Friday, October 28, 2016

Fake Cheesecake, Jumping into a Fad, & Book Problems (7QT)

Happy Friday, everyone! I'm linking up with Kelly & friends to give you some quick takes from my little corner of the internet :)



Fake Cheesecake is amazing. 
While looking through my fridge recently, I discovered that we had an unopened container of Greek yogurt (yum!) with a "sell by" date that was within a couple of days. I figured that I had two options:

1. Eat a bunch of yogurt over the next few days-it will stil be good after the "sell by" date, so just finishing it in the near future would be okay, right?

2. Use it to make something super delicious that I would want to eat more than bowlfuls of yogurt. 
A quick internet search led me to discover that Greek Yogurt Cheesecake exists. While lots of recipes call for cream cheese, I ended up choosing a recipe that solely uses Greek yogurt. So, I made a cheesecake-but, since there is no "cheese" in it, I think it's a "fake cheesecake." 

This stuff is seriously awesome. First of all, it's so easy to make-stick the graham crackers in the blender to make the crust. Once those are blended and put in the pan, stick all of the cheesecake ingredients in the blender, mix, then pour into the pan. I did the entire process while wearing Peter on my chest, and it did not take long at all! I doubled the recipe from A Baking Girl, and my "cheesecake" wound up the perfect height. It's not as rich as normal cheesecake, but it's still delicious (I think it's best when cold), and has a healthier feel than normal cheesecake. I'm definitely going to be making this again in the near future! 

 When I made the fake cheesecake, it tasted really good with fruit-but I wanted to add a little bit of rich, chocolatey goodness.
So, I made a batch of Gloopy Chocolate Cheesecake Batter Topping. I don't know if I could replicate it precisely, since I don't really measure things super precisely when cooking, but here's the basic gist of it: 
Soften 3/4 a cube of cream cheese, and stick it in a bowl with half a bag of melted milk chocolate chips, a few teaspoons of powdered sugar, and a little less than 1/4 cup of milk. Beat it with a hand mixer, and add more sugar or milk to help it achieve the desired consistency. 
Decidedly more unhealthy than topping my cheesecake
with raspberries, but oh so delicious :) 
I had been trying to make a chocolatey cream cheese frosting, but somehow, it wound up tasting a lot more like cheesecake batter, and definitely had more of a cheesecake batter consistency than that of frosting. I found it quite delicious, and since some was leftover after the cheesecake ran its course, I've been eating it on crepes all week long. 

Months ago, I heard that my parish has a book club for moms that occasionally meets, and recently, some women decided to re-start it-and it's been a huge blessing.
I've only been able to go twice, but I am so thankful for this little group. It's nothing huge; we just meet to read and discuss the Gospel for the upcoming Sunday Mass, and while everyone's kids roam around the room or play, we chat about life. We may only meet for a little over an hour, but there's just something so nice about reflecting on the Gospel with other young moms. And it's super handy to know in advance what the Gospel reading will be, since-in the mist of parenting-there are days when you "miss" most of the Gospel at Mass! 

This week, I found myself embodying what I like to call "Hot Mess Hospitality."
It's those times when one is a complete mess, but you have company coming over, and you are grasping at straws, trying to get things together and ultimately throw it in the towel and just decide that exemplifying God's love and being hospitable is most important. See, a very dear friend of mine was in town, and I invited her over to dinner on Monday. Did I care that we had practically no groceries in the house (with no time to shop)? Nope! I just figured that I could throw something together that day, and if all else fails, we have fake cheesecake in the fridge, right? I discovered that I had just enough butter to make garlic bread, and had just enough canned tomatoes to make meat sauce, but then, I discovered that my friend can't have loads of lactose, so I needed to come up with another dessert. Thankfully, my fridge is covered in scraps of paper with various recipes, and I noticed a flourless peanut butter cookie recipe that doesn't use butter (or much of anything, really). Perfect! God provides, and it all worked out in the end :) 

I've always prided myself on not jumping into fads, but I finally succumbed to the bullet journal craze.
I've always liked making To Do lists, and have so much satisfaction crossing items off the list. So why would I make a bullet journal, where you don't cross items off? And why use a bullet journal-many of which are super cutesy-artsy-when I am not artistic in that way? But, after reading Elizabeth's post about it, I decided to give bullet journaling a try. I wasn't sure if I would like it or stick with it, so I just used a cheap notebook. My bullet journal is not decorative; I use minimal symbols, whatever color of pen I have lying around, and it looks rather sloppy. But this past month, my bullet journal has been so helpful. I now have one organized place to keep track of blog posts I want to write, daily To Do lists, and upcoming events. I can schedule specific "big" To Do list items on my monthly calendar, to prioritize them and allot them to a certain day, so I don't have to worry about them on any other days. While I normally love crossing things off a list, I have found that I am grateful that I don't cross off my lists-I'm able to look over previous days, and see all of the cool things I accomplished. 
This is especially handy because prior to bullet journaling, there were occasions when the following conversation happened:
Other person: "So, what did you do last night?"
Me: "...uh...I know I did something fun. Maybe I read a book? Maybe I played with Jacob? I really can't remember..."
It's so nice to glance over the month of October and see what I've actually been up to ;) 

