My most exciting food discovery this week was:
Beet cookies!
My sister Cary (who is a vegetarian) made them for us. (We were all visiting my brother, who lives halfway between us.) I loved these! They have a really fun (sort of spongey) texture. They are not overly sweet, rather plain like a biscuit, but I just couldn't get enough of them. She got the recipe from Weelicious (a fun kid food site), and she wrote about making them here on her blog.
Speaking of sisters...
I've mentioned before how happy I am that my youngest sister Tracy is vegan again. She is also very good to me. We met up at Whole Foods one day, and she invited us (the two youngest kids and me) back to her house. She made this barbecue chick'n pizza, using Gardein Buffalo Wings (without the sauce that comes with it). She spread pizza sauce on the crust, along with Annie's BBQ sauce. It was delicious, and since then, I've already made another pizza just like it.
TIP OF THE DAY: There is a $1 off printable coupon at gardein.com right now. They are also having weekly giveaways during the month of October for really great prizes. 
She also invited us over to our Mom and Dad's house one night for homemade spring rolls. She worked all afternoon, chopping the ingredients (such as onion, bell pepper, carrots, cabbage, avocado, basil, cilantro, pineapple and other fruits - maybe pear, etc.). I had never put fruit in a spring roll before, and now I always will. She also had the thin cellophane noodles for the spring rolls, as well.
Doesn't that tofu look amazing? She baked the strips with a peanut sauce she concocted out of peanut butter, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sweet chili and hot chili sauces, and vegetarian hoisin sauce.
It was set up so everyone could make their own spring rolls.
My contribution to the meal was miso soup. That's it right there (next to the peanut dipping sauce). What? Does that not look like soup? Yeah, I clearly put too many noodles in the pot. I planned on the miso liquid to have some tofu chunks, a few spinach leaves, and light on the noodles. It turned into a noodle dish, which was fine because it tasted good.
I'm looking forward to what my sisters make me next.
Since you were all so sweet about reading my very long post yesterday and commenting, I thought I'd give you a reading break today. This was a recent trip to one of the only restaurants we ever eat at in Little Rock: Pei Wei. I wrote more about our trip and how we tied it into our Asia homeschooling studies on my homeschool family blog.
This is what I always order at Pei Wei: the Japanese Teriyaki bowl with Tofu and Vegetables. I order it with rice noodles instead of rice... 
...and no sauce. I think the Teriyaki sauce might contain honey (or at least sugar)? I just like the way it tastes plain, though. It feels healthier that way, and I love how firm all of the vegetables are. I'm not absolutely sure if the tofu is marinated in a sauce or anything, but I have talked to a manager on the phone who has told me it is only cooked in oil.
