Friday, August 29, 2008

Moving right along...

Hello friends!

So, after a year of Vegan Family Dinners, I've decided to move on, in the blogging world. There is far too much going on my life to stick to blogging just about food all the time, so I am in the process of starting a new blog that will cover all aspects of my life, from baking brownies to knitting booties (haha, nope, I'm not preggers.... just hypothetical).
I appreciate my small handful of readers that have stuck by me these last few months, and I really hope you will continue to stick with me.

This blog will remain here, but this will be the last Vegan Family Dinners post. It makes me a little sad!

The new blog will be found here. I hope to see you there!

Thanks for the year here, friends!

xo

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Eats and Treats...

Hello lovelies!

It's been a few weeks.. gosh I am a slack blogger these past few months. How shameful.

Okay, so. Here's some food for ya, since you're all so sweet and patient with me.

First off, I got a new cookbook, that I am totally in love with. I've only made a few things, but it's all been successful. (Not pictured, but amazing are the Chewy Peanut Buttah Cookies. So so good.)
Pictured is the Barbecue-Baked Tofu with Mushrooms and Bell Peppers. Oh, this was so lovely. I paired with with a simple cabbage salad.

Our building had a potluck barbecue thing a couple weeks ago, so I threw together a random pasta salad, bursting with rice pasta, bell peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, celery, green beans, and the tofu feta from... Garden of Vegan, I think? One of the Sarah Kramer books. It is my go-to feta recipe. And I just used the marinade as the dressing. It was so great. Pasta salad is one of my favorite comfort foods.
I brought 2 dishes to the potluck. My second "dish", was Vive's Coconut Carob Pecan cookies, made with chocolate instead of carob... I was already serving people tofu feta, so I didn't want to freak them out too much.

So, there was a crazy, major power-outtage downtown a couple weeks ago, which means that Keith got 3 days off work. So, we randomly drove to the Okanogan to visit his parents. So, the day before we left, I was browsing the Vegan Essentials website, in the hopes of ordering some marshmallows for the summer. They were out of stock, so I checked out the Sweet and Sara website to see if I could get them anywhere locally. Well, they aren't sold anywhere in Vancouver, but I could get them in Kelowna! Woot! I stocked up. And, I got a few of the S'Mores, which I'd never had before. Holy sugar Batman! They were so so so good. Mmm.
We also stopped at an organic fruit stand, and loaded up on fresh, local peaches, apricots, cherries, and cucumbers. Lucky us!

Lastly, even though I had a conference last weekend, I managed to get in one day with my boys at the Folk Fest. And, there was a kiosk selling only vegan food. Yes. Mostly raw food (we enjoyed some raw cookies and popsicles), but Keith and I inhaled some chili dogs. Hells yes. So freaking awesome.
We also enjoyed some chocolate tofulati. Yum!

Lots going on in the next few weeks, including a trip back home, and Keith's high school reunion! I'll keep you posted!

xo

Saturday, July 12, 2008

one.

Last Sunday we celebrated the first birthday of my littlest man, Baby Teague. We had a teeny party, with just the four of us (and my sweet mom and sisters watching via webcam), after enjoying a nice day at the beach.

For his cake, I altered a recipe from this book (veganized it, and made it quite a bit healthier...). Here's the finished product:


Teague's Healthy Carrot Cake

1/2 cup (scant) sunflower oil
9 tbsp applesauce
3/4 cup unsweetened pineapple juice
3 cups spelt flour
1/3 cup wheat germ
1 tsp baking soda
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
3 cups grated carrots
1 8oz can crushed pineapple, well drained

Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly oil 2 8" or 9" round cake pans. In a large bowl, combine the oil, applesauce and pineapple juice, and stir well to combine. To this, add flour, wheat germ, baking powder, baking soda, and spices, and mix well. Fold in carrots and pineapple. Divide evenly between pans, and bake for 35 minutes. Allow to cool, and then ice with creem cheese icing.

Creem Cheese Icing

1/2 cup apple juice concentrate
16 oz. vegan creem cheese
2 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup raisins
1 1/2 tsp agar agar powder

Combine 3 tbsp of apple juice concentrate with the agar agar powder, and stir until agar is dissolved. Set aside. Finely chop raisins using blender or food processor. Add remaining apple juice concentrate, creem cheese, and vanilla, and blend until smooth. Add agar mixture, and blend once more. Let rest for at least 10 minutes before using. Makes enough to frost one 8" double-layer cake.

