Kamfort Food / Kamfy Living

4 DIY Food Styling Boards For Under $20!

11.12.17

I want to start adding more recipes on the blog in the ‘Kamfort Food‘ section and I have a lot of recipes I want to share. The only thing I was struggling with was making the food look beautiful. There are so many bloggers that have the most beautiful pictures that you just want to make whatever they post! But, even though I have so many amazing recipe I want to share with you all, I didn’t know how to make them look appealing. Therefore I was looking for ways to make some DIY food styling boards on a budget. And I have the perfect ones. I was able to make 4 DIY food styling boards for under $20!

I need to give credit where credit is due and these 4 DIY food styling boards all came from this tutorial one of my favourite Toronto bloggers posted! Mymiaou makes the most delicious looking food and her pictures are just fantastic! Her tutorial for the DIY food styling boards was super easy and fun and also very affordable! So, you just need to optimize the boards to fit the style of your blog!

4 DIY food styling boards

4 DIY food styling boards

4 DIY food styling boards

4 DIY food styling boards

WHAT YOU WILL NEED

Hardboard from Home Depot – 48 inch by 2 inch (cut in half) ~$5

Wall scraper – $0 (you probably have one at home)

DryDex Spackling Paste ~ $3

Paint brush – $0 (you probably have one at home)

BEHR Marquee Paint – we bought the $4 sample tubs

DIRECTIONS

When you are at Home Depot, ask to get the 48 inch hardboard to be cut in half. They will do this for free for you! You will find the spackling paste in the paint section. We found that one small tub was enough to make 2 surfaces.

Okay, so now, at home, lay out some newspapers to create a working space. Lay down the hardboard pieces on the ground and start applying the spackling paste using the wall scraper in whichever patten you desire. This particular brand of spackling paste is cool because it is pink when you apply and turns white when it dries.

Once you are done applying the paste, let the board dry completely before painting. For us it took around 2 hours.

Now, paint the surface whichever colour you desire. We chose a pink and a teal colour and I love how they turned out.

Let it dry and your surfaces are ready.

To create a total of 4 surfaces from 1 piece of  48 inch hardboard cut in half, we used the backsides to paint another colour. The hardboard piece is white on one side and brown on the other. So, we used one side to use the spackling paste and the other we left white. For the second hardboard, we painted the back side black. A total of 4 different surfaces to style your food for under $20!

My goal is to post more recipes on this blog, especially Punjabi/Indian food recipes. I love Punjabi food and honestly feel it is a healthy, wholesome diet for everyone if you pay careful attention to the ingredients you purchase to make your meals. So now, with these 4 different DIY food styling boards I have the tools necessary to take beautiful pictures of the food that I make that hopefully will inspire you all to try these recipes! Can’t wait to share what I have in store for you all 🙂

What recipes would you like to see on the blog?

Kam Travels / Kamfy Living

EweKnit Toronto

11.06.17

Hey guys, I hope you all had an amazing weekend and are staying warm as this cold weather is surrounding us! I wore my newly knitted sweater this weekend and it was so warm and cozy and it was made using yarn we bought from EweKnit Toronto so I will be talking about this amazing store today!

We wanted Gursheel’s mom to try a new hobby so we decided knitting was it. She has knit in the past so it wouldn’t have been a completely new thing to try. Gursheel and I were secretly excited because we LOVE knitted things but neither of us are talented enough to make anything.

Gursheel found a bunch of knitting books and he was so excited he would read for hours before going to sleep. He learned about different knitting patterns and needles and started researching everything to do with knitting.

The first thing we needed to get was the tools and yarn for the first project, so obviously we went to Michaels, the only craft store we knew of. But we could hardly find any of the supplies listed in the book for the first project and all the yarn at Michaels seemed synthetic.

We then tried searching online but most of the knitting stores were American. So then I thought there much be a knitting store in Toronto and there were multiple. So, we decided to go to Toronto one day to check them all out. Unfortunately, the date we chose, was a holiday weekend, and only EweKnit Toronto was open so we went there and it was AMAZING! Oh, and since Cafe Cancan was not to far away we also got to visit this amazing restaurant. You need to check out my review here!

As soon as I walked in I was in AWE! If anyone knows me, I love organized places and this place was organized so beautifully, I could’t stop staring!!!

EweKnit Toronto is a crafting store that has yarn, fabric and tools for knitting, sewing, embroidery and weaving! It is such a cool store, that even you are not into crafting, you will be in awe of its beauty! It is like a yarn museum!

