22/52

"A portrait of us, once a week, in 2013."

Nereus & Maya: He loves her so much. His biggest enjoyment is to have her close to his body. I wish he knew how much he hurts her when he grabs her ears/legs/skin. Patience little doggie, babies grow fast.

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21/52

"A portrait of us, once a week, in 2013."

Nereus & dad: These two together again!

A very very very late 21/52 portrait. Life has been pure chaos for me lately. Send me some positive vibes, please!

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20/52

"A portrait of us, once a week, in 2013."

Nereus: Taking Maya for a walk, ha!

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My favourite portrait from last week. Maybe it's because we're missing our daddy, but I love this photo.

Will you please vote for us on Top Baby Blogs? Just a flashback...

19/52

"A portrait of us, once a week, in 2013."

Nereus and his mama: Done with picking oranges. Time to rest and enjoy each other.

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My favourite portraits from last week are these with the cute boy in a breathtaking place.

18/52

"A portrait of us, once a week, in 2013."

Nereus and his dad: And yes, we made it...now he accepts the fact that he has to wear sunglasses!

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My favourite portrait from last week...Wilf with the best outfit ever!

I know, I said that I would stop blogging but then I regreted it. I really need time so I will not blog often. I'm gonna be here evey Friday or Saturday to share a portrait of us for the 52 project. One of the things that I have learnt since I had my boy, is that I should finish what I start. So I'm finishing this project.

Also, I owe you the instuctions on how to make vegan yogurt without a yogurt maker or candy thermometer.     If everything goes as expected, I'll make a post about it this week or the next.

Meet My April Sponsors!

I'm so happy I took this step and accepted sponsorship on my blog. For a long time I was thinking if it was right or not for me to do it. You probably know about the art versus ads thing. And of course this is my creative outlet and I wouldn't include any ads if I really didn't need the money.

So all I want to say is that this blog will never be full of ads. I will be very carefully choosing what will be seen here. Both for the advertisers and the readers. I will never promote anything that I don't really like and believe in.

So would you like to meet my first amazing sponsors?

Here we go...

Yummi Pouch

Yummi pouch is an amazing company ran by a family with a cute little baby girl. At their shop, you can find reusable baby food pouches along with anything that you'll need for them and many more. Don't forget to check out the baby food recipes they provide. Oh and these coloring pages too!

Perfect Imperfections

Desiree is a great woman, who became a first time mother at the age of 15! Wow! And I thought that I was a young mom! I really admire her for that and also because she's raising two beautiful vegan eco conscious kids. If you're into earth mama things, her blog will certainly inspire you! My favourite post is this recipe for diy calendula salve. Oh and check out little Amar'e who's wearing a bandana bib that I made!

Little Old Souls

Bettina is the mother of one of the cutest babies, Eamon. She's also a wonderful yoga instructor, who a little while back, created the Light On Yoga Challenge and basically gave me the motivation I needed to start doing yoga again. Great tutorials and many more on her blog. Can't wait to try this vegan chocolate cake.

To The Sea

Erica is the mother of Eva. And seriously her body is like she has never been pregnant. Expat and so much into fitness and sports. Check out her blog and you're gonna fall in love with Eva's outfits!

The Bradley's

Nature and food loving artists. Parents of  pretty Kaya. Read about this family's adventures on this blog. I really crave this and I think that I'll use tofu instead of feta to veganize it.

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Although I'm glad I took the step to except sponsors, I decided to not except any sponsors for the month of May. So many things are happening here lately. I am confused and overwhelmed. We are not satisfied with some conditions in our life and we need to make some changes. We have something huge in mind and it scares the shit out of me. Either if it happens or not, I need to relax a bit and then focus, organize and get things done! I need a lot of time. That's why I decided to stop blogging.

My blog has been many things for me and I have loved every minute I've spent writing, editing, commenting and connecting with you! But at this moment, I just need something else. I have no idea how much time it will take until I start blogging again, cause I really don't want to stop blogging forever.

I owe you the directions on how to make vegan yogurt without a yogurt machine or a candy thermometer! I will be back with this recipe as soon as possible.

Thank you all for supporting me! I wish you the best! See you soon...

Recipe: Almond Milk Yogurt

Yogurt used to be one of my favourite foods when I was an omnivore. When I became vegan the price of soy yogurt scared me so I have bought it only once or twice. After some time, I decided to start making my own. I have been doing it successfully since then!
You asked me how I make my almond yogurt and here it is!
Today I'm gonna show you how to make your own healthy, additive and refined sugar free vegan yogurt!

I make my yogurt in a yogurt maker but you can totally make it without one. And actually before I found my mother's yogurt maker I was making it with the traditional instructions my grandmother has given me. Oh and you don't need a candy thermometer either! In this post, I'm gonna show you how to make yogurt with a yogurt maker and I'll make another post soon, explaining how to make yogurt the "neaterdal way".

This yogurt turns out thick, but don't expect it to be as thick as the cow's milk yogurt. I think thick yogurt is known as greek yogurt, right? I live in Greece so every kind of yogurt I had in the past (not vegan) was really thick. If you think that the final product is too runny for you, you can strain it!

By making your own yogurt, you save a lot of money and you know what ingredients you add in there. Did I convince you yet? Let's get started!

Ingredients:

-4 cups almond milk
-1 tablespoon honey
-half a cup corn starch
-yogurt starter

Tools:

-Pot
-Kitchen towel
-Whisk
-Candy thermometer

Instructions:

Step 1
Pour the milk into a pot. Add the corn starch and honey and whisk over low to medium heat. Whisk often! Also check the temperature often. We want it to be slowly heated until it reaches 180°. At 180° we achieve proper sterilization. Don't forget to stir!

Step 2
When your thermometer shows 180°, remove the pot from the heat. Give it a good whisk, cover it and let it cool down completely. It usually takes more than two hours, so patience is the key.

Now, take your starter out of the fridge. The only starter I have used so far is these probiotic capsules and they work great! You can use a few tablespoons of a store bought yogurt and after you make your first butch you can use leftover yogurt as a starter.

Step 3
Check the mixture's temperature often. When it reaches 90° add the starter and whisk to combine it completely with the mixture. Then pour it in a glass bowl and put it in your yogurt maker, where it's gonna stay for the next hours. It can take at least 8 hours to culture. I suggest you to taste it when the 8 hours have passed and see if you like it. If you find it too sweet leave it another hour and check again. As the time passes the bacteria eat the honey and it tastes more sour...yum! I like my yogurt when it has been cultured for more than 12 hours.

When it's ready, cover it and put it in the fridge. You can eat it with cooked like oats, quinoa, millet etc.or ready to eat cereal. Dried or fresh fruits. Nuts and seeds. Or you can use it to make dips like greek tzatziki, yogurt dip, add it in your smoothie, add it to your rice or serve it with your pancakes, waffles or crepes! Yummy!