Luckiest Girl in the World December 25, 2010

MERRY CHRISTMAS morning! SANTAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! I got ummm….a full 40 minutes of sleep (Elf anyone?), had a great chat with my sister, and jumped out of bed at 5 a.m. We have to wait to wake my parents up at 7 a.m. Am I 5 years old? YESSSSS!

Christmas morning is possibly my favorite day of the year…it’s so full of surprises and family and fun and traditions at my house.

I made coffee to kill time hehe. I bought this especially for Christmas morning coffee a few weeks ago…

It was not as good as the peppermint mocha coffee I got from Clare (from World Market), but still a treat.

I’ll let the pictures speak from here…enjoy!

After 3 hours of opening gifts, it was high time for some breakfast! Mom made maple pancakes, country ham, bacon, eggs, grits, and biscuits. I tasted her pancakes and ham, but I made my own breakfast of leftover yogurt fruit salad from last night with added blueberries and Naturally More (I went all day yesterday without any, believe it or not!)…

…and a egg mess of 2 egg whites, 1 regular egg with various spices, cheddar-style Daiya, and Garlic Gold nuggets…

It was yummy!!! And I had a special plate for my egg 😉

My family really got me some thoughtful things this year. They took my hints, but made them surprises. I appreciate and love them more than I can tell y’all. I’m so humbled by their generosity. I hope that y’all have a wonderful day! I’ll have our traditional dinner to blog about later. Happy Birthday, Jesus! I wish you and your family a Merry, Merry Christmas!

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Assembly Required December 19, 2010

Hey y’all! Happy Sunday! I woke up this morning, had a great quiet time, and came downstairs to make some coffee and watch the news. I’m headed out of town for a few days, so I decided to bake some hostess gifts. I rolled semi-homemade and baked Santa cookies (red velvet with white chocolate chips) and gingerbread men.

The breakfast inspiration continued with a couple of posts this week from the Fitnessista and Pure2Raw. Then, this happened…Bananas Foster Protein Pancakes.

To make this happen, you just layer pancake, creme filling, banana carmelized in pan with pancakes, cacao nibs…REPEAT twice ;)!

In the pancakes:

• 1/4-ish cup old-fashioned oats
• a flax egg (1.5 Tbsp flax meal mixed with 3 Tbsp almond milk)
• 1/2 scoop chocolate protein powder
• sprinkle of Truvia and cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp almond extract
• pinch of sea salt
• almond milk, to thin it out

In the creme filling:

• 1 cup raw almonds
• water and almond milk for desired consistency
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• pinch sea salt
• pinch lemon zest

Blend till creamy in your blender. (I just have a regular blender but desperately want a VitaMix. Maybe I’ll save enough one day. 😦 )

It was a little bland, so I added a drizzle of maple syrup…fa drizzle! It was really yummy, not too filling! I had some creme leftover…what in the world will I do with it ;)?

My workout today was 50 minutes of cycling and an hour of power yoga. I was really tired today. I think I’m in need of a rest day soon because my workouts have not been as efficient because I am feeling weak and tired during the workout. Rest day coming soon for sure…decision made!

After exercising, I made some lunch…a slice of multigrain boule withorganic spinach and an egg and some cheddar-style Daiya,

and some carrots, edamame, and celery with Moroccan hummus that I got on sale at Harris Teeter. The hummus was really tasty…it had kind of an Indian flava!

Yummy, colorful, texture-ful lunch!

I had  a sweet Fuji apple (also on sale from the Teet) for dessert. I love crunchy apples!

Off to watch some football! WOOHOO!!!!