Early Christmas Baking!

Bake

Baking holiday treats is one of my favourite things to do! Since it's too early to make gingerbread men or candy cane cookies I decided to bake some oatmeal cookies! They are simple to make and so tasty. They are the perfect study snack and baking them is a nice stress reliever! So put on some Frank Sinatra, get out your ingredients and get to baking! 

Here's my easy oatmeal cookie recipe:

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup (150 mL) butter, softened
• 1 cup (250 mL) packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp (10 mL) vanilla
• 1-1/2 cups (375 mL) large-flake rolled oats
• 1 cup (250 mL) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp (2 mL) baking powder
• 1/2 tsp (2 mL) baking soda
• 1/4 tsp (1 mL) salt

• Preparation

  Line rimless baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.
  
  In large bowl, beat butter with sugar until fluffy; beat in egg and vanilla. In separate bowl, whisk together rolled oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt - stir into butter mixture until combined. 

  Drop by heaping 1 tbsp (15 mL), about 2 inches (5 cm) apart, onto prepared pans. Bake in top and bottom thirds of 375°F (190°C) oven, rotating and switching pans halfway through, until golden, about 12 minutes. Transfer to rack; let cool.

  Recipe courtesy of Canadian Living Magazine

  
  

  Gift them

  Baking is fun but you don't want to end up having to eat everything your self! You can buy cute boxes at the dollar store that you can decorate, fill with cookies and give away as presents! These treats are sure to put a smile on anyone's face!

  
  

  Happy Baking!

Christmas Shopping in Winnipeg

Christmas Shopping

Picking out unique presents can be hard to do, but it’s much better than just buying a gift card (unless that’s what the person asked for). There are so many awesome stores in Winnipeg that sell items that are more special than the generic things you can buy at the mall. Here are a few great places around Winnipeg to check out when doing your Christmas shopping.

Hush and Shout 

This store is right in Osbourne village and has the perfect gifts for the fashionista in your life. Their shelves are filled with beautiful dresses and gorgeous accessories that will make any girl very happy on Christmas morning. The Hush side of the store has lots of dressy going out clothes, and the Shout side sells more casual looks. Either way this store has something for every style of girl! Check out their site to see some of their new items!

Chapters & McNally Robinson

Both of these stores sell so much more than just books, they have tons of items that make great gifts! The atmosphere in these stores makes Christmas shopping so much less stressful. Go to the Starbucks in Chapters or Prairie Ink in McNally and grab a hot coffee, then take your time browsing the store! They sell everything from whiskey stones for Dad or Grandpa, to yoga mats for your Mom or sister! They also carry Fred Flare products, which I love (their cute ice cube trays make perfect stocking stuffers). Chapters also sells the Kobo, their version of an E-reader. This product is one of the hottest gifts of the season, so pick one up for the bookworm in your life!

Tara Davis

This store is perfect for anyone who loves things made locally, the whole store is full of products made in Canada! The store carries beautiful jewelry, purses, notebooks, handmade pillows, and pretty much a little bit of everything! They also have hand knit items that they will customize to whatever colour and style you choose. This store’s right in the Exchange District so while you’re there, browse some of the awesome other shops in the area like Hilary Druxman!

These are just a few of the places in Winnipeg that are awesome for Christmas Shopping, I’ll post more soon! What’s your favourite store for present buying?

Holiday Shopping

Shop

As soon as the snow fell and it got cold out, I realized the holidays are right around the corner which means time to buy presents! Shopping for gifts can be very stressful and it is hard to keep track of your spending. Last year I went a bit overboard and spent way more money on presents than I could afford. This year I'm going to have a game plan, have a budget, and make shopping less stressful. Here are some tips on how to make holiday shopping easy as pie.

Make A List
There is nothing more helpful than making a list of the names of everyone you have to buy presents for. This keeps you organized and stops you from over-buying. You can add ideas for presents to the list or wait until you're out shopping to find ideas. Lists also help to keep track of how much money you have spent so you stay within your budget.

Plan Out Your Shopping Trip
Don't just go to the mall and wander store to store expecting to find everything you need. Before you go shopping, plan out which stores you need to hit for certain gifts and once you have found everything you need you can explore other stores. This will help you keep your shopping trips shorter leaving more time for fun things like doing some Christmas baking!

Shop Online
If you want to beat those terrible lines at the mall, stay at home and shop online! This can be a great way to find cheaper deals on the items you want and it saves you lots of time. It's great to start by looking for items on the actual stores website and then searching for them on sites like eBay or Amazon. You might even save enough money to buy more presents than you thought you could!

