Clean Protein Cheesecakes

I have two recipes for a clean, protein packed dessert that I think you guys will love. Marquis and I love to take trips. We had the pleasure of going to St. Augustine in February, and are now gearing up for our Myrtle Beach trips. We usually go every month in the summer, so our second trip there this year is coming up in the weekend after next for our two year anniversary. That being said, there is usually a lot of bad eating. I treat myself on our beach trips (California Pizza Kitchen is calling my name!) so I ensure while I am home and on my regular schedule I keep the eating clean and the training dirty. I am giving myself a 14 day challenge to try and lose 5 pounds before we go. It is just fun to challenge myself.

While I am participating in my own little challenge, I love to eat my clean cheesecakes. They keep me full with no guilt and cut any type of bad cravings I am having. If only I could leave wine alone! Today I am sharing the recipes that I created in case you would ever want to try something different. The cheesecake on the left is chocolate peanut butter and the cheesecake on the right is vanilla and banana creme.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Cheesecake:

What you need:

• 1 1/2 blocks of fat free cream cheese (12 oz's)
• 10 oz's of plain greek yogurt (if you buy individual cups, it's usually 1 and a half containers)
• 1/2 cup of Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk
• 10 packs of Stevia
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups of protein powder (I use BSN Chocolate)
• 2 tablespoons of PB2
• 2 tablespoons of sugar and fat free chocolate fudge pudding mix

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees
• Spray pie pan with nonstick spray and set aside
• In a large mixing bowl add cream cheese and soften with a spoon
• Add Stevia and eggs and mix on a low setting with mixer
• Add the rest of the ingredients and blend altogether with a mixer on a medium setting until well blended and you have a creamy, thick texture
• Pour batter into pie pan and bake for 25 minutes
• Once the 25 minutes is up, set oven to 200 degrees and bake for another hour
• Using a potholder, pull the pie out of the own and refrigerate for 3-4 hours then serve and enjoy!

Nutrition information can vary upon ingredients, brands, and amount used, but if you follow this recipe and do not add a crust or topping, this makes 8 slices and the caloric value (per slice) is around 180 calories, 2g of fat, 11g carbohydrates, and 30g of protein. 

 

Vanilla and Banana Creme Protein Cheesecake:

What you need:

• 1 1/2 blocks of fat free cream cheese (12 oz's)
• 10 oz's of plain greek yogurt (if you buy individual cups, it's usually 1 and a half containers)
• 1/2 of a banana
• 1/2 cup of Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk
• 10 packs of Stevia
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 2 scoops of vanilla protein powder
• 2 tablespoons of sugar and fat free banana creme pudding mix
• *Optional: Reduced fat graham cracker pieces for topping

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees
• Spray pie pan with nonstick spray and set aside
• In a large mixing bowl add cream cheese and banana then soften with a spoon
• Add Stevia and eggs and mix on a low setting with mixer
• Add the rest of the ingredients and blend altogether with a mixer on a medium setting until well blended and you have a creamy, thick texture
• Pour batter into pie pan and bake for 25 minutes
• Once the 25 minutes is up, set oven to 200 degrees and bake for another hour
• Using a potholder, pull the pie out of the own and refrigerate for 3-4 hours then serve and enjoy!

Nutrition information can vary upon ingredients, brands, and amount used, but if you follow this recipe and do not add a crust, this makes 8 slices and the caloric value (per slice) is around 195 calories, 2.5g of fat, 12g carbohydrates, and 30g of protein.

 

I have linked up with Jennifer Rizzo today for Creative Friday to share my recipes! 

Read More

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

Many people get stressed out with all the extra work that the holidays bring. Not only do you have to do your regular day to day things, but throw in grocery shopping, having a kitchen or house full of people and having to get up early and plan and cook everything so that it hopefully comes out of the oven all at the same time, and you can easily have a meltdown on your hands.

Personally, I love to cook and like we have talked about in some of the previous What’s For Dinner posts, planning ahead is key. It’s hard when you only have four burners and one tiny oven, but it can be done, and it can be fun.

