Vegan baking!

Today was so exciting!! I went to the library and found Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World!


After reading such great reviews about the cupcakes and seeing pictures on blogs, I knew I had to try them. To be honest, I'm not much of a baker. I prefer to cook. I also make a HUGE mess when I bake, I don't what it is! But this was an event for me. I decided I would follow the recipes to the 'T' with ingredients and directions, so I had to do some shopping!
Also, I figured since Father's day was coming up, this would make a great gift for my step-dad (pretty much just another reason and excuse to spend $$ on expensive ingredients and eat dessert)!!
I purchased some cooling racks from the dollar store (booya) and cupcake liners (also towels and goggles for the pool, but that's another story).

We needed to make a special extra trip to Nature's Finest for some non-hydrogenated shortening since my stupid Publix only had the crap kind.
Although baking is a lot of time and effort, I like it! It is kind of therapeutic because it gets your mind off things while you're concentrating on the recipe.

I baked the "golden vanilla" and "your basic chocolate cupcake," both with the Vegan fluffy buttercream frosting. I had planned on the chocolate buttercream frosting too, but I was too exhausted by then!
















In between cooling the cupcakes, we had to drive across town to pick up my suit from the dry cleaners. We got lunch:



And then we proceeded with the decorating!! Mirza's Mom bought me a pastry bag kit filled with a bunch of different shaped tips for Christmas, so I finally got a chance to use it. It was my first time doing ANYTHING like this. In fact, I think this was my first time baking cupcakes, except for the carrot cake cupcakes last fall. I need more practice!! Either way, it was a lot of fun...

Even Mirza helped!





(Those were the ones we put in a container for Jerry)

How did they taste??

Freakin' amazing! I was surpised by how moist they were on the inside, just great!! I really love them and I feel proud and accomplished that today I baked and decorated 24 desserts with no animal products. And it tastes so good!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We brought them over my mom's and found Minnie sound asleep:



And then we went out for some pizza!! Hey, it is okay to indulge after all that hard work, right? hehe.





The day ended with a night swim and pretty much how it began: with cupcakes!


Mirza: "Don't ever make that face again..." :)



Isn't anyone else as messy as me when it comes to baking?? It seems impossible not to be! I wonder if it is easier if you just buy a bunch of those little bowls and measure everything out before beginning...I don't know...any ideas?

Fun

The last few days have been fun filled! On Thursday, Mirza and Amra (his cousin) came over and we went swimming!
She took some pictures of us being ridiculous in the pool.








We also made some home-made pizza from the dough we bought last week at Greenwise. We covered it in fresh Romano, mozzarella, and Parmesan cheese. She has the picture, so I'm waiting on that. I wish I had some right now. ooh, and we played Nintendo Wii! haha.

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This morning I ran around doing errands, like dropping off my suit to the dry cleaners for my interview, getting new windshield wipers (mine were literally shredded), and mailing a book I sold on Amazon.
Got a quick workout in at the gym here at my apartment.






After, I stopped by Nature's Finest for some shopping and lunch!
Tried another green splash smoothie, but this time instead of Soy lethicin, I got hemp powder. Contents: pineapple, banana, coconut milk, spirulina, and the hemp. SO GOOD!


(Please ignore my mangled thumb nail! I smashed it in the car door a few months ago and THAT is what has grown back so far)


I also treated myself to what they called an "ancient Incan sandwich." It was a delicious wrap of: quiona, black beans, red pepper, scallions, olive oil, red wine vinegar, fresh cilantro, sea salt, oregano, cumin with lettuce, tomato, sprouts, and hummus! whew!



Max was quite interested in what I was consuming:





What else did I buy today?


Includes: Yes to Carrots night cream (review to come), an Alba Sunscreen (for all the hours we've been spending at the pool); I have loved the exfoliator so far, and I bought the cleanser, too. Product review to come!
Continuing on: coconut milk, local tomatoes, onion, Stash Acai Berry tea, grapes, alfalfa sprouts, and Roasted red pepper salad dressing!

But the best thing was under $4 and I got it at Ross. It's a new cutting board, nice and big!


I love it!


I tried to donate blood this afternoon but my HgB was only 11.0. um, crap? I think it's time for some steak! But seriously, all the leafy greens I eat and it is that low?

another death.

Can you believe it? Yesterday I was floated to another floor from 7-3 (it wasn't bad at all), and I am floated back to my floor from 3-7 and another DNR/CMO (comfort measures only) patient DIES!! My first death was the previous day and then only my second the day after!
The weird part was that her birthday was yesterday! She died on her 94th birthday. The tech and I cleaned her, put the toe tag on, and put her in the postmortem bag (ie-body bag). I showed the tech how to do everything, as if I had done it a million times even though just yesterday was the first.

sigh.
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In other news, yesterday when I spoke to Mirza on the phone at work, he was driving back from his eye appointment and he told me he was on his way to Nature's Finest to get a salad!!!!!!! I was so shocked.!! And proud. I have trained him so well:) He even put alfalfa sprouts on it!

post mortem

Today was hectic!
I did my first postmortem care. I need to go to bed, so more on that tomorrow.
I know I need the money, but if they call me off tomorrow, I may just take them up on that offer. I left with a patient who I think may not make it through the night or at least through tomorrow. I think two postmortems in two days is probably too much!!

only one day off

This morning I went for a 30 minute walk on the trail. o-m-g it was hot! I was sweating soooo much. I think the days of walking are over for Florida. Seriously, it was only 10:30am, but the heat was intense.
When I came home, I hung around for a bit until Mirza called. We went to Mad Music so he could spend his gift certificate from his birthday. He got his dream guitar the other day, so he needed some little extras!
Since Nature's Finest is across the street, we stopped in for some snacks.
We decided on the Green Splash smoothie! It included Pineapple, Coconut milk, Banana, Lecithin, Spirulina, and Mighty Greens...mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm it was so good!



We also hit up the salad bar and grabbed a bunch of everything. The salad was filled with everything you can imagine, and on the side we had this quiona salad, a veggie crunch salad, pasta, and he got some crab cake salad. There was also this sweet potato pie thing,mmmmmmmm. I think I enjoyed the meal too much almost. Oh, and the dressing was a roasted red pepper vinaigrette.






After a few more errands, we hit the pool!