Happy Feet!

For a few months now, I've had my eye on these really cute Petunia brown pumps, but sadly... they didn't have my size.

Last night, a friend had the most adorable boots inspired by Carlos Santana, and the fabric, like, draped around the whole boot... just kinda sorta like my shoes.

Well... I checked on my shoes, and VOILA! ! 7.5! I hope that is my size. I hate buying stuff and not really have the ability to EASILY return... But I'm super excited for them! I found a coupon for free shipping too!

Amazing BBC show!

Chai Latte

Ever since my birthday when I had a cup of Chai Latte with my amazing Nutella and bananas brioche French Toast, I wanted try making the Chai at home.  It was QUITE sugary...

I found this recipe rather quickly just doing a google search, but it sounds really easy. And I have ALL these ingredients at home. I'm so excited, I think i'm gonna try tonight!

http://www.instructables.com/id/Home-Made-Chai-Latte/

Gosh, I wish I could drink it right now!

Letter to Self #1

Dear Petunia,

It must feel terribly frustrating to want sugar when you are consciously deciding to eliminate it from your diet.  And when people in the office can sense your need/want, and offer up delicious Dove Dark Chocolate bites...

And when your mind starts to justify why you "deserve" to have some... that's the real killer.  Because, YES, you are great, and deserve all you want for your hard efforts at home and work.

But let me remind you, now that I have validated your feelings, that you DID have 1/2 Trader Joe's Peppermint Oreo last night.  And that spoonful of your homemade Nutella this morning (proof by the scoop mark in the container in below's post) was quite sugary...

And let me just put it out there, to help you shift your perception (this is probably not gonna go over well with you, but I must say it...)  Its not what you are denying yourself, but what you are rewarding yourself with... good health, happy insides, and clearer skin, and eventually soon... size 4 jeans (just saying).

So, the decision is yours.

Love,

Self

Oh Nutella...

The other night, I finally found hazelnuts and attempted this recipe off of this nice lady's blog... In Jenny's Kitchen.

I made some changes...

I wanted to replace the white sugar with coconut sugar that I got.
I used 60% Bittersweet Chocolate bar from Ghirardelli
I used some hazelnut oil that I had instead of the vegetable oil
I was gonna reduce the amount of sugar actually added since, 1/2 cup seemed crazy!

So when I made it, after thinking that I had done something wrong cause the hazelnuts where NOT becoming the consistency of peanut butter... but between 1 minute to the next, it did!

Then I added the melted chocolate bar.
And the vanilla extract.

I kept processing and finally, VUALA! Nutella!  I then added the hazelnut oil.  When I tasted it, I found NO NEED to add ANY more sugar!  And I never even added the cocoa powder.

But after licking the bowl, and the spoons... I found that it was simply tooooo sweet to eat without a terrible guilty conscious.  I'm trying to eliminate sugar from my diet, and there was simply too much sugar in that 4 oz of bittersweet chocolate for me to think this was a viable alternative to Nutella, which is what I was going for.

So, back to the drawering board!  I gave this tub of hazelnutty goodness to my coworker Sean, and will be going back to the kitchen to try again.

Ghirardelli has a 100% unsweetened chocolate baking bar which I'll try. Along with cocoa powder.  And then I'll add my coconut sugar or stivia at the end for optimum sweetness.

Stay tuned!

Corn Bread Disaster

I have been dying to try out this corn bread recipe that calls for whole wheat and cornmeal...I thought that the company's chili cook-off would be a fun place to showcase this tempting treat that was Petunia's-new-lifestyle-of-eating-friendly.

But when I pulled out the box of cornmeal... the box was like... covered in black mold?! I have no idea how that happened. So in the trash it went, and I had no energy to go to the store.

This morning, I figured, I'd throw together the box of Jiffy mix that I keep on reserve in the pantry. I wanted to put a little twist on it, so I added some ground chipotle pepper and baked them in the mini muffin tins.

I certainly overcooked them. But whatever, you dunk them in the liquidy chilly and you're good to go. Jiffy is NOT on my new lifestyle plan, so I didn't sample.

I snuck a taste... GROSS!!!! I am embarrassed that I even served them!!! ahhhhh. I just have NO luck with Jiffy. I have to get rid of any other "reserve" boxes that might be lingering in my pantry... but how the f*ck does someone mess up 1 egg and 1/3 c of milk?

Is that YOUR cat's puke?

I am not a cat lover. I always found them rather b*tchy. It doesn't help that I'm highly allergic to them. So whenever a friend announces the addition of a new little pussy around the apartment, I silently die a bit cause it means limited time at their house. The more additions to the household, the shorter my stays. But that's my problem.

I came home last night after a very long weekend... to find some cat puked on my doormat... I was not really happy about this. Especially since... the cat had to go out of its way to walk down to where I love, just to give me that little gift...

PLUS, there is no way that the owner will see the cat puke on my doormat, cause they certainly don't mosey to my 'hood' like its four-legged friend does...

And to make matters even worse, if its the cat that I'm THINKING it is... the last time that cat puked on its own mother's outdoor couch... it sat there for WEEKS. So no hope in her cleaning up my rug...

I did you all a favor by NOT taking/posting a photo of my poor doormat.