Bites of My Life

A day late and a dollar short. Happy halloween and happy bites on a Tuesday!

-Halloween Candy Compost Cookie, the best way to swipe clean all the bowls of Halloween candy laying around. 
-Apparently biscuits are now a must when dining with Malory. Also seen here. Anyway, The Press opened in the Plaza District last week. Southwest comfort food and Fleetwood Mac on repeat #sold.
-Photoshoot for new brunch cocktails. Work is hard. 
-Lindsay's Healing Bowls were meal prepped for last week. They didn't quite heal me because of the nasty cold I caught last week, but still a huge fan. 
-Current snack obsession. Rice cake, almond butter, drizzle of maple syrup and sprinkle of Maldon salt. 
-Pumpkin bread, cause #NationalPumpkinDay. 
-Two Kardashians and two cats walked into a party...
-Have you heard about the Google Home Mini Donut Shop? It popped up in OKC this weekend and I walked away a winner! OK, google. 
-Best friends, in the living room, with the spoon. AKA Saturday involving a 2 rounds of Clue and 2 bowls of chili.

Annie

Halloween Candy Compost Cookie

Whether you are reading this recipe pre-Halloween or post-Halloween, I'm sure you are drowning in some kind of fun size candy mayhem. I used all my will power to keep my house clean of candy during the month of October, but then I broke down and rushed to the store for a bag of Halloween candy after deciding on making these cookies. 

I came up with the idea for these cookies after polling you all on insta last week. My baking itch was scratching and needing to be healed. I polled ginger cookies vs. some kind of compost cookie situation. Compost cookies won in a landslide, so here we are (I made ginger cookies too, because why not, but they were ugly and don't deserve to be posted).

Compost cookies are what they sound like. Basically a dump of every ingredient you can get your hands on. This time, Halloween candy being the spotlight. You want to use chocolate based candies for this. Although after the fact I thought that a few candy corn would have been cute added to the mix. But no one really likes candy corn so sorry bout ya. 

A mix of Milky Way (OG and Midnight), 3 Musketeers, and Twix got chopped up and added in. Along with pretzels, chopped pecans, butterscotch chips (my fave) and coffee grounds. *Pro tip, make sure and reserve a few of each ingredient to dot the tops of the balls of dough with. This way you can see them on top of the cookie after they bake instead of hiding. As seen below: broken pieces of candy bars and pretzels atop dough balls. A sprinkle of Maldon salt on top is also necessary, as always. 

Halloween Candy Compost Cookie
yields 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 eggs
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butterscotch chips
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
1/2 cup pretzels
1-2 Tbsp. coffee grounds (I went the full 2 b/c i'm all about the coffee flavor)
1 cup + 1/2 cup halloween candy, chopped ( i used a mix of Milk Way, Twix and 3 Musketeers)
Maldon Salt

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. 

In an electric mixer, cream your sugars and butter on medium for 2 minutes until light and fluffy.  Scrape the sides then add the eggs and vanilla and mix to combine.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the flour mixture into the electric mixer and mix on low until the dough has come together. Stir in 1 cup of the candy, the coffee grounds, butterscotch chips, pecans and pretzels. 

Roll 2 tablespoon size balls. Place on a cookie sheet about 2 inches apart (8 balls per sheet). Now take the reserved 1/2 cup of candy and dot the top of each ball of dough with a chopped piece of candy and a sprinkle of Maldon Salt. This ensures for a pretty cookie with a peek of what's inside! *Important step* Freeze the balls of dough for about 5 minutes prior to baking. This will help your cookie from spreading out too thin. 

Bake for 12 minutes then allow to cool. 

Halloween candy is already wonderful as is, but why not bake it inside butter and sugar to make it even better???

Happy Halloween!

Annie

Hop Till You Drop

If you know me at all or have followed me on social media for 5 seconds you have probably heard or seen me mention StudioHop. 

Quick facts about StudioHop... StudioHop is a multi-studio membership where you get access to some of the best fitness studios around the city all at one monthly price. The membership is $135 a month, but if you use my promo code AnnieHop20 you get $20 off your first month! $115 a month is a steal for everything you get access to. 

StudioHop originated in Dallas, but is now in Fort Worth, Austin, Tulsa, New Orleans and yours truly OKC! OKC studios that participate in SH include Union Performance, Beyond Studios, Four Graces Pilates, Soul Yoga, This Land Yoga, Yoga at Tiffany's, Body Mind Yoga, Hidden Dragon Yoga, The Yoga Box, Yoga Bliss, Cycle 3 Sixty, Moxieride, Higher Ground Runner and Urban Row. Easily reserve your class through the SH app or online. 

Now why I love StudioHop... I've been doing StudioHop since February, and can't imagine working out with out. I'm a studio junkie. In a studio setting I find motivation having an instructor pushing me as well as getting to work alongside new or familiar faces who have the same goals. As compared to the intimidating solo act of maneuvering a gym.  

