Ari's Menu

Little changes making a big difference.


Cranberry Pistachio Cinnamon Chip Cookies

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Soft, nutty pumpkin spiced oatmeal cookies stuffed with dried cranberries, pistachios and sweet cinnamon chip. These are the perfect combination fall cookie.

Cranberry Pistachio Cinnamon Chip Cookies

So somehow it became mid November? I don’t even know. Today my mom had to remind me that I was hosting a birthday party on Sunday. I legitimately forgot. Who does that? It’s also the day I had double booked myself to volunteer for Ironman AZ (so bummed that I ended up having to miss it), and yet I found myself thinking “it’s my last open weekend!” Wrong.

Cranberry Pistachio Cinnamon Chip Cookies

So turns out I’m birthday party-ing this weekend, and oh just riding 111 miles with thousands of my new BFFs the following weekend. I can’t even believe the century is finally here. I don’t know what I was thinking, but when I signed up it didn’t seem nearly as scary as running a marathon. I just assumed I’d do a few long rides, and I’d be good. Of course, it’s that time in training where I start to seriously doubt every single thing I’ve ever done, and all the sudden decide I am incapable of riding 111 miles. Even though I already rode 100. Mostly by myself.

Cranberry Pistachio Cinnamon Chip Cookies

Oh, and then it’s Thanksgiving. My favorite holiday. I could talk about that forever, but today I’d rather talk to you about cookies. Fall cookies. Since, ya know, fall is almost over even though it seems like it just began 5 minutes ago? Is it shorter than all of the other seasons or something? Figures the best season would be short.

Cranberry Pistachio Cinnamon Chip Cookies

So I threw every fall weapon you could imagine into these babies. Pumpkin spice, cranberry, cinnamon, the whole 9 yards, and they are totally magical. Soft and chewy, but with that hearty, nutty texture that only the best oatmeal cookies provide. And pistachios are a totally superior nut, in my opinion. They just have a little something extra special. 😉

Print
Cranberry Pistachio Cinnamon Chip Cookies

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Yield: 3 dozen

Serving Size: 1 cookie

Cranberry Pistachio Cinnamon Chip Cookies

Soft, nutty pumpkin spiced oatmeal cookies stuffed with dried cranberries, pistachios and sweet cinnamon chip. These are the perfect combination fall cookie.

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour*
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • dash salt
  • 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
  • 1/2 cup apple butter
  • 1 1/2 tbsp coconut oil
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup rolled oats
  • 1 cup cinnamon chips
  • 1/2 cup pistachios, roughly chopped
  • 2/3 cup dried cranberries

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350. In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice. Set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, beat together apple butter, coconut oil, sugar, egg and vanilla until combined. Slowly beat in dry ingredients, then fold in oats, followed by cinnamon chips, pistachios and cranberries.
  3. Line a baking sheet with silpat parchment paper, and drop cookies onto the sheet using a small cookie scoop.
  4. Bake for 12 minutes until golden.Let stand until fully cooled. Store in a loosely covered container for 5-7 days.

Notes

*Tested with white whole wheat, but gluten-free baking blend may be substituted. If dough is too sticky, simply add a bit more flour.

http://www.arismenu.com/cranberry-pistachio-cinnamon-chip-cookies/

 

 

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies with Dark Chocolate, Cherries & Coconut

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Friends, these are not the prettiest cookies I’ve ever made.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies with Dark Chocolate, Cherries & Coconut #vegan #glutenfree

 

In fact, when I made them for our first Ragnar team meeting, I almost didn’t serve them because I didn’t love the look, but as I kept reaching over, and over, and over for the pieces of the uglier ones I planned to throw away, I realized they were so delicious, I just had to save them, and post about them, pretty or not.

fPeanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies with Dark Chocolate, Cherries & Coconut #vegan #glutenfree

 

I don’t think I’ve mentioned it yet, but this February I will be running Ragnar Del Sol with 11 other amazing ladies! The line up includes Nicole, Karla, Melissa, Megan, Tara, Stacey, Jaime, Bety, Jennifer, Jenn, and Kelli. I am sosoSO excited! We had our first official meeting a couple of weeks ago, and did a potluck at my house, so of course I called dibs on making dessert. 😉 Tara and Jaime don’t eat gluten or dairy, so I wanted to make something that everyone would be able to enjoy.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies with Dark Chocolate, Cherries & Coconut #vegan #glutenfree

