DIY Fairy Lantern

Well it's been a hot minute since I've done a craft post but I wanted to share this incredibly easy lantern I made for Halloween. Our Tinkerbell decided she was too cool for the group family costume this year but I felt like we still needed Tinkerbell to sell it so I made my own ;) It took less than an hour.

Obviously it doesn't have to be a fairy, it could be anything you fancy!

DIY Fairy Lantern

Materials

Clean glass/plastic jar

Moldable wire

Printable silhouette

Faux or real grass/moss

White paint (I used spray paint because I had some)

Wood/Cardstock glue like Elmers (need to dry clear)

Instructions

Firstly paint/spray paint the inside of jar and allow to dry. (In our Florida summer garage this took less than 30 minutes.)

Next glue in the bottom your faux grass/moss. (I had some left from another crafting project).

Print out your silhouette, I just got one I liked from the internet and flipped it so you could see her from either side. One side printed black, the other side I colored with permanent marker

Using a glue that dries clear, glue down the cut out inside the jar pressing firmly.

Wrap your moldable wire around the bottom grove of the jar and and twist on the handle.

All done! Now just add a battery operated tea light!

I added some dried grass for extra effect.

Vegan Nasi Goreng (Indonesian Fried Rice)

 This is based on a recipe from Vegan Punks. I made Nasi Goreng ten years ago and loved it but couldn't find the recipe I use. Back then I mixed elements of Nasi Goreng and Chinese Fried Rice to get Jacquie Fried Rice. 

Vegan Nasi Goreng (Indonesian Fried Rice)

Ingredients

1 tbsp sesame oil

150 g tempeh - chopped into chunks

200 g carrots roughly 2 carrots - chopped into small cubes, about 1cm

250 g green beans - chopped into small 1cm chunks (I used peas)

1 red pepper - chopped into small 1cm cubes

1 onion - chopped into small 0.5cm pieces

4 cloves garlic - peeled and crushed

370 g rice dry weight - cooked the day before and kept in the fridge overnight

3 tbsp soy sauce

4 tbsp kecap manis (I used Sweetened Soy Sauce and a bit of Thai Magic Sauce)

1 tsp chilli paste or Indonesian sambal is even better, if you have it

To garnish:

Finely sliced spring onions.

Cucumber slices

Tomato slices

Rice crackers or vegan prawn crackers

Sesame seeds

Sambal or chilli sauce

Method

Heat up the wok and add the sesame oil, once hot add the tempeh.

Pour in 1 tbsp of kecap manis and fry for another couple of minutes, until the tempeh becomes sticky and then golden. 

Remove the tempeh from the wok and set aside.

Next, fry the onion over a medium heat. Once translucent add the garlic. 

Remember to keep them moving in the wok, in order not to burn them, as garlic burns quickly.

Pop in the green beans, peppers and carrot and continue to stir fry for a few minutes.

Now add the tempeh from earlier back to the wok. Give it all a good stir.

In a separate ramekin or small bowl, mix together the remaining kecap manis, soy sauce and chili paste.

Add your rice to the wok and stir gently until well mixed with the vegetables and tempeh.

Pour the sauce in, mix well, and top with sesame seeds and spring onions, then garnish with slices of cucumber and tomato and rice crackers.

Notes

If you don’t have kecap manis, increase the soy sauce by 1 tablespoon and add 1 tablespoon of maple syrup.

It’s important to use pre-cooked rice. Cook it the day before and leave in the fridge. This is so that it dries out and absorbs the sauce well, without becoming mushy and soft.

You can switch the tempeh out for tofu or vegan chicken pieces.

This dish can be frozen for up to 3 months.

Six Month Lifestyle Overhaul

I wanted to write about this lifestyle change not because I'll have amazing recipes...I won't. Well I might, I don't know yet. I wanted to write about my six month journey to hold myself accountable in adhering to a few habit changes to get me back on the straight and narrow. At 43 I'm fairly sure I'm at the start of perimenopause, besides some very minor observations I've not only had trouble losing weight (which is nothing new) but I've also been gaining it at a much faster rate. Quite a frightening concept at the best of times. Obviously my metabolism is starting to slow down at my age anyway and I'm no where near as active as I used to be, due to lifestyle changes and injury. I could make a million excuses as to why I'm 20 lbs overweight but I'd rather experiment with different things that seem to work for other people long term. I'm not looking for a quick fix but something in my lifestyle has to change if I want to remain healthy and active into my golden years. I want something that I can do long term, not a cleanse or a diet, but a lifestyle change.

Here are the principles I'm going to try to stick to from June 1st to December 1st this year;

1. Commit to 10,000 steps per day. 

I never understood the "10,000 steps a day" craze until recently when I was reading about one particular girls' weight loss journey and she said that walking 10,000 steps a day keeps you from gaining weight, so the most part, what you put into your body is obviously the biggest thing to keep that simple math equation to losing weight and sustaining that weight loss: Weight loss/gain = calories in - calories out.

