The Snow Day and the Liquid Cookie

Today was a snow day!

When I woke up, there was nothing on the ground but some dead grass and dog droppings. Even so, school closed in anticipation of the coming blizzard. The snow didn’t fall in earnest until this afternoon.

My brother-in-law, Dave, noticed I was doing a lot of interval workouts, so he suggested that I try some hill workouts to mix things up (thanks, Dave!). He recommended either setting an incline and doing a tempo run, or choosing a moderate pace and changing the incline as I run. I decided to go with the former this time.

I usually set the treadmill at 0.5 incline because I find it easier on my knee. This time, I set the incline to 4.0 and did the following workout:

5 minutes at 3.5 mph (5 min)
20 minutes at 6.5 mph (25 min)
10 min at 3.5 mph (35 min)

Now, this was not a long workout, but I was WIPED at the end. Geez! I haven’t run actual hills in so long that I had forgotten what they were like. Peter was on the elliptical next door and he kept looking over at me, until finally he said, “Wow, you work hard!” This from the guy who plays video games when he uses the stationary bike 😛

Nothing like veggies to refuel!

Leftover Pesto Veggie Stacks with melted Emmenthaler. Yes, it tasted as good as it sounds.

I spent the rest of the afternoon writing about diseases and nutritional implications. As cheery as that task was, I decided to take a break and make some chocolate peanut butter cookies.

I followed a recipe that I had drooled over and bookmarked a while back because, hey, who couldn’t use a little peanut butter on a snowy day? The recipe is Chewy Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies from the wonderful Mae of Ohh May! (adapted from Jessica’s How Sweet It Is (look at those gorgeous pics!), adapted from Bakespace).

Look at that stand mixer go! One of the best aspects of getting married was getting cool stuff for our kitchen. Oh, and marrying Peter. Yes.

However, I made a crucial mistake in the recipe. I didn’t notice the part where the recipe said turn mixer on high for 2 minutes. Since I didn’t let beater whip air into the egg whites, I was left with:

Yeah.

And, I just took a food science class last fall! *blush* Needless to say, there was no pulling and stuffing of the cookies with chocolate chips and peanut butter. I decided to just dab them on top instead.

I used my favorite peanut butter (of course):

Drizzling batter over the top of each “cookie”:

I’m so glad I wasn’t making these for anyone else. Poor Peter.

Out of the oven:

Well, at least they tasted delicious!

I’m definitely trying these again sometime. Just remember Jessie: whip your whites!

Dinner was more successful: leftover Curry Chicken Salad with Bananas over lettuce with avocado and balsamic vinegar.

Yes, that will do 🙂

Here’s hoping the roads will be clear for Clinical tomorrow!