Skinny Waffles

I am so very addicted to breakfast, I love it!!! When I was pregnant with both girls I was sick for most of the pregnancies but the one food that I could tolerate was breakfast. Cereal, oatmeal, pancakes and of course WAFFLES!! I love waffles, however I hate what waffles can do to my weight.

Enter my quest to make a great "Skinny Waffle." I have toyed around with a recipe for a while now and it has been a pretty stand up method. Being on WW for some time now has really opened up my eyes on getting the most for my points values. For 2 of these waffles comes out to 4 points. I LOAD them up with fresh seasonal fruit and sometimes may top with can light whipped cream(1pt). These keep me full and because they are so flavorful I don't use any other fat or syrup. For me its a decadent version of breakfast heaven.

"Dina's Skinny Waffles"

3/4 c. Whole Wheat Flour
3/4 c. Coconut milk or Almond Milk (I use fresh and easy unsweetened for either kind)
1/4 c. egg substitute or 2-3 egg whites to equal a 1/4 c.
1 T. Splenda
2 T. baking powder
1/4 c. unsweetened applesauce (this replaces the fat, oil.I have found that you can also use any other unsweetened fruit puree that. I have used Penelope's Gerber baby food too and any combo just adds to the flavor. This morning I had a straw/apple/banana and that worked great!)
1/4 c. water to "thin" out mixture if needed

Combine ingredients to form batter. Pre-heat waffle iron before and get it ready.

This recipe yielded 6 waffles, in this Hamilton Beach 4-square waffle iron.

Mahalo!

The morning at home!

So, Last night I was on Pinterest and I found a recipe for a yummy apple cake!! I just bought some green apples and decided this would be such a great way to enjoy them. I found the recipe here

I did modify to make a more skinny version with an appropriate amount of WW points. This little piece of heaven comes out to about 4pts. I don't add fruit in the recipe builder on etools because fruit is free and if I'm just eating one peice of cake it's a fruit :-))

So I adapted the recipe... Here is my version!

3/4 cup + 1 tbsp all purpose whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
3 very large apples, peeled, cored and chopped into 1-inch chunks
1 large eggs
3/4 cup splenda
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 c unsweetened applesauce

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl.

Whisk the eggs in another bowl until foamy, then add the splenda Whisk until smooth and incorporated. Add the vanilla. Mix well.

Alternately add the flour and applesauce in two batches. Mix well and gently after each addition to have a smooth batter.

Fold in the apples with a spatula. Pour the batter into the pan and spread evenly with a spatula.

Bake for 50-60 minutes or until the top of the cake is golden brown and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and cool for 15 minutes before removing from the pan.

Since the cake is really moist, it is best to keep it uncovered or lightly covered at room temperature. I have also found out that it tastes better if you heat it quickly in the microwave for a few seconds before eating.

Seriously yummy!!! Splenda is pretty sweet I think next time I will only use 1/2 c instead of 3/4 c.

Water was falling from the sky!!

I dislike rain for a lot of reasons but I do love it for a couple. I love rainbows, flowers and green grass. I dislike all the garb you have to wear to not get wet, driving on wet roads and especially despise gloomy skies!!

So, even though It was raining, thank God it was only just a couple of days. In being home with husband and the dumplings yesterday made us say "well, it's raining..so Disney is out!" I put on my thinking cap and started to think of indoor things that we could do on a gloomy day rather than wasting it on a sunny day.

Pretend City! Pretend city is a very cute indoor child's play place. It has a couple different city themed rooms and areas where children can wander,interact and explore! We happened to arrive here at 11am and on Monday's it closes at 1pm, which was fine for us because we did receive a discounted admission for being a military family.

Greenlee was a little overwhelmed by a lot of children that were there visiting with a school group visiting from LA but she managed to find some free space in a couple areas. I did inquire if everyday was open to large groups and the staff said yes but that you are more than welcome to phone ahead and see what the projected group attendance is, which I would do next time.

She loved the grocery store and the garden area as well as the building area where her and daddy were able to sort through different wood pieces and put together a wooden structure.

This place is very cute and appropriate in my opinion for children over 2yrs as there just seems to be more things to actually do. I think it would be very suitable for all ages of children with adequate parental supervision. Seeing those children with the school group made me ever so happy my girls have us and their Nana and Granddaddy to care for them, we are blessed!

Mahalo!

Oh, Okay?

