You guys know that while I love cooking, I’m not much of a baker. With an exception of few, tested family recipes, I usually stay away from baking desserts. This year, however, I really wanted to have a go at Christmas cookies. These gingerbread cookies were not only incredibly easy to make, but they also look pretty cute and taste amazing (mission accomplished!). Ingredients (makes about 50 cookies):      300g of wheat flour 100g of rye flour 100g of honey 1 TBS cocoa 1 tsp baking soda 2 eggs 130g confectioner sugar 100g butter, melted and slightly cooled 1TBS of gingerbread spice (recipe follows) You can use preprepared, store-bought gingerbread spice, but it’s very easy to make your own. To make my gingerbread spice I simply mixed together the following spices: 1/2 cup cinnamon 1/2 cup ground ginger 1/4 cup allspice 1/4 cup nutmeg 1/4 cup ground cloves You will end up with more than enough, but you can store it in your pantry so that next time you make gingerbread cookies, you won’t need to worry about preparing it. Preheat the oven to 350F. To make your dough, mix all of the ingredients together. You can use a standing […]

The post Easy Gingerbread Cookies appeared first on Lifestyle Gleam.

Anyone else feels like they’ve gained about 10 pounds over the Thanksgiving break? After I skipped breakfast this morning, I really wanted to have a nice, healthy lunch, which was a bit of a challenge with nothing much but Thanksgiving leftovers in my fridge. Few things that I always keep in my fridge are fresh avocados (I only buy about one or two at a time as they turn ripe rather quick-it’s either that or they take forever to ripen), feta cheese (it doesn’t go bad quickly and is a nice addition to salads, pasta dishes, etc. but I don’t have it too often), kumato tomatoes, organic cucumbers and Boston lettuce. I also had some homemade pesto leftover that I usually love using to make a healthier version of grilled cheese sandwich.  I put all of that together with some multi-grain panini bread to create one of the most delicious veggie sandwiches I’ve ever tasted. I had my sandwich with lots of lemon and cucumber infused water. It’s so nice to indulge once in a while (especially on holidays) but I do have to say that it feels great being back on track and eating healthy! At least for the […]

The post Veggie Lover Sandwich appeared first on Lifestyle Gleam.

Quinoa, often referred to as “a vegetable caviar” or “rice of the Inca Empire” is a very unique seed due to it being high in protein, fiber and minerals while being completely gluten free. It’s super healthy, fluffy, tasty and highly versatile. It’s also a bit difficult to pronounce: “KEEN-WAH”. I love saying that. Keen-wah. Now that you know just how amazing and healthy quinoa is, it’s time to incorporate it into your diet. Not being much of a meat-eater, I always look for new ways to get in some of that protein in mah belly. What’s great about quinoa is that you can have it with anything, fruit or veggies, you can serve it as a side dish, or as a main course. One of my favorite ways to have quinoa is with lots and lots of veggies. Surprise, surprise. I love, love, love my veggies. Ingredients: 2 cups of white quinoa sea salt olive oil 1 red bell pepper, cubed 1 yellow bell pepper, cubed 1 green bell pepper, cubed a bunch of asparagus, cut 2 small red onions, cubed 2 yellow squashes, cubed 3 cloves of garlic, sliced into thick pieces Dressing: 1 lemon, juiced 1/3 cup […]

The post Quinoa with roasted veggies appeared first on Lifestyle Gleam.

I’m not usually a sweet-breakfast type of person, but today I made something sweet and absolutely delicious for breakfast: Strawberry & Banana French Toast. This, my friends, is the best French toast that I’ve ever had. If there is one thing that I have learned during last couple of years, is to love life and everything that’s it in. Life can be so fragile and I wish we all could truly enjoy all those “little” things in our life. All those things that we do everyday, things we don’t think twice about, things that some people don’t get a chance to do. Having your favorite cup of coffee, going for a brisk walk on a gloomy, chilly morning, reading your favorite book for the 5th time, watching your favorite movie, spending time with your loved ones, looking your partner in the eyes, holding his/her hand, playing with your child, meeting up with your friend for lunch, taking a walk on a sunny Autumn afternoon. Those all are things that many of us take for granted, things we don’t always appreciate. I’ve always said that I want to live my life to the fullest, try new things, do things that scare […]

The post Strawberry & Banana French Toast appeared first on Lifestyle Gleam.

I’ve been in such a great mood these last couple of days, just staying busy, enjoying spending time with hubby who is now home for the weekends (yay!), that I decided to make something special for lunch. Few weeks a go, I got this amazing recipe for a shrimp cocktail from my friend and I couldn’t wait to try it out. We bought some fresh, wild caught shrimp on Saturday and a bunch of organic avocados so I had a perfect opportunity to try out the recipe. I have a love-hate relationship with shrimp. As you guys know, I’m not much of a meat and fish eater these days, I usually try to avoid eating anything animal-based, but sometimes even I can’t help my crazy cravings. Few years a go, I actually developed a shrimp allergy, but it somehow went away. One Sunday we went to one of my favorite Mexican restaurants in the area, I had a shrimp pasta dish and as soon as we left I got these crazy looking hives on my skin, my lips swell up and my face turned puffy and it all went away after a few hours. Weird, I thought. So next weekend […]

The post Different kind of shrimp cocktail appeared first on Lifestyle Gleam.