if the shoe fits?: February 2014

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Recipe #2 of February Challenge

For my second recipe of my weekly February challenge, I decided to try this recipe I found on Pinterest. It looked easy & yummy.

It turned out to be just that - it didn't require a lot of ingredients or prep & tasted good. Alex loved it, too. He's gotten a little pickier as he's gotten older, so this is definitely something I'll make again. It is pretty sweet but not overpowering. It didn't take as long to thicken up as in her recipe but it probably depends on the teriyaki sauce. Mine also was a different color - more honey colored than darker brown like in the picture.

Overall, I'd call it a success!

Saturday, February 8, 2014

February Challenge

I made it through January for my 30 Day Challenge. I didn't eat chocolate & I completed a craft each week. Well, I ate chocolate once but it was an accident. I ordered an oatmeal raisin cookie at a restaurant & they gave me a cranberry chocolate cookie. I didn't pay much attention when I took a bite & quickly realized it had chocolate. But I didn't finish the cookie - pretty impressive if I do say so myself!

February snuck up on me a little & when the 1st hit, I hadn't decided what my challenge would be for the month. Actually, I'd already decided on my health challenge but not my personal challenge. I was feeling a little blah about the personal challenge. I just wasn't feeling it. But come Monday I had made a decision & was back on track!

My health challenge this month is no fried food. I wouldn't say I eat a lot of it anyway, but I'm going to miss the occasional order of fries!

My personal challenge this month is to try one new recipe a week. I've been in a little bit of a cooking rut lately & want to get motivated to try some new things. What helped me decide on this for February was I already made a new recipe on Sunday, so my first week was covered. J

Rather than do a separate post for my first new recipe, I'll share it now. I made The Pioneer Woman's Knock You Naked Brownies for a Super Bowl party.

Wowza. These were GOOD. As soon as I started thinking about what I wanted to take to the party, I knew it needed to be chocolate to celebrate making it through my January challenge. I saw these on her website - they looked pretty easy & I'm a sucker for caramel. They were a hit. The next time I make them, I think I'm going to use a little less caramel. I used almost two bags of the square caramels. I think I'll try using one & a half bags. Don't get me wrong, I love caramel & loved these with the thick layer in the middle. But they might be a little less messy if I back off the caramel a little. Even after refrigerating for several hours, it was hard to get a slice out cleanly. But man, it tasted good. Or I might try making it in a 9x13 pan to spread it all out more. I don't have any good reasons to make these again soon but surely I can think of something. A random Wednesday is a good time to make brownies, right??

If you have any good recipes you've tried lately, send them my way!