The Runner's Kitchen

It’s December 23rd and you still haven’t figured out a Christmas gift for your neighbor/babysitter/brother-in-law, etc. Or maybe you have a holiday get-together tonight and need to bring dessert….

Even if you don’t usually bake or you don’t have a pantry full of baking supplies, you can make these cookies. The ingredients are things you probably have on hand and the process is EASY. I promise. Plus, they taste good and can be made gluten-free/vegan/peanut-free. No more excuses – just make these cookies!

No Excuses Peanut Butter Cookies (makes about 2 dozen)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of peanut butter
• 1 cup of sugar (I used 1/2 granulated, 1/2 brown sugar)
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 F
• In a large bowl, cream together the peanut butter and sugar with a hand mixer
• Add in the egg and baking soda, mix until combined
• Stir in the chocolate chips, roll dough into walnut size balls
• Roll in granulated sugar, place on ungreased cookie sheet, and use a fork to make a criss-cross pattern on the dough
• Bake for 10 minutes, cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, and then eat!

Note: These are gluten-free and can be adapted for almost any diet. Allergic to peanut butter? Use almond or cashew butter. Vegan? Use a flax egg and non-dairy chocolate chips.

Have I been doing anything besides baking? Hmm, not much. BUT, I did get myself to the gym today for a tempo run.

• 1 warm-up
• 3.25 miles @ 7:24 pace a.k.a. ideal marathon pace
• .5 mile recovery jog
• 2.25 miles @ 6:53 pace a.k.a. ideal half-marathon pace
• 2 cool-down
• 9 miles total

Every run I complete over the holidays is a victory at this point, so I felt particularly proud of myself for doing a workout. But this workout (especially those 2.25 miles at “half-marathon” pace) made me feel ridiculously out of shape. There’s a long way to go before ideal race pace = reality! I finished up with some stretching and ab work, which I’m trying to make myself do at least 1-2 x per week.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go eat some cookies.

Questions:

What’s the easiest recipe in your repertoire?

Are you going to work out/run on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day? Or rest?