For several years, I was a vegetarian, so I left the cooking of the turkey up to the carnivores. My favorite thing was the sides. Now, I love cooking and eating turkey, but my favorites remain the same. I could eat side dishes all day. Oh wait, I DO eat side dishes all day. However, this can be traumatic on my waistline! So there are a couple of things that I do in order to not feel the post dinner food coma and accompanying guilt.

First, I sign up for a Turkey Trot! I know, it’s sometimes hard to fit in in, but you can put the turkey in the oven and then go off and run. It takes less than an hour for most and you end up feeling invigorated afterward! The other thing I do is that I try to cut down on my butter and sugar intake by doing a few subs to my favorite recipes.

One of my favorite side dishes is sweet potatoes! However, the general recipe is loaded with butter and sugar. Personally I like the taste of the potato and don’t need to cover it up with sugar, so I just go Au natural. Also, I love the flavors of fall, so why not work with what’s available?

Cinnamon Apple Sweet Potatoes

3 Large Sweet Potatoes (or Yams)

1-2 Large Apples

1 cup pecans

4 Tbsp Brummel and Brown spread

2 Tbsp cinnamon

½ -1 cup Craisins

1 tsp salt (or more to taste)

Dice up the apples and sweet potatoes and put them in a large bowl. Add remaining ingredients and toss together thoroughly. Put mixture in 9 x 13 baking dish or on a cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for about an hour, stirring occasionally (3 – 4 times). Remove and enjoy! The apples give it a bit of sweetness without the added sugar.

__________

Another dish I love to make is dessert. One of my favorite recipes is for these pumpkin spice muffins. If you sub part of the sugar with splenda and use Brummel and Brown rather than butter, you have a muffin you can sink your teeth into without feeling the Turkey Day bloat. 

Pumpkin Spice Muffins

1 cup Flour

¼ cup Splenda

¼ cup Sugar (or you can use ½ cup sugar only)

2 tsp Baking Powder

2 tsp Cinnamon

½  tsp Nutmeg

½  tsp Salt

4 Tbsp Brummel and Brown spread, cut into pieces

1 -1 ¼ cup Pumpkin Puree

½  cup Evaporated Milk

1 Egg

2 tsp Vanilla

½  cup craisins (or raisins)

2 Tbsp Sugar

1 tsp Cinnamon

¼  tsp Nutmeg

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease 12 muffin tins.

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt. Cut in spread with two knives or your fingers until it is fully incorporated. In a separate bowl, mix together pumpkin, evaporated milk, egg, and vanilla. Pour pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture. Add raisins. Fold gently until mixture is just combined.

Use a ¼ cup measure to fill 12 muffin tins with batter. Sprinkle with remaining cinnamon-sugar-nutmeg mixture over the top of each unbaked muffin. Bake for 25 minutes. Take out of the oven and leave to cool for about 10 minutes before taking out of the tin. If you are like me, you will not listen to this advice and you will take one “ugly” one out for a sample right away. Somebody has to do it. 

Thank you to Good to Know & Unilever Spreads for being a sponsor. I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Who is the Thanksgiving chef in your family? What is your favorite dish to eat? What is your favorite Thanksgiving recipe?

Read More

Chocolate Zucchini

I like to bake. I don't always follow directions.  I recently had some extra zucchinis from the garden and I was feeling like something chocolatey but not too sweet, so I found a recipe for these Oil Free Zucchini Muffins. But of course, I like to add stuff and delete stuff and mess things up a bit. The recipe was adapted from here. It specifically said not to use whole wheat flour.

But I wanted to.

(PS she did say you could use whole wheat pastry flour if you want to, but that you shouldn't use regular whole wheat flour.) I also use Splenda® rather than sugar most of the time, but you can use agave syrup or maple syrup or sugar if you like. Also, in the end, she was right, the whole wheat flour made the batter a little gummy, so I added a bit of applesauce just for fun.

