Whew Wednesday.

HAPPY HUMP DAY!

AND HAPPY WEIGH-IN WEDNESDAY!

ANNNND HAPPY WHAT-I-ATE-WEDNESDAY!

Today was such a particularly packed Wednesday, I think I’ll rename it Whew Wednesday Smile

The day started off with a handful of Barbara’s Peanut Butter Puffins:

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I affectionately call this the Cereal of the Gods.  It really is THAT good.  I also hear Barbara’s now makes chocolate peanut butter puffins.  Don’t worry.  I’ve added finding the new cereal to the weekend to-do list.

After I popped the puffins, I headed out for my interval run (which consisted of a short 2-interval series of 1 minute walking and 9 minutes running).

Post run, it was time for eggs and bacon … sprouted 7 grain bread.  Mmmmmmm Smile

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These are the eggs I make pretty much every day.  I call them my fake out dippy eggs because it’s actually a 3 egg white scramble topped off with 1 dippy egg.

When you poke the yolk it oozes down over the egg whites and tastes just as darn good as a plate full of dippy eggs. Thumbs up

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After the eggs, I headed to work (insert 2 hours of number crunching here) and around 10am it was time for Breakfast #2!

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Overnight oats, my friends. Overnight.Oats.  Yes, I STILL love and adore them.  Yes, I STILL eat them every day.

(insert two additional hours of number crunching here)

2+2 = Lunch time.

Today’s lunch consisted of some leftover ground turkey taco meat that I threw onto a bed of lettuce along with some tomato, onion, black beans and corn:

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If you are looking for a tasty side dish for Mexican food, try out this recipe for Corn and Black Bean Salad.  I made it over the weekend, and it was super tasty and SUPER simple.

Afternoon snack consisted of an un-pictured apple and some cocoa roast almonds….

After work, I headed to Dandelion Market for happy hour with some coworkers:

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The Dandelion Market is a tapas restaurant that serves up a variety of intriguing small plates.  The atmosphere in the restaurant was rustic, yet chic.  Dimly lit and extremely cozy.

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I’d of felt equally comfortable sipping a cup of coffee in a chair in the corner as I did sipping a glass of cabernet at a table near the window.

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Tonight I had the pleasure of sampling two of the tapas.  First was the pepperoni flatbread.  Isn’t it beautiful?

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Don’t be fooled.  This was not your typical peperoni pizza.  This flatbread had cured peperoni, ricotta salada, a rustic tomato sauce, and BASIL.  It was light and delicious, and honestly I think I could have ate three of them.  The basil was the perfect finishing touch.

I also sampled the grilled steak skewers:

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The steak was cooked PERFECTLY medium rare and was incredibly juicy.  But what REALLY made the dish was the sweet and spicy honey soy marinade that came along side:

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Coming from a lady who puts A-1 Steak Sauce on EVERY steak that goes in her mouth, you KNOW it must have been amazing if I devoured the entire plate without even pausing.

Dandelion Market on Urbanspoon

After dinner, I headed to TCBY for some froyo with the Charlotte Food Bloggers!  Now, truth be told I am an ice cream snob.  I worked at the world’s most fantastic locally owned and operated creamery throughout all of high school and college (biased much?), and during these years I had the opportunity to taste, sample, and create some of the most outrageously delicious ice cream concoctions.

So, frozen yogurt?  Meh.  Doesn’t really do it for me.  Which is odd, given that this town is littered with Fro Yo joints.  What DOES do it for me though is the crazy assortment of toppings all these frozen yogurt places have.

Here’s my combo of the evening:

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PB and Cake batter froyo…. with a little cookie dough, some heath bar, a little brownie, mochis, Peanut Butter drizzly drizz, and some blueberries for good measure.

Let’s focus on what’s really important here:

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Who’s with me?

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Wow Balls

You may know them as Cookie Balls, Oreo Balls, or perhaps Oreo Truffles.

I know them simply as Wow Balls.

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Why “Wow Balls”?  Because that was the first and only word I was able to utter as I enjoyed my first delicious bite of one of these glorious goodies. 

Wow.

Chocolate haters beware – this recipe is not for you. These balls are rich, decadent, and oh-so-delicious.  In a word:  WOW.

