Busy Inbetween Days

 I hope you are all enjoying the break, it can feel a little like limbo land that bit between Christmas an New year and you tend to forget what day it is or I do any way.  I have had a very productive few days and one of my intentions is to keep working through new recipes and all my cook books.  There is a beautiful one that one of my sons bought me for Christmas last year and I have used it a fair bit, todayI made two recipes from it and I will share those below.  I also have in mind a better way in future to document all my sewing makes especially as quite a few of them will be going back to Minerva for in house videos.  I do like to keep track and this year I have been using the papers that come with Minerva fabric for project planning but this means I have a stack of those knocking about.  What I am thinking is a scrap book with images, fabric swatch and an actual photo in it, yes this does sound like even more work but it will be lovely to look back on and remind me how much I get done.  Sometimes I can be hard on myself even though I know I complete multiple tasks, garments, etc a week so it will be a nice record.  There is a scrapbook in my possesion that has been waiting for just this job I feel. 

I will share one of my Christmas gift makes here and it is my husbands Hoody.  I made him one a little while ago from Burda magazine and he loves it so I made him another in a different colourway.  It was right to the wire as I was busy making it on Christmas eve.  This time I went for the colours in the original magazine image of navy and orange, well the orange I chose is more of a bright rust colour but it is lovely together.  He loves it, here is a picture of him in it but I think he has splashed it here with water as I cornered him in the kitchen for a pic.  

                                      It has been on since he opened it, and now needs a wash.

Todays sewing  was my brand ambassador make for Minerva and as I had made a lovely sweater with a Simplicity pattern that has been worn quite a lot, it felt suitable to remake it but this time in the dress length.  It is a lovely comfy french terry so hopefully this will be another much reached for garment.  I will share an image of it on the mannequinn but need to do full write up for minerva so please catch up with me over there for the full post on that. (it is not on yet as this is only just finished!)

My reading is going well and The Magpie Murders is keeping me turning the pages, this is a good thing as my husband bought me four books by the same author in the same genre!  There have been a few duff reads over the past months so glad  I am to get my reading head back on.

We are keen to get out and meet some family for a dog walk but so far those palns have been rained off, lets hope that the next few days will bring some dry weather so we can get out in the fresh air.

There was a lucky find by my husband in the ASDA  yetserday in the form of discounted LOR advent calenders, the coffee.  They had been priced at 25 pounds and are now down to three pounds so he brought home two.  He said it was quite funny as a couple were looking at them at the same time as him and the man was saying we should get these to his partner  and she said but we haven't even got a coffee machine.  I am intrigued to know if they could be used without?  I mean it seems to me that all the machine does it perforate the pod and slowy pour hot water through it, I could be wrong so let me know your thoughts on this.  Youngest son is a big coffee drinker so he was super pleased with this find.

From one of my cook books today I made a butternut squash soup...

I also made a fabulous fruit cake that has so many ingredients in it and luckily I had them all bar one which I subbed.  It is a vegan cake so all suitable for me and I added my gf flour mix too.

This is the book my son bought for me.

Here is the cake cooling, there is a fair amount gone already!  Sneaky gin in the background that a friend gifted me, it is rather depleted. 

So there we are a bit of an inbetween catch up, I thought I would blog while I have the time as I have not been as consistent with this for the last year and I aim to to better.  So two in a row but if I don't do things while they are on my mind I blink and a week has passed.  

Thank you for stopping by.

Vegan Salted Caramel Chocolate Cheesecake

I have been making lots of new things lately mainly on the food front.  One of my favourites at the moment is walnut cheese I absolutely love it, this week I also made a cashew cheese which is good in lasagne but not as great on toast.

The other day I saw this recipe for Vegan salted caramel cheesecake and I had to try it out.  All natural ingredients so you know exactly what you are eating and it is another raw recipe so mostly blender and freezer.  The most time consuming thing is bringing it all together, you can find the recipe here at My Vibrant Kitchen

Here is my version not as deep as the one in the recipe but my tin was large.

 In the photo on the blog it has got fancy drizzled chocolate on top, I chose to just grate some.

Now I enjoyed it but I found it sweet, that is probably because I don't eat many sweet things anymore and you really do adapt, you do, trust me.  So if I was going to make it again I would probably leave out the maple syrup altogether but that is just my taste.  It really does serve ten, there were five of us for lunch today and there is half left, you don't need a bigger slice as it is rich but all healthy ingredients.

