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

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

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