California Round Cake

Okay so I finally got around to making "The Best Chocolate Sheet Cake. Ever I used restraint. I waited for a birthday! lol I went to bed at 10:00 p.m. on 12-7-07 and I woke up at 2:00 a.m. having a nitemare. I laid there but couldn't fall back asleep. So at 3:00 a.m. I got up, had a cup of coffee, and started making cake! If you want the recipe and step by step pictures, just click that link. It was fun and easy to make. I have a huge cookie sheet that is only 1 inch off of hers but I decided I wanted to make 2 round pans instead so I could put it on my cake stand. Next time I will probably do the cookie sheet. I chopped walnuts, but didn't use them cause I was thinking they weren't ground up fine enough and didn't want dh to complain.

Now remember, I use all whole wheat. It was fun and very easy to make. The only problem was she recommends icing the cake when it is warm. Now that is probably a good idea if you are using a cookie sheet and leaving the cake in the pan. But I needed the two cake pans empty and the cake on a cake stand. Joey woke up, by then was it 5:00? I can't remember. So he took the cakes out but one broke a little bit. Grrrrrr......It was very soft. So yes the 3rd picture looks terrible! But trust me the cake is excellent. He iced it and there was plenty left over and I put it in the fridge hoping it would firm up. It did.

It really did. It was the best chocolate whole wheat cake ever. Not wheaty tasting at all. I also added some cinnamon to it. We ate it later that nite straight from the fridge. I really did like this recipe and will use it again and again. All the kids loved it and Joey said it tasted like a chocolate fudge brownie. On her website in the comments section lots of people were saying that this cake is Texas Sheet Cake. I believe it. In my make a mix cookbook where it tells how to make a huge brownie mix up and all the recipes you can use from that base mix, texas sheet cake is listed. The recipe is different though.

So my point is if you are looking for an awesome chocolate cake that some people think taste like a brownie, that you can also use all whole wheat with, this may be the recipe for you. :) Enjoy!

See the 4th picture? It doesn't look so bad there once it was cut and it firmed up a bit. :)

What kind of cake do you make for birthdays?

The Birthday Girl

So our youngest dd is 4 this month! Normally in the past we tried to keep birthday and x~mas presents at $50.00 each. This year money has opened up a bit more so I told the kids $100.00 each and that is it! That adds up quickly when you have 5 kids. Well her birthday falls in December so basically $200.00

Well back in late October or so Joey seen a Barbie Big Wheels car for her at Costco, $189.99. I checked the other stores and seen them for like $235.00-$250.00! I told him to get it as soon as he got off work! Good thing we did. A few days later there were no more and have not been in that store since!

But how to split that up between birthday and Christmas? lol We found a kitchen playset at Walmart for surprisingly only $38.00! We also wanted to get her some stuffed animals. SO we got her a bear rug for $15.00 and a pack of 7 bears for like $10.00 from Costco.



Well we celebrated last Saturday. Home made cake, 2 different kinds of ice cream, hot dogs, nachos and lots of nachos with nacho cheese sauce! Yeah I am glad all the food is gone. lol Here are some pics of her in her new ride. Oh and yes those are garage couches.

Yeah I know, now we are spending like $255.00! She wants a baby doll too. *sigh* Maybe she needs to write a letter to Santa cause I don't want to go broke! lol What are you getting your kids for christmas?

The Holidays

Well we are renting a van for 4 days from the 22nd til the 26th. That Saturday my friend is getting married down by the beach! I am so excited. Joe actually has to work Sunday-Thursday! Sunday the family is having a get together for all the 3rd and 4th cousins etc. So right after he gets off work at 3:00 we have to rush over there down to the beach. How long will that take? 2 hours? 3 hours? I have no clue. Tuesday he has to work for like 20 minutes, believe it or not. He HAS too! Then we have to be at my Aunt's by 10:00 a.m. That should take about 90 minutes.

We are having our traditional German potato pancakes for breakfast. Normally we have ham and/or turkey for dinner but this year my Aunt said they are making rice and curry for dinner, with some orange chicken thrown in for good measure. Is Mc Donald's going to be open? lol I can't stand curry!

Do any of you have a traditional holiday meal that you do? What are your plans for christmas?

Chocolate Brownies

One sentence is all it takes.
"Mom, can I have money for the snack bar at school?"

NO!!! Do you know how much garbage is in those snacks at school? A lot more than what I would put in a snack. So I went looking for the already prepped muffin mix in the deep freezer. I can usually abstain from eating those. Gone. But there was a huge container of brownie mix! Thank goodness we only had 3 eggs left so I could only make a batch and a half. It was delicious!

