Lawfully Wedded Wife

WIAW: No Complaining Zone

Lauren — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 03:34:46 +0000

Well hey there. I’ve been quiet lately, sorry about that! After a wonderful weekend, I had a resurgence a pesky throat infection that has been trying to bother me for months. It was a particularly bad infection and I ended up having to make a trip to urgent care…again. But you know what, I have spent enough time feeling sorry for myself and I am taking a pledge not to complain anymore. These health problems are really frustrating to me because I’m young and have really been trying to take good care of myself. But I am alive, I am blessed, and every day is a gift. No complaining. I do want to apologize for the strange angles and interesting presentation of the pictures I took for What I Ate Wednesday today! I am on a fierce combo of antibiotics, steroids, and antihistamines that are doing my mental state no favors. Enjoy the trippy pics!

Breakfast: Whole Wheat Cream of Wheat cooked with almond milk and topped with raspberries

Haha quite a close-up! I’m so excited that berries are coming back down in price. They’re not officially in season in VA, but these are only from a few states away so I’m indulging. It’s been a sad, berry-free winter in my tummy.

Morning Snack: a berry bar (was too spazzed out to take a pic, sorry! here’s an old one)

Lunch: turkey, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, swiss cheese sub sandwich on wheat bread

We got lunch at Wawa, their sandwiches are so good and cheap! If you don’t have Wawa in your area, it’s basically a 7/11 but nicer and without the gas station. They make sandwiches to order and I love them!

Afternoon Snack: blood orange Chobani

Dinner: stir-fry noodles with chicken and vegetables

It is Love Your Veggies month after all! Inside the stir-fry I made for both of us was a crown of broccoli, a few stalks of kale, a carrot, half a bell pepper, a cup of mushrooms, and a small onion. Holy vegetables!

My stir fry bowl had like a 2-inch long piece of chicken, and the rest was veg and noodles. Just how I like it. Jason eats enough meat for the two of us anyways.

And of course my beverage obsession. I buy a pack every week now! I can’t quit! The Limonata flavor is coursing through my veins at this point. At least there’s no HFCS or other crap in there.

Dessert: ice cream sandwich!

Thanks for reading! And bear with me in the next week, my posts might not be so stellar but I love you guys for staying with me!

-Lauren

Scenes from an (Almost) Spring Weekend

Lauren — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 18:32:05 +0000

Hope that your weekend was great! Some of you probably have today off as a holiday, but alas…we don’t. I have to leave for class in a bit but not without leaving you with some snapshots of our weekend.

Two pairs of new hiking boots were purchased at less than half their retail price (have I mentioned that I live nextdoor to an outlet mall??? Yeah, it’s AMAZING!)…

…and then said hiking boots were tested out by two very happy hikers on a challenging but glorious (and picturesque!) 3 mile hike.

Berry bars were eaten on the trail while enjoying lovely views…

A pancake house was visited…

…and large amounts of food were eaten, courtesy of a Groupon.

But sadly it wasn’t even close to being as tasty as our homemade breakfasts. That’ll teach us to stay in!

Our favorite Williamsburg destination, The Cheese Shop, was also visited. Our usual sandwiches were ordered and then enjoyed in the car parked out by the water.

Sunday night excited us with a little snowfall and hopes of a snow day…

…but come this morning there was still only a tiny bit of snow, which is rapidly melting!

No snow day over here, but we did have a wonderful weekend just enjoying each other and appreciating life.

Thanks for reading!

Got a question for you… What did you do this weekend?

Berry Bars

Lauren — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 23:49:47 +0000

I’ve been eating a lot of snack food lately. I find that if I don’t snack really often, I end up with a very rumbly stomach in the middle of the day which can be a very embarrassing (and loud) situation in a dead quiet classroom. In order to avoid the rumblies, and do it without interfering with our budget, I decided to use things we already have in our kitchen to make some snack bars!

I started with a granola bar recipe from Ina, and then healthified it by swapping butter with coconut oil and reducing the sugar. Ina is wonderful (I watch Barefoot Contessa nearly every day) but sometimes I feel like she feels a compulsion to use butter in everything. I understand the compulsion, I used to have it myself. Butter is delicious. But gimme a break…you do NOT need butter in GRANOLA BARS. Seriously.

If you’re looking for a cheap and nutritious snack that will be great for on-the-go, look no further!

