Today we bake!

I missed my speed workout yesterday and today I was supposed to be a tempo run, but I felt guilty about skipping the speed. I love those intervals, mostly because sprints like that crank up your metabolism and I need my metabolism as high as I can get it. So I designed my own workout of sorts. Of course there was a warm up and cool down, but between that is where the magic happened. I ran at a tempo run pace for a short bit, then did a few short sprints. I repeated this so I did a totally of four times. I loved this, because at the end I felt like I got a good balance of both and knew that my body was happy!

After that I did a weight lifting circuit training type dealy. I used to love weight lifting, but now I'm not a fan. So I'm trying to find a good routine to get into. I've been scouring the interwebs for something. Any help? Tips? Favorite workouts?

I'm a stress baker. When I have too much on my plate, I bake. Luckily, the baking process relaxes me so much, I don't stress eat afterwards. It's when I'm denied access to my whisk and oven that bad things happen. So, because I've carrying a lot on my shoulders with the big move happening in a few short months, work stress, and general craziness in my life, I've had a lot of baking coming my way. So today I'm baking up a storm. I'm going to try to limit how much I make, so that I have things to make later on, as needed. Plus I tried to healthy these kids up:

Almond Butter Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup almond butter
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon Bbaking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup flour
3/4 whole wheat flour
2 cups rolled oats
mix ins: chocolate chips, dried cranberries, chopped nuts; no more than 1 1/2 cups total

Directions:

•  Preheat oven to 375 degrees
•  Beat together butter and peanut butter until well combined

• Add sugars, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon. Beat until combined

•  Beat in eggs and vanilla. Beat in flour. Stir in oats and any mix-ins

•  Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased baking sheet (or parchment paper). Bake 10-12 minutes or until light brown around edges

•  Remove to wire racks to cool

My camera died before I got to pictures of the final product, but trust me, they won't last long in this house. I just want to cut out a little more sugar and butter and they will be perfect!

The most important holiday happened Wednesday. Some-puppy celebrated her anniversary of moving in with me! It's also her unofficial birthday, she was a shelter pup and because she was so young, and just had puppies (yeah, my dog was a skank before I came in her life), they could guess her birthday almost to the week. So she's officially five now! I can't believe how old she is. not okay.

The Birthday Girl totally gets to lick the bowl.

Any exciting Memorial Day weekend plans?

I'm going to a chocolate fest! 

(And if you're in the midwest, you should too!)

Have you baked anything "healthy" lately?

I'm excited to get started on my kiwi tart soon, I'm totally going to make it into something decadent AND healthy!