Spring(ish)

It’s sunny, the snow is melting, I had a fabulous run outside the other day, and I had my first iced coffee of the year at Starbucks.  Nothing is sweeter than warm Spring sunshine and an iced Caramel Macchiato, triple shot, half sweet.

So today I was craving something sweet (ok, I crave something sweet every day) but I’m trying to be a little more disciplined about my sugar intake, because apparently studies show that excess sugar can lead to people getting fat.

Who knew.

Anyway, I really wanted a Coke, but past experience has shown that drinking too many Cokes leads to tighter pants.  But then I remembered that I make really really good iced coffee.  Which is a little sweet, but not too sweet, and would totally satisfy my caffeine/sugar craving.

So I am at this very moment sipping on a perfect glass of iced coffee and loving life.  And in honour of this extremely happy moment, I will re-post my iced coffee post from last summer, so that you, too, can partake of some fabulousness in your own life.

Enjoy.

Love (originally posted July 2010)

This summer hasn’t exactly been booming with productivity so far.  I’m pretty sure that this week the most exercise I’ve done has been running down the stairs to get Fudgesicles from the freezer.

Yes.  All those Boot Camp sessions are going to good use.

What I have been doing a lot of is making (and drinking) iced coffee.  Starbucks came out with this fabulous Gazebo Summer Blend and I can’t drink enough of it.  Well, I can, but for some reason the constant shaking doesn’t seem to deter me.

So I thought I’d give you a nice pictorial guide to making iced coffee.  Because, you know, I don’t have 6 loads of laundry waiting to be folded and put away anything else to do.

So first, you might want to start with the Starbucks Gazebo coffee:

you will also want some Vanilla coffee syrup (although you could just sweeten it with sugar if you like)

Brew your coffee at double strength:

I ground the normal amount of coffee for my press, and then just filled it half full of water.

While your coffee is brewing, you will want to put some ice into the bottom of a pitcher.  For half a press-full of coffee, I use about 2-3 cups of ice.  When the coffee is done, pour it over the ice like so:

Then, take a pretty cup, put more ice in it, and drizzle some of the vanilla syrup over the ice…

then pour the slightly chilled coffee over that, about 2/3 full…

then splash in a little milk to top it off…

Give it a little stir to make sure that the syrup isn’t just at the bottom, and say “hello lover”…

Sip, sigh contentedly, and repeat as needed.

Runaway

Apparently, I am a flight risk.

So much so that I cannot be out of sight of Berry Boy for more than 30 seconds before he’s looking around and saying “Mom?  MOM??”

I literally cannot sit on the toilet in peace without someone frantically knocking on the door to find out where I am and what I am doing.  Really?  You don’t know what I’m doing in the BATHROOM?

It’s as if they’re afraid I will escape.

Things I Should Probably Stop Doing If I Ever Want My Scale To Stop Swearing At Me…

Fuelling my long runs with Coke

Having “just a little” chocolate with my cup of coffee (over, and over, and over again)

Allowing Chris to tempt me over for coffee with the promise of Gooey Butter Cake

Assuming that I can eat whatever I want just because I run (the whole “I run so that I can eat” thing isn’t working out so well anymore)

Making meals with copious amounts of cheese and/or heavy cream and/or butter…so, basically, stop making yummy food (or just stop getting my recipe ideas from The Pioneer Woman)

Allowing the Cadbury corporation to plague me with tiny innocent caramilk-filled bunnies

Allowing the Cadbury corporation to plague me with tiny innocent caramilk-filled snowmen

Trolling baking blogs

Making cupcakes

Making delicious buttercream icing

Eating cupcakes

Eating cupcakes while watching The Biggest Loser

Squirting buttercream icing directly into my mouth from the icing bag