I moved!

If you’re reading this, you should update your bookmarks!

I’ve moved to an official, grown-up blog: www.cupcakesandcoffeebreaks.com

I would be flattered if you’d move over there with me. Hooray for moving on and up!

See you on the flip side.

Change Is Good.

It’s only been two weeks, and I’m already itching for change.

You may have noticed that I changed the website header. I’m doing my best to personalize Cupcakes & Coffee Breaks as best I can, so please bear with me as I do. And if there’s something you hate (or something you like!), definitely let me know.

I am also working right now to migrate to a new domain, and self-hosting the blog (if you don’t know what that is, don’t worry). Stay tuned for what I hope to be a better and more awesome site. I’m so excited!

Getting Crafty.

This weekend was a throwback to 8 year old me. In 1995 I was an arts and crafts fiend, a connoisseur of the hot glue gun. I practically had a degree in popsicle-stick jewelry boxes, and man, could I make a mean friendship bracelet.

I don’t know what it was that prompted this throwback, but there was just something about Friday night that screamed ‘art project!’. It scared me a bit, being as artistically challenged as I am (I once had to make a toy snow otter for art class. My classmates sewed stuffed animals, while I covered a shoe box in white paper and glued on a margarine container for a head). Despite my shortcomings, I thought… why not?

Vancouver, you can be so hard on the eyes sometimes

The primary focus of DIY night had a pretty stellar outcome actually, for only about 7 bucks (the former student in me loves that). If anybody’s been surfing around on Pinterest lately, I can’t imagine you wouldn’t have seen this. All you need is canvas, crayons, and a hair dryer, and you’ve got yourself the kind of project that even someone like me can pull off. If you’ve got a bare wall in your house and want something quick and easy to jazz it up, or if you have kids/nieces/nephews around, this is such a good idea (apologies for the amateur photography here).

Rah-Rah Rainbow Art

Earth Tone Crayon Melt

It was nice to spend an evening on something that I can continue to enjoy even after my night of the arts, but my crafty weekend didn’t just benefit my walls. For anybody wondering, I did actually meet the goal that I set for last week. It wasn’t easy though, and the conversations were not nearly as in depth as I’d have liked them to be. I’m not making any excuses, I’m just saying that it’s more difficult than I thought it would be to wiggle my way into new workplace relationships. I also realized that work is not the only place I should be focusing my efforts on. I’d like to go beyond my company, and just try to get a better feel for my industry as a whole.

This is where I really got crafty. Without the hot glue.

Let’s just think for just a second. Reflect. If I want something, and I am not getting something, shouldn’t I be the one to do something about it? I mean, it’s only practical.

I’ve been sitting on an idea all weekend (and part of the week) that involves organizing my own “networking” event. It doesn’t need to be jazzy or formal, it just has to be fun, social, and facilitate re-connecting.

And really, Vancouver isn’t that big. Many of my old classmates from engineering work in or fairly close to the downtown core. So, why don’t I organize a mini-reunion? It’s only been a year and a half, but why should I rely on my school to do it when I’m just as capable. All you need is an informative email invitation and a restaurant reservation and bam! It’s a new-grad networking extravaganza. Even better, the intimidation factor that usually accompanies a networking event is eliminated, because these are people you already know and just haven’t seen or spoken to in the last little bit. What’s not to love about that?

Here’s something else to think about. Millennials (a term used for my generation, or Gen Y) are becoming known for their rejection of the one-company career path. The US Department of Labor estimates that the average millennial will have held 10-14 different job titles by the age of 38. Considering we typically graduate at age 22, that’s a new job every 1-4 years. Holy guacamole batman.

Commitment issues aside, why wouldn’t you want to know what other companies, opportunities, or projects are out there for you in the future? I’m not at all suggesting that I am in any sort of discontent with my own job, because I’m most certainly not, but I am saying that there’s nothing bad about knowing your options. If the time did come where you felt you wanted to move on (and up, of course), you’d be a lot better off if you already knew what was out there. So, in the spirit of being prepared, I think an event like the one I want to organize would be great for just that–getting the information you need from the people you trust. Aren’t we in the information age, after all?

