Not a disability, just a different ability

So I'm sitting here waiting for my car to be fixed yet again and it hurts to move my arms.  My backpack feels like it's full of bricks (well it is full of IEPs) and why am I in such pain you ask? Because I am super out of shape and exercised for the first time in a while yesterday.  To be fair, it wasn't your typical work out-- I pulled my cripple ass up a 30 foot wall using only my arms and a pulley system.

Thanks to Prime Climb and Paradox Sports, there was an adaptive climbing class.  It's a new thing they started and is going to meet every other Monday and I am so doing it again! Now I am not nearly as hardcore as I look up there.  It is actually pretty awesome what they do.  They had someone in a regular harness with a pulley to help her with her feet, and they had different ways of doing the one I did.  The system I used was a harness that you sit in and get strapped in (kind of like a kiddie swing) and there is a pull up bar that is attached to the rope and the buleyer helps with the weight.  There are different body weight ratios-- first number being what you pull, second is what is being pulled for you- 1:3, 1:2, 1:1.  I did the 1:3-- for every one pound I pulled, they pulled 3.  I'm going to try the 1:2 next time.

  I just used the pulley system, but one of my friends there went not only on the 1:1 pulley, but also pulled himself up the actual rock wall. I said I'm not there YET, but I'm keeping an open mind.  The have an over night planned for real rocks and camping in October, but that's cold... and real rocks are scary- but maybe.  Being out and active again made me realize how badly I really need to find a sport or gym to keep busy. It felt great to break a sweat and feel exhausted!

My spinal cord injury happened 13 years ago next week.  Since I've been in a wheelchair I've tried a lot.  Prior to my injury, I wasn't very athletic. I was on dance company, I loved roller hockey and I did enjoy indoor rock climbing but that's pretty much where it stopped.  Since I've been in a chair I choreagraphed and performed in a wheelchair dance, tried sled hockey, tennis, boxing, krav maga (just once), skiing, basketball (that one was just with friends, not on a team), went skydiving, and now rock climbing.  I got my drivers license and returned to school within a year of my injury, and have done all sorts of road trips, vacations, and random adventures independently.  I feel that this is what helps me with my special education sudents- Don't be afraid to go out of your comfort zone, don't let people say you can't do something, always find a way to try. Always have realistic expectations-- there are some students that may never go to Harvard, just like I may never independently get up a flight of stairs-- but there is no reason why you can't try to find a way to get to the top.  End soap box rant...

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Good morning everyone.  I hope that you are all having a pleasant weekend.  Last night we had friends over and were going to go see the local fireworks, but by the time we finished eating we decided we didn't want to deal with traffic and stuff so we stayed and hung out.

Our friends that came over have a similar eating style to my boy and I.  Kim has been vegetarian since she was seven, and her husband Jason is a carnivore, much like my boyfriend. So for the boys I made bacon wrapped steak, I spent like 30 minutes in the meat aisle at the store wondering what to buy and how much to buy because I've seen these boys eat like an entire pack of hot dogs plus a few burgers.  Sadly, as most veggies know- finding something easy to cook on the grill is a challenge. So Kim and I ended up with veggie burgers. But to make up for that sad, I got corn on the cob from the farm and made veggie kabobs with zucchini from the farm.  I thought about making home made veggie burgers but instead decided to do cupcakes instead.  Good choice- and that's what I'm going talk about now.

These are delicious easy chocolate cupcakes with a peanut butter cream frosting.  I adapted them from the amazing Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Best book ever! Goes great with a glass of soy milk or a big cup of coffee.

Chocolate Cupcakes:
(makes 12 regular size cupcakes or 24 minis)
Ingredients:

1 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon chocolate extract (optional)
1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake pans with paper liners.
2. Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar and extracts, set aside to curdle a few minutes.
3. Beat together the sugar and oil in a large bowl.  Add in liquid and continue to mix until blended.
4. Add flour, beat together.  Add in cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt and continue to mix until completely blended together.
5. Pour into lines, filling 3/4 of the way. Bake 18-22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the venter comes out clean. Let cool completely before frosting.

