St. Patrick's Day & Vegan Irish Potatoes

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I'll spare you all my gushing over how much I love Ireland and miss it there, or how many family traditions surrounding St. Patrick's Day I can rattle off. Instead, I'll boil it down to just one tradition. This is, quite possibly, the Philadelphia area's best kept secret - Irish potatoes.

Irish potatoes are a small creamy coconut candy covered in cinnamon. They get their name from their resemblance to potatoes. Aside from their appearance, there is nothing potatoey or particularly Irish about them! They are super easy and quick to make, and absurdly addictive. If you do nothing else this St. Patrick's Day, whip up a batch of these! Your friends and family will thank you (if you decide to share)!

Vegan Irish Potatoes

4 ounces cream cheese (I used Tofutti brand)
1/4 cup vegan butter, softened (I used Earth Balance brand)
3 3/4 cup confectioner sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 bag flaked coconut (14 oz)
Cinnamon

1. Beat cream cheese and butter together until smooth.
2. Add confectioner sugar and vanilla extract and beat until well combined.
3. Add in the coconut and mix well.
4. Roll approximately 1-2TBSP of mixture into small "potatoes" and roll in cinnamon until covered.
5. Place in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to chill.

Please let me know if you try these! I'd love to hear your thoughts!

I hope everyone has a very happy St. Patrick's Day! Here a few pictures from the St. Patrick's Day parade last Sunday in Mt. Vernon, Baltimore to get you in the spirit!

 

 

Five Minute Friday: Rest

I'm linking up this week with Lisa Jo Baker's Five Minute Friday Series after much encouragement from my wonderful friend, Heather. Five Minute Friday encourages writers to take 5 minutes to respond to a prompt without over-thinking or over-editing. I'm excited to join in for my first week and write about rest.

GO

Rest. The word makes my fingers stiffen and my brain go numb. Rest. It hisses from my mouth like a slur. Rest has always been the thing in life that I have craved but have been so deplorably bad at. As I sat down and stared at the word, I immediately thought, “Ugh. I should set a goal to be better at resting.” Is that even possible? Can you put effort into resting? Does that defeat the purpose?

I have so many memories of feeling uneasy lying by the pool or ocean, sitting on the train, or sprawling out on the couch – shouldn't I be doing something? The calmness of attempting to rest only stirred up my need to be crossing an item off the to-do list or working towards a goal.

I've always envied people who can really sink into rest. The American culture is notoriously bad at it. I've always envisioned myself in white billowy shirts traveling the word to zen-out on mountaintops or drink fresh wine in a vineyard and learn how to become an American who can really rest (and get paid for it, of course, in an Elizabeth Gilbert “Eat Pray Love” type of fashion). Until that happens, what else can I do?

Rest is so essential to regenerate the core of our beings. When we go throughout our days frazzled, sleepless, and overworked, we lose bits of who we are. How did I get through all of these years without meaningful rest? As I type this and sip on my afternoon cup of coffee, I think I have, in fact, rested deeply throughout my life. It wasn’t in those moments when I tried to force my mind to slow down but instead it was in those activities, like this one, that surrounded me with words. I have always found solace in words.

I think I need to stop berating myself for my perceived inability to rest and instead express gratitude for the peace I find in the written and spoken word. I find rest in having long phone calls with best friends who understand me; I find rest in short talks with strangers on the bus or at the grocery store; I find rest in spilling my heart out in prayer; I find rest in conversations in the car with my boyfriend; I find rest in the lyrics of songs; I find rest in deep meaningful conversations with my mother and silly talks with my niece; I find rest in resonating with novels, poems, and even blogs; and, I find rest in putting my pen to the paper or my fingers on the keyboard. I find rest in this.

STOP

365 Project: February

I'll admit it - the winter blues hit me in February and I found myself in a rut. I fell off track a bit with this project, so below are 18 (instead of 28) things that made me happy. March is already looking brighter and I plan to continue to have my camera in hand everyday. I'm looking forward to the rest of this month which brings St. Patrick's Day, the start of spring, my 25th birthday, Spring break, Easter, and the return of Game of Thrones (no shame). 10 extra 365 project photos to come this month!