Happy 4th Birthday Sunny Bug!

Sunny, Newborn to Age 3

Happy Birthday Sunny!

4 years ago today my world got turned upside down.  Today was a fun filled family day.  I let Kaylee and Mantha skip school because we were originally going to goto the zoo.  But, it rained half the morning so we went bowling instead.

We bowled 1 game.  It actually took us an hour.  According to SparkPeople.com 1 hour of bowling burned 140 calories.  Not bad for just having fun, right?  Ken beat me, but not by much.  The girls had a blast

I love family fun time.  We on on adventures so seldom.  I'm glad that Sunny is getting older so we can do more.  {But I'm not going to lie, I broke down last nite thinking about the fact that I have no more babies in my house...}

After bowling we went to Ken's work to eat.  The people there love the girls.  I ordered the salmon {like I always do}  this time I ordered the Salmon Florentine.  It's supposed to come with Spinach Artichoke dip on top but I substituted the dip for some steamed spinach.  It was the best salmon I've had.  The GM cooked it for me himself because he wanted to make sure it was right.  {I adore that they care enough to do that for me}  We also ordered the gaucamole so I could try it. It was delicious!

[Tip:  Avacado's are very healthy.  Loaded with fat though.  They are not good if you are dealing with gallbladder issues.  But, if you are just wanting a healthy appetizer then the gaucamole is a great option.  BUT, chips are a diet buster!  Order it with a side of raw zucchini rounds.  They still give you that chippy crunch without the fat and calories]     

The people at Ken's work really did an outstanding job of waiting on us.  It probably helped that I brought them 1 1/2 dozen cupcakes.  They really made Sunny feel special.  Balloons, a gift {I told you, the GM is awesome!} and exceptional service {thanks Kevin!}

We came back to the house, called Gramma and Sirr on Skype and video chatted while we did cake.  I made a watermelon cake since we were having cupcakes at dinner.  This was the simplest cake EVER!  Ken cut 2 rounds of watermelon and I topped it with Cool Whip and skewered fruits.  Sunny loved it.   Kaylee wanted to do something special for Sunny so she was the one that designed the cake "topper" (there was no space on the top so it got put on the side.)  She made it out of homemade modeling chocolate.  {Melt 1 pound of chocolate and stir in 0.25 cup of corn syrup or maple sugar, let it come to room temp and then use it like play-doh}  

The sun and butterfly wings Kaylee made for the cake

Super healthy!

And finally, some pictures from our day...

Bowling fun

Dinner and Cake

What do you do for your kids birthdays?

Recipe Redux

Cupcakes are everywhere these days aren't they?  You can find 40 bajillion flavors. Normal flavors (chocolate, vanilla, and carrot), off-the-wall flavors (beer, apple onion, and corned beef with cabbage), ones for every dietary restriction (vegan, gluten free, and sugar free), and combinations of all of the above. I love cupcakes. They are great pre-portioned desserts (as long as you only eat one.)
Sunny's birthday is tomorrow. She's one lucky duck. She's getting a watermelon cake at home before presents and cupcakes after dinner at Ken's work. Why 2 different desserts? Because we are bringing cupcakes to share with to Ken's coworkers because we like to spoil them and they adore the girls. I made chocolate zucchini cupcakes with a marshmallow creme-cool whip frosting.
I love this recipe. It's sweet but not too sweet.

Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes

Adapted from Happy Herbivore
Calories:  86
Fat:        0.4 grams
Carbs:  19.3 grams
Sugar:   6.9 grams
Protein: 2.1 grams

Ingredients
1.25 cup whole wheat flour
.25 cup unsweetened cocoa  
1.25 tsp baking powder
1 banana, mashed
.25 cup sugar  
.5 cup applesauce
.25 cup skim milk (non-dairy milk would work also)
1 t vanilla
1 cup shredded zucchini

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 350.
2. Grease your cupcake pan (or use liners)
3. Combine dry ingredients
4. Mix together the banana, applesauce and sugar
5. Stir in the milk, vanilla and zucchini
6. Add the dry ingredients to the banana mixture
7. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full
8. Bake 18-25 minutes (stick a toothpick in it and if it comes out clean then it's done)

You can substitute the sugar for sugar free syrup.  This drops the calories to 70, carbs to 15.4, sugar is 2.8

I frosted them with a simple Cool Whip Fluff Frosting.  Word to the wise, when you want to do something impressive, stick to what you know.  I decided to try a new fat free frosting.  Cool Whip and marshmallow fluff.  It didn't stiffen up.  So now my cupcake's frosting is all runny.  It tastes good but, instead of the recipe I was planning on posting I'll give you a link to my normal fat free frosting.  Click Here for it.  Just so you know, the normal recipe is great because you can use any flavor of pudding that you'd like.  And if anybody has a good fat free frosting recipe, please PLEASE send it to me!  I'm always searching for a new one.    But it's really pretty though....

