Surgery and Minions

My baby girl had to have surgery the other day to remove a cyst in her throat.  I noticed a bump on her neck about a month ago, made a call to her Dr. and he sent us for a CT which resulted in being told she needed surgery to remove it.  It's been pretty nerve wracking around here during this process but I am happy to report that she is doing AMAZING following her surgery and already wants to be up out of bed, riding her bike, playing at the park and going swimming.  I told her the Dr. says she can't do any of those things for 10 days... she's not happy about it to say the least! Anyway, the night before her surgery she couldn't eat anything after midnight (no breakfast the morning of) so we let her stay up late to eat something right before midnight.

We decided to watch Despicable Me because it's a family favorite (seriously HILARIOUS!) and I wanted to make her a special treat so I decided to finally make those Minion cupcakes that have been all over Pinterest. Of course they had to be vegan so store bought Twinkies would not do!  That was no problem though because I happen to own my very own Twinkie pan!  Doesn't every one?  Well you should! 




I took the lazy way and used store bought (Pillsbury) cake mix and frosting because I wanted as much cuddle time as possible with my princess.  A LOT of the store bought cake mixes and frostings ARE vegan, they are just loaded with tons of other crap too (artificial flavors, colors and preservatives), so I try to make my cakes organic from scratch as much as possible.  However, it is nice to know you can grab one of these cheap mixes (the cake mix was .99 and the frosting was 1.49) and whip up a cake in a few minutes!  Just check the labels (as always) to ensure the ones you pick are vegan, then prepare with vegan ingredients using Ener-G egg replacer equivalent to the amount of eggs in the recipe and if it calls for milk or butter use vegan versions of those.  With 1 box of cake mix I was able to make a whole pan of "twinkies" and 8 cupcakes.  It turned out I had 4 extra twinkies because you cut them in half to make the Minion toppers.  Also, I realized after I pumped some of the frosting into the twinkies that this was an AWESOME way to make "mess-free" cupcakes!!  Just make the twinkies, and pump in the frosting (the tool comes with the pan) and you have "inside-out" cupcakes with cake on the outside and frosting on the inside which in my house would lead to WAY less cupcake mess!

I was going to buy Smarties to use for the eyes but when I was racing through the grocery aisles speed reading labels I saw stearic acid on the Smarties label, so I passed on them and just decided to do frosting eyes.  Stearic acid can come from either animal or plant sources and I just didn't want to take the time right then to research it.  I now know that Smarties are vegan, so FYI if you want to make these with the Smartie eyes they are A-OK!

No real recipe just follow the directions on your cake box, let cool and decorate.

Vegan "Twinkies"  I overfilled a couple with frosting and had to eat 'em since they were not useable as Minion toppers

They look soo authentic!

Carefully cut them in half

Pipe on your faces, the eyes were a little tricky, if you use Smarties it will be a LOT easier.  Also pipe some frosting "glue" on to the bottoms to hold them on to the cupcake base.

Frost the cupcakes and then stick on the Minions

VEGAN MINIONS!!

My Princess about to watch the movie and munch her Minion

Yummy Minion!!

The Minion aftermath

After the movie and the Minion munching she got some sleep and then we had to be up bright and early to get to the hospital around 7 am.

**Warning there is a graphic photo of her surgery below**

If that sort of thing bothers you, you may want to skip it.  

All decked out in her hospital "jammies"

They gave her an oral sedative to help calm any separation anxiety when they came to take her back.  This is her being silly with Daddy as it started to kick in.

And mellowing out reading a story right before they came to take her back.  She kept her piggy with her the whole time <3

Her surgery turned out to be a bit more complicated than anticipated.  The surgeon thought from the CT scan that the cyst was about the size of a marble.  You can see the bump on her neck that we noticed about a month ago.  Once they got in there though he saw that there was not one but 3 cysts, one behind the other all the way up to the base of her tongue.  Her hyoid bone had to be removed, and she has about a 1 1/2 inch incision in her neck.  The surgeon came and looked at her neck folds prior to surgery and tucked the incision into her top neck fold so unless she is looking up at the sky you cannot even see it, and even then once it heals it should blend in with the natural crease in her neck.

