Soccer and Salsas

Saturdays = 8:30 a.m. soccer games. Jackson springs out of bed at 6:30 ready to go. Coach Tony needs a few extra zzz's and some Starbucks to wake up.

Go Pirates!

Olivia and the other younger siblings cheer on the sidelines.

I love watching these guys come together as a real team, assisting each other and showing their good sportsmanship.

We followed up the match with brunch at Salsas in Georgetown. Two kinds of salsa and chips to start with. I liked the green salsa. Tomatillo maybe? It had a tart, almost fruity flavor, but it was also plenty spicy.

I had spinach enchiladas with tomatillo sauce, white rice (the Spanish rice was made with chicken stock) and veggies on the side. After being delighted by the salsa, I was surprised how bland the enchilada sauce was.

The best part was dessert. We shared a plate of churros. This was our first time seeing churros on the menu at any of the dozens of Tex-Mex restaurants around here! Barely sweet, with a drizzle of honey, plenty of cinnamon, and whipped cream to dip them in. Yum.

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!

Mother's Day 2014

Hey all, how was your weekend? On Sunday we celebrated Mother's Day with my parents by eating my mom's favorite cuisine - Tex-Mex!

We chose Mesa Rosa because it is the halfway point between our houses. I had spinach quesadillas. Tons of spinach inside, just how I like them.

Later, we ended up at a second Mexican restaurant, El Mercado, so that Jackson and Olivia could get rid of an abundance of energy.

Tony and I enjoyed frozen margaritas in the beer garden while the kids played to their sweaty, grimy heart's content.

Olivia loves mist machines!

Wonderful little playground, a perfect place for families to relax.

The children's playhouse cracked me up. Nice advertising!

Hope you had a nice Mother's Day!

El Sol

Today we used a Groupon for lunch at El Sol ya La Luna. We ate there a few times, years ago, when they were in their South Congress location. We had not been back since they moved to 6th Street because we are hardly ever on 6th. But, with the enticement that only Groupon can provide, we made the trek downtown.

It's a cute restaurant, with interesting murals and paintings adorning the walls. 

I had the tofu veggie tacos on whole wheat tortillas. I don't know of any other Tex-Mex restaurant in Austin that does tofu tacos, so it's pretty neat. The tacos were served with an intriguing dark sauce. It tasted like it contained molasses and hoisin sauce, maybe? Anyway, we all enjoyed our lunch, and I really should take the time to say so on Yelp, because they have such bad reviews! I don't know why...maybe their service genuinely sucks in the evenings. But our lunchtime waitress couldn't have been sweeter and our meals arrived quickly.

Later, Olivia helped me make cinnamon rolls.

I hadn't had cinnamon rolls in literally years. Why would I be so cruel to myself? I made the Savory Cinnamon Rolls from The Garden of Vegan. As you can see from the frosting slathered all over them, these guys are not savory, but sweet. Maybe savory means something different in Canada.

Flores and a Tofu Extravaganza

Today while Jackson was at school, Olivia and I met up with some friends for lunch at Flores. I had heard that the food was pretty decent and, most importantly, they have a playscape.

The patio overlooks the playscape, which is pretty far down below. You have to walk down a ramp to get there. But our waiter was cool with us constantly going back and forth from the table to the playscape.

Olivia and I shared a giant quesadilla. I don't like it when quesadillas are overstuffed and they get all soggy and floppy. This one was just right!

After our Tex-Mex lunch, I wanted a light dinner. I made a recipe I've been wanting to try for a very long time, Mama Mayhem's Tofu Extravaganza from La Dolce Vegan. It's not gorgeous to look at, but it will make your taste buds so happy, especially if you're a pickle lover! It can be served as a dip with tortilla chips.

As I'd eaten my fill of tortilla chips earlier in the day, I ate it on toast. I was in love after the first bite. And Tony loved it even more, if that's possible. He said it reminded him of a really good egg salad. His exact words were, "I've never liked egg salads, but if they tasted like this, I would!" I'm so glad I finally got around to making this!

HONK!TX

On Saturday we used a Groupon for lunch at El Chato, a unique Mexican eatery on the east side. Unique because you dine on a bus.

A bus driven by a lucha libre wrestler, I might add.

There's outdoor seating as well. The food is prepared in a separate trailer.

We started with thick-cut tortilla chips and three kinds of salsa.

The kids amused themselves on the playscape while we waited for our food to arrive.

We had to wait quite awhile, and my rajas poblanas were lukewarm when they came out. The flavor was good, though. The restaurant hasn't been open that long, so hopefully they will be able to speed things up once they get more established. I would love to go back since it is such a cute spot and a great place to take kids, in spite of the wait.

After lunch, we went to check out HONK!TX, a gathering of street bands from all over the country. 

The DMC brass band was Jackson's and my favorite. Why?

Because they are zombies! Ha! My favorite guy was just a torso being carried around buy a zombie. Yet somehow he could still play his trombone.

Next, we checked out a New Orleans percussian band called BateBunda. They were pretty amazing.

After taking a lap of the park to check out some other bands, it became clear that Olivia was tired, so we headed home. Dinner was another cucumber bagel, this time with avocado. Thanks to Shen, this is going to be my default meal. So good.

Little Heroes

This past weekend we took the kids to check out Hero Rush, a Wipeout-style obstacle course. Actually, because it was super windy and chilly out, we only visited one area, the kids' course. Jackson and Olivia were excited to put on some firefighter gear and race through the course.

Getting suited up...

Ready to go...

Olivia in the lead!

The foam pit at the end was the best part.

They didn't want to get out.

After the kids tired themselves out on the obstacle course, we went to lunch at El Monumento.  It's the new sister restaurant to the Monument Cafe in Georgetown, which we like a lot.

We started off with chips and two kinds of salsa. One was served warm, the other cold.

The kids had pineapple-mango aguas frescas.

I had a mojito, complete with sugar cane stirring stick. Small, but potent.

For an appetizer, we ordered queso flameado, a skillet of melted cheese topped with strips of poblano pepper and onion.

I had the sweet potato and Swiss chard enchiladas. They're typically served with rice and beans, but I substituted fried green beans with a sriracha aioli dipping sauce. 

I was really pleased with my meal. The waitress informed us that El Monumento uses a lot of local and organic ingredients, and just about everything is made from scratch. That means no frozen margaritas made from mix. You can taste this freshness in the food. It was more expensive than your typical Tex-Mex place. A little too expensive to eat lunch with the kids on a regular basis, to be honest. But I will definitely keep it in mind for special date nights.