Birthday Party, Vegan Kefir, Chocolate Snowballs, About Me

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How has your Monday been flowing?  Mine has flowed quite frantically, actually.  I went to yoga this morning, and got my heated power flow going.   And I’ve been busy with this and that, phone calls, errands, lots of cooking and kitchen time, and of course taking care of the Birthday Girl (her official birthday date is tomorrow Tuesday, Feb 2) and she will officially be 3!!!  What have you been up to?  How was your weekend?  Anyone get snowed in?  Hopefully you’re safe and sound and warm!

Thank you for the overwhelming and awesome feedback regarding the Vegan White Chocolate Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cups!

Vegan White  and Chocolate Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cups on plate

Some were All White with Chocolate PB Centers

Vegan White Chocolate Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cup on brown plate
White Chocolate Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cup split in half on plate

And Some were White and Dark Chocolate Outers with Chocolate PB Centers

White and Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup on plate

 

Split and stacked White and Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup
They really hit the spot and I may or may not have made many more batches since I posted them.

Thank you also for the feedback about What You’re Doing For Valentine’s Day and also What Kind of Gift You’d Like to Receive in the MailLots of you said my homemade goodies would be very welcome, so that was really sweet to hear….Muah!!! Thank You for Your Kind Words!!

And thanks for the compliments about my cutie pie and for the Happy Birthday Wishes For Her!

Young girl wearing birthday hat and necklace

As promised, here are more pictures of the big party we had for the three of us…haha!  Sometimes smaller is better.  Not often, but it does happen.

I strategically placed decked the house out in pink steamers

Countertop decorated with pink streamer
Patio door decorated with pink streamers

Got the Tables Set:
Big Person’s Table

Birthday Party Plates and hats on table

Skylar’s Table

Childs Birthday party table with plate, hat and napkin

Complete with Kazoo, Hat, and Place Card for all

Birthday Hat and Kazoo
Hand holding Childs name place card

The Gift Stash included raiding the Target One Dollar Bins.  Everything here was a buck each! 

Various gifts on countertop
Score!

First a $1 Dollar Tutu, a $1 bracelet, and beads.  Perfect!

Pink tutu on hanger
Pink and purple bracelet and white beads

And some socks, books, hairbrush, complete with Princess Card & Gift Bag.

Various gifts on countertop

A forgotten about Christmas Gift for Bitty Baby.   I wonder if these Twins started wearing their baking outfits at a young age?

Twins Baking Outfit in box

And I wrapped it all Up in a Princess Bag

Princess Gift Backed with Present inside
Overhead of gift bag

And then My Princess Came Home and Was Pleasantly Surprised!

Young girl opening birthday presents

 She loved her new books!

Young girl holding book with wrapping behind her
Young girl wearing beads holding book on floor

 She wasted no time organizing & meticulously straightening her loot. Wonder who she gets her compulsive organizational tendencies from?

Young girl playing with purple small teddy bear

The Ballerina Tutu Goes On and Dancing Begins!

Young girl dancing in kitchen wearing tutu
Young girl dancing in kitchen dancing in pink tutu

Is she carrying herself like a natural Ballerina or am I just a primadona stage mother?

Young girl posing in tutu, beads and holding teddy bear

Definitely Not a Stage Mother:  Just A Grateful & Blessed Mother

Woman and child smiling together
Woman and child looking at birthday card

 And Happy…

Young girl and woman smiling at camera
 

…for the mutual adoration this little girl and I have for each other!

Young girl looking up at woman smiling
And the Birthday Girl requested Cupcakes
Decorated cupcake on plate with a large number three candle

The ironic thing that I mentioned yesterday is that she’s never had a cupcake.  Maybe Barney tipped her off that they exist! 

Close up of cupcake on plate
So, the Birthday Girl got her Wish, and White Cupcakes with White Frosting & Sprinkles it was.  
Young girl eating cupcake

This is My Favorite Photo of the Day of Her:  When we were singing Happy Birthday to Her.  I love this picture because she genuninely appears to be blown away with happiness and wonderment that all this Was For Her!

Young girl wearing birthday hat and beads

While holding Daddy’s Hand and Grinning Ear to Ear

Young girl smiling wearing birthday hat holding mans hand

We laughed and she ate cupcakes.  And if I didn’t react to dairy like I do, you better believe that the buttercream frosting looked so stick-your-finger-in-it-and-start-lickin’ good!

Woman and child in birthday hats smiling
Young girl eating cupcake with woman behind her smiling

And We Mutually Adored some more

Woman and child looking at each other smiling
Woman and young girl looking at each other smiling

And after her cupcakes, she still ate her fresh fruit.  And then we ran off to dance ballerina style in her room!

Close up of young girl eating cupcake
Young girl in birthday hat smiling and eating
She loved every birthday moment!
 

And so did I!  I can’t believe she’s 3!!!!!!!!  It sounds so cliche but they really do grow up so incredibly fast.  Kiss them, hug them, hold them, because in just a few years she may think I’m lame and won’t want to be caught dead next to me.

