Red Velvet Insanity, Birthdays and a Big Announcement

WARNING – this is a very long, drawn out post. Just a heads up.

Did you all have a nice weekend? Clearly I did because I am not blogging about it until MONDAY night!! I love when weekends feel a whole lot longer than they are. That rarely happens, but it honestly felt like 3 days instead of 2. I have a Big announcement on the blog as well!!! More on this later. 🙂

Where to begin….

Appropriately with champagne on Friday night! I love our tradition of champagne Friday. It gives me something to look forward to throughout the week and its our little mini celebration where we unwind and just chat all through the night (until I conk out at like 9:30PM).

While we sipped champagne we threw some stuff together for dinner.

We started off with some delicious roasted cauliflower. We set the oven to 400 and baked these about 20 minutes. Tossing them halfway into the baking time.

We then upped the oven to 450 and baked some sweet potato fries for 30 minutes (15 minutes on each side).

 

And last but not least we made some pizzas!! We caramelized 3 onions (we love our onions) with some garlic for about an hour and then mixed in some store bought pasta sauce. We spread this mixture on some high fiber low calorie tortillas and sprinkled some goat cheese and spinach on top.

  

I can’t even tell you how long to cook these because Eric ALWAYS does the pizzas. I don’t touch them because he always does such a stellar job.

Delicious.

But we weren’t done there.

Oh no.

I was in BAKE MODE!!! Red Velvet cupcakes were born. After having a red velvet cake discussion with Aleece earlier in the day during lunch, I knew I had to make some! I didn’t really have a whole lot of time (or energy) so I opted for the cheap and easy (and semi-healthy) way!

I used only two ingredients: a box of red velvet cake mix and a 15 oz. can of pure pumpkin. The pumpkin gives the mix a really thick consistency. You will want to add water to thin it out but PLEASE REFRAIN! These will turn out perfectly moist and wonderful. I learned this trick from Hungry Girl, and its one of the fastest and cheapest ways to make a cake/cupcakes. Not necessarily the healthiest, given that it comes from a box and probably has an ingredient list a mile long, but hey, the box was $1. I was feeling cheap.

All you do is mix the two ingredients together.

You can add in anything you like, chocolate chips, etc. and then place into a baking dish or cupcake tin! And in no time flat (20 minutes at 400 degrees) you have beautiful cupcakes!

 

That were just begging to be frosted…

And eaten. Immediately.

  

mmmm…..

I woke up the next morning at 7:30!!!! I even stayed up WAY past my bedtime and still managed to shoot out of bed before 8AM. Since Eric was still sleeping i decided to start cleaning out our coat closet/catch up on my DVR’d shoes he does not appreciate (Desperate Housewives, 90210, Gossip Girl, etc). When he woke up 45 minutes later he was greeted with a big pile of crap blocking his way from the bedroom.  I cleared a pathway and then realized I was STARVING and I was craving some greek yogurt like WHOA. I needed some good energy for what the day was to bring….

😉

I actually sat down at our dining room table to eat. I know, its pathetic. I need to do it more often.

 

• about 1/2 c of greek yogurt
• 1/2 cup of pumpkin
• 1/4 cup of peanut butter puffins
• 1/2 cup of cheerios
• 1/4 cup of TJ’s high fiber cereal
• couple banana slices
• cinnamon

MMMM. I honestly could eat this for every meal for the rest of my life and be perfectly content.

 

Oh yeah. You know you want some of that mess.

I paired my greek yogurt with my favorite new tea!

All together now!

 

After breakfast Eric and I headed to the gym. Since my groin and hip is still acting up I was nervous to run. I had a plan to try to run, but if it began to hurt, I was going to take it easy and NOT get upset. I’m a big girl – almost 24 – I need to get over it.

Luckily I was virtually almost pain free for 5 miles!! (Not including the .75 miles that I ran from our apartment to the gym)! I was loving every minute of it and made sure that I spent a good 20 minutes stretching and foam rolling my IT Band. Oh wow do the foam rollers HURT – but I really think it is helping me!

