Snickers Protein Shake -- Build a Menu SALE

I just ate the most yummy, satisfying lunch. Decadent, delicious, and HEALTHY. I know that sounds farfetched, but it is true! This Snickers Protein Shake has an unexpected ingredient (that I normally do NOT like), but it is fantastic.

I will admit, I only added the whipped cream for photographic purposes, it is wonderful without it. (It's fat-free Reddi-Whip, for those wondering.)

 This recipe is a Fuel-Pull for my fellow Trim Healthy Mamas, so you shouldn't have it this way TOO often, but it's a great changeup. You could also substitute natural peanut butter for the peanut flour in order to make it an S.

 I got this recipe from a fantastic service called Build A Menu. They offer several different kinds of recipes, from THM to gluten-free to Paleo and a whole host of others. Dinners, breakfasts, lunches, desserts, side dishes, even snacks and seasonal recipes are included. You start by choosing the grocery store you prefer to shop, and then selecting the recipes that look good to try. My favourite feature is that as you choose recipes, it keeps a running total in the side bar, so you can see exactly where you are in your budget. Then you can put each recipe on a calendar, or you can just print them all out at once, and print out your shopping list. Right now, Build A Menu is having a big sale.  For the entire month of May, you can get a full year subscription for MORE than half off.  Use the coupon code "May35" (without the quotation marks), and your full year will only cost you $35, instead of the regular price of $76.  This is the perfect time to get help with menu planning and budgeting all in one fell swoop.

Now for the recipe :

Snickers Protein Shake

Ingredients 
1/2 cup cottage cheese (low fat or fat-free)
1 scoop protein powder (I use Swanson Premium Whey Protein Powder)
sweetener to taste (xylitol, erythritol, stevia, or some combination)
6 ice cubes (or more for a thicker consistency)
1/2 cup water
1 Tbsp cocoa powder
2 Tbsp defatted peanut flour (I use Protein Plus)
1/2 tsp caramel extract (I use Watkins, which is sometimes hard to find.  I eventually found mine at WalMart, but not all of them carry it.)

Directions
Put cottage cheese, cocoa, peanut flour, extract, and water into your blender container.  Blend until smooth.  Add ice cubes, blend, test consistency and add more ice if necessary.  Add protein powder, blend again.  (Putting the protein powder in last gives it a fluffier, more creamy consistency.)

Enjoy!

(And, in case you hadn't guessed, it's cottage cheese that I don't like, but THM has got me eating it and enjoying it in several different recipes.)

Shrove Tuesday -- PANCAKES!

Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Day... today has a lot of names. When I was growing up, our church almost always hosted a pancake supper on Shrove Tuesday. It was a tremendous social event, and also quite delicious. Since starting Trim Healthy Mama, regular pancakes are definitely not on the menu! This does not mean we can't still celebrate with tradition and deliciousness.

My husband handled cooking the bacon :


We chose two different (S)atisfying pancake recipes. (This means they are extremely low in carb, but have yummy healthy fats.)
The first is a baked German pancake recipe, adapted from these Almond Flour German Pancakes.
I either really like flavour combinations, or I'm terribly indecisive, you may draw your own conclusions. I used a combination of coconut oil and butter to melt in the pie pans (I also doubled the recipe). I used half almond flour and half cashew flour. Cashew flour is a recent find from my local Trader Joe's, and it is quite yummy. I used unsweetened almond milk for the liquid. They turned out amazing!


Fresh out of the oven.


We also used a peanut butter pancake recipe from Build A Menu. (This site is WONDERFUL! Expect another post about that soon.)
I also added a few sugar-free chocolate chips to some of the pancakes. Omgoodness! They were incredible. I still used a combination of almond and cashew flours, as well as the flax meal. Otherwise, the recipe is unaltered.

Peanut Butter Pancakes (THM S)

• Ingredients :
• 1 egg
• 2 Tbsp butter, melted
• 2 Tbsp peanut butter (natural, no sugar)
• 1/4 cup 0% plain Greek yogurt
• 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1/4 cup cashew flour
• 1/2 cup almond flour
• 1/4 cup flax meal
• Stevia powder, a few "shakes" (approx. equiv. to 1 Tbsp TruVia)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp salt (use a good one! I use RealSalt.)
• Sugar-Free chocolate chips, optional.

