Healthy Goodies!

Sooo...I like to bake a lot, but I have a tendency to lean towards recipes that satisfy my sweet tooth without satisfying my daily health requirements. So this weekend was a little attempt to rectify that! First were some fabulous whole wheat strawberry banana mini muffins. They are so cute in their little bite sized forms! They're also guilt free and super delicious. Later that day I also made some low fat peach frozen yogurt in my new ice cream maker. I am a big fan of this little device and am thrilled at how easy it is to make fabulous low fat treats with it! I can't wait to try out some more fun recipes.

Whole Wheat Strawberry Banana Muffins:

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup low fat vanilla yogurt
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 bananas, mashed
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup frozen sliced strawberries

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease 12 large muffin cups (I used mini muffin tins), or line with paper liners.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, applesauce, oil, brown sugar, vanilla and bananas. Combine the flour, baking soda and cinnamon; Stir into the banana mixture until moistened. Stir in the strawberries until evenly distributed. Spoon batter into muffin cups until completely filled.
3. Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the tops of the muffins spring back when pressed lightly. (I did it a little shorter since they were mini muffins)  Cool before removing from the muffin tins.

First Snowboarding of the Season!

So this snowboarding season started out a little choppy. I guess it is just the third time I've ever been snowboarding, but it was a rough day. We went down to Crystal Mt. for an afternoon of snowboarding. It's been a little warm in Seattle, so the slopes were pretty icey/slushy in some parts. I decided that I'm going to need a little refresher lesson again before I get back to practicing. It was still fun to get out on the mountain though!

This took me forever to figure out how to post a video on here. Turns out the new, updated blogger doesn't have the ability to upload videos so I had to switch back to the old editor. That seems a little silly. Either way, Ryan got me a Flip Video camera for Christmas, so here's a little clip of the mountain from that! More videos to come now that I have this fancy little gadget!

Happy Birthday Me!

I turned 26 on January 3rd. On to the next exciting year of my life. So far it's been quite a ride and i can't wait to see what being 26 gets me into! My birthday was my last official day of vacation, so it was nice and relaxing starting out with a surprise afternoon at the spa getting a massage and ending with a great dinner out on the town.

[birthday decorations...even the dog was decorated!]

[birthday cupcakes from cupcake royale!]

Key Lime Cookies

A few weeks ago, my roommate had some frozen dough for key lime white chocolate chip cookies. They were really good. I may have had a few of them so I thought I'd replace them with some home made ones. I looked up a few recipes online and made a nice blend of them all based on what I had available. They turned out really well. Just another key lime option to take place of the pie!

Ingredients

• 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons lime zest
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 14 ounces good quality white chocolate, coarsely chopped or a 12 oz. bag white chocolate chips
• 
  

Directions

1. 
   

   1

   Preheat oven to 375 F (180C).
   
2. 
   

   2

   In a small bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda.
   
3. 
   

   3

   In a large bowl, beat the butter, sugars and vanilla extract at high speed until well combined.
   
4. 
   

   4

   Add the egg, lime juice and lime zest and beat for 1 additional minute.
   
5. 
   

   5

   Gradually add in the flour mixture.
   
6. 
   

   6

   Stir in the white chocolate chips by hand.
   
7. 
   

   7

   Drop the dough by rounded tablespoonful onto ungreased cookie sheets.
   
8. 
   

   8

   Bake for 8-11 minutes or until edges are slightly brown.
   

A John Denver Christmas Special

Merry Christmas one and all!! I just got back from a great Christmas in Columbus, GA with the Stephensons. Before we headed out of town, we got to have a mini Christmas in Seattle. My awesome family sent out so many fun goodies that there was hardly enough room under out little tree! We actually had to put the tree up on a box to make room for them all. It was so pretty to see everything under the tree! Thanks everyone for everything, it was a really awesome way to start out the holidays!

[our little Christmas tree full of presents]

[tara had lots of fun opening presents too!]

The Tuesday night before Christmas (which also happened to be Ryan's Dad's birthday) we headed out to Georgia. Luckily we didn't have the rediculous airport issues that we had last year! A girl that Ryan works with was going to take Tara for us so she dropped us off at the airport after picking up Tara...much easier (thanks Thomasin!). At the beginning of the flight, as we popped through the clouds, we got to see Mt. Ranier and a couple of other mountain peeks peaking through the clouds. It was really beautiful.

[Mt. Ranier through the clouds!]

We finally got back to Columbus pretty late...or really early in the morning. The rest of the week was filled with all kinds of Christmas festivities, family time, games, movies, football, and lots of other good times. Ryan's Mom had the house decked out with Christmas decor and lights and a big ole tree. I love Christmas decorations! We all got some kind of board games for Christmas, so there was lots of gaming going on. I also worked on perfecting my football throwing...it might still need a little more work. I have a halfway decent shot in basketball though, so at least I have that going for me! Here's a few pics of the Christmas festivities. There are a lot more that I'll probably be putting up on flickr...so stay tuned!

  [stocking hung by the chimney with care!]

[the Stephenson family...Dad, Aaron, Mom, Ryan, and Brandon]

[scrabble slam...it's intense!]

[Wags and Ryan]

[there are some special people in this family...i might just fit in!]

 

[Auburn snuggie! And we can still use our hands, how convenient?!? It even works while playing the Wii!]

[Merrrrrrrry Christmas!]

 

Happy Holidaying!!

We're getting ready for Christmas!! Tree is up, shopping is done, cards are written! Now I just need to finish up working this week and I'll be ready for vacation!!

Po

...update from an earlier post: This summer we attended a hot dog tasting party for some friends of our who were opening up a new gourmet hot dog restaurant. The new place, Po Dog, opened up in November and we have become regulars ;) I am determined to try each of the flavors...eventually. Plus, they have specials of the month, like the thanksgiving dog last month, and the chili dog this month. DELICIOUSNESS!