Cherry Lemonade Popsicles

Hi everyone! This week I made cherry lemonade popsicles, and they turned out great! 

Ingredients:
2 cups cherries (pitted & diced)
½ cup sugar
½ cup lemon juice
½ cup water

Directions:
Bring ingredients to a boil in a small saucepan, then switch to low-medium heat, stirring every now and then for ~10 minutes. Turn off heat, cover, and wait until cooled before pouring into popsicle molds to freeze.

I also made the tofu bacon (another marinated tofu) from Vegan Vittles and used some in a bagel BLT; it was pretty good! 

After Leela fell asleep on the bed, Daisy settled in nearby...

I did some more sketches, some with text, some without. Here are several of them…

dandelion (original photo)

aloe (original photo)

aster (original photo)

geranium (original photo)

columbine (original photo)

Peace. :)

Apple Cider Popsicles (House Vegan)

Hi everyone! I’d been hoping to make at least one more batch of popsicles before fall, and I found the perfect recipe over at House Vegan! These apple cider popsicles were easy to make, and didn’t require a blender, which was nice (less to clean up afterwards, haha!). I had one today, and it was really good! I don’t think I’ve ever had an apple-flavored popsicle before, so this was new but definitely fun and seemed perfect for this time of year, with fall right around the corner... 

Here’s Buttons napping in the sunshine... 

Peace. :)

Pineapple Juice Popsicles with Peaches & Strawberries

Hi everyone! Yesterday I made pineapple juice popsicles. I blended together ¾ cup pineapple juice, 1 cup frozen diced peaches, 1 cup frozen strawberries, and ¼ cup water. 

They turned out really well; I had one today as I took a break from making pickles! I’ve been harvesting lots of cucumbers from my garden…

37 cucumbers so far!

Oh, and I realized I haven’t posted much art here lately… whoops… but I’ve been doing a sketch a day this summer (mostly looking through old animal books and using the illustrations and photos therein as visual guides), and here’s one that turned out nicely. I sketched this using an ultra fine point sharpie and then colored it in with colored pencils. 

Here’s Cringer sleeping next to a bag of potatoes! 

Peace. :)

Strawberry Lemonade Popsicles… and Blobfest!

Hi everyone! Have you heard of the 1958 movie The Blob? In case you haven’t, here’s the trailer…

Parts of it were actually filmed here in Phoenixville, most notably the scene where everyone is running out of the movie theater to escape the Blob! So, naturally, every year, Phoenixville celebrates Blobfest, a three-day commemoration of this nugget of local history. On Friday night, participants re-enact the run-out from the Colonial Theatre. Here’s a video of this year’s Run Out, which took place last night…

Saturday is then packed full of Blobfest activities (see the full schedule here). The Streetfair stretches for a block on Bridge Street, with food, music, a bunch of old cars, and vendors selling various crafts, art, spooky things, and vintage stuff...

Several shops in town paint their windows and other buildings get decorated for Blobfest. Here are some that I saw on Bridge Street...

The Colonial Theatre shows The Blob and several other old horror movies on both Saturday and Sunday, but since I’m not much of a horror movie person, I made strawberry lemonade popsicles as my little way of celebrating Blobfest! The frozen strawberries (2 cups), lemon juice (½ cup), water (½ cup), and sugar (2 T) looked a bit blob-like when they got blended together.

I had one of the popsicles when I got back from my brief walk around the Streetfair; it was nice and refreshing!

Leela likes to nap in this closet, and sometimes she sticks her paw out rather dramatically. 

Taking a picture woke her up, but then I was able to get this really cute shot of her!

Peace. :)

Raspberry Lemonade Popsicles

Hi everyone! This week I made my second attempt at raspberry lemonade popsicles. I blended together 1/8 cup sugar, 1/2 cup lemon juice, 3/4 cup water, and 1 cup frozen raspberries. They turned out alright but next time I’m going to increase the amount of raspberries, decrease the amount of water, and maybe just cut out the sugar altogether, haha!

Also, here’s a look at my garden so far! Most noticeable are the cucumber plants, but there are tomato plants and carrots, too. I recently replanted the snow peas (because the rabbits and/or groundhogs got to them when they were little sprouts) and the kale (because the first round died). I planted pepper seeds as well, so we’ll see how that goes!

Here’s Daisy being her silly little self -- I caught her sitting like this at the top of the stairs earlier this week...

Peace. :)

Peaches & Cream Popsicles

Hello everyone! I know I promised a post about Phoenixville's VegFest, but believe it or not, I haven't finished all my goodies from it yet -- I still have to try the blueberry chocolate bark that Zach & I bought from Bridge Street Chocolates. So, once we get to that, I'll put the post together. But I will say that it was an amazing day, and I'm already looking forward to next year!

