It's That Time of Year!!

So, why has it been so long since I have posted?? OH, its because I had lost my camera, but don't you even worry. Jade found it in her room. . . ha. So a lot has gone down since I last posted. Thanksgiving, baking, decorating, zumba, wrapping presents, cookie trays, and Christmas! woo!
I have found a new thing that I LOVE. ZUMBA! I go 3 times a week and I would go more if I could. It is such a blast and its working out. What in the world? I get to dance and move my hips and stay in shape. What a concept.
Well lately, I have been studying for finals and for breaks of studying I would bake/cook of course. duh. If you were lucky and sat with me you got my baked goodies! I made all kinds of cookies, oreo filled brownie cups, and trail mix that had honey and peanutbutter. I could have eaten that til the day I died. After finals I stayed in town and worked til the last possible day that I could. Ya see. . my parents moved to a teeny town with a population of 400. YEP. You saw that correctly, 400. I have to drive about 35 miles to go "into" town. It kinda stinks to be honest, I don't know anyone here and I have to travel to do anything. Love my parents and I love their new place, but still its rough. So at work I baked, decorated cookies, and made lots of cookie trays. I got some pictures to show! So I'll stop boring you with writing and just post some pictures. Pictures speak louder than words right? I think so.




these are some hand painted and butter cream decorated sugar cookies that I did. (most of them anyways)





yummy sugar glazed pecans and almonds and some white chocolate popcorn snack to go into goodie bags with the cookies



ok this is seriously the BEST bread pudding you will ever eat. White Chocolate Raspberry bread pudding. You will NEVER get the recipe out of me. Maybe if you paid me big bucks. . . even then MAYBE. Yes that is how good it is. My uncle said that it rivals his favorite bread pudding from a restaurant called Mercury in Dallas and thats a 4 star restaurant.




okay and lastly! Yup, I slaved away over painting cookies and I still didn't have time to finish. I had to finish packaging them in the car on the way up to Dallas. But the popcorn that went into them sure did make great snacking material. I told myself, "Whatever falls out of the bag I will eat. . somehow I kept "spilling". Ooops ;-) Also, if you want to paint and package cookies, make sure you give yourself many hours to let the cookies dry. I probably only let dry for like 2 hours so some got smooshed when packaged. The good thing is . . kids could care less, they will eat anything with sugar. . and so will I. My mom loves the cookie plain with out any icing. I'm not sure how many she ate. I think like 5 one day and 3 the next haha. We love cookies.

Then the picture of my lovely family minus my brother Christmas Eve.He got sick and had to miss the big family Christmas party :( Its always such wonderful time.

Until next time. . . I hope every single one of you had a wonderful and blessed Christmas season!!

DILEMMA!

So your probably thinking "Woah Laney, calm down. Two posts in one week?!" Yah I know, pretty crazy!
Ok, so a couple of weeks ago I went to this doctor who does Nutritional Response Testing (go look it up, its difficult to explain. . . or maybe I am just too lazy to explain). Anyways, he found weaknesses in my stomach and so right now I am on a strict diet. To get rid of the virus in my body I have to take whole food supplements and (are you ready for this. . . sit down) eat NO sugar, NO grains, and NO dairy for 90 DAYS!!! umm. . . Your telling that to the girl who bakes like everyday of her life and lives off sugar. So I am two weeks into it and lets just say, I fail at life basically. hahaha. but seriously. I have eaten more sugar (and junk food) in the past 2 weeks than I ever have in my life. Its so bad. Since someone told me I couldn't have something, its like its all I crave. Your probably wondering, "Well what on God's green earth can you even eat?!" I can eat any kind of protein, and pretty much as much of it as I want. I can have all kinds of vegetables (oh did I mention that when he said no sugar that includes fruits. . um yah). I can lots of peanut butter, almond butter, cashew butter. . you get the idea. I live off of scrambled egg and turkey muffins in the morning. (on the days that I actually follow my regiment). So here is my dilemma. Why is it that I all of a sudden eat a ton and everything that I am not supposed to even eat? Seriously, I have gained some weight because I have been eating so unhealthy. Well, one reason is that I am a selfish, impatient, and anxious person. I go to food because I'm stressed and worried about this new "diet" that I have to be on. (I could go on, but I wont bother you with the sob story). But even if its going to be really hard, I must do it to 1. get rid of the virus 2. learn how to obey and be disciplined 3. become free from any inner problems that I have and not even realize.
So, I am going to blog every so often tell you all what I have eaten, so your kinda like my accountability partners. Remember, NO sugar, NO grains, NO dairy. BUTTTTT I have found some somewhat good recipes I can have for dessert which includes a pumpkin pudding sweetened with stevia and some spices. Its not bad actually. Then there is my favorite. .. ICE CREAM! yup I said ice cream. . how? Its coconut milk ice cream and its the bomb diggity bomb. So yah. Thats that. Wish/Pray for me this week. Its a new week and I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Its going to be difficult, but I am going to look forward to the reward that its going to bring me.

