Make Gingerbread Waffles for Breakfast in Bed: Advent Day 8

Celebrating the Everyday  //  8th December 2012

Good Morning and Happy Saturday!  It’s Day 8 of our AMAZING Life Holiday Advent Calendar and we have the perfect way to start your weekend: Gingerbread Waffles for Breakfast in Bed!!!

RECIPE: Vegan Gingerbread Waffles 

I LOVE waking up early on a weekend to sneak downstairs to prepare a tasty breakfast for breakfast in bed.  There is no better way to reconnect with your significant other after a busy week of work and life than sitting together in bed while enjoying the morning and a tasty breakfast.

We were recently looking for a recipe for gingerbread and we stumbled upon the most AMAZING looking gingerbread waffles instead over at the Minimalist Baker.  And better yet, they are vegan which makes them sound super healthy! (Because for some reason in my mind anything vegan is more healthy).  :)

Ok, I know what you are thinking, how can a vegan waffle taste any good? Eggs and milk are key ingredients to this delectable breakfast time favorite, aren’t they?

Trust me, these are super easy to make and they are probably the best waffles we’ve ever had!  Just add a side of fresh fruit, place on a serving tray and you have the perfect meal for breakfast in bed.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1.25 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 Tbsp baking powder
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 flax egg (1 Tbsp flaxseed meal + 2.5 Tbsp water)
• 1 cup vanilla almond milk
• 2 Tbsp molasses
• 1 Tbsp canola oil
• Maple syrup and powdered sugar for topping

INSTRUCTIONS:

Start by creating a flax egg. In a large bowl, simply add 1 Tbsp of flaxseed meal to 2.5 Tbsp of water and let rest for a few minutes.  Flaxseed meal can be found in the baking isle of most grocery stores.

Meanwhile, combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon and ginger in a separate bowl.

Next, add molasses, oil, pumpkin puree (we had some leftover in our cupboard from Thanksgiving), and brown sugar to the flax egg.  Whisk until smooth.  Add almond milk and whisk until combined.

At this point you may get out your waffle iron and begin heating it up for cooking.

Combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients and mix until just smooth.

Once the waffle iron is hot, pour 1/2 cup of batter onto the iron and cook until brown and crispy.

At this point, we usually stack all of our waffles on a plate but they always end up getting moist from condensation and lose their crispy texture.  Thanks to the Minimalist Baker, we learned a super simple trick to keep the waffles crisp.  Simply place each waffle on a cookie cooling rack as you remove them from the waffle iron.  Genius!

After all of the waffles have been made and cooled slightly on the drying rack, stack 2 to 3 on a plate, top with maple syrup, and sprinkle on a little powdered sugar. Return to bed with these AMAZING waffles and soak in life! Happy Saturday!

 

Have your picture taken with Santa – Advent Calendar Day 5

Celebrating the Everyday  //  5th December 2012

There is something so incredibly magical about Santa! He has this special way of bringing an extra sparkle into the holiday season. It is always so much fun to walk by Santa at the Mall and see so many kids lined up to see the man in the bright red suit. Their eyes are usually bigger than ever with excitement because they believe in that magic! That raw excitement is contagious… so for Day 5 of our Amazing Holiday Advent Calendar we suggest that you go have your picture taken with Santa! ;)

I ALWAYS get super excited whenever I see Santa, anywhere… in the mall, at MeMe’s house on Christmas Eve (Yes, Santa always makes a stop at MeMe’s house on Christmas Eve and it is AMAZING! ;) ), and especially at Macy’s in NYC! Ryan and I took a little adventure to NYC earlier this week and one of the few planned activities that we had was to go see Santa at Macy’s! Ahhh! The REAL Santa!!! So exciting!!! ;) I may have even been more excited than the other kids in line! (I think part of me was super excited because I really thought that we might run into Buddy the Elf too! ;)… but no such luck!). But thats ok! Our visit with Santa was AMAZING!

You know what was SUPER fun?!? Santa LOVES Baltimore!! ;) (Actually, he told us he loves National Bohemian… lol, but that was just one of the many reasons he loved the city.) Visiting with Santa was pretty much magical! ;) We shared our Christmas wishes with him (more on those to come later! ;) ) and he said he would do the best that he could! He kind of loved them! ;)

Ahhh… so if you can’t tell by the HUGE smile on our faces… having our picture taken with Santa added even more Magic and sparkle into our holiday season! We certainly believe!

Go Look at Holiday Lights – Advent Calendar Day 4

Celebrating the Everyday  //  4th December 2012

Since we started dating in high school, we have always made it a Christmas tradition to go see the local light display. When we were younger, there was “Candy Cane Lane” where an entire street in town would decorate their homes.  And we are not just talking about a few lights, these houses would be covered in thousands of lights, have moving parts, music, and actual people dressed as elves.  When a home is sold on the street, the previous owners leave the lights and the neighbors make sure to inform all potential buyers that they have to take part in the long running holiday tradition!