Directions :
Mix together the wet ingredients, then add the dry. Spray or grease your griddle. These are easier to handle as small pancakes, around 1/8 cup of batter each. If desired, scatter a few sugar-free chocolate chips into the batter when it's almost time to flip them.

We served them with a pat of butter on top, and they were delicious.



On the griddle.


With the chocolate chips.

These are all within the tradition of using up the fats and eggs before Lent, but they will not make you fat on Fat Tuesday. Enjoy!

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Don't forget the giveaway I have going on currently! Be sure to enter before 18 March.

"The Spark of a Feudling" Puzzle Piece #6 Reveal + Giveaway!

I am so excited! This is my first EVER giveaway, and it's a mystery! Well, okay, the cover is a mystery, slowly being revealed, puzzle piece by puzzle piece.
First 5 puzzle pieces :



The first 6 required tasks have been completed, so I am honoured to reveal the 6th piece for you!

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There are a few tasks left to see the rest of the puzzle :


Task 7 - Join in on the Feudlings Discussion event on Facebook - We would like to get to 75 attendees. https://www.facebook.com/events/1385792431665296

Task 8 - Get 2000 likes for Wendy's FB page -https://www.facebook.com/AuthorWendyKnight

Task 9 - Get Wendy followers on Twitter - We want at LEAST 900! https://twitter.com/wjk8099



Now for the giveaway! It will be open until 18 March, and the "Tweet about this giveaway" entry is available daily until then.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

I realize I haven't posted in forever. Don't take this as an indication that it's going to be a regular occurrence or anything =P I've just got things jumbling around in my head, and I thought typing them out might help. What I have gleaned from my reading today is that : 1) Sarah Palin is horrible for NOT staying home with her children. 2) Ann Romney is lazy for staying home with hers. 1) Any support for Rosen's comments are just because Ann Romney is so rich. 2) Being a stay at home mother is a luxury and only rich people do it. 1) Ann Romney opens herself up for criticism by deciding to be in the public eye. 2) Sandra Fluke decided to be in the public eye but should not be criticized. 1) Rosen apologized, so everything should be hunky dory. 2) Limbaugh apologized, but that's not good enough. Let me start by saying I am no fan of Mitt Romney. He speaks with a forked tongue. If he IS a better president than Obama, it would only be marginally. I *may* vote for him, if it comes down to it, but only because he is a different evil, not because he is a lesser one. This stuff I've read today, though... wow. I am baffled. I know a lot of stay at home mothers, myself included. Yes, having more money would help smooth things out sometimes, but staying at home with kids 24/7 is a sacrifice and a struggle beyond financial hardships. The whole tit-for-tat thing is ridiculous. Each and every family has their own set of struggles, their own particular cocktail. I have heard it said that if everyone dumped their troubles in a big pile, we'd all see everyone else's and snatch our own back. Discounting what sacrifices and struggles she had to deal with just because she's rich is... I can't think of a suitable word right now. The idea that a woman who is "just a mom" can't speak intelligently about politics or the economy or any other subject she chooses is amazingly ignorant. Most of the stay at home mothers I know (or know of) understand a lot more about the economy than congress seems to. Mothers know that when they get to the end of the money, that's it, they don't get to just keep spending for the heck of it. They don't take their "salaries" first and give the rest of the family and household their leftovers. (Yes, I understand there are differences between a home and a government, and that there are times when deficit spending is required, but these clowns deficit spend ALL THE TIME with no regard for anything but their own pockets.) Neither side of the political arena has it "right", by any stretch. I do, in general, line up with one side more than the other. I also get terribly annoyed with the pundits who perpetuate the "us and them" mentality, with their "All liberals think XYZ!" and "All conservatives are this, that, and the other!" The blatant hypocrisy I've seen today, though...it just leaves me baffled and sad and shaking my head.

Not really an update...

