Saturday started out with a run with the Hubz and then our Saturday bagel tradition. Then we were on our way to meet my parents, grandma, aunt, uncle and cousin for a picnic at Avery’s Gorge. Today is my grandma aka G-Ma’s 79th birthday. She is quite the character and full of stories like the one she was telling us today about her “cougar cousin” who is turning 75 soon and how she has a boyfriend who is 20 years younger.
As we sat down to lunch today everyone was picking there seats and G-Ma was asked if she wanted to sit by the Hubz and her response was “yeah because I’m a cougar”- as I am typing this I realize that the hilariousness may not be coming through to you but my g-ma is pretty conservative, however she has her moments where she throws you off guard like this time (I didn’t even know she knew what a cougar was). Another time she did this was when she got mad at my father at a family gathering because he was picking on her and she jokingly said “i’m going to hit you with a baseball bat” (mind you she is the kindest lady ever and she was joking). Anyways the remainder of the day was filled with us making jokes about her “cougarness” and I am sure just like the baseball comment she won’t be living this one down either.
Lunch today was a tofurky sandwich, salad and bbq “health crackers” aka chips.
After our picnic we headed back to my aunt’s for some cards, raspberry pie, and coffee.
My aunt made Neil and I our own little vegan raspberry pie - we didn't like it at all
Yummy Vegan Lavender Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting
Salad
A huge bowl of spaghetti- recipe to come!
Garlic Bread
Monica and Shaun
Birthday Treats from Monica
Aaron and Laura
Gift From Aaron and Laura- minus one bottle of wine that we drank. Aren't the eye masks awesome! I love them I think I should have Laura make one for a giveaway.
New Hiking Pack and Water Bottle from My Parents- will be good to cross the overnight on the Long Trail off my list!
A wonderful bunch of goodies from Megan- a few items missing due to eating.
An after dinner game of Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture
After dinner and a game we headed downtown to get our dance on
I love making goals and lists and plans – just ask The Hubz it drives him nuts but he loves me anyways. Since I am now (tomorrow) in my 25th year of life I figured what better than a list of 25 things for this 25th year.
Final outfit our house so that it is “grownup” and organized.
*To start crossing things off the list the Hubz and I will be visiting Jivana Holistic Spa this afternoon for some body treatments which includes a Balinese Massage. Here are some photos from the Jivana Holisitc Spa sight since I probably won’t be able to take any photos inside.
The Hubz and I are starting my birthday weekend out right and going to enjoy an ancient spa treatment at Jivana Spa. We are both getting the Jivana Journey which just sounds amazing. I am debating between the Thai Lemongrass and the Ginger Spice- I’ll let you know it goes. So excited for tomorrow!
I woke up bright and early this morning ready to seize the day however I ended up sitting on my computer planning out my life for the next 7+ days and I’m wondering when I am going to be able to take time to celebrate this birthday week. It seems crazy that I have to schedule time off on the day of my birthday but when you are an assistant, a housekeeper, a cook, a student, a health counselor, a fur baby mama, an asipring runner, a blogger and an entrepreneur, scheduling time for fun things like my own birthday party is necessary.
For my own sanity I try not to have more than 10 items on my “To Do” list each day and one of those items is always just for me because I know that even with all the crazy and exciting (and not so exciting) things going on in my life that I still need to make time for me. I also have learned to delegate things to others like my husband so that I don’t have too many things going on. For example he wanted BBQ Seitan this week so rather than me slave in the kitchen to make the entire meal and the seitan ahead of time he has been hired to make the seitan and BBQ sauce tomorrow night for Wednesday dinner which gives me more time for my studies. I also have learned that it’s okay to say no. You don’t have to constantly have your hands in everything and if it doesn’t fit into your schedule don’t force it otherwise you’ll burn yourself out.
My last “words of wisdom” are to evaluate what time of the day you are most productive and do top priority things during those times. On the flip side of that take into account when you are the least focused and productive and don’t schedule anything after that time. For me it’s generally around 9pm that I start to feel like I’m ready to end my day and basically nothing else is going to be done so that’s when I make time for reading blogs, catching up on shows, reading a good book or sometimes I just head to bed. By doing this I can wake up the next morning and be ready for another day.
