Weekend update

Friday night I made some rice crispy treats, kamikaze style. I didn't measure anything or use a recipe but it was something like:

3 cups puffed rice cereal
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 cup carob chips
1/3 cup brown rice syrup
handful dried cranberries

I heated up the PB, carob chips, and BR syrup and then stirred in the rest. Pressed it into a baking dish, put in the fridge, and VOILA! I didn't take a picture because we ate the entire tray while driving to my sister's house! Which leads me to the next part of our weekend. Athena spent the night with my sister, so Chris and I went to the movies. The drive-in that is. We had Rowan with us and he stayed awake for the first movie, Rambo. Before you worry about what a bad parent I am for taking my baby to see Rambo I will just say that he REALLY wasn't watching at all. He was busy playing with anything and everything he could find in the car, you know, sun glasses with case, CDs, keys, radio dials, etc. He fell asleep shortly after the 2nd movie started, The Bucket List. Both movies were equally terrible in their own way. I wouldn't recommend either of them, unless of course you are within driving distance of a Drive-In Theater in which case it doesn't matter what movie you are seeing since it is more of the "experience".

Saturday morning I had the pancake itch and so I tried the highly recommend (thanks Kelli!) The Joy of Vegan Baking recipe. These pancakes were fantastic. I used all whole wheat pastry flour and almond milk. I opted to add some sliced bananas and seriously these were the best banana pancakes I can remember. I even goofed up and didn't wash my pan very well, remember that spicy Indian food from Thursday?, and they still tasted good. Heck, I may start adding cayenne to my pancakes more often!
After the kids woke up from early naps (Athena was SO tired from her wild night out!), we headed to Sipz Cafe and our local APRL thrift shop to clean out our garage a bit. It is nice to have a place to donate our used stuff too that raises money for something we are so passionate about! Someday I'll bring my camera to Sipz, but just in case you were wondering we ordered the BBQ Chicken Bowl, Spicy Chicken with Basil, Pad Thai with Tofu, and I had a Thai Iced Tea.

Today I slept in with Athena and when we got up, Chris was making scrambled tofu ala VWaV and home fries. I stepped in with, you guessed it, more pancakes. This time Chris wanted bananas, blueberries, and chocolate chips and they turned out scrumptious again! Everything was just right.

For dinner tonight we wanted to make something from EDBV, and settled on the Quinoa and Chickpea confetti casserole (mostly because I had a fennel bulb and that just doesn't happen very often). It was super easy to whip up and turned out very well. I made the Maple Balsamic sauce to drizzle on top which really made all of the difference. Just by itself it is pretty plain, nothing to special, but with the sauce it tasted great! Rowan chowed down on it which was cute. Athena had some with ketchup as usual, but at least she is eating quinoa now. Oh, and I made those chickpeas in my pressure cooker, and seriously you have to do the same. Canned beans just don't taste like the ones you make yourself, I never knew that until recently.

Finally, to satisfy our sweet craving, I made the "You got Peanut Butter in my Chocolate" cookies from EDBV. They were pretty good, not too sweet, but still tasty. I had to kind of wing it because I didn't have any sugar on hand (just a little powdered), but they still turned out fine. The batter was too dry at first so I added a splash of almond milk and I did use the barley flour, something I haven't used much before.

So that about wraps it up. I hope to have another good week!