Oreo Overload

It feels so good to be home! I love knowing I have four long days to hang out with my family and soak up the holiday spirit. Yessss.

After arriving in St. Pete and catching up with my family for a bit, Ryan, my mom, dad, sister and I headed out to dinner at Alfresco, a restaurant located in the Vinoy, the gorgeous hotel where Ryan and I will be getting married in October next year.I wasn’t super hungry so I opted for a double order of the shrimp cocktail appetizer as my main course.

Shrimp Cocktail

I also had several bites of my mom’s entree which I thought was the best meal of the evening. 

She ordered an open-faced veggie sandwich on naan (oven-baked flatbread) with artichoke cream cheese. 

Open-Faced Veggie Sandwich

We also explored the hotel a bit to look at the holiday decorations. The florist who will be doing the flowers for our wedding actually decorated the Vinoy for the holidays, so we enjoyed looking at the decor. 

Christmas Tree Smiles

Crazies

When we arrived home, it was time for dessert! 

I made some Oreo balls, courtsey of Miss Jessica’s recipe. 

I started with a row of Oreo cookies which I whirred into crumbs in a food processor. (“Whirred” is a technical term. 😉 ) 

Oreo Cookies

Oreo Crumbs

I then added two big scoops of light cream cheese. Light makes it healthy, right? 😀 

Oreo Crumbs and Cream Cheese

Once a thick dough formed, I rolled it into little balls and stuck them in the freezer for 45 minutes to harden. 

Oreo Dough Balls

Some of these little guys definitely didn’t make it to the freezer. They got a little sidetracked by my mouth. 

After the Oreo dough balls were a little hard, I dipped them in melted white and semi-sweet chocolate chips. 

White and Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

Melted Chocolate

After the balls were coated in chocolate, I put them in the freezer for another 30 minutes until the chocolate was hard and the Oreo balls were nice and cold. 

Chocolatey Oreo Balls

These were delish! 

Though they were tasty, I must admit I prefer them dipped in white chocolate. We had them at the pre-tailgate party at my parents’ house this past weekend and they were fantastic! 

Oreo Soft Serve

All the Oreo business made Ryan crave some cookies ‘n’ cream ice cream. Since we didn’t have any on hand, I used the opportunity to make some Oreo soft serve using the cookies, vanilla ice cream and the food processor.

Pre-Blended

 

Blended Oreo Soft Serve

Cool 'n' Creamy Cookies 'n' Cream

This was so tasty! How have I never done this before???  

With a full belly, I’m off to relax with my family for the rest of the evening. Good night everyone!

Free Dried Plums 

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Dried Plums

 

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Hot Berries and Baby Names

Breakfast for lunch!

As I packed up my lunch this morning, I wasn’t feeling savory foods. I wanted something sweet!

Butter pecan Flax-Z-Snax hot cereal with warm berries sounded perfect.

Flax Hot Cereal with Berries

I enjoyed a bowl of hot cereal topped with frozen cherries, blueberries and raspberries that I warmed up in the microwave. Sweet and filling.

All Topped Off

I also enjoyed two Christmas cookies a coworker brought in to work today.

Christmas Cookies

The cookie on the right was unbelievably delicious! It was one of those fantastic no-bake chocolate peanut butter cookies. I know what goes into those cookies and it’s absolutely terrible wonderful!

I also snapped a picture of my mid-morning snack today.

The Elusive Snack Photo

Fage Greek yogurt topped with peanut butter. Creamy!

Top Baby Names of 2009

I know what you’re thinking… aren’t you engaged? Shouldn’t you be thinking about getting married before you begin thinking about baby names? Yes, yes of course I’m in full-on wedding mode, but I still cannot help but dream about my perfect baby name!

Itty Bitty Baby

I think most girls have their favorite baby names in the back of their mind. Mine have changed dramatically through the years. For girls I’ve loved Amy, Rachel, Jessica, Roxanne, Kailey, Bridget, Emma and more… For boys I’ve liked Bradley, Tyler, Connor, Caleb and Colby.

What’s your favorite baby name? Boy name? Girl name?

Throughout college (and even still) I’ve loved the name Reagan for a baby girl. I think it’s so beautiful. Unfortunately it rhymes with Ryan’s last name, so that’s out of the running now. 😦 Ryan suggested we name a a baby girl Reagan Megan to really torment her. Nice, huh?

According to an article published on MSN.com today, here are the top baby names for 2009:

Girl names:

Isabella
Sophia
Emma
Olivia
Ava
Madison
Madelyn
Chloe
Lily
Addison

Boy names:

Aiden
Ethan
Jackson
Jayden
Jacob
Noah
Caden
Logan
Lucas
Jack

Sandwich vs. Sammie Showdown

Yahoo! Today is my last day of work before four days off for Christmas!

I am so excited and anxious to get home to spend some quality time with my family, Ryan and Ryan’s family. I made sure to pack up my bags last night so we can grab-and-go when I get off work today.

Dead Gym

This morning the gym was a ghost town. There was only a handful of people there gettin’ their sweat on.

After BodyPump, I once again I listened to my sister’s iPod during my cardio session. Notable song of the day: “You’re The One That I Want” from Grease. A classic, for sure!

"You're the one that I want, You are the one I want, O o o honey!"

“I’ve got chiiiiiills, they’re multiplyin’! And I’m loooooosing contro-ol…”

Breakfast

I did it! I made it throughout this mini-week at home without going to the grocery store.

Breakfast today made use of food we had on hand. I enjoyed a Canadian bacon and Colby jack cheese breakfast sandwich on an Arnold honey wheat sandwich thin.

Breakfast Sandwich

These sandwich thins are delicious. I love how doughy they are.

Notice how I called this a sandwich and not a sammie. Well, Ryan forbid me from calling anything a sammie anymore because he says the word is ridiculous.

To be totally honest, I completely agree with him and had a bit of a blonde moment over this particular word. I honestly figured a sammie was like a mini sandwich.

What food slang do you think is ridiculous?

When I think of a sandwich I think of something really substantial with lots of meat, veggies and cheese. A sammie, to me, was just a toned-down sandwich.

After Googling the word, it seems like this particular variation on the word sandwich annoys a lot of people. It annoyed me too just to write it, but I thought I was differentiating between a big ol’ sandwich and a little baby sammie.

Now that I know I’m not, I’m back to enjoying sandwiches. 🙂

Healthy Holiday Appetizers

With the holiday season in full swing, parties and potlucks are springing up on everyone’s calendars. In my latest Examiner article I’ve included a list of healthy holiday appetizer recipes so you can bring a yummy dish that’s also good for you to your holiday parties!

Lemon Garlic Marinated Shrimp Appetizer (EatingWell.com)

Click here to check it out. 😀