Pregnant Eats One Day

BREAKFAST

pomegranate arils and a grapefruit

SNACK

carrot sticks

SNACK

Banana Split Cake: This is cake #2 of the month. After the first one (recipe here), the kids had been begging me to make another one. There was no way my current girth could justify another one in the same month.

So I made some fat/sugar cutting changes, and we hardly noticed a difference (but if you're making it for a non-vegan, non-health conscious person, I'd just leave the ingredients as is). Bottom layer: Instead of 1/2 cup of melted Earth Balance, I used 1/4 with enough organic applesauce to blend in with the graham cracker crumbs. 2nd layer: Rather than 2 cups of powdered sugar and 1 cup of Earth Balance, I cut those amounts in half, so that layer was half as thick.

I also added chocolate syrup this time, especially for Rose and Zoa! We have been enjoying our Chocagave.

Ingredients: Organic Nectars Raw Agave Syrup, Organic Nectars Raw Cacao Powder, Organic Vanilla Powder and Extract, Pink Crystal Salt

LUNCH

Tofu Kale Lasagna, using rice lasagna noodles, tofu blended in mixer with nutritional yeast, garlic, soymilk, and spices. Marinara and Daiya on top. Garlic bread on the side.

Snack: Sun Warrior Chocolate Hemp Protein Powder Smoothie with almond milk, frozen bananas, and frozen strawberries.

SUPPER

Caesar Salad, which I could eat every day, every meal, I think. (Dressing: mustard, lemon juice, garlic cloves, Bragg's, almonds, water, nutritional yeast.) Sunshine Burger, my favorite kind of packaged burger on French Meadow Bakery Hemp Bread with miso spread, mustard, Daiya (Do I eat too much Daiya? Probably so.), and avocado.

Appetite for Reduction Giveaway

I've enjoyed everything I've made so far from Isa's Appetite for Reduction. "125 Fast & Filling Low-Fat Vegan Recipes" Although I imagine a lot of you have it already, somehow we've ended up with an extra copy, which I'm giving away! With the holidays coming up, it's a great idea to make lower calories meals so we can enjoy all of the treats even more. Here are a few of the things I've tried, and if you have this book and are not entering the giveaway, tell me which recipe I must try next.

Mango BBQ Beans

over Mashed Yuca with Cilantro & Lime

*Loved these beans, and I will definitely add mango to my beans again. However, I will not add any red pepper flakes to this recipe next time because my mouth was on fire! The Mashed Yuca was interesting (in a good way)! I don't think I'd make it again because yuca takes a lot of work; it's really tough to cut through and all waxy, etc. However, if you've been curious to try yuca, this would be a fun recipe for you to make.

FRESH TOMATO SALSA DRESSING

*Always love fresh salsa.

BIG FAT TACO SALAD

with Fresh Tomato Salsa Dressing

and

GUACAMAME

*I'm a big taco/taco salad fan, so this couldn't have been a miss with me. The guacamame (avocado with edamame) is definitely not as flavorful/mouth-watering as regular guacamole, but I love that it cuts the calories and adds protein.

QUINOA, WHITE BEAN, & KALE STEW

with FRESH CORN & SCALLION CORN BREAD

*I was out of quinoa, so I subbed sprouted rice. I also subbed turnips for parsnips. I like that this stew pushed me into eating vegetables I don't get a lot of, like turnips and leeks. For the cornbread, I couldn't find scallions at the store, so I omitted those. Good, reliable stew and bread.

To enter the giveaway: If you leave a comment on this post, let me know you're entering the giveaway. I'll put anyone's name who is entering in a hat and draw. Open to anyone in the world.

For 4 additional chances, tell me whether you are a google friend connect follower, whether my blog is on your blog roll, and for two extra chances: blog or tweet about the giveaway. You just need to leave ONE COMMENT with all of your entries to make it easier on ya. Or if you blog about it or something later, feel free to leave an additional comment another time.

I'll pick a winner next Friday, October 28 at 10:00 p.m.

To read more about: Vegan Month of Food

Food for a Day

What My Pregnant Stomach Devoured One Day:

Breakfast: Mix of steel cut oats and Bob's Red Mill Organic Creamy Buckwheat plus chopped walnuts, apples, and agave nectar

Lunch: Almond Grain Burger from Sol Cuisine with circle pieces of Food for Life GF Tortilla as the bun plus avocado, kale, and Cashew Cheese Sauce from Matthew Kenney's everyday raw

I was still hungry, so I had a little dish of the kids' Tinkyada Brown Rice Pasta with marinara, hemp seeds, broccoli, and edamame on a bed of lettuce and kale.

Snack: Shake with frozen bananas, frozen strawberries, chocolate Sun Warrior Hemp Protein Powder, and almond milk

Supper: Fig & Food Soup (I think this is their Wheatberry & Vegetable Soup?) - I like the Fig & Food Soups with organic ingredients in their little BPA-free packages. Salad on the side with lettuce, kale, tomatoes, snap peas, and miso dressing.

Salad Bar at Home

We love having "salad bar" at home.

