What have I been up to?

Well, I have been tailgating with my bestie:


Going out to eat tapas with new and fabulous friends...


Making funny faces and not being ready for my picture to be taken...


Baking (and eating) pumpkin swirl coffee cake...



Tasting each of the 3 elements that went into the coffee cake (to make sure it was tasty...rrriiiite)...



And maybe I got a couple of healthy meals in there... (but not this weekend)

Halloween Festivities + Baked Treeeeat Winner!

--Happy Halloween! (Zumba Style)--

The Zumba Halloween party was so much fun! I got to teach 3 songs, so that means I could socialize a lot too because I wasn't teaching the whole time.

I chose to do: "Tango" by Shakira, "Hotel Room" by Pitbull, and "Pabajo"

The crowd really liked my songs! I was pleased. I even had lots of people come up to me after and ask where I teach. :)

I loooooooooooooved the energy of teaching to alot of people. The adrenaline rush was great!

Anyway, here are some pictures:

My sister was a Twister Board. She was the prettiest Twister Board I've ever seen!


This is me being a dork and acting like I am on top of the Twister board, playing the game. haha. And I am a sailor!


My friend Amanda as Wonder Woman. She is so cute!


Me and Rocco. He was super excited, if you cannot tell.


Some of my Zumba loves at the Zumba party.


Amanda dancing it up!


Work it girls!


Here I am teaching. I think this was Shakira's "Tango."


I loved it!


I was having a lot of fun. :)



--And now...THE 100th post giveaway WINNER!--

Meredith at Pursuing Balance: http://pursuingbalance.com/

YAY! I am so thrilled to bake something for you, darlin! Please email me at meowen87@gmail.com. :)


-Question: What is your favorite pizza?

Pure Swirly, Cinnamony Pumpkiny Goodness

--My Latest and Greatest Meals--

I have been doing pretty darn swell with cooking my meals and keeping my food diary! I am not going to lie, I am pretty proud of myself!

Nothing is wrong with that, by the way, to be proud of you and truly believe in what you can accomplish. :)

Here is a picture of my usual morning breakfast spot (sorry for the awful picture quality, I was hungry and rushing):


This morning my breakfast was a green monster smoothie, coffee with almond milk, and half a slice of "Pump the Swirly Bread." I usually drink a green monster and coffee during the week days--and the carb part is what differs--some mornings it will be a slice of toast with PB or a coffee cup full of cereal.


My eats last night were nice and veggie-rific! I am so bad about getting my veggies in (other than my spinach-laden smoothie in the morning)...but this dinner was full of 'em. It was a grilled chicken breast on top of a spinach salad, sprinkle of feta cheese, carrots--all with a honey dijon/poppyseed dressing. YUM! It was fresh tasting and did not weigh me down.


--Zumba Article--

There is an article today at NCSU for faculty that features me teaching Zumba to faculty! I am not going to show it to you because the pictures of me are SOOO bad! haha, sorry, but I am embarassed. ;)

I am super, duper excited about the Zumba Halloween Party tomorrow night! Whoop whoop! I am going as a sailor. Not "zumba-ish" at all--but I am hoping it will be cute. My sister will be going as a Twister board and my other friend is going to be Wonder Woman. We are going to be a fabulous looking trio!

p.s. I have my interview tomorrow afternoon. I hope to be prepared and professional and smart and charismatic in the interview! I'll let you know how it goes.

--Pump the Swirly Bread--

I have been trying to bake a take on cinnamon swirl bread (made with yeast) and adding pumpkin for a while now. Well, yesterday I decided to get a going and work on my recipe! And--ya'll--it is just how I want it! I would change nothing about this recipe. I am calling it "Pump the Swirly Bread" because of the obvious--it is pumpkin swirl bread. :)


Here is the dough--before the first "rise." I let it rise for about an hour and a half. I usually put a warm towel over the top of the bowl because it speeds up the rising process.


After the dough has basically doubled in size, I rolled it out into a large rectangle, and sprinkled on brown sugar/cinnamon/and raisins. Next, I rolled it up and placed it in a loaf pan for the "second rising." Sprinkle the top with cinnamon and sugar for a crispy, sugary crust. After about 1 hour, pop it in a 325 degree oven for 65 minutes.

And out comes this beauty:


YUUUUM! You cannot really see the swirl in this picture--but trust me: it is there! Wow--I am in LOVE with this bread and could of easily eaten half the loaf right there. It is just sweet enough to be a breakfast bread..it is great alone or with apple butter/nut butter...and it's half whole wheat and only 1 spoonful of butter (to help create the swirl). So, it is relatively healthy!

