Saturday, August 30, 2014

Cookies and Gifts :)

Hey everyone! I hope you have all been doing well and enjoying your summer. I can't believe how quickly this summer year has been going by! I don't know if it is a good thing or not but at least it is almost the fall, my favorite time of the year! I'm so excited for the crisp weather, warm clothing, fall flavors and holidays.

I know it has been a while since I've posted and I figured I'd pop in and say hello. Thank you all so much for your kind words about TJ and I'm so happy to say he's doing so much better. It was really stressful taking care of him but he's done a total 180 and is like a brand new dog! My sister in law has been calling me the puppy whisperer, ha! :) I'm just glad that he is feeling better, there is nothing worse that looking at a sad puppy face and not knowing how to help.

I don't have a ton to show you but I figured I'd share some adorable cookies I made for my friend! We have been friends for probably about 15 years now and she is the best. She lives in Massachusetts so we don't get to see each other often but she is in NY for the long weekend and we were able to meet up :) Her birthday is in September so I wanted to have her gift in time for this visit so I spent some time baking up part of her gift last night and I'm so happy with how it came out!


How adorable are these cookies?!! I seriously think I'm stuck at the age of 5 because whenever I think of birthdays I think of rainbow sprinkles... I guess I just think they are fun and festive! ;) Her wedding anniversary is also coming up so I thought it would be nice for her and her hubby to have a treat to share.


I used the recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar and I just added a whole bunch of rainbow sprinkles for a pop of color and fun. I think they came out so cute!


I'm sure I've said this before but this chocolate chip cookie recipe is amazing. The middle is chewy and tender and there is a little crispiness around the edges. It's exactly how I want my chocolate chip cookies to be.



These are the cookies after they were all wrapped up! It's simple but cute and definitely a great way to deliver some tasty cookies.


In addition to the cookies I made my friend this bracelet. The craftsmanship isn't really great as it's only the second bracelet I've made in this style but I'm pretty happy with how it came out. I love the beads, they have pretty little flowers on them. 


Rounding out the gift is Big Shampoo from Lush. The last time she was in town we stopped in at Lush because I had told her about this shampoo and they were kind enough to give her a sample and she mentioned to me that she liked it so I went and picked some up for her :)

We went out for dinner tonight at Wild Fig which is one of our favorite restaurants here on Long Island. They make really great food and by far the best hummus ever. I had a salad with falafel and it was great but I didn't get a picture of it. It was delicious though!

So that's all I have for you! I don't know if you find this interesting but I had a lot of fun putting this gift together and I thought it would be fun to share :) I hope you are all doing well and are having a great weekend!

Friday, August 22, 2014

Cuteness

Hey everyone. I'm happy to say that TJ is doing better. We aren't 100% yet but the last two days haven't been as stressful as the first five. Last night was Tyler's turn for the meltdown as we had a thunderstorm with crazy lightning so he was very afraid and needed to be coddled at 12:30 am. Such high maintenance little pups but looking at their sweet faces melts my heart every time :)

Speaking of which... I figured you might want to look at their cute little faces.


You all know sweet little Tyler. He's so freaking cute. Here he is all burrowed up in the pillows. He is such a cuddle bug.


Can you deal with this face?!?!?! I can't! Sweet TJ, he's so stinking cute. Such a sad face for a pup with so much personality. Now that he is feeling better he is much more active and has so much more energy and is much more playful. He's definitely on track and it makes me very happy.


I just included this because I thought it was also so cute! Amongst all of the craziness I did get to use my bath bomb from Lush. I had the "Fizzbanger" bath bomb and after my bath I found this lone piece of confetti in the tub. It was hidden in the bath bomb and I thought it was so cute! I definitely recommend this bath bomb, it smells incredible and the bath was so luxurious and relaxing. 

That's all for today. Unfortunately with the craziness of the week my plans of eating all raw didn't go exactly as I had hoped and I haven't been able to take pictures at all because I'm basically on the run at all times it seems. I'm going to try and get some now that the work week is coming to an end.

I hope you have all had a good week! One more day until my weekend!

Monday, August 18, 2014

Making My Own Almond Milk

Hey everyone. I hope you are all doing well. This is going to be a quick post because I am exhausted. This weekend has been exactly the opposite of what I expected and has been very stressful. There is something wrong with TJ and we don't know what. He was fixed about 2 weeks ago and has not been the same since. Along with being lethargic it's like he was never house trained so I've been cleaning pretty much all weekend... and trying to figure out how to get him to go outside again... if anyone has any thoughts I'd love to hear them because I have no clue what to do and I feel so bad for him because he is miserable.

At 9:00 tonight after almost 3 days here I finally got to a project I was meaning to do on Saturday... make my own home made almond milk for the first time. I remembered to get my almonds soaking this morning so I would be ready to blend tonight to make a yummy smoothie for breakfast tomorrow. Here's a few pics from the process...