Top 5 Tips:
Make a list each morning or night of 10 things you need to do that day/following day; make sure that there are only 10 and that 1 of them is something for you (i.e. reading, exercise, massage, shopping, meditating, ect).
Delegate! You don’t have to be super woman/man; if your list starts to creep past 10 things then ask others for help.
Say No once in awhile.
Take time to evaluate when you are most productive; are you a morning person? or a night person?
BREATHE! Yes that’s right take time to breathe and center yourself. Whenever you are feeling overwhelmed take a break and take 10 slow, deep breathes.
Yesterday was as very ambitious cooking day and I actually made a ton of things. It’s been awhile since I have had a good cooking session and so far I am very pleased with my creations, I say so far because we haven’t tried the cakes yet.
For dinner last night I made three types of frites:
White and Red Potato Frites baked with safflower oil, salt and pepper.
* 4 large carrots, scrubbed and cut into sticks
* 2 teaspoons mashed chipotles in adobo sauce
* salt to taste
* a dash of olive oil to coat
I cut the carrot into thin fry-size sticks and then tossed them with the chipotle and the olive oil. There’s no need to use much oil, just enough to coat the carrots. Then I spread the carrot sticks on a baking sheet in one layer, and sprinkled them with salt. I baked my carrots in 200 degrees Celsius on the upper rack of the oven: first for 35 minutes, then tossed them around, and then another 10-15 minutes until slightly charred here and there.
Curry Tofu Frites (adapted from Have Cake Will Travel)
16 ounces (454 g) extra-firm tofu (thoroughly pressed), or super firm tofu even
1 tablespoon (6 g) curry powder
1-2 teaspoons coarse sea salt
1 tablespoon (15 ml) agave nectar
2 tablespoons (30 ml) safflower oil
Cut tofu into sticks, like you would cut potato fries: the less “girth” they have, the less amount of time will be required for them to get crispy.
Place tofu sticks on a lightly greased baking sheet.
Whisk marinade ingredients together in a small bowl, and pour onto tofu sticks, using your fingers to make sure they’re completely slathered.
Broil as long as it takes for the tofu to be crispy: it took 10 min on high in the oven.
We had Tempeh Buffalo Wings with Ranch Dip and Celery to accompany these (recipe adapted from 28 Cooks)
1 (8 oz) pkg tempeh
1/3 c soy milk
1/3 c flour
2t Montreal chicken spice
1 cup bread crumbs
Wing Sauce
1/2 c Louisiana-style hot sauce
2 tbsp margraine
1 tbsp ketchup
Bring 4 cups of water to boil over high heat. Meanwhile, remove tempeh from package. Slice into 8 strips. (If you are a first time tempheh eater and have texture issues, I recommend slicing into 10-12 strips) Once water is boiling, lower heat to medium high, add tempeh, and boil for 15 minutes. Drain and rinse with cool water.
Set out 3 bowls. In one, pour in soy milk. In the second, combine flour and seasonings. In third bowl, add bread crumbs. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Place each strip in milk. Coat in flour mixture, then briefly re-dip into milk. Toss with bread crumbs, coating well. Set on slightly oiled baking sheet. Repeat with remaining tempeh strips. Once all are coated and on baking sheet, lightly spray all “wings” with cooking spray. Place into oven and bake for 10 minutes. Flip “wings” over and bake for an additional 10 minutes.
While they are baking, place wing sauce ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Cover with Saran wrap and heat in microwave on medium high setting for a minute and a half. Remove from heat and whisk ingredients together.
When wings are finished baking, toss with sauce. Serve immediately.
Lastly I made two cakes: 1 cake for my aunts birthday which is today and 1 cake for Neil’s birthday which was the 5th but he never got to have a birthday cake and we are going to visit family for the weekend so we can celebrate both their birthdays with yummy (hopefully) cake.
