This is our house! We finally did it! We found a house, bought it, moved in, and have been living here for almost two weeks. I didn't want to spill the beans while in the process because it was so stressful and I didn't want to have to post about it falling through-- and our first house did fall through, so I was kinda right. But I'm so happy we got this one instead! I've missed the blog so much and I have so much to share now that things are more settled! When we moved to the Dallas area, we stayed with my parents in Azle for two months while we looked for houses-- thank you, mom for driving me to a million of them while Sam was at work! We are so appreciative of them for everything they did for us during that time, and are continuing to do-- Ikea trip tomorrow! But Sam had a crazy commute and with four adults, five dogs, two cats, two little brothers under the age of eight, and a high-school senior my parents took in so she could finish school, it was a bit crazy there. We are so happy to be in our own place! Sam sometimes feels that the new house is too big, but we haven't fully moved in yet and that's just fine with me after our tiny rental-- and we have a pool!
There's me learning about all of the chemicals and skimming the leaves out last weekend. Yes, that means we're swimming in October. I always don't want to get in and it's so cold, but then 10 minutes after I'm in, it's so worth it. The animals love it too-- the two bigger dogs (Amy and Osgood) love love their yard and just walk around smiling and jumping on each other. The little dog, Yosemite loves his perfect-Yosemite-size dog door-- the other two can't get through so he can just come in whenever he wants and play fetch with his stuffed animals inside-- his favorite thing to do.
And the cats are living mostly in what will be our office/sewing space and they're pretty excited about that too-- as excited as cats get, anyway.
They have a brand-new scratchy-tower thing and three windows with perfect kitty-sized sills to sit on and tons of room to chase their spring toys-- although it's really just Pascal that likes that, Little Cat gets super annoyed when Pascal runs into him en route to the spring. We've got tons of projects to do (I'm looking at you, popcorn ceilings and taupe walls), which I'll be posting about here. I'll also be posting some phone pics of the last couple of months of food and hopefully get some new recipes out too! I'm so excited to be back!
This ice cream has a secret. A secret ingredient. Can you guess what it is?...
Quick oats! Did you guess? Well believe me, oats will make your ice cream the thickest, creamiest, most scoop-able homemade vegan ice cream ever. I promise. It does take some preparing ahead to cook the ice cream base and chill it, but it's so worth it.
This is kind of a re-do of my first-ever post. It had a super duper dreadful picture, and as it is getting crazy hot here in Texas and our freezer is working again, I thought it would be the perfect time to update. I made it a bit healthier too!
Ingredients:
- 1.5 cups water
- 1/3 cups quick oats (you can use regular oats too, just blend a bit longer)
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 2-3 tsp mint extract
- 1/2 tsp butter extract
- pinch of salt
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 can coconut milk (I use Imperial Dragon, it's 90 calories per serving and thickens up really well!)
Directions:
- Add water, oats, cornstarch, extracts, salt, and sugar to a blender and blend until oats are smooth (about 40 seconds, I'd guess).
- Pour into a pan and heat on medium, whisking until thickened (a couple of minutes).
- Scoop back to the blender and add coconut milk. Blend until combined, scraping sides down if necessary. You can add 2-3 leaves of spinach to make it a lovely pale green color if you want (it won't taste like spinach, I promise!), but I was out of spinach this time!
- Pour into a container and put in fridge overnight or for at least a few hours.
- Make sure that your ice cream maker tub is in the freezer!
- Get your lovely base out of the fridge -- it will be super thick, that's part of what makes it so creamy!
- Process according to the ice cream maker's directions -- I just pour it in while the motor is running and process for about 10-20 minutes, pushing the ice cream around with a rubber spatula if it stops churning before I think it's done.
- Scoop back into your container and freeze for at least 2 hours, to harden. If it's super solid when you go to eat it, thaw it on the counter for 5-10 minutes. The oats really help it scoop easier though!
Ohmygoodness, I can't get enough of this stuff right now, and for way less than $4.19 a pint (the price of my favorite vegan ice cream at the stores around here), it's kind of dangerous. But, it's only 105 calories per 1/2 cup, which is really, really not bad for ice cream, so indulge! I even added chopped semi-sweet chocolate to mine to make mint-chip -- my favorite!
cals per 1/2 cup: 105kcal | fat: 5.88g | carbs: 12.64g | prot: 1.05g
Paschal is wondering what I'm doing -- the sunniest room is kind of the cats' room, but I usually put them outside before taking photos. He's mighty curious about the ice cream though...
Today has been a pretty fun one. We got out of the house this afternoon and played frisbee in the park with one of our dogs, Osgood (pics to come of him!) Then we went to the store, had dinner, and played catch. It was pretty awesome. I also took some pictures of our kitties. It's been about a year since they were born under our house. I can't believe how time has flown!
Paschal, hangin' out, bein' hansome. Doesn't he have the sweetest face? Don't let that fool you though, he's a ninja. A super cuddly nija, but still.....
Little Cat, surveying the picture-taking.
March, checking to see what Paschal's up to.....
And March trying to escape the picture-taking.
My bedtime snack -- Bengal Spice tea and cinnamon walnut 2 (in this case, 4) ingredient oatmeal cookies! So super yummy and healthy!
