Category: Food

It was a crazy-busy week.

Monday was a productive day at work and my girls brought home their UIL awards from their Meet this past weekend. 

So proud of them and how much they love writing!

Jorge was on a business trip for almost 3 days this week. He was taking another Certification exam, this time in San Antonio. The girls usually set up camp in my room when he’s out of town.

Emily always chooses to sleep on my futon (which I’m using as my closet for just-laundered clothing. I don’t have any space left in my closet!) and Alaethia sleeps next to me. It’s hard for me to sleep when Jorge isn’t home, but even more-so when Alaethia’s next to me because any little movement she makes sends my Mom-Senses into overdrive because I feel paranoid that she’ll fall off the bed.  My arm literally flies across to grab her and pull her closer to me! It happens automatically. She even told me, half-groggily, “Mom! You’re too paranoid!” 😆 But I do love that this will be a memory they’ll appreciate as much as I do when they’re older.

We had shopping to do Tuesday evening, the first day Jorge was gone, so after work and visiting Gramma, we rushed to Ross. We’d received an invitation for Alaethia over the weekend inviting us to a “formal” event, where they were recognizing students that had Mastered part or all of the STAAR test. She needed an outfit and shoes, since she’d grown out of everything she had. She refused to like any of the outfits I picked out (how dare) and she picked a pretty plain looking black/white dress, but her mind was set. She did pick out some cute, quilted Michael Kors flats, that I’m pretty sure will fit me 😆 .

I spoke to Jorge before going to bed and wished him luck on his certification exam he was having the next morning.

We have some events coming up at work, so it was rush, rush all week. Thankfully, booth sales started picking up for both events that are happening in tandem, so that was a relief.

We also had a group of dancers and artists coming in from Oaxaca to perform “La Guelaguetza,” so my boss and I went to the Performing Arts Center to welcome them and take note of what was going on.

It was incredible to watch them create this from scratch!!

The girls were invited to their friend Jimena’s birthday on Wednesday, so I rushed after work to pick them up, buy a gift and make it on time. It’s always great getting together with Jenny, Erica, Flor and the other moms. I really am so blessed that my kids’ friend’s moms are all so damn awesome and easy to get along with <heart>.

I managed to stay Keto during the party. Well, for the most part. I ate the toppings off of one pizza slice and ate Emily’s pepperonis. And took a piece off of her chocolate cupcake. 😕

Then, when the party was over, Emily and Maddie locked themselves in the truck (or so they thought–I had the keys, of course lol). And it took 20-30 minutes to get them to separate 😆 . I love that they love spending so much time together!

So, instead of taking the girls home like a good mom because it was late, we stopped by the 99 Cent Store because I was still hungry and needed peppers in all the colors! I also found some snacks for them, like Mother’s brand iced animal crackers, Goldfish and Special K Red Velvet pastries.

I put them to bed when they got home, and then I microwaved some cheese and pepperoni and used my colorful peppers as “chips”.

Spoke to Jorge while I ate dinner. He was going to bed because they were taking off at 5am from San Antonio to make it on time for another project.

I rushed through work Thursday, checking things off my to-do list because Jorge confirmed that I WOULD need the day off on Friday. Awesome!!

We had to get an emergency special event permit at work (so glad they helped us!) and we did a walk-through of the displays.

I left at 4:00 to pick Alaethia up from UIL practice and went straight home to get her ready. She had to shave her legs (mmhmm–told her it was drama), so that was going to take a bit. Emily declared she had no dress OR shoes so off we rush to Wal-Mart. She liked a cute peachy dress and scored some $2 T-strap sandals. We really wanted some glittery gold flats but they didn’t have her size. I’m just glad the girl let me put her in a dress!

Rushed home again and Emily and I changed. I tried to use my curling iron to curl Alaethia’s hair, at her request, but I really haven’t the slightest idea on how to use it! But she still looked cute and at least she agreed to spiffy up her dress with a gold belt.

We arrive just on time at the assembly, where Mario and Mary saved us seats. We find out that Alaethia has Mastered ALL THREE of the STAAR test subjects!!

When the event is over, we rush to the Performing Arts Center for La Guelaguetza. The parking lot is packed. We find parking in the back, and make it to our VIP seats, which are 2nd row. Woo!

The girls were bored at first, but they had some crazy and hilarious performances, like the one about “El Torro”:

and El Baile del Diablo lol.

It was so entertaining!! The outfits were beautiful and so vibrant!
They’d send dancers out after almost every dance number with armfulls of little baskets, or hats made of palm, or tiny brooms or beautiful woven fans with colored corn-husk flowers, and they’d toss them into the audience.  

