Soccer Madness

This fall, Jackson and Olivia are both playing soccer. This means practice four nights a week, and two games every Saturday. It is a lifestyle.

While watching Jackson practice, Olivia and her friends got into the water jug and did some impromptu hairstyling. It was 90 degrees so I figured, that's one way to keep cool.

I am all about trying to get as much protein and veggies into these kids as possible. Their little bodies work very hard. For dinner I made a couple of recipes from Teff Love that complimented each other well. Ye'shimbra Duket Kita (savory chickpea flour pancakes) and Ye'tofu enkulal firfir (spicy tofu scramble.) I doused the whole thing with hot sauce and it was delicious.

The DoSeum

Over the weekend we took a day trip to San Antonio to visit their new children's museum, called the DoSeum.

We were hungry when we got into town, so we stopped for lunch at Green. We started with chips and salsa and we laughed when our waitress brought us a whole squirt bottle of salsa because we were going through it. We are a family of salsa lovers and it was some good salsa!

We also had some edamame covered in sweet chili sauce. Yum!

I had the Orange Tofu Bowl. Popcorn tofu tossed in orange chili sauce, broccoli, and brown rice. It was incredible.

Tony had the Mediterranean bowl, a tortilla-lined bowl of falafels, dolmas, tabouli, kale, pecan hummus, tzatziki, carrots, tomatoes, and olives. Green is probably Tony's favorite vegetarian restaurant and he loves this bowl.

We were stuffed but wanted just a bite of something sweet, so we shared a vegan chocolate chip cookie.

On to the museum! At the entrance, Olivia was charmed by the wind tunnel where she could flap around in beautiful butterfly wings.

Jackson was drawn to the hands-on experiments.

Olivia followed. It's so cool to see them trying things out and seeing what will happen. Giving those brains a good workout!

Tony, too!

Building together.

Next, Jackson wanted to make some robots battle for supremacy.

Worthy opponents.

Let the battle begin!

It was a gorgeous day so next we checked out the outdoor play area.

Good balance required!

Water play area.

The museum is huge, so the kids were basically flitting from one display to the next, wanting to try everything. We didn't even come close to doing it all. The make-believe grocery store was so detailed, it included a butcher counter with "meat" slicer. Um, ew?

There was also a car for the kids to pretend to be little mechanics.

We stayed right up until the minute the museum closed, and there was still so much more we could have explored. We will have to make another trip some time!

Kids Close Up

Today I thought I would sit down and interview Jackson and Olivia. They are only going to be 7 and 5 1/2 for a short while. Most of the time, I wish I could freeze time. Yet I also love watching them grow and develop their interests and personalities.

Olivia:

The thing I'm best at is dressing up and being a fashionista. Also being a good friend.
My favorite things about school are recess and meeting new friends.
My favorite things to do on the weekend are playing dress up and coloring.
When I grow up I want to be a fashion designer.
If I could change my name it would be Rarity.
My favorite colors are pink, purple, blue, orange, green, gold and silver.
My best friends are Sophia and Halley.
My favorite toys are my Anna and Elsa dolls and My Little Ponies.
My favorite book is Tiny Titans.
My favorite movies are Rapunzel and Tinkerbell.
My favorite season is winter because I can throw snowballs at Jackson.
My favorite holidays are Halloween and Christmas.
My favorite shows are My Little Pony and Teen Titans.
My favorite food is watermelon.
My favorite animal is a chihuahua.
My favorite sport is soccer.

Jackson:

The thing I'm best at is kung fu. (Jackson has never done kung fu.)
My favorite thing about school is that you get to write in a notebook. (?)
My favorite thing to do on the weekend is sleep.
When I grow up I want to be a restaurant owner.
If I could change my name it would be Explosive. (!)
My favorite color is red.
My best friend is Hudson.
My favorite toy is Legos.
My favorite book is comic books.
My favorite movie is Jurassic World.
My favorite season is fall so we can throw leaves.
My favorite holiday is Christmas.
My favorite show is Teen Titans.
My favorite food is burgers.
My favorite animal is a gorilla.
My favorite sport is football.

We ate dinner at Dimassi's, their Mediterranean buffet is the best in town (OK, it is the only Mediterranean buffet, but it is so good that we don't need any others.) I had hummus, tabouli, falafel, baba ganoush, spinach, green beans, dolmas, and chickpea dill yogurt salad.

