St. Patrick's Day

My oldest son presented me with this fistful of flowers on St. Patrick's Day. When we are apart for the day, he almost always has something for me. I usually find at least one drawing in his backpack with "To Mom, From (his name)" written at the top. Love him.

I am currently in "make kids more capable around the house" mode. They do help around the house some, but I am guilty of preferring to just do it myself so it is done correctly and quickly. However, I know I need to put in the time to teach them to do it right, and I know our household will flow more smoothly once they are doing more of their share. (Call me optimistic, but my plan is for the three of them to completely take over the laundry.) They're definitely old enough and capable (or at least could be) enough.

I said all of that to say, my 5 year old sat the table for me!

Every year for St. Patrick's Day we have a smorgasbord of green food, like this one. I wanted to do something different this year so I picked two dishes I'd never made.

For the Pesto Pasta, I used this recipe (subbing half of the oil with almond milk and a mixture of parsley & spinach instead of basil) for pesto. I wouldn't say it was delicious. It was okay. I probably didn't love it as much because it wasn't salty, and I didn't salt it at the table (since I'm trying to cut that out).

I liked the Pesto-Olive Foccaccia a lot. I think I could have left it in the oven a little longer, but I was trying to hurry things up. And I could have probably kneaded it better, etc. to make it lighter, but my son was helping me...and again, I was in a hurry.

The roasted asparagus (which was lightly misted with olive oil, Braggs, Coconut Aminos, spices, and lemon juice) was delicious. It got 10 thumbs up.

And then, of course, there were kiwi slices on the side "just because" they're green, pretty, and yummy.

I was disappointed in our silicone shamrock cupcake pan. They didn't resemble shamrocks after they rose. But they did when I turned them over.

I used the Simple Vanilla & Agave Cupcakes recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. It uses agave nectar (which browns quicker) as the only sweetener. They had more of a muffin taste, and we liked them.

I decorated them upside-down. Which was kind of weird. But I'm only trying to impress the 10 and under crowd here, so it's all good.

I also tried making Shamrock Shakes. I looked online, and there appeared to be many recipes supporting the addition of avocado into a creamy, delicious shake. After making them, I'm still not convinced of this. I think it's just not for me. I should have stuck with a green smoothie, which would have been delicious. My line of thinking was that if a green smoothie is delicious, then a green milkshake has to be that much better.

I used Purely Decadent Coconut Milk ice cream and added avocado and kiwi. Maybe if I hadn't made these myself and didn't know that it contained avocado (which I LOVE in non-dessert foods), it would have tasted better to me. I have food mixing issues. I also added just a bit of frozen kale to make it greener.

The verdict: 10 year old and 4 year old drank theirs right up, and my husband said he liked it, too. My 5 year old didn't like it, though, so I used his to make popsicles which they ate right up this morning.

After-supper entertainment included making St. Patrick's Day frog masks, puppet shows behind the couch, and a little karaoke.

Lots of "luck" and blessings to you all this weekend!

Deceptively Delicious Part Two PLUS Chocolate Muffins!

Continuing on, trying out recipes from Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious...

(You can read about my veganized Blueberry (Squash) Lemon Muffins and Bean (Squash, Carrot) Baked Tortillas in my last post.)

I made a version of her Spaghetti Pie one night. I used Whole Wheat Angel Hair. I mixed 2 cups of Marinara Sauce with 1 cup steamed carrot puree. My 5 year old loves raw carrots but won't normally eat cooked carrots. (That's where the "deceptive" part comes in.)

I poured it into two pie plates, topped it with Daiya and my own version of meatballs, then baked it at 350 until it seemed ready. It was "delicious" with 10 thumbs up!

Pardon me while I waste time play around on Picnik for awhile:

1)pureed broccoli and seitan, 2) rolled up into balls, and 3) after they had baked

We loved these Broccoli Seitan Meatballs I created, based on the meatball recipe from Deceptively Delicious. As usual, I'm sure the rest of you will have better ideas about how to spice these up.

