I hate to whore myself out like this but I just made this beautiful hoop with new tape and I totally want someone to buy it! I would just keep it but it’s slightly too large for my level of hooping.

And come on, it’s only 25 dollars!

As most of you know I have recently picked up hula hooping. It started as a way to lose weight/tone up my belly and become a bizarre obsession. I had gone to Toys R Us and picked up a seven dollar little kids water hoop. After a bit of research I realized that it would never work if I wanted to become a master hooper. Roger and I went to home depot and my life has never been the same since! I am now a hoop making machine. I make and sell hula hoops custom to your body shape/size with whatever colors you want and ohhh it’s so fun.

Reasons to have a custom hoop:

1. Size matters! The reason most children can hoop is not because they are freaky super humans. It’s because hula hoops are made for kids aka: tiny people. The hoops I’ve been making are from a heavier and thicker tubing to use momentum to help you “keep it up”. They are also much larger in diameter. The ideal hoop should be from the floor to your belly button. Larger if you think you’ll need extra help.

2. You get to pick your colors! How cool is that? Answer: very. The tapes used to decorate the hoops are very important in adding friction to the hoop. Grip is everything for new hoopers especially.

3. You can add weight or sound to your hoop easily. If you want the oldschool hula hoop sound you can have it! or if it drives you nuts or throws off your hooping you can go without.

4. Home made hoops are best for tricking! It’s so amazing what you can learn from youtube videos. Pretty much every hoop trick I know I learned from the internet.

5. All the cool kids do it. I’ve turned more people onto hooping then I can count and so far…they’ve only been cool people.

Hooping has effectively removed my muffin top and it’s the only exercise that I don’t get bored of! Leave a comment if you want a hoop! Or check out my ad on craigslist.org

Am I truly domesticated now that I am a home owner? We shall see. Here are some pictures of our new home!

Another salmon hit! Extra points for freshness and innovation! We just moved into our new home and we are like three blocks away from Trader Joes! (my new favorite place) Who knew that the cheapest and best produce comes from this wonderland of organic goodness!? I bought a mango for 39 cents and just went nuts from there!

So here is an original recipe brought to you by me with the help of TJ’s!

Ingredients:

one mango

one half bag frozen pineapple bits

cilantro to taste

one half onion

one half orange pepper

one quarter fresh jalapeno

juice of one lime

pieces of salmon (white fish would also be tasty)

honey

salt/lemon pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, coat salmon in salt and lemon pepper and a drizzle of honey. Bake for 20-30 minutes. Halfway through baking, squeeze a little bit of lime juice onto the salmon.

2. While salmon is baking, prepare salsa by chopping coarsly mango, orange pepper and onions. Add pineapple bits, finely chopped jalapeno and cilantro. Squeeze whole lime and add pepper and salt. Mix!

3. Serve salsa over salmon.

This is the easiest meal ever and definitely my favorite way to eat salmon. The mango is the real winner here. Roger pretty much inhaled his serving. Make it…now…go do it.

I cannot exaggerate the importance of trendy fashionable cooking clothing, in fact, I’m pretty sure it makes the food taste better!

My super cool sister Skylar Thompson made me this fantastically girly apron to epically enhance the quality of my baking experience. The cupcake and heart buttons, icecream sunday and polkadot fabric, and of course pink ruffley trim make it the ULTIMATE accessory to any kitchen wardrobe!

Once I had the apron, of course I needed some oven mitts! Luckily I have Grandma Cookie! The ultimate crafting machine! We used the leftover fabric from my apron to make these awesome mitts!

Thank you sooooo much to my sister and my grandma for making my baking into a runway show!

Leave a comment for more information on getting your own custom made apron!

I needed to throw something together quick for a potluck at work. Almost decided to make snickerdoodles but lets be real, how boring is that? Everyone can make those. So I rifled through my Martha Stewart cookie book and settled on biscottis. Her original recipe here: http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/chocolate-pistachio-biscotti

*Note* I used almonds instead of pistachios because I had NO time to go to the store. And I only had about half the cocoa powder required so I doubled my chocolate chips to guarantee chocolateyness. My biscottis are a little lighter because of this, but still obviously tasty.

*Another Note* I baked these on silpat not a floured baking sheet. Also, Marthas website says serves four but in the book it says makes 12, so unless you’re with people who REALLY like biscottis, I’m solid on 12.

*Third Note* Next time I might cook more than 25 minutes the first time because they are really soft on the inside and it makes them disfigure a little. I also don’t recommend a serrated knife as they are still sort of soft and it just sort of destroyed my cookies.

Final review: very tasty! Nice texture, I actually prefer them slightly less chocolatey with the exception of the sort of pooey color it makes them. Other than that they were really quick and easy to make and really easy to enjoy!

