A New Year – Reflections and Expectations

First things first, Happy New Year to all of you. I know it has been a while since I last wrote thought I would do a post with some reflections on 2014 and some of the things I would love to achieve in 2015.

The main reason I have been lacking posts over the last few weeks is due to my Yoga Sports Science course and the fact that I have been working quite a lot recently as well which I cannot complain about! It is not really a lack of time but more a lack of brain capacity. When I was younger and my mum used to say to me that her brain had a limit, you could fill it up with a certain amount of stuff and then no more would fit in. I never got it really until now. When I came to writing my blog, although I had a lot of ideas I just did not have the space in my brain to think it out properly let alone write it. So I decided to take a deserved break and after having had 2 good weeks of rest I am able to write this.

There is one other reason why it has been so hard over the last couple of months, in the middle of November I was covering a yoga class and when crossing the road to get there I was knocked down by a bicycle that ran a red a light. I know it sounds minor but he was going really fast and I fell had on the road, I still have residual bruises now. Unfortunately the shock made me decide I did not need treatment and that I just needed to get on with my class. I think this meant I missed I had hit my head and suffered a minor concussion and if you had been at my class you probably would have hated it, looking back I had no idea what I was saying and at one point was trying to get the class to do an impossible move which took me a while to work out but I am ok so that is fine really.

I have had a wonderful Christmas break though doing some great baking and planning in my head for things that I want to do. I am going to show you some of the great things I have made for Christmas and then give you an update on the year so far before telling some fab plans I have.

Let me start with the Gingerbread men I made for Christmas, I have a few cousins that are 10 or under and I thought that these would be a great treat for them. They are pictured below and I got the recipe from Decadent Gluten Free Vegan Baking by Cara Reed the writer of Forkandbeans.com

Trust me they were as yummy as they look which is why I had to give most of them away. Many of you might know that I changed to a vegan diet this year and so this was my first Christmas without cheese. I was slightly worried about this as luxury cheese is one of my favourite things about the holiday period so I decided to try making some vegan cheese, what do you think?

Not bad for a first attempt! They were so good that I have meat eaters stuffing their faces with them which can’t be bad. I used others recipes for this cheese board and the recipes used are detailed below starting on the left and working in a clockwise direction:

1. Kick Ace Extra Sharp Raw Vegan Cheddar Cheese Ball by Vedged Out
2. Baked Almond Feta by Maple & Spice
3. Cashew Brie by Peaceloveveganfood
4. Roasted Garlic and Sun Dried Tomato Vegan Cheese by Rawmazing
5. Homemade Vegan Cheese by Vegangela