Happy New Year's Eve, everyone! I've been a little MIA lately. I have been super busy and am now at my parents' house for the New Year. My boyfriend and I are spending some time with the parents for a couple of days. Much needed. And my dad is not doing so well in the health department so I'm glad to be able to hang out with him.
Anyway, I didn't get to post some of the other gifts I received for Christmas.

Cuisinart, 11 Cup, from my Parents

I was so excited!! This beats my little 4 cup mini processor.

Omega Nutrition Virgin Coconut Flour 

Bee Pollen and Royal Jelly

Fun stuff! So what did I do the second I got home with my Coconut Flour...? 

Make macaroons!!

Chocolate Macs, Pure2Raw's Candy Cane Macaroons,
 and

Suga' Macs

(these were made with coconut flour, shredded coconut, agave, maple syrup, coconut oil and butter,
mesquite powder, vanilla and almond extract, and salt)

Made in the wood burning stove oven... dehydrator took too long this time...

The last couple of days, *cough* since I have not been blogging *cough*, I have been doing a lot of yoga. Vinyasa Power yoga classes were on Monday and Wednesday morning. Bikram yoga was on Tuesday, along with a couple of P90X routines thrown in there along the way. As most of you know, I have already finished my first round, 90 days, of P90X. I will be starting the program again in a couple of weeks. For now, it's nice to have time to do some other exercises. Since the P90X program is to be done six days a week, each an hour, it doesn't leave that much time to do other things I love like running or yoga. Well, you could do more than an hour of exercise a day, but when it's cold out and dark early, honestly, I just want to come home and hang out. Nothing wrong with that for now.

And, both of the boyfriends' parents are still home so we have been eating well...

Last night was Shabu Shabu!!

The table was completely packed with King Oyster mushrooms, shitake mushrooms, and two other varieties, bok choy, napa cabbage, snow peas, zucchini, mung bean sprouts, and chicken.

All placed in a big special "soup" pot in the middle of the table, heated, and eaten.

For dips, we had a mint green sauce, tahini sauce, nama shoyu, and plum sauce. It was all delicious and super filling.

And then we came home to my parents' house and get to eat more! Sheesh... so much food everywhere!

For dinner tonight we are going to have homemade lasagna (thanks Mom!), grilled salmon, and a giant salad ala RunLoriRun (I need greens). Not sure why we're making so much food, but hey, we'll have variety, I guess.

I hope everyone has the change to stay up tonight and take a look at the "Blue Moon" that happens once in (a Blue Moon, sorry the boyfriend told me to write it...) every 20 something years on New Year's Eve. The Blue Moon is really just a second full moon in the same month, but it is suppose to be beautiful, just the same.

Until next year, Ciao!

Christmas time recap

Wow, these couple of days have flown by! Christmas Eve, Christmas, and this last weekend, were great, but much too short. I apologize for not writing a post this whole time but really, I enjoyed my little break. Although, now, I'm definitely glad to be back to writing!

Here is a little recap of my holiday.

Christmas Eve, I got in a little exercise with a short 4.5 mile run, my P90X Kenpo (40 minutes of karate-like sweating), and the Ab Ripper X dvd. That night, we had my boyfriend's entire family over. There was 16 of us. Mama Samaan and Dad Samaan, ever year have everyone over for a five course dinner. The dinner was amazing. So good. We had the following:

Onion Soup (my favorite)

Salad

Smoked salmon salad

And then a buffet of slow roasted pork, mice (aka flattened beef rolled with bacon, not included on my plate), rice, baked brussel sprouts.

Homemade Tiramisu

Wine, homemade beer, and brandy, champagne, peach punch

And then opened presents from our Secret Santa's.

Christmas Day I went for another 4 mile run. That felt great after a few too many glasses of wine. I needed that kind of detox. Later, on Christmas, we went to my boyfriend's mother's side of the family for another big dinner. And after having to practically roll home, I got to go to bed early (9 pm)!

