Monday Mornings

It hasn't been easy getting back into the post-winter break, 6:30 a.m. wake-up routine. You can really see the mix of sleepiness and disbelief on our faces. It can't possibly already be time to get up?!

I've gotten tired of oats so I have been switching up my breakfast. Banana and whole wheat toast with peanut butter.

For a post-workout and yoga snack, an old favorite makes a return. Averie's peanut butter chocolate chip protein balls, made with Garden of Life RAW vanilla protein.

Trying to perk up and stay warm with some spicy Indian food, we had lunch at Tarka. I love Tarka, it's like Indian fast food. You order at the counter and it's ready in minutes, but it's so good! I had the kofta malai this time.

Garlic naan on the side.

I only ordered "medium spicy", but it was almost too hot for my taste. I should never deviate from "mild." I was glad to have a mango lemonade to sip on.

How's your Monday going?

Autumn Drinks

Now that we have turned the heater on, the air in my home gets very dry, and I find myself drinking more liquids to keep myself hydrated.

I had to pick up another Suja Elements Wassail, also known as cinnamon roll in a bottle!  I love it so much. I also tried their Chun Mee Tropical tea. 

Speaking of tea, I could not pass up these flavors. Celestial Seasonings Caramel Apple Dream, for a sweet treat, and Yogi Honey Lavender Stress Relief for sleepytime.

I also bought a pouch of Dandy Blend, an herbal coffee substitute. Now, I don't have any problem with coffee. I drink decaf iced coffees all summer long. But I have enjoyed other herbal coffees so I wanted to try this one out, too. 

Chocolate Pharmacy is an Austin business specializing in raw cacao with added healing spices. I love their raw truffles and when I saw their brand-new line of chocolate potions, I had to place an order. That's when I learned that Jyl, the owner, will personally deliver to your door if you live in Austin. That's service!

The bottle contains raw, unsweetened spiced cacao powder. So you measure out about a tablespoon and mix with warmed milk. I also add a little stevia to mine. The taste is pure, rich chocolate, plus a hint of spiciness that I can't quite put a finger on. It is such a lovely treat in the evenings when I am relaxing in front of the fireplace!

I've also used it to make a "tonic" by blending up with almond milk, spirulina, acai, turmeric, vanilla and stevia. 

It's hard for me to get excited about smoothies when it's cold out, but I try. Here is one with spinach, coconut water, cherries, acai, spirulina, and RAW vanilla protein powder.

I have also been juicing. I think I am in the minority here, but I prefer my juices to have a very "green" flavor, so I will leave out the apple juice or pineapple juice. This one I made today had celery, cucumber, carrots (which add a bit of sweetness on their own), kale, cilantro, and lemon.

Finally, Olivia and I made pecan milk. I don't have a nut milk bag or anything fancy. We just blended up 1/2 cup pecans, 2 cups water, 1/2 tsp. vanilla and a pinch of salt. Then I pushed it through a fine mesh strainer to get out the solids. You have to give it a good shake each time before using as it does separate, but it's great.

On to some solid foods. Dinner was the Chimichurri Pumpkin Bowl from Isa Does It. You know how I love my chimichurri sauce. This was lovely. The only thing is, baking pumpkins have disappeared from my supermarket, so I used butternut squash. I roasted it skin-on, which has become my new preference since it adds more flavor. Oh, and I also subbed chickpeas for the black beans, as usual.

Olivia enjoyed a deconstructed version. Little kids and their opposition to mixing foods! It's so funny. At least she ate the same food as the rest of us in some form.

Tortugas and Bu

Started off the day with a smoothie. Cherries, spinach, acai, raw vanilla protein powder, almond milk, chlorella, and stevia, topped with bee pollen and hemp granola. 

We met Tony for lunch. We decided to try out Tortuga Flats due to its proximity to our new house. When we sat down, the kids were given some brightly-colored wax sticks to twist into sculptures.

We started with a salsa sampler. The smoky dark salsa was my favorite, but the avocado tomatillo salsa and pico de gallo were good, too.

I had the veggie enchiladas filled with quinoa, sweet potato, and kale.  Mostly sweet potato. Maybe one bite of kale per enchilada. An all right lunch, but we wouldn't go out of our way to go back.

Light dinner: Hatch chile baguette from Central Market, and honeydew kombucha. I had never tried this brand, The Bu, before. I love honeydew so I'll look for it in the future.

Olivia learned to play dominoes before bedtime. This girl loves games and she can beat me at many of them.

Monster, my companion and also my spirit animal.

See you on Monday for Vegan MoFo!

Spring Sippin'

It's spring for another month, but starting to feel like summer here in Austin. We are spending lots of time in the backyard, which means we need to hydrate. What do you like to drink to stay cool? Iced tea has been my drink of choice lately. I won some ginger tea from Organic India. I love how spicy it is!

I also picked up some Nettle Leaf tea. It's caffeine-free (a must for me) and has a neutral flavor, perfect for making a big pitcher of iced tea.

I have also been sippin' on my homemade kombucha. With my latest batch, I brewed it plain, then I diluted it with cranberry juice for flavor.

Since I like their chocolate flavor so much, I bought a thing of Garden of Life raw vanilla protein powder, for variety.

I've been using it in "milkshakes" that I make by blending up protein powder, almond milk, matcha tea powder, ice, and a little stevia. I had one for breakfast along with avocado-cucumber toast. What an extremely green breakfast.

For lunch I made miso soup with udon noodles, shredded carrots, wakame, and sambal oelek. I add five-spice powder to my miso broth.  For Jackson and Olivia, I make a simpler version with just broth, noodles and carrots. They love any chance to use their chopsticks.

For dinner I made the sweet potato gnocchi with tarragon cream sauce from Isa Does It. Apologies for this completely unattractive pic that doesn't do this luscious recipe justice. It feels like super fancy restaurant meal. I think it's the tarragon that does it.

Jackson wears his paper bowtie and parades around talking in an English accent. He says, "I'm a fannnnncy mannn!" Kids. They are hilarious.

Public Art, Protein, Po'Boys

On other food blogs I follow, I've noticed that "smoothies in a bowl" seem to be a popular breakfast. I'm not  a morning smoothie person, for one practical reason...I get up an hour before Tony, so I don't like to run the blender while he is still sleeping! However, we all got up at the same time today, so I fixed myself a smoothie with mango, almond milk, and chocolate Garden of Life Raw Protein powder, sprinkled with Go Raw chocolate granola. 

I can't remember where I heard about this brand of protein powder, but I really like it. Its protein comes from a blend of sprouted foods such as rice, quinoa, chickpeas, and lentils. 17g per serving, pretty good! And I like the deep chocolately flavor. This breakfast kept me feeling satisfied until well after noon, which is amazing for me (I'm already snacky by 10 a.m. when I eat cereal for breakfast!)

It was a beautiful spring day, so I brought Jackson and Olivia to Big Stacy park where they happily climbed all over an art installation. 

It's part of Austin's TEMPO, temporary public art program. We love public art!

We spent some time at the little playground.

Olivia is following in her monkey brother's always-climbing footsteps.

The kids led the way down to the creek.

It's nice to see actual water in the creeks this year. We have been getting a good amount of rain.

Olivia randomly discovered an old toy car. Beep beep!

For dinner we had veggie po'boys with roasted cauliflower, lettuce, tomato, pickles, and Veganaise. The kids ate deconstructed versions. They are still in a phase where different foods should not be touching each other.