gander mall photo booth

m'lover and i. most recent on left

my fav coconut cookies

i make these all the time. such an easy recipe, and loved my j and our old roommate. i guess you could call them macaroons too.

coconut cookies:
3 cups unsweetened shredded coconut
1/2 cup spelt flour
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon butter
1/2 cup brown sugar

mix all the ingredients with your hands, form cookies, bake in 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes. chocolate chips are optional

winter walks and puppies

j and bailey

late night walk with the schlaun 

early morning runaround with the shlaun 

snow 

we spent this weekend watching schlaun and hanging around gander. j and i are loving winter walks with puppies. between the spca and our neighbour dog, we usually have a pup to come with us. we have debated puppy adoption so much lately. sooner or later, we will get a pup of our own, but until then we've got the schlaun to occupy us.  

kitchen lately...

almond butter cookies. possibly the best cookies i have ever made. this recipe. 

these cookies are pretty awesome too. main ingredient: black beans. i just ate 5 of them for breakfast. also, this plate is made from rice. will decompose in 1 year apparently. looking forward to that

simple fruit salad: grapes, kiwi, banana. the tinier i cut the fruit, the better, for some reason

loving lately

 banana coconut ice cream: frozen bananas and coconut milk in the blender

being engaged to j

 very chill wedding planning

babysitting sweet schlaun 

home sweet home

we have been in newfoundland for 5 months now. starting to really feel like home

perfectly sweet stranger

i found this really cool designer from the netherlands online who had the exact same name as me! so i emailed her, and she sent me all these sweet cards! it totally made my day.

aren't they awesome? i think i am going to order more.

why i go to the gym

i got my first pair of sneakers just 4 years ago because a friend wanted to hike machu picchu in peru. and because i had started dating j, who is basically the most athletic person i have ever met. so yeah, i am not a gym person.

and then about a year ago, i became super stressed. i had a lot going on, and my mind was constantly going. i couldn't relax. so i eventually got advice from someone with many years of psychology education, who happened to be in the same profession as me.

his advice? lift weights. i was so surprised after other people telling me to meditate or visualize my problems in a little box with a lock on it. lifting weights was something i could definitely do. it was so practical. and it worked. he told me to go to the gym and use all the machines and lift weights until each muscle group was really tired. i think the theory is tired body = tired mind = relaxed mind. and now i go to the gym all the time, not because i love working out. because i like feeling relaxed afterwards.

old apartment

sometimes i miss our old apartment. it was tiny, with a bedroom, a living room, and a tiny closet of a kitchen. our new place is easily 4 times the size, with 4 bedrooms upstairs. my home will always be wherever j is, but i think i will always be drawn to tiny apartments.

perfect spelt loaf recipe

j and i have tried at least 12 other spelt bread recipes before this one. they were all too cakey, crumbly, or brick-like. but this one is perfect every time. we use our bread maker, and the loaf turns out pretty rustic, and so good.

perfect bread maker spelt loaf recipe:

2 tsp yeast
2 1/2 cups spelt flour
1 tbsp organic sugar
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sea salt
1 cup water
1 heaping tsp guar gum or xantham gum (super important)

add to bread machine in that order, use quick bread setting. done.

wow

 kryssy right after i picked them up at the airport

 at the hotel

 first stop on our pub crawl

 ship

 at blue on water, about to have flaming sambuca shots

 room service. so lovely

at the signal hill tower. best time


so this weekend was insane. george street got the best of us in a big way on friday. we had the best time, and it was definitely a once in a lifetime sort of thing. st. john's people are so friendly. can't wait for our next trip.

November 11th

Thank you to all the soldiers

yesterday, typical tuesday

made these energy balls for our road trip to st. john's

had to stop by the winery to get some nfld wine for hotel room drinks with m and k

 can't. stop. collecting.

sunset during our hour and a half commute home

 chocolate dreamcake

a little iceberg beer

meeting

so excited for this on friday. they have never been to newfoundland. i am thinking we should get screeched in....

no name puppy

                                                            (my parent's pup, lucy)

we only had sunday off this weekend, so we had to make it good. on saturday night we went to a community bonfire with friends. i hadn't had a roasted marshmallow in a long time, and forgot how awesome they are. sunday: sleeping in, coffee, reading, music, baking, walking dogs from the spca. one little blonde dog was 8 months old and had no name. so sweet and excited. we walked him, and a big old mutt named emma. pretty much breaks my heart every time. we aren't quite ready for a dog, but we talk about it all the time.

food processor love

soo, i am in love with my food processor. i think i use it every day. i used it to make the sauce for this veggie lasagna, in a skillet as usual as we have next to no bakeware. j said it was the best lasagna he ever had

then i used it to make this chocolate banana tofu pie with pecan crust. the girls and i had the amazing wooden monkey tofu pie on the weekend, and i was craving more. i based it on this recipe. 

banana chocolate tofu pie:

crust: 1 cup pecans + 1 cup dates, in food processor, pressed into dish
filling: 1 package silken tofu + 1 banana + 1 dark chocolate bar + 1 tablespoon cocoa, all in food processor, poured on top. then in the fridge

amazing

plans

this is the view from the hotel room on chocolate lake the afternoon that jon asked me to marry him. it was such an incredible, emotional day, and this view now gives me butterflies.

so j and i are getting married in 8 months. we are having a tiny wedding. now that the venue is booked, i am totally loving the buildup and planning. i have a "meeting" in st. john's next week with my wedding planner, my florist, and my stylist. aka my sister and mother. jon and i are really eco-conscious, so we are forgoing a lot of the typical wedding things, like paper invites, wedding favours, programs. for me, the most important wedding things are flowers, family, friends. my sister is really coordinating the whole wedding. she is an incredible personal stylist, and styling events comes naturally to her.

gwyneth's rice bowl

i borrowed gwyneth paltrow's cookbook, my father's daughter, from the library a few weeks ago. i love it. so simple, such good food. i loved it so much that jon wanted to buy me a copy. in our little town there was nowhere to buy this book, so jon told the library we lost it, and paid the "lost" fee. i feel this is not a bad way to procure books.

i made a version of her fried rice bowl for supper last night. cooked rice, green onions, garlic, broccoli, chickpeas, all fried up with a really good soy sauce. and i added coconut milk and lemon. so simple. a good weekday meal.