Muddy Buddys!

I hope everyone's week has started well! I spent most of yesterday and some of today laying out by the pool in the hot hot weather!

Sunday started off with a bowl of vanilla chobini with some mango granola while I blogged to you about my staycation!
Then for lunch was a slice of leftover Mellow Mushroom pizza (there was only one slice because my dad ate some of it at the restaurant once I was finished) and a slice of a frozen Kashi pizza. I added some goat cheese onto both of them to make them even tastier!
My dad grilled steaks for dinner and we had some squash from a local farm to go along with it.
For dinner we picked up this cake from costco- a sponge cake with a raspberry filling and lemon topping. It was pretty good but I think it needed more raspberry in it, because the filling wasn't very strong and didn't have a lot of flavor.
Yesterday I started the day off with some juice (the usual combo of apple, carrot, beet, and ginger) and a slice of Apple Strudel bread with PB&CO Mighty Maple Peanut Butter. This was probably the most amazing pb toast ever. Yum!!!!!!
For lunch my mom popped in some quesadilla rolls into the oven. I was too busy helping her set up a facebook account to think about taking a picture! Does anyone else's parents have facebook? When my friends parents first started getting facebook I thought it was the weirdest thing ever. I am one of the original facebook users with the mindset that facebook is a college thing, when I signed up you had to have a college e-mail account to get a facebook account. I remember waiting for VCU to be on the approved list of colleges and then once I had a facebook waiting for my friends at smaller schools to have their schools approved by facebook so they could get one! Anyways I've slowly accepted that facebook isn't like that anymore and have started to warm to the idea of others getting it (both older adults and younger high school and middle school kids). Several of my aunts and other friends of the family have facebook, including many old friends of my parents, now have facebook so I've been telling my mom that she should get one so she can catch up and keep in touch with these people. Well she finally gave in and I helped her set it up. I think its great for her and it was really fun going through to find people she knows and add them as friends!

Anyways for dinner, we've had tons of catfish sitting in the freezer that my brother and grandpa have brought back from fishing trips. We finally got around to cooking some of it. My dad insists that the only way to eat it is fried, but my mom and I have been trying to find other things to do with it instead of that. She decided to compromise with him and oven fry it, but we have tons more to try other things with. I was really not a fan, I would much rather try it another way to see if I might actually like catfish cooked differently.

After dinner my sister made some Muddy Buddy's! Muddy Buddys aka puppy chow or garbage are a staple from our childhood. My grandma use to always make them and every now and then we think to make them now. I've made them on many occasions for my friends in Richmond and I think everyone agrees that they are amazing and addicting.
Muddy Buddies

9 cups of your favorite Chex cereal (Corn, Rice and/or Wheat)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
½ cup peanut butter
¼ cup (½ stick) butter
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
about 1 ½ cups powdered sugar

1. Add the chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter in a microwavable bowl
2. Microwave for one minute and stir until smooth (if its not melted enough put it in for 30 seconds at a time until its smooth)
3. Stir in the vanilla
4. Add the chex and stir until they are all evenly coated.
5. Add a small layer of powdered sugar to the bottom of a large tupperwear container (or two medium sized ones)
6. Add the chex mixture and then cover with more powdered sugar.
7. Shake the container until all the chex are covered with powdered sugar.
8. Enjoy!!!

We took our muddy buddy's down to the basement and watched Coraline. I hadn't seen it but I had been wanting too. I really don't know what to say about it, it was very strange and kind of creepy but really good and I would probably watch it again!

I stayed up pretty late finishing the book I was reading (The Little Lady Agency- it was really good, I suggest it if you like chicklit!) so I slept in pretty late today! I skipped breakfast and went straight to lunch- a Portabella gardenburger with provolone, hummus, and tomatoes on a 7 grain bread. It was delicious!
Then I laid out by the pool for a while, but decided it was too hot and came inside to do some yoga instead. Now I'm going to hit the shower and see what my sister is up to, since she doesn't have to work tonight! Hope everyone has a great evening!

Breville Juice Fountain Plus!

Well from the title of this blog I bet you can guess what finally came in the mail for me today!
My juicer yay! This morning my mom, sister, and I went out and about shopping around Manassas. We were mostly picking up a part for my sister's car and browsing for dorm stuff for my sister. They ended up getting nothing except the car part and I ended up with presents for a friend's wedding in a couple weeks and more picture frames! We then stopped for lunch at Taco Bell, which I haven't been to in forever. It was good, but not great, probably not worth all the grease and fat that I'm sure were in there. When we came home I spotted the big box on the front steps and immediately tore it open! Of course at the grocery store yesterday I stalked up on some apples and beets in anticipation of my juicer coming. My first juice was made of an apple, a beet, and a bunch of little baby carrots- which I discovered are dangerous in the juicer because they fly back out!
Ahhhhh this is so amazing I don't know how I lived without this! This juicer was supposedly used but I think it was probably used one time. It works amazingly, came with the original box and instruction manual and even the little product registration form. The price sticker on the box was from Bed Bath and Beyond for $150 and I got it on e-bay for $27 plus about $20 for shipping- what a deal!!!!!!!!! Anyways the Breville Juice Fountain Plus has an 850 Watt Motor and two speed settings. Softer things, like watermelon or blueberries, use the low setting while harder fruits, like apples and carrots, use the high setting. And if you are in doubt about the setting there is a little guide in the book that lists a bunch of fruit and veggies and the settings that you should use! The juicer boasts that it can fit a whole apple in its feeding shoot and of course I tested that claim. My apple fit, but it was a very tight fit and it was a pretty normal sized apple. I think any slightly larger apple wouldn't fit, but cutting an apple in half is not that difficult to do. The best part of this juicer is how fast it is. I put that apple in and almost immediately the entire thing was juiced. There is no waiting around for all the juice to drip out, it is instantaneous. It also comes with the juice container which comes with a froth separator, so when you pour your juice you have just juice! And cleaning it is pretty easy too, you can put everything straight into the dishwasher but I knew I would be using it again later today so I just hand washed everything. Everything rinses off really easily except the actual blade/ strainer part, but it comes with a little brush that cleans it off pretty easily. All in all I was super impressed and highly recommend a Breville if you are looking for a juicer.

Anyways after my juicing excitement I took my dog to the dog park for her to play! This was her second time there and she still isn't really use to it. She is much more interested in sniffing the ground and smelling everything than playing with the other dogs. When I came back I had a snack of a banana with the most awesome peanut butter ever aka PB&Co's Mighty Maple!
Then for dinner my mom made BLT's and we had watermelon on the side- a perfect summer meal!
While chopping up the watermelon I decided I absolutely had to try juicing it because watermelon is so juicy! So once we put dinner away I demonstrated my new juicer to my parents. We juiced the watermelon and tried some of it. Then we decided to add some carrots to it and my dad and I thought it was much better, my mom did not. Then we decided to throw in a random orange that we had hanging around the house. It ended up being a pretty delicious combo- watermelon, carrot, orange juice!
Anyways I'm sure tonight will end much like last night,
Homemade ice cream sandwich with homemade cookies- yumm! I'm not really sure what our plans are for tomorrow and 4th of July, but everyone is off work so we are maybe going to DC for the fireworks!