Almond Star Cookies

This Nordic inspired recipe is perfect for the holidays. Pair it with cozy homemade hot chocolate and fresh whipped cream with a nutmeg sprinkle. I developed this recipe over several different tries tweaking a classic sugar cookie recipe and adding some spice!

Buttery Nordic Almond Star Cookies

• 1 1/3 cups flour

• 7 tbs sugar

• 1/8 tsp baking powder

• 7 tbs butter, chilled

• 1 egg beaten with 1 tsp water

• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

• 1 tsp Almond Extract

Whisk together flour, sugar, and baking powder. With a pastry cutter, fork, or in a food processor, cut the butter into the flour mixture, until it looks clumpy. Blend in the egg/water mixture. Blend in vanilla and almond extract. Do this until the dough forms a ball. If the dough seems too dry add a bit of water and until it gets clumpy and ball like. Do this slowly. Flatten the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. On a well floured work surface, roll dough until 1/4 inch thick. Use your star cookie cutters (or whatever cutters you prefer) to cut 12-16 cookies. Place them on an ungreased cookie tray. Bake for 7-10 minutes, checking periodically. When the cookies have a slight brown toasty look around the edges, they are ready. Take out of oven and transfer to a cooling rack. Let cool COMPLETELY. See glaze recipe below!

Simple Cookie Glaze

I used this simple glaze recipe lovingly created by Cleverly Simple - check out this great site by Lynette for easy recipes for those in a hurry!

• 1 cup powdered sugar

• 4 teaspoons milk

• 1 tsp vanilla

• Nutmeg for sprinkling on top of cookie once glazed

Combine the powdered sugar, milk and vanilla in a bowl by mixing with a fork until smooth. The powdered sugar will dissolve as you stir. Make sure cookies are totally cooled. Use a small spoon (think espresso spoon or baby spoon) to carefully add the glaze and spread it over the stars. Add a sprinkle of nutmeg to each star (to add some extra spice sprinkle a bit of ginger too!)

You could also use food coloring and sprinkles to add holiday colors. Enjoy!

To license these images for royalty free use, click HERE.

Fall Centerpiece

I clipped these flowers from my garden, which is still pumping out beautiful cosmos, sunflowers and wild thyme. I also experimented combining silk floral with my garden clippings…something I’ve never done before. I think the result worked well! You can see which florals are real and which are not in the image below.

It can be difficult to keep a centerpiece from becoming shabby. Freshening it with quality silk flowers can work really well. My tip for getting the best results is to make sure the focal points of your arrangement are living flowers. For example, in this arrangement the sunflowers and cosmos are real. I have found that silk works best as “filler.” Filler can be described as berries, leaves, and smaller blooms to fill gaps and support your largest blooms.

Green Cucumber Smoothie

Here is a Keto friendly smoothie! I say Keto friendly because it’s not as low carb as possibe, but it’s lower carb as far as smoothies go, especially when trying to get in your greens. Enjoy!

Green Cucumber Smoothie | makes approx. two 8oz glasses | 8g Carbs per 8oz *approx

Ingredients:

1/2 Avocado

1/2 cup sliced cucumbers (fresh or frozen)

2-3 cups of Almond or Coconut Milk (depends on how thick you like your smoothies)

1-2 tbsp of Peanut Butter or other nut butter *peanut butter is higher carb than you may realize

Dash of stevia

1 scoop of vanilla protein powder (plant or dairy based)

1/2 tsp of Acacia Root powder (a great source of prebiotics and fiber)

1 cup of spinach (fresh or frozen)

Optional: 1 scoop of green powder (your choice, I use Athletic Greens - this will add 1 to 2 grams of carbs to the recipe)

Add ice as desired

Instructions:

Pretty simple- put it all in the blender and blend until smooth. Quick tip: I like to store sliced cucumber and spinach mixed up in a gallon bag in the freezer. Then when I add them to my smoothie, I don’t need ice!