Muffins

In an effort to try and eat/cook better, I decided that I needed to find a healthy(ier) muffin recipe. Johnny is gone on a business trip, so I also needed something to pass the time. And I have to admit they were a success!!! I've been getting help from Samantha as well as various blogs and websites on what to use in recipes versus ingredients you shouldn't, so I thought I would put my knowledge to the test. I really like this recipe because you can pretty much add or omit a million different ingredients. I still have quite a ways to go as far as the "wifely cooking duties" are concerned, but my skills are developing slowly but surely and I'm very happy with the muffins I created. Here's what I came up with.....Enjoy!

Whole Wheat Peanut Butter, Chocolate Chip & Oatmeal Muffins

1/2 c butter
1/2 c light brown sugar
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 c peanut butter (or a little less)

1/4 c honey
2 large eggs
2 c whole wheat flour
2/3 c dark chocolate chocolate chips

(optional: 1 1/2 c ripe bananas mashed)
(optional: 1/2 c rolled oats--reduce flour to 1 1/2 c)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line a 12 cup muffin pan.
2. Beat together butter, sugar, baking soda, sea salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla in medium bowl until smooth.
3. Add the peanut butter, honey and eggs, beating until smooth.
4. Add the flour about 1/4 cup at a time, stirring until just mixed.
5. Add oatmeal, then chocolate chips.
6. Divide batter into the muffin cups, filling to the top. Bake about 23-28 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and after a couple of minutes transfer the muffins to a rack to cool.

(Muffins are best when served warm.)

Warm Thoughts

I love winter and the cold (please don't hurt me!) but I also love the beach. Johnny is currently at a meeting in Tampa, FL and he sent me this picture last night. As he sent this to me, it was snowing in Evansville. It's so amazing how those 2 things can be happening at the same time in different places!

Thought I would share and send some warm thoughts to those unhappy with Mr. Frost right now. :-)

~Tuesday Thoughts~

**Johnny is HOME!!! Thank goodness! He arrived home around 10:00 Sunday night after a very eventful Cairo, Egypt business trip. I am so thankful that he made it out of there safe and sound, as things don't seem to be getting any better. He has had lots of stories to tell me about and I'm hoping that he will post them on here with the pictures that he took. It will probably be a while though, I have a feeling it is going to take some convincing :-) Thank you to everyone for the thoughts and prayers while he was away, it really means so much to us!

On the same note, I have to mention what a wonderful family Cargill is. When I wasn't able to get a hold of Johnny on Friday and saw that things were continuously getting worse, I contacted our friend Jon Lopez to see if there was somebody I should be in contact with who updates spouses when events like this take place. I had a good idea where Johnny might be because he had contacted his mom, but I just wanted to be updated if anything further developed. Jon (as well as many other Cargill employees) made quite a few phone calls, sent numerous emails and kept me updated on new information throughout the entire day. It was so comforting and helped put my mind at ease. I (and Johnny) am SOOOO thankful for such a great company who really cares for their employees and their families. We cannot thank them enough for the help they gave us!!

**While Johnny was in transit, I made the chocolate chip cookies that I posted last week. They are delicious! I was pleasantly surprised because the batter did not look that great, but they are really good! Definitely worth a try! And for me, anything that is healthier is worth a shot.

**All of our friends and family in MO are getting pounded by snow and we are getting NOTHING! We are right on the edge and I think it is really going to miss us this time. While I wouldn't mind a chance to sleep in, I think I'd rather be at school at this point. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy winter much more than I do summer.....but my students are desperately needing a consistent schedule, and they are not getting it. Also, it isn't any fun to have a snow day by yourself.

**This week will be full of relaxation for us. Johnny travels to Tampa, FL next week so I'm going to be soaking up as much "Johnny time" as I can! It's pretty nice not having a whole lot planned before then....we better soak that up while we can too, before we have kids!

More Columbia, MO Pictures!

Here are more pictures from Bo and I's Columbia, MO trip.....these are stolen from Samantha.

Bo

Lucy

The following pictures are from a round of Bo and Lucy playing together. 

She decided she needed to get to his level. :-)

Then Bo got down to her level.

Sam and I at Addison's

Waiting......

Throughout the blogging process, I've found that I am starting to enjoy writing a lot more.....it's almost theraputic to me at times....and this is definitely one of those moments.

Currently, I'm surrounded by students who are eagerly working on their assignments (ok, probably not eagerly nor are they enjoying it) but since my work is all caught up (wahoo!) that gives me time to lose myself in my thoughts in between getting up and walking around the room.

On my mind right now: Johnny. He is currently in Cairo, Egypt for a business trip and I haven't been able to get a hold of him since yesterday. You see, currently in Egypt there are tens of thousands protesting their government and it's getting pretty dangerous. Johnny mentioned the protestors earlier this week, but of course, I don't think he informed me of the severity of them. And today after their noon prayers (Egypt is 8 hours ahead), there were even more protestors and the "craziness" has increased. Government officials have shut down the internet and cell phone access, so I have no way to get in contact with him whatsoever. These were shut down so that people could not join forces in their protests. There was a facebook group established for those that wanted to protest that had something like 50, 000 people join, so it was shut down....but not just facebook and twitter.....the entire internet.....I can't even get on the Cairo International Airport website!!

