“Love Affair Chocolate Crinkle Cookies”

Would you guys believe me if I told you that a cookie made me want to run away and marry it?  haha

Well my friends it’s true!  I still want to marry Dave and all, but these will be my side loves…

Enter best cookie recipe EVER…   Perfect for Christmas,  Valentines Day…  err chocolate cravings… lonely moments…. etc..

You can get the recipe here… since I didn’t change a thing, I can’t post it for myself…   But PLEASE do it… you won’t regret it, and they make awesome cookies for gifting…

It tastes like a brownie…  but better and in cookie size…

And they are beautiful too!!!  I promise, this is a recipe you don’t want to miss!!

It was a perfect day to make them too…  this is what it looked like outside…

So pretty!!  As long as I don’t have to drive in it, I am a happy cookie!!

 

Another fun Christmas smoothie recipe!!  Simple, but perfect…

That’s all from me!!

I have a few quick, easy foodie, gifty type recipes coming up…  so easy, but great gifts… stay tuned!!

Enjoy,

Jess

Take a minute…

Christmas is fill with so much, hustle and bustle, family, stress and all the other things that come with holidays.   I was looking through some pictures the other day and they inspired me…  and I thought I would share them with you..

Take some time today to remember to…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and finally that…

 

 

 

Hope you enjoyed…

xo Jess

ps. if one of the pictures inspires you, feel free to save it!

Dairy Free over the Holidays

Christmas is fast approaching, and that can be a scary time for Dairy Free people.

I know that my first 2 Christmas’s dairy free were a total drag.  No deserts, no cheese plates, no mashed potatoes… ugg..

So here are some suggestions,  they won’t work everywhere, but you can try!

Please be cautious, these are things I have found to be dairy free, that doesn't mean that it still is 100%, products and labels change often.  You are best off reading boxes, or not eating something if you are unsure.

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At HOLIDAY PARTIES

Christmas Dinner

(source)

I wish I had better news here… 

Unless I know the person well (and ask them to let me know what I can and cannot eat) I bring my own plate of food.  Many people will accidently cook with margarine or put a splash of milk into things, which equals a turkey and a dairy hangover!

It’s just so much safer to bring your own, or if it’s a family ordeal, cook with them to do your own mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing etc. 

Some good alternatives

Bring Earth Balance Butter with you! (I even trek mine to Newfoundland)

Chicken or Veggie Stock in mashed potatoes and stuffing is awesome.

Safe Appetizers Eats

I am basing this on what usually shows up at my parties – if you have any questions let me know.

Shrimp Cocktail

Crackers – Triscuts (be aware there is 1 flavoured with parmesan), wheat thins, saltines, water crackers, “mary’s gone crackers” crackers, most rice crackers, graham crackers,

Anything pickled – onions, pickles, asparagus

Olives, antipasto,

Spinach dip is a no no, but it means there will be sourdough bread – which is dairy free.

Fruit or Veggies – beware of dips though.

Smoked Salmon is fine

Salsa and guacamole (usually ok)

Sushi

Bacon wrapped scallops

Meatballs* this is one I would check for sure, usually these are ok, but there are some people who put parmesan cheese in them.

Devilled Eggs are usually dairy free, but double check if you can.

Chips – nacho chips, plain, ripple, for Canadians, most ketchup chips are dairy free, pretzels,

Nuts

Stay away from or beware of; cold cuts (meat), any dips, crackers (except the ones listed above), chocolate anything, anything that looks deep fried or store bought, chicken wings, always ask before eating, quiche,

Candy & Treats

Junior Mints, wine gums, jube jubes, suckers, jelly beans, candy canes (I have never seen one with dairy, even the creamy sounding ones, again double check those ones), candy corn.

Stay away from – cookies of any and every variety (sorry), caramels, chocolate anything (including white chocolate), peanut brittle unless you check first!