It was an outpatient surgery so after a while in recovery she was discharged home with us.  The first night and following day were quite the ordeal as she was just so out of it from all the anesthesia, she was fighting her pain meds and just generally very uncomfortable and unhappy, which means that I was an absolute mess of emotions trying to do anything I could to make her feel better.  Thankfully yesterday was a lot better and today, she is almost back to her normal self.  She has not complained about pain at all yesterday or so far today.  The human body is an amazing thing!  She is my super human :) and just can't wait to get her doc's clearance to do all her favorite things again.

Popsicle Wars! Vegan Popsicles

We've been Popsicle crazy around here!  I bought some Popsicle molds last week so I figured I better put something in them!

There are so many different kinds of pop molds available out there!  The Rocket Pop ones are awesome!  I want to get a set of those soon! 



So far we have made watermelon and pineapple pops.  They are both delish the watermelon is very refreshing and the pineapple ones are just decadent!

They take only minutes to prepare, the hard part is waiting for them to freeze up!

Watermelon Popsicle!

1/2 an average watermelon chopped
1/2 cup agave or sugar (use less agave than you would sugar)
1 tsp vanilla

Place all ingredients into your vitamix or blender and process until puree. 

Fill your popsicle molds, freeze and ENJOY!

Makes Approx 16 popsicles.

Pineapple Popsicle!

1 1/2 pineapples chopped
1/2 can coconut milk
1/3 cup agave or sugar (use less agave than you would sugar)

Place all ingredients into your vitamix or blender and process until puree. 

Fill your popsicle molds, freeze and ENJOY!

Makes Approx 12 popsicles.

 

Popsicle Wars!

 

I these are lots of fun to make, ZERO artificial flavors or colors, no HFC or other crap that is in most store bought Popsicles.

I have a cantaloupe that needs to get used if I don't decide to eat it for lunch I may make cantaloupe pops!  I also might experiment with decreasing the sweeteners in them, they are fabulous as is but I wonder if we would even notice if I reduce or cut out the sweeteners?  I'll let you know!

What are your favorite popsicle flavors?

King's Hawaiian Sweet Rolls - VEGANIZED!

Being a vegan is wonderful for so many reasons, we are working to right so many of the wrongs in our world with our fork and and our purchasing habits (i.e not supporting companies that test on animals).  But every now and then something will come up, we'll remember something that we used to eat or buy and get a little wistful.  Those moments just give me the inspiration I need to find creative ways to prove that vegans don't have to give up the things they love and crave.





When we first made the switch my husband was scared that we would be eating salads and tofu and not much else.  Well we do eat a LOT of salads and tofu lol but we eat LOTS of other things too.  AND I have found that aside from a bloody rare steak (which is just barftastic anyway) there is not much I have not been able to successfully recreate a vegan version of.  Case in point King's Hawaiian Buns.  We used to eat a lot and I mean a LOT of these things, a couple of packs a week easily.  They have been quite a temptation for my oldest son who has been really really missing them so I thought I would give it a go and try to surprise him by making them at home. 

I was so nervous about making these rolls because we all loved the originals so much, I wanted to be able to recreate them so we could have our happy sweet buns again!   I am very happy to say they were a smashing success!  Everyone LOVED them, they were SPOT on to the store bought ones, in taste, texture and aroma, except of course with everything homemade these were soooo much better!  Not only were they vegan but I always try to make everything with organic whole ingredients, AND they were made with mama's love and no crap!   You know we were buying these before my label reading days because once I stated reading labels there is NO way I would have bought something with this list of crap on it's label.  They have butter, eggs, milk.. and whey?  WHY?  Well MINE have NONE of that junk and they lack nothing.