Oil-Free Chocolate Zucchini Walnut Muffins

Yield: 20 - 24 muffins

Ingredients:

1 flax egg (1 tbsp ground flax + 3 tbsp water)
2 cups zucchini
1 cup almond milk (or regular milk)
2 tsp  lemon juice (or apple cider vinegar)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups whole wheat (pastry) flour (or all-purpose)
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup Splenda^® (or sugar)
1/3 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
2/3 cup walnuts, chopped
*optional: 
3 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 - 1 cup applesauce (depending on moisture level. I added this at the end)

- Mix flax and water together and set aside to thicken. Mix almond milk and lemon together and set aside to curdle.

- Mix all dry ingredients together.

- Mix all wet ingredients, including flax egg and almond milk together, then add in chocolate chips and nuts. Combine the wet ingredients with the dry.

- Put 1/4 cup of batter into each section of a greased muffin tin using a 1/4 measuring cup.

- Bake for 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees. Muffins are done when toothpick comes out clean. Cool on cooling rack in the tin before taking them out of the tin and letting them cool completely.

- Try not to eat three of them right away like I did.

- Take them to work and give them away before you eat all 24 of them. 

- Get strange looks when you use the word "chocolate" and the word "zucchini" in the same sentence.

Now, since I am on the subject of recipes and food, I want to talk about something exciting coming up. My friends Jill and Laura are starting a new feature called What's for Dinner, which is a weekly collection of posts (and a link up) about menu planning. It's purpose is to encourage each other and to hold each other accountable as we purposefully plan out regular, weekly meal menus. These posts will be on Sundays and I am looking forward to participating, because I love planning out my weekly meals, but can always use tips from those more experienced and better at it than I am.

So, if you feel like doing a post about YOUR meal plan, or you want to post a recipe or get recipe ideas for fall, or if you want to check out how other people are organizing their eating, how they have time to do it with a busy schedule, or how they stay healthy with so many other things going on, sign up, or just go and check up their link up on Sundays!

Where do you get your recipe inspiration? Do you plan out your meals for the week in advance? What is your favorite kind of muffin?

Read More

Food Firsts (3)

Happy Memorial Day! Did you know that yesterday was also the 75th birthday for the Golden Gate Bridge? I did not attend, but there was quite the hoopla in the city, culminating in fireworks set to music, courtesy of KFOG (a great radio station). Did you know that you can download the KFOG app and listen anytime, anywhere!? You should check it out. My favorite is the acoustical sunrise.

My computer is still broken, which means I cannot upload any photos AND I tend to save future posts as word docs, which I now cannot access. So, in lieu of an interesting and funny post, I am going to share a couple of the recipes that I made over the weekend. Both of these were adapted from this site. If you get a chance you should go over and check it out. Laura is a mother, a runner and a darn good cook! If we lived closer together I know we would be good friends and probably even running buddies, although she is a little faster than I am!


Garbanzo Brownies:

These were very good and did not taste like beans at all! I actually ate half of the batter as I was making them, so you may want to double the recipe so you can have extra for snacking while cooking!

- 1 can garbanzo beans, drained
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup flax
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/8 tsp baking soda
- 3 tbsp nut butter 
- 3.5 oz 80% (or 70 or 60) dark chocolate bar (I like this one)
- 1 tsp vanilla

Split the chocolate bar in half. Melt half of the chocolate and chop the other half into small pieces (you can also use chocolate chips). Add the melted part to the rest of the ingredients and blend all ingredients  thoroughly in a food processor. I had to also add a little bit of water to the mix to make it a bit more creamy. You don't want it too thin though!

Spread the mix in a greased 9x9 baking pan. Top with remaining chocolate (chips/chunks). Bake for 25-30 minutes at 350. The brownies come out dark and moist and for me, just sweet enough. If you have a sweet tooth, you may want to follow Laura's recipe more closely, as it calls for 2 tbsp of maple syrup as well. I cut mine into 16 pieces and they came out to a little less than 100 calories each.

Apple Oat Cookies:

These don't use any flour either and are very fun and nutty. In fact, I may have eaten them for breakfast a time or two. Laura's original recipe called for carrots, rolled oats and oat bran, but I had flax, no carrots, and steel cut oats. They turned out fine.

