Balance Is Beauty

Hi Friends!

I hope all of my American Friends had a Delightful Thanksgiving and I hope all your bellies are feeling nice and full Isn’t that what it’s all about? Good Food, Good Drink and being surrounded by those you love!

I have stayed true to my plan of juicing every other day , yesterday I awoke and mixed myself this lovely plant juice:

It had Kale, collard greens, celery, carrots, apple, and lemon. It was wonderful, I can feel every sip cleansing my body – I love it!

About an hour after my juice, I decided to try something new for Breaky. Although I tend to mostly try and stay raw until dinner, I was really craving some warm comfort food. I decided to put a spin on my quinoa oats. I’ll go back two steps first . . . before I show you what I came up with. As you know I stick to a vegan diet (mostly – as I have said before I do have raw honey on occasion), due to this it can be tricky getting sufficient amounts of protein. To be totally honest with you, I am really not the biggest bean lover in the world – my body doesn’t digest them well and I really don’t feel too great after eating them.  Although I do eat them sporadically (chickpeas especially), I know not enough to get sufficient amounts of protein. Therefore I rely pretty heavily on protein powder to fortify my diet. I am a huge Sun Warrior protein powder lova – seriously it is like platinum gold to me, if you aren’t familiar with it, this is what it looks like

It is VERY hard to find it in Canada – I have found one store that stocks it regularly and every time I go in there I basically beg them to never stop carrying it. I am very fussy about my protein powders and I really enjoy this one – if anyone knows of other raw vegan brands out there, let me know, it’s always good to have a back up!

So. . . back to my initial story . . . sorry I got lovestruck sidetracked there professing my love. Yesterday morning I knew I needed protein but I also knew I felt like something warm and comforting. A lightbulb went off and I decided to combine the two. Protein Powder + quinoa oats – BRILLIANT!

1 scoop protein powder, 1/3 cup oats, 1/2 water, 1/2 almond milk, cinn-baby, stevia, 1/2 nanner, scoop of almond butter, and sprinkle of coconut on top! I was pleasantly surprised by this combination. Now, I’m not gonna lie to ya – there is a bit of that powdery texture to it, but knowing that I am getting 15g of protein is worth it for me – I found that the banana really helped to smooth it out! For those of you trying to find sneaky ways to up your protein intake – give this a try!

As you may have guessed by the title – this girl is going on a ROADY this weekend. I am heading to Ottawa for a girls weekend with my Mom, Aunt, and cousin to visit with some good friends of ours! With the stress of a full time job, plus school this is definitely a welcoming trip. I could really use a couple of days away from the computer and my books just to kick back, do some shopping, and spend some quality time with a group of wonderful women:) I am looking forward to it! I’ll have the camera with me – so expect a full recap! I’ll also show you some of the treats I have prepared to bring with me. It can be stressful trying to find vegan friendly foods while away, so I go equipped with things to munch on, that way I don’t have to worry if the selection is lacking

Time for me to get my beauty rest – I’ll see you all back here on Sunday for a full-recap of my weekend!

Have a Wonderful Weekend

xoxo

Krissy

Hi Loves!

Hope everyone had a splendid Monday – mine was filled with work + school – Boo! I did however, have one exciting visit from an old friend that I haven’t seen in a couple of months!

 My Breville Juicer made it’s triumphant return yesterday morning and I couldn’t be happier. I find that I go through periods where I juice a lot, then find I fall into periods where I don’t give my beloved juicer very much Lovin! Sunday night, I realized that I have fallen into an extended period with hardly any juicing at all. This was definitely grounds for an Intervention. Monday morning I woke up and skipped to the kitchen to dig out all the produce I could find. I found some purple kale, collard greens, spinach, carrots, apple and some lemon – perfect juicing material! I spent some time begging for forgiveness reacquainting myself with my shiny green juicing machine and vowed to never go so long without so much as a phone call   We made up and I was rewarded with this lovely green beauty:

I forgot how amazing green juice makes you feel – no need for caffeine when you have this running through your blood! I can’t say enough about my Breville. For the price, you can’t beat this machine. I know there are a lot of other great juicer’s out there that may give you a bit higher quality product (The Greenstars of the world), but for someone looking for an affordable juicer to give great quality juice – I definitely recommend the Breville. I have the Fountain Elite, but have heard good things about all of their products – so whatever fits your price range, I would definitely recommend!

