Google, this is why we love to hate you

Excited to start our adventure, we headed to Nuremberg to pick up Big R. As luck would have it, he had a preplanned staff ride that became mandatory. It all worked out pretty smoothly though, with the minor exception that the train was delayed by nearly an hour.

We picked up Big R and we were on our way. I had chosen a park and ride (P&R) for us to park the car in Munich to avoid the hassle of Munich downtown driving and high costs associated with parking in the city.

I pulled up directions to the P&R according to google and had it ready on my phone. Because I was nervous all day that something would go wrong, I spent some time looking at the map so I was familiar with the directions.

I suppose it didn't really matter how familiar I was with google's best rendition of how to get to our destination because it had a whole adventure in mind for us that would have been nearly impossible to see on the map.

Apparently google thinks the best way to the train station is to drive behind the tracks... on a series of farm roads, bike paths, and parallel to a German military reservation. You think I'm kidding? I wish Big R could have taken a picture of my face - then you would believe me no question.

So, we get off the autobahn and follow the directions around a few turns. Big R astutely observes that it's taking us to a road that doesn't exist. Oh, we're in Germany, so maybe we should just follow the directions anyhow. Dude, we were in Munich, so we really should have known better. I think we were just in such misbelief that google could take us on such a ridiculous route.

We kept waiting to hit a real road...and waiting...and waiting. Instead we passed angry joggers and bikers with a look of shock on their faces saying the only logical thing, "what the hell?!?!??" (in German though, of course). All the while my hands are sweating so badly I can hardly hold the steering wheel.

Low and behold we get to the station. The back side of the station. We are literally on the wrong side of the tracks - trapped - where we were clearly the only vehicle on the bike path BECAUSE CARS DO NOT BELONG THERE!!!

I'm freaking out, so Big R kicks me out of the driver's seat. We tried relentlessly to find a way through to a street continuing to piss off folks who clearly just wanted to enjoy their after work jog on the trail.

After some begging, Big R agreed to head back the way we came. All the possible connections were blocked because they were entrances to the military reserve. I finally found a farm road that was a shorter route back to a real road.

Big R is racing and my heart is in my throat. What we thought was a connection to the road was instead a bike entrance with poles blocking vehicle traffic. Yep. We were not having a good night. Where did this karma come from?!?!?

I studied the poles while Big R tried not to cry. It dawned on me they might come out of the ground, so I flew out of the car and yanked one as hard as I could out if the ground. YES! Finally it worked! We got out of there just before the residents looked out the window. I would have called the cops, wouldn't you?

Turns out the P&R I was leading us to was associated with the big stadium. You know, the one where they hold soccer matches, and where they had the freaking World Cup!!!!??? Yeah, pretty much one of the easiest places in Munich to find.

Needless to say, once we got to a road, we had no trouble finding it. The car was parked and we were on our way to the train station.

Bigones...

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Does it need to be stressful?

Seriously... packing is always one of those things that I have hated to do.  I already overthink everything and packing is far from the exception. It must be because you want your vacation to be perfect, which means, you want to be sure you don't forget anything and that you are comfortable in the clothes you decide to bring with you.  Hopefully you won't forget toothbrushes or toothpaste, or something even more necessary.

This already daunting task becomes much more complicated when you throw kids into the mix.  I remember packing for trips when little r was an infant - oy!  What a joy that was!  Funny, but it always ends up being just fine.

We are embarking on an awesome trip to Rome.  Yep, we're heading south for a little bit of warmer weather and some old world history.  I was fortunate enough to have visited Rome on a backpacking trip with my best friend just after college.  Big R has never been, and of course, neither has little r.  Things are just a tad bit different for me this time around than they were for my last voyage to the Roman Empire, and I can't wait to see it again!

For this trip we are trying something new.  We're taking the night train from Munich, which little r could not be more excited about.  Our fingers are crossed it is a fun way for the family to travel because there are several locations in Europe that we could visit this way.  We are already fairly light packers, but we are trying to be especially light on the luggage this trip because we'll be on the train and we don't want to schlep all our crap in a million different bags.  Somehow we accomplished this, and I'm just praying I won't be leaving anything too terribly important behind.