Do you let the kids buy junk food at school? Or do you just make them junk food at home?

Home made Creamy Chocolate Pudding

Make your own pudding packets for only .45 cents. Aren't they like $1.50 in the stores most of the time? I think once in a while I see it on "sale" for $1.00.

1 1/2 cups plus 2 TBS unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
3 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 1/3 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt

Basically add all the ingredients together and stir with a wire whisk. This makes enough for 6 cups of dry mix. Which is enough for 6 packets of chocolate pudding mix.

1 cup of mix
2 3/4 cups milk
2 TBS butter
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

In a sauce pan add the mix and the milk. Cook and stir until it thickens. Remove from heat and add in butter and vanilla. Makes 6 servings. Enjoy!

I will have to check the prices again at Smart N Final but from what I remember the cocoa is $5.69 for 16 oz(4 cups), the corn starch is $3.00 for 10 lbs(40 cups) and the sugar is $3.00 for 5 lbs(20 cups), I didn't bother adding the salt.

So $2.13 for cocoa, .49 cents for sugar, .10 cents for corn starch = $2.72 divided by 6 = .45 cents each. :) Oh I forgot to add in the butter but really, how much can it be? lol Not much more. ;)

What do you like to do with chocolate pudding? DO you like to make chocolate pie? Or just as a treat for the family?

$65.00 Christmas Cookies

Well that IS for 18 of them. But seriously,for $3.61 each they had better have nuggets of gold in them. lol Well now that I am feeling better I can get get back to what I love doing, baking, cooking! I am going to start gathering up a bunch of yummy recipes.

dd # 3's birthday is also coming up on Saturday so I need to do that cake soon too.

This recipe looks really good.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies

SO does this one:

Rudolph's Christmas Sugar Cookies

What is your favorite cookie recipe?

Praise the Lord

Well I finally dragged myself to the doc, amidst much kicking and screaming. That was November 20. Thanx to all the prayer and God's help I was able to stay calm. I absolutely did NOT want to go. In fact besides the gyno I have not been to a doctor since I was 15 years old. As alot of you know my parents dying back to back a few years ago and then my ex passing on just a few months ago really took it's toll on me. I am a very strong person but sometimes it is just too much all at once.

I am actually surprised I didn't have a break down but I think it is cause I want so much to remain in control and to be strong. I think I internalized it. I also wonder if losing alot of weight has affected me. As in I used to turn to food when I was stressed. Now I don't.

Yes I do turn to God and my dh. Them and all the prayers from family and friends are the only thing that has gotten me thru. Thank you, everyone.

Anyhow I am doing everything I can food wise especially when I start to feel my b.p. go up. The sad thing is the food I eat is normally pretty healthy as is, I add no salt, I eat lots of fruit and veggies, whole grains, I walk 60-80 minutes 5 days a week, etc, lots of water, I keep treats to a minimum.

I usually just try to find healthier ways to eat food I love as in chicken tacos, not fried, with spanish brown rice and fresh salsa, easy on the cheese.

Lean meats, yogurt, walnuts, beans. We use fresh and frozen fruits and veggies and rarely do I use canned goods. Usually tomato sauce and paste.

When I started feeling light headed the first thing I did was drastically watch the food, as in just the basics, beans, yogurt, walnuts, fish, just real simple, fruit, veggie, real plain. For months now I have been very focused on getting enough potassium and watching the calcium and more recently realized that magnesium is "nature's calcium channel blocker". ugghhh I could go on.

But food is NOT my problem, neither is the salt intake. My dh has been telling me for months it is the stress. I know it was. But to what extent? Then every time you turn around you are reading that if the b.p. is high then there is something wrong with your body. Don't get me started with that and all the "possibilities".

I think it first started reading a little high when the court stuff with my ex hit. Then it just got worse from there with the stress, then he passed on young. 35. Besides the fact this is someone I was once very close to and still cared about despite the way he treated me and the kids, I didn't want to see that happen to him. KWIM?

It also scared the heck out of me. He also had high blood pressure. I also found out he had diabetes. Guess what both my parents did to. The more I read to see what I could do to get the b.p. down, the more scared I became.

My parents dying 2.5 and 3 years ago is what inspired me in the first place to get this extra weight off and really focus on being healthy.

The "light headed" feeling really scared me and I knew I HAD to go. With alot of prayer and help from God I made myself go to the docs and told myself that if there was something wrong with me then I was obviously not getting any better sitting here doing nothing. That maybe it would be treatable.

