Halloween – Quick & Easy (Last Minute No Carve) Pumpkin Decorating!

October 31, 2018April 1, 2019

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays! It’s always so fun to see everyone’s costumes, and I have many happy childhood memories of eating lots and lots of candy.

Let me tell you, when you have dietary restrictions, the most difficult holiday isn’t Thanksgiving, it’s Halloween, because there’s always leftover candy and you have to give it away quick, or else you find that you’re eaten half the bag before you know it.

I don’t speak from experience of course…

But sometimes eating half a bag of left over Halloween candy once a year is SO worth feeling crummy afterwards.

Especially when you have white chocolate Kit Kats or white chocolate peanut butter cups… which are just extra awesome.

Another thing that makes Halloween super fun is decorations! While I love carving pumpkins at Halloween, it can be messy and time consuming and if you’ve left your Halloween decorating to the last minute, you can still make adorable decorations to put in the window to welcome all the trick or treaters!

There are lots of tutorials for spray painting pumpkins, but I wanted to be able to cook with these after Halloween, so I used painters tape to make low tack stickers to put on these mini sugar pie pumpkins.

If you don’t have time to do this DIY, another option is just to buy some colorful stickers at the craft store and stick them onto the pumpkins instead. The store bought stickers might be harder to pull of the pumpkins, but I think that if you press the store bought stickers to your skin before putting them onto the pumpkins, the stickers might lose a little of their tackiness and be easier to pull of the pumpkins when you’re read to cook with them.

This DIY is best done a few days ahead of time if possible so that you can be sure the stickers are really dry before you start cutting them, but can also be done in about an hour or two before you want to start decorating the pumpkins if you use hairdryer to help the paint and Modge Podge layers dry quickly.

For your homemade stickers, you will need:

-painters tape

-acrylic paint

-ziptop bags

-Modge Podge (optional)

-glitter (optional)

-brushes

-scissors

-hairdryer (if you’re doing this DIY at the last minute)

Instructions

1. Lay your ziptop bag flat on the table and overlap pieces of painters tape by about 1/2 an inch over the bag. You want to have about 2 layers of tape on the plastic.

2. Paint a thin layer of acrylic paint of your choice over the painters tape. Allow to dry, or use a hairdryer to dry the paint quickly. Paint on more layers of color (using the hairdryer between layers) until you’re happy with the result.

Optional – Everything is more fun with glitter! If you want your stickers to be glittery, mix a little bit of Modge Podge with a generous amount of glitter and paint it over the top of your painted painters tape. Use a hairdryer to speed up the drying process.

What I first did is I painted the tape with acrylic paint and then sprinkled glitter on over the top while the paint was still wet, thinking that it would be tacky enough to keep the glitter on. That turned out not to be the case, and there was tons of glitter fallout (which you’ll see in the pictures, but a little glitter just makes things more festive! :D). I ended up having to vacuum up a lot of glitter, but it all came out ok in the end. I fixed the problem by spreading some Modge Podge over the top of each glittery sticker with my finger and blasted them with a hairdryer to get them to dry quickly and voila! No more glitter fallout.

So glittery! And super affordable!

Once the layers of paint and Modge Podge are dry, cut away the excess plastic from the sticker tape. Peel the plastic off the back of the sticker tape and then cut out whichever shapes you like and stick them onto your pumpkins.

Give each sticker a good press once you place them onto the pumpkins and decorate to your heart’s content!

This is the disco mini sugar pie pumpkin…

The Cinderella pumpkin (this variety of mini pumpkin is naturally white so I didn’t have to paint it). I love the glittery stars! This pumpkin looks so elegant!

The sweetheart pumpkin…

And the Jack-o-lantern pumpkin enjoying the sunshine.

All the mini pumpkins in their 2018 class picture…

And the Jack-o-lantern pumpkin being extra friendly and steppin’ forward to wish you a very Happy Halloween!

A Trip to the Farmers Market

September 30, 2018April 17, 2019

It’s Fall!

My favorite season of the year.

It’s time to wear cozy socks, cuddle up with a book by the fire and drink / eat pumpkin spice flavored things with joy!

I love seeing all the autumn leaves turn color and am very much looking forward to Halloween and Thanksgiving (of course my favorite holidays are always food related…).

