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Subway Cookies Vegan-ized

Posted on 07. Jun, 2010 by kris.

Happy Monday Everyone!

This weekend was full of cookies and other sweet treats.  I am not sure what has come over me, but I am in a baking machine that really, really needs to stop!

We went to see the movie Killers on Saturday night and I always like to take a few healthy treats with me in my purse, so I quickly made up the most delicious, Subway-ish cookies ever!

You all know Subway Cookies - Warm, medium thickness, ever so chewy and sweet. Friends, you can make them too, and healthier!  These cookies rocked the party that rocked the party!!

My Subway Vegan-ized Cookies:

*SIGH*

1 cup Almond Meal or Flour
1/2 cup Cashew Flour (ground up cashews in the coffee grinder)
1/2 cup Oats
1/4 cup Coconut Oil
1/4 – 1/2 cup (depending on sweetness) Maple Syrup
1/4 cup Chocolate Chips
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

Pre heat oven to 350

Mix all dry ingredients

Mix all wet ingredients

Mix together and place cookie balls on a parchment lined cookie sheet

Bake for 10 minutes

I can’t even talk about how good these cookies are…..I am salivating thinking about them.

These cookies were the best movie snack and S’Bucks snack a girl could ask for

The rest of the weekend was marv! Beach nights with the pooch, walks, shopping with the sis, and lots and lots of cookies as mentioned earlier.

I made some fajitas last night for dinner.  Twice in 1 week, I know.  They are that good!

Portobellos have really been growing on me….well not literally, but you know what I mean….I like them now  I never used to like them.  For some reason big mushrooms freak me out!

I am a busy bee today, so I must get back to the grind!  Have a super day!

Do you love subway cookies?  What are the best store bought, or restaurant cookies  you love?  I used to love Subway Cookies and the Cinnamon Cookies from McDonalds (seriously like 12 years ago since I have had these….my heart still swoons)

***Reminder – Brendan Brazier is in town!!  Check out when he will be in your city here!  I am heading to see him tonight

XXOO
Kris

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Easy Vegan Treats that Will Satisfy That Sweet Tooth

Posted on 06. Jun, 2010 by kris.

Happy Saturday Everyone!

I hope you are having a super day!  It is very fab here today.  The sun is shining and the temps are warm…I think summer is actually going to hit Vancouver this year

I took my stylist out shopping today looking for some trendy summer outfits and walked out of H&M with a bag nicely full of goodies!  I love that store.  You can get great trend setting items for so cheap!  Thanks Michelle for the assistance today!

Onto the Baking.  I have been a baking fool around this place since yesterday.  I am not sure if it is because I am feeling a bit stressed and baking relieves me, or if the sun is bring out some creativity in me?  Either way it is great for the taste buds, but not so great for the the waist line.  Cardio was full blown today let me tell you.

Item #1:

Raw Protein Bars:

2 cups oats
1/4 cup coconut oil
2 tsp vanilla almond shake & go smoothie by vega
1 mashed banana
4 tbsp (or more) of agave or maple syrup
1/4 cup chocolate chips

Mix all in a bowl and flatten into 1/2 inch thick bar on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

Place in the freezer for 30  min.

Cut into bars and enjoy!

The freezer is full of these (I made 2 batches…..they are super tasty!)

Item #2

Chai Spice Cookies:

Heaven!  I am waiting to post the recipe for these cookies

Item #3

Banana Bread Macaroons:

1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup ground almonds
1/4 cup cocoa
2 ripe mashed bananas
1/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350

Add all ingredients to a bowl and mix well

Drop batter into 12 cookies on a parchment lined cookie sheet

Bake for 25 minutes

YUM!

As I mentioned in my last post I made recipe #2 from the Get Naked Fast cookbook!  I made the most irresistible Indian dish I have ever made!

Sweet Potato Curry

This has to be one of my favourite dinners now….I am so excited for the left overs tonight!

Off to eat dinner and then off to a Movie!  Killers here I come

If you loved these recipes, please pass them along on twitter!

What is your favourite dinner right now?  Do you make enough for left overs?

