Sick again?! Oh and Mini Maple Chocolate Chip Buttermilk Pancake Muffins

Seriously? Now I'm beginning to wonder if it WAS strep last week since apparently it's come back?? You guys don't need the gory (well, not really, just boring) details, but I'm sick. And tired. And sick and tired of being sick and tired. At least I'm hungry again... yesterday I couldn't eat a thing (couldn't even watch food network!) and that's a foodie's worst nightmare!

So now that I'm hungry again (but can't really eat anything cause I'm still a sicky) I'm scoping out recipes. I find and create my best recipes when I'm hungry. Up on the menu / to-do list are the following:

• Cinnamon sugar cake doughnuts
• Veggie burgers (don't gag, I have an incredible recipe for them)
• Roasted red pepper hummus
• Oatmeal bread (thanks, Dad, for the huge bags of food storage oats)
• Oatmeal raisin cookies (for my big brother who loves them)
• Chicken with apple, onion, and cider sauce
• Vegetable Stuffed Pork Tenderloin en Croute with Creole Mustard Cream Sauce
• White Cheesy Chicken Lasagna
• Peanut Butter Pinwheels (a nod to my childhood / my grandmother)
• Pumpkin (pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin pound cake, pumpkin roll with cream cheese filling... I heart fall)
• Chicken and Peppers Pasta
• Chicken Scallopine with Warm Vegetable Salad

One of the other things I'm going to do is buy the book the Bread Baker's Apprentice. It's an incredible-looking book teaching you all about bread. I want to buy it and two of the top recipes I want to make from that book are the homemade bagels and an herbed foccacia. Mmmm. I love bread and I'm really excited that I'm learning to bake.

Look for some updates in the coming weeks on the new recipes!!

For now, enjoy Bakerella's Mini Maple Chocolate Chip Buttermilk Pancake Muffins:

(see here for pictures)

1 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. sugar
2/3 c. buttermilk
1 egg
2 Tbsp. pure maple syrup
2 Tbsp. melted butter
1/2 c. milk chocolate chips
Warmed butter and maple syrup, for serving

Preheat oven to 350° F and grease two mini muffin tins. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar in a medium bowl. Sift together with a wire whisk. In another bowl, stir buttermilk, egg, maple syrup and melted butter until just combined. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir with a spoon until combined. Spoon batter into greased muffin tins. Add chocolate chips individually to each muffin (to avoid overdoing the chocolate). Bake 8-9 minutes.

Let cool slightly and remove from the pan. You may need to use a toothpick around the edges to separate the pancake muffins from the pan. Serve immediately with warmed butter and maple syrup.

(Note: I overdid the chocolate chips - and this is coming from a choco-holic. Remember that these mini muffins are TINY and any more than 4-5 chocolate chips per muffin is too much. But they are absolutely DELICIOUS. Trevor was sneaking them off a plate 4 or 5 days after I made them. Delish!)

Strep Throat, Nesting Instincts, and Hula Hooping Champ Pictures

Hey friends. Unfortunately, paradise is fleeting, and my wonderful life as of Monday went south fast, just like I wished for (oh wait...). I am pretty sick with strep, which is the worst while in school. I missed classes Tuesday AND Wednesday, and didn't really even feel well enough to go today, but law school doesn't permit a ton of absences. Soooo... I bucked up and went today. Luckily, I'm a planner / neurotic / type A, and unluckily I get strep just about every year, so I was well-prepared and had the antibiotics on hand (thanks Dad!) and was able to start a course lickety-split... still not feeling great, though. Mom told me to take a smaller dose than what I should have taken, but actually antibiotics don't speed up recovery, according to WebMD. Strep takes 3-7 days to get over, but antibiotics help you actually HEAL rather than recover (since strep can do some nasty things in the long-term) and shortens the amount of time you are infectious. Just FYI, for the next time you get strep.

Funny thing - while I've been sick, I have gotten a lot done around the house. Laundry, dusting, dishes, de-cluttering, vacuuming, sweeping, mopping, cleaning out the hamster cage, bathing the hamster (too funny), cooking (yes even while I'm sick), ... all but cleaning out the fridge, a chore I dread. I just think it's funny that I get that nesting instinct when I'm sick. Or maybe it's that I'm restless and I need mindless things to do to make myself feel better about not studying.

Being sick also means that I didn't get to go to the fair today (sad) and I have to cancel my double date for tomorrow (also sad). But I'm proud of myself for being able to recognize that I'm sick enough to make myself stay home. I guess I'm mature now.

Bedtime... it's 9:15 and I am waaay tired. :)

xoxo
S

PS - Pictures are up. To see ALL of them, go to law.byu.edu, click on the picture in the bottom left corner (of the hula hoopers), then click "View Slideshow. " So funny! (Thanks for pointing it out, Em!)

Winner!