Success and Gingerbread!

I think this could be the best day I've ever had. So my challenge to everyone (see former posts) has been a success. My life is now complete! My goal over the break was to create my own recipe for gingerbread. I really just wanted to do something of my own. So, basing it off of other cake type things I began and here is what I came up with ( I can't believe it worked the first time, I thought it would take me 4 or 5 tries)!

Kenzie's Gingerbread:

1 1/2 cups Amy's Basic Flour Blend

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2 eggs

1/3 cup oil

1/4 cup milk

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/8 tsp. nutmeg

1 1/4 +1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. ginger

1 Tbsp. Blackstrap molasses

2 Tbsp. powdered sucanat

Mix first 3 ingredients together. Then add eggs, oil, and milk and stir. The stir in cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and vanilla. Next add molasses and sucanat. Bake in 8" x 8" pan at 350 for about 10 minutes. Warning: Do not let the taste of

the batter scare you, it changes when it cooks! :)

I am proud to say that both dad and Shawn thought it was delicious (as well as everyone else)!!

The Nutcracker!

For the last month, but especially these last couple of weeks, my life has revolved solely around the Nutcracker! Don't get me wrong, I loved it! It's so much fun to perform again. I was in Arabian every night, Mice every other night, and Waltz of the Flowers for 2 nights. It was so fun to be part of a big production like that. Here are some silly photos of us waiting, bored, backstage.

Chocolate Mint Crinkle Cookie Dough Bites!

Now that it is Christmas break , let the baking begin! I plan on making several yummy treats these next 2 weeks! I love cooking/baking and sometimes I wish I didn't have school so I could just cook. I have also challenged myself as well as everyone else that I will make something that they are going to like without even knowing that I made it with "different ingredients"! I'm quite excited! So yesterday I made these little delights! They are from Spoonful of Sugar Free.

Chocolate Mint Crinkle Cookie Dough Bites:

5 dates

1 cup walnuts

1/4 cup cocoa powder

few drops peppermint extract

pinch of salt

(I also added a little bit of agave to sweeten them.)

First, process dates in a food processor or strong blender until smooth. Then add all other ingredients and blend. Shape the doughs into cookies and enjoy!

I made one batch that was super minty (toothpasty), but the second batch was good! It is super easy and only took me about 5 minutes or less.

Catch Up

Here are some photos from the past couple of months!

I was a flapper for Halloween!

My sweet Harry Potter pumpkin (and wand)!
Mom's cute pumpkins!
"Hewwo," Logan entertaining himself on the way down to St. George during UEA!

Apple Pie!

As it was Thanksgiving I felt the need to make my good 'ole apple pie. This pie is sugar-free and this year I made it with a gluten-free crust(Spunky Coconut). Let me just say this: it was so good! Everyone else agreed that it was really good too-even dad! Yeah! I do want to try it so it has more of a sauce because it was kind of just apples on a crust. The recipe is this:

Apple Pie

6 or 7 apples

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/8 tsp. salt

1/4 cup cooking liquid (water from steaming apples. i use a lot less than that, otherwise the pie is really watery.)

1 Tbsp. lemon juice

butter

agave

Peel and slice apples. Steam apples for 6-7 minutes. Combine dry ingredients. Spread 1/2 of dry ingredients in pie crust. Add apple on top. Sprinkle with cooking liquid and rest of dry ingredients. Sprinkle lemon juice. Drizzle agave (you don't need very much). Dot with butter. Bake at 425 for 30 minutes with foil around the edges until last 10 minutes.

Pie Crust:

Add to bowl:

3 tbsp flax seed meal OR 1.5 tbsp Chia Seed meal

1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp applesauce

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

8 drops vanilla liquid stevia

1 tbsp honey

1/4 cup coconut oil, liquified OR grapeseed oil

Mix with electric mixer.

Add:

1 cup almond meal flour

1/2 cup coconut flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder (Grain-free Baking Powder Recipe)

Mix again.

Roll out the dough.

Flatten the dough out slightly, so it's about 6 inches wide, then put it in the dish, and press it the rest of the way out with your hands.

(I also lightly grease and flour my pie dish first, so the crust doesn't stick.)

Bake the crust at 350 degrees for about 12 to 14 minutes.

Allow the crust to cool.

I would only bake the crust for 5 minutes or not at all.

