Summer Berry Muffins- try them while the berries are cheap!

Here's a good learning/cooking experience I need to share with you. These look pretty.... but because I sort of didn't follow the recipe and added tons of berries- including strawberries- on top to make them look pretty. They turned out too moist... so here you go, learn from my mistake. But they are pretty though!

Here are the ingredients: I added cinnamon and vanilla and strawberries instead of raspberries and used more of the blueberries. I later found out from another little baker that it's really hard to bake with strawberries as they add to much moisture- so you could use cranberries or pear or apples instead.

Summer Berry Muffins (adapted from http://www.besthealthmag.ca/eat-well/recipes/summer-berry-muffins)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (125 mL) whole-wheat flour

1/3 cup (75 mL) all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon (15 mL) baking powder

Pinch of salt

3/4 cup (175 mL) mixed fresh berries, such as blueberries and raspberries (do not use strawberries)

2 tablespoons (25 mL) light  or regular margarine - I used butter

1/4 cup (50 mL) light brown sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 cup (250 mL) skim milk

So I doubled the recipe and added too many berries on top. But they look so nice, right?

Here are the directions:

1.Preheat the oven to 400ºF (200ºC). Use paper muffin cups to line 9 (I made these into 12) cups of a muffin pan or coat with cooking spray.

2.Sift the flours, salt and baking powder into a large bowl. Gently fold in the mixed berries.

3.Melt the margarine gently in a small saucepan, then add the sugar, egg and milk and mix until smooth. Pour this over the flour mixture and gently fold together just enough to combine the ingredients. The mixture should remain quite lumpy.

4.Spoon the mixture into the paper muffin cups, filling each about two-thirds full. Bake for 18–20 minutes or until the muffins are risen and golden-brown.

5.Transfer to a wire rack to cool slightly, then serve warm or allow to cool completely before serving. The summer berry muffins can be kept in an airtight container for 1–2 days.

Here's the nutritional information:

Each serving (one muffin) provides calories 98, calories from fat 18, fat 2 g, carbohydrate 18 g, fibre 1 g, sugars 8 g, protein 3 g



Weekend Decadence- Part 2- Pedicure and Lunch

Ok, now here's Part 2 of my Weekend Decadence with Mella. We went for our first pedicure of the season. What a sweet mother/daughter bonding moment!

Can you guess which is her foot and which one is mine????

You guessed right, she chose the neon green and neon pink pattern- and the girl even did a little design for free. They do real fast pedicures here though- like about 30 minutes in total- so I guess they throw in a free design once in a while! This is such s treat for Melanie, I bring her with me once a year as a treat. She loves the massage chair, but the scrubbing the feet part really tickles her!

I chose a grown up colour. O.P.I's Give me Moor! It's so hard for me to choose a colour, when I get to the spa and look at all the colour choices and I am usually drawn to the bright pinks and red and purples and oranges... you name it. But this time, for the first pedicure of the season, I wanted to stay with a dark colour, I wanted to look 'cool' and in style, just like my sister-in-law, Rebecca, she always wears these dark colours and her favourite is 'Lincoln Park after Dark'.

Here are our toes kissing again!

After our hard morning at the Spa -and with our freshly painted toes- we enjoyed lunch at the East Side Mario's- I really was hungry so I ordered a salad and individual pizza combo. I love their house salad there- it's the fresh oil and vinegar dressing- I even tried one of those pickled hot peppers they always put on- my Dad loves those- me... not so much- kinda spicy! As for for my pizza, I chose a healthier chicken and peppers option... and a giant glass of water.



Weekend Decadence Part 1- New Spot - Panera

After a very, very, very busy 3 weeks at work, I wanted to spend a weekend with my daughter just enjoying the good things in life. That started with an early morning breakfast at this new restaurant called Panera. I have seen these pop up all over the place and wanted to try it out.

You know, Panera means bread basket in Spanish.

No, I didn't have one of these.... I tried a little cinnamon bagel (although it was huge)- it was a nice treat!

And a delicious, huge cup of Latte.

The place was just a few weeks old, so service was a bit messed up. But it was a nice atmosphere, and the art on the walls is great. It all has to do with bread.

and some more bread art...

...and some bread and bicycle art,

And another- this one is 'rolling the bread dough'.