To make sure I did not gorge on this delicious bread, I cut it into individual servings and put in the freezer.


--Don't Forget to enter my 100th Post Giveaway!!!--

Don't you want some homemade baked goodies??? I know you do! So, check out this entry for all the details and ENTER ENTER ENTER! You have until Sunday!

http://healthymadison.blogspot.com/2009/10/cake-baking-and-100th-post-giveaway.html

Cake baking and 100th post GIVEAWAY!

Hello hellllllllllllooooo! haha that makes me thank of when I was in a modern dance company in undergraduate...there was this one piece I was in that involved a big dock on stage, life jackets, and us yelling "helllooooo." You may think I am officially weird now, but I promise: it was such a beautiful dance. This modern dance company is known for being unique. The director has a great talent for finding beauty in the simple things. Maybe one day I shall share a picture with you! ;)

Anyway, since I last talked to you: I have been doing my usual school work, grading work, paper writing, Zumba, working out, eating (yay), and lots of healthy cooking (mega YAY!).


--Monday Musings--

Last night I took a picture of my dinner but my camera liked the picture so much: that it ate it! ahh! Anyway, it was chicken sausage ravioli from Trader Joes with some organic marinara sauce and a big side caesar salad. :)

Before dinner I went to a class at my gym. It was difficult but great! My arms were a little "wobbly" after class. It was a strength training class that involves the craziest, most awesomest, spunkiest fitness instructor ever! His name is Grant and he is amazing in all of his glory. He wears short shorts, has cool glasses, does awesome dance moves, and walks around the room with confidence to get people motivated. He definitely gets me motivated and determined to finish what I started! That is the sign of a GREAT group fitness instructor, if you ask me. This class I took last night was all strength training, which I have been skimping on majorly lately, so yes maam and yes sir--I needed it!


--Cake Baking is my Love--

My sister asked me to bake a birthday cake for two of her coworkers and of COURSE I jumped at the chance to make a homemade layer cake. Baking layer cakes from scratch is one of my favorite things to do EVER. (and I did not even take a lick of the batter or frosting today heccck yes)

I used the cake and frosting recipe from "Frankly Faye," which is the cookbook I made and worked on all summer that is from my Mama Faye's recipes and from her children. I used the basic 1-2-3-4 cake recipe and actually use this frequently. It makes for a moist, thick cake layer with no dropped centers. :)



The chocolate fudge frosting is made on the stovetop and then has to cool completely before beating in the mixer. So, here it is in an ice bath because I needed to speed up the process. The neat thing about this recipe is that you can make this fudge or frosting depending on how long you let it boil.


After it cools, you beat it with the mixer on high speed until "all the shine is off." So, it is matte looking and thickens up slightly. It is sooooo yummy--the good old fashioned fudge frosting recipe that is somewhat grainy, ya'll know what I mean? :) Yum.

Here is the cake after I did the basic crumb coating of frosting and before the small decorations I added.


I had to spice it up a little bit with some fun decorations! So, I added some spiderweb looking details and blue polka dots.


It turned out pretty cute, atleast I think it did! I hope my sister and her coworkers enjoy it! :)



Now, the moment you have been waiting for....
100th post baked good giveaway!

To celebrate my 100th post, I am going to be hosting a fun, baked good giveaway. This will be my first giveaway and I am super duper excited about it.

The winner will receive a box full of homemade customizable baked goodies from me! The goodies can be healthy or decadent and/or both--I will email the winner and give them options. :) The "winner" will be chosen be a random generator!

Now, the good stuff...to enter:

1. Comment on this post telling me what your favorite baked treat is.
   
2. Link my blog in your own blog with a sentence or two about my giveaway and put that link in the comment on here.
   
3. You have until Sunday, November 1 at 5:00pm!

So, ENTER AWAY! I know you want some delish homemade baked treats arriving at your door step!

Weekend Happenings

Happy Super SUNDAY!

Today has been pretty low key for me: worked on a paper for a while and am also done with the composition part...EDITING is next. Don Don DOON. Editing is also a pretty laborious part for me because I am a fast writer and basically have to go back and restructure the whole thing. Sometimes I read over what I wrote the first time and think: "what the heck was I typing?" haha. I am more of a "get it all done in one swoop" than a "write 20 minutes every day for a week." When I find my groove: it's hard to stop me! ;)

I also joined a new gym! YAY! It offers more classes and has one of my favorite Zumba instructors on the face of the planet! AND it's only $30ish dollars a month. I think that is pretty dang good. I went to a Zumba class there tonight and brought one of mi amigas since I got a free guest pass. She loved the class and instructor too.

