CHANGING BLOG FORMATS

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I HAVE MOVED! THE DAILY WHIP IS NOW MY NEW BLOG ON A DIFFERENT HOSTING SITE! PLEASE CHECK ME OUT!

MANDY

Easy Run and a 5 minute lunch

This morning was a nice easy morning. I woke up around 8:30 after having the best nights sleep I have had in a really long time to a bright beautiful sun!! I had some coffee, relaxed a little, surfed the web, and decided to go for a nice easy 2 mile run. After my run I came home and prepped my lunch and dinner for the night (I am working 2-7 and hate eating a large meal after 7.)

For dinner I made a small steak (seasoned with salt and pepper) and a tomato salad. The tomato salad consisted of cherry tomatoes, basil, oregano, green bell pepper, and a little bit of carrots! I topped the salad with a little bit of olive oil and balsamic vinagear.

Close- up of the salad

I love to reuse Chinese food containers for tupperware. It is super cheap (basically free) and it usually has some type of seperator which I love!

I made my own dressing for a salad I had at work. Super easy receipe that I will post later.

For lunch I grabbed a Morning Star Black Bean Burger!! They are so good and this one has a nice kick to it!

For a bun I used Thomas's 100 calorie multigrain english muffin!

Ketchup and spicy mustard for my burger! Can not have a burger without ketchup and mustard.

My lunch/dinner was rounded out with some iced tea (mixture of  Tazo passion tea and black tea) and I was ready to get out the door! Took me no more than ten minutes to put it together and that includes cooking the steak!

Happy Thursday All!

Nutella Caramel Muffins

Good Morning Everyone!!! I got a great night sleep last night and I am in a great mood!!! There is a small story behind these muffins that I am about to share with you! On Tuesday night after work I just felt the need to bake something. I was bored at home and baking relaxes me (odd I know!) I had left over caramels from when I did my Caramel Apple Muffins so decided I wanted to use them up. I kept going back and forth about what I wanted to do with them and as I was going through my cabinets found a jar of Nutella!!! I instantly knew what I was going to make, Nutella Caramel Muffins. Well on Tuesday night,  I made the muffins, decorated them, and was just about to put them in the oven when I realized I made a MAJOR mistake.....I FORGOT TO ADD THE BAKING SODA TO THE DRY MIX!!! What a stupid mistake!!!!! Well to make a long story short the muffins didn't rise so they came out like little brownies almost, and weren't horrible, but weren't stellar either. So last night I decided to try the recipe again with some small changes....

Dry

1 cup wheat flour

1/2 cup white flour

1 cup oats

1/3 flax meal

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

Wet

1/2 cup fat free milk

1/2 cup non-fat Greek yogurt

1/2 cup cinnamon-hazelnut coffee

1/2 cup apple sauce

1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup Nutella

First combine oats, milk, and yogurt in a small bowl. Mix ingredients and let them sit for five minutes while you put the rest of your ingredients together. The milk and yogurt are going to soften the oats and gives them a rich silky texture. 

While the oats are sitting, combine all of the dry ingredients in one bowl and mix!

Next combine the rest of the wet ingredients in with the oat mixture. 

Add Nutella and mix. Make sure you mix it well because the Nutella will stick together and you want to make sure you break it up as much as possible.

Nice and mixed!

Next, combine the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.

This is what Nutella looks like. Nutella is a chocolate hazelnut spread that is very popular in Europe. Europeans tend to use it in desserts and also in the morning on toast. It is basically the European version of peanut butter!!! It is so delicious and very rich!

Make sure to mix the batter thoroughly!

Next add 1/4 cup batter to each muffin dish. Top with individual caramels!

Bake in the oven on 350 degrees for 13-15 minutes. The picture below is the after photo of the batch I made on Tuesday night (without baking soda!)

Still look delicious and tasted pretty decent. They were a bit dense!

I took the batch to work on Wednesday morning and the girls seemed to like them just fine.

Below is a picture of the after baking the batch on Wed night (with baking soda!) See how much they rose?? They even engulfed the caramels.

Close up!

Let me tell you when I was baking these muffins my kitchen smelled AMAZING. I wish I could have bottled the scent up as a candle or something. It was awesome.

I let the muffins sit for about five minutes to cool. See how the centers start to drop where the caramels are?? Almost look like little donuts.

I love the color of these muffins!!

Cross sections.

They were absolutely delicious. I ended up getting around 15 muffins for this recipe. I am debating to call these muffins or cupcakes. The texture is a mixture of both, fluffy like a cupcake yet a little dense like a muffin. Apparently, I have created a hybrid!! GO ME!

I packed them into a baking dish to take to work with me on Thursday!! I decided I really need to invest in a cupcake/cake carrier. If anyone has any suggestions of good ones to buy please let me know!!!