Make A Wish List
Even though you're more focused on getting all of your shopping done you can't forget to make your own wish list! This makes sure that you will get the things you need and it is so helpful for the people that are trying to find the perfect gift for you. You can still go oldschool and make hand-writen wish lists or you can try one of the websites that make it easy to distribute your list. There are tons of these new sites, and on some of them you can create groups so that all of your friends and family can know what to get eachother. Try Giftster, it's a really good version of the online wish list!

I hope these tips are helpful and they make your holiday shopping stress-free! Coming up in my next post I will tell you all about my favourite stores for holiday shopping!

Battle That Cold!

My Cold Remedies

Now that it's getting colder outside it is inevitable that sooner or later we will all get sick. Being in a classroom or an office full of people is probably the fastest way to catch a nasty cold, and most of us have to be in that setting every day. The internet is filled with supposed fixes for being sick, but it's hard to know which ones work and which ones don't. I've had plenty of colds in my life and I have discovered little things that can help make you forget about being sick and start feeling better. Here are my tips for fighting that cold!

Organic Peppermint Amore Tea 

As soon as I feel that scratchy, sore throat starting I make a trip to DAVIDsTEA for a hot cup of Organic Peppermint Amore. It's caffeine-free and absolutely delicious! If your cold is much worse than just a sore throat they offer a blend of tea called Gail's Organic Cold Remedy, a green tea with ginger, lemon grass and lemon myrtle. You can also buy any amount of tea you want, so you can make it at home when you're too sick to leave the house. There are two DAVIDsTEA locations in Winnipeg, one in Polo Park Mall and one in Grant Park Shopping Centre. Even if you aren't sick I suggest you go stock up on tea just in case!

Vitamin C

Everyone always says that having lots of Vitamin C in your diet will stop you from getting sick. Whether or not this is true is something that many people argue over. It could just be me perceiving that the Vitamin C actually is making me feel better but either way a nice glass of orange juice can be just the thing to boost your energy and help you fight that cold. One kind of double-duty treats that I like are HALLS Vitamin C throat drops. They relieve your sore throat while the Vitamin C supplements they contain help make you healthy. These are my favourite throat drops! They taste as good as candy so make sure you buy a big bag!

Z Z  Z Z Z …

Rest Up!

Sometimes when we are sick it is our body's way of telling us to slow down. When we are busy and stressed we don't take time to eat nutritiously or get enough sleep. Having to take a day off work because of a cold can do your body so much good. Resting during the day can be essential especially when our symptoms seem to worsen at night and we may not be able to fall asleep. Being warm can also help make you feel better so put on those wool socks, sweats and a hoodie and bundle up! Having an extra pillow behind your head can open your nasal passages and help with that stuffy nose. So take the day off, throw on some mindless television (my favourite is anything Kardashian) and rest up!

Get Friendly

When we're sick and our noses are red and drippy, we don't always look are best. Hiding away from the world can make you feel worse. I believe that having a visit with a friend or loved one can lift your spirits and make you forget that you're sick. Even if you don't have the energy to carry on a conversation, having a person you care about by your side can make you feel better. The only problem with this is your friend may catch your cold! If you are both sick that would be ideal because you wouldn't be concerned with germs. But something we have all learned from our mothers that would hug us even when we were at our sickest, is that to our loved ones, making us feel better is more important than the risk of getting sick.

Everyone has a different way of making themselves feel better so try my suggestions and come up with your own too! I'd love to hear what your favourite cold remedies are so feel free to leave me some comments!

The Underground Cafe

Eat

The other day I took my friend Leanne out for lunch for her birthday. We only had an hour break between our classes so we decided to check out The Underground Cafe. It's on Arthur Street just a short walk from Red River College. I had only recently heard about Underground, it's in the basement of a building so it isn't super noticeable if you are driving down the street. 

Inside is a warm little cafe with beautiful murals painted all over the walls. The tables and chairs are an eclectic mix of different coloured retro pieces. Underground is a very trendy, hip cafe that offers a selection of foods with many vegetarian options. They are famous for their Sun Burger, a vegetarian patty topped with dill sauce sandwiched between a toasted whole wheat bagel. 

Leanne and I split the Sun Burger and the B.T.C.L (bacon tomato chicken lettuce) so that we could try a bit of both. The Sun Burger was interesting, I am not used to eating vegetarian burgers so the taste combinations were very different to me. I did enjoy it but I was glad to have the B.T.C.L to balance out the meal. The chicken was really tasty and the bacon was thick and smoky. Overall I liked the food. 

The good thing was the speed. The restaurant was pretty busy when we went at noon, but it only took about 15 minutes for our food to be ready. We were finished in time to make it back to class! There are tons of awesome places to eat in the Exchange District and I am on the hunt to find my favourite one. 

If you want to check out The Underground Cafe's menu or find out more about the company check out their website!

http://theundergroundcafe.ca