Good morning!

How in the world is it September? I kinda shiver when I think of September because I immediately associate it with school. BUT I should probably look at the bright side since it’s the month of so many birthdays in my family!

This weekend has been a lovely mix of productivity and leisure, which is such a blessing. It’s been fun hanging out with my family and friends before we get down to business for the start of the school year (next Monday–gah!). I also did quite a bit of cooking and baking this weekend! I can still smell the flour, bananas, and cinnamon. ‘Twas marvelous!

Thanks again, Katie, for hosting!

Marvelous is…

THIS:

Saturday afternoon, I baked and indulged in the most delicious banana coconut muffins from Cookie & Kate. I am still amazed at how good they are. Wow. Literally–moist clouds of not-overly-sweet banana coconut goodness with a kick of lemon/lime zest and a crispy topping of toasted coconut. (I feel like I could make the descriptions for menus at fancy restaurants…Oh there’s an idea!)

Swoon. 

My mom and dad really enjoyed these too. I will definitely be making these again!

Marvelous is…

Nine hours of sleep on Friday and Saturday night! Haven’t gotten that much in a while. Very grateful indeed.

Marvelous is…

Toast + avocado + smoked salmon=winning comb.

Three li’l piggies fishies.

Marvelous is…

Finishing all my summer homework, woohoo! Now it’s time for college essays. Oh boy.

Marvelous is…

More baking! My mom requested some kind of treat that incorporated her chocolate protein powder for when she goes to the gym. Thus, I made Taralynn’s Protein Brownies. They have a strong banana flavor, but we’re cool with that!

Marvelous is…

Soft boiled eggs + toast (a.k.a. “Eggs and Soldiers.” All I need is Ben so I can speak in a British accent!)

Marvelous is…

Ciao Bella deliciousness. I shared a little bit of coconut sorbet and pistachio gelato with mom. Oh how I love frozen treats.

Marvelous is…

This new-to-me Chobani flavor–lemon! Chobani was on sale at Stop and Shop, so I got five flavors that I’ve never tried before. To be honest, lemon Greek yogurt sorta turned me off because I was afraid of eating sour with sour, but this was awesome! It was kind of like lemonade.

Marvelous is…

Oats 🙂

Note: I found the perfect spot to take pictures of my food when it’s light outside! My mom has this little table on our front steps that she painted white, so it helps create a rustic, yet clean background for my photos. I’m definitely FAR from a pro, but it’s better than taking pictures of my food on the kitchen floor next to the back door. Although now the neighbors will regularly see me in my pajamas taking pictures of bowls and plates of food. There are weirder things I could do.

Marvelous is…

Mom and Dad having a date-night-in watching What to Expect When You’re Expecting. They were laughing a lot! I admire my parents for still devoting quality time to each other (even though I totally squeezed in on the couch to watch too). I hope to have a relationship like that one day if God calls me to be wife!

Adorable.

Marvelous is…

Making buckwheat pancakes for the first time!

I used this recipe from Edible Perspective, making some slight changes based on what was available in our pantry and fridge. They were fantastic! The buckwheat flour made them dense and fulfilling, and the hint of cinnamon was perfect.

I highlighted the cinnamon with some vanilla sunflower seed butter (which has some cinnamon in it), Greek yogurt, and a drizzle of maple syrup.

I got kind of excited with my camera around my neck, phone held by my chin, and plate in hand. So this happened:

Fail. I said it.

The ‘rents enjoyed the waffles as well!

Marvelous is…

A random workout yesterday!

It began with 10 minutes on the elliptical and 5 minutes on the treadmill again! But there’s some sad news. I tried a different treadmill to see if the other one was defective and I was going at speed 7.0 again. Boo. However, I will continue trials at this empirical experiment (nerd alert) because today my legs were more sore than they were on Friday, so maybe that affected my speed as well. We shall see.

Then I loosely followed this arm workout from Julie and did some ab work that burned.

That’s all for now, folks!

PS: I updated my About page yesterday! It gets a little raw and you can read about my more personal story. *Suspense*

I also added a Blogroll page so you can see some of the super spectacular blogs I follow!

Have a great week! (Good luck to those starting school this week.)

So tell me: Have you baked anything recently? Do you like waffles? What did you do this weekend? What are you doing today?