Vegan Chocolate Chip Jack O' Lanterns

Halloween weekend is here!! The weather is beautiful and the leaves are crunchy. This is one of my favorite holidays and I always like to do something festive to celebrate. I had mentioned that Tom and I were baking vegan chocolate chip cookie cakes the other day, so I wanted to share them with you!

First of all, we used a recipe for "Chocolate Chip Bars" from the book How It All Vegan! by Tanya Barnard and Sarah Kramer. I always get nervous using recipes from books when I'm making vegan food. I'm afraid, especially when baking, that the cookies, cakes, brownies, etc. will come out dry or flavorless. But this recipe worked out pretty well. The only modification we made was to split up the batter, so instead of using a 9"x13" pan, we used two 8" round pans. Also....we opted for the use of Soy Milk over water. And I threw in about another half cup of chocolate chips!! Once our cakes were out of the oven and cooled, we got together some icing, dyed it orange, green, and black (or as close as we could get), and painted our big vegan cookies like carved halloween pumpkins!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Can you guess who decorated which? Haha!

They taste yummy and I can't seem to stop myself from digging in each and every time I find myself in the kitchen! On top of that, my mom sent Tom and I a cute little care package, festive with orange pumpkin and black cat confetti, and mini stuffed scarecrows, for Halloween. I've been digging in, indulging my sugar addiction, with gelatin free candy-corn and all sorts of snacks from a place called Apple Hills back in upstate NY. It's so nice to have a little taste of home this time of year!!

It's been hard getting into the spirit of the season, having just moved and living in a much warmer climate. But these little touches and warm thoughts have definitely helped to put my time and place into perspective. And I am so incredibly thankful for that!! I don't think Tom and I are putting together halloween costumes together this time around, but we've been brainstorming for next year!! It's gonna be gooooood! :)

Time to go enjoy the rest of this beautiful fall day!

Happy "Mischief Night" everyone!!

loving fall on this 28th day.

Today marks the last day of a 28 day program I've been doing with my fellow soul coach family. I've really enjoyed reading our daily positive affirmations, realizing that IT REALLY IS HAPPENING, and working through these days with my soul group. It saddens me a bit to think that we won't all be on the same page anymore, in a literal sense, once we're finished! BUT....I know really, that this is just the beginning for all of us!! YES!! Tomorrow begins our soul's vision quest. I am super excited for this sacred process! And, I can't wait to share all that I have learned with all of my future soul coaching clients!! :)

Today my affirmation was, "I give love deeply and fully. I receive love deeply and fully. My essence is love." Such a beautiful way to sum things up! I am love. You are love. That's all that really is. Thank you universe for this awareness!!! I love each and every one of you.

And on this beautiful day of LOVE, the air in Austin decided to cool down a little bit, meaning it was absolutely GORGEOUS outside. :) Blue skies and warm winds causing leaves to scurry about makes me so happy!! It almost felt like a "cool" summer's day in September in upstate NY. And it was enough to put me in the mood to collect some festive fall pumpkins with Tom this afternoon!! :)

Now, Tom and I are just listening to some Jack White, while we wait for our chocolate chip cakes to cool off. We made them in round pans so we could decorate them like PUMPKINS!!! It's about time I go check on them. HAPPY FALL with LOVE everyone!!!! xoxoxoxo.