I realized there are a few reasons I tend to jump on and off the juice bandwagon. One reason is that it can be quite costly trying to keep up with all the produce you need to juice on a daily basis. Secondly, it can be a little bit time consuming in the morning to get everything together, wash all the produce, juice it and then clean the machine. Mornings that you feel overly rushed – juicing can sometimes feel like one more thing to slow you down. What I realized is that juicing doesn’t have to be an all or nothing thing. Previously when I would go through periods of juicing I always felt like I had to juice every day to reap all of its benefits. I would stress out trying to make sure I always had enough produce on hand and stress out trying to make sure I had enough time in the morning to get everything prepared. This time I have vowed to make my juicing experience much different. I want it to be something that I can enjoy on a regular basis and not something that continually comes in and out of my life for periods of time. I decided that for this week I will trial juicing alternate days and see how I feel. I figure if I start out slow I only have room to improve. Some weeks I may only get in a couple of days of juicing, and that’s ok, 2 days of green goodness is definitely better than none I have realized I am often too hard on myself – if i take something on (especially a health challenge) – it’s always all or nothing – which honestly I have found sets me up for failure. My goal is simply to incorporate more green juice into my life – maybe one week it will be everyday, maybe another week it will only be 1 day – either way I know my cells will be screaming with joy when they receive this liquid gold  green! I will keep you posted on juicy experiences

Your turn to tell me what your experiences are with juicing – do you juice everyday ? What are your favourite juicy combinations?

Enjoy your Tuesday! (For all the Americans – Your week is almost OVA! I’m SO jealous:))

xoxo

Krissy

Hi All!

How is everyone?! Again – sorry for my absence – I think I will stop apologizing and just say I will try my best to blog as regularly as I can! Ideally I would love to be able to blog everyday, but with so much on my plate right now I will just say I will blog as often as possible

Thanks to everyone for their great comments about “late night snacking”. I have actually found I have been much better this week. I am trying to have a bigger/more satisfying dinner so that I am not left feeling hungry/snacky later in the evening. So far so good!

Today, I thought I would give you a little bit more information on the school I am attending and the designation I am working towards. I thought about it and realized that I think I have been pretty vague as to what exactly I am doing at school Hopefully this post will clear it all up!

The school that I am attending is the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition (CSNN). The designation that I will attain upon completion of the program is a Registered Holistic Nutritionist. The school gives a nice overview of what the programs encompasses:

“The dedicated purpose of CSNN’s teaching is to demonstrate the importance of natural nutrition in complementary health care. The Natural Nutrition Program prepares holistic nutritionists in a very practical way to meet this goal through individual counselling as well as through community education. The students learn to do individual client assessments and to give nutritional recommendations during supervised case studies.
The connection between body, mind and spirit is an integral and important part of these studies. It is scientifically demonstrated that our state of mind and spiritual wellbeing affect our physical health. The study of this well-established phenomena is not linked to any religious creed. It is purely academic and aims to enlighten in a broad way on the effects of life experiences and circumstances, on health.”

The program consists of 17 courses. I am attending the school 2 nights per week for 3 hours each night and will complete the program in 1 year. In order to graduate I also must complete 14 case studies. The case studies require me to find 14 people to complete a health/nutritional assessment on, make nutritional/supplement/holistic health recommendations and report outcomes. If anyone out there has any health/nutritional concerns and would like some consultation, please let me know as I said I need to find 14 willing participants – and hey, the bonus is right now because I’m a student it’s all free – I’m not allowed to charge hehe If you have health/nutritional concerns and would consider being a case study for me, please email me at balanceisbeauty@rogers.com. I would be more than willing to help as much as I can!

