Fairies and Beards

Jackson is growing up so fast.

Olivia is slightly obsessed with the Tinkerbell fairies.

Breakfast...Pumpkin Snackles from Plant-Powered Families. Cooking with pumpkin in August, sure, why not? It doesn't only have to be a fall thing. These went quickly.

Summertime lunch...smoked paprika hummus, veggies and crackers. Come and get it.

Dinner...Lasagna Verde from Healthy Happy Vegan Kitchen, with tons of fresh basil from the garden. I omitted the vegan shredded cheese, and it was fine without. Great in fact. The sauteed tofu plus the cashew ricotta make such a rich filling, and of course, I always love pesto.

Zoodles!

Today we made our first glorious splash pad outing of the summer. 

Blaster cannons, look out!

Waterfalls are awesome!

And for dinner, I made my first zoodles! Zucchini noodles, y'all. I bought this spiralizer. Although there are models that cost 3x as much, it does a fine job. I topped the zoodles with tomatoes and fresh pesto made with basil from the garden. I thought the zoodles were just as filling as pasta, and more fun to make. Looking forward to spiralizing some cucumbers and carrots next!

Safari Show

Started off today with a smoothie in the bowl. Yes, that means Tony got up with the kids and let me sleep in!  Woohoo! (I won't use the blender if he is still sleeping.) I threw in frozen banana, spinach, chlorella, ground flax, bee pollen, vanilla and stevia. Topped with hemp granola.

Our awesome community library hosted Safari Greg from the Austin Zoo. Tony took Jackson to see the whole show, and Olivia and I caught the end of it...featuring this giant snake...after her ballet class.

Afterwards, the library served ice cream sundaes. As if my kids did not already love the library enough.

Dinner was 15-Minute Creamy Avocado Pasta from The Oh She Glows Cookbook. Imagine the creamiest pesto you've had, with tons of rich basil flavor, only creamier, thanks to the avocado. Jackson and Olivia informed me that, any time I make spaghetti in the future, this is the sauce I need to make.

Garden 2012

Last summer was our first attempt at gardening -- just a few potted herbs and pepper plants. It didn't go well, thanks to the drought and high temps and our inexperience. In the fall, Tony built a 4x4 raised bed, and we tried sowing some seeds. That didn't work out, either. We got a few sad little carrots and nothing more. We were starting to get depressed about our black thumbs. But we figured we would give it another try this summer and, so far, we are doing a lot better. 

The cherry tomato plant is producing like crazy. We've already had about 20 ripe cherry tomatoes, and there are dozens more on the vine. There is nothing like a garden-fresh tomato. The ones from the supermarket just do not compare.

We have two regular tomato plants, and they are full of green tomatoes right now. Since I've already made fried green tomatoes, I'll let these ripen.

We also have serrano and jalapeno peppers, cilantro (it wasn't doing well from the start, so we're letting it go to seed), orange mint, and two basil plants.

I love having all the fresh basil I want. The other night I made Fusilli with Potatoes, Green Beans and Lemon Creme from Vegan on the Cheap, topped with lots of chopped basil. I used penne instead of fusilli. The kids loved this dish! It makes way more than 4 servings like the recipe says, but the leftovers got eaten up.

I didn't know there were different varieties of mint. The nursery was sold out of regular mint plants. They had apple mint and orange mint. I went with orange. With my first bunch of leaves that I picked, I made mint chocolate chip banana soft serve. Yum!

Are you growing anything this summer?

What I Ate

I've never been one to post everything I eat in a day. While I find that type of food diary interesting, I always feel like my personal diet is too boring to merit chronicling.

But just for today, what the heck.

Breakfast was frosted mini-wheats with flaxmilk.

I just recently started branching out from soymilk, and learned that I love the creaminess of almond milk. This made me think I should see what other milks are out there, so I picked up this flaxmilk at Whole Foods.

Flaxmilk is the opposite of almond milk -- not creamy in the slightest. It's grayish and watery. So I didn't like it on my cereal. But I've also used it to make smoothies and banana soft serve ice cream, and it's just fine in those capacities.

For lunch, I made Nigella Lawson's Pea and Pesto Soup, one of my very favorite soups, a favorite of my kids as well, and such a snap to make.

For dinner, I made a four-ingredient pasta dish.  My recipe is barely even worthy of being called a recipe, but we all enjoyed it, so I'll share it with you.  How can you beat just four ingredients?

