Cake and Cookies

What to do on a Friday afternoon while on a diet? Yes! Let's make a cake!

Real good idea, Anna! Anyway, so I've been thinking about taking a cake decorating class for a while now. Friday afternoon, I went to Hobby Lobby. Hobby Lobby is one of my favorite places to go, except that every time I go, I spend way too much money. My trip to Hobby Lobby was originally for scrap book things. Some new stickers and such. I wanted to finish up my scrap book from Mizzou. Yeah, that didn't happen. I walked down the cake isle and all was lost. I found the course guides for the classes and decided to see if I could teach myself how to decorate cakes from just the book. I don't think I did too bad.

So this is the multitude of stuff that I bought while at Hobby Lobby, except for the Kitchen Aid. We already had that! Lol!

First, I baked the cake. For my first cake, I cheated and used a box mix. The creative cake types will come, sometime.

Ready for the oven here. Already the kitchen was filling with delicious smells.

This was my very first batch of buttercream icing. I totally had to try some, even though it was not on my diet. And let me tell you, it was delicious!

After a few tries, I finally found the right thickness. I have decided that is the tricky part. I'll have to keep practicing though.

Here are all my doodles. I was just having a good time with all the different tips. I've also decided that I can not print very nicely in icing, but I like the way that I write.

So here it is. My very first decorated cake. I don't think that I did too shabby of a job. My goals for the next cake are to level the cake out better. The edge didn't turn out too well and that was due to me doing a bad job leveling it out. I also really want to get the rose figured out. Again, I believe that is all about icing consistency.

Then on Sunday, Garrett wanted me to make some cookies. So me being the silly me that I am made him sugar cookies with icing decorations. I think they are strangely patriotic!

These were the last of the day. They didn't last too long, as Garrett ate them very quickly. I think they must have been good!! :)

Until next time!

Lots of Love!

~A

Diet, Diet, Diet

So its officially a week into my diet! Tomorrow is my "weigh day." I am very interested to see what just how much I have lost in just over a week.

I am doing the Medifast diet. Mom and I are doing this one together. My goal is to stick to it until Garrett gets back from Air Force training at the end of June. It seems like quite a long time, but it has become something that I have to do. When Mom says something to me about weight gain, then it is time to start the intense dieting. And wouldn't you know it, we've got my Dad on board now too. Anyone else want to join?

You eat these 'meals' roughly every two hours and then a lean and green meal. I don't think I would go so far as to call them 'meals' but more like snacks. I can have granola bars, eggs, oatmeal, soup, shakes, pudding, hot chocolate, and I think that might be it. Actually, the picture makes it look like there are less options than I said, but its really not that bad. Then I have the lean and green meal whenever I want. The lean and green meal consists of 5-7 ounces of lean meat, depending on what type of meat it is, and I also get three servings of greens. Greens mean lettuce, green beans, cauliflower, asparagus, etc. The things that I can't eat are sugar, obviously, but also no potatoes, corn, and other starchy vegetables.

So far, I've been perfect. Hmm, that's interesting. I survived Easter on this diet and now there really are not any holidays until the 4th of July to worry about. Of course there is Memorial Day, but that is hardly a threat to the diet. I will tell you one threat to the diet, alcohol. I am not going to have any until the end of the diet. Now, if I had told myself that I would do this two years ago, I would say that I was crazy. However, after leaving my wild college days behind me, I have learned to ease up. I think really I can blame it all on Garrett. He's much calmer than I ever was. We'll have a drink or two on a Friday night, but its nothing like the glory days of Mizzou. (which I think is both a very, very good thing and a sad thing) However, I'm a better person for it. Now back to the diet. What haven't I covered about it. It resembles the Atkins diet quite a bit actually.

Tomorrow is my 'weigh day' and only 80 days to go! I'll keep you posted!! Wish me luck!!

Until next time!

Lots of love!

~A