Favourite Things: Christmas Blog Swap.

I have to give a huge shout out to Leigh and Lindsey for putting together such a fabulous blog swap for Canadians! Sometimes we can feel a little left out up here in the great, white North, but we had a blog swap of our very own!

My swap gift came from Bonnie, who was SO sweet. My package arrived at work and made my day. Unfortunately, some (uhh, most) parts of it are missing from the photo. What can I say, she sent me some homemade granola that was out of this world. It's all in my belly. It was made from cranberries, sun butter, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds! Packed with nutrition, just the way I like it! She also sent me an adorable frame ornament. I'm going to put in a photo of me and Dan from this Christmas! She also sent me a running magazine, and some yummy Cranberry scented bath lovelies from The Body Shop. It was absolutely wonderful and I can't thank her enough! Here is my lame photo with half of the gift missing.

I will use this magazine to motivate me to get back into a good running routine post Christmas madness!! I'm looking forward to it!

Holiday Sticky Buns!

I've been seriously missing around the blog world. I miss writing posts, but even more than that, I miss reading yours. I can only imagine all of the Christmas fun I've been missing. I have fun stuff of my own in store - a secret santa swap, pumpkin pancakes, and cinnamon sticky buns!

Tonight, cinnamon sticky buns! I was watching Barefoot Contessa today with Dan, specifically her Christmas special "Barefoot in London." I enjoyed. I have actually never watched her show before, but she has taught Dan a few things previous to today - which are apparently top secret. I was going to tell you, and then he looked over to see what I had written and said "you can't publish my secret. How am I going to be the best if everyone knows?" He was serious. haha

You may have watched the special, but if not, she made some sticky buns with puff pastry. They looked amazing and reminded me of some cinnamon buns we had at our employee appreciation last month. These needed to be made.

Dan is very sick right now, so I went to the store to get ingredients for grilled cheese and soup for dinner (delish!) and knew I just had to buy the few ingredients I needed for the sticky buns. We were both excited after dinner and were watching the clock to see how much time had passed in anticipation of the thawing puff pastry.

Well, friends, they are as good as they look! I made 6 with raisins (not a fan, but someone else in the house is) and 6 with dark chocolate chunks. I should have put the chocolate on the top after baking, but you live and you learn. I baked it into the sticky buns and most of it crisped up on the top, but there are a few chunks baked in between the rolls which make them even more delicious.

Holiday Sticky Buns

Adapted from: Barefoot Contessa

Ingredients:

12 Tbsp unsalted organic butter, at room temperature

1/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed

1 package frozen puff pastry, defrosted

For the filling:

2 Tbsp. unsalted organic butter, melted and cooled

2/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed

3 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 cup raisins

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, combine 12 Tbsp. of butter and 1/3 cup brown sugar. Place 1 Tbsp. of the mixture in each section of a 12 muffin cup pan.

Lightly flour a wooden board surface. Unfold one sheet of puff pastry. Brush the whole sheet with 1 Tbsp. of the melted butter. Sprinkle each sheet with 1/3 cup of brown sugar, 1 1/2 tsp of cinnamon, and a 1/4 cup of raisins. Starting with the end nearest you, roll the pastry up snugly. Trim the ends of the roll about 1/2 inch and discard to even edges. Slice the roll in 6 equal pieces, about 1 1/2 inch each. Place each piece, spiral side up, in 6 of the muffin cups. Repeat with the second shed of puff pastry to make 12 sticky buns.

Bake for 30 minutes (or less, keep an eye on them!), until the sticky buns are golden to dark brown on top and firm to the touch. Allow them to cool for 5 minutes only, then invert the buns onto a non-stick surface, and cool completely.

"Eggnog!"

One of my favourite delights around Christmas time is eggnog. I'm not a fan of all the sugar and weird modified milk ingredients is the conventional brands. As of yesterday, I cut out dairy from my diet too, to try and eliminate some respiratory issues I've been suffering from. This obviously was somewhat upsetting to me since I adore the nog.

I'm a google fanatic, so this prompted me to "google" (yes, it is a verb) vegan eggnog. I came across the Post Punk Kitchen recipe, that you can find here. I was intrigued that it had avocado in it, but assumed it was for thickening and I believe I was right!

Oh my word, blog friends. This vegan "eggnog" is amazing! If you're vegan, or you're just a eggnog loving health fanatic like me, I highly suggest you make it! It is the perfect consistency and just filled with love!