I used:

1 1/2 cups slightly steamed pureed broccoli

1 package of seitan

enough bread crumbs to help form balls

and a sprinkling of garlic salt

I pureed the broccoli with the seitan and garlic, then stirred in the bread crumbs before forming the balls and baking until slightly firm & browned.

Although it wasn't quite "pie-like" the first night (because we ate it hot from the oven), it definitely was the next day for leftovers. It cut very nicely into slices.

In other news:

I tried out the Chocolate Fudge Muffin recipe from Little House of Veggies. You might have seen it on her blog. Or you may remember drooling over its sister recipe, Chocolate Nutty Brownies, on Shenandoah Vegan's blog every few days for a week...or four.

This picture doesn't really do them justice. (Morgan's picture with the recipe is super yummy-looking.) These are the changes I made: I eliminated the oil (It only calls for 1 teaspoon to begin with - one major reason to love this recipe.), and I cut the sugar in half. The chocolate chips are what make the recipe, anyway.

Unless you're only baking for one, don't even bother making these unless you're going to double the recipe. Otherwise, you'll just feel angry and bewildered that you're out of these decadent little creatures so soon. Seriously, all five of us were talking about how much we loved these the entire time we were sitting at the table, eating them. There was a lot of "mmm"ing involved.

Deceptively Delicious

Where have I been?

I think I had the flu (fever, chills, achey, head cold). Which was preceded by my children all having it. And although the kids were feeling better by the time I got sick, it hit my husband and me at the same time. We'd both be in bed while the kids fended for themselves. Occasionally, one of us would stagger out of bed to break up a fight or refill a sippy cup, then stagger back into bed as quickly as possible. It was one of those illnesses in which I was too weak to even fast forward through my dvr'ed show's commercials. I just endured the commercials rather than muster the energy to lift my hand.

Mix three weeks of someone being sick with a big birthday party, lots of out of town company, and the rigors (and fun) of everyday life - and that's where I've been.

Back to blogging!

I borrowed Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious from the library awhile back and have been enjoying trying out recipes from it. Although it isn't a vegan book, there is plenty to easily veganize. For those of you not familiar with the book, the concept is simply finding ways to sneak pureed fruits and veggies into your food.

And although my kids eat healthy enough that "sneaking veggies in" isn't necessary, I still find it fun and a challenge to do so. Above, I made the Tortilla Cigars with several changes. This is sort of what our Tortillas consisted of:

1 can pinto beans

1/2 cup yellow squash puree

1/2 cup carrot puree

sprinkling of Daiya

Yum! I spread the vegetable/bean puree onto Ezekiel Sprouted Tortillas with a little Daiya and rolled them up as tight as I could. I baked them for a bit (10 minutes? not sure) until they were browning and starting to crisp up a little. We couldn't get enough of these. I feel like there's no reason NOT to add veggie puree to my refried beans from now on. I didn't think it changed the taste much when it was all wrapped up.

Next up were the Blueberry Lemon Muffins, which I adapted quite a bit from the original recipe, veganizing it and cutting out some of the sugar and oil.

This was another yellow squash puree recipe. I chose these two recipes mostly because squash happens to be one of the vegetables my youngest two aren't crazy about. I love that I have these ideas to get a little yellow squash into them. We devoured these in two sittings. I could never stretch my desserts out for a month, like Shen, even if I wanted to.

Blueberry Lemon Muffins

Preheat oven 350. I stirred together these ingredients:

1/4 cup turbinado

1 Tbs. Earth Balance

3 Tbs. applesauce

1 cup lemon soy yogurt

(which is a little more than one container)

Then I added these ingredients:

3/4 cup steamed yellow squash puree

egg replacer equivalent to one egg

1 teaspoon lemon flavor

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup ground flaxseeds

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

The original recipe says to not overmix. Last, I stirred in:

1 cup frozen blueberries

Divide batter among muffin cups. (For me, this was equivalent to one 12-cup baking tin plus 2 extra silicone cups. Bake until muffins are lightly browned, about 13-16 minutes.