I soaked 2 cups of almonds in filtered water. After about 5 hours I actually peeled the almonds. The skin was practically hanging off of them and I heard that it is better with peeled almonds so I made the effort and peeled them. I put the peeled almonds in a new container of fresh filtered water and soaked a few more hours.


After the almonds had soaked I drained them and rinsed them with more filtered water. Then I added the drained almonds to the high speed blender with 6 cups of fresh filtered water and blended away. After it was blended I strained out the pulp in a cheese cloth and was left with this beautiful creamy white almond milk. I'm really happy with how my first batch came out! I didn't add any sweetener (I'd probably add dates to it) or any flavorings because I'm going to use it for smoothies and didn't think I'd need it.


I'm also left with this beautiful snowy white almond pulp. Does anyone have any ideas of what I can do with it? I don't have my dehydrator with me but would love to hear what kinds of things you make with almond pulp.

That's all for now. It's back to work tomorrow and I'm sure all I'll be thinking about is TJ and his sad face. I'll try to check in later on in the week with more of my raw eats.


Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Planning My Pamper Day

Hey everyone! Long time no see. I've been around, dealing with the overlapping grass and weed pollen season not so successfully. Things have also been crazy at work but I'm managing. How have all of you been?!

I decided to write this post because I've been planning a special day for myself for a little while now. I'm feeling a bit burned out between work and not feeling great and I decided that I wanted to treat myself to a really nice day of pampering. Since I'm very budget conscious at the moment I am doing a DIY pamper party where I'm going to spoil myself but not break the bank while doing so. I thought it would be fun to show you what I have planned and if you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them!

My brother, sister in law, niece and their friends are taking their annual vacation to Florida starting this weekend so I'll be heading over to their house to watch their adorable fur children. In doing so I also have access to their amazing kitchen, jacuzzi bathtub, and endless cuddles with the cuties. I took a personal day this Saturday and will be enjoying a three day weekend.

Here's what I have planned for my day of pampering!


Nowadays when I think about pampering I think of an amazing bath. As I mentioned, they have an amazing jacuzzi tub and what better way to treat yourself than take a luxurious bath! I picked up my very first Lush Bath Bomb and I'm so excited to try it. As soon as I smelled this one I knew it would be the perfect one to try. It is called Fizzbanger and it is described as an "alluring apple and spice bath bomb." As stated on the Lush website, "Transform your ordinary bath into something new and exciting. Whizz! Bang! Pop! Fizz! Our Fizzbanger Bath Bomb goes off in the bath water as if it were loaded with miniature fireworks. Experience an alluring symphony of crackling candy, and a potion of spectacular slow fizzing spectrum of swirling color. The scent changes right before your nose, pulling you in with a delectable blend of crisp apples and cinnamon that settles into a spicy cinnamon toffee." And let me tell you... it smells AMAZING! I have it in my room so I can bring it with me and every time I walk in I'm greeted with the beautiful apple and spice scent. I can imagine that this would be an amazing bath bomb to use in the Fall.


Music is a big deal to me so I thought it would be really fun to create a new playlist that can just play out while I'm in my bath. Perhaps it is not the most soothing mix, but it is still the music that I love and that makes me happy. I've been listening to Rainbow a lot lately and especially the song Kill the King so you better believe it is on my list ;)


Sticking with the bath and beauty theme for now I have a fresh face mask that I can apply to make my skin soft and glowing. This particular one smells like an oatmeal cookie and you definitely can't go wrong with that!


Next on the spoil myself itinerary is to attempt to do my nails with the nail wraps that I received in my Vegan Cuts box months ago when I had a subscription. I say attempt because I'm kind of a moron with nail wraps but hopefully I can make them work.

I figure a comforting meal is in order whilst pampering yourself, don't you think? These are old pictures since I won't be eating this meal until the weekend but as of right now I'm planning on enjoying...


Obviously iced coffee has to be on the menu. I don't drink it a lot at all anymore since doing the Crazy Sexy Diet Cleanse but I still enjoy it and treat myself every once in a while and what better occasion than a pamper day?


As of right now I'm anticipating enjoying my favorite meal which would be a (New York) bagel with tofu cream cheese. So simple but so good and it will be a good meal to have before another venture into eating raw foods for a week or so. Since my allergies have been really terrible lately (I'm talking an incredibly unattractive hacking cough - TMI? My bad.) I'm hoping that really cleaning it up for a bit will help sort it out for me. I can't really take allergy meds because they all seem to knock me on my butt so I'm going to give the dietary change a whirl again.

So that's my plan for my fun day off! Obviously there will be cuddling with the fur children involved as well. What do you do when you want to pamper yourself?! I would love to hear what you do and any suggestions you may have of things I can do when I'm enjoying a fun and relaxing day devoted to spoiling myself :)

I hope you are all well! I'll be back next week hopefully to show you some of the raw treats I'll be enjoying starting on Sunday or Monday.