Reality Check

In our Vegan house we try not only to teach respect to our son but to live it so that he can see it in action. One of the ways that we try to do this is by not saying anything degrading about someone else. We try not to call people names, make fun of the way they look, or talk bad about how they eat. Our son knows that not everyone eats Vegan and that's okay with us. It isn't our job to tell people how to eat just like it isn't other people's responsibility to tell us how to eat. When MLV asks why someone isn't vegan or why they won't eat vegan the best answer I can give him is "I don't know, sometimes change is hard for people and they are more comfortable eating how they ate growing up."

This is truly the hardest part about having a vegan family. I'm not sure how to answer without placing a value on the other person or ourselves. I ceratinly struggle wtih this. But, I think we are doing a good job...and here's why...

Today, MLV and I were in the grocery store getting some last minute things when a store worker came up and asked us if we had ordered the Thanksgiving turkey. I said no we don't eat animals and then MLV asked "Mama, what did that woman ask you?" I told him and he asked why she would ask that. I explained that the store was selling turkey's for people to eat on Thanksgiving day. He thought about this for a long time. Then when we had been in the car for awhile he asked again "What did she ask you?"

By this point I was tired and hungry and cranky and I said "She asked me if we had ordered our turkey for thanksgiving dinner and I told her no. Isn't it silly that people eat animals for dinner?" His reply came quickly

"No, mama, because not everyone eats vegan. Buffy and Fiona sometimes have vegan food but then they buy cows milk."

WOW - wake up call. He totally reflected back a non judgemental statement after my total judgement statement and I am so glad he could do that. He taught me a lesson today about unconditional love, that's for sure.

Thanksgiving Meal

This is being edited to include what we really had to eat on Thanksgiving. Another family joined us for dinner that day and so we had to add more to the menu. It was a delicious meal and a very relaxing and fun day. After dinner we bundled up, it was freezing, and the kids all got on their bikes for a ride to the neighborhood playground where they went down the slide and marched around.

Vegan Thanksgiving 2007

French Onion Soup

Greens Salad

Sweet Potato Biscuits with Mushroom Gravy

Steamed Broccoli

Maple Glazed Tempeh

Walnut, White Bean, and Swiss Chard Phyllo Roll with Cranberry Sauce

Apple Pie Muffins

Achoooo

MLV and I went grocery shopping together yesterday. We were in the bulk bin aisle and I was getting nuts when I looked over and found MLV with his hand in the candy jar, so to speak, except it was the beans bin. Then before I could say anything he promptly picked his nose. We had a little talk about how lots of people eat this food and it wasn't healthy to pick our noses and then touch the food.

I went back to getting what I needed and when I looked he was doing it again! So, again we had a talk about why we couldn't dig our hands into the rice and then pick our nose. This time I told him that if he wanted to open up the bin, look at the food, and smell it he could do that.

I went back to getting what I needed. Then I heard him cry out "Momma, this went up my nose." I couldn't see anything up there and couldn't figure out how they could have gotten up there because he didn't actually touch the food this time.

5 hours later as we were playing baseball outside MLV started sneezing. One good sneeze later out flew a wheatberry. The next big sneeze- out flew another wheatberry.

Carbon Monoxide Doesn't Mean Fresh Says Target

My homepage is set to tastebetter.com
and this was the news story for this morning.

"...red meat is commonly treated with carbon monoxide to keep it looking red and fresh. You may remember carbon monoxide as the stuff that comes out of the exhaust pipe of your car. Mmmmm, yummy.It seems that the Target department stores are looking to put a warning on their meats that are treated (tainted?) this way. Oh, not because the CO is potentially toxic, because the government would never ever (ever) allow contaminants into the food supply, but because they're worried that people might use the colour of the meat as a gauge of whether or not it's still fresh (some would say "not totally decayed yet"). They're awaiting government approval for the labels, because you can't admit to deceiving customers without getting permission first. Go food safety!"

I'm just not sure what to say...

