I used to frequent Bennigan’s Irish Pub & Grill a lot when I was in high school because it was right around the corner from my high school and right across the street from the movie theater. The food was yummy, the atmosphere was fun, but mostly we’d all go to partake in girl time all while delightfully gobbling down an Abbey’s Apple Sizzler. It’s served in a little black skillet and it’s essentially an apple cobbler with a HEAPING scoop of vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of caramel.

It’s simply, sinfully good. And an insane amount of calories.

I remembered my friend Jackie made this awesome dish when I went up to visit her in Delaware last November, so I modified it a bit to create a healthier version and I am naming it Monica’s Apple Sizzler. Because this recipe sizzles in both taste and in points values! Oh, and it’s cheap and easy, too.

The ingredients:

1 pound of apples (I used 2 HUGE apples- Jonagolds to be exact)

3 tsp of ground cinnamon

1/4 cup of light brown sugar

Dash of salt

3 cups of low-fat vanilla ice cream (I used Dreyer’s Light Vanilla Bean Ice Cream)

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Peel and core the apples, slice and place into a bowl.

Add in the cinnamon, light brown sugar and dash of salt. I think I ended up adding more cinnamon than I stated, so feel free to be liberal with it if that’s what you prefer.

Mix it all together.

Then place onto a cookie sheet or similar kind of pan. I lightly sprayed mine with cooking spray to prevent apples from sticking onto the pan. Cover the pan with foil, and place into oven.

Set your kitchen timer for 10 minutes. When it beeps, take your ice cream out so it’ll thaw a bit and leave your apples in for an additional 5 minutes. During those 5 minutes, get your mugs ready! I prefer mugs to bowls for this recipe, but use whatever floats your boat. This recipe makes 6 servings, but it’s just Daniel and I, so I only served up 2. Here’s the yummy ice cream I used.

A tip for ya- if you want to prevent the nasty frosty/icy ice cream, cover the carton with saran wrap. It works, I promise!

I served up 1/2 cup servings of ice cream into each of our mugs.

Take the apples out of the oven… the cinnamon and sugar should have created a nice caramelized effect. Yum.

Pour 1/6 of the apples on top of the ice cream.

Mix the apples with the ice cream and enjoy!

Total servings: 6 as shown or serve double the amount and it makes 3 generous portions or multiply the ingredients for larger numbers of servings.

Total Weight Watchers points values: 3 as illustrated in my recipe or 6 if you serve double the portion. This recipe is super easy and quick to whip up! While the apples were baking, I loaded the dishwasher and cleaned up the kitchen a bit. The fact that it’s fast means you can easily, quickly and affordably whip this up during last minute dinner parties and such. Easy peasy!

Enjoy! If you try this recipe out, I’d love to know what you think of it.

I haven’t let many people come over since moving in because I didn’t want any guests til my house was finished and magazine ready. Yeah, in that case, I wouldn’t have visitors for like 10 years or so. Therefore, I’ve done the unthinkable- I scheduled a party on December 18th for my co-workers. It’s not a housewarming party, but in our office we all like to host Wii game nights, and the same co-worker always hosts…so we figured we should do it soon because we realize she spends a small fortune on our “Wii nights” with food, drinks, etc.

But this means people are coming to MY HOUSE in like, 1 month & 3 days.

Holy fudgesicles.

This really makes me feel worse about my living room situation. As I mentioned a few days ago, we peeled back some of our wood paneling and did NOT find drywall. We found studs, and not this kind:

I really, really want my living room to NOT have wood paneling before Christmas. Like, really, really want. After looking more at pictures of painted wood paneling, I don’t think the beadboard kind of look is my cup of tea. I know many like the cottage, country chic look of it…but I simply don’t. Here are some examples that ALMOST made me convert to this idea though:

Credit: Elizabeth Anne Designs

Credit: Young House Love

Credit: Décor Pad

Now, I figure I have 4 choices. You tell me what you think.

A.) Leave it as is and save up for drywall. I got an estimate today for TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS. Shit. That is a lot of money people. A LOT.

B.) Paint it and live with it for awhile.

C.) Try to find a handyman or someone who can help us with the drywall that isn’t a contractor. I know a maintenance man at work who is supposedly really good. So, essentially this is a semi-DIY option.

D.) Fill in the grooves to create a smooth, wall like finish. This seems insane, I know. And it’d probably be an immense amount of work. But I am a woman on a mission who has people coming over in about a month. I apparently am not the only one who is a glutton for punishment. I found someone else like me. I wish I could hug her.

She used flexible joint compound (4 coats of it!) to do this to her living room walls:

And after all that blood, sweat and tears, her wall now looks like this:

Is that not AMAZING?! I think so. I love her blog, but it seems she hasn’t updated in months. I actually contacted her via her blog website to encourage her to continue blogging because I need more help & ideas to recreate. I also nearly fainted when I saw her gorgeous fainting sofa. I want!

