Surviving the Daniel Fast: Vegan Chocolate Pudding Cookies!

"Pudding cookies??? ...wait...on the Daniel Fast?...What about *gasp*...SUGAR??" you ask.

Well, stress not, Dear Reader. Read on.

So my husband and I are about to begin week three--the final week--of our 21 day fast, and I am craving cake and coffee like nobody's business...so it's giving me plenty of time to pray...and also to be creative with what I am allowed eat.

"I want cookies!!!" I screamed...(in my head so I wouldn't be mistaken for a crazy person....)

Searching for an eggless, sugar free, gluten free cookie option brought me to a lot of recipes that were haystack-y or nugget-y, but nothing truly cookie-like...so...I decided I needed to offer the world a recipe that did so. I improvised. Since I was improvising, these measurements are probably not exact but are as best I remember them. Makes about 30-36 cookies (depending on how big you make them.)

Ingredients:
1. 3T of ground flax seed
2. 6-8T of water
3. 1/4c of ground tapioca
4. 1/3c cocoa powder
6. 1 1/2 bananas (around 1 cup)
7. 1/3c coconut oil
8. 1t baking powder
9. 1t vanilla extract
10. 1-ish cup gluten free flour
11. 1-ish cup almond milk
12. Nuts (to your taste)

Directions
1. Grind up flax seed in a coffee grinder. Add to mixing bowl with water. Stir. Set aside. (This will become your two eggs.)

2. Grind up tapioca in coffee grinder. Add to flax along with a splash of almond milk. Stir. Set aside.

3. Now preheat your oven on 350 degrees. In a separate small bowl or large mug, microwave your coconut oil till melted. Add the bananas and mash them up. Go ahead and grind the nuts in the coffee blender to give the flax and tapioca a few more minutes to soak up the liquid.

4. Now add the coconut oil and bananas to the mixing bowl along with the cocoa powder, baking powder, and vanilla.

5. Okay so...this next part is just to add flour and milk until the mixture is a nice dough-y consistency and it becomes fairly hard to stir. Add the nuts and stir one more time.

6. Put aluminum foil on cookie sheets and lightly spray them with oil if you want. (The coconut oil in the cookies works well enough to keep them from sticking too badly.) Add small spoonfuls of dough (they will be sticky) and put the sheets into the oven for 10 minutes. (Halfway through, I switched the two sheets on their racks to keep the cookies baking evenly.)

Done!

Notes:

- One thing that impressed me about them is that they came out really really well. Not goopy on the inside, but very spongy on the inside, crispy on the outside. Very satisfyingly cookie-like.

- They didn't spread out all over the pan, but held their shape--rather round. If you like flatter cookies, add more milk.

- They held together REALLY well even though I didn't use eggs. I attribute this to the combination of tapioca, flax, and banana.

- They cooked really evenly and didn't burn on the bottom. I think this may be due to the fact that coconut oil burns at a higher temperature than butter....but I may have totally just made that up...

- You might not want to take these to family/church events because people expect sugar at those things and while the bananas add sweetness (especially the riper they are), it's not what most Americans are used to.

- If you don't like bananas, try adding another fruit that goes well with chocolate like strawberries, applesauce, mango, or peaches...Things with a banana-like consistency when blended. (Not sure if citrus would work because of the acids, but...you can always experiment!)

- You just made cookies with no gluten, animal product, or added sugar (or sweeteners of any kind!); yet packed with fiber, potassium, protein, and skin cancer protecting cocoa!

The End!

Chanel Inspired (but kind of not) - Leather and Jersey Shirt

Okay so, this one came from an idea I came across in Alloy magazine. 

I really liked the leather sleeves and how the bodice part of the shirt runs straight into the shoulders and sleeves as all one piece of material. It's interesting and different. Mine turned out a little girlier than this one. (It looks a little motorcycle-y in the picture below.) I wanna play around with this look for awhile, though, and have a few ideas in my head of ways to do it.

I said it was "Chanel Inspired" because. . .it ended up looking more couture than I thought it would, but I'm okay with it! I think it looks interesting.

I used the same quilted material that I've used before (here and here ) and the same patent leather as I've used before on things. Yes, that's the same skirt as here. 

This one took forever to make the pattern for, for some reason. I used a shirt I had to get the sizing right, but because the sleeve was so different, it took awhile to draw it properly. I guess that's why people buy patterns!

Close up of the sleeve.

If you notice, the neckline and the bottom hem have the same stitching, but the bottom is much more flared and the neckline lies flat. I learned a trick doing this that if you lightly pull on jersey fabric as you sew, the hem will flare out. If you lightly push the jersey into the machine while you sew, the fabric will actually lie flat. I know it seems like if you push it in, it will get all bunchy and gathered, but because jersey is stretchy and because there is tension in the machine, pushing will actually just counteract the stretch. I'm glad I thought to do this, or the neckline would be huge!

See the difference up there and down there?

Chanel Inspired: Lace Shimmer Dress

I actually made this dress last weekend, but this is the first chance I've had to post it. A poor lady at work is having some health issues, so I've been working a little more to help cover her. That's why I haven't been sewing all week. (Plus, Valentine's Day kind of takes your attention elsewhere. . .)

This dress is kind of bridging the gap between the Chanel stuff and the Downton Abbey stuff I have in my head (because it is so lacey).

Notice the sleeves are different. I just capped them off on this one to try something different. All I did was fold my original sleeve pattern in half and fold the fabric over along the hemline instead of sewing an actual hem. In other words, the sleeves are double thick because they are folded over at the hemline. Sorry, I was being lazy. . .and also this fabric is super stretchy and I didn't want to have to fool with hemming it.

