Meatless Monday: Brownies

On Thursday Chad scurried to my work from his mountain biking class, picked me up, drove home, dropped me off and then sped back to school for his Japanese class at 5:15. Since he's running around like a crazy person I try to have dinner made for him when he gets home, and not pass out on the couch until Rukia wakes me up announcing that dad's home. Because that never happens.

On this particular Thursday we had nothing to make for dinner. Seriously. We didn't buy groceries for the week and had managed pretty good so far, but I just couldn't handle eating another salad for dinner. We didn't even have bread for PB&J, things were looking grim.

Chad and I love brownies. L-O-V-E. We have our favorite, right out of a box. They are awesome! We haven't tried a recipe yet that even compares to these lovelies. We have been on the hunt though.

I decided that Thursday would be a great time to try out another recipe, hopefully it would be wonderful and distract from the lack of dinner. Much to our surprise, they were! They weren't dry, or tasteless or crumbly, they were lovely. They were quick and easy, and really are The Best Brownies. Don't you just love when you find an awesome recipe on someones blog!? I feel like it's a green flag to the rest of their recipes, letting me know that all the recipes they post will be something amazing and delicious. I can't wait to try out more recipes from Everyday Reading!

Photo courtesy of everydayreading.com

The Best Brownies

 

(from everydayreading.com) 

 

Makes one 9x9 pan

 

Ingredients:

 

• 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• 4 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate
• 10 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 eggs
• 2/3 cup flour (I always use white-wheat, as if that makes them at all healthy)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Directions:

 

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a 9x9 baking sheet with tin foil (with enough overhang on two edges that you can pull the brownies out after baking) and spray with cooking spray.
2. Melt chocolate and butter in large-ish saucepan over medium-low heat until completely smooth, stirring very frequently to keep from burning.
3. Remove from heat and whisk in sugar and vanilla.
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each one before adding the next. Whisk until mixture is completely smooth.
5. Add dry ingredients (with the salt and baking powder on top of the flour), and stir until well combined.
6. Pour batter into prepared pan; bake until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in center comes out with wet crumbs, 35-45 minutes (it's always 35 minutes for me).
7. Cool brownies in pan on a wire rack for five minutes. Use foil handles to pull brownies from pan. Cool on wire rack for at least 15 minutes.
8. Cut into 16 squares and serve warm or at room temperature.

As a side note, it's Monday morning and an old confused lady has already attempted to punch me in the face. Hopefully your Monday is shaping up slightly better. If not, make these brownies tonight!

Awkward and Awesome Thursday

Remember how I said there were no pictures of me during the whole wisdom tooth removal thing? Yeah, apparently I lied. So many awkward things going on in this one photo. Your Welcome.

Awkward:

• Eating too many cold, fried, popcorn shrimp from WalMart and getting an upset stomach (uh, duh). Which led me to unbutton my pants on the drive home from our picnic, which led to me standing outside our car to get gas with my pants practically falling off my butt. Classy. Luckily it didn't take me that long to figure out what was going on. Chad on the other hand, knew immediately what was happening and just watched it unfold.
• Chad drinking too much water and eating too much before his Mountain Biking class. He's a workout puker... so... there was this whole projectile vomiting episode during class. Nice impression on the first day.
• I brought workout clothes to work so I could run home while Chad was in class (Luckily Chad got out early and picked me up a half a mile into it!) After being home for hours and finally changing into something other than workout pants (are pink sweat shorts really any better?) I found a sock in my pants behind my thigh. Ugh. How did I not feel a bunched up sock stuck behind my leg?!
• Driving around our apartment complex with a giant bowl full of water, our car getting pelted with water balloons and our window down screaming "don't hit me in the face!". Just in case you missed it, we are knocking on the door of a pranking war with 3 teenage boys. Where are Will and Jared when you need them?!

Awesome:

• Asn and Pat spending the night with us last week! We had mexican food and ice cream and Ash and I fell asleep on the floor while we watched Adventure Time.
• Banana shakes. We went there with Nikki and Matt and I got a cookies and cream shake, Chad got snickers, and Matt got banana. Gross. Why in the world would you get banana when candy and cookies are available? Turns out, the banana shake was better than both of ours. And now I'm addicted. Thanks Matt.
• I mailed in my request for an absentee balott. I figured Michigan could use my vote more than Utah. And it seemed like too much work to register here because I'm crazy lazy. But the first reason sounds so much better, so I'll stick with that.

How's your week? 

Dressed Up for the Dark

Shirt: Down East, Jeans: Target, Boots: TJMaxx

 
Does anyone else find it silly to dress up to go sit in a dark theater? Do your hair, makeup and put on your best.... jeans. Ok, so I'm not really that dressed up, but I still think that if we are going to go sit in the dark and eat junk food we should just commit, go all out, and go in our pajamas. And maybe bring a blanket, because my theater is c-o-l-d! Anyone else with me? I think Stacy and Clinton just had a heart attack.

Pranks

Starting around 7pm Friday night we started getting ridiculous knocks on our door. I would corral the puppy and Chad would go to the door and.... surprise!.... no one would be there. After the third time Chad turned off all our lights, opened the door and sat in the opening with a glass of water. Don't prank the prankster.

Unfortunately they had moved on at that point. But it started up again around 9. By this time we knew it was some Young Men from church having some fun with their leader. Since we are both really feel like teenagers still we decided to play along. We left a little present in their car, ahem, Rukia left a little present in their car (It was in a bag, we aren't that mean). And after that went back and forth, the water came back out and Chad raced all over our complex with 3 teenage boys trying their darnedest to catch him. Never happened. Don't prank the prankster kids.

