Halloween Preview & Browned Butter Chocolate Chippers

Happy Halloween!! And a big happy birthday to my Dad too! I adore Halloween. I love seeing all of the kids dressed up, handing out candy, and getting together with friends and family to celebrate. Kaylin loves the pumpkins. Her Aunt painted her two amazing pumpkins:

and we also put together a Minnie Pumpkin for her:

 

If you follow me on Instagram, you saw that we went to Fish or Treat at the Charleston Aquarium on Tuesday. We had so much fun. We went with our friends and their peanut:

 

  

 

 

Kaylin truly had a blast. I’m excited to take her trick or treating tonight. We will probably only make it to a couple houses.

We’re having our parents, Josh’s sister, and my Aunt & Uncle over tonight. For a dessert treat, I made Joy the Baker’s browned butter chocolate chip cookies! They came out great.

  

What are you up to tonight?

Pumpkin Spice Rice Krispie Treats

Hi Friends!!! Happy Friday!! Whoop whoop! I majorlllly overcommitted this week and am exhausted. The weekend is just what the doctor ordered!

I wanted to thank everyone who came out to visit me at Verde on Wednesday. Their birthday celebration was out of control awesome. The line was out the door the entire time I was there. Christina and I got a quick picture between our shifts:

After work & teaching on Thursday, I had a bundle of my neighbors and their kiddos over for pumpkin painting. We all shared a few treats. I made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, and pumpkin spice rice krispie treats. The krispie treats were totally delish.

 

 

 

Kaylin decided to paint her entire pumpkin purple (and some of the driveway as well).

 

So far today, I taught pump, Kay & I went grocery shopping, and we went to the park. It was in the mid 50s when we went to the park, so we bundled:

 

This afternoon, we’re headed out for a play date and then hopefully out to dinner with Josh somewhere quick.

If you’re local, tomorrow is the grand re-opening of the ESAC in Park West. I will be there teaching Pump & Step (830 and 930 AM). Come by! You can take classes for free!!!!

What are you doing this weekend??

Three Things on Tuesday

1. Ree Drummond’s new cookbook, A Year of Holidays, is amazing!

I want to make so many of the recipes including:

• Yogurt, Brown Sugar, and Berry Parfaits
• Turkey Spring Rolls
• Glorious Guacamole
• Chimichurri Shrimp
• Cinnamon Ice Cream (!!)

Not only do the recipes look yummy, the photographs are beautiful. Ree’s personality really shines through in the writing.

I made the Chipotle Chicken Chili to start. It is amazing. Josh, Kaylin & I all gobbled it down.

 

 

 

2. As I mentioned in my last post, I went to Fleet Feet to get fitted for a sports bra. Amy, one of the store owners and a fellow group fitness instructor, explained all of the amazing bras they have at Fleet Feet. She also did my fitting and suggested a few of the bras. I was sort of embarrassed to tell Amy that I had NO idea what size I am! Since having Kaylin and breast feeding her….the girls have definitely shifted sizes. BUT, not knowing your size or wearing the wrong size is super common. Here are some fun facts about bras courtesy of Fleet Feet:

• 80% of women wear the wrong bra size
• Women should be fit for a bra at least once a year
• The average life span of a sports bra is 6-12 months
• Not all bras are created equal
• A woman should be re-measured for a sports bra after major weight gain/loss or pregnancy

I ended up with the Fiona. Can’t wait to wear it while I teach Body Attack tonight.

 

 

 

3. Local readers! I will be at Verde tomorrow from 11:30-12:30 giving out coupons and t-shirts to help the restaurant celebrate their 2 year anniversary! I’ll be at the Mount Pleasant location- come visit!! 

Weekend (Pumpkin Chicken Meatballs)

Another weekend in the books! What did you do this weekend? On Friday, Kaylin and I had a play date with my friend Marissa and her son Nevin. Nevin is walking now, so he and Kay can really play it out. They ended their date with a hug:

 

Friday night, we hung in and relaxed! Josh was on travel all week, so it was nice to just lay low.

Saturday morning, I taught step and then we got some things done around the house. Kay hung out with Franky:

 

On Saturday night, Josh and I went out on a date!

 

Based on a recommendation from Christina, we went to a new Italian restaurant on Upper King in Charleston called Indaco. I apologize for the photo quality, but I hate being that person with the flash on ;). Josh and I decided to split three dishes. The fall salad, which contained romaine, apples, potatoes, golden beets, delicious cheese & a balsamic reduction:

 

This was a great “sweet” salad. It tasted like dessert in salad form. The addition of potatoes was yummy.

