4 Ingredient Dark Chocolate

{Rainie}
Everyone told me the first few months to first year of marriage is the hardest. I know everyone's story is different, but the last six months of my life have been the easiest, least stressful, most fun months I have ever had. Now, let me be clear, for the first 2 months I was just tired. I mean, I was used to going to bed at 9pm and all of a sudden we were staying up for Netflix and cookies past 10 pm (which I don't recommend) then getting up to run at 5 (which I do recommend). Five pounds and an entire series of Revenge later, we decided we should start acting like normal people (and that I should get rid of those 5 pounds before they become 15 --ok I decided that one).


Around our 3rd month of marriage I told JT we should have gotten married sooner...then we both laughed and decided...nah...it's probably been so easy, because we did wait so long. Either way, if the rest of the year shapes up like the first half, I won't even need that folded up piece of paper we wrote "marriage is hard work" on in premarital counseling.

Here's hoping  working --because that's what we do. We work to not make each other mad, we work to not fight over small things, we work to make each other's lives easier. At the end of the day, it is worth all the work. We aren't perfect, but we don't try to be, and that's ok. Besides, I keep finding that the more perfect people try to be, the more they feel defeated. When I get mad, I go run or eat chocolate...Depends on the day. My friend Joanna would call that Balance in Practice.

JT doesn't eat chocolate, so I needed to share this recipe with you fine folks so that someone else can try it!

Kathleen first told me of this super easy recipe. Virginia made it too so my FOMO kicked in and I had to try it. I threw in some walnuts and called it a day!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup melted coconut oil
• 1/4 cup real maple syrup (more or less to taste)
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

1. Line an 8x8 dish with parchment paper (or foil, but parchment is better) 
2. Mix all ingredients together in a medium bowl
3. Pour mixture into the paper lined dish and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, or freeze for about 1 hour.
4. Remove from refrigerator or freezer and remove from the paper
5. Break into desired pieces and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator or freezer

Polka Dot "R" plate from Target

Now, if I could work to get those wedding photos on Facebook!

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2 R.D.'s in the West House!

{Kathleen}
This morning I hit snooze oh about 87 times and did not get out of bed till the absolute last minute I could. I was up late last night celebrating because my little sister, Kelly, passed her R.D. exam yesterday! She is 3 years behind me in school, but did the same internship/grad school program I did at UAB last year and is now finishing up her masters there too.

 Now the West family has 2 Registered Dietitians! I was so happy for her, I remember that feeling 3 years ago when I took it, it's like a huge weight has been lifted off your shoulders when you pass!

And of course what better way to celebrate than with homemade pizza and some good ol Sam Adams (first Octoberfest of the season)! When the west family makes homemade pizza we do it right, my favorite is the pizza with caramelized onions + bleu cheese + walnuts + arugula! I''ll do a blog post soon featuring all our different pizza combinations and our homemade crust recipe so stay tuned!

So after pulling myself out of bed and getting ready for work I made a Strawberry Protein Smoothie to enjoy while driving in.

Strawberry Protein Smoothie: 2 cups Water + 2 handfuls Strawberries + 1 scoop Vanilla Protein powder -- super complicated I know ;)

I had to give a presentation at work today, and those who know me know that public speaking is one of my least favorite activities EVER!!! They say it gets easier the more you do it...but I disagree. I think it went well but I am just glad its over with. The presentation was at noon so I ate half my lunch before and half after it was over.

My first course was a stale PB&J which was about as good as it sounded. I only ate about half. I made the sandwich a few days ago and then ended up not eating it that day and since I can't ever throw away food I thought I would enjoy it with my salad at lunch. However, apparently PB &J don't hold up for more than about 24 hours. Oh well I tried, Life Lesson learned.

The second course of my lunch was my usual salad. I enjoyed a bright orange bell pepper + spinach + tomatoes + bleu cheese.

With a somewhat stressful work day over with I was so looking forward to our run after work! Virginia, Rainie and I did the usual 4 mile route. I was not wearing my garmin but I feel like we are running faster now that its starting to cool down around here. My cool down I mean it was about 85 vs. 95 degrees, but hey I'll take it!

So thankful for my running buddies, even if they make me look like I'm 8 feet tall :)

After our run I was beat so I headed home and did some things in preparation for the beach this weekend! Virginia, Rainie, Emily, Katie, Brooke and I are all headed down to Orange Beach, Al on Friday after work to enjoy labor day weekend soaking up the sun!

