My Favorite Holiday Recipes!

I thought it would be fun to compile a list (with links) to my favorite holiday side dishes and desserts.  Enjoy!!

Brussels Sprouts with Balsamic and Cranberries

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Praline Sweet Potato Casserole

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Cheesy Broccoli Quinoa Casserole

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Sweet and Crunchy Quinoa

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Caramelized Sweet Potato and Kale Wild Rice

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Caramelized Brussels Sprouts

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Sweet Potato Pomegranate Salad

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Desserts!

Brown Sugar Pound Cake with Caramel Drizzle

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White Chocolate Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

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White Chocolate Peanut Butter Crunch Bars

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Chewy Ginger Cookies

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Gooey Toffee Butter Cake

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Chewy Molasses-Spice Cookies

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Pillowy Pumpkin Spice and Honey Cookies

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Oatmeal Scotchies

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Rocky Road Fudge

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Are you cooking or baking for the holidays?  What are you making? I’ll be taking the sweet potato casserole to my Gran’s house, and I baked a bunch of these cookies and the fudge.

Are you hosting friends or family at your home?  Or, if you’re traveling…where are you going?  We’re visiting family in TN and then heading to the beach!

Happy Christmas Eve!! #choosejoy

Chewy Ginger Cookies

These cookies taste and smell like Christmas!  I don’t love crunchy cookies, so I set out to make a soft and chewy gingerbread cookie.  These have the taditional flavors of ground ginger, molasses, and cinnamon, but the real star is the crystallized ginger.  They stayed puffy and chewy and were perfect for my Christmas party!

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Here are your ingredients…let’s bake!

I used a stand mixer with the paddle attachment.  Feel free to use a handheld mixer.  Start by creaming your butter and sugars.

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Add the egg, molasses, and vanilla.  Mix until combined.

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Mix in the baking soda, cinnamon, ground ginger, cloves, and salt.

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Add the flour and mix until it is well combined.

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Now for my favorite part…the crystallized ginger!  Isn’t it pretty?!

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Chop it up and add it to your dough.  Mix until combined.

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Take your dough and chill it for at least 30 minutes.

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Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Put your sugar into a little bowl.  I use this white sparkling sugar because the crystals are larger, it gives a nice crunch, and it’s pretty.  Feel free to use regular granulated sugar.

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Once your dough is chilled, use a ice cream/cookie scoop to form dough balls.

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Rolling each ball in the sparkling sugar.

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Bake for 7-8 minutes.

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Allow to cook on the pan for 5 minutes.  Then transfer to a cooling rack.

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I had to sample one while they were still warm…SO GOOD!!

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Enjoy!

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Ingredients:

1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup crystalized ginger; chopped
Sparkling or granulated sugar, for rolling

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350°.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add in the molasses, egg, and vanilla and mix until well-combined.
Add in the baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves,and salt, and mix until just combined. Add in the flour and mix until well-combined, scraping the sides as needed.
Mix in the chopped ginger until combined.
Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes. Then roll the dough into 1-inch balls, and roll each dough ball in sparkling or granulated sugar. Place on an ungreased baking sheet, spacing them 2-inches apart.
Bake in preheated oven for 7-8 minutes, or until the cookies just begin to crack and crinkle, and the edges barely start to brown. Do not overbake or they won’t be chewy!
Let cookies cool for 5 minutes on the cookie sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

#choosejoy

Recipe adapted from Back To Her Roots

I Like Big Cups and I Cannot Lie

Saturday:

When I saw this long run on my schedule (1 week after the Memphis Marathon) I was nervous.  I’m normally a stickler about following my training plans, but I gave myself permission to just listen to my body.  Fortunately, my body felt surprisingly good!!!

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During the run, we were talking about an upcoming 50k I’m running…The Pistol.  Every time we say the race name, we pretend like we have guns and make “pew pew” sound effects.  Corrie sent me this after the run and I fell over laughing!

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I came home and Jason had a big bowl of oatmeal with pomegranate arils waiting on me…my love language!

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My friend Michael is a worship minister at Clearview.  He invited us to the Christmas program at his church and we were blown away!!  We’ve been running together for a year now and it was incredible to see him at work.

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J Crew has a new elephant t-shirt…love!

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Sunday:

One of these things is not like the other one…

I showed up to bootcamp and it was just me and the super speedy boys.  I did my best.  It was a tough workout.  These are our celebratory post-bootcamp shenanigans!

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I had a giant (or just for you Roy…Big As Yo Face) salad.

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And spent the rest of the day prepping for our Christmas party!!!

I baked these Ginger Cookies…recipe and party pictures coming soon:)

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We had so much fun and I can’t wait to share some pictures with you, but for now I’m exhausted!!  I’m pretty sure tomorrow morning will look something like this… I like big cups and I cannot lie.

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Tell me about your weekend running?  There were so many PR’s and BQ’s this weekend….so exciting!!

What was the highlight of your weekend?  Mine was having so many wonderful friends in over for our Christmas party:)

#choosejoy