Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

While I'm thinking about it, I just wanted to post about an awesome new recipe I tried this weekend.

On Friday night, Matt and I went to a party and I told everyone that I would bring an amazing dessert. Well I tried a mini chocolate cheesecake recipe I found on Pinterest, but it ended up being a huge flop. Seriously, it looked like a two year old had made them. (No pictures included as I am THAT ashamed of them..though i still brought them to the party and most of them were eaten...) So I was crunched for time and wanted to whip up something I already had ingredients for on hand so I came up with these.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Let me just say that these are the most delicious chocolate cookies I've ever made. They were so soft and chocolatey. I made a few modifications after reading all the reviews. One was to use half shortening/half butter and the other was to use half brown/half white sugar. For the chips, I used half a bag of peanut butter chips and about a quarter of a bag of white chips. That is all I did differently. The batter was so easy to work with and these turned out nice and thick, unlike most cookies I make that turn out flat as pancakes.

I didn't take any pictures because I was in quite a hurry, but here are a couple I found off Allrecipes.com that look just like mine did.







So if you're in the mood for a super moist, chocolatey chocolate cookie, give these a try. I don't think you'll be disappointed!

Post Holiday Season Update

So we spent Christmas with Matt's family up in northern Ohio. We left Friday after work and spent the whole weekend with the Fochts. We had a blast hanging out with all our little cousins, watching movies, playing games, and eating tons of good food.
Here is a picture of all the little ones.



We then drove back home to go back to work for a couple days, then took off for Illinois the following Friday to spend New Years with my family. Here is a picture of the sunset we saw from the car.



My sister and brother in law were able to drive to our house and car pool to Illinois with us, so that made the trip a bit more interesting. Imagine four people in a hatchback loaded down with luggage and presents, and a dog all crammed in a two door Hyundai Accent. Yeah! I'm still wondering how we fit everything in there...

We then made another trip down to Southern Illinois to spend New Years Eve with my mom's side of the family where we had a delicious turkey dinner prepared by my Aunt Judy. We played Dirty Santa with fun white elephant gifts and also played a gift card exchange game. It was great to see everyone again.



I am so glad we could spend each holiday with our families. I am so grateful to have loved ones that make an effort to still get together, even with all their kids and traveling long distances.



Cookie got a pretty awesome gift from his Aunt Krista and Uncle Dan.




What is it, Cookie??



Cruel. Very Cruel.

I also got some pretty sweet presents. These scarves, gloves, and slippers are from Matt. I'm kind of into leopard print these days, if you hadn't noticed.




Below are all gifts from my sweet coworkers. Do they think I like Dunkin Donuts coffee or what??




Also, be looking forward to some new recipes because I got the greatest gift ever from my parents.

A Kitchen Aid mixer!!!

On Working Out

Have you ever wondered how long it takes to get a perfectly toned body? No belly pooch, no jiggly fat anywhere, including arms, thighs, and butt? Well I often wonder the same thing. I have yet to achieve said body but I am trying to get somewhat toned in an effort to look and feel my best.

In 2011, I participated in a group effort to lose weight at my office. Our very own version of The Biggest Loser, if you will. We all put $25 into the pot and then had a weigh-in once a week from January 1 to May 17. (Yes, it was a long one!) For each pound gained, one extra dollar was deposited into the pot.

I am proud to say that I WON!!! I worked my butt off (literally?) and lost 20 pounds in that span of 4.5 months. I will be the first one to admit that I have gone through ups and downs with my weight since I started college. (Freshman fifteen anyone?) But if I have something to work for, I tend to stay motivated. Examples: my wedding. My sister's wedding. Vacation/swimsuit season. A contest with a cash prize.

Wanna know my secrets for losing weight? Here goes. I am not a doctor nor do I claim that these methods will work for everyone, they are only based off of my personal experience.


1. Drink Water.



I drink a ton of h2o. I start my day off with a big cup of water right out of the kitchen faucet. I then keep a gallon jug of water at work that I gulp throughout the day. I usually go through one gallon per week at work. When I get home, I usually drink water with dinner and a huge glass during/after a workout. It keeps me full and the urge to snack all day is greatly diminished.


2. Count Calories.

(picture source)

Annoying? Yes. But if you really want to know what you are taking in everyday, you need to find some way to calculate your caloric intake. I use My Fitness Pal on my phone and just log my calories throughout the day. It helps me know how many snacks I can have and how many "extras" I can indulge in without bursting over my set limit. When I was losing weight, I set my intake at 1250 calories per day. I based that number on my activity level (sedimentary) and my current age, height, and weight. I did my best to not go over that number, although I found it difficult to not go over by about 100 calories. The bottom line is, weight is mostly based on how many calories you take in and how many you burn.