On to the main event: I put together a nice & simple recipe this week! I had the idea to make peaches & cream popsicles, so I looked up "peaches and cream" recipes online, saw this one, and used its measurements for vanilla and confectioner's sugar. 

Ingredients:
1 can coconut milk
2 tsps vanilla
2 tsps confectioner's sugar
1 peach, cut into small pieces*

Directions:
Whisk together the first three ingredients. Add half of peach pieces to ice pop molds. Pour in half of milk mixture. Add remaining peach pieces. Top off with remaining milk mixture (I had some left over). Freeze & enjoy!
 
*The peach pieces I used had been frozen, but feel free to use fresh!
 
Here's Buttons napping in the sunshine on the first day of fall...
 

Peace. :)

New Foods in June, July, and August

Hello everyone, and happy September! It feels so weird to not have Vegan MoFo (Vegan Month of Food) going on now, but have no fear, it's scheduled for November this year! Of course, that means it's the same month as NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), but my first time doing both events was back in November 2010; I survived that trial by fire during my junior year of college, so I know I can definitely manage it now!

Onto the main event: I tried lots of new foods in June, July, and August, and first up are the Field Roast frankfurters; they were good chopped up & mixed in with Daiya's mac & cheese.

I tried Amy's Indian Vegetable Korma when it was on sale; I liked the dal & rice the best.

Next up are some goodies from Vegan Treats: the cinnamon sugar pretzel donut and the double chocolate chip brownie. The donut is one of my favorites from Vegan Treats, and the brownie was good, but so, so chocolate-y, I couldn't eat it all at once!

The Tofurky slow roasted chick'n (sesame garlic) was another one I got on sale; I had it over brown rice, carrots, & broccoli. It was good, not my favorite by Tofurky, but still good!

Next up are the muffin pan mini omelets from Isa Does It; they were so cute and tasty! I had them with toast buttered with Earth Balance, as well as shiitake bacon, hash browns, Lightlife bacon, and Field Roast's appple maple breakfast sausage (another new item I tried; they were OK).

I had coupons for Ben & Jerry's vegan ice creams, so I tried the chunky monkey first. I really liked it, though the walnut chunks were gigantic; I would have preferred them to be chopped up more.

Next, I made the fresh fruit (strawberry) lemonade pops. Way too sweet for me, so I will have to cut down on the sugar next time, but these popsicles were great because there was no blending required!

Then I made a cheesy BLT, toasted in the pan with Field Roast Chao cheese (creamy original), Lightlife bacon, lettuce, and tomato.

Now we're on to the food at Ocean City, not really new but still fun! My sister Alena & I cooked while we were there, making Gardein chick'n fingers, Daiya mac & cheese, and corn one night, and spaghetti, Gardein meatballs, and oven-roasted snow peas from my garden the next night!

I tried the So Delicious ice cream sandwiches because Zach's coconut milk had a coupon on it for another So Delicious product. These were good, but the Tofutti ones are still my favorite. Plus, it was kinda awkward -- one of them was missing the top sandwich layer, haha!

I've made the veganized orange chick'n from Quick and Easy Vegan Comfort Food before, but this time I had it with steamed snow peas from my garden and sliced garden cucumber as well, so it was extra delicious!

I found some vegan yogurts on sale; the Daiya strawberry was good, but I really loved the So Delicious strawberry!

I made another recipe from VegNews: the mint chocolate chip sundae, using some of my own fresh mint! (I left out the spirulina.)

This sandwich was a fun & super simple one: a cheese & pepperoni panini, served with chips & sliced garden cucumber!

I've been trying several of these fruit spreads, and I think the apricot one is my new favorite for peanut butter & jelly sandwiches.

I tried another new recipe, this time for pizza dough, and it turned out great, so much so that I've already made it again! Topped with spaghetti sauce, shredded Follow Your Heart mozzarella, and Tofurky pepperoni.

Here's another of the vegan Ben & Jerry's, the chocolate fudge brownie. Pretty good, very chocolate-y. I liked the chunky monkey better, though, but I think that's just because I tend to prefer a vanilla base to a chocolate base.

And last but not least, another VegNews recipe, this time for fudge popsicles. I misread it as 3 bananas instead of 3 cups bananas, but it worked out well regardless!

Overall, my favorite summertime treat has probably been popsicles since they're so fun to make & it's definitely something I'm going to miss as the weather gets cooler!

Time to check in with the kitties! First up, we have Cringer and Daisy on the stairs. They have this really bad habit of sprawling out on the stairs (it started with Cringer, and then of course Daisy had to copy her). In this picture, they only just got settled in and haven't sprawled out yet, but the two of them seriously turn the stairs into an obstacle course.

Next we have Leela, hanging out in the bookcase in the cat room...

And finally we have Buttons, who apparently loves this fan with all her heart...

Peace. :)