I Heart New York

My birthday present was...tada...a trip to NYC with my husband. This is my 4th trip to NY, and those who know me well, know it is my favorite place. We left Saturday and are having a fabulous time!

Our flight was fine and uneventful (besides my constant gasps at every little change in movement or sound - I don't like being in the air) and flew by with constant, uninterrupted conversation, a competitive round of the dot game, and the perusing of Sky Mall magazine. Might I recommend (my wish list) the chewy edges brownie pan, inflatable movie screen, portable microwave, nut butter maker, portable exercise bike, head spa massager, digital receipt scanner, and portable laptop table perfect for when I am on my back in bed.


After checking into our hotel at 10:30ish p.m., we headed down to Curly's Vegetarian Diner. I live in a state with NO vegetarian restaurants, and I'm commonly faced with having only iceberg lettuce salad to choose. That's why this trip was so fun and important. We were really hungry and shared the tofu scrambler with spinach, salad, toast...

and curly fries with gravy - which, I think, is Ryan's new favorite food. He may frame this picture he loved them so much...

and a stack of pancakes with fruit plus "bacon" and sham. I LOVE breakfast food.

We enjoyed a leisurely walk back to our hotel, stopping through all the action at Union Square Park.

We are very happy with our hotel and our room on the 27th floor.

view from our floor - Central Park in the background

The next morning, after sleeping in as late as we wanted (about 9:30), we went to babycakes bakery in the lower east side, then walked around the area.

I chose the chocolate brownie cupcake, and Ryan chose lemon. We also shared a berry/cream biscuit. It was all yummy but a little too expensive.

I'm going to be honest; babycakes is not my favorite place. I think the desserts are a little dry. (The berry part of the biscuit was probably the best for me.) However, I have only been there once, and maybe it was just that day. It's really hard for me to give any sort of criticism toward a vegetarian/vegan establishment. I'm so happy they're THERE. I want them to succeed. It's so much better than anything I could order where I live. And I will bring my kids back here one day because it will be fun to let them order anything they want from the case.

We next headed to the Tompkins Square Park area, where we checked out Sustainable NYC, a really fun store, full of organic, local, fair trade, re-purposed/recycled, and biodegradable products and gifts. One of the things I bought was this wallet. I definitely loved this store.

Ryan, walking by farmers' market area at Tompkins Square Park

Lunch at Kate's Joint, where I've eaten several times before...we ordered the TLT (tofu, lettuce, tomato) and Southern Fried Cutlet sandwiches - both very similar but so good. The really fun thing about going to these restaurants with Ryan is ordering two things and always splitting them. It helps with having to narrow down such a difficult decision.

Accidentally wandered upon Washington Square Park, on our way to the "ice cream" shop

The first all vegan ice cream shop I've ever seen - Lula's Sweet Apothecary. It was really cute with a broad choice of ice cream flavors (which we got to sample!) to choose from. Just like Baskin Robbins, complete with tiny little ice cream spoons. :) No, I didn't eat both of those cones, even though that would have been a fair assessment. Ryan got rum raisin, and I got (SOFT-SERVE!!) cake batter/chocolate nut twist. It was REALLY good. Twist cones were always my favorite (dairy) thing, growing up.

I was so excited about being in Lula's, I remember I said, "They even have flurries!" Ryan asked, "What's a flurry?" "...it's...(as I start laughing) I don't know! But they have them!"

I just realized I got these pictures out of order, with good reason. I naturally would have assumed we ate the ice cream AFTER lunch...not right before supper, as it actually happened...oops.

After lunch, we went to see God of Carnage, starring James Gandolfini, Marcia Gay Harden, Hope Davis, and Jeff Daniels (you know, from Dumb and Dumber) on Broadway. I LOVE going to shows, and this one was very entertaining. It was Ryan's first Broadway show, and he really enjoyed it, as well.

We ate supper at Candle 79, an elegant, romantic, organic/vegan spot. We sat upstairs by the window, which was really nice. I must stress how nice it has been to just sit, talk, and take our time eating at a nice restaurant. We had the nachos for an appetizer. It's blurry, yes, but I didn't want to retake it. I wasn't going to even take the pictures in this restaurant, but by the time our food came, there weren't many people around us. Mostly just one young couple (weird how we're not a "young couple" anymore) who appeared to be on a date and smiled when I took the picture because my bright flash went off. Ryan apologetically said, "She really likes vegan food."