One of the wonderful side effects of losing all this weight, is the energy I have now. You would think that after weeks of working hard, long hours, I would want to sleep in- but instead I woke at at 7:30am and asked Mella to get dressed and let's try that Panera place and then go pick some flowers before the big crowds!

And of course she said, 'Yes, Mommy, let's go on another adventure'.  This is just part 1..... and we had a blast and got to reconnect.



Double Chocolate Cupcakes- for those dark chocolate lovers!

Here is the other recipe I promised you from my mom's Mother's Day Desert line up... These are really delicious and nice without the thick icing- just a sprinkle of powdered sugar.

As they mention on the Cooking Light website,  "These cupcakes are easy to make, and because simple ingredients are used, it's best to purchase premium cocoa powder and dark chocolate. Since they're studded with dark chocolate chunks, just dusting them with powdered sugar is enough to decorate these treats. Bake them in muffin cup liners. A dozen of these are a terrific holiday treat to bring to coworkers at the office.". Ok, so next potluck lunch watch out Bridges team!!!

Double-Chocolate Cupcakes

http://www.cookinglight.com/entertaining/holidays-occasions/chocolate-desserts-recipes-00400000063672/page2.html

Yield: 12 servings (serving size: 1 cupcake)

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour (about 4 1/2 ounces)

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup egg substitute

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup 1% low-fat buttermilk

1 1/4 ounces dark (70 percent cocoa) chocolate, finely chopped

2 tablespoons powdered sugar

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350°.

Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup, and level with a knife. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; stir with a whisk.

Place granulated sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well combined (about 3 minutes). Add egg substitute and vanilla, beating well. Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to granulated sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Fold in chocolate. Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups lined with muffin cup liners. Bake at 350° for 18 minutes or until cake springs back when touched lightly in center or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from pan; cool completely on a wire rack. Sprinkle with powdered sugar just before serving.

Nutritional Information:

Calories: 150, Fat: 5.2g, Saturated fat: 3.2g, Protein: 3.1g , Carbohydrate: 24g, Fiber: 1.1g

...and more of the colour I love- Fuchsia

So you need to surround yourself with things that bring you LOVE. For me that comes in the form of colour- I just love fuchsia (which I always misspell) every time I need to buy something, that's the colour I will jump on right away.

Well, I know you've seen my fuchsia purse and matching Nike shoes with the fuchsia stripe.

But have you seen my new wallet- yup, it's fuchsia and my watch... it's multi-coloured- but it includes fuchsia... and even my In Style magazine's title is fuchsia...

And my friends brought me some lovely tulips and guess what colour they magically picked?

My world is filled with colour- one of my other favourite colours is lime green- like when I see a lime green car, I just smile :-).  Check out my recent purchases. Filled with colour- Fuchsia, Pink, Green, Aqua and butterflies- you know from my post last week- that's my symbol of love and I want to surround myself with the symbols that remind me that there is love all around. Oh, and that Justin Bieber stuff, that's for Melanie's party.



Nice Nails- Shades of Pink

I 've seen this done in magazines (my favourite In Style) and Pinterest. You take a colour- I chose pink- and you paint each nail in a different shade.

What do you think? These sure have caught everyone's eyes. Lots of nice comments.

These are my star colours- from left to left: Heather Silk, Bubblegum, Fearless Fuchsia, Fabulous Fuchsia and Party Pink.... Ta da!  Watch for the next rainbow of colours! Maybe Blue or Purple???

Angel Lush Cupcakes- A Delicious Light Cupcake

These are the delicious cupcakes my mother made on Mother's Day. Here's the recipe for you... and they are only 90 calories per cupcake- unbelievable!

Angel Lush Cupcakes   

 http://www.kraftcanada.com/en/recipes/angel-lush-cupcakes-115799.aspx

makes 24 servings

What You Need:

1 pkg. (450 g) angel food cake mix

1 pkg. (4-serving size) Jell-O Vanilla Fat Free Instant Pudding

1 can (14 fl oz/398 mL) crushed pineapple in juice, undrained

1 cup thawed Cool Whip Light Whipped Topping

12 fresh strawberries, cut in half

Make It:

HEAT oven to 350ºF.

PREPARE cake batter as directed on package. Pour into 24 paper-lined muffin cups. (Batter will nearly fill cups.) Bake 26 min. or until tops are light golden brown. Cool in pans 10 min.; remove to wire racks. Cool completely.