I decorated mine with unsweetened coconut flakes. It was enjoyed by all.

Happy Birthday, sweet peanut.

Monday, June 30, 2008

Papa's Day

Happy belated Father's Day to all the dad, daddas, papas, fathers, grandfathers, pops, etc, etc.

We had a very simple Father's Day, consisting of breakfast in bed, followed by a warm day at the beach.


Keith was treated to scrambled tofu (made with silken tofu, 'cause that's how he likes it), fresh fruit, and jam-filled mochi (my new favorite treat, from this book).

More to come soon... our neighborhood is great... the local Italian shop sells handmade, organic vegan ravioli!!!! So good. I'll give a full report soon soon.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Sooo.....

I'm alive. We're here. We made it. We *just* set our computer up, and I'm in the middle of uploading an entire camera card worth of pictures, so give me time, loves, and you'll get an update soon.

In the meantime, you should all be reading Vegan Dad. Seriously. This guy blows my mind. I wish he was in Vancouver, so we could have a bbq and I could marvel at his culinary genius in person. Swedish IKEA-inspired meatballs?! He is beyond awesome. So go read his stuff while I get my act together.

Bye for now!
xo

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Vegantario

Hello lovelies! We are back from our Ontario vacation, which was lovely (much thanks to our gracious hosts, Glen and Jenny!!!), and are officially in moving crunch. I thought I'd better do a post now, since I won't get another chance to for about two weeks.

We stayed in Hamilton, with a couple day trips to Toronto. I am so grateful that we had such great "tour guides", who are vegetarian, and know all the great places to eat.

Our second day in Hamilton, we went to a downtown farmer's market, and then to a little cafe called Bread and Roses. Not completely vegetarian, the cafe served mostly local, organic food, and made a great rice bowl. And, they had vegan brownies! Hells yeah!!! I didn't take any pictures from this visit, but Keith and I got take-out for a picnic later in the week.

Our next adventure took us to Toronto's Vegetarian Haven, which shares a space with the Toronto Vegetarian Association. I can't remember what everyone ordered, but I got the Singapore Seitan, and Quinn had deep fried tofu, and shared some purple rice and steamed veggies with Teague. And for some reason, Quinn's soymilk came in a wine glass. He's such a classy guy.

Teague's B-Boy stance, reprezentin' vegan babies 'round the world:
Another adventure took us to the Toronto Zoo, which probably isn't very vegan of us, but it's a beautiful space, and Quinn had the best day of his life. So. No hate mail guys, 'kay? We stopped at Hamilton's natural food store on the way to pick up some picnic snacks.

On the way home from the zoo, after getting lost in Toronto, we attempted to go to the Urban Herbivore, but it was closed. Boo! So, reminding myself of Michelle's recommendation, we went to Fresh on Bloor for take-out. I, sadly didn't have any pictures, since we ate in the car in the dark on the drive home, but we got some great food! Vegan chocolate caramel bar? Yes please! Vegan carrot cake with cream cheese icing? Uh huh! Coconut tempeh? Mmmmm..... We got two great wraps, Magic Tofu for me, and Kathmandu for Keith. They were faboo. I am really wishing Fresh were in Vancouver. Sigh.

On our last day in Hamilton, we stopped at a little organic, fair trade coffee house for an early lunch. My Dog Joe is a cool little coffeehouse that had a few vegan options, and a killer Peach Iced Green Tea. Keith and I shared a 3-Bean Chili and a veggie panini, minus the mayo and cheese. And I finished the meal off with a vegan macaroon.

That's all she wrote, friends! See you in a couple weeks!
xo

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Here I am, here I am!!!

