vegan-mom

Happy Birthday sweetie!

2012-01-16T16:04:00.001-08:00

IMG_0604, originally uploaded by erin32mc.

This was from November 2011, but better late than never. My little one turned 4. Hard to imagine four years has passed since she was born. Time is flying by way too fast. This kid is awesome! Just like her big brother. I'm one lucky momma.

Apple pie!

2011-10-31T09:03:00.001-07:00

The apple pie I've been craving for the past month finally happened! Lily helped with the crust and applying the stars and sugar on top. All I can say is it really hit the spot!

Happy Halloween!

Baking with Ms. Lily

2011-10-27T00:28:00.001-07:00

I came home from work on Tuesday night needing to bake. Lily asked for peanut butter cookies but once I found the three bags of butterscotch chips that were near their expiration date, Lily was willing to change her mind. We used the chocolate chip cookie recipe from Viva Le Vegan by Dreena Burton but used our butterscotch chips instead of chocolate. Lily did most of the work. She made some great cookies. We made four dozen and all four are gone! I took them to work today, which turned out to be my last day of work since I was laid off, and my now ex-coworkers devoured them! Glad I left them on a sweet note.

Halloween is around the corner.

2011-10-24T15:23:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend we did Halloween "things". Henry decided on his costume, another classic monster, the werewolf. I was hoping that we would make his costume like we do most of the time, but he wanted the packaged one from the party store. He loves it so much that he has already worn it to show his grandparents, the family across the street, and to apologize to me for not being nice. I guess it was money well spent. After that we hit up the library for free video rentals and new books for the whole family. I still had three books to finish from the last library visit, that I had to skip getting anything new. Then onto the pumpin patch in West Hollywood called Mr. Bones.

We go there every year. Get a few pumpkins, the kids do a few bouncer/slide rides, and we head out. Matt spotted Demi Moore, since she had a pack of paprazzi following her, so I guess she wasn't hard to spot. The pumpkin patch actually had a specific location for the paparazzi to hang out while taking pics of any celebrities that might be on the premises. All I could think was it might be time for a new pumpkin patch next year. Way too L.A. and not enough corn maze and hay bundles. Anyways, we headed over to Happy Family in Monterey Park for the vegan Chinese food.

On Sunday I made the baked pumpkin ziti with carmelized onions from Veganomicon. So good! Also made some cranberry sauce to go with it and some roasted broccoli. I think I had two or two and half helpings. (Also had it again for lunch today!). Lily use to eat this dish but last night she was only interested in the broccoli, no pumpkin ziti for her. Henry wouldn't even try one bite. He took one look and went back to his room. His loss. I had hoped to bake an apple pie too but Lily wasn't feeling well, so I didn't want to have her eating something like that. Once she bounces back, we'll get out our rolling pin. I can't wait!

Spork Fed recipe

2011-10-17T17:37:00.001-07:00

ginger, garlic, maple tempeh strips with broccoli, originally uploaded by erin32mc.

This is from one of the new cookbooks I purchased. I recently went a little nuts on Amazon.com and bought four books....one has yet to arrive. I don't have a slow cooker...yet, so I had to pick a recipe from one of the other two. I chose Spork Fed. Don't get me wrong, Hearty Vegan Meals for Monster Appetites looks good too. It's just that the tempeh recipe caught my eye, plus I knew I had a good chance that most of the family would eat it.

I like tempeh, Lily likes ginger, both kids are willing to eat broccoli, and it needed to be fast.

The tempeh whipped up really fast! Make the sauce while tempeh is steaming. The sauce is: olive oil, lemon juice, ginger, garlic, maple syrup, and salt. Put all tempeh into the sauce, dump in pan and brown on all sides. Done. While that was happening, I tossed my broccoli with olive oil and coarse salt. Threw that in the oven until it was ready.

Dinner was on the table in less than 30 minutes. This is a dish that is gonna stick around with that kind of timing. Plus Lily loved it....Henry...not so much. I guess you can't win everytime.

smoothie

2011-10-16T13:44:00.001-07:00

Last night I was too tired to go to the market but the kids needed dinner. I had leftover biscuits, a couple hashbrowns and gluten free sausage patties. So I guess it turned into breakfast for dinner. Always a hit. I felt a little guilty that dinner wasn't that exciting, so I grabbed a few things out of the fridge, along with the super ugly brown banana, and threw it all in a blender. Henry was really happy to have a smoothie with his dinner, who wouldn't be?

Pizza!

2011-10-15T11:20:00.001-07:00

Thursday night my husband and I were going to see the Foo Fighter's. Before my folks came over to watch the kids, we had to get dinner ready. Henry had been begging for pizza, which nobody else really eats since we have overdosed on it over the years with him. Henry likes his pizza plain. Just Follow Your Heart cheese. Lily is hot and cold on pizza. Sometimes she'll take a bite but usually she stays clear. She'd rather eat the olives and have some pasta.
The one thing Lily loves about pizza is making it. She loves rolling out the dough, spreading on the toppings, and helping to cut it once it's done. Just don't ask her to eat it, then she'll be happy, as you can see.

Hot cocoa with pumpkin spice marshmallows

2011-10-15T11:07:00.001-07:00

As we all know, Halloween is quickly approaching. Since I have two vegan kids who enjoy trick or treating, I need to have vegan treats to trade for the non-vegan candy they will collect. I already have chocolate peanut butter cups, vegan gummies, and small chocolate squares that I purchased on Vegan Essentials. The dangerous part for me while shopping for the kids is that I see "new" items on the webiste. This time it was Pumpkin Spice marshmallows made by Sweet and Sara. I couldn't help but add them to my cart before checkout.

This morning I made biscuits and hot cocoa. Of course you can't have hot cocoa without marshmallows...right? The biscuits were okay but the highlight were the marshmallows. Pumpkin, cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon could be smelled as I drank from my mug. So good. My daughter had a mug of cocoa too. She only ate her marshmallows and then claimed to be full so she couldn't drink the cocoa. Hmmmm, I think I got tricked.

P.S. If you like my mug, head on over to etsy.com and check out the lovely goods from Vegan Dish. I was lucky enough to win this handmade mug from her during Vegan Mofo one year.

Veganmofo

2011-10-12T16:39:00.001-07:00

I love food with coconut milk. Curries, baked goods, ice cream, bean dishes, etc. So good. So creamy. When I go through a cookbook, if I see coconut milk in the list of ingredients, you can bet that I'll dog ear that page.

One such book is A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen by Jack Bishop. Even though I'm vegan, I still buy some cookbooks that are vegetarian if something about the book grabs me. Jack Bishop's books "grab" me. I have his Italian cookbook too. Sometimes I have to add a bit more spice to the dish to suit my liking but I like the combinations in the recipes.

The recipe used for the picture above had cauliflower, spinach, curry powder, garlic, coconut milk and pasta. I don't know the name (I'm at work and can't reference the book). I think I could eat the dish without the pasta. It is so creamy and filling all on it's own, which is fits me fine since I'm trying to cut down on my gluten intake. Cut down, not avoid completely.

Next time you are at the library, look up Jack Bishop's books and browse through it. Hopefully you'll find some gems, like I did.

Family day out

2011-10-08T15:35:00.001-07:00

Today was about the kids. Took Henry for his chiropractic appointment to help his knees. He is knocked kneed so severely that it effects his running. A friend of ours is a chiropractor so we are trying her out to see if it makes a difference. Henry says he feels better after his adjustments, so I am going with it for now. I will say that the kid barely ever gets sick. Is it the vegan diet, just who he is or the adjustments? Or maybe a combination of them all, who knows.

Then off to Whole Foods to grab some quick snacks (peanut butter cracker sandwiches, popped rice chips, tangerines, water, and luna bars for treats) and over to the Science Museum in Downtown Los Angeles (which is free!!! We love free). There isn't any food at the Science Museum for us. It's all fast foods or over priced fruit. So we always bring out own snacks. I would have done better snacks but I haven't gone shopping for the week, so Whole Foods had to pull through for us since it was close to the doctor's office.

