Valentine's Day 2014

Tony and I aren't ones to make a huge fuss over Valentine's Day, but now that we have children, we will always take up my parents' offers to babysit so we can enjoy a romantic dinner, even if the occasion is an arbitrary day in February!

We chose The Dojo, since we're kind of obsessed with Japanese food at the moment (as is most of Austin, it would seem, given the number of new Japanese restaurants that have opened in the past year). I was excited to discover that they offer a separate vegan menu and have a dedicated vegan fryer.

We started with a few small plates to share. The fried Brussels sprouts were amazing. I love Brussels, so that's not too weird for me to say, but I seriously wanted to lick the bowl clean.

The blistered shishito peppers tasted kind like a cross between grilled green peppers and poblano peppers.

We also shared a plate of assorted pickles veggies. Lots of eggplant, to my enjoyment and Tony's disdain.

Our server brought us complimentary glasses of strawberry champagne.

I also had a nice, strong cucumber mojito.

Next up, while Tony dug into his meat dishes, I enjoyed tofu caprese with avocado mousse and balsamic pearls. The tomatoes weren't at their ripest, but I was impressed with the culinary fanciness of the balsamic pearls.

For my main dish I had the Dojo's version of okonomiyaki, potato pancakes. In this case, homemade waffle fries piled high with avocado mayo, scallions, carrots, ginger, and balsamic drizzle. I loved this dressed-up comfort food.

Afterwards, we popped in at a friend's party. She had a nice little spread with champagne and finger foods, including cookies that looked like candy hearts and were printed with filthy Valentine's messages that cracked me up. Let's just say the one below was the most PG-rated of the bunch.

Hope you enjoyed celebrating or not celebrating Valentine's, as to your preference.

Hula Hooper

While at Target today, I picked up a hula hoop for Olivia so she can practice the routines they do in her dance class.

A born performer.

"Watch this!"

"Ta da! Now Mom, you clap and say, 'Bravo!'"

For lunch I heated up some Indian hot pockets from the Asian market.

Never had 'em before, but they were on special and looked interesting. We had two flavors, paneer tikka and spicy chickpea. They didn't crisp up at all in the microwave, so I dry-fried them in a pan for a few minutes to get a nice crust on them. A tasty impulse buy.

We also decided that we needed some cookies. I made Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls from Peas & Thank You, a cookbook I used to consult often. I guess I forgot about it when she stopped blogging. But I remembered these cookies being good. They flattened out in the oven, so I would just call them cookies, not cookie dough balls. Semantics. 

Helpers.

Xian Hand-Pulled Noodles

Today we tried a brand-new Chinese noodle place in East Austin, Xian Sushi and Noodle. Their claim to fame is hand-pulled noodles. Indeed, you can watch the noodle chef stretching the pasta dough out into long strings, slapping it on the counter, doubling it, stretching it again, and finally tossing the noodles into a giant cauldron of boiling water to briefly cook, before being ladled into your bowl. 

Xian serves a vegetarian broth that's made with seaweed. After choosing your broth, you then choose the width of noodle you prefer. I picked "fettucine." My bowl contained noodles, asparagus, bell peppers, spinach, bamboo, and tofu. It was served with a side of hot chili oil, which added just the right amount of spice.

 I dug right in, slurping and spooning the perfectly al dente noodles and hot, savory broth into my face and barely coming up for air until the bowl was empty! Love. Love love love.

When we asked about drinks for the kids, our server said they didn't have kiddie cups, but would they like some strawberry-flavored sodas? Of course they would.

We also had edamame, which I really need to make more often at home, because it's such a fun finger food and my kids will eat the whole bowl in minutes.

We also had a little plate of garlicky pickled cucumbers -- a nice, cool refresher in between hot spoonfuls of ramen.

Jackson has started arranging his action figures in a long row, facing out the window.

What are they waiting for? Zombies. Always zombies. Ever vigilant.

Masks and Mac

What to do when avocados are super-cheap, yet you have no real use for an avocado? Make guacamole. That's answer #1. Duh. But another solution could be, make face masks! And this morning, since it was too early for guacamole, that is what we did.