 

So I did end up serving my visually-challenged cookies, and I’m even sharing them with you, because I love them. They are so chewy, and packed with flavor. In true Ari style, there is definitely a lot going on, which leads to my new longest title ever (I think?), but it all comes together perfectly in a way that rather than tasting each component, you taste the combination as a whole.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies with Dark Chocolate, Cherries & Coconut #vegan #glutenfree

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies with Dark Chocolate, Cherries & Coconut

  • 1 tbsp coconut oil, melted
  • 3 tbsp apple butter
  • 1 cup natural peanut butter
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • ½ cup unsweetened almond milk
  • 1 and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 and 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 2 tbsp cornstarch
  • dash salt
  • 1/3 cup reduced fat unsweetened shredded coconut
  • 3 cups raw oats (use gluten-free if you care about that sort of thing)
  • 6 oz good quality dark chocolate, chopped into chunks (I used 2 bars—a coconut dark chocolate and a sea salt dark chocolate)
  • 3/4 cup sweet cherries, pitted and chopped

 

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silpat.
  2. In a large bowl, beat together coconut oil, apple butter, peanut butter, and sugars until smooth. Add almond milk, vanilla, baking soda, cornstarch, salt, and coconut, and beat until well combined. Fold in oats, followed by chocolate, cherries and coconut.
  3. Use a small cookie scoop to drop batter onto prepared baking sheet about 2 inches apart (these spread quite a bit).
  4. Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown around the edges. Cool completely on baking sheet before transferring to serve.

**Notes: These cookies are very sticky. I don’t recommend sealing them for storage. You also don’t want to crowd them. They work best unstacked in a large Tupperware with the lid resting on top, but unsealed.

 

 

Peanut Butter Filled Oatmeal Muffins

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One of my very favorite breakfasts is loaded oatmeal. I never used to understand the whole oatmeal obsession until I started reading food blogs and seeing and the delicious mix ins other people use in their oatmeal. I mean let’s be honest, if you put peanut butter in anything I will probably eat it.

Especially when it’s all hot and oozey and melts out when you take a bite. Melty + peanut butter = the best of both worlds.

These muffins were inspired by two very special friends. They don’t really eat gluten or dairy, but that doesn’t mean they should have to miss out on post run muffin amazingness!

You guys know I love cooking for special diets. It’s a weird thing  I have. The more rules, the more exciting it is to make something delicious and fitting! I guess I just enjoy a challenge. Must come from my super chill uncompetitive nature.

These muffins just scream fall breakfast to me, and I loved finding a new way to eat oatmeal in the morning because, let’s be honest, no matter how many different ways I mix things in, the concept of stove top oats remains the same, and we all need a little variety once in a while.

 

Plus, muffins for breakfast are the closest thing you get to cupcakes for breakfast, and who doesn’t want to eat cupcakes for breakfast???

 

Peanut Butter Filled Oatmeal Muffins

adapted from Gluten Free Girl

yield 1 dozen

  • 2 cups sweet rice flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • dash salt
  • 1 tbs milled flax seed
  • 1 tbs corn starch
  • 1 tbs coconut oil, melted
  • 3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
  • 1/4 cup fig butter
  • 1 cup cooked gluten-free oatmeal, room temperature
  • 1/3 cup dried cranberries
  • approx 1/3 cup peanut butter

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 375. Line 12 muffin tins with paper liners and lightly coat with nonstick spray.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together baking powder, salt, rice flour, flax seed and corn starch. Beat in coconut oil, almond milk and fig butter. Then fold in cooked oats and cranberries.
  3. Fill each muffin tin about 1/3 with batter. Top with approx 1/2 tbs peanut butter (you can use more or less depending on how peanut buttery you want them), then top with batter leaving the cups 2/3 full.
  4. Bake until golden, about 20 minutes. You can test with a toothpick, but make sure not to stick it right in the peanut butter. Toothpick should come out mostly clean with a few crumbs.

Chocolate Chip Coconut Oatmeal Cookies

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If you had to choose only one cookie to eat for the rest of your life, what would it be?

