Routine is Good

Happy Monday, dear readers.  It was back to the grind for me today.  Oh, I went to work last week, but only for a day and a half, so that doesn't really count.  It was hard to drag my butt out of bed so early this morning, but once I was up and showered, I was actually pretty happy to be getting back to the normal routine.

I've seen a lot of blogs asking about resolutions for the new year.  I don't usually make resolutions because I'm not very good at keeping them longer than a month and then I end up feeling guilty because I've "failed".  So, instead of specific resolutions, I'm making it a general goal to better myself: mind, body and spirit.  Today was pretty good - check back tomorrow to see if it's stuck with me.  LOL

Now, this recipe doesn't fit in with that goal, especially bettering my body.  I went on a baking binge before Christmas and luckily we gave most of the "proceeds" to family and coworkers.  I love macaroons but had always been afraid to make them because I didn't have a clue where to begin.  Enter Allrecipes.  What did we *ever* do before the interwebs?  These were super easy to make and I don't know what took me so long to try.

Coconut Macaroons
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
5 1/2 cups flaked coconut
1/4 tsp salt
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350*.  Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or aluminum foil.

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, coconut and salt.  Stir in the sweetened condensed milk and vanilla using your hands until well blended.  Use an ice cream scoop to drop dough on to the prepared cookie sheets.  Cookies should be about golf ball size.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until coconut is toasted.

NOTES:  Yes, use your hands.  I tried using a wooden spoon but it was impossible to get the whole thing mixed thoroughly.  I used aluminum foil to line the baking sheet, but next time I'll probably use parchment paper because it was a little tricky getting the macaroons up from the foil.  My cook time was a little longer than 15 minutes because the coconut was not browned to my liking.

A large bag of coconut - it didn't look like 5 1/2 cups, but it was.  Ignore the peanuts in the back - counter space and time is precious.  Never enough of either.

Untanned and pasty looking, but I wanted to grab a ball and eat it anyway.  I didn't.  But I wanted to.

YUM!  We never had macaroons in the house growing up because my mom detests coconut.  I had no idea what I was missing.

This weekend we decided to bundle up the boys and take them to the park.  It's been crazy cold (for central NM) the last week or so, and we were getting a little stir crazy being stuck in the house every day.  It was sunny and there wasn't any wind.  Once we got out and started moving around, it wasn't so bad.  Here are my two favorite pictures from the day.

I caught this picture just. in. time.  I love it!  There was just enough snow left on the ground for Nate to stomp around in and not get too messy or cold.

Mason doesn't look very happy to be all bundled up, but he was super happy to be outside!  He goes up to his jacket that's hanging on the wall and tugs at it and gets very upset if we don't go outside NOW.  He looked so cute with his little pink cheeks and nose!

Oh!  And one more thing (promise...only one more).  Lu over at just Lu has come up with an awesome idea: Housewife MacGyver (minus the mullet, of course) and she asked if I'd be interested in participating.  Of course I want to play!!  Hop on over to her blog to check it out and drop her a line of you'd be interested in sharing a little bit of *your* expertise. Click on the little linky and it'll take you quick as a flash!

I think that's enough for tonight.  Dang it!  OK.  I lied.  But I think you'll like this.  I have ONE MORE thing to share.  Zoya, if you haven't heard, is offering 3 free bottles of polish to anybody who's interested.  Just use code FB2011 at checkout and you get your choice of 3 bottles of polish.  Really.  It's awesome!  The code is good through this week only, so hurry up and go pick your 3 favorite colors (it was hard to chose 3, but I did).