Fascination with Food Trucks..

I'm sure you have all seen a food truck within the last year, they have finally hit Wichita hard and they are popping up everywhere. I have a crazy fascination with them... I follow all of the local ones on facebook and am always keeping up with where they will be parked at next (is this weird???), even though I have only gotten to experience two of them, I just love the thought of them. I mean seriously, what a cool idea. I would totally love to own a food truck and drive around the city serving yummy goodness, yep could totally do it. Plus I love supporting local businesses and want to see them succeed. Sooo...my point of this post, if you haven't tried a food truck, it's a must do.



LA Street Taco with Avacado Salsa- OMG - BEST TACOS EVER!!!



Truffle Parmesean Fries..holy cow. Melt in your mouth goodness!



I first started following the bakery of Cake Face, then they got a truck and started serving food, and now I'm really obsessed.




Egg, Sausage, Cheese Bierock- absolutely delish.




Red Velvet Cream Cheese Pancakes...need I say more?!?



Merry CHRISTmas!

It's that time of year, the best time of year. These days the proper thing to say is Happy Holidays, we are actually instructed not to say Merry Christmas. Not me. I will continue to say Merry Christmas, and frankly I don't care if I offend anyone. The Holiday was created BECAUSE OF CHRIST. Jesus' birth on Christmas day, and without that day, none of us would be here. So I will continue right along with my Merry Christmas and I hope you do to!

I've been consumed with my new job the past month but have managed to get all my shopping done, and Christmas decor up, so thought I'd share a few pictures..now only if I had a few extra days off work...ahhhh so jealous of those that get off several days, next year, maybe next year....

So here is some random pointless information..just because I'm in the mood to blab. There is a new class at the YMCA called Fierce, and boy is it fierce! If any of you have tried the insanity DVD's, I'd say it is very comparable to those. So I have been trying to convince patty boy to try a class out with me, actually I've been begging him to. I mean a guy needs to see the pain that girls put themselves through! So me and my friend RaeAnn convinced our men to come with us yesterday, they both agreed as long as the other showed up. So all four of us (stuck right in the front row) did the class together. Let's just say Pat didn't move from the couch last night, and his exact words were, "I will never do that class again." Welp at least I got him to give it a try right?! It is a bit funny though... hehe.

We also had our annual "Christmas get-together" with our friends over the weekend. Well, in annual, I mean the last two years. But we hope to make this a tradition...to get our whole group of friends together a few weeks before Christmas every year. It was a fun night, and of course always good to see everyone! I then had my second Cookie/Candy exchange party of the year, and I made my hit concoction of the brownie covered oreos...yummm so good. I must say, I'm a little cookied out though... I need to figure out what to do with all of these sweets, any takers???

Hope you all have a wonderful week! We have our first Christmas this Saturday and I can't wait, I absolutely LOVE LOVE watching family open gifts! Here's to family, good times, laughter, and a lot to be grateful for!

Peanut Butter Brownie Oreo Cups

As I mentioned in this post last week, I went to a Cookie/Candy Christmas Exchange. I had several friends request the recipe for this yummy dessert so thought I'd share. I had originally found the recipe for the Oreo Brownie Bites but wanted to spice it up a bit and make it my own. I now for the life of me cannot find the website where I found the original recipe, so I will just share mine!

Such an easy dessert to make, and honestly it is simply amazing, my husband told me it is his favorite dessert I've ever made, which says a lot!:) Perfect recipe for a Holiday get-together!

Peanut Butter Brownie Oreo Cups

1 Box Triple Chunk Brownie Mix
1 Pkg. Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Mix
1 Pkg. Christmas Oreos (red center)
1 Pkg. White Chocolate Chips

Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 24 mini muffin cup tin. Mix peanut butter cookie mix as instructed on package, take 1 tablespoon of cookie dough and press into each muffin tin. Mix brownie batter as instructed on package. Dip each oreo into brownie batter, completely covering oreo. Then place covered oreo on top of peanut butter mixture. Bake for 17-18 minutes until completely cooked through. Immediately take a knife and go around the edges of each cup to ensure they do not stick. Once cooled remove each cup. Take the bag of white chocolate chips and put into a heat proof bowl and microwave until chips are completely melted. Then drizzle white chocolate across the tops of each brownie cup. Let chocolate dry. Enjoy!
*the oreo gets "cake like" as it cooks = soooo yummy when you bite into it!



