March Projects

This month I have been feeling really cool with my little projects.

I made cupcake toppers for the first time. Okay, now I know what all the rage is about. 

They turn a party into a fiesta! haha. I also broke out my sewing machine. Our home is so tiny my sewing machine doesn't have a place to hang outside of it's box. But I have plans to turn a corner of our room into a craft area for me. So excited about that! (We kicked Athena out of our room. She is now sleeping with the big girls! And we feel like adults again now that we don't have to tip toes around snoring infants.)

A friend of mine is always posting super cute dresses she makes for her daughter. I decided enough was enough! I cut out a couple rectangles and sewed up this dress for Thérèse. Okay, so it wasn't that easy. It did only take me one afternoon, but since I didn't have a pattern and not much clue as to what I was doing, (I have never gathered before), I'm going to have to devote some more time to fixing it. And such is life. We got some fabric so I can make Monique a dress as well, but I have already come into problems with it since I want to add a sash. Clearly I have no idea how to do that.

Here is Thérèse's dress made from scraps of fabric and ribbon from around our home.
The same friend gave me her fabric scraps! 

 

Had a mini desert inauguration party on inauguration day. 

You can find these awesome cupcake toppers and bunting here. 

Served Babycakes NYC blondies the girls and I made. They were soooooooo

so so so so good. My husband requested we keep them around the house all the time. We've made these multiple times before but, I guess we just forgot how mind blowing delicious gluten-free, dairy-free goodies can be. I have the cookbook, but you can find the recipe online here, along with Zooey Deschanels personal testimony of her deep love for them. 

I was pretty excited to learn that a couple recipes I posted on The Kind Life were given four and five stars! Now that's just amazing. Thank you to those kind people who tasted and rated these dishes! You can find the recipe gallery here.

Big fat fail. I didn't take any pictures of my last freezer crock pot meal making. Here is an itty-bitty picture of the ratatouille from fitness magazine. 

I only had to make three dishes since I still had a couple meals left over in the freezer. That's the great thing about freezer meals. I don't have to worry about food going bad in the fridge if we have an unexpected meal out. Everything is frozen, ready whenever I need it. 

I made chickpea ratatouille, Coconut curried tofu spinach and Thai Sloppy Joe's. I was a little disappointed that the sloppy joe's were only four small portions. We like leftovers. But if we end up not liking it, I guess it will work out. I was a little apprehensive about this dish. But last week I made her Cannelloni and Daniel and I decided it was one of our new favorite meals. We were pretty upset it only made six cannelloni (how did I not realize that while I was preparing it?) In our house, that is enough for one and a half people, not four like the recipe suggests. That day my husband had ridden his bike to and from work, a mere 54 miles, so the guy could have easily ate them all by herself. I left off the top cheeses and I made my own tofu ricotta cheese. Next time I make the ricotta, I will leave some miso out since I think the flavor was too sharp for the girls.

The last project March will see is the girls' early morning Easter celebration.
Excited about the sweets and treats! 

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies and My New Favorite Summer Meal

Today I sat on the couch and ate three of these Double Chocolate Chip Cookies.

This is a rare occurrence for me, which is why I enjoyed it so much.

These cookies are good.

They are from the Babycakes cookbook so they are gluten and dairy free.

Click here to read about my past post on gluten free baking and why we love it.

Gluten free baking includes some strange ingredients. 

Here are the ones for this recipe:

Bob's Red Mill All Purpose Gluten Free Flour:

I love this stuff, it's a great blend of different types of G.F. flours. 

Bob's Red Mill Xantham Gum:

Made out of the sticky substance from plants, 

it helps to bind the flours together.

Flaxseed Meal:

This stuff is so good for you. 

If you are pregnant, you definitely should find a way to

 get a tablespoon of this stuff into your daily life 

(by way of shakes, on cereal, or oatmeal) 

it is important brain food for your growing baby.

Baking Tips: Feel free to replace canola oil for the coconut oil.
I actually make the batter into large tablespoons
instead of teaspoons before putting them into the oven.
It makes for a larger, chewier cookie.