Berry Bars

by Lauren

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Keywords: snack vegan oats

Ingredients (8 bars)

1 c. quick cooking oats (you can use old fashioned instead)
1/2 c. shredded coconut
1/2 c. chopped raw almonds
1/4 c. toasted wheat germ
1 1/2 T. coconut oil
1/4 c. honey
1 T. brown sugar
1 t. vanilla extract
1/4 t. salt
1/4 c. dried blueberries
heaping 1/4 c. dried cranberries
1/2 t. ground cinnamon

Instructions

In a small saucepan or skillet, melt the coconut oil over medium-low heat and add the honey, brown sugar, and salt.

Whisk together over the heat until the mixture becomes a thick syrup. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, combine the oats, almonds, coconut, wheat germ, cranberries, and blueberries.

Add the syrup mixture to the dry ingredients and mix together well with a spatula until everything is evenly coated.

Evenly spread and press down the mixture into a greased baking dish lined with parchment paper.

Bake in a 300 degree oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the granola is golden brown.

Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for at least 2 hours. When ready to cut, flip them out of the pan and cut into 8 even rectangles with a very sharp knife.

Store in airtight containers at room temperature.

You can substitute with whatever kind of dried fruit you have, but I really think the berries make it especially delicious. Dried fruit is a staple for me in the winter, don’t know what I would do without it!

The perfect thing to keep my stomach from announcing itself to classrooms full of people.

Thanks for reading! Have a fun weekend!

-Lauren

WIAW: Me and the Gym

Lauren — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 02:54:21 +0000

As a law student I actually spend most of my days at home! Is that surprising? We only have a few hours of class most days and I’m not one of those people who lives in the library (I’d rather live at home, thank you). The schedule definitely has me spoiled, and I’m in for a rude awakening when I get a real 9-5 (or maybe 7-12 if I’m at a firm… ). Having the type of schedule that we do has really made it easy for me to incorporate gym time into my routine. With so many flexible hours, there’s not really a good excuse not to go! And I HAVE been going! Today I went to an awesome yoga class that really kicked my butt, and tomorrow is Zumba! I can’t believe that me and the gym are getting along so well! I honestly don’t believe it. How about seeing what I eat on a gym day (which is really just a regular day)?

Breakfast: Cream of Wheat

Recycled photo but that’s because it’s always the same! Haha, I’m sorry I’m so boring…I get into breakfast “moods” and they don’t usually change for a couple months or so. Obviously right now it’s Cream of Wheat!

Second Breakfast? : apple

I was hungry for more than this but I was on the run! No time to get anything else!

Morning Snack: Kashi GoLean bar

Lunch: ham sandwich, BBQ chips

We had a meeting through lunch and a class right after so we had to buy lunch at school. It was actually pretty good!

Post-Yoga Snack: my UGS (c’mon, you remember what that is right? my usual green smoothie! trying to save myself some typing over here…haha)

Dinner: Beef and cheese enchiladas, salad, refried beans

This is one of our favorite meals! Trader Joe’s refried beans are SO delicious and fast.

And I tried the TJ’s enchilada sauce for the first time tonight, it’s awesome.

Dessert: chocolate truffles

Guess what happened yesterday right after I posted that we weren’t doing cards and other Valentine’s Day hooplah?? Jason busted out a card and some hooplah in the form of these amazing Godiva truffles. Oh, how I love him. These babies are delicious. A nice reward for all that ~~painful~~ deep stretching that I did in yoga class.

I hope you are all having a great week! We’re almost to the weekend!

Thanks for reading!

-Lauren

Got a question for you… Do you have flexible hours? How do you incorporate physical activity into your week?

Happy Love Day!

Lauren — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 04:13:33 +0000

Notice anything different about my bunch of roses?

What do you think…they’re looking a little dry right?? Well they should, because they are exactly one year old today. Jason got me some roses last Valentine’s Day, which was our first one together as husband and wife. This entire time I have not had to heart to part with them. The water dried out and they continued to look beautiful…and so I kept them. And here they are, on my nightstand right by my head, providing me with wonderful memories every day I wake up and see them.

V-Day is definitely different when you’re married. But in a good way. We decided not to even bother with the cards and champagne and other hooplah…we’ve already done that 5 years in a row! It’s just a fun time to celebrate love! Speaking of love, we had a great dinner out together on Sunday at the Williamsburg Winery. They were offering a special holiday menu and the food was seriously a revelation. Such a great night.

