Snow days and Birthday parties

It is another snowy day here in the Sooner State and I am loving every second of it. Leisurely breakfasts, mugs of hot green tea, hanging out in my jammies all day, time to peruse the internet in search of the perfect summer vacation spot, all with a lovely white backdrop when I look out the window.

However, they have announced already that school is on for tomorrow! Seriously?! I know that we have already missed a record setting number of days, but really? The streets are covered in snow and there is no way my non-4 wheel drive car is even making it out of our garage. Lets hope that Mark makes it back from his morning classes early enough to make good on his offer to chauffeur me to my 3:00 class. What a gentleman! I suppose I should focus on the very few things I do not like about snow days in order to accept the inevitable of being forced out of my happy little snowed in home.
 1) I am so sick of running on the treadmill, seriously most boring thing ever. I could only make it through 30 minutes of the hour I was supposed to do yesterday and I'm avoiding today's hour and 10 minutes run like the plague. I will be happy when the snow melts so that I can run outside again!
2) The kitchen keeps calling to me. "Alllllisonnnnn why don't you come into the kitchen?....You are relaxing on the couch and should eat some more snacks!! We have all kinds of good things for you to munch on while sitting around all day!" So yes, snow days are an enabler for me to bake and eat too much. This is actually not such a bad thing since it seems like I could eat enough for an army with this half marathon training business, but I do feel bad for poor Mark who may have to eat dinner alone because I've ruined my appetite.
3) The puppy is stir crazy because he can't go on walks and despite my efforts he simply will not walk on the treadmill. This makes for a very riled up little dog.

After sitting here pondering what number 4 could be, I give up. There is just too much good about a snow day and too little bad to make me want to re-enter reality.

Last weekend, it was nice in the short reprieve of the snow to get to celebrate my friend Carissa's birthday!

Here we all are playing dress up from my apron collection so that we can whip up a batch of cupcakes in honor of the birthday girl! I decided that since it was Carissa that gave me the Babycakes cookbook that we needed to make something out of there so she could give it a try. I had everything for carrot cake cupcakes, so after checking in with the birthday girl to confirm that she in fact loved carrot cake, we set out to bake. As our dinner reservations were fast approaching we had to leave it to mark who was home studying to get them out of the oven. This would have been fine besides the fact that the recipe made 24 cupcakes and I decided to make 12 big cupcakes and use the rest of the batter for mini cupcakes.....without warning Mark that the mini-cupcakes would have come come out before the big ones. Alas, we we arrived back at the house to frost the mini cupcakes had been burned to a crisp :(
It was too bad but totally my fault to not think to tell him about the faster baking time! Thankfully the big ones turned out just fine. We all though they were the perfect amount of not too sweet.

Carrie Beth helped me to pick a pretty background for the cupcake's close up. The china doesn't get much daily love so I'm sure it was glad to help out! In the interest of saving time instead of making the frosting from the cookbook I bought a jar of the Cherrybrook Kitchen vanilla frosting. It was pretty runny to spread on the cupcake and didn't have the traditional fluffy frosting look but it tasted really yummy. I though it suited the cupcakes nicely because like them it was gluten and dairy free. I think I would have preferred a cream cheese frosting, which is the only kind of frosting I normally like. Overall this cupcake/frosting combo was very good. Not my most favorite Babycakes recipe to date, but still quite delish and I have high hopes for the red velvet cupcakes. Red velvet cake is something that Mark loves and I'm planning on making the cupcakes for Valentine's Day. I even found the all natural red food coloring at the health food store so I'm all set!

 I wonder if this winter really is a freak year or if it will start becoming normal for us to get this much snow so far south? I read that because of global warming the cold jet stream that is normally over Canada has been pushed down lower and lower into the U.S. leaving them without enough snow on their ski resorts and us with way more than we are used to! Funny how people are so quick to say Ha! Look how cold it is, there is no such thing as global warming! When really it is probably causing the crazy cold weather. As much as I love the snow, it is a little disconcerting. We really need to keep doing all we can to keep our Earth healthy! I hope that everyone who has to venture back out into the world tomorrow stays safe!

