As usual, I never listen to my own advice. Take for example: the art of pacing oneself. I know I should do it and yet….I tend to over do things. It was a nice day out, the contractors were fixing my garage doors and I was in a cleaning mood. I felt good when I woke up and I actually got up earlier than usual thanks to the time change. Let me tell you, that extra hour of sleep really helped!So being full of energy, bright eyed and bushy tailed, I decide to not only clean and scrub the bathroom, but to do 7 loads of laundry, sweep and vacuum the floors, put away some summer clothes, got out the winter ones made supper and experimented with making a new variety of cookie. I should have known better, I do know better. Yet, as always I am optimistic about what I can achieve. I did achieve quite a bit. It just took a little longer to get to sleep, a few more hours of pain. Oh well, I guess that makes up for some of the extra sleep I got with the time change.
I did use my brain for good and played with my oatmeal cookie recipe. If you feel adventurous, you may want to try it. I always use the “Vanishing Oatmeal Cookie” recipe on the inside lid of Quaker Oats. This time though, when pulling out the ingredients to use, I saw something I had purchased the week before at the store. I had bought some Cherry Craisens and Pomegranate Craisens. I know I like the flavor of cherry and pomegranate together so why not trade the raisens for Craisens? Oooh, and a bag of sliced almonds. Cherry and almonds go together. So I followed the recipe except for the cinnamon. I only used ¼ Tsp. of cinnamon. Instead of raisens, I used ½ cup of Cherry Craisens and ½ cup of Pomegranate Craisens. I used almond instead of walnuts. Low and behold, I had some white chocolate chips in the cupboard as well. I thought I should add a little sweetness and so I added 2/3 cup of the white chocolate chips. I baked the cookies at the same temperature and for the same length of time. I liked the taste. They were a hit with everyone. I think if I would have had Almo-van flavoring instead of just vanilla it might had been better. Almo-van is a combination of almond and vanilla flavoring. You can substitute Almo-van with equal parts vanilla and almond flavoring, a flavor I grew up with as my mother was a cake decorator. It just adds a little something to the flavor. So if you feel adventurous, you may want tot give it a try.At least I as able to able to enjoy a few cookies in my sleepless hours. Did I learn anything from overdoing it? No, I will most likely not listen to my own advice and will not pace myself. They say pain is a great teacher. All I can say, is I must be pretty stupid. Maybe I should write a few notes to myself, oh yeah, if only I didn’t have fibro-fog and I could remember to do that! (LoL) Oh well….maybe someday I will learn. Just maybe....
