Uppercuts beat the blues.

I'm a pretty big Robert De Niro fan. In fact, one of my all-time favorite movies is Raging Bull.

So , it was only natural for me to feel like The Ultimate Bad Ass this morning after completing my first basic boxing workout, from SHAPE magazine.

HIGHLY recommend this routine. It was super fun (even more so, with Wu-Tang Clan playing on my stereo) and a definite stress buster. I repeated round 5 five extra times, skipped the push-ups (my wrists are sore from yoga) and did a few extra minutes of jumping rope. After all was said in done, the whole routine ended up being 45 minutes and I was dripping. It went by so fast! I'm happy to say I've found a new favorite cardio workout. My shoulders and upper back are a bit shot though; I've been stretching all morning to keep the soreness and the stiffness at bay.

Outside of becoming the next Boxing Warrior, I also tried a new cookie recipe this week, courtesy of Coach's Oats: Oatmeal Coconut Cookies! Sooooo good! Doug said they were the best cookies I've made yet. And considering I'm still a novice baker, I was happy to hear that.

I swapped out the 1/2 cup of sugar with Splenda and used reduced-fat coconut by Let's Do Organic, just to lighten things up a bit. I left everything else the same. Doug suggested adding chocolate chips next time. Will do! These were pretty easy to make, so I'm down for making another batch soon.

That's all for today. Until next time, get your box and bake on!

Mental Health Day.

Took the day off from work, primarily to go to an 8:30 am spin class and to bake cake. Yuuup. Priorities. I have 'em.

Spin class was ok... I got a lot of good sprints in, but not a fan of the instructor. She was probably on the bike 50% of the time. Rest of the time, she was walking around. But she played more tolerable music than some of the other instructors, so I cut her some slack.

Came home, showered, ate a big bowl of oats and prepped for the day's next task:

Lemon-Blueberry Pound Cake!

Just in case you forgot where I stand on the whole Cake-vs.-Pie debate... And please note, this is NOT a healthy recipe! Plenty of butter and sugar to go around and I didn't make any substitutions. In fact, I added a few things to the original recipe from Food Network.

I first made the cake on Father's Day for my dad (sans blueberries) because lemon pound cake is one of his favorites. He raved about it so much that I had to make it again (that, and Doug was bummed that he didn't get to try any the first time).

Aside from adding blueberries, the main changes I made were: adding the zest of an entire lemon (creamed in with the butter) and adding an additional 1/4 cup of flour. I added the extra flour with high-altitude baking in mind, but even if you aren't at high-altitude and still want a lighter/fluffier texture, go ahead and add it.

The lemon zest is crucial! If you want a distinct lemon flavor in this cake, you really do need to add the zest, even though the original recipe doesn't call for it.



I poured about half of the batter in the pan and added about 2/3 cup of thawed frozen blueberries.



Poured the remaining batter and topped with the rest of the blueberries (somewhere between 1/4 and a 1/3 cup).





Waiting for this thing to cool before slicing into it was murder. Smelled sooooo good!



I cut it in half and froze the other half. Also, I did NOT include the extra glaze on this version. I did include it when I made my dad's version, but I left it out on this version and I think the cake was just fine on its own.

Delicious. And although I've avoided baking in the past, I'm coming around to it more often these days. I'd rather bake my own treats so I know exactly what's going into the mix and because there's much more effort involved, the final result is that much more satisfying. When I think of the discounted cakes, pastries and doughnuts I always eye at the grocery store bakery (and sometimes buy), they all make me gag now when I look at this cake.

I think bread will be next on my list of baking adventures. The bread selection in most stores doesn't do much for me these days and the good breads at the local/specialty bakeries are too expensive to buy regularly, so I'm going to start making my own. We'll see how it goes!