Colorful Food

For an appetizer last night I decided to whip up some Vietnamese spring rolls. I didn't follow a recipe, just kind of made it up as I went. Thought I would share it with the world because it was ABSOLUTELY delicious and healthy.

Ingredients

• Rice based spring roll wrappers
• Purple Cabbage
• Carrots
• Cilantro
• Radishes
• Olive Oil

 Instructions

First chop up the cabbage, carrots, cilantro, and radishes. Mix them together in a bowl with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Soften the rice based spring roll wrappers as directed on the package. For mine it meant soaking them in water for about 20 seconds. Put the softened wrapper on a tea towel and then add a scoop of the mixed ingredients to the center of the wrapper. Form the mix into a long oval shape. Then fold the sides of the wrapper closest to the ends of the mix in. Then roll the wrapper from one non-folded end to the other.

I served mine with some spicy peanut sauce that I found in the Asian section of my supermarket. I highly recommend coming up with your own spring roll with whatever veggies you have in your fridge. I also added a bit of leftover chopped up chicken breast in mine as well. Get CREATIVE!

Don't they colorful and scrumptious!

Ombre Cake

Over the weekend we celebrated two of our friends birthdays at a combined party. I had the esteemed honor of doing the cake. For a while now I have wanted to make an ombre cake for someone. I love to bake because I find it so relaxing and controlled. I spent all Friday afternoon and Saturday working on my masterpiece while watching reruns of Greys Anatomy on my ipad. I'll let you judge for yourself the cake outcome. It wasn't perfect but seeing as I am not a professional baker with professional tools, I think it was pretty awesome. And of course the birthday boy and girl loved it.

Since I was making a lot of cake I went with the box. YA YA I know...reminder not a professional baker and I don't have time to pretend to be one either.

I bought three boxes of vanilla cake mix. I made each of them on their own and then separated the batter into two equal parts. Once I had six bowls of equal batter I lined them up on the counter. Sorry I don't have a picture so you will have to use your imagination.

Once I had all six bowls I added green food coloring to each of them.

First bowl :10 Drops
Second bowl : 20 Drops
Third bowl : 30 Drops
Fourth bowl : 40 Drops
Fifth bowl : 50 Drops
Sixth bowl : 60 Drops

I took turns baking each one in my two cake pans. Once they were all cooled, I stacked them in the reverse order I had planned on for the final cake and put plastic wrap in between each layer. The deconstructed cake sat in the refrigerator over night.

In the morning I took the cake out of the fridge so it would be room temperature by the time it was served later that night. I made some home made butter cream frosting...3 full rations.

Frosting
2 sticks of butter
3 to 4 cups of powdered sugar
1 tablespoon of vanilla
3 tablespoons of heavy cream


I then started taking the cake apart from the top down and putting them onto a different plate one at a time frosting in between each of them.Once that was finished I frosted the entire outside.

Overall the cake was a huge success, even if it had its flaws. Here is a picture of the inside. It's a little sloppy but let's be honest cutting a cake always is.

Off to XCountry ski now! Gotta keep up with that fitness goal.

Sunday Funday Fitness Goals

Another weekend gone. Boo hoo back to work.  On the bright side, apparently we may get a snow storm on Wednesday which would be amazing because I could spend the day on the slopes.

For some time now I've been telling myself that I really need to start a regimented exercise plan. It's not just about losing some weight but also I've been feeling really out of shape lately. Since we are still actively trying for baby Cadman, shedding a few pounds could really help our chances too. Some of my future posts will be about some of the new changes I will be making to make a healthier lifestyle for myself.

Problem...
The hubs and I want a treadmill because we both love to run. However with the mortgage due we don't really have money right now to buy one that would last.

Solution...
Ever since I tried cross country skiing a couple of years ago I've wanted a set up for myself. I love  down hill but nothing beats a nordic workout. I went to our local sports consignment store and the awesome woman who owns the place got me all set up with a nice vintage pair of skis, boots, and poles for 47 bucks! They're aren't anything special but they work like a dream. Since the pond we live on is super frozen and attracts snowmobilers I have plenty of nice trails all carved out for me. I went out for a little while this afternoon and boy did I work up a sweat! I can't wait for tomorrow when I can really go out and cruise for a good hour.

I HIGHLY recommend this for anyone who lives around snow and is looking for a new workout. Especially since it was cheap, 47 smacks!  

...Oh and did I mention it's about 350 calories burned for every half an hour!

Funky socks felt appropriate.

Three Muffins One Box

On Sunday night I was feeling ambitious so I decided to make breakfast for the rest of the week. I'm an oatmeal girl through and through but I do have a soft spot for muffins. I decided to whip up a batch for me and the hubs for the week. I bought a box of muffin mix because I wasn't ambitious enough to do it from scratch. Being gluten intolerant, it can be hard to find the right kind of flour mixture that tastes great. Being that it was a last minute decision to make muffins in the first place, the box was going to have to do. Don't judge. I wanted to use random fruit I had laying around the kitchen instead of buying extra ingredients and spending money I don't need to.