Recently, I discovered a local farmers market nearby and I didn’t know what I was missing until I went there. My weekly trips there are something that I look forward to on the weekends.

I’ve almost always shopped at grocery stores before, and it is so neat to be able to see all the different kinds of food that are produced in my local area. There are shelves with local honey, dried herbs, lots of different vegetables (I saw a purple bell pepper for the first time here a few weeks ago), and locally produced beef and lamb as well.

I buy fresh eggs often here. They come in a beautiful array of colors, from white, to brown, to pastel blue. The fresh eggs also taste so good, and the hens that produce them are free ranged.

These beautiful carrots were $1.99 / lb, which is more expensive than the $1.29 / lb at the local grocery store, but these were locally grown. I also usually buy kale and lettuce here as well, and they are usually about 50 cents more per bunch. For not very much more, it seems really exciting to be able to support local farmers in my area.

I love seeing all the different kinds of squash that they had at the farmers market. A lady came by with a cart piled high with all kinds of them which she mentioned that she was going to use for decoration.

I can see why, all of them look interesting. These beauties are Cinderella Pumpkins. So cool! I’ve never seen these kinds of pumpkins before.

It was also super cute to see parents taking pictures of their toddlers holding little pumpkins. What a sweet memory.

They also sell lovely herbs (both dried and live plants) there. Here are a variety of mints!

Two squash that kind of look like spaceships…

And more varieties of squash!

Do you have farmers markets where you are? What’s you’re favorite thing to buy there?

Elaine

My Society6 Shop Designs

September 9, 2018

Hi Friends! I know I’ve been a little quiet on the blog lately, but there’s a good reason for that.

I opened my society6 shop a few weeks ago, and I’ve been working on some exciting new things to share with you! I’ve been designing all sorts of fun things and I hope that you will like them as much as I do.

5% of anything that I make from Society 6 sales will be donated to a girls education charity ($1 from each sale in my Etsy shop will be donated as well).

Since it’s back to school season, let’s start with the backpacks first!

Backpacks are an essential item for going back to school and these are some of the backpacks that I designed. I wanted them to be really fun and make you happy when you look at them (because school isn’t always easy) and hopefully having a fun backpack can bring a little brightness to any school day.

Each backpack is a unisex size, has a padded back and bottom, and has an interior pocket that fits up to a 15 inch laptop. I would loved to have any of these backpacks when I was a student and heading back to school.

I also designed some fun tote bags – these are great to keep folded in your purse or backpack for grocery shopping.

These are the awesome leggings that I designed! It still kind of amazes me that someone can wear something that I dreamed up. The teal design is in the color scheme “Unicorns Frolic, ” (which I thought was such a sweet and cheerful name). I designed the pattern so that it would be flattering on a lot of different shapes and be bold and eye catching. I can totally see myself running around in any of these leggings, as well as exercising, or relaxing at home in them. Leggings are an all occasion item, and these are sleek enough to wear just about anywhere.

I’ve got a few tops that are available in the shop, and I’ll be adding more soon. I wanted the shirts to look chic and modern and look great on everyone.

This is super neat! I’ve added furniture to my shop recently as well! There are coffee tables, credenzas, benches and side tables in the shop, and many of them allow you to choose between black or gold hardware so that it’s easy to match your existing furniture or design scheme.

Last, but not least are my favorite items in the shop – the duffle bags!

When I was working out the color scheme and patterns I was thinking of what I would want to take with me to the airport. I love duffle bags because you can use them for your work out gear in everyday life, or fold them into your luggage when you go on a trip and fill them up with souvenirs or gifts to bring back for your friends and family.

The duffle bags come in a few different sizes. The two here are in the design “Cherry Blossom Garden” in Deep Blue and Blush Pink shades.

So cute!

You can find more items I designed here.

Thanks so much for looking! I’ll be back with more recipes and DIYs soon.

I hope that you have a great week!

Elaine

P.S. Which one is your favorite item?

How to “Hard boil” Eggs in a Rice Cooker (Super Easy)

August 19, 2018April 17, 2019

Hardboiled eggs are one of those things that are great to have stashed away in the fridge. They are perfect high protein snacks (they even have a built in wrapper!) and make a great breakfast on the go as well.

The not so nice part of hard-boiled eggs? The sitting / waiting for a large pot of water to boil.

As it turns out, cooking them in a rice cooker is much easier and faster too!

