summer lovin

the weather in MD could not be nicer, especially as i'm hearing a snowstorm is about to pummel New England while i'm down here :) I got to wear shorts and a t-shirt all day today and pick up some food at costco (they have these fantastic dried figs w/ no added sugar or sulfur that i grabbed).

m, s3, s4 and i walked around the lakefront on saturday to enjoy the weather and also so i could check out petit louis. we shared the french press for two (so much fun!), grabbed a couple pastries to eat on the go, but couldn't resist trying the orange and almond tart, which was amazing. lots of chunks of candied whole orange. we packed up the brioche with banana caramel and the buckwheat madeleines to go. i liked the denser taste to the cookies. i wasn't a fan of the brioche, it was a tad too caramely-bananay for me. the place is adorable though.

words cannot describe how amazingly easy and tasty these milkshakes are. i think only b/c i've adapted to negative temperatures did i think it was proper weather for a milkshake, but this recipe is from joythebaker and we souped it up a bit w/ chopped up dark chocolate reeses cups and adorable teddy grahams. make this ASAP

i'm still trying to bake/cook healthy stuff so these muffins are free of any fat and sugar. and surprisingly tasty. best eaten warm from the oven.

Banana Oatmeal Muffins

Makes 12 regular muffins and 12 mini muffins

Ingredients

1 cup old fashioned oats

1 cup skim milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 T baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

3 medium bananas, mashed

1 large egg

1/2 cup pecans, chopped

Preheat oven to 400F. Soak oats in the milk and vanilla extract. Sift together whole wheat flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a separate bowl. Combine mashed bananas and eggs with the wet ingredients. Combine wet ingredients into the dry and mix until just wet, add pecans. Bake mini muffins for 10 minutes and the regular muffins for 20 minutes or until golden brown. 

we did a fancy brunch before s3 and s4 headed to their respective homes. so much tastier than what i've had in NH so far and a lot more fun. we had whole wheat and cornmeal banana pancakes (unfortunately i forgot to bring home a bottle of maple syrup!), cheesy scrambled eggs, old bay hash browns and some fake sausage links (first time trying, they are very interesting...).

the last picture is not from the same day (thank gosh, b/c we were stuffed!) but two salads i made for m&d. it was a quinoa, bell pepper and tomato salad, and the leafy green one is also from joythebaker and is a broccoli, apple and mustard salad. i did half arugula and half baby kale, i didn't have any sunflower seeds so i tried roasted and salted pine nuts (i think i would have preferred the sunflower seeds) and i used maple syrup in place of the honey (did half, i'm sure honey would taste fine but there's none in the house). i'm usually not a fan of fruit in my salad or mustard, but this salad was tasty and so easy! also make, maybe not back to back with the milkshake...although, maybe it'll balance out the food fun :)