Easter Weekend! {lots of pics}

We had so much fun over the weekend! It was very busy! I was off on Friday and should have been getting things ready for the weekend, but with my clingy little girl it has been almost impossible to do anything lately. I managed to get to run a couple of errands, but still had to go back out after Reese went to bed! Evan decided to take off on Saturday to get our house in order for company and go to the zoo! We enjoyed some yummy monkey bread that I will share soon! (Since I got the Rhodes dinner rolls for our dinner I just knew we had to make that bread!) 

Reese could actually see the animals and just had a blast with little girls that are like cousins to her (close family friends). She is not too much of stroller baby! She likes to be held or walk around on her own. She sure looks like she knows where she's going, but really she's just wandering around. I'm really trying to get her to hold my hand and walk with me! She's starting to do it, but only for short periods of time.

gotta love that smile!

three generations, one with a mouth full of cheez-its!

can't get enough of those kisses!

she could have done the slide all day with these two!

"Hi penguin! You're just my size!"

I call this "zoo tired!" she slept a long time, we had to wake her up

We went to grandma's for a delicious spaghetti dinner and dying Easter eggs! She started getting some Easter goodies and she just loved this bunny! We tried to get a good pic of her with the ears on! She also got a little golf set, and went about nuts over it! She was whacking the clubs around like crazy, I thought someone was about to get hurt! She even screamed when she wanted it... I said oh no time to calm down and then showed her how I would ask nicely for it!

What a super fun day!

Easter was even busier! The morning was fun showing Reese that the Easter bunny came!

peeps are a hit!

 I was baking a cake, making bunny bait, Evan got the rolls ready, and I was making pork loin for our dinner! Everyone else brought the sides and more Easter baskets! Our child is absolutely spoiled! We had a super yummy dinner. I was nervous about my pork loin because I had to double the recipe and of course didn't read everything about the glaze before hand! But it was pretty tasty! Here's the recipe. I attempted to decorate my cake! It looked like maybe a kid did it, but oh well. Gotta love strawberry cake!

We had a lot of fun at the Easter Egg Hunt that my grandparents and great aunt have been putting on for 40 years! Reese figured out that kids were putting the bubble wands into the soapy water, but not how to do the bubbles. She thought she was pretty cool walking around with the sticks! She got lots of cool toys, books, and candy throughout the day from all of her grandparents! She's one lucky girl! We had a blast and she was one wore out little girl!

this is just one of my favorite pictures ever!

Time for some dieting after all the candy and good food! Better eating all together actually! 

With the nicer weather it's actually given me a kick to get into a better habit of exercising!

Have a great week!

{diet} Dr. Pepper Cake

Diet Dr. Pepper Cake

Oh my goodness.. this cake is so good! I am not big on red velvet cake, but I saw this recipe on pinterest a while back and thought about making it from time to time. It's weight watchers style. I used lite, diet, sugar free ingredients. It does not taste diet AT ALL! Make for others or make it for just any time. It doesn't take long and it's super easy to throw together... believe me you won't be disappointed. Plus you'll have less guilt. I can't won't even tell you how much of this cake I ate on the first day!

Ingredients:
cake
1 box red velvet cake
8 oz Diet Dr. Pepper
topping
8 oz container lite cool whip (there is also low fat or sugar free options)
sugar free cheesecake jell-o pudding
2 cups milk (I used 1% because that's what we drink, but skim would make it even lighter!)

recipe from: Dr. Pepper cake weight watchers style

nice and red and thick!

I almost thought it might need a little more DP

mix Diet Dr. Pepper and cake mix together

bake at 350 for 30 minutes

it doesn't rise as high as a regular cake, I thought I might have cooked it too long,

but after it gets the topping it is so moist!

Tada!

For the topping mix the milk and pudding until it thickens, then spread it on top of the completely cooled cake. Next spread the cool whip on! Store in the refrigerator.

I think you could do other cake and pudding combos... I might try a different combination sometime, but I really love this one!

Yummy Granola Balls

Granola Balls

so yummy and simple and not too bad for you!

Evan and I have been enjoying these for a few weeks now, after one of my friends made them and got addicted! They are easy to whip up and the ingredients are simple. Plus they are actually pretty low calorie! Just don't eat too many of them at a time (:

not very many ingredients

melt peanut butter, butter and honey until smooth

add oats and rice crispies.. let set a few minutes before adding chocolate chips and dried cranberries

drop rounded tablespoons into mini muffin liners, refrigerate for 15 minutes

and they are adorable!

Ingredients

1/3 cup honey (I use just a little less than a 1/3.. the honey is kinda overpowering)

1/4 cup peanut butter

2 tbs butter

1 cup old fashioned oats

1 cup rice crispies cereal

1/4 cup dried cranberries

1/4 cup chocolate chips

(I use more like 1/3 of the cranberries and chocolate chips... they just don't spread very far)

In medium sauce pan melt honey, butter, and peanut butter until smooth. Off heat mix in cereal, oats, and cranberries. Let it set a couple of minutes before adding chocolate chips. Spoon by rounded tablespoon into mini muffin liners and put in the refrigerator about 15 minutes.

I use a little ice cream scoop that looks about the size of a tablespoon and it makes about 25 granola balls. I store them in the refrigerator, they seem to soften at room temp. I hope you enjoy!

source:www.twopeasintheirpod.com/

Santa Fe Salad with Chili Lime Dressing

I got pretty excited when I found this recipe on pinterest... when I said I was making salad for dinner last night Evan was like "SALAD!?!?" Even though he does like salad and eats it a lot for lunch. He ended up really liking the salad. It is a weight watchers recipe so I will have to share it with my mom since she just started weigh watchers last week. She also eats salad a lot but gets kinda bored with it. I think chicken or taco meat could be added to make it more of a meal type of salad... I needed to eat light because of other things I had throughout the day.

cilantro and lime... such a great pair!

dressing and all the fixin's!

all tossed together except for the dressing... I'll add that each time I eat it.

it makes a whole lot! now I'll have it for lunch all week (:

dressed and served with ice tea!

