Excuses and hummus!

Happy Thursday all!!

      Holy have I been a bad blogger! But wait I've got a boat load of excuses for my absence. I was travelling for work. Heidi and Bitt too bad I didn't have more time for a visit as I was in your neck of the woods! I got sick..again!! So frustrating I must say. I should have armed myself better, right Laury? The hubby caught a bug from work and he so kindly passed it on to me. That's love isn't it? Plus my class is getting pretty complicated and is requiring more brain cells than normal.

That's enough of my pity party, wouldn't you say?

Moving on to more exciting things...I got an interview for school!!! Not everyone who puts in an application gets an interview so I'm so excited I advanced to the next step. I've never had an interview to enter school before so it should be interesting. All I know is that I will be interviewed by 5 or 6 different people in separate rooms. I'm glad it's separate versus having a panel of people. Now that's intimidating! My interview is on January 6th so I'll be sure to update you all on how it goes!!


Now for some festiveness!! We finally got our tree. Every year a reality business provides a Christmas tree to their customers. Our friend's mom received the coupon for the tree but she lives in a condo and they aren't allowed real trees (sad, I know!) so they gave it to us:) Thank you Cam and Danise!

She's a beauty too:)

Are you a fake tree lover or does it have to be real?

I don't think I could ever have a fake tree. Growing up they were always real so it's all I know. Although those trees with pre-strung lights are tempting at times. The next picture will explain why...

How many guys does it take to add lights to a tree? Apparently more than this as Danise and I took down the lights and strung them up again..in a minute:)

This year is a silver and red theme!

 But there is always room for some classics on the tree!!

These are from Ryan's childhood:)

Some more decorations! That tree is an ancient thing that I got from my aunt..but I love it!! It really is like a festive light-bright. All those colorful pieces fit into holes on the ceramic tree. Place a light bulb underneath the tree and voila! a light-bright tree!!!

I still have a lot to decorate so I'll show you the final product soon:)

Now for some eats! I made a first over the weekend..almond milk. I always thought that it was going to take too many almonds to make it worth it. They ain't cheap in B.C.! But I was way wrong. I followed Ani's instructions for vanilla almond mylk which only used 1/2 cup soaked almonds.

Nice and plump!

Pulp! I'm thinking of making some kind of cookie with it. Any ideas?

So good!! I didn't add as many dates as Ani recommended so it wasn't too sweet.

The hubby loved it and this jar was gone within a day:) He was quite the milk lover as a teenager.

I will definitely make almond mylk again! I want to experiment with other varieties of nuts.

Maybe even make a chocolate mylk.

In other news, I finally found some dry chickpeas. I looked in multiple big grocery stores and none of them had the dry version. I think the city has gone hummus crazy!!. Luckily my local health food store keeps rations for times like these:)

I had a serious craving for some hummus so I went ahead and made two versions, classic and roasted pepper. As it turned out, Angela just posted a recipe called The Hummus That Changed Everything.

 How could I resist?

Mmm..love all that paprika!

This was really delish! Thanks Angela!



My lab assistant was talking about her roasted red pepper hummus all week and she had me drooling! I didn't have red peppers on hand, but I did have orange ones!

Such a great flavor!! My hummus craving has been deliciously satisfied!

Since I had some leftover cooked chickpeas, I went for a sweet treat from Averie.

Cinnamon sugar peanut buttery chickpea peanuts

I actually just noticed that I forgot to add the flour. They were still great anyways:)

A great treat to have on the table if guests are over. Are there chickpeas in Aruba, Averie?

I'm getting the itch to do some Christmas baking.

 I love shortbread, ginger cookies, and all the chocolate and nut buttery treats!!

I just received an email from Heidi of 101 cookbook's Christmas cookie recipes. I'm sure to find some goodies in there! 

 Do you bake/un-bake your favorites each year?

I usually do a plate of different goodies, some for us, lots for family!

 We shall see what makes the cut this year:)

Have a great night everyone!!

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).