January is the month that I always find that I eat the healthiest. I stock up on portable fresh fruit and vegetables to take to work and I avoid junk food like the plague. I feel really good for about three-ish weeks and then as February starts to inch closer, I slowly fall off the wagon.
But like every year that I can remember doing this, I am thinking not this year. This year is a big wedding year, and with being a bridesmaid in one of my best friend’s wedding in July and our wedding in August, I figure that this alone is enough motivation to keep on eating better.
This is one of the challenges I’ve faced since starting a food blog – trying to eat healthier. Since I bake something new at least once a week, its almost a guarantee that there will always be baked goods in our kitchen. That’s not a lot of willpower for someone who wants to keep fitting into both a bridesmaid dress and her wedding dress in less than 8 months.
Although a lot of people use the month of January to make resolutions, I find that I make a lot of little mental resolutions throughout the whole year. They usually consist of spur-of-the-moment things such as “eat healthier” when I’m in the grocery store salivating over the candy aisle or “exercise more” when I find myself planted on the couch in front of the TV. The problem is that these kinds of resolutions never last because I never remember them until I find myself in the same situation again. And then I feel guilty for not really sticking to them.
One of last year’s more memorable mental resolutions was to try and eat more varieties of fruit. Back in the summer, I bought a large bag of frozen mango chunks from Costco in hopes of getting out of my then smoothie rut. I was getting tired of consuming the same fruit over and over and decided that frozen mangoes would cure me of this problem. It was later that I realized that it wasn’t a fruit rut I was suffering from, it was a sick-of-summer feeling. I was tired of the sticky humidity and eating cold food for supper every night, including smoothies. By December, I still had 3/4 of the Costco-sized bag taking up my precious freezer space.
One of the many delicious meals I enjoyed in Japan
Looking back, I’m realizing that 2012 was such a crazy, whirlwind year for us. It’s was no 2010-and-we’re moving-to-Toronto type of year, but it was still very busy never the less. Trevor was able to start his dream job, I started (several!) new jobs, and we set a date for the wedding. I was able to watch my brother and sister’s teams win silver medals in curling (nationally and provincially ranked) and I went on a three-week trip to Japan with my Mom and my Grandma.
On the blogging front, I started to take She Bakes Here more seriously, switching ad companies part way through the year and purchasing my lovely Nikon DSLR camera. I made an effort to try and update at least once a week and I tried to get even less discouraged when my baking experiments and my photos didn’t turn out the way I wanted them too. This blog is still a work in progress and I’m grateful for everyday that I get to continue learning and expanding on this hobby.
I’m not much of a resolutions person, but in our late night discussion last night, I decided to do one for 2013. One of the things I feel that I need to work on is better expressing my appreciation and gratitude and I am going to start making an effort to thank people more often.
Today, I want to thank everything single person that takes the time to click and read my silly, baking blog. In a sea of millions and millions of food/recipe blogs, I can’t express enough gratitude that you take the time to read my postings and try my recipes. I have big ideas for this blog for 2013 and I can’t wait to share them with all of you. More importantly though, I want to thank you for turning this silly little hobby into something fun and fantastic and something I look forward to updating all the time.
As a fun little round-up, I thought I would go through my recipes of 2012 and pull out my favorites. These are the recipes that we found were the biggest hits and are some recipes that I’ve even made multiple times after posting the recipe because they are so good. Recipe repeats don’t happen to often since I’m always making something new each week, so that really says something.
After last week’s butter cookie coma, I decided to bake something less heavy and with a little more spice.
These crispy, yet chewy spiced ginger cookies definitely fit the bill.
As much as it is the season for sweet, buttery baking, I believe that there is always room for spiced cookies. Of course, gingerbread cookies are a popular holiday treat, but walk into any corporate coffee shop at this time of year and you’ll find the poor little gingerbread men slathered in thick icing. Compared to the heaviness of most holiday baking, I found these cookies to be light and refreshing. Plus they are so little that you can just pop one in your mouth every time you walk into the kitchen.
Those calories won’t count, I promise. 🙂
Bonus points – you can impress your vegan friends with this recipe because there is no eggs and no butter.
Despite our serious lack of snow in Toronto, I’m starting to get into the holiday spirit. My Christmas shopping is almost complete, I’ve consumed many Starbucks Peppermint Hot Chocolate drinks, my flights to visit my family are booked and Trevor and I are each well into our annual chocolate advent calendars (his is The Muppets, mine is Hello Kitty).
Now I can also finally say that I’ve completed some serious holiday baking. I was inspired to create this recipe based on the colour combination of pistachios and cranberries, which is also a great combination salty/sweet snack on its own. Buttery sugar cookies make the delicious base and the melted chocolate add the finishing visual touches, as well as help keep the loose pistachios from falling off.
These cookies make a great additional to any holiday party platter or cookie swap. You can even change up the taste by trying out different types of chocolate for drizzling. For this recipe, I used some more of my Cacao Barry Tanzanie 75% Cocoa, but you can use other dark chocolates or milk chocolate depending on your preference.
Canadian food blogger, baking and eating her way through life. Musical theatre fanatic. Personal finance nerd. Sometimes runner/yogi. Green smoothies are pretty amazing.