I got a seared seitan caesar salad, and Ryan ordered the Spring Harvest paella.

For dessert, Ryan ate the mixed berry crumble with chamomile "ice cream." I had the Chocolate Peanut Butter Bliss. Clearly, I would pick whatever has chocolate and bliss in the title. When they brought it out, I thought it was the tiniest dessert I'd ever seen (but cute!).

I think it was the BEST dessert I've ever put into my mouth.

They Say It's My Birthday

In honor of my 34th birthday...33 years ago today. Some things never change.

homemade pizza for supper...365 pizza crust, Eden Organic pizza sauce, grated zucchini (a great way to hide a vegetable - grate zucchini or squash on pizza), spinach, tomatoes, pinto beans (not usually a pizza topper but I had lots of extras left over), red bell pepper, green and black olives, broccoli, artichokes, Tofurky kielbasa, Yves meatless pepperoni, and Vegan Gourmet cheddar and mozzarella

Chocolate mousse pie, made with Wholly Wholesome Organic Spelt pie crust. In food processor, blend two packages of firm or extra firm silken tofu, melt 2 cups (I actually didn't measure, something like that) chocolate chips (I mixed chocolate and carob chips) in microwave then blend with tofu and a few teaspoons of agave nectar.

I ground up extra chips in food processor to crumble on top...Soyatoo and strawberries on the side.

I had some help blowing out my candles. I had to cup my hands over my candle to keep the little anxious blowers away until I'd completed my birthday wish.

Birthday wishes are very important to me.

Watermelon Unit

My son and I once did a Watermelon Unit in homeschooling.

I made a Delicious Choices cheesecake. This was a company that used to sell vegan cheesecakes online. We occasionally ordered them. Tornado and I would both be so giddy, receiving a cheesecake on our doorstep. We'd immediately start digging in (no plates, just our own forks).

Sadly, they stopped selling them, but for awhile, they sold the recipes online, which Ryan bought for me one Christmas.

It seems the website is no longer valid, but here is a link to the recipes. I covered half of it in strawberry sauce and added chocolate chip "seeds."

We also ate - what else - watermelon, both red and yellow, at the party.

Decorations included green streamer vines hanging from the ceiling and red watermelon balloons with seeds drawn on them. Aren't my big boys so little?

At our next watermelon party, I would make a veganized version of these Watermelon Sherbert Smoothies. I had saved this picture from Family Fun magazine.

Mmm. I think I'm going to go eat some watermelon.

This is an edited/shortened version of a watermelon post I did on my homeschooling blog.

4th of July

Saturday, we went to the Frontier Fourth of July celebration at the Arkansas Historic Museum. We'd never visited this museum before even though I pass it, coming off the interstate almost every week. I was surprised how big the property really is because it just seemed like a tiny building tucked into downtown. There are restored historic homes to tour, live gardens, and actors dressed up 19th century style.

There were old fashioned toys, games, watermelon and lemon-aid to enjoy...there are more cute pictures of them on the Arkansas Democrat Gazette website. Here are a couple of links...click here or here, and there are a few others, as well.

Post fireworks treat...Raspberry flavored Natural Desserts Vegan Jel, which was full of fresh, chopped strawberries and blueberries and Soyatoo whipped cream on the side. A yummy alternative to bone/connective tissue Jello. :)

St. Louis Trip - New Nephew!

I am a week behind posting about my fun trip to St. Louis. I was in sort of an internet slump, for some reason. I'm back, though. And I'm sorry I haven't mastered the art of a short blog post yet. I'll work on it. My sister was having her second baby last Friday, and Tornado and I drove up there to take care of my niece, Winnie, and dog-nephew, Puddy, while they were at the hospital. We left Thursday and stayed until Sunday.As if it wasn't enough getting to spend time with my family and staying in a super cool loft in a fun city, Cary and Andy also gifted me with a Whole Foods gift card, a pretty scarf, and these cool silver-plated flowers (in their new home on my table). Not to mention - yummy, homemade strawberry muffins. Thank you so much, you guys.
I'm fairly sure I wasn't supposed to post a picture of Cary in her pajamas/Andy's boxers, but I'm overruling that because she looks super cute (cuter and skinnier than I've ever looked pregnant) - and it's the best picture to showcase her gargantuan stomach.

