Presently 1.0: A Tuesday Sort of Feature

Technically this isn't my first Presently post, but it's going to be a regular Tuesday fixture around here now. I'm excited! Sometimes it's nice to just jot down what's going on in your life right now, mundane or not, to look back at it later, and that's why I'v decided to do it. Other bloggers do "currently" posts on set days or in link ups, but I chose Tuesday because it's the middle of my week and the best representation of what's going on in said week. Also, it's "presently" for me because currently is one of those words that looks weird to me written out. Do you have any words that screw with your eyes? Anyways, here we go.

Reading: Mindfulness in Plain English, a book on meditation, though I'm not getting in as much reading time as I would like. Lorelei has been making me read This is Not My Hat and I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen on repeat lately as well (he's my favorite children's book illustrator, Lorelei really prefers Oliver Jeffers).

Writing: Lists! I've been following the 52 Lists project over on Moorea Seal's blog and really loving having a way to tap into "me" and being forced to practice my penmanship. I've also been blogging a lot more lately (weird!). Oh, and all of those children's books I've been reading have me thinking, "I could totally write children's books." So maybe I'll be writing little's literature if I get some time and inspiration.

Listening: Right this minute I'm listening to the Decembrists, but lately we've been listening to a lot of Youth Lagoon, Hammock (for yoga), and on the weekends I can't help but play The Beatles.

Watching: Downton Abbey. David and I are hooked! We're in the middle of Season 2 right now and the tension between Matthew and Mary is killing us. We watch an episode almost every night while we drink tea. Haha. Nerds...

Thinking: I can't get our anniversary trip to Portland off my mind! We leave in thirteen days that are going to fly by. We have been planning our activities and food adventures for four months and now I feel like we're not prepared enough. So far we have plans to stop at no less than four coffee shops (all with their own roasts), eat some donuts, visit Pittock Mansion (where I will nerd out and pretend I'm in The Impassible Wilderness, Wildwood reference...), and we'll be staying at the ACE Hotel. Pretty exciting stuffs!

Smelling: LUSH's Sultana of Soap. Their scents really permeate! The smell lingers on the skin forever and just having the bar in the bathroom acts like air freshener. The scent is intoxicating. I like to think of it as smelling like ambrosia...

Wishing: That I had more me time. Yesterday my anxiety was through the roof because Lorelei wouldn't give me space to do anything. We ended up going to Target because getting out of the apartment usually helps, but she ended up really cranky after a while and I lost my new cardigan. Imagine a crying mom frantically pushing a stroller harnessing a wailing toddler all over the store thinking that her life is over because she lost a sweater... The good news is that I found my sweater and she crashed out when we got home. If I could have like an hour of uninterrupted time to do yoga and/or paint my nails everyday I would be so much calmer and happy to cater to her every whim. Sometimes being a stay at home mom is really trying.

Hoping: That I can get my kitchen clean and vacuum today. I have the hardest time doing simple, necessary cleaning tasks and my apartment is a cluttered mess all the time.

Loving: My husband. I don't say it enough, but that guy...he's wonderful. He just is. :)

Wanting: To be on a schedule! I have this overwhelming desire to be more structured lately. I think I'm in a good place to initiate more routine right now. I have some good ideas about how to structure our day so that we are more productive and do more things that we enjoy at the same time. I keep eyeballing calendars and planners when I go to Target. Mostly I want to schedule workouts so that I actually do it more than once or twice a week. Also, I need to do more meal planning so that everything else in the day flows easier as well.

Needing: Nothing that I can think of.

Feeling: A little grubby. Today is the first day of this week that I haven't been dressed and made up before doing anything else.

Clicking: Um, the regular social networking stuff...Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Bloglovin...nothing too interesting. Well, I've spent way too much time on LUSH's site since we visited the store, but I wasn't going to admit that...

Vegan Whole Wheat Cinnamon Rolls - A Delicious Time Suck

Pictures courtesy of Photography by David L. Clark

On Saturday, by some miracle, I was up before 9 o'clock. I woke up craving cinnamon rolls, so I thought, "Hey, I'll just make some for breakfast!" Problematic, because homemade cinnamon rolls require  A LOT of rising time and waiting. If I had read the recipe through before making them, I might have decided against it, so I'm kind of glad I didn't. Even if we didn't eat anything until around 1 o'clock... It's okay really, they WERE good enough to make up for the growling, angry tummies the wait evoked. I advise making them after eating some sort of breakfast, or doing everything up until the second rise the night before. Also, I found this recipe at VeganBaking.net, substituted whole wheat pastry flour, and ditched the nuts and raisins.

