Flowers, Registries and Snow

Can I just say that I am REEEEAAAALLY sick of winter?  I swear it is either so cold that you can't breathe when you go outside or it is snowing so it takes you twice, if not three times, as long to get to work in the morning!  So today, I took a snow day....end of rant.

We are 226 days from our wedding!  I am excited to say that we do have most of the big stuff done, although the to do list is still REALLY long.

We met with Lisa Boerner from Forget Me Not Floral in Burnsville.  Decorations/flowers had been somewhat of a stressor, due to our lack of knowledge of flowers and the endless decoration ideas out there.  But we left our meeting with Lisa feeling a lot more at ease.  She has a great approach and personality for her job.  She listened to our opinions and then just went with it showing us options, ideas etc.  She was also really laid back which was great!  She has a huge inventory of vases, jars, candles, votives, etc. etc. that we can use at no extra cost.  We have decided to go with her which eases a lot of worries about how we are going to get everything done the day of the wedding.  She will bring everything out that day and set up, arrange, and organize.   NOTE: if you are a wine drinker, please save your green and blue wine bottles for us.  If you are looking for recommendations, Relax is a delicious white wine that comes in a blue bottle :)

We have also started our registry.  This task is teaching us a lot about compromise :)  Ben and I have slightly differing opinions when it comes to "stuff".  He is more practical and a minimalist and I am more of a "Oh what is this?  Oh this is so cool, we may not need it but maybe we will? Let's just add it!"  We also had a few technical difficulties when we went to Target to start our registry, I think it took us over half an hour to get logged into the system and actually start registering for things....We have decided to register at Target and Amazon.  If there are any suggestions of registry do's, dont's, or must haves feel free to share!

Yoga

I enjoy doing yoga and I have been trying to go to at least one yoga class a week, especially now that I have more of a "desk job".  Unfortunately there are only a couple classes per week that work in my schedule and they are on the weekends.  Now that both Ben and I have weekends off I try not to plan a lot since it is really nice to just hang out and do whatever we feel like on that particular day.  As a result, I have not been all that successful at going to yoga once a week.  BUT today I came across this website.  There are a ton of free yoga videos that you can watch (you don't even have to "sign up" or anything)!

Now if I only I could do it with this in the background....

250 Days To Go...Wedding Update!

Today marks 250 days until our wedding! 

Here is an update on what we have accomplished:

• Click here to see our website!  It isn't completely done but the basics are there.  We still need to add wedding party bios and  the guest list so people can RSVP.
• We took engagement pictures in October, here are a few!

•  

• I bought a dress!  Sorry no pics, Ben reads this blog sometimes ;)
• Hair and makeup appointments are made, we will be going to Michelle Kenric Salon in St. Cloud.  
• Hotel block is reserved...AmericInn in Sauk Centre.
• We are meeting with a florist on Sunday, thanks Brienne Jans for the referral!
• I have also spent countless hours on Pinterest looking at ideas! :)

The time is flying!  I keep reminding myself to enjoy the process and am trying not to get too stressed!  

2013 Reflections

Well, my blogging attempt in 2013 was not very successful.  This is kind of what happened: I had things to blog about but I kept putting it off and then once I finally got around to writing my post it became overwhelming because I had so much to write about so then I quit and decided to do it "later".  Then "later" became much later and then I thought I haven't blogged in months I cannot do it now!  But this year my plan is to blog if I feel like it, don't blog if I don't feel like it.  If 5 months lapses without a post, that is okay... we will see how this new approach goes over for me. :)

On to what this post was meant to be about in the first place (before I got caught up in justifying my lack of posting): Reflections of 2013:

2013 was overall a pretty awesome year!  Here are some of the high points:

• On January 22nd I started a part-time Social Work position at Anoka County in the Child Foster Care Unit.  
• On February 18th Ben and I got engaged!!!  WOOHOO - highlight of the year! :)
• I turned 25 in July (and am now saving $7 per month on my car insurance-big disappointment).
• Completed the Tough Mudder on my 25th birthday!
• Traveled with Ben and his family to Alaska for his cousin's wedding.  It was a great vacation and I was able to meet many of Ben's extended family.
• Ben started a new job at the end of July.  He now has a normal Monday through Friday schedule!
• In September Ben and I went hiking and camping on the Superior Hiking Trail.  My first backpacking experience, I would say it was a success!
• My best friend Alison Thompson got married on September 28th!  Shower, her bachelorette party and the rehearsal dinner were also big highlights!
• Ben and I attended a few other weddings throughout the year.  We went to Duluth to celebrate with Bekah and Taylor Foster, to Alexandria for Anna and Nick Petro's wedding at the Carlos Creek Winery, and to a gorgeous wedding in St. Paul for Anna and Kyle Wirth.  
• In November, I started a full time position at Anoka County

The year was packed with many other fun filled times spent with our friends and family!  I definitely have a lot to be thankful for!

