Happy Halloweenie Everyone! Isn’t it nice to have one day a year where you can just stuff your face with bite-sized treats and not feel bad?! And this holiday gets  even better as an adult!!! You can eat, and buy, as many different types of candy and chocolate that your little heart desires and your parents can’t tell you NO! 

I loved celebrating Halloween when I was young! Who doesn’t?! I miss those days with a passion. There’s no more of my Ma putting the Halloween candy above the refrig where I can’t reach it, until she finds it in March and it’s melted and/or stale. Gone are the days of the funny costumes she would piece together for me like when I was “The Bunch of Grapes Guy” from the Fruit of the Loom Gang. And sadly, long gone are the days of trick-or-treating up and down Ann Street in Cumberland, RI, where my Gram lived, and where one house would hand everyone a $5 bill and a pack of Big Red…something I definitely looked forward to each year! 

So now I live out my Halloweenie fantasies through Corduroy and Sugar.. of course! Last year Sugar was a bride and Cord was a groom, costumes left over for the save-the-date notes I send out for our wedding two years ago. Back then, Irie, our German Shepard mix, was the bride and Sug the groom.. check it out! I have this picture blown-up and framed (of course) right by our bed so I can look at my baby up in doggie heaven every night before I fall asleep! 

This year, I actually went shopping for dog costumes and don’t you know the pickings are slim if you have dogs that are 40 and 80 pounds, alike. I needed a XL and an XXL so I made due with what they had and Sugar and Cord seemed happy with my decision although they would’t (and I guess couldn’t) tell me otherwise!

Sugar was most pleased to be dressed as Hello Kitty (hence her face) while Corduroy is always up for playing dress up… today he’s Yoda! 

   

 

You’ll have to check back here tomorrow to see my costume… I’ve got classes to teach and can’t change until later, so no sneak peak! And no, I’m not going as the Yummy Yogini… although she did create a healthy sugar cookie recipe for ya’ll today! 

I thought I’d bring these to my Ashtanga class this afternoon instead of candy that I’m sure they’ll all be giving out (and giving into) all night long! These are easy to make and there’s no butter and you won’t miss it, I promise. You can even substitute stevia for the sugar but since it’s Halloween, I didn’t skip and left in all the good stuff! 

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Pumpkin Spice Sugar Cookies- makes 25 cookies 

Ingredients: 

-1 and 1/2 cup whole wheat flour (you can sub almond flour too) 

-1/2 cup Libby’s pumpkin puree (not the pie filling) 

-1/2 cup brown sugar 

-1/2 cup granulated sugar 

-1 egg

-1/4 coconut oil, melted 

-1/4 tsp baking powder 

-1/4 tsp salt 

-1/4 tsp each of cinnamon, nutmeg and pumpkin pie spice 

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350. 

2. In your food processor, add all of the ingredients except for the pumpkin puree and coconut oil. Puree them together. 

3. In a pan, melt the coconut oil. 

4. Add the coconut oil and the pumpkin puree to the food processor with everything else and pulse again until the mixture thickens. 

5. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture on baking sheets lined with parchment paper to avoid burning. 

6. Bake for 15 minutes or until edges brown. 

7. Immediately after taking out, sprinkle some sugar on the top and place on wire racks to cool. 

8. Trick or treat? Here’s a healthy treat to enjoy while you watch me and my friends do some yoga tricks on pumpkins below…..        

  

 

 

 

Oh! And check out our carved pumpkins from last year… Andy has the best knife skills… in and out of the kitchen! I got creative with a star and moon eyes… he wasn’t impressed!