Summer Garden

I planted a garden in mid-May. I called it the Garden of Procrastination because I waited so long to decide whether or not I would plant a garden.

Olivia loves the garden center.

I bought cucumber, okra, basil, cherry tomatoes, yellow tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes, lavender, and citronella. 

And here is the garden currently.

The basil is thriving, the cherry tomatoes are starting to amp up production. I have a few okra pods. The heirlooms haven't done anything yet but they're not supposed to until late summer. So, hopefully soon! I have tiny, inch-long cucumbers. This is my best attempt at gardening, so far anyway. I think all the rain and cool temperatures helped me out.

For dinner I made the Polenta Bake with Spinach and Mushrooms from One-Dish Vegan. It didn't look that great. The polenta did not want to spread evenly over the spinach-mushroom layer.

Tasted awesome though, with some marinara spooned on top. I guess we don't always eat with our eyes. Sometimes just with our mouths and stomachs.

Red Velvet

Olivia and I got in a baking mood while Jackson was at kindergarten. We perused Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World together and decided that the red velvet cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting were calling to us.

 This girl, she could not be any more full of love and sweetness. She is also handy with a spatula.

It took me years to be able to make a decent buttercream frosting! Proud to have finally gotten the hang of it.

Dinner was the Smokehouse Chickpeas 'n' Greens Salad from Salad Samurai. This salad is one way to get large quantities of spinach into your family's bellies with no complaints. Smoked paprika makes everything awesome, including chickpeas, and I love the addition of big luscious chunks of avocado. Will make again for sure!

Olivia is 4!

Olivia is four! 

In lieu of a big party this year, there were big gifts. Roller skates, for my sk8er girl who loves to go fast. In the picture below, she is wearing the baby skates I initially bought for her, the locking kind that strap on over shoes. But after a few laps around the house, she informed me that they were too slow. So we ended up exchanging them for big kid skates like Jackson's.

Also, bikes! Their first bikes. In a matter of days, they have gone from hesitantly peddling down to the mailbox, to tearing it up at the park. I have a feeling the training wheels won't be needed for long.

Olivia's birthday dinner was something new I came up with -- savory cinnamon rolls. I made pizza dough and layered on spinach, mushrooms, and mozzarella cheese. Then I rolled it up, sliced it, and arranged it in a baking dish. We pulled off individual rolls and dipped them in marinara. I guess I need to come up with a better name, though, since there's no cinnamon in these!

Homemade cakes have become our birthday tradition, and this year my girl requested a Princess Elsa cake because she lives and breathes Frozen. ("Mommy, the cold doesn't bother me anyway!" she informs me whenever I remind her to wear a hoodie outdoors.)

Happy fourth to my shopping buddy, cuddle monkey, sweet girl, tiny tornado, princess, Olivia Avery.

Spruced Up Cedars

While running errands this weekend, we stopped to take some pictures of some particularly well-dressed cedar trees.

It seems that people have taken to decorating random trees along the highway.

 Don't the trees look happy, with their festive trimmings? I hope they bring a smile to commuters' faces.

One of my errands was to replenish my tea stash. Now that winter is just around the corner, I'm drinking countless mugs of tea all day long to keep warm! Natural Grocers was having an awesome sale on Yogi Tea. Better than turning up the thermostat!

 Another thing I crave during cold weather is oats. I loved this bowl of oat bran with chia seets, cacao nibs, and of course a big scoop of peanut butter.

Here's the first meal I made from a cookbook I just purchased -- Robin Robertson's Quick-Fix Vegan. I'm a big fan of Robin's recipes, and of course I'm also a big fan of meals that can be on the table in half an hour or less. I loved the subtle flavor of the tahini-sesame sauce in this Farfalle with Sesame Cabbage.

One morning, Jackson and I made Magical Coconut Bars. They will be a Christmas present for his daycare teacher.

When I was small, I helped my Granny make these bars every Christmas. They are the first food that comes to mind when I think "Christmas."  So I was really excited to make them with my little one. Granny called them Hello Dolly bars, and she made them with sweetened condensed milk. This recipe calls for coconut milk, which makes the bars super coconutty and awesome.

Tonight, Tony is watching the Cowboys game, so I thought I would make a "game night" meal. First I made spinach dip in a bread bowl. I got the spinach dip recipe off the side of a silken tofu package. I love using recipes that I find in random places -- especially when they turn out this good! Tony loved this dip. We all did. I'm sure it will make another appearance before the holidays are over.

I also made another recipe from Quick-Fix Vegan, called Muffaletta Pizza. Muffaletta, if you didn't know, is a sandwich that originated in New Orleans. It's typically loaded down with meats and cheeses, and dressed with a tangy olive salad. In this recipe, you top the pizza with a spicy chickpea spread, artichoke hearts and avocado, then you spoon the olive salad on top. Since it features several of my favorite pizza toppings, I was loving this pie. Now I'm totally looking forward to trying more of Robin's quick meals.

My goal this coming week is to greet every morning with a smile as big as the ones you see below. The fact that I stocked up on all those yummy teas should make that goal a little easier to accomplish.