We couldn't do anything too wild and crazy, we are the "adults" in this situation after all, so here's how it ended:
 

Cotton balls were really the only thing we had in our house. We were working with nothin'!

Then it started again. Because while we still feel like teenagers, they actually are teenagers. Which means they have way more time on their hands, get bored easily and have no interest in watching the presidential debate.

So while we attempted to watch the debate, clean up from dinner, cut the pups hair, and blog, this was happening outside. Yes, we heard it. Yes, we were smart enough to stay inside while the crazy occurred. I was NOT getting hit in the face with a water balloon.

Chad attempted to get them with a bowl full of water. It didn't happen. We were at a real disadvantage. We had nothing to work with. Chad gave it his all with the bowl but ended up breaking it in the end.

So while we won the first round, they definitely won the second. And now the balls in our court. And while my inner teenager wants to do something awesome, my inner adult knows that these kids have got us beat in the time and boredom category. But when have we ever acted like adults... :)

"Fall" & Meatless Monday: Banana Bread

Sunday afternoon we decided that if Fall wasn't going to come to us then we would just go to Fall! We packed up a picnic, grabbed our cameras and dog and headed out to Cedar City, about an hour north.

Apparently Fall has come and gone for Cedar City. It was a giant fail. We still had a picnic by the river, Rukia ran around to her hearts content and we snapped a few pictures anyways.

Need something to make your Monday better? This will definitely do the trick! I made 2 loaves of Banana Bread last week and threw one in the freezer for this week. I broke that guy out of the freezer on Wednesday and it was finished up on Saturday. We love our banana bread, even more if it's got some chocolate chips thrown in ;)

Best banana bread trick? When your bananas start to get real ripe, like brown, throw them out there no good here come the flies, brown... peel them open and throw the guts into a plastic Ziploc baggie and then throw that guy in the freezer. No wasted bananas and banana bread anytime you like without waiting for ripe bananas.

Banana Bread:

Ingredients:

• 2/3 C Shortening
• 1/2 C Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 1 3/4 C Flou
• 1 t baking powder
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 c mashed banana
• 1/2 C walnuts... or chocolate chips :)

Directions:

1. Cream together shortening and sugar. Add eggs and beat well
2. Sift together dry ingredients. 
3. Add dry ingredients alternatley with bananas, blending well after each addition.
4. Stir in walnuts or as many chocolate chips as you want! Or both...
5. Pour into a well greased loaf pan.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes

Five Things {I am} Friday

Last Friday I read this post from Katie at Peace Love and Oats about what she is. She is great by the way, I read her blog everyday! Her post was all about her feeling like she's in a funk, her clothes are a little snug, and she was feeling out of sorts. The crazy part? She just ran a marathon. Seriously, a full marathon. She's awesome. She realized that she was so much more than she was giving herself credit for and I think that we all are so much more than we give ourselves credit for most of the time.

So she made a list of things that she is. It was a great idea, and helped me to focus on the things that I am. There may be a lot of things that I am not, but there are plenty that I of things I am (big and small) that I love.

1. I am a wife to a fantastic husband.

2. I am a pet owner to my dog and 2 cats.

3. I am a pianist.

4. I am cake and cookie decorator.

5. I am runner.

Does it mean that I am perfect at these things? Heck no! As I was typing up my list I found myself qualifying each thing. "I am a pianist, no matter how out of practice".  I don't have to be perfect to be these things. I just have to do them, and love them! So take some time today and focus on what you ARE. What you LOVE about yourself, and all the good that you have in you! And then share one or two things :)

Who are YOU? What things do you love about yourself?

Awkward and Awesome Thursday

Awesome: How seriously we took racing through this giant inflatable course at trampoline land. Awkward: Accidentally putting Chad's watermark on this picture like it's something to be proud of.

 
Awkward:

• Going into a man's room at the nursing home and finding a wall full of deer antlers. On the other wall? A dozen calendars full of... boobs. Lots and lots of boobs. Bikini boobs, costume boobs and hunting boobs. It was an impressive collection.
• Trying to confirm a patient's appointment only to get a "message phone". Huh? The woman on the other end just kept saying, over and over, "this is a message phone". Yeah, I don't know what the heck that's suppose to mean. And I don't think anyone else does either.
• Having a random stranger wander into the nursing home, find the activities room we were working in and asking to be seen. Thinking he was a resident of the nursing home we took care of his feet. When we asked the facility for his insurance information they said they had no record of him being there, possibly he was there visiting someone. Creeper...
• Presidential Debates. I don't care who you support, it's awkward.

Awesome:

• Puff Pastry
• Chad taking care of me when my wisdom tooth was yanked out. He was awesome. He made me stay on the couch, waited on me hand and foot, and "made" me take naps. Love him. 
• TCBY yogurt is sold in grocery stores. Why did I only just find out about this?
• Sleeping with the windows open and having it be just cold enough to have to snuggle all night to keep warm. It doesn't help with the getting out of bed in the morning though. 
• Speaking of colder weather, it's getting cold enough outside to start killing off the cockroaches. Leaving our house in the morning we'll often find a few roaches dead, unable to make it through the night. Woot!
• Ash and Pat are coming to visit tonight! Super excited to hang out with them!

 

Your turn!