...3.31...What I Ate in a Day...as a Vegan...

...for breakfast...I had a pretty large bowl of homemade soy yogurt...with a generous handful of bran flakes...and some blackberries from the freezer...the packet was labeled "Jam"...but they never made it into jam...haha...

...then lunch was just a bowl of leftovers...pintos...and some Griddler-ed Brussels sprouts and sweet potato...

...then I still have a few 'symptoms' from my recent cold...and the Man is still in his first week...but I think I've not been eating the best...so I thought a big plate of veggies was in order...so I 'fried' some cabbage...it's not really fried at all as I don't use any oil...and very little water...at this point I take out the Man's serving as he says he doesn't like it 'burnt'...

...haha...no one would want truly burned cabbage...but I do cook mine just a little bit longer...and you have to be really careful NOT to burn it at this point...so...just when it starts to stick a little bit and the bottom of the pot shows a little bit of carmelization...I immediately take it off heat and put the lid on it...I love it this way...I think it's more tender and a little bit sweeter...(and I think I ought to say little bit again...wink!)...

...so then...of course...I fired up the Griddler...and used Grandma's Veg-O-Matic to slice some uniform pieces of carrot...

...and potato....

...added a thick slab of tofu...and that made a delicious supper...I put A-1 on the tofu...

...and then we were sitting around in our recliners...ha...and the Man said some chocolate chip cookies would be good...

...so I got out this "Small Batch Chocolate Chip Cookies" recipe from my binder...it only makes about 6 cookies...which is perfect for us...now that Our Airman is not here to eat them up...

...but this was his favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe...and I'm going to send it over to him in the next package going to Japan...he used to have it memorized...and when he was in elementary school in North Dakota...he'd come home from school and make a batch...and then eat half of the dough...haha...vegan cookie dough is ok to eat raw...and then we'd bake whatever was left...

...so...the Man prefers just a few chocolate chips and a lot of cookie...and I'm pretty much the opposite...so I guess you can tell whose cookies are whose...haha...

...baked those up on my favorite Pampered Chef cookie baker...

...and we had those for a delicious snack...I mixed up some chocolate almond milk to go with mine...I made a quart but didn't drink it all...so I'll have leftovers today...

...what did you eat yesterday?...

~Have a lovely day!

...3.30...W.I.P. Wednesday...

...I have lots of deadlines over the next month...none of them are causing any stress though...just pleasant knitting and crocheting...because if I miss any of my 'deadlines' there are other things I can do...I can just send one less birthday to Japan...and finish it up later...I can order a gift from Amazon and have it shipped overnight to my little niece...and of course I can wear something else on Easter Sunday...

...so about that little mean eyed thing-amy...this was the rather wooly (I'm talking about texture here...the yarn is vegan)...and I thought something a bit 'shinier' would be better...

...I keep this baggie in my stash BIN with all of the little bits from leftover projects...mostly socks...as I need those for darning...and I remembered these Black Diagonal Rib socks...

...and YEP...the yarn was in the bag...

...and in the bin was this mercerized cotton crochet thread...not quite as shiny...

...not sure what it's from...either a Church basement sale in North Dakota...or from that bag of yarn Mom gave me...it still has it's price sticker...so it's pretty old...

...and I think it might look nice with a little glint of white reflecting in the eye...

...so I crocheted a new eye...and I'm still not happy with it...the brown is actually too thick and not as shiny/silky as I'd like...

...but wait...I also made a pair of chocolate brown socks using that same shiny crochet cotton...there are a couple of posts about them...also from North Dakota...ONE...and TWO...

...so I rummaged through the bin until I found it...this ball was too big for the baggie...I guess...

...but you can see the difference in the two threads...

...so I crocheted another little eye...and I must say...I'm a lot happier with this one...I wove the tail through all of the outside stitches...and cinched it up a bit to make it a little bit rounded...

...the PATTERN...if you're interested...

1) make a magic circle
2) 8 hdc in the mc
3) sc inc in each stitch 16 stitch
4) finish with a slip stitch and weave the tail around the eye in the outside loop of each stitch then pull it up a little bit to cinch the eye into a little rounded shape...

...and then I stitched a little white reflection on each side...so I'll get those stitched on and they'll be 'safe' for a little one for sure...

...next up is a little giftie for my littlest niece...actually my only niece's little daughter...and I'm making her a ball...this one...it's called Oh Balls!...funny name...