Look! I didn't lie! Here is it, Saturday night, and here I am at the computer writing a post. Hurrah!
Okay, so here's a quickie life update before we get to the food. I'm afraid I have mislead you.... we haven't actually moved yet!!!! Eep! We leave in 3 weeks, and my absence up 'til now has been a combination of many things:
1. Getting our house "move ready". This includes getting rid of tonnes of crap. Our new place is way tinier than our current house, so we had to do some serious downsizing, as well as cleaning, deciding whether to sell or rent this place, finish up some lingering renos....the list goes on.
2. I took a doula course, which consumed a bit of my time. But, I'm a doula now, so yay!!!
3. My sweet sister was very very very sick, and was in the hospital (we're talking ICU) for over a week. But she's better now, so hooray! We love you, Janet!!!!! xo
4. I've been sewing baby slings for a friend of mine. Or, trying too. I'm a terrible procrastinator (as you all well know), and sewing/ ironing around curious babies is just a bad idea. So.
5. I went on a couple trips (Kelowna to visit the in-laws, and Vancouver to visit the new house.... I'll do a post on the great Vancouver veg-restaurants after we move), and we are heading our to Hamilton, ON in less than a week...we will be heading to Toronto for a couple days, so if anyone has any great veg/kid-friendly restaurants, I'd love to hear your suggestions!!!
6. I started organizing a rally to fund midwifery in Alberta, and ended up passing it on to someone else, because my brain was about to explode. I still went to the rally though, which seems to have been successful, since it looks like midwifery fuding is finally underway!!! See, all my busy-ness resulted in positive outcomes. :)
I think that's all. Anyways, I've been busy. And will probably continue to be busy for, like, ever. But I digress. Back to the food! I have a month and a half (!!!) of stuff to post about, so I'll start on some dinners.

First: V'con's Chickpea cutlets & Caesar salad, with ED&BV's Lemon Broiled Asparagus and Polenta Croutons. Yum!!!


A brown rice and split pea dish from.... I don't remember where. Whoops. And Sweet-Potato Spelt Biscuits from the Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook.

Traditional Mac 'n' Cheese (I think) from the Uncheese Cookbook, with peas and broccoli thrown in.

ED&BV's Polenta Casserole. Quinn's new favorite meal.

Simple salad with homemade croutons, and ED&BV's "Honey" Mustard dressing. This dressing blows my mind, and I am totally in love with it.

V'Con's Chickpea Cutlets (these things are delicious, and so freaking easy to make!!!), and ED&BV's Popcorn Fries (looooove!!!!) and Lemon Broiled Green Beans.

And, to bring you up to speed on Baby Teague's wee eating habits, he has now had non-gluten grains, lentils, almonds (ground), hemp seeds, sunflower seeds...lots of new things that I can't remember. He also refuses to eat baby food, or be spoon fed, so I have oodles of baby food in my freezer that I have to get rid of in 3 weeks. Hmmm. Anyways, he will only eat finger foods, so he's been eating a lot of rice pasta, peeled and cubed cucumbers, melon, banana, apple...etc.
His new obsession is pulling my cookbooks out of their little bookshelf in the kitchen (behind him in the above picture). A little foodie already. ;)
I hope this will tide you over for a little while, and I promise promise promise that my next post will not be in a month and a half.
xo

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Gahhh!!!

Okay, kids. I promise a post this weekend, with a full update. Promise promise promise. That's four promises. Now I have to do it. That, and Monika K has been holding her breath for like, a month, waiting for me.
Okay. Give me three days. I'm going to put pressure on myself and say Saturday night. There. I said it.
I have about 8 million things to post about, so prepare yourselves for a longie.
Thanks for the patience, lovelies!
xo

Monday, March 24, 2008

Around...

Yo!
I'm around, but engrossed in moving right now. We've bought a house in Vancouver, which makes the move officially official. Yikes!
Expect a post soon, but don't hold your breath!
xo

Monday, March 17, 2008

Tag! You're it!

I've been tagged again! This time by VeganDad.
Y'all know the rules by now, right?

1. I went through a phase in college where I was obsessed with Iris Murdoch. I have a tattoo of her quote, "If one doesn't have words, how does one think?", on my back.

2. Also during those wild, Iris Murdoch-obsessed college years, I had dreads! Not for very long. They totally destroyed my hair, and I had to cut it all off. I've been trying to grow it back ever since. That's obviously not going well, since it's been 5 years, and my hair is barely chin-length.

3. My first job was at a Burger King, believe it or not. I was the only employee who would try the veggie burger when it first came on the market. Ha!

4. The first night I met my husband, I took him back to my place, and we watched Three Men and a Baby. Yup. I own the sequel too. What?

5. I really don't like weddings. I used to work at a bridal boutique, and that is likely a huge contributing factor.

Anyone out there who hasn't been tagged with this meme yet? If so, I tag you!

Monday, March 10, 2008

The little post that could...

At last! The long awaited infant nutrition post! Here goes....

0-6 months
Breast milk is all baby needs for the first six months of life. Human milk is perfectly formulated for human babies, and will ideally be babies only food for the first half of their first year. Although breastfeeding can be challenging, help is readily available. If you are having problems, contact your local La Leche League leader, a public health nurse, or even a friend who has breastfeeding experience. Some great resources are The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, The Breastfeeding Book, and any Jack Newman book.