Creamy Rotini with Basil (serves 4)

1 lb. rotini pasta

1 jar chunky marinara sauce

1 8-oz. package cream cheese, room temperature (vegan cream cheese works great)

1 cup fresh basil, thinly chopped

1. Boil pasta 7 minutes in salted water until al dente.

2. While pasta cooks, pour marinara sauce into a saucepan and heat gently. When the sauce starts to bubble, turn the heat down to low and stir in the cream cheese. Stir vigorously to combine.

3. When pasta is done, drain it and return it to the cooking pot. Pour in the creamy marinara and stir to coat. Add the chopped basil, reserving some to sprinkle on top of each serving. Serve.

Whew, recording all these meals has worn me out! Time to go relax on the couch. Olivia has the right idea.

A Friday Night Post

Last night's dinner was Noodle Salad with Peanut Mmmm Sauce. Another awesome recipe from Mama Pea. When I went shopping for ingredients, they were out of edamame. So I substituted, uh, lima beans. They kind of look the same, yes? Even though lima beans aren't typically found in any sort of Asian cuisine I've ever heard of, the salad still tasted amazing. We had no leftovers.

At lunch today, I made a pint of strawberries into strawberry-nectarine-vanilla smoothies for the kids. They are really into smoothies now. It's been a long time coming. Jackson never cared for them in the past. But Olivia has decided she loves drinking anything with a straw. And of course, Jackson wants whatever Olivia has. Yes! Now my plan is to get them drinking smoothies on a regular basis, and then start adding greens.

 Tonight's dinner ingredients...can you tell I did not feel like cooking?

Soy curls, my omnivore husband's very favorite faux meat product. And Taco Bell sauce just makes everything better.

Tonight I had to run to Whole Foods and picked up some $2.99/lb. organic cherries. They are normally like $7.99/lb. Score!

I see cherry smoothies in our future.

Finally, a little update on my mini-garden. The poor tomato plant had six or seven little tomatoes on it, and just as they were turning red, Jackson plucked them all off. And I think he sent the plant into shock, because it hasn't done anything since. The jalapeno and cherry pepper plants flowered, but never produced fruit. I think maybe I needed to get two of each, so they could pollinate? Not sure. The strawberry plant fried in the heat pretty much immediately. I thought it might be too late in the season to try for strawberries when I bought it, and I guess I was right. 

But wait, there's good news! The lavender, rosemary and aloe vera are all champs. Totally indestructible. And I have BASIL!

Y'all know I love basil more than words can say, so it's absolutely delightful to go outside every few days and harvest my own fragrant little bundles of leaves. And then, next week, it grows back! You gardeners are like, "Uh yeah, that's how plants work..." but this is all new to me, this watering and checking and the payoff of having fresh basil to use whenever I want. What's your favorite way to use basil?

Gotta get my night owl babies to bed...have a great weekend! 

Movie Day and a Quiz

Hey guys, just a quick post this morning. I'm taking Jackson and Olivia to their first movie in a short while. That's right, I am taking two toddlers to see an almost-two-hour film (Ponyo) in a theater full of other babies and toddlers, by myself. Only in hindsight will I know if this qualifies as an adventure or a poor life decision.

The Vietnamese sandwiches with dipping broth made another appearance on our table Sunday night. This is my favorite meal; I don't know why I don't make it every week. At first, I wasn't sure if I liked the Veganomicon seitan cutlet recipe. The cutlets are baked, and then you thinly slice and saute them, resulting in a very firm, chewy, almost tough texture. Tony loved them from the start, and since I would much rather see him eating faux meat than real meat, I kept making them. Now they've totally won me over, too.

Last night I made the Edamame Pesto from Appetite for Reduction, using fresh basil from my garden. I can't say enough good things about this recipe, guys. High in protein, low in fat...and it's pesto, which I love. I am a basil fiend, haha. And it takes no time at all. By the time your pasta is done cooking, the sauce is ready to go. I served it with ziti and cherry tomatoes, also from my garden.

And now, a fun little quiz I swiped from the vegan collegian. I'd love to hear your answers to some of these.

A is for Apple: What’s your favorite variety? Pink Lady

B is for Bread: Regardless of nutrition, what is your favorite type? Rye and pumpernickel swirl - it makes the best BLT's, in my opinion

C is for Cereal: What is your favorite kind currently? (just one!) Peanut Butter Puffins. (The more peanut butter in my diet, the better.)

D is for Donuts: You might not currently eat them, but what kind do you fancy? I like cinnamon sugar donuts in the fall, with a glass of hot apple cider.

E is for Eggs: How would you like yours prepared? Tofu scramble :)

F is for Fat Free: What is your favorite fat free product? I don't buy anything specifically labeled fat free. So...fruit?