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Starbucks drinks or goodies – Dairy Free

I don’t know about you guys, but I spend a lot of time at Starbucks over the holidays,  I think it’s because of all the visitors.  This list can work good at other coffee places too!

Soy Chai Latte

Soy Misto

Soy Cappuccino

Soy Toffee Nut Latte 

Soy Steamed Milk with Toffee Nut (my fav), Caramel, Vanilla.

Soy Peppermint Latte

Any of the Teas

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Lucy’s Cookies (in the little baggies)

Just Peeled Snacks

The Sahal Nut Snacks

Shaken Ice Tea Lemonade (the passion one is awesome)

BEWARE OF – anything egg nog, the crème brule, caramel, their smoothies have whey powder, but they are good about not adding it, and using soy milk.

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They are great (at my Starbucks at least) about helping me figure out what to order, so ask away – this goes for any coffee houses.

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I hope this helps, even a bit!   Feel free to leave a comment or contact me if you have any questions!!  I know I probably missed lots!

Cheers to a happy and healthy holiday season,

Jess

Gingerbread Persons

I loveeeeee gingerbread!! 

I’m not going to lie… while making my gingerbread house, I ate the characters that were supposed to go with it!!

Then I decided I needed to make my own… BUT the catch was, I wanted them dairy free (obviously) and no lard or margarine.

I found it!  Tweaked it and made it my own!!

DAIRY FREE SPICY Gingerbread Cookies

inspired by this recipe

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 TBSP ground ginger (I said spicy)
• 2 tsp cinnamon (maybe even more)
• 1.5 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup molasses
• 1/3 cup coconut milk (or milk of choice)
• 2 cups flour – with lots extra for dusting

Preheat oven @ 300,  spray/grease baking pan – these are really sticky!!

Mix together sugar, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.

Add in molasses, milk and flour.

Continue to mix in extra flour until dough is firm and not sticky.

Place dough in fridge for awhile (I only did about 1/2 hour)

Roll out very thin,  cook out your little people

Bake about 10 min, or until bottoms are lightly browned

LET SIT for 10 minutes before trying to get them off the baking pan.

Let cool and then decorate like all your friends!!  (or a few, as it’s hard business!)

I also made a few different icings. Icing is something I have never made overly good.

Sugar and Spice Icing

• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• splash of vanilla
• 1 TBSP cinnamon
• 2 tsp ground ginger

Mix all together until smooth, may have to add extra milk or sugar to get desired consistency.

Dye-able icing

When I decided to make gingerbread people friends, I needed fun colors!

• 1 1/4 cup icing sugar
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• splash of vanilla
• 1 tsp coconut milk (or milk of choice)
• Plastic baggies for each color
• Food coloring

Mix together everything until the baggies!(duh)

Make sure mixture is pretty stiff, because once you add the food coloring, it gets pretty watery.

Add icing to baggies,  right in a bottom corner… then add food coloring and SQUISH like crazy until it is all mixed in. 

Snip of a TINY corner or the baggie, and you have your very own piping bag!

If the icing gets too running, put in fridge for a bit!!

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Veg News just posted an AWESOME substitution guide for cooking vegan/dairy free!  Check it out here, it has suggestions for most of the common baking allergies!

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Have a great day!!!   Enjoy the cookies!

xo Jess

Secret Santa :)

Hello!!!!

So a few weeks ago on twitter I mentioned how fun it would be to do a Secret Santa Gift Exchange!  A few lovely ladies agreed, and we went ahead and organized it!!!   The ladies that participated included  Jenny,  Allison, Heather, Jolene, Kris and myself! 

I was pretty excited today when the mailman came, as I just figured it was my gift!!  I thought about waiting for Christmas, then I thought… who am I kidding?  I can’t wait!!  

I LOVE the box!!

What’s inside???

How awesome is this???  I LOVE tea… and I LOVE cute little cups!

So awesome!

Blueberry Amore Green Tea… yum!

What did I do?