The second dish we tried was a cauliflower soup that came with walnuts and raisins. Josh and I both LOVE cauliflower soup. We were surprised when the waitress told us it was going to be cold. We both really liked the addition of the nuts and raisins, but could have done without the lemon oil. It overpowered the soup itself.

 

The winner of the meal was the Brussels sprouts pizza with honeycrisp apples. The crust was thin and light. The whole combination was just amazing.

 

Overall we LOVED our meal!

This morning, Kay and I ran 7 miles with my friend Trish and her little girl Lila. The rest of the day has been spent on laundry and cooking! I made these delicious pumpkin meatballs. I put the meatballs on top of pasta topped with a pumpkin marinara (which is just as simple as it sounds…a couple of spoonfuls of pumpkin puree cooked into marinara sauce): 

 

  

Deliciousness! Kay even asked for seconds on the meatballs.

Now, its football time! Tomorrow, I have to teach pump in the morning and then work. I’m also going to be running to Fleet Feet for a sports bra fitting. Fleet feet has an amazing event going on “Buy a Moving Comfort sports bra and help the girls in JROTC at Charleston County Schools. For each Moving Comfort bra purchased, one will be donated to a local JROTC student in need.” I definitely plan to purchase a bra so that another is donated!

My Third Half

Hello! Hope you’re having a wonderful weekend. Lots of good stuff going on over here! On Friday, we headed up to my parents house. We went to dinner and had some delicious seafood:

  

On Saturday morning, my Mom and I headed off to run the Georgetown bridge to bridge run. My Mom was running her first ever 5K(!!) and I was running my third half marathon. The course was TOUGH. For the half, we had to run over/back over three bridges (one at each river):

 

  

And yes, the last bridge is at the 12 mile marker….I was super happy to finish in 1 hour and 54 minutes! Just three minutes slower than my Charleston half marathon time (and that race course is basically flat). My Mom did AMAZING too and took first place in her age group!!!!

 

We grabbed coffee and food and then relieved my Dad/Josh who were watching Kaylin. The men set out to go fishing and we got in some park time and a golf cart ride. I love my pro compression socks.

      

I’m exhausted! What have you been up to this weekend?

Wonderful Weekend (Pumpkin Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies)

Hello! How are you? I’m doing just great. This weekend has been amazing. My Friday was spent running, walking with a friend, baking & hanging out at home. I made Dawn’s pumpkin butter cinnamon chip cookies. Instead of cinnamon chips, I used chocolate chips. I also only put the dough in the fridge for an hour vs. overnight. The cookies turned out delicious:

 

I dropped half of the cookies off at the hospital for one of my amazing friends who just had a beautiful baby girl. The other half were given to the instructors at our Body Pump/Step launches on Saturday. We also had a hover challenge. One of our members held her hover for 8.5 minutes! We had a super hero theme:

    

Step instructors:

  

and pump:

    

My costume was homemade. I have no artistic skills whatsoever, so this was the best I could do haha.

 

After the launch (and Kay’s nap), Josh and I took Kaylin to the pumpkin patch. She picked out an adorable pumpkin.

 

 

  

  

 

the winner!

 

After the patch, we headed to get flu shots and then went to dinner at Qdoba. Such a great day!

This morning, we went for a walk with Kaylin’s G-Pop and ran a few errands. What have you been up to?

 

Small Batch Vegan Pumpkin Peanut Butter Mini Muffins

Happy Tuesday! I hope your week is off to a good start. Our Monday was wonderful. I taught a couple step classes at the gym and got lots of time in with the peanut. When I stopped to get my coffee, I asked if they had any mini cups that they could fill with milk for Kaylin. It cracked me up to see her drinking what looked like a tiny coffee:

Today, work work and then teaching Body Attack.

I made my small batch vegan peanut butter banana muffins this past weekend. I decide to recreate them a bit to make a pumpkin peanut butter muffin:

Ingredients:

• 1/3 pumpkin puree
• 1 tablespoon unsweetened almond milk
• 1/4 c natural peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons ground flax
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/2 c AP flour
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 365 degrees F

Using a stand mixer (or in a large bowl), combine pumpkin, almond milk, peanut butter, flax and sugars. Add in remaining ingredients (yup, I only used one bowl). Mix until just combined.

Spray a mini muffin tin with non-stick spray. Use a cookie scoop (or rounded tablespoon) to place dough into tin. Dough should yield approximately 11-12 mini muffins. Bake for approximately 12 minutes.

The batter is thick:

The muffins are yummy and only slightly sweet!