Low-Fat Blueberry Scones

I have some bad habits that I need to correct. One of those habits is running out the door with no breakfast and stopping at Starbucks.  Guys, I don't even drink coffee. I get a pretentious and expensive hot chocolate. It is so yummy, though, especially with a blueberry scone.  In an effort to curb this habit that will break my personal monthly budget, I went hunting for recipes.

I made the following recipe last night and enjoyed a scone this morning. Brad kept joking with me and calling them "stones." He said that the scones were "good" and he was "afraid [...] to get blueberry on [his] shirt, but it was tasty/interesting...[he] ate it all and appreciated it." He went on to say that he didn't care for the dough and it wouldn't be his go-to breakfast grab. I thought the scones were less sweet than Starbucks and a little heavier. This could have been the case just because it was my first time baking scones, though.  Anyway, I enjoyed it and will grab one on my way out tomorrow morning for sure.

Look at all of those blueberries.

Low-Fat Blueberry Scones
8 servings          6 WW+

2 C unbleached flour
1/4 C sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1T baking powder
1/4 C frozen butter
3/4 C light buttermilk
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1C fresh blueberries

-Preheat oven to 400*F.
-In a large bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients.
-Using the large holes of a cheese grater, grate the butter into the flour. Mix well.
-In a medium bowl, mix the buttermilk, egg, and vanilla.
-Using a fork, slowly stir the wet ingredients into dry ingredients, until all of the mixture is moistened.
-Do not overwork the dough. Fold in the blueberries.
-Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Drop large spoonfuls--DO NOT press or compact. Bake on center rack for 18 minutes.

I used whole wheat unbleached flour, Splenda, and 12 oz of blueberries. Some of the blueberries didn't stay in the dough, so I probably had 10-11 oz in my scones. Also, I made six scones--serving sizes be damned.

If you make this, let me know what you think. If you have an even better recipe, pass that along.

--Melanie

Terrariums, Cooking, and Watercolors

Brad says that I have to start this blog with an apology for being a lazy blogger. I don't really want to, though. I certainly appreciate anyone who clicks on this blog and spends a few minutes with me, but I hope you also understand that sometimes life gets in the way of blogging, especially when the blog is a hobby.

 I have six weeks left of this school year and then a glorious summer stretches out before me. There will be lazy days by the pool, walks to the library, building a house on a church mission trip, and a girl's trip to Florida. There will be dinners on the balcony with Brad and date nights sprinkled in here and there. There will be baking and crafting. There will be no alarm clock. There will be renewal and refreshment for my being.  Until then, please hang in there. I do have lots to say and lots of things have been happening. It may be that I haven't gotten permission to write about them yet or that I don't have the words (or the courage) yet.  Please be patient with me.

*****

This weekend I finally got around to planting some things. I had some petunias that Brad's mom gave us for Easter that I planted (no pictures) and this bonsai-like tree (from Ikea!) that I finally planted in my amazing glass jar from Target. I'm still staring at it and deciding if I like it or not. I feel like the tree should sit a little lower in the jar, but the roots are preventing that. As a result, I kind of want to cut off part of the tree. I also want to do away with the rocks and lay down some moss in there. I'll keep you posted.  Your thoughts, of course, are always appreciated and welcomed.

 A miracle occurred last night--I felt like cooking dinner! I quit pinteresting and cooked.  And, readers, it was amazing.  I have a weakness for the McCormick seasoning packs because they make a recipe foolproof and delicious every single time. You can do a test-run with a recipe before you buy huge jars of all the spices required. I'll let you in on a secret--I own probably three to four kinds of Mrs. Dash and the spices needed for pumpkin pie. That's it. I'm working on my kitchen skills and expanding the list of foods I'll eat, so these spice packs are perfect. They also include a recipe card to hang on to.

 Make this dinner and try to tell me it's not amazing.

Excuse the cell phone pictures (I'm sure you're used to them by now)

and look at this delicousness.

Brad and I also sat down last night to continue watching the Back to the Future trilogy and I did a bit of crafting. I recently purchased some watercolor paper and played around with my watercolor pencils. I'm nowhere near as good as Liz and the cards that she makes, but she inspires me to keep trying.

One of my favorite stamps.

Experimenting with background color.

What craftiness have you been up to lately? Any tips for working with watercolors?

--Melanie

Catch Up

I'm such a blogging slacker.  I guess this is where I tell you how busy I've been and apologize for my absence.  I am sorry and I want to be a better blogger.  It's all about finding a balance and I've been enjoying using my time these past couple of months to really settle into marriage.  This stuff is hard sometimes! Brad and I are in a really good place right now and we've really been working on communicating and acting as a team. 

Here are some photos to catch us up to current and we'll work from there. Deal?

FEBRUARY

I won a giveaway that Justine hosted for shop credit from much love, illy's etsy shop.  Please click on those links. Justine is hilarious and Illene will fill your life with adorable-ness. I persued the shop, placed my order, and in no time at all was greeted with a lovely manilla envelope.  Inside was this:

Red tissue paper packages tied up with string...

containing two of my new favorite things!

