He has really good treats! He brings me pita chips and dog bacon and cheese and salami. Oh it’s so good. I really like visiting him.

I have found some great places to take naps around my house. Like on top of pillows and blankets. It’s so cozy. I sleep a lot so I need a lot of places to nap.

Can someone bring me some water? Nevermind, I’ll just get it myself.

Hope you enjoyed my story! I’m going back to bed now.

Filed Under: Lily · Tagged With: Lily

Austin Part 1

September 24, 2010 by Marci 4 Comments

Happy Friday! I am in Austin and here are some pictures of Day 1 of our trip. Tomorrow is my first UT home game of the year, so more orange and white pictures to come next week! Every time I come back here, I wonder why we left.

First, I ran outside on my favorite trail, Lady Bird Lake, and it was 75 degrees at 7 a.m. I was still soaked in sweat at the end, but at least there was a lake to look at. I may take a walk with my camera to show some pictures because it’s so pretty. I ran somewhere between 4.5-5 miles but my Garmin turned off once and took at least .2 miles to locate the satellites. That thing annoys me with its “I can’t find where you are, have you traveled hundreds of miles since the last use?” message. I think it should know these things. It was a slow run and my legs were burning. I think running is getting harder for me and I don’t know why!

Then there was breakfast–coffee and a parfait of Fiber One, my new favorite cereal Kashi Cinnamon Harvest, Dannon Yogurt (blah), and a banana. I went to the grocery later that day to have some better yogurt for the rest of the trip.I did bring my own cereal, fruit, and even plasticware!

You didn’t think Lily stayed in Houston, did you? She came too. Peekaboo. This picture was not posed.

I am so beautiful.

We got smoothies from The Daily Juice, a hole in the wall juice shop by Lady Bird Lake. I had never been but heard great things. I got the Sure Thing with strawberries, bananas, and apple juice. And Jeffrey had the Marigold with mango, peaches, and orange juice. It’s hot here! We needed summer drinks to cool down.

Filed Under: Breakfast, Exercise, Lily, Running, Travel · Tagged With: Lily, Running, Snacks, Travel

Yom Kippur in San Antonio

September 21, 2010 by Marci 2 Comments

Project Food Blog:

From now until Wednesday, you can vote for food bloggers to advance in Foodbuzz’s Project Food Blog. Miss my first entry? See it here. And click here to vote.

Great iPod Earphones:

I noticed the the earphones I use for my iPod don’t stay in my ears well and I have the volume turned up high. I had been using the ones that come with your iPod, so I went to the Apple store to look for better earphones and came home with these by Scosche. These suckers are “noise isolating” and work great. They truly reduce noise even with no music on (I had to take them out to hear someone who came up to me at the gym), they stay in my ears comfortably, and they don’t hurt my ears. The cord is very long and lightweight, and it has a speaker and clicker which I haven’t played with yet. A keeper!

Weekend in San Antonio:

This past weekend was Yom Kippur, the Jewish holiday where we repent for our sins of the past year and pray to be sealed in the Book of Life for the next year with a clean slate. To our grandparents house we went to go to temple and eat together. Yom Kippur also involves fasting for 24ish hours, which I did not do this year. But at the end of the fast, you feast. So here are pictures of our Break the Fast dinner.

Oh, and Lily came too, and she did try to fast. She also wanted to be rewarded with salami, doggie bacon, non-puppy dog food, and other scraps she doesn’t get at home.

My plate was salad with hearts of palm, tomatoes, and avocado, salmon croquettes, a blintz with strawberry jam, and noodle kugel. This is not healthy food blogging, but it’s good Jewish food!

The rest of the buffet had beef tenderloin, potatoes, salami, and plenty of appetizers and desserts too!

Our little longhorn family.

Filed Under: Dinner, Lily, Product Reviews, Travel · Tagged With: Holidays, Lily, Product Reviews

Cookies and DefineMind class

September 20, 2010 by Marci 8 Comments

Giveaway Winner:

First, let’s announce the winner of the 18 Rabbits Granola Bar Givewaway. Congratulations to #14 Jae! Please email me your mailing address and 18 Rabbits will send you a 5-bar sample. Enjoy! Thanks everyone for leaving comments to enter the giveaway. Comments are always appreciated.

Project Food Blog:

From now until Wednesday, you can vote for food bloggers to advance in Foodbuzz’s Project Food Blog. Miss my first entry? See it here. And click here to vote.

Define Mind Class:

Last week I tried a free Define Mind class at Lululemon. I have wanted to try free classes at Lululemon, but haven’t gotten around to planning for it. Define Body, a popular Houston studio that fuses pilates and yoga into their own “Define” style classes has intrigued me for a while, so I finally got to try. The Define Mind class I went to was relaxing and focused on stretching major muscle groups like quads, glutes, the spine, hamstrings, and shoulders. Hank, the owner and instructor of this class, was so kind, knowledgeable, and gorgeous (just had to throw that one out there)!