Saturday and Sunday were relaxing days. I got Mama Samaan the game Apples to Apples for Christmas and we spent a good three hours playing this with the family. This is a fun game. Definitely good with lots of people. We also watched Julie and Julia. Meryl Streep, you did an amazing job! I was actually surprised by this movie because it's all about a blog! It was funny to see how she gets so wrapped up in her blog and the challenge she places on herself, and that she feels as though she owes her readers something... like I'm sure most bloggers do, myself included. As a blog reader myself, I know that I look forward to checking, daily, for my favorite blogs to be updated with the details of their days. It's an interesting concept, documenting your live for others to read, but I enjoy reading and writing blogs.

And Saturday, the boyfriend and I took a little trip to Santa Cruz for a quick walk on the beach. I'm pictured with one of my Christmas presents from him (New running jacket... I love exercise...). And please, do not judge. I am not showered or wearing any makeup. Dirty and lovin' it. That's the way I roll.

I also got to do some healthy food cookin' to ward off the large amounts of not-so-healthy (but good) food that I had been eating. Dinner ala Lori included a simple green salad and Baked Root Veggie Scramble with Creamy Raw Sauce. Simple. Satisfying.

So what did you get for Christmas???

On Christmas Eve I went to get the mail and look what came for me...

Twin Cakes Goodies!!!

Believe me, I was excited!

The twins of Pure2Raw and creators of Twin Cakes Bakery were kind enough to send me a fantastic variety of their best sellers for their bakery. And let me tell you, I cannot wait for the day when I can order all of these goodies and more! Wow, they are all GREAT. Some of the things I got were Gingerbread Mac's, Brownie Bites, Kale Hemp Flatbread, and Pumpkin Seed Kale Crackers. And an incredibly nice note. Thank you. All of the samples were raw, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, and delicious. I'm getting hungry just thinking about them...

Twins, if you read this, thank you SO MUCH and I want to order more!! You made my week! And I must say, my absolute favorite thing I got from them were the Bok Choy Flatbread and the Collard Green Fiesta Flatbread. But then again, they all have so much flavor, I loved them all.

Tis the Season to make chocolate

And that is what I did. I welcome you to the wonderful world of raw chocolate recipes.

RunLoriRun's Cacao Delight Bars
Ingredients for simple chocolate:
1/2 cup whole peeled cacao beans, ground
1/8 cup coconut oil
1/8 cup melted cacao butter (use coconut oil if not available)
1/4 cup raw honey or raw agave syrup

Optional ingredients:
1/4 cup raisins
1 T almonds, finely chopped
1 drop orange, lemon, clove, lavender or other essential oil
Cinnamon to taste
Celtic sea salt to taste

Grind cacao until it is very fine. The cacao will have a consistency like raw almond butter and will stick to the sides of the grinder. Mix ground cacao with coconut oil or cacao butter in grinder or food processor. Add honey and other ingredients, stirring or processing well. The mixture should be able to be poured. If not, add more coconut oil. Pour into ice cube trays or other forms and freeze for 45 minutes. Serve immediately after
removing from the freezer.

Superchocolate Goji Lemon Bars, by David Wolfe and naked-chocolate.com

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of goji berries
• 2 cups of cacao nibs
• 1 teaspoon lemon peel
• 2 cups grated raw cacao butter

Blend all ingredients in a blender (or processor) until smooth. Pour into any mold and place in fridge to set.

RLR's Cacaoconut Blend
Ingredients:

• 1 young coconut water and meat
• 1-2 tbsp raw cacao nibs
• few drops of Stevia
• Ice

Blend and create a rich, satisfying, energizing, and healthy, chocolaty drink. 

Liquid Chocolate, by Ani Phyo (buy her books, they're great.)
Ingredients:

• 1 cup cacao butter, melted
• 1/2 cup cacao powder
• 1 Tablespoon mesquite powder
• 1 teaspoon maca powder

Bloughts of the day:
What have you not been sharing?
What lights you up?

And Merry Christmas

Happy Baby, Baby!

