Within the past year I’ve become quite friendly with another spice… Perhaps the only other spice that holds a candle to cinnamon in my book: Nutmeg.
Today my breakfast included both spices in a battle over which spice was more delicious.
Cinnamon made an appearance first in the form of Van’s cinnamon French toast sticks.
This was my first time trying these French toast sticks, and let me just say a beautiful new relationship has blossomed.
Lovers and Friends
Van's Cinnamon French Toast Sticks
Cinnamon came back for more before nutmeg even got in on the goods.
I mixed several shakes of cinnamon into two large dollops of ricotta cheese, along with a squirt of honey.
I placed the cinnamon-ricotta-honey mixture on top of the French toast sticks before adding a freshly sliced pear to the mix.
Then, it was nutmeg’s turn to make an appearance.
I sprinkled copious amounts of nutmeg over the entire dish for a punch of flavor.
Cinnamon vs. Nutmeg
Pear and Ricotta Topped Cinnamon French Toast
Monday Morning Breakfast
Oh how I wish I had syrup for on top of this bad boy! Unfortunately we used it all up on Saturday morning. 🙁
Still, syrup or no syrup, this breakfast kicked major boo-tay.
Though cinnamon was prominently featured throughout the dish, and tasted fantastic, the nutmeg really stole the show. It upped the flavor of this breakfast and made it look a little prettier, too. 😉
Workout
Pre-breakfast, Ryan and I hit the gym for an early morning workout. While Ryan went off to kick his own butt in the weight room, I stuck to the cardio machines and pounded out a sweaty workout that looked like this:
- 20 minutes stair master
- 20 minute treadmill blast
- 10 minutes elliptical
My 20 minutes on the treadmill was spent alternating running with super-fast walking. Here’s the breakdown:
20 Minute Treadmill Blast
The hardest part of my time on the treadmill was the last 5 minutes. I was haulin’ hiney at a pretty decent incline. It was tough!
Save the Dates
Wedding news!!!!!!!! Last night Ryan and I brainstormed a bit about our save the dates. We selected a do-it-yourself project and placed an order for a whole bunch of paper and stamps which should arrive within the next couple days.
I can’t wait to get started!
Tonight we’re going to attempt to get to know the self timer on my camera really well as we try to snap a picture of us to include on the save the date cards. We want it to look classy, romantic and loving without looking super cheesy. Should be interesting!
Question of the Day
Did you make your own save the dates or purchase them from a professional? If you are not married, are you planning on making your own save the dates?
I love being crafty and figured making our own save the dates would be a fun way to show our personalities and save some money at the same time.
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I love nutmeg, too. I use it in so much!
We didn’t have Save the Date’s!
I’m going through a bit of save-the-date drama. The fiance and I have had a long engagement, since I’m in law school (we’ll be engaged 2yrs by the time we get married on November 20, 2010). You would think this would give us lots of time to plan, but we have been slackers 😉 We did however pick out save-the-date magnets. They’re really inexpensive and super cute for the fridge. The problem is we’re having problems w/ the picture to use. You’ll have to share how your picture taking turns out!!
yeeeeah, that’s what i’m nervous about! we have about a billion pics together but none that are really professional looking – they all have people in the background or something “wrong.” sooo we’re gonna attempt to take some tonight. i hope it goes well! i love the magnet idea – so cute!
We made our own save the dates. I made brochures of the city that we were getting married in, gave information on the hotel, hotels to stay at, what to do in the the town, the temperature during that time and so on. We made it 100% by ourselves and loved it!
that sounds SO amazing!!!
We didn’t have save the dates….I think they were just starting to get popular when we got married (2006).
We didn’t do save the date cards but we did homemade thank you cards! We took a black and white picture of us holding a sign that said “thank you” and it came out really cute!
That breakfast looks uber yummy! And how fun doing your own save the dates!
growing up my favorite Sunday breakfast was french toast…with powdered sugar on top :o)
and cinnamon is my favorite spice, pumpkin pie spice is the runner up
I had my photographer create a save the date postcard with our picture on the front and it said, “Save the date, Elyse & Jeffrey are getting married.” Then it had the date October 29, 2010 and our wedding website! Since they were postcards I saved on postage 🙂
A bunch of my friends have done save the date magnets … I love them! But I am crafty, and would love to make my own! 🙂
That breakfast looks so good. I love the ricotta idea.
We bought Save the Dates and spent a ton of money on them. It sounds like a good idea to make your own!
Some family friends had this really lovely picture of them holding hands, leaning toward each other, and kissing (there was a little space between them) with the sunset behind them. The backlighting of the sunset made it so they were silhouettes against the sky and it was just such a elegant and simple picture. They made magnets with them, which seems popular from the comments!
We had them professionally printed. I actually got them discounted at Papyrus because I purchased the invitations at the same time. Otherwise, I probably would have gone the creativity route like I did with flowers and decorations.
I LOVE french toast sticks but haven’t had them in years. that breakfast looks amazing.
we bought out save the dates, but I think that’s awesome fo make them yourself!
First, LOVE your dress, the color is BEAUTIFUL on you 🙂
Your placement of your food is always nice- it looks like you got it at a restaurant.
