Dark Chocolate Zucchini Snack Cake

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup Dark Chocolate Cocoa Powder

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 egg whites

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 cups finely shredded zucchini

6 oz. container low-fat vanilla yogurt

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9 inch metal baking pan and line the bottom with parchment paper; grease the parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
3. Using an electric mixer, beat the sugar, eggs, and egg whites for 3 minutes.
4. Whisk olive oil into egg mixture. Stir in zucchini.
5. Stir in flour mixture and yogurt alternately in 2 batches. Mix until well blended and then transfer to prepared pan.
6. Bake until springy to the touch and cake tester comes out with moist crumbles, about 35 minutes; let cool slightly. Serve warm.

tip: i've been topping mine with greek yogurt, walnuts, and local honey.

10 things i couldn't live without this week:

1. beach days with a friend that is leaving for a little while. can't wait to see you again.

2. the major pile of treasures scored this week. i spent way more that my yard sale budget, but my favorite lady and her man were here and that meant thrift stores and flea markets galore.

3. my favorite lady and her man were for 4 days. best week ever.

4. bad itchy sunburns and the adventure walks on the beach.

5. skype.

6. this fantastic website that i just discovered and this cutie pie dress that i can't wait to get.

7. the hubs momma was in town friday night. which meant saturday morning yard sales. this is one of my favorite things to do, this woman knows just how to yard sale.

8. ring pops and pride fest.

9. saturday nigh cook outs with grilled zucchini.

10. my new favorite sweet treat....dark chocolate zucchini cake, this may replace the brownie.

thrifty finds.

this is from last weeks yard sales. i spent a whooping grand total of $2. small brass mirrored box, 3 vintage flower frogs, 2 tea towels, tin (that might be a gift for a friend), and belt. not bad for $2.

i want that art.

(source)

i am so proud to feature Brandon McClean as the artist responsible for the first post in this new column. Brandon has been a long time friend of me and the hubs, and on top of that quite the accomplished homegrown artist.

this piece is called 'Everything Good Dies Here, Even The Stars' and is 36"x28" (and would look amazing in my house).

Brandon also writes a great blog called My Hungry Years that is full of beautiful and inspiring images mixed with brandon's art work.

mini stay-cation

my favorite little lady and her man friend came for an impromptu mini stay-cation. i have been busy laughing so hard i can barely contain myself.....and my bladder. by the way, is everyone reading tuesdays with johnny yet? because you should and don't for get to send your tuesdays.

10 things i couldn't live without this week:

1. i received one of the nicest text messages this week. i think that friends should say more things like this to each other. i have been trying to pay it forward ever since this showed up in my inbox:

ma weeks: "addicted to your blog and have fallen more in love with you. really want to see your clothes. i've always wanted to make my own too! you are inspiring!"

2.seattle's best #3. loving that seattle's best coffee finally made buying coffee easy. i always get sucked in to the pretty labels and fufu flavors, but when it comes down to it, i just really want a good cup of medium roast coffee.

3. dino tails.....and the cuteness that ensues when the boy wears his all day. this is hands down on of my favorite things that i have ever made.

4. eggplant dip. the awesome melissa testa of gourmet all the way shared this recipe with me. it was so delicious and so easy. it was the first time i had ever cooked with eggplant, so i was a bit intimidated, but it's all apart of the new plan. next on the list of veggies to try...yuca.

5. the new plan (nice segway right?). i always have tried to balance the healthy with the indulgent. the new plan involves a major swing in the ratio between real food that grows to processed foods. so far it's been a lot of fun stepping outside my culinary box.

6. kleenex. for my snot nosed monster.

7. surprise visitor ryan mcclean.

8. the last ballet class of the semester. i am so sad that class is over for the next few weeks. i met some really amazing women in that class (even though they were all over the age of 65), and can't wait to spend my saturday mornings with them again.

9. a giant $3 yard sale score. you wont believe all the stuff i found. pictures soon.

10. a fantastic family fun weekend. it was full of walks and throwing rocks into the inter-coastal and bike rides and amazing dinners. can't wait for the next one. hope you all had a great weekend too.

brainstorming

the hubs company hold an annual conference at the beautiful long boat key club. that weekend getaway always sneaks up on me.

for the few weeks of cool weather that we get way down here in the tropics i like to allow myself to hibernate (ie. not shave my legs, get fat, and majorly pasty)

every year the motivation to get my butt in gear (and in the sun) is the culminating event of this conference. the formal awards ceremony. that's right.... formal! well as formal as a bunch of restaurant executives get. every year i get so excited about putting on the dress and the makeup, and seeing the hubs in something fancier than a polo. yet every year i feel like i play it a little safe with my wordrobe.

since i have been so inspired to sew lately....here's what i am thinking for this year:

(source)

so i want to make a skirt like this. but not so heavy. i am thinking a silk chiffon, and possibly multiple layers. and the beautiful tropical watercolored fabric that i fell in love with is no longer available. i am debating dying my own. thoughts?

please let me know what you think! all feedback is encouraged and needed! i am still on the fence about wether or not i can pull it off.

