One of the reasons I don’t bake very often is that it’s too precise for me.  If you use too much of one thing, not enough of another, it just doesn’t work out.  And usually you won’t know how it turns out until you pull it out of the oven.

Dak’s Spices (use the discount code Bizzy10 to get 10% off your order!) recently sent me THEIR WHOLE LINE of no salt seasonings.  I was shocked and thrilled at the same time.  Tony was supposed to have been on a low sodium diet after his heart valve replacement in 2007, but no matter how hard I tried, he always kept the shalt shaker next to the Lay-Z-Boy chair.  I wish I were kidding. 😛

I decided to use their Chocolate Crave to use chocolate banana muffins with a sugar free chocolate glaze.  I was so excited when I put these in the WW recipe builder and each one is 1 point each.  Until you get to 5, then it’s 6 points.  Not that I know that personally 😀

I love this 48 mini muffin tin pan.  I bought it at Bed Bath and Beyond years ago when I was making mini muffins for Christmas gifts.  Once they are out of the oven for a couple minutes, I just pop them out and let them cool – they tend to keep cooking if you leave them in there, and are harder to get out if they sit too long.

Hannah always gives me shit when I make a lemon glaze – I actually think the lemon/chocolate combo would have been delicious, but I decided to use this hazelnut creamer and this was delicious.  

These are light, fluffy – the muffin isn’t overly sweet, but you get the mouth feel of the course sugar and glaze – these are a winner, if I do say so myself.

When my husband was alive, he could ALWAYS tell if I used splenda in a recipe.  Until I started adding just a smidge of coarse sugar on top of the muffins.  He tasted the sugar, so didn’t mind the Splenda so much. 😀

Three of these with some fruit and a hard boiled egg?  You’ve got yourself a 3 point breakfast.  

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It was a fun weekend even if it went by really fast.  I had WW on Saturday – I lost -1.4 last week, even with bringing wine back in after #wwdryjanuary and having a giant burger the day before weigh in – because I tracked everything.  When I track everything, I have a loss – it’s as simple as that.

After WW I met one of my followers Christie (sincerelymisschristine on Instagram).  We met for coffee and talked for two hours!  So great to meet you!

After much debacle on my safe + fair giveaway, it finally worked out.   I had nearly 1500 entries, and used an app to grab a random name, but it pulled all the names of the people who were tagged, my first winner lived in Canada and I was told that they couldn’t ship to Canada, but then they could.   Safe + Fair came to the rescue though and honored both winners, so I appreciate that so much.  If you go to this link, you can buy 4 items and get 1 free.  I tried the birthday cake granola over the weekend – that’s the sweetest of them all and so tasty!  But I think the Blueberry Cinnamon is still my favorite, followed by chocolate.  The discount code is BIZ.

I got a lot of blog work done over the weekend, got my meal prep for the week.  Excited to try this bruschetta chicken recipe using Trader Joe’s bruschetta and their lite mozzarella cheese – in my head it comes out like a skinny chicken parmesan, except with mozzarella cheese. 😀

And I have to give a shout out to my girl Tia!!   She and her friend Lindsay are putting together an InfertileAF Summit in Chicagoland in April.  Tia and her husband Mark have tried for years to get pregnant, she did IVF, took all the shots and really knows more about the reproductive system than I ever will.  

They have decided to live a childless life and want to help others in the infertility struggle no matter what direction you are going, or what information you might need.  She’s an amazing writer, is passionate and just an all around amazing person.  You can direct message her on Instagram – if you aren’t on Instagram, let me know and I’ll get her email address for you. 

Oh, and we got a dog.  Yes, that wasn’t planned at all.  Hannah and Jacob mentioned that on their errands on Saturday and one of our local car dealerships was having a dog rescue event, and Hannah and Jacob can never pass that up.  However, they filled out paperwork – naming me as an “emergency contact.”  They came home, showed me pictures of all the dogs they met.  

I was putting groceries away when my phone rang.  She said “is this Biz?”  Yep.  She said “do Hannah and Jacob live with you?”  Yep.  She then went on to say that Hannah and Jacob had shown interest in “Petey” and she wanted to know if they could take him because he was going to be put down if he didn’t find a home in a week.  Gah.

So the idea is to take the dog to eventually give it to Jacob’s Dad, who loves dogs and hasn’t had one since his nephew moved out and took his dog with him.

They have changed his name to Dallas.  He is super sweet.  He’s a bulldog/mastiff mix – so while he probably won’t get much taller, he’ll get wider for sure.  

 He slept in a dog crate last night next to Rummy and Roman.  I only saw him for a couple minutes this morning, but so far so good.  Fingers crossed I still have a sofa that isn’t chewed to pieces – he’s only 4 months old.  

Jacob is home today so I am not too worried.  

Happy Monday!  Hope you had a great weekend, set yourself up for success – and remember, don’t eat like an asshole.

Love, Bi