VeganMoFo Day 9 - I'm Vegan and I Breastfeed

I'm going out on a limb here tonight, but I'm tired and I haven't uploaded the photos from tonight's dinner and my homemade applesauce...so I just wanted to share the most stupid question I've ever been asked, more than once. People have asked me if my babies are vegan, and then after I say yes are like, "oh, except for breastmilk". It is one of the most irritating conversations I have to have. Breastmilk is made for human babies, while cows milk is made for baby cows. That is the main reason I don't feed my kids "dairy" products. It just makes sense. Plus, as a vegan, I am constantly trying to minimize my impact on the earth, and here again breastfeeding just makes sense. I promise to be back with some regularly scheduled food posts soon, but I just kept thinking about this and needed to vent, and hey, it is how I feed my vegan babies.

Bowling

We went bowling Friday afternoon with Chris' work. It was Athena's first time bowling and she really liked it. She had a bumper lane with all of the kids, and was able to roll her ball by herself and knock down some pins. I think she scored a 41 but she could care less about that. She even got to wear bowling shoes. I got to bowl a game too which was pretty fun. I used to love bowling when I was 10, and then again in college when they'd have those $1 nights. Rowan was a little freaked out by the bowling alley. He wanted to play, but then would cry when we rolled his ball down the lane, maybe worried he wouldn't get it back? It was a lot of stimulation. By the end, he didn't seem to mind, but I bowled the 1st half of the afternoon with him on my hip. Now who can say they've ever done that?!
Who knows when we'll ever do this again, but it sure was fun!

Vegan MoFo - Day 8 Cheater's fried rice

Chris had to make a quick dinner last night since we got back from soccer practice and were tired and hungry. Enter, trader joes frozen fried rice. Chris fried up a block of tofu with chopped red pepper, zucchini, onion, and spinach, some tamari and rice vinegar, then add the frozen rice and PRESTO dinner was ready. It is quick, delicious, and pretty nutritious too. We ate it all up although that is nothing out of the ordinary in our household. Why is fried rice so good? Wait, please don't tell me, it probably has something to do with that fried bit.

And just for fun, H\here are some of the apples we picked yesterday.

Vegan MoFo Day 7 - Apples

I took the kids apple picking at a little organic orchard in our local mountain town. My mother in law came along too and it was nice to have an extra set of hands to help out. It took about 1 hour and 20 minutes to get there, and the kids were great. The kids had a lot of fun running through the orchard, picking apples, eating apples, romping through the dirt, and then they got to help make fresh apple cider! We picked 4 different kinds of apples: arkansas black, red delicious, granny smith, and a mystery variety (the trees were planted by previous owners so they aren't sure what it is). The kids liked the red delicious and mystery apples best, while I enjoyed the granny smith and arkansas black. Now I have 5+ pounds of organic freshly picked apples to play with. Some of them are tiny as the kids really like "baby" apples, so those will just be for snacking, but I am planning to make a pie. Chris loves apple pie. I like it a bit, but prefer cakes and cookies over pie. I am in the mood for it though so I'm giving myself a weekend project of apple pies, and while I am at it, I think I'll make some lemon bars with all of those lemons I still have. The kids are really into cinnamon apple sauce, so I'll probably have to make a little of that too. The best part of the trip for me (other than seeing their smiling faces throughout the day) was that they both fell asleep on the way home. I was pretty tired myself by the time we got home AFTER an hour of soccer practice. Wow, long day.


Athena turning the wheel of the cider press, I'll leave out the part about where I squished Rowan's finger in the wheel when trying to help him have a turn.
Brother and sister under the apple tree.
Apple boy. He was really loving it today, "in his element".

Vegan MoFo - Day 6

My husband emailed this to me today. Granted, I haven't eaten at a CPK in over 5 years, but it is good to know what options are out there if ever in a pinch. It is so hard to get menu lists like this so I was kind of excited. I wish all restaurants broke it down in this way.