We Have a Photographer!!!

We have exciting wedding news: we have chosen and booked a photographer! YAY!  We have chosen Ashley Christine Photography, you can check out her Facebook page here.

Photography is something that we think is very important; once the day is over it is what is left to remember the event by.  But with that being said we still did not want to spend a ton of money but still want good quality photos (I have been referred to and looked at some photographers whose packages started at $2000-3000, which is not in our budget).  Luckily, Brienne Jans recommended Ashley Christine Photography.  She is very affordable and her pictures look good.  Thanks Bri!

There is also a funny, small world story that goes along with this.  I sent Ashley a Facebook message requesting pricing information and answers to a few other questions.  When she responded she answered my questions and also told me that we have met each other before.  The name of her business is her first and middle name so I did not recognize it but when she told me her last name I realized that she was right.  We had a mutual friend when we were freshman in college so we had spent some time together on at least one occasion.  Crazy!

Now on to the next item on the to do list.....food!

"Spaghetti"

I am always trying to find good healthy recipes and healthier alternatives to food that we really like.  This is at times unfortunate for Ben because he is then stuck eating a "not so great" experiment....luckily spaghetti night was not of those "not so great" experiments.

Have you ever looked at the serving size for noodles?  It is ridiculous, I think most people probably eat 3+ servings when they eat pasta without even knowing it.  If we have spaghetti or alfredo or something of the sort I will measure out a serving size of the noodles for myself and it is always really depressing, hardly covers the bottom of the bowl.  SOOOOO, I was excited when I came across the recipe below on Pinterest (to see the original post click here.)  Instead of noodles you use Broccoli slaw!  If you do not know what Broccoli slaw is, you should. You can find it at the grocery in the produce section near the cut/bagged broccoli, baby carrots, and cole slaw.  It is great alternative to cabbage coleslaw as it has a lot more nutrients.  It is also really good with any kind of dressing and sunflower seeds on it for a snack or side dish.

"Spaghetti" - according the original recipe this is 2 servings but both Ben and I had a bowl and I still had enough left to eat with my lunch the next day


      

The above ingredients are the only three things I used (along with cooking spray)
1.  Brown the ground turkey.
2. Spray a skillet with cooking spray.  Add the whole bag of broccoli slaw and 1/4 cup water and cook on medium heat.  Cook until the broccoli has softened.  5-10minutes.
3.  Combine broccoli slaw, browned turkey, and spaghetti sauce and cook until heated through.
4.  Enjoy!  Isn't that about the easiest recipe ever?!

Here are pictures of the final product.  I promise, it tastes better than it looks!

See Ben did like it :)

Excitement!

No new progress on the wedding planning front but it has been a very exciting week for both Ben and I career wise!

Ben interviewed for and was offered a "Youth Support Specialist" position at the YMCA (that just so happens to be less than a mile from our apartment, I am SO jealous)!  Essentially he will be providing case management, partnered with Hennepin County probation, to teenagers on probation.  Not only is this exciting because he is taking a step in the direction of where he would like to be in his career BUT HE WILL NO LONGER HAVE TO WORK WEEKENDS!  Yay!  He will start at the end of July when we return from Alaska.

I was offered 8 extra hours at my current job at Anoka County.  I was worried that my other employer, Holland Center, would not be willing to work with me and rework my schedule/reduce my hours.  But I was pleasantly surprised!  Now my schedule is 8-4:30 on Mondays and Tuesdays at Holland Center and 7:30-5 Wednesdays and Thursdays and 7:30-4:30 Fridays at Anoka County.  Hopefully this means that I am slowly working my way to full time at the county!

Bridesmaids!

So it has been awhile since I have written a blog post.  You know when you don't do something and then it just seems to get bigger, overwhelming and more time consuming and then you continue to put it off and put it off and put it off.  Well that is what I did with this blog.  

