It’s official. I am a teacher.

Crazy! I have finished my teaching practicum, and can now apply to work in a school district. It seems like yesterday I was just beginning the program back in September, and now I have successfully passed. I can now exhale. It has been a crazy busy past few weeks, plus I got pretty sick for two days last week that kept me home in bed.

This has been a life-long dream of mine to become a teacher. I vividly remember arguing over ‘playing the teacher’ with the pointing stick in grade 1. Everyone wanted to use the pointing stick. Well, I guess I don’t have to fight anyone anymore.

P.S. teachers don’t use pointing sticks anymore. Or metre sticks. There isn’t a whole lot of ‘pointing to the board’ going on. Which is good.

The whole experience has really opened up my eyes as to what education is and what it means to be a teacher. I am really excited for what the future brings and what I can accomplish as an educator.

One thing I’m going to miss is the daily snack and story time with my grade two’s. I love reading (hence my major in English), and this was my favourite time of day. A new story everyday was like christmas. Maybe I’ll have to read myself a story book each night instead.

To celebrate I’ve made a little dessert. Don’t be fooled by the name, it’s delicious. You would never guess there is avocado in there, believe me. I gave it to Adam to taste and didn’t tell him what was in it, and he couldn’t guess.

Ripe Avocado

Pulse cocoa, honey, and avocado

 Rich Chocolatey Goodness

Avocado Mousse

Ingredients:

• 1-2 ripe avocados
• 1/4 cup cocoa
• 1-2 tsp. honey

In a food processor add the avocado, cocoa and honey. Pulse until quite smooth.

You can eat it this way, it will be more liquid like a pudding. However, to have a thicker mousse I suggest refrigerating it for an hour before eating.

To garnish:

• chopped nuts: pecans, walnuts, cashews, pistachios
• shaved chocolate
• cinnamon
• berries
• fruit
• chocolate chips
• granola

Ah, baking. It’s good to be back.

It’s good for my health, er – maybe not. My waistline may not agree in that sense (I literally ate 5 of these cookies for breakfast this morning..and that’s all). But, good for my mental health.

School has been exhausting. I am officially finished my long practicum. It was physically and mentally exhausting, exciting, and thoroughly enjoying. I have only my final to write now, and my last few days in second grade as a student teacher. Soon I’ll be returning to campus to begin my summer semester to complete my teaching degree. I must say, after being in school for 20 years, since kindergarten… I’m a little over school. I feel like I have been in school my entire life (which, basically I have been) I’ve only ever taken one semester off, and took two summer semesters back to back as well. There was as time when I had 5 semesters of school without a break, full time. Definitely ready to be finished.

So yeah, baking again has made me happy. I finally have time to bake, and take photographs (while It is still light out; thank goodness for daylight savings).

A lot has happened since I blogged last. Adam turned the big 2-9. We had a housewarming / birthday party all in one last weekend, which was really fun. I’ll be posting pictures of the house soon! I took him out for dinner and went to the casino, which was less fun. The dinner was unfortunately terrible, and we lost at the casino. Oh well, c’est la vie.

I’m beginning to realize that going out to dinner has lost all its panache. If I’m going out for dinner, it is going to be for some dish or cuisine that I wouldn’t normally cook for myself at home, and I want to thoroughly enjoy the experience. And if I am going to pay $25 for an entree, it better be worth its salt. Regrettably, our last few dinners out have been quite a disappointment. It also seems on our first visit to a restaurant we have great food, and on each of our ‘returns’ the food seems smaller and quality is not a good as the first time. I think it’s the curse of ‘second visits…’

I find myself faced with poor service, reduced portion sizes, all while paying more than ever before. Ultimately, I’m left with a feeling that I could, and can, make a better dinner at home, for half the price. And enjoy it a whole lot more. I’m sorry, but for $25 I could buy an entire salmon and eat for a few days. Not $25  for a seafood platter with salmon the size of a half-deck of cards, and three sad little prawns, drizzled with some VH asian ginger hoison sauce to add a sliver of flavour. Not quite up to par. Oh, and the fact I made a reservation, for a birthday, and they didn’t have a table ready for us, never said anything about a birthday or wished him happy birthday, and when I asked about a birthday dessert I was told “we don’t have one” – but we can ‘apply’ for a birthday gift certificate for next year… yeah, as if I’m going to come back here. Let alone to celebrate anything! And thanks to the waitress who threw our $90 receipt on the table and snarled said “have a good night” as she walked away. (In case you were wondering , we went to the Washington Avenue Grill)

