Stress Relieving

With any job, there is stress. During my long term assignment, I definitely had my fair share. So what did I turn to?

Baking.

Yup, baking. I follow some awesome pages through Facebook and email, so baked whatever I thought looked yummy. I found it to be such a stress reliever. I felt stressed, and while whipping up the ingredients, it gave me such a calming feeling. When I felt stressed and I didn't have enough time to bake, I kept thinking about baking. What to bake, when I would have time to do it....no joke.

Luckily I didn't have the urge to eat it all after it was done. I enjoy baking, but didn't care to really eat too much of it. I'd have others try it and eat one or two. 

What did I do with it all? I brought them to work the next day to share with my co workers. Everything I baked, I made sure to bake enough for them, especially with my grade level colleagues (because they were so awesome and I felt a whole lotta gratitude towards them for helping me so much). During the last 2 months of work, I baked every week. Yup, it got pretty intense, but I was glad to find something that helped me and my co workers seemed to enjoy all the goodies they got. I mean, who wouldn't love to get some treats in their box Monday morning? To thank them for everything at the end of the year, I baked my 3 favs. That was a loooong weekend. :)

What I find funny is that I haven't baked all summer. Only twice did I bake, but using good ol' Betty Crocker. I'm starting to find recipes that I'd love to try, so I think I'm gonna start again soon!

Here were some of my favs:

 Banana bread.

 Thumbprint cookies with jam.

These last two are my absolutely favorite. It was really hard not to eat all of these.

 Chess cakes.

 Oatmeal-cranberry cookies with white chocolate chips.

Thank goodness for baking!