After Christmas Detoxing Day

Even if you had a fabulous Christmas of healthy eating choices, the amount of food consumed was probably more than usual on any other given day. It’s just bound to happen with the joy of being with family and friends sharing a meal together. Even if you made all sugar free, natural sweetened treats for this day and enjoyed just a few, a cookie is still a cookie and those very healthy cookies may be staring at you today calling your name.

Today is all about refreshing your body by eating healthy, fresh, but much lighter. You can do this just today or continue until New Years if you like. Make sure to get in about 30-60 minutes of sweating. Exercise is a great way to release the body of toxins and provides a wonderful energy boost, stress relief and makes you in a better mood releasing happy hormones called endorphins.

Here is my example of healthy menu after Christmas:

Wake Up Beverage: 8 ounces water with  juice of 1/2 lemon, stevia to taste if needed

Breakfast: Cleanse & Detox Smoothie

Mid-Morning Beverage: 8 ounces water with  juice of 1/2 lemon, stevia to taste if needed

Lunch:

(2 cups) Light Vegetable Soup

(1/4 cup) Avocado Bean Dip with 1/2 -1 cup raw veggies

Afternoon Snack: Cleanse & Detox Smoothie

Before Dinner Beverage: 8 ounces water with juice of 1/2 lemon

Dinner:

2 cups romaine lettuce or baby spinach

2 cups fresh raw veggies (cucumber, carrots, celery, tomatoes) in salad, extra virgin olive oil and apple cider vinegar and salt free spices to dress salad.

4 ounces cooked lean protein

1-2 cups cooked green veggies (spinach or kale, broccoli sauteed with garlic and olive oil)

Christmas time in France

During our last classes we've been talking about Christmas traditions celebrated in France. In some parts of France, Christmas comes early when Father Christmas, le Père Noël, brings small gifts and sweets for children on December 6th, the feast day of Saint-Nicolas (celebrated in the North and Northeast). Saint-Nicolas has a partner, le Père Fouettard, Father Spanker, whose job it is to decide whether children have been good or bad and 'reward' bad children with a spanking!

 In other parts of the country, children place their shoes by the fire and wake up on Christmas Day to find them filled with presents from le Père Noël and fruit, nuts and small toys hanging on the tree. Christmas Day is mainly a day of celebration for children. After Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve (which is attended by fewer and fewer nowadays) people gather at home or in a restaurant for a feast called le réveillon.

This usually consists of oysters, les huîtres, snails, les escargots, seafood, les fruits de mer, smoked salmon, saumon fumé or le caviaras a starter, followed by goose, l'oie, or some other roasted bird for the main course, all washed down with wine, le vin or le champagne.

A French Carol - Un Chant de Noël Français

Vive le Vent - Jingle Bells

Vive le vent, vive le vent, vive le vent d'hiver 

Qui s'en va, sifflant, soufflant 

Dans les grands sapins verts, Oh ! 

Vive le temps, vive le temps, vive le temps d'hiver 

Qui rappelle aux vieux enfants 

Leurs souvenirs d'hier !

Sur le long chemin

Tout blanc de neige blanche 

Un vieux monsieur s'avance

Avec sa canne dans la main

Et tout là-haut le vent

Qui siffle dans les branches 

Lui souffle la romance qu'il chantait petit enfant

Vive le vent - song

  

Christmas gingerbread cookies

The Christmas time is coming very fast and a few days ago I started to bake first portion of gingerbread. The thing that excites me the most in baking is of course decoration. I like to sit at the evening with all those beautiful sugary pearls and frosting and just calm down and having fun. Decorating is very relaxing for me. 

Here you are, I am giving you my best recipe for cookies so far, I bake them ecery year and still I am not discouraged.

Ingredients: (about 50 cookies)

• 500 g of flour
• 200 g of honey
• 200 g of powdered sugar
• 250 g of butter or margarine
• 1-2 eggs
• 1 full teaspoon of baking soda
• a little bit of salt
• 3 teaspoons of gingerbread spice

Preparation:

Butter, honey and gingerbread spice heat gently but do not boil ( it should be smooth). On a board or bowl sift flour with baking soda and salt, make a little hole in the middle and gently poor the cool honey and butter. Add the rest of the ingredients and knead until the dough is smooth and shiny. The dough wrap into a foil and put to the fridge for about 2 hours. Take out the dought about 15 minutes before rolling it. Put a little bit of flour on the board. Divide dough on two pieces and roll out to a thickness of 5 mm and cut the gingerbread.Cookies put on the paper on the baking sheet and maintain space because they will grow up. Bake about 10 - 15 minutes at 160 degrees until they are golden but not brown. 

