It’s time for another monthly faves, y’all! This one is going up a little early because tomorrow one of my best friends (who I haven’t seen in two years) is going to be in town! I didn’t plan it out or anything but this month ended up having a bit of a theme: horror movies and sweet treats!
FOOD
Let’s start with sweet (and a few savory) treats!
This month was my little sister’s birthday, and I made a Texas Sheet Cake from Chocolate Covered Katie for my family. The chocolate cake recipe is vegan (of course), gluten free, oil-free, and low-fat, which I honestly didn’t know was possible, and it’s delicious! It’s not super rich like a cake with oil, but it’s still soft, chocolaty, and sweet, and perfect with vanilla ice cream (I love NadaMoo, an Austin coconut milk based ice cream.) My Dad also made some Gluten Free Vegan Brownies that were rich, fudgy, and amazing.
Some other sweet treats I made were Low-Fat Chocolate Muffins (also yummy with ice cream), healthy ChocoCream from Shine With Plants, and smoothie bowls galore. I’ve always seen people posting smoothie bowl photos, but I never really got into them until this month, but now I’m hooked! They’re so tasty, and I feel great after eating them, especially right after a workout. My fave way to make smoothie bowls is with strawberries, pineapple, mango, banana, and coconut water, with more banana and granola on top. I made Feasting on Fruit’s Easy Oil-Free Granola to put on smoothie bowls after I ran out of Engine 2 granola, and it’s sweet, crunchy, and super easy to make!
One of my fave savory recipes that I tried this month was The Vegan 8’s Low Fat Spinach Artichoke Fries–I made them with oat milk instead of water, and they came out extra creamy, with a little bit of smoky flavor–Lucas and I loved them! I ended up making them multiple times.
I may be biased, but two of my other favorite recipes this month were my Mushroom and Cauliflower Tacos and Gluten Free Pizza with Tofu Ricotta–try them out and let me know what you think!
I also made this Spicy Kale and Quinoa Black Bean Salad again (I made it when Lucas and I first went vegan and forgot about it until recently)–it’s really good and filling. I’d recommend starting with less hot sauce though and add more as needed so it’s not too spicy. (One time I made it with too much Tapatio and my mouth was on fire!)
If you’re interested in following along with my cooking/baking adventures, follow me on Pinterest–I post the recipes I try with comments!
BEAUTY
I got a bunch of new makeup goodies this month (and some others not in that post), and I need to try them all out more before I know which are my faves, but I am definitely loving my new Lux Vegan Brush Set from M.O.T.D. so far.
I also wrote about coloring my hair red with Overtone Color this month–check that out if you haven’t yet!
This month I’ve also found a few new bloggers/vloggers: Morgan Joyce, Vegan Beauty Addict, and Live la Vida Cruelty Free. There are so many beauty bloggers, but it’s harder to find vegan ones, so I’m always super excited when I find new rad vegan blogger babes!
MOVIES/TV/BOOKS
I mentioned how I found and love The Spooky Vegan‘s blog in my January Favorites post, and this month I watched 2 movies from their Most Anticipated Horror Movies of 2017 list: Get Out (at theaters) and I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore (on Netflix), which were both really good.
I watched I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore with my friend Julien and we had so much fun watching Melanie Lynskey and Elijah Wood’s characters and their interactions. I don’t want to say much about Get Out because I don’t want to spoil anything, but it’s a must see as well.
I was in the mood for even more horror this month, and I turned to The Spooky Vegan’s Top 10 Horror Movies of 2016 list, which again didn’t fail me–I watched The Witch and loved it. The Spooky Vegan is basically my horror guru now, obviously!
TV wise, this month my Dad got Lucas and I hooked on Colony, a sci-fi dystopian drama that sort of feels like Lost meets 1984. Season 1 is on Netflix, and we ended up buying Season 2 by the episode on Amazon too because we had to keep watching it! And of course we’re watching all of the new The Walking Dead episodes as well.
What were some of your favorite things this month? Did you try any new recipes or see any good movies? Let me know in the comments!