We went to the same place for Valentine’s Day dinner last year! And hilariously, we have the exact same picture of us in that same lobby last year:

I want to go back next year just to take that same picture again.

We both had classes today so we didn’t really go all out. But being the amazing guy that he is, Jason surprised me with a lovely breakfast that was appropriately themed.

Those pancakes were so delicious! After classes and an awesome Zumba session (for me at least, I don’t think Jason would be down with doing Zumba ), we came back home to our fancy celebratory dinner.

I love meals where I don’t have to cook! Don’t get me wrong, I love to cook (clearly) but sometimes after a full day I just don’t want to. We randomly got a coupon for a free pizza so we cashed in tonight! It was delicious. The salad I made us wasn’t too bad either.

And for dessert, we’re heating up the last one of these babies:

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine’s Day/Love Day/Chocolate Day doing whatever the heck it is that makes you feel the love.

Thanks for reading!

-Lauren

This Valentine’s Day: Reese’s Chunk Brownies

Lauren — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 21:44:23 +0000

There’s something about Reese’s candy that, to us at least, is indescribably delicious. It doesn’t really taste like real peanut butter and chocolate (have you ever tried putting them together? delicious but tastes nothing like the candy…), it just tastes like heaven. I was very happy to find out when Jason and I were dating that he, too, scoffed at the likes of Three Musketeers bars and York peppermint patties…we’re both ALL about the Reese’s. And so for us, this is the perfect brownie.

These little guys can’t be resisted. Fudgy, chocolately brownies with nice big chunks of Reese’s cups inside. I’ve tried using those Reese’s baking “chips” and Reese’s “pieces” and whatnot before…but to me nothing compares to the real cups. Real brownies. Real Reese’s cups.

We are actually celebrating Valentine’s Day today (we have class all day on the actual day) so it was only appropriate that I show you my last V-Day recipe today! I found some little heart-shaped pans to make these in, but of course you could bake them in any kind of pan and they would be delicious for any occasion (or for no ocassion at all! ).

The recipe is a twist on Ashley’s Peanut Butter Drizzle Brownies that we made over the summer. Little Ashley loves Reese’s as much as I do, so I can’t wait to make these for her the next time we see each other! Make them for yourself, make them for someone you love…just make them!

Reese’s Chunk Brownies

by Lauren

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Keywords: dessert chocolate peanut butter bars

Ingredients (serves 4)

1/2 c. salted butter
2/3 c. semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla
2/3 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. Reese’s cups (about 6 standard “snack” cups)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium sized microwave safe bowl, microwave the butter and chocolate chips in increments of 30 seconds (stirring after each increment) until everything is completely melted together. Watch it carefully, chocolate burns very quickly!

Remove the bowl from the microwave and stir in the sugar until well combined. Quickly stir in the eggs, then vanilla.

Stir in the flour until well combined.

Coarsely chop the Reese’s cups and gently fold them into the batter, reserving a couple tablespoons to top the brownies (if desired).

Pour the batter into a greased baking dish (I used 4 mini heart-shaped pans). Top with reserved Reese’s chunks.

Bake in preheated oven for about 25-30 minutes, or until the brownies are done but still moist in the center.

Remove from the oven and let the brownies cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning them out and letting them cool completely.

After all these holiday indulgences, I can feel a major salad craving coming on! But a holiday is a holiday, and in my opinion a holiday is just not the same without at least one delicious treat…butter, eggs, sugar, and all! Don’t worry, I have not abandoned a healthy lifestyle. It’s just that right now I want chocolate. Thank you Hallmark, for giving me another excuse to eat it.

I’m off to get all gussied up for dinner! Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and thanks for reading!

-Lauren

This Valentine’s Day: Yellow Cupcakes with Milk Chocolate Icing

Lauren — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:05:26 +0000

Can you tell that I kinda like this holiday a little?

I’m typically not one to enjoy any kind of cake but chocolate, but I’ve learned to appreciate how delicious it can be when balanced out with a rich, flavorful chocolate icing.

I used a recipe from Food Network as the base for creating my own yellow cake, and I made up the recipe for the chocolate icing. Most icings are the basically the same (powdered sugar, milk, butter, etc) but to make this one perfect I added melted milk chocolate chips along with cocoa powder. The hubs and I are both BIG fans of milk chocolate.

