| Page 304

But Wait…There’s More!

Posted on March 19, 2011 by kissmybroccoli

Happy Saturday bloggies! Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

I planned to get a lot done in the packing department today, but instead I decided to have a spur of the moment garage sale! I’ve never actually hosted (threw?) a garage sale before…usually I figure that I’m just too impatient to wait around all day and end up toting it all to Goodwill, but today, I got a wild hair and decided “what the heck!”

So I set up “shop” around 11am!

And then I sat there…in my garage…for what seemed like forever until I got my first customer. She looked around a bit and asked about a tv I was trying to sell. I, being quite the saleslady (thank you years of retail experience) was able to get her to buy not only the TV, but also the large TV stand and I even “threw in” a cheapo DVD player! 😉

But wait…there’s more! After she hand me the luscious green slips for the above, she spotted something else…my old crock pot!

Sadly, this was my only sales victory for the day…as in I never even had another customer and called it quits around 3pm. I may try again tomorrow, but even if I decide not to, heck, I made 85 bucks!

I never actually had lunch or dinner today…and breakfast was not very photogenic (French toast with cinnamon/raisin Ezekiel bread covered in unsweetened coconut and 2 Applegate chicken sausages). Today was more of a snacky day…

I FINALLY broke down and made Evan’s peanut butter chocolate chip dessert hummus. Wow! I swear it tastes JUST like peanut butter cookie dough! Makes me not feel so bad about eating it straight up with a spoon…I mean… 😉

Open wide!

I call this my celebratory snack…
Eaten after I knocked the dust off my superb selling abilities!

Cinnamon Raisin Bagel Thin topped with goat cheese, cinnamon, chia seeds, and pecans.
I Loooooove goat cheese with cinnamon!

I’ve also been grazing on some mixed nuts throughout the day that were a gift to me for Christmas.

A mix of perfectly roasted and salted peanuts, cashews, pecans, Brazil nuts, almonds, and hazelnuts.

Wait a minute…do you see any pecans in there? Oh yeah…I picked those out months ago! Haha!

So, no exact meals by definition for the day, but still nutritious and delicious! Some days are just meant for snacking!

But wait…there’s more!

May I have a drum roll please?

. . .

I accidentally made protein ice cream! 😀

Tropical Coconut Protein Ice Cream

1/2 cup unsweetened coconut milk (carton, not can)
1/2 cup water
1 scoop vanilla protein powder
2 cups frozen tropical fruit (my mix is pineapple, mango, peaches, and steebies)

This started out as a protein smoothie, but I got a little heavy handed with the frozen fruit…oops! When I removed the top of my food processor, I discovered a creamy soft serve ice cream consistency so I popped it in the freezer for a bit to thicken up a little more and then enjoyed a bowl topped with unsweetened coconut, graham crackers, and freeze-dried steebies!

Yeah, so remember that ice cream/fro-yo maker I bought last month? Not so sure if I’ll be needing it now!

Have you ever made homemade ice cream?

What’s your favorite flavor?
I usually prefer vanilla, but I loved the tropical taste of this…a little sweet and a little tart and a LOT perfect!

Posted in Desserts, Snacks | Tagged banana, cheese, coconut, fruit, hummus, ice cream, snacks | 35 Comments

DIYing and Spring Loving

Posted on March 18, 2011 by kissmybroccoli

Hey guys! Hope you all had a great Friday! Now you can join me in the weekend…hope you don’t mind that I got started without you! 😉 If you missed yesterday’s post, you may want to check that out first! I promise it’s drool-worthy!

My plan was to sleep in today since I had the day off, buuuuuuuuut you all know how that goes…old lady syndrome strikes again! Even after staying up until 1:30am, I rolled over and was wide awake at 7 on.the.dot! Oy!

I started my day out with some OOIAJ (obviously I’ve been a little obsessed with these lately):

I’ve decided that peaches and almonds go together like PB&J!
I have a feeling Namaste Gurl would agree!

This was basically the same mix I used here only with a combo of coconut milk + water instead of almond milk (all out…so sad) and peach flavored Siggis instead of Chobani.

Topped with a little graham cracker action!

If you follow me on Twitter…and if you don’t, you really should ;)…you know that today was spent DIYing it up in the bathroom. I am my father’s daughter for sure. “Why pay someone to do something that you [can Google and] do yourself!”

I installed not one, but TWO bathroom faucets all by myself today! And if you don’t think that’s something to pat yourself on the back for, then YOU try doing it!

It may have taken me a couple of hours AND a trip to Home Depot, but by the end of it all, it went from this:

To this:

x TWO!…BAM!

Sorry for the yellowish pics. Too proud of myself to take the time to change my camera settings. 😉

FYI: I don’t recommend jumping into this task on a full stomach! Drain gunk is nasssssty! Pfew!

After being cooped up in the house for half the day with this task, I felt the itch to get out and enjoy some of the 70 degree weather we had today! Love!

I enjoyed a 2.5 mile run followed by a little over a 1 mile walk around the neighborhood. It was SO nice to enjoy the feel of the sun on my skin after being stuck in the hospital for 10 hours a day for the last 4 days. I can’t believe how many trees have started blossoming! Did you realize that it’s only two more days until the first day of Spring?! Yay!

When I got back to the house I didn’t want to go inside just yet so I let Tiger come out and explore while I played around with my camera.

Warning: Springy photo montage is about to take place!

Experimenting with focus

Yep, those would be my ghostly white legs! 😉

On the prowl!

My favorite!

After our little photo shoot, Tiger and I headed inside and I hopped right in the shower…nothing like crawling around in the grass trying to get your cat to actually look into the camera to get you all nice and itchy!

Didn’t do any packing today, but it was totally worth it to get to spend a little time outside. I’ve seriously been needing a good solid dose of Vitamin D lately!

Well, I’m off here! Netflix just sent me Dexter Season 3 and I’m all about spending the rest of the night drooling over everyone’s favorite serial killer!

“See” you guys tomorrow and I promise to have some foodage for ya!

Any other Do-it-Yourselfers Out there? Brag on yourself a bit! What have you done?

Posted in Breakfast | Tagged almond butter, DIY, overnight oats, Tiger | 27 Comments

Mint Chocolate Chip Dessert Hummus

Posted on March 17, 2011 by kissmybroccoli

Wooo! How bout that for some title bait?

Yes, I did in fact make a recipe JUST to have something green to post about for St. Paddy’s Day.

Yes, it is simple…delicious…and can be made in a blender, food processor, magic bullet, or if you don’t mind it being a little chunky…fork it up!

No, it does NOT taste like beans.

Yes, it makes a perfectly acceptable dinner…hey, I’m part Irish AND it’s St. Paddy’s Day!

Mint Chocolate Chip Dessert Hummus:
Inspired by the Wannabe Chef’s Peanut Butter Dessert Hummus

1 cup white kidney beans
1/4 cup almond butter
1/4 cup maple syrup
3/4 teaspoon mint extract
6-8 drops green food coloring
1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate pieces (or chips)

1. Combine beans, almond butter, and maple syrup in food processor and blend until smooth and creamy.
2. Add in the mint extract and food coloring and process.
3. Stir in chocolate pieces.
4. Lick the food processor clean with a rubber spatula…yes, that is the MOST important step in this process!

I made this recipe small since it was a first time experiment, but feel free to double…or even triple it…you WILL want more once this is gone!

Note: Mint Chocolate Chip Hummus sandwiched between two graham crackers tastes JUST like a Thin Mint without all the saturated fat or the pain in your wallet!