Hot Springs, Arkansas and "go raw" flax snax

Yesterday, the kids and I spent the day in Hot Springs, Arkansas. We went to the Mid-America Science Museum, the Mountain Tower (this is the view from the top), and we touched the "hot springs." It's so hot you can hardly even touch it.

I had tried researching where to get vegan food, but I couldn't really come up with anything. Therefore, for lunch, we just packed peanut butter and fruit spread sandwiches, granola bars, baggies of almonds, Tofurky Jerky, and apples.

After our full day, the kids and I were hot, tired, and thirsty. We headed over to Good Earth Natural Foods. It's a small health food store (with large prices that you generally find in a small health food store, unfortunately). I'm not complaining, though, because in Arkansas I'm just relieved when there is a store like this.

We bought a pack of juice boxes plus this Pomegranate Blueberry drink (that has real fruit bits...the kids love these), a handful of chocolate Bug Bites, a bag of these multigrain chip-crackers, and Rice Dream Bars.


I also tried out something new: go raw "pizza" flax snax (far left). These are interesting. They're made of sprouted organic seeds (flax, sunflower, & sesame), organic tomato and tomato powder, and organic spices & sea salt. I liked them. (The 2 little kids didn't like them; my 10 year old "sort of" liked them. Later, Ryan tried them, and he said he liked them. UPDATE: My oldest son saw me taking this picture, and he is now popping them in his mouth one after the next. That's good because we're always looking for high calorie snacks for my skinny little fella.)

They really do taste like pizza. I couldn't sit and eat very many of them at once because they're so flavorful. I think I could eat a few of them with a sandwich, though, instead of chips. The company sounds very cool; on the bag it says they are moving toward becoming an entirely sustainable operation, complete with biodegradable packaging and solar power.

Amy's Enchiladas

This month begins Vegan Month of Food (Vegan MoFo).

Amy's Enchiladas is one of my favorite foods in the whole entire world...I could eat these everyday. I love Mexican food so I think I love them because they aren't something I can order at a typical Mexican restaurant. They are spicy and flavorful, and I'm not the best at being a "flavorful" cook. I really need lessons on how to use spices more effectively. Sissy and Dash love these enchiladas, too, but it's a little too spicy for Tornado's palate. This is the entree choice with two enchiladas...

...and the whole meal choice with rice and beans. The beans that come with it really don't look like the ones in this picture, but they are SO good. I wish I could replicate whatever they do to make it for myself.

I prefer buying the low sodium versions, when available. (The meal has 740 mg sodium, the entree has 390, and the low sodium version of the entree only has 190 mg...also FYI, calories are only around 330ish.)

It just so happens that my mom sent me an excited text last night, informing me they are now selling some frozen Amy's products at Wal-Mart. The meals are only $3.18, which is a great deal compared to 3.99-4.99, that I usually see them for. (I actually paid over $5 locally the other day, which is ridiculous.)

Isn't my Mom sweet? She tries to act all stubborn and irked at my diet sometimes. But she was just as excited for me about the price as I was because she knows me, therefore knows it's one of my favorite foods and was genuinely happy for me. And besides, I really think she is a vegetarian somewhere deep within...I would share with you one of the funniest stories of my whole year related to that, but...she would be mad at me. Oh, man, I'm laughing again so hard right now, as I type this. Ask me in private, and I might tell you. :)

My beloved enchiladas just got even better. With my new shipment of Daiya cheese, I think I have created my most favorite food ever. It is a tie with chocolate mousse. I texted Ryan the other day while I was eating it because it was that good. I think because it tastes so much like the Mexican Villa dairy cheese enchiladas of my youth. I always try to eat my enchiladas with a fresh salad on the side so I don't feel so processed. Here I added some yellow bell pepper from my dad's garden and some arugula.

ABC and 123 Snacks

The picnic table talk this week, over at ABC and 123, is all about snacks. The questions are: What easy snacks do you pack for your family? What nutritious snacks do your children most enjoy? Do you have any creative tricks for encouraging healthy snacking in your home? What do you use to pack your snacks in? Does your child's school have specific requirements for healthy snacks?