I know, my blogging is exceedingly sporadic. My topics are completely inconsistent. Anyone who used to read probably isn't anymore, so if you're here... um... why? =P

This isn't much of an udpate, really. I just added a few links to my "other blogs" section and wanted to make an official note of that fact. I think Scipio is my new favourite blogger. Be aware that the Gunslinger's Journal has some foul language. Most of it is very fitting, but it is still there, so if you're going to be offended, just don't click on it. Don't bother reading it and then contacting me to tell me how horrid it is. One of these days I may even be inspired to blog about politics... you should be so lucky =P.

2 Days worth of Bentos

DH didn't take Bentos Friday, partly because it's his weekly "go out to lunch with the guys" day, and partly because he let me sleep in :D
The kids and I had Bentos, though. We had a picnic in the living room.

Boiled egg, in various shapes... let's see... 1 bunny, 1 fish, and 1 car. They were cut in half for ease of eating. DD4 had soy sauce to go with hers, DD9 and DD5 had salt. Ants on a Log, carrots with dip, strawberries and cherries, and the little mini jello-type cups that I found at Dong-A on Thursday. Pocky in the lid! (I was so excited that I actually found Pocky! Of course, I didn't think about it when we found a place to stop and eat lunch, and it stayed in the car..... and melted.... *sigh*)


In the tiny Lock & Lock (which was too tall to put inside the square one, so I used the big rectangular one instead.) is some leftover orange chicken that DH whipped up the other night, and some brown rice. The two sauce containers to the right of it are more of the orange sauce from the chicken. There's broccoli and carrots, plus a few grape tomatoes, and some dip in the T/W Smidget container. A car-shaped hard boiled egg, cut in half for ease of eating, and a small bottle of soy sauce for it. Ants on a Log, and some strawberries and cherries. Quite yummy, if I do say so myself =P

DH's from today... microwave scrambled egg; buttered, toasted English muffin; strawberries and blueberries, all for breakfast. Lunch is leftover Mongolian BBQ from BD's, a hard-boiled egg shaped like a fish, a small container of soy sauce, and a T/W s&p shaker. Other tier has green grapes, carrots, and some Bacon Ranch dip. Oreos in the lid for dessert :D

Mine and the kids for today. The kids have sandwiches, heart-shaped... DD9 has ham and muenster cheese, DD5 and DD4 have turkey and American. They all have multi-coloured Goldfish crackers. Baby carrots, 3-cheese Ranch, and a heart-shaped piece of pound cake with sliced strawberries on it.
Mine is leftover Mongolian BBQ from BD's, two soy sauce fishies (I only ended up using one of them.), carrots with 3-cheese Ranch dip, and a couple of grape tomatoes for space filler. Pound cake with sliced strawberries in the side car. This box seems small, or I haven't figured out the best way to pack it yet. I'm still ravenous after finishing lunch o.O

I braved the Asian Market!

Well, one of them. There's one that got GREAT reviews on the search site that I found, and it's nearer my house than most of them. I was very excited! And they were not there anymore
So, we had packed Bento lunches for me and the kids, to go on a shopping expedition... and by gosh, shopping we were going to go! Oh, I suppose you'll want to see the Bentos

The kids had hard-boiled eggs molded in the shape of teddy bear heads, a small pink angel pig of soy sauce in lieu of salt. (DD9 decided she would much rather have salt... the other two loved the soy sauce, but I think it was because they had fun dripping it onto stuff =P ) They had baby carrots, a small sauce container of 3-Cheese Ranch, some "Ants on a log", crackers with cheese, grapes, cherries, and some Veggie-Tales fruit snacks for space filler. Voortman's wafer cookies in the lid for dessert, and we're golden!

So, we headed down toward the intersection of 50 and Mills, or "Little Viet Nam" as it is unofficially known. Parking SUCKS down there... the places that look safe are marked "so-and-so customers ONLY, others towed at owner's expense". Well, I finally found a little Asian supermarket that had its own parking lot, small though it was. It wasn't full, so that's where we went. It was such a cute place! DD4 complained of the smell, and DD5, while she didn't say anything, pulled her shirt up over her nose =P There wasn't anything WRONG with the smell, mind you, they're just little. It smelled of a mix of spices, not all that surprising. The kids had fun looking at the fish in the fish tank. I enjoyed browsing the shelves, with SO much stuff that I had very little idea what any of it was. A few things had descriptions in English, but not many. I did find some Agar agar, they had a lot of flavoured ones, and coloured ones, but I managed to find one that the instructions said to add sugar to, even though sugar is listed as an ingredient... I figured maybe that's the "plain" one, and agar agar has to have sugar to work right? I dunno. Anyway, I bought a box, so as soon as I find some little molds, I shall experiment with making some gummies for the kids. (Thank you to another livejournal Bento blogger Melanie for the recipe!)

