Yes, Salted Caramel Apple Pie. The husband baked this pie, and it turned out DELICIOUS (although I could only sneak a tiny bite of the filling, I’m going to force him to make it gluten-free next year!)

Daniel used the “Rich Tart Crust” recipe from the Essentials of Baking cookbook.

Chillin' in the fridge

The caramel sauce in action:

Completed Salted Caramel Sauce

Silas always keeps a watchful eye when we’re in the kitchen…

YUM

After drooling over the pie pictures, it’s time for a quick Thanksgiving recap: Thanksgiving was a blast! It was quite busy, but I’m VERY thankful that both of our families still live in Louisville (although my dad and sister live out in Cali, and my other sister is in NC…) Louisville is a good meeting place for everyone!

We ran the annual Northeast YMCA Turkey Trot, I think this was my 5th year participating! I love getting out for a run on Thanksgiving morning, and having family and friends who also participate is always a blast! ALL of Daniel’s siblings and their spouses came out to run!

My right leg has been bothering me for a little while, if you follow me on “DailyMile“, I found out that I tweaked my right hamstring somehow. During the race on Thursday, I was aiming to go sub 7:45/mile, which is what I did. However, I did have to stop twice during the race to stretch out the “weird” feeling in my right hamstring. Anyways- I finished in 45 minutes (my watch time) and ended up placing 4th in my age group! Good way to start off a Thanksgiving celebration!

Anyways- as I posted in Trial Thanksgiving- I did make some changes to the sweet potato casserole and it turned out quite delicious- although I was told that it was a little too “sweet and spiced” for a sweet potato casserole. Oh well, it still tasted good to me!

OK, now go make this Salted Caramel Apple Pie.

Yesterday was a dreary and rainy day. We’ve talked about moving to Washington or Oregon, but I keep hearing that they’re rainy, grey places. I’m not someone who ALWAYS needs bright and sunny days, but I just don’t really care to be wet. Plus, rain+cold makes it impossible for me to get warm. I am thankful that today was a rainy day because I got to do a trial run of a few Thanksgiving recipes!

We only have “3 Thanksgivings” this year. The past two years, I think we’ve had at least 4 Thanksgiving celebrations to go to, so we’re happy to have one less! (We’re not having our “big family” Thanksgiving this year with my mom’s side of the family, we do it every other year!)

2009:

2010:

We decided to bring a veggie side dish to the Cooper Thanksgiving, and for some reason, I’ve had Brussels Sprouts on my mind.I found this recipe for Lemon-Roasted Brussels Sprouts and decided to give it a try. I went to three grocery stores yesterday to find fresh Brussels Sprouts (I found them at Meijer!)They turned out to be quite delicious! I made a half-pound for Daniel and I to share over lunch today. We both agreed that extra parmesan cheese was required! If you decide to use this recipe for Roasted Brussels Sprouts, be sure to add extra lemon, a healthy amount of parmesan and extra salt and pepper before serving!

I also found this recipe for Sweet Potato Casserole that I’m bringing to Thanksgiving at my mom’s house. The only substitutions I made was using buckwheat flour in place of the wheat flour in the streusel to make the casserole gluten-free. For my “trial” version, I ended up using a splash of regular milk, and I used less sugar.

When I make this on Thanksgiving, I may actually increase the amount of evaporated milk in the recipe as the trial turned out a little dry. I’m also going to add in some spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, a pinch of clove) to the potatoes. And, as you can tell by the burnt pecans, I’ll try to keep a better eye on the casserole when it’s under the broiler  Daniel is also planning on making a dessert. A couple of years ago, he made an upside-down Pecan-Caramel cake thing, and a little while back, he made a Tres-Leches cake that was STELLAR! The boy can bake. I’m excited to see what he decides to make this year!

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So TODAY- take a step in the right direction and sign up for FREE access through January 31st! I have one shameless favor to ask if you DO sign up (and I suggest that you do!)- please, please put my name in the “How Did You Hear about MyBodyStructure.com” field of the sign-up form!

It’s the end of the week! Well… almost. I’ve got software training at work this afternoon, and Daniel and I are volunteering at this years’ Jesus Prom! Then I work Saturday morning, but as of 1:30pm on Saturday afternoon- the weekend will begin! I made a mile long to-do list this afternoon, and it will be great to check some things off over the weekend!