On the way home, I got off a different freeway exit so we could do a quick trip to Scoops Westside on Overland Avenue. They have six or so ice cream flavors everyday (no Sundays) and two are always vegan. Today it was Salted Vanilla Oreo and Chocolate Peanut Butter. Lily and Henry both went for the Salted Vanilla Oreo. I got a pint of the two flavors together so that my husband and I could share it at home.

Tonight is date night. We're off to see the Tim Burton exhibit at LACMA and then out for vegan ethiopian food at an ALL vegan restaurant on Fairfax, just South of Olympic. It is called Rahel's. Give it a try if you are in the area. Tasty food, cozy spot, and friendly staff.

Have a great weekend, I know I am!

Pesto baby!

2011-10-06T09:44:00.001-07:00

My youngest LOVES pesto! She eats it straight, no pasta, just straight up pesto in a bowl. Last night's pesto was pecan and pistachios as the nut base. We use the Vegan with a Vengeance recipe as our go to pesto recipe and go from there. Lily loves to try different nuts in the pesto to see which is her favorite. Last nights
was a big hit! She doesn't like cashew pesto and macadamia pesto wasn't to high on the list either. Almond pesto is a favorite with pecan/pistachio a close second. For her snack at preschool today, she has a tupperware container of just pesto. Who's a happy kid???

More good food from Soul Vegan Kitchen

2011-10-05T17:51:00.001-07:00

So I made another recipe from Soul Vegan Kitchen. I had made the maple pecans the other day, which you need for these muffins. I didn't have the time to cook them up the other day, but did today! Woo hoo!

Blend some bananas with rice milk and a little oil. Add to the flours (two kinds) , cornmeal and your regular baking additives (baking soda, baking powder, etc). Mix. Add pecans. Put in muffin tin and bake for 20-25 minutes. Super easy, super tasty.

I really liked the crunchy bits of corn meal in the muffins. Really made the muffins for me. They are perfect for breakfast since they aren't super sweet. Only two tablespoons of maple syrup and two tablespoons of evaporated cane juice. Not bad when that makes twelve medium sized muffins. Twelve muffins that are gone! I took them to work and friends devoured them. Must be good, right?

Sunday dinner

2011-10-04T12:28:00.001-07:00

Since I work Monday through Friday 9am-6pm, I don't get to cook the weekday meals in our house. I only get to do Saturday and Sunday cooking. I love to do a big meal on Sundays, if our schedule allows it. Last Sunday, I was able to get a few things going: rosemary tofu with a plum ketchup or ginger peanut sauce for dipping, maple mashed sweet potatoes, and collards.

The thought was that the kids would love dipping the tofu cubes into the dips...wrong! They didn't like either dip but they did enjoy the tofu cubes. My husband liked the ginger peanut dip and I liked the plum ketchup.
The recipes were from Bryant Terry's book, Vegan Soul Kitchen. I realized I have NEVER used this book since I bought it two years ago. So far, having tried three recipes, the tofu cubes were the biggest hit. I will add these to my menu routine. Always good to get
some new food in the weekly menus so the family doesn't get bored.

Next up, I'm trying to get the kids to sleep early during the week so I can make some banana pecan muffins. We will see if my plan works.

Veganmofo 2011

2011-10-02T15:46:00.001-07:00

Hi. Things are not starting off well with me having time to cook. But Lily and I were lucky enough to be invited to an urban garden that belongs to a friend of mine. Chard, watermelon, broccoli, kale, collards, basil, lavender, mint, and chickens. Lily had a BLAST hanging out in the garden and feeding the chickens some watermelon. Great way to spend the day: get a little dirty, soak up some sun, and pick lots and lots of yummy food to cook up at home! My friend told us we can pick food whenever we want, don't have to ask, just help ourselves. He hasn't a clue to what he just did....we will picking his garden dry. Just kidding, Clark, I promise we'll leave some for the chickens.

Quick trip to San Francisco

2011-09-08T17:17:00.000-07:00

For our end of summer event, we drove up to the Bay Area for a long weekend. The kids did AMAZING on the long drive up the boring 5 highway. So proud of them. During our weekend, we hit up Cinnaholics in Berkeley. Henry had a hard time choosing his toppings but decided on caramel frosting, chocolate chips, and marshmallows. He had the worker cross of cookie dough. Thank goodness! Henry ate half of his bun and then felt sick. He was able to walk it off but it was close for a few minutes. Lily just wanted vegan marshmallows on her bun. She ate all ten marshmallows and then decided she was done. Funny girl. Matt and I finished off that cinnamon bun. The buns were delicious but the store smelled SO sweet that it was hard to sit in there. So if I were you, I'd get my buns to go and enjoy them in a park somewhere.

Chocolate Chip Scones

2010-11-30T16:44:00.001-08:00

A woman who works at my son's school got laid off. Today was her last day. I like her. Always helpful and nice to my guy. Damn budget. So this morning I got up and made chocolate chip scones from Very Vegetarian. Super simple. I think there are six or so ingredients. Flour, baking powder, salt, margarine, vegan milk, and sugar. Then add a bit of currants, nuts, or chocolate chips. Good to go. So light and not too sweet. Just right. I dropped by the office to say bye to our friend and let her know that she was greatly appreciated. Nothing says "thank you" like a homemade baked good.

My gal is 3!

2010-11-29T11:35:00.000-08:00

Well once again I did some major cooking over the four day weekend and NO food pics to show for it. I just get so overwhelmed with cooking and a sick kid, that not everything got done. I did make the pumpkin ziti from V'con. Lily loved it. Said I should make it more often, she's right. I didn't make it to the mushroom stuffing. Bummer, I was really looking forward to that. I still have all the ingredients, so I can make it this week. Simple salad with homemade dressing was refreshing with all of the heavy cooked items. My poppyseed rolls from Vegan Brunch were okay. Could have been better. All my fault. Plus I made sweet potato casserole from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen. That was hands down the best thing of the day!!! So good! For dessert was vanilla cupcakes (that were pink from beet coloring) and pink frosting too. The frosting on Lily's cupcakes was awful. I was so busy trying to get it all done, that I rushed the frosting. It curdled. Lily didn't care, but I was upset. All Lily wanted was to see something pink on top of her pink cupcakes, so that was a success.

Nog

2010-11-24T08:51:00.001-08:00

Nog, originally uploaded by erin32mc.

As soon as Halloween passes, my kids and I start looking for Silk Nog and Pumpkin Spice. I have to ration it out, not allowing them to suck it all down that very first day. My preferred way to drink it is warmed with a little whipped soy cream on top.

Life is a little nutty right now. Holidays and all. Tomorrow is appetizers at my brother's house. After the vegan food freakout two years ago (he got upset that my mom veganized some of the family dishes and refused to eat), I am just stopping by for appetizers. Then we're heading over to a friend's house for a vegan feast. I'm making pumpkin ziti from V'con, mushroom stuffing from Joanna's cooking zine, a simple salad with a raspberry dressing, coconut sweet potatoes from Joanna's zine, and cupcakes to celebrate my daughter's third birthday which happens on Friday.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Veggie Grill with my guy

2010-11-22T10:17:00.001-08:00

DSCN0675, originally uploaded by erin32mc.

On Saturday night, Henry and I had a movie date. We went to see the new Harry Potter film at the Dome theatre in Hollywood. That won't mean anything to folks outside of Los Angeles, but for me, growing up that was the theatre to see the blockbusters. Huge screen, I mean HUGE! Before heading all the way to Hollywood from West L.A., we stopped at Veggie Grill on Sunset Blvd and Crescent Heights. This is one of Henry's favorite restaurants, so I knew he would be pleased.

Henry always orders a plain V-burger, sweet potato fries and pickles on the side. As I have stated before, my guy is one picky eater. It's amazing that he'll eat the sweet potato fries. I usually go for a salad or a side of kale and the bbq wings. Due to the weather being a little on the chilly side, I went for the soup and salad combo. Soup was barley in a tomato base. The soup hit the spot. I had to stop myself from licking the bowl. I chose the kale salad with corn salsa, quinoa, walnuts, and a ginger dressing. I am not a big fan of ginger but the dressing was good. My favorite part about the salad was the quinoa. Nice addition. I'm going to have to experiment with that one at home.