Anyway, this event in the first stages of development. I definitely don’t want to throw my name on something that turns out to be a flop, so it’s going to take a bit of effort to put together. I’ll keep you posted. And on the note of keeping posted, I did end up making those red velvet cupcakes. I actually made minis and took them into the office on Friday (a little bit of sugar-bribery never hurt anyone’s networking efforts), where they were an instant hit. So, if you wanted to hold your own ‘my big red bicycle is gone’ pity party, you might want to go set your oven to preheat. To 350˚F, by the way.

Even mildly droopy icing tastes delicious!

Red Velvet Cupcakes (from Vegan Machine)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup almond milk
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup sugar (I used Splenda)
• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 2 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp liquid red food colouring (I used a 28 oz. bottle)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt

(for the icing)

• 1/4 cup Earth Balance butter (room temperature)
• 1 3/4 cups icing sugar
• 1 tbsp almond milk (to achieve desired icing consistency)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350˚F. Place cupcake liners in your cupcake tin
2. Combine almond milk and apple cider vinegar in a bowl, and let it thicken for 5 minutes
3. Combine sugar, oil, food colouring, and extracts in a large mixing bowl. Once the milk mixture has thickened, add as well and combine
4. Add the rest of the dry ingredients, and mix until all lumps are gone.
5. Fill the cupcake liners to about 2/3 full and cook for 17-19 minutes
6. Use an electric mixer to combine frosting ingredients while your cupcakes are baking
7. Wait at least 30 minutes to frost (I am horrible at this, and always end up with melty icing)

This recipe will make 12 regular sized cupcakes, or about 30 minis. yum. Happy creating! xo

I Guess I’ll Walk.

It’s really unfortunate when you’re having a great day, things are going really well, and then right at the end something bad happens to overshadow the goodness. It can be difficult to focus on all the positives when the negative is the freshest in your mind.

Today my beloved bicycle was stolen. As a girl without a car, I relied on my wheels for groceries, entertainment, faster commuting, and fitness. I always knew this day would come though, because my cute little 300$ road bike from Costco looked and rode like a 600$ road bike. And when some people see expensive-looking things, I guess they just have to have them.

Well, little guy, I’m sad you’re gone, but there’s only so much one can do. However, instead of sitting here and letting this overshadow the great day of accomplishment I was previously enjoying, I’m going to find some other things that make me happy. I’m not wasting a perfectly good Wednesday being mopey, so here goes nothing.

Photo: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

 

I’ve expressed before how much I love pumpkin everything, so this one’s a no-brainer. Pumpkin definitely makes me happy. I think my obsession is one of the sole reasons that the grocery store has to re-stock their pumpkin supplies in the middle of April. It never gets old.

Even though I live miles away from my sister, we’ve always done a pretty good job of looking out for each other. Most of the time though, we prefer to use comic relief as a problem solver. That’s why I love this little quote, because we usually laugh at each other (and ourselves), even in the crummiest of situations. I love that about our relationship. It keeps things light.

I know I’m obsessed with yummy food, and somehow making it cute, but this is a brilliant idea. Baking brownies inside your cookie cutters? Amazing. Just make sure you let the metal cool off before unleashing your cute little brownies on the world. I wouldn’t want you to have to watch everyone else eat their treats while you ice your fingertips.

Another thing, I’ve recently decided that I’m going to take to the mailbox a bit more often. With so many of my good friends living a long way away from me in Vancouver, I thought it’d be a nice gesture to send out some cards. Not for any particular occasion (although if I get good at remembering to, I’ll definitely send them for those as well), but just to say hello, I miss you, I hope you’re well. Because who doesn’t love getting mail, especially when it’s not asking you to pay for something?

Lastly, if you know me at all, you know my obsession with nail polish. For some reason I can’t handle waiting three minutes for a bus in the morning, but I will put an hour or two into making my nails look lovely each week (I’m currently sporting these!). Perhaps this one will be on my list of to-dos in the near future.

Alright, well, I’m good and cheered up now. I will definitely miss my red rocket of a road bike, but I’m going to pretend that the person who ends up with it is going to use it to be really environmentally friendly, always take good care of it, and you know, tell it that it’s pretty and stuff. And in memory of my ol’ faithful two-wheeler, I’m going to bake these amazing looking red velvet cupcakes. Don’t worry, I’ll let you know how they turn out so you can make them too. That way we can have a mass-memorial.

