Treadmills and Chocolate Peanut Butter Pillows

Sorry for the hiatus, all! The past week and weekend has been pretty busy. On Friday after I got out of work, Mark and I headed over to Retro Fitness. We've been thinking about getting gym memberships for a while now; we used to use the gym all the time when we were in college, and it was a great thing for both of us. I've been missing it a lot lately, especially in terms of the treadmill, but also in terms of strength training. So, we checked out the website, and when we saw there was no enrollment fee through January we decided to get over there and see the place. We were pleasantly surprised. It's big, new, clean, bright, and friendly. It has every machine and free weight we could want. And a major perk is the ability to go to any Retro Fitness location; we live 5 miles away from two different facilities, so we can go to either one. Needless to say, we signed up on the spot. It's a really good deal at only $20 a month, and I'm looking forward to my complimentary fitness evaluation on Thursday. Mark had his today and he had a really good experience. I'm hoping to use the gym in order to get my strength up, as well as build a really solid mileage base to go into the spring with. If all goes well, I'd really like to run the NJ Half Marathon in May.

To offset all the gym talk, let's talk about cookies. As you all know, my new favorite cookbook is Vegan Cookies Take Over Your Cookie Jar. With the recipe I tried out on Sunday night, I am now three for three. I made the Chocolate Peanut Butter Pillows. The doughs are really easy to put together, but boy, is it time consuming to assemble these cookies. Luckily, I had a lot of time, and in the end, the time was well spent. These cookies are the best I've made yet. I love how it looks like you have a plain chocolate cookie, but then you bite in and find a peanut butter surprise. These cookies remind me of a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. I reiterate, if you don't own this cookbook, get it! Three for three doesn't lie! I'm going to try to be good and give it a couple weeks until I try another cookie recipe, but don't worry, I will be sure to fill you in when I do make it.