I FUDGE-ING Love You, Mr. Grumpy

Many people love to travel, adventure, climb mountains, jump off rocks, etc. What do I love? (Other than my Grumpy fam, duh) – I LOVE to eat at new places and try new things. So as such, when Mr. Grumpy told me he had made DINNER RESERVATIONS (literally… he made these like two weeks in advance which is romantic in and of itself) at Lago in the Flats for our Valentine’s date, I was pumped. I immediately started thinking about what I was going to order and how much wine I was going to drink. Tomorrow I start a 21-day clean eating and fitness challenge as part of my Beach Body challenge groups. I am so excited to see the results 21 days from now – my goal is to be at 121 pounds by the end, which is the weight I was on our wedding day. BUT, as my last meal with cream and cheese, you better believe I went all out!

Fun Fact: did you know Mr. Grumpy and I met the eve of Valentine’s Day? Cupid decided to send us both to the same bar – and at about 1:30 in the morning, Mr. Grumpy and his friends had the liquid courage to approach me and my friends. Needless to say, I did not remember his name but DID remember that they were all very nice and told me they were TRAIN ENGINEERS. And yes, I believed them – in fact, I told my mom I had met the nicest boys who were train engineers, and she pointed out they were likely lying. Which, they were. Lucky for them, I stayed around and about a year and a half later, I tricked Mr. Grumpy into our first date. The rest is history. So, lucky girl that I am – Mr. Grumpy always sends me flowers on Feb. 13:

I love getting flowers the day before – and thought I was pretty set for Vday gifts, until I woke up on Saturday to get ready for our 5K and found a box of Shari’s Berries sitting on the counter with a giant Hershey kiss and my favorite – Reese cups shaped like HEARTS.

Then, after eating everything… I felt like this:

 

 

So, I went to the 5K ready to run my little heart out. And guess what – I ran my fastest 5K yet!! At 32:30!!!! I was so proud of myself and excited at how much I’d improved since my last race.

Look! I got a medal! (It’s a participatory medal… I DON’T CARE I AM A WINNER IN MY OWN HEAD!). Ok, yes – I told the nice man at the market that I got first place in the race… but I’ll never see him again. So do I feel guilty? NO!

Here’s a peek at our yummy dinner – Mr. G’s lasagna, my tortelloni, and our dessert martinis!

Anyway – for Mr. Grumpy’s gift, I wanted to bake him something sweet. He’s been so nice about all our healthy eating – and has lost a ton of weight (nearly 10 lbs!!) and he deserved a night off too. In all actuality, these cookies are really not that bad for you – why? Because I replaced the oil with almond oil and there’s no butter needed! You are going to love how easy it is to make these – and how MOIST (I hate that word) that turn out!

I Double Fudge Love You, Mr. Grumpy Cookies!  

I adapted this recipe from this one on Sally’s Baking Addiction

What You’ll Need:

• 1 box of Duncan Hines Double Fudge Cake Mix
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 cup almond oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Combine the cake mix and baking powder in a large bowl. Set aside. Then, in another bowl, mix the eggs, oil and vanilla extract. Mix in slowly to the cake mix/baking powder (do not use your electric mixer as you want to fold it in my hand). Stop once the concoction forms a soft dough.

Using an ice cream scoop, plop the dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 15-18 minutes at 350 degrees. You want them to be slightly dough-y when you take them out of the oven. Leave them on the pan to set. They should be soft and fudgy-licious after about 5-10 minutes out of the oven.

Yum yum! What did you all do over Valentine’s Day weekend? Share your romantic moments!! And remember, Ryan loves you no matter how bad at crafting you are:

Christmas is in the House: No-Bake Pumpkin Marshmallow Pie (yes… another pie recipe)

Mr. Grumpy finally caved in and let me decorate the apartment for Christmas. I had wanted to decorate before Thanksgiving, but despite my pleas, Mr. Grumpy asked me to “press pause on my Christmas cheer.” Yes, that’s a direct quote. Mr. Grumpy thinks I have too many Christmas decorations and he gets very grumptastic when I ask him to help me unload the three Tupperware containers I have full of red and green everything.

Last Sunday, he promised we could decorate the tree. But as I started unpacking my box of ornaments, I began discovering way more decorations than I had remembered we had. So, needless to say things got a little out of hand. I was hanging up decorations on the mantle, in our entry way, the bathrooms and our bedrooms, and all the while Mr. Grumpy was standing at the tree wondering when the madness would be over. Needless to say, we had to take a 24-hour break from Christmas-ing until Mr. Grumpy could muster up the rest of the strength he needed to get through trimming the tree. So, by Tuesday, it was finally done. Here are some pics!

This is a fun DIY paper banner I got at Target. The package was supposed to include a ribbon, but when Ashley and I opened up the package, there was no ribbon, so we improvised and used yarn. That did not work that well – so about an hour later this was finally done. Phew! 

(This was a great DIY wreath project! Check out the how-to here.)(That reindeer art is also DIY. TGFP: Thank God for Pinterest! Here’s the how-to!)

(This was also a super fun DIY project – and way easier than the ornament wreaths that you have to glue. All you do is take a wire hanger, pull it into a circle, unscrew the hook so you have two open ends, string the ornaments on the wire, twist the hanger closed and tie a ribbon at the top! I made this for a friend as her Xmas present… so shhhh!)

Have you made any holiday decor from things you’ve seen on Pinterest? Share in the comments below!

Now, I wanted to make sure I had something sweet to feed Mr. Grumpy for his service. So, I made him this pie recipe that I found on Kitchen Meets Girl and sent to Suzie Q to try out. She loved it … a lot. So I decided I’d give it a try. The thing was that I was feeling a bit lazy and didn’t want to go through all the steps in the recipe I found. So, I simplified it completely – making it a truly no-bake pumpkin marshmallow pie. Let’s just say that pie was gone by Wednesday. So, if you’re looking for a pie to make for the holidays, trust me – this may be the one.

What You’ll Need:

• 1 pre-made graham cracker crust (I get the Keebler brand)
• 1 egg
• 1 can pumpkin purée
• 1 cup low-fat Cool Whip
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 bag of mini marshmallows
• Chocolate sauce (like you’d put on top of an ice cream sundae)
• Other topping ideas: candied pecans, more Cool Whip (obvi), mini chocolate chips…

First, whisk the egg and brush it on the pre-made crust. Pop that in a 350 degree oven for about 5-7 minutes, until the crust is slightly browned. You can completely skip this process, but I do this because it seals the crumbs in nicely so your crust doesn’t crumble apart. Make sure your crust cools completely before you put your pie filling in.

While that’s cookin’ in the oven, in a large saucepan over medium-low heat, combine pumpkin purée, cinnamon and marshmallows. Stir constantly until it’s all mixed together and smooth. Let that cool in the fridge for about 30 minutes to an hour. Remove from the fridge and using a handheld mixer, whip for about 1-2 minutes until it’s smooth. Fold in the Cool Whip.

Pour the pumpkin mixture into your crust and smooth the top so it’s even. Put the lid on it (most pre-made crusts come with a nice, plastic lid). Let that cool in the fridge for 2 hours or overnight before you eat it. Drizzle your favorite toppings – we used chocolate sauce – on top, and enjoy!

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