But anyway...

The wedding planning is progressing, we have chosen a for sure date!  SEPTEMBER 13, 2014!  And yes that means that some years our wedding anniversary will be on Friday the 13th :)

I have also chosen my side of the wedding party (Ben on the other hand is a little indecisive).  In order to ask the ladies to be at my side on the big day I put together a little present for each of them. 

Item #1: Cupcake in jar.  I got the idea from here.  First I made a batch of blue cupcakes and then dyed frosting green. I cut each cupcake in half horizontally and layered cupcake, frosting, cupcake, frosting until I filled a pint sized mason jar.  

Item #2: Mini bottle of wine.  

Item #3: Ring pop.  

Item #3: A swatch of navy blue fabric for the ladies to match their dress of choice to.

I found a poem for each of my bridesmaids/personal attendants and added them to each of the bags along with blue tissue paper and blue and green ribbon.  I packaged them up and sent them off in the mail with my fingers crossed that none of them would break (unfortunately one mason jar did break :(.

Bridesmaids:                                      Personal Attendants:

Alison Thompson (MOH)                  Makenzie Preston

Reba Greer                                         Brienne Jans

Megan Holm

Julianne Iwen

Rachel Rueter

Briana Rueter

Parents Meet = Success!

"You don't choose your family.  They are God's gift to you, as you are to them." -Desmond Tutu

This weekend Ben and I, as well as my parents, traveled to Freeport, MN where his Mom and Dad live.  We got together so our parents could meet each other.  We had a wonderful lunch of Wild Rice Soup, salad, bread and fruit and of course the conversation turned to wedding planning very quickly.

I should back up a little first...Ben and I have talked about where we want out wedding to take place and our #1 choice was Mike and Betsy's backyard.  It is kind of a perfect option, we want outside and simple and their house is on King's Lake which would be a great backdrop.  We were a little hesitant to bring it up as we thought it would be a lot of pressure, work and stress for Mike and Betsy.  We did ask them when we arrived at their house on Friday night.  They were very excited and said that they would be honored to have it at their home!!!!  YAY!

Alright back to Saturday, wedding conversation...we talked a lot about logistics and details and threw around a lot of different ideas about everything from seating to decorations to flowers to guest lists.  Ben and the Dad's disappeared as quickly as possible, of course.  But it was fun, and of course a little overwhelming, to explore all of the options there are in wedding planning.  We also talked about dates. We decided that September 13th or September 20th, 2014 were the winning dates.  We want to leave a little flexibility depending on dates that are open for whoever we decided to be our officiant (which will probably be the next big decision we will need to make).

So far we have A) colors and B) location and C) date(s) planned.  It makes me very excited that we are much ahead of any wedding planning timeline that I have come across!  Woohoo!

It seemed as if our parents hit it off.  It was very nice to meet at Mike and Betsy's house rather than at a restaurant, more relaxed environment and we had all afternoon rather than just an hour or so that we would have had at a restaurant.

The early stages

Obviously Ben and I have a lot of time between now and when we plan on getting married but it is still fun to slowly start planning (more like just dreaming and making lists at this point).  

Colors

If you look at any of the millions of wedding planning checklists out there they usually start with a budget and guest list at  twelve months and choosing colors is usually listed at about month 6-8 but in our case this is the first thing that we have decided.  The reasoning behind this is that my mom has very thoughtfully offered to do our invitations as she enjoys stamping/card making.  She would like to get started on these sooner rather than later as they will probably take A LOT of time.  In order for her to start she needs to know what colors to use.

    

We have decided on navy blue (I would like to let my bridesmaids choose their own dresses and I figured that navy blue would be one of the easier colors to match) and green.  The shade of green is still up for debate.  I really like the olive green color but Ben is more of a fan of a brighter green.  I am thinking that it will probably be a green similar to the two top middle box (of the picture above).

Wedding Shows
This weekend neither Ben or I had to work and there just so happened to be two wedding shows taking place on Saturday in the area.  The first "wedding show" was in Roseville, not far from our apartment.  The description online said they would have over 30 vendors and dresses that you could try on.  Well, when we got there we found a sign pointing to a "women's expo" which consisted of about 10-15 booths of jewelry, scentsy, and Pampered Chef type products.  So we awkwardly made one circle around the booths and then left.  I had told Ben that he would enjoy a wedding show as they usually have cake and/or food, I was wrong about that one....