Happy Holidays!

Breakfast Ideas

I love breakfast. I cannot start my day without breakfast. I'm seriously amazed when people tell me they don't eat breakfast, seriously how do they get by? It gives me energy, wakes me up, gets my metabolism going, etc. My go-to breakfast is eggs, I usually eat a lot of protein for breakfast so this is always an easy answer. But I will admit, eating eggs day after day gets a little boring. So I try to mix it up every now and then. I recently found this recipe on a blog I follow and thought I'd give it a shot.

Egg Whites and Broccoli Rice Cups

Recipe courtesy of Six Sisters Blog

I altered the recipe just a tad, see below with my version.

2 Cups Brown Minute Rice
1 Cup Water
2 bunches fresh Broccoli cut into small pieces
3/4 Cup shredded low fat mozzarella, separated
1/4 Cup Hidden Valley low fat Ranch
4 Egg Whites
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:
Prepare rice as directed on package. Place cooked rice in a large bowl and let cool slightly. Add the remaining ingredients, using only 1/2 cup of the cheese, and stir until combined. Transfer mixture to eleven well-greased muffin cups (I used a 12 cup muffin tin and only filled 11 of them). Top with remaining 1/4 cup cheese. Bake 15 to 20 minutes at 350 degrees or until tops are lightly browned and edges are starting to get crispy.

I figured the calories on these, which are 88 calories per cup, pop two of these in the microwave for a quick and healthy breakfast. I like to spice things up so topped with hot sauce. They were delish!

A little MIA....calls for a little TMI

I knew it had been awhile since I had blogged, but didn't realize how long until today, a little over a month since my last post, sheesh, where has the time gone?! Well..I'll tell you where the time has gone - it's called getting a new job, traveling every weekend, birthdays, Holidays, etc. etc. Finally feeling adjusted to the new gig, and feeling like my life is getting a little bit back to normal. Which means my friends, I have a lot to fill you in on.

I started a new job about a month ago, and it's been a whirlwind since, it's all for the better, but even though change is good, it is also sometimes extremely hard. You just get in this nice comfort zone, and the thought of leaving that and starting over again can just give you a big ole' knot in your stomach. I've been with the same company for the last four years and had made wonderful friends there, but I was ready for the next step in my career path so it was time move on. I put a tremendous amount of pressure on myself, pressure to always strive for more...so far the decision has been a good one and time will tell.

Patty boy's 28th Birthday was last Sunday, so after a great Thanksgiving we celebrated his birthday by doing a little shopping, brunch, and taking it easy. We also got the Christmas lights up, tree, and all decor up, LOVE this time of year! Christmas shopping is about 99% done, which makes for a happy girl. I love to have wrapped presents under the tree so I'll get to enjoy it all for a few more weeks. We got a group of our friends together yesterday for some more celebrating and had a great time. I got him an iPad for his b-day and that thing has not left his side, I must say it is pretty cool, it is great for using in the kitchen when cooking..which I did quite a bit of this weekend..which brings me to my next point.

My Aunt Tammy has a Christmas Cookie/Candy Exchange party every year and today was her 6th annual party. I was baking away last night and created the most amazing, scrumptious, dessert ever!



I found a recipe for Brownie Covered Oreos, but put my own little twist on them and put Peanut Butter Cookie Dough on the bottom, it was definitely a good decision- yum!

I'm so very much looking forward to the next month. Tomorrow I'm going to a Women's Seminar - Woven with a few good friends, very much looking forward to this. We have a Christmas Dinner Party planned with friends coming up, looking forward to Christmas lights, more fun times with friends and family, and hoping this beautiful weather will keep up. I've heard several people say they are ready for it to get cold, nope not me, I'd be totally content if it never got any colder than this! Lovin' it!

 Here's to family, friends, and remembering what this time of year is all about!