{a day in the life} Texanerin Baking

Today’s “a day in the life” is Erin of Texanerin Baking. Erin’s site features the most mouthwatering treats — and get this — they are whole grain and reduced sugar! Goodness knows we all need a little more of that in our lives. Make sure to head over to her site and check out her drool-worthy photos and recipes. 

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Tell me about yourself and how you started food blogging.

Hi everyone! My name is Erin and I write over at Texanerin Baking. I’m from Dallas but currently live in Berlin, Germany with my German husband, where I’ve been living for the past four years.
After two years of reading food blogs, I thought I’d give it a try myself! I started off only posting healthier whole grain recipes but now I also post some grain-free and gluten-free recipes. Whatever I do, it’s all made healthier! My thing is that I want healthier goodies to taste just as good as their unhealthy counterparts. If it tastes healthy, I don’t want anything to do with it. ;)

Take me through your day.

Other than blogging, I also teach English at a language school. For the past few months, I haven’t had that many classes so I’ve only been out of the house a few hours per week. But that’s okay because I’m a homebody. Plus this blogging thing takes up a ton of time!

8:00 or 9:00 AM: Wake up. Breakfast usually consists of whatever baked goods I have leftover from the previous few days and if I’m feeling ambitious, a smoothie. And if I’m feeling super motivated, I sometimes eat veggies in the morning. I really can’t stand veggies so I sometimes like to get them out of the way right at the beginning of the day. I don’t like them hanging over my head! It’s silly, but true.

9:00AM – 1:00PM: Baking time! Maybe eat some lunch. But usually I just snack a lot. I also take pictures during this time.

1:00 – 3:00PM: As soon as the pictures are taken, I crawl to bed. It’s either that or doing the dishes and I don’t know about you, but nap time sounds so much more appealing! And yeah, I often take two hour naps. But I’m working on scaling back! And in my defense, I have sleeping issues.

3:00 – 9:00PM: Editing pictures, posting stuff on social media, writing posts.

9:00 – 10:00PM: I make my way to the kitchen and start cleaning up the mess. Boooo.

10:30 – 11:30PM: My husband comes to bed and we watch a TV show or part of a movie on the laptop.

What is your favorite part of your day? Why?

Nap time! My husband is writing his thesis and is home all day, and I usually am, too. This affords us the luxury of napping every day. I have a feeling that when we have kids, we’ll miss this more than anything.

What is your LEAST favorite part of the day? Why?

Cleaning the kitchen is by far the least favorite part of my day. I don’t know how I do it, but after two hours of baking, I have an hour of cleaning to do. My parents and my husband have always told me, “Clean as you go!” but they just don’t get it. I mean… come on! When you’re baking, you have to concentrate and not focus on silly things like cleaning. ;)
I just realized I probably sound like a lazy slob. Slob? Perhaps. But not lazy!

If you could choose one room in your house to remodel (on an unlimited budget!) which room would it be and why?

I have a huge kitchen for Berlin standards. It’s twice or even three times the size of some other kitchens I’ve seen here. But instead of spending money on making it look nice, we’re saving money so that when we move to the US (or Canada or wherever we end up!) we’ll have some money saved up for a house. I can’t wait to get out of an apartment! Apartment living is not for me.
So our kitchen is really, really embarrassing. I can’t believe I’m showing you pictures.

What you see here is pretty typical. Not so insanely messy (for me) but not the least bit tidy. And sorry for the lousy pictures. There’s terrible lighting in the kitchen!

What is your favorite day of the week? Why?

Saturday. I’ve never understood why almost everyone says Friday! You have to work on Friday. How is that better than Saturday? I mean, if it were the early 90s and we had some TGIF to watch, I would understand. But these days? Nope. Saturday wins!
And I also love Saturdays because Saturdays = gelato time! An Italian family opened up a gelato place a few minute walk from us and not only do they have the best gelato I’ve ever had, but I always giggle and get all giddy when I hear them talking to each other in Italian.

If you had to choose one place to travel to every year, where would it be? Why? Have you been there before?

I would go to the hill towns of Tuscany. I love the people, the scenery and most of all – the gelato! It’s amazing what all you come across just by driving around. I’ve been there before with my parents and another time with my husband. I definitely recommend going with that someone special and not your parents. ;)

If you could travel anywhere in the world for free, where would you go and how long would you stay?

I have to preface this by saving I have a baby elephant obsession. I would totally have a baby elephant if it were possible. So if I could go anywhere, I would go to Nairobi, Kenya. Just outside Nairobi, there’s a baby elephant orphanage. An orphanage! With teeny tiny little elephants running around, playing, and learning how to be elephants. So I would go there and visit during the visiting hour every day. For a week. And then I’d get the heck out of there. I’m not a fan of hot weather.

What recipe on your blog are you most proud of?

That’s a hard one! But I’m going to have to say these peanut butter cup brownies. They’re gooey, peanut buttery, and made healthier!

What recipe on your blog do your readers seem to love most?

Without a doubt, it’s these chocolate chip peanut butter cookie dough bites. They’re made out of… chickpeas. Yeah. They’re weird but not as weird as they sound! They’re just gooey peanut buttery and chocolatey goodness.

What is your guilty food pleasure that you’re embarrassed to fess up to? Kraft Mac & Cheese? Spagetti-o’s? Canned cheese? We promise not to judge!

Cheeseburger Hamburger Helper! We don’t have that over here in Germany so I had to come up with a homemade version. Not only is it better, but I don’t have to feel guilty. Yay. :)

What have you found to be the most challenging part of blogging?

Dealing with social media. I just can’t keep up with it.

Do you have any advice for someone who is interested in cooking or food blogging?

You can spend as much or as little time as you want on food blogging. But if you want to make money off of it, be prepared to be working on it every spare moment you have. I only post twice a week but I still spend 10 – 12 hours per day on blogging stuff.

Thanks so much for having me today! :)

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Thanks Erin! If I said I wasn’t INSANELY jealous of your afternoon nap, I’d be a big fat liar. 

You can find more of Erin on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Google+ and Instagram.

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