Nurturing my inner... drives me bananas

Chocolate meet banana.  A instant ♥love♥ match.  And this is the real deal.  All natural banana covered in chocolate.  I'm crazy for this flavor combination.  I used to get the half banana pops at Trader Joe's (I've seen another version at Giant and Stop & Shop recently too, in milk and dark chocolate), but recently stumbled upon this "one bite at a time" version at TJ's as well.  Thought it might help me to just have a couple smaller pieces and be done with less calories.  (Um, that's not going quite as well as I had hoped without super human self control.)

Just bananas and chocolate. How simple.
(Hello monkey!)

A full portion is six pieces.  I curbed myself down to three.  That's a decadent enough portion to satisfy my sweet craving.  (Most times.  I won't say every time.  Let's be real.)

Never eat them straight from the box or you
won't be able to control your portion.
(Consider yourself heartily warned.)

I don't wait but a second after taking them out of the freezer.  They get the immediate *chomp* action.  Three bites (I really do try to take smaller ones, but it's soooo hard) and they are history.  But what a sweet, melty, rich memory it leaves behind.  (And now I want three more.  Arrrggg, the madness of it all.  Blasted calorie reduction attempt!)

All different sizes because they are real
banana slices.

At least I can feel good about eating real, straight up fruit with this frozen treat.  (Candy coating aside.)  Sure, it's sweet and cool like ice cream, but it is not filled with a bunch of processed things you've never even heard of and likely can't pronounce.  (It's also not jam packed with double digit fat grams neither.)  Just delicious banana covered in simple divine chocolate.  I bet you'll love them too.

Hold up!  I've never done this before.  I'm adding to my post after I've already posted.  Whoa.  But I thought this other chocolate banana treat would fit in well.  (Eh, you really can't limit creativity.  It hits when it hits.)

Got these chocolate covered banana candies at Wegmans in the international foods section.  They were from Austria.  And since I don't read German ("Why don't they speak Austrian in Austria?" I wondered aloud to myself), I wasn't sure exactly what I was getting into.  A "zart" sounded like something nice to have though.

How could I go wrong, right?

The box had two layers and I think about six on each.

Even looks like a banana. Points for realism.

Inside was a close to real banana (not weird, fake, artificial) flavor  marshmallow type of filling.  Very light, not that sticky.  Almost like mashed bananas.

Broke open just for you.

Oh mein, they were gut!  (To exercise a little Germenglish.)  Didn't really matter if I could read the box, I now see.  The pictures were enough to entice me to take a chance.

And now I'm really done for today.  I'm serious.  Going dark...

Nurturing my inner... foursquare flashback

It was gorgeous yesterday, so I went for a run.  (Thank goodness I'm getting my way too soft self back out there before all is lost.)  And naturally, as I seem to enjoy rewarding myself with food, (which gets me into the aforementioned soft self predicament in the first place), I wanted dessert.  But I knew I shouldn't have dessert.  So, instead, I was dreaming of a highly creative endeavor I had whipped up out of nowhere some time ago, but has remained vividely on my mind.  (And I ate some low fat cottage cheese instead. *groan*)

It was an ordinary week night sometime last June when a friend suggested, on the fly, that we get together for dinner.  That very night.  As in, two hours from the asking time.  The plan quickly formed that instead of going out, she would pick up takeout and I would whip up dessert from things I had lying around the house.  (This is as close to an Iron Chef moment as I get.)

I got out a pen and paper and started to create my vision first in a literary sense.  (Must be the artist in me.)  I divided my paper into four quadrants and the sparks began to fly!  I could do this and this and even this.  And oh, I also had the perfect plate to pull it all together!  (There is no way to truly document the creative process.  It kind of just finds a starting place and takes off from there.)

With today's types of sampling variety plans in mind, I had purchased plates with four compartments from World Market.  My original idea when I had been shopping around was thinking I would be serving up appetizers in this fashion, but that day I came up with dessert extraodinaire instead and it was going to be outrageous!  (I aim to impress.)

Oh yeah, lot going on.

The final product was this, working clockwise:

1.) Caramel sauce, fresh blueberries, vanilla Hagen Daas and a Trader Joe's fried pineapple chip.

2.) Nutella hazelnut spread, Ben & Jerry's pistachio and half a Trader Joe's waffle cookie.

3.) Freshly-juiced watermelon granita (that I made myself with my juicer) over large blackberries with a splash of Malibu coconut-flavored rum.

4.) Ben & Jerry's Rocky Road, almond slivers, mini chocolate chips and half a marshmallow I toasted on my gas stove.

Yes.  It was amazing!  Yes.  I can remember every detail.  Yes.  I do want that scrumptious dessert right this very moment!!  Who wouldn't!  But I was strong.  (This time.)

It was fun to put together different flavors and textures.  I moved things around on my idea paper until I decided on the perfect match ups.  I do also have to note that the plates are not huge and the scoops of ice cream were done with a small scoop.  It would be impossible to eat a normal-sized scoop of all these decadent treats.  (Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say "impossible.")