Since we moved to Baltimore, our light viewing tradition has taken on a little bit different experience.  And that brings us to Day 4 of our AMAZING Life Holiday Advent Calendar:  Go Look at Holiday Lights.

Maybe it’s just because I went to school to be an electrical engineer but there is just something special about the way Christmas lights covering a house in a festive display make you feel.  And even better than lights on a house… lights on a boat!

The first year we were in Baltimore, we happened upon the Lighted Boat Parade by chance. We were out for a walk and saw a large crowd of people down along the water.  Not wanting to miss out on the fun, we walked over to investigate. And to our surprise, there were dozens of boats parading around Inner Harbor fully lit in a magical array of Christmas cheer.  Since then, we have made it our new tradition to see the Lighted Boat Parade in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor each year.  The past few years have been rainy cold and windy, but this year we had the perfect evening to sit along the water, snap a few photos, and cuddle close together.

If you are looking for a way to kick start your Christmas Season, make it a date night to see a Holiday Light display! And if you are in need of a few ideas on where to see the best light displays, check out the Travel Channel List of the Country’s Best Light Displays! Now if I can only convince Liz to let us buy a boat and decorate it with Christmas lights …

 

Spice up your coffee with a peppermint stick – Advent Calendar Day 2

Celebrating the Everyday  //  2nd December 2012

Ahhh coffee! In my book, there is no better way to wake up in the morning than enjoying a freshly brewed cup of coffee. So for Day 2 of our AMAZING Life Holiday Advent Calendar we decided to create a cup of coffee that would make any Elf proud! :)

If you are anything like us, by the time Christmas arrives, you will probably have enough peppermint sticks and candy canes to last an entire year.  For the most part, we rarely eat them.  But this year, we found the perfect solution.  Inspired by Starbucks Peppermint Latte, we brewed up a fresh batch of coffee and added a peppermint stick.  As the warm coffee slowly melts away the stick, your coffee will quickly began to take on a wonderful minty flavor.  Its like having Christmas in a cup!

If you are even more adventurous, you can easily turn your morning cup of coffee into a tasty Peppermint Mocha!  We had a few bags of hot chocolate lying around and decided to use them instead of sugar.  For your very own Peppermint Mocha Coffee just follow the recipe below.

Recipe: Peppermint Mocha Coffee

Ingredients:

• Your favorite morning coffee
• One peppermint stick or candy cane
• 1/2 packet of instant hot chocolate
• Milk

Instructions:

Prepare your morning coffee as you normally would.  We prefer to use a french press to prepare a perfect cup but any method will work.  Grab your favorite mug from your cupboard and add 1/2 a packet of instant hot chocolate.  Pour coffee over chocolate leaving a small amount of room in the cup.  Top off with milk and use a peppermint stick to stir everything together.  Sit back and enjoy the perfect way to start Day 2 of Advent.

Happy Holidays!

 

Have A Christmas Movie Marathon – Amazing Advent Calendar Day 1

Celebrating the Everyday  //  1st December 2012

Welcome to Day 1 of our Amazing Holiday Advent Calendar! We have so many fun activities, recipes, DIY projects and holiday AMAZINGNESS in store for you over the next 25 days!  We even created a super fun site to help countdown the days until Christmas. Be sure to check back daily!

Ever since the beginning days of Ryan and I’s relationship, I remember hanging out in Ryan’s basement watching Christmas Vacation and laughing until our cheeks hurt! I had never seen that movie until Ryan introduced it to me and now I can’t imagine Christmas without it! My favorite scene is definitely at the beginning when they are picking out their Christmas tree and they are driving along… singing loudly! Fa la la la la ;)… and somehow end up under the tractor trailer truck! (gees- that sounds horrible if you haven’t seen the movie! haha! But it is quite funny actually!) The whole movie is definitely funny, but my favorite part about watching it is listening to Ryan state every word along with Clark and Mrs. Griswald (Ellen) and every other character in the movie! ;) He doesn’t just “say” the lines… but he has their voices to go along with it and it is hilarious! ;) (As I am writing this, he is throwing out the lines… lol… “Don’t throw me down, Clark” “Where are you doing to put a tree that big, Griswald” “I am just blouse…browsing.”) Ahhh seriously, I have tears rolling down my face!

There is no better way to start off the holiday season than with a Christmas Movie Marathon! Yes, Christmas Vacation is ALWAYS one of the top movies on our list! However there are SO MANY Christmas movies that we love and can’t wait to watch: Home Alone 1 and 2, Love Actually, Elf!!… so good, right?! And then of course there are the classics like Miracle on 34th Street and A Christmas Story that are just classics and never to be missed!

Seriously, I am pretty sure our Christmas Spirit is not fully released until we watch these movies! ;) Take some time today to pop in one of your favorite Christmas movies! Or better yet, clear your schedule and make it a movie marathon! It is that important! ;) If you make it a marathon, your holiday cheer might just last you throughout the year! ;)