So, I'm falling down on the blogging job. I think a couple posts ago, I made some comment regarding trying to do this more often. Apparently, I lied :) I seem to be finding myself lost in a book, cleaning the house, cooking, helping my husband ... anything but being on my blogs and even checking other blogs!
I'm back, though with a bit of an update. Brian and I were very excited to close on 10 acres of land just outside of Lubbock city limits. It is a perfect space of land at the perfect location, and we are so excited about the opportunities to come with it. We have been major busy on land development projects ... mostly building fences. We have spent quite a bit of time surveying and setting t-posts. Most recently, we spent the weeking (in the crazy West Texas wind) cutting pipe and getting the pipe sections ready to be placed on the fence line. That was quite project and definitely took the place of me lifting weights for .. oh about the entire month! :)
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| This is our land ... welcome to West Texas ... wide open flatness :) |
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| I didn't know Brian had the camera out, but this was the pipe cutting adventure. |
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| Brian got caught with the camera! |
Now that I've displayed my efforts to do not-so-girlie manual labor, I'm going to confirm that I still have girly-ness in me! So ... baking and projects ...
I have two things that I've baked recently that were awesome ... one low-fat and one not-so-much!
Meringue cookies
These little cookies are amazing little bits of sweetness that are so light and low calories. They do take a long time to bake, so they are an exercise in patience!
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| These are vanilla meringue cookies. I didn't get a picture after they were done baking ... oops! |
Here's the recipe for chocolate and vanilla meringue cookies. They are about 20 cal/cookie:
4 large egg whites (or the equivalent of meringue powder)
1/2 tsp distilled white vinegar or cider vinegar
1 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
Preheat oven to 200 F. Line 2 baking sheets with foil.
In a large bowl, beat egg whites with an electric mixer until frothy. Add vinegar; beat until soft peaks form. Increase speed to high and gradually add sugar; beat until glossy stiff peaks form. Beat in vanilla.
Remove half of meringue to another bowl; stir in cocoa until blended.
Spoon tablespoons of both meringues onto prepared baking sheets about 1 inch apart each, making about 44 cookies - half vanilla-flavored and half cocoa-flavored. Or you can make marbleized cookies by spooning 1/2 tablespoon of each type of meringue into a mound and then swirling to two together with your fingers.
Bake until meringues feel dry and crisp all the way through, about 3 hrs. Turn off oven; leave meringues in oven for 1 hr. Transfer baking sheets to wire racks to cool completely. Peel off foil and store in air tight container at room temp. (Taken from the Weight Watchers weekly)
Now to the unhealthy delicious stuff!! I made these fabulous cinnamon rolls from our Lubbock Junior League cookbook .... best homemade cinnamon rolls I've EVER made!!
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| So sinfully delicious!!! I could blow a diet any day for this gooey goodness! |
If anyone's interested in the recipe, just let me know! They were surprisingly easy to make for homemade :)
Lastly .. my new project:
This is an OLD tray (obviously) that my husband's grandfather gave me. I wasn't such a fan of the "beautiful" stenciled flower-work on the tray ;) But I had an idea! I am planning to paint a solid creamy white and then paint our name "Wise" on the tray in a pretty script with mayble some scrolling to accent. I am really needing to do something above my kitches cabinets. They really are very plain and in need of some help. This will be my start and inspiration ... now I need to actually get started!
Have a great and blessed day!