For me, it’s definitely a toss up between oatmeal and peanut butter, but then you have to take into account black and white cookies which, you know, could solve all of our problems.

Okay, so can we just talk for a second about that moment you search for something strange on the internet, or at least you think  it’s strange, and then a few words in, it pops up all the way because so many other people searched for it too? It makes me giggle. I didn’t realize how many other Seinfeld fanatics were out there searching for the black and white cookie episode on youtube. Turns out, there are tons of crazies out there just.like.me. Scary thought. Look out world.

You know what else is scary??? My “baby” brother just got his freaking learners permit. You see, I’m so much older than him (wahhh) that most of his life I referred to him as my baby brother, but somehow he got to be 15, and I got to be pushing 30 (well, I mean I’m pushing it from a distance, I guess, but still, IT’S LOOMING), and the world as I knew it has ended. I can’t even handle it.

And he had to go and do it on marathon week when I am an emotional basket case. Rude. Umm, today I got teary eyed IN FRONT OF MY STUDENTS when I spoke the word “marathon”. I should be locked away until this thing is over.

Okay, so back to the cookies. “Look to the cookie, Elaine.” Sorry. Go watch the video on youtube, and that will make sense. These cookies would definitely be on my list if I had to choose one to eat for the rest of my life. I kinda feel like I’ve developed my perfect oatmeal cookie recipe, and I keep coming up with different variations on it, but the basics stay the same, and it all started with this cookie. The edges just slightly brown, the soft is so gooey that you would swear I used a Paula Dean portion of butter (spoiler alert: I used none), and they have the perfect amount of sweetness for my taste–somewhere between diabetic coma and healthy tasting. 😉

I made these for an event my mom was attending, and they were a huge hit. Everyone that tasted them fell just as in love as I did. Also, they’re vegan so some of my awesome friends can enjoy them too!

 

Chocolate Chip Coconut Oatmeal Cookies

yield 3 dozen

  • 1 1/2 cup white whole wheat Flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • dash salt
  • 1 tbs cornstarch
  • 1/2 cup apple butter
  • 1 1/2 tbs coconut oil
  • 1/2 cup turbinado sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar, not packed
  • 1/4 cup water or unsweetened almond milk (+ the corn starch = egg replacement)
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup reduced fat unsweetened shredded coconut
  • 1 cup rolled oats
  • 1 cup mini dark chocolate chips

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350. In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and corn starch. Set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, beat together apple butter, coconut oil, sugar, water/almond milk and vanilla until combined. Slowly beat in dry ingredients, then fold in oats and coconut, followed by the chocolate chips.
  3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and drop cookies onto the sheet using a small cookie scoop.
  4. Bake for 12 minutes until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet for 3-5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Pumpkin Filled Oatmeal Sandwich Cookies

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In case you’re wondering if I’m running out of things I want to make that include pumpkin…

The answer is no. Not even a little bit. In fact, the list has gotten so long. Longer than my To-Do List, and you can figure out for yourself which list I’m actually gaining more ground on…

I just wanna bake cookies all day long. Can that be my life? Except, then none of my pants would fit. No matter how much healthier my cookies may be than your average dessert, a cookie is a cookie, and if you eat a dozen a day (don’t judge me), then…well, we all know how that ends. Moral of the story? Bake cookies all day long, then bribe the love of everyone you know by feeding them delicious healthy desserts. That’s how I win friends in life. That, and rapping Gangsta’s Paradise at parties. Or maybe that was how I lose friends? I forget…

So as you can see, my tools for friendship are bribery and embarrassing myself. They seem to work pretty well. I attract awesome humans. I’m guessing it has more to do with the cookies. These cookies were, um, ridiculous. I used my favorite oatmeal cookie recipe + some pumpkin pie spice, then mixed together some canned pumpkin, cream cheese, brown sugar and a little flour for thickening, and I had a dangerous dessert on my hands. I loved the way the thick oatmeal cookies held up to the creamy filling. The filling was tricky. Pumpkin leads to a slightly runny cream cheese frosting, but I noticed that this girl used flour when she made almost the exact same thing, so I tried that and it solved all of the problems in the entire world. Or at least my very critical, life-or-death frosting problem. Thanks Sally, you’re my pumpkin frosting hero! 😉

