Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Did you enjoy time with family and/or friends? Did you enjoy some delicious food? I am thankful to say I did both. My contribution to the Thanksgiving feast was some seasoned baked potato fries. They turned out even better than I could have imagined. I think the sea salt I used was the secret ingredient in addition to some other spices.

Thankful on Thanksgiving for Cake in a Mug!

I can't believe Thanksgiving has come and gone! Today is Black Friday and Christmas is just around the corner... along with ice, snow, and winter storms. Oh joy!

I am very thankful I was able to spend my Thanksgiving with a co-worker's family since I was unable to head home to my family a couple states away. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner, and unfortunately I have no photos to show for it. Do not fear though, I have some pictures of cake in a mug!

I first tried cake in a mug last week and loved it! It is super easy, tasty, and creates the perfect single-serving treat. I'd rather not bake an entire cake for myself... that's simply not a good idea.

Below are a few of the different types I made. I experimented with egg, without egg, with oil, with part oil/part applesauce, with stevia, with sugar, with white flour, with wheat flour, etc. You really can't go wrong. Some versions taste better, but all seemed pretty good to me.

Chocolate Oatmeal Cake in a Mug

Banana Cake in a Mug

Have any of you tried making cake in a mug? You should! There are lots of great recipes to try, such as this a chocolate cake recipe!

Thanksgiving Bread

Happy Thanksgiving!!  I hope you all had a wonderful day yesterday and were able to spend it with friends and family while eating scrumptous foods.  I decided to bake some bread, which is something I should do much more often since it is oh so delicious!  It's not that difficult either, especially when you make "Easy No Rise Bread" like I did (pictured below).  It's always the best right out of the oven - warm with a crisp crust.

Did any of you hit the stores to do some Black Friday shopping?  I went to CVS under the impression that their sales started today at 6am (I just wanted a hair dryer for $5.99), but when I got there I noticed the parking lot was empty.  It turns out that their sale started on Thursday and the hair dryers were gone :-(.  That will teach me not to rely on those Black Friday aggregator sites.  I should've actually looked at the CVS website...  Oh, well.  I ended up purchasing what will likely be a higher quality hair dryer from Amazon.

Now I must do homework - the end of the semester will be here soon!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!  I'm going to take this time to state the 10 things I am most grateful for in my life:

1. God - He's there for me even when I'm not aware
2. Family and friends - the people I can turn to in joy or sadness
3. Health - the ability to run and be active without much pain
4. University of Illinois - an excellent school
5. Champaign-Urbana - a fabulous place to live
6. Technology - iPod, laptop, digital camera... I couldn't live without them
7. Healthy and delicious food - to nourish my body
8. Books - the knowledge and stories they contain is priceless
9. Music - it can bring me to my feet in dance or simply soothe my soul
10. Internet - Facebook, Blogger, Skype, YouTube... these are some of my favorite things :-)

What are you most thankful for?

I'm also thankful that I can host giveaways and bring a little joy to others' lives :-).  I have two giveaways going on right now here and here!

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