Better Bites: Nutella Mousse!

This past Sunday, I made Nutella Mousse. It was amazing. We put it on chocolate shortbread and then added some fresh raspberries on top. It was the best dessert I've had in a long time. I'm not going to lie, this dessert is NOT low calorie and not low fat when made as the original recipe calls, but with a little crafty thinking, I was able to reduce the calorie and fat content significantly. The preparation will change a bit, too, but if anything, it gets easier! 
I'm including t the original recipe taken from  http://www.singforyoursupperblog.com/  on the left so if you want the real thing, you can go for it! The original recipe was used as a filler for a brownie pie (Um..Yum>?!) 

Nutella Mousse: Before!                                                       

5 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup Nutella,

1/2 pint heavy whipping cream 

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Using a mixer, whip the cream, sugar and vanilla until stiff peaks form. Transfer to another bowl and set aside.In the same mixer bowl, mix Nutella and cream cheese until well combined. Spoon in 1/3 of the whipped cream and gently fold in.  Repeat with remaining whipped cream- be careful not to stir- it won’t be as light and fluffy.    

Nutritional Data:                           

Servings: 6; Calories: 374.3 ; Total Fat: 23.7

Sat Far: 12.5; Carb: 39.8 ; Sugars: 37.9

WW POINTS: 10

Nutella Mousse: After  

5 ounces fat-free cream cheese, softened 

1/2 cup Nutella 

2 cups Cool Whip Free

1 teaspoon Vanilla

Using a mixer, blend Nutella, vanilla and cream cheese until smooth and fluffy.Then, fold in 1/4  Cool Whip and be sure Not to stir! It won't be as fluffy if you do! There might be a few white streaks, THAT'S OKAY! Just walk away! If you keep stirring,  it will be runny! :) 

Nutritional Data:

Servings: 6; Calories: 191.4; Total Fat: 7.7

Sat Fat: 2.5; Carbs: 24.1; Sugars: 16.8

WW POINTS: 4

If you're wondering why I omitted the sugar from the "after" recipe, it's because cool whip is already sweetened, but if you realllly want a sugar fix, add some splenda!! :) 

Enjoy!

Better Bites!

We have two trips planned for the upcoming months. Next weekend, we'll be going to Toronto to see CONAN O'BRIEN!! and then in 6 weeks, we're going to Jamaica. In the meantime, I've decided to start something new. 

For those of you who don't know, I LOVE www.hungry-girl.com. It has really easy low-fat and calorie recipes and some pretty awesome tips on eating out. If you don't receive these newsletters, SIGN UP NOW! :) Anyway, there's a section called "chew the right thing" where she takes a recipe (usually from a fast food restaurant) and then gives it a makeover to cut the fat and calories a whooole bunch. It's similar to "Eat this, Not that" ....

So, I'm going to try to do my own version featuring recipes that I am obsessed with that are not good for me, at all. hah.

 

First recipe coming soon!!!

UPDATE!

Here's the end result of the coconut cake!

IT was suuuuupper yummy!

Bobby Flay's Coconut Cake..

So, in January, Brandon, my brother Zac, and I  went to the Atlantis Resort and Casino on Paradise Island, in the Bahamas. It was an awesome vacation, even if the weather didn't cooperate most of the time.
One of the restaurants we went to was Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill.
We all had different steaks, and really unique side dishes..but the star of our dinner was the Toasted Coconut Cake. It. Was. Amazing. Brandon hates coconut, and loved this cake..that's how good it was. Since then, Zac and I have been wanting to make a coconut cake and low and behold, yesterday Zac posted an exciting link on my wall : Coconut Cake!!! 

So, we're obviously getting together tomorrow night (well, tonight I suppose since it's technically Sunday now..) and we're going to try our hand at replicating a culinary masterpiece. haha. The recipe looks like it's going to take up to 6 hours to make..wow.. I'll post pictures of what we end up with, even if it's a disaster! :)

Toronto!

So, this past weekend, Brandon, Bentley and I drove to Toronto to stay with our friends, John and Sarah. As I mentioned in an earlier post, John and Sarah just got a super cute min pin named Jack, and well, he wanted his cousin Bentley to visit!
(For those of you interested, taking your dog across the border isn't hard at all, you just need a signed copy of the dog's rabies vaccination from your vet and you're all set!)

