A Vegan Tea Party

The day of the tea-party finally arrived!
All my hard work was well worth it! All the girls had a wonderful time.
We painted mini tea cups and played "pour the tea" blindfolded! We had a jewellery hunt instead of a treasure hunt (that's for boys!!!).
I won't post pictures of the girls to respect their privacy - but check out the AWESOME food & activities that we had at the tea party....

Making oreo pops - strong toothpick to hold the oreo dipped in melted chocolate and a few sprinkles on top!

A twist on pass the parcel! We had a talk about making sure we share presents around and think of people who haven't had something yet! It was so lovely to see the girls caring about others and thinking through the clue!

Tea pot bags - inside was a mini tea-cup to paint (as shown below).

Gotta love the craft store! So many good finds!

The girls had so much fun watching each other pour a cup-of-tea blindfolded!

Tea bag crackers!

Tea pot cookies

Fruit flowers!

I honestly wondered if the girls would enjoy the fruit or just go for the cookies and other more appealing food, but they ate all the fruit treats also!

I guess it really does help to make healthy food look appealing!

Kiwi flowers

 Date, raisin & seed balls, okara-coconut cookies, teapot cookies.

Oreo pops and more chocolate date balls (loved by them all!).

These date balls broke my food processor!!!! DEVO! Lucky they tasted so good!

And of course a teapot cake!

The girls enjoyed a range of different punches made from green tea, black tea & various flavoured teas mixed with apple & orange juice & soda water!

 Tea for the mums! (How cool is my teapot set!!!!)

No party is complete without party bags!!!!!
Tea stained ones seemed perfect for a tea party!!!!

Leftover cake makes for great cake pops to take the school!

And a special little treat for the boy who eats 'gluten free' in her class! No-one misses out when I cook!

Ok so I know that technically this isn't what-i-ate-on-wednesday but I finally got around to posting all about our great day on Saturday on Wednesday!!!!
Join in the WIAW fun at the peasandcrayons blog :-)

A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BEAUTIFUL LITTLE GIRL!

"You're worth more than gold" xxx

Unprocessed - Thursday Week 3

Breakfast - 
Blueberry 'yogurt' with oats. 


Busy, busy, busy doing loooooooooooads of fun things for my daughter's party on Saturday!

Here's some my craft and cooking adventures for the day.

 
I just couldn't get over how gorgeous these little teapot party boxes were!


I'm all for individualism so each of them is slightly different! This purple one is my favourite!




Below is Oreo pops and what will become tea-bag crackers once they have a string and tag attached!

Lunch was thought about at 2pm! 
I rummaged through the fridge and tossed various odds and ends into a salad! Including leftovers which made for a tasty dressing!

I had an early game of netball tonight which meant that I ate after I came home. I wanted something that quick & easy to whizz up.
 

I used more of my massive container of pre-cooked brown rice. I love brown rice!
To accompany my rice (or perhaps the other way round!) I made a quick mushroom stroganoff. Its so easy! Sautee mushrooms, onion and garlic & add tahini and water :-) 

Done and delicious!

More party adventures to come!


FACT OF THE DAY:
The literal translation of the Chinese symbol for brown rice means "rough rice". 

Do you think that brown rice is 'rough'?
 

WIAW - The week that was verrrrrrrrrry busy!

Preparing for my daughter's birthday party on the weekend has made for a busy start to the week...... and I'm sure the end of the week is going to be even ~busier~.
I have been cooking each meal with enough for leftovers (for either breakfast, lunch or dinner) and it has helped.
I can't work out who's more excited for this party.... her or ME?!?!?!!!!!!
Its going to be a tea-party!
A vegan-tea-party :D
I made the first layer of the teapot cake last night.

Now onto today....
My usual morning rush out the door......
Brown rice with banana and flax seeds for breakfast. Thanks to the large batch of precooked rice in the fridge!

Lunch - more leftovers! Stir-fry

By the way.... how cool are these bowls we have at work!!!???
I think we 'need' some for our kitchen too!

Afternoon tea:
Had at 5pm lol - that's what a busy day in the office will do to you! But that was ok because I didn't leave work til 6.40pm! Thankfully by that time there was no peak-hour traffic to worry about, so leaving late does have its benefits too!

Dinner when I finally arrived home at 8pm - not a bad run up the freeway at all!
But by that time I was ~starving~ and wanted instant food. 
That's right - leftovers save the day again....
Soup!

And then to do more party organising.....
Here's the "tea-party bags" all finished and filled (with vegan goodies of course!).

I dipped the bottom of the bags into brewed tea to give them a very 'tea bag' look!
Stay tuned for more of our tea party adventures!


You can join in what-i-ate-wednesday at the peasandcrayons website!

Question of the day:
Parents out there.... Do you prefer to have your childrens parties at home and organise it yourself, or do you prefer to go somewhere and let the place do the organising?
 

Birthday Cakes

I LOVE LOVE LOVE making birthday cakes!
I love thinking about what shape they will be or how it will fit into the party theme.

But most of all I love it when people enjoy the cake and are surprised that its vegan! What no butter, no eggs?!?!? How can you make a cake with no eggs!!! 
~E~A~S~Y~  Like this.......


Here's a couple I've made:

Me with my 30th cake that I made.

The finished product :-)

Showing the layers - one vanilla, one strawberry, one chocolate!

Neapolitan Cake

The process is time consuming - but well worth it!

Layers of yummy cake!

Rolling out the icing

Who doesn't love a rainbow cake??

Layers separated by strawberry jam

Making coloured layers of cake

More cake!

Two flavours - top part sultana & choc chip, bottom part orange & poppy seed

Cow print fondant

Of course birthdays not only mean cooking, but craft too!

Making invitations is always lots of fun

And making party bags too!

Thumbprint tree

For a wonderful memory of those in my life at the time :-)