To read the full article from Reuters

Meal's for Week of November 10

Sat- PLT's Pickle, Lettuce, and Tomato Sandwiches (smothered with tahini and onions) with salad and broccoli

Sun- Kamut Bean Stew with salad and broccoli

Mon- Kamut Bean Stew with bread and vegan butter

Tue- Sauted Swiss Chard, Fried Tempeh with soy sauce and nutritional yeast, Cannelini Beans

Wed- Pasta with Tomaton Sauce, Tempeh, and broccoli and carrots and Banana Cake with Peanutbutter Chocolate Frosting

Thur- Tortilla Rollups with Vegetables and Kidney Bean Spread

Fri- Vegetable Nori Rolls with Edamame

A Nursing Party

I've heard that some people have nursing parties for their kids when they stop nursing. Well, I happened to mention to MLV (who is 3) that we might do that that for him when he stops nursing. He nodded his head yes (while he was nursing) but didn't say much more about it until today.

He found the cookbook The Joy of Vegan Baking: The Compassionate Cooks' Traditional Treats and Sinful Sweets by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau and started looking at it. Immediately, he found the picture of the gorgeous chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and he said "is this vegan" and I replied "yes." He went on to tell me that he wanted that cake at his Nursing Party. I had to explain that his Nursing Party would be when he was really ready to stop nursing forever. He said "I am ready to stop nursing forever, I'll never nurse again, can we make the cake now?"

Hm. I'm ready to be done nursing and have been trying different weaning tactics (yes, even the Nursing Party) maybe I should have just gone with it. But I didn't want to make him do something he wasn't really ready for simply for the love of chocolate cake. So, I said "I want you to think about if you're really ready to stop nursing forever. We can talk about it some more later."

With that he said "I want my Nursing Party right now" I explained that we can't just throw together a party that it has to be planned. He asked what we have to do to plan. I said think about the people that you want to invite- so he ran and got a piece of paper and a pen and starting "writing" down names of friends that he wanted to invite. Then he ran over to the mailbox (it's in the front wall of our house) and told me he was "sending out the invitations." Then he said what's next? And I said that we have to pick a date for the party.

He looks at me and says "Okay, Mommy we'll have the party when I am............(holding out his hand).....5!

WOW!

This week I shopped at a different natural grocery store and I am glad that I did. I found a product called Simple Soynut Butter- Chocolate in the nutbutter aisle. I had a little on our homemade soft pretzels yesterday and WOW it is amazing. I will be posting pictures soon but if you have it in your store you have got to try it. They have other flavors also like cinnamon/sugar, salty, and sweet.

The best part is that it is made in Amesbury, MA so since we are trying to move back to Boston maybe I could get a job as a product taster! :)

Oh How I Wish It Were True

MLV has come down with some sniffles and a runny nose. After a long day he wanted to mix some things in the kitchen so we got down a big bowl gave him some flour and water and a spoon. Before long he was mixing away and after a brief pause in the action he turned to me and said "Mama, you can't have any of my chocolate cake (this was what he was pretending to make) because you're not sick. This chocolate cake will make me feel better because it has lots of sugar in it and sugar helps your body to get better."

Oh how I wish it were true- I would be one healthy person.

Calcium and My Little Vegan

Recently, a vegan parenting friend asked me how our son got his calcium and I have been thinking about this answer ever since. I know it seems a little strange that a vegan is asking about calcium but let's be honest if you have kids they don't always eat everything we offer all the time and we can get into cooking ruts or eating out ruts because of life challenges. So in my opinion it's great that as vegan parents' we question what we eat and if we are getting the right nutrients- shouldn't everyone be doing this with what goes into their body?!

Some days I worry that MLV is getting enough nutrients but then at the end of the week I think back to all that he ate and the diversity of foods that were consumed and my mind is put to rest until of course the next time he has too little time to eat because he has to play, play, play! It's good to talk to your vegan friends about these feelings and thoughts because often I find that when I do they have great observations about what we do eat and also different ways of preparing things so that they seem "new" to our kids. And the vegans I know, know a lot of nutrition.

Here is what My Little Vegan (MLV) eats that has calcium in it. The list is long and there are things that are not on there but if you're interested check out the book Becoming Vegan by Brenda Davis, R.D. & Vesanto Melina, M.S., R.D.