-10tb margarine
-1/4 cup sugar
-1/4 cup light brown sugar
-2 cups unbleached flour
-1 cup unsweetened soy milk
-1/2 tsp salt
-2 tsp baking powder
-1/2 tbsp maple syrup
-2 tbsp agave syrup
-1 tbsp brown rice syrup
-1 tsp vanilla
Cream sugars and margarine together; then add the remaining wet ingredients. Combine all dry ingredients in a separate bowl and add to the wet ingredients. Pour into a 9inch baking pan and bake at 350F for 35 minutes or until knife inserted comes out clean. To make the frosting combine all ingredients and beat until light and fluffy. Once cake is cooled then I made a dark chocolate and white chocolate ganache frosting topped with chopped pecans.
Chocolate Ganache (Recipe adapted from Vegan Visitor)
1/2 Cup Dark Chocolate mini chips
1 Tablespoon Margarine
2 Tablespoons Soy Milk
1 Tablespoon Cherry Brandy
Melt the chocolate pieces in a double boiler or in a heat safe bowl fitted over a pan of simmering water.
Stir in the margarine.
Whisk in the milk and liquor, combining until smooth.
I repeated this same method for the white chocolate ganache however used 1 extra tablespoon of soy milk and omitted the cherry brandy.
I then poured the chocolate ganache on to the middle of the cake and spread to coat the top and sides. Then I poured the white chocolate on top letting it drip over the sides. Lastly i sprinkled chopped pecans over the top of the cake. Hopefully auntie will like it!
For Neil’s birthday cake I made a Vanilla Caramel Macchiato Cake:
Vanilla Cake Recipe adapted from Vegan Chef
1 1/3 cups sugar
1/2 cup vegan margarine
3 cups unbleached flour
1 T. baking powder
3/4 t. salt
2 cups soy milk
1 T. and 1 t. vanilla
Lightly oil a round 11-inch spring form pan and set aside. Using an electric mixer or in a large bowl with a hand held mixer, place the sugar and margarine, and cream together until light and fluffy. In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add dry ingredients into the creamed mixture, alternating with the soy milk, and continuing to beat the mixture well between each addition. Add the vanilla and almond extract and beat the mixture an additional 2 minutes at medium speed. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
For the Espresso Frosting:
1 cup soy margarine, softened
1/2 cup strong coffee or espresso
6 cups Powdered Sugar
3 t. vanilla
Using an electric mixer or in a large bowl with a hand held mixer, place the soy margarine and espresso, and cream them together. Add half of the sugar, and beat well to combine. Add the remaining ingredients and continue to beat the mixture until light and fluffy.
For Caramel Topping (Adapted from Vegan Visitor)
VEGAN CARAMEL
1 Cup Granulated Sugar
1/4 Cup Vegan Butter, like Earth Balance
1/2 Cup Soy Milk
Pinch of Salt
Make sure to have everything ready… mise en place, as they say.
Melt the sugar in a large saucepan over medium, heat.
Remove the sugar from the heat once it has liquified and has become a light amber colour.
Note that it may take a bit to get things melting, but once it gets going, keep a keen eye on it as the sugar will go from ligt to amber to burnt quickly.
Add the margarine, whisking while it melts.
Sprinkle over the pinch of sugar.
Finally, add the soy milk. Take caution as it will spatter and bubble. (Sugar is much hotter than water when it boils.)
Whisk the caramel until it’s smooth. Transfer it to a heat resistant container like a mason jar or a Pyrex measuring cup. It will continue to thicken as it cools.
Refrigerate until you are ready to use. Warm briefly prior to serving to liquify.
It will keep for up to two weeks.
To Assemble:
Remove the cake from the pan and with a serrated knife even the top of the cake out attempting to get as flat as possible. The on the side cut through the middle of the cake leaving you with two layers. On the first layer top with about 1/3 of the frosting then place the second layer, top side down, on top. Dump the remaining frosting onto the middle of the cake and then begin to spread it out working your way from the middle down onto the sides until the entire cake is frosted. Once the caramel has cooled and thickened (yet still thin enough to drizzle) Drizzle a desired amount over the top of the cake. Around the edges of the cake I decorated with dark chocolate covered espresso beans.