I was so concerned with needing to do cardio and I would get home and get on the treadmill for 60-90 mins on the nights I felt motivated, which is great don't get me wrong, but I started feeling like I was spending all my free time doing that and not spending much time with my husband, which in a house where both us work full time and we have three children time alone is precious and seldom. Other days I would feel unmotivated and do nothing at all so I assume I barely made 3,000 steps. Basically it was inconsistent and hard on my body since I'm not that person who can run 5 miles anymore. And I think consistency is the key for long term change or "atomic habits" as James Clear would put it.

I started wearing a pedometer for a week (I hate wearing a watch but I committed to a week just to see the pattern) and to my shock (especially since I have a desk job) I was doing around 5,000 steps a day not including any extra activity. So really I only need to get on the treadmill 30 minutes a day to make up the deficit and the important thing is that I hit 10,000 everyday for six months. 

I will add that I'm walking around 4 miles/hour on the treadmill, I don't run anymore. I recognize the need, especially with age, for strength straining so I try to do an arm weight session once a week and, if I am motivated, a weekly yoga or Pilates class...on a phone app, I'm not leaving my house or anything ;)

2. Stick to an 80% whole food diet (plant based is implied since I've been vegan for 12 years).

Now I say 80%  because I think we all have days where we want comfort food or just want something convenient and easy. So if I limit myself to only whole foods for six months I'm not going to stick to it and I really want to stick to this to give it a fighting chance. Every cleanse I do is healthy and sensible, I just don't stick to it after that 4-8 week period because it's not sustainable - for me anyhow. I have 100% respect for fully raw vegans, it's just not me. I do however love vegetables and generally love whole food recipes.  I figure six months is enough time to implement a new lifestyle change :) 

I would add drink your body weight in ounces or whatever the rule is but I already drink a lot of water so why complicate everything. Besides a black coffee in the morning I drink only water during the day and then in the evening I drink soda/seltzer water which is just fizzy water, I'm not a soda drinker.

I think limiting alcohol is a given but I don't drink much anyway so I'm not concerned about occasional liquid calories. For me the worst apart about alcohol (except the hideous hangover I get these days even after one glass - what's that about?!?) is that I tend to not only want to snack and eat comfort foods while consuming the alcohol (warm GF bread with good quality olive oil and salt is my own particular vice) but the next day when I'm feeling rotten (yes, even after one glass because apparently life hates the aging) I tend want more comfort food, usually un the form of fried potato. 

Now having said all that - the main way I'm sticking to a whole food lifestyle is through the application of the Starch Solution. A WFPB way of living which excludes fat (all fat, while trying to lose weight anyway, adding it back in moderation once at goal weight) and sticking to the 50/50 plate. 50% of your plate is starchy grains/veg and 50% is non-starchy veg. The principle is that you don't need to count calories and you stop when you're full but you're supposed to always fill up on the non-starchy veg first. I've had success and then not success with it so really it's how well you stick to it and as I'm now realizing, how long you can sustain it. Doing as a cleanse or diet just drove me back to bad habits.

3. Intermittent fasting at 5 days a week.

This fasting/timed eating lets your body rest and heal for 16 hours (most of which you're asleep for). I started at 7pm and finished at 11am. This I'd already been doing, not to lose weight but to reap the benefits of fasting. It definitely aids in the weight loss though.

_______________________________________________________________________________

OK! That's it, three rules for the next six months and I'll see you on the flip side! Of course I'll tracking monthly my progress (or counter-progress LOL, um let's hope not!). Ended up finishing a month early since we ended up having a house guest for a few weeks and I was happy to be on the right track and finding something that was working for me! 

The Stats;

	1st June	1st July	1st August	1st September	1st October	1st November
Weight	158lb	147lb	145lbs	140lbs	139lbs	139lbs
Waist	38"	35.5"	33"	33"	33”	33"
Hips	42"	40.5"	40"	39"	39”	39"
Thighs	23"	22.5"	22.5"	21"	21”	21"

	June 1st (Start)	November 1st (Finish)
Weight	158lbs	139lbs
Waist	38”	33”
Hips	42”	39”
Thighs	23”	21”

Definitely felt the weight balance out around 140lbs and found it hard to get lower than that. There were some hurdles as well of course, illness, life stresses, holidays etc but I found it easy to get back to the rules once those moments had passed and I think that perseverance was the key.

I still had the occasional wine/beer, I still had the occasional chocolate or sweets, I still had the occasional fried/comfort food. It was my lifestyle outside of those times that made the difference. If I missed a day of walking I tried to make sure I didn't miss two days in a row. If I over ate one day I tried to fast the next day. 

