cookies so fast a 2 year old will wait .........

I like to have something up my sleeve for when the grand kids come over. This magically fast cookie was one I used with my own kids when they were little. Now Lilly and I made them yesterday and shared them with the family.

Pudding cookies

preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Makes 2 dozen small

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3/4 cup baking mix (I make my own so it's made with oil but Bisquick is fine)

1/4 Cup salad oil

1 egg

1 small package of instant pudding any flavor

(pistachio and lemon are my favorite)

2 tablespoons of sugar

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl.

Stir until it holds together as a ball

Shape one teaspoon into a ball

place on an ungreased cookie sheet

leaving space for them to spread

flatten

Sprinkle if desired with sugar

Bake 8 to 10 minutes

or until the edges are lightly browned

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Yes they are green but the photos don't treat them kindly. It's a nice soft green!

If you need a body boost.............try this!

Take note: OK I've added this to my posting. If you only buy one walking video this is it! I got this just this week and today I did all 5 miles. I loved it. It's arranged so nicely. You can do any mile and enjoy 5 different power walks or arrange any grouping of miles. I love the way she starts briskly and before you know it you are at 1/2 miles and the best part in the last half you get to do some really fast blast walking. It really felt like a workout. If you used even one of these miles you'd love how you felt. Because each mile is treated as it's own unit they each start slower than the end of the last mile so it gives me a little brake for the first 1/2 mile and then once again blast the last 1/2 mile. It's perfect. I really like this video. You can get them on the web site or I found mine on Amazon.com.

The girls in the family and myself are all working on new healthy lifestyles.

It's only the 2nd month of the year. I surely don't want the year to pass me by on my health goals. Yes it has been warm here in the Northwest but wet is wet no matter how warm and I needed something to boost my calorie burn that was easy to:

1.) decide I wanted to face it each day and make a life long commitment to being activity

2.) start without a fuss ( no drive to a gym or trail, change or load up equipment, open a locker...etc.)

3.) afford, low cost (no money means no gym and very little gas for driving very far so it has to be close)

4.) see my progress so I get excited to do it again

5.) feel my progress as in muscles feel worked but not broken

6.) easy to do and keeps me off the floor (old body, old joints, heavy body don't do up and down well)

So these were my requirements. Bleach boy bought a gym membership for an indoor pool when he was in California and it traveled up here when he returned home. In the two, now three years of swimming three times a week he lost tons of weight. I am not a gym person. I do love it outside and will bike and hike but those don't fit the requirements above.

So here is what I've found is really helping.

WALKING AT HOME

I've discovered a wonderful web site for people like me. It's all about being healthy through walking. You can join the walking club and get a couple different streaming walking video's a month all online. It's so easy for me to wake up, turn on my computer and bring up the web site. Before you know it I'm doing at least a mile. Then later before lunch I do a fast paced heart healthy 2 to 4 mile walk.

I'm sure you are picturing a stroll down the path but this is exercise walking and I feel it.

I printed off the online calendar and am checking off my miles but feel free to write it on the wall or chalk board or in a note book. But do write it! As you see the miles click by you get excited that this will help you have a body boost and burn some calories.

As far as Spark people are concerned when I log a 30 min 2 mile walk I burn 266 calories. WOW

This is why if I can I do more than one walk a day I think I will make headway.

Even right before bed a gentle 1 mile walk is fine, I can sleep and I know that the calorie burning is still going on while I do.

Now where can you test this out, because I didn't believe how good this was until in early January when I started walking? See video's above this post

So after you've used the video's above move to the web site and try the faster video or join the club and have some great food ideas and new walking video's each month for a year. I'm sure this will make my year full of boosting energy and calorie BURN.

Go here for the express one mile. It's fast but on a sat when I know bleach boy wants to go do stuff I get a fast burning 1 mile in.

http://www.walkathome.com/index.php

This site also has all the walking video's to buy and the club to join do take a peek.

If you want something really challenging take the 10 day challenge offered on the web site. There is a menu and a walking plan for three walks a day. If you do this it will burn each meal on the menu off! No calories for the whole day that you didn't burn.

I thought about what this would mean?

That's right I'd have to burn those extra pounds all day if I wasn't burning my meals!

Thank you Leslie Sansone

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Here is a Spark people article on fitness that will give you some ideas also.

http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/fitness_articles.asp?id=194

There isn't anything we can't do!

Like fine dinning!

Every time I serve greens from our winter salad box I feel like I'm eating at a fancy restaurant!

Oh how delicate and fresh these greens taste, so tender a bite. I make a nice lemon and olive oil dressing with some herbs and very lightly toss with the greens, add some pine nuts and serve.

You must try a winter salad box next year, you can see mine in the posting below...some where down with the winter stuff. This nightly fine dining will spoil us!

REALLY GOOD NEWS

At last Bleach boy has a job.

He started today, back in the industry he knows and loves so well.

It took a while for paper work to sort out so in the last week it was like being pregnant and not wanting to tell until you were really sure.

So today we are sure!

Bleach boy has never seemed so happy as he was today. I wanted to bottle it and sell it!

I know this isn't the end of our struggles but it is an answer to prayer and a gift we won't forget. Besides I like a good challenge.......did I say that? Yikes.....I meant like in weaving or knitting. Deep sigh...

Easy to make Gingersnap cookies

Here is a recipe I've had so long I don't know where it came from. Back in the 70's and 80's my friend and I wrote calories on all our recipes so we could loose our baby weight. This recipe has calories on it so it came from back then.

Bleach boy is missing all his high fat treats but this one only take oil and egg which seems better than butter and eggs! It makes up fast, is crunchy if cooked long, or soft in the middle if cooked less. Remove the cookies as soon as they are holding together. They will cook too much if left on the cookies sheet once you take them out.

Enjoy

Gingersnap cookies:

In a bowl stir all ingredients, roll into a ball ( I like walnut size plus) roll in sugar and space well on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 15 minutes for crunchy, 12 minutes for soft middles.

3/4 cup oil (go for the lower fat oils)

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup of a good dark molasses

Stir the above until mixed well and add list below

2 cups flour

2 teas baking soda

1/2 teas salt

1/2 teas. Cinnamon

2 teas. ginger

1/2 cup of sugar for dipping

If you make 30 cookies (that's smaller than my walnut size dough balls) you have 117 calories per cookie. The whole recipe is 3524 calories approx. so count your cookies and divide)