Happy December!

Where have I been while I haven't been blogging?

- Finishing up my Business & Leadership courses! (DONE! Super big yay!)
- Falling in love with my MacBook Pro!
- Working on my first case study for holistic nutrition!
- Listening to Christina Aguilera's Christmas music - my fav!
- Welcoming my boyfriend home!!!!!!

The beginning of December has proved to be very busy and exciting! I have lots of fun recipes I want to share with you to help me (and you!) get into the festive spirit.

Tomorrow I'll be making vegan "eggnog" along with some vegan "eggnog" cookies (totally made them last week and used baking soda instead of baking powder - whoops!) and will be sure to post about them!

I hope you're all having a fabul0us December so far! School break starts on the 15th and then you won't be able to get rid of me!

Happy Birthday! Happy Monday! Happy Graduation!

First of all, Happy 30th Birthday to my sweet boyfriend who is once again stuck in the field!

Annnd, Happy Monday to all of you! I had the most amazing run this morning (despite the rain and slushies) and can already tell it's going to be a fabulous week!

I have some other exciting news, I graduate from my BCIT program this week! I have my last final to do on Wednesday and then my many years of part time classes are over! I still obviously have my nutrition program, but it's just nice to be done one chapter! So, I guess I'm a qualified business manager and leader now? Haha.

As a graduation present to myself, and partly as a Christmas present from my loved ones, I bought myself a MacBook Pro! I couldn't be more thrilled! I ordered it online (whyyy I didn't just go to the Apple store is beyond me!) but I'm practicing patience, or trying to, and awaiting its arrival in 8 short days! Until then I will just stare at it longingly...

I hope you all have a fabulous week!

Boundary Bay Moustache Half Marathon!

Oh boy, I'm SO glad that is over. This half marathon was filled with learning experiences. Let me share those with you.

1. Always charge your iPod the night before. I was so focused on making sure my Garmin was charged, I totally forgot about my iPod. I could have used my iPhone, but I updated it last week on my new laptop and have yet to transfer music over. First fail.

2. The first 5K were great. At that point, I stopped for some gatorade/water. The gatorade did not agree with me at ALL. I felt awful and sick to my stomach for the remainder of the race and many hours post race. In the future, I will stick to water only.

3. I will not sign up for long races past August or warmer months. It was freaking cold. Thankfully, I went to the Running Room and bought gloves, but my muscles had a very hard time warming up. Not to mention the course was right on the water so that added to the cold.

4. I will also not sign up for small races. The Chicago Rock 'N Roll Half was obviously huge compared to this one. There is something to be said for the energy the crowd and fellow runners bring to such an event! The location for this race was beautiful so there are definitely no complaints there, but it's hard to maintain motivation when you feel like you're running alone! If it wasn't for the pylons/markers, often times I would have thought I wasn't racing at all!

Before the race!

Home stretch!

I'm so glad I went and ran it. I got my cute, little moustache medal!

First major event down for November!

November Excitement!

Blog friends, I feel like I'm bursting with excitment due to November's arrival! I used to loathe the Christmas season. I'm not sure why, but that is no longer the case. Over the past few years, I have grown to adore Christmas and everything it brings - warm, hearty foods, Peppermint Mochas from Starbucks, advent calendars, decorations, gingerbread, and family time.

Things have been busy around these parts, but while procrastinating from studying, I've managed to start my Christmas shopping and even wrapping? *gasp* I know. Productivity is at an all time high. (PS. My grades have not suffered so it's all good.)

Anyway, I thought I'd share my exciting November events with you! I know my presence has been fleeting lately, and I can't promise that will improve over the next couple months but bear with me.

This Sunday, November 6th, I have the Boundary Bay Moustache Half Marathon. Part of me thinks I should give myself a break and just bail on it since I haven't had time to train, or even run for that matter, but I miss it. If it's frosty and rainy like it was this morning, I can't make any promises, but if it's sunny, I'll give it a go! I don't need to be a superstar - I just want to finish get my moustache medal (so cool!).

After another week of school madness, I leave next Friday to go to Detroit for my friend Jamie's wedding! I couldn't be more excited to be there for her special day!

Other November events are my mom's 50th birthday, Dan's 30th birthday, and Dan finishing up his course on November 24th and making his journey home! So.freaking.excited. Approx. 28 days!

That is my month in a nutshell. I'm looking forward to everthing this month brings! I will do my best to document the events to share with you!

Happy November to you!