chocolate mint muffins

Take a baking mix add half a cup of oil, half a cup of water and 2 eggs, mix and pour into muffin liners in muffin tin. (Basically just follow the directions on the easymix packet.)

 

The whole process took less than 5 minutes to prepare plus 20 minutes baking time, so 25 minutes later we were eating nice, light and moist muffins.
They rose beautifully and were so delicious I didn’t have time to take pictures of the final product so just take my word for it, ok.

So a cake was baked, crumbs were made ,




buttercream was added


and balls were rolled .
Then I stuck the sticks into the cake balls and placed them in the fridge. In the mean time I melted my chocolate, ready for dipping the cake pops.

This is easy I thought, until I started dipping those balls into the chocolate. I have no words for what happened next…Each and every one of these balls either cracked on the stick or slid off the stick. Of about 24 balls only two remained standing.

I will definitely make them again, just not anytime soon. My bruised ego needs healing.

I always wanted a kitchen scissors and I just love small notebooks especially ones like these that are so  unique .

Thank you to My secret santa for such a thoughtful gift.

Isiah 9: 6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Cheers everyone!

26 Week Update

1)       How far along are you now?

26 weeks & 2 days

2)       When is your due date?

28 Feb 2012

3)      What has been your preggy high this week?

Feeling baby kick very hard and how he responds to people’s voices.

4)      What has been your preggy low this week?

Nothing really. I have leg cramps and weird lower abdomen pain but not too bad.

5)      How are you sleeping?

Wake up at 2, lie awake till after 4am and then feel so tired during the day. I learnt if I go to sleep after 11pm this does not happen.

6)      What is on your list of things to do in the next month re prep for baby?

Nothing.

7)      When is your next appointment?

9 December

8)      What is your current craving?

I don’t really have cravings, but when I see something yummy on tv then I want it. Contrary to popular belief, my appetite has decreased and I cannot eat as much as I used to.

9)      How are you feeling physically?

So lazy. I am not in the mood to do everything that needs to be done around the house. I have earache in my left ear but that is not caused by the pregnancy. Sometimes I have lower back pain but not today.

10)   How are you feeling emotionally?

Great.

11)   How is your partner dealing with the pregnancy at this stage?

He loves to see me pregnant. When I do something he doesn’t like he instructs baby to kick me

12)   Do you know the sex of your baby yet?  And do you have a name finalized?

Yes, it is a boy. Have not decided on a name yet.

13)   Will you be trying for Natural or Caesar?

Natural, pretty please.

14)   Which hospital will you be having your baby at?

Mediclinic milnerton

15)   Wearing maternity clothes?

no

 16)   What is your Tummy measurement?

Bigger than it has ever been .

17)   How much does baby weigh/measure at the moment (or at last scan)?

At the last scan (24 weeks) he was 800g.

18)   How much weight have you gained to date?

About 4kg’s I think

19)   Having baby-related dreams?

Nope

20)   Stretchmarks?

Who cares.

21)   What is your nursery room theme?

No nursery room

22)   Next Milestone due?

28 week visit at gynea.

23)   What do you miss? 

Sleeping through the night , I guess all the sleeping through the first semester is now reversed. Oysters, sashimi and red wine if someone else is drinking it near me.

24)   What are you looking forward to?

Seeing him on the sonar again.

25)   What is the best preggy advice you have been given

You must go out now and do everything you would not be able to do when baba is here.

I decided on a 8 track race car tutorial I saw online since it would enable me to do some modeling of cars as well.

This was the result:

At first I was hesitant to publish these pics coz this cake looks horrid. I was not finish with the track part before someone decided it was a good idea to place the cars on top. Cars were still wet and by the time I realized what had happened; there were holes stabbed in the cake and the cars were stuck. If you look carefully on the sid by the red car and on the left cake close to the edge that is where I had to patch the holes. Also in the middle in the green area holes were patched. 

The holes I managed to fix to the best of my ability but I was not going to remove the cars since it would ruin the cake even more. I guess the biggest lesson I learnt was do not leave a cake Im still busy with, within reach of a 4 year old. More cake related lessons are the following:-

• First cover the top of the cake with fondant. I did the black and white panels first and then placed the grey on top. Smoothing the grey fondant and trying to make a proper seam between it and the panels was not easy.

• Do not cut a lot of panels at the same time. Even though I covered them with plastic they dried out and made it difficult to attach to the cake and some of them broke. It is better to cut and attach then to finish cutting before attaching

 Although the cake did not look nearly as good as the original Im glad I did it and hopefully next time I will do better.

I have not done anything exciting food wise due to my new routine. I still enjoy reading blogs and seeing what everyone is cooking up.

The alien that is growing in my womb is doing well. Weighing just over 400g and Im just over 5 months along. Having a great pregnancy so far. Had no morning sickness or any horrible symptoms. Just round ligament pains and cramps, but the doctor said it is because baby is growing.

Im hoping to update a bit regularly now, but am not promising anything.

Stay well.

Here’s wishing you a Happy spring day!  

For as the silver of nature melts, it’s time again for the bright colors to blossom and the earth to celebrate the return of Spring. ……..

Unfortunately he was eliminated last night, my heart is a bit sore for him because he really is a great cook. Goodluck, Mr. Daddia in your future endeavours, I really enjoyed watching you.

Do these health and diet experts know how difficult they make it to live healthy with all their conflicting messages. It is so much easier to just drive to the closest drive thought and order me a big mac. No, but seriously I think in the end I must decide to just do what works for me, trying to include more fruit and veggies, limiting my portion sizes and switch the channel when a diet expert come on  .