Fake Cheesecake Yummy Yums

In the old days (2 years ago?) I would print out recipes and use cookbooks.  Then, I would make notes on my recipes so I'd know what I wanted to do differently next time.

Now, I do almost all of my cooking from Pinterest.  And, I haven't figured out a way to make notes on pinterest recipes.  So, my solution is to write a blog post and then pin this post.  If anyone has a better technological solution, I'd be happy to hear it!

The recipe below is borrowed almost entirely from here with a few of my modifications.  The original recipe called this a cheesecake, but I think that's a bit of a stretch.  They are good, but not like cheesecake.  

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Vegan (or almost vegan), Gluten Free, No-Bake

Serves: 12

INGREDIENTS

• Crust:
• 1 cup pitted dates (soaked in warm water for 10 minutes then drained)
• 1 cup raw walnuts, almonds, hemp seeds in some combination
• Filling:
• 1.5 cups raw cashews, soaked in water 4-6 hours then drained
• 1 large lemon, juiced (scant 1/4 cup)
• 1/3 cup coconut oil, melted.  (I think the combination of the coconut milk and the coconut oil made the flavor too cocunut-like, so I think I would eliminate the coconut oil next time.)
• 1/2 cup full fat coconut milk
• 1/2 cup honey or agave nectar (Scott feels like honey is healthier than agave nectar.)
• Optional Flavor Add-Ins:
• 2 Tbsp salted natural peanut butter
• 1/4 cup wild blueberries (fresh or frozen)
• Any other berry

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Start this recipe the night before you want to eat it.  The cashews need to soak for 4+ hours.  And, once it is all assembled, the yummy yums need to sit in the freezer for 6+ hours.  
2. Put crust ingrediants in a food processor and blend until a dough forms - it should stick together when you squeeze a bit between your fingers. If it's too dry, add a few more dates. If too wet, add more almond or walnut meal. Add a pinch of salt.
3. Scoop the crust into the muffin cups in heaping 1 Tbsp amounts and press in firmly with fingers. Set in freezer.
4. Add all filling ingredients to a blender or food processor and mix until very smooth. I did half a recipe at a time.  In the first half, I did the peanut butter add-in and in the 2nd half, I did frozen blueberries.  
5. Add your add-ins.
6. Divide filling evenly among the muffin tins. Freeze until hard - about 6+ hours.  Do not skimp on time.  After 4 hours, my peanut putter version was not completely set, but my blueberry version was.  The following morning, they were both fabulously set.  
7. Once set, get them out by loosening them with a butter knife. 
8. Transfer the uneaten treats to a pyrex and keep that in the freezer for up to 2 weeks.  

crib / toddler bed, mattress, mattress cover and sheet set

Our daughter has used this for the past 3 years.  She first used it as a crib with the mattress in the high position, then with the mattress in the low position.  And, then we took the front panel off so it was a toddler bed.

She's now moved on to a big girl loft bed, so we're selling her much loved crib/toddler bed.

Included is:

• Ikea Gulliver crib - http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80248525/
• An Ikea mattress
• 2 mattress covers
• Custom sheet set from an etsy seller - 2 small pillow cases, 2 fitted sheets and a quilt.  We no longer have the bumper, but you could order one from the same etsy seller.  She's fabulous.  https://www.etsy.com/shop/CottageBelles
• 2 small pillows 

The crib is currently disassembled.  It's not in perfect condition.  And, my daughter has added a few stickers which you can probably take off with some effort (Or, you could move the panel that used to be in the front to the back.)

Daddy's Boxers Quilt

I love my husband's underwear.  He wears super cute, colorful boxers.  Love love love.

A few years ago, some of his boxers got old and ripped.  He asked me if I wanted them for some craft project.  Yes, I did.

I began envisioning a quilt called Daddy's Boxers Quilt.  I could picture our daughter bringing the quilt with her to college.  But, first I had to make it.

I test-sewed through many designs before I landed on the one that I wanted to execute.  I knew I wanted to incorporate a star motif somehow.  I tried some English paper piecing, but the rigidity of the paper piecing didn't work with the well worn fabrics.

Eventually, I came up with a crazy quilt design with a few stars thrown in.

The back of the quilt has a few more stars that didn't fit with the theme of the front, and it has a fabric that was passed down to me - probably from my great Aunt Ruth.

As for the quilting, I mainly did zig zags on the crazy quilt part with some decorative stitches.  On the orange accents, I did a swirly free motion design.  And, on the stars, I stitched in the ditch, and then echoed that to emphasize the star shape.  

My daughter, Star, loves it.   She loves snuggling under it, touching the fabrics and tracing her finger over my quilted designs.  I still can picture her bringing it to college with her in about 14 years. 

I'm not usually one to complain...

...but it has been quite a bad few weeks.

• My workplace is struggling.  A lot.  It's a hard environment right now.
• My dad is sick.  In the hospital.  Long story.
• There's a bump on the back of my neck that needs to be cut out and sent to pathology.
• Star and I both had lice.  We had a lice checker come to the house last night to remove the lice from our heads and put a non-toxic spray thing in our hair.

Bring it on, universe.  

Stitch Fix #2

I updated my post about my first attempt at Stitch Fix so you can see the picture of what they sent me.  I wasn't excited to try them again, but Jenni sounded like she understood me, and she said nice things about my Pinterest board, so I gave them another shot. 

My second box from them was definitely better than the first, but I didn't like anything enough to add any of the pieces to my closet.  Here's what I got.

