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).

Detoxing Your Largest Organ

Dry Skin Brushing and its benefits

Hello Everyone!

Hope you are enjoying your holidays with family and friends. I know this is the time of year for parties and gatherings which usually means a lot of endulging. During this time we usually are not thinking about what ingredients are in that appy or nanaimo bar. Thus, we are usually taking in a lot of sugar, fat, and chemicals from non-organic ingredients. Our bodies tend to get overloaded and we can pay for it through fatigue, moodiness, weight gain, and even colds or flus (I'll go into more depth on this on a later post). So, why not detox during the holidays?


One of the easiest ways to detox is dry skin brushing. The skin is the largest organ and is critical in eliminating toxins. The skin actually contributes to 25% of the bodies detoxification. According to an article on Natural News , the skin can become clogged from cosmetics, environmental toxins, and from chemicals/pesticides in food. Brushing the skin unclogs the pores allowing the skin to take part in a more intensive toxin elimination process. The liver and kidneys are very grateful for this as their toxic loads are reduced.


So, here is the scientific part. The detoxification is actually through the lymphatic system. The lymphatic system depends on the circulation system to move the lymph containing all the toxins out of the body. Skin brushing greatly improves this circulation and thus the elimination of the toxic substances out of your body.


You are probably thinking "ya ya that's great and all but what will my skin look and feel like?" Well, let me tell you, I started dry skin brushing a couple of months ago and after the first couple of weeks of brushin I noticed a difference. My skin was softer and the small, round bumps around my elbows were almost gone. These bumps were most likely dead skin cells stuck to my skin which were harboring bacteria. Not a pretty picture!


The best time to skin brush is before you have a shower as the water aids to completly remove all the dead cells. The best tool to use is a long handle brush made of natural hair. I don't have one of these yet so I just use exfoliating gloves. The technique is easy and so give it a try today!

• Start at the hands and work in a circular motion towards the shoulder
• Start a the feet and move towards the hips, again in a circular motion
• Circular motion on the torso towards the heart
• Optional: soles of feet, palms of hands, areas of cellulite, and armpits.

Hope you found today's post helpful! Let me know of the benefits you have received from skin brushing.

Finally, I would like to finish up with a picture that makes me smile! Their names are Nemo (orange) and Bailey. We are fostering them for the Nelson SPCA . Recently, Bailey got adopted to a real nice family so that was awesome! We still have Nemo and he is totally awesome and we love him. His favorite games are to chase a lazer beam or a ball of yarn. The neighbors dog was outside and so they were very curious. The funny thing is Nemo really didn't like Bailey too close to him but I guess he made an exception here!

Joy and Gingerbread,

Melissa