Do you taste that?

Tonight I made brownies... with a can of black beans.  Cue evil laughter.  Yes, I fed my family black bean brownies.  Seems cruel, but we can't use eggs around here due to food allergies.  I am also trying to move our family slowly toward eating only real foods.  And, yes, I know the brownie mix I used does not count as "real" food.  But I'm not going to throw away everything in our pantry just to start anew. 

I used an organic brownie mix and 1 can of black beans.  I rinsed and blended the black beans with a little water, then added them to the brownie mix.  I baked them for 35 min at 350 degrees.

And, no, I can't taste the beans at all.  The only thing I noticed was a slight beany texture, but I wonder if I would really think that if I hadn't known what was in them.  The only draw back to these brownies is that they will likely make me gassier than regular brownies...   :D

40 bags in 40 days

Heard of it? I meant to post this yesterday but I forgot.  Oops.

The idea is during the 40 days of lent, you clean out 40 bags of trash, stuff you don't use, haven't seen in a few years, etc.  This sounds like a GREAT idea.  We were just talking last night about all the stuff we need to get rid of.  We still have several boxes of stuff that we haven't done anything with since we moved.  I think my 40 days will be more of an organizing mission than just getting rid of stuff.


I haven't yet made out my list of 40 areas to organize/clean out, but here is what I have so far:
1.Yesterday, we got a new washing machine and got rid of our two dead ones.  So I am counting that towards day 1!
2. Today I cleaned out all of Miss K's outgrown clothes
3. Organize K's closet
4. Clean out Mr. T's outgrown clothes
5. Organize Mr. T's closet (this may take two days as it is our biggest closet and therefore the junk closet!)
6. Organize mudroom
7. Mudroom closet
8. Clean out all those crazy boxes in the garage!
9. Living room book self
10. Craft area (will likely take more than one day also!)
11. Living room closet
12. File cabinet


It would seem that I don't have enough to fill 40 days, but really I am just feeling too lazy to finish the list right now.  I'm off to bed. zzzzz

No I haven't given up on the blog already

I'm just trying to get those darn curtains done, while taking care of two wee ones whose naps rarely seem to collide.  I feel guilty spending too much time on crafty things while they're awake if they can't help me out.  I had a few set backs.  Sick kids and then the curtains weren't tuning out very nice at all. So, I ended up buying a couple new curtains and am using a new technique that is working much nicer.  I am also having to rehem the curtains longer since they shrank in the wash...  Someday, I will be able to move on to another project!

A Birthday Cake

Tonight we are having a small first birthday party for Mr. T and a buddy of his who was born just a week before him.  I decided to make the cake for it.  And of course, it is milk and egg free so big sis miss K can enjoy some cake too!

I'll admit I've watched my fair share of Cake Boss episodes, but this is the first time I have worked with fondant, so I decided to go simple because I wasn't sure what to expect.

I made two 9 in rounds of white cake and one 9 in of chocolate cake.  I used premade white fondant from Wilton which appears to be milk and egg free.  (I'm crossing my fingers that I didn't over look something. I might just pull the fondant off of her piece just to be sure!)

Unfortunately, I didn't take pics of all the steps I did.   But, I piled up the layers with icing in between and did a"crumb coat" all over it (learned from watching Buddy!  haha).  Then I worked up a sweat rolling out that brick of fondant into a nice thin layer.  It is super hard to get a nice solid piece without any folds or cracks.  But I rubbed away most of the cracks away with a little water. 

I dyed a few chunks of fondant red, blue, yellow, and green to make some flags.  Then cut them into triangles. 

I also wanted to try making a monkey, since Mr. T's buddy likes monkeys!  So, I found a tutorial here.

I'd say he turned out pretty good for my first attempt.  It took forever to get a decent shade of brown too!  My hands are a lovely rainbow now!

Miss K wanted to play with the fondant too.  Here is her creation.  No idea what it is!

Miss K told me he needed a party hat so we ended up putting one on him. 
 

 Here is the finished cake!

Now if only I could learn to write with those darn Wilton canisters of icing!  They are so hard to push and don't come out evenly.  So, please don't judge the writing!

Borax Carpet Cleaner

I sometimes let Miss K eat in the living room.  First mistake.  Sometimes I let her eat a tomato based soup in the living room.  Second mistake.  One time I left the bowl on the end table while taking her to the bathroom and leaving little brother alone in the living room.  Last mistake.  Mr. T climbed up on the end table and helped himself to the leftovers, and made a huge mess.  There was tomato soup all over the him, the end table, the couch, and the carpet...  We also had people coming over.  Souper!  I remembered seeing carpet cleaner on a list of the many uses for Borax and thought maybe I could try it.  I use Borax to make laundry soap so I always have plenty around.

 

The back of the box says for carpet cleaning to mix 1/2 cup of Borax in 1 pint of water.  Spray on carpet and leave half an hour then rinse.  Well, I never really follow directions.  So, I dumped a little borax in a spray bottle and added water.  

One of the small stains before:

I sprayed the stain, but didn't wait.  I just scrubbed it and voila!  I really worked!  

Stain after:

It worked on the couch too, but I forgot to take pictures of it. 

Pretty Pink Vegan Doughnuts

We're finally getting some snow.  And a snowy morning calls for doughnuts!  At least this snowy morning did.  So, I put my doughnut pan I got for my birthday to use.

Here is my recipe:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp vanilla
Energ-G egg replacer for 1 egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 tsp salt
couple dashes of nutmeg
couple dashed of cinnamon

Mix all together and bake at 350 degrees for 10 min.
They will be really soft so make sure to let them cool completely before taking them out of the pan.
Then glaze! 

This recipe actually made 8 doughnuts but they were going pretty fast.  It was hard to catch a picture.

Stenciled curtains

Well, there is no going back now.  I finally started stenciling my living room curtains.  Which is going to take quite a while considering I have 8 panels to paint.  I really hope I don't mess this up!!!  I saw this idea here.  I'm even using the same stencil she did on her curtains, because it's my favorite!  The mister isn't so sure about this, but he is a good sport about my wild crafting ideas!  hehe

Hopefully, I will get these finished this week!