12. S'mores "brownies" and a Solid Workout

This post is so contradictory it hurts. Maybe it's the fact that I have to be in a bathing suit in a few weeks or maybe it's that I ate my body weight in s'mores "brownies" (recipe to follow) last night/this morning (yes, before I got to work. So sue me.), but I had a KILLER work out this morning.

Let me start by saying that I wouldn't be motivated to workout with my workout partner, Elise. Elise and I have been the best of friends since our sophomore year in high school. We were debate partners - do you understand how that bonds two people!?

Here's a little picture of us back in our high school glory days... 

...and this is us now! 

I got lucky last year when Elise left a job in Chicago to start a new career here in DC. I got even luckier when she moved about 6 blocks from my house and right down the street from our gym. 

On the night of the super bowl, I had a bunch of people over at my house and between myself and my roommates we made the best bad-for-you food you can imagine. Half way to my cardiac arrest, I declared that the following day I was starting a new work out program, and Elise jumped on board. We send each other texts in the morning at 5:30am making sure we're up. This is something we need to get better at, but it still helps to have someone remind you that you ate like a man trying to increase his weight class last weekend and could use an hour of spin class. 

Anyway, that's  Elise. My workout partner. 

This morning Elise was sick so I was a lone wolf at the gym, but I did a HARD 30 minutes (2 miles on the treadmill and 15 minutes on the stair machine at max speed) and did my normal ab routine TWICE. I also did some lunges but I lost steam near the end. I walked out of the gym at 7:15 absolutely dripping in sweat. There's no better way to start the day!

And LORD, did I need it. 

Last night I made an insane amount of THESE:

Golden grahams s'mores "brownies".

Super simple. Super amazing. A guy who works in my building just tried one and he called them "nectar from the Gods". I usually reserve this term for bloody marys with extra mary...but these are well deserving. 

RECIPE:

10.5 ounce bag of mini marshmellows (plus 2 cups!)

1 standard box of Golden Graham cereal

1/4 cup of butter

1 standard package of milk chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS:

1. Melt butter in a large pot on the stove at a low heat

2. Add 1 bag of marshmellows and mix until melted

3. Once melted, remove from heat and add cereal

4. Once this is stirred up, put back on a low heat and mix in chocolate chips until they are half-way melted

5. Add two more cups of marshellows

6. Stir until you feel like you just did a 3 hour upper body workout

7. Place into a large baking pan of your choice, let cool

8. Wait 20 minutes, cut into squares, serve, enjoy, die of happiness.

Happy Tuesday!

-axoxo,

A