The hour long class used a rubber ball to roll around similar to how you would roll a foam roller over tight muscles. It was a familiar “hurt so good” sensation that really helped tight muscles.

He also played GREAT music during the class, including a lot of Dixie Chicks. If you’re in Houston, check out his original studio in the Tanglewood/Galleria area, or his new studio coming in the next month in River Oaks.

Clean out the Pantry Cookies:

These cookies didn’t really clean out the pantry, but I couldn’t think of an acceptable name for them. Oatmeal Banana Coconut Chocolate Chip Raisin Cookies was too long I thought.

This recipe was adapted from Anne P. at Fannetastic Food. They are more like chewies than cookies, and you can taste the ingredients, especially the banana and oats. Jeffrey was not a fan, but they satisfy the cookie need for me. They are soft and chewy and have a short list with things I always have in my house. No eggs, oil, butter, or sugar necessary! If you eat these for breakfast, I think it would be A-ok too.

Ingredients: makes about two dozen cookies

1 C oats
2/3 C whole wheat flour (*pastry flour is best, I don’t have any)
1/2 C coconut
1 T flax seeds (use ground glax if you have it, I’m still using up a bag of flax seeds)
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp sea salt
2 mashed bananas
1/4 C plain Greek yogurt
1/4 C maple syrup
1/2 C raisins and chocolate chips together, or choose just one
1/2 tsp vanilla

My modification to this list was that I used vanilla Greek yogurt and left out the extra vanilla extract. I happen to have a container of Oikos Vanilla open so I used that instead of opening a new plain. Adapt to what you’ve got!

Instructions:

Combine wet in one bowl, combine dry in another. Add wet to dry and mix by hand or with hand mixer. Then add chocolate chips/raisins in after. Spoon onto baking sheet and use a Silpat if you’ve got them. Bake at 350* for 15 minutes. Enjoy!

Lily says Hook ‘em Horns! Way to wreck ‘em Tech!

Filed Under: Dessert, Exercise, Lily, Recipes · Tagged With: Baked goods, giveaway, Houston, Lily

Rosh Hashanah Part 2

September 10, 2010 by Marci 8 Comments

Miss Part 1? I’m going backwards, yesterday I wrote about our dessert! It was delicious.

On Wednesday night, I had a 5-person dinner party using our fancy china, fancy flatware, and the works. It was really lovely, and nice to pull out the good stuff once in a while. We have been married over two years, and this was the first time to use our china.

And did you know that food tastes better when you put a lot of love and time into it? It’s true. This meal was delicious, and I worked on the menu and prepping it for many hours. And always nice to share it with family!

We used our place settings, tablecloths, flatware, and serving pieces for the first time. I still love it all, even since it’s been three years since I picked out the patterns!

The flowers are my favorite, and in season in the late summer to early fall. They are called celosia, and I first saw them in my wedding centerpieces two years ago.

Ok, last one of the table!

Salad:

Jeffrey created the salad of arugula, shaved parmesan cheese, pine nuts, and lemon slices. The dressing was olive oil, lemon juice and zest, salt, and pepper.

Dinner:

You sure don’t see a lot of meat on this blog, but for a special occasion, I make it. This was a beef tenderloin, cooked by an Ina Garden recipe.

Ingredients:

beef tender

2 T unsalted butter

salt, pepper

Instructions:

Heat oven to 500*. Season meat with butter, salt and pepper and rub in well. Cook for 22-25 minutes and remove. Cover with foil for 20 minutes. Slice and serve.

Meat intimates me, and this recipe was very simple and flavorful. I served with cocktail sauce and horseradish sauce for dipping.

Potatoes:

These potatoes were delicious. You know I’m pretty simple at ingredients and effort, and this was no exception.

Ingredients:

12-15 baby potatoes (or any kind)

2 T brown mustard or Grey Poupon

2 T olive oil

1 T parsley

1 T chopped fresh oregano

1 T chopped fresh rosemary

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

Instructions:

Place potatoes in a ziploc bag. Add rest of ingredients to a small bowl and whisk or mix together. Pour mixture over potatoes and shake. Refrigerate until ready to bake (as long as you want).

Bake on 425* for 20-25 minutes.

They were crispy, not too oily, and very flavorful from the herbs. A keeper!

Vegetable Side Dish:

It’s been done before, recipe hyperlinked.

And look who wanted to be included at dinner. A special seat just for Lily. She barks when she’s left out. We’re working on that. Until then, we get some cute pictures and she stays quiet.

And the dessert one more time, on its pretty cake platter. I love cake platters, such beautiful glass pieces.

Filed Under: Dessert, Dinner, Lily, Recipes, Vegetarian · Tagged With: Holidays, Lily, vegetables

Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownie Cups

Quinoa Tabouleh

Colors of Fall