I also found these adorable little mini-jello-like cups. (Click for larger view) (This is what a couple of them look like out of the package)
When we got up to the cashier, I asked if they had tiny pudding the same way, because I hadn't seen any in the store, but I had seen it a bunch online. She pointed me to this bear.... it's SO cute! A plastic bear full of tiny pudding cups. I'm hoping another Asian grocery nearby will have them without the bear, because I really don't want to buy a new bear every time I run out of pudding. These don't look quite the same as the ones I've seen pictured online, either, so maybe I'll find the other kind next time I go hunting. (Which will probably be after the kids start school .)


So now, everyone is getting quite hungry (we got a later start than I intended, and then that first store wasn't there), so we wanted to find a suitable place to eat our yummy Bentos. I thought... Hey! There's a mall on 50, that we don't go to much, and it has a food court! Multiple tables, shared by multiple restaurants, so they don't care if you bought the food there or not. Perfect! As we were driving to the mall, we passed a huge, stand-alone Dollar Tree store. Oooo.... now that has potential! It's down here near the Asian stores, and also quite a bit larger than the Dollar Trees near my house... so maybe it will have those adorable Hello Kitty Bento boxes! Alas, wrong side of the street, and we are all starving, so it will have to wait.
We got to the mall, found the bathrooms, then found a table and ate lunch. Then I discovered 2 stores in the mall, side by side, while looking at the directory. One is called "JapanHQ", and the other is called "Kitty & Friends"... and I think... hmmmmm... that sounds promising! So off we go to find them. They're actually one store with two entrances, connected in the middle. The "JapanHQ" side has mostly anime stuff, I recognized a little of it but not much. The Kitty side is all Sanrio! And they had BENTO BOXES! Not lots... and no accessories... but, they had boxes. They had 2 different Hello Kitty ones, both square, with a space in the lid for a fork and spoon (and they came with them). One was pink and the other red. They had a Cinnamaroll shaped box, a Keroppi collapsible sandwich box with a belt, AND.... the square Chococat box. Woo hoo! They had another square one similar in style to the Chococat one, but I don't remember who was on it. I was very good! I didn't buy them! The Hello Kitty boxes were $6 each, and the Chococat one was about $10. Not horrid, but not in the budget right now. (I really want that Chococat box... lol.) I did end up buying a Chi Chai Monchan kitchen towel and oven mitt that they had in their clearance basket. SO cute!!

Time to leave the mall and head home. I did decide to stop at the Dollar Tree on the way home. No Hello Kitty :( However, they did have magic towels, and each DD picked one out. I hope to use them as oshigiri. They had little Pooh-bear character ice packs, so I got some of those. I've seen them for sale on eBay for gobs of money as Bento ice packs, but they're actually supposed to be for bumps and bruises and such. So that was our shopping adventure! More Bentos below...




My lunch was very similar. I had no "Ants on a Log", and my egg had to be cut in half because it was too tall for the box. (Also, it's a bunny.) I had a different kind of cookies, too. I had a couple of Nestle Treasures in there for space fillers, but I ended up sharing them with the kids instead of eating them myself.


Brian's breakfast and lunch. He wasn't very hungry, as he hasn't been feeling well. (He stayed home sick on Wednesday, hence no Bento post.) So breakfast is just a microwave scrambled egg, with a cheddar star on top, and a star-shaped "Grits-nigiri". Lunch is a turkey, ham, and cheddar wrap, some carrots with dip, crackers and Babybel cheese, a few grape tomatoes for space filler, and of course, Oreos in the lid for dessert!