Yields 12 Rolls

Dough:

• 1 tablespoon golden flax meal
• 3 tablespoons warm water

• 1 1/4 cup warm water
• 2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

• 4 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup Earth Balance
• 1 teaspoon salt

1. In a small bowl whisk together flax meal and water, and set it aside.

2. In another small, non-metallic bowl, sprinkle the yeast on top of the water and combine well, and allow to set and get foamy for about 10 minutes.

3. Measure the flour into a large mixing bowl.

4. Beat together the Earth Balance, sugar, and salt in another bowl.

5. Combine all of the wet ingredients in one bowl, and then mix into the flour either by hand or in a stand mixer, until you get a sticky dough ball.

6. Continue to knead in the mixer if you have a dough hook on low for about 4-5 minutes, or knead by hand on a lightly floured surface for 5-10 minutes, until the dough is smooth.

7. Place the dough back into the bowl and allow to rise for at least one hour, in a warm spot.

Meanwhile...make the...

Filling:

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup Earth Balance
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

8. Whisk this all together, nothing fancy.

Back to the dough...

9. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface into a rectangular shape. I'm not much of a measurer, but the original recipe says 16x20 inches.

10. Spread the filling evenly on the top of the dough.

11. Roll the dough length wise, and the carefully cut into 1 1/2 inch thick disks.

12. Plop them into a greased 9"x13" baking dish, cover, and let rise for another hour (or if you're prepping night before put them into the fridge now). 

13. Preheat the oven to 400º F.

14. Bake for 15 minutes, turning the pan around once during.

Don't forget the icing!

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 3-4 tablespoons non-dairy milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• pinch of salt

15. Whisk together until smooth.

16. Pull the rolls out and let them cool 5-10 minutes before drizzling on the icing and serving warm. 

So delicious, and not too guilt laden. Perfect treat!

Shop Without the Drop

1. Sleeveless Blouse 2. Sultana of Soap 3. Shorts 4. Long Sleeve Blouse 5. Cardigan 6. Jeans

Yesterday I had a hankering to go check out H&M because I've been in serious need of a wardrobe makeover since, well before I ever got pregnant with Lorelei. I decided this was the place to go because not only are their prices super duper good for new clothes, but the company is also pretty socially responsible as far as fast fashion goes. Like, did you know that you can recycle bags of clothes at all of their locations? They can be pretty much any type of clothes, ripped, stained, whatever, and then people sort everything to be resold, recycled, or used to create energy. You can read more about that here. We got really incredibly lucky in that Lorelei decided to take a 3 hour nap starting right before we got to the mall, so I got to try things on (gasp!). I needed to find a few staple pieces of clothing that would work well with the little bit I already had, and the pieces above fit the bill and were cohesive. My entire wardrobe consists of the pieces above (though the long sleeve blouse is actually a really gorgeous berry color, and that isn't the exact black cardigan), a white and a gray v-neck t-shirt, a white and a black camisole, a black turtleneck bodycon mini dress, a black chiffon maxi skirt, a pair of low rise worn in Levi's, a button up chambray dress, a navy lace high-low hem dress, a pair of black moccasins, a pair of black booties, a pair of converse, a yoga outfit, a wool coat, and three pairs of tights. That kind of sounds like a lot written out, but if you see it hanging in the closet it isn't and I'm okay with that. Sometime soon I plan on playing dress up all day to figure out how many outfits I can get out of the pieces. The only items I feel I'm missing are a scarf, a cool statement necklace like this one, and a fedora. 

Anyways, during our trip to the mall we realized that Teavana was right next to H&M, and we'd been dying to go in, so with the dragon sleeping we traipsed on in. We got to sample 6 different teas that were delicious to say the least, ogle some gorgeous tea pots and kettles, and escape empty handed even with the sales people on their A-game. We were on the home stretch to get out to the car when I spotted Lush. Savannah at Maiedae did a review video on some of their products a week or two ago that sparked my interest, so I jumped over to their site to find that a lot of their products were vegan. Also, remember that I have a beauty product problem? We ended up inside, our nostrils rejoiced, we were given little hand arm treatments, and we walked out with the Sultana of Soap. I'm already scheming my next visit to get some henna for my hair!

We're not usually mall people, so it was surprising to us that we had such a good trip. We spent under $85 and loved the loot. So we shopped, and we didn't drop, weird. Oh, also this weekend I made cinnamon rolls, and pan pizza. So look for the recipes soon. ;)