Changing Seasons

Happy Winter Solstice! Sorry for the absence. Tony has been traveling a lot for work, and blogging does not fit into the schedule when I'm on single-parent duty. But he is home now, so I will try to get caught up.

We have had a mild fall, and the leaves did not change colors until early December.

The trees in our backyard looked so pretty for a few days. A nice visual diversion while I have Monster out there to do his business, haha.

Then, one day, all the leaves were on the ground. At pickup time, Jackson and his friends were so excited when they came outside and saw piles of leaves just waiting to be thrown.

Nothing like a good leaf fight to end the school year.

Jackson is on winter break now, and it's going to be wonderful to have both of my kiddos at home with me for a couple of weeks. Tony has to work a couple more days and then he gets a vacation as well. This is my favorite part of the holidays, spending lots of family time together. Preferably in front of a fire.

Today's lunch, Cream of Tomato Soup from Oh She Glows. The Italian-seasoned chickpeas are all stirred in, but rest assured they are there and they are delicious.

Hope you have all been well, now time to go warm up my toes in front of the fire again.

Cooking from The Oh She Glows Cookbook

One more day of catch-up posting before I get to recapping our Detroit trip! Today was "take your kid to work day" at Tony's office. The minimum age was five, so Olivia will be able to go next year. Today, though, it was just the boys, heading out bright and early (note the sleepy expressions!)

While Jackson learned what Daddy does all day, Olivia and I headed to the Blanton museum for their "Cats and Dogs" exhibit.

Human-sized cat toys, ha!

Monster's tongue is always out, so apparently he is friendly. Or, his tongue is just too big for his mouth.

Olivia got to make her own art, as well.

Here are some recent eats, on the light side since we really indulged on our vacation. Breakfast smoothie with cherries, banana, kale, coconut milk, raw chocolate protein powder, maca, chlorella, almond extract and stevia. Topped with hemp granola.

I'd never tried snow pea shoots, so they were an impulse purchase.

I threw them on a salad for extra vitamins. The pasta is Luxurious Tomato-Basil Pasta from The Oh She Glows Cookbook. I looooove this cookbook, and I've been getting a lot of use out of it, as you'll see.

The first recipe I made from Angela's book was Salt and Vinegar Roasted Chickpeas. The chickpeas really do absorb the salt and vinegar flavor. Olivia loved them and begged me to make another batch.

The Perfected Chickpea Salad Sandwich was another winner. A nice quick lunch on whole wheat bread with snow pea shoots.

Cream of Tomato Soup with Roasted Italian Chickpea Croutons was amazing. The tomato soup tasted just like Campbell's only creamier, and without that metallic "soup from a can" taste. The savory, crunchy chickpeas melted into the soup and added extra flavor. Who needs crackers?

I'll probably have more photos of stuff I made from this cookbook next week, because I can't put it down. 

Finally, I want to say thanks to Gail of Hungry Vegan! I was the winner of her Vegan Chocolate giveaway. Me and my sweet tooth are so excited to use this gorgeous hardcover cookbook by Fran Costigan. It's pristine and beautiful now, but I predict it will soon be covered in flour and chocolate fingerprints!

Back to Normal

I always feel blue when it is time to take down the Christmas decorations. Halloween through New Years is my favorite time of the year. Everyone seems to be in just a little bit better mood, they can't help it.  There are parties and family gatherings, not to mention my birthday. Best of all, Tony gets lots of time off work. We get to do things as a family. We get to stay up late, knowing we can sleep in (as much as Jackson and Olivia will allow, anyway). It's been wonderful.

Then January shows up. Tony went back to work today. Jackson had school.  Everything is back to normal.

But, as I'm trying to remember today, normal doesn't have to mean blah.

For breakfast I had oats with chia seeds, walnuts, blackberries, and a drizzle of caramel-like brown rice syrup. Super good.

Blackberries were on sale at the supermarket. This is how much I started out with...

...but as you can see, only six remained for my oats after Olivia ate her fill. Get those antioxidants, baby girl!

After putting the Christmas tree in its box, taking the wreath off the front door, and recycling the paper snowflakes, I headed into the kitchen to cheer myself up. I don't know about emotional eater, but emotional cooker? Totally. An hour later, I had a sink full of dirty dishes and a noticeably improved mood.

From Vegan Diner, which I received for Christmas, I made Old-Fashioned Tomato Soup and Smoky Curls.  If all the recipes are as good as these two, I'm going to get a ton of use out of this book in 2012. The soup has loads of basil, which is a huge plus as far as I'm concerned.

The Smoky Curls recipe is basically a method of turning soy curls into bacon. We were getting a little burnt out on soy curl tacos, so this was an awesome discovery. I piled the curls onto rye bread along with lettuce, tomato, and Veganaise, for a fantastic BLT. 

Finally, I made some Fruity Cereal Bars, from Happy Herbivore. Just like the HH pad thai I made yesterday, this recipe came together in under ten minutes. Yes!

I think I make a pretty good effort to feed my family healthy food, but there is always room for improvement. I sometimes get lazy...like giving Jackson and Olivia Nutri-Grain bars for breakfast. I know they have high fructose corn syrup and little nutritional value; I buy them anyway. I don't want to anymore. It's not exactly a New Year's resolution, but I feel like I can do better for my little dudes. This is one small change I can make.  Normal can always be improved.

Did you make any New Year's resolutions?