If breastfeeding is absolutely not possible, then the baby should be fed formula exclusively for the first six months. At this time, I do not know of any vegan infant formulas, as even soy formulas contain lanolin, a derivative of sheep's wool.

6-9 months
Beginning solid foods is a very exciting time for parents and babies! It is best to wait until the baby is 6 months old before starting solids, but some babies can start earlier. If you think your baby is ready to start foods earlier, discuss it with your naturopath, or pediatrician.

The best foods to start with are fruits and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables are structurally similar to breast milk, and are easy for baby to digest. These foods will also help baby develop a taste for healthy foods. Juicy fruits and vegetables are best to start with (such as cucumber and pear). Lightly steam, then puree each food before serving, mixing with breast milk or water to thin, if decided. A handy trick is to make large batches of a particular item at once, and then freeze in ice cube trays, making perfect baby-sized portions that are easy to thaw and gently heat.

It is common to give baby a fortified infant cereal at six months, but grains are harder to digest, and can be rough on baby's sensitive tummy. The reason that infant cereal is often suggested as a first food, is that baby's iron stores begin to deplete around six months of age. If you are concerned about iron, steamed and pureed greens (such as kale, spinach, and chard) are great iron-rich foods.
Note: Tomatoes, strawberries, corn and citrus are common allergens, and should be avoided until 1 year of age.
Note: Foods should be given in a 3-day block, meaning that after each new food is introduce, do not introduce another new food for 3 days, to see if baby has a reaction. This holds true for all new foods, not just fruits and vegetables. Some reactions may include rashes, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, irritability, congestion, eczema, and diaper rash. Consult your naturopath or pediatrician if you have a history of severe allergies, or are concerned about your babies reactions to certain foods. Do not mix a new food with any other foods until you are sure that the baby does not have any allergies or sensitivities to the foods.

9-12 months
At nine months, it is safe to introduce lentils, split peas, non-gluten grains, and nuts and seeds.

Lentils, split peas and grains (non-gluten grains include rice, quinoa, amaranth and millet) should be cooked, and pureed until baby seems ready for different textures.

Nuts and seeds should initially be ground, and mixed with breast milk or water to create a paste. Always use raw, unsalted nuts, such as flax seeds, almonds, sunflower seeds, and hemp seeds. If your family has a history of allergies, you can delay the introduction of nuts and seeds until 18 months or later. Peanuts are a common allergen, so their introduction should be delayed until at least one year of age.

Around 10 months, once baby has a few teeth, he/she may be interested in trying finger foods. Finger foods should be soft enough for baby to "gum". Good finger foods include small pieces of banana, avocado, or steamed, cooled fruits and vegetables or gluten-free pasta. Kamut and rice puffs are easy to eat, and are still a favorite for Quinn.

12-18 months
Once baby is a year old, it is a good time to introduce legumes, soy, and gluten grains, as well as the allergenic fruits that were avoided at 6 months.

Although it might be tempting to treat baby to a sugary birthday cake, it is best to limit the intake of sugar. A quick internet search will lend you plenty of sugar-free cake and treat recipes that are easy to veganize.

Other important points:
- Babies are much more sensitive to toxic pesticides than adults, so it is important to buy organic whenever possible.
- Breastfeeding should continue until at least two years of age. If it ceases before that time, it is important to supplement with DHA fortified formula, or integrate a DHA oil into the baby's diet.

Some good resources for feeding infants and young children are Raising Vegetarian Children, the New Vegetarian Baby, Disease-Proof Your Child and the infant feeding section found in Vive le Vegan.

If I left out anything, or you have a specific question, please feel free to ask in the comments, and I will try my best to answer as soon as possible.
xo

Friday, March 7, 2008

Tagged (aka. procrastinating....)

Okay, infant feeding post coming soon....yada yada yada.
Until then, I've been tagged by Michelle to reveal 5 things about myself, then pass it on to 5 other bloggers.

So. Here we go. This is tougher than it seems. All I can think of writing about myself right now is how sleepy I am...

1. I have naturally curly hair (just like that bratty girl in Charlie Brown, but with much less attitude).

2. I'm a total birth junkie, and plan on becoming a doula - holistic nutritionist.

3. I'm super-close with my family, and my mom and sisters are my best friends.

4. I online shop. Like, a lot. Well, not a crazy addictive amount that puts our family in debt or anything. To be fair, I mostly window-shop online. I don't know what you'd call that. Etsy.com is my most favorite place.