As far as the movie, everything we had hoped for! Can't wait for part two.

Our Vegan Disneyland Adventure

2010-11-19T09:57:00.001-08:00

Homemade Seitan, originally uploaded by erin32mc.

The other day we went to Disneyland. Slim pickings already for vegans when you are going to a place like that but even slimmer when you have allergies, food aversions, and Crohn's disease in your party. My husband has Crohn's. He was diagnosed when he was about 18 years old. He does really well with it. No surgeries so far, he doesn't take any medications, and he feels pretty good most of the time. He's noticed that fatigue and food effect him the most. He can't eat anything with a thick skin (okra, corn, green beans) and if he eats too much wheat or nuts, he has some issues. Being vegan has really helped him a lot. Then there is my son. Picky eater!!! Drives me crazy most days. Plus he can't eat corn or pineapple (intolerance). With corn he gets a wicked stomachache. Just brutal. Really sends him spinning. Corn is actually a really hard one. Corn syrup is in everything! He wishes he could eat popcorn like everyone else when we go to a movie but it just isn't worth the reaction. And pineapple gives him a rash, like the one my daughter gets from apples. So far our daughter eats just about anything but can't eat apples.

So when we get ready for a big adventure like Disneyland, we have to bring snacks that will get us through the day without effecting the health issues in the family. I knew that D-land had plain pasta with a tomato sauce that was vegan. So that covered our daughter, my husband, and me. Henry won't eat it. I would rather go eat rice, beans and corn tortillas at the Mexican food restaurant but can't tempt Henry with the corn. So I made seitan for him to snack on throughout the day. Seitan that my husband can't touch because he would be down for the count. My go to recipe is from Nava Atlas. It is in The Vegetarian Family Cookbook. Then there was fruit. I'm not paying D-land prices for fruit. Packed tangerines so that Lily wouldn't get upset with us eating apples. Dessert, you have to have something sweet for the kids. You pass a lot of lollipops, popsicles, and other sugary items while in the land of Mickey. Henry can't eat any of it since they are packed with high fructose corn syrup. So I made Rock Road cookies from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. Last I packed some juice boxes to make sure that it didn't have any corn syrup or apples in it. If any room left in the bag, I throw in trial mix, some seaweed, and nutrition bars. Oh, I also threw in a small container of nutritional yeast for us to sprinkle on our pasta. Give it a little something something.

I made bagels!!!!

2010-11-18T17:47:00.001-08:00

I made bagels!!!!, originally uploaded by erin32mc.

Well it seems that my daughter has developed an apple intolerance. We have noticed for the last couple of months that she gets a rash on her tush every so often. At first we thought it was a new detergent...nope. Then we went to apple juice. Seemed to show some signs of improvement. And now with there being such a stockpile of apples in the house due to my choice of theme for Veganmofo.... we see that anything with apples seems to turn her butt bright red. So sad, this girl loves her red apples. Loves to just munch on a bowl of peeled, sliced up, crisp apple. She is very sad about this discovery, too. So to help her have an easier time, we won't be buying apples for awhile. Giving her body a break. Which means that I won't be blogging about foods I make with apple as the main ingredient. Let me have a moment of silence......Okay. Done.

Over the weekend, I cracked open Vegan Brunch and decided it was time to attempt making bagels. ( I had thought about doing it ever since the book was released in the middle of 2009. ) I live two blocks away from a bagel place that we like, but why walk two blocks when you can make 'em right there in your home? And guess what? The family loved them. Ate them in two days kind of love. So I made another batch of bagels. So good. They don't take that much time and they don't call for a long list of ingredients. Flour, yeast, sugar, salt, and water. Good to go. If you have some poppy seeds or sesame seeds around the house, you can doll them up, but it isn't necessary. Perfect just the way they are. Sometimes it pays off to face your cooking fears, it did for me.

Apple Mango Salsa

2010-11-16T11:56:00.001-08:00

Apple Mango Salsa, originally uploaded by erin32mc.

Most of the recipes I found for apples were desserts or sweet. Not surprising since apples are naturally sweet. I wanted to take a break from this. I went looking for something that I hadn't thought of. I found a few potato-apple soups, dressings, and then a salsa. In You Won't Believe It's Vegan, there is an apple salsa. I based my salsa off of it since I've never made salsa before but I changed a bit, too.

2-3 honeycrisp apples, diced
1/4 mango, diced
1/3- 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
one bunch of green onions, used white and some of the green
2 jalapenos diced
some lime juice ( I think I used 3)
and salt to taste.

The original recipe called for mint, a different type of apple and less jalapenos. I added the mango because I had some on hand. This salsa is sweet, so I wanted more heat. I could have added another jalapeno for sure. It needs more kick. I might even add more lime juice and a red onion next time. I found myself searching for the juices in the bottom of the bowl. If you eat it right away, you might just taste the apples. So let it sit and marinate in the fridge for awhile. My favorite thing about this salsa are the colors. I love the green, yellow, and red. Pretty food always helps with the experience.

We interrupt apples for an emergency broadcast

2010-11-12T11:54:00.001-08:00

As I've talked about before, there is a Yummy Cupcakes bakery down the street from my work. Yesterday I had a craving. A craving for something sweet. Headed on over to Yummy Cupcakes and there were two vegan choices: chocolate with vanilla frosting or peanut butter. I went for the chocolate/vanilla. I scrapped up some of the frosting, since it is too much for me. Don't worry though, I didn't let it go to waste! The cake itself was a little dry, thank goodness for my cup of tea. Helped to wash it down. Don't get me wrong, the cupcake was still delicious. Just wish I had headed over a little earlier in the day, closer to baking time.
This weekend is the celebration of the Brentwood store opening. They are giving out free goodies and having a drawing contest for the kiddies. If you are in the area, head on over.

Best snack ever

2010-11-11T09:33:00.000-08:00

For years I have been a Granny Smith type of gal. Granny Smith for my apple crisp, pies, snacks, etc. Once I had kids, I started trying different apples so that they could decide for themselves what was their favorite. My son is a Granny Smith kid and my daughter loves red apples, any kind of red apple. Don't try to give her a green apple, she'll turn her nose up at it and demand something red. With our exploring, I have come to love Honeycrisp apples. So good. Firm, sweet and a little tart in there too. Yesterday I was lucky enough to grab one for my mid-day snack. Grabbed a little peanut butter and I was loving life. Don't get me wrong, Granny Smith is still number one for me, but it's good to branch out. Live a little, as some folks say.

Waffles for another day

2010-11-10T16:50:00.000-08:00

Once again I received inspiration from Katie over at Don't Eat off the Sidewalk. She had posted about how she cooks a lot of food on one or two days during the week. That way you always have something to eat. Over the weekend, I had one of those days. Home with only one of the kids while the other one had a playdate ALL day long. Lucky me! I cracked open Vegan Brunch and decided to make waffles. After reading the choices, I decided on raised waffles with cinnamon and apples. They smelled delicious while cooking in the waffle iron. I don't know how they taste yet due to the fact that I froze the entire batch for us to eat on one of our busy weekdays. And guess what? Tonight is the lucky night. Tonight is going to be the waffles, tofu scramble (we use this one from Get It Ripe) , and fruit. I'll let you know how they taste.

