Texas sheet cake

One of my favorite food blogs is Homesick Texan. While I haven’t tried many of the actual recipes, I love reading about all the foods I remember from my childhood. Growing up, just about every birthday celebration we had featured a Texas Sheet Cake. Baked right on a cookie sheet, it was a hybrid of chocolate cake and brownie, not too sweet and oh so delicious. So when Homesick Texan posted a recipe for a Strawberry Sheet Cake, I knew I had to try it. And I had the perfect occasion to give it a test run, a family barbeque last weekend to celebrate our June birthdays – mine and my mom’s.

I was a little surprised that the recipe had you bake the cake in a 9 x 13 baking dish, not the traditional cookie sheet. And while I was tempted to use the cookie sheet, I didn’t want to take a chance of screwing it up with guests scheduled to arrive that afternoon. So I followed the directions to the letter.

So how did it turn out?



Well, it wasn’t quite what I was expecting. The cake was a little denser than your traditional boxed variety, almost more of a banana bread consistency than cake. Still, the overall reviews from my family were extremely positive (except from my sister, who halfway through wolfing down a piece learned there was cream cheese in the frosting and who then decided she didn’t like it). Next time I would bake it on the cookie sheet, which would make the cake thinner and help balance the cake/frosting ratio.

Speaking of frosting that had to be the absolute best part of this recipe… the fresh strawberry frosting. So good in fact, we were scooping extra frosting on the side of each serving!

If you’re looking for something different to serve at your next gathering, I’d say give this one a try… but bust out the cookie sheet so you are serving an authentic Texas sheet cake!

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Exercise 1, Diet 0

For the past 45 days, Clean Fresh Hubby and I have been sweating our way through Tony Horton’s P90X program. Maybe you’ve seen the infomercial – I hadn’t before we started the program, but now I notice it is on just about every night! It is an intensive, six day a week fitness regime with each day’s workout ranging from 75 to 90 minutes. It hasn’t been easy, but we are seeing results and are resolved to finish the entire 90 day program. And while our overall fitness has greatly improved in just 45 days, what has suffered is our diet.

What I’ve realized is how difficult it is to manage both diet AND exercise. Before P90X, I would squeeze in a 30 minute workout four days a week and most evenings I had dinner on the table at 6 p.m. Now, we begin the workout after our daughter goes to bed (around 7:15 p.m.) which means we aren’t finished until close to 9 p.m. And since we don’t want to eat before the workout, we are now sitting down to dinner after 9. And since I don’t want to eat a heavy dinner right before bed, we are usually eating small, quick dinners (like nuked vegetables or pita chips and hummus). I honestly can’t tell you the last weeknight dinner I’ve prepared.

Between work, family, food and exercise, it is hard to balance it all, and historically at our house, it is usually exercising that falters. Never has it been food that falls by the wayside! Therefore, my goal over the next few weeks is to figure out a way for food and exercise to coexist peacefully. I’ll be on the prowl for (quick) recipes that are light, healthy and suitable for a 9 p.m. dinner hour. If I find anything good, I’ll be sure to share them here. And if anyone has any suggestions on how to balance it all, please let me know!

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