New Rules Of Lifting For Women

Oatmeal is Back!

Good afternoon blog friends! I hope your Monday is off to a good start. Until recently Lew and I used to try to take things easy on Mondays since we are always so busy on the weekends but lately we are just busy all the time. Normally I sleep til 8:00 on Monday though so that is still nice!

I have made a million excuses in my head for my lack of blogging and they are all about to drive me crazy! Basically I have been at a loss as to what I wanted to blog about. So, while running on the treadmill this morning I made myself decide when I was most happy with blogging and most excited to do it. After a couple miles I decided that I was happiest when I blogged everyday about our life. That simple. I kept thinking that just blogging about our life through the food we ate wasn’t enough but really it is what I enjoyed. It is what made me the happiest. I actually loved it! So, this is my goal. The babies are getting better at playing in the office while I work on the computer so a couple short posts a day shouldn’t be a problem.

So, lets start with today…

Oatmeal…

This morning I woke up starving! We had pizza last night which did not settle well and I wanted something comforting for breakfast. I had some leftover apple crisp in the fridge so I pulled that out and cooked a spoonful of it into my oatmeal on the stove top. Added a sprinkle of salt and a little vanilla and 5 minutes later we were done.

Of course a little peanut butter is always good too!

This was really good but sadly it wasn’t the greatest fuel for my workout. Too much sugar left me very light headed during my run on the treadmill and made my stomach feel weird.

Last week I finished stage one of New Rules of Lifting for Women so this is supposed to be an off week. So no weights until Wednesday. Today I decided to just get on the treadmill and run fast. I ran a mile in less than 10 minutes which is great for me! In total I ran 2 miles in 22 minutes and I was very proud of myself. Then I did a mile on the elliptical and then did plank and side planks for about 5 minutes! I left sweaty and worn out!

For lunch I ate my new favorite salad.

It looked a lot like this minus the rice on top.

romaine
broccoli slaw
tomatoes
hummus
laughing cow light blue cheese
ranch
bbq sauce (if you have never put bbq sauce on a salad you need to try it)
1 cup of brown rice (which I left off today because I had oatmeal for breakfast)

Hopefully the rest of my day is going to consist of cleaning house! Surprisingly we have no where to be tonight so once Lew is home from football practice I am pretty sure we are in for the night. Unless of course we decide to try out the new Japanese Restaurant in town that opened today…

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Mini Chocolate Peanut Butter Cakes

What do you make when you are asked to make dessert for the football coaches and families for the after the game meal?

I have been asking this question all week and all I could think about was chocolate and peanut butter. When you can’t get something off of my mind I take that as an answer. And so was born the mini chocolate peanut butter cakes.

But before we get to the peanut butter chocolate goodness let me fill you in on todays workouts. When I know I am going to be eating such an awesome dessert I like to make sure I get in a good work out because I feel like they balance each other out. I am assuming the same is true for blogging. If I am going to share a to die for dessert recipe I should probably talk about my workout for the day to balance it out.

So here we go…

Workouts

Yesterday I started on my last set of workouts in Stage 1 of New Rules of Lifting for women. In the last 2 sets of each workout you only do 2 reps of each exercise. Since the reps are less the goal is to increase weight. So I squatted 165 pounds. No big deal. (Yeah right! This is a huge deal to me anyway and I love it when the guys at the gym were commenting on how strong I was! Love it!)

Today was my cardio day so I ran 2.75 miles and then did 15 minutes on the elliptical and called it a day.

Now, on the the cake!

Mini Chocolate Peanut Butter Cakes

Adapted from The Smitten Kitchen

Cake Recipe

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (can use all purpose)
2 cups organic sugar (next time I would add 1/2 cup sugar to make it 2 1/2)
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup applesauce (You can also use vegetable oil)
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups water
2 tbs white distilled vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs

Bake at 350 degrees

In your stand mixer (or bowl with electric mixer, or even with just a whisk) combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Whisk together until combined. Add applesauce and sour cream and slowly beat until blended.

Gradually beat in water. Blend in vinegar and vanilla. Whisk in eggs and beat well until blended.

Put in 9×18 cake pan or casserole dish that has been sprayed or greased. Bake for 30 minutes.

Let cool completely. I would suggest that 30 minutes before you plan to cut the cake into small squares to put in freezer for 30 minutes to make it less crumbly. It will defrost fairly quickly on its on.

Cut cake into small squares. I cut 28 out of mine.

It definitely makes them taste better to put them on hot pink plates. Especially when you are making them for football coaches.

Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

10 oz. softened cream cheese
1 stick softened butter
5 cups powdered sugar
2/3 cup of peanut butter

In stand mixer or with a hand mixer beat cream cheese and butter together until well blended. Add powdered sugar gradually. When all sugar is added in add peanut butter and beat until well blended.

(I made this yesterday and stored it in the fridge. It still tastes great but was more difficult to spread and I ended up just spooning some on top of each cake.)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Ganache

8 oz. semi sweet chocolate
1/2 cup 1/2 & 1/2
3 tbs. peanut butter

Melt chocolate and 1/2 & 1/2 in microwave on 30 second intervals until melted. Add peanut butter and stir until chocolate and peanut butter are completely melted and mixed together.

Spoon on top of individual cakes.