Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Homemade Vegan Pop Tarts
Last night, my husband and I made a batch of vegan pop tarts! I've been wanting to make these for quite a while, but since my fridge is full of yummy homemade jam, I figured the Pop Tart start were aligned. The initial inspiration for these treats came 100% from Williams Sonoma. While shopping this winter with a gift card I got from my mom, I stumbled on the Toaster Pastry Presses. And like so many cool little tools and gadgets at Williams Sonoma, I knew I had to have it!
I admit, I was never a huge fan of Pop Tarts so I haven't really missed them as a vegan (they're not even vegetarian, the frosting contains gelatin). Although I did read in VegNews that the unfrosted strawberry Pop Tarts are in fact vegan, so that's nice for those looking for a quick treat every once in a while!
Anyway, back to the homemade treats! I decided to go ahead and veganize the recipe that came with the pastry press, it seemed simple enough. For the filling, I used homemade Cherry Raspberry freezer jam that I made a few days ago. The recipe for that jam will be available at some point, I'm really happy with how it came out! I decided to leave off the frosting, I planned on eating one for breakfast and that much sugar first thing in the morning would just make me feel oogy.
The pastry press tool was really easy to use and totally worth it for such cute and evenly sized treats:
These guys were delicious and I'll be making them again for sure!
What filling would you use for a homemade pop tart?
-kala
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Not So Extreme Couponing
Yesterday I was able to pick up some new drinking glasses at Pier 1 for super cheap. We've needed new glasses since we're getting rid of some of our old yucky plastic glasses. So I used a one day only coupon for $10 off a purchase of $10 or more and got 4 glasses for $2.50 total:
What I've found over the past few weeks is that it is absolutely possible to save lots of money on things I buy all the time anyway, gotta love that! There are a few secrets to making the most out of coupons, here are some of the things I've learned:
1. Combining Sales and Coupons. For example, my favorite brand of coconut water was on sale at Whole Foods for $1.50 down from $1.99ish. I also had a coupon for $1 off the coconut water so we only paid 50 cents!
2. Know Your Store's Coupon Policy. Some stores, like Target, Walgreens, CVS, and some Whole Foods let you use a store specific coupon and a manufacturers coupon on the same item. For example, Target was having a sale on Morningstar Farms frozen meals, they were all $2.99 down from $3.49ish. Target had a coupon in their online coupon section for $1.50 off of two Morningstar Farms products, and I had 2 $1 off coupons from the Morningstar site. I was able to use all of my coupons and get a couple of yummy vegan frozen meals for cheap! They were also low in fat and sodium, making them perfect healthy meals for days when you don't feel like cooking.
3. Don't Buy Something Just Because it's Cheap. This should be obvious, but don't buy a bunch of junk just because it's super cheap or free. The only exception to this rule is buying healthy food that you wouldn't eat, but donating it to the food shelf. That I highly encourage!
4. Think Seasonally. Depending on seasons and holidays, different things go on sale at different times. Right now, it's high season for back to school deals. For example, packs of Bic pens were on sale for 50 cents each at Target. Target also had a coupon for $1 off any Bic pen purchase, so 2 packs of pens were free! That's a great deal for someone who loses as many pens as I do. I also picked up a pack of free Sharpies by combining a coupon with a sale. This is great for teachers and people with kids, school supplies can really add up!
5. Keep Track of Great Deals. The thing about couponing is that it can take a fair amount of time if you do all the searching and deal tracking yourself. I'd rather not do that, so I depend on a great blog called the Krazy Coupon Lady. She posts about great deals, you can look at deals by store, and she keeps track of all of the printable coupons that companies have on their sites.
6. Print Store Specific Coupons. Target has a huge amount of coupons on their site that you can print out, here's a link. Whole Foods also has coupons to print, and coupons in the store ad, usually places somewhere near the front entrance. Really, almost any grocery or drugstore has their own coupons online, so check it out the next time you're planning a shopping trip.
I hope this info helps anyone looking to save money on healthy food and daily needs, a little bit of couponing has really helped us out so far!
Do any of you guys use coupons or try to buy the things you need on sale? Have any other great ideas for saving money?
