Fatigued on Friday

Claritin D is not my sandman. I felt so exhausted and was sound asleep by 9:15 last night, but then I was wide awake by 12:15. I tossed, I turned, I peeked at the time. I finally stopped looking at the clock around 3:30, and I got out of bed at 5:15. I decided that there was no point in pretending and that I could at least be productive. This is not typical for me as I am not a morning person, but I did my cardio and abs workout before work.

I really wish I could do that more often, as I feel like I have more free time after work with my workout already complete. I think the most I have managed is three days of early workouts, then it's back to the evening workouts. I had originally intended on going home during lunch and trying Shock Cardio Step Moves. However, since I was working out groggily at 5:15 this morning, I opted for a tried and true workout (Step Blast). I didn't think that trying to learn a new step workout would be safe at that point. I may try it tomorrow after weights.

All week I have been working my way through my new cookbooks,  noting recipes I want to try and making a list of ingredients I now need. The one thing that I am really enjoying with these cookbooks is that they all give great tips and tricks about what to keep in the pantry and alternatives. I always keep a very well-stocked pantry, at least for the recipes I normally make. Now that I am trying new things, I am finding that I am having to revamp the pantry list a bit. Tomorrow is grocery day, which is a good thing as cabinets are getting bare. I do hope to try a few new recipes from the cookbooks next week as well as a Cream of Tomato Soup (100% healthy might I add) recipe from my super healthy blogging buddy Alicia at Vegan Epicurean. I do feel a little overwhelmed with all these new options though. It seems like every day someone is posting another recipe that I am adding to my "must try" list in addition to these new cookbooks. Where's a girl to begin??!!

Just out of curiosity, how do you choose which new recipe to try when you have a slew to choose from?

Tonight's dinner is still undecided. My head is a bit fuzzy so I'm not thinking tonight is a good night for trying a new recipe. Maybe homemade wheat pizza? I know it's not the healthiest thing in the world, but healthier than what you find at the local pizza joints. I have a recipe that is really pretty tasty and always comes out fairly consistent. I would, however, like to continue to tweak to make healthier. Maybe some of you more experienced cooks/bakers can help me out:

• I do add ground flax seed and that makes no textural difference which is good.
• I would like to substitute the sugar somehow. I know sugar is often used to help activate the yeast, so I'm afraid to mess with that too much.
• Right now it calls for half whole-wheat and half all-purpose flours. I would like to see if I could substitute another flour like spelt or whole-wheat pastry for the all-purpose.
• If the sugar is only to sweeten, I wonder if I could substitute unsweetened applesauce for the oil and have that also act as a sweetener?

Any thoughts, suggestions, better recipes? Please share!!

I have had a few requests for the recipe, so here it is with my additions/changes in parenthesis and italics. I originally found this at Recipezaar.

Wheat Pizza Dough for Bread Machine

Ingredients:

1 cup water + 2 tbsp (depending on the wheat-flour, I use 1 1/4 cup. The grainier the flour, the less water)

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt 

2 1/2 teaspoons yeast

(I add 1 tsp ground flax seed)

Directions:
Place all ingredients in bread machine in order listed. Run on dough cycle. When done, fix as desired and bake 18 to 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

Notes: I preheat the oven to 450 and heat up a pizza stone. I lower the rack and cook at this higher temperature. I read that it makes the crust softer so that's what I do.