Frodo

Enjoying my time in Miami with crazy-eyed Frodokins :)


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Location:Miami, Fl

pumpkin tea latte = sneaky veggies

Yesterday after I got home from work I knew I wanted to work out but didn't feel like gymming it up. Luckily, I have free weights at home for just this kind of situation! I have a rotation of free weight exercises I like to do but I have been trying to step outside my comfort zone and challenge myself to do new exercises. Muscle memory, ya know.

So for last night's workout, I broke open an issue of Women's Health Magazine that I picked up at the airport on my way back to LA from Thanksgiving. I took my workout straight from the magazine. It was a circuit routine done with 5 lb weights that was designed to tone upper and lower body at once!

It included moves like this:



Yup, that's a plank with arm-toning maneuvers! Matt snapped the picture on his iPhone while I wasn't looking but, I must say, I look pretty badass! And today? Well my back and shoulders are hella sore and my hamstrings and quads are a twinge sore as well. My lower body is clearly in better shape but no surprise there.

After my circuit-style workout, I made myself a pumpkin tea latte which was simple and healthy (with some hidden veggies!)

First add a whole tablespoon of pureed pumpkin and tea bag to a mug. I used Trader Joe's Relax tea.



Add hot water and allow to steep.



Add almond milk, agave syrup and cinnamon (or pumpkin pie spice).





This was absolutely delicious and the tablespoon of pumpkin makes it thick while providing some added nutritional value.

Since I was on such a healthy roll, I made this tasty post-workout meal:



Matt had made rice pilaf to which he added some chicken that I cooked earlier in the week. I cooked the chicken in the slow cooker for 8 hours with a jar of salsa, crushed garlic, cumin and cayenne pepper and then shredded it. It was unbelievably tasty and I have been using it in "healthy burritos" for lunch. I stole a couple scoops of Matt's rice pilaf/chicken mix and added a hefty side of roasted brussel sprouts. It isn't pictured but I gave the brussel sprouts a few squirts of ketchup :) 'Twas yummy!

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas...

The other day, I picked up this fat little tree for our apartment. I am in love with its Charlie Browness! It's just about the cutest thing ever :)

We've had some rather temperamental weather in Los Angeles but I decided to make this butternut squash soup anyways. Nothing like soup in the winter!





I omitted the cloves and coriander because I had none on hand. This recipe was pretty simple, especially since I bought already cubed butternut squash. I just wish I had a Vitamix. Sigh.



Very yummy and comforting nonetheless.

And as I blog, Matt and I are munching away on the first batch of holiday cookies I've made all season...

Jessica's Fat Fluffy Snickerdoodles!!



**Note the holiday spatula that came in a wonderfully thoughtful package that Matt's brother and sister in law sent me. Also in the package were the silver reindeer ornaments that are on my Charlie Brown tree and a set of holiday cookie cutters which I am reserving for later use**



Rolled in cinnamon and sugar...







If Jessica's cookies were "fat" mine were OBESE! Matt even asked if they were supposed to be so fat. I also made them twice as big as Jessica's. The recipe was supposed to yield 16-20 but I made 10 monster cookies. They smelled like cinnamon rolls baking in the oven and had such a great cinnamon flavor and slightly crispy shell. I LOVE them and highly recommend!!

The other day, I went ice skating with Matt and some friends in Santa Monica. Friends included Faith from Stylish Faith and Nicole from Tulle and Studs.



It was my second time ice skating (one other time in Gainesville, FL). I am happy to say that I didn't fall leaving me with a still spotless record :) Although the rink was crowded and there were a few near slips, it was so much fun hanging out with my friends and catching up!

I will leave you with a few shots of my Christmas tree lit up at night...





See you back here for more holiday baking!!!

pioneer woman's macaroni and cheese

Let me start by saying that macaroni and cheese is my FAVORITE dish! I LIVE for good mac and cheese! I could do without sweets but not without cheesy noodles of deliciousness :)

Today I made this recipe. Let me begin by saying that I also love love LOVE the grating attachment on my new food processor.



That took about five seconds to complete!! The sauce required making a roux with butter and flour, adding milk and dry mustard, tempering eggs and finishing with cheese. There are no action shots because making the sauce went quickly and required constant attention. Here's the finished product.









Matt and I paired the mac and cheese with some chicken cutlets that he made by dredging chicken in eggs and a flour/ seasoned breadcrumbs mixture then cooking in vegetable oil over medium heat.

All I'm going to say is good thing I had brown rice and veggies for lunch! This was a beyond delicious meal. The chicken had a nice crispy coating and the mac and cheese was so creamy! I would highly recommend this recipe although next time I think I will stick with just sharp cheddar. It does require a lot of babysitting though but is definitely worth it!

LA Galaxy 

Last night, Matt and I went to see the LA Galaxy (aka the team David Beckham is on!) Here are some neat shots of the sunset as we were driving over:





We bought a coupon deal from Living Social for $12 tickets earlier in the week. Clearly a lot of people bought the coupon and the stadium was not equipped for it because it took over an hour to get in and we ended up missing a good part of the first half of the game :( Bummer!

