Official Vegetarian Self Challenge!

I'm challenging myself to eating only a vegetarian based diet! 

Get ready for some cute summer Bento's made with Veggies sourced from our local markets!

Juicing!

As part of my new healthy lifestyle changes, I've started juicing. Let me just say it's delicious!
The only downfall in my mind is the clean up of the mess afterwards! I guess another issue though is the amount of veggies and fruits it takes to make just one lunch sized juice. It takes A LOT. I bought a 25lb of carrots and it only lasted me one week!

Exciting News!!!

Good Day Folks!

As the title says some exciting news to share with you all! Two things are on the horizon.

1. Our family is going to join a couple of local CSA's and we are going to buy local meats and eggs from a farm up the road!
2. Along with this new food plan, which will hopefully help us eat healthier, I am committing to walking/running/riding my bike EVERYDAY.  This means I am going to be slinging my children into the double stroller and getting OUT THERE.  To help motivate myself, I bought some new shoes!

Aren't they pretty!?

Back! With some Rainbow Fun!

Sorry I've neglected this blog for so long folks! I've had my new baby and things have finally settled down enough that I can consider blogging again!

To start things off with a bang...how about some rainbow fun? My daughters class has teacher appreciation day today so I made these up for her teachers. :)

Here is the recipe!

Vanilla Cupcakes:

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsaltedbutter, room temperature

2/3 cup (130 grams) granulated whitesugar

3 largeeggs

1 teaspoon purevanillaextract

Zest of 1 largelemon(outer yellow skin)

1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all purposeflour

1 1/2 teaspoonsbaking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup (60 ml) milk

Confectioners (Buttercream)Frosting:

2 cups (230 grams) confectioners sugar (icing or powdered sugar), sifted

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsaltedbutter, room temperature

1 teaspoon purevanillaextract

2 tablespoons milk or light cream

Assorted food colors(if desired)

Read more:http://www.joyofbaking.com/VanillaCupcakes.html#ixzz1qVQeGr9f

Here are some action shots and the results!

After blending the mix together (2 batches) I separated a little bit into individual bowls.

Then the food coloring fun began! I did not have fancy brilliant food coloring so I made do with what you can pick up in the grocery store.

Then I carefully put one dollop of each color into each lined muffin cup.

While that was baking (btw my oven cooks faster than the recipe called for by a long shot so watch your baking times!) I assembled the rainbows out of Airhead candies. This was a tedious process and I now have a huge respect for sugar artists.

Here is the first batch! Came out stunning don't you think? And below that, I dolloped the colors in reverse and that is the second batch. I may have used a little too much batter in the first batch so I had to skimp a bit on the second. Sadly they were smaller because of this.

One of the smaller ones set aside for taste testing!

A cut into the rainbow! Pretty huh!? That food coloring did better than I expected!

Final product!  Blue skies, rainbows, white fluffy clouds and bright happy sunshine!

Hope you enjoyed!