I’d Rather Buy The Box

I’m not sure if it’s the weather, stress, my love of baking, or a combo of the three, but I’m on a bit of a roll.

Not sweets, but the carbs have been calling my name!After a little phase of being obnoxiously obsessed with sun dried tomato wheat thins, I figured there was surely some way to recreate them?

There is! There is!

Although I won’t say it was super easy.  I followed the recipe (from The Fresh Loaf) as closely as I could. But ended up adding more water in the mixing process because the dough wasn’t coming together very well.

And then the rolling. Oh the rolling…According to the recipe, you roll it out as thin as you possibly can. I decided halfway through rolling of the first round of dough that my crackers would end up thicker than regular wheat thins.

The recipe says you’ll yield approximately 13 dozen “wheat thins”.

Um… yeah…

I’d say my crackers were at least twice as thick (if not 3x!). And I cut them a little bigger. Soooo…After all was said and done, I had about 3 dozen crackers. Not 13, but 3. But I’m cool with that- I like that they’re a little thicker with just a light crisp (by the way, I baked them closer to 10-11 minutes because they were much thicker).

I also added a little chili powder to see if I could create a spicy cracker.  Surprisingly, it didn’t make much of a difference. Still good nonetheless. But even when I enjoy baking, I think in this case, I’d rather just grab a box of wheat thins. That sun dried tomato flavor drives me wild and it’s worth the $2-3 to just throw the box in the cart instead of the 45 minutes in the kitchen.

Plus, let’s be honest- I’d rather be baking cookies.

When’s the last time you decided store-bought was better?

Hopefully my seeking comfort in ridiculous amounts of baked goods will slow down as we Chicagoans creep out of this single-degree weather?  As the temps reach the 30′s this weekend (woo hoo?), we shall see…

This morning I braved said temps to hit the workout room. 26 minutes on the elliptical and 16 on the stairs (apparently “6″ is the number of the day- creepy). It felt good after having a rest day- fresh legs.  Tomorrow I’m gearing up for a long run and am kind of looking forward to it. Long runs happen on Saturdays for a reason. I have ample amounts of time, can zone without worrying, and did I mention my love for the weekend?

Oh and the crazy early workout girl wasn’t there today. And I may just agree with some of you that commented yesterday- maybe she can’t sleep?  Now that I think about it, not that long ago I was the one who gave up on sleep and went to the gym at 4:00 in the morning.  Remember that one?  Yeah- it still pains me a little.  Gross!

Even though I’ll admit I have oatmeal *almost* everyday, sometimes it’s necessary to switch it up.A semi-success of an omelet.

I wasn’t feeling the oatmeal or peanut butter toast because I had the need for a little more protein in my life.  Plus the mushrooms, onion, spinach, and feta were a welcome change of pace to the AM. And sometimes change is good. No matter how small. 

Time for the Friday dance…