The second wedding show was more of a success.  It was at the Plymouth Creek Center in Plymouth.  It was nice because it was pretty small (and we were able to sample food, cake etc.).  I have gone to a couple bigger wedding shows with Alison and they tend to be a little overwhelming.  This one had about 25 booths (a few photography, invites, a couple flowers, cake, food, etc.) and took us about an hour and a half to get through.  Since we don't have a venue or really any solid plans yet it was nice to just look around and get ideas.  The Plymouth Creek Center is a gorgeous venue and they do have a really nice place for an outdoor wedding but I think we could find something very similar outside the cities for a lot cheaper.  We also meet a photographer that we really liked (see her website here), we will definitely keep her in mind when we get to that point in the planning.

Trip up North and.....ENGAGED!

Ben and I took a mid-winter mini vacation to Northern MN and stayed at Heston's Resort.  Heston's is a family owned resort north of Grand Marais (it is REALLY far up there, you can see Canada when you look across the lake).  We would highly recommend staying there if you are looking for an affordable winter vacation (if you check out their website, link above, they have winter specials that are extremely affordable, especially if you went with a group of people).  We didn't have internet, TV or any cell phone reception, which was WONDERFUL!  We spent a lot of time talking, reading, playing cards, and, even though it was freezing, snow shoeing and skiing outside!  

These pictures were taken last year, but we stayed in the same cabin again this year.

We stayed at Heston's Monday through Thursday. On Monday night we were sitting in front of the fire talking about life and our few days of vacation ahead.  I got up to use the bathroom and when I came out Ben was standing in the middle of the living room, I was kind of wondering what he was doing but I figured he was just checking on the fire.  I started rambling on about making hot chocolate and Ben said something to the effect of "Can you come here first Nicole?".  I went over to him and he grabbed my hands, got done on one knee, and asked me to marry him!  Of course I said YES!  Since we still have 3 uninterrupted days in front of us we were able to spend time together and bask in the excitement of being engaged as well as talk about ideas, make lists etc.

The ring!

Snowshoeing on the Border Route Trail

Once we arrived home on Thursday we went immediately to Shane Co. to have the ring resized as it was too big.  Then we called and text all our family and friends to let them know the good news.  And of course updated our relationship status on Facebook.  Nothing makes you feel loved and supported like getting engaged.  It was so wonderful to be able to see all the love around us.  Thanks to all of our friends and family for their phone calls, text messages, and Facebook posts and messages!

This blog will probably turn into mostly a wedding planning blog for the next year and a half.  So if you are interested in hearing about our wedding plans stay tuned! :)

Mmmmm breakfast!

Ben's sister, Bri, and her friend Cassie stayed at our house Friday night.  They were in Minneapolis for a gymnastics meet and stayed an extra night so they could spend some time with us and Ben's other sister, Rachel.  On Friday night we went to Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner; Rachel is a manager there and since it was Friday night she was working.  After dinner we went to the movie "Zero Dark Thirty".  It was a very good movie, but some parts were extremely hard to watch.

Rachel had to be back to work at 9am Saturday morning so we made breakfast at our place and all had breakfast before she had to leave for work.  For breakfast we ate Blueberry French Toast Casserole, bacon, and fruit.  The French Toast Casserole was very easy to make; we put it together the night before and let it sit in the fridge overnight.  Then in the morning we just needed to pop it in the oven, cut up the fruit and cook the bacon.  Below is the recipe for the casserole, as in normal Nicole fashion I did amend the recipe slightly

6 cups whole wheat bread (cut up into squares)
8 egg whites (I used the egg whites in the carton, much easier than separating 8 whites and yolks)
1.5 cups unsweetened almond milk
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp almond extract
2 tsp cinnamon (I added a little more than 2 tsp since I really like cinnamon)
2 cups blueberries (I used frozen)

1. Spray a 9x13 inch baking dish and add bread.  (I forgot to spray the pan and it didn't stick too bad)
2.  Mix egg whites, almond milk, honey, vanilla and almond extract, and cinnamon and pour over bread.
3.  Let sit for at least 30 minutes (we let it sit in the fridge, covered, overnight).
4.  Add blueberries on top.
5.  Bake in the over for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

It was a hit and I think we will definitely make it again!  I could not believe how easy it was!

After sitting in the fridge all night, before adding blueberries.

