Yikes, this is a busy time of year. I’m really feeling the effects of less sleep – goal for tonight: 7 hours or more!

Wednesday started off with a cup of coffee and a freezing cold enjoyable 8 mile run with Alma. Note to self: if my hands start to go numb, shaking them vigorously brings back feeling. Good to know, even though it makes me look like a crazy person.

Moving on to breakfast: I heart winter citrus fruits. Especially grapefruit & orange!

Grapefruit and orange

And a hearty slice of Eli Zabar’s bread topped with pb & j.

toast

Plus a little more (decaf) coffee:

Cappuccino

Day was hectic, so lunch was eaten at my desk. But at least it was a fabulous salad!

salad

  • romaine, mixed greens, shredded carrots, mushrooms, onions
  • roasted brussels sprouts, sample of roasted parsnip
  • chickpeas & kidney beans (~1/3 cup)
  • sprinkle of feta cheese, sunflower seeds, dried cranberries, whole grain croutons
  • balsamic vinaigrette
  • Yum!

Afternoon snackeroos were a few strawberries/piece of pound cake dipped in chocolate sauce.

fondue

and an oikos greek yogurt for protein!

oikos

I finally got out of the office a little after 7pm and made my way uptown. Fun evening plans: Laundry! Hah. I actually really, really dislike doing laundry. I try to put it off as long as possible….

Once I made the initial trek to the laundromat, I dug into a special treat. Awhile back, Kath’s blog was offering up a very special deal: $25 gift certificate for anything at her Open Sky store. I jumped on the bandwagon and snapped up 2 jars of organic nutzo for myself. This stuff is amazingly crunchy! In addition to peanuts, it also contains: sunflower seeds, hazelnuts, almonds, cashews, and flax seeds. Holy, legume.

Nutzo

I really only wanted to have nut butter for dinner, but in attempts to make it a little more balanced I made a snacking plate: sliced apple, carrot sticks, and triscuits. With lots of nutzo!

Tasting plate

triscuits

I ended my night very sweetly – with a few of the homemade oreos I made on Tuesday! Homemade oreos? Can it be true? YES. Apparently, I don’t have enough on my plate, so I’ve started re-creating the products of huge corporations. Twinkie, you’re next….

Just kidding.

Anyway, I based these cookies on a recipe by Joanne Chang of Flour Bakery (must.go.there.soon). My recipe came out of a book called Baking from the Heart, but the Boston Globe published a similar homemade oreos recipe this summer.

Mix the melted chocolate, butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla with the dry ingredients. Use quality chocolate and cocoa powder – you’ll taste the difference in these cookies.

homemade oreos

The trickiest part of the process: shaping the cookie dough into logs, chilling it (preferably overnight), and slicing it into thin disks.

homemade oreo dough

The cookie wafers baked up nice and crispy!

homemade oreo cookies

And then I made the filling and shaped that into a log. You don’t even want to know how much butter and confectioner’s sugar I used. The oreo filling was sliced and sandwiched between two chocolate cookies.

homemade oreo filling

Ta-da! This recipe made a lot of cookies – approximately 50 – so I’m going to be nice and share them with my co-workers and friends. However, I might stash away a few for myself. I have a feeling they won’t last long!

homemade oreos

New articles from Running Shorts:

The Atkins Diet for runners? Matt explores low-carb running.

And I recently reviewed John L. Parker’s cult classic, Once A Runner. FYI – It’s no longer out of print!

Question: What “commercial” food product would you like to try re-creating at home? My oreos aren’t exactly healthy, but at least I can pronounce every ingredient in them :-)