Desserts...tasty, tasty desserts!

I have been making lots of sweet things lately, and I wanted to share two awesome recipes with you. 

How awesome does this look? This was the cake I made my brother for his birthday. 

Chocolatey Chocolate Cake

1 chocolate cake mix (ex. Cherrybrook Kitchen)

1 vegan  chocolate pudding mix

1 cup Tofutti sour cream

1 cup canola oil (or vegetable oil)

4 egg replacers 

1/2 cup warm water

2 cups vegan chocolate chips

Mix all ingredients together and pour into greased bunt cake pan. Bake at 350 for 50-55 min. Cool for 1 hour before inverting (this is the hardest part :). While it's cooling, make frosting sauce.

3/4 cup vegan chocolate chips

3 Tbsp Earth Balance

1/4 tsp vanilla 

Pour that over cake once it is inverted and you've got yourself a chocolatey chocolate cake!

I made this for a halloween BBQ we are having tonight :)

Chocolate Croissant Bread Pudding

I veganized this from THIS recipe. 

1 stick Earth Balance

1 cup sugar (raw if you like)

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla

5 egg replacers

2 1/2 cups soy creamer

12 croissants

1/2 cup raisins

3/4 cup vegan chocolate chips

Go to the link above to see how to make the recipe :) Enjoy!

Also, please don't forget to enter my STRAWESOME giveaway! It ends November 1st!

Strawesome Giveaway!

I haven't done a giveaway for you guys in a while, so I thought it was about time I did one again. Strawesome is an awesome company that makes reusable, stylish glass straws & the lovely Daedra from Strawesome is allowing me to host a blog giveaway for one free "artist's choice" straw!

 This is a picture of one of their bent glass straws.

This is one of my straws I was using to drink green juice!

This is a picture of homemade bubble tea that I am drinking from a Strawesome straw. 

This was today's smoothie :)

For those of you who have not heard of Strawesome yet, these straws are hand made from borosilicate glass. They are also guarenteed not to break! If your straw breaks, it will be replaced. I LOVE these straws. I cannot say enough good things about them. I actually have an order coming in the mail or two more. My husband and I use them every day!

To enter to win a free Strawesome straw:

*Become a follower of my blog &

*Tell me why you want to win a glass Strawesome straw!

Contest begins today and ends November 1st! 

Good luck!

Simon says vote for me!

Meet Simon! This is my good friend Jenny's cow that she rescued from a meat farm.

He wanted to be a butterfly for Halloween. 

So, he's entered HERE to win a pet costume contest! If he wins, then Jenny gets a year supply of dog food, which she could really use with her four rescued dogs! Please vote for Simon!!! 

Green is goooooood!

Green Goodness

Organic spinach

Apple banana

Mango

Papaya

Chia seeds

Spirulina

Unsweetened almond milk

Stevia

Sprouted bagel with veganese, avocado, nutritional yeast, salt & pepper

Guacamole 

2 avocados

1 small tomato

1/4 a sweet onion

Cilantro (to taste)

Salt (to taste)

Lime (to taste)

Dinner of an Amy's bean and rice burrito with guac & chips

Red raspberry leaf & nettle tea

Oh and keep in mind, this is just the green stuff I ate today :)

Autumn things

Bunny Juice

Organic almond milk

Fresh juiced carrot juice

Cinnamon 

Cardamon

Nutmeg

Ginger

See Rahj in the corner sniffing them?

Leftover beeswax from making candles. I decided not to make the crayons yet. When I do I WILL post them. I promise :)

Teaching myself how to needle felt

An autumn fairy

18 weeks!

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!