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! 

Vegan Naan!

When my two-year-old says "done!" it sounds like she is saying "Naan!" 

This has resulted in my husband and I having an unwavering craving for naan. 

My mother-in-law, Yolanda, came over today and taught me how to make crazy yummy naan.

Fresh out of the oven, I have to say this is one of the best naans I've ever had.

So moist and buttery! 

Here is how you make it!

In a small mixing bowl mix

1 teaspoon active dry yeast and

2/3 cup warm water

Add one teapoon sugar.

Mix till yeast is dissolved.

Set aside for ten minutes until frothy.

In a large mixing bowl pour in

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Make a well in the flour with your finger 

and pour in

1 teaspoon salt and

3 tablespoons almond milk.

Melt one tablespoon of butter.

Add one tablespoon olive oil into your well 

with that melted butter.

Now remember your yeast?

Is it frothy? 

Frothy means, kind of foamy. 

Pour yeast mixture into your flour and butter bowl. 

Mix to form a dough. Add water when it's too dry. 

It needs to be doughy. 

Turn onto floured couter and kneed

 for five minutes until smooth.

You want it to get stretchy.

Like this:

Add 1 tablespoon olive oil into the bowl

and line the bowl with the oil.

Return the dough to the bowl 

and roll the dough into the olive oil until covered with the oil.

Cover and set aside for

1 1/2 hours until it has doubled in size.

Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead for another two minutes.

Break dough off into balls and roll them out.

The dough is supposed to be streatchy. 

This right here, is perfect streatchy dough. 

Thérèse rolling out her dough. 

Place your naan onto a broiler pan in your preheated broiler. 

When the naan starts to puff and get brown and golden, flip over, about 4 minutes.

Another five minutes on the other side till golden. 

As soon as the naan is removed from the oven,

cover it with melted vegan butter. 

Delicious! As you can see...

some of these have been nibbled on already...

Yum...

Thérèse, showing off her beautiful yummy naan. 

Enjoy your weekend everyone!