I made 2 batches of granola bars to take to the beach. I used the recipe "5 ingredient granola bars" recipe from the minimalist baker. Virginia has made this recipe before and it was a hit so I decided they would be a good snack to have around this weekend. I love to cook and bake and definitely always appreciate a recipe that has minimal ingredients, especially ones that I generally already have at the house. I subbed pecans for almonds, and raisins for dates and it worked fine!



Check out the recipe here!

After making the bars I had some carrots and peanut butter for dinner. Not exactly a 5 course dinner, I know, but it worked--- you got your carbs, fat and protein. And don't judge the carrots/peanut butter combo, its actually really good, although I admit I was skeptical at first, too.

Now off to do exciting things like laundry on this Wednesday night.  Only 2 more days till a long weekend!

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Planked + Apple Cinnamon Breakfast Bars Recipe + The Weight of the Nation

{Rainie}

Tuesday got started with an intense exercise class with Molly. It's our usual Tuesday class and I can't tell you enough how important it is to have accountability partners! No matter how much I enjoy getting my workout done by 6:30 a.m., I would rarely do it without these girls! I am so thankful for friends that help make fitness fun! We did a lot of planks, which are not fun.

My first course of breakfast was a chocolate protein shake which consists of one frozen banana, 1/2 cup of water and 1 scoop chocolate protein powder. 

Today marks the beginning of JT's birthday month, so last night I baked some cinnamon apple breakfast bars to start it off right! I had one for my second course of breakfast this morning and it was delicious (Recipe below photo). Check out my new Alabama dish cloth from Virginia! Isn't is adorable? Alabama Goods is a store specializing in all things Alabama, I mean, down to the tissue paper...which had cute little cotton buds on it. 

Apple Cinnamon Breakfast Bars

adapted from the  Double Banana Chocolate Breakfast Bars at EatLiveRun.com

Ingredients:

• 1 very ripened banana
• 1/3 cup melted butter or coconut oil
• 2/3 cup brown sugar 
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 cups old fashioned oats
• 2 medium apples
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1. In a large bowl, mash the banana with a fork.
2. Add the brown sugar and the butter or oil, and mix all three ingredients well.
3. In a smaller bowl, mix the dry ingredients and the apples ( flour, oats, apples, baking soda, salt, cinnamon).
4. Pour the dry mixture into the sugar mixture until well combined. 
5. Coat an 8x8 pan with cooking spray and spread mixture evenly into the pan, mashing a little to firm the mixture. 
6. Bake for 20 minutes or until edges are golden.

Moving on-- 

lunch was eaten in a freezing meeting and was less than exciting, but I needed to use my veggies before they ruined. 

I love summer tomatoes and tomatoes, cucumbers, and red wine vinegar is on of my favorite ways to eat them. This really wasn't enough for lunch so it isn't even blog worthy... I needed some protein! I was going to eat yogurt and an apple after our meeting but due to sub zero meeting room temperatures, I grabbed a Starbucks nonfat flat white with Kathleen and got busy back in clinic so I forgot to eat the rest of my lunch and snack! (Who am I?!)

After work I headed to Jasper where I met JT at Chick Fil A. When we got there, he told me to just get in his truck because he wanted to show me something. We took our dinner (I had the Grilled Market Salad) to a spot where they started working today, a new dog park in Jasper! He has talked about it for a while now, but they just got started so it was fun to see the beginning stages. Jasper is growing little, by little and I love any new form of running ground! It was really fun to pause for a minute and eat a picnic dinner with JT. I had 3 especially great things happen to me yesterday (yes, all in one day!) so the whole way Jasper I was thanking God for his blessings and couldn't wait to share them with JT!

Finally, we headed to Cordova to watch my little sister play volleyball. The girls did a wonderful job and Janey had around 5 kills herself! 

They won!

I took her home and spent a little family time before heading back to Bham. 

On a side note:

If you have time today, watch The Weight of the Nation from HBO. A friend told me about it and I had to share because it's just so informative and useful! I have watched a lot of documentaries on this topic and this is by far one of the best. It's a free series that explores America's weight problem and explains the medical consequences of obesity so well. 

Do you recommend any documentaries?

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Sunday's are for Baking {Double Chocolate Pecan Sea Salt Cookies}

{Kathleen} The West Fam got a double dose of church in this morning. We all got up and went to early mass at 8:30 at our usual church Our Lady of the Valley. After mass was over we headed over for my cousins dedication at First Christian Church. My cousin (Larry), his wife (Liz), and their new addition Caroline Layla, all live in Germany where my cousin is stationed. They planned the dedication for while they were here in the states at Liz's church that she has grown up in. After that we all headed to lunch at Ming's Cuisine, a local Chinese restaurant.

