Pumpkin Cornbread

I slept in quite late this morning. I think the snow on the ground and 12° weather contributed to the extra half hour in bed. The bad news: the late rising meant no yoga or working out before heading into the office. The good news: I still had time for a delicious bowl of combination oats with raisins instead of banana slices and a whopping spoonful of better n pb. Funny how there’s always time for food!?!

The other good news: when our CEO stopped by the office and saw that only a few of us had made it in she decided that we could work from home if we wanted. It took little convincing – I called my driver, Sir Isaac, and he scooped me right up.

I sipped on an Original Kombucha throughout the morning. Despite my love for the Synergy drinks I’d never worked up the courage to buy the original, 100% Komubucha with no fruit juice. Turns out, I had no reason to be so scared. The flavor wasn’t much different than the sweetened varieties and I really liked it!!

For lunch I made a boatload of a salad with romaine, shrooms, red onion, local herbed fu, chickpeas, green peppers, avocado, and maple balsamic sauce from ED&BV.

I paired the salad with some Amy’s Lower Sodium Lentil Soup for a filling and tasty little lunch.

Luckily the mail ran today because the postman had a package for me from Miss VeggieGirl. She sent me some “Edgies” from Brownie Points Inc.

I’m super pumped to have a bag full of brownie edges. We all know that the chewy edges of brownies are the best part. Kind of like the tops of muffins – not to be confused with muffin tops,which are not so nice.

I served up one of the Edgies to Isaac.

He kept saying wow… this is amazing. Then said, “What Coldstone does to ice cream is what they have done to brownies – I’ve never had so many flavors packed into a brownie.” Needless to say, these babies are going to be enjoyed very much. Thank you again Liz!

After finishing up with work for the day Isaac and I headed to the gym. Mental Note: 6PM on the Monday after a weekend snow storm is not the time to go to the gym. It was so packed we couldn’t find a parking spot. This meant there would be no equipment available and way too many sweaty people in one building. We quickly decided to turn our gym trip into a Target run. I ended up leaving with quite the combo- Jergen’s facial moisturizer, and Amy’s Indian Meal (they are only $3.19!!!) and a shower cap. I don’t wash my hair every time I shower and it’s been getting wet/frizzy so I’m hoping the cap will help. Call me what you will, but not only Grannies wear shower caps.

So I planned on doing a workout when we got home, but I was hungry, so instead I heated up a bowl of homemade potato soup for dinner.

This soup was made by the same vegetarian chef that created the fabulous Tofurkey we had on Thanksgiving. Everything he prepares is delicious so I get very excited when he shares his culinary creations with us. The soup wasn’t cream based, as you’d expect from a potato soup, yet it had a spicy broth base and was packed with a variety of veggies. I added small slivers of the herbed tofu I had on hand for a little extra protein and it ended up being one of the better potato soups I’ve had!

Along with the soup came a piece of leftover pumpkin cornbread that I made back in December. No worries, it wasn’t stale. Half the batch was stored in the freezer for later use.

Not going to lie, this is some of the best cornbread I’ve ever had. It was sad to see the last of it go. The soup and cornbread pairing ended up being the perfect dinner on a cold night.

Now I’m debating if I should squeeze in a little strength training, but I think I’ll get head to bed early and then workout in the AM when the gym is less of a mad house.

- Brittany

PS Am I the only one that can’t believe it’s already February? I feel as though Christmas was just yesterday. Now here comes the month of birthdays (for both Isaac/me) and love. Although it’s come on quite quickly – I won’t hide it, I’m excited. I love February and all that comes with it!!

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“Is it bad that I want to just stay home and drink a beer rather than going to the gym?” these were my words spoken to Isaac and his Dad around 6:30PM this evening. They were both drinking a beer and hanging out, it was cold outside, and all I wanted was to stay in as well. They started giving me high fives and were so excited about what I said (note to self- those must be magic words). In all the excitement I grabbed a Skinny Dip and plopped on the couch. Turns out they were actually waiting for me to go to the gym to bring in a couple surprises that were waiting in the car. I totally ruined the surprise, but it was cool because I didn’t have to wait until after the gym to find out that Isaac’s Dad had brought over our CHRISTMAS TREE and a DYSON VACUUM.

The funny part about all this is that the Dyson is Isaac’s Chanukah present! Merry Chrismukah to us!!

DysonVacuum

I couldn’t bear to decorate the Christmas tree when there were rugs to be vacuumed so I went straight to work vacuuming all the rugs (and couches) in the house. So it turns out I got a little workout in anyway, yes I count vacuuming as a workout.

I think I’m in love with the Dyson DC14 All-Floors Cyclone Upright Vacuum Cleaner.
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In other food related news, Dreena did it again folks. Did what you ask? Impressed me with her sweet (recipe) skills. I made the Sweet Potato Lentil Chili from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan on Sunday evening. The best part- I didn’t need to go out and buy a ton of ingredients, the directions were easy to follow, and it only had to cook for 30 minutes. Plus, it’s soo darn tasty.

I have been day dreaming about the Pumpkin Cornbread that Meghann recently made and Sunday was the perfect opportunity for me to whip up a batch. Since I was making chili I had to make cornbread, right?

I followed this recipe but decided to cut the brown sugar down to 1/2 cup instead of 2/3 because the recipe also calls for molasses. It was still sweet, as any good cornbread should be. (I was raised on Jiffy so I like my cornbread sweet!)

Isaac enjoyed this meal as well. We both had it for dinner on Sunday and for lunch yesterday and we still have a big container of left overs! I’ll probably have it again for lunch and then freeze the rest.

I also had some brown rice sushi recently…

It just so happened that Carytown Cupcakes was giving away mini chocolate peppermint and eggnog cupcakes when I was walking to a consignment shop on my lunch break.