Zoooombie O!

"Here Mama, I do you now."

Brother had to get in on the act, too.

Dinner was Sunflower Mac from Isa Does It. I was low on sunflower seeds, so I used half cashews, and it turned out wonderfully. I'm hardly ever a fan of vegan mac n cheeze, because I hate Daiya and find a lot of "cheezy" sauces taste like nooch or mustard rather than cheese. This recipe has converted me to a mac n cheeze lover. It's creamy and rich and comforting, all the things you want from macaroni and cheese. The recipe makes a ton of sauce, so I added in a bunch of steamed kale. Nom nom nom.

Coconut Bacon

We had another "snow day" on Tuesday thanks to icy roads. .After sleeping in a bit, I started doing my usual cleaning. Jackson got upset that I was not including him. (Sorry, friend, you are not quite big enough to scrub toilets effectively. Please see me when you hit your teenage years. I will be happy to hand that chore off to you then!) So I set him to work doing the laundry. He is not quite tall enough to reach, so he grabbed his step stool and improvised.

Later, the ice melted enough for us to catch a dollar movie, "Walking with Dinosaurs." I'm glad the kids are starting to have the ability to sit still for entire movies. I love watching movies and there are so many I want to watch with them. For example, I never saw the Harry Potter movies when they came out, because I said I would wait to watch them with my kids. (The giant pop was shared among all three of us. I like how it's almost as big as Olivia's entire head and torso.)

For dinner, I tried something new...coconut bacon! It's so easy and only takes 20 minutes. You really do have to keep an eye on it in the oven to avoid burning, though, since the coconut flakes are so delicate.

Tony confirmed that it really does taste and feel bacon-y.  We had BLT's with rye/pumpernickel swirl bread, Veganaise and, of course, LT. My favorite sandwich.

Super Kids

I'm going to make it a point to eat more bok choy in 2014, because I love it! While I was at the Asian supermarket picking some up, I impulse-bought this fried tofu studded with black mushrooms.

Result: Hoisin-Glazed Tofu and Boy Choy, over rice. This recipe is the first I've tried from Robin Robertson's new One-Dish Vegan, which I received for Christmas. A simple, tasty dinner. Can't wait to try more of her one-dish meals.

After dinner, Jackson and Olivia decided to morph into superheroes.  At their request, Tony drew shields on their chests. 

Super Jackson and Super Princess Olivia, to the rescue!

Recent Eats

This morning, Jackson informed Olivia that they were going to explore Antarctica, to look for polar bears. They dressed themselves accordingly.

Here are a few recent dinners that kept my explorers' tummies full and warm.

Tomato Garlic Soup, found on Pinterest. The more garlic, the better, as far as I'm concerned. Tasty, but I would omit the oil next time. I don't like to see oil floating on the surface of my soup broth.

Broccoli Quiche from Vegan Brunch. The cherry tomatoes make it very Martha. Plus, they taste delicious when they roast in the oven.

Tastes even better the next day at room temperature.

One day I cooked dried chickpeas in my slow cooker, rather than using canned. They tasted fine, but I didn't care for the skins, which came off, and bore an unappealing resemblance to little pieces of skin. Do you guys have any tips for this situation? I ended up rinsing the chickpeas handful by handful to get the skins off, but maybe there's an easier way.

I made some of the chickpeas into hummus, which I ate with roasted butternut squash. I tossed the squash in olive oil and chocolate-infused balsamic vinegar before roasting, for a little extra sweetness. I also took a chance and left the skin on. (I'm so daring! Ha!) I knew you could leave the skin on, yet I always dutifully peeled my squash, fearing a tough, chewy skin. Actually, skin-on is fantastic! It wasn't tough, and it had a concentrated "squashy" flavor.

Finally, Via 313 Detroit-style pizza. I tried their vegan pizza for the first time. They use Follow Your Heart cheese, not Daiya, which makes me happy. However, the cheese distribution was sparse, as you can see below. My pizza was, like, half unadorned crust. When you order a pizza with real cheese, it goes all the way to the edges, so I'm not sure what was happening. At least the crust is really awesome. 

A successful expedition, at least sartorially speaking.