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

...all in all...it was a pretty 'snacky' kind of day ...

...but I started the day with my vitamins...and some lemon water...Mom and I were chatting and I had said that I only ever have water with my vitamins...meaning that I can't take them (don't want to) with tea or juice or coffee like some people do...but I didn't think about the lemon water...as I often do add some lemon to the water I take my vitamins with...

...breakfast was just toast...peanut butter, ground flaxseed and a banana...one of my favorite things ever...

...and then the snacking began...haha...I ate the last three of the leftover ladyfingers from the Vegan Chocolate Charlotte Malakoff...

...and for lunch we had leftover vegetable soup...and the last of my frozen cornbreads...aka...hockey pucks...

...and that was followed by more snacking...a lot of it...this is a slice of bread machine bread and some of the leftover Vegan Camembert...

...and a handful of the roasted peanuts that were in my stocking at Christmas...

...and then these 'ants on a log'...I used to make them for Our Airman a lot...I think they were in one of his Scout books and he tried them and liked them...but I rarely make them now...and I should make them more often...

...and then dinner was a pretty typical dinner...grilled veg...tofu and a salad...haha...

...what did you eat yesterday?

~Have a lovely day!

...1.26...W.I.P. Wednesday...

...our snow is mostly gone...and the forecast is just for some typical North Carolina January weather...lows dipping down into the teens...but I thought Callie's little pawprints in the melting snow were so sweet...she comes out of her house snuggly and warm every morning...and don't think we haven't tried to make her come inside...she will come onto the back porch...but you can just tell that she doesn't like it at all and wants back outside...remember her house has heat reflective walls and we've filled it with snuggly blankets too...her face and fur seem warm to the touch when I feed her in the mornings...you can see her little house with it's blankets spilling out here...and you can see how we put it together here...

...I can show you this...

...I've finished the second one of the Purl Soho Linen Dish Towels...I really like these and they're pretty...and nice and soft and absorbent...

...and...I've started another little project...for our littlest one's birthday...which is not until May...and it may be saying to much to say that I thought I'd make a 'different (but similar) version' of the things that I made for Big Sissie...the little strand of pink yarn is my row marker...whenever I'm crocheting in the round...I just crochet over a small strip of yarn to mark the beginning of each 'row'...and then I pull it out when I get back to it and then crochet over it again...it's a lot quicker than using any kind of clip on stitch marker...

...the little Valentine's Day package has been sent so I'll show you that after it's opened in Japan...

...and the cross stitch project is almost finished too...

...so...I don't have any more crafty things to show you...but I can show you how I 'fixed' a couple of broken kitchen items...

...the Man had broken one of my favorite measuring cups...just by banging it on the side of a bowl...it was bought at Filene's Basement in Boston...before our Airman was born...so they've had a good long life...even if they are not reparable...

...and you can see where it was spot welded together...and that's where it failed...

...and I was going to use the same food safe epoxy that I'd used to 'fix' my old Emmie food processor when I broke it...but I thought with this smooth metal to metal 'fix' I might need a little reinforcement...so I got out a couple of stainless steel pins...just regular sharp sewing pins...

...drilled two tiny little holes in the cup...and in the handle...

...and slipped the pins through the holes...and bent them over to opposite sides...

...mixed up the epoxy and glued everything in place...

...this is what the inside looks like...

...and the outside...not too terribly neat...but I wanted to make sure I got everything well coated with the epoxy...

...we've been using it in the kitchen already...

...and it seems to be holding up well...

...and then while I was at it...I also fixed the little cup that measures out waffle batter...I had dropped it on the floor and it's little handle had broken off...

...and I had the epoxy already mixed up...so I just glued it back together...and I actually had to hold it for a bit to make sure it had set well enough to let it go...

...but here it is back in the kitchen and ready for use...

...I just love being able to fix things...do you?

~Have a lovely day!

...1.25...Tuesdays with Julia...

...I made a delicious Vegan Camembert...using the 'flavoring' from Joanne Stepaniak's recipe for Camembert Vegetables from The Uncheese Cookbook...but then used the 'cheeze' (it's agar based) for the Brie from the same book...the Camembert is more of a sauce...

