Vegan Pumpkin cookies with Vegan cream cheese frosting

This is not the first time I have made these cookies, but this is the first time I have made this frosting and frosted these cookies. These cookies are nice and moist and rather tasty, but let me just say that this cream cheese frosting is incredible and really makes these cookies irresistible. I know this will become one of my go to cookies cause these are so amazing with this cream cheese frosting.

The cookie recipe is from The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes by Kris Holechek and the frosting recipe was veganized by me from a recipe I found at Cooks.com

Fitness Challenge - Day 21

Sunday
Tonight we all took a walk to the grocery store for a few items, but that and some weeding is all the exercise I got today.

Fitness Challenge - Day 20

Saturday

After getting home from California Adventure at about 11:30 last night (we walked the half mile to and from the park from the parking structure) I am pretty much just chilling out. We did go to Trader Joe's to pick up some of the basics for Thanksgiving dinner, wanted to make sure we could get our fresh Kosher turkey. I know I will have to make another run for all the little things later like random baking supplies for the chocolate pecan pie I making this year (made it one Thanksgiving previously and it was a hit).

Fitness Challenge - Day 18 &19

Thursday: I got in a pretty god workout with the Kinect and Your Shape (163 calories burned). I played a few of the gym games, did 2 Zen sessions, 2 cardio sessions (including learning the new moves first) and a session of toning. I also did a fair bit of yard work, I finished weeding the front yard (inside the fence), reseeded the grass areas in the front and backyard again (we have a storm coming this weekend so it seemed like a good time to reseed before we get rain) and then I also transplanted 3 of the 4 plants needing to be transplanted.

Friday: Today we are taking the little man to California Adventure to see the World of Color.

Fitness Challenge - Day 16 & 17

Tuesday, what a day for me. I hung 2 pictures did some weeding in both the front and backyards and even laid out a bag of mulch. I also played Kinectimals with my little man. I also did some grocery shopping and had a nice breakfast with a wonderful friend. As for the after effects of my productive day, I am exhausted. After dropping the men off this morning I came home and laid down in the bed and pulled out my computer. I am going to try to rest a little. I always forget how much the time change screws me up and I have just been trying to do too much stuff after being sick, spraining my ankle and having the time change on me. It's time for a much needed day off.

That didn't work out all that well, I did go out and do some weeding again. What can I say I have a hard time sitting still and taking it easy.

Fitness Challenge - Day 11 through 15

Day 3 of my antibiotics. I am feeling much better, but I still have this horrible cough that made it nearly impossible to sleep last night. That being said I did sweep up a little of the debris in the driveway this morning (we have been having some serious winds) and put the fallen pine needles and leaves where I had finished weeding earlier this week (will help prevent new weeds from growing in that area). I also got in a short workout with my Kinect and Your Shape and then played a little bit with the Kinect Adventures.

Friday I got in a short workout with my Kinect before I sprained my ankle.  Saturday I took it easy, one of the most difficult things for me to do. Sunday we took the little man to Travel Town to see the trains and then we did some yard work (we cut back the basil and sorrel plants and uprooted them and hubby also cut down one of the tomato plants and the eggplant). Let me just tell you that sorrel and African Blue basil will both take over your planting area, learn from my mistake where they nearly strangled all my other herbs (since planted in May) and keep these 2 in pots.

Monday, day 15
Due to my sprained ankle, which is actually healing quite nicely I felt it best to skip my usual personal training session and just stick with some of the gym games which require less movement on my bottom half (at least allowing me to not move my ankle too much). Hopefully I can return to my personal training and Zen workouts soon.
Virtual smash = 1032 (new high score)
Loop a hoop = 288 (new high score)
Stack em up =  414
Calories burned today = 110
Total calories burned = 605 (since I began playing Your Shape)

Part of my goal for this month was to blog everyday about my progress so as far as that goal has gone I have failed this last several days, but I chose to let it go as part of my needing to take it easy. I may bot quite be reaching my complete goals for this month, but I think the progress is definitely beginning to show already. Everything is a little less jiggly already, something I have definitely wanted to work on so that come our family cruise in January I can be more confident and comfortable in my swim suit.

Fitness Challenge - Day 10

Wednesday of my second week and I am still sick, well getting better but still sick.

I did stop and pick up some more grass seed to lay out on the front and back yards as we are trying to fill in some dead patches as well as grow all new grass in some areas that were free of grass (this is round 2 of seeding these areas). We are hoping to have the grass looking relatively grown in before Thanksgiving. We did wait till our rainy season started to seed the yard not only because of the extra moisture but also due to the cooler temperatures. Our yard was torn up at the end of spring so there wasn't really an appropriate time to seed the yard till fall, of course we could have laid sod but we decided not to in the end due to the cost and amounts of watering required for it to get itself established.

In addition to reseeding the yard I also found some time to play with my Kinect and the Your Shape game. I am so addicted to this thing, it is so much fun. I really like the gym games cause I can try to outscore myself and the games are only 1 - 2 minutes long each. They are perfect for me while I am trying to get over being sick.

Fitness Challenge - Day 9

Today we are all going to the doctor, finally. It has been over 2 weeks for me, slightly shorter for my son and hubby has been sick since Friday night/Saturday morning. We finally decided that this is not going to go away on its own anytime soon.

Anyhow, I am trying my hardest to really rest up today so I am actually hoping not to give in to the temptation of my Xbox 360 and Kinect. I really don't know how well I will do with this goal as the temptation is far greater for me to play with my new toy than it would be for me to eat cake or ice cream or something along those lines.