These would be perfect for a more bite sized Thanksgiving dessert (I made some big ones too, but I ended up loving the minis the best!), or for any fall party, or really…just because. Who doesn’t love a cream filled sandwich cookies? It’s one of life’s happy things. 😉

 

Pumpkin Filled Oatmeal Sandwich Cookies

For the cookies:

  • 1 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • dash salt
  • 1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
  • 7 1/2 tbs apple butter
  • 1 1/2 tbs coconut oil
  • 1/3 cup turbinado sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
  • 1/4 cup egg substitute
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup rolled oats

For the filling:

  • 8 oz reduced fat cream cheese, softened
  • 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 1/4 cup white whole wheat flour

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, beat together apple butter, coconut oil, sugar, egg substitute and vanilla until combined. Slowly beat in dry ingredients, then fold in oats.
  3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and drop cookies onto the sheet using a small cookie scoop.
  4. Bake for 12 minutes until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet for 3-5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
  5. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Beat in remaining filling ingredients. Spread filling over 1/2 of the cookies, then top with an other cookie.

Candy Corn Oatmeal Cookies

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Happy October! I know we’re technically on day 3 here, but it’s still the beginning, so I figured what better way to celebrate than with Halloween candy?

Okay, I have a confession. I don’t think I actually like candy corn. I LOVE these cookies, but I bought this entire bag of candy corn to make them, and so once in a while when I was craving something sweet, I would grab a couple. I wanted to like them. Everyone loves candy corn at Halloween time! I tried way too many times, but the truth is, I think they taste weird on their own. I would much rather have a chocolate peanut butter pumpkin.

You know those round ones wrapped in pumpkin foil paper with the crunch in the middle that only come out for Halloween? I have a serious obsession. I used to buy at least 4-5 bags a season, and eat them all. It was kind of gross. Really gross. But those pumpkins are delicious. This year, I’m abstaining from delicious peanut butter pumpkins. I don’t trust myself. However, if you buy a bag and wanted to give me jusssstttt ooonnneee, we would maybe be best friends for ever and ever.

In return, I will give you the whole 2/3 full bag of candy corn sitting on my counter. I would say in my pantry, but yeah…. Still haven’t put that away. In fact, my house is a bit of a disaster, but that’s a whole other story, and it’s a little embarrassing. Let’s just pretend for one day that I am the neatest person ever, and my house always looks immaculate. That’s a fun dream.

Let me tell you, the first time I attempted candy corn cookies, disaster ensued. I tried to make pumpkin ones, and they were entirely too cake-like, plus I mixed the candy corns into the batter, and my poor cookie pan is still recovering. It was a sticky, cakey mess that no one would enjoy eating. Surprisingly, I didn’t freak out like I normally would. I laughed about it, threw away the disaster cookies, and went back to the drawing board. The result? Halloween cookie perfection.

It’s still important to bake the candy corns in the cookie, because that’s what makes them gooey, and stick to the cookie, but pressing them in on top saves you the mess! Also, a heartier oatmeal cookie stands up a lot better when adding strange little yellow, orange, and white candies to the mix 😉 The cookies are slightly crispy on the edges, while perfectly soft and gooey on the inside, with the perfect melty sweetness of baked candy corn.

Even this candy corn hater couldn’t get enough!! I’m telling you, if you too think you hate candy corn, you can reform to society’s candy corn obsession by putting them in these cookies! And if you love candy corn, you will really  love these cookies!

Candy Corn Oatmeal Cookies

yield 3 dozen

  • 1 1/2 cups white whole wheat four
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • dash salt
  • 6 tbs apple butter
  • 3 tbs coconut oil
  • 3/4 cup raw turbinado sugar
  • 1/4 cup egg substitute
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup rolled oats
  • approx 1 cup candy corn

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, beat together apple butter, coconut oil, sugar, egg substitute and vanilla until combined. Slowly beat in dry ingredients, then fold in oats.
  3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and drop cookies onto the sheet using a small cookie scoop. Press 3-4 candy corns into the top of each cookie.
  4. Bake for 12 minutes until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet for 3-5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

 

What’s your favorite Halloween candy??

