When I went to Vancouver this past winter, I had the most amazing Acai bowl and I have been on the hunt to find places in Toronto that offer it. Last weekend, we went to this amazing vegan cafe called Sorelle and Co. in Vaughan and they had some smoothie bowls. Again I was so impressed and now I want to see if this is something I can make at home myself! Smoothie bowls are so delicious and healthy and so fun to eat with the beautiful toppings and I think you will love this berry banana smoothie bowl recipe!
The key to an amazing smoothie bowl is to make sure most of your ingredients are frozen so that the smoothie is thick. So you will not need any liquid in the recipe. The one I am sharing with you all today is just 3 ingredients: frozen berries, frozen bananas and yogurt. It’s basically a nice cream! But if you are looking for a smoothie recipe (try my favourite one here) and not into eating a smoothie, just add a half cup of milk and you have yourself a smoothie instead of a berry banana smoothie bowl!
The thing that makes the smoothie bowl so much more impressive is the toppings! That is why your smoothie needs to be thick so that the toppings don’t just sink into the bowl! Another tip I learned is to layer on your least heaviest toppings first, and then add your heavier ones like the bananas!
I love the look of a gift wrapped in a silk ribbon. It just adds the best special touch to any gift! There are a bunch of Etsy shops that sell silk dyed ribbon (this one is my favourite) but I thought I would take the challenge and make some beet dyed silk ribbons myself, just in time for Valentine’s Day!
Since I have never done this before and couldn’t really find much on the internet in terms of dying silk, I tested a couple different fabrics. From what I understand, cotton and linen will dye the best and take up colour easily from natural dyes, compared to silk. However, I really wanted to use silk (not cotton or linen) so I tried two different materials. I just had these two pieces of white silk lying around. Mani gave this to me when I used to learn from her!
The tutorial for these beet dyed silk ribbons is super easy, however, I did learn some things from my first attempt that I will also point out!
First, you need to get some fabric. If you also want to dye silk, as opposed to cotton or linen, buy raw silk! Synthetic silk will not dye well using natural dyes so get the good organic and raw silk for this project. However, if you do not care what fabric you want to use, use cotton or linen! They will dye very well!
Next, decide on the colour of the dye you want to use. There are synthetic dyes that you can purchase online, however, if you want to keep everything natural, then look into plants that give off a strong colour. For example, in this tutorial I will be talking about beets because I wanted a blush pink colour. However, I got more of a light red/rusty colour using beets instead. I think raspberries and strawberries will give you a more pink colour (from what I read on the internet).
And that is all! You need a good quality fabric and good plant dye. And you are set to make these beet dyed silk ribbons.
So, because I dyed silk with beets, I will tell you step by step exactly what I did!
Cut your raw silk fabric into strips. I cut mine into 1 inch strips using a pair of good quality fabric scissors. To get the frayed edges on the fabric, cut a little of the fabric on the edge and rip the fabric all the way down. This will give you a straight cut as well as create a frayed look!
Next in a large pot, fill it up with water and allow it to heat up.
As the water is heating up, peel and shop up the beets and place into the pot.
While waiting for the water to come to a boil, fill up the sink with hot water and add your pieces of fabric to pre-warm.
Once the water has come to a boil, take it to the sink and add your pieces of fabric. Allow them to absorb the colour from the beets for 2 minutes.
Then remove and let the water drain using a pair of tongs.
Hang them up to dry in a warm area in your home. I hung mine over the vent in our bathroom!
Once dried, you can either iron out the ribbons if you want a clean look. I wanted them to look a little distressed and wrinkled so I just rolled them onto an old spool.
They are ready to be used to wrap your gift!
Since this was my first attempt, there are a couple things I would change if I tried this again. I wanted a faded pink look in the end, however, I got more of a rusty red colour, which I actually do love. But I think the reason I didn’t get a pink ribbon is because of the material. You need to use a good quality silk. There cannot be any synthetic material in it or it will not pick up the colour easily.
Another issue I had with my silk was that I cut the strips before I dyed them. When I did this, the material just rolled up onto itself. So when I put the strips into the beet water, they picked up colour easily on the outside, the inside of the strips remained white. I would suggest cutting your strips after you dye them! Then after they dry, roll them onto some spools!
I may even try some of the dyes you can purchase online, this particular one from Amazon has caught my eye and I would love to try it out!
