Mother's Day 2015

I know, I am just now getting around to posting about Mother's Day. Better late than never! Jackson made me a sweet little handprint bouquet at school.

The whole family got me a few kitchen goodies I had on my Amazon wishlist. I received a rotating cake stand for cake decorating, a new nonstick skillet, and a popsicle mold!

We went to Counter Culture for brunch. As you'd expect on a holiday, the restaurant was busy and the wait was long, although worth it of course. Our server brought us some chips and salsa to pass the time.

I also entertained myself by taking pictures of Tony among the Caribbean colors and tropical plants that line the patio.

Jackson and Olivia both ordered the blueberry pancakes.

Tony had the Tofu Rancheros, a tofu scramble with corn, beans, avocado, and salsa served on tortillas, with a side of home fries.

I had the East Side Quesadilla, stuffed with cashew cheeze, seitan sausage, potatoes, onions and peppers. It came with salsa and spicy aioli. Best quesadilla I've ever had!

Tony and I also shared a side of tempeh bacon, which was so good. 

Hope all the mamas out there had a lovely day!

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!

Mother's Day 2013

We started off our day with enchiladas. I used Elise's recipe as a template. Mine were filled with rice, TVP, roasted broccoli, and edamame, and covered in Hatch red chile enchilada sauce. So yummy, and kept us full for a long time!

After that, we were off to the park to enjoy the beautiful day. My little monkey-man decided to hang out for awhile.

Olivia pointed out all the different animals to me.

Then we returned home to watch basketball and eat leftovers. A relaxing day with my three favorite people. What more can this mama ask for?

I feel so fortunate to be able to spend my entire days with Jackson and Olivia. I feel pretty damn lucky to be their mama. Friends and family often comment on how busy we are. "You do so much with them!"  Well yes, I do. I believe in learning through experience and I try to give them as many varied experiences as I can, because childhood is short.  On this Mother's Day, this is my goal for my babies: to surround them every day with art, music, words, ideas, beauty, and unshakable love. Soak it all into their little brains and hearts. A childhood consisting of millions of warm, sparkly moments. So they can take it with them. They can look for those moments, seek them out, and be cushioned by them when times are hard. When they are older, they can filter all they've taken in through their perspective and put it back out there. 

Hope all of my awesome mama readers had a lovely Mother's Day! 

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!

If you're looking for a last-minute sweet treat to make for your mom, may I suggest some Banana Split Bites. I made these with Jackson and Olivia and they only take a few minutes to assemble. If you don't have mini cupcake liners like the recipe suggest, no sweat, just lay out the fruit on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper before you spoon the chocolate over it. After the chocolate hardens, the treats will peel right off the parchment.

Jackson made me some presents at school. He painted a little wooden box and glued jewels on it. Inside was a picture of him and a rock with googly eyes that he also painted. I am such a sucker for anything made by my kids.

Of course, my best Mother's Day present is the one I receive every day -- the love of these two awesome little humans.

Out to Lunch

Today, I had a really good morning with Jackson and Olivia. First we went to storytime at a book store. Sometimes I take them to library storytime and Jackson gets a little wild. He pays attention to everything but the story. Not so this time. The story reader at the bookstore was loud and animated, which helped a lot. Before we left, Jackson got a new fire truck book. He loves fire trucks. Here he is being silly with the book. He is giving it a kiss.

Next week, they are going to have a special animal storytime with real live chinchillas, bunnies, and guinea pigs for the kids to pet. We will be there for sure. I don't know who will be more excited, me or the kids. I mean, chinchillas! Who doesn't want to pet a chinchilla?

After storytime, we went out to lunch! Why is that a big deal? It was the first time that I took both kids to a restaurant by myself, without Tony or another family member to help out. And it wasn't bad! Now it feels like a whole new world has opened up. We can go out to breakfast or lunch during the week sometimes! If you have little ones, you know how important it is to get them out of the house and avoid cabin fever, so this is a great development.

We went to Tino's, a Greek cafe. They have a veggie plate where you get to pick five things. We had salad, tabouli, baba ganoush, hummus, and dolmadas. We also got extra stuff - falafel and spanakopita. Jackson liked the falafel, and Olivia was partial to the baba ganoush. I was feeding it to her on pieces of pita bread, and she would open her mouth and crane her neck like a baby bird. But instead of regurgitated worm, she got delicious smoky eggplant! (Olivia 1, Baby Birds 0.)

I didn't take any pictures because, you know, I was busy feeding two kids by myself! But it was yummy and I'm sure we will go back.

For dinner, I made Mushroom Kale Potato Pizza with Garlic Sauce. I revised my recipe a little (the edited recipe appears in the linked post). To save time, I sauteed the mushrooms and kale together, rather than steaming the kale separately. That way, I did not have to wash out a steamer basket. Yay for fewer dishes! I also threw some sauteed vegan Italian sausage on top this time.

I'm sorry about the terrible photo. My camera is on its last legs and the settings buttons get stuck. It's OK, I've had it for almost ten years, so I think I got my money's worth. I ordered a new camera, can't wait til it gets here. Isn't it cute? It's not fancy, but it will work for my needs. There are some vegan bloggers who ought to be professional photographers. I would love to take photos as gorgeous as theirs, but the truth is that right now I don't have time in my day to pursue learning those skills. I've taken photography classes in the past and maybe some day I will again. For now cooking and yoga (and, 

oh yeah, blogging!) are my hobbies and I can't seem to wedge in another one.

Anyway, I'm just excited to get a camera that doesn't run on AA batteries and uses a 16GB memory card rather than 64MB. Can you say old school? Haha.