Next up on my list to try: Mozzarella Sticks with cauliflower puree!

What's Been Going On Lately

A few random, fun happenings in my life lately:

I got to meet a blogger friend! Heather from Where's the Beach? and I had lunch together (the Friday before last). She blogged about it here. Since we live near one another, we had been talking for many months about getting together, and I'm glad we finally got the chance. She's fun, and I enjoyed our lunch (although it was much too short!).

This was my first time to eat at the relatively new 4 Square Gifts, which is a gift shop plus vegetarian deli (including vegan and gluten-free options) in Downtown Little Rock. I ordered the Hummus & Tofu Wrap, which was tasty, especially due to the lemon garlic hummus and kalamata olives.

We traveled up to Missouri that weekend to watch my niece in the Branson Community Theater production of Oliver! So cute and fun!

It usually only snows once or twice a year here, but it feels like it has been snowing every week.

where we live

The kids love the snow, obviously. And I love getting a call while still in bed that says, "The Public School System is closed today due to weather...". I bet my parents wish they had automated announcements when we were growing up. Of course, they didn't have cell phones or even phones on their nightstands, so I guess it wouldn't have made a difference.

We celebrated Ryan's birthday Friday night. (Unfortunately, he was out of town on business all week, including on his actual birthdate.) I asked him to choose anything he wanted for supper. I thought he might say a big Mexican meal or mashed potatoes and "meat"loaf, etc., but instead he picked Grilled Cheese Sandwiches with homemade cheese sauce. Normally, I use the grilled cheese recipe out of Ultimate Uncheese. I used Veganomicon's cheese sauce recipe this time, since I was out of tahini. On dark, seedy French Meadow Bakery Hemp Bread.

I also made Butternut Squash Soup. From scratch. Not really. I used Pacific's Organic Creamy Butternut Squash Soup.

He also requested a Delicious Choices Cheesecake. Delicious Choices was a company that would ship vegan cheesecakes to your door. Did anyone ever buy one? We bought several back in the day (always the sampler - every gigantic piece was a different flavor), and when they stopped selling them, they sold the recipes (that apparently can be found here).

I usually make the crust from scratch, but for sake of time, I just crumbled up two Wholly Wholesome Graham Cracker Crusts mixed with just enough melted Earth Balance.

I used a mixture of organic frozen strawberries, organic strawberry fruit spread, lemon juice, and a tiny bit of sugar for the topping.

Happy birthday, Ryan! Please don't go away on week-long business trips anymore!

This isn't the healthiest cheesecake recipe, but they are as delicious as their name indicates.

E.A.T. World Challenge (China)

I had almost finished this post back in the days of Vegan Mofo, but then I went on vacation and never finished it. So...a little late, I present to you, "Our Night in China." Update: So...duh! It's Chinese New Year! Perfect timing! Happy Chinese New Year!

We like to celebrate big things and little things in our house. We have what we call "Family Fun Nights" with special themes. Often, they go along with what we are learning about at the time.(For example: here was our Ocean Unit party.)

Recently, the 4 kids of good friends of ours spent the night at our house. They are homeschoolers, too, and they appreciated joining in on a little of our Asian studies we've had going on around here lately.

We made hats and fans and looked at books and talked about the Chinese culture and food. (And we decorated with paper lanterns, etc. that we already had in our "party supply" tubs.)

We like to get recipe ideas from the juvenile non-fiction section of the library. There are a lot of pictures and easy, step-by-step instructions for the kids (easily veganized). I'd actually recommend children's cooking books for visual-learning adults like myself! Here are two of the Chinese food books we read: Foods of China by Barbara Sheen & A World of Recipes: China (There are several other country titles in this series.) by Julie McCulloch.

Here, they had rice cooked 3 ways; that seemed easy enough.

Fried Tofu with Rice

For our "fried rice with eggs," we just fried tofu in a skillet and mixed it with long grain rice and a little sprinkling of soy sauce.

