How We Spent V-Day

I woke up extra early this morning because I couldn't breathe and was incredibly uncomfortable. I have the onset of a cold or sinus infection and it's not pretty. I am really hoping that it is fleeting because the whole fam is headed to Penn State this weekend to see Christine Bean and for THON and I want to be in tip top condition!

Anyhow, yesterday was Valentine's Day. Did you celebrate?

Shaun and I had a low key evening...my favorite kind. We decided not to do gifts and instead just cards. Somehow, we both still had a similar candy idea though! Reese's Pieces for him and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups for me :)

I love Reese's Pieces, but to me, nothing compares to a peanut butter cup...it's my all-time favorite candy! Conversely, Shaun doesn't like the 'fake' pb in pb cups, but loves the kind in Reese's Pieces. To each his own! I dug right into my peanut butter cups as a little appetizer :)

Shaun also picked up a pretty mixed bouqet of flowers for me and had some delicious red wine aerating for us by the time I arrived home from work. Love that man.

Instead of going out, we decided to go all out for dinner at home. Shaun picked up two porterhouse steaks and I left the cooking to him. After seasoning them with nothing but salt and pepper, he pan-seared them in butter in a cast-iron skillet and then finished them off in the oven for a few minutes. Bellissimo.

I was in charge of the side dishes. To get a little fancy, I decided to make classic mashed potatoes. So incredibly unhealthy, but so wonderfully delicious. I used my mom's recipe with a few tweaks; just a little less butter and half and half instead of heavy cream. No matter, they were still decadent, creamy and such a treat. The key to great mashed potatoes is lots of salt in the cooking water, cooking them until fall-apart tender, and then mashing them with a hand mixer/beater. Trust me on this one. They are so easy and so worth it!

I also roasted up some asparagus for some greenery.

We finally sat down for dinner around 8:15. The money shot:

Oh yeah. And yeah, I only ate like a third of that steak. It was ginormous!

For dessert, I picked up 2 oversized chocolate chocolate chip cookies from City Bakery in NYC.

I simply heated them in the microwave for 20-30 seconds, topped with a scoop or two of light vanilla bean ice cream and finished them off with pink and red sprinkles for good measure. Gotta get with the holiday theme!

We tried to end the night with episode 1 of Homeland via On-Demand, however, Verizon wasn't digging our plans and we couldn't get it to work. We will have to try it again tonight! Instead we watched Castle from Monday night and an episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. My kinda Valentine's Day.

Questions of the Day:

How did you spend Valentine's Day? With a significant other? With your best girls?

Did you eat anything special? Or anything especially pink or red?

Happy Valentine's Day

Hi there!

It's Valentine's Day, and so I got you a card.

Though this one is my own personal favorite:

To send your own zombie card, you may check out them out here. It's the obvious Valentine's Day choice, after all.

Tonight Shaun and I will be making steak and mashed potatoes for dinner and drinking a bottle of wine. And possibly even eating a few one of these:

I hope you all have a great day!

xo,

Rachel

Raspberry + Cream Stuffed French Toast

Last week, I really, really, really wanted French toast.

Why? I have no idea. I'm really more of a pancake kind of girl. But something about it was calling to me. It was on Wednesday, and Shaun had basketball so I was on my own for dinner. Coincidence?

I like to think it was meant to be.

Of course I realized it would be significantly more delicious by stuffing it with sweetness. I like sweet things, what can I say? I settled on raspberry and cream and realized that this would also be a sweet little Valentine's Day breakfast.

Oh!

And I wanted to tell you that this plate of yum clocks in at 7pts+ per serving. And trust me, you do not need more than 1 serving. And it takes about 5 minutes to make. So yeah. You should do it already.

Raspberry + Cream Stuffed French Toast
serves 1
7 WW Points+ per serving

1 sandwich thin, such as Arnold's multigrain
1 Tbsp reduced fat cream cheese
1 Tbsp raspberry jam, such as Polaner all-fruit
1 tsp light butter
1 egg white
2 Tbsp fat free milk
sweetener, to taste
2 Tbsp sugar-free syrup, such as Vermont Maid

In a small bowl, mix together the cream cheese and jam. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg white and milk until fluffy. Spread the cream cheese and jam in between the sandwich thin. Place entire sandwich in the egg mixture for 20 seconds. Flip over in the egg mixture and let sit for another 20 seconds.

Heat a skillet and melt the butter. Cook the stuffed French toast sandwich about 2-3 minutes on each side. Serve with syrup, if desired, and sprinkle with powdered sugar, if desired.

There you have it. An easy, delicious breakfast. Oh and you can obviously use any kid of jam you'd like in this! Hope you enjoy!

Have a great week, everyone!

Questions of the Day:

Do you ever eat breakfast for dinner?

What's your go-to?