What I like so much about the course is that it really touches on so many different aspects of health and nutrition, with a huge emphasis on prevention –I think this is so critical. I find our society focuses on nutrition and health only after an illness or problem has been discovered. I believe our thinking needs to change in these regards, if we keep our mind, body and soul healthy and provide our bodies with proper nourishment we can prevent disease/illness from happening and will not longer have to try and reverse damage we have already done.  Many of us want to believe that illness/disease will not strike us and therefore don’t think about preventing it before it happens. Our mentalities are “that won’t happen to me”, when in reality, if we are not taking care of ourselves, our bodies and our minds it will happen. I could go on and on about this topic – but I am sure most of you reading have similar views to mine It is my hope that once I graduate I will be able to spread this message to those that aren’t as informed as my lovely readers

If you are interested in looking at all of the courses I will be taking over the next year, take a peek here! 

So far I have completed 4 of the courses and honestly it has been the most wonderful couple of months. I can’t say how amazing it is to sit through a 3 hour class without even looking at the clock once. When I am in class I am totally focused on what is being taught and am interested in everything! I feel like a little sponge, trying to soak up as much as I can during each 3 hour class! I am SO excited about what the future has in store. I know that I have found my passion, and that’s why I have faith that once I graduate I will be able to find my place in the health/nutrition industry! Please feel free to contact me with any questions about the school. They actually offer the whole course through distance education, so it is really open to anyone, not just those who are near their actual schools!

Sorry for the lack of pictures, but I just wanted to give you a little bit of insight into what I have been up to over the last couple of months. I will leave you with one picture, totally not related to this post, but hope that it will make you smile as much as it makes me smile! I’ll be back soon (won’t promise when! hehe), and will have more pictures when I return!

 My little one trying out the yoga mat! hehe

Question: For those of you in school, what are you studying?

xoxo

Krissy

Hi All!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Monday! Mine has flown by – I was quite busy at work today and then I took a quick power nap from 5pm-6pm, I don’t normally do this but for some reason my pillow was calling my name and I couldn’t resist it!

As I eluded to yesterday, I spent some time organizing myself for the week to come. Over the past couple of weeks I have noticed my raw intake slowly diminishing and the more starchy comfort foods replacing them. I think a big part of maintaining a high raw lifestyle is to be organized and have raw food on hand – if it isn’t there, or takes a lot of time to prepare I am more likely to reach for something that is quicker or easier to prepare – especially when I’m hungry! I spent Sunday prepping raw foods for the week, as I plan to try for a week of a high raw diet, here is what I “uncooked”:

A double batch of my raw bread picture that tray x 5 – i made 20 pieces, so I should be good for a couple of weeks. I also made a batch of kale chips – two trays. Guaranteed these will be gone very shortly – hubby and I both love them so they are very hard to keep around!

I also whipped up a batch of Kristen Suzanne’s Holiday Chia Pudding. This is one of my favourites and it’s actually been quite a while since I’ve made it! Although the picture doesn’t look too appetizing, it is DELICOUS, if you haven’t tried it – you MUST! I had about a 1/4 cup for dessert today and it was heavenly!

Last, but not least, I made a raw veggie pate – the base was 1 cup of sunflower seeds, there was carrot, miso, lemon juice, and garlic processed in and then at the end I stirred in some chopped up celery. I made this last night and let it sit in the fridge overnight and had it for lunch today in a collard wrap. This is the first time I have used a collard leaf as a wrap and I wish I had of tried it earlier! It was perfect! Again – the picture of the Veggie pate is not very appetizing, but I swear it tastes good

Lunch was the above wrap, two pieces of raw bread and 1/4 cup of chia pudding. SO satisfying.

Dinner will not come as much of a surprise . . .