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for baking sheet
• 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for baking sheet
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup shelled pistachio nuts
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a baking sheet; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs; beat until well combined, scraping down sides of bowl if necessary. Add flour mixture, and stir to form a stiff dough. Stir in pistachios and chocolate chips.
3. Transfer dough to prepared baking sheet; form into a slightly flattened log, about 12 by 4 inches. Bake until slightly firm, about 25 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for about 5 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees.
4. On a cutting board, using a sharp serrated knife, cut biscotti diagonally into 1-inch-thick slices. Arrange biscotti, cut sides down, on baking sheet, and bake until crisp but still slightly soft in the center, about 8 minutes

This should be called GODCAKE. I will note that these are not part of my health food kick, I just happened to forget to post this sooner! These were made for a potluck at work and are my absolute fav. I first used this recipe because my dad said he wanted a chocolate chocolate super chocolatey chocolate cake for his birthday. So after looking at about every chocolate cake recipe online, I decided on this one from none other than our favorite Martha Stewart! I adjusted the cook time slightly for the cupcakes.

Recipes found here: http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/ultimate-chocolate-cake?backto=true

I happened to be at PCC while shopping for ingredients and so these are made from organic cocoa powder and Ghirardelli chips! Fancy schmancy.

Frosting recipe is again from Martha: http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/mrs-milmans-chocolate-frosting-2

The reviews for the frosting have many people unable to figure out the frosting texture, I am pretty sure its because they don’t turn their stove up high enough and they aren’t patient enough to go stir it in the fridge. I did omit the corn syrup as it seems pretty unnecessary.

My dads family gave this rave reviews as did the ladies at work. When you make it as a layer cake you really can’t tell the difference between it and the big fat chocolate cakes you buy down town. Its rich but not intimidating. Though I am a penny pincher, I do suggest using the Ghirardellis chips, they make a difference in the final quality of the cake!

This cake also stores really well. Most cupcakes pretty much need to be eaten the same day they are prepared, I was munching on leftovers for days afterward and they still tasted perfect.

Roger already ordered this cake for his birthday.

MAKE IT

Another healthy meal coming your way. We particularly enjoy these peppers because they are so easy to take for lunches. They fit perfectly in a tupperware and reheat in about a minute and the rice doesn’t get dry because of the moisture in the pepper!

Ingredients: Red bell peppers

broccoli

frozen peas

frozen spinach

crumbled feta cheese (don’t go too crazy)

brown rice

dried basil

garlic to taste

Start by cooking your brown rice, also works great to just use left overs. While the rice is cooking half your peppers long ways and pull out the seedy bits.

To sneak some extra veggies in I pulsed my broccoli in the food processor until it was nice and fine. It mixes into anything, great in pasta sauce.

Once the rice is done, take a handful of all the frozen veggies and throw them in a big bowl and mix it all together with the feta and the rice and the basil and garlic.

Fill the peppers with the rice mixture and place in a baking pan or casserole dish. Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes. You want the peppers to be soft but still hold shape.

Some other fun things you might try, if you’re not aiming for healthy, try it with mashed potatoes instead of rice and put a layer of cheddar cheese over the top before baking. Also try adding meats, ground turkey, chicken breast, bacon bits.

I’ve heard of people mashing cauliflower to replace potatoes and I’m eager to see if that is a convincing substitute, I mean, with enough seasonings or cheese anything can be awesome.

My first healthy dinner was a WILD success. I could probably eat these for every meal, and even more impressive, ROGER could probably eat these for every meal. I improvised everything so sorry for you recipe lovers. I took a big fatty piece of salmon and picked out the bones and threw it in the food processor with a whole small white onion, a quarter cup or so of Italian bread crumbs, a big handful of frozen peas and about a tablespoon or two of capers. If you like it a little zesty, add a couple squirts of sriracha. Pulse a few times in the food processor and shape into pattys. I cooked these on the famed panini press, (another tool you should definitely have if you don’t already) They weren’t dry at all which is apparently a complaint you get a lot with salmon burgers. I served them over a bed of romaine lettuce with a hefty helping of a sort of faux tzaziki that was really just garlic, dill, yogurt and a tiny bit of lime. I grilled up a little bit of french bread served with balsamic vinegar just cause I had some. If you wanna cut calories and make smart choices make sure you use wheat bread, low fat yogurt and I’m going to be playing around with omitting bread crumbs and maybe substituting eggs or brown rice.

These come HIGHLY recommended and are definitely on our list of exciting and guilt-free ways to serve salmon.

Recently I decided I should start exercising. So of course I got on my WiiFit. It said “Hi Evelyn, I haven’t seen you in 346 days” So of course I knew it would only be good news from there on out. Then the stupid video game weighs you. It told me I gained 7.7 pounds. So Obviously after a night of eating mostly just chips I figured I should cut back on the calories. Luckily for you I can make plenty of healthy things in my Kitchenaid! AND I got a new Kitchenaid food processor, clearance at Macys for like 25 dollars! AND it’s pink.

So I apologize for my sudden drop out of the baking world, and lets be real, this working out thing wont last long, probably a month tops, and then I’ll be right back to my baking, snacking, couch potato self again!