I'm also slightly ADD, so the ability to hop from one studio to the next, one workout to the next, day after day is ideal for me. Yoga one day, bootcamp the next, followed by pilates mid-week. Not only does this satisfying my spazziness, it's also great for your body. Studies have shown how changing up your workout creates results. You never want your body to get stagnant. Keep it working and challenged by changing up it's routine. 

My StudioHop favorites include Union Performance, (hi friends ^^), Beyond Studios (remember when #teamtakeabite took over?), Soul Yoga, Yoga at Tiffany's, The Yoga Box and Four Graces Pilates. StudioHop just released their survey for the "Best of 2017" awards. You bet I'm filling this out highlighting all my favorite classes and instructors! If you're a hopper, make sure to nominate your faves too! Chelsea's lunch class at Union Performance, any class Dallas teaches at Four Graces, the Reform & Run format class at Beyond, Stacy and Janelle's classes at Soul Yoga, the list goes on for all my favorites!

Because of StudioHop I am able to continue my practice of yoga, challenge my body at bootcamp and discover my love of pilates. I had never taken pilates until StudioHop and I'm not sure what took so long. Because of the access and luxury of being able to try so many different studios and workouts I was able to find this new workout (to me) and fall in love with it. 

A few things to note about StudioHop...the studios included are not dog friendly, despite Gabe's impressive downward dog ;) You are limited to 5 classes per studio per month. Another thing to mention, if you cancel a class within 12 hours of it's scheduled time you will be charged a $12 late cancel fee. If you don't show up it's $15. My tip** don't sign up until a few hours before a class to make sure you will be making it. In OKC we have the luxury of classes typically not booking up fully so you can afford to sign up closer to time. 

If you have any questions about StudioHop, please ask! I'm happy to share more about it and my experience. If there is class on SH you want to try, call/text/email/DM me and let's try it together! And last but not least don't forget to use my code AnnieHop20 for $20 off your first month!

p.s. shoutout to Farm Fresh Designs for my adorable Kale Workout tank! And to KGC Photography for all the pics. 

Annie

Bites of My Life

Last week was really nice. Days were productive, but not overly busy, despite missing three days of work the previous week. I was able to enjoy the amazing fall weather we have been graced with and even better got to enjoy some much needed fall baking. Need as in needed for my sanity. I get off my tracks a bit if I go too long without baking. 

-I was in post-wedding depression the better half of last week so I opted to drink my morning smoothie out of the commemorative "Elmgreen" bar glass that was handed out at as a favor from Claire's wedding!
-Brought back this Fall Panzanella Salad with Cornbread Croutons from last year to have for lunches last week!
-Perfected the best baked salmon. Perfectly seared then baked to perfection!
-Stopped by my parents to pick up a few things on Tuesday and found this stew on the stove. I quickly invited myself for dinner. Mom used this recipe, but subbed quinoa for rice. 
-All the best recipes hide in this book. I love when I get to use it! I gathered all of our family favorite recipes and compiled them into a cookbook to gift each family member last year for Christmas. 
-See all these things... get ready for the end result, coming in recipe form later this week!
-Chili is my favorite food. Hence my love for the event mentioned next. Pictured here is a sampling I had of duck chili with creme fraiche and green onion topping. But nothing beats my momma's chili. 
-A local marketing company puts on a Chili Cook-Off downtown every October. I've attended as a patron the past 3 years, but was so excited to help represent The Jones Assembly as a contender this year!
-I love rice cakes, anyone else? They kind of taste like Styrofoam but are also kind of delicious. Smothered in almond butter and paired with turmeric scrambled eggs leads to a delicious weekend breakfast. 
-Trader Joe's Multi-Grain O's on top or bottom of my smoothies all last week. It is that extra little umph my smoothies were needing and satisfies the "crunch" amongst all the sips!
-After spending Friday night in Tulsa for Octoberfest, I had the most relaxing Saturday. AKA laid on the couch all day (which I never do so it felt amazing). Got up once to go to the store after Lindsay and I settled on making this for dinner. Having the leftovers for dinner tonight and I'm eager to get home to heat them up because it was SO GOOD!
-Did a step-by-step video on my instagram story yesterday on how I store my fresh ginger that I use in my daily smoothies. Not that anyone should care, but hope some of you saw and it found it helpful! If you have questions on how I do this, shoot me a message!

Annie

What I'm Listening To...

If you've come within about 10 feet of me in the past two weeks you have probably heard me or seen me embarrassingly jamming out to Bakermat's "Baby." My obsession spurred from the current Old Navy commercial that is on TV right now. It only got worse when I took Kathleen's Barre3 class a couple weeks ago and the song was on her playlist. Cue internal dance break mid b3 combo work.

Bakermat's version is based off Thelma Houston's "Don't Leave Me This Way." Which the DJ just so happened to play at Claire's wedding this past weekend. Cue dance break round 2. Only this time it was not internal. It was a full on push the guests to the side/form a circle around Annie/watch me embarrassingly think I'm good at dancing and singing kind of dance break. I pray there was no picture proof captured by the photographer. I should really keep my jam outs to by myself in my car...

Annie