Pre-Thanksgiving

2010-11-09T12:51:00.000-08:00

Over at Don't Eat Off the Sidewalk, there is a fun event called Iron Chef. I considered joining in the event. I even went shopping to get everything for soyrizo tempeh samosas. Only problem was, once I thought about mashed potatoes, all I wanted was a Thanksgiving type meal. So I passed on the samosas and went for seitan, mashed potatoes with golden gravy, and dressing. 500 Vegan Recipes has an apple sage fauxsage recipe that is quite tasty. So that was the obvious choice for me this month. The seitan recipe is super easy to throw together. A few ingredients, mix, wrap it foil, and bake in the oven for ninety minutes. Plenty of time to get the other food ready. I already had a box of cubed bread pieces in the pantry, so that was easy enough to prepare with a little celery, onion, margarine, and veggie broth. Throw that in the oven with the seitan and get cracking on the potatoes. Luckily I was able to find a fresh bunch of asparagus in the fridge and the meal was set. I like to roast my asparagus with a little olive oil and salt. Sad to say the kids were not impressed with this meal. My daughter ate a bowl of golden gravy (sorry not in the picture) and my son snubbed the entire meal. My husband and I didn't mind, more for us. After two servings, we were stuffed! I packed up the leftovers, which has fed us lunch for the last two days. Win win.

Mom's Apple Crisp

2010-11-08T10:23:00.000-08:00

My mom wasn't much of a cook from scratch type of person. She always told me that she learned all of her recipes in Home Ec class in middle school. Tuna noodle casserole, green bean casserole, salmon croquettes, etc. You get the picture. Most of the stuff came out of cans and was blended together in one casserole dish. She had four kids and worked outside the house. Her life was packed with things to do and not enough time to do them. So there aren't any bad feelings here. She fed us and made sure there was plenty to go around for the growing teens in her house. My fondest food memories from childhood are Sunday breakfast that my Dad always made (probably giving my Mom a chance to sleep in) and holiday cooking. Thanksgiving was probably my favorite. There was the usual turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole. For dessert we either got a pumpkin pie from Marie Callendar's or Mom made her apple crisp that she served with vanilla ice cream. I never liked the pie, so I was always happy to see her peeling apples knowing that the crisp would be coming.

This weekend the kids and I met up with a friend for a playdate and food. She didn't feel like cooking but thought we could eat at Veggie Grill in West Hollywood and go back to her place for dessert. I needed a simple dessert that would go well with her homemade ice cream. Mom's apple crisp to the rescue. I don't know where Mom got the original recipe, maybe it came from Home Ec class, too.

Mom's Apple Crisp

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Peel, core, and slice three pounds of apples (I use Granny Smith) and toss with juice of 1/2 lemon. Mix 1 tbls cornstarch (I use arrowroot), 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, and 1/8 tsp nutmeg. Add this to the apples and mix again. Making sure the apples are coated. Put apple mixture into 1 1/2 qt baking dish. In a medium sized bowl, mix 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup of brown sugar, pinch of salt, and 6 tbls of margarine. Mix with your fingers until margarine has broken down and you have a crumble mixture. Add 1/4 cup sliced almonds. Sprinkle this over the apples. Put in oven and bake for 45 minutes.

Super easy, really delicious, and perfect with a scoop of vegan vanilla ice cream.

Thanks, Mom.

Granola time!

2010-11-05T10:41:00.000-07:00

It is hot, I mean really hot, in Los Angeles right now. I feel robbed. Where is my cold Fall weather? I want to bake, make soup, eat some comfort food, and get out the blankets. No chance. Not this week. So with the heat, I didn't want to do much cooking. Didn't want to heat the house up anymore than it already was. Then I realized that granola wouldn't have the oven cranked up too high. I could handle the 275 degrees for thirty or so minutes.

Vegetarian Family Cookbook by Nava Atlas has a granola recipe that caught my eye, Cinnamon-Apple Granola. The recipe called from raisins, which I didn't have, but I did have dried cherries. So that was an easy substitute. Also, I used agave syrup instead of maple syrup. Maple syrup is just so expensive and I couldn't bare using 1/2 cup for the granola. The most work was cutting up the dried apples. I used scissors, which I'm glad I did, made it so much easier than chopping with a knife. The walnuts are just perfect with the other flavors. I'm really loving the spoonfuls with the walnuts.

Muffins to start your day

2010-11-04T10:54:00.000-07:00

Last night while the kids were getting ready for bed and mellowing out, I grabbed Vegan Planet and whipped up a batch of Spiced Apple Walnut Muffins. Super simple, which is always a plus. The recipe calls for one grated apple but you can substitute applesauce if you want one less dirty appliance. There is only a small amount of brown sugar, so they are not super sweet. Perfect to go along with your morning cup of tea. My only complaint is that I didn't make a double batch. These babies are going fast.

Goddess Garbanzos for lunch

2010-11-03T11:38:00.000-07:00

Weekday mornings I am always in a rush. Making breakfast for two kids, making lunch for myself and my 9 year old son, and getting us out the door before the last bell rings at his school. You would think that by now I would have some kind of system that has me making lunches the night before, to save me time in the morning. But I don't. This morning I knew I didn't have anything at work for lunch, so I pulled out Dreena Burton's "Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan" cookbook. There is a simple recipe that is perfect for picnics or weekday lunches called Goddess Garbanzo. Except for the Goddess dressing, everything else might be on hand in your pantry. Garbanzo beans, vegan mayo, salt, celery, apples, lemon juice, tahini, kelp (if you want a "fishy ocean" taste) and some pepper. You can eat it on toast, put it on crackers, or eat it straight. Probably good on a salad, too. Now I have lunch for the next three days. Finally, saving myself some time in the mornings.

Oatmeal pancakes with apple compote

2010-11-02T12:52:00.000-07:00

Monday through Wednesday nights are really hectic in our house. Monday our son has circus gymnastics, Tuesday he has baseball practice, and on Wednesday it's cartoon class. All of these classes take place at or near dinner time, so the schedule gets thrown off. Last night we arrived home after 6:30pm with two hungry, dirty kids. I set up the bath and took a look in the kitchen for what was on hand. Breakfast for dinner quickly became the only reasonable choice. Put the hashbrowns in the oven, got the Gimme Lean sausage cooking, and started making the batter for Eat Your Oatmeal pancakes from Vegan Lunch Box. The flour is oat, which you can easily make yourself by throwing some oats in a blender. I really like these pancakes because you don't need any maple syrup, it's already in the batter. Plus there is applesauce in the batter, so that adds a nice taste with the touch of cinnamon. I served them up with a little applesauce for dipping and quickly make an apple compote for me. By 7:30pm, kids were fed and clean. Ready for bedtime stories. We had made it through another hectic Monday. Now what to do for tonight?

Vegan Mofo 2010

2010-11-01T11:23:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day of blogging about vegan food for the month of November. I've participated twice before. I didn't know if I was going to go for it again this year, but here I am. Giving it a go. This year I'm going to try and stick with a theme (forgive me if I stray here and there).

The theme of the month is.......

Apologies

2010-09-01T11:01:00.000-07:00

Work has been quite wild this summer. I'll be back soon with some food and adventures.

Farmer's Market haul

2010-06-25T15:49:00.001-07:00

In a perfect world, I get to a farmer's market every week. To cruise the entire market checking out the produce before making my purchases is quite relaxing for me. I love the colors and smells. To see what others are getting excited about. I never have enough bags or arms to carry everything that I want to take home.

The other week I was able to go to the West Los Angeles farmer's market which is on Santa Monica Blvd, near Purdue. Not the biggest market but it's nearby and when I'm short on time, it does just fine. On this beautiful LA day, these are the goods I walked away with: basil for pesto (my daughter eats by the spoonfuls), apricots (my first ones of the season), berries (you can never be without berries during the summer), a bag of oranges (quick snacks), tomatoes for a pasta dish, garlic (never ever be without garlic), peaches, cherries and nectarines (also firsts of the season), fresh apple juice and apples, and a red onion.

After we dug into the food, my first disappointment was that I didn't buy more of the stone fruits. They were so good. Those apricots were perfect. So perfect. Everyone should have a piece of perfection like that everyday. I forgot how much I love peaches.

Hopefully this weekend I will find the time to get to the farmer's market and cruise the aisles. It will be the highlight of my week.