The end product.

Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

For Valentine's Day I made Ben Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk cookies, because who doesn't love cookies?!  The recipe came from the back of the Ocean Spray Craisins bag.  They were pretty good but I think if I made them again I would  make a couple changes.

Recipe:

2/3 cup butter, softened (I used unsalted butter)

2/3 cup brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats

1 1/2 cups flour (I used whole wheat, next time I think I would use 1/2 white 1/2 whole wheat flour)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt (next time I will leave this out, the cookies taste a little salty)

1 5-ounce bag of Craisins

2/3 cups white chocolate chips 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Mix butter and brown sugar together with electric mixer.  Add eggs, and mix.  In separate bowl add oats, flour, and baking soda (this is also where you add the salt).  Add dry mixture to butter and sugar mixture a little at a time, mixing after each addition.  Stir in Craisins and chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes (I baked for 9 minutes, as the first batch were over cooked).  

Pot Roast

I have become a huge fan of the crockpot.  It is nice to have leftovers for lunches and/or dinners for the entire week.  This weekend I decided to make something out of my "101 Slow Cooker Recipes" cookbook:

Pot Roast

2 cups baby carrots

5 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut up (the recipe called for regular potatoes but I really like sweet potatoes)

4 lb. chuck roast

Tastefully Simple's Garlic Garlic (the recipe called for garlic salt but I put Garlic Garlic in just about everything I make)

Pepper to taste

2 cups water

1 oz. package onion soup mix

Place carrots and potatoes in slow cooker.  Place roast on top (I cut it up into chunks), sprinkle Garlic Garlic and pepper on top.  Stir together water and soup mix, pour over roast.  Cover and cook on low setting for 6 to 8 hours.

This recipe called for dumplings, which I decided to skip but after eating it I think that next time I will add them.  Without the dumplings to soak up some of the liquid the pot roast was more of a soup.  I will also add more vegetables (maybe green beans, celery, etc.) and spices.  Maybe instead of the onion soup mix I would add spices (bay leaf, garlic powder, onion powder etc.).  This would cut down on the sodium and make it more flavorful.

A Great Start to 2013

I have been avoiding writing a New Year's Resolution update as I haven't done the best during the month of January.  My resolutions were to sleep, eat veggies/fruit and complete the Couch to 5k program.  Well...I did well with the sleeping, I slept 7+ hours every night except 1-2.  I did pretty well with the eating fruits and veggies, I don't have actual statistics but I would say I ate 2+ fruits and 4+ vegetables most days.  And the running, well I am on week 4 (rather than week 8 where I wanted to be).  The goal for January was to have more energy.  Obviously that isn't really a measurable goal so I haven't decided if I was successful or not....

On the other hand, January was a very enjoyable month!
On January 11th, Ben and I had our wonderful friends, Josh and Bri, over for dinner.  We made the most delicious chicken enchiladas (it is such an easy recipe, but for some reason we hardly ever make it), and drank a couple, maybe few, bottles of wine and beer and had great conversation!
On January 12th, I went for coffee with Bri and Natalie.  I know we are becoming real adults because we met for coffee at 8:30am!  If you would have told me not too long ago that I was going to meet friends for coffee at that awful time of the morning I would have told you that you were nuts.  We ended up sitting at the coffee shop chatting for 4 hours!  We talked about everything from family, having children, our significant others, to cooking and painting nails.  It was such great girl time!
The following weekend Chad, Katie, Ben and I drove to Freeport to see Kyle and his girlfriend, Ginny.  It was a great night of talking, laughing, drinking and eating Ginny's wonderful creations in the kitchen.  That night we stayed at Ben's parents' house in Freeport and were to spend a little time with them in the AM before we had to return to the city.
Once we arrived back at our apartment Alison arrived and we headed to Natalie's for a girls night/day.  We spent the afternoon/evening with a group of girls from college.  We caught up, we joked and laughed, we talked about the future and we ate wonderful food.  Natalie decided to have a pot luck, which was such a good idea!  We had appetizers, main dishes and desserts all that were delicious!
The next day, January 20th, Alison, Chelzee, and I went Bridesmaid dress shopping.  That task didn't take all that long so we then went to Michael's, DSW and Trader Joe's.  Possibly the only three stores that a person would ever need :)
On Tuesday, January 22nd I started my job as a Foster Care Social Worker at Anoka County.  This is a part time position so I will also be at Holland Center part time.  I think this will be a great mix, I will still get my fix of direct contact with kids but I will also get my social working fix.  I am excited to see how this goes!
Yesterday, Friday the 25th, we hosted game night at our place.  We made peanut butter cookies, delicious bars (cake mix, 1 stick of butter, sweet condensed milk, and heath chips), beer bread, crackers, veggies, hummus, and Bacon Bacon dip.  The bars and the beer bread were a huge hit!  We played "Jumbling Towers" and "Mine is" (or something to that affect).  We had a great time playing games and spending time together.
This morning we met Kyle and Anna for brunch and Copper Dome in St. Paul.  The food was really great and it is always fun to catch up with Kyle and Anna, unfortunately we don't see them as often as we would like.