The first time they handed out the items, the girls got a little wicker basket each. No one was storming the stage yet. The 2nd time they handed them out, I made eye-contact with the dancer and he handed over a palm-woven fan, so I reached up and sprang out of my seat. As I sat back down, my bag (which was holding the seat down with its weight) must have shifted because my seat closed and my bum made a mighty *thud* as it made contact with the hard outer-edge of the seat. Then I slip right off and my bum once again hits the back of my heels. Lord help anyone if they got flashed 😕 . My boss was a few seats down and I’m sure he caught a photo of the entire thing 🙄 . I thought tragame tierra (“ground, swallow me up”) from embarrassment, but then I laughed it off because seriously, this kinda shit only happens to me 😆 . Gotta laugh at yourself sometimes!

Emily wanted a tiny broom but the large women that would push the little kids out of the way took them 😡 . Still, the girls made out like bandits lol. No falling on my part for the rest of the stuff, either, heh.

Mario took the girls with him right afterwards; the show ran longer than expected and none of us had eaten dinner. 

Jorge had arrived at home earlier and had picked up the boys. I changed and told him about the show and then we made a late-night run to Whataburger for bunless Chorizo Burgers. OMG, so good!

We got into bed because the next day: WE WERE GOING TO VEGAS!

As always, Gerry and her Committee outdid themselves!

This year, the Wine Classic was “Old Hollywood” themed, and as always, I was a nervous wreck about my outfit. I searched two different Goodwills hoping I’d find a good dress to fix up like I did last year, but no luck (instead I found a ton of amazing vinyls!). Jorge took action, measured me, and had Dinah order a dress for me on her Amazon Prime account–which he would reimburse her for. She ended up getting it for me herself, plus a petticoat! It was perfect, and very Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, which I was going for. It was modern enough that–in case I ended up being the only one to dress up–it wouldn’t be too alarming 😆 !

I did some shopping for work on Thursday morning, and ended up finding the perfect earrings, necklace and tiara. I had some shoes to go with it, but they killed my feet immediately, so I ended up wearing my good old speckled wedges, which Gerry said would complement the dress.

I was posted in the Auction Room, and although I didn’t get much time to get out and wander, I got a few photos:

I have to admit: I had a tiny brownie, a tiny cheesecake and a chocolate-covered strawberry. And I have no regrets!

Of course I’d look shiny AF the second I step out into the night’s humidity -_-. And although my feet ached, I had a fabulous time!

I searched all over the place for a great, chocolatey low-carb, Keto-friendly mug cake recipe that didn’t taste like cardboard, and after trying tons of recipes on Pinterest I decided I probably had to make my own. So, after a lot of trials and errors (a lot. And I ate them, because I don’t like wasting ingredients 😳 !), I want to say I created a pretty darn good recipe! (And this is coming from a former sugar-obsessed, carb-aholic! So I know my desserts!) Without further ado, here’s my Low-Carb Chocolate Mug Cake With Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing.

For the Cake, You’ll Need:

A round mug, perhaps about 4 inches in diameter
2 tbls butter
2 tbls almond flour
1 tbls coconut flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 pinch or 2 twists of freshed cracked sea salt (or Pink Himalayan Salt)
1 tbs vanilla extract
2 tsps heavy whipping cream
1 tbls Swerve sweetener
1 tbls Hershey’s Cocoa 100% Cacao Unsweetened Powder
1 tbls Lilly’s Dark Chocolate Chips, 55% Cocoa Stevia Sweetened
1 egg

For the Frosting, You’ll Need:

1 heaping tbls cream cheese
2 tsp Hershey’s Cocoa 100% Cacao Unsweetened Powder
1/2 tsp Swerve sweetener

Directions for Cake:

Melt your pat of butter in your round mug for 30 seconds (you can probably use any mug, but I find the rounder it is, the more evenly it bakes).

Mix your almond flour, coconut flour, baking powder and sea salt into your butter. Then add your vanilla extract, heavy whipping cream, Swerve, Hershey’s Cocoa Powder and your Lilly’s Chocolate Chips. 

In my experience, Swerve is the way to go with sweeteners. I’ve tried Stevia and Pure and they were just too bitter.

Stir until well combined, scraping the sides of your mug.In a separate bowl, whisk your egg, then stir it into your mug with your cake mixture until well-mixed, to avoid any white, eggy clumps.

Once it’s all nicely mixed, microwave for 90-100 seconds, depending on your microwave. I’d start with 90 seconds. Mine came out a little soft on one side, like a brownie consistency, but I love my cakes like that so it was perfect for me. Pop it in for 5-10 seconds at a time if you like a firmer cake. Once it’s done, flip your mug onto a plate or cutting board. A few good taps will pop it right out 🙂 .

Directions for Frosting:

In a bowl, mix your cream cheese, Hershey’s Cocoa Powder and Swerve until well-combined.

It took a little bit of elbow-grease to get it all mixed, but when it was done it was perfect. 

My girls said it was good, but needed to be chocolate-ier; I like to taste the cream cheese so it was good enough for me, but you can add more cocoa if you need to.

Wait for the cake to cool just a bit and carefully spread your frosting on your cake. As you can see, I was too much in a rush to wait 😆 !!

Please let me know if you try it out in the comments and if it needs any adjustments!!