git in mah belleeehhhh

ok so working out has been paying off. instead of being WAY off my 2 lb/week weight loss, im 1 lb off. booooo but not as bad as i thought considering the weekend. hopefully i dont run into any problems in the next few days. actually wait..i already have. i dont feel like goin to the gym today. there goes my shopping treat. this could change in the next few hours but im not countin on it.

***EDIT***
I dragged my ass to the gym..in the rain! That means shopping is still a possibility this weekend!
I procrastinated my ass off but I MADE IT. i did all elliptical today for an hour. Even as I worked out part of me was like "just get off after 15 minutes...okay get off at 30 minutes.." BUT I DIDN'T! I stayed on that bad boy for an hour, burned at least 800 calories and did 3.8 miles.
HOLLERRRRRRR. I'm real proud of myself cause I really was bein a lazy bugger.
Tomorrow, I gotta force myself to get up with Chris and hit the gym one mo time.

ON TO BETTER NEWS..........
ive surprisingly been keeping to my calorie goals. this is gettin hard cause last night i made ENGLISH TOFFEE!!!!!!!!!! tasted just like skor bars....but better! and so easy to make.
Today I saw some cream cheese in the fridge. Figured I should use it so I randomly went on a search for recipes using cream cheese. I came across a cheese puff recipe. (think cream puff but savory).

Realizing I had all of the ingredients to make the puff I got to it. SUPER EASY to make. The cream cheese part came in making the "filling". I didn't follow what the recipe said, instead I looked in the fridge, found a few slices of bacon, saw the garlic.....thought, "bacon & roasted garlic cream cheese". Fantastic.

Neither the toffee or puffs are calorie friendly so MODERATION is key.

And since I'm feelin like a complete lazy ass, here's the recipes.

ENGLISH TOFFEE

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• pinch of salt
• 2 tsp water
• 1 tsp vanilla
• Couple handfuls of chocolate chips
• Crushed nuts. I woulda used almonds but only had peanuts on hand. Still worked.
  

1. Combine butter/sugar/water in a medium sauce pan over low-med heat, stirring constantly with a heat resistant spatula.
2. You've got to keep stirring for like...10-20 minutes. Crazy, I know. The recipes I referenced said you need to have a candy thermometer but I don't.
3. When the colour started turning into what I know toffee to look like, I dropped a bit of the hot mixture into ice water. It solidified instantly. This is the "hard crack" stage & it's done.
   
4. Mix in the vanilla.
   
5. Spread the mixture into a pan lined with parchment paper & let it cool for 10 minutes.
6. I then slid the parchment paper/toffee out of the pan onto the table top and sprinkled it with the chocolate, waited a few minutes, spread the chocolate out then sprinked on the nuts.
7. Let it cool completely. After 30 minutes, the chocolate was still soft so I stuck the candy in the fridge for another half hour or so.
8. Break the pieces up and enjoy.

CHEESE PUFFS WITH ROASTED GARLIC BACON CREAM CHEESE FILLING

For the puffs:

• 1/4 cup butter
• 2/3 cup water
• 2/3 cup flour
• Pinch of salt
• Pinch of Cayenne pepper
• 1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 2 eggs, beaten
  

1. Bring the butter and water to a boil in a sauce pan.
2. In a bowl mix flour, salt, cayenne & cheese
3. Mix the dry ingredients into the melted butter/water mixture off the heat
4. Beat it up until it's well mixed and kinda forms a ball, let it cool slightly
5. Gradually beat in the beaten eggs and mix it hard til it's smooth and glossy.
6. I don't have a pastry bag so I scooped the mixture into a ziplock bag & let it cool more.
7. Preheat oven to 425F
   
8. Line a big baking sheet with parchment
9. Snip a small corner off of the ziplock bag
10. Squeeze out the pastry mixture making 16-20 "puffs"
11. I wet my finger 'n smoothed out the tops of the puffs/formed them better cause I saw this on a cooking show once.
12. Stick em in the oven for 15 minutes then lower heat to 375F and cook for another 10-15 or until golden brown.
13. Remove from oven and let cool.
14. Use a serated knife to cut each puff in half horizontally.

For the filling

• 4 oz softened cream cheese
• A few strips of cooked then crumbled bacon
• 3-4 cloves roasted garlic, mashed up
  
• Salt/pepper to taste with a pinch of paprika, cayenne, onion powder
• quick squeeze of lemon

1. Mix up all of the above ingredients
2. Spoon a small amount of mixture onto half of a cheese puff then top it with the other half
3. Do it to all the puffs and try and resist the temptation to eat each one as you finish it.
   

This blog is making me laugh. I feel like I contradict myself cause one minute I'm posting about health/weightloss then the next it's restaurants and recipes. Oh well!