One thing I will never pay for as well, is cookies. I mean like boxed, off the shelf cookies. I have recently made  Graham Crackers, which were so much better than store bought. After having a boxed chocolate chip cookie at school I really couldn’t believe the taste of them – so processed, and chemical. The only cookies I have bought, are Girl Guide Cookies. Who can resist – and it’s for a good cause, so you have to. My favourite type are the Thin Mint cookies. So. Good. Especially frozen. Something about March and St. Patrick’s day make people go green and mint crazy. So, naturally I had to make some thin mints of my own. I also made a delicious minty-smoothie the other night with banana, ice, almond milk, cocoa and mint chocolate chips. Blend everything, and enjoy.

St. Patty’s Day

I started off with an oreo type cookie dough (I’ve seen people make thin mints by simply removing the oreo stuffing from a cookie, and dipping the chocolate cookie into mint chocolate… not quite the same). I dipped these in melted mint-chocolate, this was a little messy, so I decided to just top them with mint chocolate instead.

FYI – these are even better frozen, or refrigerated. They are cool, crisp, and minty. Addicting.

Mint Chocolate Sables
makes approx. 3-4 dozen small cookies
cookie recipe adapted from Smitten Kitten’s cookbook, brownie roll-out cookies 

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 tbsp. almond milk
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used the Rapunzel Organic Cocoa I got from iHerb. 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Mint Chocolate Chips, OR chocolate and mint extract

Directions:

Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Whisk flour and baking powder in bowl and set aside. Mix butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and cocoa in mixer. Gradually add flour mixture, and mix until smooth. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least one hour.

Roll out cookie dough on lightly floured counter. Use a cookie cutter to cut out your desired shapes, I used a 2” fluted circle, and a regular circle (double sided cutter). Bake on un-greased cookie sheet for about 12 minutes, until edges are firm and centres slightly puffed.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

A few months ago, I think it was October, I was approached by iHerb.com. I had heard / read about their huge selection of items online through other bloggers reviews and recommendations, but had not actually looked into their website and products that they offered thoroughly.

I was surprised when iHerb had contacted me asking if they could share my Pumpkin Turkey Chili recipe on their blog. In return for allowing to use my recipe, they offered me credit to the website to try out some products. I thought it would be a great opportunity to try out some new-to-me products that I had seen and wanted to try, but had never actually ordered or had the ability to try since we don’t get the brand in Canada. I’ve only just ventured into products that are only offered in the States, I found Trader Joe’s about a year or two ago and have recently made some more trips to Fred Meyer and Target, where I can find specialty foods and brands that we can’t find here in Canada. And there are SO many yummy brands/food items I’ve had my eye on – Especially Justin’s Nut Butter!!

I tried to order a little bit of everything, the online store is seriously HUGE with over 35,000 products. From healthcare, to pet care, to baby care, to food and cleaning supplies. They also have many wheat free, gluten free and other food allergy sensitive items. They have it covered. And, there is a huge variety of brand names they carry as well. I started filling my online shopping cart only about a week or two ago, after humming and hawing over a few items I wanted, and being too busy over the holidays to really take a look. Before I knew it the packages were in the mail and on their way.

Here is what I ended up ordering:

 Now Real Foods Walnuts, Almonds and Pecans.

Physicians Formula Blush and Physicians Formula Mascara

Madre Bees Pomegranate Lip Balm 

Annie’s Naturals Organic Ketchup 

Justin’s Classic Almond Butter

Simply Organic Spices: Cinnamon, Crushed Pepper, Basil, and Tumeric

Lemon and Orange extract from FRONTIER

Let’s Do.. Organic – Organic Coconut Flour

Now Healthy Foods Cocoa Powder and  Rapunzel Organic Cocoa Powder

Dagoba Organic Chocolate – Mint

Update: Tried this chocolate bar tonight, didn’t love it. Had a really, really mild mint flavour and a slight rosemary. The dark chocolate itself was ok.

Chocolove Chocolate bars in Orange Peel, Raspberries and Cherries & Almonds

A lot of the items I ordered are for cooking/baking. I’ll be featuring them in recipes in the future I’m sure – Looking forward to trying them all.