Pumpkin spiced chocolate chip cookies, tis the season! | in my Red Kitchen #cookies #chocolate #pumpkin #cookie #holidays

Pumpkin spiced chocolate chip cookies

Pumpkin spiced chocolate chip cookies, tis the season! | in my Red Kitchen #cookies #chocolate #pumpkin #cookie #holidays

– Click here for this recipe in Dutch -> Speculaas chocolate chip koekjes

Not that long ago I received a message from a good friend who is a photographer and studio manager for a well-known brand. Did I want to bake cookies…

Bake cookies? Of course! She needed cookies for a photo shoot with a little girl. Of course she could go to the store to buy cookies but she thought I might like it to bake the cookies. Well, you bet I will! 

Sweet potato and kale mash

Sweet Potato and Kale mash | © in my Red Kitchen

It’s hard to break from those bad holiday eating habits, isn’t it? You probably have some leftover cookies at home, or delicious marshmallows to go with your hot chocolate.

I know all about it. Even though I kept on hiking and juicing in between the holidays I gained some weight again. Not fun!

So to force myself to break with my new habit of eating some chocolate after dinner or go out for hamburgers I did a juice cleanse this week. This really forces me to eat healthy the days up to the cleanse.

Creamy sunchoke soup

Sunchoke-soup-inmyredkitchen

Two weeks (and a little bit) until Christmas! Waaaah, time flies! This will be my first Christmas in LA and -even though it’s cold lately- the weather will never be as bad as in the Netherlands. Christmas and sun, that sounds like the perfect combination to me 😉

This week I’m going to give you a full Christmas menu, first course, main course and dessert.

A while ago I promised myself to start cooking with ingredients I’ve never cooked before, like parsnip,

Bacon Barley Soup with Kale

Bacon Barley Soup 3

 

A few weeks ago it was so cold in LA, I had to wear shoes -instead of sandals or flipflops- for the first time since living here. I also bought a few sweaters and I was looking for a coat.

P was laughing at me, “do you know where it’s cold? In Amsterdam!”
I also got a few texts from friends who laughed when I complained about the cold, “so what’s cold, 20°C?” they were asking. (fyi: 20°C is 68°F)
Well ok. I had to agree with them.