Lemon Sugar Cookies & a Giveaway Preview

We have a lot of plants around our house. All types too. Right now, everything is in full bloom. They love this hot weather! Here is a picture of one of our cactus with their flowers. It only blooms once a year and only for a day or two.

I love baking. I mean, I really love baking. If I could be in the kitchen all day long baking (and eat everything without gaining weight), I would. This weekend, I spent some time in the kitchen. I made the best sugar cookies I have ever made! They were so light (perfect for the hot weather). 

I like sugar cookies that are light and refreshing. So, the lemon sugar cookies were on the top of my list. They were so easy to make. They took no time at all!

I had a couple left over chocolate chip cookies from a couple weeks ago, so they went to the top of the cookie jar. In case you were curious, yes, my cookie jar sets on my counter at all times. 

Lars has recently started eating solids (that I make all myself, which I'll talk about more in another post). By this picture, I think he likes it. It may look like he doesn't have any hair, but he has very fine baby blondish-red hair. 

This was my long weekend. Sitting at home (when I wasn't running boring errands), hanging out with the family. Lars and I did manage to get out for a small run, before it got too hot on Monday. But, out of everything we do together, dinner time is my favorite. We all sit at the table and eat together. Lars plays with his zebra, until we finish, then Jason usually feeds him afterwards. He loves being involved in the conversation too. 

How was your weekend? Anyone  camp or go to the beach?

Do you eat dinner at the table, outside or in front of the tv (which I use to)?

Who would like a free entry to a Spartan race in a city near you?

French Dinner & a Winner

This weekend was full of baking a new dinners. Since no one really reads posts on Saturdays, I will include the recipes and all details tomorrow. Today, I will talk about the worst run yet.

When I woke up this morning, I had a feeling, in the back of my head that today was going to be a bad run. I woke up and ate 1/4 of a power bar. I drank some water and got dressed. I drove to a new trail that I have only taken my dog on once a few years ago. So, I wasn't very familiar with this trail. I turned right too early and didn't go the way I was familiar with.

On the run, I wore my Spi Belt. I had my cell phone, a GU (just in case) and a Jamba Juice card in there. About 1 mile into my run, the belt started to giggle up and down. It was very annoying. I thought I didn't have it tight enough, so I tried tightening it, then I tried re-organizing the items inside (thinking, maybe it wasn't flat against my back), and I also tried changing it from the back to the front. Since it was more annoying on the back, I kept it on the front. Because of this, I kept hitting my bladder from the rest of the run (about 5 miles). I stopped my Garmin when I tried fixing my belt, then I forgot to start it. I ran about 1 mile with my Garmin stopped. So, I lost about 10 minutes.

Because I took a wrong turn, I wasn't familiar with how long the trail went. I found out that it ended very soon. It only went about 1 1/2 more miles. I ended running on surface streets. They were streets I've never heard of (and I live about 3 miles away). I finished my half way (out and back kind of run) and I turned around about 3 miles into the run. I almost ran into dog poop a million times and I was holding my Spi Belt. To make matters worst, about 4 1/2 miles into the run, my feet started to kill me, yet again. I ended up walking some and running very slow. The surface streets had very steep hills (which I'm not training for at this point).

The only good thing about having such a horrible run today, is that it will just better that much better tomorrow. I think I will run in a more familiar area. I like knowing where I am and what I am about to come across. I will go back to this trail (and make the correct turn), just not tomorrow. I can't wait to get up early and try this out, again.

Here is a little preview of what I've made, so far, this weekend. I'm thinking that truffles may be in the future for tomorrow.???

More Peanutella balls (a double batch).



Cinnamon Bread.

Chicken Crepes and fresh green beans.

The reason why everyone is reading this post is for the winner of the Road ID. The winner is...Paige from Two Runners and a Brown Dog. Please email me (runnersfuelathotmaildotcom)with your email address and I will send you the code for the Road ID. You have until Monday at midnight to claim the code, or I will choose another winner on Tuesday.

Last Day Off

Today was a nice and relaxing day (as you can see by the picture of Scout below).

This was a much better morning. No one woke us up. We were able to sleep in (until 10:45!!). I had 2 cups of coffee with a couple of muffins for breakfast.

Lunch was just a full PB&J sandwich (no chips). I relaxed all day long (and caught up on my blogs).

Dinner was much healthier than I have been eating this weekend. I made a salad. In the salad, I had black beans, olives, green pepper, hard boiled egg, cucumber, carrots all on top of the mixed greens with the feta salad dressing. It was so filling, I couldn't finish everything. I'll save the rest for tomorrow.



Here are the recipes to the goodies I made this weekend:

Banana Nut Oatmeal Cookies (so good, I added PB or mini chocolate chips on top to some)

Banana Cake (this was just ok, I wouldn't make it again)

Banana Crunch Muffins (one of the best muffins I've made!)

So much food and no workout

I started my day out the regular "healthy" way. I ate my cereal for breakfast, and when it came to snack time, I ate my banana. When my boss came in, she had donuts. Of course, my favorite, chocolate. There is no way I can turn down a chocolate donut. They're my favorite! I took my time eating it, about 1 hour. That's super slow for me, usually it takes about 1 minute (yes, I'm a pig).