 

Cinnamon Chip Granola Cookies

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I love chips. Chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, kale chips, you name it. It’s kind of like my love affair with all things named ______ butter (peanut, cookie, fig, apple…). Cinnamon chips are hard to find, so if you happen to catch them, I suggest stocking up, because they are ridiculously delicious. Way back around Christmastime, Nicole made some pretty awesome cinnamon chip cookies, and ever since I’ve been thinking about my own cinnamon chips burning a hole in my pantry.

Cinnamon chips and granola. Does that make you as excited as it makes me???

It kind of made me skip around the kitchen, patting myself on the back, declaring myself a genius, and certain I need to start getting patents for all my great ideas. Don’t burst my bubble, okay? It’s my blog, so let’s just all agree to pretend I’m brilliant. I don’t take rejection well. It’s bad for my self esteem.

Thanks for sticking with me through that. You guys are awesome.

That’s why I made you this present.

From me to you.

Except I may have eaten them all.

At least I wrapped them up first, right?

I couldn’t help it. They outsides were crunchy, and so was the granola, and the insides were gooey with melty cinnamon chips. Can you blame me for eating an entire batch of cookies??? Okay, this guy helped. You have to feed your photographer right? Anyway, you should make some. You don’t have to tie your own cookies in a bow, and you can eat them all yourself and refuse to feel guilty about it, just like me.

Cinnamon Chip Granola Cookies

yield 15 cookies

  • 1/4 cup apple butter
  • 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 egg white
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp almond extract
  • dash salt
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • pinch cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
  • 1/4 cup rolled oats
  • 1/2 cup granola of choice (I used this one, and it is ridiculously good)
  • 1/4 cup cinnamon chips

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 375. Lightly spray a large cookie sheet with nonstick spray, and set aside.
  2. In a medium bowl, beat apple butter, brown sugar and Splenda together until combined. Beat in egg substitute, vanilla and almond.
  3. Add cinnamon, baking soda and salt, and beat until combined. Beat in flour.
  4. Fold in oats, followed by cinnamon chips and granola.
  5. Use a cookie scoop or spoon to portion out tablespoon sized cookie dough balls on prepared baking sheet. Flatten slightly with greased parchment paper.
  6. Bake for 9-11 minutes, turning half way through to ensure even cooking.
  7. Let stand for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

**Note: I made the glaze for fun. The cookies are equally delicious without it, but if you’re sitting there thinking “I WANT THAT GLAZE ON MY COOKIES!!!” I took about 1/2 cup of powdered sugar, 2 tbs hot water and a dash of almond extract and just mixed it together 😉

 

 

March Goals

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Hello friends! Life has been surprisingly busy this past week. It’s been really nice to stay busy and not be sitting alone at home, and I’ve actually been pretty productive! I’ve gotten a lot of work done. I baked donuts for the first time! They were delicious, but no matter how many times I tried to get good pictures with my point and shoot (Steve took the fancy camera to LA. Boo.) they never quite looked pretty. I’ll just have to recreate them when he comes home. Cinnamon sugar cake donuts with a cinnamon brown sugar topping. Yummm. I worked some more, got dry needled again…this time in both legs. Ouch. More work, had the most delicious breakfast ever!

Why yes, that is oats in a Nutella jar. It was just as delicious as you would imagine.

I’ve also been riding my bike a whole lot. Tuesday am I skipped out on spin in favor of getting some much needed work done, so I ended up going to a bike ride that afternoon, and it’s pretty much the only thing I’ve done for exercise every day since. No, I’m not happy about it. Don’t get me wrong, I am in so much love with my bike, and riding it is so fun and relaxing, but you know what? It’s just not the same as running.

Unfortunately, I’ve been in quite a bit of pain lately, and it was enough to stop me from running Tuesday when I wanted to and even Wednesday morning when it was scheduled into my phone. KT, my physical therapist, first gave me a lecture about how I never listen to her, then I got super defensive promised to take any advice she gave me. Of course, I am not a fan of her advice. She told me to take a week off. I know a week isn’t that long, but I’ve only run twice since The Lost Dutchman, and I miss it. I was so excited about my speed work out on Monday, and I was really looking forward to keeping up the momentum and getting faster. I know in reality a week won’t really derail me, and mostly I just want to feel better. When I went shopping with Nicole on Monday, I was hobbling around the store 🙁

In other news, one thing I wanted to start doing was setting goals at the beginning of each month, and check in at the end. Monica does this and I really like it! I set some 2012 goals, then totally forgot about it in February. Whoops. So here we go…!