Isn’t that color TO. DIE. FOR.

I think it is.

So, am I crazy for wanting to put 4 coats of joint compound in all the cracks and grooves, or should I just be happy as is and wait until we can drywall? Is there an option I missed?

Baking is super, duper popular and hip right now. And hey, if I was as talented as Bakerella, I’d be on the trend like white on rice. Alas, I am not. I make sweet delights that taste marvelous, but may not be considered couture art. Also, I don’t like having to buy 30 ingredients I do not have because I want to make cupcakes from scratch. That’d be expensive, sorry, but it would. But just mentioning the words “box cake mix” sends people into a frenzy thinking you’re obviously a poor cook and simply are not deserving of even living on earth. To hell you go!

This past weekend I was instructed to make some cupcakes for someone’s 21st birthday. I had grand plans of finding a gourmet, unique recipe on Tastespotting.com. And I did. And I would need to buy like 15 ingredients. I decided to use a box mix. GASP. I know, the nerve of some people! It’s cheap, and it’s easy. Sue me.

But there’s no reason that box cake mix can’t have a little oomph and a bit of pizazz, right?

I bought Duncan Hines Triple Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes. Bake as directed. The box was 77-CENTS.

And my secret weapons… I bought some Pillsbury Easy Frost. I bought 1 vanilla & 1 chocolate. They have a star tip and are only $2 each at Super Wal-Mart, or $1.00 if you happen to snag a coupon in the Sunday paper. No canned icing + icing bags + curse words for me today! I have lots of frosting leftover and that’s because I made 18 cupcakes and used a lot of frosting. If you do buy these, DO NOT REFRIGERATE. Keep them at room temp.

And I remembered I had some yummy mini morsels by Nestle. $2 or so a bag.

And finally, I have some edible shimmery pearls from Wilton that I snagged at Wal-Mart on clearance last Christmas for $2.

Usually, I buy the 99-can of frosting and just slap it on the cupcakes with a butter knife, but splurging on the Easy Frost allowed me to sort of make pretty cupcakes.

On the chocolate iced ones, I sprinkled a dash of pearls.

On the vanilla iced ones, I sprinkled some mini morsels of chocolate.

And now I have some pretty nice looking cupcakes that they think I was making from scratch. You won’t tell, will you?

This holiday season, try easy stuff like this out. It’ll save your sanity & your pocketbook.

Enjoy!

PS: Pillsbury, I love you.

Today marks week one of a shit-ton, I am sure, on Weight Watchers. But, thanks to Healthy Loser Gal, I am going to take it 5 pounds at a time. Why? It’s less daunting, and to be frank, I think I am less likely to give up if I take it 5 pounds at a time rather than the 80-100 pounds I want to lose. Eighty to ONE HUNDRED seems like I should just cut off a leg and move on with my life. Five pounds seems like 3-4 weeks worth of time, and that’s tangible/feasible for a crazy person like myself. I fully am aware I am nuts.

I know, I KNOW I have yapped about how much I want/need to lose weight on this blog before. And you all probably think I am lazy, fat and making excuses all the time. And you’d be right, but keep that to yourself because I am a sensitive person, mkay?

But seeing my weight last week rocked me to my core. It was the exact number I was at when I started Weight Watchers in August 2002.

Over the last 8 years, I’ve yo-yo’d up and down, but never did I manage to get back up to the number that started it all. And much like then, it forced me to get my ass into gear.  Again.

I am right back where I started. Only now I am 26, married, have a house and a full-time job PLUS an Etsy store. And I thought my 18-year-old self had stuff to do. Boy was I one dumb teenager.

There just comes a moment when you think, “Enough!” And that moment for me was last Sunday. On Monday, I got to it and started on the program again. I even exercised for 46 minutes. Go me!

My efforts aren’t all in the name of vanity though. I am bribing myself, because bribery is the sincerest form of motivation, FYI.

For every 60 minutes of exercise, I get $10. For every pound lost, I get $10. So whenever I want to shop for ME stuff like clothes, perfume, or perhaps an iPhone 4…I have to take it from my Weight Watchers virtual bank. Let’s say I want a $20 lotion- that’s either 2 pounds or 2 hours worth of exercise. I have to earn the things I want. And in turn I’ll be healthier and fitter. Win, win!

Enough of all that fluff, let’s get to my weigh-in results!

Week 1 Weight Loss: 2.8 pounds

Total Weight Loss to Date*: 2.8 pounds

Week 1 Exercise Minutes= 153 minutes

Total Exercise Minutes to Date*= 153 minutes

*=These numbers will represent a cumulative total from week 1 and forward.

