Happy Heart Day

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! The day most people celebrate by stuffing their faces with chocolate and goodies. I am usually one of those people. The past years have proven that I am and always will be a chocoholic but this year shows that I can control my urge to eat sweets and treats. I also appreciate the goodies I do get more so. Why yes, I can just have one cookie (if home made).
This year for Valentine's Day I worked but I also handed out some S'more Cupcakes to my coworkers and baked my tried and true peanut butter chocolate chip cookies for friends. I also made red velvet cheesecake brownies. I'm pretty excited about that one; it's the first time I've ever made brownies from scratch. Alex was super excited when I told him that was his v-day treat.

Tomorrow? I get a day full of surprise. Alex is taking me I don't know where and giving me a gift in addition to the one I already received earlier this week (Frozen Soundtrack! ^_^).

Alright now about this fitness business. Still going well, just had a bit of a shlump week with my mood. I think I just need more interaction with people. It's tough working all the time when Alex is off work and being at home when he's at work. I try to keep busy but busy isn't enough, I need conversation. So my mood made me half-ass a couple things this week but not much. I went to a "Power Yoga" class but was a bit bummed when it was subbed by someone who basically just taught it like it was stretching and never once mentioned breathing as part of the poses.

This week my measurements are:

39.5" shoulders
9" biceps
33" chest
29.75" under-bust
26.75" waist
36.75" hips
37.25" butt
21.75" thighs
14" calves

Oh the joy of fluctuation and being a girl.

Old-fashioned Peanut Butter Cookies

December 11th, did I have a cookie for breakfast? You can bet your festive stockings I did! Last night I made the best impulsive cookies ever! I was going through the 12 Days of Cookies from Food Network and suddenly got the hankering to bake cookies. I originally wanted to give Jeff Mauro's Spumoni Cookies a try but the low cooking temperature deterred me. The last time I baked cookies at 325 degrees, they ended up extremely dry and crumbly-- not an ideal cookie texture. So, it's safe to say I did not go for the Spumoni Cookies. Instead, I went with an Old-fashioned Peanut Butter Cookie recipe sponsored by Nestle Toll House. 

Now, if you know me, I rarely ever have everything I need for any sort of baking recipe. Luckily, this time, I had almost everything! The only thing I lacked was two sticks of butter; I only had one. So I cut the entire recipe in half. If you're a baker, you know that even cutting everything exactly in half, different results are given because, after all, baking is indeed a science. So, I halved the recipe-- all say for the egg. I just threw the whole thing in there. I also didn't make the dough balls a rounded tablespoon. They may have been closer to 2 1/2 tablespoons in size. It doesn't matter, they were ideal-sized cookies. 

In addition to keeping to the whole egg, and making the ball sizes bigger, I had to adjust the cooking time (of course!). I started by doing the suggested 8-10 minutes then tapped the top of one of the cookies-- too mushy still. I let it cook for 4-6 minutes more. Keep an eye on them; check in two-minute intervals after 10 minutes. This depends on the size of your cookies.

Once they did their time in the oven, I let them sit on the pan for four minutes, then I scooped them off to dry on the cookie rack (a.k.a. my toaster oven rack that I placed on the counter). 

One bite and these became Alex and my new go-to home-baked cookies (as long as we have actual butter in the fridge). They have a slight crisp on the edges, and soft buttery-chocolate goodness on the inside. A very nice treat to wake up to in the morning. Give it a try and let me know how it turns out. Maybe it'll make it onto your Holiday Cookie Gift Bag List!

Note of Changes (some not mentioned above):

Halved the recipe

Kept to whole egg

1 part dark chocolate chips, 1 part semi-sweet chocolate chips

Larger dough ball size

Generous sprinkle of granulated sugar instead of the weird cup-dipped indent thing noted in the recipe itself.

Cooking time ~15 minutes

Paleo Banana Cookies

Lately I've been attached to these super easy paleo cookies. They taste great and I love treating myself with them. Smushed bananas, oats, and extras of your choice-- yum!
When you  bite in you feel the warm sticky banana, the easily popped raisins, and a surprisingly soft-cookie texture that really makes these into a wonderful snack or treat. Who says cookies can't be made mostly from fruit?
I have found, however, that the directions can be improved. If you like your cookies a little tougher, bake at 400 degrees to crisp up the edges and brown the bottoms more.
In addition, I've selected a symphony of delectable ingredients to add nutrition. Here is my adapted method of making these delightful cookies:

(makes 3 cookies)
Preheat oven to 400, grease cookie sheet
Mash 1 banana with a fork until made into complete mush (the riper it is, the sweeter your cookie will be),
Add in a heaping spoonful of peanut butter, squish around until mostly incorporated with the banana,
1 tsp of honey (if the banana is still a little green, I recommend the honey to make it sweeter)
Handful of raisins,
1/2 cup of quick oats, mix until everything is incorporated
Scoop with a large spoon and slop the 'batter' onto the cookie sheet, shape them with the spoon.
Drizzle generously with cinnamon.
Bake for 13-15 minutes.
Shovel the cookies with a spatula onto a plate and start eating while they're warm.
Enjoy!

If you really like these, I recommend one of my earlier blog posts on No-Bake Cookies and Snack Squares