Made myself a cup of course!! It’s tasty tea! 

THANK YOU too whoever my Secret Santa was… I didn’t look at the return address, because it’s more fun as a secret!! 

Awesome!! 

I will keep you posted when the other girls receive their gifts!

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A few fun things out in blog land!!!   Caitlin from Operation Beautiful just won a pretty amazing award… check this out to find out more…

She was also named one of the top inspirational women – on the list with some pretty important people, including someone with the last name Obama!! 

Make sure also to head over to Karen’s blog… she is donating food to the food bank for every single comment on her blog, so why not catch up on all the fun?  She just had a wedding, and has some beautiful sneak peak pictures up!

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So… I am mildly obsessed with the Oh She Glows cheese sauce from her Mac and Cheese… 

I have made one inspired by her… but I’ve used it on everything cuz it’s soo good!!

Mine looks something like this (sorry I didn’t measure)

CHEESY Sauce (for EVERYTHING)

1/4 cup cashews

1/2 pepper (yellow, orange or red)

1 cooked carrot

1/2 cup cooked butternut squash

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

2 cloves garlic

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 TBSP Apple Cider Vinegar

Blend everything up in the blender until smooth.

You could make this raw if you didn’t cook the carrot/butternut squash

Now…

My “cheesy fries” and veggies

Roasted veggies and fries…

and as a pizza sauce (SO GOOD!) 

I also ate it with pretzels, raw veggies etc…  Super healthy dip/sauce for anything you want!!  Give it a go!!

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Also a few other fun Christmas decorations!! 

Our living room, all ready for Santa!

And Buddha even got dressed for the occasion!

Well… have an awesome day and stay tuned,

I’m working on a “Being Dairy Free over the holidays” post… which will have loads of tips on what to eat at parties and out etc!! 

Also another post about surviving the holidays!! 

I’m off to do a PSY exam today at 6pm!  

And as you can see I am procrastinating, so I suppose I should go study!!

Miss you guys, would love to hear how you are… what’s new? 

Did you participate in any Secret Santa exchanges this year?

xo Jess

Human Rights Day 2010

Today is Human Rights Day

On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  Following this historic act the Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and "to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories."

It is celebrated annually across the world on 10 December.

To find out more… 

Please watch this AWESOME video for more information.

To read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, click here.

~~It is our duty to ensure that these rights are a living reality -- that they are known, understood and enjoyed by everyone, everywhere. It is often those who most need their human rights protected, who also need to be informed that the Declaration exists -- and that it exists for them.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

What can we do?   Donate (healthy) food to the food bank,  take a minute to be grateful,  write a letter and generally, just "BE THE CHANGE!"

Dairy Free Holiday Treats!

If you have been following my blog since last Christmas, you might remember my peanut butter cups?   One of my Christmas staples!!

Here is my OUR BIG EARTH December article!!  Check it out there are tasty treats on there;

Peanut Butter Cups

Marshmallow Snowflakes

Chai Spiced Candied Nuts

Fruit/Nut Bark!!

 

ps. I’m SO grateful I got to continue on with these guys, I was worried I wouldn’t have the time, but I am enjoying creating recipes!  Wait until my January one, I think it’s my favorite recipe yet!!

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Also, I got a good note from CHAR’s KITCHEN on my facebook page.

Costco sells 10lb boxes of dairy free chocolate chips for about $20.00!!  Imagine a house full of 10lbs of chocolate – the possibilities are limit less!!

Also from a suggestion from a few blogger friends – add some nutritional yeast to your peanut butter mixture – and it makes it taste more Reece's Piecesish!

 

Just for the record – TOMORROW IS MY LAST DAY OF CLASSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!  Then 2 exams and I am done for a few weeks, I can’t believe it’s 1/2 way done!

Thank you for sticking with me… even though I barely write anymore!!  I have 2 beautiful weeks off, and I plan to do lots of cooking and photos!!!  