5. I've been so stressed out lately because.....we're moving! To Vancouver! Scary. Well, scary for me. I'm going crazy over here! I don't know anyone in Vancouver! Ahhhh! More on that another time. Sigh.

Okay, so I tag Katie, VeggieGirl, VeganMomma, Paulina, and Monika K.
Rules:
Link to your tagger and post these rules.
Share 5 facts about yourself.
Tag 5 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

Now go forth and reveal yourself!

Monday, March 3, 2008

I suck...

... at this blogging thing lately. Big time stress at our house right now. Details to come.

In the meantime, keep an eye out for an infant nutrition post in the next few days.

Later gators!
xo

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Will you be mine?

I made a couple batches of cookies to share with family on Valentines Day last week.

First, V'con's Chewy Chocolate Raspberry Cookies:
Everyone loved these...except me. I think I would've liked them if I weren't expecting raspberry, but I was, and I was a wee bit disappointed. I think the almond extract was too overpowering, and if I make them again, I would leave it out.

And, from the Joy of Vegan Baking, Sugar Cookies with White Icing (I actually can't remember if that's what the icing is actually called, but I used whatever the book recommended):
I colored the icing with some pink water leftover from cooking beets for Baby Teague. I thought that beets were a fitting Valentine's Day food for the little guy, and he seemed to enjoy them.

Longer post coming.....sometime. ;)
xo

Thursday, February 7, 2008

A week of Vegan Family Dinners

We've had a pretty mellow week. It's still mega cold here, but we will survive (hey! hey!).
So, I have 5 new dinners to share.

First, last Wednesday, I made ED&BV's Sweet Potato-Lentil Chili, with a sprout salad and ExtraVeganZa's Red Pepper Hemp Cornbread.
The chili was *awesome*. I loved it. I'm a recent sweet potato convert, and I thought this was so good. It was a hit with everyone. The cornbread was a tad sweet for my taste, but good. I think next time I'll add less sugar, and maybe throw a minced jalapeno in. But isn't it pretty?

Thursday we had spaghetti at my dad's which was super yummy, as usual.

Friday, we had ExtraVeganZa's Root Vegetable Pot Pie.
I didn't have any rutebegas, so I threw in beets to even the score a bit. It's full of (purple) potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and the aforementioned beets. It was super comforting yummy. Perfect winter food.

Saturday my in-laws were in town, and we went to a great Vietnamese restaurant we live right around the corner from. They have a huge vegetarian menu, and we got a bunch of yummy dishes to share, like salad rolls, mango and tofu curry, and lemon tofu. Mmm.

I don't remember what we had on Sunday, but I think it was just a quick pasta.

Monday I made V'con's Pinneapple-Cashew-Quinoa Stirfry (or something to that effect...).
I knew Quinn would love this. It is full of his favorite things: cashews, quinoa, peppers, pinneapple, and peas. What's not to like. The quinoa is even cooked in pinneapple juice for extra pinneapple-y flavour. We all liked it, but I think I'd make this again just for Q.

Tuesday was my new favorite food, V'con's Chickpea Cutlets, served alongside a tomato-basil salad, and some roasted cauliflower.
Sigh. I heart those cutlets.

Last night I made V'con's Po' Boys and ED&BV's popcorn fries.
Sweet goodness, this dinner rocked my world. Okay, so it's obviously not healthy. The only veggies were the Veganaise-drenched cabbage, and a few slices of tomato. The french bread is white. Yada yada yada. Whatever. This was awesome. It made me smile with every bite. Oh yum. I want more. Yum. Oh, and although the recipe doesn't call for tomatoes, I highly recommend them. I left off the pickles, and without the tomatoes, it would've been a tad dry. Also, I left off the chipotle mayo, because chipotle, and really, all things smoky, make me want to gag a little bit. (I ran out of chili powder a few weeks ago, and accidentally bought chipotle chili powder to replace it. *shudder* So, now I have chipotle chili powder that I will never use. Sigh.)

And our lunches (no pictures), have been ExtraVeganZa's Peanut-Lime-Cilantro soup, and ED&BV's Monkey Minestrone with Polenta Croutons, which I looooved. I used Tinkyada's Sweet Dreams pasta, with all the fun shapes, and Quinn loved it. My hubby loved the croutons and said that they reminded him of chips (his favorite thing in the world).