Finally, I have to share my belated Mother's Day present from Jackson and Olivia. Belated only because it has been drying in the garage for the past week and a half, unknown to me! Tony didn't want to bring it into the House of Chaos until it was completely set. The kids decorated it with the beads. They might have had some help from their daddy. J's little handprint and Livi's littler handprint next to it are killing me -- my heart melts every time I look at it. Can they stay this small forever?

Mother's Day in Oklahoma

Hi guys, how was your weekend? After Tony got off work Friday, we drove up to Shawnee, Oklahoma to surprise my mother-in-law for Mother's Day. Tony called her when we got to Ft. Worth to tell her we were on our way (we didn't want to just show up at midnight and scare the crap out of her) and she was so happy she started crying. She hadn't seen her grandbabies since Thanksgiving so she was really pleased to spend time with them. She and Jackson are great buddies.

On Saturday, she and my sister-in-law Janet were nice enough to watch the babies so Tony could take me on a Mother's Day date, just the two of us. We never get to do this, so it was pretty awesome. I love my kiddos, but I also love a few hours without potty assists and diaper changes! Tony took me down to Norman, where I went to college. We walked around for awhile, seeing how things have changed and also stayed the same. It's been a couple years since I last visited. Then we ate at my favorite restaurant, Pepe Delgado's. I left my camera at the house, but if I had a picture of the experience, it would show me grinning like a lunatic as I devoured the Plato Vegetariano (veggie fajitas.) For all of Austin's Mexican restaurants, I don't think there are any that compare to Pepe's.

On Sunday, I awoke to this Mother's Day surprise from Tony.

A gift card for yoga! This is the studio I used to go and I really liked it, so I'm super excited to start going back this week. Tony did good.

The rest of the day was spent playing outside with the kids and cooking out. They got so filthy that I had to hose them down before bringing them back into the house! But they had the best time.

I've never seen Olivia so worn out! She fell asleep sitting up on my lap.

I went grocery shopping before we left town, so when we got back I was able to make this Tamarind BBQ Tempeh and Sweet Potatoes from Appetite for Reduction.

A note of warning if you haven't used tamarind paste before -- I don't know if all brands are like this, but mine (made by Seasoned Pioneers) had hard seeds in it, the size of peanuts. I tried to pick them all out before serving, but I still ended up crunching down on one. Ouch! Also, my sweet potatoes didn't get very tender. I put in another tray of sweet potatoes alongside the BBQ, just to have roasted sweet potatoes to snack on, and they cooked up fine. But the ones that I cooked with the tempeh were still on the hard side. So you may need to bake longer than the recipe states.

The tempeh turned out really nice, however. I liked the sweet, gingery flavor of this BBQ sauce. I picked out the tempeh pieces and ate them on a ciabatta roll with pickle, and I microwaved the sweet potatoes until they were more tender, and ate them on the side.

Today I am going to assemble the water table we bought for the kids. They are both total water babies, they love to splash and play in the bath, so I think they will like it. Hope you're having a good day!

Chickpea Piccata and Happy Mother's Day!

Last night we had the Chickpea Piccata with Caulipots from Appetite for Reduction. Piccata, if you don't know, is a caper-lemon-garlic sauce. I'd made a seitan piccata dish in the past and didn't care for the flavor, but I decided to give it another try. Glad I did! This is a pretty impressive-looking dish that I was proud to serve my little family, and it tasted awesome.

The recipe calls for serving the chickpeas and caulipots on a bed of arugula. My salad-loving husband finished off the arugula before I made this recipe, so I substituted spring mix. I think the idea is just to have some greens involved for a textural contrast with the creamy mashed potatoes and cauliflower. The spring mix worked great.

I also didn't have any white wine, so I just used an extra half cup of vegetable broth. If, like me, you're not a big wine drinker, another thing you can do is buy a bottle of dry vermouth. Unlike wine, it keeps indefinitely, so you can always have it on hand for cooking. I've found it to be pretty much interchangeable with white wine in recipes.

Mother's Day is this Sunday...what are your plans? I won't see my own mom until summer, but we will talk on the phone and I'll be thinking of her. I know she wishes she could spend the day with her grandbabies, but my dad is a school teacher and they can't travel until the term is over. I wish I got to see her more often. In a couple years my dad will retire and they will visit more. They even talk about moving to Texas. That would be great.

 

I'll also be remembering my Granny, who passed away a few years ago at age 92. She was a sharp, fun lady who ran a beauty parlor for many years. I never saw her without her hair done and fresh nail polish and lipstick. My brother and I spent a lot of weekends at her house and she doted on us. So many of my memories of her revolve around the kitchen. When I was very small, she showed me how to pick fresh tomatoes from her garden, make perfect creamy mashed potatoes, crimp the edges on a pie crust so it looks nice, and a million other little things that I will soon be teaching my kids. I just hope I can summon up some of her endless patience!

Today we are driving up to Oklahoma to spend the holiday with my mother-in-law. It is a surprise visit (don't worry, she doesn't know about my blog!) She hasn't seen the kids since Thanksgiving. Now that we are settled in our new place, she is getting really anxious to spend time with them. I really lucked out, as far as in-laws go. She is awesome.

See you when I get home. Happy Mother's Day!

Check out a couple of giveaways before they end! Midwest Vegan is giving away a copy of Tal Ronnen's The Conscious Cook (ends May 11) and Small Steps on Our Journey is giving away a huge jar of Tropical Traditions coconut oil (also ends May 11.)