Sprinkled with a little powdered sugar to make them look pretty. I don't know why but these muffins reminded me of Christmas once I sugared them! Also, they gave me another idea..chocolate peppermint muffin....must run with that one!

Close up of the deliciousness

VICTORY IS MINE! So excited they came out better than Tuesday's batch. Goes to show you that EVERYONE makes mistakes now and then! Sad thing is this isn't the first time I made the same mistake! Have a lovely Thursday everyone!!!

Morning Berry Muffins and Egg Bake for Dad

On Monday morning I was up super early! I wanted to bake some goodies for my Dad to have for the week for breakfast. He doesn't like to cook for just himself (he is an amazing cook!) because he lives by himself. Therefore, I wanted to make sure he was good and fed through out the week. I had some blueberries, strawberries, and pecans to work with so I decided to make a berry muffin. 

Dry

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 cup oat flour

1 tbsp cinnamon

1/2 cup pecans

1tsp baking soda

Wet

1 cup apple sauce

1/2 cup coffee

1/3 cup maple syrup

1/3 cup fat free milk

1 tbsp vanilla

blueberries

strawberries 

Put all dry ingredients in one bowl and all wet in the other!

Combine wet to dry and mix!

Add strawberries and blueberries

Place 1/3 cup mixture into a greased pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes

YUMMY! Apparently I overflowed some muffins so I only got 11 muffins out of the recipe.

The muffins came out delicious

While the muffins were baking, I made an egg bake for my Dad for breakfast. My dad is not a big sweets person and man does he love eggs for breakfast! I usually make egg bakes for myself with lots of veggies and lean protein, but for my dad I made one that I call "The Man Bake"

I cooked about a quarter pound of bacon and maple sausage in a pan. After it was finished I placed it in the bottom of a pie tin. I took a baking potato and used a cheese grader to shred it. This made the potatoes super thin and harsh brown like.  I topped the bacon, sausage, and potato with salt, pepper, garlic powder, rosemary, etc. Add whatever spices you would look. I then topped the dish with an egg mixture that consisted 8 whole eggs, a little bit of milk, and basil.

I topped the egg bake with some slices of provolone cheese. Bake for 15-20 minutes on 425 degrees. I topped it with aluminum foil for the first ten minutes and then removed it with the last 10 minutes and topped it with tomatoes.

Before

After

Look how good!!

I had a muffin...cross section! Love the colors!!!

My dad took a huge chunk of the egg bake!

Absolutely delicious! My dad absolutely loved it!!!

It was really good. Salty from the bacon and sweet from the maple sausage. My dad loved it so much he practically ate the entire thing in one day! I guess he didn't get it was supposed to last a week!!!

Saturday Rainstorms and Farmer's Market

On Saturday Nick and I decided to explore the farmer's market! In Raleigh they have a State Farmer's Market which is open every day of the week! Despite the clear sky in the picture it was down pouring right before we got there. We got absolutely soaked, but luckily the entire farmers market is under a long pavilion. The pavilion was probably about a quarter mile long filled with local vendors selling produce, baked goods, home made soaps, everything. 

I took this picture right after the storm. It was like it never happened.

Look at the size of these tomatoes

I even found purple peppers. I've never had one before but the farmer said they are sweet just like red peppers. Must buy next time.

They had lots of plants and flowers. They even sold blueberry bushes, peach trees, etc. Look at the tree they sold below!

My favorite place was Archer Lodge Herb Farm!!! I bought a HUGE basil plant and a smaller Lime Basil plant. Have you ever heard of lime basil?? I hadn't, but I am so glad I was introduced to it. It smells amazing and the farmer said it is great in salsas, with fish, and drinks

I loved this plant. Thought it was beautiful

Flowers from the garden

I even picked up a diet cheerwine. Nick said it was a staple of Raleigh so I HAD to try it. It was delicious!

I picked up some oatmeal and muesli.  I am going to be able to make great overnight oats with both of them! I also picked up a Roasted Pecan Syrup that I want to create a new muffin with!!!

These are my beautiful basil plants! The larger one is Genovese Basil and the smaller is the  Lime Basil.

We came back and had lunch. My dad made pulled pork that was absolutely to die for! It was so tender and tasted delicious. I ate a half of sandwich on a slice of rosemary olive oil bread from Whole Foods. I made a tomato and cucumber salad with Italian dressing and my fresh basil!

The next morning I made another sandwich using the ingredients from the farmers market. I took the rosemary olive oil bread and toasted it with a tomato, provolone, and basil on top.

I topped it with a slice of bacon

and then with an egg! It was a great sandwich

Sunday breakfast with the family :)

Well all, hope you had a great weekend!!!