G is for Groceries: Where do you purchase yours? H-E-B usually. Whole Foods, Fiesta or Wheatsville if I need something they don't sell at H-E-B.

H: is for Hot Beverages: What is your favorite hot drink? Tea

I is for Ice Cream: Pick a favorite flavor and add a fun topping.  Mint chocolate chip with chocolate sauce

J is for Jams or Jellies: Do you eat them? If so, what kind and flavor? I like strawberry and cherry. Oh, and pumpkin butter in the fall.

K is for Kashi: Name your favorite Kashi product? I like several of their cereals, but they do contain honey.

L is for Lunch: What was yours today? Kale chips, apple, pita chips

M is for microwave: What is your favorite microwave meal/snack? Baked potato

N is for nutrients: Do you likes carbs, fats, or proteins best? Carbs. I need my pizza, pasta, potatoes, all that good stuff.

O is for oil: What kind do you like to use? Olive

P is for protein: How do you get yours? Nuts, tofu, soymilk, seitan...lots of things.

Q is for Quaker: How do you like your oats? With peanut butter, chocolate chips, and flax meal.

R is for roasting: What is your favorite thing to roast? Sweet potatoes

S is for sandwich: What’s your favorite kind? Vietnamese sandwich from Veganomicon. 2nd runner up: the BLT.

T is for travel: How do you handle eating while traveling? For vacations, I look up restaurants online while I am making the itinerary.  I love trying new restaurants. For road trips or visiting family, that is a little more difficult in terms of staying vegan. I stock up on Larabars and do my best.

U is for unique: What is one of your weirdest food combos? I like to smush my corn and mashed potatoes together. Not that weird, I guess.

V is for vitamins: What kind do you take? Multivitamin and B-12

W is for wasabi: Yay or nay? Love it.

X is XRAY: If we xrayed your belly right now, what food would we see? Just ate breakfast, so...cereal.

Y is for youth: What food reminds you of your childhood? Fast food :P

Z is for zucchini: How do you prepare it? Sauteed and tossed with pasta.

Another Hummus Recipe

Monster had a fine birthday yesterday.

Jackson helped me make some gingerbread cookie dog treats. We got the recipe from Vegan Flower.

Monster loved them.

Jackson, well, he loved them too. The kid still tries to eat out of Monster's kibble bowl from time to time, so I guess that does not surprise me.

We also prepared something for us humans to munch on. Should I rename this blog Busy Hummus Mama? I can't help it -- my kids love the stuff and so do I. This would probably also be delicious on a pizza, topped with some lovely fresh veggies.

Tomato Basil Hummus

1 15-oz. can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes (not the oil-packed kind)

1/4 cup fresh basil

2 cloves garlic

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1/4 tsp. salt

1/3 cup water (or more as needed)

Blend chickpeas through salt in food processor. Stream in 1/3 cup water until hummus reaches desired consistency. Add more if needed.

Enjoy, and have a lovely Wednesday. I was gonna take the kids to a splash pad, but it doesn't open until this weekend. We'll find something else to do outside. Olivia has decided she does not like wearing her sun hat, so here she is yesterday with sunscreen rubbed onto her little scalp. Punk rock baby!

Urban Vegan Tester # 4 - Pan-Seared Tofu with Basil-Balsamic Glaze

I'm feeling under the weather, so I was extremely tempted to just eat a plate of nachos for dinner -- my theory being that jalapenos clear the sinuses.  But then I remembered I had these tofu steaks marinating in the fridge.  I microwaved some "baked" potatoes, sauteed the tofu a few minutes on each side, and had a much healthier dinner on the table without expending too much energy (which I don't have.)

I've always shied away from serving tofu all on its own, without a sauce or anything.  But the Urban Vegan's steaks are pretty darn flavorful and have no need for a sauce. The sweetly acidic balsamic glaze and a sprinkling of fresh basil gives them all the flavor you could want. These are classy enough to serve for a vegan dinner with friends. Yet they're also fast enough to make on a busy weeknight, provided you press the tofu and get it in the marinade that morning, or the night before.

I've been writing a lot lately, since I've started doing these tester recipes as well as some personal cooking posts. But at this point I think I'm going to take it easy until after Christmas.  I'll still be reading your blogs, just not posting anything of my own.  Hope you'll come back and visit me after the holidays!

Merry Christmas, Happy Solstice, Happy Holidays to you!

P.S. One more thing, Averie at Love Veggies and Yoga is giving away a $50 iHerb shopping spree! Hurry up and enter because it ends Wednesday!