Chocolate Heaven

Chocolate Heaven

Janet Phillips over at the dailydigi.com shared an easy chocolate cake recipe a week or two ago which she, in turn, had gotten from the everyday celebrating blog.

It only takes 5 minutes!! 5 minutes to chocolate lusciousness.

This is dangerous. Definitely dangerous for me. I like my cooking to be quick and easy. The only reason I don't bake cakes a lot is because it takes too much time and I don't have a lot of that. But with this, I will seriously need the best of the best diet pills ever! Oh my goodness!

I have not actually tried it so I cannot attest to the yummy factor of it personally. I wanted to do it this morning so I could also take a pic but looks like I ran out of cocoa. Hmp!

Here's the recipe:

4 tablespoons of flour
4 tablespoons of sugar
2 tablespoons of cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons of milk
3 tablespoons of oil
3 tablespoons of chocolate chips (optional)
A splash of vanilla extract
A coffee mug

1. Add dry ingredients to mug and mix well.
2. Add the egg and mix thoroughly.
3. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.
4. Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla extract and mix again.
5. Place the mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts.

Don’t be alarmed if the cake rises over the top of the mug!

The blog suggests letting it cool, taking it out of the cup, cutting it in half, put in a plate and top with whipped cream, some berries and more chocolate chips. That would be nice too. But I think eating it straight from the mug would be just as awesome! LOL!

Like a Summer Picnic

Like a Summer Picnic

We had a scrumptious summer dinner last night.

Chili dogs. Orange Julius. Ice cream sundaes.

And the best part of it was that it was all homemade! A diner-type meal at a fraction of the cost. At the end of the meal, DD1 exclaimed, "This was a really special dinner, wasn't it, Mommy? It's sooo good!"

Yup, that's all I needed to hear. It may have been easier to grab the same type of meal at a fastfood restaurant but what's the fun in that? The kids enjoy having these "fun" meals at home once in a while. They think it's such a treat to be able to eat hotdogs at home for dinner! It was "fun" for me too because the whole meal cost nowhere it would have cost to feed 8 people if we were out at a fastfood. Plus, plenty of leftovers were available for lunch today.

For the chil dogs/hot dogs, we used BallPark bun size dogs & hotdog buns, both of which were on sale at Vons. Woohoo! For the chili, I used Interstate Chili by Sunny Anderson from Food Network. I've been looking for a beanless chili recipe and this looked really good. I love this recipe and it's something I would definitely use again and again. Just a word of caution on the dish's spiciness. My kids don't do spicy so I held off the jalapenos, the hot sauce and the chili sauce. Against my better judgement, I added half of the cayenne specified in the recipe. It still turned out too spicy for the kids. It was just the right amount of heat for the grownups but I would nix the cayenne altogether next time for the sake of the kids.

I got the Orange Julius recipe from the blog Baking Bites. This really tasted authentic! I remember the Orange Julius stand in Unimart in Greenhills where my mom did her grocery shopping. I remember that as a child, the Orange Julius was a wonderful treat for me. I'm glad I found this recipe because my kids seem to think it's a wonderful treat for them too. :)

Hope you had a wonderful weekend too!

Domestic Diva

Domestic Diva

I baked some chocolate chip muffins yesterday - from scratch! Yes, this was not from a box or a pouch...pat myself on the back. I actually found the recipe on the web a few weeks ago and thought that it seemed pretty simple. I've been meaning to make some but it was only yesterday that I finally got down to it. I needed a dozen baked goodies to bring for DS' scout requirement so might as well try this recipe.

Thank goodness it turned out well. I like the muffin texture as opposed to the spongy texture of a cupcake. This was most definitely a muffin. And I loved that it was so simple to make. I did not even need to bring our the hand mixer nor the bulky Kitchenaid. If a recipe calls for bringing out the bulky Kitchenaid, then I'm almost immediately turned off. I hate taking that thing out! I only use it myself if I absolutely need to try a recipe or bake something from scratch.

I actually have not baked from scratch for quite a while now. Why should I when there are mixes/pouches readily available? I understand that they are not quite as good as homemade goodies but sometimes when you're just craving for something sweet, they do well.

My mom, on the other hand, just loves to cook and bake. Maybe some of her recent baking had inspired me. Who knows? I found this wonderful oatmeal thins recipe(again on the internet) that I gave her. She immediately tried it. It turned out quite lovely! Yummy, with a capital Y!

That's a problem for me because I just can't seem to stop eating it! LOL! DH has been teasing me with references to my weight, exercising, even diet pill reviews like Apidexin review in the hope that I get annoyed enough to actually start doing something about my weight gain. Sigh...my husband does not seem to know me well enough in this department. He had suggested that I buy an outfit that is a size lower than I usually am so that I'd be motivated to get into that size. Not really a big motivation for me. I was telling him that what I need is a workout buddy. If exercising becomes a social activity for me, then you know that I am so there!!! Anyone nearby who wants to be my workout buddy, just let me know! LOL!

Steel cut oats

Steel cut oats

In my quest to learn to live a healthier lifestyle, I've started to take brown rice instead of white and to have oatmeal for breakfast. I've never been a breakfast kind of girl. When I was a school girl, the school bus came to me really early and I'd just skip breakfast. It was a bad habit that has stuck with me. Now, I know breakfast is the most important meal of the day but usually, I am just too lazy to get up early enough to prepare something nutritious. The kids usually have their cereal - Life or Honey Bunches of Oats - or toast with butter. They also really like instant oatmeal. I, on the other hand, don't like the texture of regular rolled oatmeal. It's just too mushy for my taste.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, I came across a thread over at DST about steel cut oats. Someone shared a crockpot recipe for it. I tried it and yes! I've found oatmeal I like! I prefer the texture of steel cut oatmeal. It's meatier, almost rice-like. I'm not sure how to describe it but I think it's almost like eating "champorado" only it's oatmeal. I made a batch of the crockpot oatmeal last Friday, and well, as of this morning, it's almost all gone. I've kept the whole batch in the fridge and just heat up a little at a time each morning. I've only tried mixing some brown sugar with it. The kids prefer regular sugar.

All the extra fiber I've been packing into my diet lately has been having an effect on me already. I haven't lost weight - not that I expected to - but I know that I've started to eat less now. I just feel fuller and not as hungry.

Here's the crockpot recipe for Creamy oatmeal for those who are interested:

2 c steel-cut oats (NOT instant)

3.5 c FF evaporated milk

3.5 cups water

Cook on low for 4-6 hrs.

Quite easy, don't you think?