-kala
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Unearthed
Thanks to Ravelry, I was able to figure out when I started this project (July 2009), what pattern I was following, and what hook I was using. I started this blanket in hopes of using up my sock yarn scraps, of which there are MANY. I have pretty big feet (size 10) but I also like shorter socks so I always end up with extra yarn. But I think these projects where you work on them over time as you collect more scraps don't really work for me, unless I'm actively working on it, it just sort of falls to the outer edges of my brain (or deep deep inside my craft closet.) But I do like the idea of a big crazy blanket made from scraps so I think I'm going to pick up the hook and get working on it again!
Do you have any projects that have fallen to the wayside?
-kala
Monday, July 18, 2011
Easy Cherry Crumble!
'Tis the season for delicous and affordable cherries! Cherries are one of my favorite fruits, but the crazy cost keeps me from eating then more than a few times a year. So when the little guys go one sale, I pounce! I've been eating quite a few in a the past few weeks, and this weekend I decided to come up with a new recipe. I wanted to come up with a crumble recipe that was very simple, quick, and used only a few basic ingredients. I think I came up with a winner, it was easy to make, yummy, and was perfect with some vegan ice cream! Here's the recipe, I hope you'll give it a try:
Vegan Cherry Crumble:
1 1/2 cups pitted, sliced cherries
1/4 cup sugar (I like organic vegan cane sugar)
1 cup rolled oats
3 TB agave
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
2 TB vegan margarine, melted
a small pinch of salt
Preheat oven to 350.
In a medium sized bowl, stir together the cherry slices and the sugar. Set aside while you prepare the crumble topping.
In another bowl, combine all of the other ingredients.
Scoop the cherry/sugar filling into a pie pan. Sprinkle with the crumble topping.
Bake for 15 minutes or until the crumble topping is lightly browned.
Cool and enjoy!
If you enjoyed this post, please feel free to share it on twitter using the tweet button below, or give it a +1 if you're on Google+!
-kala
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Two Toned Swirled Frosting Tutorial
This really is incredibly easy to do yourself, and I hope you'll try it sometime! Here's what you do:
1. Make and completely cool a batch of cupcakes of your choice.
2. Make or buy one batch of vanilla frosting and one batch of chocolate frosting.
3. You'll need three pastry bags. I like Wilton Featherweight bags because they're reusable and easy to clean. Take two of the pastry bags and cut the tip end off at about 3/4" from the end, but don't place a tip inside. With the third bag, cut the tip end far down enough to fit a largeish star tip. I used the M1 star tip from Wilton. Now, fill the first two tipless bags with your frostings, one with vanilla and one with chocolate. Place these bags inside the bag with the star tip. Squeezing from the top of the bag, both frostings should feed out of the star tip in a swirled pattern. Practice on your work surface or a plate before decorating your cupcakes.
4. When you're ready to decorate a cupcake, hold your bag so that your tip is pointing straight down at your cupcake. With an even pressure, squeeze your frosting out, starting at the outside (not the center) of your cupcake and work a steady swirl all around. When you come to the center, stop squeezing before you lift your tip away to avoid a really tall peak on your cupcake.
Simple, right? I'm looking forward to trying this technique with colored frosting for the holidays, especially Halloween!
-kala
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Swap Love!
Amazing, right? I got a jar of the elusive and addictively delicious Biscoff Spread, some vegan nacho sauce I haven't tried yet, fun pasta and spices, issues of the Easy Vegan and a smoothie zine, a canning book, and a magazine with some yummy looking canning recipes in it! I also got a bag of Tapatio flavored Fritos which were super amazing and already eaten. If they had them in Minnesota that would probably be all I would ever eat! Thanks again Miss Muffcake, you're awesome!
Have any of you guys ever done a swap?
-kala
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Casting On and a Small Harvest
I was a little bored with the plain stockinette socks I have on the needles, so I decided that a new shawl was in order. So I finally cast on for a Multnomah, I've been wanting to knit one for ages but could never decide on yarn, don't you hate that? I'm really loving it so far, it's mindless and perfect for those spare moments that I get to knit for a bit and watch tv. Also, I'm throwing some stripes in because it seemed like a good idea. Stripes are always a good idea though, right?
In parking lot garden news, my yellow cherry tomatoes have been ripening! I've harvested 8 so far and there are a few more on the edge of readiness!