March Goals:

  • Schedule EVERYTHING. I keep double booking myself, and luckily I have amazing friends that have been able to help me out, and understanding family that doesn’t tell me just how much I suck, but I don’t prefer feeling like a flake. One of the hardest parts about my career is the scheduling, so I need to figure out how to make it work for me.
  • Always respond to communication. I used to be like the best person about keeping in touch, responding to every email I received and being available pretty much at all times. I think I got a little burnt out, but when you don’t respond to work emails for days at a time, it doesn’t look so great and people may never want to hire you again. I have to be honest when I say that I am SO OVER non personal forms of communication like email and texting, but I know that at least email is necessary, and I need to respond to everything within a 24 hour period.
  • Drink water with every meal and snack. I have a confession. I am motivated enough to run for miles on end, but I am literally too lazy to walk to the kitchen for a glass of water. It’s awful. If I go out and have a waiter, I will drink cup after cup until I’m in the bathroom every 5 minutes, but left to my own devices, I am a lazy bum, and that needs to stop, because being hydrated is super important to my health.
  • Be mindful of intellectual labelings of emotional responses. WTF does that mean? Well, I learned recently that although our emotional responses are partially chemical, that many emotions are the same in our chemistry, such as sad/disappointed/guilty,  angry/empowered, anxious/excited. We cannot control our chemical response. However, we can take bigger charge of our mood (and sanity) by choosing more appropriate labels. For me the big ones are going to be choosing excitement/anticipation over anxiety, and sad over guilty, because anxiety and guilt are two things that I struggle with. It’s interesting how challenging it is to make an active choice to feel less crappy, or a different kind of crappy in a situation. Once I feel like crap, my mental response is to want to just feel like crap, and I get frustrated at the idea of trying to change it! Well, that’s silly and not very mature, so I’m gonna put on my big girl pants (while still believing in fairies and such) and work on taking some control over how I respond emotionally to my life.

I’ll check back in at the end of the month and see how I did. I have a feeling most of these are going to be a work in progress, so I’m just looking for growth, not a bandaid.

What about you? Any goals you want to accomplish this month??

Blueberry Muffin Oatmeal Cookies

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I have a lot of ideas floating around in this crazy head of mine. Sometimes I think I get too caught up in looking up other people’s recipes and basing my own off that, but I’m trying to just come up with things off the top of my head more and trust that they will be good. I mean, with baking, I always use someone else’s base recipe to make sure the science is right, but the rest of this one is all me. And, they were a hit!

You’d think after Thanksgiving, I’d be totally over baking, but not me! Yesterday, I wanted to test out a couple recipe ideas for the blogger cookie swap. I made 2 totally different batches. I can’t share the recipe for the batch I will be sending yet, but I do have recipe #2 for you!

Blueberry Muffin Oatmeal Cookies

yield 50-60 cookies

  • 1/4 cup light whipped butter, softened
  • 1/4 cup fat free cream cheese, softened
  • 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
  • 2 tbs sugar free maple syrup
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 cup reduced fat buttermilk
  • 1  cup whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • pinch salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
  • 1 1/4 cups oats
  • 1 cup marshmallows
  • 3/4 cup fresh blueberries
  • 3/4 cup grain sweetened white chocolate chips
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp coconut extract

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350. Cream together butter, cream cheese, sugar, syrup and extracts. Add egg and buttermilk.
  2. In a separate bowl (unless you’re me and like to skip this step and dump everything into the same bowl) combine flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and pumpkin pie spice.
  3. Slowly, beat dry mixture into wet mixture.
  4. Fold in oats.
  5. Gently fold in white chocolate chips, marshmallows and blueberries.
  6. Roll into one inch balls and drop on greased cookie sheet.
  7. Bake for 10-14 minutes until tops are just set and slightly golden (mine baked for 12 min).
  8. Cool on wire racks, serve and enjoy!



 

Massages Necessary

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Whoo! Except for the recipe for Bethy’s cupcakes, I am finally caught up on blogging from my crazy weekend! I started this morning with a run around the lake–the one with the duckies–with Kara. I’ve felt pretty motivated to work on speed in these shorter runs lately, so check this out!!!

