Lunch Ladies

A while back I signed up to host a lunch group at my house, long before I made plans to go to Pennsylvania. So today I had about 25 people over for lunch. I just did a pot luck so there was lots of yummy food. It was lots of fun, but with all those people (about 10 kids the rest adults) there was quite a mess, so thanks Kelli for helping me get my house back in order. Now I am just so tired that I just want to sit and watch my recorded American Idol from last night, but alas I must pack and go visiting teaching. We leave in the morn to go to PA so it will be a busy night getting everything ready. If I do not blog while I'm gone, there will be lots to update you on when I return, so until next time...

Half Way Through

Well today is the official half-way point of my Body for Life challenge. It has been a tough few weeks since I last updated on it. I am at a weight that I was for almost 5 years so it is a tough point to get below. Also, when I stop losing weight it is not as motivating to diet. Yes, Audrey is discouraged, but at the same time I am recomitting myself to try harder and finish out the challenge. I have a tough few weeks coming up since I leave for Pennsylvania in 2 days and then we go to Disneyland in May. It is always harder to diet when I am not at home, but I will try my best. Wish me luck.

Cheesecake Bites

I know it's not cheat day, but....No it took a lot of self restraint not to eat a bunch of these. I had to make dinner for a family and these are something that I have wanted to try, so I did and I tasted one (or two) to make sure they were okay to give away. The rest are in the freezer awaiting cheat day.

I used this recipe as the cheesecake base, but obviously I did not make this in a springform pan, so we had to improvise a bit. You will need to double the crust, because 1 cheesecake recipe will make about 100 little bite size bad boys. I used mini muffin pans, which I sprayed with PAM. I put about 3/4 tsp. of crust mixture in the bottom of the muffin pans and packed that down. I baked just the crust in the oven at 350 for about 5 minutes. Then I filled each muffin cup about 3/4 of the way full with the cheesecake base. Then baked them for 15 minutes at 350. Let them sit until cooled, then carefully run a knife around the edges, and then tip the pan over and they should just fall out. For presentation purposes I put each one in a gold foil candy cup (not really sure there official name). Half I topped with lime curd and a thin slice of a key lime and the others I just drizzled with fudge and carmel. Simple and relatively easy to make.

Cheat Day

So today I am going a little cheat day crazy. There have been a few different recipes I wanted to try. First, white chocolate popcorn. This was super easy. I microwaved 1 bag of popcorn and then melted 3 squares of Almond Bark. Poured that on top of the popcorn, stirred till it was mixed well. Let it cool. Then drizzled melted chocolate chips on it and yum it was done. Unfortunatly I ate it to quickly to take a picture.

Next, yesterday my friend blogged about Lion House dinner rolls, so I decided I just had to try those. So here we go yeast project #2. I think they turned out well. Here is the recipe. I thought they were super easy. Some things I have learned that have helped me with these yeast recipes are: make sure that the temperature of your water is between 110-115 degrees before you add the yeast. If it is to hot it will burn your yeast. I just dip a meat thermometer in the water to test the temp. Next little tip: I hate waiting forever for the dough to rise, so I will turn on my oven to whatever temperature I will be baking at and I will sit the bowl of dough on top of the oven and the warmth of the oven will shorten the rising time substantially.

Jumpin Jacks

Today for our fun Spring Break activity we went to lunch at Wendy's and Jumpin Jacks in Springville. The kids love this place and would stay there and jump forever if we let them. We did limit them to a few hours, but it sure did make the day go by faster. Unfortunatly, I forgot the camera, so no pictures today. It has been a fun filled week for the kids, but we are out of fun money so tommorrow will just be a picnic at the park.

Dino Museum

Yesterday my friend and I took our kids to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point. The kids had a blast. The highlights for them were the sand and water erosion table and the dinosaur bone dig. Isaac had so much fun at the erosion table that his sleeves were soaked up past his elbows. We had also hoped to go to farm country as well, but it was so bitterly cold that it was not an option.
Please someone help me figure out what I am doing wrong. If I upload the pictures and then move them, you can no longer click on them, why is that? Help.

Utah

So just incase you care, yesterday it was 80 degrees and right now it is snowing. It's a good day.