Merry Christmas Eve

Happy Christmas Eve! Greetings from Santa Cruz. 

(Check out this post for some Santa Cruz vegan food review from the last time I was here - Saturn Cafe is a gem.)

This year, for the first time ever, I'm not spending Christmas at home in Oregon. I'll see my family next week, but this year for Christmas I'm with Fiance and a large group of my future in-laws. It's the first time I've met this side of the family, and there's quite a few names to remember, but John briefed me with a family tree before we arrived, so I'm doing all right. We're having fun and I feel welcomed like part of the family. 

This past week we've had quite a few stops and activities.

We started in Loma Linda with the end of my OB/Gyn rotation. It's a relief to be done because the hours were long, but I did all right and liked it more than I thought I would. Still going to be a pediatrician though, definitely haven't changed my mind.

Then we went to John's parents' house in San Diego and spent some time with his family. 

We decorated a tree.

And this is Panda. He's precious.

We also went to Irvine for a night, Jamba juice oatmeal and the Carrot Karma smoothie. We did all our Christmas shopping while we were there, so now we're ready. Bring on Christmas. 

On the way up to Santa Barbara we stopped for lunch at Nature's Grill in Ventura. It's the same as Natural Cafe in Santa Barbara, and I got the vegan version of the Buddha burrito. It was enormous, but I saved half for lunch the next day.

We also stopped and dropped my ring off at Van Gundy's - the jeweler John purchased it from, and we got it sized and polished. It's now as shiny as when he first gave it to me. AND it fits. I thought my ring size was 6 - it's 4.5. For the past 7 months I've been wearing a ring snuggie and now no more - it's wonderful. 

My friend Bri had a baby in September and we got to meet him finally when we arrived in Santa Barbara. He and I got along great. I promise not to steal him, I'll just be a good aunt. 

There was also Thai food - Tom Kah soup. 

And Backyard bowls - no trip to Santa Barbara is complete without it. Hot oatmeal bowl (they make it with in-house cashew milk) with agave, strawberries, blueberries and walnuts. 

We found this in Ventura when we went to pick up my ring. It tasted like those chocolate oranges you get at Christmas, but better. And more reasonably sized - I was never able to stop eating those big orange ones before I felt sick. 

We did some cliff walking at Shoreline park in Santa Barbara. 

THIS is the best vegan pizza of my life. From Pizza Guru in Santa Barbara - this is the White House with vegan white sauce and Daiya. It also has sundried tomatoes and artichoke hearts. I ate half and saved the leftovers.

These are the Cowboy Cookies from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. They have coconut, chocolate chips, pecans and oats. They might be my favorite from the book so far. 

And the next day brought us to Backyard Bowls again - this one is the Island Bowl, a blended Acai berry base with granola, fruit and coconut topping.

Lunch yesterday was the leftover pizza, and dinner was veggie pizza from Woodstock's here in Santa Cruz.

And now you're all caught up. Happy Christmas.

______________________________________

This morning I went on a 10 mile run. When I got back I couldn't feel my hands, but it was pretty fun. I left in the dark but looped back around in time for sunrise over the ocean and it was really beautiful. 

We're not sure what the rest of the day will hold, but it's Christmas Eve with family, so it will be good. 

And Merry Christmas to my other family - see you in a couple days!

Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles

Or: There's how much cayenne pepper in your cookie?

Most of you are probably familiar with the Master Cleanse diet. Great for a couple days if you're going to walk the red carpet at the Oscars - like the woman of my dreams, Natalie Portman - not so healthy otherwise. Anyway, a central component is that awful blend of lemon, water, maple syrup and cayenne pepper. Apparently the cayenne pepper is supposed to boost metabolism. If that's true, have another one of these cookies...

These were actually made this weekend, and since I'm back to my normal study life, sometimes I like to think back fondly on happier times, like Sunday, when these cookies rocked my world.

Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles

Recipe: Post Punk Kitchen

Here are my notes - 

1a. When you add that much cayenne pepper, it looks like a lot, but the taste is SPOT ON. I'm a complete wimp when it comes to spice - I promise it's not overwhelming.

1b. I devoured like 5 of these no problem, but if you're stomach's sensitive to spicy food, 

you may want to cut it a little bit. 

2. The recipe says the dough should stick to your fingers to make it easy to put the topping on, but I had to just kind of pinch the side to flip it back over because it wasn't really that sticky. 

3. I baked these in a slightly sketchy apartment oven on dark roasting pans, because that's all we had. 

Solution to keep from burning: Make them small, and bake only 8 minutes. 

4. Total yield: 42

5. Nutrition: 72 calories each. 

The best part? I had a co-chef on this one - Thanks Evan!

Mix up the dough.

Scoop about this much. 

Roll it up.

Pat it into the topping. Flip it back onto the cookie sheet. Bake.

Pick up...

Devour with love.

Try not to eat them all. 

Did you know? It's Spring Break!

Winter finals are done and so begins the last spring break of my life.

Next year I'll be in clinicals like a real doctor, getting only 2 weeks vacation over the whole year (like all you people who live in the real world) but for one final year I'm still basically a highschooler with a stethoscope, and I get a spring break. Unfortunately I have no exciting travel plans and I will spend a chunk of it studying, but for now boyfriend's here and we're going to have a fun weekend.

This morning started with some His and Hers steel-cut oats. Banana and brown sugar for him, applesauce, cinnamon and maple for me.

For second breakfast I fed boyfriend some cookies I made yesterday. I intended to make Oatmeal Raisin, but when I got to the raisin-adding stage, what I thought was a bag of raisins in my pantry turned out to be craisins, which I thought wouldn't be so good, so instead I chopped up an apple. I want to play with the recipe a smidge and see if I can get them just a little less fragile before I post it. but the consensus is that they taste like apple pie. I took them over to a friend's house and we had a great post-test party. There were about 8 of us. I made 34 cookies; there are 3 left. I also made some macaroons [recipe] with my leftover coconut from Katie's birthday.

I'm not sure what the day will bring, but it feels lovely to finally relax. 

Do you get a spring break? What are you doing?