White Tree

My goodness, how is it February already? It seems like we were just getting ready for Christmas. So...that's how I segue into another old-but-unpublished post about the holidays. Smooth, right? 

Tony really wanted a new Christmas tree this year and he wanted a white one. Our former tree had been with us since we got married but it looked so puny in our current home with its high ceilings. So, off to Home Depot he went, and came home with the white tree of his dreams.

It was so tall, he underestimated the amount of ornaments he needed and had to go back and buy more the next day!  As you can see, one whole side was not covered.

All hail the tree!

It matches her Frozen jammies.

Dinner was tacos with roasted tofu, lettuce, tomato, and salsa.

Dessert was pumpkin chia pudding from Plant-Powered Families, recipe available online here.

Hiding from doing homework, ha!

Faces

Jackson and Olivia had the day off school recently for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I read them a book from the library about his life. Their reaction can basically be summed up as "incredulous." Like, what do you mean, white kids couldn't sit with their black friends on the bus? Our community is so diverse and that is all they have known, so it seems fundamentally wrong to them to discriminate based on skin color. It was a reminder that such prejudices are not natural, they are taught. But never in our home.

For breakfast I made them blueberry oat squares from Plant-Powered Families.

Then we spent some time at the bounce house. My camera is not good at capturing motion but I wanted to catch their looks of excitement in the block pit. I always appreciate school holidays to spend a little extra time with these monkeys.

For dinner I made hummus tortilla pizzas, another idea from Plant-Powered Families. The kids loved topping their own pizzas. Jackson, who usually avoids greens, even piled on a bunch of basil! Dreena is so smart about kids.

For dessert we enjoyed some two-ingredient ice cream -- frozen bananas and cocoa powder -- topped with roasted peanuts. 

Weekend

We kicked off the weekend with a birthday party for one of Olivia's kindergarten friends. As she proudly tells me, her class is nicknamed the Amigos, because they are all such good friends. I teach gardening with the class once a week and can confirm, they are all total sweethearts. I am swarmed with hugs each time I enter the classroom. So grateful for her fantastic teacher who places such an emphasis on kindness and friendship.

Rides, games, we love Mt. Playmore!

Jackson and Olivia had never tried out one of these dollar massage chairs. I admit I was also curious. Would the 3-minute massage be worth the dollar? Only one way to find out.

It was worth it. I want one of these things in my living room please.

The rest of the weekend, we kicked it around the house, finally taking down our Christmas decorations and doing a little spring cleaning. (Since winter seems to be cancelled here in Austin.) I made the Fettucine Alfredo from Plant-Powered Families, one of the few recipes that both of my kids love.

Sunday morning I made some chickpea flour omelets from Quick and Easy Low-Cal Vegan Comfort Food. The cookbook title is a mouthful and so was my omelet. I may have overdid it on the fillings: cashew cheeze, avocado, baby spinach, black olives, and scallions.

From the same book, I made granola for Tony to take for breakfasts during the week. He has a long commute so he likes to have something he can munch in the car.

And today I am having a big bowl o'veggies for lunch with a dollop of leftover cashew cheeze.

An up-to-date post, wow! It is a Monday miracle my friends. Hope you had a nice weekend.

October Eats

It's that time where the month is coming to an end and I am clearing off my camera. Here are some tasty autumnal eats we've enjoyed over the past few weeks.

Mole Skillet Pie with Greens from Veganomicon. Soooo satisfying, and that mole sauce might not be authentic (their words not mine), but it's the bomb and so easy to make!

Saucy BBQ Chickpeas and Green Beans from Plant-Powered Families, paired with some kinda quinoa-amaranth-millet pilaf from Costco. The pilaf had an earthy (polite way of saying dirt) flavor. The BBQ beans are awesome.

Lentils and Rice with Caramelized Onions from Veganomicon. Oh, my sweet baby mujadara. I am the only one in my family who likes this dish, and I don't care. Sometimes I make it just for me and eat it for days. The love is real.

Apple Pie Smoothies from Plant-Powered Families. A perfect homework-time snack, and it really does taste like apple pie!

Chipotle Sweet Potato Soup from Healthy Happy Vegan. I love the smooth texture of the blended sweet potatoes! I hated how spicy it was, even though I cut down on the amount of chipotle powder that the recipe called for. I love spicy food but I don't like it when heat overwhelms the other flavors. So I will cut it down a lot more next time.

