No-Bake Cookies

So I have this friend named Alee. Whenever I make no-bake cookies I think of her and smile. She is a no-bake cookie goddess. I love no-bakes because they are super easy, quick to make and ridiculously delicious. Honestly though, whenever I make no-bake cookies it tends to stem from a craving for the warm buttersugarpeanutbutteroat mass created in the pot. I eat it straight from the pot by spoonfuls. No shame. Here's to you Alee!

Ingredients:
1/2 c. Butter or shortening
2 c. Sugar
1/2 c. Milk
1/4 c. Cocoa Powder
1/2 c. Peanut Butter
3 c. Quick-cooking oats

Process:
Boil butter, sugar and milk in a medium pot. Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter until smooth. Add cocoa powder and oats. Drop by spoonfuls onto waxed paper. Allow to cool or refrigerate.

Dinner Party

These past few weeks have been very busy. School has preoccupied more of my life than I prefer. Between going to classes, doing homework, study for quizzes and exams, writing lab reports, group meetings and everyday activities, I haven't had much free time. I feel most of my classes are going well enough. Surprisingly, I'm enjoying engineering graphics more than I ever thought possible and I actually don't despise Intro to Organic & Biological Chemistry. Food during these hectic weeks has been delicous though.

My roommate (a lovely talented baker & cook) made snickerdoodles yesterday and filled the apartment with wonderful cinnamon smells. They were buttery coins of cinnamon divinity.

I had been keeping a couple severely overripe bananas on the counter the past week to bake some banana bread. Friday afternoon I had a couple free hours so the banana bread was born! However, I was slightly dissappointed with the recipe I used. I don't think this is my favorite banana bread and probably won't be making it again. Wasn't as moist as banana bread should be. But I'm sure I'll manage to choke it down somehow :) Just add more butter right Dad?

Last weekend the campus ministry Christian Challenge held their annual Sushi party. So much sushi! As soon as you opened the door to the building, sushi smells flooded out. I love sushi and it's hard to come by in the midwest. They even had octopus sushi! It was a beautiful sight.

Tonight was a dinner party with a pasta theme! My roommates and I made lasagna rolls. We started with whole wheat pasta, made a ricotta & mozzerella spinach mixture, rolled them into indvidual mini lasagna lumps and topped them with tomato sauce.

Naturally, I couldn't resist adding more vegetables to my rolls. I sliced up some zucchini and mushrooms to add to the mix. Made for a very chunky roll.

Any dinner party is not complete without brownie sundaes. I whipped together a quick pan of brownies and we topped them with vanilla ice cream and fudge. Making dinner with friends is such a fun way to spend the evening.

Brownie pan after we demolished our sundaes. Most people don't like the corners, which is sad. I actually love the corner pieces. I'm happy to live with people who don't like them so I can have more of them.

On the running front, I'm right on schedule with my training plan. Most days I actually look forward to running, which is mind boggling to my brain. I hope it never wears off. Only 29 weeks to go...

Take care!

The Marathon Project

mar·a·thon
Pronunciation: \ˈmer-ə-ˌthän, ˈma-rə-\
Etymology: Marathon, Greece, site of a victory of Greeksover Persians in 490
b.c., the news of which was carried to Athens by a long-distance runner
Date: 1896
1 : a long-distance race: a : a footrace run on an open
course usually of 26 miles 385 yards (42.2 kilometers) b : a race other than a
footrace marked especially by greatlength 2 a : an endurancemcontest b :
something (as an event, activity, or session) characterized by great length or
concentrated effort

Marathons loom as incredibly intimidating feats over an average person such as myself. An ancient Grecian runner I am not. I'm just a college student that can barely collect enough concentrated effort to finish homework assignments.

After the jarring realization that I recently entered my final year of college however, I've decided to actively pursue some goals that have been hibernating in my mind for the past couple years. After successfully finishing a half marathon last fall, I knew that someday a full 26.2 miles would be in order. Now seems like as good a time as ever.

I've got a training schedule, good running shoes, the Abilene Eisenhower marathon in April, and a varying degree of sanity to help me complete the task. The actual date for the Eisenhower marathon hasn't been posted online yet, but it's sometime between early to mid April. I figure I have roughly 30-31 weeks to train, which should theoretically provide plenty of time to prepare. Theoretically. I intend to upload my training schedule, once I figure out how...

Anyway, so the marathon is going to be my project this semester/year. I figure at the very least it will give me something to regularly blog about.

Today I ran 2 miles on this lovely fall afternoon. Until tomorrow!

Edit: Here's my marathon training schedule!