It turned out creamy and delicious!

If I had kids, this would definitely be the kind of thing I would make for their class. Especially because having this many cupcakes around just the two of us is a bad idea. But hey, it’s a holiday! Time to splurge a little.

Yellow Cupcakes with Milk Chocolate Icing

by Lauren

Keywords: chocolate cake

Ingredients

For the cupcakes

1/2 c. butter, softened
3/4 c. sugar
1 egg
2 egg yolks
1 t. vanilla extract
1 1/2 c. all purpose flour
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 c. milk

For the icing

3 T. softened butter
3 T. whipping cream
1 c. powdered sugar
3 t. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 t. vanilla extract
1/3 c. milk chocolate, metled and cooled to warm temp

Instructions

For the cupcakes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add in the egg, egg yolks, and vanilla and continue to mix on medium speed until completely smooth and pale yellow in color.

Add in the flour and baking powder and mix on low until incorporated, then mix on medium until the mixture is very smooth.

Pour in the milk and continue to mix for a couple minutes, or until the batter is very smooth (it will be pretty thick but should be nice and soft).

Pour the batter evenly into a lined cupcake pan.

Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until the cupcakes are light golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Allow the cupcakes to cool in the pan for a few minutes, then remove them from the pan to cool on a rack until completely cool (at least an hour).

For the icing

Beat the butter in a small mixing bowl until it’s fluffly, then mix in cream just until incorporated.

Add the vanilla and powdered sugar and beat until smooth. (You can add more cream in very small amounts if the icing is too stiff)

Add the melted chocolate and cocoa powder and beat until the icing is smooth and fluffy.

Cool icing in the refrigerator for 10 minutes before icing your cooled cupcakes.

It’s been too long since we had cupcakes in our house! I was really happy with how the cupcakes turned out, my formula seems to have been a success. They’re very soft and moist but not overly sweet. They wont last long.

I have one more V-Day recipe to share with you guys before the big day arrives…and it involves even more chocolate. I can’t seem to stop. Darn.

Thanks for reading!

-Lauren

Let There Be Light!

Lauren — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 04:52:12 +0000

I got sunlight for my birthday!

I guess Jason got tired of hearing me complain about how there’s not enough sunlight hours during the day for taking blog pictures. He made me a softbox and surprised me with it on my bday! He knows me so well. Best present ever.

I still have to learn how to use the thing properly, but that will come in good time. For now I’m just so excited that I can actually share a dinner recipe with you without the pictures being total crap! Tonight we had Jamaican food for dinner, and that includes one of our favorite dishes ever…coconut rice and peas!!!

It’s a delicious Carribean dish that uses coconut milk as part of the cooking liquid for the rice and peas. The result is creamy but not too heavy and it’s so good that I could eat just a bowl full of it for dinner!

Coconut Rice and Peas

by Lauren

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Keywords: side vegan vegetarian beans rice Caribbean

Ingredients (serves 12)

2 1/2 c. water
1 can full fat coconut milk (13 oz.)
2 1/2 c. long grain rice
1 can pigeon peas
1 medium onion
2 green onions
3 t. salt (or to taste)
1 t. pepper
2 t. garlic powder
2 t. onion powder

Instructions

In a medium sized pot, heat the water and coconut milk over medium high heat until it boils.

While waiting for the liquid to boil, heat 2 T. olive oil in a large skillet.

Chop the onion and green onion and sautee in the olive oil until the onion just starts to brown.

Add the rice to the skillet with the onions and sautee for about 5 minutes, of until most of the rice is translucent.

Season the rice mixture with the salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder, then put all of the rice mixture into the boiling liquid.

Stir the pot and wait for it to return to a boil. When it does, lower the heat to low and cover the pot.

Let the mixture cook undisturbed until the rice is tender, about 40 minutes (check it after 30 and stir gently if necessary).

Turn off heat and serve hot.

I love that the dish is full of healthy fats! And it tastes so right. We had ours alongside some oxtails with gravy and roasted brussels sprouts. It was a great balance of flavors!

Due to some unforseen circumstances, I no longer have class on Fridays this semester! Which means I get another few months of three day weekends! Such a wonderful miracle. It changes my whole attitutde to know that my weekend has an extra day. I’m using that extra time tomorrow to bring you another great recipe for V-day! Hint: it’s a cupcake.