XXOO
Kris

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Quinoa Cookies?!

Posted on 25. May, 2010 by kris.

Hey Everyone!

Happy Monday!  It was a glorious holiday here for us Canadian.  WooHoo!

Did everyone have a wonderful weekend?  Mine has been jammed packed since our lunch date on Saturday.  I have been investing a lot of time into learning more social media tips and going through a lot of different programs.  It has been such a wonderful learning experience.  I will be implementing it all very shortly

Today as a nice relaxing day at S’Bucks and then to the mall!  I am on the hunt for the perfect baby outfit for friends of ours who are expecting any day now!  This little outfit needs to be stylish, yet cute and most of the stuff out there I find to be poor quality or just “ok”.  I am picky when it comes to baby clothes and I don’t know why!

We had a super early dinner on the patio this evening – Brown Rice pasta with the super expensive sauce and a nice healthy salad with my favourite dressing right now!

Filled the roars in the belly from not having lunch today quite nicely.

Baking was done over the weekend (What else is new!) and I made some more Chocolate Chip Bars!  I can’t seem to get enough of these suckers!  I add a ripe banana and cut the agave down to half.  Perfection!

I also decided to try quinoa flour in a cookie recipe.  I am really understanding the difference of grains lately and how some are more acidic than others.  Quinoa is alkaline so I decided I should consume more of this super grain when I can in replacement of oats, rice, etc.

Not bad at all I have to say!

Quinoa Almond Cookies:

1 cup quinoa flour (ground up quinoa in the coffee grinder until fine)
1 cup brown rice flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt
3 tbsp almond butter (I know peanut butter would be divine in these as well!)
1/4 cup almond milk
2 tsp vanilla
1 flax egg (1 tbsp flax meal and 3 tbsp warm water)
1 mashed banana
1/4 – 1/2 cup agave (or sweetener of choice)
1/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

Mix flax egg and let sit while making the rest

Add all dry ingredients and mix well

Mash banana and add almond butter, almond milk, agave and vanilla.  Stir well.

Add flax egg to the wet ingredients and mix.

Mix all ingredients together.  If batter is dry add more milk.

Place cookies on parchment lined baking sheet and bake at 350 for 20 – 25 minutes.

These cookies are pretty tasty!  They turn out fluffy and soft.  The quinoa flour definitely has its own flavour, but they are good! Plus they are a GREAT source of Protein!

*Sigh* I am also making some more Fruit & Nut Bark as we speak!  This stuff is dangerous to have in the fridge!

I have been on the search for a good, not too red, bronzer.  While out at the mall today I think I found my winner!

Meet my new bronzer by Quo:

She is perfectly shimmery and gorgeous!  I use bronzer on my face, chest and shoulders  I am so stoked!

**Beauty Tip! When testing foundations, powders, and bronzers always place a bit on the inside of your wrists.  This is said to be the area on your body that is closest to your actual hue.  I have streaks up my arm as we speak from testing this afternoon

** I have changed the comments on the Blog as I was getting a few comments saying people couldn’t leave a note for me!  So I have upgraded and all should be good.  Please let me know if you find otherwise  I will also be answering questions to your comments in the comment section, so please check back!

Did you bake this weekend?  What is your favourite bronzer?

XXOO
Kris

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Vegan Powerhouse Cookies!

Posted on 22. Mar, 2010 by kris.

Guten Morgen my fine friends!

Weekends are always so wonderful when they are jammed packed with fun things.  We went and saw Alice in Wonderland last night in 3D.  What a fun movie!  Johnny is definitely on my fave actors list and he amazes me in all the different “out there” roles he plays.  Have you seen it?  What were your thoughts?  I love, love, LOVED the red witches character, I think she would be the perfect Halloween costume for this year

Of course we never travel into a theatre empty handed….well empty pursed.  The treats and water always seem to end up crammed in my handbag so we can sneak them in.   Last night we brought some crackers and some cookies with us.

I tried a new recipe for cookies over the weekend and this one was hands down the bestest!

They have some added protein powder in them to give them a real PowerHouse punch!  They are great for pre workout sessions and great to keep you full and going through a long day of shopping

Beautiful!