As I've gotten older, for some reason my desire to fit in and feel chic has increased.  Doesn't this seem somewhat backwards?  The more I find myself, the more I seem to want to express that to others.  Very strange.  My best friend has this awesome ability to not give a hoot about what anyone thinks.  I probably need to take a lesson or two from her book. Life would be infinitely easier, I'm sure.  Instead, I find that my packing is always done with two things in mind:  (1) looking chic or somewhat European, and (2) being comfortable.  Hey, the Europeans seem to figure out how to do it, right?  This just tells me there has to be a way.  The hardest thing for me has always been the shoes.  What is it about shoes anyways?  I have yet to find the perfect mix of finding those cute pair of shoes or boots that don't make you want to cry an hour into your long day of walking from museum to attraction.

I'll get all this figured out just in time that I'm old enough to not care anymore - haha.  All this aside, the bags are packed, the little man is excited as ever, and our family is about to have the vacation of a lifetime.  I can't wait to get back to you with all of the awesome details and share all of Big R's photographs of ancient Rome... 

Splish splash!

Your eyes are not deceiving you and this isn't some sort of trick photography. Little r is actually in the bathtub by himself. I'd love to say we have successfully conquered the undying fear of the sock fuzz bugs, but instead let's just say we're getting there and have temporarily found a bandaid.

Big R came up with a brilliant idea when he realized it was little r's feet that couldn't touch the ground of the tub or shower. Hey, we aren't allowed to question or tease these toddler fears. They truly are irrational but they are also very real to the little ones. When little r is faced with the "bugs" he screams like no other.

Big R took this realization and tried seeing if little r would stand or sit in the shower if he laid a wash cloth down first. Über brilliance. Don't you love how the most simple things are pure brilliance when it comes to discovering something that can add some ease to your life?

We tried it a few nights in a row until little r was finally ok with standing in the bathtub by himself. It has been killing me that one of his favorite times of the day became jaded so easily. I just keep telling Big R that we're lucky the fear has nothing to do with water. At least we have been able to bathe the kid.

Here's to a little forward progress :)

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Date night with my love

I am a firm believer that date nights are a necessity for any marriage, but especially when you have kids. We had every intention of having a date night each week if we could, but
I guess things got busy. Life will do that to you sometimes, I suppose.

Last night we finally had a date - just the two of us - and it was so nice to have this time alone with Big R. Our family has been trying hard to get back to good health the past few weeks, and even though we are far from 100% yet, we are at least feeling human again. We knew a date night was exactly what we needed :)

Of course little r cried and screamed when we left. He's good at making us feel horribly guilty for not carting him along. One day he will understand...

I had made reservations in Bamberg at a popular tapas joint called, Bolero. It was the first of what we hope to be many lovely evenings out together in our incredible town.



The ambiance was fabulous and left a romantic feeling in the air. We purposely parked our car on the other side of Altstadt, or old town, so that we could enjoy a romantic walk together through Bamberg.

Although the menu had much to offer, we stuck to the tapas. The food was good, not the best tapas we've had, but the atmosphere and great service more than made the experience perfect.

Have you gone on a date night recently? If not, I highly recommend it :).

Cheers - xoxoxo



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Muffins for things that ail you...

This has not been a good week for our household. The crud continues and little r has gotten the brunt of it this time.  Home again from school, and little r and I needed a seriously pick-me-up. What better way to cure achy pains than the creation of yummy baked goods?!

I'm starting to see now why so many stay-at-home mom's are either in love with food blogs or create blog posts with incredible recipes.  It can be so much fun when you find a wonderful recipe that works for your family, or even better, when you create a perfect combination of yummy-ness by altering recipes or making a creation from whatever is left in your cupboards.  Cooking lost its allure for me when I was working full time.  I think it was because I could never find the power to plan and cook delicious food.  I forgot how much I really enjoy cooking, and it's been fun to explore that during this phase in my life.  Hopefully I can build a bank of easy and good-for-you recipes so that when I eventually go back to working full time, I'll continue to love it.

All that aside, let's get back to making muffins.  I do not bake much.  My sister was always the one that could create those ridiculously good baked breads and cakes.  My specialty tends to be more on the dinner side of things.  But mostly, I haven't been baking much as of late because this 12-week challenge I'm doing doesn't really leave room for tasty morsels.  It's not much fun to bake when you can't eat any of the food that comes out of the oven.