Hiiiiii YA! I felt pretty fantastic about that, aaaaannnndddd you may ask “What was your time on your last lap?” Or maybe I just want you to ask because it was 8:41!!! We had all negative splits and our first mile was the only one averaging above 10:00. Not sure if I’ll be able to make that happen again any time soon, but I’m glad it happened today!!

After our run, we hit up Sprouts because apparently my skeptic attitude about chia seeds has done a 180 and all the sudden I couldn’t imagine being out. Weird. Also, my amazing friend John told me that Sprouts had them $2 a lb cheaper than Whole Foods! Sweeeeeet!

Clearly, I have a problem. Look what else I found while I was there!

Same calories as a bagel thin, but they are thick and fluffy! And they have tons of protein and fiber! Score!

Then I grabbed an iced coffee and came home to the breakfast I’d been dreaming about for like 3 days since I used the last of my PB & Co cinnamon raisin swirl–oats in a jar!

After breakfast, I had an appt for a massage! I have a hard time making appts like this for myself because I get stressed out making time, but it was much needed. I’ve been experiencing pain in my right hip and left heel since my long run on Saturday, and I also get serious tension head aches usually at least twice a week. Turns out, the massage therapist agrees and I am a hot mess. She gave me some new stretches for my achilles tendons, worked the crap out of my neck and enlightened me as to why my right hip was probably bugging me–Uneven sidewalks! She suggested I switch up which sides of the street I’m running on and try going the opposite way around the lake to even things out. Apparently, my neck, right hip, calves and heels are kind of a hot mess. Oy. I will definitely be going back and trying to take more time to give my body the thank you it deserves for carrying me all those miles!

When I came home, I decided to try my new bagels out for lunch. Toasted, topped with sliced tomato and reduced fat muenster cheese then stuck it under the burner broiler until the cheese was melty. Delicious.

Now I’m off to my really annoying 2 hours of work (couldn’t I just have the ENTIRE day off??? Pleasssseee??) and then celebrating Halloween with Steve, Jason, Hermano and the puppies. I have an amazing surprise for you tomorrow. I’ll give you a hint: it involves really cute puppies looking extra cute in funny costumes. 😉

Negative Nancy

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If you’ve spent any time with me the last couple of days…well…ummm…I’m sorry. I kind of really suck lately. Yesterday was like the terrible horrible no good very bad day. A day where I should have locked myself in my house with Winston, Clementine and ANMT reruns, but the thing about being a grown up is you can’t really take mental health days anymore. You just have to push through. I started off the day feeling no motivation, skipped the gym and went for a walk to try to convince myself I wasn’t being a lazy bum and the day just went down hill from there. Nothing exceptionally bad happened, but when you are exhausted and over worked, everything seems amplified.

Luckily, today I woke up feeling slightly better, and I had a run to the gym + a yoga class on the agenda. I set out and was feeling great at first, but then I started feeling icky at about the mile point. My stomach was pissed for some reason and I thought I might have to turn around, but I stopped and breathed for a little bit, started to feel better and was back on my way. I stopped again once I was almost there to take a picture of this awesome moment!

>30 minutes!!!!! Okay, so maybe I took an untimed 5 min breather break when I started to feel icky, but I think it still counts! My goal for Sunday has been to finish in under 30, and after today I am pretty sure that I can! I ended up finishing at just under 3.5 miles

Average pace of 9:40!!! I was so stoked when I saw that! I hadn’t gone through my history yet and looked at things like average pace and calories burned, but I did today and saw my average pace steadily getting faster–YES! I’m feeling good about where I am in my training. I have the 5K this weekend and 5 miles scheduled for next weekend which I am nervous about to say the least.

After my run, I stopped into the Starbucks, chugged some water, walked over to the gym and met with the dreaded foam roller. I hate it. It hurts. I think I’m going to buy one for my house because apparently I’m some kind of masochist. Then I went in for a relaxing yoga class. I was able to use the class for my own benefit much more than normal and get what I wanted out of it without worrying what anyone else was doing which was a nice step for me!