About 2:30, I ate an early lunch, since I was getting off early. I had my usual whole wheat 1/2 sandwich. Since I was able to get off of work early and spend some time with my hubby, I was super happy all day. He works nights and I work days, so we don't get that much time together (when we're both awake). He was out and about and was kind enough to bring home something I've been craving lately...a REAL hamburger. I am a meat eater. I love meat, and I needed something badly. I've been craving it for a few weeks. I know he was too. I love the Habit, they have the best burgers. They are charbroiled. When you pull into their parking lot, it smells like you're at a BBQ. The food is always made right in front of you, and it tastes so fresh. If you like burgers, I'd highly recommend trying the Habit.

I did some baking tonight, which I will post, as I eat what I've made. One baking item that I just love is my terrcotta discs. What you do is soak them in water for about 10 minutes, then bake them at 350 for about 15 minutes, wait until they cool and place them inside your container of brown sugar. Then, you say good-bye to those nasty lumps. I love it! I've had mine for a few years, and never had any lumps. It works great. You only have to do the soaking and stuff once when ever you change out the brown sugar. Something else I'd highly recommend.

When I got home this afternoon, I found a box on my door step. Shelley at Vitalicious was kind enough to send me a huge box of vita muffins and vita brownies to try out. They looked so yummy, I didn't want to put them in the freezer, I wanted to eat them all right then.

This evening, after dinner, I wanted to try one of the vita muffins. I chose to try the deep chocolate flavor. I was so hard to choose which ONE I wanted to try first. What is great about the vita muffins is that they're only 100 calories (especially since I'm a calorie counter), they have 5g - 6g of fiber, 0g - 1.5g of fat, 3g - 4g protein with 15 vitamins and minerals. I've heard really good things about this brand. They aren't loaded with sugar, artificial ingredients and preservatives, and they still taste great! I'm so use to "fake food" and I'm trying to eat better, and these will help with my chocolate craving, and I won't feel guilty by eating them.

Here's all the great information on the back of the wrapper.

These babies are pretty thick. It has a nice layer of chocolate frosting on top and little chunks of chocolate inside. If I could, I would eat these every day. These suckers are 2oz., that's pretty heavy. When I first saw them, they reminded me of an episode of Seinfeld when Elaine wants to open her own bakery that only sells muffin tops and she has to get Newman to eat the bottoms because no one else would take them. These are so much better for you than those muffins, though. They are pretty moist, it was like they were just made. Chocolatey goodness!

Today was an off day from the gym. I wish I would have gone after all the food I ate today. I am very full right now and will not be eating until after the gym tomorrow.

Some questions that have been are going to be answered right now:

The 1/2 marathon I'm training for is the American River Parkway 1/2 in May 2011. I'm not a great runner, so I need to give myself plenty of time to get a descent time. The weather has been a little warm, too warm for me to run outside, so I hit the treadmill during the week. On Sunday mornings, I am able to get outside and run, since I hate getting up earlier than what I have to before work.

Bacon inside brownies will be something I may try. I have to get up the courage, though. I will be buying some pretzels with PB inside, now. I love that combo, now. I am also a bake good slut, I love trying new things and old things. I'll post more this weekend of what I've made tonight.

Do you have nay tricks to keep items lasting longer (ie: the terracotta disc)?

Hills and Drills

Another standard Thursday morning. Hit snooze a million times, ate my cereal, and off to work. I was tough at work and didn't cave into the blackberry cobbler. Yesterday, I had more than my fair share. My co-worker will finish it tomorrow, how nice of him! I had my banana and apple as my snacks instead. My standard lunch did the trick for a few hours.

Before I headed out to the gym, I ate 1/2 of a Mojo bar. The flavor was PB Pretzels.

I've never had a Mojo bar before and wasn't sure what to expect. When I opened it, I first thing I noticed the little PB chips. I've actually never had PB and pretzels together before. It was pretty good. I was thinking that all the water weight that I'll retain from this bar, after it goes away, I'll weight myself and I'll be lighter than expected. Which will make me happy!! I would recommend this bar to anyone. Maybe as a post workout bar.

At the gym, I spent 35:48 minutes on the treadmill doing hills and drills. Drills, to me, are really sprints. For the hills, I was at 6.5 incline, and the sprints were flat. I had about 15 seconds recovery between. I really kicked my ass today. I wasn't really feeling the standard run in one spot today for 4 miles. So, I did this in 3 miles. Yay me!!

For dinner, I ate the last of the left over spaghetti. It was still good. The veggies stayed just prefect. I was surprised that they still tasted good. I'm glad it worked out! Dessert was, once again, another granola bar. I love the chocolate chip bars. So good! Of course, like many girls, I LOVE chocolate.

I hope I'm in the mood to bake right when I get home (instead of laying around for a few hours first) tomorrow. I don't want to make a mess in the kitchen tonight (I don't feel like cleaning), so I'll wait until tomorrow. A fellow blogger gave me a suggestion I will definitely use (probably not tomorrow), to use Reed's crystallized ginger in muffins. She mentioned how it crystallizes inside the muffin and tastes amazing. I can't wait to try this. Maybe next weekend...

What is your favorite secret ingredient? If you don't have one, what your favorite item to bake?