Also, yesterday I found my extreme love for real whipped cream. I've never done it before but it's delicious! I just whipped up a carton and drizzled a little bit of agave in it!

The masterpiece!

A Cabbage Patch Christmas!

Yesterday, after getting back from a wonderful weekend at the cabin, we set up Christmas decorations! We are continually getting less and less space for decorations due to no piano, little hands, and such, but we still have lots of nativities up. I found the cabbage patch doll nativity and really wanted to put it up somewhere so we (Shea, Chantelle, and I) put it up downstairs. I must say we did a pretty good job! :)

My idea to put the wise man in the window. They are "traveling to the baby".


We had a fun time doing it, and were laughing as we made up stories and families for each of the little dolls!

Cookies!

So, I've been craving chocolate chip cookies and some delicious cookie dough. I finally found a recipe that looked like it would be good (it's from the Spunky Coconut). I was right! It was delicious! The cookie dough was actually soft and had a smooth texture. That was the best part!

The cookies also turned out very good. No, they are not Momma's cookies, but they were close! I added cinnamon to make them even more like mom's! (According to Nic, an attempt at making sugar-free and gluten-free cookies be as good as mom's was a joke! :)) I have now challenged myself to make something sugar-free without him knowing and I bet he will like it!

Chocolate Chip Cookies:

Add to bowl:

1/2 cup applesauce

3 tbsp flax seed meal or 1.5 tbsp Chia Seed meal

1/2 tsp guar gum

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

12 drops Vanilla Creme liquid stevia

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/4 cup honey or coconut sugar

1/4 cup coconut oil or ghee (which is casein-free), liquified

Mix with electric mixer.

Add:

1 cup almond meal flour

1/2 cup coconut flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder (Grain-free Baking Powder Recipe)

1/3 cup dairy-free chocolate chips (I use Enjoy Life)

Mix again.

Roll into balls and flatten the balls in your hands. (they don't really change shape in the oven)

Or roll out with a rolling pin and use cookie cutters =)

Bake on a greased cookie sheet at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes.

Book Nook

Ok, so I thought I would share a book that I recently read. Kelcy gave it to me for Christmas last year. It's called "The Amaranth Enchantment". I absolutely loved it! It was a little bit of an easier read which was fine because it didn't take very long to read. It got pretty intense towards the end and was definitely a page turner. Anyway, I would definitely recommend it, and thanks Kelcy for giving it to me!

More Homecoming Pics!

Sorry for the wait, but here are some more pictures from homecoming! My dates name was Colby Heyrend.

Mom was so wonderful and made the shrug in about one day with only a shrug from another dress as a pattern! She's so great!

An Extraordinary Apartment!

So, while looking for apartments on www.vacancy.com, I found the most extraordinary apartment! It is called Virginia in Liberty Square. Just the name of it seems so regal and neat. It appears to be spacious and very neat. Girls like me need their space, so this seems like a perfect match! It is not a grungy, old, falling apart place like some apartments. That makes it an excellent housing situation for girls. Especially girls like me who like things organized and clean.

The community of Virginia in Liberty Square sounds like a very active and exciting place by the comments made by residents of it. They have parties and gatherings which will be really good for me because I need to get myself out there a little more, if you know what I mean. I am looking forward to possibly investing my dollars in this apartment.

Homecoming!

Yes, homecoming was this week, and yes I did get asked! To be honest I wasn't thrilled when I got asked because I'm not a huge fan of dances. I ended up really not wanting to go on Saturday because I was sick and was exhausted from merely doing nothing! Anyway, he asked me on Tuesday night (yes, very late if you ask me!). He gave me a box of donuts and wrote me a letter in spanish asking me (he is in my spanish class and that's the only way I know him). He said if the answer was yes give the box back empty so I did!

Mint Chocolate Donut Anyone?

So one day on the way to school I had the brilliant idea of having a donut making party with all my friends. I told them and they were all super excited. We decided to do it that night (Friday) at my house. So we came over and made donuts out of biscuits, and they made some frosting! I also decided to make some sugar-free donuts for myself(I found the recipe earlier and that's what made me want to do this party)! I made chocolate bake donuts with mint icing! It was delicious!!! It was a little stressful trying to make mine and theirs, but it turned out way fun!!

Plado!

So I discovered something so fun the other night while playing with Addie and Logan! We were playing with plado and I gave them a bunch of kitchen utensils that they could play with. Well, I noticed a fun looking utensil that is used to mince garlic or something like that. I put a ball of plado in it and... walaah! I made plado hair! I is like the most perfect plado hair maker! I was so happy! Oh the joys of simple plado and kitchen toys!

