Well, it has been an interesting journey thus far, and I'm sure it'll just keep getting more interesting. There is just so much to learn! From others, from books and articles, and of course from experience and trial and error. So far I've learned that I really can't predict anything. Not what kind of birth someone will have, nor how they will handle it. Rookie mistake I'm sure, but I thought I could predict it. I was wrong! Pretty glad I was wrong too.
But I posted this to share that I've launched a website for my business. It's an ongoing work in progress and I will keep adding to it and tweaking some things. Have a look! Building a website is a royal pain in the ass, and I used a website builder tool! It still was insanely difficult, for me anyways.
anyadoula.com
Sunday, March 22, 2015
Monday, February 9, 2015
Orange Cranberry Coconut Vegan Scones
I love scones! Normally I make them with butter though, and cream/yogurt/kefir but one day I was out of butter, but scones HAD to be made. Seriously, they had to be haha. Anyways so these happened, and it's been a hit! Note to self, I have seriously got to take better pictures.
You'll need:
2 Cups flour (I use organic white unbleached)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 Cup Coconut Oil in solid form
zest of 1 good size orange, or 2 small ones.
The juice of those oranges, you will need 1/2 cup liquid, if I don't have enough orange juice add coconut rum to make it to 1/2 cup.
1/2 Cup cranberries (more or less to your preference, I never measure them just use a generous handful or so).
Preheat the oven to 400F degrees.
First mix all the dry ingredients, then zest the orange/s and mix it in.
Bake for 20 minutes, check on them after 15 minutes if your oven is an overachiever. When they start to get nice golden brownish they are done! Wait for them to cool, a bit, or not, whatever works. And voila! Bon appetit :)
You'll need:
2 Cups flour (I use organic white unbleached)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 Cup Coconut Oil in solid form
zest of 1 good size orange, or 2 small ones.
The juice of those oranges, you will need 1/2 cup liquid, if I don't have enough orange juice add coconut rum to make it to 1/2 cup.
1/2 Cup cranberries (more or less to your preference, I never measure them just use a generous handful or so).
Preheat the oven to 400F degrees.
First mix all the dry ingredients, then zest the orange/s and mix it in.
Cut in the 1/2 cup of solid coconut oil, just like you would butter in a non-vegan recipe.
Next stir in the cranberries, I like to separate mine out since they stick so badly, you can also just give them a rough chop. Then pour in the orange juice (with the coconut rum if you added it) and stir it together till well incorporated. Then I like to dump it onto a clean counter and lightly knead/fold/ push the dough together until it stays together, shape into a disc, no more than an inch thick. Slice that disc into 8 wedges. If you want small scones then separate the dough into 2 parts, shape into 2 discs and slice each one into 6 scones. I remembered the picture after I started transferring it to the cookie sheet, oops!
Monday, October 27, 2014
18 Months update
How is it that my baby is 18 months!? I swear she was born just a few months ago, sigh. I hate that time goes so fast and they grow up so quickly. Oh well, savoring every moment.
Some stats, she is 34" tall and about 25lbs. All this according to my home measurements since we don't do "well visits" (who wants to go to the doctor when they are well!? doctors are for going to when sick). She is wearing 18-24 months clothes with some 2Ts in the mix, size 5 shoes although moving into a 6. Still mostly soft soles.
She is full of character and quite the clown, but she is also feisty. She is always on the move, always looking for trouble to get into haha. She will pull up a chair to give herself a boost when trouble is out of her reach, keeping mama on her toes!
Great eater, eats constantly pretty much, "real" food and still nursing tons. She also now uses utensils and does pretty good with them.
She is getting quite brave at the play ground and now goes down the biggest slide all by herself, craziness. Still loves the swings and can easily waste 10+minutes in them. Still likes to eat dirt and sand and sticks, yuk. She hates having her teeth brushed, but some days she doesn't fight it. She does like eating the toothpaste though, silly girl.
Still not much talking, she says mama, hi, something that means bye, "boba" which means boob sometimes while signing "milk" at the same time. She is starting to try and mimic our sounds more and more so maybe there is more words coming soon. Loves her big sister, most of the time, loves to pretend to want to listen to books but looses interest a few pages in. Kicking a soccer ball is the new cool thing around here these days.
And some pictures, because why not!
She loves smoothies!
multitasking, nursing and nose picking haha
Still rear facing, of course.
troublemaker!
Still bed sharing
Still baby wearing.
Some stats, she is 34" tall and about 25lbs. All this according to my home measurements since we don't do "well visits" (who wants to go to the doctor when they are well!? doctors are for going to when sick). She is wearing 18-24 months clothes with some 2Ts in the mix, size 5 shoes although moving into a 6. Still mostly soft soles.
She is full of character and quite the clown, but she is also feisty. She is always on the move, always looking for trouble to get into haha. She will pull up a chair to give herself a boost when trouble is out of her reach, keeping mama on her toes!
Great eater, eats constantly pretty much, "real" food and still nursing tons. She also now uses utensils and does pretty good with them.
She is getting quite brave at the play ground and now goes down the biggest slide all by herself, craziness. Still loves the swings and can easily waste 10+minutes in them. Still likes to eat dirt and sand and sticks, yuk. She hates having her teeth brushed, but some days she doesn't fight it. She does like eating the toothpaste though, silly girl.