I really, really want to be a more consistent blogger, but some weeks I’ve just got to realize that writing a post just isn’t going to happen! Fortunately, I’ve snapped a lot of great photos this week, and that always makes blogging easier for me! For today’s post, we’re going to do 5 on Friday! Here are 5 things that have happened this week.

1. Fitness Fridays! I’ve totally been slacking on making an actual Fitness Friday post, so here’s a quick recap of workouts this week!

• Sunday- Daniel did his very first interval workout! He did 8×400 (actually 0.27miles) at a super speedy pace (he was aiming for 6:30, but the boy ran right at 6:18 pace!) My tummy was WEIRD, so I got to be coach
• Monday- Daniel inspired me, so I set out to do a speed workout of my own- I made it 7x400m, on that last 400m repeat I felt like I was going to puke, so I called it a day at 7. I was pretty proud- I did 1:44/1:45 for almost every single interval (except for the last one- 1:50). 6:30 pace? I’ll take it!
• Tuesday- Early morning run with the Striders. Gretchen and I split off from the group and ended up covering about 7 miles!
• Wednesday- THIS WORKOUT posted by the lovely Tina over at Faith, Fitness, Fun. I misunderstood the workout- so I did both parts (supposed to be done on separate days). I guess that’s a good “oops?”. 10 reps of each exercise in each circuit.

Making The Cut Circuit One (Push Focus)

Making The Cut Circuit Two (Pull Focus)

• Thursday- REST DAY! Took a nice stroll with the pup and biked to class. Thought about running early with the Striders, but my bed was too warm
• Friday- TBA
• Saturday- TBA

That ended up being WAY longer than I thought, so here are the rest of the “5 on Friday”!

2. We grew catnip in our garden (<—check out that old garden post!)Mowgli found the catnip in the garden a few weeks ago after Daniel cleared out the brush.Mowgli also found the catnip that I was trying to dry.

Mowgli has catnip issues.

3. I’ve got an enchilada recipe coming your way, here’s a preview:

4. Perks of living in a house owned by your grandparents? Random gifts left at your door:

5. Daniel brought our electric heater down from the attic. That man knows what his cold intolerant wife needs! (throwback picture!)Happy Friday Everyone!

Last weekend, Mom Central Consulting gave me the opportunity to get a dress for a special occasion. If you know me at all, I really don’t like wearing dresses. I think part of my dislike for dresses comes from not being able to find dresses that fit properly. David’s Bridal is well known for their affordable Bridal gowns and Bridal party attire. Did you know that David’s Bridal also has a FANTASTIC selection of dresses for other Special Occasions- check it out (http://www.davidsbridal.com/Browse_Special-Occasions).

Daniel and I took a trip to our local David’s Bridal store, and I got to try on LOTS of dresses!

And shoes!

There were dressed I liked…

Some were a little strange for my tastes…

And others just didn’t work…

I ended up choosing this Charmeuse Print Dress, and I LOVE it! Daniel gave it the thumbs up too:

Now is when I’m pretending that this post doesn’t have enough pictures already… so I’m adding MORE!

Thank you Daniel for being an excellent photographer, thank you to Mom Central Consulting for providing this wonderful opportunity, and thank you David’s Bridal for your wonderful Special Occasion Dresses!

I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central Consulting (www.momcentral.com/mcc) on behalf of David’s Bridal and received a gift certificate to facilitate my review.

Growing up, we watched the old Little Rascals movies non-stop. Spanky, Alfalfa and Buckwheat were the funniest kids around. I remember not liking the newer Little Rascals movie when it came out in 1994 (was it really THAT long ago?) Buckwheat was always one of my favorite childhood characters…

… and now buckwheat has been named a staple in the Cooper Family pantry.

While grocery shopping on Saturday, I perused the “Ethnic Foods” aisle for some inspiration. In the Jewish section, I stumbled upon some Kasha. I probably would have overlooked the unassuming brown box until I saw that it had “GLUTEN FREE” on the label. Hold up, gluten free foods outside of the “Natural Food” section? I looked at the price (cheaper than GF oats!) and tossed the box into my cart.

