Death by walking

Us Butler's now we are not the most active clan, but we try. Lately we've started going on walks every night after dinner. Last night somehow we manages to clock 5 miles on my phones tracker thing. That's a lot of walking, especially for a two year old. My genius of a husband tackled it in a new pair of flip-flops. Our dog Daisy loved it and came home exhausted. I guess we can count this as our first step towards a healthier lifestyle. On the not so bright side the days are quickly ticking off to when Jon will have to leave us. I am dreading April. I guess I have to take it one step at a time right and thankfully I have a strong support system and someone going through it as well by my side.
until next time,
Marie :)

Chocolate blueberry muffins

Tanner and I have both been sick for the past like two weeks and now we are finally feeling better and I got the hankering to bake. I've had a package of frozen blueberries in the freezer forever so what better than chocolate blueberry muffins!?


makes 12-15 muffins
2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons oats
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup milk
1 cup blueberries
1/4 cup chopped dark chocolate
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with muffin liners.
In a bowl, combine sifted flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa powder, brown sugar, cinnamon, oats and mix until combined. Using a whisk (I prefer to use a fork), stir in the egg, vanilla, melted butter and milk. If. Fold in blueberries and chocolate.
Spoon muffins into liners, a little more than a tablespoon each. Bake for 13-16 minutes, or until muffins are cooked through.

I started my assembling all my ingredients, melting the butter, and making the brown sugar.

To make the brown sugar I just put a little more than 3/4 of a cup of white sugar in a food processor and a tablespoon and a half of molasses and let it whirl a while and tada instant brown sugar for a lot cheaper than buying a bag!

Next I set the oven to preheat at 350 and went to work sifting the flour and mixing the dry ingredients. I recommend beating the egg with a fork before incorporating it I feel like it's easier to get it to mix evenly that way. After the muffins where in the oven I set the time for 8 minutes and then when that was up turned the muffin tin and let them bake for 8 more minutes. They came out like below and were DELICIOUS!

Recipe adapted from http://www.howsweeteats.com/2011/04/dark-chocolate-blueberry-muffins/

Carnival!!!

Yesterday Jon got home at an extremely early time... like 9 A.M. early, so we decided to tackle the cleaning project that is our toddlers room. OH MY! After more than 4 hours and weeding through toys that are too young or too broken we still aren't done... With that being said I believe I have found my first craft project after hubby deploys, that room needs something done. Any way, last night we accompanied some friends to a local carnival that's in town, we gave ourselves a budget and figured we'd never use it all boy were we wrong, tickets, games, and funnel cakes drains $100 very fast, but Tanner loved it he rode every ride he was tall enough for and even one he wasn't thanks to a Carney who listened to him scream all while having to wait in line just to get up there and be three inches too short.

rejuvenation

So I started this bog two years ago just before my great grandfather died and it's been two years since I've written in it. So, with my husband's first pending deployment and having nothing to do all day as a stay at home mom, I mean who cleans anymore, I've decided to rejuvenate the blog with my love of family and cooking to hopefully bring forward some crafts and recipes and just everyday life stories. :)