The recommendation for a child 1-3 is 500mg of calcium a day. What I've written is the serving size and the MG per serving.

Kale - MLV amazes me. Not that I particularly think it's strange that he eats it since he eats most everything and always has but everytime I see it go into his mouth and hear the words "yummy in my tummy" I get floored that I actually am sitting with a 3 year old that eats Kale. It's pretty darn cool! We have Kale once or more a week. I would love to get a juicer to juice it up with other yummy things. 1/2 Cup Raw has 90mg per serving

Soy Yogurt - MLV loves to buy this in the store and then comment over and over when we are putting the grocery's away about the different flavors. I wish that he ate it everyday but only occasionaly and never when I offer, it's really only when he "discovers" it in the fridge drawer.

Raw Almonds and Nut Butters - MLV can pack these away. 1/4 Cup almonds can have up to 115mg.

Sunflower Seeds - 1/4 Cup 42 mg

Pumpkin Seeds - 1/4 Cup 15mg

Pistachios - 1/4 Cup 34mg

Rice Milk - MLV rarely touched rice milk (and has never liked soy milk) up until about 3 months ago now he drinks a lot of it. 1/2 Cup can have up to 150 mg

Brocolli - MLV eats it raw (stalks and florets) and eats it steamed. 1 Cup 42mg

Beans- depending on the bean anywhere between 38-175mg

Tofu- 1/2 Cup 861mg

Tempeh- 1/2 Cup 77mg

Carrots - YEP! they have calcium in them. 1 carrot has 19mg per serving (Becoming Vegan by Davis and Melina).

Cauliflower - 1/2 Cup has 10mg

Romaine Lettuce - 1 Cup 20 mg

Brown Rice - 1/2 Cup 10mg

Quinoa - 1/2 Cup 15mg

Figs - MLV loves his Fig Newtons! Recently, we have been making our own and they are quite delicious. 5 figs up to 137mg.

Orange - 1 medium 52mg

Apples - 1 medium 10mg

Calcium is abundant in a whole foods vegan diet. And remember that Vitamin D helps absorption of calcium (check to make sure it's vegan D2 and not D3 which comes from animals).

Dinner on the Fly

So, last night I forgot to soak the kidney beans for the Kamut Bean Stew and by the time I remembered it would be very late when we actually sat down to eat it with a substitution of beans from the freezer. I have to admit I had dreams of vegan pizza and vegan "buffalo" wings from our local veg restaurant floating in my head. But, I immediately shook them off and headed into the kitchen to see what we had to eat.

I found brown rice which I started cooking. Then I got 2 packages of Tempeh out of the fridge and let them soak in Nama Shoyu then coated them in nutritional yeast and fried them up. Earlier today I made some Ceasar Salad Dressing with croutons (I had dreams of the vegan ceasar salad from the afformentioned restaurant earlier in the day too). My partner cut up some kale and romaine lettuce for a salad and he also cut up some carrot sticks. Then I got ambitous and made a chickpea flour gravy from the Vegan Vittles cookbook. It was interesting. My husband had some with his rice and tempeh and said that it was good. I opted for a Ceasar Salad with brown rice, tempeh, and croutons. It was delicious and didn't cost us anything! I'm learning.

My Little Vegan-Daddy's Nuts

My Little Vegan (MLV) is so great, on so many levels. Lately, he has been in an eating rut (but I think he is coming out of it) which I know all kids go through when they are 3. He is too busy playing to stop and eat anything. But, I can always get him to eat brocolli sticks (the stalk of the brocolli with the outer portion cut away) and nuts. Just today he was sitting on the couch and said "I would like some more nuts please, my favorite are Daddy's nuts" Okay, get your mind out of the gutter he was talking about roasted cashews- I mean come on that's great isn't it? This is what he ate today...

