I Want/I Need: I Love Shopping [Spending Money]

I think normal people get the shopping bug where they think, "I need a new shirt, let's go shopping" or "I lost some weight, let's go shopping". I however, get the spending bug where I start picking up random items, that I don't particularly need, in multiple stores and think, "Let's get this." Period. No reasoning, no rationale. Luckily, I have a very strong voice in my head (because I talk to myself a lot) that loves to rear it's head and say, "S, what are you doing? Do you really need three nail polishes right now?" And it is these moments that I realize, I am not shopping to shop; I am shopping to spend money. Which is terrible! To get all itchy and sweaty over the fact that you haven't been spending your money on stuff. I'm supposed to be SAVING money! Not throwing it away willy nilly because I'm an addict! That being said, I have begun a practice of making Want/Need lists that have, really and truly, curtailed my spending time and time again.

On the "want" side I list all the items that I have picked up, drooled over and generally thought "I need this in my life NOW" and on the "need" side I list the items that I have, in truth, budgeted for because I know they're going to take a nice bit out of my checking account. I generally make these lists in my notepad on my phone so that I can easily add to the wants while also remaining aware of my needs. It's a clever little trick that works for me and, in turn, makes me feel less withdrawal-y when I don't spend my money.

Hope that helped! Salud!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes [Review]

While we're on the topic of sweets, why not!? Let me tell you, este momento, these cupcakes are to. die. for. If you're a peanut butter lover. Last fall (when I made the cupcakes and never blogged about it :O) I took these with me everywhere as a "thank-you hostess" gift. They were WELL received EVERY time. I honestly think this one girl thought I was an up-and-coming Food Network star, she was so impressed. But, enough about the flattery, more about these cupcakes. The original recipe can be found here: http://www.neverhomemaker.com/2010/01/vegan-ized-sk-chocolate-peanut-butter.html. This is how I made them (essentially to a T.)


What you'll need for the chocolate cupcakes . . .

• 3 tablespoons applesauce
• 1-1/8 cups soy milk (eyeballed the 1/8)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoons white vinegar
• 1/2 cup wheat pastry flour* 
• 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1 cup unbleached cane sugar (I used Sugar in the Raw brown sugar)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoons baking soda

Method . . .

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. Insert cupcake liners into a medium cupcake pan.
2. Whisk together the applesauce, soy milk, vanilla, and vinegar in a large bowl.
3. In another bowl, mix together the dry ingredients.
4. Cup by cup add the dry ingredients to the liquid ones. Beat well.
5. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full. Bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until the top of the cupcake is rather firm and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
6. Cool and then frost (recipe below).

Frosting . . . (makes about 2.5 cups)

• 5 ounces vegan cream cheese, at room temperature (I used SunnySide Tofutti)
• 2 ounces butter Earth Balance (or other butter substitute), at room temperature
• 2.5 cups vegan confectioners’ sugar, sifted
• 1/3 cup smooth peanut butter (I used Skippy Jiff Natural)

Method . . .

1. In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the vegan cream cheese and Earth Balance until light and fluffy. Gradually add the confectioners’ sugar -- 1 cup at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl often. (Doing it 1 cup at a time is VERY important.)
2. Continue to beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes.
3. Add the peanut butter and beat until thoroughly blended.

*I also made these using 3/4 cup of whole wheat flour (so the scaling down would be exact), but I felt the whole wheat taste became overpowering. I much preferred using a 1:1 ratio in terms of the flours.

Overall, I scaled the recipe in half because there are only two people living in my house and heaven knows we don't ginormous batch of cupcakes sitting around. As I said before, these cupcakes are top of the line. Definitely five stars. Especially if you want something to carry with you as you visit someone else. I didn't make the chocolate drizzle topping as Ashley did when she made them, but I also did not miss it. When I really get my life together, I will 100% make these the semi-vegan way Ashley did. I have no doubt they are delicious however you make them. Salud!

Cookies!!!

MIA OVER! Hopefully. Today, because things weren't going my way, I decided to make cookies. Mistake (so it seems, haven't tried a cookie yet). Nevertheless, I'm here to let you know about the endeavor. The original recipe I nabbed from allrecipes.com and can be found here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/outrageous-chocolate-chip-cookies/detail.aspx. This is how I made the recipe.