Coconut Rice

and

Rice with organic Tamari and Peas & Carrots

The coconut rice was very interesting; the kids were shoveling it in! You are supposed to cook it in coconut milk for it to soak in the flavor. But I didn't have time to make a separate batch of rice so I just poured the (canned) coconut milk into the rice with a little sprinkling of organic sugar. The other section is just rice with (from frozen) peas & carrots.

Moo Goo Gai Pan

I was very excited and proud of myself for this one. I was just excited about making something called Moo Goo Gai Pan. I wove it into the conversation that night as many times as possible. I am a rather bland cook, and I'm a dunce when it comes to spices so this was stepping out for me! Here is a "sort-of" recipe:

*1 bag of Buffalo style Gardein strips (without using the sauce), tossed with salt, pepper, garlic, and organic cornstarch

*Cook shiitake mushrooms in a little oil, add 4 tbs. soy sauce. Mix in chopped onions, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, and fresh minced garlic. (I added a tiny bit of ginger and would have added more if my kids weren't eating it.

*Stir in the sauce (about 1/2 cup vegetable broth, 2 tbs. hoisin sauce, 1 tsp. sugar, and 1 tbs. cornstarch.

I say this is a "sort of" recipe because I was trying to jot down everything I did, but I didn't measure the veggies, etc. and just "sort of" did what looked "right." It was delicious!

Seitan Broccoli and Hoisin Stir Fry

I based this dish on about.com's Chinese Vegetable and Hoisin Stir Fry recipe.

Vermicelli and Vegetables

Everybody also got a small glass of Cherry Apple Rooibos Tea (mixed with a little sugar) to try. Some kids liked it, and some did not. My oldest child gulped down cup after cup.

These two are quite a (comical) handful when you get them together. (That's my 5 year old on the right.) Fortunately, our house guests are used to healthy food and vegetables at home; they weren't picky (like some of the other kids who come to our house) and ate everything (although I didn't offer them the soy dishes because I know their Mom is leery of it).

You wouldn't believe what the aftermath of 7 kids mixed with rice, noodles, and chopsticks looks like.

We made the Sweet Chestnut Balls Recipe from the A World of Recipes: China book. They are made from processing chestnuts with a little agave nectar. (The recipe called for honey.) This is what they looked like before the balls were rolled in powdered sugar and cinnamon.

And this is with the cinnamon and powdered sugar. I rolled them in the sugar right before they ate them because if not, the sugar soaked into the ball and became invisible. These were tasty but a little sweet for my tastebuds to eat more than one.

We also had fruit salad for dessert, inspired by the Chinese belief in "good luck" fruit salad.

I am including this post as a part of

Wing-It Vegan's E.A.T. World! challenge.

My Kid's School Lunches

3 mini "uncheese" (from Ultimate Uncheese) sandwiches, apple chunks (rubbed with orange juice), carrots & celery, Brazil nuts, and a Clif White Chocolate Macadamia Crunch Bar

salad (garbanzo beans, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, avocado, bell pepper, sweet potato, olive oil, spices), back to Nature Crispy Wheat Crackers, Brazil nuts, and an oatmeal raisin Alternative Baking Company cookie (Those 480 calorie cookies are good for his skinny 10 year old self.)

A Quinoa Spinach Salad purchased from Whole Foods, apple Crisps, garbanzo beans, lime Silk yogurt, and half of a Dark Chocolate Almond Dream bar

leftover homemade cheese and olive pizza, extra olives, broccoli, blueberries, lime yogurt, and back to Nature Multi-Seed Gluten Free Crackers

brown rice & beans with avocado, olive oil, and spices (plus ketchup because their father has conditioned them into believing beans aren't beans without ketchup), blueberries, salad (lettuce, avocado, sunflower seeds, almond slices and Vegan Caesar dressing), and a Surf Sweets gummy worm

Four Fun Facts

I've been tagged by Heather at Where's the Beach?. Here are my Four Fun Facts:

Four TV Shows I Watch:
*Friday Night Lights

*Grey's Anatomy

*Private Practice

*The Bachelor (I'm just being honest.)