My dinner was delicious tonight! I just bought the new FlatOut "folding" flatbreads that makes a little melt. They are brand new--not the usual FlatOut Wraps--have ya'll seen them? Well, they are AWESOME and I have proof!

So, for dinner:

• Multi-grain flatbread
• Chicken thigh grilled and seasoned with italian seasoning
• Spinach
• Goat cheese
• Roasted red peppers
• Hummus
• Slap it all together and put in saute pan--then press a spatula on the side of the flat part to melt everything and make it "panini" like
• I also had a bowl of caesar salad with lite dressing (out of the bag--I cannot help it--I do love some bagged salads, folks!

It was SO SO SO good! Sorry about my purse being in the background. I was rushing to take the picture because I wanted to bite into this yummy sandwich and try the new folding flat breads. I LOVED them! Go buy them, pronto!

Sometime this weekend I also made a spinach flatbread wrap with spicy chicken "italian style" sausage, spinach, turkey pepperonis, balsalmic vinegarrete, and LOTS of sliced mozzerella cheese.


There it is in the oven all melty...


AND here it is about to go in my belly! It was just "okay"... I really did not like the sausage in the wrap. This sausage is delicious on a pizza though, because I have had it that way...just my flavors were not on par for the wrap. Oh well, I still ate the whole shebang though. :)

Last night also included WAAAAAAAAAAAY too much of this:


Baked brownies eaten and brownie batter by the cupfuls. Ahhh! It was definitely an emotional eating episode for me. Oh well--I am not beating myself up over it.

I am giving away the rest of these Halloween brownies to my friends. Look at my cute box and individually wrapped treatsies. :)


I am such a dork and definitely drew a "pack" of witches flying together on the box. I love to do stuff like this though! These white boxes are at Michaels and the perfect size for me to give away. One of my favorite things to do is to decorate the box and make it all cute. People get such a big grin on their face when they get homemade goodies and a cute box. Double trouble!


DISCLAIMER--Weight TALK about to take place-->

Now, I completely agree with people who say that the scale is not necessary. For about nine months I have not stepped on the scale and that was for many reasons. One of those reasons was for a while I got a little too determined to maintain a certain number--so, I decided to retire the scale.

Well, I decided to step back on the scale this weekend. This was not an impulse "weighing." I have actually been thinking about it for a while. For a few weeks, I have been feeling a little lethargic and clothes been slightly tighter.

I already knew that I gained a little weight since I have been eating more and working out less. I have also been having too many nighttime baking sprees that involve me eating batter and lots of sugary baked goods. My pattern the past few weeks has been: eat well all throughout the day until....NIGHTTIME after dinner occurs. I have been craving sugar/sweets like no other and eating lots of it before going to bed...basically un-doing my whole day of healthy eating.
So, what does this tell me? To eat more during the day so I will not be hungry after eating dinner and a small treat.

I did weigh--and I have gained 4.5lbs (this was before I ate all of those brownies haha so probably more). Now, don't worry, I am not going to go on a crazy diet. I ate those brownies the night before "getting back on track" so I could go out with a bang. However, starting today: I am keeping a food diary and watching what I eat more carefully. I am not going to go back to weighing as often as I once did, but I do think I will weigh every few days to keep track of myself.


ANYWAY, with all of that said: I do have a pretty busy week ahead of me!

• 2 big papers DUE
• Working on project all week--involves digital design and embroidery software
• Getting together with one of my gym friends for a catch-up session
• Teaching Zumba at school
  
• Teaching Zumba on Thursday night
• Panel interview on Friday
• Lots of grading, proctoring tests--duty of being a Teaching Assistant
• Halloween ZUMBA Costume party on Friday! Yay!
  

I just took a bath--and wanted to get all relaxey--I just cannot relax in a bath, I am more of a shower girl...
-->QUESTION: Are you more of a shower or bath person?

Zumba Loooovin

--One of the many reasons why I love Zumba--

I taught class last night and had a great class! I did end up choreographing 2 new songs before last night--which made me even more excited about teaching Zumba. When I have a new song, I get so excited and very enthusiastic. I also like to see how the participants react to certain moves--either they think I am a crazy woman and/or they love it and/or they feel goofy shaking their thang. :)

My boss surprised me last night and came to my class! I am glad she did not tell me before hand because, knowing me, I would of worked myself up and practiced a lot more. I actually only practiced my new dances twice thru--and not even full out--but I pulled it off and everyone loved the dances. DrZumba (my boss hehe) seemed to really enjoy my class. We ended up going to a restaurant afterwards for a drink and catch up. It was so nice talking to her because I went from seeing her 2 times a week to never seeing her because I teach the same nights she does. She is super sweet and a great boss. I know she has my best interest at heart, which is really important in a boss. She also has a strong faith and leads a childrens choir. Major yay!


