Cheating gets a bad wrap.

 

Cheat day, that is.  That cheatin’ man doesn’t deserve a second look.  

This cheat day weekend was a little spread out… but I had trainer-blessings in my quest to gain more weight.

 

Saturday was Take Your Mom to the Gym Day.  This Saturday Mom joined me at my gym for a workout, and scheduled time with my trainer to being a program of her own.  Mother-Daughter Beast Mode = ON.

 

 

Mamma has gotten on pain relief (she was sidelined for a long time after a bad surgery), and has decided to refocus on fitness and building muscle.  I am SO proud of her!

 

 

After out workout we headed to Buford Highway, Atlanta’s ethnic food mecca, for a refuel.  Korean BBQ at Hae Woon Dae (5805 Buford Hwy., Doraville, GA 30340, 770-451-7957).  If you’re in ATL, I highly recommend it – don’t be scared by the fact that you practically have to turn into a “Gentleman’s Club” to get there.

 

 

If you’ve never experienced an authentic Korean BBQ meal, I cannot recommend it enough.  They cook the meat over charcoal at your table (they also have tofu), and serve it with a boat-load of tasty sides like cabbage kimchi, cucumber kimchi, pickled radishes, sprouts, lettuce, and soy bean paste.  Also, don’t skip the Korean pancakes.  The egg and flour-based pancakes are traditionally laced with scallions, but often include other add-ins.  Ours also contained carrots, zucchini, and kimchi.

 

Sunday my friends Summer and Annette had a baby shower celebrating the impending arrival of TWINS!

 

 

I had the honor of creating a few desserts… I may have gotten a little carried away with the baking, but it is fun to cut loose and get creative with the full-fat sugar-loaded treats every once in a while.

If you follow me on Instragram, you may have seen this shot of my grocery basket on Friday night:

 

 

You may have also seen the following scene as I cooked.  This is what happens when you’re frying bacon, creaming an obscene amount of butter and sugar, and it’s time for your 20g of protein (yup – that’s salmon).

 

 

The bacon and the creamed deliciousness were for 2 things that I could eat 24×7 and never tire of (though my waist line may say otherwise):  Maple Bacon Pancake Cookies and Banana S’More Nut Bars.

 

 

These S’more Bars are the best I’ve ever had.  I only wish I could take credit for the recipe!  They are the ingenious work of Eric Wolitzky from Cake & Ale in Decatur, GA.

The restaurant serves some of the best food in Atlanta (they are responsible for getting me to like seafood), but their bakery was recently recognized by Bon Appetite as one of the best in America.

 

 

The only liberties I took were to replace the milk chocolate with dark, use plain peanuts instead of salted, and toast the marshmallows before mixing them into the fudge-y chocolate-banana-peanut butter fudge.  Next time you have the occasion to go all-out with a dessert, MAKE THIS.  Click here for the full recipe.

 

Creation #2 was my own.  A pancake in cookie form.  It’s like breakfast for dessert.  I cooked bacon for the first time in years (I’m not actually a bacon fanatic as this post would indicate).  The only downside is that my condo STILL smells like bacon. 🙂

 

 

Maple syrup is a must with pancakes, so I added extract to  mine to acheive that deep sweetness.  I wasn’t sure I’d want to add anything else, as bacon is potent stuff… but I decided to stir in some dark chocolate chips.  What’s better that chocolate chip pancakes?

 

 

Sweet, salty and indulgently amazing, these chewy cookies are fit for any cheat day.  I’d say my trainer agrees since his sample were gone almost as fast as I could hand him the baggie.

Recipe at the bottom.

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First we need to recap what I did to EARN that incredible day of cheats!  No huge news to recap this week.  It was a good week of workouts, and I’m excited to keep seeing gains as I keep pushing and amp up the protein.

I don’t ever get to see my back, so I recruited Mom to take a pic while we were at the gym this weekend:

 

 

Workout Recap (9/4 – 9/9):

• Tuesday – Shoulders/Butt, 1.5 mile walk
• Wednesday – Chest/Biceps, Calf raises, 100 push-ups
• Thursday – Legs (with trainer), 2 mile walk
• Friday – Back/Triceps, Calf raises
• Saturday – Shoulders/Butt
• Sunday – Chest/Biceps, Calves

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Maple Bacon Chocolate Chip Pancake Cookies

• 1/2 C butter, softened
• 1 1/3 C granulated sugar
• 2 Large eggs
• 2 C pancake mix
• 1 tsp maple extract
• 12 oz bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 1/3 C dark chocolate chips

 

Cream butter and sugar together in large mixing bowl. Beat in egg and maple extract, mixing well.

Slowly stir in pancake mix.  Fold in the crumbled bacon and chocolate chips.

Drop by the spoonful (~1.5 T) onto parchment-lined cookie sheets and bake for 12 mins.

Makes 2 dozen cookies.

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Back on track!  I’m determined to make this the cleanest week ever, and to keep increasing my weight.

What is your favorite “cheat?”

Have you ever had Korean BBQ?