Red pepper soup (vegan) and how to roast peppers

So a while back I had roasted a bunch of red peppers and they'd been sitting in my freezer long enough. I decided to use them and make more to replace the ones I used.

I wanted to make something that was just as good to eat cold or hot and that's how I came up with this recipe. I hope you enjoy it as much as my family did.

Ingredients

1 onion (diced)

1tbsp olive oil

4 carrots

2 cups of oven roasted red peppers (about 6 peppers)

4cups (900ml) of vegetable broth

4 bay leaves

1tbsp dried thyme 

1/2 cup non dairy milk

Heat your onion and oil together in a pot for a few minutes until your onion becomes almost transparent.

Add all remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil then simmer until carrots are soft.

Take out the bay leaves.

Put in blender with non dairy milk and pulse or blend till no more chunks remain. 

You can then add a touch of style with basil leaves or oil on top.

Pour in a bowl (or a glass like my youngest) and enjoy.






How to roast peppers (of any kind I normally do 6 at a time)

Preheat oven to 450f

Line a sheet with aluminum foil ( I used a cookie sheet).

Wash peppers and rub oil all over them ( I used olive oil).

Put on sheet and then in oven.

Turn every 10-15 minutes until all sides are partly black.

Once they are done take them out of the oven place them in a bowl and cover them with Saran wrap for about 20 minutes.

Take the peel off and remove the stem and seeds.

Voilà, you are now done roasting your pepppers. You can freeze them or put them in the fridge with a bit of oil for a few days.

Life lately

Hello everyone,

I know I've been gone and I'm sorry the hustle and bustle of life has left me a little tired lately but here's what's been going on.

In March I adopted a beautiful pug/terrier mix. I didn't have any information on her besides she was two, a female and if no one took her in she would be euthanized so I took her in. I took her in the week that my boys were at their dad's . She was nervous of around people and in one week we got her accustomed to people by bringing her everywhere with us. She met the boys and we were really surprised, she loved them she's a kid magnet and loves it. We've got her vaccinated, and bought her everything she needed including sunglasses/goggles and a life jacket. She's been four-wheeling, and canoeing and my partner brings her fishing all the time. She is my little shadow and the boys love her. We've found out that she hasn't been spayed but that will be happening in July.

It's been busy for the rest of us too. We've been having fun with the dog plus I've been busy with the rest of the boys. I've went canoeing several times with my partner and four-wheeling. My oldest had his first birthday party which turned more into a play a date since only one of his friends came over but we had fun. I'm also planning a small family get together for my youngest son's birthday. 

I've also been trying several new recipes if you follow me on Instagram you will see a few of them which I'm going to post on my blog soon as well.

That's all for now folks.

Me

Buffalo Cauliflower "wings"

I love wings, I mean really who doesn't. This was one of my partner's and I favorite meal, so when I decided to go plant based I had to figure out how to substitute this delicious meal for a meat free version. 

I took to Pinterest and found the recipe that I used. Original recipe here from hot for food. They also have recipes for different flavors. 

I doubled the recipe and added Cayenne pepper to the batter mix to add a bit of zing I found that it also made flavoring the "wings" unnecessary.

This recipe can serve 4-8 people.

Ingredients

2 heads of cauliflower

Batter:

2 cups flour

4 tsp onion powder

4 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp paprika

1 tsp Cayenne 

1 cup unsweetened non-dairy milk (I use silk almond or cashew)

2 cups of water.

Sauce:

1 1/2 cups BBQ sauce

1 cup hot sauce

Preheat oven to 450f.

Cut cauliflower into pieces (about the size of actual wings).

In a bowl stir all the dry ingredients together. Then slowly mix in the milk and water. ( until batter is still thick enough to stick to the cauliflower)

Dip cauliflower in batter. Put on parchment paper lined baking sheet.

Put in oven for 25 minutes or until they start to brown. Flip half way through.

While waiting mix. BBQ sauce and hot sauce together.

Once out of the oven coat with sauce and our in the oven for another 25 minutes.

Take out of oven, let cool for 5 minutes and dig in.

Huggies Pull-ups ( fade away designs)

Underwear like design 1/1 stars

 I like that these are a mix of underwear and diaper together. It allows my son to take them off and put them back on like underwear but if we are rushed, because he realized too late he needed to go to the bathroom the side just Velcro's off.


Designs 1/1

I liked that the designs were from popular characters that my son love and that I think are still pretty popular for boys.

Fade away pattern 1/1

Ok this is the iffy part with me. Yes, the designs have specific areas where the pictures fade but unless my son actuals sees them fading. If your child can learn by understanding that you want these pictures to stay on all the time then great it should work for you.

Protection 2/2 stars

I like the way these Pull-ups have protection for both boys and girls. I have a boy and the protection on these things are awesome. I haven't had one mess with these. No poop or pee has went through these.


Last opinion I think the cool and learn would be better for my son but despite that I think these are a great helping tool to start off potty training.


I received this product for free from Influenster, for testing purposes.

Adult Review- Cumfy hogtie

Price- Ranges from 40$ to 76$ I'm sure you might find it for cheaper or higher prices if you look harder but this is an ideal of the prices that I've found. We bought ours at between us lovers boutique in Sudbury.

I was really debating about posting a review about sexual items on my blog but I told myself why not. I've done the review on Bj blast so I figured why not keep doing it on a few other items that I've tried out with my partner.