Thanks for reading!

-Lauren

WIAW: Are We There Yet?

Lauren — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:16:01 +0000

I’m feeling like I’ve been stretched a little thin lately! School is stressful as heck, I’m trying to find a summer job, planning for the possibility of studying abroad next year, and integrating gym time, etc…it’s getting a little hectic. The house has totally fallen by the wayside and I feel like I definitely need to figure out how to balance my life. I only got a couple hours of sleep last night so I was feeling pretty crappy all day…all I can think about is ~~Is it graduation yet?~~ Is it spring break yet? I want to breath the fresh mountain air!

I have the tendency to just want to skip whatever phase of life I’m in and just get to the next thing fast! I’ve learned that it’s a terrible attitude to have because I miss out on appreciating the wonderful things going on in the present. I spent ALL of college being excited for college to be over…and it’s only now that I realize we were having some truly amazing experiences in college and I wasn’t appreciating any of it. It’s something I’m working on! Food helps me to stay in the present and appreciate the little things. Let’s get to what I ate today!

Jenn, the awesome party hostess, has deemed February as Love Your Veggies month! I love that! You know I start every day with some veggies in a glass.

Breakfast: My UGS

Second Breakfast: french toast with raspberries

I had some leftover Italian bread from making garlic bread for dinner last night, so I was pumped to put the rest of that loaf to use with some legit french toast. SO much better with real, thick bread like this. I inhaled this plate!

Morning Snack: little bag of triscuits, handful of smoked almonds (unpictured)

Lunch: burrito with ground beef, veggies, rice, black beans, etc.

I know…you’re SHOCKED that we went to Moe’s. Yeah…we’re back to going pretty much every “Student ID Wednesday”. We are the ultimate suckers for special discounts.

Afternoon Snack: ~~sweet nectar of life~~ Jason’s kettle corn

I was in a foul mood at that point in the afternoon and Jas offered to make me some kettle corn…mood instantly lifted. Marriage was such a good plan.

Dinner: noodle stir-fry

After that kettle corn snack I took a completely unintentional 3-hour nap (slept right through yoga class) and woke up just wanting to cry because it was so late and I was starving but just really didn’t have it in me to cook dinner. Jason to the rescue! Did I mention about how marriage was the best plan ever? Did I? It bears repeating. I don’t know how I ever lived without him. This stir-fry he made was just as delicious as it looks. And of course I had my fav beverage on the side.

Dessert: leftover bday chocolate mousse!

Jas actually made that too! HAHA! Never thought I’d have a day where he made more of what I ate than I did. But today that’s exactly what I needed. Days like today are the reason that I need to stop asking Are we there yet? and start stopping to smell the roses. Roses like my awesome husband. <3

Thanks for reading!

-Lauren

This Valentine’s Day: Chocolate Cups (Video!)

Lauren — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 04:50:56 +0000

I seem to love Valentine’s Day more and more every year. It used to be my least favorite holiday (back when I was an angsty teenager) but now I’ve fallen in love with a day that’s all about celebrating love. I don’t really buy into the Hallmark aspect of it all, but I think it’s wonderful just having a day set aside where we get dressed up and spend time together just to appreciate the love we share. Plus, I don’t mind the chocolate. Speaking of chocolate…wanna learn how to make a cup out of some?

This is such a fun recipe and I was so excited to see how easy it is to do. My cups are not perfect but I think they’re even more elegant in their imperfection. Each one is completely unique–I love how the chocolate melts and hardens differently with each cup.

Since the technique is a little bizarre, I thought this would be a good opportunity to do a vlog on how to make them! I’m a total Youtube junkie so I love videos and have been meaning to make one here for a long time. I hope you guys like it! I’m definitely not a natural, but I could work on it.

Haha many bloopers were made and I did a lot of awkward glancing away from the camera, but I hope it was still helpful!

Besides the ones I filled with berries and cream, I filled another with Ashley’s chocolate chocolate chip yogurt as an even healthier option. So yummy!

I had some fun with these little bowls, it’s like doing art! My favorite way was to dip them unevenly on different sides and get this really pretty tulip shape!

Seriously, go get yourself some ballons and turn yourself into a chocolatier!

Thanks for reading!

-Lauren