Good morning and happy Wednesday, also, Christmas Eve Eve. I hope that everyone has gotten to their destinations safely, or is soon in route, and are with friends and family. And to those who may be working today (me...), end the day strong knowing that you have tomorrow off (hopefully)!!

This morning I visited my favorite yoga studio for an hour and a half of Vinyasa Flow. This morning we worked on the Warrior poses. These included, but were not limited to, Warrior I, Warrior II, Reverse Warrior I, Reverse Warrior II, Triangle, and Crescent Moon Pose. We finished the class with my favorite pose, Ananda Balasana, or Happy Baby pose.

(source)

Why is this my favorite pose...? Well, it's just relaxing. You get a great stretch, you get to unwind from the class, and usually, it's one of the last moves before Savasana (Corpse Pose- or Try Not To Fall Asleep Pose).

Tomorrow I have a big day planned. Since I am spending Christmas Eve and Christmas with my boyfriend and his family, I am included in their yearly tradition. Tomorrow night all of my boyfriend's family comes over to the house and Mama Samaan and Dad Samaan (sorry couldn't think of a better name) make an incredible five course meal for all of us, 20+ this year. I cannot wait! The food is better than anything you could order in a restaurant, for sure! I'll be posting pics and descriptions after Christmas. Check back. So, for now...

Happy Holidays for whatever you may be celebrating.

Bloughts of the Day:

This calm steadiness of the senses is called yoga. Then one should become watchful, becomes yoga comes and go. 

-Katha Upanishad

Appreciation can make a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary.

-Margaret Cousins

I returned

Wow, the weekend went by fast! Hope everyone had a fantastic couple of days! Sorry no post this weekend but I was pretty busy. Let me recap for you:

Friday night I went to the Ballet! A friend and myself saw the Nutcracker. It was amazing. The dancing was so beautiful. Those people are talented! They could literally bend their bodies in half, kicking their leg up straight to their face, all without moving the rest of their body at all. It was crazy. They make yogis look stiff. I had a great time. Prior to the show starting, we grabbed some drinks and dinner.

Big glass of Shiraz

 

Best Pomegranate Martinis Ever

 

 

Saturday, I took advantage of the warm weather we were having and took went for a run in Los Gatos. This is one of my favorite places to run because the scenery is fantastic. The run I do goes up the Los Gatos Creek Trail, up to the top of the dam, around the side and into the hills. I go all the way to the top of St. Joseph's Hill and then back down on the other side. This run has some major hills. I ran about 6.5 miles and it took me about 58 minutes. Not bad.

When I got home from my run, Mama Samaan had made a ton of German Christmas cookies. I have never had better German cookies, ever. They were super fluffy and flaky and not super sweet- they were perfect.

Saturday night we had an Arabic meal, consisting of all my favorites (only one pictured). As mentioned before, my boyfriend is half Arabic so, on occasion, I get to taste a wide variety of Arabic foods, dishes, etc. (Such a horrible job but somebody's gotta do it! Yeah right! I love it!). My boyfriend's father and mother are both home now in California from their home in England for the next couple of weeks. We're going to be eating quite a lot of crazy good foods for a while! (more pictured later)

Mmmmm, homemade (and authentic) hummus. Yes those are homemade pickles, and yes it was amazing with the hummus.

Yesterday, Sunday, again, I did an easy run outdoors. I can't believe I have not been running as much as I used to. I miss it. This run was about 4.5 miles. I loved every step and every breath of fresh air.

After the run I took a trip over to Pure2Raw.com and made their You-Have-To-Make-These Candy Cane Macaroons. I followed their recipe pretty closely and they turned out amazing. And now, I can't stop eating them! Thank you twins! I highly suggest everyone to try them. I think I will be making more of these tonight and sending them to my family as presents!  

Raw, vegan, gluten-free Candy Cane Macaroons

And that leaves me to today. This morning I cleansed my body with a little P90X Plyometrics sweating action. Always leaves me refreshed (and ready for a shower)! And, at work now, watching it POUR. It's seriously coming down here. Anyway, only 4 more days til Christmas! Hope your shopping's done! Mine isn't... I know, slacker.