Now that’s a truly delicious tribute, for sure. xo

The Next Chapter.

Lately I’ve been experiencing a lot of shifts in my life as I transition from student to young professional. Obviously there are a lot of great things about this transition (hooray for getting paid!), but there are some things that I definitely miss (like skipping my morning engagements to sleep in an extra hour; “it’s just one class…”). On some days, the transition seems easy. I’ve been in university for six years (!!), and I was so ready to be outta there. On the other days, those six years of student habits die hard, and I just really miss certain aspects of my old, carefree life.

Today, as I was surfing around on Pinterest, I actually found something that opened my tired, naive little eyes a bit wider:

Why is it that common sense is never my instinct when I’m looking to solve a problem? Shucks. I’m not as smart as I thought I was. Well, maybe.

I actually do a pretty good job in other aspects of my life when it comes to moving on to that next chapter. As I mentioned, I’ve been doing yoga a lot recently, but going to the same type of class 4-5 times a week isn’t as rewarding as it was in the beginning. So I progressed, and I progressed very measurably. I decided to take the next step and move up from hatha, the slower, tamer, and very beginner friendly yoga, to power flow, the faster and requiring-more-muscular-strength yoga. And you know what? I loved it. My mat was drenched in sweat and I wasted a good hair day when I had to re-shower afterwards, but I definitely felt like I’d done the right thing in moving on and up and trying something new. +1 for Erica.

And in further reflecting, I’ve been doing a slammin’ job of trying new things when it comes to my meal-experimentation too. I discovered a phenomenal, vegan cheese sauce that will (and has, I’ve seen it) knock the pants of even the most fanatical cheese lover. Who doesn’t love finding a new favourite food (I’ve literally eaten it about six times in the last 10 days, not including leftovers!)? I know eating isn’t exactly a ‘new chapter’ for most people, but for someone like me, facing the digestive limitations that I do, it’s a new chapter in dinner-fulfillment for sure.

my dinners have been seriously profiting from autumn's vegetable selection

So why is it that I can’t seem to stretch this to my work life? I’ve set my goals (as you might already know), but sometimes I have difficulty overcoming certain obstacles (usually my own pride) to meet these goals. What this quote gave me today though was this: as a co-op student (i.e. doing 4-month work terms throughout my degree), I was content to go to work every day, blend in, dress for mediocrity (in terms of how professional I looked), and do what I had to do. At the end of the job term, I’d take my dad’s advice and ask for a reference letter. The letters never came.

Why? Because I wasn’t exceeding, and I wasn’t noteworthy. In a forest full of trees, I was nothing special, at least in the eyes of my employer. So now, today, I realized that I can’t expect to be living and working like I did as a student, and somehow receive different results. For the math-savvy out there (you know I had to go there), it’s just a formula. If you don’t change the formula, you don’t change the final product.

I’ll be honest, I have made some progress on my goal for the week, but it’s not what I hoped it would be. If I want to be noticed, for my work and for my professionalism, I need to stand out. I need to learn to swallow my pride, ask someone for a coffee chat, organize a lunch get-together, and be involved. Move on to the next chapter.

And you? What are you going to do to take the next step? I’m not asking you to run a marathon tomorrow or anything, but I am suggesting that you ask yourself “What’s next?”. If it’s something you’ve been thinking about for a while, do it, or start working towards it, I dare you. And if it isn’t, maybe you should think about it. And if that’s too hard still, I have something stellar for you to try, and that you’re going to love.

Vegan Butternut Squash Macaroni & Cheese (from Oh She Glows)

Ingredients:

• 1 butternut squash (peeled & chopped) or 1 cup canned squash/pumpkin
• Olive oil
• 1 tbsp butter (I used non-dairy butter but you don’t need to)
• 3/4 cup almond milk (you could, again, use regular milk if you’d like)
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 6 tbsp nutritional yeast (this is what gives it the great cheese flavour. I found mine at a health food store!)
• 2 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 4 servings of cooked macaroni
• Vegetable mix-ins (my favourite is sautéed mushrooms!)

