Camping and Beet Cake

So, camping this weekend turned out to be less than fun. The wedding itself was lovely, but the weather was terrible. It rained the whole time, and we were freezing in our little tent. The boys and Keith slept fine, but I was damn cold! We also forgot our pillows, which made the night even less pleasant. Damn Alberta and its random temperatures!
Here's a picture of our "breakfast in bed":
Okay, so let's just ignore the fact that I look like I'm about 12 years old in this picture. We decided to try some hemp milk (a special treat the husband picked up for me), and brought along a little carton of Hemp Bliss. While it isn't fortified, it does contain much more fat than regular soymilk (So Nice Original, to be specific), but the amount of saturated fat in the hemp milk is lower. Anyways, we decided that we will buy it again and give it to Quinn on a semi-regular basis, since it's full of healthy fats, and we don't want him to drink soy exclusively. I'm not overly concerned about too much soy intake, but I don't think that anyone should consume too much of anything, so replacing one glass of "milk" a day with hemp milk seems like a good idea. Healthy fats are so important to young children, so hemp seems like an ideal choice. Quinn didn't like the taste at first, but he ate it in his cereal, and didn't mind. He had a glass again tonight, so maybe he's developing a taste for it. Heck, he's a toddler! His palate changes every 5 minutes!
There wasn't a lot of food for us to eat at the wedding, which we were expecting, so it's a good thing we had filled up on the Angelic Tofu sandwiches beforehand!
My husband's been working very late hours this week, so it's been a busy week. On Monday it was just the boys and I for dinner, and I made the Bean and Nut loaf from the Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook, and some basmati rice mixed with nutritional yeast, corn, and peas. I was going to make a big salad, but Quinn wouldn't have eaten much of it, and I was feeling a little lazy and didn't want to go to all that work to make a salad for one. I had a huge salad for lunch that day, so I didn't feel too guilty about missing my dinner greens. ;)
I wasn't able to snap any pictures from Monday's dinner. Same story for Tuesday. On Tuesday my mom and sister came over for a little to hang out with me and the boys. I made the Hummus-Quinoa casserole from Vive Le Vegan, which is a favorite around here, and a biggie salad. Yum!
We got a new batch of veggies from the csa yesterday. Potatoes, carrots, leeks, lettuce... and lots more! Mmm. Last year was the first time I'd ever cooked with leeks (we got so many from the csa, I was overwhelmed!), and the potato-leek soups from La Dolce Vegan became favorites. Once the weather cools down again (which will likely be in about five minutes), I'll definitely be making some soup!
We had dinner at my dad's tonight. To accompany the veggie dogs he made, I made the Dijon Potato Salad, from the Garden of Vegan, using farm-fresh potatoes, carrots and celery. This salad always gets rave reviews.
I didn't really use proper potatoes, since these ones kind of disintegrated after being cooked, but I didn't mind. They almost give the salad a creamy texture, effectively standing in for the mayonnaise that is usually the star of potato salads.
We got a ton of beets from the csa, so I decided to make a little beet cake to bring to my dad's tonight as well.
I used the recipe in The Vegan Sourcebook for Red Devil Cake, but modified it a bit, using spelt flour instead of whole wheat, and adding chocolate chips and dried cranberries. It was really moist and delicious. After adding the chocolate chips, I didn't bother making an icing. I thought it was plenty pretty enough as it was!
Phew...it's been a long week! I can't believe it's only Wednesday. Thanks goodness for the long weekend! I'm planning on making a huge grocery trip on Friday, and cooking up lots of beautiful food this weekend. And maybe even catching up on some much-needed sleep..... ;)
Enjoy the rest of the week!