Growth

Happiest Monday to you!

Thanks for all the happy tweets and messages for this past weekend’s baby shower.  It was wonderful and I feel so blessed to have my awesome bestie Andrea make it happen   Hugs to you A!!!

The last few days have been a whirlwind of activity, but yesterday we were able to spend a little time indulging and relaxing which meant a trip to Chevy’s (A’s fave Mexi restaurant) and then to Yoppi for some froyo.  Mexi and froyo in one day?  Talk about winning!  I didn’t take pictures – lame, but I was so over it.  However, this is what I ordered:

Hot damn, these were good.  Apparently I need to go to Chevy’s more often!

Froyo was also lovely.  I almost went back for seconds.  You see, I did my normal taste test and they just happened to have pumpkin pie flavor.  It was tasty.  But then that need for chocolate toppings took over (Shayla knows what I’m taking about) and I went with cookies and cream topped with cookie dough, butterfinger, reeses pieces, and oreos…and some caramel sauce   Well then after I was done, I was thinking of an awesome combo:

• Pumpkin pie froyo topped with cinnamon life crunch, granola, and graham crackers crumbs, drizzled with caramel sauce—>  Tell me that doesn’t sound like perfection?!?!  Sigh.  Next time.

Okay so yeah, yesterday alone could cause any waistline some growth, but I’m talking about some other kind of growth.  You know – that baby kind? 

Last week I snapped a picture (30.5 weeks) and recalled a picture I took in July when I was about 17 weeks, wearing the exact same jeans.  Check out how much GROWTH I’ve had …  MEEEP!

Yowsa right?  I have to say, I sort of love the belly.  Maybe not the bigger arms or thighs, but I do love the belly

Alright, tell me what maybe made your pants stretch a little this weekend?

What part of your body do you love?

WIAW: Indian food meet-up and blogger “sweet swap” recipes

Clever title eh?  When in doubt, just throw it all up there, right?

My big ‘eats’ disappointment this week was scheduling a special lunch date to Hobees so I could devour some seasonal carrot cake pancakes only to be told they didn’t serve them for lunch.  Um say what?  It’s a diner and you serve breakfast all day.  Sigh.  I ‘settled’ for sweet potato pancakes

This isn’t exactly What I Ate Wednesday, but I’m sure Jenn and Peas and Crayons won’t mind!

Guess what I’m doing tonight though?  I’m meeting up with the gorgeous and sweet Shayla from The Good Life   We are trying a new contemporary Indian restaurant called All Spice in the SF Bay Area (<—go ahead and click to see the menu!).  It’s Shayla’s first foray into Indian food and I’m happy to lead her to the dark side…mwuahahahaha.  We have already talked about ending the night with froyo.  We’re well-balanced like that.

And in lieu of Amy and Jess’s 2^nd Blogger Sweet Swap, I made something special for my paired-up-partner Elizabeth at Random Stupidness, I made something based on her desires.  She noted she was a fan of chocolate – dark, no milk!—and, of course, pumpkin!

One of my favorite pumpkin recipes just happens to be the photo header in my blog and is courtesy of YumSugar.com.

So without further adieu, I show you Fluffy Pumpkin Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies:

You’ll have to click for the recipe, but note my substitutions:

• I did not have any nutmeg, so I just doubled my cinnamon – because you can never have enough cinnamon!
• I used 1.5 cups of dark chocolate chips (no milk)
• Yield was about 36 cookies (hard to know when your hubby keeps stealing them off the cooling rack!)

Pictures of the yumminess:

Are you participating in the Blogger Sweet Swap?  If so, what are you making?

Have you made a new blend (blogger friend)? 

WIA(last Saturday)W

Well hi there!

Fall is in the air and that makes me a happy girl. I even broke out the boots and leggings – for work! Gasp!  Pregnancy makes me do funny funny things people.

How many of you love knowing just what you’ll post on Wednesdays thanks to Jenn at Peas and Crayons?  I know it’s one less thing for me to worry about!

Continuing on with my Dad’s visit, I wanted to highlight a few other fabulous eats we devoured ate over the weekend

Let’s start with pie, shall we?

Waaaay back in my highschool days, I made a sweet potato pie for some school assignment and ended up baking an extra one for my Dad.  Without fail he brings this up as one of his favorite pies of all time. 

Since I had trouble finding the original recipe, I found a very similar recipe for sweet potato pie here that I modified slightly:

• Instead of sweet potatoes, I used yams – about 2 large ones = 2 cups mashed
• In lieu of light cream, I used half and half (evaporated milk would work too)
• I upped the cinnamon to 1 heaping rounded teaspoon because cinn rocks

The result: deliciousness.  This may rival my absolute all time fave of pumpkin pie!

And while we’re on the Fall theme, how about we revisit the pumpkin salsa sop I’ve made in the past?

The recipe is from Hungry Girl though I always adapt things. This time I followed it pretty much the same way, but upped the garlic, added a green pepper and some onions.  And of topped with toasted pepitas and mexi cheese   The beer bread is also super easy – just 3 cups self-rising flour, 3 tbsp granulated sugar, and 1 bottle o’beer, baked for 40 minutes at 360 deg.

And despite the filling meal, we still made room for froyo at Yoppi’s in Palo Alto.  My bowl is the bottom center one which was cheesecake froyo topped with cookie dough, brownie bits, heath pieces and Butterfinger pieces.  Across from mine is Naava’s vanilla froyo – yes we bought froyo for our dog to enjoy

Not be forgotten was Saturday’s lunch which was In’n’Out per my Dad’s request.  I was appalled at the calorie counts that they now put on their menu and opted out of the 590 calorie stawberry shake and stuck with light lemonade and a grilled cheese.  Tasty!  And now I’m not due for fast-food for another 1.5 years or so

Tell me, what was the best thing you’ve eaten?

Do you buy your pets human treats?

Favorite flavor of pie?  I looooove pumpkin pie, but the pie above certainly rivals it!