Unfortunately, I don't have anything too creative...but this is what it's like around here:

Their favorite snacks might be frozen fruit. Definitely any frozen fruit, but there is also almost always a bowl of frozen grapes or sliced bananas in our freezer. These are Ryan's favorite snacks, too. He's always bummed when he gets home, and the grapes or bananas he put in there are gone. There are never enough frozen grapes and bananas around here. I, however, prefer my fruit room temperature. :)

The kids like to use straws for their yogurt (she's slurping up coconut milk yogurt here) and applesauce cups. I got this tip from Tornado's OT. I don't know if she does it for oral motor purposes or because of the mess, but it's definitely less messy. We use any straws, but it's helpful to use these straws out of their stainless steel Thermos cups because they are fatter.

Speaking of straws, we love our new stainless steel straws that I got in NYC; I won't ever have to buy plastic straws again, which is great because we went through a lot of them. I still want to try the glass straws, too; they are fatter, also, probably easier to clean, and supposedly very durable.

We love our green smoothies and popcicles around here. I originally posted about them here.
I used to have to sneak the kale or spinach in because of my pickiest eater, Dash. Now he knows he loves them so much, it doesn't phase him to help add the greens himself. Just add juice and frozen fruit, bananas, etc., and it doesn't have a strong green taste. This was actually the first time I made them in ice cube trays with craft sticks (and the sticks stood up on their own because the smoothie mixture was so thick). I thought about doing it after I read Annette's yummy-looking post at Live, Love, and Learn. (I still need to order new popcicle molds because we go through them too fast, and I don't have enough . I've been sort of holding out hope these stainless steel molds would be available soon.)

We get a lot of inspiration, such as the green smoothies, from Green and Crunchy's blog. She also gave us the idea for Earth Balls, which I wrote about here. They are made from nuts and dates, plus anything you want to add, such as coconut, seeds, goji berries, dried cranberries, etc.


Another way the kids like to eat their meals and snacks is out of measuring cups. (The only problem is: I'm often out of measuring cups when I need them to actually measure. I recently picked up a new set, though.) They're the perfect sizes to fit little snacks and even their oatmeal for breakfast, and they have the little handle, perfect to help them carry one across the room.

Last, here are a few of their favorite snacks-on-the-go.

I've written before about my love for Sea's Gift seaweed paper. I know it sounds weird, but Ryan and I think it's yummy (think salty), and the kids love it, too. They sometimes call it "seaweed," but they mostly call it "paper." It's very cute to hear Sissy ask for, "More paper."

Clif Kid Twisted Fruit

...and Veggie Booty.

They especially like to eat these because they get to sing their version of the song, "Shake Your Booty."

(Shake your booty...Pirate booty...)

We love our new picnic table.

The kids and I loaded up the other day and went to buy a picnic table at Toys "R" Us. We had been wanting one for awhile, but I kept putting it off so that I could find the perfect metal or wooden one. Cheap (although it wasn't actually cheap - $89.99! For plastic!) and maintenance-free won out, though. It wouldn't fit in the back of our car so a sales guy helped me open the box and squeeze in all the pieces. Then Daddy lovingly stayed up in the dark that night to put it together for us.

Anyway, we use it almost every day now. Every day that doesn't rain, of course. I have been trying to have the kids eat most of their snacks and lot of their meals out there. Helps with indoor-mess problem. It's very helpful, too, that they are in charge of keeping their table clean. And they love going out there, damp cloths in hand, to clean it.

We were planning a trip to a nearby lake today, but we didn't want to miss out on seeing the cousins tonight. Instead, we had a special picnic outside, using our new stainless steel To-Go Ware container. It is three-tiered (and even comes with a little Sidekick that fits inside for dips or sauces, etc.). I always get inspired with the cute lunch boxes at Vegan Lunch Box.

We had sunflower butter and fruit spread (365 brand "Fruits of the Forest" - doesn't that name sound delicious?) on Food for Life fruit juice sweetened Brown Rice bread sandwiches. I think this may be my new favorite bread for nut/fruit sandwiches; it's spongy - like sponge cake (I mean, you know, as spongy as "less-processed" bread can be.). Fruit salad and granola "salad" with Galaxy Granola vanilla munch, Goji Berries & Almond Crunch, and a few Annie's Homegrown Organic Bunny Fruit Snacks mixed in. You know what they ate first, of course - the bunnies.

We also dig our new Bambu veneerware sporks (idea from Green and Crunchy...I'm such an easy target for cool kitchen gadgets that are pictured with pretty food)...spoon on one side, fork on the other. They are supposed to be disposable, but we have been carefully reusing them (can't leave them in dishwater, though, or they come apart in layers). They are biodegradable, though; I can just toss 'em out in the woods when we're finished with them!