GOOD LUCK AND MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Best Destinations in the USA

I still regret that I didn't have so much time to visit all the places that I wanted to. I've chosen some of them to show you and I did my bucket list to make this happen soon :)

• Charleston, South Carolina

We can see there antebellum architecture and admire the plantation landscapes. French Quarter is do worth to see the same as the Waterfront Park and the gardens at Middleton Place.

• Seattle, Washington

If I have an occasion to be in Seatlle, for sure I wouldn't skip the Central Public Library - a modern architectural marvel of glass grids, unusual shapes and 'book spiral'. And of course I wouldn't miss the top of the Space Needle for panoramic views of the mountains.

• San Francisco, California

The main point to visit is definitely the Golden Gate Bridge. The city has it's own special character thanks to hippie and hipster neighbourhood. Taking a rest in Dolores Park trying to do yoga that's want I need :)

• Honolulu, Hawaii

My sister has visited Hawaii this year and she covinced me to choose this point next time. The black sand beaches and wonderful trails to conquer makes you stronger than you think. The most famous Waikiki beach definitely you can see there great surf. And I always wanted to try it, so why not in Hawaii??

New York City

I have to confess that New York city wasn't surprising and I didn't like it so much. Of course, it was really worth to visit this city, but I prefer more peaceful areas. Especially the crowds of people on the strreets and commercials everywhere. I do like Chinatown and Italy district, you could see there a lot of paintings and decorations, It was very impressing. In Chinatown I used to eat dinners because it was very tasty and much cheaper than even eating in McDonalds, where food was really disguisting. Even in Poland I can say that McDonalds food is really good compares to USA. 

We were living quite close to Manhattan, in Queens. It was about 20 minutes by metro to the centre and quite cheap because the hostels are horribly expensive. During our first day we were visiting Central Park and taking a rest a little bit after long trip from Las Vegas. The area was amazing, very calm and green :D We spent almost 3 hours to walk around the park. The  next day I took a free cruise to see the Statue of Liberty ( I thought it will be much bigger - nothing special :D) and we went to see the Brooklyn Bridge and admire there very breathtaking sunset.

Most of our time we spend at Times Square doing shopping of course (finally yaay!) It was my dream also to visit and take pictures with almost real stars at Madame Tussauds Museum. But I was quite dissappointed, especially that I paid 40 dollars for that pleasure.

During our last day we took a metro to the World Trade Center and financial district and to spent nice evening at Empire State Building, admiring the views. 

I really hope to see all my friends from Brant Lake and visit and discover new places next year. 

I want to make my dreams come true!

VEGAS BABY

City of Las Vegas is the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and, like everyone, we know because of what. Gambling, shopping, fine dining, nightlife. The most famous part of the city is of course, South Las Vegas Boulevard, known as Las Vegas Strip. Right there we can see all these spectacular, luxury hotels and casinos.

We arrived there very late, about 23 p.m and all what we wanted to take a shower and go to sleep :D When we went out from the bus the heat hit us, almost 40 degrees at midnight that was a thing! 

Our destination was the Circus Circus hotel, shining as a christmas tree. It was also one of the cheapest hotels, we paid about 140 dollars for 2 people for 4 nights, but still it was very comfortable. The bedroom was huge, but the only thing that I noticed was giant bed and beautiful view from Sky Tower. 

Every evening we were going to the swimming pool and jacuzzi. Without this, we couldn't survive in this high temperature. Personally, Vegas was not suitable for me because I couldn't buy alcohol and play in casinos :D I was waiting only for Grand Canion trip. On this famous street were too much of shopping centres. And the only thing that was worth to see there, were the hotels for example this one from the movie 'The Hangover'. At the streets we could see people dressed as Alan or other actors. 

I was very excited to see finally the canion. It was my dream since I remember. I saw it on pictures and movies and seeing it for real it was unforgettable moment. We bought a chineese trip, It costed less but the accent of our guide was really funny. From Las Vegas to Grand Canion is about 5 hours by car so we were a little bit sleepy. We had a chance to visit also Hoover Dam, the construction was a result of  massive effort involving thousands of workers, and cost over one hundred lives. It provides irrigation water, control floods and produce hydroelectric power. It was really worth to see it. 

Chineese people took us safetly to our hotel, were we spend the last night waiting for our next destination. What city this time?? BIG APPLE!