Hi everyone!

I can’t believe Christmas is only one week away! How are all of your holiday preparations going?? Wishing you all a restful, relaxing, joy-filled Christmas season. I feel like this is the first year in who knows how long that I haven’t felt overloaded and overbooked at the holidays, so I’m grateful for that.

I am working the rest of this week and then will be off for about a week and a half – almost two weeks. Looking forward to having a good stretch of days that feel less structured!

Recapping some December recent eats: 

Making my favorite coconut cacao bars from the Run Fast Eat Slow cookbook. I make two 9×13 pans of these twice a month, for daily snacking! Dates + coconut + raw cashews + cacao powder + coconut oil = so much chocolatey goodness.

As you can somewhat tell from the background, we got a bit of snow and lot of unusually cold weather for the start to December!

Since I go grocery shopping on Mondays, when I’m making our lunches on Sunday evenings for the next day, it’s often a throw together whatever we have sort of lunch. This random salad combo ended up turning out really well, and I’d love to add it to our regular rotation! (With chicken/protein source). This was greens + chopped honeycrisp + slivered almonds + pepitas + dried cranberries. I love the unsweetened dried cranberries they sell at Trader Joe’s. Then I used our regular go-to balsamic vinaigrette for topping it all. Usually I’ll make a salad or soup as a lunch “base,” then eat it with a side or two.

I was very excited to have our family friends gift me with a number of squashes to use up! This was a random winter squash soup that I made up and ended up really liking. First I roasted several squashes (which I think was 2 carnival and 1 kombocha). Then I sautéed a white onion and apple in a good amount of ghee. I added a lot of spices — cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice, a decent amount of maple syrup, and the roasted squash. I then added some vegetable broth and blended it all up in the Vitamix until creamy!

End result — a warm, lovely winter soup. The only thing is next time I would use half a white onion.

Butternut squash was used in my favorite butternut squash + cauliflower curry. I make a number of modifications to the linked recipe, including using fire-roasted tomatoes, a regular white onion instead of onion powder, more veg, more seasoning, and a lot more curry paste!

The beauty of cooking is that you can so often make the recipes your own! 🙂

A new smoothie recipe that I tried from the Rise and Run cookbook. Avocado w/ frozen zucchini + dates + cacao + coconut water + almond butter + chocolate chips. I also added vanilla extract for increased flavor. Eaten with homemade granola for crunch and more dark chocolate for dessert! Chocolate upon chocolate for a winning meal.

One of my go-to salmon dinners of salmon seasoned w/ curry powder + roasted veggies (tri-color bell peppers + red onion) + coconut rice. We always find this a tasty and nourishing meal to enjoy any time of year!

More coconut cacao bars for snacking, along with an orange w/ pomegranate.

Salad combination that I made for dinner with our small group (also the same salad that I brought to Thanksgiving). Mixed greens w/ roasted delicata squash + toasted pecans + pomegranate + goat cheese + cinnamon balsamic dressing. To roast a delicata squash, cut off the ends, cut it lengthwise, scoop out the seeds, and then slice into moon-shaped sizes as shown above. I like to season it with salt, pepper, and cinnamon (in addition to drizzling generously with avocado oil).

Making Hummusapien’s sweet potato + black bean soup. We love this soup! I like to serve it with cilantro and lime wedges. It makes a lot so I’m happy to have leftovers in our freezer for an upcoming busier weeknight (or, as is often the case, if we get back from a trip — perfect to pull something out of the freezer for a quick dinner when options are limited).

Lunch with my mom at Jump’s in Grosse Pointe after a Christmas coffee Christian event. I really enjoyed this wonderfully refreshing winter combination of beets, oranges, fennel, goat cheese, chicken, and a delicious pistachio vinaigrette.

We’ve been loving this spaghetti squash combination I came up with… spaghetti squash topped w/ sautéed kale + sun-dried tomatoes + garlic, balsamic-marinated chicken, fresh parmesan, and red pepper flakes. So good! Love the salty flavors and texture here. Need to make again ASAP.

Breakfast nut + seed bowls topped with plenty of peanut butter, agave, and thawed/frozen organic berries. Are you a creamy or crunch peanut butter person??

One of my new favorite frittata combos — pictured just before going in the oven. Roasted broccoli + red pepper + white onion, along with fresh parmesan + feta. I also added some kale since I had some leftover from another recent dinner.  Served alongside this paleo cornbread recipe (see below).

Some Saturday baking of paleo cornbread for dinner later in the day, along with Alexis’ gingerbread cake recipe that I made for our church lunch (also saved several squares for us!). I absolutely loved this recipe! I opted to not do the frosting and instead added a bunch of mini chocolate chips (I love chocolate + gingerbread — possibly my favorite combination). Planning to make this cake again for Christmas.

Everyday Enjoyment: 

Plans for holiday cooking & baking //

Speaking of which, I always enjoy thinking about and planning for holiday cooking and baking this time of year… some food ideas for the next week I’m looking forward to include a frittata and cranberry orange coffee cake for Christmas breakfast, chocolate gingerbread cake + sugar cookies for Christmas dessert, and probably what I made last year for Christmas Eve — roasted garlic + cauliflower soup w/ rolls and a tasty salad. Simple and easy to heat up before our 6:30pm Christmas Eve service! While I love to cook, I generally like to keep things simple yet fresh + flavorful.

Some recent Black Friday purchases // 

We ended up buying several things we needed on Black Friday to save some $$$… for one, I got a new laptop which I am super grateful for! Mine has been basically non-functional for quite some time, and I’ve been having to use Alec’s every day for work which obviously isn’t a good long-term solution. Even writing this blog post has been so much easier with my new computer being a lot faster! We also got a new water filter (upgrade from our Brita) and also did a decent amount of shopping for family members. The only thing I hate is how Black “Friday” starts well before Friday!!! Can we not just enjoy our Thanksgiving in peace without being bombarded with endless shopping deals and ads??

Reading update //   

Currently reading Ina Garten’s new memoir which I’m finding enjoyable, interesting, and entertaining. So many funny stories and adventures. I would say that I tend to go about life / make decisions a lot differently than she tends to, so it’s interesting getting a glimpse into how she goes about things! I also absolutely love the food industry so it’s fun reading about her adventures in the food business.

Any holiday cooking or baking you are looking forward to? Or foods in general? (Takeout, dining out, others’ cooking, etc!) 

What is your favorite Christmas flavor or scent? 

Wishing you a restful, peaceful Christmas!