Happy Birthday to...

It's Kyle's birthday today, so in between school work I have been busy in the kitchen all day.

First, though, back to last night. As I said Kyle and I were celebrating a bit last night because I have class tonight, so we popped open our Chateau vino and had a few honey bunnies as a late night snack:

This morning I got up and made a game time decision to not go to the gym, but work out at home. I love the gym, but between a 40 minute workout, shower, and getting ready I am there for almost an hour and half sometimes. I just had too much else to take care of today!

For breakfast I had the rest of my Luna from yesterday along with a HUGE banana and a multi-vitamin:

Then I got to work on Kyle's birthday cheesecake.

Ordinarily I would have made him a strawberry cake, but since we HAVE NO OVEN, I was forced to get creative. So, I perused the internet for ideas, and settled on a no-bake cheesecake. The following is not a recipe from any particular site; more of a hodge podge of recipes.

No Bake Strawberry Cheesecake

• 16 oz cream cheese ( I used a 1/3 less fat, but if you want it more solid get regular)
• 1 tub frozen whipped topping
• 2 cartons of strawberries
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 20 graham crackers (crushed in a bag with a rolling pin)
• 1 stick butter

For the crust:

1. Melt stick of butter in the dish you will serve the cheesecake in

2. Crush 20 graham crackers in a bag. I used cinnamon ones by accident; if you use plain add 1/4-1/2 cup sugar to sweeten them up if you want. I left them as is.

3. Mix the graham crackers (and sugar) with melted butter until lightly damp, but still crumbly.

4. Press mixture to bottom and sides of the pan

5. Put in the fridge to set until filling is done

For the Filling

1. Let cream cheese and whipped topping soften as you make the crust and cut strawberries

2. Trim and chop about half a container of strawberries and put in food processor

3. Blend on low until it reaches a liquidity, yet slightly chunky texture

4. Mix cream cheese, sugar, and strawberry puree together until mixed and pink throughout

5. Next, add in about 2/3 tub of whipped topping. I slowly beat it in until I got to a consistency I wanted. Less if you want the filling to be super firm, more if you want it to be lighter

6. Smooth into pan over a SET crust

In my case I didn't make it super smooth, because I topped it with a layer of strawberries:

Easy as pie. Or cheesecake. Definitely not what I wanted to make, but who would have thought we would be sans oven for a month?

After that, I had a remake of last night's dinner for lunch:

Only difference was it was a little heavy on the chorizo/lentils. There was enough left over for a big portion, or two too tiny ones.

Dessert was fresh cut strawberries left over from my cheesecake, blueberries, and a tsp of sugar:

I love how a little sugar makes a nice glaze for the fruit :-) Look at me! I had two big servings of fruit despite not being all over the challenge anymore...

I spent a few straight hours doing work for my class tonight, and when I was done I did some exercise.

I got this DVD about a year ago, and I really like it. I have never been to a yoga class, but I have had enough practice with different poses through dance and aerobics that I feel okay practicing on my own with this beginning DVD. All the poses are very simple, and have very good verbal/visual instructions. Ordinarily I would not recommend doing yoga DVDs at home if you are unseasoned, but this one is basically light stretching and is not very complicated.

I did 30 of the 50 minutes. I have to say that I can REALLY feel it in my legs. I have not done yoga since summer, but I felt a lot going on in my arms, legs, and back in just 30 minutes. Gotta love it!

After my light workout, I set to work on the birthday festivities. My class started at 7:15, so I had less than two hours with Kyle once he got home from work. So, I wanted to make the most of my time by having appetizers ready.

Pita chips with guacamole, bruschetta, spicy hummus, and red pepper hummus:

Shrimp cocktail with a ketchup, horseradish mustard, and texas pete dip:

And finally, our Blue Newt White:

And when Kyle came home, I had one more surprise... as I was setting up I talked to my prof about my car trouble, and she said class was most likely cancelled because of the snow tonight!

So, I got to spend tonight with Kyle :-)

Well, I'm off to cook dinner, catch you guys on the flip side!