Swisssh, whirrrr, swisssh, whirrrr, swisssh, whirrrr, …
There was I, newly enslaved to the relentless motion of the exercise machine, with its glowing display of strides per minute and calories per hour. After what was my first visit to a gym in quite some time, I was, frankly, rather aglow myself. No prizes for guessing that, with the onset of a brand new year, I had made a resolution of the get-fit-and-healthy variety.
Somewhat ironically, the view across the road from my gym window included outlets of Four Star Pizza, Subway and McDonalds, not to mention an off-licence advertising a six-pack of beer for a tenner (which, to be perfectly honest, is the only kind of six-pack I’m ever likely to possess). That’s modern urban living for you, though – a juxtaposition of services offering fatness and fitness. One wonders if it might not, perhaps, be just as well to cut to the chase and have the exercise machines report effort expended as slices of pizza and cans of beer.
Still, today at least, I have to say that I wasn’t particularly tempted to follow my workout with a beer-and-pizza chaser. I was going straight home for another kind of fast food entirely.
Raspberry Scones
Now here’s the kind of fast food I prefer. Scones that take less than ten minutes to prepare and not much more than that to bake.
If you’re after the recipe, you’ll find it here, because – except for the addition of some raspberries to the dough – it’s one that I’ve covered before in these pages. However, as Jenni noted the other day when she re-blogged her tasty goat’s cheese crostini, some things bear both re-eating and repeating.
In Charlotte, there is a Ben&Jerry’s ice cream shop right across the street from the funeral home.
I was going to go make some dessert risotto, but now I’m thinking that scones might be in order.
Good luck with the whole getting-fit-resolution-thing! :)
Sounds great much better for you than pizza
Jenni: I guess, for the citizens of Charlotte, that would account neatly for those 2 certainties in life – death and ice cream! As for the fitness thing, we shall see how that goes (maybe I should just take your advice and affirm that I am fit :D)
Lucy: not that I always say no to pizza, you understand, but I think you could be right on that one
I love the idea of raspberries in the scones, they look and sound scrumptious!
The raspberries are a lovely addition Natasha. I had some frozen, so I just thawed them out and added when mixing the dough. Plenty of other fruits you could add too, of course. Right now, I fancy blueberries… :)
How wrong is that to have fast food spots so close to those trying to sweat it out? ha Admittedly, it is difficult to get back into the swing of things! Good thing you found a way to have a scone.
The view from our gym is of the mall and window displays of impossibly teeny-sized clothing. Inside, motivation is in the form of expletive-laden American rap songs blaring through the sound system, telling me to take my “m–f–kin’ shirt off” (as in many instances, a cuss word in one culture is just a word in another). I’d be a total wreck (flabby wreck at that) if they opened a donut stall in the lounge area…8-)
But I do prefer the carrot-on-a-stick workout encouragement, as long as the carrot is replaced by one (or a dozen) of your raspberry scones! 8-D
Duo Dishes: it’s a great excuse to have a scone and lots of ’em :D
Tangled Noodle: I agree that there’s nothing wrong with effort-and-reward systems but we (hopefully) don’t need to career between complete extremes of either! A few raspberry scones after a workout will do me nicely, along with remembering to walk past (rather than into) the bakery that’s on the way home, where jam doughnuts and cream eclairs abound :)
The gyms around here seem to be the same. In college I taught at a gym that had a local soda shop next to it. I still drank soda in those days so after teaching I’d undo it all with a marshmallow sprite. Yes, sprite with a squirt of marshmallow cream. Sounds crazy, but addicting.
I adore scones and these look delicious. I’ll be overdosing on what I consider the “real thing” in Ireland in August. I’ll drop you an email soon! I hope we can meet up!
Marshmallow sprite? Oddly enough, I think I get that Lori! Excited to hear you’re coming to Ireland in August – really hope we get to meet up and perhaps share a scone or several :)
MMMMMM,..lovely & well risen raspberry scones! What a treat!
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Glad you like them Sophie :) How exciting about your blog – I’ll be over to check out the new look right away!
It’s so interesting to learn that you wrote this post. When passing by a gym yesterday, I thought ‘How can these people in the gym ignore the chicken burger restaurant just opposite them?’ There are screens placed in front of them on equipments, which might help them not see the burgers and people eating them.
These scones sound like a great treat! Noone can ressit these! I love the raspberry addition.
Happy new year, too!
Hey Zerrin, Happy New Year to you! Seems like it’s more than common for gyms and fast food joint to be side by side, no matter where you go…
Hell, yes. I’ll take those raspberry scones over a Big Mac any day! Actually, can I have some McNuggets, and then those scones for dessert, with a McD soft-serve cone? I just cannot resist them, hee hee.
Sophia, you, my dear, can have whatever you like :D
Haha! I am still working on a “one pack”. Any abs are better than none, eh?
So true Sarah! I’d be quite happy with a one pack myself :D