bake cake

This week, I'm giving it another go at the beloved cake pops for my bestie's baby shower this Sunday. P.S. Yes, you can bake them ahead of time. Not too much ahead but you can by a few days in order to save yourself some time on the day of your event. I'm excited because I feel like maybe I'm ready to get a little more adventurous with my baking these days! The last time I made them was over a year ago I'd imagine so I'm excited to try them out again. I'm loving these ones below but I've already bought my ingredients to do light blue with white drizzle. We'll see how it goes anyhow! I'm going to photograph it and do a tutorial with my hints I've learned over the past few years of making them!

Pretty Palette

* Pretty palette *
Slate Grey & Marigold Yellow

I always feel that yellow has a sort of charm when combined with outdoor elements like green grass, white tents, and natural skies. I love thinking outside the white wedding box. In fact, I'm not much of a white wedding fan. I have seen a few unbelievably beautiful white weddings, although, it's not necessarily easy to pull off a classic all white event. Will someone I know please go for the yellow & grey color scheme already?! Hello gorgeous.
P.S. If you're into white weddings, check out green wedding shoes latest post on a fabulously inspiring white soirée with modern flecks of rich gold and dark grey. Sounds interesting huh? Yes indeed!

Cake Pops!

Just a peek at my cake pop making adventure. I was pleased with the way they turned out. They are YUMMY! Follow a fantastic recipe at Bakerella! So easy, inexpensive, versatile and they look adorable. A few changes I made: I used a different flavored frosting. I think any kind will do! I also used melting chocolate instead of chocolate bark and finally, I did not poke the sticks into styrofoam to hold them up straight to dry. I simply flipped them over. You can always have them sitting together on a nice plate with sticks in the air like below. Now this was just my trial session to see how the recipe worked but you could make them extra pretty like some of the photos below! I'm going for the sprinkley ones next time which will be soon! Enjoy.

Lemon Lavender Scones

I spent a surprisingly sunny and lovely early morning sauntering around the Farmers Market with my Mom & sister this morning. In my bag: one bright orange pepper, cranberry & mango salsa, organic spinach pasta, garlic & artichoke sauce to go with, mini lemon & cranberry scones (for Ben), and mini lemon & lavender scones for me! I had to have them, they smelled amazing. I had never tried a combination of flavors like this before today. I finished eating it half an hour ago and I can still taste the zesty lemon and sweet lavender - that is how incredibly full of flavor they were. They were home made in the Comox Valley by Heavenly Goodies. So here's a little link to heaven - try them out. There are probably many recipes out there, although, this recipe doesn't have a high sugar or fat requirement. I'm going to give them a whirl sometime soon. They might just have to be added to the welcoming party we'll have when baby "E" arrives. Casey will love these!

What you'll need:

2 Cups Flour
1/3 Cup Granulated Sugar
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tbs Grated Lemon Zest
2 tsp Dried Lavender (divided use)
4 tbs Chilled Butter
1/2 Cup Non Fat Yogurt
1/2 Cup Buttermilk
1/2 Cup Powdered Sugar
1 tbs Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice

How to:

* Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

* In mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder & soda, lemon zest, & 1/2 tsp of lavender.

* Cut butter into pieces & cut into dry ingredients with a pastry cutter, or crumble in with your  fingers.

* Separately, whisk together yogurt & buttermilk.

* Combine wet & dry ingredients to form a wet & sticky dough.

* Turn dough out onto a floured surface & knead a few times, then shape into a square about 1 " thick.

* Using a kitchen knife, cut the dough into 8 triangles.

* Transfer to an oiled baking sheet and bake 20 mins or until scones are golden brown.

*  Remove from oven & cool on baking sheet.

* Dissolve powdered sugar in lemon juice and mix in 1/2 tsp lavender then drizzle over scones.

Fini!

on the wagon

I'm officially putting it 'out there' and by 'out there' I mean the blog world and anyone else that stumbles across my words I guess. I hope that rather than setting me up for failure, it will motivate me just that much more to keep my bum moving. I've done it before so I know it's possible but it's easy to fall off the track and I know many others agree. So I started yesterday back at the gym and I'm trying to be extra conscious of what I eat. I'm NOT dieting! I simply want to eat clean as much as possible. I have no problems having a treat every now and then and I love love love sweets and so just like anything, some days are more challenging than others but I know it can be done. So what's for breakfast this morning? Homemade vanilla whey shake with fresh peaches and flax seed. I might add a little strawberry smoothie mix too. They seem to keep me full for hours which is great to get me through early morning class. Lunch? Homemade red lentil Thai soup loaded with garlic, onions, green peppers and carrots. I'm trying to cook a little more and try new things and the soup turned out awesome! 

If you're looking for any healthy new ides or twists on cooking, check out lunchboxbunch! It has a ton of delicious recipes. I usually get stuck looking for an hour or two. She cooks plenty of vegan dishes although you can always modify the dish to your liking. I follow a lot of her smoothie recipes and she has amazing photos to go with every recipe as well. 

The thing is I feel so so much better when I exercise. I can feel the build up of tension and frustration the longer I go without doing some so to get out and do it is really just acknowledging what my body wants. Plus my body responds very quick so it doesn't take me long to start seeing benefits. So friends, wish me perseverance and perhaps a little self love instead of luck ;) 

must make: ginger snap smoothie

We all know the health benefits that ginger can bring so I'm very excited that I found this ginger smoothie recipe! I'm really into my morning smoothies with whatever fruits and yogurt I have on hand mixed with flax seeds but I really wanted to try a ginger smoothie. I found this yummy recipe at http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/. You can find a whole ton of amazing looking vegan dishes and recipes for your over all well being. The website has sections like "calming foods" or "energizing foods" - gotta love that! Check out the site and don't forget to sip on this while you're at it.

Spiced Ginger Snap Smoothie

1/4 tsp cayenne

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp nutmeg
Additional tsp of ginger

Additional tsp of cinnamon

Blend until smooth & garnish with cinnamon and cayenne sprinkles and a fresh shaved ginger slice.

Note: You can use fresh ginger in this smoothie. Just add 1 tsp fresh ground ginger to the blender. Although still use the powder because it gives it that nice ginger snap cookie flavor.

christmas traditions

I thought that since we'll be getting married in five months, this year it might be good to start thinking about a tradition we would like to have each Christmas as we're now sort of our own little family! Usually we wake up way too early & head over to my parent's house where there are usually kids ripping open stockings and family pets scurrying around amongst all the hype. We then go to his parent's house where we take things slower and things are a little less hectic and it's usually just the five of us. Both are lots of fun.

This year we'll do the same but we'll wake up extra early to open our gifts to eachother and have hot chocolate & sticky buns! What are your chirtsmas traditions. Click here for Martha's yummy cinnamon pecan sticky bun recipe and here for a white hot chocolate recipe also by Martha.