So I ran across the recipe to make them at home here.  It was not vegan or organic so I made a few tweaks to make it so.  Also some people in the reviews mentioned trouble with the dough and the amount of flour.  I had no problems with it.  Mix your final 3 cups of flour in 1 CUP AT A TIME, your dough will be sticky and perhaps difficult at first but by the time you get all 6 cups mixed in it should be just perfect.  I don't have a stand mixer or a bread maker so I just mixed it by hand and they came out divine! Also one final note:  There is a lot of rise time involved here, so don't get all excited thinking you're gonna have that sweet doughy goodness in your mouth anytime soon... all good things to those who wait, or some crap like that right?  Well the dough rises twice for an hour each time so patience is your friend here :)

This recipe makes 3 loaves or 3 pans of rolls.

King's Hawaiian Sweet Rolls - VEGANIZED!

• 6 cups organic unbleached flour
• 1/2 cup organic unbleached flour for kneading
• Ener-G egg replacer equivalent to 3 eggs preblended
• 2 cups organic pineapple juice
• 3/4 cup organic unrefined sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon organic pure vanilla extract
• 2 (1/4 ounce) envelopes yeast
• 1/2 cup (one stick) Earth Balance (or other vegan margarine) melted  

 

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl mix your egg replacer, the pineapple juice, sugar, ginger, vanilla, and Earth Balance.
   
2. Place 3 cups of flour in a large bowl. Stir in the wet mixture until well-combined. Sprinkle in the yeast, one packet at a time, and mix.
3. Add the remaining flour one cup at a time and mix in.  By the last cup mixing with your wooded spoon will be hard, so you may have to use your hands. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure it is thoroughly combined. 
4. Cover the bowl with a cloth and set in a warm place to rise for 1 hour.
5. Remove from the bowl and knead in 1/2 cup flour. Knead about 10 times. Divide into three equal parts. 
   

   -  If you are want to make the round loaves take 1/3 of your dough and shape into a greased and floured round and place it in a round pan
   - If you want to make loaf shaped loaves take 1/3 of your dough and shape into a greased and floured loaf pan.

   -  If you want to make the rolls each 1/3 of your dough here will make 1 pan of rolls so you can make 3 pans if you use all of the dough.  Depending on how big or small you make your rolls will determine how many you get in each pan.  The ones you buy in the store come with 12 rolls per package I think but when I made mine I made my dough balls about 2 inches and I got 21 rolls in a pan.  Grease and flour your pan, roll your balls and place in pan.
6. Cover and place in a warm place to rise for 1 hour.
   
   Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or golden brown.
   
   The smell coming from your oven should be soooo good!  We dove into ours right out of the oven we just couldn't contain ourselves any longer and we were rewarded with sweet warm Hawaiian happiness on our taste buds!
   
   I decided to make a pan of rolls, a round loaf and the ones you see on the left there are filled with cream cheese to replicate these AMAZING cream cheese filled butter/sugar topped pastries you can only get at Filipino bakeries.  I don't know their "real name" but every one seems to call them Filipino cream cheese buns.  See the two final pictures for more detailed instructions on how to make these.  
   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   

   They had that perfect pull apart texture just like we remembered!

   
   

   

   They disappeared VERY fast.  I am going to make up a couple more batches this week to freeze so we always have some on hand. 

   
   