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I'm BACK!

My crazy weeks are done and I can focus again on y'all!  Honestly, nothing exciting has happened over the past few weeks.  This post might be a bit long due to the fact that I have a ton of recipes to share. 

Let's start with the Superbowl.  I never have enough friends to have a party but I love the idea of Superbowl party food.  So, I did a themed dinner that night.  It was delicious.  I did Spinach artichoke dip, homemade tortilla chips, cauliflower buffalo bites, and portabello pizzas.  The recipes for the dip and the buffalo bites are located below the picture. 

SkinnyTaste: Buffalo Cauliflower
SkinnyTaste: Spinach and Artichoke Dip

Oh and I did some angel food cake cupcakes with team colored sugar on top.

Next up, the Korean New Year, Seollal.  I made Bibimbap and chamchi-jeon (Korean tuna cakes)  except I did them with crab because I was in a crabby mood.  I didn't get a picture of any of it.  It was actually gone too quick. 

ZenKimchi Chamchi-Jeon

Oh and I just have to show you this!  My father and mother in law sent this to Sunny last week. 

 
Her own hanbok!  Isn't she simply adorable???  

Fast forward a few days to Valentine's Day.  To Ken and I this day has become just a day for the kids.  And it's honestly all about the candy.  We exchange cards and he will buy my flowers but, it's nothing major.  This year I gave him a bag of Snickers with a reason why I love him for every piece in it.  He gave me a bag of Valentine's Day 3 Musketeers.  I think I've talked about 3 Musketeers before.  Each piece has under 1 gram of fat so, I can still have chocolate without causing myself pain. This year he bought me a bag of Strawberry Dark Chocolate ones.  They are amazing.  I have dubbed them the "poor man's Russel Stover" because they taste so close to the high end strawberry cream chocolates.   I eat one a night.  I would highly recommend them.  7 pieces has 6 grams of fat and 180 calories.  That means 1 has 0.86 grams of fat and 25.8 calories.  Not too bad right?  Healthiest candy I've found so far.

Florida kills me sometimes.  The other morning I woke up and it was 34 degrees outside.  34!!  I decided it was the type of day that called for chili.  Well, by 2 pm it was around 65 degrees.  Definitely not typical chili weather.  But, despite that, I still made it.  I was amazed at how it turned out.  It was really good awesome!  I took a few big risks with some of the ingredients.  Kaylee and Mantha aren't normally fond of sweet potatoes (that's why there's only 1/2 of one in the recipe).  If I had been making it for me I would have added a whole one.  The soy crumbles aren't normally liked by non-vegetarians.  But, even Ken raved about it.  Note about the Crumbles.  If you are seriously on a no-fat diet then you need to buy the BOCA soy crumbles.  They are the only ones that have 0g of fat.  I picked up a different brand and didn't pay attention so that is why there is extra fat in the recipe 

Veggie Overload Chili
Serves 10 calories 136 fat 1.09 grams fiber 6 grams protein 12.2 grams

Ingredients
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 cup chili powder
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
2 bay leaves
12 oz Ground Crumbles Meatless (1 bag)
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 Tbsp cocoa powder
12 oz dark beer
.25 sweet potato, cubed
1 cup corn (fresh, frozen or canned)
16 oz mushrooms, quartered
42 oz Diced Tomatoes 
16 oz tomato sauce 

Directions

1. Saute onions, sweet potato and garlic until golden.
2. Add in the spices and cook for another 2 minutes
3. Stir in tomato paste and meatless crumbles
4. Next put in chocolate, beer,tomato sauce and tomatoes bring to a boil then reduced and simmer for 30 minutes
5. After 30 minutes add the corn, and mushrooms.
6.  Bring back to a boil and simmer for another 15 minutes

 I have a post in the works about regaining motivation.  I kist my motivation a few weeks ago while I wasn't blogging (hmmmm, I wonder if there's a connection?  I hadn't thought of it before now)  I bought myself a new pair of pants for the gym in order to get myself pumped.  

I bought them at Target for $20.  They are made by Champion and they are AH-MA-ZING.  When I worked out in my other capris I kept having to adjust them every 10 minutes.  The only time I had to adjust these was when I got out of the car and when I accidentally pushed them up.  I have one problem with them though.  They are made of 84% polyester and 16% spandex.  I'm very paranoid about them getting snagged.  

That's my February in a very big nutshell.  How has your month been?