Rest.

Good morning!!! Hope everyone had a wonderful, blessed Christmas. Sorry about the lack of posting.....I really wanted to spend some quality time with the family! We definitely relaxed and hung out a lot this weekend and took yesterday to remember the true meaning of Christmas. What did you do this weekend?


In a completely unrelated note, I have a recipe, and also a topic that I have recently done some research on to talk about! First up, the recipe:
Super soft sugar cookies

 

(not my picture, but this is how they turned out)

based on this recipe

Ingredients:

Cookies:

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs, beaten

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

3 - 3 1/2 cups flour (I started out with 3 cups, but ended up needing to add some to the dough)

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Frosting:

5 cups powdered sugar

1/3 cup butter, melted

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

8 tablespoons milk

Food coloring (I used green)

Directions:

1. Beat butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla until fluffy.
2. Combine all dry ingredients in another bowl and slowly add to the butter mixture until everything is well mixed. 
3. Chill dough for at least an hour. 
4. Separate dough into about 24 pieces, flatten each one into a thick circle. Place about 2 inches apart on a baking sheet. 
5. Bake at 400 for 8-10 minutes. The cookies should be a very light golden color. If you overbake, they won't be as soft. 
6. To frost, mix all of the frosting ingredients together and spread on cooled cookies. I also topped mine with some red colored sugar to make them even more Christmas-y!

These were seriously really delicious!!!! :D Sugar cookies are probably my third favorite cookie....the first being oatmeal raisin, and the second, chocolate chip. What is your favorite kind of cookie????

Now, just really quickly, I want to talk about something that I've noticed in myself for the last little while. 

I have this huuuuge craving for salt. I mean, I know I exercise regularly, which is one cause for salt cravings, but what I've been experiencing has been more than that. I'm still slightly underweight, so I did some research to see whether or not that has anything to do with massive salt cravings. What I found out, according to here and here, is that due to the fact that I have dealt with an eating disorder, my body's chemistry is pretty out of whack. A zinc deficiency can lead to a loss of appetite, and anorexia, or malnutrition can lead to a zinc deficiency, creating a cycle. In turn, this same zinc deficiency can cause all of the body's electrolytes to be out of balance, including sodium, causing massive salt cravings. Interesting, no? Anyway, I'm going to try adding more zinc-rich foods to my diet to see if that's the root problem or not. 

Well, that's about it for today....hope you all have awesome weeks!