Weight Watchers Virtual Bank Balance= $40.00 ($20 from weight loss, $20 from exercise)

While I KNOW 2.8 pounds is great, I exercised like a crazy person on Friday and was hoping for a better loss on the scale. I am gonna chalk it up to being sore, and carry on forward. I’ll be updating my weigh-in results every Saturday. If you’re doing Weight Watchers or anything program, please feel free to share your tips, successes, blog links, etc. on my weekly posts.

And I also broke it down to show myself exactly how much I could accomplish by 2 important dates if I lose just 1.5 pounds a week (which is average):

By March 8th, my 26th birthday, I could lose 25.5 pounds.

By May 28th, the weekend of my 2nd wedding anniversary, I could lose 42 pounds.

The wedding anniversary one is SUPER motivating, because 42 pounds would put me RIGHT AT my wedding day weight. And I truly felt beautiful that day. I hope you’ll cheer me on and support me along the way!

Well, today marks about 1 month, 6 days into our homeownership. It’s been great to not have ogres stomping on top of us like we did in our apartment. It’s nice being able to blast Glee songs at obscene volumes whenever I’d like. Pee Wee loves having a huge yard to run around tormenting squirrels in. All in all, it’s been great.

It’s also been overwhelming because there’s a ton of stuff I want to do, and no time or money to do it in. I mean, we have a reasonable amount in savings, but rather than dry that up with projects we “want” to do but don’t “need” to do, we’re saving it for when something that we HAVE to take care of arises. Like when we were without hot water for 5 days or so, and we thought our water heater was broken. We called our home warranty service, they sent out a plumber, and we ended up paying $60 to have the plumber switch on the water heater breaker for us. Yes, you read that correctly. All they did was flip the damn switch back on. I took frigid cold showers and had flu symptoms for a week over a SWITCH. I thought our water heater breaker would be where the other breaker switch thingies were in the house, but apparently the panel for our water heater is outside on the side of the house. During a crazy windstorm, the door blew open and the switch magically switched to off. We paid SIXTY dollars for that. SIXTY!!!

Crap.

We also paid $175 to do preventative pest control in our home, attic and outdoor buildings. They got rid of a ton of wasps nests so that it’d be safe to be outside.

This homeownership gig is expensive. Our first mortgage payment isn’t even due until December 1st, so luckily we had about a month and a half to not have to worry about it, and we put that extra money towards our car so we can pay it off in June of 2011.

So, what have we done then? Well, lots of laundry, and hey, no need to put quarters in the machine. Love that! I’ve never washed without having to put in quarters. I feel all luxurious and pampered when I do laundry because my washer/dryer chimes when it’s done and it has fancy schmancy features. I installed a light fixture.

Yup, that’s about it. I had a grand idea to paint over the wood paneling in our living room, which looks like this (mind you, these pics are all when the seller still lived here):

I’ve lounged in our living room plenty since we bought the house, but I always feel kinda gloomy in there because it’s SO DARK. So, what better to brighten up the wood paneling with some paint, right? I ran the idea by the hubby during his lunch break, he agreed. I happily drove to Sherwin Williams to pick out 2 shades I liked for the room, and I bookmarked Young House Love’s tutorial on this subject and was ready to go when he got home.

Then he tells me, well, I don’t want to spend all this money on something we’re just going to end up tearing down and repainting anyway. Fair enough, makes sense.

We come home from dinner, pry off a piece of wood paneling and what do we see? Not drywall, which is what I was hoping and praying for. My heart shattered into 1.8 million pieces and the waterworks came on from my eyes. I so desperately wanted a gorgeous living room for Christmas. That’s all I want. I want a gorgeous living room that I can blog about that would draw more readers so I can afford to go to Blissdom or Blogher like the cool bloggers. I want to be a cool blogger, too. Sigh.

But now I sit here venting to you all, because, well, it’s my blog and I can vent if I want to.

I am overwhelmed. There’s so much I want to do, and I have no clue where to start. My other project I want to work on is my office wall. Here’s a picture of what that looks like right now:

That was on a particularly busy Etsy order day, so it’s a mess, sorry. Using Publisher, I made up 2 mock-ups of what I want it to look like:

Picture 1 is a espresso stain with chrome knobs/pulls. The wallpaper or design would be a damask pattern. Also, in both options I’ll be moving the top cabinets to the ceiling and adding crown moulding for a more upscale, custom look at the top. Picture 2 is white cabinets with satin nickel knobs/pulls. The wallpaper would be a gray with ivory metallic like damask wallpaper. I am thinking white would look good since it’s a bright color and is probably more universally liked than espresso/dark finishes. Plus, with the dark flooring we want, the white would pop better. In the center of either design, I’d place my Ung Drill frame or maybe some glass shelves for a clean, modern look.

Which option do you like better and why? Also, can someone tell me it’ll all be ok and my house will be pretty and updated eventually? Sometimes you need a little reassurance.

Today is November 12, 2010 and we’ve been homeowners for 1 month, 6 days.