I found the original recipe here on fitnessista.com (thank you Gina!), but tweaked it just a smidgen  I am always tweaking and modifying to what I have in the house or to my own diet.  I love baking and am always up to the challenge of thinking up modifications

I don’t know about you, but when I make cookies, bars, etc. I always leave myself enough in the bowl to lick clean.  I can’t wait for the bowl when I am done….I am like a little girl all over again!

Vegan PowerHouse Cookies:

Dry:

1 1/4 cup oat flour (or flour of choice)
1/2 cup rolled oats (I used organic quick oats)
1 scoop vanilla chai vega powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup raisins (or other dried fruit)
1/4 cup chocolate chips

Wet:

1/4 cup coconut oil (or oil of choice)
1/2 cup agave nectar
3 tbsp almond butter

Mix the dry ingredients together

Mix the wet ingredients together and combine the two well.

Scoop cookies onto baking sheet and bake at 350 for 8 minutes.

Enjoy!

Today is my Mom’s Birthday!!  Happy Birthday Mom

We will be heading down to the big city today and will take her out to enjoy a beautiful dinner at The Sandbar on Granville Island.  Such a beautiful restaurant!

On a side note ladies, I am looking for a fab mineral makeup that works really well.  I feel with mineral makeup half way through the day it is off my face or changing colour – anyone else have this issue?  Do you know of a good one??  Please let me know!!

XXOO
Kris

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Day 2 and Extra Healthy Cookies

Posted on 11. Mar, 2010 by kris.

Howdy Everyone!

It is Wednesday night and I am finally sitting after a very busy!  My feet are up, my tea is on my table and I am enjoying some quiet music

Day 2 of my Vega 7 day challenge was a success! I didn’t snack in between my plan and I felt wonderful!

My day looked like this:

Breakfast – 1/2 serving of vanilla chia vega powder, with 1/2 apple. 1/2 banana and a tad of almond milk and filtered water.

Lunch – Mondo Salad with 1/2 an avocado, some sprouts, broccoli and my minimal dressing (1/2 tbsp evoo and 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar)

Snack - 1 apple

Dinner - I did not follow my dinner meal plan as we went out for dinner for my sis birthday.  I had a rice and beans dish  YUM!  Happy Vegan eats out.

Snack – 1/2 serving vega in water

I felt steady and fuelled again all day

Dinner out was so nice and a great relaxation time for me.  I had a glass of red wine and chilled….

Today on the other hand has been quite busy.  I baked some Extra healthy cookies for Ryan and he loved them!

Kris’ Extra Healthy Cookies:

2 cups oats
1 mashed banana
1/2 cup almond butter
2 tbsp coconut oil
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup raisins
a few vegan chocolate chips

Mix the oats, coconut, cinnamon, raisins and chocolate chips together

In a separate bowl mash the banana and add the nut butter, vanilla and coconut oil

Add the wet bowl to the dry – Mix and place spoonfuls of batter on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 for 13 minutes

No added sugar and extra healthy = Perfect morning, afternoon or evening snack!

I am just looking at my arms and realizing I am super pasty so I am off to go self tan.  I am looking for a good, natural self tanner.  Do you know of a good one?  Have you ever got spray tanned?

I think my sister and I will go hop in the mystic tan booth one of these days

XXOO
Kris

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Weekend Eating

Posted on 08. Mar, 2010 by kris.

Howdy Everyone!

How was your weekend?  I can’t believe it is Sunday evening already and the weekend is all over.

Our weekend was full of beach visits, meetings, shopping and eating  When we go out on our weekend treks we always bring a whack of snacks with us to keep us fuelled and fresh. I made a total of 3 batches of these orange-cocoa cookies! I didn’t eat all of them myself, I did share and handed some out as our days went on

Today was a tad rainy and when we came home we decided it was a perfect night to make some soup….well it turned out more like stew – Hearty, Beefy, Good.  Minus the Beef of course!  Lentils were the mean protein source of this soup!

Instead of my usual bouillon cubes I went a little more high class today and used this Pacific Natural Foods brand Vegetable Broth – Amazing!