Today I'm going to talk about the Cumfy hogtie restraint. When my partner and I saw this product in the store we just looked at each other and smiled like two school kids that just scored candy. We've done the ropes and the fancy knots but sometimes having something simpler to do the restraining is more convenient at times.

What I like about this product.

The cuffs have a nice padding in the inside almost like fleece. I like that because your wrist can be somewhat moveable in them and they don't cut or hurt with a bit of struggling. It is also adjustable with a few wholes to adjust the sizes. I liked that there was the four ring center which allowed a good way of attaching and positioning your partner in different positions. I also like the ease it takes to set up.

What I didn't like.

If you look closely on the picture just below the paragraph you will see the center piece where your cuffs attach. On the center piece there is clips that you well clip onto the cuffs. These broke extremely easily. They either bent or broke right off which will made this purchase a downer. Other reviews online have also stated having the same problems as we have so it's not just me. 

 Two different sized cuffs one for the wrist one for ankles.

I wouldn't recommend this product to anyone. My partner and I still use the cuffs as it's sometimes still easier and comfier then rope directly on the skin. The only reason why I'm but recommending this product is because of the links that broke. If they can solve that issue then this product would be great for both beginners and experienced people.

COVERGIRL Supersizer Mascara review

COVERGIRL SUPERSIZER Mascara Review

This is the Cover girl super sizer.

I got to try this product through bzzagent and like most products I've tried I really enjoyed it.

Packaging 1/1 stars

Now, I realize that for some of you the exterior looks might not be important but it is for me. I love the color of the tube and how bright it is. It makes it easier to find in my makeup bag and the colour just makes happy.

Brush handling 1/1 stars

I like the brush and I find it works well. When you receive products from bzzagent they often come with little video's on how to use them. So I watched this one. It might sound funny to some of you but that little twirl up thing she does in this video I had trouble doing, but I got with practice.

Staying power 1/1

This product is great. It stays on all day. Even through heat and sweat but it is easily removed. I don't think it would stand if you are in an area where there is a lot of water such as crying or in the rain though, because it comes off easily without soap.

Does it work? 2/2

What I like about this mascara is the you can make your lashes long and looking natural like in the video or have a bolder effect like the picture below that I took. I found that it wasn't clumpy at all and I don't have to go over it a bunch of times to get the look I want.

Picture of the mascara from:

http://m.covergirl.com/beauty-products/eye-makeup/mascara/super-sizer-mascara

October 2015

Hello muffins,

So I haven't completely lost my mind in October. I've had a few rough parenting weeks but I've found myself getting calmer and realizing that I really just need to breathe and realize a few things.

My boys have definitely been challenging this month but that's OK. I did lose my cool a few times and I'm not ashamed of admitting it. Now, by losing my cool I don't mean I went Rambo and destroyed my house but I did yell. In the middle of my yelling I realized that what I was doing was wrong although it does happen. I then took the time to apologize to my youngest ( he'd been waking up all week at 2 and falling asleep 30 minutes before wake up time, I was exhausted) and gave myself an adult time out. That's right, I treated myself like I would treat my child if he had a tantrum and I found myself so much calmer. I think as parents sometimes we get so frustrated because we just feel like we need time to breathe and sometimes we don't get that. And when we feel that way we just get lost in frustration, forgetting that our children (especially the younger ones) can't quiet communicate the way we want them to. They are learning about feelings and how to respond and let's just say when I caught myself acting on this absurd kind of fit I realized that I didn't want my child to react that way. I want him to communicate the proper way, to talk and explain how he feels instead of pushing his wants on to others. So for the rest of the week when I started to feel frustrated I just took a step back to observe my situation and then talk to my child the way I would want him to talk to me. I want my children to learn that it's OK to be frustrated and be emotional but there is a good and a bad way.  Inthe weeks that I had them with me I noticed that the calmer I was the better the children were and not only did they communicate better with me but with themselves too. I also found that I was better at analyzing my feelings and that most of the time my frustrations were due to a communication break down and that asking questions to my children and trying to understand them by asking questions made my life a whole lot calmer and the children's too.

As it comes to my vegan diet it's been hard. I don't eat anything that is non vegan in my house and at work since I pack my lunches except chocolate and candy, I won't lie that's been hard) but at restaurants and at families houses I'm a complete failure. I see meat and I want it which I can generally refrain myself but most places so far don't really offer vegan options so I do I have to work on that.

Halloween costumes turned out pretty good.  The boys costumes are a bit big but that's OK. Collecting candy with them, my hunny and my best friend C was great.

This was the outcomes of our costumes.

When it comes to my vegan repertoire of cooking I didn't really make anything to impressive. I have fallen in love with Chana Masala which is an Indian dish typically made with some milk but I was able to take the milk out and substitute it with coconut milk or almond milk. I also made a vegan version of coleslaw which turned out to be delicious. No recipe but if II get the ingredients again I will mark the ingredients and give you the recipe.

I got to go to bulk barn this weekend which was loaded full of nuts and products that I don't normally buy here where I live because I can either not find it or it's to expensive. I know I have to watch the ingredients even in the list as some of them contain milk for some reason. With that said I did find some good ingredients that will hopefully allow me to make some more great dishes to enjoy as a vegan.

I am also hoping to put a few reviews up on the blog. One about a product I've received through bzzagent and one will be an adult review.

Love

Me