In fitness news, I've been working hard on my strength goal that I wrote about earlier. I've been keeping up with the 30 Day Shred and can already feel a difference, I'm able to do about 15 modified push ups in a row, compared with the 3 I could do when I started! Yesterday I threw some yoga into the mix which was a real challenge in the hot living room, but it made my back feel amazing so it was worth it. Today will be the 5th day of the 30 Day Shred (I'm only counting days that I do the workout, I took one day off to let my muscles recover) - I wonder how long I'll have to do it before I can move on to level 2, level 1 is still mega butt kicking challenging!
-kala
Friday, July 08, 2011
Marmalade Umlaut
How could you not love a zine called Marmalade Umlaut? And why won't blogger let me use an umlaut. Curses! Anyway, the awesome Maud of the blog Food Feud was kind enough to send me issue 17 of her food zine Marmalade Umlaut and I have to say, I enjoyed it thoroughly. For me, the best part about zines is getting a little peek into another person's world, and this zine had plenty of personal stories that I loved. I think Maud's food memory stories were my favorite! There are also several yummy looking recipes to try, bonus! Definitely hop on over to the Food Feud blog, it's full of all sorts of yummy deliciousness, thanks so much Maud!
In honor of Marmalade Umlaut, I thought I'd share a food memory of my own. Oddly enough, many of my food memories don't involve my actual family, but my second family, the Nguyens. I've known them and been super pals with Ted and Thao since I was 4 or so, and many of my earliest memories involve them. Anyway, fast forward to the teenage early vegan Kala years and one of the last time I was in California. The whole family (that is, the Nguyens, me, and my parents) wanted to get together to eat and in true Nguyen dad fashion, we ended up at a random restaurant in a strip mall in the valley. I don't remember what it was called exactly, but it had seafood and king in the name, I believe. So of course, I assumed that I would starve!
It was one of those restaurants where most of the menu wasn't in English so I felt hopeless that I could find a vegan morsel. But luckily, Nguyen dad saved me by talking to the waitress. After a few failed attempts at explaining what vegan meant, he had a brilliant idea and told her I was a strict Buddhist. Yes! You could see the little light bulb pop up over her head and she said "oh, no meat!" and she scurried off into the kitchen. She returned with a plate of yummy fried tofu and a noodly veggie soup for the little Buddhist impostor :)
Share one of your favorite food memories in the comments, I've love to read them!
-kala
Wednesday, July 06, 2011
A New Goal
I'm back! I was gone during the longish 4th of July weekend, up north visiting my parents to be exact, so the blog had to take a little break. And while I was gone I made a decision. Or more like a goal? For the past few months I've been struggling with weight loss, as I'm inching closer to 30, staying at the weight I feel best at is getting ridiculously hard. So instead of beating myself up and driving myself crazy about a half pound weight gain, my new goal is simple: Get Strong. Physically strong like I've never been before.
If I lose weight, fine, but what I'm focusing on is feeling healthy, strong, and flexible. I've had a bad back almost all my life (so does my dad, what a great thing to inherit!) and when I work hard on my core (which I haven't done lately) my back pain lessens and occurs much less often. I've never been strong, I spent most of my teenage years as obese (I used to weigh well over 100 pounds more than I do now) and never did anything active. I work out pretty regularly now, but there are still things I've never been able to do, like a non-modified push up, I can't even do one! So one of my goals is not only to do a push up, but to do a one armed push up. Crazy right?
I think the biggest challenge won't be physical, it will be getting past ingrained thoughts about weight and size that intellectually I know are completely stupid but deep down still bother me sometimes. Things like clothing size, when I was a kid, my mom made a huge huge deal when I would go up a size and I would feel horrible. So now when I try on a size I think I should fit and it doesn't for whatever reason, I have to remind myself that the number doesn't matter, you wear the size that's comfy and that fits. End of story. And please don't think my mom is terrible, we have a MUCH better relationship now that I'm an adult. Moms and daughters are so complicated!
Anyway, back to my goal. I officially started yesterday by trying Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred
. The first couple of parts are available on Comcast on Demand so I thought I'd give it a go. And holy cow, it kicked my butt! The workouts are all under 30 minutes, although I was only able to do 14 minutes before my legs turned to jelly and I had to quit. But I'll be keeping at it, along with runs with my husband, yoga, and trips to the gym. I picked up the DVD last night so I won't be sad when it disappears from On Demand, I hate when that happens! Someone on twitter has even offered to do the 30 Day Shred along with me, which is great, support is awesome! So I'm super excited about new goal, get ready for a super strong Kala!-kala
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