Here is the red soup:

Easy Red Soup:

2 large beets
3 carrots
1 onion
2 broccoli heads
1 large sweet potato
1 1/2 cups lentils
1 tbsp evoo
1 500 ml vegetable broth
2 cups water
sea salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

In your soup pot, heat oil over medium heat and add onion

Cook onion until tender, add chopped carrots and beets

Pour in the broth and water, add lentils, broccoli and sweet potatoes

Cover and simmer for 30 minutes, season with salt and pepper and serve!

This is such an easy and nutritious soup!

Since last week I have been drowning myself in organic pineapples from Whole Foods.  I can’t stop eating them.  On Saturday night we made a special trip to whole foods just for my pineapples….I am that crazy in love with them right now!  I don’t know about you, but my favourite treat is pineapple and chocolate so tonight after my coffee meet up with my good friend Melissa I ate some of this:

Tasty, Sweet, Chocolaty Goodness!

Take some good (It has to be GOOD pineapple) and add some delicious dark, vegan chocolate chips!  I usually melt some chocolate and drizzle it over my pineapple chunks, but I didn’t have the time for that tonight.  Just straight to the goods for me!

Tomorrow I will be sharing something I am starting with you all!

OH!  I almost forgot – Hudson got a new harness today! Isn’t it spiffy?  Thanks mom and dad, you are the best grand doggie parents ever!  I tell ya, this guy is so spoiled.  Last week my sister bought him a bag of all natural peanut butter and parsley treats, and my nana treats him to some good ol’ german sausage whenever he stops by.  He thanks you all

What is your Favourite fruit to drizzle with chocolate or pour chocolate chips over?

XXOO
Kris

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Palm Sugar…..a way to a health nuts heart!

Posted on 05. Mar, 2010 by kris.

Hello Everyone!

Are you having a beautiful Thursday?  I sure am!  Let me tell you why

On my way to the gym this sunny afternoon I decided to check my mail box to see how many cheques (wink, wink) I had received in the mail today, to my surprise I received better – FOOD!

I was pleasantly surprised when I opened my package from Navitas Naturals to see a package of Palm Sugar!

So I quickly did my cardio and weights and rushed back to the kitchen to start bakin’

I feel I have been living in a cave and can honestly say I didn’t know much about these brown, sweet granules, so I googled and learned about so many health benefits this sugar also has.  As you all know, I only use sweeteners with a low Glycemic Index and I was smiling ear to hear when I read how low palm sugar was.  I was loving this stuff when I read the GI levels, but then I continued to read it is high in magnesium, potassium, zinc, iron, and vitamin C and B’s! Wooohoo…..you can have sweets and benefit too

I found this write up on Palm Sugar on the Navitas Naturals site.

What exactly is Palm Sugar?

Collected by hand, palm sugar is the crystallized nectar of the coconut sugar palm blossoms. A natural and healthy replacement for all types of sweeteners, palm sugar enhances just about any recipe.

General Uses:

• Palm sugar tastes, looks, and performs very similar to brown sugar.
• Use palm sugar as a 1:1 replacement for cane sugar, or as a 2:1 replacement for agave syrup, maple syrup, or honey (condensed sugars).
• Palm sugar easily dissolves in hot beverages, and is also excellent for baking.
• Palm sugar enhances the flavors of other sweet elements – in particular fruits, smoothies, and grain-based dishes and sauces.

Ok, ok, so these are what I made:

Orange-Cocoa Buckwheat Cookies

Delightful!

You can find the recipe for these soft, moist cookies here.

For more information and recipes with palm sugar please visit the site www.navitasnaturals.com

To purchase navitas naturals products in Canada please visit - www.isuperfood.com and for my US friends please visit www.navitasnaturals.com

Will this product be a staple in my baking cupboard as of now?  Of Course!

Have you ever used Palm Sugar?  Do you use Navitas Naturals products?  If so, which ones?

Enjoy your Friday everyone!!

XXOO
Kris

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Vegan Cookie turned Danish!

Posted on 09. Jan, 2010 by kris.