It's hard to resist a 600,000 square foot museum/indoor-outdoor playground (with a bus hanging off the roof) that can be seen right outside your window. Tornado was hopping up and down, chanting, "Museum, here we come!" over and over all morning...until we finally walked over to the City Museum.

I wish my entire house looked like the inside of the City Museum. You feel like you're in this bizarre Alice in Wonderland type world; it's fascinating. It's really amazing how everything is reclaimed/recycled - and honestly, potentially a little dangerous, which is kind of refreshing to experience, in this sign-a-release/lawsuit crazy world we live in.

Later...Winnie was clearly delighted to eat at the vegan restaurant, Vegadeli, in Chesterfield. :)
This is what we ordered to share...BBQ "Cheddar" veggie burger, sweet potatoes with apples and raisins, macaroni and "cheese", and nachos. We ended up going back the next day, too, (hee, hee) and ordered more macaroni (good stuff!), a "tuna" sandwich (made from seaweed and garbanzo beans - quite tasty), and lasagna (Winnie was a wild woman going after that one.).

We took Winnie to the hospital to meet her new baby brother, weighing in at 9.7 (see earlier picture of belly). We also had a fun time at the Museum of Transportation. Sunday morning, we decided to sneak in a little trip to the Arch before "Mom and Dad" got home. Tornado had never been to the top before, and he obviously loves a good museum.
me and Winnie, in the Museum of Westward Expansion, which is located underneath the Arch

Birthday Party for Charity

Recently, my son chose to have a Fetch Ruff Ruffman birthday party, based on the children's series on PBS. Instead of asking for parents, he asked everyone to bring "gifts" for the animals at the Humane Society. This was my idea/suggestion, but he wholeheartedly agreed this was what he wanted to do.

The kids and I took all of Tornado's birthday party donations to the Humane Society this week. Here he is, holding some of them. The kids were all really proud, each carrying something inside, and the people seemed very appreciative of everything we brought. We're still going to volunteer sometime, but we haven't been through volunteer training yet.

And in other news...here are our flowers we potted for our front porch.

Kid Snacks

Nothing too original here - pumpkin seeds, grapes, almonds, blueberries, granola, carrots, olives, peaches, and pecans...but this is what I'm trying to do lately.

One of my "problems" during the day is having three kids wanting to snack throughout the day. I'm all for them snacking and eating when they feel hungry, rather than at required meal times, but it's gotten a little out of hand. I just feel like I'm in continual "fill drinks and prepare food" mode and constantly up and down the stairs. Having set meal and snack times made it a little better because I could say, "Snack times at 10:30; wait until then." They still try to sneak things out of the fridge that I don't really want them to snack on all of the time, like soy cheese and bread with margarine.

So that is why I've been giving this a try, and so far, so good. I fill a mini loaf pan after breakfast sometime, and then either set it out on the table or put it in the fridge for the day. They can pick from it when they want. Since there isn't anything unhealthy, it wouldn't really matter if it "ruined their supper," but that hasn't been the case. Plus, the pan is really easy to carry around.

Granola bars pieces, oranges, avocado, raisins, cashews, and apples...I stirred the avocados and apples in a little orange juice to keep them from turning brown during the day. The fruit usually goes the quickest, which is good, since it is losing its vitamin C after being peeled. I just googled how quickly that happens. All I could find was this about oranges: After only 8 hours at room temperature or 24 hours in the refrigerator, there's a 20 percent vitamin C loss. If that's true, that actually isn't as bad as I thought.

back to Nature Organic Stoneground Wheat Crackers, carrots, blueberries mixed with goji berries, and cheese cubes made from a recipe out of The Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook by Jo Stepaniak...great cookbook, probably the one I use the most of any cookbook.

The cheese is made out of ingredients like tahini (didn't have any, but I was able to quickly whip some up by food processing raw sesame seeds, olive oil, and water), nutritional yeast, cashews, and agar flakes. I have made grilled cheese sandwiches, fondue, nachos, macaroni and cheese, and cheesecake with ideas from that book.