Here is the recipe from Goop.

I first learned about Babycakes NYC 

from Goop and fell instantly in love.

Those cookies have loved me back 

since they have zero white flour and saturated fat! 

What, what?! Rock on Babycakes.

Dinner

I absolutely had to share tonight's dinner with you.

For the past couple weeks, 

I've had my parents over every night for dinner

because I want to lower my dad's cholesterol.

We've been eating very yummy healthy meals. 

Lots of whole grains, bean proteins and a big variety of veggies.

Tonight we had what I call a "Love Life" dinner. 

Still 100% cholesterol free, but totally delicious.

Panzanella (I omitted the anchovies) from My Father's Daughter, 

Creamy Zucchini Soup from Vegan Family Meals steamed arugula,

served with my favorite glass of Riesling.

Of course we ended with Double Chocolate Chip Cookies! 

So delicious! Great way to enjoy the summer veggies. 

Yum! All that EVOO on the bread and roasted bell peppers! 

Great flavor combo with the vino and soup! 

Yes...that's my wedding ring. 

I was so anxious to eat all this yummy food 

I didn't dry my wet hands completely.

Can't stand water in between my finger and my ring. 

Mi Familia

My two-year-old built this and told me it was a "T"!

I know, she's a genius. 

Not only do I get to hang out with these people, 

but I get to live with them too!

She grew two teeth on her upper right side. 

Haha, kind of funny looking.

Go love the ones you love and go crazy cooking up some great summer dishes!

Live it up, 

Banana Bread

When I first started eating like a health freak, I'd eat beans, salad, carrot juice and then I'd eat one of my homemade chocolate chip cookies. They were SO good. Soft with all that fabulous butter and sweet loaded with sugar. I had perfected them. Suddenly all that good food I'd put inside of my body was worth nothing. The cookie (or rather, three of them) had put me back to square one. I was so discouraged. I wished there was such a thing as gluten, dairy and sugar free baked goodies. 'Cause really, is life without desserts worth living? 

Enter Babycakes NYC. They are the REASON I am able to be vegan. I would never have committed to this lifestyle if it didn't come with perks. Let me tell you something about Babycakes, you can't tell it's lacking white flour, processed sugar or butter. Amazing!

Here is Thérèse and I last year at Babycakes NYC's Los Angeles Grand Opening with the genius behind these delicious treats, Erin McKenna. 

Look at those cupcakes! Voted best cupcakes in all of NYC. 

Why Gluten-Free? Gluten includes white and wheat flour. The problem with gluten is that it is popping up in everything. They shove wheat in nearly all packaged foods. Because we are getting an overload of gluten, our bodies are building up an intolerance to them. Our kitchen isn't 100% gluten-free, but we do avoid them. One way we do this is by eating rice pasta and Ezekiel Bread, which does contain wheat but not processed. Eating something in their true form is always the best. 

Back to the good stuff. The first Babycakes recipe I conquered was their Banana Bread. 

Babycakes made this nice video to help out new bakers. I wish I had had this when I was learning!

BabyCakes NYC: Some Baking Tips! from BabyCakes NYC on Vimeo.

 Anytime I have black bananas I pop them in my fridge so I can make bread or shakes with them later. Today I halved the recipe since I didn't have enough bananas. Also, this should be eaten in about three days. I don't like making more than we can eat.

My new favorite way to make this is by smothering the batter about an inch thick on parchment paper. I love it this way because one, I'm obsessed with the crust, this makes every piece be a crust, and two, it only takes ten minutes to bake. I kept mine in for fifteen minutes till the toothpick came out clean. Oven temperatures and time vary, over time you will figure out about how much time you should leave your baked goods in. 

Here is my assistant baker first thing this morning still in her PJ's. Since the batter contains no raw eggs we don't have to worry about salmonella poisoning. Hooray! 

Often I'll throw in chocolate chips or chopped walnuts. Today I made it plain so we could smear some nut butter on instead. 

Yummy! These are soft, moist and sweet. Thank you Babycakes! 

I'll definitely be sharing more from Babycakes in the future. We can't get enough of them here!