A black maxi skirt (which is one of the things T+P sent me too!)

A green cardi.  Cute sweater.  I almost kept this, but it was a bit boring and didn't add anything to my existing wardrobe.

A pink(ish) fake leather jacket.  This was kind of awesome, I have to admit.  If I lived a different kind of lifestyle or had a different kind of budget, I would have totally rocked it.  But, I couldn't justify its addition into my life.

A red patterned fake wrap dress.  Again, this was a good try.  But, the slit up the front was so high, I think people could see parts of me which are not work appropriate to show. 

A tribal looking dress.  Cute shape, but I didn't like the tribal pattern.

So, overall, box #2 was way better than box #1, but it still seemed like a waste of time for all of us.  I'm not sure I'll try again. 



 

My weight loss journey / Rachel of the Biggest Loser

I'm having success with my weight loss.  I've lost 16 pounds since the middle of October which is about a pound a week.  I think I have about 26 pounds to go; so, if I keep up the pound a week pace, I should be at my healthy weight by Scott's birthday.  

The bad news here is that I've officially become too small to use Gwynnie Bee.  Sad.  (I found a replacement service which I'll talk more about at some point.)

Here's the other bad news.  I hate the fact that I am focusing on my weight right now when I live in a country that is obsessed with weight in an unhealthy way.

As The Biggest Loser likes to say, "obesity is an epidemic in America."  To that, I would add that the opposite of obesity is also an epidemic.

For the past few months, I've been watching Season 15, and have loved seeing the contestants' healthy transformations both with their emotional issues and with their diet and exercise issues.  I was solidly in team Rachel.  She was fit and athletic with a kind heart.  Here's a picture of Rachel when she started on the show at 260 pounds and at makeover week when she weighed 150 pounds.  She's 5'4".  At 150 pounds, I thought she looked beautiful.  I thought that maybe she could lose another 10 pounds or so, but I didn't think that she would be able to win the finale because her competition had so much more weight to lose than she did.

Imagine my surprise when a strikingly gaunt Rachel appeared on stage at the Finale.  She looked unhealthy.  When she weighed in, it was revealed that she weighed 105 pounds.


I am not a nutritionist.  I'm not a doctor.  I'm not a financial planner.  Maybe she did this in a completely healthy way and there's nothing to worry about.  Maybe her methods weren't entirely healthy, but she wanted to win $250,000, so it was worth it to go a bit overboard. 

But, oh my goodness people, what message are we sending?  This does not appear to be healthy.  This should not be viewed as success. 

It seems to me that she traded one disorder for another.  At 260 pounds, she used food for comfort and didn't exercise at all.  Now, at 105, she uses her control over food for comfort, and exercises obsessively.  Her behaviors are still problematic.  They are just differently problematic.  I hope her journey is not yet done.

Winter Camps

Y'all know how passionate I got about arranging Star's 4 weeks off in August.  So, it would make sense that I would get equally passionate about her 2 week winter break.

But, no.  For some reason, I didn't put near the same amount of passion into figuring out her December time off as I did her summer time off.

Week 1 - I had Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off for "the winter holidays", but let's be honest - it was for Christmas.  If they wanted to give me time of for Hanukkah they would have done it a month earlier!  Political/religious rant aside, Star and I had some fun adventures together.  On Wednesday, Scott also took the day off and we had family adventures.  We drove down to Burlingame to check out a playground which came highly recommended that we hadn't been to before.  And, the playground lived up to the hype.  There was a really long slide which both Star and I were too scared to go on, but Scott did it.  There were various climbing things and bouncy things.

After the playground, we played bocce and Star rode her bike around.  A park ranger was driving around, hopefully getting paid extra for working instead of being with her own family.  She called out to us, "Merry Christmas!"  "You too!!", my husband and I called back enthusiastically.  Then, she said to Star, "Did Santa bring you good stuff?"  Star looked at her like she was crazy.  In that situation, I'm never sure what to do.  I don't want to make the person asking feel bad, she was only trying to be nice.  But, I also don't want to be dishonest.  So, as nicely as I could, I said, "Santa doesn't come to our house."  She then made a friendly comment about the weather and drove off.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Star was with my parents, and Scott and I worked.  Saturday afternoon, I picked her up, and then we actually had a babysitter come over so Scott and I could go to a housewarming party.  We hadn't been to a party together without Star in a while!

Sunday and Monday, cousins visited.  They have a daughter who is 6 months younger than Star.  Star and she get along wonderfully well and look similar!  We visited them in LA a while back.  We went to the Steam Trains and had a nice time together.  

Week 2 - This was the week that could have been a disaster but turned out not to be.  I had planned for Star to be with one of her classmates at a nanny share.  But, I misunderstood the whole plan, and Star was going to be taking the place of her classmate's younger brother in the nanny share while the family went out of town.  So, Star was stuck there with a super young kid for 1 day.  It was awful for her.  I left work early to pick her up.

She was supposed to be with the nanny share for 2 more days, but Scott and I weren't going to put her through that.  So, we signed her up for Camp Gan Izzy at the last minute and Star loved it.  It's run through our local Chabad and they definitely have some motives about exposing kids to Orthodox Judaism, but that's fine with us!  They went on super fun adventures (Marine Mammal Museum, Jelly Belly Factory).  At the end, they presented the kids with a framed photograph of their whole group together.  This was for a 3 day camp.  It was really amazing.  Star loved it.