Well then, later in the afternoon my brother, sister in law, and their 2 munchkins surprised me out at our pool so we had a little pool party (Chris joined us right at the end) (and it wasn't a total surprise as they were invited, but didn't sound like they'd make it). The girls are such fish right now, and the boys mostly run around the pool, constantly making me nervous and having a blast. They love the "hot pool" though. Oh, whoops, I almost forgot, this is supposed to be about food. So yeah, we all got good and hungry in the pool (did I mention it was in the 90's again!!!) and it was definitely too hot to cook so we decided to try out a pizza chain called zpizza. My brother asked me if it had any vegan items and I was sure they did since we'd received a coupon in the mail last week, which made me check out their website. I hadn't heard much about them, but they do have vegan options. We got the "berkeley veggie" pizza without the pesto (read somewhere it had cheese in it). I meant to order it with marinara, but there was a mixup so it was sauceless. Not bad even without sauce (I got some marinara on the side), but I think it would have been really good with the sauce and all. We also got a cheeseless one since my nephew is sensitive to soy and it was tasty with roasted red peppers, kalamata olives, and crimini mushrooms. We try and make our own pizza most of the time, but tonight was worth it. My brother leaves for a 2 week business trip to India on Friday, so it was nice to spend some time with him and feed us all something that suited all of our preferences.

And while I'm on the subject of food, last night we celebrated at Sipz Cafe for my Father in laws birthday. It was as good as ever. We just love that place. My kids love the baby avocado rolls, and the bbq chicken bowl. It is the best bbq "chicken" I've had. I love that I can get a Vietnamese iced coffee, or chai, or boba tea, and not have to worry about getting it made right. I love the chargrilled veggie salad and the thai fried rice right now, but I go through phases. I used to order the chicken with basil everytime. The banana cake with coconut cream is the best dessert. The chocolate and carrot cakes used to be really good, and then got kind of drier. I'm not sure why they changed their recipe, but it still isn't too bad, just not my favorite cake. Alright, enough of my food ramblings. Have a good night. And if you haven't watched this video yet on Prop 2, then please do. I loved it.

Vegan MoFo Day 5

No, we didn't eat Rowan for lunch today, although he does sometimes look very edible as you can see from the photos. I was just uploading photos and thought these from yesterday needed to be blogged about. I was reading tofu mom's post and thinking about my kids, what they eat, and their health. Rowan is 19 months old now, and eats all sorts of things. Here is what he ate yesterday while sporting his "Herbivore" shirt.

Breakfast: Blueberry Banana Muffin (I used the banana choc. chip muffin recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking but subbed blueberries for choc. chips and cut the sugar down since I was sending one with Athena to school and didn't want her bouncing off the walls. I also added a few scoops of chia seeds just for kicks.)

Snack: Spicy Nori strips, crackers and raisins

Lunch: Bagel with roasted red pepper hummus

Snack: O's, blueberries and strawberries

Dinner: Black bean burritos (whole wheat tortilla, black beans, rice, cream cheese {we were out of our usual cheez substitutes and the kids go crazy over them}) side of peas

To drink, Rowan has mostly water and still nurses when he pleases, usually a couple times per day and a couple more at night.

He is a thriving 19 month old, talking up a storm, happy, healthy and strong. So sock it to you all you non believers. Vegan kids rock!

Vegan MoFo Day 4 (for me) - Lemons

On our weekend trip to SLO, we collected a huge bag of lemons from my Aunt and Uncle's crazy lemon tree. It seems to always have lemons, no matter what time of year we are visiting, and lots of them. Athena loved helping fill up the bag with our freshly picked lemons. So, now we are home and I've already gone through 6 lemons. Now, what to do with the rest? What do you do with lemons when they are in such abundance? Here are my top lemony recipes, feel free to share your own since I may need a few more ideas:
1. Lemon Garlic Pasta from Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan. Don't forget to double the recipe and cook some seitan with it.