Kelly and I both got really excited when all the lunch entree's came with a egg roll + hot and sour soup + and the most amazing fried egg noodle chips. I was so excited about the egg roll (and also extremely hungry) I forgot to snap a pic.

I have not had Chinese food in years....like really its been a while. My family used to order takeout from Golden City growing up but they closed down and we never really did replace Golden City with another restaurant till now. Ming's might make it on the West Family special occasion list of restaurants. I ordered the Kung Pao Chicken as my entree but ended up not quite finishing it as we had already eaten so much. I asked to sub the white rice (standard side) with extra veggies and they let me, major perk in my book.

The highlight of the lunch was passing around Caroline though, I mean seriously I think she might be the cutest little kiddo ever. She let everyone pass her around all morning and never even got fussy. She was clearly more entertained by the food on the table than looking at the camera.

             The meal would not be complete without the fortune cookies :)

 "People are waiting for cues from you. Lead them well." 

After we got home from lunch I was stuffed, it was really rainy and cloudy outside making the perfect environment for a nap.

I have to bring some dessert to work on Wednesday this week so I decided to go ahead and make some treats as I knew I would not have time Monday or Tuesday night to bake them. I opted for some traditional chocolate chip cookies (using Eat Live Run's recipe), and I think they turned out a little flatter than I would have wanted but I think that's because I over mixed them in my Kitchen Aid. Rainie makes her recipe frequently and she says that she hand mixes them for a fluffier cookie as her Kitchen Aid yielded a flatter cookie as well. Oh well they still taste good just a little flatter than I intended, now I know for next time :)

I also wanted to make a chocolate based cookie. I had an extra box of Duncan Hines Devil's food cake mix to work with and here is what I came up with. I was also out of canola oil so Kelly suggested using coconut oil and they turned out great. It was also super easy since your base is a cake mix!

 Not sure what to call them...maybe  

Double Chocolate Pecan Sea Salt cookies??

Ingredients:

• 1 box Duncan Hines Devils Food cake mix
• 1/2 cup-1 cup chocolate chips (however much you prefer)
• 1/2 cup pecans (chopped, could also sub walnuts)
• 2 eggs 
• 1/2 cup coconut oil (added an extra nutty flavor and buttery texture to the cookies vs. using canola oil) 
• Sea salt-- Add just a sprinkle before you put them in the oven. 

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients well.
2. Scoop them into about 1 inch balls. 
3. Bake at 350 for about 10-12 minutes. I used a pizza stone, not a cookie sheet for baking them. 

In between baking the two different cookies I took a break and took Kate and Riley for a walk. It was so nice outside last night when the rainy drizzle wore off, it felt like a July summer evening in New England. I could not resist going for a walk. We just did our usual 2.5 mile route.

Post Walk I was craving a smoothie so that's what I made for dinner.

I added about 2 cups of water + 2 cups of spinach. I blended that really well before adding any other ingredients.  I was listening to a pod cast earlier this week about the girl who started "Simply Green Smoothies" and she said if you don't have a nice blender then a trick to blend up the spinach and not get any chunks is to add just the water and spinach first. It worked like a charm! After it was well blended I added the rest of ingredients.

Strawberry-Banana Green Smoothie: 

• 2 cups water
• 2 cups spinach
• 1 frozen banana
• 2 handfuls of frozen strawberries
• 1 scoop vanilla protein powder. 

After baking the next round of cookies, cleaning up the kitchen, and packing my lunch for Monday I called it a night. That's a successful Sunday in my book.

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Engagement Toast {BLT, Buffalo + Caprese Bites}

{Rainie} Friday was a pretty busy day at work and I was in a hurry to get home to finish up for my friend Becky's party so I forgot all about taking breakfast and lunch pictures. It was a busy pre-work day as well and I totally forgot a running photo with Virginia but we did run 4 miles together bright and early. Since my day involved breaking in to Virginia's house with a card (lock your deadbolt ladies, any common criminal could succeed), some yogurt, banana, and peanut butter--I will skip on to the important parts!

Becky started working with us as a travel nurse around two years ago. We completed the 20 days out of 30 challenge at Pure Barre together so we got a lot of bonding time. She is such a nice, loving, and  real person and hanging out with her is always fun. She recently got engaged and had a baby so when she told me she and her hubby Mike were coming in to town for the weekend, I couldn't wait to have a party in their honor. 