Four Things I'm Passionate About:
(These aren't necessarily the 4 things I'm MOST passionate about, just 4 OF them.)

*traveling around as much of the world as possible, also sharing that with my kids

*my food choices

*my kids' health and well-being; making sure they feel loved, supported, and challenged

*Brad Pitt. And Ryan Gosling. But only after my husband, of course.

Four Words/Phrases I Use Too Much:
"Awesome," maybe? I don't know if I use any word or phrase too regularly. Ryan can't think of anything for me, either. Sisters, any ideas? I do use "like" (as in "it's, like,...") and "so" too much in my writing.

Four Things I’ve Learned From The Past:

*It's important to guard your heart. (Above all else, guard your heart...Proverbs 4:23)

*Be careful of your word choices during arguments, because you can't take it back.

*Holding onto bitterness against someone isn't good for you. (If you have anything against anyone, forgive him and let it drop, in order that your Father who is in heaven may also forgive you your own failings and shortcomings and let them drop...Mark 11:25)

*I have a bad habit of setting people up to disappoint me. I tend to see the world through fairy-tale lenses. This isn't fair to other people, and I'm not doing myself any favors.

Four Things I’m Looking Forward To:
*warmer weather

*another Hail Merry Raw Chocolate Tart, the next time I go to Whole Foods!!!

*visiting these places (among others) one day: Italy, France, England, Greece, Canada, Alaska, Hawaii, Yellowstone, and the Dakotas

*Every day I look forward to that moment of crawling into bed with my husband, relaxing, talking, laughing, and watching one of our shows; we just finished season 4 of Big Love.

Four Things I Love About Winter:
*I like Heather's answer: Um, pretty much the only plus is getting to wear boots.

*I also like wearing sweaters and the clothing choices, in general, during winter. I have a bad habit of wearing cardigans in the heat of summer.

*I like witnessing my kids' excitement the one or two times a year it snows here.

*Christmas and my daughter's birthday in February

I am supposed to tag some people. I'm going to go look at my blog roll and tag the first blog that's showing up right now...well, it's Heather so I can't tag her...next is Shenandoah Vegan. Well, I KNOW she will LOVE being tagged and telling us so many more things about herself. :)

I'm also tagging someone new I've been "following," but I'm just "getting around to" adding to my "roll."

Vegan Georgia - Her blog is fairly new; go over and say "hi!"

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My Hippy Pack

Carissa at Coffee & Sunshine created something called "Hippy Packs." She exchanges vegan friendly gifts with someone, and I thought it sounded like fun! Who doesn't want to get a box of vegan goodness in the mail? Thanks, Carissa, for a fun swap. (She wrote about my package here.) I think the world of this girl.

Here is what was in my box from Carissa: Color Drip Candles & chopsticks(fun!), Mama's Special Organic Kettle Corn (yum! didn't last long with the kids plowing in, too), Mareblu Naturals Cashew Crunch (yum!), MacFarms Hawaiin Macademia Nuts, Mrs. May's Almond Crunch (yum!), Seeds of Change Organic Quinoa & Brown Rice mix (haven't cooked this yet but looks good!), and a cute beverage cup!

There were also bags of Hops Flowers (She wrote that when made into tea, these help with insomnia, fevers, and digestion.) and Chamomile Flowers. I was excited that she sent these because this is one of the things I love about Carissa. She's always growing something and concocting something. She creates a lot of things naturally, from scratch; I love it and want to make more things the way she does.

She also sent me several packets of tea. This was perfect timing since one of my New Year's Resolutions was to get in the habit of drinking tea. I'm definitely not a drinker of any sort. I've mentioned before that I don't like soda, alcohol, coffee, tea...I have a hard time even getting my daily intake of water. I want to start drinking tea everyday, though, for the health benefits. So , thank you, Carissa, for the nudge in the right direction! I've been drinking my tea, adding in a dash of orange juice, and I like it that way.

She included two flowering teas. She wrote about them here on her blog. You just add hot water.

And look what happens! It's so pretty! The kids and I greatly enjoyed watching them "bloom."