If you can see in this close-up, I layered this see-through lace over a metallic-y fabric (the same metallic I used for the Nude Shimmer Dress).

Here is the back.

It goes really well with that top from the Flashdance Dress.

For some reason, I keep seeing women wearing lace dresses with jean jackets in magazines. . .so this must be in style! Good for me. . .

Chanel Inspired: Nude Shimmer Dress

I actually have had this dress in the back of my head ever since I received all this fabric. Apparently, someone along the line was planning on going into business making underwear or lingerie, because there was a bunch of this filmy, slip-like material in hot pink, purple, light blue, and just yards upon yards of this nude colored fabric. Since this fabric is probably intended to make undergarments, I made sure to put a double layer underneath the top layer you see pictured so it wouldn't be see-through.

I finally decided to make the dress after going to Forever 21 and finding that light pink, nude colors are really in style--especially when coupled with metalics. After watching that Chanel video, though, the dress really started to take it's shape in my mind.

To make the pattern, I simply traced my basic pattern I've been using for the longer part of my 2fer dresses and then drew a slightly curvy line down the middles of the front and the back pieces (to make the silver panels). I used the same sleeve pattern from the other dresses and the bow pattern from the Nautical Dress.

Originally, I had planned to put the silver underneath a layer of the nude so it would shine through; however, the nude is not as sheer as I'd thought. In order to actually see any shininess, the silver would have to stand on its own. That's when I got the idea to do these long panels, which also help in an optical illusion to make the wearer look thinner. . .or at least, that's what I hear.

I put the same slimming panels in the back.

I continued the same bow motif from the Nautical Dress to keep the collection coherent.

Also, the same sleeves and the same band along the bottom.

Chanel Inspired: The Coco Dress

I think this one is my favorite. When my husband saw it, he said, "Innovative." The clean lines on this one are especially reminiscent of the classic "Chanel Jacket." 

When I was going through my jersey fabric, I came across some white stuff that was quilted. Perfect for a Chanel inspired dress! Unfortunately, the white fabric was three times the thickness of the black, so I would have to do something to make sure the white fabric didn't overpower the black.

I don't know if you can tell it, but if you look at the edges of the bolero pattern, you will see they are folded up. This is because I laid it flat when I cut out the white fabric and folded it up when I cut the black. The way I got around the thickness problem was to cut the entire bolero portion out of black and white and then fold the white fabric up over the black. I forgot to put the sleeve pattern on here again. Also, I raised the front collar on the longer dress portion, but forgot to picture it here.

You can see the quilted-ness of the white fabric here.

Same pouffed sleeves.

I had to put darts in the back because it stuck out way too much in the back without them.

Here you can see that the entire top part is both black and white.

Chanel Inspired: Nautical Dress

I like to watch Youtube videos of fashion shows when I'm bored. I get really bored shopping for clothes lately. I hate spending money and nothing affordable ever looks very cute. (Norma Kamali had some awesome stuff at Walmart for awhile, but that ended years ago.) Every once in awhile I get inspired by a fashion show, however. Right now, I'm overflowing from this Spring Summer 2013 Ready-to-Wear collection from Chanel's Karl Lagerfeld:

I just really liked the little, short bolero top things going on in a lot of the dresses. The reason is because chopping off the top portion of a dress just above the waist helps to emphasize the top region of the body, while really making the waist look tiny. You don't see this style a lot because this look usually makes a woman resemble a matador. 

For some reason the plaid dress at 5:50, I really liked a lot. I drew it in my notebook of ideas, then I looked at my fabric cache, and three ideas popped right into my head. I thought I would try them in jersey to add some comfort into the style.

To make a pattern, I went to my closet and picked out some things I already have and I know fit me: 

I used the cream colored shirt I'd bought when I lived in Korea as the basis of my pattern. I really like it. It's cute, comfortable, and hides a lot. I used the blue assymetric shirt my husband bought me in Italy on our honeymoon as a guideline for how short the top part should be. The D&G shirt I just kind of used to determine how wide the top bolero part should be. 

I also look at modcloth.com every once in awhile for ideas. If I see an interesting idea, I always want to see if I can try to figure it out. I came across this shirt: Dear to Me Top and wondered how they'd made that bow in the front. Instead of being appliceed, it seems to be stitched into an actual seam in the shirt, so I had to try it.

I draw my patterns on that brown paper that comes as packing filler in boxes of stuff I order online. I forgot to put the sleeve pattern on here, but you get the idea of what my patterns looked like. I extended the length of that cream colored Korean shirt to make more of a dress length. The shorter bodice parts are the bolero part that goes over the longer dress. That straight part in between the longer dress and the bolero is the pattern for the ties of the bow.

This is what it looks like, finished:

I think this would look good on any frame, because for those who don't have a bust, it adds a bust. For those who do have a bust, it hides it. Same thing with shoulders and hips. The only thing I might worry about is a gut, but at least on this dress, the bow kinda hides that too!

From the back. You can really see how the top part makes the waist look tiny. This cut gives a girl confidence because if her butt happens to stick out a little bit, that might be a cute thing here!

I know this bow looks a little "Minnie Mouse-ish," but I rather like it.

I pouffed the sleeves at the bottom rather than the top for a slightly different feminine flair.

As you can see, it's all one piece. I attached it by the collar of both parts. I actually did this wrongly and had to take the stitches out the first time. It's misleading, because normally you stitch right sides together. . .but not so here, because both right sides have to be facing the same way. That doesn't make sense unless you are doing it, so nevermind!

Where's Mickey?