A lesson on Buckwheat (the seed)

• Buckwheat is NOT related to wheat and does NOT contain gluten. Buckwheat isn’t even classified as a cereal grain, it’s a seed!
• Buckwheat comes in a couple of forms: Groats, Kasha and Flour. Buckwheat groats are simply hulled grains of buckwheat- the least processed. Kasha typically refers to cracked buckwheat groats (although the word kasha and groats are used interchangeably). The kasha that I purchased was also toasted, hence the slightly darker color than the groats. And you probably already guessed that buckwheat flour is just ground up buckwheat.

I cooked up a few servings of Kasha on Sunday so that I would have an easy breakfast during the weekdays! This was 1c. Kasha cooked in 2c. water for about 10 minutes, or until the kasha was tender and the liquid was absorbed. (Bring water to boil, stir in kasha, cover and simmer 7-10 minutes).

There was a slight nuttyness to the kasha, and I immediately dolled up my breakfast bowl by adding pumpkin, spices, a bit of milk, a drizzle of molasses, a sprinkle of raw kasha and a spoonful of peanut butter (I realize the following picture may not look too appetizing, but it was DELICIOUS!)

Nutritional stats on Kasha (1/4c. dry, makes about 3/4c. when cooked):

(source)

We plan on using buckwheat to substitute for rice (for those times where we’ve just had enough), and I have big plans for some buckwheat pancakes! You’d better believe they’ll be on the blog if they’re worthy of being photographed!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! We had a great weekend at the Cooper house.

Daniel took Silas to the dog park on Friday, Silas got muddy, and Daniel gave him a bath. What a great husband! On Saturday, Daniel and I went to Kentucky Fit Club with the lovely Ashley. We did Insanity: Pure Cardio. I was pretty mad that ShaunT didn’t let us stretch our calves, at all. Considering most of the moves were done on the balls of our feet, I thought it was RUDE that we didn’t get adequate stretching!

After showering and grabbing lunch, I headed to the grocery. Does anyone want to read about meal-planning? We stick to a pretty tight budget ($50-60 per week), so meal planning is an ESSENTIAL part to each week. Here’s what we’re having this week:

• Black Eyed Peas, Pork & Kale (made this tonight, TONS of leftovers!)
• Vegetarian Enchiladas (loosely based off of this recipe)
• Frittata of some type (probably broccoli-cheese)
• 2 Do-it-Yourself Dinners
• Leftovers

I make other things throughout the week (roasted sweet potatoes, broccoli soup, broiled tofu, rice, etc.), but I always try to cook at least 2 new recipes each week so that we don’t get too bored.

Anyways, back to our weekend fun. I had a special blog-related “assignment”, and that post will be coming later this week! Here’s a sneak peek:

Daniel and I also had a date night complete with Kroger sushi!

We also went out to see Crazy, Stupid Love at the $1 theater. AND we got Orange Leaf afterwards, YUM.

Sunday was filled with church, life group, photo editing, belly rubs (for Silas), and delicious food!

I also forgot to mention, we got a DISHWASHER last weekend from our neighbors! I can’t even begin to explain how excited I am to not have to stand at the sink for 20 minutes each night (or for an hour on the weekends because we put off doing the dishes…)

1. It’s finally November. This means I can start listening to “instrumental” Christmas music. It also means that I can wear my Christmas socks without feeling ashamed.

2. I love feet, particularly these 6 feet.

3. Daniel got a pair of Vibram Five Fingers. They may be the dorkiest looking shoes alive, but he can run… without knee pain!

4. I love the colors of fall. I don’t like the fact that after the next rain, the trees will be naked for 4-5 months.

5. I successfully baked something without: A. Killing someone, B. Burning Something or C. Altering a recipe. I made Vegan Pumpkin-Molasses Cookies from Peas and Thank You. (photo from Peas and Thank You)

6. I was a Bourbon Chase runner for Halloween.

7. Mowgli sat in the bathtub for a while on Sunday. He also “bathed” while he was in there. I guess he understands the purpose of a tub.

8. My husband has “those moves” like Michael.

9. I added a nifty DailyMile banner to our blog!

Look over to the Right —>

10. After Daniel cleaned out the garden, Mowgli finally found the catnip that we planted in the spring. Happy cat. We also have more tomatoes.

Happy Tuesday!