Happy Friday Everyone!

Wow, how quickly this week went by.  Is anyone else feeling this way?? 

Thank you all for the comments on yesterday’s Why we admire certain celebrities post!  I thought it was a very refreshing piece of information that you would all love.  I know for me, it made me feel really good knowing this is why I followed certain people and why I truly admired them   Do you find if you follow a celeb or megastar you get more motivated?  I know I sure do! 

I once watched an Oprah episode with Gwyneth Paltrow and she was showing her workout that she does 2 hours per day.  That motivated me!  I must have watched the video 3 times.  This lady knew what she wanted, what she wanted her outcome to be and just rocks it!  Plus she has kids…..please I can fit 45 min – 1 hour if she can do 2!  I only have a dog to look after.

It was so great hearing who you all admire and who motivates you   We all have our own “loves” and it really shows each of our personalities.

For today’s treat my friends I decided to combine two of my favorite things – Kitchen Cupboard Cookies and Apple, Cinnamon!

I made mini cookie danishes! 

Beautiful!

Kris’ Danish

1 cup Oat Flour
2/3 cup Almond Flour
1/4 tsp Sea Salt
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 cup Raisins
1/8 cup Shredded Coconut
1 tsp Baking Powder
**You can add some chocolate chips to the dry ingredients if you would like – I usually place a few on top, so they aren’t so sweet.

1/3 cup Flax Meal
1/2 cup Agave Nectar
3 tbsp Almond Butter
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla
2 tbsp Extra Virgin Coconut Oil

Danish Filling:

1 apple
1 tbsp agave nectar
1 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350

1. Mix the dry ingredients together

2. Mix the Flax Meal, Agave, Almond Butter, Vanilla, and add the oil in.  If my coconut oil is more solid I will mix it in like that by hand.

3. Place apple, agave and cinnamon in a food processor and mix.

4. Mix the wet with the dry – and roll into cookie balls.  Lay them on the baking sheet and press a thumb in the top of the cookies – add apple filling.

Bake for 13 minutes!  Enjoy!

Well loves I am off to get ready.  We are attending a birthday bash tonight with some friends! 

What is your favorite Danish Filling Flavor?

Have a great Friday All!

XXOO
Kris

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How to Set Your Goals and Eat Good Cookies!

Posted on 03. Jan, 2010 by kris.

Hello Everyone!

Happy Saturday!  How has your day been??  Well the holiday’s are officially over and I am a tad sad about this, but also super excited for this year.

Goal Talk!

You all know that I have my goals set for 2010 and I have received a whack of emails and questions asking me how someone who has never set goals before should go about doing this.  Setting goals are a must for you to get from A to B – without goals I find I just flounder around without a purpose.

Here is how you can start on setting Goals:

Sit quietly in a place that you find comforting – for myself this is either Starbucks on my Living Room.

I always have a book dedicated to the year and the Goals.  At the top of the first page I will write out “Goals For 2010″, on the next sheet will be “Goals for the next 3-5 years”.

Your goals should always be simple, clear, measurable, challenging, and in writing.

The goals should always have a realistic time frame and dates set to achieve each goal.

Once your goals are set on paper it is important to beak the goals down with action items.

This means for example if one of your goals is to Become Healthier this year you can set action items such as these:
“I will only drink 3 cups of coffee per week” (lol, one of mine!)
“I will start working out 3 times a week for 45 minutes”

Now you have set an action item to actually get you to achieving your goal.

I know many people who have a goal to “lose weight” this year.  Remember to be specific with your goals and resolutions because when you say “lose weight” what does that mean?  You don’t want to lose anything because when you lose something you find it.  You don’t want to FIND your weight again, you want to keep it off.

What happens when you lose your keys?  You find them!  Make sure you state your ideal weight for your goal.  “I will weight 140 pounds by April 3oth, 2010″. And make an action item for this goal -”I will be at the gym 4 times a week”.

Now that your goals and the appropriate action items are written down it is critical to revisit these goals everyday (I do mine first thing in the morning and again before bed) and visualize yourself reaching your goals.