Nickel Diner

2010-05-25T13:28:00.000-07:00

Saturday night I had a few hours without any ties, no kids, no husband, no direction. I called a friend of mine who is great with last minute outings. I cruised by picked her up and we started heading east on the 10 freeway. She suggested the Nickel Diner and that became the destination. Nickel Diner is located near 5th and Main in Downtown Los Angeles. Once I got close to the restaurant, I realized I was super close to Babycakes. I knew what I was doing after the meal was done at the Nickel.

As soon as we entered we were greeted by friendly faces and a super cool atmosphere. When the folks at the Nickel were fixing the joint up, they found these fantastic, original paintings. They were smart to leave them up. Really adds to the coziness and authenticity.

There are a few vegan options to choose from on the dinner menu: vegan chili, pasta puttanesca, and root vegetable casselout. I chose the pasta puttanesca. It had loads of capers and olives, just the way I like it. I nearly cleaned the bowl. My pal, not a vegan but open when it comes to food, chose a bowl of vegan chili and a side of fries. I don't know if the fries are fried in a separate fryer, so I stayed clear of them. Her fries were delivered cold, but the staff was quick to fix the problem. I finished my meal with the only vegan dessert on the menu. Vegan coconut tapioca pudding. Creamy and sweetened with agave. I ate so much of it, I didn't have room for a Babycakes treat. But I did buy some for the next day. You can always use a Babycakes pick me up in the morning.

(All photos were borrowed from the Nickel Diner website. I do not take credit for any of these images.)

Yummy Cupcakes

2010-05-13T13:45:00.001-07:00

I work in Burbank, California. I usually bring my own snacks and lunch to work since there aren't many options for a vegan. Sure, I can get veggie sushi or spicy green beans with tofu at local restaurants. But sometimes you need sweets. I've always had to bring my own to get through those cravings. Today I found out that there is a bakery that has two vegan cupcakes everyday of the week within five minutes of my work. The place that dreams are made of is called Yummy Cupcakes. They have a few locations in this area: Burbank, Santa Monica, and Brentwood.

I sampled the cupcakes. My two vegan flavors were Cinnamon Brown Sugar and Red Velvet. First I dug into the Cinnamon Brown Sugar (only half of it). It was moist and delicate. The frosting was just like the frosting we had as kids. A bit too intense but good. I think next time I'll scrap off some of the frosting so it doesn't overwhelm the cupcake. I tried to wait as long as I could on the Red Velvet (once again, only half of it) but I didn't wait long. Once again the cupcake was nice and delicate. Not too sweet. Just moist and good. Once again I'd scrap off some of the frosting the next time I get one. And we all know, there will be a next time.

Birthday cake for my 9 year old

2010-03-03T10:29:00.001-08:00

My 9 year old goes to public school in Los Angeles. There are SO many rules about what you can't do. Hard to remember them all. One of the rules is that you can't bring homemade food to share with your child's class. So every year I purchase vegan goods to bring in for the special day. This year we decided to try out Babycakes NYC bakery in Downtown LA. Henry chose the brownie cake with vanilla frosting. It was a double layer cake. Tons of yumminess!!! The frosting was creamy and not at all like the super intense sugar stuff. Just perfect. It was gluten free since Babycakes only does gluten free or spelt flour. Henry likes the texture of gluten free better than the spelt. Hands down he made the perfect choice all the way around. And just a note regarding the smudges on the cake. The bakery put pink flowers all over the cake which I knew Henry would not be cool with it. So I removed those before heading over the his class. Luckily, a class of 3rd graders didn't care how it looked. They just wanted to dig in!

Happy birthday baby. I love you.

Babycakes bakery in Downtown L.A.

2010-02-08T11:41:00.000-08:00

My 8 year old is about to turn 9. That in itself is a scary but exciting event. His school won't let me bake my own goodies to share so we always have to find a place to make his vegan goodies to share with the class. Last year was doughnuts that were a hit. This year Henry wants to just do cupcakes. I knew that Babycakes had finally opened their doors in Downtown LA, so we headed out on Saturday to give them a go. (Sorry to say the battery in my camera was dead, so no photos.)

Lily, my 2 year old, kept saying pink pink pink on our drive down. So I was hoping that pink cupcakes would be waiting for us, since it's hard to get a toddler to understand. We lucked out! There were scores of pink cupcakes for Lily to choose from. She ended up with a spelt lemon cupcake with bright pink frosting and a flower on top. She ate half of it on the walk back to our car, which was only a block away.
The cupcake was crumbly and the frosting was smooth and delicate.

Henry picked the brownie cupcake with vanilla frosting and chocolate chips. SCORE! It was the best thing we bought. Moist, tasty, and filling. He still has half of it in our fridge, although I'm sure he'll be eating it after school today.

I picked up a red velvet gluten free cupcake. I enjoyed it. Texture was good and the frosting was tasty. Not super sweet or heavy, like mainstream frosting. I also picked out one doughnut with chocolate frosting Henry and I were not that impressed with it. It was a bit tough. Lily thought it was great and was happy she didn't have to share it. Also grabbed a cookie sandwich (two chocolate chip cookies with a big layer of frosting in the middle). This was okay, not great. Probably would've enjoyed the cookies more on their own, no frosting. But I'm also really picky about my chocolate chip cookies. We got a couple brownie bites. One was sweetened with agave and the other was non refined sugar. We preferred the agave brownie. Seemed to be more moist. As we were being rung up, I spotted "day old" goodies that were half off the original price. I picked the blueberry crumb pie. Good pick, if I don't say so myself. It was delicious. I'd get that again in a heartbeat.

If you want to see some great shots of the goodies at Babycakes, head over to Quarrygirl.com and read about her outing to the bakery. I also recommend checking out the menu at Babycakes so you can plan ahead. There are so many goodies, it's hard to stay focused! I can't believe I got out of there spending under 30 dollars. A friend of mine spent $48!

The staff is super friendly and helpful. Parking is a bit of a pain. Either deal with paying for a parking lot (we saw $4 lots) or bring lots of quarters. The meter only gives you five minutes per quarter!!

Pure Luck

2010-01-13T17:35:00.001-08:00

The other weekend I had the luxury of going out with my buddy, Karen, and no kids. Don't get me wrong, I love time with my kids and miss them loads when I'm at work. But it's healthy to have some fun adult time to keep your sanity. I need to do it more than I do.

Karen and I have been friends for years and we have an old habit of just driving. No real plans, just go. So that is what we did. I picked her up in West L.A. and we headed east on Pico. Then turned up Fairfax but nothing was calling out to us, so drove east again on Beverly, which somehow turned into Melrose. Then it hit me! Pure Luck by LACC. I never get to eat there without the kidlets and I was well overdue for a visit. Found a prime parking spot in front and headed in for goodies.

First up was a glass of beer to toast in the new year. I broke out of my pattern of light or amber ale's and went for a darker beer. The description said it had subtle chocolate flavors, sold. That was for me. Next I had to pick between a combo plate with jackfruit, beans, and rice or the jackfruit torta with a salad. The torta won out. I ate every single bite. Love that dish. Karen liked her first taste of jackfruit. If you haven't tried it, you have to give it a go. Karen ordered the cesear salad with tofu. She was a happy customer. Before I ordered some deep fried pickles and ate too much, we headed out. Sadly Scoops (has vegan ice cream and is across the street from Pure Luck) was closed, so we weren't able to have my usual post Pure Luck experience.

But since we drive here in LA, somehow destiny took us near the Beverly Center, which is close to Real Food Daily restaurant. Another awesome parking score right in front and we headed in for tea and german chocolate cake. The cake slice was nearly eight dollars, which is super steep for me, but I figured I deserved it on my day out. I always say I'll make german chocolate cake at home but I never do. So here, I'll say it again, I need to make it. So good. RFD's was a little dry, but it didn't stop me from practically cleaning the plate of every chocolate or coconut morsel. And let it be known, Karen didn't have one bite. I ate the entire thing myself. No guilt. No regret. 2010 baby, live it up.

Locali Store

2009-12-11T10:04:00.001-08:00

I have heard about Locali for most of this year. Vegan bakers held bake sales there, fellow bloggers listed it as a good place to get Dandies vegan marshmallows and delicious sandwiches. Plus there were sno cones to be had, free of corn syrup sno cones!

