Sunday, March 24, 2013

Musicians in the making

Having a little fun with the girls. Malia has been asking for instruments lately, with her being 3 it might be a bit early to invest in a real one. But that doesn't mean she can't have fun practicing! At this age it doesn't take much to please! This is nothing you all haven't seen before. Just a shoe box and some rubber bands and we're off!

 
 
You can see Malia is a bit unsure of my plan. Ella is usually up for whatever is going on.
 
Once it was made the was only fun to be had! Malia has been playing with it non stop. Ella bobs her head to the beat (she really does!)
 

 

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Taco night

It's been nice out lately! It's nice to see spring coming around. I need to get out in the garden before its too late! It's a little hard to do with 2 kiddos ;) ill get around to it at some point!

Tonight I made some rather delicious tacos. Still going the vegan route this was hard because what's Mexican food without sour cream and cheese?!?! But I faired ok I think!

Above is a Mexican corn salad. It consists of corn, cucumber, tomato, red bell pepper, garlic, cilantro, rice and white vinegar. It's really good. Very flavorful and bright! I really like it.

For the tacos I made beans in the crock pot, then used corn tortillas, put them in a pan with coconut oil, put some beans on the tortilla, folded it in half, let it cook a few then flipped. Added salsa and avocado to the inside. Delicious! (Coconut oil is becoming a staple for me! It really makes everything so delicious!!) I did miss the sour cream and cheese, but I think I'll be ok! (I got these recipes on the 21 day vegan kick start app!)

 

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Yep...still vegan

5 days in, still going strong. I don't miss cheese, milk and mayo as much as I thought I would. But I DO miss it a little. I've been slack on taking pics of all the food I've made! But I did manage to snap a pic of burrito night. This was a big challenge for me because I LOVE to smother everything in sour cream and cheese! Not to mention slaw soaked in mayo! Yum!!

 

So here's what I came up with:

 

Not quite the same but still delicious. The slaw has a little honey (which I later read in not so vegan, but...) and rice vinegar, dill and pepper. I put extra avocado to give that soft cheesy texture. They were still oh so good.

I've started making my tortilla shells with coconut oil instead of crisco. The shells turn out so much better with the coconut oil! They are so good I eat them plain!

 

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

21 days of being vegan

It all started with "hungry for change" then "forks over knives". My viewpoint of food has drastically changed. I never in a million years could see myself giving up meat, let alone any animal byproduct.

But after watching the documentaries, I really got to thinking. Diabetes runs in my family, I do have the mid morning crash, and my cravings for bad foods was something I could not deny. I love food! That's a fact!

I thought it would be a nice challenge to try going vegan for a week. Easy enough! Until I saw an app on my phone for "21 day vegan kick start". And so it began, my 21 day challenge...David is not 100% on board, but is very supportive! He eats what I cook but might add cheese or ranch to it ;)

Day one: apple cinnamon oatmeal for breakfast. (Failed to snap a pic)

Lunch: carrot and roasted red pepper soup with couscous confetti salad (so good)

 

Snack: apple butter with bananas on whole grain bread.

Dinner: hoppin' johns salad and confetti couscous.

Day one complete. Not so bad!

 

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Time to brighten things up a bit

I've bee growing tired of our decor.. Thanks to Pinterest, I find myself looking at everything wondering what I could change about it. The truth is, we have never really "decorated" our house. It's always been on the back burner.

Well, I wanted to brighten up the living room on the cheap so I decided that pillow covers may be the way to go. Decorator pillows can get expensive so I decided I would make my own. So off the the cloth store I went.

Here are my color choices. The light blue/purple didn't make the cut. I love that fabric but I didn't have enough :( it was in my stash of leftovers.

Here are the first 2. Also a fabric from my stash

I love this yellow with flowers! It's happy and reminds me of spring.

Here is my finished product! They were so easy to make and for under $15, not too shabby!

Thanks Pinterest for all the inspiration ;)