Psalm 139 (its great)



PS. go to this website, it kinda explains what I am doing.
http://www.nutritionalwellnesscenter.com



THE ICE CREAM SENT FROM HEAVEN.

long time no blog.

How cheeseball can I get with the title of this post? Seriously.
Well, I haven't had much time to blog, or more like I don't think about to blog with school going on. So basically what y'all have missed out on (which isn't much) is this. . . I am back at Baylor, I'm back working at Simply Delicious Bakery and still LOVE it! (I actually look forward to going into work). I changed my major to General Family and Consumer Sciences with a Nutrition Sciences minor. oh and I turned 21!!!!! woo hoo. It was a good birthday by the way.

I still do a lot of baking of course, but not as much at home since I have school in the way now and plus I work at a bakery. I did make about 50 cupcakes and 30 cookies for some business school meeting event and they all loved my stuff. It was so awesome to hear!! I DO MAKE GOOD STUFF!

Crazy story. This past week a man got super mad about a cake at the bakery. It was a $200 Mad Hatter cake and it was awesome!!!!!! It took Alyse 4 days to make. Well the phones rings and I answer. . . big mistake. "Simply Delicious" and on the other end, yelling and cursing and more yelling, (like absurd amount). What ended up happening was the dumb butt placed the cake in the back seat which is on a tilt. We asked if they wanted help out to the car and they said now. SOO the cake ends up taking a tumble. They must have been driving crazy because the cake was no more. He blamed it on us and demanded all kinds of things like money back, getting someone up at the bakery in 5 minutes and some profanity along with that. He called 7 times. The guy was a maniac because it was HIS SON'S 16TH BIRTHDAY DAMNIT. Well all be darn. I ended up crying because he wouldn't stop yelling at me after I asked him not to anymore. Our manager was out of town, and we weren't sure what to do, but we COULD NOT give him his money back b/c Angie (boss) wasn't there. oh but he wouldn't have it. Oh yah. Also, the wife signed the paper saying that once the cake has left the premises, it is no longer our responsibility. ANYWHO, Alyse and I ended up staying 6 hours after we closed to make the darn cake. And the woman who picked up the cake was so rude!!!!!!!!! and didn't even say thank you. So I made sure to say "YOUR WELCOME!"
As my aunt said that I should have said when the man was on the phone, "Well sir, quite frankly, you sound like your talking to someone who gives a shit." (excuse my language, but thats a quote.)

that was a long story short actually. But that man is no longer allowed on the premises of the property and my boss is pressing charges. INSANE. (did I mention his wife hugged me because she felt so badly and said that she was so sorry for his behavior and he had no right to treat me the way he did. Can someone say, abusive relationship, possibly? or at least, dysfunctional family).

Ok that is all for now. Thats a lot to take in and I apologize :)

Some pictures from my 21st!!






Laney

A walk in the park with an AMAZING breakfast for champions

Ok so I like to exercise! Its fun and its the only way for me to eat what I eat and not get fat hahaha! So my mom and I go on walks a lot (power walks). So we decided to go to Eleanor Tinsley Park in Houston. It was so nice! We actually got up IN THE MORNING and drive 45 minutes to this park. Now your probably wondering, "Why in the world would they drive that far to go walk in a park?!" Well thats a fair enough question. Besides the fact that it was just a nice change of pace. . . there was of course a restaurant around the corner that we really wanted to try. Baby Barnaby's. My mom and I have been to Barnaby's before and were very much impressed, so we wanted to try their breakfast only restaurant. Let me just say. . . best meal I have eaten. So good in fact that I ate two. . . thats right TWO whole breakfast plates.







The restaurant is KINDA like a little hole in the wall. But as oxymoron as this sounds, its a cute, fun, and quirky hole in the wall. Its super small, and has a maximum capacity of 35! WOAH. But I loved that fact. Its small, but it delivers LARGE portions, and BIG flavor. One thing I thought was super neato was this juice contraption. It freshly squeezed oranges, and threw the oranges in a bin. It was crazy. I watched that the whole time until my FOOOOOD came in. It was like a halo over food with a spotlight beaming off it. It landed on my table, and I was thinking, "Holy freaking moly." So what I got was a plate called Green Eggs. This would be scrambled eggs with monterey jack cheese and spinach and artichoke dip mixed in. I took the first bite and my mouth awakened to the best salty breakfast dish I have ever eaten. The eggs were cooked to perfection, nice and fluffy and the creaminess of the cheese and dip in it, practically melted in my mouth. With the eggs came potatoes and apple chicken sausage (delicious) and two pieces of wheat toast.
Ok so I ate pretty much ate that entire plate. The next plate was supposed to be for my mom AND I to share. An apple pancake. This was like no other pancake I have ever eaten. This was almost rectangular shaped and HUGE. I have had bigger pancakes than this one, but nothing like this one. This was the most fluffy, moist, and cake-like pancake. The apples were perfectly placed in the pancake and were seasoned and cooked to perfection. My mom literally ate two bites, and I ate the REST. I would eat a bite and eat some more and I would put it down, and say ok I am done. I feel sick. But somehow that fork kept getting picked up by MY hand and placed into MY mouth. Eventually the whole thing was gone. I then washed it all down with my fresh squeezed orange juice.
This was in fact hands down, best breakfast joint I have ever gone too. Soon enough my "fullness" hit me like a giant rock. When I got home I took a 3 hour nap hoping that after that I would feel great. Oh no, there was still a rock in my stomach. ANYWHO. The stomach pains were totally worth it, and I would do it again and hope to do it again!!