Caramel Apples

We celebrated the arrival of the best month, October, by making homemade caramel apples. I used the A+ Caramel Apples recipe from Plant-Powered Families. I was surprised at how quick and easy it is to make your own vegan caramel! The kids loved this special autumn treat.

While I had the cookbook at hand, I also made the Best Banana Bread to use up a couple of brown bananas. The browner the better, for banana bread!

We also made some spider hats. I have never been crafty but I am slowly becoming a Mama Who Crafts thanks to Pinterest and my kids' love of fun little projects like this one.

Tony got back in town after being in Baltimore all week for business, and we were both craving pizza. So we had a family catch-up lunch at Rounders. We started with a Greek salad and complimentary garlic rolls while enjoying the perfect patio weather.

Jalapeno pizza, so good! Rounders might just be as good as Home Slice, but without the long wait for a table.

Little Gardeners

I am so in love with my kids' school. Some hardworking parents and community members turned the central courtyard into a garden a few years back. This year I am participating in the garden club. Each week some other parents and myself take groups of students out to the garden to learn about where our food comes from and get our hands dirty. The children get to taste the vegetables that they grow themselves, and the rest is sold at a weekly farmer's market. It is a pretty wonderful program. I know very little about gardening, but I am happy to help focus the kids while the more knowledgeable mamas provide instruction. This week we learned about the seasons, and the kids planted seeds for radish, carrots, and other seasonal veggies.

Speaking of seasonal veggies, I picked up some delicata squash. As far as squash rankings, because yes, I am the kind of person who ranks my favorite types of squash, I like it less than acorn or butternut, but more than kabocha. I roasted it along with some broccoli and served it with the Lentil Pumpkin Seed Pie from Plant-Powered Families. I subbed chopped hazelnuts for the pumpkin seeds though, because that's what I had on hand. The pie has a good hearty flavor, almost like a veggie meatloaf. We spooned some lemon tahini sauce over everything.

We received some rainbow Doritos in the mail for making a donation to the It Gets Better Project. 

People who wear sunglasses indoors fall into three categories: creepy, hung over, and my daughter.

Two Kids, Two Approaches to Sports

Soccer season is underway. Jackson is back with his same team from last year. They are a great group of little dudes.

Olivia is playing this year, too! Her team is called the Rainbow Dashers, ha! 

She did amazing in her first game, scoring four goals! While our happy-go-lucky Jackson is just out there to have a good time with his friends, Olivia appears to have quite a competitive streak in her! I am not the least bit competitive, so this is an interesting development and just goes to show that, with children, you never know what you are going to get! 

For dinner I made the Curried Udon Noodle Stir-Fry from Veganomicon. I was too lazy to make seitan, so I subbed tofu.

Fall

You guys it's fall! I'm so excited. Sorry to have been away. Tony has been traveling a lot since starting his new job in August, and I do not always have the time to post every day. So here I am, catching up, while I love sitting here with the windows open because it's 65 degrees out!

Veganomicon Roasted Fennel and Hazelnut Salad with Shallot Dressing sounded nice and autumnal, so I whipped that up for dinner on the first day of fall. I could not find chicory at two different stores in Austin, so I used endive because they are in the same family. Along with the salad, I made the V'con Curried Carrot Dip, served with some naan bread.

I love the seasonal drinks. Harmless Harvest has introduced cacao and cinnamon clove flavors of their amazing raw coconut water. It is expensive but it's tastiest brand in my opinion. I also picked up a Rebbl hibiscus mint yerba mate tonic. I was excited because it was the first time I have seen any Rebbl drinks around here. I want to try them all!

Sprouts has and entire wall of pumpkin products. Not kidding! 

I came home with pumpkin loops cereal and pumpkin spice kale chips.

At HEB, I picked up pumpkin spice Mini Wheats, apple cinnamon Special K, pumpkin spice latte M&M's, and pumpkin spice baking chips.

I think we have reached Peak Pumpkin Spice, guys! At HEB I got pumpkin spice and rosemary dish soaps.

I also bought a bunch of Snapea Crisps and Lentil Snaps because they were on sale and Olivia absolutely loves them in her lunchbox.

Finally, not autumnal but pretty tasty none the less, a High Country kombucha, wild root flavor. It contained sarsaparilla, licorice root, star anise, yellowdock root, burdock root, wildcherry bark, and dandelion root. How's that for an interesting ingredient list? It tasted very medicinal and herbal, in a good way!

To welcome in this spooooky time of year, we made some cotton ball ghosts.

oooOOOooo! Happy autumn to you!