From This to That

Last week’s cold temperatures brought mumblings of winter storms. The seven degree wind chill and falling snowflakes did not come until this morning. I was quite surprised to find DC a winter wonderland as I headed to spin class before work.

This:

Salted sidewalks in  preparation

Salted sidewalks in preparation

BUNDLED

BUNDLED

That:

Fresh snow

Fresh snow

Copenhagen style

Copenhagen style

 

I’ve brought back my morning juice. As of recent, I have been making a concerted effort to either leave time for prep, juicing, cleaning, and packing in the mornings or to make the concoction the night before. My new project team is all a bunch of health nut guys funnily enough, so they love my juices of the day. I tend to stick to a variance of kale, celery, carrot, parsley, lemon, apple or orange. But yesterday, (dun dun dun) I added a huge beet.  Don’t get me wrong, I love beets but the beet flavor was a little too predominant for my morning imbibing, though the color was nice.

This:

WSJ musings

WSJ musings

That:

BEEETiful

BEEETiful

From student to seat of the teacher, all in blue. Wonderful moment
This:
Class time

Class time

That:

Post-teaching....peer reviews

Post-teaching...Peer reviews
Pardon the tears

 

Brace yourselves. Grocery stores are no longer selling canned pumpkin. This anguish is not to be taken lightly. Luckily enough, I had a spare can from my protein pancake addiction, and I got to baking for my Teacher Training graduation. Every celebration needs Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies right? Here’s my PRIZED recipe–you’ll make a lot of friends with this one, I promise

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies (Recipe source Food Network)

Ingredients

  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1 cup light brown sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 2 cups (12-ounce bag) milk chocolate chips, not semisweet
  • Nonstick cooking spray or parchment paper

Directions

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray cookie sheets with nonstick spray or line them with parchment paper. Using a mixer, beat the butter until smooth. Beat in the white and brown sugars, a little at a time, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs 1 at a time, then mix in the vanilla and pumpkin puree. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Slowly beat the flour mixture into the batter in thirds. Stir in the chips. Scoop the cookie dough by heaping tablespoons onto the prepared cookie sheets and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the cookies are browned around the edges. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let them rest for 2 minutes. Take the cookies off with a spatula and cool them on wire racks.

This:

IMG_2194

Oh, yes

Oh, yes

That:
IMG_2196

Pumpkin fest Pumpkin fest

 

A perfect complement to yoga certificates, food, and meditative states–the construction of our vision boards. For those of you who are reading this puzzled, it’s a photo collage to inspire, drive, and remind you of your goals.

This:

DSC03747

We like magazines

We like magazines

That:

Finished.

Finished.

Tell me a this to that?

20 thoughts on “From This to That

  1. I’ve never in my life eaten a beet. They scare me! Need to fight that fear eventually. And pumpkin chocolate chip cookies are the best! I support TJ’s whole seasonal approach to selling food, but I do wish pumpkin stuck around a bit longer.

  2. It is my dream to work with fellow health nuts! I can see how the taste of a beet would be overpowering in the morning, but they sure are a sweet vegetable! 🙂

    A couple of years ago, I first heard about vision boards. What a great project!

      • My one friend tells me I eat rabbit food! I just tell him to shut it! One day when he wants to eat healthy, he’ll be begging me for advice and he’s not going to get it! Only kidding. I would love it if he would though!

        Your vision board looks great, Grace!

  3. I’m so jealous of your standing blender – I so want one! I also love that you’re reading the Wall Street Journal. Reading the newspaper in the morning is one of my favorite things to do at home. Again, I love that you’re a yoga instructor – a dream of mine!

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