Still not much talking, she says mama, hi, something that means bye, "boba" which means boob sometimes while signing "milk" at the same time. She is starting to try and mimic our sounds more and more so maybe there is more words coming soon. Loves her big sister, most of the time, loves to pretend to want to listen to books but looses interest a few pages in. Kicking a soccer ball is the new cool thing around here these days.
And some pictures, because why not!
She loves smoothies!
multitasking, nursing and nose picking haha
Still rear facing, of course.
troublemaker!
Still bed sharing
Still baby wearing.
Thursday, October 2, 2014
Pumpkin scones recipe!
Funny thing, I never used to like pumpkin until about a year or two ago. Now I'm pretty open to it, and it does make me feel like fall is here. Because living in California you'd never know it's fall, it's been in the high 80's most of the week. So we try to make it feel like fall, through the crazy heat and what not.
We've been all about the scones lately so I made up a recipe and have been tweaking it for abut a week, I've made a batch almost every day, and to be honest they have all been good!
Ingredients: (this makes 8 scones)
2 Cups flour (I use white unbleached organic, but I should try it with whole wheat, or at least half/half)
1/4 C. brown sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cinnamon (add more if you like your cinnamon, I'm sure pumpkin pie spice would work fine too)
1/4 tsp. all spice
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 C. butter (1 stick)
1/2 C. pureed pumpkin
1/4 C. heavy cream
toasted pecans and dried cranberries to taste, I do about a 2 TBSP each, eye ball it.
Preheat the oven to 400 degree F.
Combine all the dry ingredients and mix them well. Take the stick of butter straight from the fridge cut it into 1/2 inch cubes and add it to the dry ingredients. Cut into the flour mixture with a pastry knife. It will look like course crumbs when you are done.
Measure out 1/2 cup of pumping puree, I do this in a glass measuring cup and add the cream on top of it then stir together.
Add the pumpkin and cream mixture to the flour & butter mixture, stir with a spoon or fork, I like to use 2 forks and toss it together. You want to handle this dough as little as possible, it's a pretty dry dough so that's not necessarily easy. Once you've got it somewhat incorporated (it will not come together at this point, it'll still resemble course crumbs, just larger ones) add the nuts and the cranberries. Toss a few more times to mix those in.
At this point I dump the dough on the counter to finish it. Try not to knead it, I sort of fold it and squash it together until it forms a mass. Then I shape it into a circle about 1" thick.
I forgot to take a picture of it cut. But cut all the way across the circle through the middle to split it into 2, then make a cross cut to split it into 4, then cut each quarter into halves and you end up with 8 wedges. Bake for approximately 20 minutes, if your oven is an over achiever perhaps check on them after 15 minutes. Mine is rather slow so it takes the full 20, they should start to brown on top. Naturally I forgot to take a picture of the finished product, and there is non left haha. I will make them again in a day or 2 I'm sure and will add a picture. Here they are going in though:
I've been debating whether or not I should make a glaze for them. I might test drive them with a glaze next time I make some. If someone tries them with a glaze I'd love to know what kind and how you like it. Bon Appetite!
We've been all about the scones lately so I made up a recipe and have been tweaking it for abut a week, I've made a batch almost every day, and to be honest they have all been good!
Ingredients: (this makes 8 scones)
2 Cups flour (I use white unbleached organic, but I should try it with whole wheat, or at least half/half)
1/4 C. brown sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cinnamon (add more if you like your cinnamon, I'm sure pumpkin pie spice would work fine too)
1/4 tsp. all spice
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 C. butter (1 stick)
1/2 C. pureed pumpkin
1/4 C. heavy cream
toasted pecans and dried cranberries to taste, I do about a 2 TBSP each, eye ball it.
Preheat the oven to 400 degree F.
Combine all the dry ingredients and mix them well. Take the stick of butter straight from the fridge cut it into 1/2 inch cubes and add it to the dry ingredients. Cut into the flour mixture with a pastry knife. It will look like course crumbs when you are done.
Measure out 1/2 cup of pumping puree, I do this in a glass measuring cup and add the cream on top of it then stir together.
Add the pumpkin and cream mixture to the flour & butter mixture, stir with a spoon or fork, I like to use 2 forks and toss it together. You want to handle this dough as little as possible, it's a pretty dry dough so that's not necessarily easy. Once you've got it somewhat incorporated (it will not come together at this point, it'll still resemble course crumbs, just larger ones) add the nuts and the cranberries. Toss a few more times to mix those in.
At this point I dump the dough on the counter to finish it. Try not to knead it, I sort of fold it and squash it together until it forms a mass. Then I shape it into a circle about 1" thick.
I forgot to take a picture of it cut. But cut all the way across the circle through the middle to split it into 2, then make a cross cut to split it into 4, then cut each quarter into halves and you end up with 8 wedges. Bake for approximately 20 minutes, if your oven is an over achiever perhaps check on them after 15 minutes. Mine is rather slow so it takes the full 20, they should start to brown on top. Naturally I forgot to take a picture of the finished product, and there is non left haha. I will make them again in a day or 2 I'm sure and will add a picture. Here they are going in though:
I've been debating whether or not I should make a glaze for them. I might test drive them with a glaze next time I make some. If someone tries them with a glaze I'd love to know what kind and how you like it. Bon Appetite!
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