Day 50 and Recipe #57...

Just a quick post to let you all know- I'm amazing. Despite eating like C-R-A-P all week, consuming one too many cookies at my kids' Valentine's Day party, and even sprinkling a little cheese on my scrambled eggs (Eeep!), I LOST WEIGHT! Wahoo! As of this morning, I am a flat 134 pounds. I'm attributing this to my INTENSE workouts this week, as well as what I am assuming is my increased metabolism. I tried kickboxing and hot yoga for the first time, and I gotta tell you, they kicked my rear! For some reason, even though I can SLIGHTLY keep a beat and stay up to pace with the rest of my Zumba class, I have NO coordination when it comes to kickboxing. Seriously. I'm not sure if it's just because all the movements are harsh and... JABBY... but I couldn't keep up! Yoga was very relaxing, until those silly high school girls behind us started giggling uncontrollably (I was convinced something must have been poking out of the back of my pants, and became WAY too self conscious) and answering their phones. I'm sorry, cell phones shouldn't be allowed in yoga, case closed.

ANYWAYS, let's look at my goals-

Weight as of December 29th, 2011- 146.6 pounds
Weight as of today- 134 pounds
Total weight loss- 12.6 pounds
Weight loss to go until goal #2- 4 pounds

Yay! I also managed to make a super simple recipe for the blog. Tuesday was Valentine's Day (my least favorite holiday... ugh), and I decided to make treats for my kiddos. I wanted a super easy, no-brainer recipe that I could make a large batch of, and luckily I saw this particular recipe pinned ALL OVER Pinterest. It's good... but unfortunately for all of you, I was in such a hurry to chug these snacks out, that they didn't LOOK as good as they tasted. I'll just show you the pin, whattya say?

Recipe #57: Chocolate Pretzel Buttons (as found on http://www.musesofmegret.com)

Ingredients:

2 bags Hershey’s Kisses or Hugs (nut-free), or a combination of both (I used one bag of original Hershey's Hugs and another bag of caramel Kisses)
1 large bag M&M candies (All of the stores I went to at the time were out of plain Valentine's M&M's, so I used peanut butter, with delicious results)
1 bag pretzel rounds or squares

Directions: 


1. Unwrap the kisses and hugs. Place tin foil over the cookie sheets to help prevent sticking. 
     - Tin foil is pretty necessary. My kisses ended up over melting, and got ALL OVER the cookie sheet.


2. Place one kiss on top of each of the pretzel squares. Place the cookie sheet in a 350 degree oven for 2 and a half to three minutes until the kisses soften and start to melt. Remove from oven and immediately press one M&M into the center of each kiss. Cool slightly, and then transfer sheets to the refrigerator for a few minutes to set.
     - All right, I slightly improvised on this step. The first batch I kept in for only two and a half minutes, and they were a mess. The candy over-melted, so when I placed a M&M in the center, the kiss collapsed and melted all over the cookie sheet. To try to avoid another situation like that, I went ahead and brought the time down to a minute and a half, and then I went and stuck the treats in the freezer over night to REALLY set them up. That worked much better; however, I kept them in my fridge at school that day to avoid having them melt. 


That's it. So deliciously poppable and addicting. Make these. Preferably in pastels for Easter. DO IT.