Giant salad with a piece of raw bread. Dessert was small piece of dark chocolate and a macaroon. (I whipped up a batch this afternoon but forgot to snap a picture – opps sorry!)

Unfortunately I had a bit of a slip up tonight – hubby and I were watching T.V. and I may have slipped my hand in his chip bag once or twice! I get upset at myself when I set a goal (which was to try and eat mostly raw this week) and then slip up on the first day – but tomorrow is another day and in the grand scheme of things I had an excellent day of eating, so I would rather focus on that!

Question for all of you – how do you avoid late night snacking? I find I do great all day long and then when the night time rolls around I am super snacky – it wouldn’t bother me if I actually was hungry, but I’m really not, it just seems to be more of a habit! I’d love to hear how all of you avoid this pitfall!

xoxo

Krissy

It’s currently 11:25pm and I feel like this is the first time I have sat down all day! What a busy, but productive day I have had. This morning started off with this beauty:

It consisted of 1 scoop sun warrior protein powder, 1 scoop amazing grass, 1/2 banana, 1/2c strawberries, 1/2 cup almond milk and 1/2 cup water. Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm just what my body was asking for! Thank goodness I fuelled up because shortly after I got a phone call from Mom asking if I wanted to go shopping – does that really require a response???

 Mom and I were on a mission to find drapes from my family room. Hubs and I have been in our current house for almost 2 years now and it is about 3000 sq feet and because it is only the two of us we haven’t been in a rush to fully furnish the whole place. Needless to say drapes are on the top of the list right now (don’t worry – we have shutters). I was successful in finding drapes I liked, but I am still searching for a rod – as soon as I find one I like I’ll post the pictures and you can tell me what you think!

 While we were out we also popped into Pier One – I picked up a couple of cute things – which were on SALE! Now – this is a big deal for me – you see, I am that girl that ALWAYS pays full price for everything – there can be 10 things on sale and  the 1 thing I pick up is always the only one that’s not on sale. Hubs is a big time wheeler and dealer (he is a real estate agent so the boys got MAJAH SKILLZ), and it honestly kills him everytime I come home and tell him I paid full price – he gets deals EVERYWHERE he goes. Things were different this time though, I made my man proud! Here’s what I picked up:

The CUTEST little apron – it was regular $18.00 and I got it for $4.00 – can you believe that! I also picked up 2 of these cute little bowls (please excuse my disgusting chipped nail polish and 80 year old looking hands – I swear I’m 27 although you’d never know it looking at those hands!!!)

These cute little bowls were regular $8.00 each and I got them for $2.00 each!!! I was so impressed with my deals today! I think I have turned over a new leaf – no more full price for this girl – it’s all about the deals

 Mom had fun watching me continue to pull out my wallet, while she kept hers glued shut. About half way through our shopping trip I dug into an unpictured Lara Bar (Coconut Lime) which kept me going for another couple of hours. By the time I got home however, I was ready to eat my own arm off. I snacked on some raisins and almonds while I prepared my Salad beast for dinner.

Organic salad mix, cucumbers, carrots, cauliflower, tomato, avocado, hemps seeds and sesame mustard tahini dressing, served with two slices of raw bread ( one topped with AB and the other with Earth Balance). Honestly this meal was sooooo good I almost cried while eating it (maybe it was because I was so hungry, but I’ll just pretend it was my SKILLZ).

 Since then I have basically been grazing all night – handful of nuts here, couple of dried apricots there, possibly some dark chocolate and maybe even a serving of mary’s crackers. I guess that’s what happens when your lunch and dinner kind of get combined!

Well lovies time for me to get some beauty sleep (lord knows I need as much of that I can get lately). Stop by tomorrow to see how I spent the rest of my afternoon – it involves me organizing my meals for the rest of the week (this is a BIG step for me – let’s just say I’m not known for my organizational skills!!!)

