Cocoa Powder
I’m in the mood for chocolate morning, noon and night. 5 a.m.? Yes! 11 p.m.? Yes!
This morning chocolate popped up in my breakfast in a chocolate chip cheesecake breakfast bowl.
The base of my breakfast bowl was a mixture of ricotta cheese and cottage cheese, which I blended together with a pinch of xanthan gum, almond extract and sweetener.
Ricotta + Cottage Cheese
I topped the creamy, cheesecake-like mixture with chocolate chips, cocoa powder and freshly sliced strawberries.
Cocoa Powdaaa
Fresh Berries
Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Breakfast Bowl
This bowl contained:
- 1/2 c. cottage cheese
- 1/2 c. ricotta cheese
- 1 pinch xanthan gum (for thickness)
- 1 splash almond extract
- 1 pinch sweetener
- Sprinkling of chocolate chips
- Sprinkling of Nestlé cocoa powder
- Sliced strawberries
I blended the first five ingredients together with my immersion blender before topping the cheesecake-like mixture with the remaining goods.
This breakfast was really tasty and hit the spot after a hot run with Sadie this morning.
Workout
This morning I decided to change up my normal running route and took Sadie on a five-mile run around a different lake.
"Stop Taking My Picture and Go Get Me Some Chicken."
We stopped for a couple potty breaks (as usual) and had to pause for more cars than our typical running route, but I enjoyed the change of scenery.
Here are our stats (including potty breaks, waiting for cars to pass and talking to a couple about vizslas 😉 ):
Breakdown
(Woohoo for my first ever Garmin stats picture on the blog! Oh and yes I do wear my watch turned in rather than facing out. Not sure why…)
Save the Date Success
Wedding update!
Our save the dates are printed and ready for mailing!
Smiling for Save the Dates
After picking them up from Staples last night, Ryan and I got to work stamping the cards and licking lots of envelopes.
Please excuse me while I sing the praises of Staples!
With help from my sister and a guy from my work, our save the date images were formatted and ready for printing yesterday. I worked with a guy at Staples and explained what I was looking for and he went above and beyond to make our save the dates look amazing.
Then, on top of it all, he cut everything to fit into the envelopes I purchased, and only charged us for black and white printing when really it was color since the image of me and Ryan on the card is sepia.
Save the Date
October 30th, Baby!
I was determined to create our save the dates myself because I love being crafty and wanted to save money.When I found a wonderful (free!) template for these save the dates on WeddingChicks.com, I knew we had a winner.
We are so pleased with how they turned out and are even more excited about how inexpensive they were to make. The guy at Staples really helped us save a ton of money on printing costs.
Here is our save the date cost break down:
- Envelopes: $54
- Printing/ Cutting at Staples: $11
- Heart stamp: $4
- Happily ever after stamp: $7
- 2 stamp pads: $8
Total cost: $84
Not to shabby for 80 save the dates!
Now I just have to purchase a billion stamps and get these bad boys in the mail…
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The Save the Dates are just too cute!
I love the month of October. My husband and I were married October 17th!!! We can’t wait for future anniversary trips – OKTOBERFEST 🙂
I love starting my day with chocolate. It just feels like that HAS to make the day a good day… right? Pretty save the dates! So soon!!!
What is an immersion blender? I don’t know anything about kitchen appliances.
it’s a hand-held blender that you can place into a bowl/cup/pot/any container to blend the ingredients directly in whatever container you want.it makes clean up a breeze!
I love your save the dates! I’m actually getting married Friday, October 29, 2010! If people haven’t asked you already their going to ask, “Is your wedding going to be a Halloween wedding.” ummm.. NO! haha, so I tell them to please not wear costume 🙂
we said that we will make anyone who dresses up be on sadie duty. they’ll be relegated to dog sitting. 😉
gahh what a good feeling to get those save the dates done! i’m a maid of honor in my besties wedding and we’re coming to the close of everything! the wedding is in june so i’m super excited for it now that it’s just around the corner 🙂
love love loveee that breakfast! i’ve never dabbled with ricotta. hmm is it super cheesy tasting??
not really… ricotta is great b/c it really takes on a sweet flavor if you add sweetener or cinnamon.