The weekend wasn't too crazy, in fact it was realllly relaxing. Friday night, we went to a restaurant called Milestones. The food was really, really, good! I had Tomato Bisque soup and a pasta dish. The soup was soooo amazing! It came with mini grilled cheese croutons, so cool! After dinner, we came home and went to bed. Not too crazy, eh?! :)

Saturday we decided to walk around and go to Cabbagetown. While there, we went to a restaurant called Cranberries. Lunch there wasn't anything too crazy, just normal pub-like food. But here's a few pictures of it, anyway!





 After getting lunch, we headed to Bloor street and did a little shopping, followed by a lot of drinking. We went to a few different bars, one of which was the Regal Beagle!It was a small pub and we were the only ones there, nothing special, but fun nonetheless.

We also stopped at My Big Fat Burrito on the way back to the apartment. This Burrito place is really good and can be really spicy! Don't get the level 5 unless you LOOVE hot sauce! They even have a Yam burrito for vegetarians! Take a look at their menu! Thus one is located in Kensington Market!


Saturday night concluded with some board games back at the apartment, and some more drinking. At some point after 3am, Brandon, John and a few of John's friends headed out to get Chinese food. Sarah and I stayed home and went to bed! No Chinese food for us!!

Sunday morning we went to Kensington Market. It's kind of a Hippy hangout, but I really like a few of the stores there, so we always try to go. First, we decided we needed some lunch. For the first time since I've known Brandon, he requested we go somewhere "Healthy and possibly vegan for something like a salad." !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After I recovered from my intial shock, we decided on Urban Herbivore. Last time we were in Toronto, Sarah introduced to ttheir chocolate chunk vegan cookies (amazing!). This time around, we all ordered lunch, and some cookies to go! :). Brandon and I both had salads which included your choice of greens, 6 items, nuts, and dressing. Sarah had vegan Moroccan stew and John had a grain bowl, which was the same as the salad bowl, but grain instead of greens! I also ordered a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice! Yummy!



After lunch, we headed to Blue Banana Market. It's almost like a flea market, but really, really, clean and the actual vendors aren't in their booths. It has really unique gifts and a cute coffee place with really good tea.  Upstairs there are clothes and jewelry that are reasonably priced and really cute. They even have a section for plastic free toys for kids. Don't tell Jasmine, but this is where we get Jenavieve's presents! ;)

So, that's all for now! We had a great weekend with WONDERFUL weather. We'll be back to Toronto in a few months, you can be sure of that! It's a awesomely clean and fun city, and as soon as we're home, we're already planning our next trip there!! Thanks to John and Sarah for being great hosts, as always!!

Toronto!

So, this weekend, Brandon and I are visiting Sarah and John in Toronto. They have a pretty sweet Penthouse Apartment in downtown and have 2 bedrooms, so we're staying with them. They recently got a super cute and sweet puppy, Jack and asked us to bring Bentley to visit, too! Bentley isn't quite sure about the big city, but he does like looking out the windows at all the people on the street, although we think he thinks they're squirrels. :)

We're not doing anything too crazy or touristy since we've been here before, but I will post about some of the places we go, as soon as we go to them! My camera is actually working so that's a plus!

I know, I'm a slacker..

Well, I'm having some troubles uploading my pictures onto my computer, silly iphone cord, so that Grand Traverse: Part Two will have to wait.

In other news, I've been feeling kind of crafty lately, and Jasmine and I are going to try to make some tutus and headbands for babies/toddles. I know a lot of people already do this, but it seems like a lot of fun, so why not!

My brother also made some really cute shirts and onesies from cotton that were super cute, so I might try some of those, too. Also, I want my brother to teach me how to sew...but that's a biiiig undertaking. :)

Does anyone else have any cute crafts that he/she likes to make?

Let me know!

Grand Traverse Resort and Spa---Valentine's Day Weekend --Part One

Okay, so it took me awhile to get this up! We've been really busy this week for some reason or another.

So, let's get started!

Friday at around 11am, we left Madison Heights for our 4 hour drive to Traverse City. We stopped for lunch with some friends and then we were off.
The drive isn't too bad; most of it is freeway driving and then some two lane highway driving. I slept most of the way and Brandon listened to Rush Limbaugh on the radio(bleh!). Around 5pm, we arrived at the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa. 

ACCOMMODATIONS
I was somewhat surprised at how busy it was! We stayed in the tower rooms which were quite nice. There was a jacuzzi tub and a wet bar with a mini fridge. The TV was a bit out of date, and the room was a tad stuffy, but it wasn't a big deal. The beds were so soft! You just sink right into them, which most people like. I however, like really firm beds, but they were still comfy and I was so tired each night that it didn't really matter.