(editor's note: This pic is from a party, not a normal food day for us.)

My oldest child loves it so much that he has requested a salad bar (plus baked potato bar) for his birthday the past two years. He loves having the smorgasboard to choose from. He's not picky; that's the problem. He loves it all and wants it all. I always say that if we build another house, I need to just have a long salad bar with a cooler built in, just like at a restaurant or Whole Foods. Then at meal time, or when they want a snack, I can just lift the lids off the top and there ya go.

At least once a week, I try to make a meal (then we have leftovers for the next day, as well) that looks something like this: mixed greens, chickpeas, hearts of palm, carrots, avocado, celery diced, squash, cucumbers, broccoli, croutons, olives, cauliflower, etc.

It's amazing how much more my children prefer this. If I make a big salad for everyone to share, they might eat it (the two little ones will pick through it as they are choosing what to eat), but they aren't necessarily excited. But when they sit down to the above, they ARE excited. Partly, it is the young child aversion to mixing foods. Also, they are as stubborn as their mother and like to make their own choices. They end up spooning almost everything onto their plates, even the foods they would have picked out from my prepared salad, just because it's "fun" for them to spoon something out. They are even told ahead of time that if they put it on their plate, they have to eat it. (If they are full, we save it for them.)

one child's dish (in progress)

another child's dish

Even my pickiest middle child seems to make good choices when the choice is his to make.

preparing croutons, shaking the pieces of bread

in a bag with olive oil and spices before baking

And what's better than croutons? Daiya-covered croutons.

Here's the very decadent thing we have done a few times. So good.

Have a great weekend, everyone! We're headed north for a little road trip to see my husband's family and watch our favorite college basketball team. I look forward to catching up on everyone's blogs while in the car.

Even if this is what my phone has looked like the past few weeks. I've dropped phones dozens of times so I was a little surprised this was possible with one light drop to the driveway.

We Ate Mexican-y Last Night with a Lot of Raw

I've mentioned that I'm trying to get out of this rut and recapture a love for cooking. I think that when you have kids, sometimes - in a way - cooking can start to become a chore. Don't get me wrong. I really love doing cooking projects with them. My kids are so much fun, and they love it.

Like this one from quite awhile back (when my daughter was still in onesies...she's wearing my Martha Washington cap from my 6th grade Constitution play because we couldn't find the third chef hat)...I originally posted about using the Arrowhead Mills Organic Brownie mixes here.

And I happily love to nourish them with home cooking. However, it's not always fun to cook when you are constantly stopping to break up fights, help out in the bathroom, and listen to, "I'm hungry!" repeatedly, etc. I don't like to talk while I'm cooking. I like to cook the same way I like to clean - all by myself. Deep down, I really am "thankful in all things," and I know there will come a time I'll miss the little interruptions...sigh.

I say all of that to say this...I had the most enjoyable meal preparation time last night. I think Child #1 was on the computer, and #2 and #3 (Thing 1 and Thing 2) were upstairs or something. (I TRY to arrange something like this every time I want to cook alone, but it doesn't always work out this way.) I got to just mill around, enjoying my nice big kitchen. I feel like if I drank wine (I don't like wine.), this would have been the perfect time to do so.

I didn't think I had enough avocados (I only had 1 big one plus another half.) for regular guacamole so I just chopped the avocados and added chopped tomatoes, garlic, salt, and salsa. Trying to be "fancy," I put it in a cereal bowl and turned it upside down on the plate.

I am a little embarrassed to say...this was one of the first times I've ever made homemade refried beans. (I am so pathetic.) I'm really excited about it, and YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST: I am never buying canned refried beans again. I don't buy a lot of canned food, anyway, because it freaks me out, but refried beans are one of the things I always pick up in a rush. I liked mine much better, anyway. This time I just soaked and cooked the pinto beans and put them in the food processor with some spices. I was trying to keep them relatively benign for my 5 year old.

I put them in a casserole dish with Daiya and set it in the oven...mmm.

Finally, I just made a salad with lettuce and some parsley and beet greens I needed to use up, plus chopped bell peppers, olives, and salsa.

The night before, I made some of Matthew Kenny's Golden Tortilla Chips for the dehydrator. I wrote about trying his Eggplant Bacon recipe here. The chips were another successful raw venture. They mostly consist of thawed frozen organic corn, water, and flax meal - plus onions and spices.

The negative is that it takes 12-24 hours in the dehydrator.

(I think I took them out at about 18 hours.) My whole family ate them really well:

10 thumbs up.

I didn't know if there would be enough chips, so I made some extra ones by baking my Food for Life Gluten-Free tortilla shells. I brushed a little olive oil on the kids' chips but left off the extra fat on Ryan's and mine.

As soon as she started eating, my 3 year old daughter asked for some "mustard and ketchup." The kid loves mustard and ketchup. I squirted a little mustard on her plate but drew the line at ketchup. She was dipping her chips in the mustard; she wanted more and was mad because I told her she had to dip them in her beans and guacamole, not mustard. Poor, deprived child.

