Days Off The Bike: Baking Adventures

I ride my bike a lot. It's pretty much what I do. Sometimes, I put in 19-hour weeks. That's basically a part-time job after working my full-time job. That's a lot of dedication to having a sore bum.

Like I said, I like to ride my bike.

After being exhausted and getting reprimanded by my coach for not following the schedule correctly (I guess an easy spin is not 2-1/2 hours of riding. Which I knew, I'm just as stubborn as a tired mule), I decided to follow the schedule that my coach wrote for me to the T. As in, I didn't switch days around (I made sure I worked around my work schedule so it all fit perfectly) and I mostly rode solo, which is boring and lonely, especially on my 4- and 5-hour rides. I actually followed the schedule and I was able to complete every workout and got my numbers extremely close to what my coach wrote on the schedule. I was pretty stoked, but my body was exhausted. Seriously. I pretty much had to give myself the finger for beating my body up so much. I also sent my coach an "I hate you." He knows it's all out of appreciation, but still. What the eff?

Dramatization 

I've never been so happy to see a rest day on the schedule.

With that said, however, I still don't know what to do with myself on my days off. I go to work... then what? I shouldn't ride my bike on a rest day (hurr), so I didn't. What did I end up doing? Baking.

I baked a lot.

Since I like to experiment with my baking, I decided to make some Orange Creamsicle Cookies. I had never baked orange creamsicle cookies, but I like orange creamsicles, so why not? The recipe was simple enough. I started mixing everything, put the dough on the cookie sheets, baked them, and when I opened the oven, I just...

Because this is what I got...

And these were the only ones I could salvage because I was really fucking careful when I transfered them from the cooking sheet to the plate:

I admitted defeat on this one. I didn't have time to make another batch so I just took those with me and gave them to Boyfriend and Frank (one of the bffs4eva. Shut up). Apparently they liked the crumbling mess for cookies. Alright. Men are easy to please. Noted. 

After a weekend of exhausting riding, I had Monday (today) off, so I worked, then came home and decided to bake while doing laundry and cleaning the house (shit, maybe I am becoming a woman). This time I decided to make some brown sugar cookies, which turned out to be a joygasm and a half. The recipe called for sour cream but I decided to use greek yogurt instead. Seriously, guys, joygasm.

The next thing I decided to bake was extremely experimental. I had no idea how it was going to turn out. I decided to make cookie dough stuffed brownies. It sounds awesome, right? Well, they are.

This is definitely an experiment gone right. You can see on one of them that the cookie dough is trying to poke out. Yeah... they're awesome. 

Then I decided to bake some Mac and Cheese, which also turned out awesome.

I love me some Mac and Cheese, though I used penne pasta because I didn't have any macaroni pasta but I don't care, it's still delicious. I also used up all of my shredded cheese. 

And this is what happens when I have the day off from the bike. I get bored after I get off work and start to bake. Commence operation make everyone around me fat.