Broken Ankle, Bulls Game

Ryan lived with his cousin Daniel for 6+ years before Ryan and I moved in together. 

When Ryan and I were dating throughout college, I enjoyed many nights with these two as they cheered on their favorite basketball team, the Chicago Bulls.

A couple of weeks ago, Daniel broke his ankle in a soccer game and had to have surgery on it last week. Ryan, Sadie and I paid him and his girlfriend Courtney a visit this evening to watch the Bulls game and enjoy a yummy dinner.

Daniel and Ryan

Sadie even dressed up for the occassion.

Go Bulls!

#1 Fan

Apparently Sadie is quite the good luck charm because the Bulls won by quite a bit!

Dinner

When we arrived, Courtney had a delicious spread of appetizers waiting for us.

Appetizers

I had quite a bit of everything. Why are appetizers so good!?

I really liked how Courtney prepared the sliced cucumbers. She marinated the slices in a mixture of olive oil and red wine vinegar. They were delicious!

After about an hour, we were ready for dinner. 

Ryan and I brought over our BBQ meatloaf and everyone enjoyed several slices.

BBQ Meatloaf

We also had chiabatta rolls fresh from the oven.

Ciabatta Bread

 I love bread. 🙂

Dessert

Dessert was a combination of my spice cake mix cookies from this afternoon and a banana chocolate chip cake that Courtney baked.

I had a couple of slices of Courtney’s cake, which she made with yellow cake mix, three ripe bananas and chocolate chips.

Banana Chocolate Chip Cake

Slice Number One

It was fantastic!

Dessert is my favorite part of any meal.

Bye Bye Weekend

Is it just me, or did this weekend fly by?

I sure could use another day! I need to have a serious conversation with the guy that decided weekends should only be two days.

See ya in the mornin’ to kick off another work week!

Cookie Sunday

I know Tina is a big advocate of Cookie Friday, but in mi casa, today is definitely Cookie Sunday!

I’m in a bakin’ kinda mood. 😀

My kitchen bake-fest started with oatmeal almond chocolate chip cookies.

Rather than use plain roasted almonds in the cookies, I stirred in chopped Emerald cocoa roast almonds for an extra punch of chocolate.

Chopped Emerald Cocoa Roast Almonds

I mean, let’s be honest, who doesn’t need a little more chocolate in their life? 😉

Ready for the Oven

The cookies didn’t flatten out like I hoped they would, but they were still tasty and that’s what really matters, right?

Oatmeal Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies

I ❤ Full Cookies

Naturally I had to have one (and by one, I mean three) right out of the oven.

Ooey Gooey Chocolate Chips

Round Two

The second round of cookies I made were super easy!

At dinner last night, I told Tina about Funfetti cake mix cookies that you can make using a box of Funfetti cake mix and altering the amount of oil, eggs and water. Apparently she and her husband share my intense love for Funfetti cake!

Though I didn’t have any Funfetti cake mix on had (Blasphemy!), I opted to make cake mix cookies using a box of spice cake mix.

The beauty of cake mix cookies is that you can make them using any flavor of cake mix!

Spice Cake Mix Cookies

Before putting the cookies into the oven to bake, I topped them with a sprinkle of sugar to make them appear more “professional,” and therefore look like they’re much harder to make than they really are. The secrets of PBF… 😉

The cookies turned out moist and very tasty.

You can bet your sweet behind I had a couple of these fresh from the oven, too.

The Cookie Monster Strikes Again

Lunch, what lunch???

Odd little fact: Sadie loves spice cake cookies.

"Gimme the Cookie!"

Nom, Nom, Nom

Sunday Plans

Yesterday Ryan and I drove 45 minutes to pick up a full-size mattress and box spring set from a guy advertising the combo on craigslist for our spare bedroom. Unfortunately we brought it home only to realize it was an extra-long full. Not fun.

Today we’re heading out to pick up an actual full-size mattress. We made sure to ask for the measurements this time. 😉

After mattress and box spring fun, I’m cooking dinner to bring to a friend’s house tonight! Sunday night meatloaf, here I come!

Recipes

Oatmeal Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c. packed brown sugar
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 6 tbsp. butter, softened
• 1 egg
• 1/8 c. water
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. almond extract
• 1 3/4 c. old fashioned oats
• 1/2 c. flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 c. chopped cocoa roast almonds
• 1/2 c. chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat sugars, butter, water, egg and extracts until creamy. Combine oats, flour and baking soda and add to the creamy sugar mixture. Stir in almonds and chocolate chips. Drop by small spoonfuls on a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Bake for 10 – 12 minutes.

Cake Mix Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 box cake mix
• 1/4 c. water
• 1/4 c. oil
• 1 egg

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients and drop by spoonful on a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Bake for approximately 10 minutes.

Star Struck

Last night I was one lucky little blogger! 

I got to meet three wonderful women who are the authors behind three blogs I admire very much: Tina, Caitlin and Gina. 

Smilin' Bloggers

I have to admit, I was a little star struck! 🙂 It was neat to meet these women, whom I’ve admired for quite a while through Blog World, in person. 

Tina’s blog is the first one I started reading. I didn’t even know about food and healthy living blogs before I found hers through Health.com. Once I started following along, I was hooked! 

Our group met up at Season’s 52 in Orlando around 9 p.m. to enjoy a night of appetizers, dessert, drinks and fun! 

Tina and Caitlin

Me and Gina

Season’s 52 just may be my favorite restaurant. It is so delicious and the chefs prepare every seasonally-inspired dish with fresh ingredients. On top of it all, no dish at the restaurant has more than 475 calories. Sch-weet, huh? 

Since I couldn’t wait until after 9 p.m. to eat dinner, I ate before I met up with the group, but still saved room for a beer, some yummy appetizers and a mini-dessert. 

Miller Lite

The Spread

Desserts

My Canoli Dessert

It was so fun to be surrounded by bloggers! Finally I wasn’t the only crazy lady whipping out my camera to photograph everything! 

Bloggers in Action

All in all, it was a great night! 

Today 

I woke up nice and early today to meet up with two of my girlfriends for a 5k fun-run. 

I was a little sleepy since I stayed up with Ryan for a while after my night out at Season’s 52, but after putting my running gear on and acting like a total ham for the camera, I felt much more energetic. 

Ready to Ruuuun

(I think Sadie wanted to run too, huh? Oh, and don’t worry, no stuffed cows were harmed in the taking of the above photos. 😉 ) 

I left around 7:45 a.m. to head out to a nearby lake to meet up with my friends Laurel and Merri. 

The 5k was very informal, not timed and super fun! (My kinda race!) I ran with my friends and we chatted the entire time. 

We still managed to work up a sweat, but had a great time doing so. 

Merri, Me & Laurel

Breakfast 

By the time I got home my tummy was grumblin’. 

I made my self a quick breakfast of scrambled eggs with portobello mushrooms, cauliflower and Laughing Cow light French onion Swiss cheese. 

Cookin'

Mo' Cheese, Please

Breakfast!

I’m off to the grocery store with Ryan to stock up for the week!