The day before Thanksgiving, the day before my youngest child's birthday, we took a family trip to Griffith Park. Afterwards, we went on another adventure to find Locali. There were a few moments where I thought I must have missed it. I knew the store was on Franklin Avenue, but I didn't have a phone number or exact address. People, always make sure you have an address and phone number! After talking about corn syrup free sno cones with my eldest kid (who is allergic to corn), I needed to find this store. Obviously, we found it!!

We walked into a cute little shop with TONS of vegan goodies. From warm sandwiches to homemade popsicles. It had the feel of a fancy 7-11. Lily took one look at the mini popsicles and grabbed the red one (strawberry lemonade) and Henry just wanted to get his hands on a sno cone. After the worker rattled off some flavors from memory (little suggestion here Locali, have a small list of flavors for the customers to choose from), Henry decided on bubblegum. I ordered a warm grilled veggie sandwich with artichoke spread on seeded grain bread. Before our ordered was rung up, I made sure to throw in a vegan brownie and sugar donut muffin from C'est La V bakeshop. The muffin was AMAZING! I wish I would have bought another one.

So if you are in the Los Feliz/Hollywood area and need a little treat, head over to Locali. My kids say you will love it!

Vegan Mofo mug

2009-11-19T16:44:00.001-08:00

For the three years, Post Punk Kitchen has promoted vegan blogging as much as you can for the month of October. I have participated in the last two years. My favorite part of the Vegan Mofo is reading everyone else's blogs to see what they got going on. One of the blogs was Vessels and Wares run by Jeanette. I knew of this blog before since I have bought vegan dishes from Jeanette on etsy.com . Both my kids eat their ice cream out of a dish that says "vegan h" and "vegan l". Jeanette did a contest to give away mugs and keychains to celebrate Vegan Mofo. And obviously I was a winner!!!! If you like the way the mug looks, go over to etsy and order some goods from Jeanette. You won't be disappointed.

Yo Gabba Gabba Live in Los Angeles

2009-11-16T13:01:00.000-08:00

So on Saturday, Yo Gabba Gabba had a live show at the Shrine Auditorium in Downtown Los Angeles. I had bought tickets for my daughter and I to attend. We fought our way through USC traffic, which was an event all on it's own. Once inside, Lily had the look of confusion on her sweet little face. We found our seats and I was surprised to find out that we were in the second center row. About ten feet from the stage. This was the first moment that I felt a problem could be in our future.

When DJ Lance and the gang made their entrance with lots of lights, sound, and confetti.

The crowd went wild...all but my kid. She signed all done and pointed to the door. I asked her to try to watch and all she wanted to do was bury her head. She nursed her way up until intermission. I was able to get her to take a peek at the show a few times but not enough to get to her to change her mind. So when the lights went up, we made our way to the door.

Lily was back to her happy, smiling self as soon as we exited the Shrine and were on the street. Now everytime she sees a photo of DJ Lance, she signs all done and says no. I remind her that we aren't going to see Yo Gabba Gabba again and she smiles. Sorry DJ Lance, maybe in a few years this will end better.

Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie

2009-11-13T10:16:00.001-08:00

I finally had enough time after putting the kids to bed at bedtime, to make something out of Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. I had all the ingredients for the Banana Oatmeal cookies. I'm not great with titles or names, so that probably isn't the name in the book. But it's close enough. I made four dozen of them. Doubled the recipe since I had quite a few ripe bananas that were about to take a turn for the worst.

These cookies were super moist, tasty, and with the oatmeal and walnuts, I felt like I was eating something good for me. And they were good, so that's good for me.

Score at Whole Foods

2009-11-09T12:32:00.000-08:00

This morning on the way to work, I stopped at Whole Foods to grab a few things for lunch.
Bread, vanilla soy yogurt, some cashews from the bulk section, a banana, and Silk pumpkin soy milk
to share with a coworker. As I waited in line for my turn to put the goods on the conveyer belt, my eyes fell upon a nice surprise. No, not an interesting article on how to make a Thanksgiving meal in thirty minutes or less. Go Max Go candy bars!!! Yes, you read right. Three styles of candy bars were stocked: Buccaneer, Twilight, and Jokerz (the Mahalo bar was not stocked). I grabbed one of each. They were $2.19 each. Which is a little bit of saving compared to $2.39 plus shipping from Vegan Essentials.com . I hate paying for shipping. I'm planning on taking them home to share with the family but I already polished off the Jokerz bar. Let's see if the other two make it home.

Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar

2009-11-04T16:08:00.001-08:00

I hate to say that I have had this book in my hands since Monday and I haven't cooked one thing from it!! I should be fined or arrested. I should be forced to give the book to someone who will appreciate it more than I do. Hopefully I won't be working this weekend and I can dive in. Make at least one batch if not two. I'm sure my kids or coworkers won't object. There were some oatmeal cookie recipes that caught my eye and of course I have to give their chocolate chip recipe a try. Nothing better than a chocolate chip cookie and a tall glass of rice milk. Stay tuned for cookie update.

Halloween morning

2009-11-02T11:37:00.001-08:00

So obviously Halloween is over. October is a thing of the past or in the far far future. But for this mom, I'm talking about it today. On Saturday morning, we had breakfast, cleaned up, and got starting on our sugar cookies. Every year I make sugar cookies with my kids for the big holidays (Valentine's Day, Halloween, Xmas). I received some Halloween cookie cutters from Happy Bellies from the PPK package swap. We used the sugar cookie recipe from one of Sarah Kramer's cookbooks (the go to sugar cookie recipe) and got down to business. Lily loved the rolling pin. Henry loved getting as many cookies as he could before having to roll the dough out again. We managed to make three dozen cookies. I didn't eat them all, but the ones I did eat were good.

Jokerz candy bar by Go Max Go

2009-10-29T13:47:00.001-07:00

This is one of the candy bars that was in my PPK package swap. The Jokerz candy bar is a vegan version of a Snickers. When I was in high school, many many years ago, Snickers was one of my favorite bars. So here we are 25 years later, and I am happy to enjoy this veganized version. Gooey, sweet, and smooth. If you want to give it a try, one place to find it is veganessentials.com . There are also a few other flavors to try out, so why not order one of each! You won't regret it.

PPK Mofo package swap

2009-10-29T09:36:00.001-07:00

The PPK had a swap just for MoFo participants this year. Of course, I joined up since who doesn't love a box full of goodies?!?! I was paired up with Sara over at Happy Bellies . As you can see, she sent tons of goodies. Candy molds, notepads with photos from a trip to Farm Sanctuary, candy bars, hot sauce, stickers, Halloween baking cups, cookie cutters, chocolate beans, pomegranate candies, chocolate with pineapple, and an almond chocolate cup. A great collection of goods, if I don't say so myself. My daughter already ate some of the chocolate beans and I ate a chocolate bar. It was a vegan Musketeer. The muffin/cupcake cups and cookie cutters arrived at the perfect time since I'll be busy trying to make some treats with the kids this weekend. Thanks so much Sara, you rock!!!!

Windy day in L.A.

2009-10-28T10:36:00.000-07:00

Pine needles and palm fronds are all over the roads of Los Angeles. Even though this windy season wrecks havoc on my skin (I have psoriasis) and my seasonal allergies, I love this time of year. There is a chill in the air. A chill that calls for warm, soothing dinners. Baked goods in the oven. Last night, I came home to a plate full of warm mac & cheeze and peas. Two servings filled me up and had me completely satisfied. Gave the kids a bath and heard about their day. Tucked them and decided to lay down with my toddler to help her get to sleep. The wind was really active outside. I could hear the screen door tapping every few seconds as it was pushed by the winds. Recycling cans left in the alley were rattling across the pavement. And the wind was whipping around the buildings. I love the way the wind howls around our apartment building as I fall asleep. Rain and wind help me fall into a deep sleep and I've really been needing that deep sleep. Life has been hectic at work and with my son's school, which I won't get into. So this wind couldn't have come at a better time. The wind helped me sleep ten hours last night. I woke up completely fresh! So even though I haven't been able to cook as much as I'd like to during Veganmofo with my current responsibilities, I'm okay with it today. The wind has blown my guilt away.

