0 Heath Bar Cake

I made this cake for my dad's birthday last weekend.  This cake is a secret family recipe!  So I probably shouldn't be sharing it...but it's just too good not to share. We call it "Aunt Dawn's Wacky Cake".  Not because she's wacky but because the recipe doesn't call for any eggs!  Who has ever heard of a cake with no eggs?  Anyways, this it the most MOIST cake I've ever had.  I'm not a huge cake fan, but this is a favorite.

Recipe- 

3 c. flour

2 c. sugar

3/4 c. oil

2 Tbs. vinegar

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

6 Tbs. cocoa

2 tsp. vanilla

2 c. cold water

Mix it all together in a large bowl.  Make sure you add in the baking soda and vinegar on top of each other to get those bubbles going before stirring it in with all the rest.  

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit in a bundt cake pan for 35-40 minutes.  In my experience, it always needs the full 40 or a few minutes more but it depends on your oven. Just check with a toothpick!  

Topping-

1 pint whipping cream

1/2 jar caramel sauce (or add as much as you want to taste)

Heath bar chips- about 2/3 bag in the whip cream mix and 1/3 bag on top

Beat the whip cream with beaters until it is whip cream consistency.  Don't add any caramel until you get to this point!  (Made that mistake once, you get a syrup instead of something thick enough to stay on the cake)  Fold in the caramel and heath chips once you've got your whip cream.  

Be prepared to be asked to make this again! 

0 Recipe!

This recipe is from the blendtec recipe book and my changes are in parenthesis.
Recipe:

1/3 cup orange juice (I used kern's strawberry banana juice this time)
1 cup low-fat vanilla yogurt (I used greek yogurt for more protein, less sugar)
2-3 tbs agave nectar
3 cups frozen strawberries

Blend it all up and serve!  Use it all the time to satisfy my never ending frozen yogurt craving.

0 Our weekend

Friday:

Leslie got married!

Saturday:

 Yup, he'll make one good looking daddy in the future.

Mike and Tiffany's little girl Kendyll Hannah Braithwaite. 17.5 inches and 7.5 oz.  Cutest baby.

I am in love with her hair! She is so adorable.  

Sunday: 

Lindsey turned 15. I thought she was turning 16. Whoops.

                           

Tuesday: counts as the weekend because we both had the day off work.

City Creek!

School starts in two weeks.  How did that happen?  Also, I'm taking the GRE next Tuesday.  I keep having nightmares I fail. 

0 Pasta and meatballs

For these recipes I combined and tweaked recipes I found on this website and this blog (one of my favorites).

Pasta: 

Ingredients

• 12 ounces whole wheat penne
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
• 8 ounces button mushrooms, sliced
• 2 medium tomatoes (about 1/2 lb.) chopped
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 4 cups fresh spinach
• 1/2 cup marinara sauce
• 1/3 cup 0% plain Greek yogurt
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

Instructions 

1. Cook penne according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain and set aside.
2. In a large skillet with a lid, heat olive oil over medium-low heat. Add in garlic and red pepper flakes, cook for 2 minutes or until garlic begins to soften.
3. Add in mushrooms, tomatoes, salt and pepper. Cook for 5 minutes, or until mushrooms begin to release their water.
4. Turn heat up to medium-high and add in shrimp. Cook for 1-2 minutes, or until shrimp are pink and opaque. Remove from heat, add in spinach and cover skillet. Let spinach wilt for 2 minutes.
5. Remove lid and place skillet back over low heat. Add the penne, Greek yogurt and pasta sauce. Stir until sauce is mixed well and all pasta and veggies are coated. Heat until just warmed through. Divide into pasta bowls and serve topped with parmesan cheese. 

Meatballs

• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 1 tsp. thyme
• 1 tsp. rosemary
• 1 tsp. oregano
• 1 tsp. basil
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 c. fresh whole wheat breadcrumbs

To make the bread crumbs I just pulsated the bread I had on hand in my mini food processor.  

To make the meatballs, put your meat in a bowl and add in all the spices and bread crumbs.  Mix it all up with your {clean} hands and then roll into little balls.  Put into the oven at 400 F and cook for about 15 minutes.  These are super easy and yummy!

0 Coeur D' Alene: Day 3

This is the day grandma jumped in!  She usually just watches. It was quite the event.

 My nasty spider bite.

We love the lake!

0 Coeur D' Alene: Day 2

Woke up early-ish and went on a nice and sweaty bike ride around the loop that goes by my grandparent's house!  Of course the morning wouldn't be complete with out a zip line ride.

 

Finally, after boat prepping and packing lunch we made it out on the lake! 

This is the view of my grandparent's house from our boat.  Just kidding, I wish!  It's ridiculously huge.  Mark promised we'd buy it as soon as we get rich.

The day was spent wakeboarding, kneeboarding, tubing, and skiing.

Pretty stoked about tubing

"I just want to go a little bit faster..."

  

  

  

Ended the night by sneaking out with dad and jamie to get the famous 'gooey' from the resort.  Mark was skeptical about all of us sharing "just one".  The four of us could barely finish it.

0 annnnndd....i'm home :(

I was definitely more sad than I thought I would be coming home from Coeur D' Alene.  But you really can't blame me.  Who would trade all-day boating, sun, and beach for being stuck in an office all day?  Nobody.

We left late Friday night after Mark got off work.  Threw the bikes and a little brother in the car and we were off!

Sadly, our boating plans were ruined when we woke up the next morning to pouring rain.  Instead we saw Men in Black 3.  As soon as we got to the theater, it was way hot outside and we were regretting our choice to see a movie.  It turned out to be okay though cause post movie it was a down pour again! It was still raining come dinner time so we took our grilling party inside to the garage.

The next morning we went to church and started the drive.  Half hour into it we look in our rearview mirror and see that Mark's mountain bike is hanging halfway off the bike rack.  Luckily we had some bungee cords so we were able to fix it. Then came the rain. Again.  I've never seen so much rain in my life at one time!  It was literally a white out on the freeway from rain.  We were going about 10 mph and were scared to death a semi would hit us from behind since you couldn't see anything in front of or behind you. But all turned out fine and we got to my grandparent's house Sunday night!  

Probably not what you picture when you think of Idaho huh?

The world's longest floating boardwalk

We went for a much needed walk around the lake by city beach and the resort.  Then we ended up playing this awesome {weird?} old fashioned game my mom bought at colonial days.

You just stomp on that little wooden board thing to pop up the ball so you can hit it with your paddle.  Whoever gets your ball is up next IF they can roll the ball through the grass and hit the wooden board.  It's a lot harden then it looks, trust me.  The grass was soggy and bumpy and muddy and I missed the target from like two feet away.  Maybe multiple times.  

And that about wraps up day 1!