I Love Organizing!

A couple weeks ago I was super bored one night.... so I organized the food storage room. I was in one of those major cleaning streaks and just had to do something besides sitting. Mom had also just bought a lot of new food cases so I put them all away. It was actually a lot of fun, and it was fun to do something productive on a weekend night!

Fort!

Here is the fort that Addie and I made! It was fun to be a kid again. We also read some fun books! It was a blast!

Ballet in the Pool

I didn't have dance today so I decided to do some ballet in the Hatch's swimming pool. My dance teacher said it would be good to do when I'm on breaks so I gave it a try. It was actually a lot of fun! Kind of hard and weird, but fun! It was also slightly awkward when a bunch of teenage boys showed up to work on their yard. Oh well! Such is life!

Lawn Mower Days

So this is kind of boring, but the other day I was going to mow the lawn. I realized the mower was absolutely filthy and I refused to ride it until it was cleaned. So I got out the hose and... Waalah! It was still pretty dirty, but rideable now.

Fun at the Cabin!

Here are some photos from the cabin. I know they should probably be on the Seely's blog, but I I wanted to do them anyway. Mom made a beautiful plastic dress on Addie from the ping pong table box. It was so cute. She looked like a little Nephite princess.

Logan insisted on helping Dad and Nic put together the ping pong table! It was cute to see his more manly side!

I Made It!

So, for any who don't know I made it into Utah Regional Ballet II. This is the pre-professional level before Utah Regional Ballet. I had an interview with Jackie Colledge (director) today and she said they would love to have me! I'm super excited (and maybe a little nervous :)) It's going to be a busy but fun and rewarding year that I'm completely looking forward to! Plus, no more dreams, good or bad, that I will have to endure!

Just a Little Thought

So, I've gotten more into blogging and unfortunately it is now the end of summer. Oh well. Anyway, I have a little thought to share. The other day I was feeling somewhat down and I just had anger inside of me. All I wanted to do was be alone. I felt like a bad person for having these feelings until I remembered something that was said in a book?/movie. In the 5th Harry Potter movie, Harry tells Sirius Black (his godfather and only family) that he just feels so angry and frustrated all the time. He says he feels like he is turning evil. Well, the Sirius comes to his rescue and says(more or less),

"The world isn't split into good people and death eaters. We each have good and bad in us. The thing that matters is the part we choose to act on."

I watched this scene up at the cabin and I just felt so much better and motivated to act on the good in me. That is something I have been working on and that quote definitely helps remind me.

The Epic : Harry Potter 7:2

So, unfortunately I could not go to the midnight premiere of the last Harry Potter. But, Rachel and Chantelle didn't hesitate at the oppurtunity to see it again. If you can't tell, the sticks are wands! We saw the 9pm show, and since it was the first day we thought we'd go wait in line at about 6pm. However, when we got there they said there wasn't a line yet and wouldn't be until 8. We saw an empty line though and thought we'd go sit there by another couple waiting. Then to our dismay the employees kicked us out. We were bummed, but decided to go get some dinner at Cafe Rio and Roxberry and Zupa's. Yes we each went somewhere different! At about 7:30 we went back and just sat on the cement and did Harry Potter trivia. Then we went back at 8 and to our utter frustration and disappointment there was a HUGE line already!!!! They lied to us! We were pretty bummed. Later Dad and Shea joined us and we actually managed to get pretty good seats!

The gang!
I was Luna Lovegood and Rachel was Hermoine.

Chantelle was McGonagall. Let's just say I absolutely LOVED it!!!!!!! It was beyond good to me!!! Even though it wasn't page to page like the book I still loved every minute of it! If you haven't seen it, you need to!

Contemporary Dance

Peter Pan!!

I think most everyone knows, but just for those who don't: I'm in Utah Regional Ballet's Peter Pan! It will be March 25 and 26. I'm so excited!! I will only have a little part-I'm one of "Four Beautiful Dancing Ladies" or something. It's in the Lagoon scene.

PALS Christmas!

This is the special needs class PALS that I help with! I'm very sad to not be teaching them anymore. They are very special people and I love them!

O Christmas Tree!

This is us decorating the Christmas Tree! Only 3 of us were there to decorate it! Weird!!