...and used that to make Julia's Vegan Gallettes au Camembert...

...we had them with the Man's Ras el Hanout lentils...which are quite spicy...so I had a vegan horchata to drink with that...and it's not a real rice horchata...but just my regular almond milk with some vanilla and cinnamon...it's so delicious...and a nice cooling drink with spicy food...

...the little heart shaped cheeze biscuits were perfect...

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

~Have a lovely day!

...1.24...Over the Weekend...

...when we got back from picking up the Mexican takeout Friday...it had just started snowing...and we were only expecting a 'skiff' because that's what the weatherman said we would get...haha...

...after dinner and before the movie...we were Facetiming with our little family in Japan...and I stepped out the backdoor and snapped a photo of the snow for him...it's windy and it's pouring snow and starting to accumulate...

...the wind is really blowing hard...but the snow seems to be sticking...

...by the time we went to bed...the wind had almost stopped but it was still snowing...

...and this is what we woke up to Saturday morning...and the high was not supposed to reach 30° F (-1° C)...it's so pretty and quiet...

...but after they scraped the road...we made a quick InstaCart pickup...

...I don't think there's anything unusual this week...we did not get spinach again...and the Man did not get his blueberry bagels...it's so weird...

...the Man made a mustard-y BBQ sauce...he looked at a bunch of recipes and these are his scribbled notes...

...he only had to sub...Bee Free Honee...and vegan Worcestershire sauce...

...it was easy...and delicious...and it's perfect on grilled tofu...

...we'll just keep a jar of it on hand...it's sort of between NC mustard BBQ sauce and Heinz 57...it's good...

...the Man made potato soup...

...y'all know my family has a tradition of eating potato soup every time it snows...haha...

...he put cabbage in it this time...and it was good...but I think I prefer it the 'regular' way...

...and I made a vegan Guinness Bundt Cake...vegan recipe here...(scroll down)...but I took the easy way this weekend...and just used a mix...haha...the original one is better...

...but this one is pretty good too...

...yum!...

...all in all...it was a pretty quiet weekend...I'm still working on projects that I can't really show you yet...but soon...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your week!

...1.22...Dinner and a Movie...

...the weather forecast all week had been for snow this weekend...starting Friday around 3:00 PM...but the forecasters kept downgrading the storm...finally saying that we would only get a skiff of snow here...

...and when evening came with no snow...we decided to go with our plan to order Mexican...this is the local restaurant with a lot of vegan options...and this is their fajita tofu burrito...

...with chips and dip of course...it was very very delicious...

...and y'all know that I'm currently reading The Bookseller of Kabul by Åsne Seierstad...for my Read Harder Challenge #2...and it's good...the Afghan culture fascinates me...as I have a lot of trouble understanding it...all types of oppression just seem so contrary to beneficial human nature...

...so maybe because of that...I chose to watch When We Leave...it's not set in Afghanistan...but Turkey and (oddly I thought) Germany...but it is about the plight of a women who leaves her abusive husband...hoping for support from her family...and trying to start a new life with her son...it's subtitled and I'd pretty much say that the Man hated it...oh well...it was a tragic movie and pretty difficult to watch...

...what have you been watching lately?...

~Have a lovely day!

...1.21...Friday Favorites...

...back when we lived in North Dakota...I went to several Pampered Chef parties...I never hosted one...but they were always lively and a lot of fun...and I have several items that I still use on a regular basis...

...and one of them is this stoneware baking sheet...

...the thing that it does absolutely better than anything else...

...is bake cookies...

...they always turn out perfect...with nicely browned bottoms...they never burn...

...and it came with a special scraper for cleaning it...you were supposed to be able to use use water and the scraper...it's been a while since I've seen the little scraper...maybe it didn't survive one of our moves...but I use this plastic strainer thing-y that has a sharp plastic end that's perfect for this...and I love it when things are multi-use too...

...do you have any Pampered Chef items?...what's your favorite?...

~Have a lovely day!