Bomb Diggity!

Another "Ask Me" answer at the end of this post.

Mornin'! Hope you had a faboosh Easter weekend and ready for a new week! I am a little sleep deprived myself but nothing a little (or a lot) of coffee won't take care of. I can't believe the weekend is over already!

We had a wonderful family get together yesterday. Lots of good eats and egg hunting fun.

And of course, can't forget the Lamb Cake! (before)

After. I got a tad carried away with the powdered sugar. Oops.

I could have done a better job at taking photos! Big Boy was such a pro at hunting Easter eggs. He did not mess around at all. The Lover helped Baby Boy but out of the four grandkids, Big Boy meant some serious business. I'll have to watch him like a hawk around all that candy. Ok, ok. More like I have to keep myself from sneaking Big Boy's candy!

The kiddos were a tad hungover this morning. Neither of them wanted to wake up. Poor guys. I slept in a bit as well. Mondays are so tough but my breakfast smoothie made it all better. I've seen this floating around the blog world for awhile and recently decided to give it a whirl.

Chocolate Cherry Bomb! It looks like sludge but 'tis delish!

My CCB contained:

• 2 cups spinach
• 15 frozen sweet dark cherries
• 1T chocolate syrup
• 1 banana
• 1 cup rice milk
• 3 handfuls of ice

Sooooo good! It's a nice change from the Green Monster. Onto my "Ask Me" question.

What is the one thing you can't run without?

This is a toughie! I feel like I carry so many things with me when I go for runs. When I leave the house (or office), I carry my MP3 player, cell, key and water. I can certainly do without the player but my absolute "must have" would be my cell phone. You never know when you'll need it! There have been a couple times I've been out by myself and got a creepy vibe from someone. I totally hate when I leave without the cell.

How about you? When you head out for your bike/run/swim, what do you always have with you? Sorry this is so short but it's time to get biz-ay. Also, stay tuned . . . Blogger is making me very unhappy so I'll be switching to Wordpress soon!

Easter Traditions

Happy Good Friday! I wish I could say I have the day off work but I don't. That's ok though because I'm just jazzed it's Friday. I hope the day flies by! I'm so very ready for the Easter weekend. We're looking forward to dying Easter eggs with our boys (OUTSIDE) and hunting for eggs as well. It will be exciting now that Baby Boy is bigger and is walking.

First things first! We had a very loud and wild storm breeze through this morning. Power was briefly lost and thank goodness it came back on because I hate jacking with the circuit breakers. We are also out of fruit and vegetables - a serious grocery store trip is on the agenda for the weekend. I had no clue what to make for breakfast so I stared at the open fridge and cabinets for quite some time. Then inspiration struck! I've heard of baked oatmeal but I decided to put the Retta Spin on it.

Baked Pumpkin Cranberry Crunch Oatmeal was born!

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup oatmeal
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/4 cup non-fat plain yogurt
• pumpkin pie spice
• cinnamon
• 2t brown sugar
• vanilla cranberry almond clusters

Pre-heat oven to 350 - 375 degrees. Prepare oatmeal according to package directions. Remove from heat. Add pumpkin puree, yogurt, pumpkin pie spice, brown sugar, cinnamon & crushed almond clusters. Mix well. Lightly spray a small casserole dish with cooking spray. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes. Mixture will seem too moist at first. Trust me, it will be awesome! I even sprinkled some dry oats on top for a little flair. Deeeelish! Next time, I think I will try just plain dried cranberries and chopped almonds. Another view:

I wish I had a lid for my casserole dish for better travel to work but I just used foil and a pot holder. It's taken me 2 hours to eat this while I've been working. It's a good size serving - probably 1.5?

Moving on (from the yummy that is in my tummy), I'm really looking forward to this Easter holiday! I mentioned earlier that the boys are older and will really enjoy coloring and hunting for eggs. FUN! I also look forward to making my annual Lamb Cake! It's not what you think. When we were kids, my mom had a cake pan in the shape of a lamb. She would bake the cake every Easter. After icing the cake, she would use shredded coconut for the "wool" and color the coconut for "grass".  Over the years, the cake pan was lost.

I told my mother-in-law about the tradition and she surprised me with a lamb cake pan of my very own! (Insert collective "awwwwww" here) I've made my version of the lamb cake for 4 or 5 - maybe 6? - years now. I love doing it even more now that we have children of our own. It's cheesy but that's how I roll.

This was last year's:

It's kind of creepy in the face but it's tasty! I still need to work on my decorating skills haha. I love family traditions!

Do you have Easter family traditions you'd like to share? We typically do separate dinners my side and The Lover's side but we're just doing one this weekend. My side is postponed until next weekend.

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Top of the mornin' to ya! I realized I have absolutely no green on. Yikes. I don't think the boys have green on either. Hope they don't get pinched at school. That would suck and I would feel like I won the Mother of the Year award!

My morning started off with a tiny panic attack. I thought I had overslept. I mistook the light from the TV as the sun shining into the bedroom. Whew! Don't you hate when you think you have overslept? I had plenty of time to pack my snacks, breakfast and lunch for the day. I was totally lazy and didn't do it last night. Lookie what I found at Target on clearance:

The pumpkin coffee smelled so good and I was super stoked to try it. Verdict? It smells better than it tastes. Not that it tastes bad but it's weak. I even made a second pot and added more to make it stronger. No luck. Damn it. I need strong coffee - not strong enough to make chest hair grow though!

Overnights oats for breakfast!

• a little less than 1/2 cup dry oatmeal
• 1/2 cup plain non-fat yogurt
• cinnamon
• 1 diced apple
• 2T shredded coconut

Oatmeal, I have missed thee. Combine everything but the apple. Leave in the fridge overnight and add topppings the next morning. Easy peasy!

Any special plans for St. Patrick's Day?