The doctor gave me an antibiotic and some codeine cough syrup and took a nasal swab (checking for pertussis "whooping cough"). My husband gets to share my cough syrup and my son gets to continue as he has been. That being said if my nasal swab comes back positive then we all need to start treatment. Can we say that means I need to take it easy for a few days. Frustrating cause I just want to play with my Kinect.

Fitness Challenge - Day 8

My second week of my personal fitness challenge began this morning. I am starting to feel better, hopefully this time it sticks. I did a little yard work today, mostly weeding. I also did some cleaning in the kitchen, including the floors. While the little man was napping I spent a little time with my new toy, the Kinect and my game Your Shape Fitness Evolved. Let me just say that game gives you a pretty good workout, I did an easy workout since I am still getting over this bug, I can certainly feel it in my legs and elsewhere.

I did have to move my Kinect to be closer to eye level as it was having a few minor issues with the detection while doing lunges and things of that nature, it wasn't quite picking up me up as I was doing them and the game suggested moving the Kinect to be closer to eye level. Hopefully moving the Kinect will do the trick and hopefully I will have some time to recalibrate the Kinect tonight after the little man goes to bed.

Kinect is once again calibrated. I played a few of the games in Your Shape, but I didn't retake my fitness test or retry the workout I did earlier today (I actually had a section give me 0% earlier today making me wonder if moving the Kinect sensor closer to eye height would help the situation as the game recommends the sensor being placed at eye level).

Fitness Challenge - Day 7

I am already exhausted. We took a trip to the local farmer's market and did a little shopping downtown and went out for lunch. The pho and vegetable egg rolls we had for lunch really hit the spot and had me feeling a little better but all the walking around our little downtown wore me out, sadly it's only a few block of walking and we really only did one lap around the area. I am certainly hoping to be feeling like myself again soon.

My first week of the fitness challenge is a bit of a toss up for me. On one hand I did get in a pretty good traditional workout 2 of the days and then I got in several other "workouts" that certainly made up the amount of physical activity I was aiming to get in, so while I technically achieved my goal for the week I still felt a little disappointed in myself. I suppose that I am probably being too hard on myself as I am really quite sick and need to get better before I can really get in some serious workouts otherwise I will just make myself worse.

After we put the little man down for bed we spent a little time playing with our new Kinect again. We got a nice little workout in playing some games in Your Shape. 

Fitness Challenge - Day 6

We are all sick today so other than cleaning my kitchen and laundry room and starting on the little man's bathroom I haven't done much but stay in bed. Hopefully we are all better soon.

Fitness Challenge - Day 5

Today I washed the car and then we went to California Adventures and Disneyland and walked part of Downtown Disney and we walked back to the parking structure. I'm gonna say that I definitely got enough activity in cause my feet are definitely telling me I walked enough.

Tomorrow I am planning to get in at least a little more time on the Kinect.

Fitness Challenge - Day 4

I really did take a day off today. I didn't do any yard work or any major house cleaning. Two nights of having an early morning visitor when I am still getting over being sick myself just proved to be too much for me. That being said my Xbox 360 and Kinect showed up so I am sure there will be some playing with that tonight, I guess that will still be some physical activity. I think it's actually becoming hard to not fit some kind of physical activity into my day without even trying too hard. I guess the bigger challenge for me is getting a good workout in, but I suppose I should be happy that I get a good amount of activity into my days regardless.

So as it is now bedtime I got some time in on the new Xbox and Kinect. Let me just say I broke a pretty good sweat considering I was trying my best to take it easy, still getting over this virus or whatever it is.

Fitness Challenge - Day 3

So today I am taking a day off so to say since I was so under the weather yesterday afternoon. I did however do some cleaning around the house. I picked up around the house and vacuumed a couple of rooms (moved the sofa and stuff in the living room to get under everything). I guess you could say I still probably got my 30 minutes in today even though I intended to take the day off.

I also got notification today that my Xbox 360 Kinect bundle and game shipped so soon I should be able to start working out with the Kinect too, exciting. Happy holidays to me.

Fitness Challenge - Day 2

This morning we walked out as a family to our polling place and took the long way home (someone wanted to make an extra stop on the way home). All in all we probably walked close to a mile on our voting expedition.

I also pulled out the Wii Fit again and did the same workout as yesterday on it, I'm still not feeling too good so I wanted to take it easy once again. I did 30 minutes of yoga, 10 minutes of hula hoops and 9 minutes of step.

Sadly just as I thought I was starting to get over this illness I am slipping back a few steps. I do hope this passes soon so I can really kick up the fitness challenge a notch, but I suppose it is also a good lesson to learn how to hold back when you aren't feeling well.

Fitness Challenge - Day 1

I had to give some extra thought to this challenge as it got nearer due to viral bronchitis. Luckily I am getting over it and just have a cough that won't go away, but of course it is still a good idea to be careful after any illness.

To help track my progress for the month: My weight according to my bathroom scale was 161, my weight according to the Wii Fit was about 160.7 and my Wii Fit age was 32.
 I will report back periodically this month on how I am doing.

This morning I did a little yard work (sweeping up pine needles, uprooting a few plants that died and a little bit of weeding). Later I pulled out my Wii Fit and did half an hour of yoga, 10 minutes of hula hoops and 9 minutes of step. For the record I am really terrible at the hula hoops, pretty good at yoga and adequate at step.