*side note: the recipe calls for light mayo... and I thought I might add sour cream next time, maybe half mayo and half sour cream

Ingredients

	6 Tbsp reduced-calorie mayonnaise
	3 Tbsp cilantro, fresh, finely chopped
	3 Tbsp water
	1 medium uncooked scallion(s), minced
	1 1/2 Tbsp fresh lime juice
	2 tsp sugar
	1/2 tsp chili powder
	15 oz canned black beans, rinsed and drained
	1 1/2 cup(s) cooked corn kernels, fresh or frozen
	2 cup(s) grape tomatoes
	1 medium sweet red pepper(s), cut into thin strips (about 1 1/2 cups)
	8 cup(s) romaine lettuce, cut into thick shreds (about 2 hearts)

Instructions

• To make dressing, in a small bowl, whisk together mayonnaise, cilantro, water, scallion, lime juice, sugar and chili powder until smooth. Transfer to a jar or a plastic container with a tight-fitting lid and refrigerate until ready to use.
  
• In a large bowl or food storage container, layer remaining ingredients in order listed; cover and refrigerate.
  
• To serve, spoon salad ingredients into a bowl. Shake dressing and then drizzle dressing over salad; toss well to coat. Yields about 2 cups of salad and 1 1/2 tablespoons of dressing per serving.

http://www.weightwatchers.com/food/rcp/RecipePage.aspx?recipeid=94061

Peanut Butter (Healthy) Treats

This post is definitely for peanut butter lovers!

I pinned this fruity peanut butter dip last week and it was repinned so many times! I knew I had to try it!

It's so yummy! For people that love peanut butter and if you love it on fruit give this a try!

And it's simple!

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup fruit flavored yogurt

1/4 cup powdered sugar

mix until smooth!

and there's a nice breakfast... I have no idea how many calories so I just dipped very little on each piece of fruit!

from: http://sixsistersstuff.blogspot.com/ (I just love this blog!)

Evan and I love sweets... so we have to have something sweet around and since we are trying to be healthy I have been making things that aren't as bad for us to snack on! Evan also loves peanut butter, so I can put that in anything that's a little better and he'll eat it up!

I made these peanut butter cookies that have no flour and no butter! They are pretty tasty, chewy and sweet! Hopefully they are a little better than regular cookies!

mix all ingredients together by hand... the spatula is there because Evan had to scrape everything off my hands!

place by spoonful (give them some room - I usually bake 12 cookies at a time, but these spread out a lot) onto a greased baking sheet... they stick - use parchment paper... I didn't have any but I usually use it while baking!

bake for about ten minutes just watch them towards the end, depending on the size it could be more or less

Evan has already declared these his new favorite cookie (:

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1 cup oatmeal
1 cup extra chunky peanut butter
Directions
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well by hand. Refrigerate dough while pre-heating oven to 350 degrees. Place spoonfuls of  dough onto greased cookie sheets, leaving plenty of room in between cookies. The cookies tend to spread out quite a bit while cooking. Bake to desired crispiness (10-12 minutes).
http://www.andruswilliams.com/2011/01/26/peanut-butter-oatmeal-cookies/

Beefy Deep Dish Pizza... actually a healthy recipe

Super Easy... Yummy... and Healthy Beefy Deep Dish Pizza!

just four simple ingredients

 you can add anything else you like.. I'm just showing how simple it is on it's own!

grease a 9x13 baking dish and spread pizza dough over the bottom of the dish and halfway up the side. bake in the oven at 425 for about 7 minutes

brown one pound of ground beef while the pizza dough is baking

the recipe doesn't call for it, but I always season meat with salt & pepper!

drain the meat, then add 1 1/2 cups of your favorite pasta sauce, mix, add to the pizza crust, top with mozzarella cheese. bake for 8 more minutes!

it's that easy!

 enjoy!

the recipe is adapted from http://www.momswhothink.com/healthy-recipes/healthy-dinner-recipes-week-one.html

I didn't rinse the meat and put it out on paper towels.. just drained it. I used lean beef (97/3) and it usually doesn't have much fat. I have heard from a nutritionist that if you rinse beef that is 80/20 it's almost just as good for you as the 97/3.

Deep Dish Pizza:

Makes 6 Servings

Each serving contains:

385 calories
22g protein
22g carbohydrate
20g total fat

Ingredients:

1 (10 ounce) can refrigerated pizza crust dough
1 pound ground beef
1 ½ cups jarred low-sodium, sugar free, spicy mushroom pasta sauce
1 ¼ cups (4 ounces) shredded part skim mozzarella cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Grease a 13x9 inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.

2. Unroll the pizza dough, press it over the bottom and halfway up the sides of the prepared dish, and bake for 7 minutes.

3 .While the crust bakes, sauté the beef in a large skillet until browned, breaking the meat up into small pieces using a wooden spoon.

4. Drain the meat in a colander, rinse with hot water, and shake the colander to drain out as much water as possible.

5. Turn out the meat onto a paper towel-lined baking sheet and roll up the meat in the towel to blot up any moisture.

6. Pour the meat into a bowl, add the sauce, and toss to mix.

7. Spread the meat over the crust and sprinkle cheese on top. Bake until the crust is browned and the cheese melts, about 8 minutes longer.