GOOD NEWS-->

Okay--so my night was MADE last night after class. Lisa, this really sweet woman who has been coming to my Thursday classes for a while now, came up to talk to me after class. She told me that since we started working out with me---she has lost 8 POUNDS!!!! Oh my goodness! Lisa had not been working out for about 2 years and since she started coming to my class: she is on fire for Zumba and dancing off the pounds. Lisa is the main reason why I am PASSIONATE about teaching Zumba! She said that I am her favorite Zumba teacher she has ever come across because my class is "phenomenal" (her words ahhh!) and a challenge. Oh my gosh! I almost started crying--haha, because I have been a little down on myself (dumb, I know) and Lisa totally encouraged me.

Anyway, I just HAD to share that with ya'll. I am sorry if it sounds like bragging--but I promise that is not what I am trying to do. I am sharing with you the many blessings I have in my life!


--In other news...--

I have an interview next Friday for a program that can count towards my masters degree! YAY! I am not going to give you all the details because the interview/application process is not over yet--and I don't want to jinx myself. :)


The interview will be in front of a PANEL. Eeek--that means atleast 3 people staring and listening to me. I know my nerves will be going a little crazy but I am excited about this opportunity. I need to do a good bit of research before the interview, so I can make sure when they ask me a question: I am not clueless and stammering.


-Question--> Have you ever had a panel interview? and do you have any tips for
interviews?

The kitchen is heating up

Hello and happy Thursday! I hope you are doing well and excited about the weekend. I have a lot to do this weekend for school and I have some fun stuff planned as well!

• Tonight: Zumba zumba--teachin' it up!
• Friday: Work session at school to crank out my embroidery design. Tomorrow night: fashion show with my sister--it is for charity and supports some of my friends who are students in fashion design
• Saturday: Going to this shopping spree with Melissa...Saturday night: might be going to a haunted house but probably next weekend.
  
• Sunday: Church, hope to Zumba some, and write write WRITE papers!

In the meantime....I've been cooking today!


--Cheesy Portabello Mushroom Pizza--

YUM! I just ate this for lunch and am saving the rest of it for lunch or dinner tomorrow night. This was so good because of the melty, yummy, gooey fresh mozzerella cheese.



Cheesy Mushroomy Pizza

• Whole wheat Trade Joes pizza crust
• 1/4 cup organic marinara sauce
• Sprinkle of shredded mozzerella cheese
• Few turkey pepperonis
• Fresh mozzerella slices
• Sprinkle of italian seasoning
• Portabello mushroom chunks (sauteed and cooked before)
• Pop in the oven until cheese is melted and crust is to the crisp you prefer!

I also BAKED! I love to cook and bake both--but I am more experienced in baking, so it is easier to for me to invent new recipes. Since I am cooking more meals though, I am looking forward to experimenting more with meals.


--I love me some Pumpkiiiiin--

I went to Trader Joes for some necessities and could not help but leave craving pumpkin. I have been craving pumpkin for a few days now, but seeing all the goodness at TJ: PUMPKIN was on my mind. So, I created a new pumpkin recipe. I did not measure exactly, but this is a general recipe.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Raisin Bars

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 9 by 13 pan with Pam.
2. Combine 1 cup of non fat greek yogurt with 1 can of pumpkin puree. Mix in 1/4 cup honey and 1/2 cup brown sugar.
3. Add 2 eggs and beat until combined.
4. In a separate bowl: stir together 2 cups whole wheat flour, 1/4 tsp salt, 2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice. Add to pumpkin mixture.
   
5. Mix in skim milk (about 1/2 cup).
6. Pour into prepared pan and spread out to edges. Sprinkle on brown sugar and cinnamon over top.
7. Bake for 25 minutes.

In the pan, ready to go in the oven.


I definitely had one of these with a HEAPING spoonful of maple peanut butter. So so so so good!


These are good and VERY pumpkiny--so if you like pumpkin: these will be your friend. I think next time I will add some chopped, toasted pecans.

I need to get crack-a-lacking on two things this afternoon before Zumba:
--Make outline for one of my papers
--Work on choreographing another dance for Zumba (I like to add atleast 1 new song every week)

-Question--> Which pie would you rather have: pumpkin or sweet potato?