2. Lemonade with stevia from Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan.

3. Random raw sandwich filling. Today I used the juice of 3 lemons, a mixture of sunflower seeds, pepitas, and walnuts, 2 celery stalks, 1/3 of a red pepper, flax oil, and coconut oil. Pretty tasty and filling.

4. Hummus, of course. I've been making the hummus from Veganomicon, and I actually thought most hummus was created equal. Wow, I was sure wrong because this stuff turns out better than any standard hummus I've made.

Vegan MoFo Day 3 - So Delicious Coconut Milk Yogurt

This here is my review of the So Delicious Coconut Milk yogurts. I know a lot of people have already reviewed these and it seems everyone either loves them or hates them. We are in the loving category with the exception of the Blueberry flavor (for me, the kids loved them all). I love the vanilla and strawberry banana best. I really hope they start carrying a larger container of it as I hate collecting all of those useless yogurt containers. I can only find so many uses for them. If you haven't tried these, give them a go. They at least give soy free vegans a chance to try out some of those delicious recipes calling for soy yogurt. This is something I plan on experimenting more with in the future.

Vegan MoFo Day 2 - Peanut butter O bars

I bought a box of those "High Fiber O's" from Trader Joes awhile back, and neither my kids nor I were really digging them. I absolutely hate wasting food so I tried to come up with a way to make them more palatable. Thus, the Peanut Butter O Bars were born. I can't really take credit for this recipe at all though as it is a complete rip off from Vive's "Crispi Squares. The only modifications I made were substituting dried cherries for the dried cranberries, and the high fiber O's for the rice crisp cereal. These are so easy to make, I often turn to these squares when I need something quick (although they do need time to cool in the fridge). Everyone loved these, and now I don't have to keep looking at that silly box of cereal. Any old cereal you have sitting around will do, so get out your copy of Vive le Vegan and get cracking!

*also, just wanted to let all me readers know that I'll be away this weekend, so my daily MoFo posts will be delayed. Have a nice weekend.

VeganMoFo Day 1

So, here it is, a whole month of vegan food (veganMoFo). I'll be blogging all month about the kitchen happenings of veganmomma and the family. Today was absolutely way to hot to cook as it was over 90 degrees and I live just 5 minutes from the beach! So yeah, we had take out, but I do have some catching up to do. The other night, I was pressed for dinner ideas (and time), so I whipped up a batch of pancakes for dinner. I tried to make a meal out of them by using whole wheat flour, almond milk, blueberries, and as an after thought, sesame seeds. I use the pancake recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking ever since I discovered how perfect and easy it is. I also noticed a ripe avocado while I was making the cakes, and served up some slices of avo with the pancakes. It sounded like a weird combo to me, but apparently a local vegan restaurant, The Vegan Zone actually has pancakes with avocado on the menu! As you can see by their faces, my kids really gobbled this dinner up! No complaints here.

I also was the proud winner of this veg news prize pack thanks to cafe vegnews. Thanks again VegNews! The cookies are long gone and I'm working on the Rice Dream Chocolate Chai right now.

Mini Me

Chris and Rowan as Daddy finished his final lap of the 8 hour race.

It's back

Here are some photos from the summer that you've been missing out on. We never found the camera cord, but Chris bought a cheap card reader and now we are back in action.
The feeling I got when I took this picture was hard to describe. I just love when my kids are loving and happy towards each other. This was one of those moments where Athena went and helped Rowan off something that was too high for him, and then they came strolling back to me hand in hand.
My brother went all grill crazy at a family BBQ at my Mom's house. I don't think I've been as full as I was that night since. It was a lot of fun.
BBQ/Pool party at Grandma's. Athena and her cousin love their matching "Ariel" cover ups.
Self face painting. Do you think she liked the results?
Every year, Athena's school asks for a family portrait to hang up in the classroom, and each year it is the same story. We don't have any! So, as a family tradition, we took one of ourselves and had it ready for the first day of school.