Hope your week brings lots of big smiles, too!

Pumpkin Patch

Over the weekend, we took the kids to a local pumpkin patch. We took a hayride, checked out some animals, and enjoyed the perfect fall weather. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

When we got home, I made a quick pot of soup for dinner. I chose the Winter Greens Soup from the appropriately named Fields of Greens cookbook, which I checked out from the library. It's the cookbook of Greens Restaurant in San Francisco.  I ate lunch there once, many years ago.

All the dust and hay at the pumpkin patch caused Tony's allergies to flare up, so he requested greens to help his immune system out. This soup is chock full of greens -- a full head each of kale, chard, and spinach. Look at that vivid green color! The soup had a great flavor, and homemade garlic croutons were a perfect addition.  I'll have to copy down some other recipes from the cookbook before I return it to the library.

Sag Paneer and Food Farewells

Hi guys, how was your weekend? Did you remember to set your clocks forward? We didn't! We did not realize it was Spring Forward until we noticed our clocks were messed up on Sunday morning. Good thing it wasn't a work day for Tony!  It's nice to have that extra hour of daylight in the evenings. Spring is really on the way now.

Saturday night, Tony and I stayed up late talking, planning our upcoming move. We are so excited, but we are trying to calm down and get organized. Today Tony finds out when his last day of work is at his current job. They are kind of being jerks about it. This attitude is just one reason why we are so ready to move! After he gets that straightened out, we can start scheduling the movers and everything else.

On Sunday we made a farewell trip to the cute, artsy town of Hudson. Full of little galleries and secondhand stores, we've always enjoyed our day trips to Hudson. And although we will have no shortage of Mexican restaurants to choose from in Austin, we wanted to eat one more time at Mexican Radio, where we've had so many tasty meals.

On one of our previous visits, Tony ordered the carne asada fries, which looked so good that I was inspired to make it at home.  This time I decided to try Mexican Radio's version for myself, veganized of course (they'll veganize pretty much anything on the menu.)  It was so perfect -- a bed of French fries covered with chunks of crispy-on-the-outside-chewy-on-the-inside seitan, and topped with guacamole, pico de gallo, and vegan cheese and crema.

While Jackson was helping me devour it, the waitress brought over some jalapeno ketchup to dip the fries in. Yum!

So long, Mexican Radio! We love you. P.S., I'm going to decorate my new house like you.

I also did a little home cooking over the weekend. My latest tester for the Urban Vegan was Sag Paneer with Dry-Fried Tofu. This is one of the top recipes I've tested so far. You guys are going to love her new book when it comes out. So many winners.

Sag paneer, if you don't know, is an Indian dish consisting of creamed spinach studded with cubes of cheese. It's usually quite rich. In one of his books, Anthony Bourdain notes that people are often disappointed when they try to recreate a restaurant meal. They just can't get it to taste the same. The reason, he says, is because they have no idea how much butter and cream are used in restaurant dishes. That is where the rich flavor comes from. I've found this true in the past when I've tried to cook Indian food at home. Even before I was vegan, I didn't want to invest in a jar of ghee (Indian clarified butter) or use heavy cream, so something was missing in the end result.

But I have to say, nothing is missing from this Sag Paneer. Vegan half and half adds the necessary richness without the cholesterol, and dry-fried tofu stands in for the cubes of cheese. I'd never browned tofu without using oil, but it works quite well when you use a nonstick pan. I had golden brown cubes of tofu in minutes with no added fat.

Roxanne recently shared a useful article with me --  a long list of vegan recipes that are especially appealing to kids. I'm definitely going to be making some of these dinners for my little dudes, so I thought I would share it with you guys, too.

Have a great day!

Spinach Quiche/Pie

It's Free Week in the PPK Cookbook Challenge, and I've chosen to try a few things from Robin Robertson's Vegan on the Cheap. I've enjoyed pretty much everything I've made from it so far, and this Spinach Pie was no exception.

When I saw the title of the recipe, I thought it would be a Greek spanakopita in pie form, but then I realized it's actually a quiche (Robin just calls it a spinach pie because her husband won't eat "quiche" -- sneaky!)

I've made a few quiches but I think this one is my favorite. I love the vibrant green color, and the texture was fantastic. But the best thing about it was, the longer it was around, the better it tasted! If you're a single person and you get frustrated with cookbook recipes designed to feed a family of four, I would definitely recommend this recipe. Yes, it fills an entire pie plate, but you can eat it for days. I found myself microwaving a slice for 30 seconds, just barely warm, and eating it for breakfast.

Olivia surprised me by eating a big-person sized slice, all by herself. One of my very favorite things about being a mom is watching them try all the different foods and seeing what their likes and dislikes are. And of course, the accompanying faces they make! Olivia's face lit up when I put a bite of this quiche in her mouth. We clearly have similar tastes.

Hope you had a happy Valentine's Day, if that's your thing. Tony had to work late, so it was just another day for us. But today he is off, and I am making a little feast of some of his favorite foods. I hope he likes it. He has been working so hard and I don't get to see him very much...so I guess I'll finish up this post now, so I can go hang out with him!