I’m not married yet, but I also think we will do the make your own Save the Dates. Oh, and just an idea for thank you cards- not sure where you guys are going for you Honeymoon, but my brother-in-law & sister-in-law went to Tahiti & they wrote out ‘thank you’ in the sand & then stood next to it & they had a guy @ the resort take their picture from up in a tree (he volunteered to climb the tree- hahaha!!) It looked SO cute & they threw some flowers in the ‘thank you’ so it looked so tropical. Just an idea in case you haven’t figured out your thank you’s yet 🙂
I adore cinnamon!
I have this amazing mixture of spices, it has cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom and ginger, I think. It’s so addicting, seriously, like crack! 😀 It tastes good on everything, specially yogurt messes!
Oh yum girl, that sounds AMAZING!! I used to love the french toast sticks that you could dip into maple syrup as a child.
I think i’d probably purchase them myself as I am NOT crafty in any sort of fashion haha
Isn’t wedding planning just the best?! My brother is an artist so he actually did caricatures of us. We were superhero’s “saving the date.” I have an image floating around if you’d like to see em.
Other good ones my friends have done include simple photography, photo booth strips, etc. It’s whatever encapsulates you two:)
how cool! i’d love to see that!
Hey! That workout looks so hard! How do you manage so many intense workouts each week with only one rest day? Is your body “used” to it? I wish I could do that much!
yeah, my body is really used to it. i never really feel too exhausted after a workout unless i incorporate intervals or something – those kick my butt! i did feel a little more tired than usual this past weekend though, which is why i swapped out a typical cardio workout for a power yoga class on sunday. if i ever start to feel more tired than usual, i’ll just scale back a bit and do a lighter, less intense workout.
I have a DIY save the date project in mind, but who knows. I am a creative thinker, but sometime when I actually try to do the project it turns into a total FAIL. We shall see!
I really like to add cinnamon & nutmeg to my oatmeal, especially when I make pumpkin oats! 🙂
We ordered Save the Date magets for our wedding. We ordered them from magnetstreetweddings.com because they were having a really good deal at the time. They came out SUPER cute, and I was really happy with our decision. I would have loved to attempt a DIY project, but my schedule was just too BUSY at the time! Can’t wait to see yours! 🙂
Great workout!
I, too, am a nutmeg fan. My mom gave me a nutmeg grater and the real whole nutmeg “nuts” in my stocking a few years back. Love it!
We didn’t have save the dates, but we ordered our actual invitations. My cousin made hers, though, and they looked great!
how fun! we definitely did our own save the dates AND invitations! it was fun and a really cool project we could do together 🙂
We tried to not kill a lot of trees so we actually created e-mail save the dates (ecards). We also had online RSVPs to our wedding website so we didn’t waste more cards and evelopes (and postage). Of course there were some older guests that weren’t Internet savvy, so we bought a small amount of cards for those guests.
Love teh color on you!
I’d probably wanna make my own Save the Dates. Seems cute and personal!
I’m no Martha so i’d use a professional. I don’t think save the date was invented when I got married 😉
Haulin’ hiney LOL!
We made our own save the dates. It was pretty easy.
Cinnamon is also my favourite spice, I use it loads! Nutmeg is sort of growing on me as well. As far as save the dates, I’m not married, but I think I’m probably going to make my own as well (we’ll see though… depends on how big the wedding is!) I’m pretty crafty and I love scrapbooking (yes, I realize this is a little old-school but it relaxes me!!) so I think they could look good. Have fun with your photo sesh tonight! 🙂
i LOVE scrapbooking. it’s so, so much fun. i wish i had more time to do it!
Cinnamon is delicious! It makes everything taste good…just like peanut butter. 🙂 Our save the dates were professionally made. I can’t wait to see what kinda of crafty project you guys are doing for yours!
We made our own STDs. (funny right?!) The Paper Source has a myriad of enclosures if you were going to go with card inserts such as directions, hotel block info, reception card etc. We did a more formal look, but I have seen the photobooth style come out cute also. I think it depends on what kind of couple you are and the vibe you want for your wedding. It’s the first thing people see in regards to that. It helps them know how to dress, maybe what colors you are using and what they will expect from type of ceremony.
LOL – i never realized that was the acronym. 😀 we ordered all of our paper from the paper source!
That’s my girl! PS paper is wonderful to work with. I hope you have fun with your project cause that’s what counts!
Your breakfast plate looks so pretty!! good luck with the picture taking and the save the dates!
Do you use organic cinnamon? I ask because I have found organic to be waaaay more flavorful than generic store brand (which seems like a “no duh” but really, the first time I tried organic I was like, “WOAH.”)
Also, I highly recommend cinnamon in plain greek yogurt. A touch of sweetener, and you’re golden 🙂
As far as save the dates, I think I would make my own, postcard-style with a nice picture of me and my future hubby (whenever that happens)!!
I love Van’s-I eat their Gluten Free cinnamon french toast sticks or Gluten Free blueberry waffles almost every morning with Smucker’s sugar free syrup…mmmmmm!!!!
Another comment! Have you seen the wedding gawker site? (http://weddinggawker.com/) I clicked onto it from foodgawker today and thought of your post when I saw the save the dates!
i put cinnamon on everything. and when i look at a dessert menu, if i see the word cinnamon, that is what i get. i just realized i am blowing up your blog. i swear i’m not cracked out on adderall, although it seems like it. hahah
Great workout! I’m fairly new to your site and LOVE it so far! Thanks!