Monster Cookie Recipe

ONE WEEK UNTIL BLEND RETREAT! EEEK!

I got my roommates for BLEND yesterday. I’m so excited. I’m rooming with Vanessa from Fit Savvy and Haute and Gina from Running to the Kitchen.

I’m sad to say I haven’t been reading Gina’s blog. I imported it into reader a long time ago, but it doesn’t feed in anything but the post titles. I read so many blogs that I don’t normally click the titles to read … so much time. Now I’m going to catch up. It seems we have a lot in common. She works in higher ed too!

Can’t wait to meet them!

Also, I’m almost done with LiveFit.

Seriously. Remember when I started this thing? It was a little bit longer than 12 weeks ago.

Um. Ignore the fact that I started this in December. And it’s pretty much May.

I think I can say the last two workouts are my favorite two workouts of this entire program. Considering I have a week and a half left, it’s probably okay to pick a couple. Oh, make that three workouts. I think I have a day coming up this week that’s just 60 minutes of cardio (HELLO LONG RUN!), but yesterday’s leg workout and today’s back, abs, and cardio workout are definitely my favorites of the entire program.

In addition to LiveFit, I had also done a class called Yo-Pi (yoga + pilates + come-to-find-out-plyos) over lunch and had ridden my bike to work that day. The bike ride home was not the most pleasant after this. Especially in the wind. But I made it.

I didn’t do the 30-40 mins of cardio recommended on this one since I rode my bike. I had to squeeze this in over lunch yesterday because I go to the chiropractor on Thursdays after work. Instead, I took the last 15 minutes I had left after lifting and did an incline walk at 4.0-4.5 miles per hour.

Now for the delicious part of this post.

Hey, remember the time I shared that cookie recipe with you? The one for my chimesmonster cookies? The one I said that would be the end-all-do-all cookie recipe forever and ever until the end of the world?

Welp. I didn’t lie.

I’ve modified this recipe twice. I don’t have evidence of the first time because I made about a quarter of a batch. But I used unsweetened applesauce instead of butter, and used raisins instead of other mixins. YUM. I want to try this again with almond butter instead of peanut butter, and craisins + white chips for mix ins.

However, I’m here to show you this brainchild of mine that I had in Target one evening when searching for things to cheer Mark up after a crappier-than-usual week of research. (I ended up making these cookies, and then getting him a bag of gummy worms and a box of Star Wars Legos.)

Wouldya look at this?

How did these things get in my cart?

I deliberated in the candy aisle for about 10 minutes before I decided on these things. In retrospect, I should have gone with the LARGE (yes, there’s a bigger size) bag of Reese’s minis. I was worried we’d eat them all, but I realized when the cookies were gone the next morning (I only made a half batch AND our roommate was home and helped with the nomming) … it didn’t REALLY matter. And I didn’t like the Dove chocolate. Target didn’t have any GOOD dark chocolate, so I was stuck with Dove. And it was kind of gross.

I chopped the Dove bar into tiny pieces and cut all the Reeses’ minis in half. They were too big to mix in at their original size.

Next time … Rolos + Heath.

Any suggestions on things I should mix in?