Happy Days

Today we had planned to go for a long walk with the scooter however the weather was rather gloomy so instead we decided to make some chocolate biscuits.

I think as usual someone may have eaten slightly more than we cooked!!!  Look at those grubby chops!! We poured the hundreds and thousands on rather than sprinkled them but hey they looked good and tasted even better.  They are really easy to make and unlike a lot of dough recipes these do not contain raw egg so should your little one decide they prefer the dough to the end product its not a major issue.

Ingredients

125g softened butter
165g firmly packed brown sugar
225g plain flour
35g self raising flour
35g cocoa powder
2 tbsp milk
150-200g dark cooking chocolate, melted
hundreds and thousands

Method

1. Turn the oven on to about 180 degrees.
2. Using an electric whisk beat together the sugar and the butter until light and fluffy
3. Add your sieved dry ingredients and mix together. Slowly add a tbsp of milk one at a time (I mixed this all together with a wooden spoon)  Bring it together form a fairly stiff dough.  You can use your hands.
4. Tip your dough on to a lightly floured work surface - to prevent it from becoming too floury I mixed a bit of cocoa powder and flour together.
5. Roll out your dough until it is about 5mm thick and then cut out your choice of shape. 
6. Place on a lined baking tray and place in the oven for about 10-12mins.
7. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.  Whilst your biscuits are cooking melt your chocolate either over a pan of boiling water or gradually in the microwave being careful not to over-heat it.
8. When your biscuits have cooled enough to handle you need to spread (or dip into) the melted chocolate onto the surface of each biscuit and then sprinkle with your hundreds and thousands.   

These biscuits are really yummy however they are not helping me with my weight loss.  Last year I started a list of a 101 things I would like to try and complete in a 1001 days.  For more on my 101 progress click here.


25    loose some weight. -

I have signed up to weight watchers, however after 1 week of what felt like starving myself I attended my second weigh in to discover I had lost the grand total of half a lb!!!  Half a lb, god I felt demoralised.  I had to put two big black crosses through Saturday and Sunday.  I started again on Monday.  Even though I felt demoralised it has made me tick a couple of other things off my list.

40    Eat 5 pieces of fruit and vegetables everyday for a week.
78    To eat breakfast everyday for a week.  


In my eagerness to shift some of my excess weight I have also been out exercising.  I used to go lots before I had Mimi but you know what its like when you have children.  Anyway I have realised just how unfit I am.  I went spinning last week.  It was awful - I felt like some crazy woman who was totally out of control.  My bike was spinning quicker than my poor little legs could go.  The strobe lights were blinding me and the speaker which felt as though it was only an inch from my ear was deafening me.  What is more I paid £6 for this privilege!!!  I am going to give it another go this week however I remain unconvinced that spinning is for me.  I also went to Step and Load on Monday, which I did enjoy however my muscles ache so much today that I felt as though I was coming down with the flu!


This week I have also ticked off

61   To attend a blogging conference  - Okay so I haven't attended yet but I am going to BritMums Live 2012 and I am really excited.  I feel slightly intimidated by some of the amazing blogs I read and subsequently feel a bit nervous about going.  Is anyone else going?