Baby Barnaby's
602 Fairview Street
Houston, TX 77006

NEXT POST: My 21st birthday! Be on the look out!

Laney

Like I said, I had a lot of pictures and I realized that if I posted each one separately and wrote about each one, it would take way too long!! But this is what I have done this summer. The last pictures are of Tiny Boxwoods Cafe. Its a swanky cafe in River Oaks and now my favorite! I would say that my sandwich was well worth the $11 because it was tasty and the atmosphere was awesome!!

ok from now on, the rest of my blogs will be a lot less to take in and will have actually descriptions with them lol. If you have any question on what a picture is just ask!!

Tracking Back.

So like I promised, I am going to start posting pictures of my inner foodie. But I'm going to post a few at a time and of course in chronological order haha.







So it looks like food blog portion is going to begin with nothing other than the THUNDER MUFFIN!! These muffins come from Lampe, MO (or somewhere around there). For 6 years in a row I went to a camp called "Kanakuk Kamps" and right around the corner is Permission HIll Farms. They have a berry farm and you can pick fresh berry and get some of the most amazing muffins you will ever eat! Oh the childhood memories are coming back. So when I found out that they delivered these 4 inch in width muffins, I knew I had to order some. Ok. So I can't lie, I was hugely disappointed!! The muffin top was pretty good, but everything else was dry!! I wanted to relive my memory of sitting out at the farm with my parents at the picnic tables eating these wonderful blueberry muffins. I guess some things are just not meant to be frozen and shipped. But if you are ever near the area, DO go and get a fresh one. They will not disappoint!!











So you are probably wondering, The Hobbit Hole Cafe???? YES thats right! This place lies in the heart of Montrose (which is in Houston). This place has been around for 37 years!! Now I think you know a place must be good if its been around for that long! Its like a little Village House for a restaurant. As soon as you walk in the door you are welcomed by all things Lord of the Rings. I have tried so many things on the menu and they are all so good. The portions are HUGE. (unfortunately I didnt take pictures of my meal this time around). But I got fish tacos this time. But as you can see, I took a picture of the fruit plate. Its so delicious and the one thing that I get with my mom everytime that we go! Its all kinds of fruit with some yogurt mixture and some slivered almonds and shredded coconut. Its to die for. So on this day when my mom and I went to the Hobit Cafe we also went to a place called Ruggles Cafe and Bakery located in Rice Village (in Houston). My mom is usually the person who gets dragged on all my foodie adventures. But she really enjoys it too! We try to try a new place every week while I'm at home for the summer. So after we ate our delish food and big portions at Hobit Cafe we headed out to do some thrift shopping and let our food settle and went to Ruggles where I heard they had some amazing desserts!!



Ok, so let me just let your eyes feast on this amazing goodness for a little bit.. ...............................................................................................

Ok taken it all in?? So my mom and I (and my dad, but he wasn't on this adventure with us unfortunately) like to get A LOT when we are trying something new because we have the tendency to not be able to decide what we want! So why get boggled down on decisions, just order a few things! So let me break down for you what we have in this picture of heaven. We have the Charlottes Web. Which was chocolate cake on the bottom, layered with expresso pudding, layered with whipped cream, layered with chocolate sauce, layered with heath bar pieces. NEXT we have a cappuccino with an amazing ginger cookie, complete with a dark chocolate spoon (which i had already pretty much eatin) NEXT: The most amazing (well tied) white chocolate bread pudding with raspberry sauce.
Thank You Ruggles Cafe. I will be back for more.

One of my favorite desserts is bread pudding, and my favorite comes from Pine Forest Country Club (where my dad manages, well where he did as of this past weekend, like I said in the previous post, he is moving jobs) ANYWHO, Ruggles is known for their bread pudding and I knew I had to try it and compare. AND oh budddddddy! Does it ever compare. Its either JUST AS good or BETTER! OH how I love me some bread pudding.

Ok, thats all for tonight. I'll probably post a new one tomorrow with another round of a ridiculous amount of pictures!

Laney