I have serious problems when it comes to the library.
I know I've talked about this before, and I'm probably beyond help. Yesterday, I returned 3 books to the public library. When I did this, I still had 3 public library books at home, and 2 books from the parish library. When I left the public library yesterday, I had picked up 4-5 books and two movies. Apparently some guy named H. L. Mencken coined the term biliobibuli to refer to people who are "drunk on books," which I think can somewhat describe me. But maybe it's not as bad as I think. Yesterday, when I was telling my husband about my library trip and said I "had a problem," he looked confused. "What? What's the problem? Are you burning them or something?" So apparently because I'm reading books, and not burning them, all is well with the world. Good to know! (Sidenote: I got a thick book about drinking water, and I am so excited to read it. I feel a bit nerdy, but I'll get to learn all about the process of drinking water throughout history! I just love library books.)

Peter's pediatrician changed offices, so he didn't have his four month appointment until yesterday (he's currently 4 1/2ish months old), and it was so neat to see how he's grown! 
He now weighs 16 pounds, 1 ounce, and is 27 inches long-in the span of two months, he moved from the tenth to the seventy-fifth percentile in height! I guess that's why I've finally stopped putting him in 0-3 month onesies; even though they're loose around the chest, it's so hard to close them at the bottom. I could buy onesie extenders, but since he has some super cute 3-6 month clothes that people have given him, I guess he'll just wear those. 

Thanks for joining me today! I hope you all have a splendid weekend! 

18 comments:

  1. I love the term 'hot mess hospitality.' And you're the one thousandth person who has started raving about bullet journaling. My holding out on this thing is starting to look ridiculous...

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    1. haha Jenny, I have admiration for people who can hold out and not participate in fads, so if you manage to resist the trend, I think that's pretty impressive :)

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  2. I laughed a lot at "hot mess hospitality". We were supposed to have a park meet up this morning with other moms from the parish, but it got rained out. I had everyone come over to my house instead (since I live right around the corner from the park). I really don't do much besides through a pot of coffee on, but it was cozy and dry. Until the kids went outside and played in the puddles.
    It's all about doing what you can!

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    1. Kirby, I think that is so neat! Sometimes it really is those spontaneous occasions that make the best memories.

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  3. Hot Mess Hospitality, i LOVE that idea!!

    That fake cheesecake sounds amazing, I like any and all cheesecake to begin with so that's right up my alley! :)

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    1. I'm so glad you like it. I think it's such a catchy phrase, and I think it really validates all of the times when I'm a complete mess ;) The fake cheesecake is pretty cool-if you ever need something healthyish for a youth group function, you should give it a try!

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  4. You don't have a book problem if a) you return everything before it gets an overdue fine, and b) you haven't reached your library's limit of holds/checkouts. (I found out my system would only let me do 100...)

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    1. Thanks for the reassurance :) Thankfully, the only time I've had overdue items since moving to Oklahoma, it was just after I gave birth, and it wasn't that many items.

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  5. Yes to the hot mess hospitality!! It's amazing how you can still be thoughtful and creative when time/energy/funds are less than they used to be! ;)

    You're inspiring me with the bullet journaling...of to read the link you posted!

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    1. I agree! When the cupboards and fridge are all rather empty, it really stretches one's creativity :) I hope you like learning about bullet journaling!

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  6. I have the same problem with the library! And that cheese cake sounds really good!

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    1. I hope you're able to try it out sometime-it's a tasty, easy treat :) Glad to hear that there are other people, like me, who are obsessed with the library!

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  7. I am 100% going to make that cheesecake!

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    1. I hope you enjoy it! I just pulled some leftover "cheesecake" from the freezer to eat today, and I'm pretty excited :)

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  8. I started a bullet journal a few months ago and one thing I liked doing was writing down one very short, simple happy memory from each day--looking back at those is something I love because otherwise I would definitely have forgotten. I was in good habits but then for most of October I just couldn't--I had no happy memories. I'm trying to start up again, so for Nov. 1st I wrote "Playing 'pop-pops' with the kids." You know those little 'fireworks' that you throw on the ground and they make a 'snap' kind of sound? 3-5 year olds go crazy for them, haha!

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    1. That's such a good idea, I'm going to do that from now on (as long as I remember)-thanks for sharing! And oh man, those fireworks are the best! I love those things :)

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  9. AnneMarie, I need to try out that cheesecake recipe you shared - that sounds AMAZING! :) And I've also been so intrigued by bullet journals...maybe one of these days I will check them out too!

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    1. Joan, I hope that you like it! The only dangerous thing is that because it's healthier than "normal" cheesecake (since it uses fat-free yogurt), it is a LOT more temping to eat more than one should...so it's a good lesson in self-control :)

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