It's sorta funny because when I started this little blog it was at the start of my weight loss. Then I had another baby and then I started loosing again.
I don't really notice too much of a difference in how I look and it feels weird sometimes for people to be like "oh my gosh you have lost weight!!!"
Don't get me wrong it's pretty cool but at the same time it's weird. Loosing weight for me was/is for me to achieve something that I really want and it's not to be in smaller jeans. That is just an extra bonus. Although I hated saying goodbye to some of my cute clothes that are waaaay to big now.
Loosing weight is 90% mental for me and 10% physical and I really believe it will always be like that for me. The best part is in my "before" pics I felt amazing and great as people look in their after pics. Loosing weight is exciting but regardless of getting rid of the weight, which is my new term because I don't intend to ever find it again, it's about being confident in who you are. I fully believe that an intend to continue on this journey being happy with the person I am,who I was and who I will be.
Doing this little side by side deal is important for me to really see how far I have come and how making small lifestyle changes have made huge changes in my lifestyle forever.
I have a little over a month till the end of 2011 and 6 pounds to meet my goal that I set forth at the beginning of 2011 and I fully intend on meeting it and surpassing it.
I won't stop now because I have gone so far beyond what my mind would have thought I could do and that to me is as valuable as how small my jeans are now!
Mahalo

Fashion Update

I am a frugal gal if ya didn't know that already,My husband calls me cheap,haha!  I would think that he would love that but he always says "this is a plot to save money!" on most of my ideas. I don't like paying full price for ANYTHING but I love to be cute,fun and flirty with my style.

I recently ran across a Pin on Pinterest (go figure) It was the greatest idea I had seen that day,lol! It was a picture of jeans that said something like update baggy jeans to skinny jeans. Much to my delight ,if I have not already rid my closet of all my larger jeans the only ones that remain are all baggy and too big.

So, I went to this great little blog with 2 gals who share my same thriftiness and saw a posting on how to achieve said "couture" skinny jeans. Lucky Design has a great tutorial on how to do this great update to your pants.

I chose to attempt this little operation on a cute little pair of jeans I purchased for Greenlee that were actually a boys pair I bought for 3$ at a local charity consignment store.

Greens looked like a farming Charlie Chaplin in these little pants, it was sorta cute! But, they needed to be spruced up a bit.

Here are the jeans I used as my pattern for the skinny jeans. These are great little Roxy skinnies I got at the warehouse sale.



So I turned them both inside out following the directions laid one on top of the other, chalk lined,pinned and sewed up the side, trimmed excess and.... Viola!



Cute little skinnies for 3$ yay!! I am a happy mama! Plus now that I have done it with these little guys I will soon be doing them on a pair of my own!

Don't be afraid to try new things... :-)
Mahalo,
Adina

Breakfast...Favorite Meal O' The Day!

Okay so breakfast is hands down my favorite,no really it is! haha But these delightful treats I whipped up last night are beginning to sway me... but, in the ooohhh so right direction.

In addition to my fondness for breakfast and all things sweet I am so addicted to Pinterest.com it has become such a fun way to put all of my favorite things in one amazing online space. I have created so many fun,useful and yummy creations and last nights were inspired by a recent pin.

I decided that I needed to make...watch out please..."Maple French Toast and Bacon Cupcakes!!!"

Really?!!? cupcakes with bacon!?! Yes, its soooo true! I used the disguise of making these delectable treats as a sort of "Good luck on your first day back in the Army" for my husband. But, really that was just a cover for me wanting to create and TASTE the most amazing yumminess I have made since the brownie,chocolate chip cookie, Oreo bars...hahaha!

So, First I took I box of French Vanilla cake mix, mixed according to directions minus 1/4 cup of water and substituted with Mrs. Buttersworth.

Then I chopped 5 pieces of cooked to crisp bacon and folded into my mixed cake batter.

Pour batter 3/4 full in cupcake wrappers and bake for 35 mins at 325 degrees...

While Baking gather ingredients for frosting. P.S. this is the most amazing cream cheese frosting I have ever used....

1/4 cup Mrs. Buttersworth
8 oz package of cream cheese
1 stick of butter
2 cups sifted Powdered Sugar

Cream together room temp butter and cream cheese, add syrup and sugar and blend on high to incorporate air till fluffy and smooth.

Apply frosting as you wish and top all cupcakes with chopped bacon pieces.

Next step....eat them, enjoy them and repeat as needed....:-)
Mahalo!

Powers Thriftin!

Our little Greens would like to be a particular creature for Halloween. So, while Mike and I were driving around today we decided to stop in a local thrift store to see what they had in their costume section. Well, we didn't find a costume but I found two fabulous accessories under 10$ and Mike found a child's dream toy!
My first score was a jade color,open-claw bracelet. $4.99 :-)
Second score pony hair,animal print Steve Madden peep-toe flats. $6.99:-)
Annnnnd then Mike found... A talking,scanning,credit card reading... Cash Register!!! Haha $4.99 :-)
Not really sure who's more likely to have more fun playing with it mike or greens, but either way it was a total score!!!

Mahalo!
Dina