- 3 ripe bananas, smashed
- 1 cup steel cut (or rolled) oats
- 1 cup flax meal
- 1 apple, shredded
- pinch cinnamon
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup sunflower seeds (or equivalent)
- 1/2 cup raisins (or dried fruit)
- 1/2 cup chopped almonds
- 1/2 cup applesauce (I cut up one apple and stewed it in a pan with 1/4 cup water and a dash of cinnamon)

Mix all ingredients together and place in spoonfuls on a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 350. I found it helped to kind of smash the cookies down a little so they are flat. That way the middle gets thoroughly cooked. Otherwise a few in my first batch were a little moist on the inside. Also, they don't rise/spread, so you can pack them in on the cookie sheet. This recipe made about 40 small cookies.

I hope you are all enjoying your day off! Tomorrow, I have big news to share!

Have you ever tried bean brownies? Are you off of work today? What fun things did you do this weekend?

Read More

Then and Now: December

Happy New Year's Eve! I hope that wherever you are, you are having a great weekend! Have a wonderful time tonight and I will see you next year! 

The holidays are often very similar each year. There are holiday parties, get-togethers with friends and food to be eaten and presents to open with family. This December was no different. There were many people to see that I see every year, and many holiday traditions that were observed this year, just as they were last year. There were also a few things that were different. Here is December 2010 vs 2011, The Who, The What and The Where.

The Who:  Every year I get together with friends in San Francisco for a snackapalooza. This year was no different, except we got together in November instead! So we met up in Sacramento for some carb loading before the marathon instead. Also, I get together with my old HS buddies on the day after Christmas each year. It's great fun and I am glad we have kept the tradition alive!

2010: Snackapalooza, San Francisco, 2011: CIM carb loading

2010: Hail, grey skies and a large group, 2011: Sun in the eyes and less people

The What: Last year I did many of the same things as this year. I went to see the birds; I ate cheese platters; I make cookies. The only huge difference was the running. Last year I took lots of walks; this year I took many runs instead (mileage last December: 0 miles, this December: about 100 miles).

2010: Walks, 2011: Runs

2010: Birds + great reflections! 2011: Birds but no reflection

2010: Small cheese platter, 2011: large cheese platter! (2012: Cheese table?)

2010: Pumpkin Choc Chip, 2011: Macaroon

The Where: Last year I went on a road trip from California to Iowa, where I met up with my friend Red at her new house. This year, I have been in California all month.

2010: Iowa

California

What were you doing last December? Do you do the same thing every Christmas or are your holidays varied?

Read More

An Apple a Day Monday: IV

I arrived home the other day to find out that my mother had bought even more apples! This is the fun of living in the state that grows much of America's produce; when you are driving home, you never know what you may find. Peaches, plutots, kiwis, artichokes, mandarins, walnuts, and of course...apples. 

1. I think she got a peck of apples. If she got a peck of apples, how many apples did she get? 

2. Do you use a peeler or a knife? I used the knife. 

3. One apple = approximately 1 cup

Everyone keeps saying that Apple Crisp is their favorite Apple dish, so I thought I would take a stab at it. I used Martha Stewart's recipe. (Check out Apple a Day I and Apple A Day II and Apple a Day III.)

Martha Stewart = Butter

3/4 cup all-purpose flour, (spooned and leveled)

1/4 cup packed light-brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold, cut into small cubes

1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats (not quick-cooking)

3 pounds apples, such as Empire, Gala, or Braeburn, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/2-inch chunks

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, mix together flour, brown sugar, salt, and 2 tablespoons granulated sugar. Cut butter into flour, using a pastry blender or two knives, until mixture is the texture of coarse meal. Add oats, and use your hands to toss and squeeze mixture until large, moist clumps form. (I used my hands, after washing them in COLD water, so as to not melt the butter)

Transfer to freezer to chill while you prepare apples.

The porch aka "the freezer"

In another large bowl, toss apples with lemon juice, cinnamon, and remaining 1/2 cup granulated sugar. (I also added a few tsp of my new friend, flaxseed meal)

Transfer to a shallow 2-quart baking dish, and sprinkle with topping mixture. 

I like to use several. It makes it easier to give them away!

Place baking dish on a rimmed baking sheet, and bake until golden and bubbling, 55 to 65 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes before serving.