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I have a fun giveaway coming up soonish… just testing out the product before I give them (10-15 of them) away!!   I’ll give you a hint… it has something to do with…

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Ciao for now lovelies!

Jess

Countdown is on…

Can you guys believe there are only 19 days until Christmas?

I can’t!!  Time flies like crazy!

We did a little decorating this weekend.

But that’s all I’m showing you now, as I have a few other things to decorate!

I also created a gingerbread house!!

Making a Gingerbread house is no easy business…  I tried to keep it neat and tidy, but it didn’t work so well…

I think it’s still cute though…

I’ve also had some fun eats lately… Oh She Glows Vegan Mac and Cheese

I made it with green onions and tofurky assuages(which were nasty, for the record)

It was a fantastic recipe!!  I would make more cheese sauce next time, it was a bit dry, but it was tasty!!!

I also made some…

OATS IN A JAR

with some added pecans and raisins!

 

And an Amy’s California burger with roasted veggies and guac, by the Christmas tree

YUM!!

Slowly getting ready for Christmas,  1 week of school left and then some exams and then Christmas chaos begins!!!

How is your Christmas stuff going???

Lance wanted to say hi!!!

Eaten anything tasty lately?  Any recipes to share? 

 

PS.  Any dairy free recipe requests for the Holidays? 

I will try my best to try some stuff out!

xo Jess

Gift Giving Guide 2010

Hey guys!

I have been enjoying all the gift giving guides out there this holiday season, so I thought I would put together my own…  some of these things are on my own personal wish list, some are just awesome!

We aren’t really buying gifts this year (except for each other) but I have lots of fun ideas!!  Kinda like OPRAHS FAVORITE THINGS!!

Enjoy

FOR THE TECHY…

An EBOOK READER

KINDLE www.kindle.com

 

In Canada – the kindle isn’t available until end of January, but the Sony one has been tested by my own personal ebook tester and he loves it!

IPOD TOUCH!

Seriously, I’m out of touch with the world, I had NO IDEA how cool these were, until I started researching one for a Christmas gift!

 

FOR THE FOODIE… (including stocking stuffer ideas)

Spiralizer

Every foodie should have one of these!  So fun to make veggie noodles with…

I LOVE mine and kids go crazy over veggie noodles (I promise, I tested it out on my camp kids this summer)

A subscription to VEG News

Love this magazine!  If you have anyone in your life that is allergic to dairy, or is a vegetarian or vegan, this is the magazine for them!!

A few stocking stuffer ideas -

Yogi Tea – So good

Celestial Seasoning “Candy Cane Lane” Tea – awesome for the holidays!

Mighty Leaf Tea

Peanut Butter and Co – amazing flavoured peanut butters

FOR HER:

I could not imagine my life without all my pashmina scarves!!  I buy them in Coombs (for anyone from the island, and they are $11 each!)  So amazing, and such a fun way to dress up an outfit.

Do her a favour, and get her UGG boots – even the knock offs… I got mine at Walmart for $30 and they are AMAZING (ugly yes, amazing also)

Another MUST – Alba Hawaiian products!!  The whole line is fantastic, and they smell sooooo good!!  I have tried almost everything and LOVE it all.  While looking this up, I just realized they now have SUNSCREEN!

 

FOR HIM:

Thermos Mug – MUST HAVE… I did a review back here… this baby kept my tea HOT  for the whole day

Customized Bobble Heads…  Seriously?   How fun?  We found these while looking for wedding stuff…

Some “do gooder” ideas

Looking to do something a little more non traditional,  something that will help someone else?

KIVA.org – you can give money to a women the world as a loan to help get their business up and running.

Heifer.org is another amazing one.  You buy an animal for a village or family. I did this for my dad once, bought him a flock of geese!

Also of course, you can donate to your local foodbank or shelter!!  Great way to give back!!

Hope you enjoyed these!  Feel free to add your own too!!

xo Jessica