Remember, Rowan got his first haircut!? He looks like such a little boy now.
Athena often works with Rowan on the art of baby wearing. I'm pretty certain that Athena will make sure Rowan is a good Dad when he grows up since she is always encouraging him to play his part. "You are such a good Daddy!" she'll exclaim. Or he'll walk up and grab her baby stroller out of her hands and she'll say, "Oh, you want to take the babies for a walk." She is such a good sister.

More to come, but that should do for now.

Hurkey Creek

The "Le Mans" start to the race (we had to run a lap).
Listening to directions from the clown.
Kids at camp with bikes.

We went to a bike race at Hurkey Creek yesterday. We camped over night with 100's of other cyclists and their families and friends. It is quite an experience. If you haven't heard of them, they are called '24 hours of adrenaline" races, only this year Chris entered an 8 hour category. For 8 hours, he and his brother took turns riding the mountain bike course, relay style. Athena got to ride in the kids bike "race" as well. She was so excited the entire drive, she kept asking me when her bike race was going to be. They had all of the 4 and under kids line up first and follow this silly clown around. They were riding in the grass so I had to run along side her (while carrying Rowan) and give her a push whenever she got stuck, most of the parents were doing this. The next age group of 5-7 year olds were a little more serious, although they made it really fun and difficult to say who "won". The kids really loved camping. It is so much work to camp with the little ones, but they get so much out of it. Athena even said, "I LOVE nature!", as we walked around the campground. She later exclaimed, "We are having a REALLY good evening Mommy!" Rowan cracked me up with his fire reminders. Everytime we went by a fire he say, "Hot! Hot! No, no! No, no!" I guess my little speech to him worked. He also said a new phrase which I don't know where he picked up, "Oh baby". Rowan LOVES, I mean LOVES, bike helmets. He didn't want to wear his own though, only his Dad's. When we looked at pictures he would get so mad when he saw the pictures of him wearing his hat, and then get really excited when he saw the ones with him wearing his helmet. It was too funny. We are all wiped out, but it was worth it. I think we will all sleep well tonight.

I LOVE when this happens...

I've won a prize, hooray for me! Cafe VegNews hosted a contest asking readers for ideas on how to use some random left over ingredients from their pantry. I had a lot of competition (2 other entries), but my answer won out.

Here is what I had to say:

"Hmm, pop the amaranth so it gets nice and roasty, and then make hemp seed butter bars with pine nuts and molasses and a few other fine ingredients you can scrounge up."

(the ingredients were molasses, hemp seed nut butter, pinenuts, and amaranth)

Now I should probably try to come up with an actual recipe using those. I'll get back to you on that!

Party Crashers

The kids and I crashed a party at the park today. Some friends, and Athena's cousins were having a party with their home school group right down the street from us. I knew a few of the people already, which is always nice when you are crashing an event. It was a super fun day for everyone. The kids got to do some crafts such as making necklaces and painting their faces (that was probably Athena's favorite as she got to paint her own face). There were capes to be worn and ice cream to be eaten...aw, the ice cream. Not just any old ice cream my friends. It was some of the best raw vegan ice cream around. If you haven't had Tomberlies before, then you are really missing out. This stuff is fantastic, made with quality ingredients, and made by some really cool people (the mama behind this stuff is part of the group). I had tried a handful of flavors before today, but now I could review just about all of them. The Orange Cremecicle surprised me as my #1 pick, with close runner ups being chocolate and strawberry. Please, go out and try some for yourself, you won't be disappointed.
Athena is really curious about homeschooling. I was worried she'd beg to be homeschooled, once she knew that it was an option, but so far she hasn't mentioned it. I told her that she does homeschool on the days she doesn't go to school, which is the truth. Sometimes homeschooling sounds appealing to me, but I talk myself out of it for a number of reasons. I'm still planning on sending Athena to school, but not a traditional school as she isn't really a traditional kind of kid. I'm glad I don't have to figure this all out for another year or so.