Last night I watched a film I have been wanting to see since I saw it advertised, Captain Fantastic.  I really enjoyed although my husband said what a load of nonsense.  It is about a man bringing his children up in a remote place, home educating and away from society. The children are fit, intelligent, resourceful and of course a little different but I loved the way the film contrasted the way of life between the family and that of their in-laws.  The views on over sedated, shopping addicted masses I can relate to, however the opening scene with a slaughtered animal was a bit much for a vegetarian!  Also there is a very anti Christian message running through the film but I can deal with that, I accept the views of others and people often make some very good points even if I don't agree.  But in one scene a child states 'we don't hate anyone do we? Except Christians' whoa! hold on Hollywood, I don't hate anyone at all, so what's all that about then some agenda going on I feel.
So now you know what to expect, it really is an interesting film.

Banana Loaf (GF Vegan), Charity Shop Fabric and Books

I'm sure there are many things I have missed out on posting about these last couple of weeks.  I keep finding myself thinking oh I forgot to take a picture of that and so on.  The reason I feel this is happening is not that there isn't anything going on, but rather I have been trying to fit too much in.  Then on the occasions that I do have time planned to post and catch up something unexpected happens like a visitor unannounced.

So for the last few weeks I have been writing down  what I intend to get done as I find for me this works, if it has to be crossed off then I will do it.  I printed off some free weekly planner sheets and wrote down things I would be disappointed if I did not do.  This has worked but time being what it is, I was overly optimistic as to how much you can fit in at the end of a working day therefore there hasn't been much time left.

So as well as trying new recipes I had wrote down guitar every day, Spanish, Dutch, dog walk (which can be 45-60 minutes) reading (fiction &non fiction) and TV usually after 9.30.  Well when you consider we don't usually finish our meal until about 6.45 that is a lot to cram in. Reading I fit in anywhere and bit before bed, any sewing is often done at the end of the week.

I have decided to give myself a break, I will still make the lists but maybe alternate the days for some things. I also have beginners Italian starting next Monday with Future Learn so I need space for that!

Anyway here is a little catch up, after the cheese cake went down well last week I made a GF vegan banana chocolate loaf from the book  Vegan and Gluten-Free Baking, that I shared a few weeks ago.  This one is fabulous again!  If you have not got this book you have to try and get a copy everything just comes out wonderful.  I have only one, dark, evening photo as it came out of the oven so here it is...

It was just so tasty and a good size, we were all taking it to school and work until Wednesday and I was coming home and having a bit more as it is so good when there is food for me to have with a cuppa.
I have taken a picture of the recipe, I only used two bananas in mine and it was enough.

Yesterday I had all sorts planned for my day then my mum turned up just before lunch and stayed all afternoon so that changed things a bit.  I was going to visit at that end of the day and we had agreed on that but she decided to change her mind. I had only just got back form the shops so she nearly had a wasted trip!  Anyway we had a walk down to the charity shop and she got a Regata fleece which she was very pleased with and I spotted this lovely single duvet set for the fabric.  If I had a guest room or girls it would definitely be going on a bed but I don't, so fabric it is.

You can't see the colours clearly in this picture but it is really nice, a sort of duck egg shade.  I had wanted something for backing for when I start a quilt so I think the stripy part will be that, the front however could be anything, a skirt, pyjama bottoms, I'm not sure I will have to ponder it a bit.  My husband said 'you are not using it for clothing though are you?  Well I don't see why not it would just be a hard repeat match up with the pattern being on a large scale.  I might also add the duvet cover with a pillow slip was £3! Such a good buy.

I picked up a couple more books from the library, one that I ordered on crochet and the other is one I just spotted on Indian cooking.

I have already planned to make the curried aubergine slices to have with lunch tomorrow form the Prashad at Home book and Ruby and Custard's Crochet has been flicked through lots already (I picked them up yesterday). Both are full of lots of inspiration and I took a few pictures from the crochet book.

I know it's not the time of year but I will be making this at some point.

Again not the time of year but this dove is so cute.

Now I don't have any little princesses but if I did I would be making these tiaras.

There are so many lovely ideas in this book it may have to go on my list of ones I love, so will buy at a later date when I see it at a good price. Have a lovely weekend.

Vegan Chocolate Cake (Wheat Free)

I ordered a new cook book this week, I mainly get them from the library but this one looked so good that I knew I would want to keep this one, plus it was just £5 with free delivery.  It came yesterday and I had a good drool looking through it.  So I decided the first thing I would make would be the chocolate cake as I knew everyone would eat that. I already made the carrot cake from the vegan website last week but forgot to photograph and post

The organic cacao powder was expensive but well worth it, it tastes amazing in the cake and when you open the packet it smells wonderful.  I followed the instructions precisely today and the cake came out brilliant I'm sure I will be making a lot from this book.  It is quite a size too, I suppose I didn't expect it to rise without the eggs but it just shows there are ways around these things.