RAWWWRRRRR!

i mean raw!

haha... so there has been a lot of question about this raw veggie pizza i've been making lately, so i thought i would break it down for you.

there really isn't much of a recipe to share here, but i can tell you how i make it.

for this particular pizza i used:

carrots

cucumbers

cauliflower

brocoli

green peppers

corn

portabella mushrooms

homemade banana pepper relish

left over salmon

the "sauce" is made of :

1 part plain cream cheese

1 part onion and chive cream cheese

salt

pepper

greek seasoning

parsley

for the crust i use a pre-made boboli pizza crust. (i know this totally goes against the new plan, but lets just face it, some processed food is there to make a mom's life easier).

here is just how easy it is.

1. pre-heat oven to the specific directions for the pizza dough/crust of your choice.

2. mix all the ingredients for the cream cheese spread.

3. toast pizza crust and then let cool for about 15 min.

4. spread on cream cheese

5. load it up with all your veggies (i like to give the pile a good press into the cream cheese to help hold it all in place)

so that's it. super easy. get creative. i have made this many ways with many different veggies. it's always delicious! as a side note, i usually cut extra veggies and make more cream cheese sauce than i need to have as a snack for the boys, the sauce makes such a great veggie dip.

there are three things that i wish that i could do right now:

1. go get a massage

2. go surfing

3. go get a pedicure

BUT i feel so guilty getting a babysitter for any of those events, so instead i will sew.

so excited!

this is how excited i am about my new wireless remote for my camera! the boy likes it too.

...and then there were 12.

so i have been feeling a sense of triumph lately with my plants. i have never had much of a green thumb, as a matter of fact i could kill about any plant you put in front of me. but at the end of my pregnancy we bought a tiny tiny aloe plant. it was about 3" tall. it was more of a cute joke than a serious gardening endeavor. but over the past two years, my has that thing grown. it's now about 2 feet tall and recently blossomed. (i am not going to lie, i didn't actually know that aloe blossomed until this happened.)

so with the internal gloat of this aloe success, paired with the other small success of not killing any other plants recently i decided it was about time to venture into edible gardening. deep down inside i would love to have this huge lush garden of fruits and veggies to fest on. so i bought a tomato plant. i decided on one that was already a full grown plant and had a few tomatoes on it, just to see if i could keep it alive. starting from a seed seemed a little too advanced just yet. so for the past few weeks i have meticulously cared for this plant. i didn't realize just how hard it was to keep a healthy tomato plant. there are so many factors that i didn't expect. but despite all the challenges i would say that i am doing pretty good. the plant started with three tomatoes, then i had 16. one morning i went out to check on the plant, and low and behold after counting and recounting and recounting again, there were only 15. my plant must have fallen prey to that damn possum that lives in our back yard. i grieved for a moment for the fallen tomato, but quickly recovered. and everything was looking great until yesterday.

after a beautiful afternoon of tending to my "garden" and playing outside with the family, we had a 3 tomato tragedy. and this time it was my own clumsy fault. that's right i accidentally broke 3 tomatoes right off the plant. i almost cried. i am keeping them in the kitchen window sill to see if they will ripen anymore so that they don't go to waste. if not i guess we will be having some fried green tomatoes soon.

but for now, we are down to 12.

10 things i couldn't live without this week:

1. irish fest! still can't believe that i got to see paddy noonan and he remembers my great grandmother! paddy is an irish entertainer who also does guided summer bus tours of ireland. my great grandmother went summer after summer for longer than i can remember, and her last tour she brought me with her. it was so nostalgic seeing him again, and just being at the festival. grandma would have loved it. what a great F.F.D.

2. fining out angela & james got engaged. wish they lived closer so we could do an engagement shoot.

3. the arrival of baby kaleb.

4. the 90 minute shirt. even though it took me a whole lot longer my first try making them.

5. making clothes without patterns.

6. my recent obsession with grooveshark. if you don't know what it is, check it out.

7. chocolate chip cookie dough pop tarts. they are evil and delicious.