Overall, I had a lot of fun making these beet dyed silk ribbons and I love how distressed they look. I originally wanted the entire ribbon to be one colour, but I love how these ribbons have some parts that picked up more dye than others! And I LOVE the rusty, vintage look! I wrapped up some old Pokemon cards for Gursheel with these ribbons but I can’t wait to use them for upcoming gifts as well!
Happy February everybody! I love February because I see a lot of hearts, pink, and love going around and that just makes me happy. February being my birthday month is also pretty awesome! So today I am going to be sharing this amazing recipe for heart shaped vegan sugar cookies to make for that special someone in your life. Or for yourself because you my friend are also special and awesome! Just like these heart shaped vegan sugar cookies!
And the recipe couldn’t be any easier!
You can make the dough for the heart shaped vegan sugar cookies the night before and keep in the refrigerator or you can make it ahead of time and store it in the freezer. Then the night before just thaw it out and you are ready to roll them out and bake them.
I think February is the perfect month to munch on some sweet treats. I have been meaning to post more savoury dishes on the blog, since almost all my recipes on the blog are desserts, but they’re coming!! Don’t you worry, I have a lot of good stuff coming up. But today is once again a dessert (sorry to those folks who keep asking for savoury dishes) 😛
In a bowl or a stand mixer (like the KitchenAid, I love mine!), whisk together the coconut oil and sugar.
Once it is smooth and fluffy, add the almond milk and continue whisking until well combined.
Then add in the flour, baking powder, salt and milk and whisk until combined and a smooth elastic dough is formed.
Place the dough onto plastic wrap and wrap it up tightly and refrigerate a couple of hours before rolling out. You can make the dough the night before and roll it out the next day (this is what I did).
If the dough is too hard once you remove it from the refrigerator, allow it to thaw a couple of minutes before rolling it out.
Then flour your rolling pin and the counter surface. Using half the dough at a time, roll out the dough until it is 1/4 of an inch thick.
Using a parchment lined baking sheet, place the cookies onto the tray and bake for 10-15 minutes at 325’F until the bottoms of the cookies are slightly golden brown. I place my baking tray in the middle rack of my oven and they took 15 minutes to bake.
Allow cookies to cool completely on a wire rack before icing them with the royal icing.
To make the royal icing, whisk together almond milk and icing sugar. Then add your food colouring for the shade you want. I used frozen strawberries and raspberries to colour my icing. Just add a couple of pieces of frozen berries along with a tsp of hot water and add it to your icing sugar and almond milk mixture. You will get this beautiful royal icing that has some specs of berries and it also adds a bit of more flavour!
Once the cookies are cool, using a spatula add on the icing. Let the icing set for 10 minutes before serving.
Hope you all enjoy this heart shaped vegan sugar cookies recipe and are having an amazing February! And if you have a sweet tooth like me and are looking for more easy dessert recipes, check out the Kamfort Food section for tons of recipes!
Heart Shaped Vegan Sugar Cookies
Recipe Type: dessert
Cuisine: vegan
Author: GetKamfortable
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 24 cookies
Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup coconut oil (at room temperature)
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup almond milk
Royal Icing Ingredients
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp almond milk
Instructions
In a bowl or a stand mixer (like the KitchenAid), whisk together the coconut oil and sugar.
Once it is smooth and fluffy, add the almond milk and continue whisking until well combined.
Then add in the flour, baking powder, salt and milk and whisk until combined and a smooth elastic dough is formed.
Place the dough onto plastic wrap and wrap it up tightly and refrigerate a couple of hours before rolling out. You can make the dough the night before and roll it out the next day (this is what I did).
If the dough is too hard once you remove it from the refrigerator, allow it to thaw a couple of minutes before rolling it out.
Then flour your rolling pin and the counter surface. Using half the dough at a time, roll out the dough until it is 1/4 of an inch thick.
Use your heart shaped cookie cutters to cut out your cookies.
Using a parchment lined baking sheet, place the cookies onto the tray and bake for 10-15 minutes at 325’F until the bottoms of the cookies are slightly golden brown. I place my baking tray in the middle rack of my oven and they took 15 minutes to bake.
Allow cookies to cool completely on a wire rack before icing them with the royal icing.
To make the royal icing, whisk together almond milk and icing sugar. Then add your food colouring for the shade you want. I did a gradient of different shades of red/pink and used food colouring along with the juice from frozen strawberries and raspberries to create the shades.
Once the cookies are cool, using a spatula add on the icing. Let the icing set for 10 minutes before serving.
