Home made lip gloss and vegan pot roast

The boys and I undertook a new project today; home made vegan lipgloss. Through a variety of online sources I decided to go with a coconut oil base, and candy flavourings among other ingredients. They didn't turn out super awesome but they each made their own flavour and got 3-4 little tubs to use for themselves. Steven made creamsicle, Noah made root beer float, I made grape and then I also made Butterscotch for the bf. I won't share the recipe as it needs a little tweaking still :) but have a peek at our results




For dinner I made vegan "pot roast" which is really really simple. (Serves 2)

What you need:
1 package Gardein homestyle beef less tips
2 potatoes peeled and cut into bite sized pieces
2 carrots peeled and cut into bite sized pieces
chopped onion & garlic if you want (I use lots of garlic)
spices: I use seasoning salt, pepper and a little regular salt
1c prepared vegan "beef" stock (I use Nutrimax Soup Mix "Beef" Flavor-which is vegan; it's powdered and you add boiling water)

What you do:
Pour stock into the bottom of a glass or metal baking dish. Dump in all other ingredients, mix up well, cover with lid or foil and bake approx 35-45minutes or until the vegetables and done. I use a little more of the vegan beef stock to make a quick gravy to pour over top.

TADA!

Vegan Alfredo Sauce

This is soooooo sooooo good!! To be honest I haven't had "non vegan" alfredo sauce in so long I might be biased in thinking this is just as good!




Vegan Alfredo Sauce

1/2c Earth Balance Margarine (I always use the "butter flavoured" one)
1/2c all purpose flour
1c soy milk
1c rice milk
6 cloves garlic, minced or pressed through garlic press
1tsp fresh cracked black pepper
1/2tsp salt
1tsp parsley
1/2tsp garlic power (not garlic salt!)

In a medium saucepan heat margarine until bubbly. Add parsley, garlic powder, salt, pepper and garlic, cook on medium until the garlic is cooked and the spices are blended. Add flour all at once and stir to combine completely. Cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat, add rice and soy milks and whisk briskly to combine. Return to heat and cook until thick. We eat this with mushrooms and chicken (or Gardein chick'n cutlets) and pasta. Of course you could make this non-vegan by using cows milk. This version is much better for you :)

Back to blogging....

It's been a while since I bloggered. Blogged? Either way, it's been a long time. I wont bore you with the details of why, but lets start with where I am right now. I'm 31. Live with my boyfriend of 2 years and my boys (15 and 8). Getting divorced if I can ever track down my ex husband. We have a cat. We often work crazy hours and sometimes only see each other for 5 minutes at a time. I currently work in a Supermarket and have for 5 years and hate it so much right now. I think of us often as a typical suburban family. We work, play, transport kids here and there, wish we had more time to take vacations, and can't stand to be apart. I never knew true love until I met my wonderful man. I'm so grateful to have him in mine and my children's lives!

Right now; I'm currently into a fairly intense weight loss challenge for myself; ultimately I'd love to lose another 20 pounds to be 100% at my "correct" weight for my height, but I'm at the point right now where that's all hard hard work and I have to struggle for each and every pound but thats ok and I'm up for it! But it takes time. I have a regular yoga practice for close to a year now, and regularly attend hot yoga classes. In October I am going for the Go Grounded kids yoga teacher training. I am hoping to carry on and train to teach all age groups and eventually open my own yoga studio. My 8 yr old loves yoga and takes regular classes as well, and my boyfriend and oldest son also do yoga. We truly believe it is the fountain of youth. I also go through spurts of running a lot, and then not at all.

We are eating mostly vegetarian these days, and from time to time I may share photos and or recipes of what we're eating. Some of my inlaw-family is vegan/allergy issues so we do often cook and bake that way as well. We work around all of our allergies and try not to run into bad allergic reactions! So I welcome you all on this journey back to blogging as a "new" person :)