A few giveaways I'm mentioning: Vegan Backpacker is having a giveaway for a Secret Society of Vegans t-shirt and badge.

Vegan Crunk is having a giveaway for Soap Nuts Laundry Soap.

Love Veggies and Yoga is having a giveaway for a $100 gift certificate to CSN Stores.

And get excited because I'm going to be having a fun vegan food giveaway, sometime during the next day or two!

Blackened Tofu, It's Good to Have You Back

When I got married and moved to Little Rock, I had only been a vegan for a few years. And those were poor-in-college years. I survived on cold cereal, spaghetti with jar sauce, and Subway Sandwiches. I barely knew what tofu was, and I had to use that soymilk powder mixed with water in a mason jar for my mini-fridge.

That's me, my junior year of college...notice how it looks like Brad is looking at me?

Did anyone else feel like they fell in love with him while watching Legends of the Fall?

The year that I ate in the cafeteria, my favorite night was taco night. I got taco shells filled with lettuce and tomato (maybe I added olives from the salad bar). But they wouldn't let us have more than 2 or 3 at a time. I'd ask, "Can I please have a few more? I'm a vegetarian, and this is all I can eat." No,they made me wait in line again for a few more, which I had to do so that I wouldn't starve from only eating 2 taco shells filled with lettuce and tomato.

Wow, now that I'm thinking about it, I barely recognize this person I'm talking about. When Ryan and I were engaged, we thought we were really BIG TIME when we discovered we could microwave a bag of frozen vegetables and put them on a tortilla with salsa. THAT was a great meal to us.

It was those experiences that probably contributed to my Blackened Tofu obsession. It was so fun to be married/out on our own , and while we didn't have a lot of money (My paycheck was around $400 every two weeks as a private school teacher.), it still felt like a lot to us. And it was OUR money. We didn't have to ask our parents for money anymore.

Most Saturday mornings, we drove over to Whole Foods (It was Wild Oats then.) and stocked up. We went overboard choosing things from the deli and bakery (and lots of other stuff to cook throughout the week). Then we would rent a few movies (We didn't watch a lot of movies in college; we had a lot of catching up to do!), lie in bed all day, and eat out of our plastic deli containers. Awww...the life of newlyweds. We look back on this time with the utmost longing...usually when our kids are all fighting and interrupting us and jumping on the couch.

Just for fun, let's look back at that time...we were so young...sigh...and thin.

This was on our honeymoon at Tupelo, Mississippi...birthplace to Elvis.

Blackened Tofu with my FAVORITE salad:

romaine with caesar dressing from Post Punk Kitchen

Anyway, I always went straight to the deli to get a container full of Blackened Tofu. I've never been the biggest fan of spicy food...but I couldn't get enough of this. I continued getting this for several years...until...they STOPPED making it. (For the record, our Whole Foods could be A LOT more vegan-friendly than they are.) I actually worked at this Whole Foods for about 6 months, and I tried to pull up my vague memory in order to replicate the recipe. I have made this once before, I think, but the other day, I decided to get serious about it.

Blackened Tofu, eaten on my Food for Life gluten free tortilla with greens, sprouts, avocado, and tomatoes

I squeezed the water out of 3 tubs of tofu, then froze it.

After it thawed, I cut it into strips.

I carefully rolled the tofu in enough olive oil to help the spices stick...and then rolled it in the spices. Then I baked it. Maybe 25 minutes at 350? (That part is a little fuzzy; I'll go back and do it again, then edit this.)

I used this seasoning (which is what the used in the deli):

Chef Paul Prudhomme's Blackened Redfish Magic Seasoning Blends

(Salt, Herbs and Spices, Dehydrated Garlic, Paprika and Dehydrated Onion)

Since I did not think my kids could handle the massiveness of this spiciness, I also made them plenty rolled in just olive oil and cornmeal. It was definitely a hit for their little mouths.

Let's talk about how spicy the Blackened Tofu is...it hurts, it's so spicy. Like you have to drink something after you take a bite. Like hurts so good spicy. Again, I'm not a fan of jalapenos - and barely even onions, but I just love these for some reason. Ryan does, too.

It was a bit of a game with the kids - take a bite, yell, "Aaa! It's spicy!" and take a drink. And repeat.

Cornmeal dusted tofu: 10 thumbs up

Blackened tofu: 4 adult thumbs up

Muffin Tin Monday: Seeds, Plants & Flowers

This week's Muffin Tin theme was Seeds, Plants, & Flowers.
I'll start with the dirt dessert made from Dr. Oetker's chocolate pudding and ground up chocolate chips.
Before they ate, the kids ceremoniously planted pumpkin seeds into the "dirt." And the napkin flower isn't too impressive, but I tried!
Quinoa salad with grated carrots plus SPROUTED lentils (Can you see the little sprouts?). Little celery seedlings are also sprouting up.

More lentil/quinoa salad with avocado grass covering (but no avocado on Dash's). Strawberry, apple, and cucumber flowers. Dash also picked his cucumber flowers and "replanted" them in Tornado's garden.