1/2 cup butter
1/21/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup [natural, low sodium] peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg 1 tbs. ground flax seed, 3 tbs. water
1 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 cup all purpose flour, 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips


Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, white sugar and brown sugar until smooth. Stir in the peanut butter, vanilla and egg until well blended. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into the batter just until moistened. Mix in the oats and chocolate chips until evenly distributed. Drop by tablespoonfuls on to lightly greased cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 10 to 12 22 minutes in the preheated oven, until the edges start to brown. Cool on cookie sheets for about 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Now, my favorite thing to do when "cleaning up" recipes, as I noted above with strike-outs, is to forget how much heavier whole wheat flour is than white. When I was preparing the cookies to go on the cookie sheet, I could tell they were WAY too dry and as I sit here eating them they definitely are not as moist as they should be. I cut the batch in half, cooking some and freezing the rest. When I thaw the rest, one day, I will most likely add apple sauce to give some moisture back. Indeed, even though I cut the amount of white sugar, I feel the amount of both sugars could have been cut and replaced with applesauce. Think about it, there is definitely sugar in the peanut butter AND semi-sweet chocolate chips. To add ANOTHER 2/3 cup of sugar seems like a whopper. Of course, these are things I only think of in retrospect. On a random note, once I finish using this bag of chocolate chips, I am intending on switching to carob chips. I, generally, cannot tell the difference.

Overall, I give the recipe 3 stars out of 5. Mainly for my mistakes. [Though we all know this girl is still going to eat ALL the cookies]. I do think this is an excellent recipe to start with if you are interested in attempting to clean up recipes or modify according to your dietary preferences. Salud!

Reading Like Water

When I first started this blog, I really thought there would be times where I talked about novels. Mainly because they take up such a HUGE part of my life. I became an English major as an undergrad for no other reason than to continue reading profusely and freely. It is not even something I do, it is just a part of who I am. I am a reader. Period. Point blank. End of story. That being said, there are generally only two broad genres of novels I read: Classics, especially 19th & 20th century, and Contemporary Romances. When classics get too heavy, I read romances, when romances become unsatisfactorily superficial, I read classics. It is a pretty solid balance, I feel. That being so, last month I read Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Braddon and this month I moved into the territory of J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood Series. This is why I am here.

Over the past year I have decided that I am very much into paranormal romances as a genre. It started as a seasonal thing. I liked to read paranormal romances around Halloween, Christmas themed romances during the holiday season and so on and so forth. Then I discovered Kresley Cole and became a die hard fan. I really think that woman is the Ace of Spades because she writes well as an author, not just as a romance author. Her stories come full bodied as opposed to being just about sex or just about paranormal activity. Her characters are an excellent balance of strong. yet willing to need others. There is always a story line and she intermixes her story-lines between novels LIKE A CHAMP! I just adore her as an author. And since I am personally SO into Kresley Cole, I figured it was about time to check out the hype about J.R. Ward.

Now, anyone who is ANYone in the romance fiction realm knows about J.R. Ward. She is, essentially, the O.G. paranormal romance writer. Even if you're not into paranormal romances, you have heard of J.R. Ward. She's big. So I started reading her Black Dagger Brotherhood series last week and I was...unimpressed. I find her writing to be a bit cliche and simplistic. Though, much to my amusement, she does through in a word each novel that is more challenging than the average. Yet, somehow, I am still inclined to read the whole series. On the one hand, I really want to see if her writing develops and evolves over the course of the series. On the other hand, I want need to know what happens to each member of the Brotherhood. I don't do well with non-resolutions. (Which makes me question why I insist on watching Independent films.)

The comical aspect is that I have been going through these novels like they are water and I am DEHYDRATED. It's crazy. I pick one up and that is the ONLY thing I want to do until I am finished with it. I don't want to fill out grad school apps, I don't want to text my friends, I don't even want to watch my favorite TV shows. All I want to do is read, change position, read, change room, read. Clearly I needed this kind of lighter reading in my life. I can't remember flying through a book like this since I was reading the Sweet Valley Senior Year series in high school. It is quite strange being well aware that you do not find a novel to be of satisfactory make-up and yet are still possessed with the need devotedly read them all.

Salud!