I first got the idea to do this when I saw an awesome post on the Digging Food blog about how to steam fresh eggs. I had no idea that you could steam eggs before I read their post.

After a little experimentation, I figured out how to make perfect “Hard-boiled” eggs in a rice cooker.

Let me walk you through how to make them…

Step 1 – Place your desired number of eggs in a heat safe bowl (ceramic or metal is fine).

I use a Tatung 10-Cup Multifunctional Cooker (the most useful piece of cooking equipment known to man). It’s a great rice cooker / steamer, and when I was in college (and living in small dorm room) I managed to make 60 tamales from scratch in one.

Step 2 – Add water. I pour about 1/2 cup of water in the bottom of the cooker before adding a rack that looks like this (you can buy it pretty inexpensively in a larger Asian grocery store like 99 Ranch).

Step 3 – Put the bowl on the rack (this ensures that your food won’t scorch on the bottom of your bowl).

Step 4 – Cover the rice cooker with the lid and turn the rice cooker on, then set your timer.

My rice cooker takes about 5 minutes until I start to see steam come out the sides of the lid. Your rice cooker make take more or less time to heat up, and it may take a little trial and error before you figure out the right amount of time to cook the eggs to your liking.

For my rice cooker (from the time you turn the rice cooker on to when you turn it off):

Soft Boiled – takes 13 minutes

“7 Minute Egg” (Like the one pictured) – takes 14 minutes

Hard-boiled – takes 20 minutes

Step 5 – Turn the rice cooker off.

Put on an oven mitt and transfer the eggs into an ice bath using tongs.

****Please be careful not to burn yourself **** The steam is pretty hot and you can use the lid of the pot to fan the steam away from you before you take the eggs out of the rice cooker.

Step 6 – Leave the eggs to rest in the ice bath for at least 30 minutes.

After this, the eggs should be pretty easy to peel. I like the keep them in the fridge unpeeled (I just like the ritual of peeling them right before I eat them) or you can peel the eggs and keep them in an airtight container in the fridge.

The most I’ve done at once is 4 eggs in one batch, and the cooking time doesn’t change if you cook 1-2 eggs or 4 at the same time.

Update – Jan 14, 2018 – I’ve found that it does make a difference what bowl you use to cook the eggs in. You want a sort of normal serving bowl and not something that’s super deep with high sides so that the steam can surround the eggs better. My preference these days is to cook 6 eggs at a time for 18 minutes (perfectly hard boiled , dunk them into ice water and then keep them in fridge for breakfast / snacking.

I hope that this helps make your breakfast / snacking / meal prep a little easier!

How do you like your eggs for breakfast?

– Elaine

Homemade Soothing Balm – All Natural, for Bug Bites and Sore Muscles

August 1, 2018April 17, 2019

It’s Summer at the moment, which means that in addition to the beautiful warm weather, inevitably you may get bitten by a mosquito or two.

This is a great home remedy for itchy bug bites. A little dab of this on a fresh or day old bug bite will soothe the itchiness and help with swelling.

(The oil before it’s been strained)

I also use this balm as a muscle rub for soothing sore muscles. It’s super simple to make and is made from only ground cloves (they are not just for pumpkin pie after all!) and olive oil.

Cloves are high in eugenol and also have pain relieving properties. Before you make this though please read the side effects of using cloves topically here. I would also wash your hands after applying this, and avoid touching your eyes with it.

Soothing Balm

(This is just a ratio, you can make as much balm as you need)

Ingredients

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1 tbsp of olive oil

Instructions

1. Stir together the olive oil and ground cloves. Cover with plastic wrap and leave to sit at room temperature for 1-2 days.

After this, you can strain infused oil through a scrap of fabric (or you can leave the ground cloves in there and just use the oil that’s risen above it), cover with plastic wrap and stash in your fridge. The oil will keep for at least a week, and will firm up in cool temperature of the fridge.

I hope that this helps many a bug bite and sore muscle.

Iced Watermelon Cubes – A Healthy Ice Cream Alternative

July 15, 2018April 17, 2019

If you’re living through a heat wave at the moment what you probably want most in the world is something sweet, cold, and refreshing to eat.

Here is the simplest of desserts to keep on hand for a hot day. These little cubes of frozen watermelon are delicious and perfect for popping into your mouth (straight from the freezer) to cool you down.