Directions:

1. (if you’re using fresh squash) Preheat oven to 425˚F. Mix chopped squash with olive oil. Roast for abotu 40 minutes, uncovered, until tender.
2. Prepare the cheese sauce in a pot on the stove. Add butter over low-medium heat. In a bowl, whisk together milk and cornstarch until clumps are gone. Add into pot and whisk. Stir in the nutritional yeast, Dijon, garlic, and salt. Whisk over low heat until thickened (about 5-7 minutes)
3. Cook your pasta according to package directions.
4. In a blender or food processor, blend the sauce with 1 cup of roasted squash. If you have a hand-held immersion blender like I do, you can add the squash chunks straight to the pot and blend in there. If you’re using canned squash, just add it straight to the sauce and stir until blended.
5. Add cooked, drained, and rinsed macaroni to the pot, as well as the mix-ins, and stir until thoroughly heated.
6. Be absolutely amazed and shout “I can’t believe this is vegan!” (I still do this when I eat it)

I am aware that the word vegan scares the boogers out of carnivores people, but this recipe is absolutely, 110% meat-lover approved (I promise). So no matter what you’re going to do to push your limits this week, make it count. And if you feel so obliged, leave me a comment to tell me about it. I’d love some inspiration myself. xo

Heavy Breathing.

I know: Heavy breathing? Whaaat? I’ll get to that.

For quite some time now, I’ve been having issues with my lower back. Once I finally got a job and could afford it, I started going to yoga. As it turns out, my posture issues were caused by tight hip flexors and even tighter hamstrings, which messed around with my pelvic alignment and caused me great pain when standing for long periods. Yoga seemed like the perfect solution, with the added bonus of a workout and strengthening/toning benefits.

The thing about yoga though is that you have these great benefits, and then you’ve also got this ‘serenity’, ‘grounding with the earth and feeling your energy’ blah blah blah. Personally, that stuff just isn’t for me, but I go anyway because I can really see a difference in my posture/pain relief in the three weeks that I’ve started going. I’m alright with the talk because I know that other people are there for that, and find it soothing–that’s cool. To each their own.

I dream of being this flexible (photo credit: lululemon)

Today I was pretty excited to go to yoga to unwind after a great day of walking around in the sunshine, because it seemed like a fitting way to close the weekend. It’s funny because sometimes I actually get nervous in class, and the breathing-out-loud exercises are so not my thing. Sure it helps me relax and “breathe out my stress”, etc, but I just am not that vocal in a room full of strangers. Today though, someone sat down next to me and joined in the breathing exercises with one of the mightiest exhales I’ve ever heard: hhhhhaaaaarrrrrraaaaaUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHH. If you read that out loud to understand what I’m talking about, do it 2x louder and you’ll probably have a better idea. I know that it was probably a great way for him to unwind and let it all out, but to be honest, it was really distracting to hear that three feet to my left every time I downward-dogged, and I wondered if anybody else felt the same. I go to yoga to kind of be quiet, reflect on the day and, well, just be (okay so some of that blah blah blah does resonate a little bit). But it was hard to “just be” beside the sigh-master, king of the heavy breathing.

It bugged me for the first few minutes, and then I realized that I’m just going to have to deal. Figure it out Erica, there are some situations that (gasp!) you can’t control. Shucks. Good segue into my week.

I realized this weekend that I’m going to have to be a little bit more adaptable at work. If something’s not what I expected it to be, I’m going to have to figure out how to get what I want out of it in a different way. If I’m assigned to something that I’m new at, I’m going to have to put in the work and learn it so I can do my job. One of my goals as I started this new job was to get to know a lot of new people, both in my department and out. I wanted to learn about where they came from, what they studied, and what their career path has been like. But the company’s everyday life is a bit different than what I’m used to, and I haven’t really made any progress whatsoever toward my goals.

So, moving forward into a new week, I’m going to change that. And since concrete goals are better than vague goals, I’m going to give myself a number: 3. I’m going to talk to 3 new people this week, and find out more about them. Maybe I haven’t met them before. Maybe I have, and I just didn’t have a very in-depth conversation with them. Now I will.