So far this has been one of the easiest lifestyle changes I've ever tried because it's sustainable and easy to fit in with my lifestyle. I work full time and have kids so I don't have a lot of spare time. Making sure I put the extra steps in at night or early in the morning or making sure I meal prepped my lunches for work on Sunday before the week got crazy made a big difference. Timed eating (16/8) five days a week became very normal very quickly and didn't feel like a chore at all.

Meal prep was the best way to keep me on it. Still trying to maintain that.

Protein, grain, 3-5 veggies (fresh, cooked or both) and a sauce. Cashew Cream Sauce is my go to!

Vegan Meal Delivery Services

So in a bid to try and make healthy eating easier I thought I'd try a few meal delivery services. Unfortunately there are not many that offer both gluten free AND vegan, but many offered one or the other. There are quite a few on the market that offer vegan/gluten free prepared meals but I specifically just wanted ingredients and recipes to prep the meals myself. I like to know what's going in there :)

It sounds ridiculous but after my research of all the places out there, Purple Carrot and Hungry Root were the only two that really had GF/Vegan options. Fresh and Lean seemed like a great option if you want pre-made meals (everything is vegan and gluten free)-around $10/meal, as are Territory, Splendid Spoon and Veestro. I also loved the idea of Sakara bowls but they were so expensive that I bought thri cookbook "Eat Clean, Play Dirty" instead!

Purple Carrot

I had SUCH high hopes for this one since it's ALL vegan and had lots of gluten free options so it was such a disappointment with the service didn't stack up.

 I ordered online and it gave me a delivery date. When the delivery didn't show up I messaged their online chat which is pretty quick. They told me because of the national holiday it was running a little late and they mentioned that it was communicated on the website, I hadn't noticed it and there was no communication to me directly but ok that's fair I thought. 

I ended up paying three times for only one box. First and third box never showed, second box came, was missing an ingredient but other then that pretty decent food. They finally refunded me for two of the payments but only the discounted ones. So I ended up paying full price for my only box, even though the first one was supposed to be discounted. I liked how the food was grouped together per recipe, the instructions were fairly easy but there was some prep involved. The recipe book was lovely and glossy and could be repeated by buying my own ingredients (which I have for one recipe many times now).

So the bad taste in my mouth wasn't left by the food but because of my bad customer service and delivery experience. The food was actually really good. A little calorie heavy considering the serving size but delicious and easy to follow instructions with a lovely glossy recipe book that can be used again. 

Cost: $14.50 per meal

PROS: Great Food, 100% Vegan

CONS: Expensive, Unreliable, Terrible Customer Service

Hungry Root

I was actually impressed with the amount of options for vegan/gluten free. The menu lets you hone in on every ingredient used for the dish to see what's in it which I like.

I got my first box when they said I would so already I felt like they were a step ahead. Recipe page wasn't as fancy as the Purple Carrot one but that's not really where I need my money to go anyway. 
The packaging was easy to understand and I could group the items for each recipe easily in the fridge. Each deliver comes with free almond chickpea cookie dough which was so good, my son stole it. 

It was missing an ingredient but it was an easy one to replace (rice) and they kindly put a small credit on my account. Customer service was easy because they have a number you can text 7 days a week.

The recipes were simpler to put together but there was a small amount of cooking/prep. I like the 2 person meals because I can take the second one for lunch the next day. They give you a printout of the meals, ingredients and each recipe prep instructions.

First order was discounted and was $75.01 for 6x 2 person meals. Second box was $115.02, so $9.50 per meal)

I ended up editing my meal plan to 4x lunch & 4x dinner which was $86.95 (anything of $70 is free shipping) so $10.87 per meal).

I was able to go in and change the meals I was receiving, plus how many I was getting so I ended up getting 3 2x person meals (so 6 meals altogether) which cost around $12 per meal.

I like that you can choose between two different shipping days (for one weekend it was handy since we were going out of town I had it changed to mid week).

The quality of the food is ok, I wasn't a huge fan of their premixed items like sauces. I just didn't think they tasted good and I kept having to change them up a bit. Having said that they have given me some great ideas and certainly saved me a ton of time since almost everything is less than 4 ingredients and less than 30 mins cooking time.

All in all it was a decent experience. I did it for a few weeks and the ease and convenience of the dinners was my favourite part but I didn't love it enough to keep up with it. I'm a frugal DIY girl at heart after all and taste matters!

Cost: $11-12 per meal

PROS: 

• Super Easy and Time-Saving
• Good Amount of Vegan/GF Recipes
• Reliable and Great Customer Service
• Good first time discounts

CONS: 

• Food was honestly not that great, I wasn't really impressed with any of the recipes or their brand name items (except the cookie dough)
• Although it was cheaper than the others it's still a lot to spend per meal when you're getting 3-4 ingredients you could pick up from the supermarket for 1/3 of the cost