As I was mixing the mix I thought that it would be pretty sad to eat the same damn muffin every morning. SO I came up with a solution.

First I separated the completed mix into three equal parts.

For the first mix I added about 4 tablespoons of Nutella. I then poured the Nutella muffin mix into a lined muffin tin, 4 compartments to be exact. Then, I thinly sliced some strawberries and layed them on top.

For the second mix I added half a cup of cranberries and half a cup of dried coconut.

The third was kind of a mash up of sorts. I really wanted a snickerdoodle type muffin BUT I had a banana that was starting to rot so I felt obligated to use it. So I ended up mashing the banana and adding it to the last bowl of mix with a handful of walnuts. Then I sprinkled in some cinnamon and dished it into the remaining empty compartments on the muffin tray. While the muffins were baking I made a brown sugar and maple sugar mix. Once the muffins were done and still hot, I lightly rolled the banana muffins in the sugar coating. So I ended up with a banana maple snickerdoodle muffin.

There you  have it... three muffins one box.

Happy Tuesday!!

Hi my name is Maxine and I am addicted to scarves.

Scarves scarves and more scarves...I have a healthy obsession. For as long as I can remember I've been wearing them. They're cozy and comforting. Most importantly, they take the attention off two of my least favorite body parts. My ladies...boobs...ta tas...whatever you want to call them. To all the gals out there who are large chested I know you can relate. Scarves also add a little extra somethin somethin to an outfit rather than adorning yourself with a statement necklace. Don't get me wrong though, I love a good flashy piece every once in a while. Since moving to frigid New Hampshire, I find that shrinking up like a turtle inside of my scarf is a nice way to embrace a cold gust of sub zero temperatures while walking to my car. Completely unrelated to NH...Scarves also offer a good place to hide when an unexpected emotional student come into my office and starts yelling. As a side note, others at work have noticed my obsession. I have been known to be called "scarf lady" from time to time by students and other teachers. I do however get many compliments on them and find that wearing a scarf gives me an edge and shows that I have some sense of style. I think. Funnily enough, recently a parent of a student wrote a letter to the local newspapers column saying how she felt that the teachers style at our school was sub par and recommended "the ladies pick up a recent issue of Vogue". I like to think she just hasn't seen me strutting my stuff down the runway hallway. 

Recently I've been feeling like my scarves are taking over my closet. I had originally been looping them around the rod which then resulted in all of my clothes being squished to one side...yes I do have that many. SO I did a little research on Pinterest and came up with a solution. A VERY cheap solution.

First, I bought two packs of shower curtain hooks. 

Home Depot - $1.16 for 12 hooks

Then I found a hanger that I wasn't already using and that has some strength to it.

Then I attached all of the rings to the hanger and then thread the scarves through them. For infinity scarves I just undid the ring first, put the scarf on it, and then clipped the ring on the hanger. Voila! Scarf cluster f*** in my closet solved. 

You may be thinking this chic does not have that big of a problem that's only like 20 scarves...To clarify, these images DO NOT include my wooly scarf collection. 

Have a great weekend!

Valentines Day

I couldn't be more excited for Valentines Day which is just around the corner. I've started to put up a few decorations around the house. I took a couple hints from Pinterest for my newest v-day creations.

Here is one of the jars I painted.

Yes...that babies breath is dried and yes it's left over from our wedding. Recycle much?

And of course no holiday would be complete in this cabin with a change of the chalkboard. So here it is...

More decorations to follow on the next post. 

Travels

Well we just got back from an AMAZING trip to England and Paris. It's so hard to sum up all the amazing things that we got to see and do. We spent most of our time in England with the hubby's family. He is originally from the mother land so when we go "home" to visit, it's always filled with so much love from all of his friends and family and of course food. His parents love to cook big meals for the big family and its always fun for me to get to indulge in some english cuisine. Yes...sometimes that does mean a tikka or another curry dish. We also got to go to Paris to visit my grandmother and help her celebrate her 50th year living in Paris. She threw a huge black tie party in true parisian style. It was so much fun getting all of our family together in the city of love.

Paris truly is the city of love. The beau and I spent hours upon hours walking the small streets of paris holding hands all the way through. Even though the weather was somewhat crummy, it being late December, the city was absolutely beautiful and romantic. Paris holds many memories of my childhood. Starting at a very young age, my parents would take my brother and sister and I there to visit my grandmother. It also reminded me of how much I miss living in the city and being able to walk to the nearest coffee house and sit for hours people watching. Now a days I "snowmobile watch" out of my kitchen window. Not as exciting.

My sister walking the streets with us.

Cafes cafes everywhere! Since it was chilly, heat lamps were above the outdoor tables so you could still enjoy the fresh air.

Color inspiration

My beautiful sister looking very Parisian.

Taking a cafe au lait break during one of our long walks.

The Eiffel Tower of course.

This was in England...well done silly coffee shop. 

Overall it was definitely a trip to remember. So sad that its over but I can't wait til next year when we go back again for new years for a BIG family wedding. 

Back to real life friends.