Peanut Butter Frosting:

The frosting can be tricky.  If you use natural peanut butter that gets really hard in the fridge, be sure to let it stay out so it softens up a bit.  I just opened the jar, so it was a little hard to work with because it is so runny.  If it's too difficult to work with, melting it slightly in the microwave may help a little.
Ingredients:

6 tablespoons vegan margarine, softened
2 tablespoons shortening
2/3 cup creamy peanut butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups coonfectioners' sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
2-3 table spoons soy milk

Directions:

1.  Beat together margarine and shortening until smooth. Add peanut butter and vanilla and continue to smooth.
2.  Beat sugar a little at a time. If it begins getting too thick, start adding soy milk a little at a time. The frosting is really fluffy and yummy, but does have a bit of a crumbly appearance. You're going to want to eat it with a spoon- I did...

Bess was very interested in this frosting.  She was quite the supervisor in this peanut butter prep.

She approved.  

The frosting was a bit melty since it was a fresh jar of peanut butter, so I chilled it while washing the dishes just to make it easier to work with.  The frosting is a weird color, I mean it's peanut butter color, but it looks a little funny. 

Enjoy the deliciousness that are these cupcakes, and keep cool-- Bess knows how to!

Back to School Blues

So yesterday I went to my new school to take a look at my new classroom and the custodians wanted me to draw a picture of how the furniture should be set up for me.  I realized that I am both excited and terrified about going into 6th grade. Excited because I have a lot of bulletin board space to work with and I can be more creative with setting up the room.  Terrified because I haven't been in 6th grade since my student teaching in 2008!!! I have no idea what I'm doing. Today's post is to show my classroom in the before and then in another few weeks when I am able to get back in there (they have to clean and wax the floors) I will have another post in the after.  So here's the before:

   The book shelves on this side are built in so I have limited movement there.

 I like the giant bulletin board over on this side.  I think this will be a great place for student work.

 I have a big white board and a small bulletin board on this side.  I'm even getting a Smart Board! (of course I am still waiting for the projector screen and printer to be hooked up in my school last year- which the principal promised but has since retired...)

Another bulletin board on this side, probably a good welcome/ news spot.  There's a big bulletin board behind the computer desks, but not much space to work with there.   They're going to replace the tall file cabinet and tall closet with short ones so I can reach everything.






So my dad was really excited about setting up my room last year but I didn't have a room until like the week before, and high school there isn't much to set up. This year I have been looking at Pintrest for ideas and have a lot to think about. It's overwhelming to think of how I want it all to look and what I need-- especially since I know very little about 6th graders.  I'm open to any suggestions about anything that will help.

The custodians asked for a drawing of how I wanted the furniture, and they said I won the blue ribbon of designs since they never saw such a detailed design.

I tried just drawing and it wasn't working out.  I'm a visual/ kinesthetic learner so I had to actually cut out tiny pieces of furniture out of my trusty pink steno pad and kept re-arranging my furniture on the paper until I thought it would work.

This is what I ended up with.  My biggest challenge was trying to figure out how to set up my teacher's desk so the cord will reach the outlet.  Last year we arranged our room and then realized there was no outlet, they added one but it ended up an obstacle course since it was between the teachers' desks. It's not set in stone, just paper.

I am excited about getting my room set up, I've already started buying things I know I'll need as I see them, but now that I know what my room looks like and have a lot of decoration decisions to make.

Well that's it for today.  Look forward to how it will look and more cupcakes are yet to come. I really feel like making some, but have no reason to. Mine and my boyfriends birthdays are coming up in a couple weeks so perhaps I'll start baking and freezing for that.  Enjoy the weekend all.

Vegan Strawberry Daiquari Cakepops (21+)

Happy July everyone! So I apologize in my lapse in writing. If I am unable to keep up during the summer, not real sure how it's going to go during the school year, but we'll see.  Speaking of school year-- I went to Target yesterday and they have all their back to school stuff- so not ready for that yet. I picked up a couple of items for my room from the $1/ $3 bins, but don't even know what my room looks like so didn't over do it.  This week I'm going to start reviewing my IEPs so some school stuff may be added soon.

So back to summer! One of the enjoyable parts of summer is having a frozen strawberry daiquiri on a hot day, not any of that pre-made sugar water, but using real strawberries.  A couple of weeks ago,  my mom and aunt went strawberry picking and came back with a ton of fresh strawberries.  So cute and tasty.

The sad part is, the season doesn't last to long. So I cut and froze a few knowing I was planning on making these cake pops.  I added a little bit of sugar to them to get them sweet and juicy before freezing them.