The tough part about our day was that if we were going to bake, we were going to have to do it with whatever was available in the house.  Between the doctor visit and other highly important errands (like renewing my military ID, just a small necessity...), we had no time to buy any potentially needed groceries.  We were also having our friends, Nina and Linus, over for a playdate later in the day, and I needed to come up with something yummy to share.

Jamie Eason, my virtual 12-week challenge coach, has some pretty awesome recipes on her website to help keep food interesting while we are getting in shape.  I've tried many of her creations and most of them are pretty darn tasty.  Her recipe for pumpkin protein bars sound delicious, but I've had a heck of a time getting the recipe just right.  The idea is a good one though, and I've learned quite a bit from her recipe substitutions.  With a fair amount of left over pumpkin spice puree (and the desire to get some much-needed fiber into little r's system), I started doing a search for low-fat pumpkin spice muffins on pinterest (my new favorite obsession). Using my newfound education from Ms. Eason, and my desire to create something tasty yet healthy and good for my daily high protein snacks, I created my own recipe using a combination of different recipes online.  And the end result was fabulous and far too healthy to be so yummy (or keep to myself).

I took my pumpkin puree and added some more spices to it - cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and salt - mixed in some egg whites and a very small amount of brown sugar, egg whites, and substituted maple syrup for the granular sugar or agave nectar.  I'm not sure how many people are aware of how incredibly good for you maple syrup is. It is loaded with vitamins and packed with fiber.  Not only that, but in the 1/2 cup of maple syrup I used for my recipe for the entire batch of muffins, there were less than 200 calories.  Just one of my favorite Vermont tips :)  I was somewhat worried that the syrup would create an odd consistency, but luckily it all worked out well.

For the flour I mixed it up.  I had some gluten free and soy flour in my pantry.  The gluten free keeps the flour from spiking your blood sugar, and the soy flour adds 40% more protein into the muffins.  We'll take it!  If you don't have either of these - because let's face it, what normal human being has this in her pantry - don't fret.  You can use regular whole wheat flour or oat flour (which you can make from scratch by grinding regular cooking oats).  For a little more protein, I put in a couple scoops of my protein shake powder (again, completely optional), and finally, a little baking soda and baking powder.  The final ingredient was folding into the batter two apples that were chopped into small pieces.

What really makes these muffins incredible and addicting though is the topping.  I found a couple of different toppings for streusel and nuts that people had used for their pumpkin muffin recipes.  I ended up making both of them (mostly because I ran out of nuts!).  

The batter comes out pretty hearty, so it's easy to scoop into the muffin pan.  I used an ice cream scoop, and the sizing was perfect.  The topping then went on in a simple dash.  Just a mere 25-30 minutes later, and the muffins were golden, crispy, and perfect to ease the ailments from our week.  Most of them were made with the nut topping so that I could use them as one of my high protein snacks.  The streusel muffins I set aside for the kids and one for Big R knowing those would be especially tasty.

So, here is my recipe.  I hope some of you feel inspired to make them, and that you enjoy these muffins as much as my family has.  And a side note, little r appears to be on his way to being cured - could be the muffins, or could be some of the meds his doctor prescribed.  I'm going with the muffins :)

High Protein Pumpkin Apple Muffins

1 1/4 cup  Pumpkin Pie Mix

2 tbs Brown sugar

1/2 cup Maple Syrup (highly recommend Vermont Maple Syrup!)

2 egg whites

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp allspice

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups peeled, covered and chopped apple (I used 2 whole Gala Apples)

2 cups of whole wheat flour (or 1 cup gluten free flour and 1 cup soy flour)

2 scoops of Protein Powder (I used vanilla) (optional)

2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Streusel Topping

4 tsp Flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

2 tbsp butter

Walnut or Pecan Topping

2/3 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

1 tbs brown sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (F).  Lightly grease the muffin pan(s).  In a large bowl, combine the flours, sugars, spices, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  In a separate bowl mix together the egg, pumpkin, and maple syrup.  Add the pumpkin mixture to the flour mixture; stir to moisten.  Then fold in the chopped apples.  Spoon batter 3/4 full into muffin pan (ice cream scoop is perfect for this).  Sprinkle topping over each muffin.  Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes.  Let cool for 5-10 minutes and then remove from the pan. 

Enjoy :)