The ingredients are simple:

  • 1 package oreos (minus two for munchin while you work)
  • 8 ounces 1/3 less fat cream cream
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 packages Baker’s Chocolate
  • Toppings of your choosing

First up, dump the Oreos into a food processor and pulse away until they are completely chopped up into little bits.  Then dump in the softened cream cheese and vanilla extract and mix together with a blender.

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Once everything is combined and you can no longer see any white bits of cream cheese, use a small cookie scooper to scoop out bite size chocolate balls.  (I was able to get 3 dozen out of mine):

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Pop the tray into the freezer for about an hour.  This will make dipping them in chocolate MUCH MUCH easier.

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Next, get your double boiler ready.  Or, if you are like me and don’t have a double boiler, you can make do with a large pot of water and a glass mixing bowl.  Fill the water in the pot up high enough that the bowl sits in the water when you place in on top of the pot.  Also, make sure the bowl is large enough that no water will splash up into your chocolate.  Water + melty chocolate = bad news bears.

Dump all of the Bakers chocolate into the glass bowl and let it slowly melt.

Now it’s time for dipping!  I worked in batches of 5 (so that the balls didn’t start to unfreeze), and I found the fork and spoon method to work best.  Basically I plopped one ball in the melted chocolate at a time, used the spoon to roll it around, and the fork to lift the ball up out of the chocolate and drain off the excess chocolatey goodness.

I set the dipped chocolates on wax paper to cool and immediately topped with a variety of toppings I had on hand, including pecans, chocolate sprinkles, rainbow sprinkles, coconut, and crushed cookies:

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When the chocolates had hardened, I slipped each on onto a mini muffin liner.

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I had several people ask me if I bought these in the store—they really did look quite professional!

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I can’t wait to make these with peanut butter cookies!!!! 

Thank you Jessie for bringing these lovely treats into my world!

Wow Balls Ingredients List (makes 3 dozen)

  • 1 package oreos
  • 8 ounces 1/3 less fat cream cream
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 packages Baker’s Chocolate
  • Toppings of your choosing

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Pumpkin Cookies

I LOVE all things pumpkin.  A few years back, I found this recipe for Iced Pumpkin Cookies, and it has been one of my go-to cookie recipes ever since (I do make a few Mary-tweaks).  Feast your eyes, my friends.

Feast. Your. Eyes.

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Oh yes.

First up, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Then combine the dry ingredients in a medium size bowl:

  • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

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Next, combine the following in a large bowl until creamy:

  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar

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Suga butta:

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Then add:

  • 1 small can pumpkin puree (or ONE HEAPING cup)
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

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Once combined, add in the dry ingredients in thirds and mix:

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Pumpkin batter:

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I use a small cookie scooper to drop the cookies onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  I don’t flatten mine like the original recipe states.  I like them a lil poofy.

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Cook for precisely 15 minutes, immediately remove from the cookie sheet, and pop into the freezer for a couple minutes.

Yes, the freezer:

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I’m not entirely sure why I do this, and it is probably an unnecessary step… but regardless I always do it and I think it helps the cookies to stop cooking sooner (which equals super moist and delicious cookies).

Once the cookies are cool, it’s time for icing!  You can also make the cookies a day ahead and ice the next day.  Just don’t store them in an airtight container (or you’ll end up with mushy business).

For the icing, mix the following in bowl:

  • 2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
  • 3 tablespoons milk
  • 1 tablespoon melted butter
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Sprinkling of cinnamon

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Nom nom nom!

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Take a sandwich size plastic bag and place it in a small drinking glass.  Pour the icing into the cup:

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Mess free!

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Snip a small corner off of the baggie and you’ll get oober professional results 🙂

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Fancy pants:

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Once I ice the cookies, I pop them into the freezer AGAIN:

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Ok yes, probably unnecessary.   But this helps the icing to set up.  At least I think it does.

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VOILAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

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Eat me now.

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Since these cookies are super moist and delicious, you do NOT want to store them in an airtight container.  I like to keep mine in the fridge and eat them cold.

MMMMMM HMMMMMMMMMMMM GOOOOOODDDDDDD.

This recipe makes 4 dozen pumpkin cookies.

What’s your favorite pumpkin recipe?

 

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