- whole wheat tortilla rolled up with vegan butter and sunflowerbutter
- 2 apples
- 1 Cup of raw Tofu
- 3/4 Cup Vegetable Pasta with 2 Tbls of Hemp Oil (edited to include this because I forgot last night)
- 1/2 sunflower butter and vegan butter sandwich on whole wheat bread
- 1/4 Cucumber (edited to include this because I forgot last night)
- 1 Cup steamed broccoli
- 1/4 Cup granola
- 1 banana
- 1/2 Cup mushroom and roasted red pepper risotto
- 1/2 cup raw cashews
- water galore
- 2 Cups Rice milk
- 1 homemade fig newton
- 4 raw brocolli sticks

Woohoo Vegan Vittles

I just got my copy of the cookbook Vegan Vittles second helpings down-home cooking for everyone and it looks freakin delicious! Look for some of Jo Stepaniak's recipes on our weekly meal list next week. I was salivating at every recipe. I think I will be hosting some dinner dates this month.

YUM Vegan Cooking

Speaking of yummy vegan cooking I took a black bean chimichanga into work tonight with some of the Nacho Vegan "Cheese" sauce from The Vegan Lunch Box and my non vegan co-worker said that it looked delicious and she had a bite and asked for the recipe for the "Cheese". I am so happy to extend the non-dairy world to dairy eating folks.

Black Bean Quesadillas Recipe

This recipe was adapted from a recipe in Beyond the Moon Cookbook by Ginny Callan. We replaced the cheese and olives (I would keep the olives if it was just me eating them buy my partner doesn't like olives) with black beans, kale rice, and roasted potatoes. I love to use vegan sour cream, salsa, and the vegan Nacho Cheese sauce from The Vegan Lunch Box with this recipe.

2 Cups Black Beans
2 Avocados, peeled and seeded
1 Tbls Lime Juice
1 jalapeno, chopped
1 large Tomato, diced
1/2 Red Onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, diced
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbls fresh cilantro, minced
1/4 Cup chopped kalamata olives (optional) if you do use them don't add in the extra salt from above

Bag of Tortillas
canola oil to fry the chimichangas

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Put the black beans and avocado's into a bowl along with the lemon juice. Mash with a potato masher. add in the rest of the ingredients and mix until well combined. Or you could put it all into a food processor to mix it up finer and faster (I like it better this way).

Start to heat 3/4 C canola oil on medium high heat in a large frying pan.

Have the black bean mixture, rice (or quinoa or antyhing else), and potatoes in front of you. Take out a tortilla and scoop a little more than a spoonful of each mixture onto the middle of the tortilla. Roll up the bottom of the tortilla and then fold in the sides. Next, fold over the top so that it is contained. Put two toothpicks in the tortilla to hold it together. Place the tortillas toothpick side down in the oil when it is hot and fry until golden brown. Flip over and fry on the other side.

Place the tortillas on a paper towel and then place them on a cookie sheet. Put the cookie sheet in the oven and cook for 10-15 minutes. Take them out and enjoy!

Meals for the week of November 4th-9th

This week was a little bit different. We had family in town so they took us out to eat on Saturday, a day we would normally eat at home. Also, I wanted to try to use a lot of what we had in our pantry so I picked more recipes than I have been doing and fortunately our grocery bill was less than $150 and it was short! So less time spent in the grocery store which I have to admit is not something I care so much about. One of my favorite things to do when traveling is to go into natural food grocery stores and check everything out. What can I say, it's in my blood- I come from a long line of grocery store owners!

Sunday - Cold Oriental Noodles (Quick Vegetarian Pleasures by Jeanne Lemlin)

Monday - Cannelini Beans in a Bottle (The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen by Donna Klein), Brown Rice, Sauted Kale with Garlic, and Steamed Broccoli

Tuesday - Black Bean Quesadillas and steamed broccoli

Wednesday - Black Bean Quesadillas with vegan Nacho Cheese Sauce (The Vegan Lunch Box) and salad with Liquid Gold Dressing (Becoming Vegan)

Thursday - Al's Creamy Mushroom Risotto (The Everyday Vegan by Dreena Burton), Spaghetti Squash, salad, and steamed Broccoli

Friday - Kamut Bean Stew (Vive La Vegan by Dreena Burton)

Vegan Energy Balls Recipe

I adapted this recipe from one I found on the internet. They have nuts in them so if you are allergic try substituting more dried fruit or something else and let me know how it goes.