Raw Chard Salad with Maple Mustard Dressing from Healthy Happy Vegan. Made up for the too-spicy soup. I could have eaten the entire recipe myself but I shared with Tony so he could partake in the goodness.

Cheesy Cauliflower and Potato Bake from The Abundance Diet, along with cornmeal-crusted roasted okra from our garden. Sooooo gooood. Ultimate comfort food, cheesy and creamy and wonderful.

Tap shoes and a blanket, why not?

Lunch Spider

Today I had a lunch date with my favorite ninja fairy princess, at her very favorite place, JuiceLand.

Sadly, JuiceLand has removed the kids' play area that used to grace their patio, to make room for more seating. Olivia was bummed. But then she spotted a rubber spider laying on one of the tables, an attempt at minimalist Halloween decorating perhaps, and we had some fun with that.

Olivia got her usual orange-peach Clementine smoothie, I got an all-veggie Fountain juice, and we also shared a coconut-mango-chia parfait and some sour cream and onion kale chips.

For dinner we had Creamy 15-Minute Vegan Fettucine from Plant-Powered Families, with a side of garlicky roasted broccoli. It is a small miracle when Jackson and Olivia both love the same meal, but they both asked for seconds of this.

Caramel Apples

We celebrated the arrival of the best month, October, by making homemade caramel apples. I used the A+ Caramel Apples recipe from Plant-Powered Families. I was surprised at how quick and easy it is to make your own vegan caramel! The kids loved this special autumn treat.

While I had the cookbook at hand, I also made the Best Banana Bread to use up a couple of brown bananas. The browner the better, for banana bread!

We also made some spider hats. I have never been crafty but I am slowly becoming a Mama Who Crafts thanks to Pinterest and my kids' love of fun little projects like this one.

Tony got back in town after being in Baltimore all week for business, and we were both craving pizza. So we had a family catch-up lunch at Rounders. We started with a Greek salad and complimentary garlic rolls while enjoying the perfect patio weather.

Jalapeno pizza, so good! Rounders might just be as good as Home Slice, but without the long wait for a table.

Little Gardeners

I am so in love with my kids' school. Some hardworking parents and community members turned the central courtyard into a garden a few years back. This year I am participating in the garden club. Each week some other parents and myself take groups of students out to the garden to learn about where our food comes from and get our hands dirty. The children get to taste the vegetables that they grow themselves, and the rest is sold at a weekly farmer's market. It is a pretty wonderful program. I know very little about gardening, but I am happy to help focus the kids while the more knowledgeable mamas provide instruction. This week we learned about the seasons, and the kids planted seeds for radish, carrots, and other seasonal veggies.

Speaking of seasonal veggies, I picked up some delicata squash. As far as squash rankings, because yes, I am the kind of person who ranks my favorite types of squash, I like it less than acorn or butternut, but more than kabocha. I roasted it along with some broccoli and served it with the Lentil Pumpkin Seed Pie from Plant-Powered Families. I subbed chopped hazelnuts for the pumpkin seeds though, because that's what I had on hand. The pie has a good hearty flavor, almost like a veggie meatloaf. We spooned some lemon tahini sauce over everything.

We received some rainbow Doritos in the mail for making a donation to the It Gets Better Project. 

People who wear sunglasses indoors fall into three categories: creepy, hung over, and my daughter.

First Day of School

Today was Jackson's first day of 1st grade, and Olivia's first day of kindergarten! Jackson is kind of jaded already; once he found out his best bud was in his class again this year, he was fine with going back and didn't have much to say on the subject. Olivia, on the other hand, has been super excited all summer. 

After dropping them off, I went home and creepily hugged on Monster for awhile. ("You're still my baby! You'll never grow up!") The house felt so quiet. I walked on the treadmill and did yoga, then I had to get out and run some errands. I stopped by Trader Joe's, mostly just to pass some time. Of course I found a few things.

I also stopped by the Asian market to stock up on noodles.

It was hard not to buy this tray. I mean, it has some flowers on it.

For lunch I fixed myself a nice salad, blending up the Caesar dressing from Plant-Powered Families and tossing it with romaine lettuce and homemade garlic croutons.

At pickup, Olivia reported that her first day was "AWESOME!" and Jackson said his day was pretty good as well. Also, he lost a tooth in the cafeteria! It has been wiggly for a month and of course it comes out on the first day of school!

After an exciting day, a simple dinner of rotini with marinara, and lots of fresh basil.