Hi pies!  (as Erin, from Care to Eat would say!)

Can you tell what the theme of this post is going to be today?  My vacation/MLK day was very blog-inspired.  I’ve had “Hi pies” in my head all day for some reason, and I made a TON of stuff (for me), all taken from other peoples blogs.  Did your mom’s used to tell you guys that when you were little and you were annoyed when someone was “copy catting” you?  It’s true!

Last night, Mike and I had a few glass of the wine I bought at TJ’s that I was so excited about.  After glass 2 - I felt downright DRUNK, which isn’t the norm for me.  I looked at the bottle and saw it had 14.1% alcohol!  HOLY COW! No wonder I felt the way I did.  Needless to say, I went to bed shortly there after! 

Notice our kitchen light in the back…does this count as my version of Kath’s chandelier coffee? 

This morning, I started with a nice big breakfast, except we didn’t have any eggs! 

Toast with spray butter, and on the other piece a slice of low fat cheese with a morning star sausage patty, and TJ’s greek yogurt with honey, H2H, and blackberries!  Coffee to wash it all down (and wake me up!)

Then I ran some errands, and spent most of the day in the kitchen!

To start, I made some cupcakes using an old Weight Watchers trick my roommate in college had taught me!  Now, I know it’s not all natural ingredients, but ya’ll – I AM NOT A BAKER.  I’m a pretty decent cook, but I don’t do all that well with baked goods.  So I need all the training wheels I can get! 

Here’s what you need:

A can of diet pop, and a box of cake mix (use dark diet pop if you are making a dark cake; so Diet Coke if you are using Chocolate cake mix, and use light diet pop if you are making light cake mix; so Diet Sprite if you are using Yellow cake mix).

In the big bowl, pour the cake mix, and the 12oz of pop – AND THAT’S IT! Mix it up real well, and then pour it into whatever tin you are using (cake, muffin, mini loaf, whatever!) and cook according to the directions on the box!  You end up with the most moist,  most wonderful (and low cal!) cake ever!

I tend to make cupcakes, because I think they are easiest to portion control.  This was my first time making the Strawberry cake mix, and I don’t think I’ll make it again.  It was really artificial tasting – I wasn’t a fan, but Mike managed to eat them right up! 

For lunch, I made us pizza, using a TJ’s whole wheat pizza dough:

This one had:  black olives, green olives, banana peppers, onions, red bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, and turkey pepperoni (Mike’s half only)

It was quite tasty!  We watched Snakes on a Plane (laughable movie, yet still mildly entertaining), and then headed up to the gym for 30 minutes.  When we got back from there, I took Lando on a quick stroll, checked my Google Reader, and headed back into the kitchen.

Thought you might like to see who was helping me with my Google Reader…notice her paw guiding my hand…make sure your entries are interesting to dogs!  

Back in the kitchen, I made two chocolate dishes, to give as a present to someone!  I started with Pom bark, because it’s pretty, and delicious! This one was stolen from Tri to Cook!

Then moved out to this delicious looking fudge that I stole from Megan’s Munchies!

Look how cute the peppermint patties are that I used?  Heart shaped, and pink in the center!

Here’s the fudge (uncut – sorry it’s not a prettier picture!)

Dinner was imitation of another blogger, AS WELL AS imitation of our lunch!  I made Pizza Casserole, which you can find the recipe here at Lisa Cooking, and also featured over at Megan’s Munchies!  I used WAY less cheese than the recipe called, and didn’t use any Parmesan.  I also used turkey pepperoni instead of regular.

Before the oven:

After the oven:

Mine!

This one was a big hit!  Definitely not the healthiest recipe I have in my arsenal, but certainly one that made Mike happy, which is worth it’s weight in gold!

Phew!  That was a marathon post!  Now it’s off to watch House and 24!  Happy MLK Day!