Those save the dates are amazing! I love to be crafty too and it so much more special when you do it yourself. I just go a save the date for an October 10th wedding yesterday, so it seems you are right on time with getting yours out too!
Those are adorable save the dates, and my goodness you saved a fortune. I know, because I didn’t make my own. Believe me, you saved A LOT.
oh my gosh what an awesome breakfast! it looks so good. the picture on your save-the-dates is adorable!
they look great and can’t beat the price!
Too cute!!! Strike another “to do” off the list, right? Feels so good!
Your Save the Dates are adorable! And for $84, that’s even better! 😀
And ok, I have all of those ingredients sitting in my fridge right now…I think I need that chocolatey cheesecakey bowl of goodness! I don’t have an immersion blender though…do you think some plain old stirring by hand would work? 😉
it would definitely work, but the texture would be a little off. i’m sure it would still be tasty though & as long as you don’t mind it not being smooth, i’d say give it a go!
I love those Save the Date cards! Awesome!
They are so cute! Love them!
That’s the same date as my parents’ wedding!!! I think for them it’ll be 33 years this year.
I was curious about the ricotta and cottage cheese, do you use lowfat, full fat, fat free? And what brand do you prefer?
i use sorrento fat free ricotta cheese: http://www.sorrentocheese.com/cheeses/ricotta.html
congrats to your parents!
They are cute & classy! LOVE ’em!
Very cool Save the Dates! Love that you did it for less than $100 buckeros!
Make sure you buy the pre-moistened stamps…i don’t know about you but I hate licking stamps. EWWW.
OH MY GOSH those save the dates are so amazing looking! GREAT job guys! LOVE the little heart over the date.
Your caption under Sadie’s picture made me laugh 🙂 You are too funny!!
Also, I love the Save the Dates, they turned out SOOOOO cute!
your breakfast has me craving chocolate and cheesecake now 🙂
Lovely save the dates!
Love the S/Ds! I can’t wait to see all the other craftiness you bring to your wedding!
Ah….licking the envelopes and stamps…you should have put your girl Sadie to work! They’re adorable Julie!
Breakfast looks divine!
I love your save the dates. Your blog makes me want to relive my engagement and wedding!
Yay, save the dates! They are very cute and what a bargain of a price. 🙂
aw, they’re gorgeous! way to go on saving money and have gorgeous save the dates too 🙂
Super cuteeee!
Those are so beautiful!!!
Perfect. i love them!
i love it! it’s so cute and i love the sepia photo!
your cards turned out beautifully!
october 30 isn’t too far off – yippee!
are you having a small wedding [only 80 save the dates sent]?
we’re inviting 155 guests – but only need 80 save the dates.
How did you decide which guests to send save-the-dates to?
I make chocolate oatmeal and tell myself it still counts as breakfast 🙂
Your save the dates are adorable too! The heart over the 30th is precious.
Those save-the-dates are ADORABLE! You two make such an adorable couple 🙂
Your STD cards are adorable. They actually look better than anything I would have done professionally. Maybe this is your second calling in life girl. Way to go!
Julie – your save the dates are so pretty. They look really professional and classy.
Those save the dates turned out awesome! Y’all got the perfect pic.
that is such a cute idea to have the heart on the date! aww they’re gorgeous! x
I made your peanut butter flourless cookies from a few posts back…they were delicous!! I replaced half of the PB with Nutella and they cam eout marbled looking and yummy!! Thanks for the recipe..it was super easy!
so glad you liked them!
Hey Julie,
I know this is an older post but I am planning a wedding and have been looking through your blogs for inspiration. I was wondering if you just did save the dates for specific people who were not in the area the weddin was taking place?
congrats on your wedding, caitlin! we did save the dates for everyone.