Goodness, if you actually got this far, thanks for reading! :D

Last Day for Bento Contest!

I'm submitting something for this contest, I just LOVE that it doesn't have to be all about the cute to win! I mean, I LOVE the very uber cute Bentos, I think they're awesome... but so many contests are character contests already.... I'm just very appreciative that there is a chance for "the rest of us" to win some cool Bento stuff.
(Also, my oldest daughter is completely MAD for Pooh Bear, so since there's a good amount of Pooh stuff in the winning package, I really have my fingers crossed.... makes it hard to type, but oh well =P )

The Amazing blurry Bento Breakfast of 25 July

Sounds like a great movie title, huh? =P
I dunno what happened to the picture, but it's blurry, as you can see.


Fridays are his "going out to lunch with the guys" days, so no lunch Bento, just breakfast.
Two scrambled eggs, with cheddar cheese hearts on top. Blueberries, sliced strawberries, T/W salt & pepper shaker, and buttered toast cut into soldiers.

24 July Bento for The Man

Breakfast in the small tan 2-tier box on the right... scrambled eggs (microwaved), the T/W salt & pepper shaker, and a "Grits-nigiri"... I put grits into an onigiri mold :D
Worked pretty well, I think. DH liked it :) Then strawberries and blueberries in the lower tier.
Lunch was leftover teriyaki steak with brown rice and LOTS of veggies, small bottle of soy sauce just in case. Baby carrots, red and green grapes, some dip in the T/W Smidget container for the carrots, and a small heart of wasabi peas.
Oreos for dessert! :D

23 July Bento for The Man

It's mah birthday! :D *happy dance*
DH had jury duty yesterday, and didn't want to mess with carrying extra stuff, so no Bento.

Breakfast at the top... cheese omelette, cooked in the microwave. Container of sliced strawberries, some fresh blueberries with a couple of strawberry slices on top, and some buttered toast cut into soldiers.
For lunch, he's got leftover fried chicken, pulled off the bone; Club crackers, and a Laughing cow cheese wedge; green grapes; baby carrots with dip in the T/W Smidget container; a side car of cole slaw, and the ubiquitous Oreo for dessert, in the lid.
Looks good to me!
(But why didn't anyone make me a birthday Bento? /le sigh)

21 July Bentos for The Man

Breakfast is in the white container on the right... buttered toast cut into soldiers, two different microwave omelettes, and some blueberries.

Lunch : A wrap, which I am not sure what is in it, because DH had it put together before I got downstairs. I was SO impressed with him! I woke up with a migraine, and I figured that he'd just get some lunch out somewhere, because I couldn't make a Bento fast enough... but when I got into the kitchen, he was already working on it! So, we finished it up together :D
Red and green grapes next to the wrap.... baby carrots, dip, Babybel cheese round, and rice crackers in the other tier... Oreos in the lid for dessert! :D

18 July Bentos for Me and the Kidlets

Top tiers : Red grape and cheese kabobs, cherries, cheese teddy bears, hard-boiled eggs in neato shapes.
Bottom tiers : PB&J sandwiches, carrots, small sauce container with dip, cheese teddy bears.
Lids : Keebler cookies!


Mine.... pretty much the same stuff as the kids' lunches, except I have baby carrots instead of the ripple chips. Yummy stuff!
This picnic took place at IPEZ, instead of home :D

Just Breakfast this time..

Friday is his day to go out to lunch with "the guys" from work, so I only packed a breakfast Bento for him.

Top tier : Japanese-esque omelette, was cooked in the microwave and then frozen, and reheated in the morning. Also a more "American" omelette, with cheddar cheese, which was cooked in the microwave as well. The little T/W smidget has grape jelly for the toast.
Bottom tier : Strawberries, halved. Bread.... it was supposed to be toast, but the toaster oven wasn't plugged in, and I didn't notice it right away... he said not to worry about it.

Kidlet-Made Bentos!

The kids REALLY wanted Bentos today, for another stay-at-home picnic... I was really not feeling up to it, but the oldest agreed to make them, AND to wash out the Bento boxes afterwards, so I let her try it out. I made a few suggestions, and I cooked the omelettes (in the microwave), but she orchestrated the rest. Her little sisters helped quite a bit, as well.
I'm not sure why the picture came out so blurry, though .