Some days you enjoy dessert, some days you enjoy the memory of dessert.  Either way, I hope you find yourself content in your choice that day.

Nurturing my inner... other kind of cool

My car told me the temperature today on my way to its tune up: 16.  Yes, 16 degrees!  I shouldn't complain, because we've had a relatively mild winter, but I'm going to anyway.  (Because I'm a woman and we have to talk it out in order to move past it!  It's what we do.)  It was bitter cold this morning!  I even kept on my wool coat and scarf in the waiting room at the dealership for three hours.  Brrr.

"Dear summer... I miss you.  I want you back.  I should have appreciated you more when I had you.  What a fool I was.  As for you, winter, we're breaking up.  I'm over you.  It's clear we're moving in different directions.  (Mine is the one toward flip flops.)  You should go find someone better suited for you, who can love you and your chilly ways.  Like an Eskimo or a polar bear or a downhill skier.  But as for us, we're through.  There is no reconciling now that Christmas is over.  Move along now."

In a vain and desperate attempt to convince myself that warmer days were right around the corner, and not four months out, I popped open a popsicle today.  (While I wrapped myself in three layers of clothing, with thick socks, under a blanket.)

Perhaps hot cocoa and reality would
have been the better way to go.

I figured by the pure power of mental determination, and brute will of the suggestive mind, it would feel like 90 degrees in my condo in no time.  I was even *this close* to cranking up the thermostat to help create the balmy mirage I was aiming for.  (I was desperate, if you recall.  Don't judge.)

There are a few flavors, all with coconut.
I got mango, but there was also pineapple
and guava.

Smooze is a delicious way to give winter the chilly kiss off.  It's available at stores like Target or Whole Foods in the snacks or juices section.  It isn't frozen when you buy it.  You bring your box home and then put as many as you'd like in the freezer.  The next day, they are solid, fruity treats.

Scissors snip the top off easy.

Smooze is a grown up push up pop in a triangular shape.  After the top is sliced open, a little squeeze from the bottom and up we go.  A taste of summer in seconds.  No matter what time of year it really is.

Creamy, coconutty, coolness.

I'm sure it's still below 20 degrees out.  (Despite my flat out denial.)  But perhaps, just for the three minutes it took me to chow down my mango coconut popscicle, I was poolside, basking in the warmth of the big yellow ball in the sky.  Ahhhh.  Paradise.  Well, at least I know one thing: It may be frigid beyond measure right now, but soon enough, we'll all be complaining that it's too stinkin' hot out!  (There's just no pleasing us, is there?)

Nurturing my inner... out with the old

A brief posting tonight on New Year's Eve.  (Mostly because I really was not impressed with 2010 and quickly want 2011 to get rung in and pick things up!)

Yahoo does these great little video vignettes, called Second Act, about people changing careers midlife and really embracing their true passions.  There are stories about a management consultant turned goat cheese farmer, heart transplant guy who is walking a marathon in every state in the US, overweight/high cholesterol dude becoming an extreme unicyclist, IT developer opening a brick oven pizzeria, nurse transformed into actor, business woman making intricately designed cookies, artist switching to beekeeper (she's in CT so maybe she'll let me interview her next Summer), and on and on!!  I love these few minute documentaries because all the people featured are middle-aged and at one time or another in their lives they felt that they were meant for something different.  Something more.  When they found their opportunity, they took it.  And worked hard to make the most of it.  Regardless of their financial situations after the switch, they all were happy to have taken the leap!  You can see it in their eyes.  It seems that when you do what you love, what you were created for, you cannot help but be a success!

If you're one of the very few people who really love what you do for a living, I envy you.  In fact, I need information from you.  Please call me and cough up all your career-adoring secrets.  But I'd guess that most of us feel like what we do for 40 (or 50 or more!) hours a week is alright and we like it just fine, but it really doesn't fully satisfy us in the deepest parts of our souls.  Where our truest self lies.  We all have something we possess an honest, natural talent for and would enjoy doing for more of our day than we do right at this moment.  It could be something we're already doing now on the side part time or something we haven't even yet discovered.

I hope in 2011 you lean into that quiet, small voice whispering inside of you and pay it some real attention to it.  (You know it's been trying to talk to you.)  Honor it (and yourself) by slowing down, really listening and don't dismiss any ideas - silly as some may seem.  Nurture your inner dreams!  No matter who tries to tell you how foolish they are, you hold tight!

In the meantime, I leave you with the gelato my brother gave me.  It got slightly melted in the car while we were out, but it tasted just fine once I got it home and into a bowl.  It also happened to be in a really cool container, which made it even better.

Not too sweet. Very nice!
My favorite flavor.

Your assignment for next year: be daring!  Do something you've always wanted to do.  (Perhaps while eating gelato, because that always makes it better.)  I want to hear what you're up to.  Hello 2011, we're ready for you!!  I hope you're ready for us!!