Daily Mood Alert and Food/Fitness: Mon, May 14

Mood:  Annoyed.  The dogs are bored cause it has been raining all day.  So I am cooking and then we are going out to see The Avengers.

Food:  Breakfast was coffee and a protein bar.  Lunch was egg beaters and an english muffin.  Then there were carrots, an apple and some strawberries.  And I am going to do my best with this for dinner: Cajun Chicken Pasta Recipe – Allrecipes.com.  And now there will be POPCORN!!!!!

Fitness:  This morning was the first day of a Faster 5k program that runs 5 weeks.  So it was speedwork.  6×400 @ faster than race pace.  I got through it!  Worked hard on the treadmill.  It felt good to push like that.

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Food Friday: Sticky-Fingers Bars

Before you look at the recipe, let me first say that these are worth every single step and minute. The recipe is from Ezra Pound Cake and you can find it here.  I actually use a 2-day process as chilling them overnight before cutting them up seems to work best for me.  Because of that, you won’t get a picture (yet) of the cut up, finished product.

The first step is to line a pan with tin foil.  You will use this later to lift the bars out of the pan.  Then you prep and bake the crust.

While the crust is baking, you can prep the candy and the filling.  Once the crust is out of the oven and cooled for 10 minutes, you layer on the candy bars and cover it all with the filling. Back in the oven it goes for about 30 minutes.  DON’T be a hostage to the time.  If the filling is still wiggly, cook it some more.  It shouldn’t move when it comes out.

Once the filling is nice and set, cool the pan for 20-30 minutes.  Then you smear on the peanut butter, sprinkle the peanuts and drizzle the chocolate.  Into the fridge it goes.  For me, overnight just works best.  But they should chill for at least an hour.  Then you use the tin foil to lift the bars out of the pan and use a heavy knife to cut them into squares.

Again, these are worth every second it takes from the start to the finished product.  I prefer to keep them in the fridge.  As per the recipe, I may even try to freeze half of them so they don’t go to waste.

Enjoy!

Food Friday: Apple Cake

I found this recipe through TasteSpotting.  I dare you not to spend HOURS looking at food on TasteSpotting.

It came together easy enough thanks to my apple corer/peeler/slicer. How did I wait so long before buying one of these?  I feel a product review coming.

The batter is thick and dark and smells like cinnamon.  I left out the nuts and dates ONLY because I didn’t have any in the house.  I don’t think it will ruin the recipe at all.

The smell throughout the house was amazing.  It didn’t slice very well due to my impatience and it still being warm.  It is delicious.  Enjoy!

Food Friday: Crack Bark (Salted Chocolate Pretzel Toffee)

I found this recipe at Ezra Pound Cake and you can find it here.  How can you not want to try something that combines pretzels, chocolate, salt and toffee.  And it looked (and read) so incredibly easy.  The only ingredient I was missing was pretzels and it actually took me a few days to get around to the store and get some.

You start by melting butter and brown sugar together.  Easy.  Then you pour that over crumbled pretzels in the bottom of a jelly roll pan.

Bake for 5 minutes.  Not complicated.  Then sprinkle on chocolate chips and let them melt for a few minutes.  Spread the chocolate around and sprinkle on some sea salt.  Anyone lost yet?  Throw it in the fridge to cool.  And break it into pieces.

I have been storing this in the fridge and it is unbelievably, ridiculously good.  I can hardly believe there is any left.  It is a testament to my will power.

Food Friday: Apple Pie Muffins

I saw this recipe on My Baking Addiction here  and knew I had to try it.  I LOVE anything apple (except juice) and put PIE somewhere in the name and I am sold.

The only ingredient I was missing was buttermilk, so off to the store I went.

The rest of the recipe was very easy to put together.  Three separate bowls, flour mix, butter and brown sugar mix, and topping,  all came together at the end and into the oven.

25 minutes later there was a little piece of heaven coming out of the oven and onto a plate!  Thank god I saved some calories for the day.