nights with the girls

Yesterday my sister and I went out for a girls night with dinner and a movie. Of course it was me, so we went and got sushi. We have similar tastes so she was equally as pleased, but even with sushi it was a bit of an effort to make sure it was glutton free. Apparently soy sauce has wheat and soy (obviously), so she isn't supposed to eat it. And tempura breading is definitely not glutton free, and half the rolls have cream cheese, which is dairy. We half managed. She ended up eating a little tempura, but otherwise stayed good.

We started off with edemame for me.

And a seaweed salad for her.

Then we got three different crab rolls.

Sooooo good!

We were really full when we dragged ourselves to go see the Sorcerer's Apprentice. It was ok, but Nicolas Cage still can only manage to play one character.

While we were driving home a friend of mine from out of town called and said she was here. So I dropped my sister off at the house and went to go see her. We ended up going to Cook Out (never a good move) and getting milkshakes. Oh well, one bad weekend wont kill me.

cake pops!

I love sisters! Especially Especially when they inspire you to make things like this:

Yay cake pops! And they were super simple to make. It was awesome.

Red Velvet Cake Pops

1 red velvet cake- entirely cooled

1 8oz container of cream cheese (I used light)

1/2 cup powdered sugar

8 oz white chocolate

24 round popsicle sticks (or kabob skewers)

Beat the cream cheese and powdered sugar together until smooth

Break up the cake and add to the cream cheese mixture, blend until even and slightly sticky

Form 24 balls and set out on a wax paper covered cookie sheet

Push in one stick per cake ball, making sure it goes about 3/4 of the way through the ball

Microwave the white chocolate in 30 second intervals until melted

Dip cake in the melted white chocolate (I was having trouble melting mine, so I poured it over and then smoothed out the sides)

Place the covered balls back on the wax paper and refrigerate until the white chocolate sets

Eat in massive quantities

These were actually made with the recipe from the allergy-free Dessert cook book. It was pretty good, but personally I think the texture was a bit off. Despite that I'm still happy over all, the recipe just needs to be tweaked a little.

While I was waiting for the cake pops to set and before I could go get my sister I made myself a smoothie

It had strawberries, a scoop of protein powder, a couple ice cubes, a cup of unsweetened almond milk, and a touch of honey.

And I had a very minimal salad.

It was pretty sad. It only had romaine, green apple, and Annie's lite raspberry vinaigrette. Boo.

But I still can't get over the awesomeness of those cake pops! They were so yummy!

fall cakes in summer heat

My sister is coming in tomorrow! I'm so excited! And after various trips to three different grocery stores I finally found all the non wheat flours that I needed. I suppose that's what I get for being lazy. I went to closest stores first, not the one that I knew would most likely have it. Oh well. There went my afternoon, driving around in circles, in 100 degree heat... yeah.

Speaking of food...

I had this mostly good protein smoothie yesterday afternoon to combat the temperature outside. I think the recipe needs a bit a tweaking. I used 1 scoop of vanilla protein powder, 1 cup of spinach, 3/4 cup of strawberries, and 1/2 cup of unsweetened almond milk. Good, but not great.

For dinner I made up a fabulous Hawaiian salad.

It had yummy romaine, pineapple, ham, goat cheese, and a few white beans for extra protein.

I was feeling like something else as well, so what do I do? I make up this:

The easiest cake ever! Really, it's so so simple. Two ingredients and that's all.

Pumpkin Spice Cake Mix Cake

1 box spice cake mix (I used Duncan Hines)

1 15 oz can of pumpkin

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9"x13" pan with non stick cooking spray

Mix ingredients until smooth (2-4 minutes)

Bake for 25-30 minutes

I ate this plain in an attempt to save calories, but it would be really good with a cream cheese frosting, or a chocolate glaze, or pretty much anything else sweet and yummy.

I ate a piece before it had a chance to cool, so it was a bit crumbly. The picture isn't the best, but was still delicious!

I need to stop typing now because my finger is swollen. I don't know how it happened, but it hurts (sad face).