Balancing Act

One of Jackson's birthday presents this year was a balance beam. He recently finished his gymnastics class, and we thought he might want to continue practicing at home. He loved watching the Olympic gymnasts and now he is making up his own "routines."

 

 

He can also levitate, check it out.

 

 

Olivia likes it too. She also likes wearing brother's shirts that he has outgrown.

 

We had lunch today at Mister Fruit Cup, a new trailer that specializes in, you guessed it, fruit cups. Fruit cups are a Mexican street food. A few years ago when I lived in South Austin, I lived near a  fruteria where you could get a big cup of freshly sliced fruit, sprinkled with lime juice and chili powder. But I'm pretty sure they've closed down. So it's nice that this trailer has opened to fill that void.

 

It's also nice that they have a full vegan menu in addition to their regular menu, including vegan brownies and whipped cream!

 

 

 

Don't they look lovely? Nice arrangement. From left to right: I had the Thai with basil, mint, chopped peanuts, and brown sugar sauce. Olivia had the Tropical with cashews and coconut flakes. Jackson had the Rainbow, with vegan whipped cream and sprinkles.

 

This afternoon we picked up our CSA box. This week we received basil, arugula, okra, cantaloupe, summer squash, cucumbers, eggplant, zucchini, bell peppers, beets, onion, and assorted sweet and hot peppers.

 

Lots of fruit today, and lots of veggies. Tomorrow, probably some pizza or nachos or something. For balance.

 

Do you have any big plans for Labor Day weekend? I'll just be relaxing with the family, cooking out of course, and catching up on my blog reading, too. I've gotten distracted this week, playing around on my new tumblr. You see, I am extremely ready for fall to get here. Summer is wearing me down. It was 101 degrees today! So I'm trying to experience fall vicariously until the real thing arrives.

 

Have a great weekend!

 

CSA - Our First Box!

Much to my delight, we've finally joined a CSA (community supported agriculture) program with Johnson's Backyard Garden. We are getting a box every two weeks to start with. Here is the first week's bounty!

I'll break it down -- sweet potato greens, spinach, basil, okra, eggplants, butternut squash, pattypan squash, summer squash, onions, potatoes, hot and sweet peppers, bell peppers, and cucumber.

We started out by slicing some hot peppers on a frozen pizza.

Then I planned my weekly meals based on the veggies we recieved, and went grocery shopping. This is a new method of meal-planning for me, but I think I can get used to it.

One evening I made a lovely Mediterranean feast, full of farm-fresh vegetables.

I made hummus topped with more of those wonderful hot peppers.

I made a pesto quinoa salad using basil, onions, and cucumber, as well as tomatoes from our own garden.

I roasted the eggplants and made some lovely baba ganoush, sprinkled liberally with smoked paprika.

Finally, I sauteed the sweet potato greens with garlic and a pinch of salt.

It was all so good. I'd never eaten sweet potato greens before in my life. That's one benefit of joining a CSA -- getting to try veggies you've never even seen at the supermarket!

Another benefit is that, when you pick up your box, you know everything is fresh, having just been harvested at the farm -- possibly that very morning. Also, it feels good to have my money going to local farmers. Local food is becoming more important to me, as I learn about the necessity of helping the local economy and reducing environmental pollution by cutting down food transportation costs.

I was feeling under the weather today. Tony has passed his summer cold on to me. For some reason, summer colds make me so much  more miserable than winter illnesses. To aid my recuperation, I made one of my all-time favorite comfort food recipes -- the Chard Florentine from Vegan Yum Yum. Except, I used spinach instead of chard, since that's what came in the CSA box.

Are you a CSA member?

Vegan Heritage Press is hosting a giveaway of several of their awesome cookbooks -- check it out!