Christmas dinner and thoughtful gifts

Hey all,

Hope you had an awesome, healthy Christmas surrounded by all the people you cherish in life. We ended up going to a good friend's house who decided to stick around the Kootenays. It was really nice and low-key with a lot of Christmas movie watching. Our friends cooked the traditional dinner and we brought some mashed yams and baked goodies. Good deal hey?

So, I made some traditional shortbread but using Earth Balance instead of butter. They were okay but I think I should have made them smaller in order to get the right consistency. The Snowballs were a recipe from the 12 Days of Christmas cookie recipes from Raw divas. Basically, they were dates, shredded coconut, a splash of orange juice, and vanilla. I really loved these and so did our friends. I also made some vegan chocolate chip cookies from a recipe on vegweb. Hubby ate way too many of these. So, that's a thumbs up I assume. The final recipe I tried were skinny figgy bars from fatfreevegan. These were good but I think I'll tweak the crust/topping to be a little more like a traditional date bar.

Since the Christmas day dinner was last minute, I had already bought everything to make dinner for us. So, Boxing day was my turn to cook. I decided on guacamole, veggie/vegan lasagna, and raw ganache fudge cake from Ani phyo made without the raspberries.

The lasagna was half veggie, half vegan and used the cashew ricotta and marinara sauce from Veganomicon. I used zucchini, spinach, peppers, and mushrooms for the veggies. It turned out AMAZING! The picture doesn't do it justice.

On to the finale, DESSERT! I have heard great things about Ani's dessert and so I splurged and bought the ingredients to make it, except for the raspberries which I forgot to buy. It was so rich and yummy even without the raspberries. We were devouring the cake and I nearly forgot to take a picture, although it is only the last two spoonfuls. I highly recommend making this cake as it takes only minutes and would impress any guest.

My hubby and I decided to buy each other gym passes as our Christmas gifts. So, we both agreed to not buy additional gifts for each other. Yet, while I was working on Christmas eve, he snuck out to healthy Santa's workshop (Co-op) for a few extra gifts. I guess I was a good girl , I mean wife, this year! I received a natural fibres skin brush, a soft face brush, and a glass straw for all my green smoothies. It just so happened that my husband read my post on dry skin brushing where I mentioned I did not have the ideal brushes yet. What a thoughtful guy!

Have a great week everyone and if you are feeling lethargic from all the Christmas goodies, blend up a green smoothie. Here's mine from Christmas morning made with collard greens, bananas, hemp protein, and cinnamon (plus my new glass straw).