After all the festivites, a big green bowl of veggies was just the thing.  Brock, tomatoes, and…
Bowl of raw vegetables
Close up of raw vegetables with homemade slaw dressing

 ….tons of Sugar Snap Peas with homemade Vegan Slaw Dressing

Homemade Vegan Slaw Dressing in jar
Raw Vegetables in slaw dressing

Today I was Hard at Work in the Kitchen after yoga.  I made Vegan Fudge, which is setting up now and I will post it later this week.  But in making the vegan fudge, I had about 3/4th’s of a can of coconut milk leftover, so I made Vegan Coconut Milk Kefir with it.  I have posted about this before both Here and Here.

Today I simply took the opened can of coconut milk (I used TJ’s Light), poured it into a glass jar and added about 3/4 cup of water to it.

Jar with coconut milk and water

Added the Starter

Hand holding kefir starter

Stirred.  Don’t use metal utensils, the bacteria don’t like metal.

Kefir started added to jar with spatula about to stir

And am letting nature’s friendly bacteria go to work for me on my countertop for the next 18 hours.  I wish something or someone other than bacteria would go to work for me but hey, I’ll take what I can get.  Need info on vegan or water kefir grains or starter?  Here or Here.  I sometimes get mine from this place.

Jar full of Coconut Milk Kefir

Today after yoga I also made
Raw Vegan Chocolate Coconut Snowballs

Overhead of Raw Vegan Chocolate Coconut Snowball in bowl
Raw Vegan Chocolate Coconut Snowballs in bowl

Yes, it was time for a fresh batch for Scott.

Multiple bowls filled with Raw Vegan Chocolate Coconut Snowballs

Some of you have written that you’re having issues with them forming into balls…just add more maple syrup and/or coconut oil.  Don’t be scared of the liquid, the coconut flakes and the cocoa powder will absorb it.  Hope that helps those who have written in!  These are Scott’s Dessert Love.

Close up of Raw Vegan Chocolate Coconut Snowball

My Dessert Love was a few Vegan White Chocolate Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cups!

Vegan White and Dark Chocolate Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cups on brown plate

Yoga Today is a Side Crane, aka Parsva Bakasana.
For those of you who are regular readers, you know I’m a yoga teacher and have been since 2001I am frequently asked how to do this pose.

The easiest explanation I can offer is:
Squat down with your feet close together.
Then point your knees all the way to one direction, let’s say the right hand side.
Make a table with your arms, and lean forward and up onto the back of your arms.  
The pose is much more about center of gravity and weight distribution than it is about strength.  Core strength, in this pose and in all of yoga, is fundamental, but once that’s established, just try to find the Sweet Spot, so you can lift your crane off the ground.  Hopefully that explanation helps a bit!

Woman doing Side Crane yoga pose

Here’s Another Angle. Just have fun and you’ll get there! 

Woman doing Side Crane yoga pose

Tip of the Day:

Two Questions:
Well, first is a request.  For the bloggers who use word verification on your comment forms, please consider and re-evaluate if this is something  you believe is really useful.  I don’t use word verification and get a fairly decent number of comments on my posts.  I would say I get, maybe 2 spam comments per month, maybe.  I really don’t believe word verification does anything other than slow down the commenting process for 99.9% of your commenters.  If you are on auto-pilot with that one, like you signed up for it ages ago and never took it off, please consider taking it off.  Sometimes I have to re-key words two and three times and it takes up precious time.  If you feel it really serves a purpose and you want to keep it, then I can respect that, too!

Next, is there something about me you’d like to know that I haven’t blogged about?  I was thinking about creating and “About Me” Tab and am not sure what it is About Me that you’d want to know….haha!  I get a lot of private emails asking me all kinds of things, some of which are completely inappropriate, so please, keep it tasteful, clean, and respectful, my friends, but I may do either an About Me Section or a Reader’s Ask and I Answer type of post.   And if no one care’s a rat’s bootay “about me”, I can totally & completely understand that too!  ha!

Last Question:
At what age do  you think celebrating a birthday with a big party and gifts and the whole she-bang is played out and one should tone it down a little?  Age 12?  18?  21?  25?  30?  88?   Or, You’re never to old to have a huge she-bang!  How old were you when you had your last amazing birthday party or celebration?  I was 24, living on the beach in NC with Scott, we did sunset yoga on the beach, he had a cake made with hot pink and purple frosting, we stayed up all night drinking wine, swimming in the ocean and laughing and having a ball.  So when was your last amazing birthday party or celebration?

Stay Tuned For Oats…

About the Author

Welcome to AverieCooks! Here you’ll find fast and easy recipes that taste amazing and are geared for real life. Nothing fussy or complicated, just awesome tasting dishes everyone loves!

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Please note: I have only made the recipe as written, and cannot give advice or predict what will happen if you change something. If you have a question regarding changing, altering, or making substitutions to the recipe, please check out the FAQ page for more info.

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