On a side note -  I find it very beneficial to eliminate the words: try, should, and can’t out of my vocabulary especially when writing my goals. I will not write “I will try to exercise more”.  I know try is not a powerful word to me and is non motivational, so I don’t use it when setting goals!

Like I stated above, it is majorly important to set dates when goal setting – this allows yourself to know by February the 16th 2010 I WILL have 105 followers on my blog.  I am a firm believe that what you think about you bring about and when you KNOW that by February 16th you will have 105 followers on your blog this will happen.

Food Talk!

Because yesterday was still a holiday I decided I would bake another batch of cookies that we could enjoy this weekend. I adjusted my own Kitchen Cupboard Cookie recipe and used Pecan flour instead of Almond Flour.

OH.MY.GOODNESS!!!  Pecan flour makes these cookies a tad sweeter and puffier.  I loved these cookies so much and highly recommend placing some pecans in the food processor and whirling them up for flour for you next cookies.  Pecans go hand in hand with chocolate so it is very nice with the chocolate chips in these cookies.

Take a look!

I am setting my coffee limit to Friday, Saturday and Sunday – My little weekend treat.Over the holiday season I seem to have been taken back to my love of coffee and well….I need to stop it!  So I have my good ol’ substitute out – Krakus.  I added a smidge of almond milk to it so I could take the “edge” off.  Normally I like my coffee black but this stuff is not as tasty as coffee to me….so in went the milk!

My questions to you today are kind of all over the map -

Have you Written your Goals down for this year?  Do you know a good Coffee Substitute?

XXOO
Kris

Follow me on twitter! I am there often   I also have a Facebook page I would love for you to join!

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Vegan Merry Christmas Cookies and Loaf

Posted on 24. Dec, 2009 by kris.

Happy Christmas Eve Everyone!

I am enjoying a warm Christmas bevy this morning…coffee   and staring a this beautiful sky!  I have been trying to have green tea for my morning choice, but today is a holiday so I am letting loose a little!

Today is a very magical day for me and as a kid it went by soooo slow, but now that I am older I feel I don’t have enough time to prepare before I need to be over at the house with my baking and sweet potato casserole!

The casserole is in the oven now, and lucky I did a whack of baking last week and yesterday so I would be prepared and can relax a bit for the rest of my day before the festivities begin!

Yesterday my home was like an elf’s bakery!  I was stirring up loaf batter and cookie dough for most of the afternoon!

I modified a Cranberry Lemon muffin recipe found on ElanasPantry.com into a “Kris” friendly loaf recipe!

Tastes delicious, but you wouldn’t think so by looking at her

Christmas Morning Breakfast Loaf:

3 cups almond flour
1 1/4 tsp sea salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups dried cranberries
3/4 cup grapeseed oil
3/4 cup agave nectar
1 1/2 tsp lemon zest
3 flax eggs

Pre Heat oven to 350

1. Mix flax eggs together in a bowl.
2. In a separate bowl mix flour, salt, baking soda, and cranberries together.
3. Add oil, agave, and lemon zest to the flax eggs and mix together.
4. Add wet to dry and mix.  Then pour into a loaf pan and bake for 45 min (mine needed a tad longer, so I kept checking on it).

After the loaf came out I decided to make another modified recipe found on TaleofTwoVegans!

Eggnog-ish Cookies:

1 1/2 almond flour
1/3 cup agave nectar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup grapeseed oil
1/8 cup rice or almond milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350

1. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg together.
2. In a separate bowl combine agave, oil, milk and vanilla and mix well
3. Add wet to dry and mix.  Drop cookie batter on lightly greased cookie sheets and bake for 10 minutes.

Well I am off to go deliver gifts!  I have a few people to meet up with and my sister and I still must put our parents gift together   They will love what we have for them! 

I am wishing you ALL a very wonderful Christmas Eve!  I hope the spirit of the season fills each one of you to the brim and that Santa treats you very well   Some people may lay low key for the holidays, so I hope you enjoy a nice bevy and a good book by the fireplace!

What are your plans for tonight??

Warmest Wishes my friends!

XXOO
Kris

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