Guest Post

Coconut Wild Cherry Christmas Cookies

No Comments

Hope everyone enjoyed opening their gifts yesterday, for those who celebrated! Julie is my second poster lined up and this is her second guest post for me which I’m so thankful for! Plus, I envy her hair. Julie did a tutorial on how she curls the ends of her hair with a straightener and it comes out looking so put together on her. I’ve tried countless times and it just doesn’t work on me.  I always love that hair style she’s sporting. You can also find Julie over on twitter!!

____________________________

Hello Spiffy Kerms fans! My name is Julie and I am the face behind the blog Peanut Butter Fingers which follows my life as I try to work out regularly, eat (mostly) healthy and navigate life as a newlywed living in a brand new town.

With the holiday season in full swing, I thought it might be fun to share a festive cookie recipe with you guys while Nancy is livin’ it up and enjoying her Christmas vacation!

Since I am all about super-simple recipes, this particular recipe is beyond easy and only requires five ingredients.

The best part (besides the taste)? They sound pretty darn impressive.

Coconut Wild Cherry Christmas Cookies

Spiffy, huh? (<– Like that one, Nancy? ;) )

Let’s get baking, shall we?

Coconut Wild Cherry Christmas Cookies

Ingredients:

  • 1 box coconut cake mix
  • ¼ cup canola oil
  • 2 large eggs
  • ¾ cup dried cherries, chopped
  • Sugar for garnish

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray cookie sheet with cooking spray or line with parchment paper.
  2. Combine cake mix, oil and eggs in a large bowl and mix until everything is well blended.
  3. Stir cherries into mix.
  4. Pour sugar into a small bowl.
  5. Roll cookie dough into balls and roll around in bowl of sugar until they are coated in a thin layer of sugar.
  6. Place dough balls on cookie sheet and bake for approximately 12 minutes.
  7. Cool and enjoy.

I hope you all enjoy a wonderful holiday season with your loved ones and if you make the cookies, I hope they’re a hit!

Continue Reading

Guest Post

Let’s Get Festive!

No Comments

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

I’m signing off for Christmas. Taking a break and spending time with friends and family. In order to keep my blog alive for the time being I’m excited for my first guest poster of the holiday season. It’s my cousin Vanessa! She recently started up her own healthy living blog but stopped for a while. Pay her a visit and tell her she should update more often! She’s pretty good at it if I do say so.

I tried to find a recent photo of the both of us, but couldn’t. So here’s the next best thing (ha ha!) her twin sister Natalie. Gorgeous right? Vanessa is the one with the glasses. Okay, here she is:

______________________

There’s nothing like getting festive in all areas of your life. My guest blog post is about my favourite Holiday “things” (i.e. clothes, hair, music, etc.).

I have never been one to listen to Christmas music, but once I got my hands on Mr. Bublé’s Christmas album, I have come completely obsessed. I bring the cd everywhere I go…literally, I bring it to work, I went to visit my mom and I brought it inside, and I have downloaded it for when I am on my computer (like now!). There’s a reason why I love it and I am not the only one –it’s no. 1 in the UK and is quickly climbing the billboard charts in the US.

             Check out a trailer of his album.

Festive Nails. I love painting my nails for the holiday season. This year I opted for a bright red topped with some gold sparkles. It’s very on trend right now and it’s look great! The subtle details of getting festive are doing things like painting your nails, and it definitely gets you in the mood for some Christmas spirit. A close friend of mine published a post on Sparkly Nails.

My nails look similar to this

 Another of my favourite way to get festive is to dress the part (and I don’t mean by wearing an ugly Christmas sweater!). I am loving the clothes that J.Crew currently has. Here are some of my favourite outfits.

                                                                                                 Check out J.Crew for some more ideas for Holiday outfits.

Another part of the holidays is getting to dress up and try different things with your hair. I have gotten some wonderful ideas from the blog “A Cup of Jo”. She has posted a number of different hair styles that can be done with just some bobby pins and hairspray. Check them out here and here. My favourite is the Pretzel Braid. My hair is not long enough yet, but it is slowly getting there.

                                                                                            Lastly, my favourite part of the holidays are getting to hang out with friends and family. Every year, I get together with the 5 girls I lived with while attending University. I look forward to this so much because we sit around, eat food, drink wine, and laugh about the great times we shared in University. The same ridiculous stories come up every year, but we all love hearing them over and over again. I also loving getting to share the holidays with my amazing family! I get to see my niece and nephew open their gifts, I get to hang out with my sisters, and I get to spend some quality time with my parents and in-laws! And, of course, while getting to eat some great food! Please remember what the holidays are all about: getting to share some wonderful time together with the people you really care about.

 MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

 

 

 

Continue Reading

Guest Post

Guest Post: Stephanie

No Comments

Hey Spiffy Friends!

My name is Stephanie and I blog over at Lunges and Lunch. I look like this:

And I live with Henry who looks like this:

I met Ms. Nancy at a blogger event and fell instantly in love. We had an amazing time laughing and had a pretty great first connection which was obvious as we gradually cleared the room (maybe our humor is not for everyone). I’ve been following her since and was absolutely thrilled to take the opportunity to blog for her while she’s MIA.

Because I like food, I thought I’d share a recipe with you guys today! Just as a background (in case my ingredients look a little funky), I’m a gluten-free girl who is vegan 95% of the time. I also don’t do soy or corn. (Aren’t I a delight?)

 Wait!

Before you run away, give my recipe a chance J

It’s a Chocolate Banana Goji Bread Pudding.

 See?? Come back and take a peek.

Ingredients

½ cup goji berries
¾ cup water

2 cups all purpose GF flower
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp sea salt
½ tsp xanthan gum

 3 bananas
I tsp vanilla
1 c rice milk
¼ cup cocoa
½ cup brown rice syrup
¼ cup cane sugar
¼ cup applesauce
2 chia eggs

  1. Soak your berries in one bowl for 3 minutes and then mash them up or handblend.

2. Prep your chia eggs in a separate little bowl. The ratio is 3:1, so soak 3 tbsp water in 1 tbsp of chia! (You can also use flaxseed instead).

3. Mix all your dry ingredients in a medium-sized bowl and set aside.

Mash up your nanners and add your wet ingredients.


  1. Add the wet into the dry and voila! A bowl full of mush!
  2. Toss half of your chocolate batter into a square pan and then add your goji layer.


  1.  Put the remainder of the batter on and sprinkle some coconut on there.


  1. Bake in 350 oven for 30-40 minutes.
  2. Serve warm. Add cream or milk (skim, rice, almond, hemp, soy, coconut) if you like and


Resign yourself to the fact that bread pudding can never make a pretty picture. Just trust me that it tastes good.

Hope you have a fantastic day and thanks for letting me come visit! :)

Steph

Continue Reading