Invasion of the Alien Flowers

Some weekends, it feels like we are barely home at all. Which is fine because I am not a homebody. This weekend, however, we purposely kept our plans to a minimum so we could get stuff done around the house.

I made a curtain for the guest bathroom.

I also worked in the yard, and noticed some crazy-looking purple flowers that have bloomed almost overnight. We don't know what they're called, so we've christened them "alien flowers."

We did go out to dinner on Saturday, with a couple we met in our childbirth class when I was pregnant with Jackson. It was really neat to see our two little dudes, born one day apart, now nearly three years old and playing side by side. It's amazing how fast you go from this...

to this!

For Sunday dinner I made the Tamarind Tofu Cabbage Bowl from Vegan Yum Yum.

I wanted to use up the last of my terrible, seedy tamarind paste.  Now I can buy a different brand and enjoy the sweet and sour flavor of tamarind without having to pick out rock-hard seeds. 

Tony and I enjoyed the flavors and textures of this dish, but the kids were not into it. Jackson ate some tofu cubes, but neither he nor Olivia would touch the cabbage. I guess I need to serve cabbage more often and get them used to it.

I had a hard time cooking this meal with Jackson, too. I'll be honest -- as much as I love having the kids in the kitchen with me, it doesn't always work out. There were many steps to the recipe. Making the rice. Pressing, cubing, and sauteeing the tofu. Chopping and sauteeing the cabbage. Making the sauce. Toasting the almonds. Jackson is good at adding things to a bowl or stirring a pot, but he does not have much patience for waiting around while I get everything out and do the prep work. I want to come up with a solution for this that doesn't involve sending him in the other room to watch Cars while I get everything ready. But he is still just a little guy.

For dessert we had rice pudding with pineapple. So good! Rice pudding on its own is not that exciting, but there is something about the addition of pineapple that makes it pretty amazing.

Have a good week!