YourDailyGrace

 It’s official. I’m obsessed with Pinterest, Yes, it is neat to share and repin but I love using it as a recipe bookmarking tool! Since last week when I started to regularly stalk pins use Pinterest I have made several recipes! Somehow having the luxury of seeing a snap shot of the recipe instead of looking at a title in a bookmarks menu pushes me to try new recipes and I’m not going to complain about that! However, that doesn’t mean that they all turned out well…in fact some turned out wonderful but unfortunately some also turned out horribly. Let’s start at the beginning…Valentine’s Day seemed like as good a day as any to try out a few recipes and let’s just say at least I got breakfast right.

Rob wasn’t exactly blown out of the water by this girly gesture but I thought it was adorable. You’ll notice my pin only shows the bread and egg but that won’t cut it for Rob. He is a two egg and roast beef sandwich kind of man so I made it work for my Valentine!

    My next big Valentine’s gesture, the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach (right?), was to make ice cream for the first time in my Kitchenaid attachment I got for Christmas. The day before I had pinned a recipe for Nutella Banana Ice Cream, which I cannot relocate for some reason. I delete pins that don’t produce great results because I don’t want to endorse something I didn’t even like. However, I will add that it might have has nothing to do with the recipe itself and everything to do with the fact that I don’t love banana.

The scene of the crime.

     I’m really proud of myself for using my ice cream maker and I think the consistency of the ice cream was great! It was the flavor that was bad. Here was my thought process as I tried the first bite, “hmm Nutella…here comes the banana flavor, not bad…oh god the banana flavor is getting worse…gross, gross, gross….someone please get me something to get this taste out of my mouth!” Rob insisted it wasn’t that bad and he would eat it and not to throw it away. He didn’t eat any and I threw it away yesterday to make room in the freezer and I say good riddance. I found and pinned a recipe for frozen yogurt that I’m hoping will turn out  better   when I try my hand with the ice cream maker again next week.

     My next recipe disaster also took place on Valentine’s Day, this time I royally ruined dinner. I had class that night so we decided not to do the whole out to dinner thing and instead just relax, mak dinner and watch The River, Rob’s new obsession. Well turns out watching the River was the only thing in the cards for our night because I was less than relaxed after ruining a batch of Lightened Up Fettuccine Alfredo, I also can’t find the recipe I used because there are a million others on Pinterest. This is the point at which I had a complete break down and turned into a crying mess and picked a fight with Rob by saying something along the lines of, “it’s not a special night anyway.” It wasn’t one of my best moments. And yes. I’m a bitch.

     I worked myself up so badly that I actually felt sick to my stomach and then insisted that I “wasn’t hungry.” Jimmy John’s to the rescue. I order Jimmy John’s as I sat in my room sulking and luckily by the time it arrived I had cooled down and decided I might eat just a bite ( or the whole darn sandwich). I felt much better after eating and decided not to subject myself to choking down any of the gross banana ice cream. So naturally we went and got Jeremiah’s instead. We are the picture of romance.

Pure Valentine’s Romance. Jimmy John’s in bed.

Here’s the beautiful flower Rob got my for my desk!

     The next day I was feeling down but certainly not out and decided to try another recipe, Boyfriend Friendly Black Bean Burger from Eat, Live, Run. Rob didn’t think they tasted as fresh as Mama Pea’s Thai Veggie Burgers  but I liked them a lot more. I’m still on the search for my go to recipe though!

I snacked…and drank a bit while making up the burgers. Those chips are amazing by the way!

Rob likes his burgers very plain with cheese and a little BBQ sauce.

I skipped the burger route and crumbled mine on top of romaine with a dollop of salsa and sour cream to make an amazing taco salad!

     On a high from making my second successful recipe I want on a baking bend the next day! I made Chubby Hubby Bars from The Country Cook and Averie’s Baked Vanilla Donuts. They were both great! The only changes I made was white chocolate chips instead of peanut butter chips and M&Ms instead of chocolate chip in the bars because it’s what I had around.

B.T. Before toppings.

And after..that’s better!

Consider yourself warned that these are salty, sweet and completely addictive.

I used my doughnut pan for the first time!

Hmm…icing.

So pretty…and delicious! The sprinkle ones were for Rob.

Although the donuts were great I’m excited to try Averie’s Cinnamon Bun Donuts with Cream Cheese Glaze because I thought the powdered sugar was a bit too sweet for me, plus I’m a huge cream cheese fan! And also…do not put these in a tupperware container! I ruined about three of mine by doing so. Just cover them lightly with plastic wrap or foil once the glaze is all set!

Well that’s all for my recipes for now but I will keep them coming thanks to Pinterest! Time to actually accomplish some school work today!

Questions!

Do you use Pinterest?

If so what’s your favorite part? 

Any recipe suggestions?

If only that were an easy thing to do lately. In case you haven’t experienced it yet, the last semester of senior year can also be known as the semester of interrogation. Be prepared for everyone and anyone who finds out that you’re graduating to quiz you on your future plans and then tell you how silly and unrealistic said plans are.

Unfortunately I had one of these experiences, a rather long one actually,  just this weekend. And you know what? It sucked. Bottom line is that I haven’t the slightest idea of what I’ll be doing when I graduate BUT there is one thing I doI know. I’ll figure it out.

I whole heartedly believe happiness is most important. If you’re not happy then you need to change something becasue no one is going to change it for you. Your version of happiness is not my version of happiness, they quite literally may be opposites. So for now I think I’m done even entertaining the idea because  the resulting anxiety manifests it self not just emotionally but physically as well. I’ve wasted enough of my life worrying about the future already and I have much more important things on my plate, like all the group projects my professors have decided to inflict upon me.

On a far more positive note, apparently cooking and baking is a real stress killer for me. So yesterday I made not one but two new recipes! For dinner I whipped up some Thai Veggies Burgers and for dessert/breakfast/snacks some PB&J Cupcakes, both courtesy  of Mama Pea!

Although I’d usually include the recipe I’d rather encourage you to purchase Mama Pea’s Book! But if you see these recipes and want to make them NOW, a simple google search is all you need to do. But seriously, buy this book for yourself and a friend!

Okay, confession time: I like the cupcakes way more than the Thai Burgers.Not that they weren’t great, because Rob loved them. So much so that he asked me where I bought the burgers from and didn’t believe me when I told him they were homemade. But more due to the fact that I have the palate of a 5 year old. There were just too many flavors going on, it was too complex for me so I ended up dipping it in my beloved BBQ sauce. The cupcakes on the other hand were right up my ally! I didn’t make them fully vegan because I used organic milk instead of soy . And I’m pretty sure Mama Pea didn’t intend for them to be enjoyed with a glass of milk… but I would highly recommend it.

I hope this post wasn’t too harsh for anyone out there but I really needed to get those feelings off my chest! And if you’re just dying  for  more cheesy motivational quotes, I’m a sucker for them so my Heart is full of, “words to live by.” I’m going to squeeze in a little nap in before yoga since I was up late studying for the test I had at 7:30 this morning-which I think I rocked by the way! Have a great day and remember…