I didn't do the icing as I always feel it can be a bit much, too sweet and just extra expense.  Also some types of frosting mean that the cake has to be consumed straight away, this is no good if there are only a few of you or you want it to last.

This is the book, it is a joy to look at as there is a full colour photograph for every recipe.

Gluten Free Blueberry Pancakes (frugal and quick desert)

I really wanted some pudding today after my lunch and while everyone else was eating banoffee cheesecake and cream I had to go without.  I did try a bought lemon cheesecake from the supermarket's free from range a couple of weeks ago but it was awful, expensive and everyone complained!  So back to letting them have the regular deserts as why should everyone else suffer.
After about an hour my sweet tooth got the better of me and I decided to make something using what I had in the fridge.

Blueberry Pancakes.

 I didn't measure anything out as it is not necessary with stuff like this I feel, so here is what I did.

I used one egg and cracked it into the jug, added a splash of soya milk and whipped it up a bit.

I added one teaspoon of sugar and about five level desert-spoons of  GF flour (plain). Next I chopped up a handful of blueberries, heated some olive oil in a pan and poured in the batter.  I waited until the bottom had caught a bit then spread out the blueberries, turned after a short while and it was done.

To serve I added some plain Alpro yogurt, a few more blueberries and a drizzle of syrup, it was very nice.

It was a decent size serving so you could use this amount and make four or five small thin ones to have with ice cream if you can eat that (I can't).  There is a really good cheats ice cream though that you make using frozen bananas and peanut butter. You can find it here Dairy free ice cream

Pancakes are quite useful as you can put savoury fillings in them and they are cheap to make and a bonus is they are one of the few GF recipes that taste just like the regular version.

No Wheat!

A little update on the new year so far, and I have to say I am feeling good about it. Tired from work at the end of the day but the normal kind of tired that comes from having been up early and done a days work.  I have not had any energy crashes  at 2 in the afternoon which was quite normal for me, sometimes I had to fight to keep my eyes open until it passed.  I have also banished my daily stomach cramps which usually start late afternoon.
I  haven't been able to tolerate milk since my younger son was about 3 and I have been using soya instead ever since, for years that sorted me and I was fine but maybe for the last year or so the cramps have been back.  I have heard about the evils of bread and laughed it off (after all we have been eating the stuff for ever) but Christmas saw me in pain for days but just getting on with stuff so I decided I would just give it a try. No bread, pasta, cake biscuits or anything with wheat, I went out and bought from the gluten free section.  I have to say it is very expensive and not much choice in the supermarket but it has made me think about what I'm eating.
There has been no test I must stress but that was on my list, if this didn't work I was going to go to the doctors and insist on a test to see which food was affecting me but so far this seems to have done the trick.
No pain,  no bloat and surprisingly I have stopped feeling like I need a nap mid afternoon (which I can't have anyway because I'm at work!) I also think my skin seems to have improved and it's only been a few weeks!
Now my lunch did used to be a very lazy and boring affair with pretty much a white bread cake with either humous or quorn on it every day.  Thinking about what I can have means I have taken left over curry, soup, rice cakes, baked potato (cook day before) and salads so the energy could also be due to better food going in.  I have just found this blog Gluten free Girl which is full of information and the author is actually Celiac so she has to watch every label or suffer terribly. However she has turned it into a positive and writes books with her chef husband, she also treats food as something to be enjoyed and to focus on what she can eat.
I think cutting out the wheat actually means you do have to say no to an awful lot of the crap that we normally eat, stodge and confectionery most of it.  I do love dark chocolate though.
So so far it has not been hard and I thought it would be, I suppose it is just a case of getting out of the habit of reaching for the biscuits or toast when you are feeling pekish.
I have not had a go at baking yet as I was confused by the range of flours and that you need specific ones for different things. I will try this out at some point though for now I am managing without baked goods.
I would be interested to hear how anyone else is getting along who is living wheat free.

This past week I have been reading How to fall in Love by Cecelia Ahern and I am enjoying it.

 It is an easy read which is good after I re-read 1984 just after Christmas which was thoroughly depressing! It is well written and a classic but honestly so miserable.
There has also been guitar practise and catching up on Grand Hotel series three so not much sewing going on but I thought I would have a little rest after my Christmas sewing frenzy. Back soon.