Homemade plant dyes

I just made some homemade plant dyes today and thought I would share how to make it. It's SO simple, just time consuming. I will show you in my next post how to make crayons with these dyes.

Plant Dyes

Boil water in four different pots.

Add one vegetable or fruit to each pot.

(You don't really have to be exact with measurements on this, so sorry I do not have measurements.)

For yellow, I use carrots & turmeric.

For red/pink, I use beets.

For green, I use spirulina.

For blue/purple, I use blueberries.

Bring to boil, and then simmer for around an hour. 

Strain out vegetables and fruit, and keep remaining liquid.

Pour each color into a separate canning jar leaving about an inch on top of space.

Pour white vinegar and fill remainder of jar.

Use in place of dye!

*I am not sure the exact shelf life, but they last a while with the vinegar. They don't keep forever of course because they are natural and plant based.*

*Other colors you can make are strawberry pink, coffee ground brown, weeping willow bark peach and oak galls black.*

*If you use this dye for dying clothes it will eventually fade.* 

Food & a couple cleaning recipes

Green breakfast smoothie containing organic purple kale, organic blueberries, mango, organic banana, organic spirulina, RAW protein powder & chia seeds.

Organic kiwi snack

My first attempt at seitan! I really liked it! My brother and mom both ate some and liked it too! Here is the recipe I used from VegWeb:

Basic Seitan

1 cup vital wheat gluten
    3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
    1 teaspoon thyme
    1/4 cup soy sauce
    1 tablespoon olive oil
    1/2 cup homemade vegetable stock

Preheat oven to 375. Mix together all ingredients. Form into a "sausage like" shape and then cut into strips. Oil a cookie sheet or lay down parchment paper on one. Bake for 10 min then flip and bake for 3-5 more min. 

These would be great with some type of gravy! I had them with cranberry sauce because they reminded me of turkey because of the thyme smell :)

This was dinner two nights ago: String bean tempura sushi. I also had some avocado sushi.

This was from my husband :) He had dinner at his parents house and knew I didn't have anything so he made these for me. All it is, is carrot and string bean in a won ton. Cute that he thought of me :)

I wanted to show was was inside here, but of course Rahjah had to be in the picture trying to eat my food. 

I also made this last night for dinner since the won tons didn't have much nutrition. This was around 5 organic carrots, 2 leaves of organic collards and 1 organic apple juiced. 

I wanted to share this because it is the best recipe I have come up with so far for bathtub cleaner. Sorry the picture isn't great. All it is is 1 cup of baking soda (aluminum free), 1/2 cup Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap (I used lavender because that is what we have on hand) and a few drops of tea tree oil. Just shake it all up and use! So simple, yet so effective!

Cloth Dryer Sheets

*Not the best picture above either sorry.*

All you need to make your own dryer sheets is some natural fabric softener. Now, you can use a store bought one or make one like I always do. 

Natural Fabric Softener

1/2 cup baking soda (no aluminum) 

3 cups white vinegar 

4 cups water

Essential oils (I used 10 drops lavender oil & 10 drops grapefruit oil, but you can use whatever smell you like)

Mix together water, vinegar and oils. SLOWLY add the baking soda. If you add all at once, it will overflow all over everything! *Great science experiment idea for the kids* Pour ingredients into large glass container if you have. I use this old plastic jar that someone gave us cookies in once. Next, simply add pieces of cloth the size of wash clothes. Flannel cloth works well, but anything really is fine. Ring out your cloth before adding it to the dryer. Throw a sheet in dryer with your wet clothes and dry away!

New kombucha my husband bought us to try on our way home from the beach. It's organic like Synergy. I actually really liked it! I haven't found anything that could compare to Synergy but this one is pretty close!

A little over 16 weeks at the beach. I didn't want to take pictures, but my husband insisted we needed more pregnancy photos so here you go!

A few days worth of pregnancy eating

This was my smoothie this morning: frozen mango, frozen organic raspberries, organic banana, organic spinach, coconut water, organic spirulina, chia seeds & RAW protein powder. 

Vegan Blueberry Coffee Cake

3-4 cups of fresh or frozen organic blueberries

4 cups wheat flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 Tablespoon sea salt

1 1/2 cups raw cane sugar

1/2 cup Earth Balance 

2 egg replacers (I use ground chia and water)

1 cup fresh homemade almond milk

Crumb Topping

1/2 cup raw cane sugar

1/3 cup wheat flour

1/4 cup Earth Balance

Preheat oven to 375. 

Mix flour, salt and baking soda. (Sift if you have a sifter but you don't have to.)

Separately mix Earth Balance, sugar, egg replacers and almond milk.

Slowly combine wet ingredients into dry ingredients. 

(If your mixture is still too dry slowly add a little more almond milk just until everything is incorporated and sticking together.)

Fold in blueberries. (Try not to break or mush them)

Pour mixture into a greased pan.

Mix together crumb topping and sprinkle on top of cake.

Bake for 50-60 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

*My husband said, "This is good! You should sell it!"*

*My brother said, "This is good for being a weird vegan thing."*

So, I guess that means success?

My husband bought us a ten pound bag of organic carrots so that means looooooots of carrot juice. This is a great book by the way!

My brother took me to his favorite sushi place. I didn't really like it. I found it funny that the "Vegetarian" part of the menu said, "Vegetarian Keiki Menu." Keiki means kid in Hawaiian. So they were saying that the vegetarian menu was only something that kids would get I guess. Funny. 