8. harvesting veggies at the pioneer garden. i applied for their volunteer program so hopefully this will become a regular event for me and the boy.

9. tonights cold salmon and raw veggie pizza.

10. this weeks trip to the "apple store" (that's what the boy calls it....it's just the produce stand though). ash had so much fun there this last visit. he asks every day if we can go there. he likes to help me carry the basket and pick out what he wants to eat. i also think that he's really into the mariachi music that is always playing there. oh that reminds me that i want to check out the band mariachi el bronx on grooveshark.

am i sylvia plath?

my grandmother recently commented that a picture of me resembled sylvia plath. at first i thought it was rude. then after reading a little about her, i am kinda obsessed. i think it's weird that she died on my birthday.

"Even amidst fierce flames the golden lotus can be planted."

erin trumble photography: hogrebe maternity

chris and kelly have been close friends of me and the hubs for quite some time now. i was so delighted to have the honor of capturing this baby bump. can't wait for kaleb to get here!

erin trumble photography: sr portraits

just finished up some recent shots with my kid sister, paige. well i guess not such a kid anymore considering that these are her senior portraits. haha

10 things i couldn't live without this week:

1. the new computer! woo hoo! we have finally made the old mac switch. after months of trying to convince the hubs that mac was the way to go. we have both been what we are calling "mac book pro-ed". we've gotta the perma-jones on for this computer.

2. my new diana mini. i got this cutie pie little 35 mm for my birthday from the ever so thoughtful mary.

3. endless bike rides. really the theme of the past month. the family bike rides have been awesome with this perfect sfl beach weather.

4. the bald speedo wearing podiatrist that saved me on the beach. i got a mega splinter the other day at the beach right in the ball of my foot. after many painful and failed attempts at trying to remove it ourselves, i hobbled to the lifeguard station. they just rolled their eyes at me when i asked if they could help. then that old man on the beach called me over and yoinked that thing right out....like it was his job.

5. kale chips. these things really are good. got this recipe from my friend angela. her man has a soy allergy so she's forever whipping up delicious alternatives for them to enjoy. she has countless amazing recipes. she should share more. maybe a quest spot here?????

6.tuesdayswithjohnny. just participated in my first tuesday with johnny. this clever blogger adds captions to readers submitted pictures. his wit along with the random photos make for some pretty good reading! check it out!

7. words with friends.

8. imovie. my new favorite toy.

9. family fun time at the palm beach zoo.

10. finding the drive and motivation to push myself into blogging more regularly.

joys of parenting: poop mittens

this morning my sweet little boy let us sleep in until 8 o'clock, which was greatly appreciated since he usually is ready to start his day at 6:30. Well technically he was awake before 8, but he was playing so quietly in his room that the hubs and i decided to just let him be and enjoy just a few more minutes of snuggle time.

after a few minutes of snuggling, starting the coffee, and letting the dog out i decided it was time to get that little monkey and start our day.

upon opening ash's bedroom door i was first taken aback by the giant mess that he made. there were toys, books, diapers, and wipes strewn about his room.

as i made my way into the giant mess it hit me like a brick in the face, a really stinky brick in the face. POOP!

now i am not talking about a little dirty diaper here. i am talking about the overwhelming smell of poop.

as i got further into his room he jumped out of bed to show me the cause of stink. let's start with his hands. my son was wearing poop mittens. there was poop under his nails, in between his fingers, and clear up to his wrists. in sheer panic i raced ash to the bathroom and quickly de-pooped his hands. i scrubbed them and then covered them in hand sanitizer. let me just interject here that i am not usually the squeamish one in the family when in comes to bodily excrement. but i was totally freaked out by this whole situation.

after sanitizing the child, he pointed out to me that there was a pile of poop hiding out next to his book shelf. now i don't pride myself of my detective skills, but i just can't wrap my head around how all of this happened!

i figured the pile of poop wasn't going anywhere, so i decided to tackle the source of the issue. ash's butt was next on the cleaning list.

by this point the dog and the hubs had joined us in the poop cave. all the commotion was drawing a crowd. but it was a much needed extra pair of hands. plus the hubs super sensitive gag reflex provided an extra source of entertainment. as if all the inappropriate poop jokes were not enough. as we started discussing the literal "shit everywhere", we found more. poop smears on the door, on the drum set, oh and check out the pile over there......where did it go?

yeah that's right the poop pile was gone. and so was the dog.

moral of the story. shit happens. and sometimes the dog looks guilty. gross.

needless to say, i spent the following hours avoiding the dog.