Snow day!

A snowy day it is here in OKC! I am loving being snowed in with my wonderful husband and puppy. Having school canceled is always a bonus as well. Actually, its not just the schools that are closed, the whole city is pretty much shut down and the news have deemed it a "white-out" and asked people not to go out because all of the blowing snow can disorient you, causing you to get lost in the blizzard. No need to convince me~ I don't plan on going anywhere today! Except for an adventure into the backyard to introduce Peanut his his first real snow. The results were hilarious.

First, Peanut ventures out to the end of the porch to check out the snow.

Then, he used his own body to sled down the steps and into the deeper snow on the ground.

"I'm not quite sure what to think about this white stuff but its fun to eat!"

Back up the steps to come in and put my coat on!

All ready to go back out!

Snow puppy!!

I do feel bad that Peanut has to be inside with us all day though. Usually he loves to go in the back yard and run around during the day to burn off puppy energy. Today he is stuck inside and wants Mark to play with him, which he can't because he needs to use today as a study day. Guess he will have to settle for me chasing him around the house. It will be good for us because I am known to get pretty antsy sitting around too much myself.  

Plus, the more I move the more muffins I can eat! I made blueberry mini muffins for us this morning to drink with our coffee (Mark) and green tea (me). I based the recipe on the one in the Babycakes cookbook, with a few changes. I added some lemon zest and lemon juice to add a little sunny zing to the frigid day. So good! I like muffins that are not too sweet, usually bakery cupcakes are nothing more than cupcakes without frosting. For breakfast I like something that won't make my blood sugar hit the roof first thing in the morning. These slightly sweet healthy little muffins are a perfect way to start out a snow day or any day for that matter! 

whole wheat mini blueberry muffins

 2 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/4 applesauce

2/3 cup agave nectar

2/3 almond milk (or whatever you have)

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon lemon juice

zest of one small lemon

2/3 blueberries

Preheat oven to 325. Spray or grease a 24-cup mini muffin pan.

In medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a small bowl combine the coconut oil, applesauce, agave nectar, milk, vanilla, lemon juice and lemon zest. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until batter is almost smooth. Gently, with a rubber spatula, fold in the blueberries. 

Pour the batter into the muffin cups, filling each to the top so that you end up with the fun little muffin tops after they have risen. Bake the muffins on the center rack. After 10 minutes rotate the pan 180 degrees and then bake for another 5 minutes. The finished muffins will bounce back slightly when pressed. 

Let muffins sit in the pan for about 10 minutes the move to a wire cooling rack. 

Speaking of good recipes, I tried a great one for seitan piccata on Friday night. Growing up, one of my brother and my favorite meals was the veal piccata that my mom made. Obviously, as I don't eat red meat anymore and Mark never ate veal growing up because of ethical reasons, we loved this meatless version of piccata! The recipe is from freakingdelicious.com, here is the link. She shows great step-by-step photos of the process.  http://freakindelicious.com/tangy-seitan-piccata/  I pared the wheat-meat with brown basmati rice and sauteed kale and spinach. Everything was topped with the delicious piccata sauce, I will for sure be making this again! We enjoyed some of the sauvignon blanc that I used in the sauce with dinner, but for the most part we just like red wine better! In fact I think I may just have to open a bottle for red to enjoy this snowy evening if find that we don't have school again tomorrow :) 

I doubled the recipe for the seitan and put it in the freezer for a future meal. This was my first time making seitan. To be honest I thought it would be really hard and there are so many methods to make it that I was a little confused with what the best way was. It turned out to be really easy though! I just simmered it, but next time I think I'll try the method  I have seen on a lot of blogs where you shape it into a sausage, wrap it in foil and steam or bake it. Hope everybody stays warm today and has fun in the kitchen, I know I will!