As you can see, we spent a lot of time with people we love during January.  As far as I am concerned, being surrounded with supportive people that make us happy is far more important than completing a running program or eating 4 servings of vegetables every single day.  People will make me a lot more happy than broccoli every will!

I LOVE Christmas!

I love everything about Christmas: the music, the lights, the decorations, wrapping presents, COOKIES, and the good moods and kindness that comes in December!  I even like the snow, for the most part...although I would be okay if it left as soon as Christmas was over... :)

We don't have a lot of space to work with in our apartment but here are some pictures of our the decorating that took place this weekend!

Our little tree for our little apartment!

Top of the bookshelf

Table next to our couch.  The table runner on the table was made by my Godmother, you cannot see it very well in this picture but it is really pretty!

The kitchen table.  Ben's family did Christmas early and I received this from his parents.  

How can Christmas NOT make you happy?????!!!!!

Date Ideas - Nerd Date

Last Spring the MN Science Museum had a pirate exhibit.  Ben, with his ship fascination, really wanted to go check out the pirates.  We went to the museum and when exploring our options we decided to buy a year membership as it would pay for itself if we visited the museum only one more time (I attached a link to the membership info here).  That night we went through the pirate exhibit, since that took two hours we didn't have time to check out the regular/permanent exhibits.  

Yesterday, Ben and I have a free Saturday (these are extremely hard to come by) so we decided to go explore the permanent exhibits and the omnitheater show.  My favorite part was the omnitheater presentation: Tornado Alley.  We spent two hours at the museum and watched the movie and only went through about 50% of the permanent exhibits.  It was so much fun going through the museum and playing with all the exhibits, checking out the dinosaurs, and learning about the Mississippi river.  Needless to say we will need to go back to see the rest!  I would also like to go back in January since the BodyWorld will be the special exhibit.  

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love anything pumpkin: pumpkin pie, pumpkin spice lattes from Starbucks, pumpkin muffins etc. etc. I needed an appetizer or dessert to bring to a get together and since it is fall, the season of pumpkin goodness, I chose Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I found the recipe on Pinterest (lets be honest, what do I not find on Pinterest???).  Thank you to the author of the blog http://www.shetknows.com for this recipe, I made a few changes and they came out great, if I do say so myself!

• 1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin pie filling
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 2 cups flour (I used one cup whole wheat and one cup white)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon milk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 package mini semi-sweet chocolate chips (12 ounces)
• Cooking spray

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray your cookie sheet with cooking spray.
2. Mix pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil and egg. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, salt, baking soda, milk and vanilla.
3. Mix the 2 bowls together. Add in chocolate chips.
4. Drop spoon size dough balls onto the cookie sheet, about an inch apart. Bake for about 12 minutes (insert toothpick and if it comes out clean, they are done!).

Nutritional Info: 

Per cookie (I made 30 cookies):

Calories - 152      Carbs - 21g      Fat - 7g      Protein - 2g

***When I make these again I will probably not use as many chocolate chips, I think 1/2 to 3/4 of a bag would be sufficient

The start of a hobby?

I seem to have a lot more time on my hands now than I have really ever had before so I thought I need a hobby and why not write a blog???  Also, I am beginning to realize that it seems as if everyone has a blog except me, and since I don't like to be left out here goes nothing :)

I am not at all sure what the focus of my blog is going to be but I do know that I enjoy reading blogs related to cooking, working out and traveling.  I also like the idea that a blog acts as a text and picture "scrapbook".   With that being said, my blog will probably end up being a conglomeration of all those things.

Happy reading, hope I don't bore you too much ;)