Weekend Yoga Workshop & Friend Time Brunch!

What a fun weekend I had! On Saturday, I taught a 4-hour "mini-retreat" yoga workshop. I really wanted the afternoon to feel special for my students -- like more than just a long class. So I promised I would bring snacks! Snacks make everything special, right? We had a nice long asana practice, a fun snack break, and then a long talk on yoga philosophy. It was a pretty great afternoon and I look forward to teaching more workshops like this again in the future! 

Fancy Yoga Snacks!

These are the special snacks I prepared for the workshoppers. I made two big pitchers of ice water with sliced cucumbers and watermelon cubes ... to makes it feel like fancy spa water. You pretty much can't have a summertime festivity around here without a giant bowl of strawberries, so I didn't want to rock the boat. Ha ha. Plus, fruit is always light and refreshing and rehydrating, which is perfect after a long class.

The two other treats are: Mango Energy Bites from The Minimalist Baker and One Bowl Jumbo Chocolate Chunk Cookies from the Oh She Glows blog. Of course I did the thing that you aren't supposed to do, and made two recipes that I hadn't ever tried before! ha ha!

The Mango Energy Bites are like little raw energy bars in a ball shape - they're super mango-y and also have dates and nuts and coconut and lime zest. The cookies were totally great! They're large and thin and chewy and imperceptibly gluten-free (love that). I loved them a lot and these will definitely be a new GF cookie go-to for me when I want or need to make something special and gluten-free. I made a double-batch of each so that everyone could have at least one cookie and one ball, but I ended up with lots of extras.

it was really hot that day, and the whole room smelled like those amazing chocolate chip cookies. ha ha. They were so aromatic! It was probably hard to concentrate on the yoga practice! 

I wanted both of my treats to be gluten-free, just so everyone in the workshop could feel included, and I also wanted to make one treat that was fruity and one that was chocolatey. Plus I wanted one treat a little on the healthy side, and one on the indulgent side -- you know, for balance! So these were great choices. Everything I brought was a huge hit - and I came home with just three mango balls at the end of the day! Those were some hungry and happy yogis!

sunday morning brunch with friends

If I were going to describe my most perfect day in the whole world, it would be pretty close to last Sunday. Two of my best besties came over on Sunday morning for a long-anticipated brunch party together -- it was just SO great. I made a super delicious crustless quiche (using Somer's Retirement Quiche recipe) - with broccoli, fresh tomatoes, onion, and a couple shredded up slices of cayenne Chao Cheese. Holy moly that's a great recipe. While that was in the oven, we also made some Shiitake Mushroom Bacon -- I love love love the 100% perfect recipe from Vegan Finger Foods. We all agreed that this biz was crazy delicious and bizarrely bacony. More so than any other vegan bacon I've tried or made.

pal time is the best time! 

For it to be a proper brunch-extraveganza, you gotta have sweeties and savories and proteins and fruits and all of that, so we weren't done yet. My pal Sophia made up a wonderful batch of gluten-free Lemon Berry Pancakes (using this waffle recipe from The Minimalist Baker) - I think she said she also added some coconut flour. We also decided to use half fresh blueberries and half fresh blackberries. Holeeee Moleee, these were so good. I had four of them. No regrets! We also had some of my homemade soy yogurt, some of Sophia's homemade plum preserves, and a super lovely and summery fresh fruit bowl from my friend Kendra.

I was pretty much this happy.

We all sat and ate and chatted for such a long and leisurely time, and it was just so fun and relaxing and perfectly Sunday-morning-ish! After we finished eating, we sat outside in the backyard and did the New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle together. On my own, the Sunday puzzle is a total pipe-dream, but with two super smart friends, we actually finished it 100% without looking up a single clue! We were very pleased with ourselves! More talking, more leisure-ing, more tea and coffee, more laughter and conversation... our friend date went all the way to the afternoon. And it was perfect and I loved it.