I made some kale chips yesterday. These just had a little olive oil and sea salt on them. I still don't have a dehydrator so I baked these at 275 for 20 minutes. They turned out good! My brother said he'd rather have these then spinach anything. By the way, don't get your hopes up, but my brother and husband have been eating vegetarian for the last couple days! I'm trying not to get overly excited. I had them both watch Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead and also Forks Over Knives. I guess it might have had an impact! My husband is going to juice fast for a few weeks soon, so he is preparing by eating vegetarian. Keep your fingers crossed and some how, some way it might stick!

Apples & almond butter

Garbanzo Bean Burgers

Olive oil, enough to saute

1/2 cup sweet onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon celery seed

1 teaspoon parsley

sea salt, just a little

1/2 cup walnuts or almonds

1 can organic garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

3 Tbsp wheat flour

1 Tbsp arrowroot (If you don't have this just add a little more flour)

Saute the onions, garlic, cumin, celery seed, and salt over medium heat until the onions are cooked well. Food process the nuts until they are a coarse meal. Put garbanzo beans in the processor and process the same way as the nuts. Mix together all ingredients in a bowl. Form the mixture into four burgers. Fry them on a frying pan until lightly brown. Then follow my recipe below to make the burger sauce.

Tahini Dill Veganese

3-4 Tbsp Veganese

1 Tbsp tahini

1 Tbsp fresh dill, less if you're not into dill

1 clove garlic, miced

Mix all ingredients together well and serve on your garbanzo burgers.

I had a smoothie for dinner last night with organic blueberries, chocolate acai juice, mango chunks, banana, chia seeds & hemp seeds. 

Meeoooooooow, good morning! 

A typical day of food during a vegan pregnancy

This weekend my husband and I spent the night in a hotel in Waikiki. He had some conferences for work, so his work paid for two nights in a hotel. SCORE! Although, it's always hard for me being away from my animals overnight. I went to go check on them during the day though just to make sure they still had food and water. They were mad at me. Go figure. The picture above is some fruit my husband brought me while I was still in bed and he was already in the middle of a conference. I've also been trying to read a LOT about vegan babies and children. I am trying to make sure I know everything there is to know. Any good book suggestions? 

Once I got back home I could get back to normal eating without eating out. This is what I had for breakfast. Green juice containing 1 organic green apple, 4 organic carrots, 2 leaves of organic collard greens.

I also had a smoothie for breakfast. This one had 1 cup organic frozen blueberries, 1 cup organic spinach, half an organic avocado, 2 dates, chia seeds & organic spirulina. I change it up and add other things too like Raw protein powder, hemp seeds, maca powder, cacao nibs, etc.

Snack was one organic orange.

Lunch was massaged kale salad with a Bubbies pickle and nutritional yeast. I am not a huge fan of kale in salads but I am getting used to it. It helps if you make massaged kale salad. You just chop up organic kale and massage it with half of the juice of an organic lemon, sea salt and a little olive oil. Once it starts to wilt, you can add a dressing like olive oil, pepper, agave & the juice from the other half of the lemon. Then chop up a Bubbies pickle and sprinkle with nutritional yeast! Enjoy.

For dinner, I had leftover kale salad, baked maple yams & basil quinoa. I also had a small glass of juiced organic carrots, organic collard greens, organic celery & organic apple. I shared some of my juice with my husband, that's why I didn't have much :) To make the maple yams, you just have to chop up an organic washed yam and add pure grade B maple syrup, cinnamon, nutmeg & coconut oil. Cover and bake at 400 for 30-40 minutes until soft. For the quinoa, I just add quinoa, water, olive oil, salt and basil to a rice cooker and cook like normal rice!

So there it is! A typical pregnant day of eating for a pregnant vegan. I also had some vegan chocolate chips & chips and salsa for dessert that night. That's normal right? 

Sonic relaxing next to me on the couch. Good night all! 

(It's morning time, but I need a nap:)

Quick pregnancy post

I am 14 weeks and 3 days today (excuse the mess).

 I had my second midwife appointment yesterday and everything is going good. She said that my baby's heart sounds good, my blood pressure is good (although low but that is normal for me) and my body and weight are right on track as well. She told me that I am not eating enough though, so I am trying to be better about that. She said I need to add a little more protein and iron to my diet. She told me to buy blackstrap molasses and mix it with water and yellow dock root (which I just so happen to have.) The molasses has a good amount of iron and the yellow dock helps to absorb the iron right into my body instead of peeing most of it out. I am also putting in an order for some organic beet root powder (for protein and iron), organic red raspberry leaf and organic nettle. I am in my second trimester so I feel it now safe to take the red raspberry leaf. My midwife said that it was a great idea and it is so good for pregnant woman. I told her that I was getting a lot of controversy online with different herbs that I thought were ok and actually really good for pregnancy. What she told me is that, with herbs there is always going to be controversy. Since she has been a midwife and naturopathic doctor for 29 years, I trust that she knows what she is talking about :)

I am sharing with you my first video ever. This was me listening to my babies heart beat for the first time. I cried of course afterward. Best sound on earth. You might have to listen and put your ear really close to the screen to hear the heartbeat. It took her a really long time to find the heartbeat because I guess my baby was hanging out really low in my uterus, so this is the edited shorter version of the video :)