Christmas Cookie Box

Throughout the year I baked a lot... I baked when I was sad, baked when I was happy, baked because it was a Tuesday, and baked to perfect my craft. So for our Christmas presents this year I decided that baking would be a heartfelt gift! 

It all started with a list of cookies I wanted to add to my box...

Christmas Cookies Box:

1.gingerbread 

2.sugar cookie

3.baklava

4.crinkle cookies

5.chocolate peppermint cookies

6.molasses

7.linzer cookies 

8.buckeyes 

Then I took to the internet to find the best rated and most used recipes. Being that it was my first time making some of these recipes I wanted to make sure I had it down the first try. 

Starting with the Baklava:

a dessert originating in the Middle East made of phyllo pastry filled with chopped nuts and soaked in honey.

We used this recipe from fifteen spatulas  and out of all desserts this is the one I was a little afraid of trying. It’s probably because we eaten so many delicious versions over the years and thinking that it would so hard to replicate. If I’m honest with you, it turned out just like the ones from the restaurants! PS: you do have to wait 8 hours before you can eat but totally worth it!

Then I made an assortment of cookies for the boxes.after making the dough for each cookie I added the gingerbread, molasses, and the sugar cookie to the freezer to set because I feel like it keeps it’s shape better when you let it cool. 

Chocolate crinkle cookies

Molasses rolled in sugar

Chocolate peppermint dipped in white chocolate 

The gingerbread recipe I think is probably one of my favorites and I’m not a gingerbread fan. So that’s saying a lot! I found it on YouTube from the channel “stay at home chef” Rachel is awesome and so is her recipe!

 

My favorite part of baking all these treats was seeing

how excited my family was over these! Their happy faces while eating them brought me so much joy. I loved how they said it was delicious. It is now going to become a Christmas tradition and I hope that for 2021 my cookie game is even better! 

Do you have a Christmas tradition?

Happy 4 months baby Olive

Dear baby Olive,

What an eventful month it’s been! You are now 4 months old and continuing to bring us joy on the daily! 

You’re not going to believe this but you are almost 13 pounds which is a huge difference from your last doctors appointment!

You are getting chunkier by the minute. And we are loving it!

Sitting down is your favorite thing to do. We think that it is because you see your brother and sister better. You look around and get so happy!

I absolutely love dressing you up in different outfits! It’s so much fun and you are the best little doll.

You are obsessed with pandas and I think that mama had something to do with it! You love holding your little panda bear and wearing your panda slippers. 

We celebrated your first thanksgiving this month and you got to hangout with Uncle Rafa and Aunt Nina. You love them! 

Mama has so many wonderful dreams with you in it. I see you growing up. Being the best little girl at sports and dance. We can wait for you to do all the activities.

Right now though, breakdancing seems to be your favorite thing! We will lay you down on your mat one way and you will flip all the over to the other side in a matter or seconds. 

You have this singing owl that we got as a gift for when you were born. We take it every with us because you love listening to those lullabies and they put you right too sleep. PS: you know how mama loves pandas? Well dada is a little obsessed with Owls!

You found your loud voice and you love screaming whenever you get the chance. Our favorite thing is when you are a hungry hippo. You get so mad and cry so loud but Mae the cutest faces!

We aren’t sure what happened but you don’t like your binky anymore. Instead you would rather chew on any toy that you a chance to.

Baby girl the year is almost over and we made it! So many wonderful memories with you!

Thank you for making my life so much better. I’m the luckiest! 

A little throwback Thursday

One of my favorite things to do is find old pictures of me from when I was a little girl... I’m still missing a lot of them but here some of my favorites I’ve found:

My first birthday 1988

Fest junina with my mom and cousins 1990

At the beach with my cousins 1992

                   With my godparents in 1987

Ugh I miss my family in Brasil so much... Thank goodness for all the amazing memories and journal entries I have from all different stages of my life.

Do you have a favorite childhood memory?

Happy 3 months baby Olive

 

Dear baby Olive,

Today you are 3 months old! And your many faces tell your how excited you are to be growing so much. 

We love the fact that you are smiling so big and making faces back at us when we call your name or make funny sounds! 

You are now about 9 pounds and your doctor was happy that you are moving up the curve. We are going to have to check back with her soon just to make sure we are going the right direction with your weight.

Mama can see the difference though... All I have to do is look at your chubby cheeks and tummy to know that your gaining weight.

This month was a little emotional for your mama because we made the hard decision to start formula feeding you more. My milk never came back enough for me to keep feeding you and I could tell you were hungry. And even though I cried a little bit because I was so attached to our bonding time, I know that it is for the best and FED is best!

Your sissy follows me around and wants to hold you every chance that she gets. Sings to you and tells you all about how when you are 3 years old you will both be playing so much! 

Taking baths is still not your favorite but we are working on that. 

When it’s the weekend, daddy and I bring you to our bed and lay you between us. You get so happy and start to wiggle your little body. 

You met your Tia Bia for the first time and you are in love with her. She was able to put you to sleep right away when holding you, and that made you so happy!

Baby girl, mama is still waking up a couple of extra times in the middle of the night to check on you. I love how deep you sleep. I love the fact that people around you can make noises and you are sound asleep.

Oh! After trying a few different formulas it looks like you love the smiths brand. Which is great for mama and dada because formula is expensive and somehow you love the cheap one! 

We just love our growing baby girl so much,

Calculating MACROS

Need a quick snack idea? 

Try rice cakes with your favorite nut butter, fruit, and chocolate chips. I’ve mentioned this snack before but today I wanted to teach you how to actually look at the food labels and count your caloric intake correctly. 

It’s time to do some math to show you how easy it is to calculate your macronutrients: 

Here is what each macronutrient has: 

Carbs: 4 kcal/g  

Fat: 9 kcal/g  

Protein: 4 kcal/g 

The daily recommendation for carbs is 45-65% fat 20-35% and protein 10-35%

For you to calculate what your percentage for each day should be all you have to do is the following:

Say you are on 2,000 calories a day plan. You will then complete the following formula to get to your recommended caloric intake:

Carbs: 2,000 x .45 = 900 calories 

Fats: 2,000 x .20 = 400 calories 

Protein: 2,000 x .10 = 200 calories 

To determine the number of grams for each nutrient we need to divide the calories above by their nutrient density.

-Carbs: 900/ 4 = 225 grams

-Fats: 400 / 9 = 44.4 grams 

-Protein: 200 / 4 = 50 grams 

From here it all depends on what your nutritional goals are. If you are trying to gain muscle then you would up your carbs. If you are trying to lose fat then you would up your protein intake.