   Filipino Cream Cheese Buns

   I have such fond memories of these pastries... my sons' father, his mama and I used to go to a farmers market about 10 years ago in a tiny little cow town called Tracy, CA on the weekends.  We'd just had our oldest son and I'd push him around in his stroller and we would load up on fruits and veggies and then find the Filipino lady with her trays of pastries and hope she hadn't sold all of the cream cheese ones :)  Such a simple memory but it always makes me smile.  Well these pastries are pretty dang hard to come by, even when I was living in the Bay Area, which boasts a pretty large Filipino population.  Which leads me to another awesome memory involving these same pastries (yes lots of my happy memories do center around sugary treats).  My oldest was about a year old I think when we took him on his first BIG roadtrip from Livermore, CA to San Diego, CA to watch his uncle graduate from college.  While we were down in San Diego we did some exploring and one of the places we ventured to was National City which is seriously like someone took a tiny chunk of the Philippines and dropped it off just south of San Diego.  Well of course we found these amazing cream cheese buns there and I have to say, the ones we had in National City are probably the best ones I have ever had.  Now it's been at maybe 6 or 7 years since I've eaten one of these buns but I remember how soft and sweet the bread was, how the butter on top, was covered in sugar and was so sweet and mixed with the cream cheese was just like a bite of heaven in your mouth.  So when I decided to make the Hawaiian buns I figured I would give these a go as well.  My first try at these was good but not exactly as I remember them so I am going to give you the advice to sweeten the cream cheese vs. just putting it in plain as I did.  I think with that one little tweak these will be perfect!
   
   
   

   Directions:

   You need 1/3 of the dough from above (1 loaves' worth). Divide it up into 10-12 balls (depending on how big you want your final rolls to be)
   
   Added ingredients:
   1 tub vegan cream cheese
   1/2 cup organic agave or other sweetener
   1 stick Earth Balance softened to room temp
   Unrefined organic sugar for sprinkling
   
   In a mixing bowl mix cream cheese and sweetener.
   Take your dough balls and stretch them out into discs.
   Then spoon in some cream cheese and roll the dough up around it, pinch the ends to seal it.
   Place onto your greased/floured baking sheet with the seam down.   
   Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or golden brown.
   Take out of the oven and cool for about 15 mins
   Transfer to a cooling rack and cool for another 10 minutes
   Spread softened Earth Balance on each and sprinkle generously with sugar
   
   

   

   
   
   

   

   

   
   Do you have a favorite recipe or dish you have been missing since going vegan?  I have veganized just about everything my family used to eat from our prevegan days.  If you would like some help converting an old family recipe to a vegan version or if there is something you used to buy (like these King's Hawaiian buns) that there is just not a commercially available vegan version of let me know, I'd be happy to help you revamp anything (aside from a bloody rare steak as I mentioned above) into a vegan version.  To do so there is an appointment box over on the left there simply select "Meal Revamp" and fill in your details.  There is no charge for this service, just happy taste buds!
   
   
   
   
   
   

Use Your Noggin ~ Power Towers

Summer is here!!  The boys are sooo excited to have a break from school and lazy summer days ahead!  But they have worked so hard to learn so much this year and I don't want ANY summer learning loss around here so... I have a TON of things planned for this summer to help the boys retain what they have learned.  My oldest still has some work to do at memorizing his multiplication and division facts so several of the ideas/crafts I have planned center around fun ways to work on those.  When I saw this video I knew I HAD to make some Power Towers. If you have not heard of power towers yet, watch the video in the link above and then hit up Google or Pinterest they are all over the place.  

My boys LOVE to build and stack anything so combine making castles/towers with cups AND learning math facts? Sign us up!

The concept with Power Towers is to take something that you want the child to memorize, in this case I used math facts (addition ones - fives) for Brandon and and multiplication for Gabe. You write a problem, sight word... whatever you want the kiddo to memorize on the cup and they have to say the answer or read the word out loud before they can add the cup to their tower/castle.

Example:

1s = 1+1, 1+2, 1+3, 1+4, 1+5, 1+6, 1+7, 1+8, 1+9

You write each of those problems on a separate cup and when they pull the cup  they have to say 1+1=2 etc... and then they get to stack it.  If they can't answer the problem or get the answer wrong that cup goes in the "can't answer stack" and they can try those again after they have gone through the whole stack.  The point is to go through them QUICKLY and have FUN, be SILLY, be LOUD and LEARN!

Remember... If they get the word/fact wrong they have to add those cups to a different pile to try again at the end, they can't add it to the tower UNTIL they have it RIGHT AND if it FALLS down they have to start all over again. 