The only problems we had with the room all weekend were: Saturday morning, we didn't have any hot water around 9 am, but by 1pm it was back on. Ashley's friend works at the front desk and she said a lot of people were complaining about it, and they had someone out to fix it right away. It sucked, but I just took a shower later. The second problem was the the thermostat didn't want to work. It was stuffy and hot in the room every time we walked in it...we would eventually get used to it, but it was still a pain.

The tower rooms are newer and thus cost more money. The "Tower" rooms run about $180 on a busy weekend (we were there for winterfest) and about $150 on a regular weekend, with week rates being around $130. Whereas the "Hotel Rooms" run for about $30 less a night, respectively.


DINING

At the resort, there are 3 places to eat that aren't seasonal (there's 5 in the summer). After we settled in, we went down to the Sweetwater American Bistro  for dinner. The restaurant itself is really cozy. We sat in a booth and ordered our meals.






I had a Chicken BLT that had Garlic Mayo. It was really, really good. Brandon had a homemade pizza.

As far as pricing goes, this place is pretty afforadable. For two people, dinner and drinks, it ran us $25 including tip. Also, the resort allows your to charge everything within the resort to your room, so that was convenient.

I also really liked their salt and pepper shakers! They were huge!




We also tried out Jack's Sport's Bar while we were there, which shared a kitchen with the Bistro, thus having the same menu. The only differences were that Jack's was much smaller and had TVs.

The rest of our Dining didn't take place at the resort, and  I suggest to go down town and dine there, it's fun!
Here's a few of the places we stopped by:

Saturday morning we went to J/S Hamburg. It's a small restaurant down town that serves a greasy breakfast and some homemade toast, and since we had all had a few the night before, it hit the spot. I don't have any pictures of the food, and I imagine it wouldn't have been all that appetizing to look at now, but at the time, it was heaven.

Dinner Saturday night was at a Place called Stella's.Stella's location is where the former Traverse City State Asylum used to be. It was creep as all get-out. The walls were all brick and it was just simply, eerie. We asked our waitress what the room we were sitting in used to be, and we were a little bummed to learn it was for grain and farm feed. However, she did inform us that the kitchen was formerly the morgue and where their walk in freezers/fridges were made peerrrfeecctt sense. CREEPY!
Overall, this place was awesome. The food was amazing, and the staff was very accommodating. The four of us shared two bottles of wine (both Rieslings), two appetizers (calamari and gnocchi).


For our main entree's,
Brandon had Veal Scallopine, Ashley had a Chicken Dish, I had a Rib-eye (only thing guaranteed lactose free), and Sal had two orders of Tagliolini, (they were small!)
The menu changes everday and the chef uses local ingredients for as many things as possible! It was absolutley delicious. Unfortunately, The only picture of food I have is of Sal's Tagliolini, which is
Butter-poached white Gulf prawns, Maine lobster claw & knuckle meat, diced tomato. We ended the night with some chocolate and some hot tea. We liked the tea so much, we decided to go on a little trip the next day to find some!


Well, I need to get some stuff done around the house, So I'll update with part two later. That entry will include the Winter Wonder Fest, as well as the Spa, and Shopping!  Hopefully, I'll finish it tonight!

<3

Puppy Vacations!

If you don't know this already, I have two super-cute dogs, Bentley and Brewster. One of the biggest challenges we face while traveling is what to do with our dogs while we're away. Sometimes we leave them with Brandon's parents, or have my brother house sit while we're away, but when we're in a bind, or decide to leave last minute, we drop them off at the PetSmart PetsHotel. 

The PetsHotel is located within many PetSmarts and is really convenient, (we also use Banfield for the dog's vet, since it too is within PetSmart). There's quite a few options you can choose from. We usually purchase the overnight stay with a doggy-day-camp package. That way, the dogs all get to play with eachother and jump around and wear themselves out.

Rooms:

Most of the time, Dogs stay in the Dog Atrium. 

Or if you really want to splurge, there's always the Suites!

Food:

You can either pack food and treats with you dog, or they

will supply your dog with all of the Science Diet Dog food he/she can eat!

Play Time:

Each dog is walked and socialized at least twice a day. However, 

PetSmart's policy is to not take the dogs outside. 

