Vegan Chocolate Frosting, Household Cleaning Products, Moving at Warp Speed

Hi Friends!  How's your day so far?  I had quite a busy day yesterday.  It was my day off from work, but not from life.  All kinds of irons in the fire, emails to deal with, errands to run, a child to be a mommy to, a household to take care of, and lots of just real living life, and life stuff going on. 

Life stuff like doing the dishes.  It seems I do my fair share.  3 squares x 3 people per day.  Plus at least 3 to 5 snacks for Skylar per day, and a snack or two for Scott and I.  That adds up to lots of dirty dishes every day!  I don't run every single plate through the dishwasher, and I do hand wash all my knives and cutting board, since I'm using them multiple times per day.  And there's always a dirty table and coutertop to wipe down.

So I go through my fair share of dish soap.  Household Traditions (part of Tropical Traditions) sent me a gallon of their dish liquid.


I poured the dish liquid into my nearly empty Method dish soap container and got to work on my dishes.
Verdict: The dish liquid works great.  No scent (so your dishes won't smell like orange peel or lemon essence which for many people, especially those with allergies, is a bonus) and it rinses easily so I wasn't washing away bubbles forever.

I made another batch of GF Vegan "Rice Krispie" Treats with Chocolate Peanut Butter Coconut Oil Frosting  
The first batch was such a hit that the family asked me to make more.  I used regular Rice Krispies in this batch, but you can adapt them as I did in the original recipe and buy specialty Gluten Free Rice Cereal if that's important for your dietary path.

I also made some changes to the frosting.  The frosting in the original recipe was great but I can never seem to make thing twice, so today's frosting is as follows:

Vegan Chocolate Frosting
1/2 bag Chocolate Chips
1/3 c Vegan Butter
1/4 c Coconut Oil
Melt those ingredients together and stir

Then, if it's looking dry, add a splash of non-dairy milk (I used Vanilla Almond milk)

Then add:
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1/4 c Cocoa Powder
1/2 c Powdered Sugar

Stir to combine until you have frosting!  Play with the non-dairy milk and powdered sugar level (or cocoa powder level) if you want a thicker or thinner frosting.





From yesterday's post about Holiday Cards, many of you said you don't send them out, but I am not that surprised.  Lots of you are young and don't have kids.  When I was in my early 20s and didn't have a child, I admit, there is no way I would have taken the time to send out cards, either.  But now, it just feels like the thing to do.
And getting your picture taken and posing for photos, many of you said you're pretty camera shy and are pretty critical of the photos taken of you, too.


Dessert: Raw Vegan Girl Scout "Thin Mint"-Inspired Fudge 
No bake and you can either mold it into Thin Mint Cookie shapes, or just dig it out from the pan with a spatula.  Or a spoon.  Works for me.



Questions
1. Do you have a favorite cleaning product for you house?  Dishes, bathrooms, floors, laundry soap?  Anything you love ?
I have posted before here that I use Method in my shower and also listed some of my other health & beauty faves.  What are your faves for the house?  Hopefully they work wonderfully and aren't too expensive!

2. Chocolate Frosting.  Do you make your own or buy it?  What's your method/recipe or fave brand?
I like to make mine to use up half-eaten bags of chocolate chips, random amounts of cocoa powder in jars, a dollop or two of vegan butter or coconut oil, and just wing it and stir until I have frosting.

3. Do you ever feel like your life is moving at warp speed and you're along for the ride, but not well-buckled in?  
That would be me lately.  

And I've had a few curve balls thrown at me lately that if I wasn't quite as busy and pressed for time wouldn't really be as big of a deal and I could adapt and work around them better, but when you're already busy, everything seems magnified!

I just need to spend some quality time at the park with Skylar!

And I am off to get my 20 Minute Workout in now.

Make it a great day! That's Madeline's line.  I love that girl.  Thank you for being such great friends, Madeline and Katie!