weekend cheating

This weekend, I had a craving for Chipotle. So much so I convinced all of my friends they had cravings too. So we drove about 45 minutes to get to the nearest Chiptole...and surprise..there is an ice cream place right next door (think Coldstone style). So not only did I eat massive amounts of burrito fare, I indulged in some dark chocolate reese's combo ice cream. It made me not want to eat hardly the rest of the day. Someone when I go on a binge, it continues on into the next day...where I went to town at a Breakfast Brunch. Like, really, why can't I control myself haha? Anyways, as long as I keep to my fitness schedule, I am happy. I have been trying to watch what I eat and put into my body in general, but you can't win em all...especially weekends. And what am I going to do now that Easter is coming up?...massive amounts of food seem to correlate with that holiday. Not to mention more chocolate ;)

How am I going to resist?

cupcake wars

So a friend and I decided to participate in a 'Cupcake Wars' event similar to the show on Food Network. You could win for taste, presentation, creativity or all three. We decided to make peanut butter cupcakes with homemade peanut butter frosting with chocolate ganache. They turned out heavenly, and we were the only peanut butter flavored cupcake at the event. We did not win (despite many compliments) and a buzz going around the event about our yummy cupcake.

The recipe was very simple and we eyeballed most of it (and thankfully they turned out amazing). If you're interested in making these divine cupcakes here was our method:

1 box of Betty Crocker vanilla cake mix
A jar of peanut butter

We just added about 2 cups of peanut butter to the vanilla cake mix and kept tasting it for measure.

For the frosting and ganache, we followed the recipe at this creative site Ming Makes Cupcakes. We only used her recipe for the toppings and they came out pretty well. See cupcake #17.

If you'd like to compare ours to Ming's, I'd say it came out looking pretty identical. I was proud.

exercise at any age

Today I found this article that breaks down the body's capabilities by decade for fitness and exercise. It is interesting...though it does make me a bit ashamed that since I am in my 20s I could be pushing it extra hard since this is the only real time it can take the abuse. This is not meant to be depressing about getting older, but just some added knowledge about how your body changes over time with what it can handle.

See the article here.

In other news, I ran about 3 miles today and walked 1...lots of hills and a lot of wind made it pretty hard. I am pretty happy about it, though since I was only supposed to run one mile according to my training schedule. The weather was just perfect for running outside, and I was with a friend who is currently training for a half-marathon...a little extra motivation.

cupcake candles

This drool worthy image is in fact...a candle. I am not sure I could own this for fear of wanting to eat it 95% of the time


The cupcakes are from the Maryland and DC area (dangerously close to me) and I could not help but post the link to the etsy shop. See them here at Cupcake Confections

fitspiration

Today, I ran 2 miles outside in the windy, mediocre weather. I have been running about 4 times a week in addition to cross-training (bike, walking, elliptical) once a week. I decided that to keep myself motivated I will post about fitness at least once per day. I hope by May to be in good shape for beach weather!

Today's fitness link comes from Women's Health Magazine. They offer numerous great tips on staying active. I especially enjoy following their twitter account which has continuous updates on health and fitness related topics.

Check out their 6 reasons to start running now!

Happy tuesday :)

How pretty are these embroidered jackets for such classic books? It seems like each individual cover will not be embroidered but printed in a way that reflects it.




I saw originally saw them via A Cup of Jo and then went on to check out the original artist Jillian Tamaki.