Anyways, other the beautifully organized yarn and fabric, the colours of the yarn were endless and the quality was amazing! The store owner was so friendly and helpful, she helped us find all the needles and tools we needed. We then just had the difficult decision to choose a colour for the first project.

They had a discounted/sale section downstairs so we chose a beautiful purple colour for Gursheel’s mom to knit into a sweater for me! We were unsure how much yarn would be needed, so we bought 7 bundles and the store owner told us we could exchange it if we had any left over.

A couple of days ago my mother in law finally finished making the sweater and I LOVE IT!! It is so beautiful and warm and the yarn feels so soft on my skin. My mother in law also made me fingerless gloves with the leftover fabric to match the sweater she knit. And we still had a bundle of yarn leftover.

I’m planning on going back to EweKnit Toronto to exchange the yarn for yarn for a cardigan that Gursheel wants his mom to make next!

I am going to love going to EweKnit Toronto on a regular basis so Gursheel’s mom can make us beautifully knitted sweaters, cardigans, gloves and scarves. They are going to be essential for the cold weather that will soon be upon us in Toronto!

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And this is the beautiful sweater my mother in law knit for me! It’s so beautiful!! And so so warm 🙂

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Do any of you knit? What is your favourite thing to knit?

Kamfort Food / Kamfy Living

9 Easy Vegan Wisdom Teeth Removal Foods

10.29.17

I got my wisdom teeth removed a couple of weeks ago and boy was it painful. But the worst thing, after the pain, was I was always hungry! So today I’m going to share my favourite vegan wisdom teeth removal foods.

I had my oral surgery at 9 am and for the first 24 hours my jaw was bleeding. This basically meant I had to bite onto the gauze pads until the bleeding stopped. With this gauze and blood in my mouth, I couldn’t eat anything anyways.  On top of that I was given freezing which didn’t go away until 9pm the day of the surgery. Since I could’t feel my face, it gave me a hard time even drinking water.

There were some criteria given to me by my oral surgeon saying I could’t eat spicy food, hard/crunchy food and no straws allowed. Basically I couldn’t eat any food that you have to chew. The surgeon also suggested I drink soda and eat Jell-O the first day. I mean I love pop and if a doctor recommends it how can I say no. I was about to drink it the first day when I was starving, but last minute asked Gursheel to grab me some orange juice instead. Slightly healthier, haha. Anyways, after that I asked on Instagram what people ate following their wisdom teeth removal and did some research of my own.

A lot of you messaged me recommendations and the most popular was ice cream and dal (lentil soup) and I agree completely! However, I did some research online as well and I thought I should probably eat foods that will help me heal faster and are anti-inflammatory. This is important since it’s hard to brush your teeth the first few days and you don’t want to get an infection. The surgeon also prescribes you antibiotics, so make sure to finish your prescription as well. But foods that are anti-inflammatory can significantly increase your healing time including blueberries, ginger, turmeric and leafy greens.

Another recommendation was to add yogurt or some type of fermented food. Since you are taking antibiotics for over a week, the good bacteria in your gut are also getting wiped out. So, to make sure you are still replenishing these good gut bacteria, yogurt is a good option. I ate yogurt the first few days and considered grabbing some probiotics as well, but since I was taking the antibiotics, I thought this would have been counter-productive.

Okay so now on the list of my favourite vegan wisdom teeth removal foods in order of when you may actually be able to eat:

Day 1:

Day 1 is the hardest, and most likely even drinking liquid will be hard but juices and smoothies are going to be your best friend so try to add blueberries and spinach into your smoothies if possible! Also I ate ice cream 12 hours after the surgery and it provided tremendous relief!

  1. Juices
  2. Water
  3. Smoothies – check this link for my favourite smoothie ever!
  4. Turmeric ginger tea
  5. Ice cream – store bought, or try this recipe by minimalist baker!

AMAZING Coconut Ice Cream that's so thick it's like custard! Swirled with a 2-ingredient Sea Salt Date Caramel! #vegan #glutenfree #minimalistbaker

Day 2 and onwards:

Day 2 and 3 the swelling will start going down and you may be able to open your mouth a bit more so foods with a bit more texture are feasible. So, along with the foods from day 1, you will be able to eat the following as well:

  1. Mashed Potatoes
  2. Yogurt
  3. Tomato Soup
  4. Dal

Day 4 and 5 and onwards get significantly easier so you can start eating bread by dipping it into hot soup. But make sure to continue eating ice cream. I probably ate it 2 times a day, if not more. And it seriously did help me heal faster.

Who would have thought ice cream being something your doctor recommended? Haha!

Have any of you had your wisdom teeth removed? What was it like? What vegan wisdom teeth removal foods would you recommend?Â