Journal Center Toastmasters

I had the pleasure of visiting the Journal Center Toastmasters today! What drew me to this club is that they are right down the block from my office and meet on alternate Mondays during the lunch hour. It was a great opportunity to see the format in a club with a traditional structure. My home club, Off-The-Cuff, is delightfully non-traditional so naturally it's a good for for me, eh wot?

JTCers invited me to give a speech at this meeting, which is a great help as I work toward my Competent Communicator designation within the Toastmaster's program.  I opted to present my speech "Making Sense," which is an introduction to what Sensory Processing Disorder is and how those with SPD are challenged throughout their day.  

And guess what?  I won Top Speaker! They graced me with a trophy* and 100 Grand... *cough*  chocolate bar... mini... which I ate... and it was delicious..  

Hey, Off-The-Cuffers, maybe we should incorporate fun stuff like this into our meetings, too!

* It's not the size of the trophy that counts, right?  Right?

Modern Wintercakes

Well, GoT starts up again tonight, so what better time to make a few more recipes from A Feast of Ice and Fire: The Official Game of Thrones Companion Cookbook.

I thought this recipe would be pretty easy, and a good way to ease back into this project. There are a number of great recipes still to be made.

This recipe is in three parts:  The batter (THICK!), the bottom (a little crumbly), and the icing.

The first tricky thing here was dicing the candied ginger.  Candied ginger is so sticky on the inside of the pieces that it gummed up my my chopper pretty good. As a result, the pieces were larger than I wanted them to be. 

Rather than have the cake filled with ginger chunk land mines, I opted to include the ginger only in the bottom - this way it can either be enjoyed or easily picked out. 

This cake is very dense, and is almost like a scone.

Arbonne protein lava cake

Who says you can't have cake for breakfast?!?!

Arbonne protein lava cake in a mug! Ooooozing with goodness! Oil free, refined sugar free AND flour free. 

*note: to make 100% vegan, make a flax seed "egg" substitute. 


1 scoop Arbonne chocolate protein powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon organic cocoa powder
1 egg white
1 tablespoon coconut milk

Microwave 45 sec to 1 minute on high (cooking time may vary), be careful not to over cook to ensure center is filled with delicious lava! Flip over on plate or eat right out of mug! Enjoy!!!