Pumpkins

2009-10-26T13:38:00.000-07:00

This weekend was all about Halloween. Making sure we had all of the needed pieces for our son's costume (jedi knight) and a basic outfit for our daughter (black shirt and pants) for her to be a cat or bat. We had a kid's halloween party to go to on Saturday night. That was a blast. And picking out pumpkins and carving them into jack o'lanterns on Sunday. Without speaking, the three of us who were carving instead of painting on our pumpkin, did bats. I'll have to get a photo up of that. My husband spent hours on his. My son and I didn't get as involved. I had more fun eating the pumpkin seeds that we baked. Good stuff. This was the first year that I just let myself get dirty with the pumpkin guts. Not worrying about if it was on my clothes, in my hair, etc. I must admit, I don't like the feeling of the stringy bits drying on my skin....but maybe I got squash issues.

Snacks at the park

2009-10-21T17:17:00.001-07:00

Snacking at the park, originally uploaded by erin32mc.

On the weekends, we seem to always have something going on. With Henry's soccer games or playdates or trying to squeeze in a family outing to get some quality time together. When you're on the go, you need snacks on hand at all times. You never know when you need to hit the road. This past weekend was no exception. I grabbed our big lunchbox (would hold a six pack really well) and put in a bag of guacamole from Trader Joe's, bag of plantain chips (also from Trader Joe's), mini carrots, cut up strawberries, four thermoses of water, couple Zbars for the kids, a few mini boxes of organic raisins, and small bag of garlic seasoned pumpkin seeds.

This might seem like a lot of food when we were just going to the park to watch Henry's team play but it's never that simple. The game didn't start on time so the kids got a little hungry waiting. Then the snack provided by a team parent wasn't vegan, so we had to substitute our stuff for Henry to feel included. Once the game was over, Henry and Lily played in the park for an hour. We're not talking mellow playing like sandbox or swinging, we're talking tag, running, and loads of climbing. That builds up a strong appetite!! So the kids ate everything in the cooler except for the raisins. Poor lonely raisins. Won't somebody show them some love? Maybe I'll make some oatmeal raisin cookies....I'm sure they'll get some love then.

Weekend outing

2009-10-20T15:16:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, we had lots of soccer stuff to do for my son's team. The best part about it, besides my kid having a good time, was that I had the perfect excuse to eat out...not enough time make a menu, get to the market, and make food. So I was able to drive the family to one of my favorite eating spots, Samosa House on Washington in Culver City. As I drove, I already knew what I was ordering, the masala dosa. I usually get the combo plate so that I can have a variety of vegan goodies, but today, I wanted simplicity. And let me tell you, I made the perfect choice! The masala dosa was perfect. Big enough to share with my kids (the dosa hangs off the plate when it arrives at your table) but filling, too. Plus you get sambar (the soup) and the two tasty dips. I know one is coconut but I forget the other. The coconut was great. I practically licked the plate clean. Even the kids had a good time with this meal. Which is another plus. If they're happy, then mom is happy.

Quick lunch at work

2009-10-15T16:03:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, a new market came into Burbank,CA (the city I work in). The market is called Henry's Farmers Market . I was curious to see what kind of selection they had for vegans, so I headed over. I was surprised to find a really nice bulk section. Nothing that I wanted to have for lunch, but their stock of beans, grains, and nutritional yeast impressed me. The organic selection in the produce was slim pickings. They probably had a 4 x 4 foot area. Two types of apples, some potatoes, garlic, one type of bell pepper, etc. Not a lot. I grabbed an apple and an avocado. Not sure what else I would find, but I figured this was a good place to start. I cruised the deli section and didn't find anything that caught my eye. Lots of meat and cheese. So that was a bust. Then I headed over to the cold section. Low and behold, I found Follow Your Heart cheeze on sale for $ 2.29, I grabbed a block of monterey jack. Then I noticed the fake sandwich slices. I decided to go for the "salami". My lunch was almost complete. I cruised a few more aisles and found the crackers. After reading some labels and comparing prices, I settled on a box of wheat crackers that were under three dollars. My final cost was under ten dollars and fed me for three days at work. A price I can live with.

Quick fix for school lunch

2009-10-14T10:46:00.000-07:00

Monday morning I woke up at my usual 6:30am. I start making breakfast and my son's school lunch. I soon realized that I didn't have any bread to make a PB&J or tortillas for a soy quesadilla. So I made a quick decision to make muffins for my kid's lunch. Luckily I had a huge zucchini from that weekend's farmer's market. Grabbed my copy of Vegan Brunch by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and got cracking. By the time my son got up, the smell of the zucchini spelt muffins was filling the house. In may just be my opinion, but I think it's a great way to wake up.

Dreaming of more ice cream

2009-10-13T16:51:00.000-07:00

The rain has started in Los Angeles. I'm a big fan of the rain. Many years ago, I lived in San Francisco and dreamed of going further north to live in places that had rain nearly year round. But life took a turn and I ended back in L.A., the city I was raised in. So every year, I dream of the rain. I look forward to the day it comes and dread the day it stops. Even though I love a good vegan stew or homemade soup on a rainy day, I also love ice cream on the cold days. Always have. When I was a kid, I would ask to hit up Baskin Robbins on the rainy days. Peanut butter chocolate was the flavor of choice. So here it is, a beautifully wet and grey day and all I can think about is what ice cream I'd like to dig into. My mind goes to Maggie Mudd's ...only 400 miles north of here. I've only been to Maggie Mudd's once but I could go for a simple single scoop of Memphis Mudd Pie or Peanut Butter Palooka or even Twisted. They have quite an impressive lists of flavors..check it out and dream a little with me.

Veggie Grill has opened!

2009-10-12T10:01:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, we found ourselves up in Hollywood for my son's doctor appointment. I realized that if we spent an hour at a local park, the new West Hollywood Veggie Grill (there are two other locations: El Segundo and Irvine) would be open. Veggie Grill is one of my son's favorite places to eat, so we left it as a surprise. After an hour of playing tag, swinging, and sliding, we headed over to the Sunset and Crescent Heights shopping mall. On the first floor, you will find Veggie Grill and Trader Joe's!!! Two gems in one location, I like that. The new Veggie Grill is not as large as the El Segundo location, but has a lot of sunlight coming thru the glass windows. Plus you can sit outside and do some great people watching (an LA favorite).

(double click on menu to enlarge)

I went for the Santa Fe Crispy Chickin' sandwich with the sweet potato fries. My husband tried out the All Ameircan (which isn't listed here) which is the V-burger chopped up, with two onion rings and all the other fixings. Our son got the V-burger plain, pickles on the side. Our toddler got the kid's meal. Funny to say her least favorite part of it is the pudding. So the rest of us share it and everyone's happy!!

One of the ways I pass time at work

2009-10-07T17:02:00.000-07:00

I work on a computer all day in a dark room. Packed into a small room with three other people. Conversation only goes so far when you want a break, to be in your own little bubble. My bubble is achieved by putting on headphones and disappearing into my iTunes podcast folder. My favorite podcast is Good Food from KCRW. The show is hosted by Evan Kleiman. She is the owner and executive chef of Angeli Cafe in Los Angeles. (A place I've never eaten before.) The best part of the podcast is done at the Wednesday farmer's market in Santa Monica,CA. They call it the "market report". If I hear about something new, I'll make a note and have my husband pick it up the following Wednesday. Even though I don't get the pleasure of cruising over the fresh produce, at least I get to enjoy the goods. I think my favorite new find was a chocolate persimmon. I have a thing for persimmons and when I heard the farmer talking about his special variety, I knew I had to give it a try.

