Niki's Neverending Adventure

Hello lovelies!! Happy St. Patrick’s Day! How is this fine Wednesday treating you? Good over here, definitely enjoying my Spring Break and getting a lot accomplished!! As you can see from the title of this post, there are gonna be a few changes going on here at NNA. I’ve been feeling just kinda blah about posting all my meals recently. Mostly, because I eat the same stuff over and over again and it just seems so dang boring! I’m sure I am boring y’all to death with the same oatmeal combo over and over! Haha. So, I’ve decided to forgo posting ALL my meals, and instead I will be posting all the GOOD meals and recipes as they come along! I feel like the focus of my blog had shifted to being basically all about my daily meals and that’s it. I want NNA to be not only about good, healthy food, but also about fitness and other healthy living topics! So that being said, I have only 1 food item to post about today!! My ALL TIME FAVORITE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES!! I made these yummy little cookies yesterday (per the fiance’s request) and they are sooo good!! And listen to this… I was so good and portioned myself out 1 bite of cookie dough and that’s all I had. People, this is a miracle! Normally, I eat probably 4-5 cookies worth of dough! But since I am on this calorie counting kick, I am really doing well at moderation. Haha, who woulda thought, right?!? Anyway, I’ve posted this recipe before and it’s on my recipe page, but here it is again!

All Time Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/4 cups plus 2 TBSP all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp salt
• chocolate chips**

**I used dark chocolate chips and Heath Bar pieces. I used 1 cup of chocolate chips and 1/2 cup Heath Bar pieces.

And if anyone cares, the nutrition info I calculated up per cookie (recipe made 40 cookies):

• Calories: 132
• Fat: 7
• Carbs: 17
• Sugar: 11
• Protein: 1

Directions:

1. Preheat over to 350*. Beat butter and sugars at medium speed until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla, beating until blended.
2. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in small bowl. Gradually add to butter mixture, beating just until blended. Beat in chocolate chips until combined.
3. Drop by tablespoons onto parchment paper lined baking sheets. I used a mini ice cream scoop.
4. Bake for 9-12 minutes. Remove and cool completely.

Yummy, I love these cookies!

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Onto all things WEDDING!! I have received 2 wedding gifts to my doorstep the last 2 days and it’s so fun! Like Christmas time!! I love getting packages and when they are wedding gifts, it’s just even MORE fun!!

I have my wedding shower on Saturday and I’m super excited! I have been looking around for a cute dress to wear to it and I found one today at Ann Taylor Loft!!

It looks really purple here but it’s more magenta in person. Super comfortable!! I think it’s going to be too chilly to wear it as is, so I have a black short sleeve or long sleeve shirt to go under it so I will stay warmer. I’m pulling a Kelly! Haha, I love layering black shirts underneath cute dresses like this!! What do y’all think? Plus, it will be a great summer dress when it does warm up!!

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On the RUNNING front… I had an AMAZING 6 miler yesterday that totally came out of no where! I haven’t really been feeling like doing longer runs, so I’ve been sticking to anywhere from 3-5 miles. But yesterday, I decided to do 6 and am so happy I did! The weather was nice, low 50’s and just a little breezy. The only thing that would have been better was if the sun was out. But hey, beggars can’t be choosers right?!? I told myself to just go out slow, since I haven’t done 6 miles in like a month, but my body wasn’t on track with SLOW. At each mile when my Garmin beeped and I looked at my pace, I kept thinking, you are gonna regret going this fast, but I never did! I continually felt better and better! It was awesome! And did I mention that this was a really hilly 6 mile course?! Even better!! I ended up doing 6 miles in 58:04, a 9:41 pace! Not my fastest of course, but I was totally thinking I would be doing around a 10:15-10:30 pace on this run! Blew myself out of the water!! I also ended up walking 3 miles on the treadmill later that afternoon!

This morning, I got up at the crack of dawn (5:45) to meet Erin for a run! It was pitch black out for the entire run! Sun, please start coming up much earlier, thanks! Running in the dark is scary! At least we get to use our reflective bands and blinking lights we got for Christmas!! We ran 2 miles together and then I decided to run 1 more on the treadmill when I got home and then walked another 2. I was really into the show I turned on!! Erin and I both felt really tired on this run today. Guess our bodies need to get used to getting up at the crack of dawn again to run!! I also just finished taking Sadie on a mile walk because it was just too nice outside not too and she was begging me :)

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Day 3 of counting calories is still going well! Still enjoying it! I ate 1798 calories yesterday, so that is right at my goal of 1800. PERFECT. It may get a little trickier this weekend when I have friends in town for my shower and we go out to eat a few times. But, I’m sure I will manage!!

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Well guys, I hope you are excited about the changes to NNA and sorry if I was totally boring you before with the same food over and over! Haha! I hope y’all have a fabulous rest of the day and a Happy St. Patrick’s Day!! Did you notice all the green in this post? :)

Posted in: on Wednesday, March 17, 2010 at at 5:57 PM