After Yoga I wanted to eat my arm off (I just cannot eat before I run). Hank picked me up at the gym–I’m so lucky to have such a helpful family!–and I came home and made basically the most delicious bowl of oatmeal ever. I don’t know–I always make it almost the exact same way: oats, almond milk, chia seeds, banana (cooked in the whole time–trust me!), blueberries, fig butter, sunflower seed butter, cinnamon and some sort of extract (today it was almond). I know, my oats are COMPLICATED! And they are always delicious, but today they were extra amazing–probably because I was so hungry!

I love blueberries in my oatmeal, but it always makes the color of the bowl look funky to me. Like greyish. I wish they were prettier. Oh well, my tummy couldn’t care less! Okay, I need a shower and coffee. Then off to lunch with Hank and Charlie, work and then drinks with my soon to be sister in law! Happy Friday everyone!!

I ♥ Oats in a Jar!

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Good morning! Happy Super Hero Thursday! As soon as I get ready for work, I will be putting on my super man t shirt 🙂 This morning was spin, as usual (almost every Tuesday and Thursday unless something crazy happens!). When Kara and I got there, we were surprised to see a man we’d never seen before setting up the instructor station. I was immediately super bummed because 1) I absolutely love our Thursday teacher. Not only is her class good, but she is hilarious! She was the one that used “I want to look good naked!” as a motivational quote. I love laughing through a hard sweaty work out. And 2) Do you remember when we took from a different bodyworks teacher?!?! I immediately wanted to be lame and not take the class, but I told myself I was going to at least go in with a good attitude. Honestly, I need to get over myself because new doesn’t mean bad, but this girl likes stability (yet somehow chose a career in theatre? I’m an oxy moron) and does not do well with change.

Well within 5 minutes, this man–who must have been about 60!–was cracking me up! I changed my tune and had one of the most fun classes ever. The music selection totally made me laugh. It would go from good pop, to teenage pop (a la Katy Perry) to country, to oldies. I even spent part of the ride quietly singing along to myself and wishing that my amazing friend Heather was there to sing along with me because she totally would have! This teacher was totally different than anyone I’ve taken from before and it was nice to shake things up a little. The ride was super speedy, and it was the first time I felt like I not only kept up, but at times pushed a little farther than was asked. I love feeling like I have the motivation to push myself, and feeling strong enough to go above what a teacher asks for! I ended up making 20 miles in 48 minutes and finishing with just under 25.

My seat cover is making a big difference, although I still find it slipping around on there. What’s a girl gotta do to get her seat cover tight enough? Maybe I just shake my butt around too much and it can’t handle it 🙂

After the gym, I came home for probably my very favorite breakfast ever. I totally look forward to it–I can’t wait to finish a peanut butter jar so that I can have OATS IN A JAR!!! My favorite discovery from entering the healthy living blog world! Whoever started this trend, you are a genius! And not just any jar, a special, amazing, delicious jar of White Chocolate Wonderful!

In the mix: oats, almond milk, chia seeds, blueberries, mushy banana, raisins, sugar free maple syrup, and the 2nd star ingredient (obviously the PB remains are the star!) coconut extract! It makes such an unbelievable difference! My fav thing about oats in a jar? You get a delicious taste of perfectly warm and gooey peanut butter (or whatever nut butter) in every bite!

Enjoyed with iced coffee

 

But you know what? Ever since I started getting pumpkin spice in my iced coffee, my regular old sf caramel just isn’t as exciting anymore, and I don’t need all those extra sugars in the pumpkin flavor every day! I’m going to have to really cut out the pumpkin until I enjoy my regular coffee as much as I used to and use the pumpkin as a special treat.

So, as I was peddling my little heart out, I was thinking “Why can’t eating healthy be as easy as exercising?” I mean I think I eat pretty healthy most of the time, and exercise is by no means easy, but I definitely have a MUCH easier time with the fitness portion of healthy living than the food. I just really like to eat. I don’t enjoy eating things that are horrible for me, but I like to eat things like nut butter and bread and cheese and I like to eat a lot. I also HATE feeling deprived or unsatisfied with my meals. Which leads me to my question of the day…
If you had your choice and one option would give you your absolute perfect body you’ve always dreamed of, would you choose

A) Eating super healthy and never having to work out?

or

B) Eating whatever you wanted and working your booty off at the gym/outside/however you like to?

 

My answer is without a doubt B! B B B B B!!!! If only life were that simple 🙂

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