Picky kid's Potatoes

Tonight I made breakfast for dinner. Nothing sounded good to me at all so I just decided to follow my cravings which were for potatoes. Then I had to think of what went well with that, other than veggie burgers (because I didn't want to make them) and pancakes came to mind. The pancakes were wholewheat/buckwheat with bananas and blueberries, mmmm, everyone loved those. For the potatoes, I wanted to try something to get Athena to eat some greens. I think I tried this before and she didn't go for it, but this time it worked! I cooked 7 red potatoes in coconut oil, and then added about 2 cups of spinach that I pureed in the food processor. Athena immediately questioned their color upon inspection, "Why are they green," she asked. "Why don't you taste them and see if you can figure it out," I replied. "Mmm, I can't taste the green at all when I dip them in ketchup!" Athena exclaimed. "So, do you want to know the secret ingredient...you are eating spinach!" I was tempted to lie, worried that if she knew it was spinach, she might change her mind, but she was OK with it and just continued to gobble up at least 2 potatoes worth, plus pancakes galore. Have I mentioned our food consumption has reached epoch proportions lately? The 4 of us have really been going through a lot of food. I wonder what it will be like when they kids are older and have even bigger appetites?!! Anyway, just thought I'd share about the potatoes. They were really tasty. I'm well aware there are other picky kids out there who wouldn't touch these green potatoes with a 10 foot pole, but you never know unless you try. I was pretty sure Athena wouldn't go for them, and she really surprised me.

On a totally unrelated note, Rowan started singing recognizable songs today. It is so cute to hear his little sing songy voice. He was holding his "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" book and singing it just like they do in his parent participation class. He also has been begging to watch this fire truck song on you tube. He says, "hotsa, hotsa", which means "lots of, lots of", as in "lots and lots of fire trucks." It is pretty catchy.

It's coming...Veganmofo 2008

I am excited to participate this year. I'm hoping to get out of this food rut that I've been in since we moved. Now I just need to figure out a way to grocery shop with a screaming 18 month old and an always hungry 4 year old. I did it today and, whew, it was pretty much a nightmare.

Busted

Today a realtor came to show our condo since it is on the market. She was from Russia. She asked me where I was from and continued to tell us that she detected an accent with me. It was so embarrassing...you see, I have this awful uncontrollable habit where I start speaking with an accent when I hear people with an accent. You don't know how many times people have detected a slight accent with me. I've been mistaken as having a 'southern' accent (that one was because I lived with a southerner for 3 years back in college - Hi Roommate!). In an interview once, I was asked if I was from England. So yeah, it can be a bit of a problem. Chris thinks maybe I talk like them because I think they'll understand me better, but seriously, it is not something conscious that I do. I actually hear myself start doing it and try to stop, but it just gets worse! Good thing I find it pretty hilarious. Any other people with fake accents out there?!

The Screaming

Rowan screams a lot these days. I finally realized why it seems he screams sooooo much more then Athena ever did. It is because he is the little brother. He has to share EVERYTHING, and that is really hard for a toddler. Athena got to play with all her toys all the time, and never had someone bigger than her frequently scrambling for her favorite toys. Athena is really good about sharing with Rowan, but he is NOT good at all about sharing with her. He even screams at her if she tries to hold my hand or sit on my lap. It kind of makes me laugh when I think about it but it actually can get pretty frustrating. So yeah, he is a screamer, but he is learning new words every day. Here are some of my favorites:

• "gahguh" - goggles
• "mmuhmmuh" - mixer (as in cement)
• "buhbode" - skateboard (I just heard him calling this word out in his sleep while napping, referring to his new skateboard.) He has been envious of his cousin's skateboard for awhile so we finally picked one up for him at target. I don't think you could even find a used one cheaper then $7.99.
• "rella" - any princess (yes, the disney types, it is really cute but kind of a little gross that my 18 month old recognizes these!)
• "buck lll" - buckle
• "I dooo!" - as in the answer to "who wants just about anything?"
• "breetoe" - burrito
• "mana" - banana
  

While we are at it, some of my favorite Athena words of the week are:

• Painful - she used this word to describe her "hardest fall" in her soccer game. She had a lot of falls but she never cried. She was way more into her game this weekend.
• Lopsided - this word was used to describe the heart she drew. She was trying to learn how to draw a heart.
• Baddest - we took her to dinner at the vegan zone last night and she said, "I thought this dinner was going to be the baddest ever, but it was actually the gooddest!"
  

So much to blog about

I have so much to blog about but the missing camera cord has me in a rut. Over the weekend, Athena had her 1st soccer game of the season. I have pictures but no way of putting them on the computer for now, so just imagine a group of 4 and 5 year olds in neon orange uniforms that are 3 sizes to big, running around chasing a ball, lots of arms around each other (that would be Athena and her cousin who is playing on the same team), really hot weather, Rowan running in the dirt with his own ball having a blast, well, you get the pictures. It was really fun. Athena didn't seem that into it, and yet she was having a great time. She would always come off the field happy and did what she listened well, but she really observed most of the game. She said she loves the games which is funny because last year she liked practices more.

This week both my babies started school. Rowan and I are taking a parent participation class for 1-2 year olds and we had a great time. He was really attentive to the songs and story, and loved exploring the classroom and playing on the playground. He was exhausted after the first day and unfortunately I had a meeting at Athena's school with her new teacher directly after. I barely made it through the 20 minute conference with Ro's tantrums, but I left feeling really good about the new year for Athena. Her teacher seemed liked a good match for Athena.

Today was the official first day of school and it went great. Athena seems so much older this year, so much more READY for school. I don't know how to explain it, but she just seemed so confident walking into a brand new room. She wasn't hiding behind me, but engaged herself right away in the classroom. She even answered her teacher's question right away, which usually takes her awhile to do, especially when I'm there for her to hide behind. I left feeling totally confident that Athena was in good hands, and that she was going to have a great time at school. When I picked her up, she was in good spirits and she told me all about the day. She told me that some kids were doing dangerous things on the playground so her teacher wrote them down when they had a meeting. (She reported a boy was crashing into her on his bike). Hmm, what else did she tell me, oh yeah, and at snack there were little signs telling them how many crackers to take. I thought that was cool but it made me feel bad that she couldn't participate because I pack her her own vegan snack. She said it was fine though, really. She said the girls had to talk to the teacher about something, that there was only 1 princess dress and that her teacher was going to have to buy some more. It was funny what she remembered from the day, and she learned a new song or two. She was super up beat about everything, nothing phased her. She also had a ballet class today which I'm not sure how we feel about it. She said it felt like there was a lot to do. I didn't get to watch much of it because Ro was having a real hard time so I had to stay outside the room. When I asked the teacher how she did she replied, "Oh, great, she's definitely ready for this class but she has a lot to learn!" Hmm, how does a mother interpret that. For some reason I have a feeling Athena wasn't listening very well, but maybe I'm wrong. Next week I may try to leave Rowan home with Chris so that I can watch and see if the class is worth our money. Athena said she'll try it 5 more times and if she still doesn't like it much, then she'll stop going. That made me laugh.

So, the summer seems to be behind us, although we did have our last hoorah last night at the beach. My sister and her BF were camping there so we headed up for an evening of surfing (the Dads), playing, BBQing, and good company. The kids had a blast and were both asleep on the way home. I guess that is enough updating for now. I really hope I find my camera cord soon, it is killing me, or I guess maybe I should look on the sony site and find out how much a replacement cord is going to cost me. Wish me luck! G'night!