Cheese omelettes, Club crackers, cheddar cheese sticks, carrots with dip, grape kabobs, strawberries, cherries, Laughing Cow cheese cubes, and Girl Scout cookies for dessert! I think they did a really awesome job . DD9's comment when she was done was "Wow, that's a lot harder than it looks!"

Bentos for the Man (breakfast and lunch)

DH said something, half-joking, about doing a "breakfast bento", so he doesn't have to go down to the Nature's Table in the lobby and have over-priced stuff in the morning. (Yes, he COULD eat before he goes, but he's not usually hungry first thing in the morning, and if he tries to eat then, his tummy complains.)
I said, "Ooo! I can do that!" So, here we have both!

Breakfast is in the tan box in the lower part of the picture. Microwave poached egg, got a little overdone, but not too bad... live and learn! Small sauce bottle with syrup in it, and mini pancakes that I cooked up last time we had pancakes for breakfast, and froze. Strawberries in the bottom tier. His dessert of piroulline cookies is in the lid. (That would be for after lunch, just being creative with space.)
In the square Lock and Lock container, we have leftover enchiladas. Small round Lock and Lock has some chopped, roasted green chilis. In the black box, we've got red grapes, baby carrots, dipping sauce, and a Laughing Cow cheese wedge. The lid holds Club Crackers.

Shaped Eggs

This is a common thing in Bento lunches that I've seen.... a hard-boiled egg, shaped in a mold. Neat trick, I must say. You have to peel the egg and put it in the mold while the egg is still hot, which is kinda tricky. It's not as painful as one might think, however.

The trick is to crack the egg, then run it under cold water for just a few seconds. This gets cold water between the egg and the shell, making it MUCH easier to peel, and also cools down the egg and the shell just enough to peel it without burning your fingers, but not enough so that it won't mold properly.
All in all, a successful experiment, I think. The bunny one exploded during the boiling process, but I decided to try to use it, anyway.... mangled mutant bunny, we called it. DH said he'd be proud to take a mangled mutant bunny to work in his lunch, since mangled and mutant is definitely not "cute" (or should I say "kawaii"?)

Kidlets' Bentos (and mine)

Another "picnic in the living room".
Top tier : Japanese-esque omelette, with soy sauce and sugar, adapted from a recipe I found... er... somewhere... cooked in the microwave. Club Crackers, Laughing Cow cheese cube, carrots, small sauce container of 3-cheese Ranch dip for the carrots.
Bottom tier : Red grape and cheese cube kabobs, cherries, granola bar pieces.
Lid : Koala Cookies, creme-filled... two each of 3 different flavours. SO cute, very yummy, and only 99 cents a box! I found them in the "international" section of the Publix cookie aisle.

I have about the same stuff as they do, I just have Piroulline cookies instead of the cute little Koala ones. Yum!

Hubby's Bento

Bottom Tier (right side) : baby carrots, 3-cheese Ranch, Laughing Cow cheese wedge, cherries.
Top Tier : ginger marinated Shrimp, small bottle of soy sauce, brown rice.
Smaller Lid : Piroulline cookies. (These ended up being a little too wide for the smaller lid, so they went into the larger lid after the picture was taken.)
Larger Lid : Club Crackers. (Since the cookies had to go in here, he had a few less Club Crackers back in the smaller lid instead.)

It's making me hungry!

Lunch Bentos for home picnic

It's been pouring all day, and the kids really wanted to have an indoor picnic. I hadn't had a chance to make a Bento for DD9 yet, she had been at her grandparents house all last week. So they got a big beach towel out to spread on the floor in the living room, and we packed Bento lunches for all!

Top Tiers, the kids have carrots, 3-cheese ranch, and red grapes. I have more carrots, and hummus to dip.
Bottom Tiers, we all have peanut butter & jelly sandwiches. The kids have goldfish, I have cashew trail mix from Archer Farms.
In the lids, we all have Voortman's wafer cookies. Mine are vanilla, the kids have 1 strawberry and 1 peanut butter flavour.