I've done a bit of baking too, this past week. My grandpa's girlfriend (that's not as weird as it sounds) had a birthday last week, so I made her a batch of ExtraVeganZa's Lemon-Lavender-Blueberry Muffins.
I can't believe I haven't mentioned these muffins here before. They are my most favorite muffin in the whole world. Okay, that's a bit of a lie. They are tied for first with Vive's Stork Muffins. But whatever. These are lemony and lavendery and perfect and yummy.
We also made, but don't have pictures of, ED&BV's Cocoa-Banana Muffins (yum!), ExtraVeganZa's Apple-Walnut Spice Muffins (I thought these were good, but they are the first muffin ever that Q didn't like), and Hide and Seek Muffins from Pretend Soup (which we've made before.

And the only new food we've given Teague is yams.
He loved 'em. He's been cut-off from broccoli, as it made him a wee bit, ahem, gassy, and he would therefore, keep me up all night (moreso than he already does). I plan to make a bunch more food for him this weekend.

And that's all, folks.
Peace and love.
xo

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Back to the food

It's been three long weeks of cooking, so prepare yourselves for a lengthly-ish post.
First up, is the Portobello Mushroom Tofu Quiche from ExtraVeganZa. I didn't have any portobellos, so I subbed porcini mushrooms, which, the dear Food Network chefs have taught me, are really just baby portobellos. The quiche was super yummy, but a little labor-intensive, since it involved a few steps, as well as making a crust. I'm sure I'll make it again though.
I was supposed to use red pepper strips, which would've been prettier, but I had yellow on hand, so there you go.

My sisters turned 20 last week (they are twins... hence the sharing of the birthday....), and we had a small family dinner for them at my dad's house. My stepmom, who, like most of the amazing people in my life, always makes an effort to veganize food for us, made a vegan version of one of my sisters' favorite foods: Jamaican patties. Mmmm. I haven't had these in years....like, maybe 7 or 8 years. Wow. They were awesome.
While we're talking about awesome people, I'd like to give a shout out to everyone else who has been sweet to us in the past few weeks: thanks to my friends Audrey, for the pizza and the soup, Nicolette for the sushi, Trina for the rad bean-cookies, and to my family, who are always super supportive, and always have chocolate soymilk around for Quinn. :)

Next up is two ED&BV recipes put together: Living Caesar Salad and Blackened Tofu. It was super-yummy, but I totally effed up the tofu and burned the crap out of it somehow. I know the idea was to blacken it, but not to burn it to a total crisp. Whatever. I scraped the badly burned parts off and dug in. My husband loves all things burny (despite the carcinogens), so he kept his intact and loved it.

At the farmers' market on Saturday, I picked up, among other things, a huge savoy cabbage. I've never seen a savoy cabbage before, but they are really ginormous. My husband was reluctant to get it, since I rarely cook with cabbage, but it's the dead of winter, and the market has some pretty slim pickens. I knew I had a recipe that called for savoy cabbage in my ReBar cookbook, so I went ahead and bought it. As it turned out, ReBar had two vegan recipes using my new giant cabbage. I made the BigBarn Bowties. It was described as "humble and earthy" (just like me!!! haha), and it did not disappoint. Topped with nutritional yeast, it was a lovely winter meal.

Shockingly, I haven't done too much baking lately. I certainly should be, with the ridiculously low temperatures here. Last week, aside from a batch of ExtraVeganZa's Carob Mint Oatmeal cookies (or something to that effect), Quinn and I made a batch of ED&BV's Oatmeal Raisin cookies (inspired by VeggieGirl), with the addition of some carob chips. Quinn always likes to have a job when we bake (when we make muffins, it's his job to line the tray with muffin liners), so I gave him the oh-so important job of smushing the cookies down a bit before they went into the oven.
The cookies were super yummy, and baking with the boys (Teague is usually in a baby carrier of some kind) is the best way to spend a morning.

Speaking of the boys, we have a lot to catch up on with Baby Teague's dining experiences.
First, blueberries! He loved 'em, no surprise there.
Next, butternut squash, which also went over very well.

Also on the menu, without pictures, are broccoli, blackberries, bananas, and peas. He doesn't dig broccoli on it's own, but doesn't mind it mixed with other veggies. Oddly enough, he really doesn't like blackberries either. Huh. Maybe the seeds?

And lastly, that sneaky guy tried to rebel against our vegan values and eat a cow! We caught you Teague!
"Crap! I've been outed!"