1/2 Cup Pitted Dates
1/2 Cup Soaked Walnuts
3/4 Cup Raw Almonds
3 Tbls Agave Nectar
1/4 Cup Raisins
1/4 Cup Oats
1/4 Cup Mix of Dried Cranberries and Goji Berries (or a mixtuere of whatever dried fruit you have on hand)
1/4 Cup Sunflower Butter (or another nut butter)
1/4 tsp Salt
4 Dried Apricots, chopped

Place walnuts in a jar with a tight fitting lid and fill with water, let soak overnight. Place Almonds in food processor and chop until a "meaty" consistency. Add everything else and grind into a dough. Take out of the food processor and place into a bowl. Take very small handfuls and roll them into balls or roll them into snakes. Have a small bowl of water to dip your hands into so the energy balls don't stick. When they are all rolled put into a container and save in the refridgerator. Enjoy!

No Leftovers, No Way!

We love to cook and we love to eat (not necessarily in that order). I have always hated leftovers so I had made it a priority to pick 7 different recipes from cookbooks for each night of the week. And, I hate eating bland food- I'm so not a brown rice and beans kind girl. My food's gotta have flavor and richness and sauce, lots of sauce. But, this always left us with a ton of leftover food - well sometimes, it depended on how great the recipe was. I mentioned before that we love to eat. We don't have a microwave, and I've already disclosed my distaste for leftovers, so I always let my husband take the leftovers to school so he could heat them up there and eat them.

This habit of 7 different meals from glamorous cookbooks was getting costly. We had gotten to the point of going past the $200 dollar mark each week for a family of 3. We eat 99.9% organic foods and we are vegan- which I have heard is supposed to be less expensive but I have yet to meet a vegan that doesn't complain about grocery bills. And to top it off we were finding small things to celebrate just so we could eat a meal at our favorite vegetarian joint. I think this is more a product of being a tired parent than living the high life though. But still, our account was suffering. So, I went into Super Woman/Mommy role and created a new weekly dinner plan. I was going to sacrifice....bigtime....I was going to start eating leftovers...aaagggghhhh

Here's what we did:

• We plan 3 meals and double them and eat them for two nights in a row and then 1 meal would be eaten on Friday's and the leftovers on Saturday for lunch.
• My husband began taking Almond Butter and Jelly sandwiches with him for lunch or tortillas with homemade hummus and lettuce and veggies.
• We quit buying "snacky" food (pretzels- which dear husband would eat in one day)
• We quit buying a lot of pre-packaged foods (sorry Road's End Mac and Schreese- we still love you!)
• We stopped buying Luna bars (which according to our son are the "daddy bars"- this I'm not sorry about, Luna bars, sorry)
• We started making our own energy bars (recipe to follow)
• We stopped buying wine and beer
• We actually eat the things in our cupboard now
• We soak and cook beans and then freeze them for use throughout the week
• We stopped going out to eat, even when we are exhausted and don't have anything cooked yet

I think my new system is great and I don't mind eating the same thing 2 nights in a row-really I don't. We are able to save money and set our grocery bill to $150 a week or $600 a month. And we have stopped eating out and buying non essential things like crap from the dollar spot. I like it I really do- I'm saving money and cleaning out my cupboard at the same time. That's gotta be good Feng Shui.

Starting Somewhere

We are learning how to live a more frugal lifestyle and by writing about it it will keep me honest and on track. It's already working...I've bypassed taking the easy road and going out to eat for a more creative approach to what can I make on the fly. In this blog you will get recipes, menu planning, updates on My Little Vegan and more.

I've gotten the book by Sarah Susanka called The Not So Big Life: Making Room for what Rally Matters and I am so excited to read it. I have to finish Crazy Sexy Cancer Tips by Kris Carr first. It's an amazing book about her life with cancer and how she's dealt. apparently, she has a movie out (maybe on cable) called Crazy Sexy Cancer but since I'm living the frugal life we don't have cable or a tv...