Friday birthday lunch with the girls

We love it when there is a birthday in the group.

It's a reason to all go out for lunch together, celebrate, yack and gossip, enjoy great food and each other's company.

We don't do this often enough, but I'm sure you know how it is...

Time is rare!

Today we celebrate Rhonda's birthday lunch at Macaroni Grill.

Six of us, having a nice relaxing time away from work.

Even though a lot of times our conversations still circle around things that happen at work!

Either way, I am so glad I work at a great place where I found so many of my friends!

I shared my appetizers with my friend Annette today.

It's always great to have friends who like to share their food :)

Sometimes we order a bunch of different items and all share.

Today's appetizers were sweet pepperdew peppers stuffed with goat cheese,

and meatballs in a spicy marinara sauce.

I loved the sweet balsamic vinaigrette on the peppers... delicious!

My lunch was a simple carbonara... I was so hungry I forgot to take a picture of it before, with a poached egg on top.

To be honest, it was just okay... it's much more delicious made at home!





As a special little treat I picked up Julian a bit earlier today and brought him back to the office.

We didn't run into too many people as it was a Friday afternoon, but we did say hello to a few, some that hadn't seen him in a while, others who have never seen him at all.

Julian just loves coming to my office, it's been a while!

He loves swiping my badge to get into the building, pressing the elevator buttons, going up and down the stairs, and most of all he loves playing around in mommy's office!

So I let him play for a while, let him call Daddy and just have fun!

Anyway...  I hope everyone had a great Friday as well!

New haircut

Last night we had to take Julian to get another hair cut.

He does so much better at the salon.

Even though now I figured out how to cut his hair at home without him crying.

I just turn on the TV, spray his hair lightly with water and then snip away.

He doesn't mind!

But of course it takes me longer and I can get away with trimming his hair once or twice, but then it needs the tender loving care of a skilled hairstylist hand!



Refrigerator oatmeal with Raspberries

I loved the mango in the oatmeal, but I also had raspberries from my Costco trip on Sunday and I did not want to waste them. Nowadays Julian only eats a couple of them whereas he could finish a whole bowl when he was younger.

Started with my old fashioned rolled oats, about 1/2 cup.

 About 1/2 cup fat free greek Fage Greek yogurt.

 1 tbsp ground flax seed meal. You can use however much you would like.

 About 1/4 cup slivered almonds.

 Skim milk to top it off plus some more.

About 1 tsp wheat germ, or however much you like or you can omit. 

Today I didn't use any sweetener, only Smuckers sugar free raspberry preserve.

I used Splenda for the mango oatmeal.

I added fresh raspberries on top so that they will only be stirred in tomorrow morning when I am ready to eat.

And here you have it...



Muffin episode #7- Carrot Apple

Tanja requested that we bake muffins since she has seen me bake all these delicious muffins and post them on my Facebook page.

Last night we were looking through my muffin recipe book and she selected a carrot apple muffin.

That's what the name was but let me tell you...

There is a whole bunch of goodness in these muffins!

Carrots, apple, raisins, yogurt, oatbran and walnuts!

Tanja was ordered to line the muffin pans.

Aren't these cute muffin cups? I bought them on sale at Target a few weeks ago.

She also shredded the carrots.

I worked on getting all the other ingredients assembled and shredded the apples.

Oooh... I have to say these are now one of my most favorite muffins!!

The recipe called for 1 cup of all purpose flour and 1 cup of whole wheat flour.

I didn't see the whole wheat flour ingredient so we substituted with another cup of regular all purpose.

They still came out great but I definitely want to try these agian using whole wheat flour.

They were nutty and very juicy and just sweet enough from the brown sugar and the raisins.

Simply delicious!

Here is the recipe:

Carrot Apple Muffins
Makes 16 muffins
Preheat oven to 400 F (200 C)

Ingredients:1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup oat bran
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 ground cinnamon, divided
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups plain yogurt
1 1/4 cups shredded tart apple
1 1/4 cup finely shredded carrots
1/2 chopped walnuts or pecan, toasted
1/2 cup raisins
2 tbsp granulated sugar

1. In a large bowl, whisk together all purpose flour , whole wheat flour, oat bran, baking powder, baking soda, salt and 1 tsp of the cinnamon.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together brown sugar, eggs and butter until well blended. Whisk in yogurt until blended.

3. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just well blended. Gently fold in apple, carrots, nuts an raisins.

4. Divide batter equally among prepared muffin cups.

5. In a small bowl, combine granulated sugar and the remaining cinnamon. Sprinkle over muffins.

6. Bake in preheated oven for 15 - 19 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool i pan on a wire rack for 3 minutes, then transfer to the rack to cool.

My new favorite breakfast

is definitely the refrigerator oatmeal.

I know many might wonder about eating oats cold and uncooked.

It's really not very different from the Swiss Bircher Muesli or any

other kind of Muesli.

When I lived in Germany, most muesli was eaten with raw oats.

The only reason I even knew cooked oatmeal was due to my mom.

I love it... making it last night only took a few minutes.

It was convenient to just grab the mason jar this morning, and run.

I ate mine in the office, it was nutty and fruity!

I want more tomorrow!

Refrigerator Oatmeal

I just love Pinterest... I have been spending way too much time browsing beautiful pictures and ideas!

Since I finally bought some mason jars I looked for some ideas and stumbled across this great blog with some great recipes for refrigerator oatmeal.

http://www.theyummylife.com/blog/2012/03/293/Overnight%2C+No-Cook+Refrigerator+Oatmeal+--+A+healthy+breakfast+made+in+mason+jars+in+six+different+flavors%21

Simple ingredients and just an endless amount of varieties and possibilities beyond the 6 recipes mentioned above.

Add any fruit, grain, seads, refrigerate and you are ready to go!

I used some fatfree Fage greek yogurt, my favorite brand.

Publix had a BOGO on Quaker Oatmeal.

 I already had Bob's Red Mill ground Flax seed at home (didn't have the chia seeds in the recipe but I did order from Amazon)

 Added some slivered almonds that I also had at home.

Top with fresh skim milk.

And added cubed fresh champagne mango - I bought a case at Sam's Club last night.

It doesn't look very pretty and it was too late to get any good lighting :)

I can't wait to eat this for breakfast tomorrow!

Soup and sandwich makes a great lunch!

There is something soothing and comforting about soup and sandwich for lunch.

And sometimes even for dinner.

A hot steamy bowl of soup, and fresh tasty bread... yum!

Since my macarons didn't turn out so well I was in need of a little digital kitchnescale.

With my Bed, Bath & Beyond coupon in my hand, Julian, Tanja and I stopped by there, got a scale and a few more things, then headed to Crispers for lunch.

Tanja had never been there and it's a place I love to go to during lunch. I don't do it too often, but every once in a while I love their great variety of soups (my favorite is the spicy Kickin' Crab), sandwiches and fresh salads.

Tomato soup, and a club sandwich on a delicious multigrain roll.

Afterwards we headed to Costco where we bought some fruits and veggies, and fish.

And where Julian had about 5 crackers with blue crab and main lobster spread!

My baby loves seafood *proud mommy moment*

Of course I had to buy some for the house :)

But not this monster here!

Luckily Julian was willing to put the huge teddy bear back.

I wish I had gotten a good picture of him when he first saw the bear... he asked me to get him out for him, then just kissed and hugged him!