this post is about food

let me preface this entry with the following: i am an emotional eater.

last month i had a formal event to attend in a dress that *just* fit so i was on restriction during the couple of weeks leading up to said event. however, on my way home from the event i high-tailed it to wendy's to check out their new frosty shakes, which i read about on lex's blog. much to my dismay the shakes were not yet on the menu so i ended up leaving with only a small fry.

in the weeks to follow i would attempt to fill my strawberry frosty shake void with other food. shakes from all the majors (arbys, white castle, mcdonalds, and bk), coke floats, five guys burgers and fries, dairy queen blizzards, pizza hut, chick fil a, mickey d's chicken biscuits and this little baby here that i discovered by chance and desperation at walgreens.

oh nemo! thank you for your delicious single serving of real cake. unlike that nasty lemon pound cake with rubber icing, these little cakes taste like something i would bake. so far i've only tried the red velvet and banana cake but they also have carrot and chocolate.

i ended up seeing my long lost friend, qdoba's ancho chile bbq burrito, for lunch today. no pico de gallo to be had due to a tomato recall but i paired it with a smoothie from maggie moo's. the triple berry pomegranate smoothie had raspberry sorbet, blueberries, strawberries, and pomegranate juice and it was SO GOOD. like i want another one right now. i though the burrito/smoothie combo would rip right thru me but it didn't. thanks, digestive system!

i think i've satisfied all my cravings for now. although after seeing donald's birthday cake i really really want a slice of chocolate cake with cream cheese icing. but i weighed myself yesterday AND i'm kinda sorta constipated so it's back to my regularly scheduled program. plus it's about to be too hot to eat.

speaking of regularly scheduled programs, curses to panera bread for discontinuing the BEST salad on their menu! of course i'm referring to the fuji apple chicken salad. i'm gonna have to try to recreate it myself at home because i haven't found a proper substitute for it yet. i tried the bombay chicken salad at cosi but it didn't make me weak at the knees (their mojito lemonade is GLORIOUS though and would be even more so with some rum or vodka).

oh and i did finally get that wendy's shake. two thumbs up!

vacation - part 2

food

yeah so you know i ate everything on vacation that i had missed so dearly. chick-fil-a, wendys, mcdonalds, white castle (3 times but two of those times were onion rings only and i still haven't had a milkshake), some other stuff i had no business eating. but it's cool i'm back on track with my regularly scheduled healthy living program. i feel like i've gotten it out of my system.

i made my cookies but i didn't send any out. here's the recipe (courtesy of 101cookbooks.com):


chocolate peppermint bark cookies

4 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups chopped peppermint bark

Place the chocolate and butter in the top of a double boiler placed over but not touching barely simmering water in the bottom of the pan. Heat, stirring frequently, until the chocolate and butter begin to melt. Remove from over the water and set aside to cool slightly.

In a bowl, stir together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, combine the eggs, granulated sugar and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until light in color and thick, about three minutes. Reduce speed to low, add the melted chocolate mixture and beat until blended. Add the flour mixture and beat until incorporated.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the dough is firm enough to roll into balls, about 2 hours.

Preheat an oven to 325. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

To form each cookie, roll a rounded tablespoon of dough between your palms. Place the cookies 3 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Press 2 or 3 pieces of peppermint bark into each cookie (hs note: more!). Using the bottom of a water glass, flatten the cookies slightly. Bake the cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until the tops are puffed and firm, 13 to 17 minutes. Transfer the baking sheets to wire racks and let cool for 5 minutes, then transfer the cookies to the racks and let cool completely. Dust the cookies with confectioners' sugar. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. Makes 30 cookies.

now, between the time i found this recipe and actually made the cookies, the website updated the recipe. maybe i should've gone with the new one because this dough was not easy to roll. i left it in the fridge for more than two hours and while i was able to roll it, a lot of it was wasted sticking to my hands. maybe my hands were too warm, maybe i should've used a frozen ice cream scoop...i dunno. but i think the next time i make these i'll use my own chocolate cookie recipe. these were quite delicious though and were a hit at home.

i made my own bark too, which was pretty simple. i used a bag of semisweet chips, a bag of white chocolate chips, and peppermints. the chocolate layer spread smoothly but the white chocolate not so much. probably because i added the crushed mints to the white chocolate before spreading. next time i'll crush the peppermints a bit finer and sprinkle them on top. there was leftover bark and i was going to try regular chocolate chip cookies with it but we kinda got to just eating the bark by itself. YUMMERS!

poot

i'm giggling at the title. i amuse myself so much.

i've been craving dairy all week so i'm eating a chocolate frosty as i type this entry. it all started on tuesday with the worst chocolate cone i've ever had in my life. my sis and i made a date for dairy queen because we really wanted some ice cream. i got a small scoop of chocolate on a sugar cone but it was actually an extra small because my server decided to scrape the scraps out of the chocolate tub instead of getting a fresh one and giving me the proper scoop size. to add insult to injury the damn thing cost $2.45. i could buy a pint of ice cream (on sale) with that.

i should've gotten a blizzard
i should've gone to coldstone

bleh

my dairy frenzy continued yesterday when i got a strawberry banana swirl shake from arby's. i highly recommend this shake. the banana was literally swirled around the cup so that the taste experience was mostly strawberry with intermittent bursts of banana. two thumbs up.

now today i have my little wendy's frosty. i was hoping for the little cup with the oreo mix-ins but it's no longer on the menu, having been replaced by the coke float (which is quite yummy as well).

oh yeah i'm lactose intolerant.

imagine that!

did you know shrek and fiona were having babies in shrek the third? well neither did i until i picked up a happy meal for lunch today. i went to the mall on my break and didn't quite feel like shelling out panera bread money for lunch so i stopped at mcd's. while i'm waiting in the long ass drive thru line and pondering what to get i see the shrek happy meal advertisement. i decide to get that since i'll get the bonus of a shrek toy (i got the talking shrek btw...i really want the gingerbread man so i will be returning. i've been collecting happy meal toys since i was a wee lass...okay i wasn't that young...but i've been collecting them for a while and i have quite the assortment. one day i'm gonna arrange them all in various dioramic scenes. it will be a project of epic proportions!)

anyway, on the advertisement and the happy meal box there are three little shrek and fiona babies. did mcdonald's just spoil the whole movie for me?? i think they did. did i just spoil the movie for you?? my bad.

but yeah i'm still trying to see this over the weekend. maybe i can catch a matinee on saturday. i think this is the type of movie to be enjoyed with a crowd. i thought the first two were quite funny so i know i'll enjoy this one. especially with the snl ladies (including cheri oteri) involved.