I thought the addition facts would keep him busy for a while... NOPE! he stacked these up in record time, went right through them ALL on the first pass! I have to make another container with the 6-10 facts for both the addition and multiplication and then I want to make subtraction for Brandon and division for Gabe. I have a feeling Brandon will be moving on to the multiplication towers before the summer is out!

The video in the link I provided above, and other blogs I have seen these on recommend reusing old Pringles containers, while I LOVE reusing things I have put my foot down about buying the frankenfood known as Pringles.  I found these nifty wine bottle gift boxes at Michael's for 2.98 which is not much more than a can of Pringles would have been and I don't have to feed my kids that crap to get the containers. Plus I'm totally diggin' the animal print on them :)  I got the cups at the Dollar Store and they were 32 in a pack for $1. The wine boxes hold exactly enough of the cups to hold 1/2 of a set.  So 1-5 of addition facts and then I'll make another container with the 6-10 addition facts.

They decided to get crazy with the extra cups for the sets I still need to make.  Their goal was to build a tower tall enough to touch the chandelier!  It took them a while and it fell down a few times but they did it!  Little sis had her own stack for building with too :)  I think I might put ABCs and 123s on a set for her to memorize.

Here are some more AWESOME math games that I hope to try to play/learn with the boys over the summer some of them I would need to make some adjustments to to bring the math down to my guys levels but I think that should be easy enough.

Angry Birds Math

Lego Math

Fortune Cookie Math

Outdoor Board Game Math

Daily Math Challenges

Do you have any summer learning planned?  If so I would love to hear about it.

VEGAN DIY - Liquid Dish Soap

I ran out of dish soap today and I have been meaning to make some for a while, so I guess the fates aligned to bring this post to you :)

There are a couple of brands of cruelty free dish soap out there.  Seventh Generation, Mrs. Meyers, and Target's Method brand to name a few but they do tend to be more expensive than their non cruelty free shelf mates such as Dawn or Ajax and I've been on a mission to prove that being a vegan household does not mean breaking the bank, EVEN when it comes to personal care and household cleaning products so dish soap is the next stop on that train! 

So far we have discussed making our own vegan liquid hand soap and vegan dryer sheets and the reasons why we might want to dabble in making our own. Besides contributing to WAY less landfill waste by buying less packaging, there is a LOT of money to be saved by making your own and of course we want to ensure that our products are vegan so as not to contribute to any form of animal testing. There is also a lot of junk in your normal run of the mill dish soap that may cause concern for some.  Check out this post if you are interested in learning more about the goods and bads of what is in your dish soap.

Making dish soap is crazy simple, it took me about 5 minutes to throw together my batch today.

There is one ingredient used in making this soap that is questionable to vegans and that is washing soda.  The only commercially available brand of washing soda I have been able to find is made by Arm & Hammer and they are a terrible company that is known throughout the AR community for their torture and mistreatment of animals. When I first started making my own laundry soaps I was in quite a quandary because I knew of and could find no other alternative and it is a necessary ingredient.  I was stuck using it until the day I stumbled upon this blog and finally I could make my soap with a clear conscience!!  You see the difference between simple baking soda and washing soda is a few molecules, I'm not a chemist so check out the link above for a better explanation.  Basically I buy my cruelty free Bob's Red Mill Baking Soda and bake it in the oven until it becomes washing soda, the heat breaks the molecules and turns it into washing soda!  Cheap, EASY and VEGAN!  I use washing soda in my homemade laundry detergent, to make this dish soap, for my homemade "oxyclean" and as a laundry booster for particularly nasty loads of laundry.  So make yourself up a batch and then lets make some clear conscience dish soap!