Short-haired girls can rock headbands, too.

New dress from Jason Wu collection for Target + headband=love.



 Brad really worked hard to make Valentine's a good day for me and his effort showed. We ate chocolate and watched movies all weekend! He even bought a bigger box of chocolates since he "knew [he] would eat most of them." ha!

Yummy heart of chocolates.

Pretty orange roses.

An Apple card with one of our engagement photos?

Instant points for him!

Yes, I totally ate this for lunch one day.

The chocolates look smooshed because there was no "cheat sheet"

 and so I made thumb prints in them all.

My first Coach purse. Bought for the shape/color and not the name.

Thank you, online factory sale.

An Ikea trip with a sleepy three-year-old is made better by a front-facing camera.

MARCH

March brought a lot of new babies, some tornados, a funeral, and lots of time with good friends. And that was just in the first 10 days!

I read The Hunger Games trilogy in about a week and LOVED it.

I have read that there's some controversy with how Mockingjay ended, but I thought it was just as it should be. Email me if you want to start a dialogue.

My mom got an itch to play BINGO, so we rounded up

some happy meal toys and went to town.

We didn't win, but had so much fun.

I'm really thankful that a lot of Bingo halls are smoke-free now.

Here's one of the babes I was talking about.

Brad's cousins welcomed Lumen into their lives on March 1, 2012.

Lumen with Mommy.





The Weekend (and Monday)

This weekend was jam-packed full of crazy good times.  On Friday, we had a pre-birthday dinner for Brad at his parents' house.  We shot pumpkins (yeah, rifles!), ate tacos, and made cookies with his parents and his sister's family.  Sorry, no pictures of that on my phone.  I'll find one, though.

On Saturday I met my mom and sister to take the nieces out to lunch and then to see trains.  Traffic was a mess because of bridge construction and I had to take the ferry.  At the train exhibit, we looked at trains, looked at plants, and colored pictures.  Then we took the ferry back home. 

It's not really majestic.

Trains! Sunflares! Woot!

My sister and I both like this photo.  That rarely happens.

I included my age so the other kids wouldn't get too hurt that

my picture was way cooler than their pictures.

My mom and I.

My sister and her girls.

After dropping the girls off at their house, I picked up Brad and headed to my dad's house.  We met my brother there and enjoyed a yummy dinner and movie night.  My dad lives by himself and we joke a lot about the amount of expired food that he must keep on his shelves.  Well, he asked me to make brownies after dinner and I did, even though the box read "25SEP2010."  Dad laughed and said that the batter smelled just fine.  We took a picture to document that we were all alive and well 60-90 minutes after consuming them and I'm thankful to say that we're all still OK today.

So good.  So scary.

 Sunday began the great cookie-baking day.  My sister and I met at Mom's with our stand mixers and had dueling mixers for optimal baking efficiency.  Please cue Deliverance music.  Of course, the girls also wanted pictures with Aunt Melanie and I am just narcissistic enough to oblige them.

 We had to include Tigger, too.



My snuggle-bug gives the sweetest kisses.

Yesterday, my darling husband turned 28.  He's old.  For his birthday, he really wanted us to clean up the house and eat Asian Chicken Helper.  I'm happy to report that I fulfilled those wishes for him. He's an odd-bird, but he's mine.

Picture from our honeymoon.

I guess I still owe a recap/pictures from that, don't I?

At the pub after the wedding.



Instagram Weekend

Happy Halloween!!  Do you pass out candy?  Brad and I live in an apartment, so I'll be heading to my sister's tonight to pass out candy and see my nieces.  My mom heads over there, too, so it'll be nice to hang out with her.

Pictures from the weekend:

Technically, these were made for food day on Thursday,

but they're so cute that I had to share.

On Friday, Brad and I had date night! 

We went to eat yummy Mexican food and

checked out Art After Dark at the local art museum.

Total cost: $26  Bam!

This lovely little card arrived in the mail Friday,

notifying me that I am officially a Sorrell.  Eek!

I spent Saturday waiting for the cable guy and baking. 

Look at Pepper in action! 

That's right--my mixer's name is Pepper.

The great thing about baking?  You get to lick the spoon.

Also, Brad was off golfing, so I didn't have to share.

End result: tons* of yummy cookies! 

Chocolate chip and sugar cookie pumpkins.

*"Tons" before the cookies were enjoyed at a Halloween Party.

This pictures was clearly taken at the end of the evening. :)

My costume for the party was a Housewife.   

On Sunday, Brad and I went to church (as usual). 

I snuck in a mini photo sesh with our church sheep, Edmund and Edna. 

Rumor has it that they're going to start tweeting soon about happenings at church.

How was your weekend?