It turned out pretty good! The only thing I would do differently is that I would double the amount of apples, since they bake down a lot!  Or maybe if I had only used one pan, it would have been thicker? I say more apples! You can never have too many apples.

What is your favorite apple crisp recipe? Do you think Martha uses too much butter? Have you ever bought a bushel or a peck of anything?

Read More

An Apple a Day Monday: III

Remember last week when I made the Apple Cake? Now I had buttermilk left over, as well as still having plenty of apples. I didn’t yet know what I wanted to make with these items. I contemplated buttermilk biscuits or buttermilk apple muffins.

(Check out Apple a Day I and Apple A Day II.)

Then, I got the prize in the mail that I won from Corey! Flaxseed Meal! I have never used it before, but have been putting it in oatmeal, on cereal and now in baking…and its great! I used the recipe that was on the back of the bag and amended it a bit to fit what I had on hand. And…they turned out great! Like a nutty, yummy, bran muffin…without the bran! For those of you who are gluten free, flaxseed is GF, so all you need is some GF flour (can sub for oats as well) and you are all set!

Bran Flax Muffins

(aka Oat Apple Nut Buttermilk Flax Muffins [and Squares])

1½ cups flour

¾ cup flaxseed

¾ cup oat bran (I used stone ground oats)

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 ½ cup carrots, shredded

2 apples, peeled and shredded

½ cup raisins (I used craisins instead)

1 cup nuts, chopped (I used walnuts)

¾ cup milk (I used buttermilk instead)

2 eggs, beaten

1 tsp. vanilla

Mix dry ingredients (first 7 on the list). 

In a separate bowl, mix the rest of the (wet) ingredients. 

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Do not over stir. Batter may be slightly lumpy. Pour into greased muffin tin. Fill cups approximately ¾ full. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Yields 15 medium sized muffins**

**NOTES: I ended up filling 12 cups ¾ full and still having a lot left over, so I used a bread pan and 2 mini bread pans to use up the rest. You could also easily cook these in a 9x13 baking dish and just cut them into squares. 

Next up: The apple craze continues! What else can one make with an apple? Don’t forget to check back next Monday to find out...and for another edition of “An Apple a Day”, which will be a feature each Monday in November.

Have you ever used flaxseed meal? Have you ever made your own oat bars?

Read More

An Apple A Day Monday: II

I love to bake, especially in autumn. That nice cinnamon smell about the house, the warmth; they are the epitome of fall to me. Besides that, I love figuring out fun things to make with the ingredients on hand. When I saw Kim’s Apple Bundt Cake recipe, I knew that since it was apple season, and we have several trees, and I finally have an oven to use, I would have to make it.

I didn’t make it once; I made it twice, and it was a hit all around (I took one to the Apple Cider potluck and it was gone in about 47 seconds!) I did not have a Bundt pan, but made it work with a bread pan and a pie dish instead. I bought buttermilk for her glaze, but ended up only using about 1/8 of the recommended amount of glaze, since I liked the cake just fine without it.

Kim’s Apple Bundt Cake

3 cups flour

1 tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Baking soda

1 tbsp. Cinnamon

1 ½ cups sugar

1 cup vegetable oil (or you can sub ½ c. applesauce, ½ c. oil for a lower fat version)

1 tsp. Vanilla

3 cups raw peeled, diced apples (I used 2 large apples)

1 cup chopped nuts (optional, I did not put them in)

2 eggs, beaten

Glaze(optional):

½ cup melted butter

½ cup sugar (I only used ¼ cup)

½ cup buttermilk

½ tsp. Baking soda

Peel apples. 

Dice and sprinkle with cinnamon. 

Mix together all dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Add remaining ingredients, including apples, to dry mix. Stir together until well blended. Spread into a greased pan (1 – 10 inch Bundt pan or any other baking dish). Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until a knife comes out clean. 

For glaze: Mix together all ingredients and drizzle on cake after cake is cooked. I only used about 1/8 of the recommended glaze on one of my cakes and none on the other. I actually prefer it without the glaze, but you can do it either way! 

