Working on My Fitness

If you follow me on Twitter, then you already know the news...I've joined a gym! After some discussion, the fambam decided that for us to lose weight, it would be better to do so as a unit (gym buddies and all that) so right after New Year's we made some calls and decided to take advantage of all the good Resolution deals. Now, for those of you that have known me for a while, you already know of my love of 24hr Fitness, but the deal at Bally's totally blew them out of the water so I am now driving my butt to Northridge at 5:30am (you read that right, it said 'am'), 5 days a week to work out.

I do have some goals, after all goals (realistic ones) can help keep you on track.

1. The most important of which is to Get Healthy!!! I don't have any weight related medical issues (thanking God for that everyday), but things like my exertion-triggered asthma will benefit.

2. I want to be able to run a 5K by summer. It's more the ability to rather than the desire to run a race with a bajillion other people. But who knows, if I can get myself there, the 5K Breast Cancer Run/Walk that is held at La Jolla every year would be something I might enjoy.

3. Lastly, the most common workout goal of all- Losing weight. I'm not meant to be a Skinny Minnie, my body's just not built that way, but I would like to be able to go into a store and KNOW that they carry my size. Also, I love 50s/60s styles and the online stores that sell them only have certain sizes. So the official goal is to drop enough weight and tone up to where I can finally buy a dress from ModCloth AND to wear shorts by Summer.

It's Late January, nearly February and I'm thinking my goals are realistic and my drive is strong enough. Hopefully this post will hold me accountable and add more fuel to my workout fire.

Girl Scout Dupes

So, I'm sure that everyone is familiar with the Yahoo News story on home recipes for Girl Scout Cookies. I got a little curious and I'm about to start school, so I thought a little stress-relief baking was in order. I tried three different cookies- Trefoils, Tagalongs and Lemonades. The first two I was familiar with but the third...not so much. Regardless, it looked simple enough that I wanted to have a go. I don't have any cookie cutters so I went the way of cookie logs that could be sliced. Here's what happened:

Trefoils
The original recipe looked too simple and flavorless so I subbed in dark brown sugar to give a little more flavor to the cookie. My first (and only) attempt at shortbread was back in high school and it was a disaster, so I was a bit weary for these.

Plain

                                                                                     Dipped in extra chocolate

Issues:
~The baking time on these is off, it took more like 15-18 minutes than the 10-12 the site said it would.
~They're lacking just a bit in the flavor department, I would add 1 tsp vanilla and adjust the flour to compensate for the extra moisture.

Tagalongs
I've made Tagalong dupes before using a Sodium Free/Light Ritz Cracker instead of a cookie base. Those were always good and you can hardly tell the difference. Nevertheless I wanted to try these out because I am a sucker for all things peanut butter.
 
                                  The best of the bunch...hands down.
Issues:
~I would definitely used either 1/2 tsp LESS sugar or 1/2 tsp MORE peanut butter for the filling. The actual recipe gave me a filling that was a little dry and tough to work with.
~ You definitely need to bake them longer, I threw them in for almost three as long as the recipe calls for to get them to the crunchy cookie state they were supposed to achieve. I suspect this is because I went straight from freezer to slices to oven. If you let them come to RT, they shouldn't take as long to bake.
~ Dipping these things in chocolate and then shaking the excess off takes forever and makes your arm hurt....worth it though.

Lemonades
I was curious...that's it really. Oh, and I added 1 tsp of lemon juice to the dough since the only other flavoring was lemon rind. Also, I coated them in powdered sugar just to make them look different from the Trefoils.

Issues:
~Needs more lemon juice, at least 3/4 of a tsp more.

Pretty successful afternoon I'd say. But for anyone who thinks this might take away any monetary support from the Girl Scouts as a company, it won't. The recipes are simple but the time it takes to prep the dough, shape the cookies and bake them are too much of a hassle to go through in lieu of picking up a box from your friendly neighborhood Girl Scout. If after making these you have an attack of conscience, I suggest making a donation to a local troop. Happy baking!