October has the greatest colours

And anyway, my coworkers have something very yum coming their way soon, which should make it easier to start up a conversation with them. The fall colours on my Granville Island stroll today inspired me to bake a little sumthin-sumthin for my office mates. I’m thinking orange-coloured cupcakes with minty green frosting, à la… a pumpkin, of course. I’m excited just thinking about them. And about the leaves changing. And about the snow brewing in the mountains. Yes!

Buuuut, sadly I’ve got a bit longer to wait until the beginning of ski season. Until then, I’m miss career lady, networker extraordinaire, and bad-ass employee. All I’ve gotta do is make it through the steepest part of the learning curve (I can see the light!). And what happens if I start to feel the stress again? I know what might just work: hhhhhaaaaarrrrrraaaaaUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHH. xo

Pumpkin Pick-Me-Ups.

Thank god for the weekend.

After a particularly stressful week at work (and yes, I’m only in week three!), all I could think about on a couple of those days was getting home to my apartment and de-stressing. And after surfing around through some of my favourite foodie blogs, I found the perfect medium to do just that. Spotlight on Angela Liddon’s (Oh She Glows) Pumpkin Gingerbread.

Every year around mid-september, I develop an obsession with pumpkin. So far I’ve made pumpkin cupcakes (2 batches), pumpkin soup, pumpkin lattes (still trying to perfect this one), and I’m nowhere close to being done with this delicious autumn vegetable. How can something so tasty be so good for you? Who cares, I’m in love.

Photo by Sister72

Anyway, back to the gingerbread. Yes, it’s practically vegan (I used an egg), but it’s absolutely the best gingerbread I’ve ever had. The density and texture is perfect, which means it’s made it into my hall-of-fame recipe book full of tried and true concoctions. I would highly recommend this to anybody as a de-stresser, vegan or not, it’s that good. So here we go!

Pumpkin Gingerbread (adapted from Oh She Glows)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 3 tbsp pure maple syrup
• 3/4 cup Splenda
• 1/3 cup coconut oil (or canola), softened
• 1/4 cup blackstrap molasses
• 1 egg
• 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (OR 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp ginger)
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 th tsp ground cloves

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly oil a loaf pan to prevent the bread from sticking.
2. Combine pumpkin, maple syrup, Splenda, coconut oil, molasses, and egg in a medium sized bowl, and mix well.
3. In another bowl, combine the dry ingredients.
4. Add together the wet and dry ingredients, and stir well.
5. Pour the batter into the pan, and smooth out with a knife or spatula. Bake for 55 minutes, or until you can insert a toothpick into the center and it comes out clean.
6. Allow to cool before removing from pan (I can never manage to wait for this!).

So there you go! The most delicious fall snack that you can enjoy at home with a bit o’ butter on top, or at work as a mid-afternoon pick-me-up. What’s not to love?

Back to reality. After my stressful week, there are a few things I’ve learned now that I’m in the real world, and I thought I’d share them with you:

• If someone points out that you aren’t doing something right, it’s not a personal attack. This isn’t university anymore, and people don’t have time to sugarcoat things, or sit down and walk you through it. Everyone has deadlines, and that’s the priority. Work hard, learn, and that’s the best you can do!
• Admit when you don’t know something! I’m working in a completely new field, and there’s a lot that I’m not familiar with. That’s okay. They know that, and they don’t expect me to be an expert. Just remember that they hired you for a reason, and that you’re capable of everything. The learning phase is the toughest part (and it can also be the most rewarding).
• Business casual is an interpretive term. I was so excited to break out my professional wardrobe (now that I can afford one) and rock that every day, but in reality, work is not a Banana Republic ad. Dang. I’m still going to dress like it is when I get up in the morning, though.

Alright, that’s it for me. I’m off to bake some cupcakes! xo

Beginnings.

To whomever may be reading this, welcome to Cupcakes & Coffee Breaks! This is my way of sharing my insights, endeavours, and the great but sometimes useless things I discover, both online and off. Most of all, though, I figured it would be a place to share the things I’ve learned (and continue to learn) in my career, in my kitchen, and in the things I do in between.

My brainwaves are never quite predictable, so hopefully that will keep things interesting as this blog progresses, and there will be something for everyone.

And if everyone here consists of just my mom, that’s cool too. Hi mom.