Our Christmas Day Creations (Nog Shake + Pancakes + Dessert)

J and I spent Christmas morning together and alone - the only other time we've ever done this was our first Christmas together...in the Philippines! That Christmas was obviously a little bit different than this one. I think we slept in. We ate lobster and scallops for our dinner and bought a bottle of wine (from a "corner store") to drink together on the beach. And then we called our parents as they were just waking up....

Yes. Quite different, but still special. The above photo shows our Christmas breakfast and dining experience in front of our beautifully big tree in our living room. J and I had a hard time coming up with what to eat for our morning, because we actually make a point of enjoying a big breakfast/brunch together one day a week - so how to find something that screams 'Christmas Morning'?

I'll be linking you back to Chocolate Covered Katie's blog here, but when I saw her single-serving recipe for Blueberry Pie Pancakes, I drooled. Really, I think I literally drooled. So, I bought the ingredients, mixed it all together and got J to cook them (I'm really too impatient to cook a pancake properly). As you can see: he had fun with it and made one giant one.

To top it off, we had some 100% Blueberry Maple Syrup in our fridge from J's mom. Soooooo amaaazingly good (and filling!).

To drink: Our giant mug of coffee. We couldn't go without that. On top of that, I made some Egg Nog Shakes, as shown on Charissa's blog, Colourful Palate. I made a few slight changes, but it was tasty and refreshing...perfect with the sweetness of the pancakes.

Blueberry Pie Pancakes

Original Recipe

What I Did:

1 cup of blueberries

2/3 cup of wholewheat flour

4 tbsp of oats

1 tsp of cinnamon

1 1/4 tsp of baking powder

1/4 tsp of salt

1 tsp vanilla

2/3 cup Rice Dream Vanilla Rice Milk

2 tbsp coconut oil

Combine all of the dry ingredients together then add in the wet! Then treat it like any old regular pancake (J's job). :)

Egg Nog Shake

Original Recipe

What I did (as you can basically see on my recipe card above!):

In a blender.. (Or in my case, I put this much in each Magic Bullet cup)
1/2 cup of coconut milk
1/2 cup of Rice Dream Vanilla
2 handfuls of ice (I had a bag, not a tray)
1 tbsp of coconut oil
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp xantham gum (to thicken)
2 tsp vanilla (I ended up putting in more than this)

Blend and enjoy!

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We ate a traditional delicious turkey dinner for our main meal of the day. My grandmother hosted the meal and my aunt hosted the dessert - so we could visit with both Christmas trees and houses!

I was responsible for creating a dessert "I could eat". I was super excited to tackle something, but slightly discouraged after my cupcake fail. I kept on searching for something else I might be able to tackle on Spoonful of Sugar Free and found the perfect thing - a crisp (or a Pick-a-Fruit Crisp as Alex calls it).

This was the ideal dessert to take. I was able to prep most of it the day before, but could throw it in the oven while we were all sitting down to eat our dinner. I chose to go with berries, because I love how tart they are.

Berry Crisp
Original Recipe
What I did:

The day before (or whenever):
Chop up 1/3 cups of walnuts.
In a bag, mix together the above walnuts with:
1/2 cup of oats
1/4 tsp of cinnamon
1/3 tsp of ginger

I poured my bag of frozen berries into the pan I would be using for baking and placed it in the fridge to defrost overnight. You could use fresh fruit, too.

When everything is ready:
Preheat oven to 375.
Add 2 tbsp of margarine to the topping mixture and place on top of the berries.

Bake for approximately 35 minutes.

Notes: 
-You could use any kind of fruit at all, as well as any kind of nut. I personally love walnuts and berries.
-I would hands down double up the topping the next time I make this - and this has become my favorite healthy, but easy, dessert so I will be making it again soon!

I think that about sums it up for the extreme Christmas-y posts! We ate A LOT (but who doesn't during the holidays, right?). Not all things we ate were good (I snuck in a lot of goat cheese *shame*), but there is never a better time to indulge.. .. Right? :) This post comes at a perfect time as J and I just dragged our Christmas tree to the curb *tear. We kept it up longer than we should have, but it's so sad to take down. I wish I could have those pretty ornaments up all year around... Oh well. Another new year, which means re-organization! The thing I love to do but complain about nonstop!: ) 

Any organizational things you plan on tackling? New hobbies? New classes? Big? Small? :)