MIX dry pudding mix and pineapple in medium bowl. Gently stir in Cool Whip; spread onto cupcakes.

TOP with berries.

Nutritional Information per cupcake:

Calories  90

Total fat  0.5 g

Carbohydrate  21 g

Dietary fibre  0 g

Sugars  12 g

Protein  2 g

Before and After- Girl day shopping trip

So, how much fun is our life now.... Mother and daughter are now going to the mall. In fact, it's now an adventure. The main reason is that I have the energy to walk around and love window shopping and besides... it's training for Disney World.

We start with a fresh and fashiony lipstick smile... and then, after going into a million stores with Mella, from nice smelling stores like our favourite Bath & Body Works and Body Shop to Mella's favourite American Eagle and Aeropostale and my favourite purse/accessory stores... I then realize my feet start to hurt, so we sit down for a non-fat Yogen Fruz with raspberries and kiwi... then it hits me as I look down at my watch- we have been walking around for 3 hours... then I decide, it's officail, it's time to go home!

Then we come home, completely exhausted and wear our favourite hoodies to warm up and cozie up.

We pose for Daddy and show him our 'fashion show'.

Ok, then we lose our minds from exhaustion and use the symbols of 'peace' and 'loser' to let our photographer 'Daddy' know how we feel! What an adventure!

P.S. Notice the beautiful light shinning on us... that is the sun shinning on us from the front window of our house.

Mother's Day- Fun, Flowers and Food

Ok, Part 2 of Mother's Day Celebrations- look at these fun ceramic measuring cups my Mom gave us for Mother's Day. Such colourful and fun kitchen accessories... make baking healthy things a whole lot more fun!

Sister's First Mother's Day!

I gave her one of my favourite book series. Chicken Soup for the Mothers and Daughters Soul.

Ahhhhh, look, doesn't she look like the most caring and loving mother craddling her little girl's head?

I had to get some love too... Little Miss Stephanie holding her ma tante Chantal's polka dot nail. I didn't remember to take pictures because I was so busy with my work and conferences/courses etc... But this red nail had some blue dots- we all wear red shirts at our conference and so I had to match... don't you know.

Ok, how fun does this look, sleeping in your Daddy's arms?

Beautiful flowers my father bought for my mom on Mother's Day. Don't you just love the planter?

Just love those Daisy Gerberas- i LOVE bright orange!

Desert before dinner.... no, not really, but I wanted to share some of these delicious goodies my mother baked. These were awesome!

They are angel food cake cupcakes with a pineapple coconut icing- she topped them off with strawberries to make them even tastier. (healthy recipe to come).

My mom also made these little chocolate cupcakes (healthy ones of course- recipe to come) - don't you just love cupcake papers?

My mother prepared delicious healthy fare. Chicken and Steak kabobs.

Delicious saled with clementines, cranberries, almonds and celery... really yummy!

This was my plate- lots of salad - one skewer of each kind, I had to taste test! A few roasted potatoes and a bit of lemon parsley rice.  It was so delicious and so kind of my mother to host- I wanted to, but with my work demands, it would have been impossible. I THANK YOU so much for this special meal. Father's day, my house!



Mother's Day- Family and Love

How awesome to celebrate Mother's Day with my little sister for her first Mother's Day. I wanted to make it special for her so I borrowed an idea from my friend Sam who had beautiful professional Mommy and Me pictures taken with her son. Except, we did it real 'low budget' - I asked Melanie to write a little sign to symbolize the day. And then I made all the mothers and daughters pose.

Melanie and I.

Julie and Stephanie.

Julie, my Mom and I.

And my favourite, picture of all. All the mothers and daughters. Can you see the sweet smile on Stephanie's smile?

But hey, don't leave the Dad's out... Here's Barrie with his little girl... on Mother's Day.

... and Uncle Brent with Stephanie on Mother's Day.

By the way, I was spoiled on Mother's Day- these are tears of absolute love and joy... I know I look sad, but nothing could be further from the truth. Melanie made me some homemade cards and poems filled with love... Brent bought me the most timely and loving gifts that showed me how much he loves and supports me. From the book The Secret, a gratitude journal to write in and a daily 'thought of the day'. I was floored!