Aloha Friday: Recreating #DisneySMMoms Recipes

While we were at Disney Social Media Moms, we were included in a dinner along with 400 volunteers. At the time, we thought that the food that we ate was part of a Robert Irvine/Dinner Impossible challenge. Sadly, it turned out not to be the case. The volunteers got Irvine’s food and we “just” got Disney food. I say “just” because the food was exceptional (as is par for the course at Disney). In fact, having seen what Robert Irvine created, I’m happier with what we were served. Still, it would have been cool to have been part of a Dinner Impossible challenge.

One dessert in particular stood out. It was a warm brownie torte that tasted like it was uncooked warm brownie batter (and I mean that in the best possible way). Here’s a photo, although Disney Food Blog has a better one.

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We had gotten a couple plates of these and when the boys (who by this point in the night were exhausted) refused it, I ate the second plate. For some reason, my chocolate-brownie-lust overpowered my brain and I only realized too late that I had eaten B’s plate! I vowed to recreate the dish as soon as I saw how it was made on Dinner Impossible. Of course, once the episode aired, it became apparent that this dish wasn’t part of the show. I’m on my own now in recreating it, though I have a few ideas.

My Aloha Friday question for this week is: Have you ever recreated a dish you’ve eaten out somewhere? If so, how successful were you? If you haven’t, is there a particular dish that you’d love to be able to recreate?

Oh, and if anyone has any pointers for recreating this, I’d be happy to hear them.


Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the MckLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha Friday by Kailani at An Island Life

Aloha #41

Aloha Friday: Happy B-Day JSL & Your Favorite Winnie the Pooh Character

JSL’s third birthday is today. Thanks to our recent Disney World trip, he’s gone Winnie the Pooh crazy. His birthday will have a Winnie the Pooh theme. He likes all of the characters, but I think his favorite is definitely Pooh bear. He even eats hunny… I mean honey and tells me it’s just like Winnie the Pooh eats. Personally, my favorite character is Tigger. He seems constantly full of energy and good spirits. Plus, who wouldn’t want to be bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun?

My Aloha Friday question for this week is: Who is your favorite character from Winnie the Pooh?


Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the MckLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha Friday by Kailani at An Island Life

Aloha #38

#DisneySMMoms 2010 – Disney Social Media Moms Begins (Day 4, Part 2)

Last week, I ended with our trip to Epcot and leaving Pop Century for DisneySMMoms. After making our way to the Polynesian, we checked in and were told to go to the hospitality area to check in for Disnet Social Media Moms. B went in there while I waited in the hallway with the kids. After awhile, she came out with a ton of swag and we made our way to our room.

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It was quite nice. I’m a fan of Pop Century, but the rooms do tend to run small. (Can’t expect much different from a Value Resort.) The Polynesian’s rooms were huge by comparison. The one criticism I’d have is that all of the buildings looked the same. We had trouble finding our way to our building. At least the Pop Century had different looking buildings.

We marvelled at the room for awhile but had to get ready to go to ESPN Wide World of Sports. We caught up with Christina (CutestKidEver), her husband Tom and son TJ by the bus stop and took the bus with them. This wasn’t your usual Disney bus. The strollers weren’t folded up and carried on board. They were stowed underneath (enough room to stow them unfolded) and we sat an nice, soft seats.

At ESPN Wide World of Sports, we were directed where to go. B and Christina went to the Disney SM Moms area to listen to some presentations while Tom, TJ, NHL, JSL and I went to the "dads and kids" area. They had taken a few of the fields and set up some games to keep the kids busy. They had basketball, football, soccer, volleyball and other sports for the kids to play.

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The kids had a blast running around chasing balls. The only glitch was when I went to kick a soccer ball. The grass was slightly wet and my feet went right out from under me and I landed on my read end/back. Getting up, oddly enough, my first thought was "B’s going to kill me if I got grass stains on these jeans!" My second thought was "Am I injured." Luckily, there were no grass stains or injuries.

Soon, it was getting dark and time for us to head in to eat. We made our way to the dining area, parked the stroller and found the table the girls had saved for us. Going with the sports theme, they had peanuts and Cracker Jacks for us to snack on.

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Alcoholic beverages, too… trying to get the moms drunk?

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The food was mostly meat-based (hamburgers/hot dogs) so there wasn’t much for me, but I made do. Burger bun + cheese meant for cheeseburgers + tomatoes = cheese sandwich. Some fries with cheese sauce & fruit and you’ve got a meal. Later on, they had ice cream including Mickey Bars. YUM!

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Of course, it wouldn’t be Disney if characters didn’t make an appearance. Pluto, Mickey, Minnie and others were on hand. Unfortunately, not all of them stopped by our table. TJ seemed upset about that, but I knew that we would be going with him to Epcot the next day so I told him that I knew where he could go to see Mickey, hoping that would make him feel better. (Nobody should be sad at Disney!)

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It was late so we gathered our things and started out… until I couldn’t find my camera. I ran back to the table and there it was underneath my chair! WHEW! Two lost things recovered in the same day.

With that crisis averted, we left ESPN and headed for the bus back to our hotel. On the way out, though, we were handed some ESPN hats. Very nice touch. Though it was late, NHL and TJ didn’t conk out but enjoyed some time together on the bus ride back.

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Then we went back to our hotel rooms and got some sleep. We all had a big day tomorrow. B at Disney Social Media Moms and me with the kids in the parks!

Project New Me: Week #7 or Closing In On My Goals #newme

Weight: 193 lbs (down 4.5 pounds)

Average Hours of Sleep: 6.8 hours

Total Workout Time: 0

Total Calories Burned: 0

On my first week back from Disney World, I didn’t expect much weight loss. I found myself hungry and snacking all too often as my body adjusted from “Eating Lots Of Wonderful Disney Food” back to “Eating My Normal Lighter Fare.” Still, I must have done a good job because my weigh-in showed a loss of 4.5 pounds. I’m now a mere 6 pounds to my goal!

Still, roadblocks still are in my way. The first roadblock will be this weekend. My new nephew was born last weekend and we’ll be attending the bris this coming weekend. (Weather and child health permitting.) At the bris, there will be a lot of good foods to eat. In addition, that whole weekend, we’ll likely be eating out which means higher calories.

The next roadblock comes in five weeks. At that point, we’ll have the eight day long matzoh-fest known as Passover. During Passover, foods that are normally allowed aren’t permitted. These include not just breads, rice and other grains, but corn, beans/legumes (including soy and peanuts), and a few others. You wind up subsisting on a lot of Matzoh which isn’t conducive to weight loss at all. I plan on treating Passover weight-loss like I treated Disney weight-loss. I will try to make healthy choices, but won’t sweat it at all. I’m definitely not going to try counting points at all. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few pounds packed on during Passover.

To mitigate Passover’s effect, I’m going to set a mini-goal of reaching 189 by the Sunday before Passover. This means losing 4 pounds in 5 weeks which is completely doable (especially considering that I’ve averaged 2 1/3 pounds per week so far). I also won’t count my goal as being achieved until Passover is over. (As I could hit 187 before Passover and then gain 5 pounds during Passover.)

Here’s hoping your #NewMe goals are going as well as mine are.

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