This post is a bit late, but things have  been busy with the holiday. With this past Thursday being Christmas Eve, I was not as focused on Shaking It Up, but it was still a successful day.

The first thing that I shook up was breakfast. Not because I wanted to, but I kind of had to. I was planning on making vegan Cocoa Bite Balls as a dessert to bring to my cousin’s for Christmas. The recipe contains oatmeal, and there was not enough for both the dessert and for my breakfast that morning. Since you have figured out by now that I am generally a creature of habit, it would come as no surprise that I pretty much always eat the same thing at breakfast. My preferred breakfast usually is oatmeal, but I needed to eat something different so that I would have enough for the dessert. (More on the dessert later….) My breakfast turned out to be quite delicious, and held me until lunch. That was also shaking it up, because I tend to snack frequently throughout the day.

And now back to the vegan Cocoa Bite Balls—-

I always bring the same thing for Christmas at my cousin’s — a loaf of cranberry orange bread. It always comes out well, and everyone seems to like it.

For some background information, this past Thanksgiving I made 2 different kinds of cranberry sauce. I made a traditional cranberry sauce plus a cranberry orange relish. I considered that to be shaking it up. I was informed by a family member that bringing 2 cranberry dishes was not really shaking it up, it was just more cranberries. Well first of all, Shaking It Up is all relative (no pun intended.) For me, bringing 2 different cranberry dishes at Thanksgiving met my parameters for Shaking It Up, but I took the suggestion to heart, and decided to bring a second dish  for Christmas — totally different from the cranberry bread.

So the dessert I chose was vegan Cocoa Bite Balls. They were made with cocoa, banana, dates, figs, sugar, flaked coconut, and something you would never guess — carrots! It does emphasize the principle that I generally follow of never making a new dish for company or to bring to someone’s house. Anyway, everyone was very polite and had one, but I did notice that nobody said “wow, these are great — can I have another one?”

The bottom line is that it is good to Shake It Up. Sometimes it comes out well and sometimes it doesn’t, and that’s ok.

Let me know if you did anything to Shake It Up on Thursday!