Sweet & Sour Vegan Meatballs PLUS My first Baby Quilt!

-       Apples
-       Plain Pasta
-       Soda Crackers
-       Cucumbers
-       Doritos

This was my life for almost two months. Having no appetite and throwing up almost everyday.

OH THE JOYS OF PREGNACY.

You guys know me as a foodie, a lover of food and making new and fun dishes to share with you. Well that all changed in December when I was taken over by my baby. I stopped wanting to eat almost all together, well anything with real nutritional value, and the stuff I wanted to eat were things that I didn’t even really care for. But hey the baby gets what they baby gets!

This was my brain before the baby

Spring rolls…….. salad……….carrots…….. smoothies…… bananas………tomatoes……stir fries……good healthy food.

This was my brain on baby

………………..apple………………..crackers………………DORITOS…………pasta……….DORITOS……….apple.................

GET THOSE BANANAS OUT OF MY HOUSE AND DON’T EVEN TALK ABOUT CHICKE PEAS!

I had to take almost two weeks off of work because I literally couldn’t get off the couch, I lost 10 pounds in a week and felt like I was dying. Again, the joys of pregnancy. Luckily that is all behind me and can now eat smoothies and salads and all of my favourite foods again. It feels so good to feel normal again, because there were times where I honestly didn’t think I ever would again.

So I apologize for being MIA the last couple of months, I just haven’t felt inspired lately to make fun and delicious foods. But today is my first post since the beginning of January and I thought I would give you guys both food and fabric!

First for the food!

I was looking through the cupboards for a snack and saw a can of pineapple, and that's all it took to spark my appetite for some Sweet & Sour Vegan Meatballs.

My brain started putting together everything that I would need to make this amazing supper and awesomely enough I had everything to make this except the sauce. I thought about making one from scratch but I was feeling a little lazy and ended up just buying one from Safeway. I think next time I make these I am going to try my hand at a scratch made one, and bake them in a slow cooker. Mmmmm.

Easy Sweet & Sour Vegan Meatballs

Vegan Meat Balls

1 can of chick peas

¼ cup cashews/pecans

3 sprigs of fresh parsley, de-stemmed

½ lemon, juiced

Dash of liquid smoke

½ cup GF quick oats

Salt and pepper to taste

1 jar of Sweet & Sour sauce

1 can of pineapple, diced (drain liquid)

2 red peppers, chopped

1 yellow onion, chopped

2 tbsp coconut oil

In a large frying pan, on medium heat, melt coconut oil and sauté the onions and peppers. While those are cooking combine all of the ingredients except the oats into a food processor and pulse until smooth. Then stir in the oats by hand until well combined.

Form into balls and place in the frying pan with the onions and peppers, brown each side. Pour in the sauce and the pineapple and let simmer for 10 minutes.

Pair with your favourite rice, serve and enjoy!

Now the FABRIC!!

As soon as I found out I was pregnant I knew I wanted to make multiple baby quilts for our newest edition, but where do I start? We aren't finding out the sex of the baby so that limits the themes of baby quilts I can make. If I knew we were having a baby girl I would make a Cinderella themed one, or something really flowery, but I guess I will have to wait!

So what kick ass, gender neutral baby quilt idea did I come up with? HARRY POTTER!!!!!

I am completely obsessed and like most Potterheads I have read and reread the books, and watched the movies a thousand times. AND whats even more awesome, my sisters are throwing me a Harry Potter themed baby shower. I cant fricken wait!!

Christmas Quilt Projects!

Have I ever mentioned that I love quilting?! Cause I really do. This Christmas I had 3 sewing projects to finish before the 25^th and each of them turned out fantastic. They were all really fun to make and I was really proud of myself because I didn’t leave it till the very last minute to get them done.

The baby quilt was for my friend Kara, her boyfriend’s sister just had a baby boy named Rhone and she wanted to give him a quilt for Christmas. She found the awesome baby motorcycle fabric on Spoonflower and texted me the link so I could buy it. After seeing the fabric I knew what I wanted to make, the fabric is so busy and I really didn’t want to cut it up so I went for something basic that would show off the great print.

With a lot of parents naming their children different and unique names that are hard to spell and sometimes even pronounce, I sympathize with these kids. My name isn’t different or unique but I could NEVER EVER find anything with my name on it when I was younger. No Nikki Pencils, no Nikki Stickers, no Nikki Erasers. Nothing. Oh there was Nicole (barf, no offense) or Nick (I'M NOT A GUY!)

So I feel like I could help this little guy out by giving him something with his name on it. I know I would have really appreciated it when I was younger, to have something with my name on it. Who knows, maybe my quilt will help him spell his name... I could be helping this little boy learn! Woo Hoo!

I was super happy with this quilt and so was Kara, it’s really adorable and I put a plush backing on it to make it even better. This was the first project I finished, a whole 10 days before Christmas which is really good timing for me!

 

The second project I made was this amazing yet time consuming wall hanging for my friend Spencer. He wanted to give his family friends something for Christmas but wasn’t sure what since they are one of those families that have everything. Then he came up with the idea of a wall hanging to commemorate their farm turning 100. He sent me 9 pictures and gave me artistic freedom to make whatever I want.

 I chose the picture of the original homestead because I felt it would mean more to the family to see the original homestead on the wall.

I printed the picture off onto transparent paper for my overhead projector. I then projected the image onto the wall and individually traced out all of the images onto heat and bond, which I then pieced together to bring the wall hanging to life. Picking out the fabric was a challenge yet fun, because I wanted it all to look as much as the picture as possible but I also wanted to add some more vibrancy that the picture lacked. I had never done a wall hanging before, so it was also my first time doing hand stitching (other than binding), so I think I did a pretty great job. It was so worth all of the needles going through my fingers.... note to self, get a thimble.

The finished project turned out great, I am really happy with it, which doesn’t happen often. And the cherry on the vegan cake was that Spencer texted me on Christmas Eve quoting the woman he gave it to saying “Tell her she did an absolutely fabulous bitchin job” Gotta love it when you can make a 63 year old woman say Bitchin!

The third and final project I made for Christmas was two pillow beds for my nephews Brody and Carson. After seeing these on Pinterest, I knew I had to make them and they looked so comfy and pretty simple to make. I luckily found matching pillow cases at Winners, 2 for $4.99, which was a steal of a deal, especially since they were super cute patterns with cars, stripes and sports balls on them.

All I had to do was zig zag each of the pillow cases together insert the pillows and VIOLA DONE! Probably one of the easiest gifts I ever made. And the icing on the vegan cake here was that my nephews put down their new remote control cars because they were so pumped about them. When opening them Brody yelled ‘WOW PILLOWS!!’ and instantly wanted to play on them. I couldn’t have been happier with their reaction. So next time you are stumped on a gift for your young relatives, think about making them these pillow beds, they are totally worth it!

Thanks for reading!

Xoxo -N