Laundry Day!

I've said it before, but the one perk of my job right now is my schedule. I have mondays off, so instead of hating them like the rest of the world, I embrace them. Feel free to hate me later!

I schedule my long runs for Mondays. It's fantabulous and fantastical! But that involves waking up early and getting out of bed. But considering I have to wake up early every other day of the week, sometimes sleeping in occurs. And then the weather dictates that the long run won't happen. So instead, I did a short run. 2 glorious miles. These miles were the best I've had in a long time. I rocked it! Today I earned:

But I was feeling the heat at the end. I wish I was faster so that two miles would be done much faster. Note to self earn more money to buy fancy technical running clothes.

Note to self: just because the shirt is funny and awesome doesn't mean it's good for running. (and also, yell at roommates for being messy)

On Mondays I do keep busy. Like doing massive amounts of laundry. Who knew that one dog and one girl could make this much laundry? Maybe it has something to do with me being lazy and never wanting to actually do laundry?? No? Thanks for agreeing. It must multiple in the laundry basket. Shame on you... dirty laundry doing dirty things. tsk tsk.

Doing all this laundry makes me feel like I'm stuck in jail!

Luckily it's super hot out, so I don't feel like a loser being inside all day doing laundry. But then again, the sun is out...

Seriously, I'm IN jail right now. Let me out into the sun!!

I'm also baking a lot. I've been craving sweets so much lately and I'm trying to do some healthy replacements. So I just eat twice as much. But my kiwi tart has greek yogurt and no white sugar, so it's even better than a salad. Seriously. I know these things. Plus it's easy as pie.... errr tart. Easy as tart!

Kiwi Tart

Crust:

8 ounces ginger snaps cookies (1-1/2 cups of crumbs)

6 tablespoons melted unsalted butter

2 tablespoons honey

Filling:

2 1/2 cups low fat Greek yogurt (or any low fat yogurt if you wish)

1 box (4 serving size) fat free, sugar free pudding mix (vanilla, lemon, whatever flavor you want. I used cheesecake)

2 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Topping:

4-5 kiwis, peeled and sliced

3-4 tablespoons lemon curd

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees
• Finely crush the cookies in a food processor or in a plastic bag with a rolling pin. Add the butter and sugar, and stir to combine. Press the mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch tart pan with a removable rim. Bake for 8-10 minutes until lightly browned. Let cool.
• As the crust is cooling. Stir together all filling ingredients until well blended. Pour filling into cooled crust and top with kiwis.
• Microwave curd for 5-10 seconds in a bowl. Brush on top of kiwis.
• Refrigerate about 1 hour until set.

This is a good recipe for any basic fruit tart. Berries are great on this with lemon pudding filling.

Since you're all jealous that you're at work and not eat the tart. I'll leave with one final picture... homemade olive tapenade. I rock out on my days off.

Salty goodnes!

What are your favorite healthy deserts?

I love fruit based deserts... tarts, crumbles, cobblers. I love to take the old recipes and redesign them to make them healthier.

What do you typically do on your days off?
I do so many chores to clean up behind the messy people I live with. Other than that, Guinness and I lay around stuffing our faces with indulgent foods that I never share.

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!