I haven't seen Johnny since Tuesday the 18 and he is to return home tomorrow.....this is the longest that we have been apart since we got married and it is definitely hard. What makes it even harder is not being able to get a hold of him or vice versa. He was able to make a phone call via land line/calling card to Virginia where he gave her information for the hotel he is staying at (they moved hotels because he was staying downtown where all of the protesting/rioting was to take place) as well as when he was to leave for the airport and flight info.

I know that Johnny will be just fine because where he is currently, there's no danger.....and he is an extremely smart man with excellent intuition.....but for me, it is the "what if's". And it is those "what ifs" that can drive a woman crazy!

For now....i'm saying a lot of prayers and counting the minutes until I (or Virginia) hear from him again. It does sound like once he gets to his layover in France, things will be back to normal and he will have phone and internet access. His flight will land in France around 4:30am (central time) if I have figured it correctly.

Here's to hoping! (And lots of praying!)

P.S. Makes me so thankful that I live in America!

Weekend in Columbia

Even though school was out due to the weather again on Friday, I decided that I still needed to drive to Columbia. And I'm so glad that I did. It was so much fun! Bo and I traveled for the first time in the truck and it was a huge success. He has so much more room to relax and I was completely comfortable driving in snowy conditions if need be.

While I was packing, I found Bo laying like this. He lays like this quite often.

He can even look out the window in the truck! (Johnny and I joke that this is his "sophisticated" look...lol)

Sam made dinner on Friday night and we spent the entire evening eating, watching tv and catching up. Saturday morning we got up and headed to Kelani Spa to get pedicures with another friend, Amy. We went to lunch at Panera afterwards and even did a little shopping at Target and the Mizzou bookstore (my mizzou gear was very much out of date). After the bookstore Sam and I went to visit Johnny and I's friends, Russ and Selena. They recently moved to Columbia from Evansville, so I really wanted to take the opportunity to see them. It was such a blast. Their son Lawson was so excited to see Sam and I and Emmitt was all smiles. It was really nice to see their new home and catch up with them and I really hope to be able to again in the near future.



After visiting with the Braggs, Sam and I went back to her house to get Chris then head to dinner at Addisons. And of course the evening wouldn't have been complete without ending up at the Deuce. Sam and I only stayed about 10 minutes because we weren't sure what the snow was going to do and I had ended up feeling a little under the weather. Once home, we popped in Sweet Home Alabama (a Samantha and Rachele classic movie) and eventually went to sleep.

Snow was definitely coming on Sunday so I was up and at 'em early. I left by 9:30 and got back to Evansville around 2:30. The roads were not that bad with the exception of downtown St. Louis. I was driving in snow almost the entire way back home, but it was more pretty/annoying than accumulating and hazardous, which was nice.

I really hated leaving Columbia because I just always have so much fun with Sam and her husband Chris. It is definitley on our "to-do" list to see each other more often, so hopefully we can make that happen. But, I did have to leave to come back to work. (Bo was pretty sad leaving Lucy too.....and worn out! He slept the entire way home and then went right to sleep once we got home and stayed asleep until 4:30 Monday morning when he decided he was hungry. I think he had a lot of fun playing with her!)

I had to include a few pictures of Bo playing with Lucy in the snow, since the dogs are kind of like our children....

This is to show how much snow there was in Columbia....it was somewhere around 10 inches.

Bo and I are really missing Johnny, but I've been able to talk with him quite a bit more than I had anticipated. His first day, he spent out in the community helping rebuild part of a school and then his second night, Cargill took an evening dinner cruise on the Nile which of course included egyptian music and belly dancers. He assures me he is taking pictures so I will be sure to post them once he gets back! He'll be back Sat, which can't come soon enough!

To end, I'm attaching a recipe for healthy chocolate chip cookies. Samantha and I have somewhat joined forces (her more than I) to take a healthier approach at cooking. She has used this recipe and says it is VERY good. There are quite a few other recipes of hers that I plan on trying so I will be sure and post them as well. Sam is definitely helping me out a lot in terms of what you should and shouldn't be eating.....she's a freaking whiz at being able to research things! Anyways, this is a recipe she found on a blog that she follows and what makes it healthy is the fact that it has no added sugar or white flour. AND, it has good fiber and protein from the oats and whole wheat flour. (Sam says that she didn't use the coffee and it turned out just fine.)

Hope you enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 stick butter, softened

1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup pure maple syrup (use the real stuff, fake syrup is so nasty for you!)
1 egg
1 1/2 tablespoon coffee
1/2 tablespoon whole milk
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
pinch sea salt
9 oz dark chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups oats

Preheat oven to 350. Beat butter until creamy. Add honey and syrup, beat well. Then add egg, coffee, and whole milk, beat well. In a separate bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt. Gradually beat into batter. Add oats and chocolate chips to batter, stir well. Spray a cookie sheet and drop about a spoonful of the batter for each cookie unto pan. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Enjoy!

Snow Day #5

I think i've mentioned before, but I am going to say it again.....snow days suck. They especially suck when you have nothing to do and your husband is out of town AND you are planning a trip out of town. On a positive note, I am probably more rested than I have been in my life or will ever be in the future and the DVR is getting show after show cleared off. 

Bo taking it easy with his buds.....which he gathers together everywhere he goes in the house.

This picture doesn't really do any justice to how much snow is actually out there....but this is looking out from our living room. The road plows haven't even touched our road.

And these next two pics are for my sweet husband. We ordered our truck cover/lid a few weeks ago and I went to have it installed yesterday so he hasn't seen it......I think it looks great. It will be especially nice for traveling this weekend.