You need:
1/3 bar of vegan soap, I found this one at the Dollar Store
1/4 cup of simple white vinegar
1/4 cup washing soda
6-7 cups HOT (almost boiling) water
essential oils as you desire 

This will make a 1/2 gallon of dish soap and I figured with 1/3 of a bar of soap from the Dollar Store and the other ingredients it cost about $1-$2 to make.  Now if you buy more expensive soap your end cost will be more and of course if you add the essential oils those will bring up your price as well but still even with the expensive soap and a bunch of oils I can't see this costing more than $4-$5 for a HALF GALLON (or *about* 8 cups) of dish soap.  Compare that to Mrs. Meyers at $4 for 2 cups of liquid dish soap, Seventh Generation at $4-$5 for about 3 1/2 cups of soap, and Method at $4 for about 2 1/2 cups and you can see that the savings are quite substantial AND you are not buying any more plastic bottles!  

Grate 1/3 of your bar of soap (about a 1/4 cup of shavings)

Washing Soda

Vinegar

Add soap flakes, washing soda and vinegar to a 1/2 gallon jar

Pour 1/2 of your water in over the other ingredients, put the lid on the jar and with oven mitts on your hands (it's HOT!) shake it up for a couple minutes until the soap flakes are dissolved.  Other people do this in a bowl or pan but this way it's already in what I plan to store it in and I have no extra dishes to wash. 

After the flakes are melted take the lid off, it'll be really sudsy from shaking.  Just slowly pour the rest of your hot water in over the top of the suds and they will go down.

Once it's full set it aside (without the lid) to cool over night.  In the morning give it a good shake and then use a funnel to fill up your dish soap bottle.  Label this jar and you have plenty to keep your dishes clean for months!

Baked Oatmeal - Veganized

I have been seeing all these awesome pins for baked oatmeal all over Pinterest, but have not seen many vegan ones.  So I decided to adapt one that looked especially yummy.

 Adapted from original recipe here

I loved the individual serving sizes and using the mini mason jars.  I just love mason jars!

Making the conversions to veganize the recipe was very simple.  I can't wait to make other versions of these, with apples and walnuts or chocolate and peanuts!  The options are limitless!

Fresh Fruit Bottom:

• 2 cups fresh fruit, plus extra for garnish.
  I used a cup of blueberries and 1 cup of peaches and made 3 servings of blueberry and 3 servings of peach.

Dry Ingredients:

• 2 cups old fashioned oats
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. aluminum free baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Wet Ingredients:

• 2 cups non dairy milk - I used soy, almond would probably be really yummy too
• 1 1/2 tbsp. melted earth balance or other vegan butter
• 1/2 cup brown rice syrup or agave
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract

Topping:

• 1 cup chopped almonds, walnuts, pecans whatever kind of nuts you fancy... I used almonds
• Vegan sugar for sprinkling on top about 1 tsp on each (you can leave this off and these will be sugar free)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Using six small (8 oz) jars divide your fruit up among your jars evenly.  
3. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl and then divide evenly into your jars about 1/3 cup into each.
4. Mix all the wet ingredients together in a bowl and then pour about a 1/2 cup over the oat mixture in each jar letting it seep all down and around the oats and fruit.  
5. Top each jar with a tsp of vegan sugar, chopped nuts and a few pieces of fruit.
6. Place the jars into a baking dish and heat bake for about 30 minutes.

Eat them warm and gooey from the oven or let them cool, put the lids on and refrigerate for later.


These were super easy to make, tasty and make for quick EASY breakfasts.   The kids had some of them for breakfast this morning and loved them and the rest are sitting in the fridge waiting to either be eaten cold or warmed up a bit and thoroughly enjoyed either for after school snacks or breakfast tomorrow.

**TIP** If you are making these to be eaten later in the week as I did under cook them a bit (25 mins) and then when you warm them back up they will be perfect!

To warm them back up you can do: 1 min in the microwave,  or you can put them into an inch or two of boiling water for a couple minutes if you don't do microwaves, or pop em back in the pre-warmed oven for 5 minutes or so

 

Chop fruits

Divide up between your jars

Combine dry ingredients

Layer over fruit

Combine wet ingredients and layer over dry in the jars

Add toppings and place jars in baking dish

Ooey  Gooey Warm Vegan Goodness!!