Joe and I went that Tuesday and waited for 4 hours. I was actually feeling really clear headed that day. By the time I got in there though I was extremely panicked and scared. my mom spent her whole entire life in the docs office it seemed. By the time she was in her 30's she was on 13 different meds. And all I seen was her get sicker.

I am really freaked about taking ANY meds. I also am very leery of b.p. meds in particular, I have also heard that they work in only 20% of cases and that they may CAUSE diabetes!

But we prayed. I prayed that God would help the doc and us to come to a solution for me hopefully w/out b.p. meds. That I had to realize that maybe temporarily til I lose the rest of the weight I need to lose I may have to go on them. I do know people like that. Who go on them temp.

I was so worked up by the time I got in there that my b.p. was 151/110! Imagine how much fun it was telling the doc that both my parents were diabetic, both had high b.p., my mom had hepatitis and both of them are dead now. My mom at 52, dad at 65.

You see what bugs me is some people think it is hereditary. I do not think so. I believe it is a disease caused by a learned behavior. Basically mom and dad eat unhealthy, are fat, don't exercise, etc. Guess what the kid is most likely to do? Mom and dad watch what they eat, eat healthy, exercise guess what the kids do?
It is simple. Oh by the way, my moms parents were not diabetic and neither were my dads. ;)

This is also why I didn't want to go to the docs and have them try to label me. I know they are "experts" in their field and all but they are not God.

I tryed to explain that my b.p. is high cause I am stressed, 3 people very close to me have died in the last 3 years and in addition to that I am scared what if I am next?

Yes I know God does not want us to be afraid. I have read the scriptures over and over again. I have read the ones about God healing us and I do believe he does. I also believe he set this up for me to face my fear cause this has been nagging me in the back ground ever since my parents passed on. I just kept working on the weight and kept telling myself when I reached my goal I would go to the docs office though and get a clean bill of health. But all the fears and the what if's? all came crashing down on me front and center when my ex passed on.

I have also been reading lately that weight loss surgery patients, (I am NOT one) when the weight is gone, their diabetes is gone. I do believe that. I do believe that once they get down to a healthy weight that terrible disease is gone. As long as their body hasn't been completely damaged. I asked the doc if he could verify this and he agreed with me and said yes in many cases, but it depends on what else may be wrong.

That was a HUGE relief to me to know that he also shared that belief. I think that is when I began to realax. He prescribed b.p. pills and I asked if I would be able to take them for a few months and when more of this weight is gone if I could get off of them. He wasn't so sure about that. :( THAT really bugged me! But I reminded myself that God was in control and that I was going to seriously listen to what the doc said.

He wanted me to go in on Wed for blood testing.

So we went to the waiting room and sat and relaxed and the nurse came and wanted to do the b.p. reading again, I was like, okay, wasn't expecting it. Guess what, it read 120/82!!!!!! I thought she was kidding!!! No she wasn't.

I ran and told the doc,"You see, I told you I don't have a b.p. problem. I have an anxiety problem if there is any way we can do this w/out the pills..." He said, "We'll see how it goes, but I want to give you something. Can I give you something for anxiety?"

My Aunt and I had already discussed that on the phone before as maybe a "temporary" thing so I was open to it, I almost said no but said yes. Whew!!!!

No I don't want to stay on that either. But for some reason I am fighting with every ounce of my being to not be on ANY b.p. med!

Tomorrow will be two weeks on this and with the exception of a few flare ups here and there due to having to go back to the docs on Friday last week and being a bit anxious over the test results I have been doing good. i know I would of really been freaking out without this med while waiting.

Okay so we went in Friday and praise the Lord there is NO DIABETES!!! NO hepatitis, NO thyroid problem, NO liver or kidney problem, NO cancer!!! The cholesterol is up though. I do feel with me continuing to eat healthy and exercise and get more weight off I should be okay on that front.

I was a little nervous going in for the results apt but got a heads up from the nurse two days prior so I knew it was just cholesterol. I made it very clear to her on the phone on Wed I really needed to know that I wasn't diabetic. I was actually worried about having a heart attack if I had to wait 2 more day knowing they wanted to see me to discuss the test.

The b.p. reading when I went in that day was 130/84. A little up but not dangerously so. The nurse told me if you just stay calm you won't need b.p. meds! I really feel getting all this behind me is going to be a huge relief. I know it is. It already is. Praise the Lord! This is why God tells us not to worry, cause of what it can do to you. I know all this but sometimes it is easier said then done.

Thanx to all who prayed for me!!! *BIG HUGZ*