For the 4th of July we had a picnic to go to and I was set on making the cake pops. I have a love hate relationship with cake pops.  While they are adorable and delicious, they take forever to make,  mine never come out pretty and perfectly round and beautiful, and I usually get annoyed with them, but I am determined to keep trying-- but I still prefer cupcakes.

All steps can be done in the same day, however it takes a while. My usual way of doing it, is to do step by step over a course of a couple days.  The longer the cake cools, the better it works. If you are short on time, you can use the freezer but make sure the cake balls don't freeze.


Strawberry Daiquiri Cakepops:

Cake:

1 cup sliced strawberries with juice
2 tablespoons white rum
1 teaspoon lime juice
1/2 cup soy milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon strawberry extract (optional)
1/2 teaspoon lime juice (additional)
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a cake pan by greasing the bottom (I used coconut oil, but cooking spray would also work) and lightly adding flour to line it.
2. Use food processor or magic bullet to blend the sliced strawberries, rum and 1 teaspoon of lime juice.

3. In a large bowl, beat together 3/4 cup of the strawberry mixture, soy milk, canola oil, extracts and sugar.  Sift in flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Mix until batter is smooth.  Pour into prepared cake pan and bake for 20-22 minutes.

4.  Once cake is done, cool in pan until it is cool enough to touch.  Crumble cake into large bowl to cool completely.

For the frosting, you can make a regular butter cream, but I decided to try to make a whipped cream type topping, since it's less sweet and whipped cream on daiquiris seem like they go.

Vegan Whipped Cream Frosting:

Ingredients:

1 can of coconut cream
1/4 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

1. Chill can of coconut cream over night in the fridge, or an hour or so in the freezer. NOTE: Make sure that you don't shake the coconut cream.  By chilling it, the cream will float to the top leaving the oils on the bottom.  I accidentally dropped the can on the way to the fridge and it mixed all together and was too watery.
2.  Blend the coconut cream with electric mixture adding sugar and vanilla until it's fluffy. Using a chilled metal bowl helps.

To Make Cakepops:

1.  Take out crumpled cake.  Add 3 tablespoons of the strawberry/ rum/ lime juice mixture. Blend with electric mixture.
2. Add 1/3 cup of the whipped cream mixture blend together until the mixture is crumbly like a dry cookie dough.  Add more confectioners sugar if needed to thicken, or more cream to make it softer.

4. Spoon out mixture and roll into balls and put onto wax paper.  The color and consistency reminded me more of small meatballs than cake.

5. Chill cake balls while preparing melted chocolate.

Vegan White Cocolate:

It is very difficult to find vegan white chocolate. If you're not vegan or do dairy, you can use the melting wafers to cover it.

I ordered raw cocoa butter from Amazon. Just be sure it is FOOD QUALITY.  You don't want to eat body lotion.  It's expensive but goes a long way.

Ingredients:

1. I used 6 chunks of the raw cocoa butter, added up to about 2 cups dry- 1 cup melted.
2. 1 teaspoon coconut oil
3. 3/4 cup confectioners sugar
4. 1/4 teaspoon vanilla



Directions:

1. Melt cocoa chunks with coconut oil either using double boiler method or microwave. I used the microwave. If using the microwave, stir every 30 seconds or so.
2. Once melted, add vanilla, and mix confectioners sugar one tablespoon at a time to thicken up the chocolate.  I found letting it cool for about 10 minutes on the counter prior to mixing made it a little thicker.
3. When chocolate is at desired consistency, dip cake pop stick into chocolate and then push 2/3 of a way into cake balls. The chocolate works as a glue so they sticks stay.  Let cake balls with sticks cool in the refrigerator for about 5 minutes.
4. Dip cake balls into mix covering completely.  Since this mix is very thin, you'll need 2-3 coats to cover it.  Let chill in the fridge between dippings.
5. If desired, decorate more. I took sparkly blue decorating sugar and a fan brush to add a bit of blue to make them red, white and blue for the holiday.

Like I said, cake pops are a lot of work!  But, they were a huge success. These also make great cupcakes, without all the work of dipping in chocolate.  I was able to make 30 cake pops out of this recipe, or it would make 12 regular size cupcakes, or 24 minis.