Slumber Parties

Where did the weekend go?  It flew by for me, but the good thing is that my 1:15 class tomorrow afternoon was canceled, so I don't have to be at school until 5:30!  After a fun "Girls Night Out" last night, I drove to my parents house this morning and gave my mom her birthday gifts and the chewy peanut butter chocolate chip cookies that I made for her.  We went to see The Vow this afternoon (pretty good, and amazing that it's based off of a real story!) and then my grandma came over to eat dinner with us and spend the night.  Two "sleepovers" in a row!
 

Some of the cute decorations that Courtney got for us!  And a nice view of the toilet... sorry about that.)

Courtney, Me, and Nicci.

This morning we hit up the unimpressive continental breakfast at the hotel, but lately I've enjoyed taking my time with breakfasts on Sunday mornings.  Last Sunday I made a delicious and nutritious Sunday brunch.

Sauteed mushrooms, onions, and spinach with 2 scrambled eggs.  Banana on the side!  I wish it were "a banana a day keeps the doctor away" because I have NO problem eating at least one banana a day.

And the star of the show:  a homemade pumpkin spice latte!

My grandma got me an awesome little frother and I couldn't resist adding more foam to the top after I drank some.

I followed this recipe for the pumpkin spice latte and I used my French press.  I didn't have any pumpkin pie spice, so I used 1.5 teaspoons of cinnamon, 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger, a heaping 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves (could also use ground allspice), and a heaping 1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg.  I used 1 cup of regular almond milk with 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extra added, and I microwaved the milk before adding it to the coffee so that it would stay nice and hot.  After I microwaved the milk, I poured a little bit into a mug and used my handheld frother to make it light and fluffy and added the foam to the top of the mug after I poured in the rest of the milk.  I put half of the coffee (without the milk or the maple syrup) in the fridge over night and made a second one the next morning.  It really tasted as good as a fancy pumpkin spice latte from a coffee shop!  One serving is a lot, so I would recommend using a huge mug if you have one; I couldn't fit all of it into the mug pictured above.

I hope everyone had a good weekend.  Does anyone else still have sleepovers?

Song of the Day:

"Paradise" by Coldplay.  Okay, generally I'm not a fan of Coldplay (I hate their pseudo-alternative vibe that is so obviously contrived) but I do really like this song.  And I'm watching the Grammys and they're performing it right now, so I figured what the heck.  Plus, Willie Nelson is singing a Coldplay song in a Chipotle commercial, so if Willie approves, I guess it's okay.  Here ya go!