 Until Tomorrow!!

 xoxo

Krissy

Today was a lovely day in Toronto – we are having record temperatures here for November.  Ange  and I decided to go through with our Fresh  lunch today, although we were missing one HappyGoLucky girl, she was with us in spirit (get well soon lovie!).  Both Ange and I work from home, which of course is wonderful, but lonely at times – so we have decided to try and make it a priority to meet as often as we can. Fresh is one of those resturants, where you need a good half an hour just to decide what you are going to order for a drink let alone your meal. Due to all the sickness going around Ange and I both decide to get an immune elixer to give our system a little boost.

I got the Lung Lover and Ange got the Flu Fighter

We both really enjoyed our elixers – they are served hot and definitely throw a good punch – I could feel the burn as it went down

After studying browsing the menu for hours a while we both finally came to a decision on our main course. We each decided on a salad.

I got the Mega Life Salad which included marinated tofu cubes, grilled spinach, alfalfa & sunflower sprouts, grated carrots, parsley and toasted nuts & seeds on salad greens. Ange got the Big Salad which had avocado, cucumber, tomato, carrot, red pepper, and hulled hemp seeds with tofu on the side (head over to her blog to see a photo unfortunetly I didn’t snap a pic). We both really enjoyed our meals, it was a nice light meal, so we didn’t feel like we needed to be rolled out of the resturant when we were done – which is always a bonus

We were right around the corner from Lululemon, it would have been a sin to leave without popping in.

And you know I couldn’t walk out of there empty handed …

I bought the Manduka Equa Towel which is a non-slip towel to put over my yoga mat – I find my foot slips a lot on the mat, I’ll review the towel after I have used it a few times.  I also bought the Foam Brick which is supposed to help “deepen your level of your postures and help increase your flexibility”. I’ll also give you a review of this product after I have tried it out!

Well love bugs this is currently what is going on in my household . . .

Time for me to go join the fur babies!!! Enjoy the rest of your Saturday night!

xoxo

Krissy

Bloggies!!!

SOOOO sorry to have been gone so long! Maybe you didn’t notice (I hope someone did hehehe), but I’m back and promise to try to never be gone so long!

I have to admit – it was one of those weeks where I kind of found myself in a rut. I really had no reason to feel down or feel “blah” but for some reason I did! Anyways – I have snapped out of it now thank god. I really focused on doing a lot of yoga and relaxation to try and get myself out of the FUNK I was in!  The results were amazing – after doing 30 min of yoga my body and mind felt SO much better.  I found that by giving my mind and my body 30 minutes where all I thought about was my breathing and my yoga posture helped to clear my mind and allow some of the negativity I was carrying around to clear out.  Previously I would have really struggled to get out of the negative mindset – it probably would have lasted for weeks.  Now with all the personal growth and learning I have acheived over the past months, I was able to recognize that I was in a negative frame of mind, come up with strategies to help clear the negativites and go on with my life – without very much interruption at all. This was HUGE for me – 6mths ago a situation like this could have easily spun out of control for me – and lasted for weeks on end! It’s also wonderful to have the support of the blog world – when you start to feel down, all you have to do is go to some of the amazing blogs (not mentioning any names ANGE, ALEX) and you can’t help but be inspired. I think it’s definitely normal to go through periods where you aren’t feeling 100%, I think they teach you a lot about yourself and also teach you what you are capable of in terms of the strength you have inside to overcome them.  I believe that each experience you have teaches you something so that next time you are equipped with more strength to deal with whatever comes your way.  So basically, I say LIFE BRING IT ON – I’m ready for you!!

In other news – my happy go lucky lady is not feeling so hot, so go and give her some love! We have a date scheduled for this Sat and it is imperative that she gets better! Alex, Ange and I are hoping to do a late lunch at Fresh on Saturday and it just wouldn’t be the same without her – so send some good vibes her way!!!

