Christmas

Original title post, huh? I thought so :) I'm warning you all that I have tons of pictures and this post is going to be filled with them. I got my new lense for christmas! So I've been taking pictures like a mad woman.

Anyways, this christmas I was at my dads house with my sister and grandparents. My dad was on a roll baking and cooking all sorts of vegans goodies and meals. He made carob chip cookies, madelines, rougalah, fruit leathers, mashed potatoes, stuffing, turkey, roasted asparagus, sauteed carrots (earth balance) and much more! My sister and I woke up christmas morning and headed downstairs to the christmas tree living room. We all opened up gifts and then got ready for the day ahead of us!

 

 

These were our ACAI shots that we took every morning.

I got my lense so I wasn't much help in the kitchen ;) My dad was doing most of the dirty work while I was taking pictures. I was up for 20 hours the day before so I was getting really tired. My sister passed out in the other room also. We have been slaving at the bux for the last couple days. Time to RELAX!

For breakfast I was craving two different flavors. I decided to go with a little bit of both. I made a chocolate smoothie and then a fruit smoothie. They were small so I wasn't too full when I finished them. The chocolate smoothie was my favorite!

 

 

 

Chocolate Smoothie

• crushed ice
• soy milk
• coconut milk
• carob chips
• raw cacao powder
• banana
• flax

Blend it all together and top with a little cinnamon! I didn't add the size of the ingredients you should add because I just threw it all together based on the flavor I wanted. Add more carob or more banana if you want those flavors stronger. Adjust to your liking!

Fruit Smoothie

• banana
• apple
• flax
• ice
• water
• mango (pureed)

Lunch was a bowl of shredded wheat cereal with walnuts, cinnamon, and soy milk.

Snacks of the day:

We had a great christmas dinner and followed it up with an amazing dessert. My pictures don't capture how delicious this tasted! It was a mango sorbet, banana-strawberry sorbet, chocolate cup filled with vanilla creme topped with strawberries all laying on a blackberry fruit leather.

It was a good day filled lots of fun, food and laughter. My grandparents brought over there precious little babies. They recently had to put down one of their dogs so they decided to add more to their family. I couldn't help but take pictures of them.

Precious little pups!

PS: My dad made everything vegan! Well except the turkey

The next day I went over to my moms house to spend christmas with her and my step dad, Greg. We shared gifts and then went downstairs to watch tv for the remaining of the night. In between all of this I HAD to take a million pictures of my precious babies. I've had two of them since I was a wee little kid. They are getting old but they still are young at heart.

The next morning I made fresh orange juice for my mom and I. We were going on a tough walk after breakfast so we wanted something that would give us energy. She had peanut butter toast topped with flax. I had a mountain full of goodness. Let's call this

A Mouthful of Waffle

• 2 whole grain waffles
• 1 banana
• 1 TBS flax
• 1 TSP TJ Peanut Butter
• 1 TBS chopped walnuts

Yumm!!! :)

We let breakfast settle for a little bit and then went out for our toning walk. My mom takes me on a route that has a hill that she named' heart-attack hill'. Pretty funny but this sucker sure can take the air out of you. Good, tough walk followed up by a hot, steamy shower.

After getting ready we were craving some lunch. We had a big bowl of fruity heaven. They were exactly the same but hers had yogurt in it where mine had a couple splashes of soy milk.

Breakfast Fruity Goodness
(serving size- 2 huge bowls)

• 1 apple
• 1 banana
• 1/2 cup frozen blueberries
• 1/2 cup grapes
• handful of chopped walnuts
• 2 TBS flax
• 1 TBS cinnamon
  

Brandi just heard a really funny joke!

After lunch we geared up and jumped in the car. My mom's boss lives in the hills with over 100 orange trees. That's where I stock up for all of my orange juice that I make. Last time I visited home I ended up taking 10 bags home! This time about 8 or so. It was a really pretty day out especially in the setting we were in. There was a little cat that was following us around. It was a cute cat and seemed natural in front of the camera!

My mom :)

Mom being goofy!

After orange picking we went back home to relax some more... More practicing with the camera and I think the dogs were starting to get sick of me. Haha. A couple hours later and we were getting a little bit hungry. I sliced up a yellow pepper and brought out the hummus. We were muching on that and some grapes. The sunset was coming soon so we went outside to take some shots. I still haven't perfected this camera yet and can't get the pictures how I want them but you can still see the general idea. The pictures don't show it but the sunset was beautiful over the ocean.

Look at those faces!

Dinner time! I had an Amy's bowl with brown rice, black eyed peas and veggies. That's the first Amy's meal I had and it was really good. Thumbs Up! After dinner we hung out upstairs for a while, messing on the computer and all that jazz, then headed downstairs to cuddle in bed and watch tv. The day, night and christmas festivities were heading to an end.

 Goodnight.