Notes: I don’t flour my pans, I only butter them, but Kim recommended using flour. It’s your call. Mine came out of the pan just fine. The batter looks like it needs more moisture when you are mixing it up, but it cooks just fine. I did press mine down into the pan on the second batch, which made it a little less crumbly, but also less tall. I recommend a light press, just to keep all the batter together, since the first time one of the cakes split in half (it still tastes great though!)

Next up: What will I do with the leftover buttermilk and the rest of the apples? Don’t forget to check back next Monday to find out...and for another edition of “An Apple a Day”, which will be a feature each Monday in November.

Do you own a Bundt pan? What is your favorite thing to bake in the Fall?

Read More

The Blacker the Berry, The Sweeter the Juice

I went home for a few days and lucky me, the blackberries were ripe. So I decided to make what is one of the easiest and yummiest dishes to make in the summer, cobbler. Blackberries and cobbler are one of those things that really make me think of summer. My mom calls this "magic cobbler". Probably because it's super easy to make!

First, admire the nice ripe berries. Yum. 

Next, pick the berries. You will need 4-8 cups. 

Wash the berries. Nobody wants to eat those weird little hairs!

Magic Cobbler:

1 cube of butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup Bisquick

2 cups milk

4 cups fruit (this is also really good with peaches)

 Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

In a 9 x 13 pan, melt the cube of butter. 

Mix the sugar, Bisquick and milk together. It may be a little lumpy, but that’s okay. 

Pour the batter into the buttered pan. 

Pour the blackberries (or whatever fruit you want) into the batter.

Don't worry, they will sink a little as it cooks!

Bake 35 - 45 minutes until brown. 

Serve with vanilla ice cream. 

A couple of notes: I added about a half a cup of oatmeal to mine, which gave it a bit more robustness. I also added about 6 cups of fruit, which didn't make it too soggy or too tart. 

Enjoy!

Do you have a favorite summer recipe to share?

Read More

In Which I Discover an Allergy

I had the misfortune to discover an allergy late in life. 

I wrote this when I was in Uruguay a few years ago.

"We went to the beach one day and everything was fine. The next day we got up and were preparing to leave when I started to itch. I had peed in the dark in a bush the night before and thought maybe I had squatted in some poison oak or something, but soon a rash had spread all over my body. Next the rash kind of dissipated and in its place was just swollen redness. We went to the doctor who gave me cortisone and told me to stay out of the sun. Apparently I had used a lotion or soap which in addition to the sun had given me some sort of allergic reaction. Who knew! To the right is a photo of my misfortune." (original post here)

I had no idea why I had swelled up. I was devastated becuase the doctor told me to stay out of the sun. I love the outdoors. The last thing I needed was to have an allergy to the SUN! However, I tried my best to stay in the shade but was hopeful that that was not the issue.

Then about a year after that, I was in Pensacola lying on the beach, when something bit me on the foot. I looked down to see a fire ant dining away on my instep. I killed him with one fell swoop of my hand. About 5 minutes later my palms started to itch. I looked down and my hands were swelling up. My chest started to itch and I looked down and there it was again, the redness and swelling! 

I have never had an allergy to anything. Give me nuts, dairy and gluten! Give me poison oak and mosquitoes!  They don't faze me! I am invincible! Not only am I invincible, but I am unaware of what one should do upon discovering an allergy. So, Mr. Lovely drove me to Publix, where we proceeded to buy about 40 different kinds of anti-inflammatory, anti-allergy medicines. Mr. Lovely even bought Claritin (which I ended up giving away to someone with "that kind" of allergy). 

But the winner was Benedryl. I took two of those and a cold shower, fell asleep immediately (this is the downfall of Benedryl) and woke up non-swollen and a lot more comfortable. 

I have been bitten a few times since and I have swollen up pretty badly. But now? I know what to do when it comes. I carry Benedryl around with me in my wallet, just in case. I don't freak out like I did in Uruguay. I don't need an IV. And I am so happy that I am not allergic to the SUN!

Do you have any allergies? When did you discover them? Was it scary? What did you do? 

This post is part of Karen's Flashback Friday blog hop!  

You can see some other hops I may participate in HERE.

Read More