Since I was in a funk for the start of the week, I was a very bad bad blogger and really didn’t take many pictures. To make up for my naughtiness I have decided to give you something that is very near and dear to my heart.  This is a recipe that basically I have been fooling everybody around me with. At first taste you would think that I am some kind of raw chef extrodinaire – and I have kind of been enjoying the thought that those who taste these little gems think I am some kind of brilliant “raw baker”.  Today I am going to expose my secret and my recipe for what it really is – OH SO SIMPLE.  So it is with great pleasure that I provide you with . . .

THE RAW MACAROON

Raw Coconut Macaroons

3 cups shredded unsweetend coconut

1/4  honey (raw and unpasteurized would be the best) *

1/4 agave *

3 Dates

1 tsp vanilla extract

* To keep it vegan (as I do) you can use all agave, or if you prefer honey you can use all honey. The mixture of the two is nice though!

Place all ingredients in the food processor and let it do its magic. Roll into macroon shapes and dehydrate at 105 for 4-6hrs. If you don’t have a dehydrator the batter is absolutely to die for, so you could absolutely just roll them into macaroon shapes, stick them in the fridge and gobble them up raw! I am actually drooling a little, thinking about how tasty these are – SO go make them! You can add special treats to them as well – I have used strawberries, you could use cacoa, almond butter is mouth watering, and I have used cinnamon and nutmeg for a little kick and they turned out great – let your imagination run wild!!! (If you come up with something good – you MUST share with me though )

THAT’S IT!!! SOOO Easy – now I can’t fool anyone anymore Give them a try and let me know what you think!

I’ll be back  TOMORROW, and promise to not be gone so long ever again!!

xoxo

Krissy

Hi Friends!

I must admit, one of my guilty pleasures is definitely watching Oprah, I do this most days at 4pm! My inspiration for this post comes from her, and her “favourite things” episode which airs each year around the holidays. I may be a bit early – what can I say I’m like a little kid when it comes to Christmas – I just can’t wait!!!

I think it’s fun getting to know bloggers on a little bit of a personal level so I thought I would share with you some of my favourite things today!

These are my absolute favourite hair products.  This company, “Live Clean” is an all-natural vegan product, I adore all of their products and also use their body wash and hand soap – they smell fantastic and leave you feeling fantastic – I would definietly recommend these products to anyone looking for an all natural vegan product!

These are some of my favourite make-up products. I must admit I have gone very natural and green in almost all areas of my life, but am struggling with make-up. I really like the bare minerals products, and feel good about using them, however my foundations could definitely use some cleaning up – if anyone has some good suggestions please let me know. I have to admit, I do love these products though, they give great coverage without making you feel like you have applied a layer of face paint on!

My favourite SPLURGE (and I MEAN splurge) item that hubby spoiled surprised me with on our 1 year anniversary (when he brought me to the store to pick it out, I thought I was going to faint).

My favourite running gear. My running shoe of choice is always Asics, I have tried a few other name brands, but always come back to Asics – they make me feel like I am running on clouds – love them! My parents spoiled me for my birthday last year and bought me a Garmin – it was definitely “love at first run” when I used it. Now I can’t imagine going on a run without it – I guess it’s the need to control side of me that loves this device, I love knowing all of my stats when I run! The last picture is my favourite running outfit – I just discovered the running skirt and am so glad I did! I love that it is so cute and stylish but most of all I love that it covers your booty when you run (hehehe), of course the gear is Lululemon – definitely my fav. workout gear store!

My favourite electronic devices – my Blackberry and Sony Vaio Laptop (both pink of course - really – is that a surprise??). Couldn’t live without them – simple as that! How else would I stay connected to you wonderful bloggers???

Ok, now onto the food …

Hands down, best veggie burger EVER! I eat these sometimes up to 3 times a week – love them on salad, love them on toast, love them on just about everything. If you haven’t tried them, give them a try (they are vegan too!)

MaraNatha is a great product because it is not as highly priced as some other raw almond butters – but tastes equally as delicous. The Pacific Foods Almond Milk just started getting sold in Canada and I am SO thrilled about this product, this is the first organic almond milk I have been able to find and I adore it – the Vanilla flavour is equally as delicious – I switch back and forth between the two!

