merry (belated) christmas to my readers who celebrate! my day yesterday was very relaxing, filled with good food, pyjamas and watching movies. today, much of the same continues. a brief outing to visit my old boss and it was right back into the comfies. there is no way i am braving the hoards of shoppers today, so stressful! and i’ve always been an online shopping kind of person anyway.
we got a fresh sprinkling of snow on christmas eve so it was perfectly white christmas morning- that’s the dream!
i’ve been a bad bad blogger lately…sporadic posts with no explanation, and my blog reading and commenting has taken a nose dive. for that i apologize! so today i thought i’d pop in with a what i ate wednesday post, showing what i ate yesterday! this is no means everything i ate, rather a couple highlights. scroll to the bottom of the post for lovely breakfast recipe!
christmas breakfast
i made personal apple crisps for a late breakfast and they turned out delicious! spiced with cinnamon and not too sweet, these would make a perfect breakfast anytime. buuut since it was christmas we served them with drizzles of almond milk and maple syrup!
snacks
i brought the leftovers home with me so a few of these nutmeg logs were had throughout the day
my mom picked up some of this almond-based “egg nog” so i’ve been sipping on that sprinkled with nutmeg. any guesses on my favourite spice? ;)
christmas dinner
my christmas dinner! none of these were my own recipes, but they were all delicious so i have to give shout outs to the blog’s who brought me this wonderful meal:
wild rice no-meat loaf from lifeologia- oh man this was amazing! the savoury flavours of wild rice and beans were complimented by the sweetness of the raisins and cranberries and the walnuts added crunch. i can’t wait for leftovers!
chickpea gravy from vanilla & spice- the hint of ginger in this gravy was lovely and went so well with the loaf.
black quinoa and kale salad from green kitchen stories- i made mine with red and white quinoa (festive) and avocado instead of feta- delicious!
dessert
a delicious carrot pineapple cake with cashew “cream cheese” frosting- recipe was not my own or online so can’t post it, but the frosting i used was a variation on this one! also, aren’t these plates the cutest?
and now the recipe for the personal apple crisps!
this recipe isn’t super sweet, so feel free to up the sweetener in the recipe or drizzle more on top as we did. it uses almond butter instead of oil to add richness, upping the nutrition and there’s lots of cinnamon in there to help balance out your blood sugar from the sweetener. and let’s face it- we could all use a little help balancing blood sugar in the holiday season right?
this is easily doubled, tripled, etc. depending on how many you want to make!
personal apple crisp (vegan, gluten-free, refined sugar-free)
ingredients (1 serving)
- 1/2 c apple, chopped small
- 1/2 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp coconut sugar
- 1/8 + 1/8 tsp cinnamon, divided
- 1 + 1/2 tsp flour of choice, divided (i used brown rice)
- 3 tbsp gluten-free oats
- 1 tbsp chopped almonds
- 1 tbsp almond butter
- pinch sea salt
instructions
preheat oven to 350. in a small bowl toss the apple, lemon juice, sugar, 1/8 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 tsp flour together and put in a ramekin.
mix together oats, almonds, 1 tsp flour, 1/8 tsp cinnamon, salt, almond butter and mix till it becomes crumbly. spoon over apple mixture.
bake for 10-13 min, until the top is crispy and golden brown and enjoy!
i will be back here for healthy vegan friday, but will probably not be around much other than that till the end of holidays. so i hope you all enjoy and i’ll see you in the new year!
Oh my your Christmas dinner looks incredible!
Hope you had a lovely Christmas, Gabby! I do love an apple crisp this time of the year! I’ve been quiet on my blog too — such a busy time of the year! But I had to pop by to say hello and happy holidays!
What a super fantastic breakfast. I have a feeling I’ll be making this sooner rather than later.
The loaf looks pretty fantastic too!
Looks like you definitely had a fun Christmas! All of the food looks wonderful. It makes me feel like I should’ve made more food for myself. Haha, but it’s hard being the only vegan in a family that’s still pretty hooked on meat and potatoes.
Wow what a great Christmas dinner plate!
I was feasting over it with my eyes and I just noticed that you did my Wild Rice Loaf – you’re awesome!
Thanks so much for the mention and I’m so thrilled you liked it so much ;)
We’ve been on leftovers for the last few days – so I’m really excited to be cooking something fresh and your apple crisp and the apple pineapple cake look soo good ;) And is that weird that I’m craving kale? … oh I just surprised myself with that one ;) lol.
Wishing you a lovely relaxing break – tis the time to let go of the crazy bloggers agenda and just do less ;)
Sending big hugs. xoxo Ella
It was so delicious Ella, thank YOU for the amazing recipe. It was so lovely and special!
I totally know what you mean about craving kale- I think craving lighter food makes so much sense after weeks of indulging. Not that I’m complaining, all that indulging was fun! Hope you had a wonderful holiday yourself :)
that apple crisp looks amazing! i just love the smell and taste of baked apples in the winter time. merry christmas!
Wow, everything looks so good!!! I will definitely be making these apple crisps!
Merry Christmas! Thanks so much for sharing your meal with us. So many recipes bookmarked!
Happy holidays, Gabby! No shame in staying away from the computer during your vacation. :-)
All looks amazing! Enjoy your relaxing! :)
Thank you Raechel! I hope you had a wonderful holiday yourself!
Merry Christmas Gabby! What a great post to come back with, everything looks so delicious!!! That breakfast apple crisp, YUM!!! Sounds so delicious, I’m definitely going to have to make sure to bookmark this recipe! Your Christmas dinner looks so delicious! I’m definitely going to have to try the kale salad :)
Enjoy the end of the year and we’ll see you on Friday!!
Thank you Sarah! I love this crisp- it comes together so fast and is so delicious! I hope you had a wonderful holiday yourself :)
I totally know what you mean about blog read lately- I just can’t seem to keep up with it lately! Hopefully, in the new year…
I am so happy that you had a wonderfully delicious holiday! Sending you big hugs! :-)
Big hugs to you too my dear :) Hope you had a lovely new years!
Merry Christmas dear Gabby! Looks like an utterly delicious Christmas :)
I hope you had a lovely Canadian Christmas Hannah :)
Merry Xmas!!! Your eats look amazing :) You put in a lot more effort than me (huge salads and vodka cocktails ;) )
Merry Christmas Lou! Hehe thanks! And boozy vodka cocktails sounds amazing! I found myself wishing more than a few times that I had some rum to add to my “Noel nog” ;)
Wow, Gabby! The feast looks incredible and so festive. Ace job on making the holiday meal so clean and kind:)
Thank you! It was so delicious, I think many of the recipes will be repeats :) happy holidays to you!
Your snow photo is beautiful! Food looks yummy, too!
Thank you so much Fran!