You can also purchase the Doggie Day Camp Package. This package allows your

 dog to interact with other dogs in a supervised play area. (Bentley loves this!)

* Pit Bulls and/or Pit Bull mixes are not allowed to participate in the day camp

due to their "aggressive tendencies". 

Cleanliness:

This place is super clean. The dogs waste is cleaned up/hosed down 

immediately and there's never any food or treats lying around just waiting to be gobbled up!

Add-Ons:

The PetsHotel offers many add-ons to make your dog's stay more comfortable for an extra price.

Some of these include:

Kong Treats

Dog Ice Cream

Pawdicures

Individual Play Time

Exit Bath

Doggie Day Care:

This option is for people who don't want to leave their dog home while they're at work

or need to run errands all day. You can drop your dog off in the morning, your dog gets to play to his/her heart's content and then you can come and pick him/her up! Sometimes we do this just to wear the dogs out if there has been bad weather and we haven't been able to take them to the dog park! 

Cons:

Brewster isn't allowed to have interaction with any dog besides Bentley, even though he is a Pit/Dane mix. At first, they let him play, but now that he's getting bigger, he isn't allowed to anymore. We haven't taken our dogs here lately because of this, however, I'm still recommending them because when only had Bentley, this facility far exceeded my expectations of a dog boarding establishment. 

Pros:

. It's close, never fully booked and conveniet. The staff is extremely friendly and the best part is that you get a report card when you pick them up! It tells you all about their stay and recommendations for next time!

Special Offers:

If you visit PetSmart's PetsHotel website : www.PetsHotel.com  and sign up for special offers, You will recieve a $5 coupon of your next PetSmart purchase! They send coupons out pretty frequently and we always use them right before we board them so they have a new toy to spend the night with!!

Next time you need a boarder, try them out! It's worth it!

Note: For those of you who own pit bulls or pit mixes, there's a kennel called Bark About in Shelby TWP, Mi. that allows pits. I'm going to take Brewster and Bentley here next time and then I'll write up a review on them. THEY HAVE A INDOOR PUPPY AQUATIC CENTER!! ahahah  Check them out: www.barkabout.net

Valentine's Day Weekend

This weekend I'm heading out to Traverse City with Brandon, Sal, and Ashley. We'll be staying at the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa. While we're there, we'll be participating in the Traverse City Winter Wonderfest. There's going to be a lot of things to do, including a Chili Cook-off, sled-bed racing, beer and music fest, wine and food fest, snowball fight, polar dip, etc. And, with all of this snow that we're getting as I speak, I'm sure there will be lots of snow sculptures and the like. I'm really, really, really excited to go to this resort, and when I get back, I'll give everyone a review of the hotel, spa, and restaurants. :)

Here's the website, just in case you're interested!

Grand Traverse Resort and Spa, Acme Michigan

Ideas!

So, my friend,Sue, started a blog about a month ago that chronicles her everyday life. She blogs about everything from what's for dinner, to amazing deals of everyday items. And so, with her as my inspiration I've decide to do a shade of the same.

Brandon, my boyfriend, and I travel quite a bit and so, I'm going to give reviews and recommendations on vacations spots....I'm hoping to include everything from the scenery, to the hotel/resort, to restaurants. I don't know how successful it will be, but I'm going to give it a try.

I'm also going to post things when I'm bored..because let's face it, as much as I'd like to be traveling every single day, that just isn't going to happen!! So, that's where the Dilly-Dally comes in (well, that and I couldn't find anything else to rhyme with "alli" when I decided to do this...). I'll post stuff that I find interesting or just plain weird that will not only take up my time.. but yours as well. Allowing you to, Dilly-Dally with Alli! ha ha ha..get it? :)

Also, I'm going to post links to Sue's site quite often (or in absence of my posts). She's always posting great deals and reviews and we all can use any heads up on deals we can get. I haven't told her that I'm doing this yet, so I hope she doesn't mind too much. :)

Anyway, here's Sue's Blog. Be sure to join her Facebook Page and Twitter Feeds for the latest!

www.hell0-sue.blogspot.com

Here We Goooooo!

So, I'm not publicizing this blog quite yet. I'm still trying to figure out what it's going to entail, as well as who my audience is going to be. Mostly, I just want this blog to serve as a place to compile things I see and do, and why or why not I like them. We'll see what happens.

Plus, I had to do it for a class.. :)

I'm in a digital rhetoric course and this is one of our assignments...Create and maintain a blog, and if you want, a facebook business page.

Woo!