--Melanie

Fun

Fun is waking up at 5:45 AM with a more inflamed throat than yesterday and getting up anyway for work.  Fun is pretending that you didn't just have the worst sleep of your life resulting in the most sore neck/shoulders.

All so you could bring your coffin brownies for food day at work and see your kids that you're scheduled to see.

Boo to growing up.

Ack!

So, here we are--three days before the wedding.  THREE.  Tonight, I will try to come up with table numbers and finish the ring bearer pillow.  I also need to get together everything that needs to go to the wedding. 

Tomorrow, I get a little relaxation time and maybe a little time to use a Victoria's Secret gift card that I have.  ;)  Kerry comes back into town tomorrow night and I can't wait.

Thursdsay we have mani/pedi day, take stuff to the lodge, and rehearsal dinner.  Friday is wedding.  Good Lord, help me get through it all with a bit of sanity.

***********************************************************************************

My bachelorette party was this past weekend and it was a blast.  We started the day with a couple friends, my mom, my sister, and my niece.  We had lunch and explored Bellevue's Art in the Park.  So fun.  Then, we hit up Hofbrahaus and drank until I passed out.  It didn't take as long as I thought.

Sunday, in my very hungover state, we got together all of the wedding favors.  These were made with love, people, and please don't forget that. 

--Melanie

This weekend kicked off Saturday with Brad making me a delicious breakfast of grits, scrambled eggs, and hashbrowns.  He doesn't cook for me often, but I so appreciate it when he does.  He let me have a lazy kind of morning, complete with watching House and fretting about wedding-related activities.  After a bit, we headed out to run some errands.  We went to Michael's and Hobby Lobby, where Brad waited in the car.  We went to Men's Wearhouse, where Brad picked up some new shoes, socks, and shoe trees.  Since he bought all the guys' suits here, on his credit card, he had $150 in rewards and spent about $20 for all his new purchases.  Not too bad!  We also stopped by the mall so I could pick out a gift for my dad.  While there, I noticed that the Gap was running 50% off all women's clothes and Brad let. me. shop.  Now, for those that we don't know in real life, this is a huge deal.  Brad is the saver and I am the spender of the relationship.  I took this as a sign that the weekend and short bit of time left until the wedding would be wonderful.  :)

Saturday night found us at a wedding for Tracy, a girl I went to grad school with and work with currently.  She and her now-husband got engaged a week or two after Brad and I did and we have been thrilled to have someone to talk weddings with. 

Isn't she a beautiful bride?

Delicous candy buffet.  Brad was a huge fan of the gummies.

This isn't the highest quality photo, I know.  I took it hurriedly

with my iphone as I was trying to enjoy the wedding.

Their gorgeous (and delicious!) cake. 

On Sunday, Brad and I woke up early to go to church with his grandma.  She lives two hours away from us, so it was an all-day affair.  We went to church, lunch, and then she had cake and ice cream for us!  It was a sweet day and we capped it off with a visit to his parents, since I haven't seen them in weeks.  His dad wanted to show me how the flowers were doing and talk with me about some other DIY projects I have him signed up for.

Tiny church.

More flowers from Brad's parents' flower garden. 

I am thrilled that we'll have home-grown flowers at the wedding.



Kids, we are at 17 days until the wedding.  I finalized cake yesterday and picked up our guest book.  I finalize flowers on Wednesday (for the bouquets).  The to-do list is seeing some progress, but I will be so happy when Brad and I can just sit at home, as husband and wife, and watch TV.

--Melanie

Wedding Showers Bring Crowded Living Rooms

Over the summer, I had two wonderful bridal showers thrown in my honor.  The first, in July, was thrown by my best friend, with help from my bridesmaids and my momma.  We had it at my apartment and had a simple menu of yummy (mostly finger) foods.  Chicken ring and buffalo dip.  Veggies and fruit.  Cupcakes and carrot cake.  There was also a request in the invitation that each guest bring a picture of me.  This request was made so that the guests could put together scrapbook pages for me at the shower.  I have an adorable book filled with loved ones' memories of time with me.

The second shower was in August and was thrown by a mother-daughter duo from church.  This shower had a potato theme and it was carried out so beautifully.  There were Mr. Potato Heads placed around their home (I collect these guys) and guests brought me gifts along a potato theme, as well.  Brad and I received potato chips and chip clips, actual potatoes with a microwave bag to make baked potatoes, and delicious recipes.

From the August shower.  Look at the beautiful table!

Disney Mr. and Mrs. Potato Heads

From the July shower. Brad and his nephew showed up with flowers and a "training dog" for me.

From the July shower. My "bouquet" for rehearsal.

From the July shower.  Check out all of the people in my living room!  It did get a little warm...

I am not one for being the center of attention, but weddings don't care about that.  I was a little uncomfortable with having a fuss over me (and Brad!) and all the gifts, but I loved being surrounded by people I love and eating way too much delicious food.  Plus, planning a wedding loses its fun real quick and a shower or two helps bring back the excitement over getting to marry someone you love dearly.  

--Melanie