Happy (belated) Valentine's Day

Good morning!

I started this blog last night, but with Andy getting home really late and Kasey refusing to sleep it got pushed back to this morning. That Kasey-girl just hates to sleep!

getting in the valentines day spirit

Can't say we had a super exciting Valentine's Day but Andy did leave me a very nice card in the morning so that made it a great start.

Andy and I rarely do gifts for anything so I thought it would be nice to make him some special treats.
He loves Reeses peanut butter cups so I thought we would make some homemade ones. We stopped at Trader Joes after our run and got a pound plus bar of dark chocolate (maybe I should have gotten him milk chocolate which he prefers but dark chocolate is "healthy" and so I can justify eating them too).

I based the recipe off of Chocolate Covered Katie's blog, http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2010/10/06/homemade-peanut-butter-cups-in-your-bra/, we melted almost the whole bar (minus 1 row) with about a tablespoon of butter. Put half in mini muffin tins, froze. Mixed about a tablespoon of sugar with maybe 1/2 cup of peanut butter, put it on top of the chocolate, froze, then added the rest of the melted chocolate on top and froze. I think I may have made them too big but they are delicious!

this is a long process..when do we get to try them?!?

I give up...

I also decided to make ice cream with all the left over brownies from the weekend...
so we made
Espresso Cheesecake Ice cream with Brownie Chunks
I based the ice cream off of the red velvet ice cream I saw on the Brown Eyed Baker, http://www.browneyedbaker.com/2012/02/13/red-velvet-ice-cream/. I would have made that if I had any red velvet cake on hand -it sounds delicious. Made the cheesecake ice cream with 1/3 fat cream cheese and vanilla yogurt instead of sour cream also added 2 tablespoons espresso powder. Then just crumbled up my brownies and threw in the chunks! You honestly taste each flavor in every bite!

This morning Kasey was super happy - she hates sleeping but once she gets her beauty rest she is a joy to be around. Really mornings are her thing! We made a french toast bake, and Kasey didn't even fall asleep in the sling until I started finishing this blog. She carefully watched me the whole time like she was afraid I might do something wrong.

helping mommy

don't forget the raisins mom

French Toast bake-
1/2 challah loaf, ours had been frozen from a previous bake, ripped to pieces
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup almond milk
2 eggs plus 1/3 egg white substitute
Handful raisin, we used golden and regular
2 tablepoons brown sugar
1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
1.5 teaspoons cinnamin
honey, for drizzling

Preheat over to 350
We ripped the challah and put it in the pan
Sprinkled the raisins on top
Mixed milks, eggs, sugar, extract and cinnamon in bowl - drizzle on top
Drizzle honey over whole thing
Bake in over at 350 for about 35 minutes

We are also making an apple topping with 2 golden delicious apples, 1/2 cup honey, few sprinkles of cinnamon to taste, and 2 tablespoons lemon juice. Just saute over low heat while french toast is baking. I may put it on top of the french toast with some slivered almonds and bake a few extra minutes - we will see.