Back in the Routine

It took me a week but I'm finally back in the swing of things. Last night I was feeling very domestic and I made a delicious dinner of mango and coconut marinated salmon with rice and green beans. The whole meal was super easy to make - I bought the salmon pre-marinated from Whole Foods and it came frozen so I just defrosted it, put it on aluminum foil and baked. It stuck to the foil a bit hence why it's in pieces in the photo. The green beans were leftover, but they came in a bag that you just to microwave, and the rice was easy to make. After dinner I decided to make Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies that were amazingly delicious and quite decadent.

Marinate salmon with rice and green beans

Cookies cooling off. Click here for the recipe.

I finally cleaned all my dirty laundry from the trip, got all of it put away, and feel settled. Just in time to leave next week again for Thanksgiving.

Out and About

After taking a hiatus last week while sick, I was back in action this week! Monday night I went to happy hour with my co-worker, Tuesday night my sister had me over for dinner, Wednesday night I went over to a friends for a pizza party, and last night I went to a District Sports Happy Hour. The boyfriend and I play in a distric sports league soccer (in different leagues though), and the happy hour was for a good cause - to benefit Street Soccer USA which aims to end homelessness through sports. For a "suggested donation of $10" you got a drink ticket, a raffle ticket and a Georgetown Cupcake. The boyfriend and I both tried the Cookies and Creme cupcake and it was very delicious - it tasted like an oreo milkshake, but in cake form.

We were getting a little bit bored, since we didn't know anyone at the happy hour, but then the raffle began! The very first raffle ticket that was picked was one of ours!!! It was for a Prince of Petworth t-shirt, which is very coincidental considering just an hour earlier the boyfriend and I were discussing the blog. The shirt is size XL which kind of sucks since its definitely not my size, but its still fun to win things anyways!

Prince of Petworth t-shirt won at raffle

After the high of winning, we decided to hang out around, just on the off chance that we could win something with our second raffle ticket. They had handed out all the prizes (more t-shirts, DC United tickets which I really wanted, etc), and then the Georgetown Cupcake guy comes through the crowd with 4 dozen boxes of cupcakes, which I presume were leftovers from handing them out earlier. They pull a ticket for the 1st box and its was our second ticket's number!!! What were the odds of winning twice! I told the boyfriend to take them into work, but he said it was donut day so I should take them, which I did. I was so excited to tell everyone that I won them in a raffle! Great way to start off the weekend!

Review: Cakepops

Yesterday while on a quick break from work, my co-worker Amy and I took a nice little stroll over to Starbucks. While I was waiting to place my drink order, I noticed they had some new little treats, all bite-sized and looking delicious. Recently, Starbucks rolled out a new line of food items called Starbucks Petites, which are all bite sized treats that all are under 200 calories and under $2.

It wasn't until about a month ago that I had ever heard of cakepops, but ever since then the term seems to be popping up everywhere! Cakepops are basically cake batter balled up and then covered in icing. They are then decorated in a variety of cute and colorful ways, making them a fun little bite-sized treat. 

Starbucks offered 3 different flavors - Birthday Cake, Tiramisu, and Rocky Road. Not wanting to chance it, I asked the barista what his favorite flavor was and went with that - Rocky Road:

Overall, I thought it was definitely delicious, similar to a brownie but more cake-like. I was expecting the frosting to be a bit firmer so was initally surprised by how soft and mashable the entire thing was. Overall, it was a nice combination of being delicious but not too rich or sweet. You can get them at your local Starbucks, or try to make them yourself (http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/tips-techniques/how-to-make-cake-pops-078637 and http://www.bakerella.com/category/pops-bites/cake-pops/).