Once inside, we had a lot of fun. It was my first live soccer game :)







And we won!!! It was a fun and different thing to do on a Sunday. Anywayssss.... Matt picked up the new Kinect for XBox and the Ubisoft Your Shape Fitness Evolved workout program for it! I've been watching him act a fool jumping around in front of the television while I blog and now it's my turn!!!

tartine's brownies

Hello, hello! It's been a little while since I last blogged. I'm afraid I've been in kind of a food rut since I made sugar cookies for Halloween. But have no fear! Matt and I stopped at the grocery store today and I have a few fun recipes in store for this week :)

I'm usually at somewhat of a loss as far as what to bake. I scour Tastespotting and Food Gawker throughout the week and constantly email myself recipes that catch my fancy. However, picking one is another story! Perhaps it was the overwhelming amount of cookies I've baked lately or the picture of ultra-fudgey brownies that caught my eye but a few days ago I proclaimed, "the next thing I bake will be BROWNIES!". I also knew I wanted fudgey, not cakey. Having remembered seeing JUST the kind on Technicolor Kitchen, I settled on her Tartine's Brownies.





Butter and chocolate. Be still my chocolate-loving heart!



The recipe required 5 eggs and beating them with brown sugar, salt and vanilla for five minutes. Then folding in the melted butter and chocolate.



Sift the flour...







Look at that crack! The crackly top of brownies are the BEST part!!!





These brownies did not hold back on the fudgeyness! In fact, Matt thought they might have been undercooked. But they're not, they're just that fudgey!! This is a great recipe and so easy to make.

Fashion.... 

Sometimes I forget that this blog is also a place to share my love of fashion and fitness and I just let food bully them out of the picture. Well, I want to share some pictures from a couple fun events I was able to attend in the last couple weeks.



Here are me and my friend Natalie at the Ford and Ching" Fall event that our friend Nicole invited us to. Natalie and I are hugging one of Scale 1:1's hug-able Supernova lights. You can read more about the event (and see if you can spot me in another picture) here!

Also be sure to check me out in this video from a past Ford and Ching event. I'm at (about) the 1:07 mark. I'm so famous now!



And here I am with blogger and fashion stylist extraordinaire Stylish Faith at the Elyse Walker website launch party. It was great hanging out with Faith and Natalie (unpictured) and spending the night surrounded by outrageously amazing fashions! The leopard print wedge booties (bottom middle and here) stole my heart!! But alas, with a price tag of $1,195.00 our love will never be. I will have to admire from afar...

I am very excited about an extra hour of sleep tonight (don't forget to set your clocks!!!) Nighty night :)

a quick, healthy lunch and halloween sugar cookies

I love making themed holiday treats! I'd been wanting to make Halloween cookies all week but finally found time for them yesterday.



But first, let's talk lunch. Yesterday's lunch took just a couple minutes to throw together and was pretty darn delicious :)

First I steamed some broccolini in a bowl with a tablespoon of water and saran wrap over the top, keeping one corner uncovered.





Then I added some leftover Harvest Grains Blend and already opened alfredo sauce.



I microwaved this for a minute or two then added some shredded smoked cheese blend, stirred and enjoyed :)







To be honest, the best part of this lunch was that it only dirtied one dish and sometimes that counts for a lot!

Now on to the sweet stuff:

Halloween Sugar Cookies!! 





I used this No Fail Sugar Cookie recipe from Lovin From the Oven. I've used a few of her recipes before and she always delivers! Her Oreo Chocolate Chip Cookies are still Matt's favorite cookies I've ever made.

I used a new technique of rolling out my dough between two sheets of parchment paper with a bottle of wine since I didn't have a rolling pin.



This worked really well! Especially since before I would flour the surface and rolling pin and everything would STILL stick and the cookie dough would end up too crumbly by the end from too much incorporated flour. I will definitely be using the parchment paper technique from now on.

I lightly floured my cookie cutters so that they wouldn't stick. I used a washed out PB jar lid for a circle since I didn't have a circular cutter.









Even though I halfed the recipe, check out how many cookies I made!





To decorate, I made a thick slurry of powdered sugar and milk that I piped out of the tip of a ziplock bag and outlined all of my cookies with it so that the next layer of icing wouldn't drip over the edges.



Next, I mixed up a more liquid version by using more milk to make white, yellow, orange and red icing.







The next step was pretty messy and I kind of did it in a hurry. I attempted to color in the lines. Clearly my cookie decorating skills need some work, hahaha!







What a delicious mess! I used the leftover parchment paper from rolling the dough out to spread the cookies on for decorating to make clean up a breeze. We had friends over last night before going out and the cookies were a hit! I'm not looking forward to the four miles I have to run today :/ But I AM looking forward to the West Hollywood Halloween Parade!!! I'll try to take some good pictures to post.