It was a very small "champagne toast" type party for the happy couple and all of the food was served on toast (thanks, Emily!). A few people from work brought champagne and wine to share with everyone and we had some really great options!

The drink of choice was Great Value brand natural sugar free strawberry lemonade (like Crystal Light but no artificial sweeteners) mixed with champagne. It was delicious!

I had such a blast using all of my new wedding gifts to host a party! I had three different toast options 1) BLT bites, consisted of chive and onion cream cheese mixed with cooked bacon then topped with tomatoes and lettuce on toast (a recipe from my MIL).

2) Buffalo Blue Cheese Bites consisted of 1 chicken breast cooked in a crockpot with 8 ounces of cream cheese and 1 cup of Frank's buffalo sauce. It was so great and one chicken breast went a long way! We topped them off with blue cheese because that's how everything buffalo should be topped.

3) Finally, we had Caprese bites with tomato, melted mozzarella, and basil with a dash of balsamic vinegar.

Do you see those cute mini dish tags? My friend Lauren's mom, Mama Shaw (as we call her) gifted them to us when she came to visit Lauren and Max in Bham. How sweet is that?!

It was time for a group photo! Congratulations to Becky and Mike!



We had reservations at 7:30 at Rogue Tavern so after a few pieces of toast, glasses of champagne, and good conversation, we walked over and met Lauren and Chris at a huge table. That's one thing I really like about Rogue, they always have room for big parties and are so willing to split checks!

I had the Black and Blue Salad and it was delicious! It was a tough call because they also have Black and Blue Sliders.

But, of course, I had to try Virginia's sweet potato fries. She was practicing portion control and shared with a lot of people. These fries had a caramel sauce over them that was tah die for!

After Rogue, we called it a night and woke up for a busy Saturday! The weekend is off to a great start!

What party toast would you make?!

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Black Beans, Baking and Burgers {Black Bean and Corn Salsa Recipe}

{Kathleen} Today started with the traditional Tuesday torture session at 5:30 am with Molly. The accessories of choice today were the bar and exercise ball and of course there was no shortage of lunges and squats. I am already sore, so tomorrows run is going to be interesting.



When I got to work I ate my usual breakfast of overnight oats in my favorite fashion -- out of a PB jar. I know what your thinking... "didn't she just have an empty jar last week?...how much PB does she eat?" .... Well for one I have 5 roommates to help in the PB eating but really last weeks Skippy Jar was a few weeks old I had just forgotten about using it as it got pushed behind something the pantry. Today Smucker's jar was finished last night :)

Lunch was a salad, but it was exceptionally delicious thanks to some leftover  black bean and corn salsa. I had a spinach base + tomates + sugar snap peas + red bell pepper + feta cheese + salsa + dash of vinegar and olive oil. It was great, I just love the recipe I have for the salsa, someone gave it to me in my dietetic internship a few years ago and I have brought it to countless parties/showers since and it is always a hit! Check out the recipe below!

Black Bean and Corn Salsa

Ingredients for salsa:

• 1 can black beans 
• 1 can corn 
• 1 cup feta cheese 
• 1 red onion chopped

Ingredients for dressing:

• 1/8 cup sugar 
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar 
• 1/4 cup olive oil

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients for the salsa together in a bowl.
2. Mix all dressing ingredients together and warm slightly in microwave to dissolve the sugar.
3. Pour the dressing over the salsa and mix well.
4.  Let sit overnight for the flavors to marinate

I eat it by it self or on a salad but its also good with chips as a salsa. Bring it to your next party and just thank me later:)

Afternoon snack: Mixed nuts ... cashews are my favorite but I always try to eat one brazil nut in the mix.

Random Fact: 1 Brazil nut has 100% of your recommended daily intake of Selenium, a powerful antioxidant

After work I headed to the grocery store to get ingredients to bake some brownies. I have an order from a Blue Eyed Baker customer that would like the Salted peanut butter pretzel brownies on Thursday. We also have a party at work on Thursday and I am bringing dessert, per usual. I decided to go ahead and make both batches the same since the salted peanut butter pretzel brownies are always a hit at work anyways.

After grocery shopping I headed home to make the brownies. My sister got this apron for me as a hostess gift (for her engagement party last weekend). It's personalized just for "The Blue Eyed Baker"! She ordered it from Etsy and its adorable.

