Happy Thursday morning! I hope your Hump Day was a good one. I didn’t have time to check in because….um….I was busy? Not really I was completely lazy and just wanted to bake things and lay on the couch after my work day. Hopefully you were lucky enough to catch some lazy time too.

Yesterday started with a 6 mile run in 19 degree temps! It was COLD to say the least. I stayed mostly cozy in my cold weather gear. My bottom half was cold again though. I’m thinking an outer layer is going to have to go over my cozy running tights. They aren’t so ‘cozy’ when it’s below 30 degrees and dark outside. But like I’ve said before, this whole running thing is a learning process. And I’ve figured out that my quads and buns need a little extra warmth! 🙂

Deer Hunting?

This weekend starts the deer hunting season where hunters can use guns. It’s been bow season for a while, but I guess gun season is where it’s at?? I know nothing about hunting…if you can’t already tell. And Nick is going deer hunting this weekend with some of his old buddies. Needless to say, I’m a little less than thrilled about the whole event.

I have nothing against hunting really. I grew up in a rural, farming community where just about everyone (except my family) went hunting for each season. But the thought of Nick bringing home an entire deer is overwhelming. We don’t have a big freezer to store the meat after it’s processed, and I don’t particularly like the taste of venison. I think it is rather ‘gamey’ and blahh. For his sake though, I hope he gets a big buck that he can be proud of!

Since Nick will be gone all weekend (Friday afternoon – Sunday evening), I thought it was my duty as a loving girlfriend to bake him some goodies to take along on his hunting trip!….Truthfully, I just love any excuse to bake. So last night I made some blueberry muffins….

From a box though. Don’t get too excited, people.

Box or no box, they were still delicious, and we each ate one fresh out of the oven.

I wanted to make something else for him, but I also wanted it to be quick and easy since I was feeling lazy. I came across an awesome recipe for Cheerio peanut butter treats on Pinterest!

Cheerio Peanut Butter Treats

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• 1 cup crunchy or creamy peanut butter (I used crunchy)
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 5 cups Cheerios

Combine the sugar and corn syrup in a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir often and bring the mixture to a boil. Boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and mix in the vanilla and peanut butter. Stir until smooth. Immediately mix in the cheerios 1 cup at a time. It will be thick and hard to stir! Spread this mixture into a greased 13 x 9 pan.

Let cool and cut into into bars just like rice krispy treats!

Tiny dogs anywhere nearby will be watching…and waiting. But since there’s no chocolate, Mac did get a small taste.

Nick and I both loved ’em! They are chewy and bursting with peanut buttery goodness. Plus they took no time at all to throw together since no baking is involved. I think I’ve found my new easy go-to sweet treat to take to any food-related get together. Two pans of these babies would feed a crowd for sure!

The rest of my day will consist of work followed by teaching two Jazzercise classes. The 5:40 pm teacher needed to trade classes. So I will be there tonight instead of tomorrow. Yay for having my Friday evening open! This created a quick change in my half-marathon training schedule. Today will be my cross-training day, and tomorrow I will get in a short run before work (hopefully).

And since I have tomorrow night wide open (no Nick + no Jazzercise), some Christmas decorations might start going up around the house! Yes, it’s early. But my calendar is getting busier everyday, so Christmas may come early for my sanity’s sake. Plus the music is already playing all over the radio, so that makes my decorating a little more legit, right? I’m going to think so.

Have a great day everyone! I’ll see you all tomorrow!