Sue Bakes Tasty Truffles

Sue brought to work some pretty tasty treats today,  “Mocha Truffle Cookies”.  She said .. “you have to try one. It’s not diet fare, but worth every sinful bite”.  So I tried one. She was so right! Delicious. It tasted like a mocha brownie.  Some of the ingredients were chocolate chips, unsweetened cocoa, coffee, toffee pieces….mmmmm!

the whole cookie

from the inside....

 I did share this glorious little tid bit with my hubby at lunch. Can’t say I don’t share.

Speaking of lunch… needed something healthy after being teased with such sinful treats.

Baby spinach, garden vegetables topped with tempeh and green beans

I glazed my salad all over with my favorite Maple Fig Dressing.  However, I must let on that I was STARVING and, as usual, was all hands for anything to munch while doing the salad preparations.  So I opted for healthy carrots with hummus.

10 baby carrots and a TBS of hummus

The picture is a bit blurry. I was in a hurry to EAT.

So, really Jo, are we having anything for dinner?

I will not force my dearest to boil any more eggs for dinner. We had Greens and Beans …

Greens and Beans

Begin with 2 heads of Escarole

• 2 TBS olive oil (you know what I used …INFUSED EVOO)
• 1 can Cannellini Beans
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1 heaping tsp minced garlic
• 2 Hot Cherry Pepper slices
• 3 cup Vegetable broth
• Prosciutto – NOT … I used Vegetarian style “ham” but if you eat meat use about 1/2 lb of the real McCoy.
• 1/2 cup pecorino romano cheese
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs

1.  Rinse the greens really well in the sink. Chop and put in pot covered with water. Bring to a boil. Drain. Add fresh water and repeat. *This is to take the bitterness out of the greens. Escarole isn’t too bitter, but if you use turnip greens for example, you may need to boil about 3 – 4 times.

2. After the 2nd boil, drain in colander. Wipe out pot and add 2 TBS EVOO, turn heat to med high. Saute onion 5 min. Add garlic, saute 1 minute. Add “ham” and peppers plus the 3 cups of broth. Now add your greens and beans. Reduce at a slow boil for about 25 minutes. 

3. Preheat oven to 425 F. Turn green mixture into a baking dish, stir in pepper and salt to taste, stir in bread crumbs, top with cheese and bake about 20 minutes.

If you eat bread at night, that would be great with this dish.  I cooked some squash to go along with our Greens and Beans.  

Does any one out there leave the best tasting bites for last?  There was a wonderful piece of crispy cheese on top of a a piece of escarole on my plate. I kept eating around it because I KNEW I wanted that to be the grand finale of my dinner.  It was truly the best bite! 

The blog is late due to the finishing of the cookies. The glaze needs to set pretty well before I use them to finish the order for Sat. So they are currently in refrigeration.  Here’s a couple of tonights accomplishments.

baby theme candies

Cookie Rattles

In case you were wondering, the vacuum cleaner works again.  You see there is a little red button on top of the collection drum in the basement. It just so happens to be a reset button. Oh my, my… technology!

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Too Cold to Eat

I was a bit reluctant to check the outside temperature when I entered the kitchen this morning. To my surprise, it was 8 degrees. That’s a PLUS 8 DEGREES!  That was good news (can you believe I’m saying that?!).  So after a Jay Robb Chocolate Shake I got to it and did a little variety aerobics.

10 minutes of each:  Treadmill Run. Elliptical. Rowing. Bicycle.

35 minutes of back and triceps, increasing the weight after each set. I used the cable machine for Back and dumbells for Triceps.  4 sets, 15 reps each.

• Lat pulldowns (wide grip) + Overhead Tri Extensions x 8 sets/10 reps. after this and the next back exercise.
• Mid back rows
• Seated V grip lat pulldowns + Tricep Extensions x 8 / 10 reps after this and the next back exercise.
• Seated V grip mid back rows.
• 1 set of tricep dips.
• 4 sets of Medicine ball crunches (don’t know what that ball weighs but it’s heavy! I let it go and it rolled like a bowling ball and knocked over a lamp and the little wicker table it was sitting on!).

Ted couldn’t believe Shane and I were gone for a little over 35 minutes this morning. I wrapped up really well and stayed warm. Shane didn’t suffer paw freeze so we walked/jogged along for 3.16 miles.  Tomorrow – I fully expect to be reporting something quite different. Temperatures expected to be MINUS 15.

This warming breakfast followed:

Jay Robb Shake and Bob's Red Mill 5 Grain

1 scoop  Jay Robb Chocolate Shake and 17 little raspberries. A little FUZE and lots of water and ice.

1/3 cup dry Bob\’s Red Mill 5 Grain, some water, 1 chopped date, cinnamon, 1 tsp peanut butter, and 1 finely chopped strawberry to cook with the cereal.

3 Strawberries to top off the cereal.

While preparing breakfast, I noticed there were no birds feeding in the new feeder brother Richard gave us for Christmas.

I took the window feeder down to clean it, but it was too cold for it to stick back up so we have to wait until it gets a bit warmer to put it back in the window.  This new one is terrific though. It gets quite a bit of traffic.

That’s all for now. I made my Glaze’ Frosting this morning to decorate my cut outs, made last night. So tonight will be another “is ANYTHING for dinner” kind of a night. But it’s all fun.  Take care out there!

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