3. Exercise.



I know it sucks when you first get into an exercising routine. But I can assure you that once you have worked out consistently for about two weeks, you will start to get used to it. I do not have a gym membership, so most of my workouts are done on the elliptical at my house. To lose weight, I tried to burn at least 400 calories per workout, at least 4 times a week. Now once I started gaining more endurance, I was able to burn about 700 calories in 40 minutes on the elliptical. It is an awesome workout that really gets your heart pumping without straining your knees like running might. It really makes me break a sweat! I like to watch a show or listen to loud music when I'm working out to make the time pass by quicker. At the time, I was more interested in fat loss rather than toning muscles, but now I am trying to incorporate strength training as well.

So that's it really. Drink water. Count calories. Exercise.

Now that I've achieved my fat loss goals, I am working on toning up by doing the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. If you don't know anything about it, she uses interval training to give you a high impact workout in just 20 minutes. It combines strength training, cardio, and ab work. I just start on level two today and it was definitely a challenge.



If you have any questions, please leave a comment and I will give you my honest answer from my own personal experience. I hope you have been inspired. But if not, let this picture do all the inspiring.

Piercing

So what do you think of the new me?

Just kidding!!

I finally did it. I went and got my nose pierced. I finally got up the courage (and husband's approval) to go forth with it after two years of contemplating. And I am so happy with it!!




So first I'd like to share reactions from my closest friends and family.

Mom: "Cute. Maybe I'll get one." (Sarcasm?)

Sister: "hahahaha wow. Nothing says "forever young" like a nose piercing."

Husband: "Happy 25th birthday sweetie. By the way, you have something on your nose..."

Coworkers: "Cute!! Did it hurt?"

Boss: "I can't believe you did this. Why why why?? I can't believe you didn't warn me about this. You just went and did it. I can't believe you did this to yourself."

Grandma: Nothing. Because she does not need to know about this. She might possibly have a heart attack.

Questions answered below.

Did it hurt?
It hurt when the needle punctured the skin. It made my eyes tear up and my natural reaction was to squeeze my eyes shut because of the split second of intense pain. But after the "pinch", it didn't hurt at all after that.

Where did you get it done?
I went to Blue Byrd Tattoo in downtown Dayton. It was what I imagined it to be: a typical tattoo parlor with quite an interesting crowd. The guy who did mine was really cool and helpful. He assured me that he had done "thousands" of nose piercings before me, so I felt like I was in good hands.


What made you wanna do it???
Well, I have always thought it would look cool with a little sparkly stud on my nose ever since I had some close friends get theirs done a few years ago. Many people get their ears pierced (myself included) and some people get other things pierced. It is all about what you think looks good. The only thing stopping me from getting it done sooner was my silly husband who needed time to get used to the idea. For some reason, he thought I would be very unattractive if I had one, but he finally changed his mind.

After having it for two weeks now, I am still happy that I did it. I will be even more excited when I can change it to a crystal sparkly stud (they were out of clear ones, so I went for a light pink).

I am such a rebel. What will I do next??? :-)

Homemade Starbuck's White Chocolate Mocha

Let's just skip talking about how long it's been since my last blog update and move on to recent times...

Today it is freezing cold out and we have snow and ice on the ground.



(view out the front door)



Cookie, dying to go play in the white stuff...



Please, Mommy???!!!

I went into work this morning and we saw a grand total of fifteen patients! I guess no one wanted to brave the slippery roads (I don't blame them. I basically had a panic attack in the car when we came home from New Years when every other car was in the ditch...)

So when I got home from work, I ate my leftover salad from Texas Roadhouse and curled up on the couch and took a nap caught up on some dvr. I then had a major craving for a hot drink cuz it's so darn cold. My go-to is Dunkin Donuts coffee with hazelnut creamer, but I was feeling adventurous. I tried a recipe I found on Pinterest for this copy cat version of Starbuck's White Chocolate Mocha. And it did not disappoint!



Let me just sum it up and say it was DELICIOUS!! I followed the directions as written on the website except I made a lighter version by using 1% milk and no whipped topping.




This is the perfect warm-you-up drink. Part coffee, part hot chocolate. YUMMY!

Thinking about baking something today, but I've been so committed to a healthy diet and exercise this year so far, I just know baking up a batch of chocolate chip cookies would ruin me.