Eric and I then took the “24 Lift” class. It was similar to the body pump class, but used more free weights than barbells. This class was hard work and really focused on lunges and squats while testing my horrible balance! Over all we both really liked it (I am still feeling DOMS in my legs and behind), but I like the Bodypump class I took last weekend. I actually upgraded my 24 hour fitness membership to be able to go to EVERY SINGLE GYM in the country – just so I could have access to this Bodypump class. I know, not completely rational, BUT its only costing me $10 more a month. I’ll sacrifice buying lunch once a week for this beautiful luxury.

I came back and refueled with a green monster.

On my green placemat.

• 1/2 banana
• 1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond breeze
• 1 scoop chocolate protein powder
• 1 tbsp. almond butter
• 1 tbsp. flax seed
• 800 handfuls of spinach (no really I used half of a really big bag – there was more than what you see in this glass)

mmmm… Refreshing.

After downing this amazing drink we set off on our Saturday adventure. Now for the big news….

No we did not buy a car or a house, BUT we filled out an application for a new apartment!!! We have not gone through the approval process just yet, but once this happens we will move into a beautiful new apartment in 1 month’s time! It even has its own washer and dryer!!!!

I won’t get into too many details just yet because I don’t want to jinx it – we have not been given the lease, only filled out the application. But eeek!! I’m so excited!

I indulged in this awesome coffee maker at the leasing office while we waited to fill out paperwork.

It was like a closet of different coffees and teas. You open the drawer and pick your desired flavor.

I picked French Vanilla.

You put the packet in the machine and press a button and out comes a delicious cup of coffee! I love the simplicity and virtually no clean up.

Saturday night was pretty uneventful as Eric and I acted as babysitters for Ashley. We played many rounds of Candy Land and watched Shrek – quite the happening evening for a few 20 somethings, dontcha think?

Sunday came and I got to spend an HOUR in Target while Eric was at the gym. Target is my Mecca.  I just roamed around mindlessly and eventually spotted these super cute (and cheap) barstools that I decided we need to have for our (hopefully) new apartment. It has an adorable breakfast bar – so stools are a must!

I did not buy them because we don’t have the apartment, but I have a feeling I will be coming back!

After running some errands I decided to try and take a run since it was absolutely beautiful outside. I managed another 5 miles!!! It was a bit harder than Saturday’s and I cut my run short because I could tell pain was about to set in. I ended my run at the gym and spent some quality time with the foam roller for good measure. I came home and quickly showered and changed and scarfed down a banana with almond butter.

Around 5pm we went to Eric’s grandma’s house because she was hosting a birthday potluck for my birthday and Eric’s mom’s boyfriend (wow what a mouthful). My actual birthday is not for another week, but I won’t argue a week long celebration 🙂

I did not have my camera during the dinner because the ambiance didn’t really call for it, but I managed to snag some pictures in her beautiful backyard!

Eric’s mom, Eric and Ron (Eric’s mom’s boyfriend)

Eric and I

 

Grill master.

For dinner we had NY steak, asparagus, scalloped potatoes and a huge salad. The scalloped potatoes were INCREDIBLE and hands down my favorite part of this dinner. I found out that gruyere cheese was used all throughout the dish, while garlic rosemary breadcrumbs topped it off. Holy yum.

But the BEST part was the cake after dinner.

I can’t even tell you what this cake was or where it came from (actually it came from a bakery in Healdsburg – must find the name and live in the kitchen), but I’m not lying when I say it was the best cake I’ve ever had. EVER.

Chocolate decadence with amaretto and walnuts and shredded coconut. I don’t even know. That’s the beauty of it. It just tastes decadent. I had a slice.

After the cake I opened my present from Eric’s grandma (so sweet of her)!

A beautiful broche! It replicates wine grapes and leaves and I am 100% obsessed with it. I even wore it today!!

I paired it with a few necklaces, but the possibilities are endless!

So my eats today were uneventful (breakfast cookie, Siggi’s yogurt (seriously a very expensive addiction that I need to stop), sushi) and are guaranteed to be more uneventful (greek yogurt mess is calling my name), so we’ll end this here.

OH and before I forget – – – – the most exciting thing happened on Friday.

I WON JANETHA’S 1 YEAR BLOG ANNIVERSARY GIVEAWAY!!

I have never won a blog giveaway!! I squealed in delight when I saw that I won! I can’t wait to receive this amazing basket of goodies! Thanks again Janetha – you are awesome!