Still In Love: Crepes

I'm not quite sure why I had this thought in my head, but I always thought crepes were difficult to make.  And then I saw Daphne Oz make them on The Chew and thought, "Hm.  Maybe I can do this too!"

My latest version is an apple-cinnamon crepe.

The batter came out very thin so I added some more flour.  Now, I'm sure crepe batter is supposed to be thin like that, but because my pan bows up in the middle, really thin batter will just pool in the outside of my pan.  Maybe it's time for a new pan??

My grandmother makes these amaaaaaaaazing fried apples and I tried to replicate that and failed miserably.  Well, maybe not miserably, but they didn't come out like hers do.  This is what happens when Nicole doesn't follow a recipe!  I just put the apples in a saute pan skillet with some butter and sugar and cooked until they reached a nice caramel color.  Which meant that I had some crispy parts due to the cooked sugar.  My husband liked the crispy texture, but I wasn't a huge fan.

I think I'll call my grandmother and see how she makes them.  To be continued...

Pizza Night!

The other day I had this brilliant idea to have a pizza night each week.  Turns out, a lot of people have pizza nights.  Haha!

I hate to be cliche and say pizza is my favorite food, but it really is.  Well, one of my favorite foods.  I could probably have pizza every night and not get tired of it.

So me being me, I gathered some recipes.  I found 50 Easy Pizzas from the Food Network and then asked my friends on Facebook what their favorite pizza recipes are.  Got a lot of reaaaally good suggestions that I can't wait to try out!

Last Friday I made your run of the mill salami and bacon pizza using store-bought sauce, mozzarella, and the dough recipe from the 50 Easy Pizzas article.  It says the recipe makes two pizzas, but my pan must be small or I just like a thinner pizza.  I think it could make four.

I'd really like to make my own sauce; must find a recipe!  I'm sure as heck not going to make my own mozzarella though.  I'll stick to store-bought for that.  :)

What's your favorite type of pizza?

Seriously?

The last time I posted was in March??  Wow.  Must've been busy.  I'll have to change that.  :)

Food.

Well hello there!

I've made a lot of recipes since my last recipe review so I'll just point out some of the ones I really liked.

This one (choose your mix-ins wisely):

Source: goodbyehousehellohome.com via Nicole on Pinterest

This one (though I don't know how they made them so pretty in this picture - I had chocolate EVERYWHERE):

Source: food.com via Nicole on Pinterest

LOVED this one:

Source: skinnytaste.com via Nicole on Pinterest

And this one:

Source: afarmgirlsdabbles.com via Nicole on Pinterest

Honorable mentions: butternut squash mac & cheese, basil parmesan quinoa cakes, and greek salad club.

Discovered: Crepes

Really?!  My last post was November 11th??  Geez.

Yesterday morning I decided to try my hand at making crepes.  And I...fell...in...love.  They are so easy to make and in my opinion, much tastier than pancakes and waffles.  Pancakes and waffles are just so heavy to me.

Yesterday's filling consisted of eggs, bacon, and spinach.  This morning I decided to go sweet rather than savory with a blueberry sauce.

Basic Crepes from Allrecipes.com:
Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions:
1.  Whisk all wet ingredients together in a bowl.  Whisk in salt and flour slowly so no lumps form.
2.  Heat lightly oiled pan (I just spray PAM onto a non-stick pan) over medium to medium-high heat.
3.  Pour enough batter onto pan so that when you tilt the pan in a circular motion, it covers the surface evenly.  You don't want so much batter that it looks like pancakes...these should be thin.
4.  Cook until the crepe is lightly browned on one side and then flip to brown the other side.

Blueberry Sauce from Allrecipes.com:
Ingredients:

2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries 1/4 cup water 1 cup orange juice 3/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup cold water 3 tablespoons cornstarch 1/2 teaspoon almond extract 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions: 

1.	In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the blueberries, 1/4 cup of water, orange juice, and sugar. Stir gently, and bring to a boil.
2.	In a cup or small bowl, mix together the cornstarch and 1/4 cup cold water. Gently stir the cornstarch mixture into the blueberries so as not to mash the berries. Simmer gently until thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the almond extract and cinnamon. Thin sauce with water if it is too thick for your liking.

If you decide to try out the recipes, let me know what you think!

What's (Currently) Working For Me

Hello everyone!  I thought I'd check in and discuss what's going on in my fitness and wellness life right now.

I made the decision a couple of weeks ago that I'm going to workout Monday through Friday.  When trying to figure out a way to track my goal, I stumbled upon the Way of Life app.

They call it the 'ultimate habit building app'.  It's basically an app where you add goals and track them each day.  Right now all I have on there is "exercising".  I figured I'd make this easy on myself until I built up momentum so I define exercise as some kind of physical activity.  Brisk walking works.  Squats, pushups, and crunches work.  As long as it's something.  This app keeps me accountable...if I don't exercise, I have to log a big fat red X for that day.  Not fun.  It also made me realize I missed working out on Tuesdays a lot.  Why?  Because Zaxby's (casual fast food restaurant) gives a discount to employees where I work and I tended to choose that over working out.  So I made a conscious decision not to go there anymore.  Go me!  I also changed my schedule so that I eat part of my lunch at noon and then go workout at 1:00pm so I can watch The Chew while exercising.  Hey, don't hate...it's what gets me through.  :)

Thanks to my sister, I started using Lose It again.

This blog post has a pretty good review with lovely images.  I loved their app when they first started and now that they've made their website more 'social', I've rekindled my relationship with Lose It.  I've tracked my food and exercise for several weeks now and it's all thanks to their challenges.  I'm doing two right now:

1. No Miss November where you aim to log the most days between November 1 and November 30.
2. Holiday Move It & Lose It where you aim to log the most days between October 31 and January 1.

Honestly, I don't think I'd be tracking as well as I am had I not joined these challenges.  I signed up for Weight Watchers a couple of months ago and did I log?  Nope.  Not even knowing I was wasting all that money.  Give me a couple of challenges and some badges and the competitor in me comes out!  I'm kind of scared what will happen once the holidays are over and/or I get really busy.  I'm hoping I will have made tracking such a habit that I continue to do it.  Or that I've seen such great results that I continue to do it.  Only time will tell I suppose.

Unfortunately, When I weighed myself this morning I hadn't lost any weight...but nor had I gained!  I've decided to go another week with what I've been doing and if still no change, I'll mix something up in my diet/exercise routine to see if it helps.  Here it is in all its glory:

There's a two year period where I obviously wasn't using Lose It.  My starting weight was weight gain from right after my wedding when I went crazy with the food and no exercise.

Anyway, that's what's working for me.  Come join the party and be my friend on Lose It!