Refined sugar free, dairy free, paleo, and all that jazz… but what’s really important is that they taste so good!

Iced Watermelon Cubes

Makes lots and lots of servings

Ingredients

1 sweet seedless watermelon (pick the sweetest one you can find)

That’s it! 😀

Instructions

1. Cut the watermelon into 3/4 inch cubes (this is a perfect size as they can be eaten straight from the freezer and they thaw quickly too).

2. Freeze the cubes flat in ziptop bags.

To serve, scoop about 1 – 1.5 cups (or however much you want) of the frozen watermelon cubes into a bowl and eat with a spoon.

Ta-Da! I hope that these little cubes of watermelon joy make your summer days a little more awesome. 🙂

Easy Weeknight Cumin Lamb Lettuce Cups

July 8, 2018April 17, 2019

These easy cumin lettuce cups are super delicious and budget friendly.

I used lamb and garlic that I had frozen previously. Adding those ingredients to a few spices, a carrot, along with some diced tomato and romaine leaves makes for a quick and healthy meal, perfect for a busy weeknight dinner.

Easy Weeknight Cumin Lettuce Cups

Makes 1 serving

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil

3-4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped (I used frozen garlic that I had, but fresh works great too)

1/2 cup cooked ground lamb *

1/3 cup finely diced carrot (about 1 small carrot)

4 tbsp water

1/2 tsp granulated onion

1/4 tsp ground cumin

pinch of salt and pepper (add more to taste)

romaine lettuce leaves and diced tomato (for serving)

Notes – * The lamb that I used was frozen solid in a 1/2 cup portion. I added that to the pan without defrosting it (it defrosted in the pan while the other ingredients were cooking).

If you use cooked lamb that is defrosted, you may have to adjust your cooking time slightly (and probably add a little more water so that the carrots have a little more time to cook through).

Instructions

1. Add the lamb, spices, olive oil, garlic, carrots and water to a medium sauce pan and cook the mixture over medium heat for about 7 minutes until the water has cooked off.

2. Turn the heat to medium high and sauté the mixture for another 3 minutes or so until the meat has browned and the carrots can be pierced with a fork without resistance.

3. Allow the mixture to cool for a few minutes, add more salt and pepper to taste and serve on romaine lettuce leaves and top with diced tomato.

Happy Eating!

How I Save Money On Grass Fed Meat (Without Coupons!)

July 1, 2018April 17, 2019

I stumbled upon this money saving tip this past Father’s Day.

I was at my local grocery store early in the morning and on a whim decided to check out the meat section. It was a nice surprise to see that they had started carrying grass fed lamb (it used to be that in my area only Whole Foods carried grass fed lamb).

The grass fed lamb ribs were pretty expensive though, about $15 / lb and I wasn’t quite in the mood to spend that much. So I kept browsing and saw that they also had grass fed ground lamb.

Then I looked at the price – $6.99 / lb. Eh, not cheap but not too terrible either.

Then I saw the 50% off stickers.

Huh?

Grass fed lamb for $3.50 / lb? That is a great deal!

As it turns out, the sell by date was June 17th (which was the same day as Father’s Day this year) and that’s why the ground lamb was 50% off. That was the last day that they could sell the lamb before they took it off the shelves.

One of my family members told me later that grocery stores also do the same thing with dairy products (they discount them on the sell by date).

The sell by date is not the same as the expiration date. There’s more info on this here.

Obviously, if you’re going to buy meat on the sell by date, you do that at your own risk (’cause no one can completely guarantee the safety of raw meat).

Personally though, I looked for packages where the plastic wrap wasn’t puffy and the meat still smelled ok.

I wouldn’t use this meat for anything like a rare burger, and I would make sure to cook it thoroughly.

I ended up buying 4 lbs of grass fed meat for about $14. The ground lamb was packaged in those vacuum packed blocks and looked just as good as the ground beef that was packaged the same way (but was a week or two away from the sell by date).

So I took it all home, cooked it off in a big pot, drained off the excess fat and spooned the cooked lamb into muffin pans and froze it. I then transferred the blocks of ground lamb into ziptop bags.

The little individual portions of frozen lamb are really convenient and make life a lot easier as they defrost quickly and you can add them to anything for a quick dinner.