My favourite condiments – Braggs is a great soy sauce substitute with a fraction of the sodium – it is especially tasty on any type of grain! I go through agave like I go through water – it is delicious in and on absolutely everything – a great sugar subsitute. Earth Balance is my favourite vegan subsitute for butter and can also be used for baking – I like the mediterranean blend. Lastly is the Herbamare – this is a great salt substitute. It is sea salt blended with different herbs and spices and therefore is a bit lower in sodium than regular salt or sea salt – it is really tasty and gives just a bit more flavour than regular sea salt.

Earthbound Organics are one of my favourite companies, I buy a big tub of their spinach and field greens basically every week. My favourite fall squash is definitely Kabocha – and I NEVER would have even thought about trying this had it not been for the blog world – after hearing everyone rave about it, I knew I had to give it a try – and boy am I glad I did. I love to roast it, steam it, mash it, purree it, add it to oats – basically you can’t go wrong with this gem – it’s TO DIE FOR!

And last but certainly not least …

My FAVOURITE fur baby – who brings SO much joy to hubby and I’s life

This was honestly, the most FUN post to write!

Now it’s YOUR turn! Leave me a comment to let me know some of your  favourite things  – or better yet, leave me a comment and a link to your post containing all of your favourite things! – I promise you’ll have so much fun putting it together!

xoxo

Krissy

HAPPY FRIDAY!!

I don’t know about you - but I am super happy it’s Friday – I LOVE weekends -I just wish they didn’t go by so quickly!  As I said yesterday, I have been slacking in the food porn pics so I thought I would give you a little glimpse into what I have been eating this week! Normally lunch is some variation of a HUGE salad – often paired with some toast:

I also sampled a new product that I haven’t tried:

A paired it with my new fav:

Lentil Soup + vegan grill cheese – talk about COMFORT food!!! The” Healthy Valley” Lentil Soup was very tasty – I especially like that there is no added salt – and when they say NO added salt they really mean it! I must admit I did have to add salt to it as well as some cinnamon  – it was DE-LISH! I would definitely buy it again. I find in the cold months  I crave soup all the time – I am one of those people that is always cold (even in the summer), so bring on the cold weather and I basically need to be bundled up at all times!

This afternoon I was craving something sweet and decided to bake up a batch of cookies. I of course went to my homegirl Dreena - was there even a question – if you don’t have her book – go out and get it NOW!  I had all of the ingredients from Ange’s Halloween party so I decided to whip up a batch of her Super Charge Me Cookies. (click the link for the recipe).

They turned out great! I definitely recommend this recipe – it’s great if you are vegan and looking for something that non-vegans will also enjoy! I plan on bringing these to my parents place for dinner tomorrow night – no one else is vegan but I can almost guarentee they will be enjoyed by all

This afternoon I was also lucky enough to have a special date with a special girl – one that you all know and love!

Hehe – she might kill me for this picture – but I LOVE it We were VERY bad bloggers and didn’t take out our camera’s once.  But there was a lot of this:

And A LOT of this:

Ange and I have so much in common and it’s so great to have someone SO like-minded in my life. We definitely agreed to make these little meet ups a regular event! Both of us have lots going on, but we both agreed it’s important to make time for GREAT friendships! (next time we’ll be good bloggers and take pictures – we promise!)

We’ll loves, tonight is date night with hubs! We are off to the movies (not sure which one yet – maybe Couples Retreat)!  I’ll be back tomorrow with a special post I am super excited about – so STAY TUNED!!

xoxo

Krissy

As I mentioned in a previous post,  I am trying to be more commited to my Yoga practice. With my life being so busy and at times stressful, I am feeling like now, more than ever, I need Yoga to balance out my life.  I’m sure most of you are very aware of the benefits of Yoga, but for those that are so familiar Yoga is very effective in: