Enchanted Chameleon

EAT! *gluten free* Vancouver :: Trugs Gourmet

I'm pretty excited that I will be attending EAT! Vancouver this upcoming weekend, not only because it's a great event and I love food but one additional push and focus of this years EAT! event is gluten free.  And you know how I feel about that.  YAY!

In anticipation of trying some new brands of gluten free goodies this weekend I thought I would give you a little sneak peak at what you are in for if you are attending with an empty gluten free belly!

Please welcome Catherine of Trugs Gourmet.  

"Trugs Gourmet Foods Ltd. started out in 2007 in a small kitchen in Halfmoon Bay, on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia.  Our founders were driven by a desire to create unique, natural foods that would add a special touch to every day meals.  Today, the business has moved to beautiful Horseshoe Bay, British Columbia, and our products are sold in retail locations and online across British Columbia.  Despite our growth however, we continue to make our products by hand in small batches, using the highest quality ingredients that we can find."

EC - What is the inspiration behind the products that are Trugs Gourmet?

TG - Our new gluten free brand, Hidden Garden Foods, was inspired by my own challenges as a mom trying to get my daughters to eat vegetables.  I went to great lengths to convince them vegetables were delicious, dress the vegetables up with sauces, arrange them in playful positions on the plate, and eventually I often just tried to hide them so that at the very least some vegetables might slip by unnoticed.  The whole endeavour was time consuming and demanded more creativity than I could muster at each meal.  I noticed that there wasn't really anything on the market that hid vegetables in food and that tasted really good, so I set out to try and come up with something myself.  The end result is our new line of gluten free cookies that that have hidden vegetables in them but that actually taste like real cookies.

EC - What is one of the most difficult aspects of developing recipes?

TG - Hiding the vegetables!!  We managed to get a half serving of vegetables in each serving of cookies, which was not an easy task. That's a lot of vegetables, and their taste is hard to overcome.  The gluten free aspect actually ended up being pretty easy because our recipes replace flour with dehydrated and powdered vegetables.  Once we got the vegetables right we were already gluten free too.

EC - Are you gluten free?

TG - I try to be as much as I can, though I'm not 100% gluten free yet.

EC - Do you think gluten free is a fad/trend or is the future for food preparation?

TG - I don't think interest in gluten free foods is going away anytime soon.  There are too many people who genuinely feel better when they reduce the amount of gluten in their diets.  That's hard to ignore and now that there are tastier gluten free products making their way to store shelves it's a lot easier to make gluten free choices.  

EC - What are you favourite products and what can we expect to be sampling at EAT!?

TG - So far we have two cookie varieties: our Red Velvet Bites which have hidden beets and our Ginger Snaps, which have hidden butternut squash.  It's too hard to choose between them.  The Red Velvets are crispy and have a clean cocoa flavour, while the Ginger Snaps are soft and chewy and taste "just like grandma used to make".  Both are tasty in different ways.  We'll also be sampling products from our Trugs Gourmet line, which includes a variety of specialty condiments.  You'll just have to come and try them all!

Catherine, you can bet that I will try them all!  I cannot wait to check out the Trugs Gourmet table and samples this upcoming weekend.  I am especially excited about cookies that incorporate gluten free and vegetables, and they're cookies, YUM!

Thanks so much Catherine and Trugs Gourmet for sharing your experience and your products here today.

For more information on Trugs Gourmet visit their website here.  For more information on vendors, demos and ticket sales for EAT! Vancouver go to the EAT! Vancouver website here.

~ peter punk collar :: a DIY ~

I managed to gift myself a little more time to create recently.  My successful blue suede shoes had me feeling confident about what I could conquer without an exact DIY of someone else's to follow so I took the leap into a Peter Pan collar project that I had wanted to do.My inspiration for this project came from the Embellished Jacquard Shirt Collar from Zara.  It costs about $49.99 in Canadian stores which is a little out of the current budget.

My supplies included:  Pearl Bead Strands ( $.99 each at Michael's); Felt; Hot Glue Gun; Extra Beads; a Snap; Ribbon and a Pattern for the Collar found here at the A Matter of Style blog.

I printed out the pattern and adjusted it how I wanted when I cut it out.  I really didn't know how all the beads would come together untill I sat down and started playing with them.  I initially cut the pattern as shown with the intent to tie or in my case snap the collar at the front.  

Everything went pretty smoothly up until the part where I put in the snap at the front.  This part is where I got stuck.  The snap ended up not working.  I think because the felt was to flimsy or maybe it doesn't work well with hot glue.  I had to give it a little rest and think about what to do next.  In the meantime, C joined in and made his own necklace.

I loved seeing the end result of his little project.  The fact that he evened out and patterned the beads.  Very cool to see his vision come to life!

In the end, the solution was to glue the front of the collar and make it a necklace from the back with some ribbon.  I had to trim a bit of the collar from the back to get it to fit the way I wanted but it came together well and I love how it fits.

I think the real challenge to a Peter Pan Collar is finding the right neck line shirts to go underneath.  Heaven forbid it goes too high and you can see it or it goes too low and you can see skin.  No really, it just can't happen.

I've worn it a few time now and I love it!  Received lots of compliments so I'm very encouraged.  I think my DIY ing has hit a new level and I'm pleased to share the results.  Looking forward to more time this summer for little projects like this!  Updating my wardrobe for a fraction of the price (total I spent was $11.39!) is definitely a win.  XO.  S

{this moment}

A day late...

Inspired by SouleMama

~ gone baby gone ~

I've been thinking a lot lately of which direction to go with Enchanted Chameleon.  I'm no longer the same woman that started this blog, and to be honest it's partly because of this blog and the world that has come with it that I have changed.  I don't want to just post DIY projects I complete or recipes that I make.  I really want to write.  Mostly I think that my writing isn't going to be sustainable.  And you know what, I'm probably right.  But practice would make it sustainable and if the amount of growth that has come from this blog is directly proportionate to the amount of growth that my writing would receive from writing more than I guess I should just start writing. Non?

 

As for content, well, the best I can do is start with the present...

 

I was packing up C's old baby stuff last week and it touched a spot that along with my heart and feelings towards love relationships has long been bound up in concrete, keeping me safe from pain.  I was packing and posting for it to be sold, donated or given away to friends.  I mentioned my task to another mother on the playground that was missing a Padraig slipper on her baby (an exact Padraig slipper whose opposite foot was in my contents minus it's mate - serendipity) and she jokingly called me a horder.  Without judgement or drama I responded that I had been saving the clothes for another baby.  She quickly apologized but really, no apology was necessary.  I wasn't looking for sympathy or attention, I just had no qualm about being honest.  I really hadn't thought about the lots and lots of clothing, shoes, hats and other infant and toddler items in my storage for a while.  Not until recently, the storage space for it became the center of my living room.

 

A few special pieces passed through my hands and memories returned and the urge to hang onto those items just a bit longer came with it.  But I managed to pass along the ABCD/ACDC onesie to the right person at work and to set aside the knitted Ruby Slippers that I made myself for a friend that will truly appreciate them.  Other than that, the goods are on their way out.

 

It's complicated yet, it's really straight forward.  I still wanted more children before and after my marriage disolving last year.  It's not the reason that it ended but it's best that it ended while I still have a chance at that hope.  Yet, for me to get there, to a place where I can put my loving trust in another human that can go with me on the journey of another baby, I first have to let go of that hope, because at 37 next month, there is a good chance that there might not be another baby regardless of what I want.  And that's that.

 

Insert tears here.

 

To get to the next journey, I must first complete this journey.  I've had to say good bye to a number of things these past 6 or so months.  I said good bye to a good friend, the dream of marriage, my home, my business and in the next year, if the doctors are correct I will also be saying goodbye to my dad.  I guess I figured saying goodbye to some baby clothes was just that. Clothes.  But it turns out there is a dream there too.  Although the feelings that come with all of this just basically suck, I often answer in response to the question of how I am doing quite truthfully:  Better than I think I am.

 

And I mean it.  I'm better than I think I am.  Or at least, I'm better than I feel like I am.  This will all end and a new journey will come along.  Maybe by the end of this year I'll have a clean slate. A blank canvas for new hopes and dreams.  But they won't be worth having if I didn't learn why the old hopes and dreams didn't work.  So practice my writing I shall.  Today I practice writing goodbye.  Goodbye to the things that must go in order to move forward.  Be it a onesie, a photograph, or a self defeating belief.  I'm ready, not really ready, but ready.  And I know cause I just wrote so.  Xo.  S    

~ cinco de mayo :: raw vegan horchata ~

I love this super delicious and healthy recipe for a Mexican Horchata drink from Annemarie and Kevin at The Regegade Health Show.  Check out the recipe here.  It's raw, it's vegan, it's something that every can enjoy!  Happy Cinco de Mayo!  XO.  S

{this moment}

Inspired by SouleMama

expired car seat recycling :: sunday may 5th

I'm super excited to have been contacted about this program.  I personally have C's baby seat still sitting in storage and although I made the best use of it, lent it to a couple of friends after I was done with it, it is time to move onto greener pastures!

Check out this great post by Suzanne Bertani of Mommy Footprint for UsedVancouver.com on the Expired Car Seat Recyling program.

Some points to remember:

::  Last September the program collected and kept 44 car seats out of landfills!

::  Gibsons Recylcing Depot, an Award Winning Green Business, is the place that carefully takes the seats apart and properly recycles them.  There are flame retardent chemicals inside the seats that need to be handled by an expert.  This is no task that the average person can handle.

::  Before passing a old car seat to a friend or selling it remember you are liable if that seat is in an accident.  Check the expiration date.  Typically they expire after 6 years.  Check with Health Canada and the new regulations that were set in January 2012.

::  To learn more about expired car seats, click here.

Event details: 

EXPIRED CAR SEAT RECYCLING PROGRAM

sponsored by UsedVancouver.com 

at Bellies to Babies Celebration

Sunday May 5th 2013

Croation Cultural Centre
3250 Commercial Drive 

11 am to 4 pm

Admission is by Donation
Proceeds going to The Greater Vancouver Food Bank Basics for Babies Program
(click the link to see what kind of items you can donate to the program)

~ blue suede shoes :: DIY ~

Between all the work, raising a kid, unpacking boxes (still! barely put a dent in it), beaurocracy (what I like to call the things that have to do with marital separation), planning a summer long trip back to Ontario and all the details in between (like incessantly falling asleep every night at 8:30!) I do manage to squeeze in a little thing or two for me.  

Many a moon ago I saw these awesome shoes at the Red Velvet shop that were blue suede with felt hearts on them.  I hearted them so!  There were also these great other ones that had a felt fox on them.  Super cute.  Well, that's how long it has taken me to get around to this project cause they are now lost in cyber world and ungoogleable, otherwise I would share my inspiration. Today you will have to trust me, I did not come up with this idea myself.  And really, who does these days anyhow?  Copying IS a form of flattery (plus there are tons of ripoffs and versions of both that ARE googleable).

So I found myself with DIY suede shoes on my list of to dos recently and I managed to follow through to the end!  I bought the suede mocs at Value Village for about $5 bucks a ways back last year.  I even wore them a few times but as you can see, they weren't exactly the same shade.

Not being the same shade meant that I would go with a darker colour of dye.  I hit the local shoe repair shop and picked up a can of suede spray for about $15 including tax.  I googled dyeing suede in the first place and found a few good tips that guided me on my way.  Mainly the important parts to remember were to clean them before hand with a suede cleaner (I skipped this par but just because of the condition of my shoes); stick paper or paint rags inside the shoes while spraying them and definitely use a proper suede dye for them.

Once they were dry I cut out two red felt hearts and pressed them in half.  I wanted them to stand out more so I glued just along the crease.

Finally I figured out an excuse, or outfit, so that I could wear them and try them out as soon as I could which I think was the next day.  I'm pleased to report that my skin didn't turn blue from the parts of the inside that were coloured.  I'm also very pleased with how well the colour took to the soles.  I had considered not colouring the soles but in the end I wanted it to be fluid with a focus on the heart not an additional colour.

I've worn them a few times now and I really do love them!  Except for in the rain!!  I don't need to wear them that bad.  I would like them to last!  It's just like having a nice new pair of shoes for $20.  Now I wouldn't consider myself a shoe dying expert at this point.  I did dye dyable shoes back in the 80s when us girls wanted our shoes to match the colour of our grad dress exactly and I lived to tell but again, no expert am I.  If you take the plunge do some research. Heck, just pulling out a sweet pair of flats from your closet and adding a heart or fox (check these out) can certainly revive a pair of shoes.  

I love how drastically different these are from the beginning shoe.  A true DIY success story if I do say so myself.  Looking forward to more little bits of me success soon.  XO.  S

{this moment}

Inspired by SouleMama

~ whole foods wish list ~

A lot of people ask me about how I feel about working at Whole Foods.  Well I love it.  Not just cause I recently got a raise or have started working in the Art Department a couple of days a week, not just cause my co workers are great as well as the store's leaders, not just cause I happen to work at one of the Top 10 stores in the company for the past few years and not just cause I love food, I love healthy food, I love discovering new and intersting things about food and Whole Foods is a great place for that.  Oh yeah, and the benefits are great.  Very great for a newly single mom that's counting every penny.

Next week we are having a Team Member appreciation day and all the staff will be receiving 40% discounts off anything in the store for one day.  Ya, I like where I work!  Not only will I be doing my regular grocery shop there that day but I will also be seducing a few other things off the shelves into my shopping basket that normally don't make the cut.  

So the question now remains, if you could buy anything at Whole Foods for 40% what would you get?  I still have plenty of room on my wishlist!  XO.  S

Counterclockwise:  1.  Living Etc magazine  2.  Artisana Organic Coconut Butter  3.  Passion Fruit  4.  Smart Woman's Guide to Hormones book  5.  Raw Code for Women multi vitamin  6.  box of Emergen C