So far, I’ve tossed these little blocks of ground lamb into pasta sauce and paleo chili, used them to make Cumin Lamb Lettuce Cups, and made them into a soup with leftover greens and vegetables that I had in my fridge.

Altogether I got 24 half cup servings of ground lamb for $14, which works out to $0.58 per serving. This amount of meat will last me about 2 months (I tend not to eat meat every day).

If I were to do this again – (which I definitely will – saving money is pretty awesome!)

– I would go to my local grocery store and make a note of the sell by dates of the meat was I interested in buying. (This is pretty easy to do during my weekly shopping trip.)

– I would either go to the grocery store the night before the sell by date (sometimes grocery stores will put the discount stickers on the meat the night before) or early in the morning the day of (like before 8:30 am).

– I would cook the meat off that day and freeze it.

I hope that this tip helps to save you some money too!

2 Ingredient Pear Sorbet (No Churn) – Paleo, Vegan, Refined Sugar Free

June 24, 2018April 17, 2019

This pear sorbet is so simple to make and it tastes amazing! It’s flavor is light and sweet and makes the humble pear really shine.

When I first tasted it I couldn’t believe how good it was, and it was only 2 ingredients!

It’s smooth and creamy, and the perfect thing to make when you have ripe pears that you’re not quite sure what to do with. Even if they are a little bruised, that’s ok! They will still work great in this recipe.

2 Ingredient Pear Sorbet

Makes 2 servings (2 scoops each, or a generous serving for one)

Ingredients

2 ripe Bartlett pears (also known as William’s pears)

1/4 cup apple juice (I used the Martinelli’s brand apple juice as it’s naturally very sweet)

Instructions

1. Peel and core the pears. Cut them into 3/4 inch cubes (if they vary in size a little that’s ok) and freeze them in a single layer in a ziploc bag or an airtight container.

My two pears (after being peeled, cubed, and frozen) measured 2 2/3 cups.

2. When you’re ready to make your sorbet, take the frozen pears out of the fridge and let them thaw for 10-15 minutes.

Break up any big clumps of pear cubes up with your hands and add the pears to a food processor along with the apple juice and process until smooth, stopping occasionally to scrape down the sides.

If you’re having a hard time getting the sorbet completely smooth, you may have to process half the mixture at a time. I have a smaller food processor and had to process the sorbet in two batches, but it came together beautifully.

3. Spoon into bowls and serve immediately.

Happy Eating!

Glorious Orange Berry Blitz-ish Smoothie (Mango, Pineapple, Blueberry) – Vegan, Paleo

June 10, 2018April 17, 2019

When I was a youngin,’ I once went to a summer camp. The camp was located on a college campus and close by was a Jamba Juice. So most days (during the few weeks we were there), I and some of the other students would go to Jamba Juice for smoothies and a scone for breakfast.

My favorite smoothie was the (now discontinued) Orange Berry Blitz. I loved how the orange juice gave the blueberries and pineapple smoothie a wonderful brightness.

It’s funny how food and flavors can sometimes take you back, and suddenly, there you are again, cocooned in a marvelous memory.

I smile now just thinking of how happy I was that summer, and and this berry smoothie is still the perfect thing to drink on a nice summer day.

This is my version of that glorious smoothie. I added mango because I think that it gives the smoothie a little more of a tropical flavor (and an extra little bit of sweetness as well).

Feel free to play around with the ingredients. Sometimes I replace the apple juice with water, or add in a few handfuls of baby spinach (if I want to get my greens in for the day without having to give it too much thought).

Make the smoothie that you want to drink (though I will say that this smoothie is pretty awesome as written) and have fun!

Glorious Orange Berry Blitz-ish Smoothie

Makes 1 generous serving

Ingredients

3/4 cup ripe mango (cut into roughly 1 inch cubes, about 1 mango)

3/4 cup fresh pineapple chunks (cut into about 1.5 inch wedges, canned pineapple works too)

1 1/4 cup frozen blueberries

1/2 cup apple juice (I used the Martinelli’s brand)

2-3 tbsp orange juice

Instructions

1. Add all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Serve immediately.

This is what the plate of fruit looked like after I added the fruit into the blender. I think that it’s quite beautiful in a wabi-sabi kind of way.

I hope that you have many happy summer days drinking smoothies with your loved ones.

Enjoy!