Marble Painting

It's almost 1am, so I'm not going to write a long winded post. Kristen and I did some marble painting today, and I decided to do a quick tutorial for those who may not be familar.

Take a piece of printer paper and tape it to an empty box lid. A printer paper box works great, but you could use a shoe box if you wanted. The key is that the box lid has a wide lip. Double sided tape works if you have it, but if not just roll a few pieces of regular Scotch tape and do it the old-fashioned way.

Pick (or let your little one pick) 3-4 different colors of acrylic or finger paint. Kristen chose these:

Drop 1 or 2 marbles in each color, as shown above. Use a plastic spoon to pick up the marbles and drop them in the box lid.

Tilt, shake, and move the box lid to let the marbles roll across the paper. It's best to use one color at a time so you don't have 8 marbles in the box at once.

After your colors have been used and your child is satisfied with their art, put it aside to dry. Once dry, remove from the box lid and frame as you see fit. For a tutorial on how to frame this masterpiece using a cereal box, click here.

Enjoy and admire!

CA: Cookieholics Anonymous

I'm changing my eating lifestyle. I'm not on a diet because diets, quite frankly, do not work. Long term results require long term change. That means finding 20 minutes a day to be active, every day. It means making conscious efforts to avoid foods that leave you feeling hungry in a few hours. It means saying no to temptation.

But then there are cookies.

I love chocolate chip cookies. So much that I purposely never keep the ingredients or pre-made cookies in my house, because I will make them and eat them. The only thing I may like more is ice cream, which I have refrained from eating and instead partake in frozen yogurt or sherbert if the situation arises. But how in the world do I get that delectable cookie taste without kicking myself later?

Today, I solved that problem.

I found a recipe for cookie dough bites here. Now, these look amazing, no doubt, but by my calculations, each little bite is 145 calories!

Breakdown per batch:
800 calories in butter (assuming light butter, 1600 calories if using regular butter)
805 in chocolate chips (assuming Ghiradelli semi-sweets)
800 in flour
1080 calories in sugar

Total: 3,485 per batch, divided by 24 bites is 145 per bite.

I'm absolutely NOT bashing this recipe. If I were a younger and thinner woman, I'd be making and devouring this stuff. Actually, 6 months ago I would have been too. But in the interest of my thighs, I had to find something that fit my needs.

I have recently started using no-cal sweetener (Truvia, Splenda, etc) for my sweetening needs. Because of this little change, I can now enjoy guilt free sweet tea, cheesecake (well, that's never guilt free), and other things that appeal to my tongue. Since sugar is the major contributor to calories in this recipe, I decide to nix it.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm sure this recipe has a totally different flavor with brown sugar, but I love mine all the same.

Here we go:

1 cup no-cal sweetener of your choice (I used Splenda)
1 3/4 cups AP flour
6 oz Ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate chips (about half a bag; you can use less if you like)
1 cup light butter, softened (I used Blue Bonnet light butter because I like it's soft texture)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix your butter and sugar until blended. Add your vanilla, then gradually add the flour to the mix. If you are using a standing mixer, you will notice that the dough is separated and crumbly. It's ok; it'll come together in a second. Mix until all flour is combined, then knead your dough by hand and add your chips.

At this point, it is perfectly acceptable to pinch off a bit and taste test your dough. After all, if you don't like the taste, you'll want to fix it or pitch it before you make all those little bites.

Using a teaspoon, scoop your dough into little balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. I wrapped mine in foil to prevent sticking; you can also use wax or parchment paper.

This recipe should yield 4 dozen of these tasty little babies! Refrigerate for 1 hour for maximum scrumptiousness (is that a word?)

Best part: These yummy morsels are a mere 48 calories a pop. This means you can eat 4, go on a 20 minute run, and it'll be like you never ate them. :)

What are your no-guilt guilty pleasures? Do you make these in more delicious ways? Share them in the comments!

EDIT: The guy was watching me move the cookie dough bites from the sheet to a tupperware today and said "I wonder what would happen if we tried to bake them". I assumed that with the amount of butter and lack of egg, it would produce a runny, untasty mess. Curiousity got the better of us, and we put half a dozen in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes. Oh. My. Goodness. They didn't melt or expand, but kept their perfect little ball shape, while being soft and warm on the inside. They literally melted in our mouths.