2 Minute Vegan Breakfast Smoothie

Quick, easy and no chopping required!

• 1 cup of your favourite soy, almond or hemp or rice milk
• 1 banana (peeled, broken in half)
• splash of juice (whichever you like - orange, pineapple, mango)
• 1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

Throw everything in the blender and mix until smooth.

More Sock Softies

I made a few more softies from Sock & Glove. The pink monkey was a gift for my niece's 1st birthday. The party had a "pretty in pink" theme, hence the pink monkey. The perfect gift for a pretty princess like her [The blue monkey is featured in this previous post]. The second is a blue elephant that I made for a friend's baby. She uses it for his nap time routine. Who wouldn't love to cuddle up with this soft elephant every night?

Guacamole (vegan of course!)

I made this guac over the holidays for a party, and received so many compliments that I thought some of you might want to try it next weekend for your Superbowl parties (or other gatherings).

• 4 very ripe Haas avocados (mashed)
• 1 white onion (diced)
• 2 Roma tomato (diced)
• handful of chives (finely chopped)
• juice from 1-2 limes (depending on how juicy they are)
• 1 jalapeno pepper (if you like it spicy)
• Sea salt & black pepper to taste

Mix everything together in a bowl and enjoy!! For a rustic look, spoon the mixture back into the hollowed out avocado skins to serve.

Vegan Lentil Soup

January is national soup month!  I didn't know this holiday existed, but now that I do, we must celebrate ... with a steaming hot bowl of vegan soup.

My favourite middle Eastern restaurant serves a chunky lentil soup and I love it so much I decided to attempt to copy it.  Here's what you'll need:

• 1 can of lentils (drained) I like yellow, but any kind will work
• 1 glove garlic (peeled)
• 2 cups of vegetable stock
• 1 red onion
• Various spices (I like cumin & turmeric)
• 1 avocado (optional)

If you like a chunky soup, reserve 1/3 of the lentils and set aside. Blend all the ingredients (except the onion and the avocado) in a food processor or blender. Chop the onion and saute in a pan until soft. Add the soup and the rest of the lentils to the pan and heat. I like to serve it with a few pieces of avocado in the soup. Add freshly ground pepper to taste.

Happy soup month everyone!

The Indecisive Crafter

Have you painted a room in your house recently? Did you consider every colour in the rainbow before deciding on a paint colour? Are you now drowning in those paint chip cards that you get free? Well this craft post is for you! I've been noticing the increasing popularity of paint chip card crafts on the internet lately, so I decided to pool together some of my favourite.

• Card holder from DesignVerb!
• Valentine card from Webshots
• Valentine wreath from Instructables
• ID tags for glasses from DAILY DANNY
• Gift tags and mini notebooks from A Spoonful of Sugar
• Notebooks from WhiMSy love
• Christmas gift tags from A Spoonful of Sugar
• Scrapbooking ideas from organizedscrapbooks.com
• Wallet from Flickr set

I can't stress enough that this is a REUSING craft! In other words, don't rush out to your local hardware store and grab a pile of cards. The idea is to reuse the cards you have already amassed, and transform them into something you can use and enjoy. Happy crafting!

Sock Softies

Did you know if your library doesn't have a book you want to read, that you can ask them to order it for you? I decided to make presents this year for my niece and nephew's Christmas gifts, and I'd been dying to try out a Japanese craft book, Sock and Glove, which has patterns for stuffed animals all made from socks and gloves. So I went to my local library only to discover that they didn't have it. To my surprise the librarian said they could order it, and they did!!

I made a monkey (socks) and a dog (gloves) for my nephew, and an elephant and a zebra (both made from socks) for my niece. As you can see from the pictures, I didn't stay with the traditional colour for these animals, and the results were so cute! The zebra was the most labour intensive (mostly because of the hair) and the monkey was the easiest to make by far (the legs, body and head are made from one entire sock). I can hardly wait to try Miyako Kanamori's newest book Happy Gloves.

A New Years Present

Happy New Year! I have the perfect new year's gift for you - the gift of knowledge. Not too long ago I discovered that the Montreal based company, Matt & Nat, make vegan bags and accessories (why didn't I know about this before?)! Canadian and vegan - this is a dream come true. So I decided to share this knowledge with all of you. While their products can be pricey (usually + $100) and albeit harder to find, I know a lot of you are willing to pay a little more and search a little harder for products that haven't caused animal suffering and/or environmental degradation. They have lots of different styles and colours. Check out their new line.