By the time I finished baking it was time to enjoy some dinner. My mom made some awesome burgers with some fresh ground chuck from Fresh Market (its on sale on Tuesdays!). I tend to be a non-traditional burger gal, I don't love mustard or ketchup in general but especially not on my burgers. I think my favorite toppings to add to the burger is balsamic vinegar, bleu cheese and caramelized onions. We did not have onions tonight but it was still delicious. We also have great whole great buns that add an almost nutty flavor to the burger.

                    

Dinner was great but I think my favorite part was that we ate outside on the back porch! It felt great outside tonight! It was about 70 degrees when the sun was going down and not humid at all, it felt like the first taste of fall. Its too soon for it to cool down around here for good, I'm sure it will be back to 90+ next week so I am enjoying it while it lasts.

Now to clean up the dishes and do exciting things like put away laundry on this Tuesday :)

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Family Fun + 3 Ingredient Dark Chocolate Recipe

I started off my day by sleeping in.  Last night we all went to Sips for CF and I didn’t get home until about 12 am and then it takes me a while to wind down and actually go to sleep so I got into bed at about 1am.  I slept in until 9am!  I don’t remember the last time I slept that late.  I guess I am so used to getting up for work that my body just will not let me sleep in.  I woke up and had one of my homemade granola bars and a cup of coffee at about 9:45.  

My goal for the morning was to get the grass cut before the rain.  My grass cutting adventure today ended up being quite the disaster!  I started by adding gas and oil to the mower.  Apparently you really don’t have to add oil to lawnmowers after the initial oil is put in, but I didn’t know that.  The lawn mower started to smoke like crazy so I cut it off.  I then learned that too much oil can burn up the mower so I had to dump most of the oil out of the mower (oily mess!) until it measured at the right spot on the dipstick.  In my defense, I initially did check the oil but was measuring the oil that pooled at the end of the dipstick and did not notice that the oil was actually much higher.  By the time I got all of this fixed, the rain came so I didn’t get a chance to test the mower to see if it still works so I will give you an update on my next post. 

Elizabeth (my roomie) and I went to Urban Cookhouse for lunch and had a berry good salad and it was delicious!  The berry good salad has blackberries, strawberries, tomatoes, feta, and spiced/candied pecans with a vinaigrette dressing.   I added the grilled chicken to it and it ended up being a great choice!  The little orange rolls that they give you on the side of salads is amazing!   There is also a berry good wrap that is also good but today I decided to go for the salad and leave off the wrap.   I typically get a fountain diet coke, but since I am trying to avoid sodas, I went with light lemonade diluted with water because it was really tart.  

After lunch I ran by target to get some cookie ingredients to take to my sister’s house so I could cook dinosaur cookies with my nephew, Preston (almost 3 years old).  While I was at Target , I picked up a  venti skinny hazelnut latte from Starbucks.

When I got to my sister’s house, Anderson (8 months) greeted me with a smile and a squeal!  He really is the happiest baby I have ever been around.  He is such a loveable little guy!  When Preston got up from his nap, we made homemade dark chocolate using a recipe that I got from Kathleen and it turned out great!  

Use equal parts of coconut oil and cocoa powder + half the amount of maple syrup.  I used ½ cup of coconut oil and cocoa powder + 1/4^th cup of maple syrup.  Then we started on the dinosaur cookies!  We made a huge mess but had SO much fun!  We used a cookie recipe from Elizabeth’s (my roomie) family recipe book and they turned out great!  Preston had a blast and that was the most important thing to me!  Preston was covered in flour from head to toe so he had to take a bath after our baking adventure!  

3 Ingredient Dark Chocolate

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 1/2 cup cocoa
• 1/4 cup maple syrup 

Directions: 

1. Mix all ingredients until well combined.
2. Spread onto a piece of wax paper and allow to dry.
3. Break it off into 2 inch pieces.
4. Enjoy!

Had to make my weekly grocery store run and of course I went to my favorite shopping location…Target!  Here is what I got:  

I made a hearty, chopped salad for dinner.  It had spinach, tomatoes, green onions, blackberries, craisins, blue cheese, almonds, and light Ken’s Strawberry Vinaigrette dressing.  

For dessert, I had to have one of the cookies that Preston and I made earlier today.  The ones that I took home are the ones made with leftover dough so they are just round.  Notice the little fingerprint in the middle of the cookie.  Preston kept saying “it’s like playdough” so he kept poking at the cookies so this is not the only cookie with a little fingerprint in it.  

The finished chocolate!  

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