...and I need six different colours...well you could do them any colours...or solid...but I'm going to use a bunch of girlie colours...pinks and purples...alternating a sweet variegated one with a solid one...

...but wait...I like this colour combination better...especially that old fashioned tri-colour baby yarn...it's very old...and I often use it to make my Super Simple One Hour Baby Hat...

...ok...now on to the Easter Sweater Update...I finished the bottom of the front...and separated the stitches onto three needles for the dart sections...

...and I knit the first one...and spread the sweater out on the floor and went to get my camera...and when I came back Kitten was luxuriantly stretching out on it...she's so funny...if I leave anything on the floor...she is ON IT...like I put it there specifically for her...haha...

...so I budged her off and took a photo...but she wasn't at all happy about it...

...and she said...ok...I won't sit on your sweater then...I'll sit on your pattern...it's MINE!...haha...

...what's in your workbasket this week?...

~Have a lovely day!

...3.29...Tuesdays with Julia...

...we made the Vegan Tarte an Fromage Frais et aux Pruneaux...

...it's basically a sweet prune quiche...

...I thought it was good...the Man...not so much...haha...he said he prefers savoury quiches or creamier pies...

...and all of the particulars are over at The Vegan Version...

~Have a lovely day!

...3.28...Over the Weekend...

...we started the weekend with some waffles...I'm feeling better now...just a little bit sub-par...but waffles make everything better...

...and a little follow up to my epoxy fix of the little waffle measuring cup...still working just fine...I wash it by hand now...as I'm not sure how well the epoxy will hold up to multiple trips through the dishwasher...(btw...the other epoxy fixes...the measuring cup and the Emmie - almost exactly one year ago... are both still holding up well too)...

...groceries were gotten...

...all the 'regular' stuff...we were completely out of tomato paste...so we stocked up on that...

...of note...the Man requested breaded okra (also a favorite of Our Airman)...for his Fry-Daddy...more on that in a bit...I prefer my okra cooked on the new Griddler...

...and for some reason...they gave us the regular romaine instead of the organic kind...arghhh...

...and we got another jar of "sour" pickles...and the Man wanted to try a couple more varieties as well...

...the weather is just classic spring weather...windy with highs in the 60s (15° or so C)...I hung the sheets out on the line...but the wind blew them off and I had to pick them up from the ground...

...I can't use "safety" eyes on the little project I'm making for Little Sissie...funny that they call them 'safety' haha...so I crocheted a couple of little brown eyes...and then crocheted them on...

...and then I really really didn't like the look of that...I think there's too much brown around the eye and it makes him look a little bit mean or angry or something...so I'm going to re-do those...and it took me about 2 hours to unpick them from the face...ARGHHHH!...I really stitched them on securely and I didn't want to mess up his little face...

...for dinner...the Man fired up the grill...and I got the last of the Beyond Burger out of the freezer...

...and the okra...(his will go in the Fry-Daddy)...a couple of you have asked about how I 'fry' the okra...I know some people fry theirs in an air-fryer too...but I buy the whole frozen okra...and let it thaw just a bit...and cut off the tops and tips...

...and then I sprinkle over some cornmeal and salt for the breading...

...give that a stir...

...and put it on the flat plates of the Griddler...I used to do this all the time with the Foreman grill too...and it doesn't have flat plates...but it still worked just fine...

...and then just when it starts to get a little bit brown...I start stirring it around and flipping it...and it sort of breaks apart into little individual pieces...

...but it doesn't matter if there are clumps...the Man's mom has always made what we called 'scrambled' okra...and she makes her fried squash that way too...my Mom always fried her squash in individual little circles...

...and then that's all we had for supper...Griddler 'fried' okra (for me) and a veggie burger...it was delicious and a nice change from crinkle cut fries...haha...and we had a funny little conversation about what fried foods we do and don't eat ketchup on...haha...obviously we don't eat it on okra...do you?...

...and then we started a NEW puzzle...YAY!

...this one's cover says it's Vibrant...and I'd have to agree...

...and I spent some time figuring out the next part of the Easter sweater... and basically wrote myself a pattern to go with the Japanese chart...so with my goal of 30 rows per day...I should easily finish the front by next weekend...

...and thankfully...Sunday evening I was back on my bike...just a nice slow thirty minute ride...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your week!