Another episode the food trucks of Los Angeles were the hot topic. I follow this site just to see if the trucks are anywhere near my work or my family, so they can go grab a bite. The truck I'm really interested in finding is the dosa truck ! Upon request, you can get a vegan dosa. Yeah baby!!! Or the shaved ice truck or the green truck that uses it's cooking oil to fuel the truck. All have vegan offerings. So what is my point...my point is, that it's good to branch out. Most of the time, KCRW's Good Food podcast talks mainly of omnivore treats. But once in awhile there is a gem with a vegan treasure. Or a recipe given that I can easily change around to suit my animal friendly tastes.

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!

2009-10-06T16:16:00.000-07:00

When we are up in Hollywood on any day but Sunday, we try to swing by Scoops to get a scoop of vegan ice cream. They sell ice cream made from cow's milk, soy milk, gelato, and sorbet. Usually, if you are lucky, you arrive before any of the four vegan flavors run out. Over the weekend, we had one of those lucky moments. We arrived to find: vegan cream cheese oreo, brown bread, almond coconut, and a banana flavor. I immediately wanted to try the brown bread. Scoops is known for their non vegan brown bread ice cream, so when I saw the veganized version, I knew that was where I was headed. My husband ended up getting half brown bread and half almond coconut. And our 8 year old son needed to have the vegan cream cheese oreo.

All flavors were pretty rich and super sweet. Not so sweet that my teeth hurt, but sweet enough that a kids sized scoop was enough for me. We guessed that the crunchy ingredient in the brown bread ice cream was grape nuts. Not sure, but it worked. Our daughter took over on my scoop and polished it off. So I guess she approved of my choice of flavors.

When you go to Scoops make sure to leave room for Pure Luck Restaurant which is right across the street. All vegan grub. This time, we just stopped off for ice cream, but next time I'm sure we'll make the time for Pure Luck too. P.S. This is hanging in Scoops...I wanted to share it with you. Oh, make sure you have cash on hand. Cash only here at Scoops.

Thanks for the tip

2009-10-05T10:26:00.000-07:00

Quarrygirl gave a great announcement via Twitter on Friday. Flore Cafe in Silverlake was doing all you can eat buffets over the weekend. Saturday was vegan soul food, Sunday was breakfast themed, and tonight is an Italian food fest!!!!!! Saturday was the only day that worked with my "mom duties" weekend. So after my son's soccer game on Saturday, we jumped in the car and drove like madmen to Silverlake. We got stuck in a lot of "lovely" (hear the sarcasm?) L.A. traffic, but still made it time to enjoy the grub. For ten dollars, we were presented with a really simple but good buffet. Black eyed peas, an awesome cole slaw with nice chunks of sweet apple, greens with veggie bacon and onions, mac and cashew cheese, and cornbread muffins.

For drinks, there was iced tea, lemondade, and coffee. The friendly staff at Flore Cafe was so great to us. Since we arrived with two kids and we knew they wouldn't eat a lot, the staff said they could eat for free. SCORE! I made sure to tip big. And they give us any evil eye when our 22 month old spilled her cup of water on her chair and the floor. And as you can see, from the photo, there was way too much water in her cup. Ooops!

If you are in the Silverlake area, and have a ten spot in your pocket, head on over tonight. They'll take care of you right. The menu is:

Monday, October 5th 6pm - 10pm

Pasta Primavera
Penne w/ Spinach & Tofu Ricotta
Meatballs
Caesar Salad
Garlic Bread
Cannoli

Iced Tea
Lemonade

$10

Flore Cafe 3206 W. Sunset Blvd.

(323) 667-0116

My Los Angeles Top Ten

2009-10-02T14:46:00.000-07:00

A blogger on the PPK suggested that folks talk about their ten favorite vegan things in their town.

1. Madeline's Bistro in the Valley. My favorite time to go there is brunch. The doughnuts, tempeh bacon, biscuits, gravy all good stuff to me. The place is a bit on the pricey stuff, but brunch doesn't seem to hurt my wallet as much as dinner does. Madeline's is 100% vegan. It's great to go to a restaurant and be able to order anything on the menu.

Banana Leaf is a Malaysian food stand in the Farmer's Market at 3rd and Fairfax. It isn't all vegan, but there is a rojak salad that gets me happy everytime. Apple, spinach, jicama, tofu, and a sweet chili dressing topped with chopped peanuts. Fresh and light. A perfect meal for a hot summer day. Afterwards make sure to hit up the sticker stand that is across the aisle from Banana Leaf.

3. Real Food Daily is an all vegan restaurant in Los Angeles. There is one located in Santa Monica and another one in West Hollywood. I must say that the one in West Hollywood seems to offer fresher food. My comfort meal is always salisbury seitan. A few pieces of seitan that has been cooked in gravy, mashed potatoes with golden gravy, and a caeser salad. I clear the plate everytime.

4. This list would not be complete if I didn't put Rahel Ethiopian Restaurant on here. This place is AMAZING!!! All vegan and delicious. If you go during the week, between the 11am-3pm it is an all you can eat buffet. I know it's under 8 dollars and it's well worth it.

5. I live close to Native Foods in Westwood,CA. The menu is full of seitan and tempeh. I love me a tempeh sandwich! But a close second is the sausage and portobello sandwich with fries on the side.

This is a meal that I'm licking my fingers trying to get every last bit of yumminess. And it doesn't cost too much either. If I don't get a drink, I can spend around 12 dollars. That gets you a big sandwich and a nice size of fries. If you have time, get the sandwich to go and go eat on the UCLA campus or at Westwood Park behind the Federal Building. Always nice to eat outside in the fresh air with some sun.

6. Veggie Grill is a new favorite in our household. Everyone is happy there. The kids love the V-Burger or the fake chicken strips. The sweet potato fries are really good. Make sure to get those when you get there. I like to get a tempeh sandwich with a side of kale. Then I steal a few sweet potato fries from the kid's plates. We go to the one located in El Segundo so that we can hit up Whole Foods afterwards and get some vegan ice cream. Which leads me right into number 7.

7. Vegan cookie dough ice cream at Whole Foods in El Segundo,CA. You can buy this by the scoop at the ice cream counter. They have a kiddie scoop, small, and a large size available. The ice cream is so rich that a kiddie scoop is all I need to meet the needs of my sweet tooth. If they are out of cookie dough, there are usually 5-6 sorbet flavors that are vegan. And if those don't meet to your liking, you can always go cruise the aisles to find something that works for you.

8. Samosa House in Culver City is my newest favorite place to go eat. The place is clean, the staff is friendly, and the food is FANTASTIC!!! And if that isn't enough, they have soy mango lassi for you to dive into. There is also a market attached to the restaurant, so make sure to look around for some gems. I bought some black salt so that I could use it for the omelette recipe in Vegan Brunch by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. The cauliflower pakora is tasty and they have jackfruit too.

9. When I get up early enough, I go to Hollywood Farmer's Market for fresh produce, vegan baked treats and vegan soul food. The soul food is a Taste of Life . Greens, black eyed peas, cornbread, mac and cheese, seitan, and bbq tofu are some of my favorites. It's hard to go wrong with these guys. Just make sure to get there before they sell out of anything.

10. Took me awhile to decide what vegan treat got the final spot on this list. I think it's going to have to be Sunnin Lebanese Cuisine located at Westwood Blvd. and Santa Monica Blvd. This place has really good hummus and babaganouj. Hits the spot!!!! The falafels are always fresh, they cook them up while you wait. And don't forget to get extra pickles. I need my pickles with my falafel and hummus. Right now they are in the process of moving to a bigger space across the street from their current location. I'm happy to know that they aren't going anywhere.

Workday grub

2009-10-01T13:22:00.000-07:00

I work in Burbank, CA. It's about a forty minute commute from my place on the Westside of Los Angeles. During the week, I get up at 6:30 and get breakfast ready for my 8 year old son. Then I make his lunch. You would think this would be the perfect time for me to make my own lunch. But it seems like half the time, I don't get it together. But at least my kid has lunch, so I'm okay with that.

So on those days, where I don't get it together, I have a few options: a sushi place around the corner, Thai food that has tofu, a falafel joint, and Trader Joe's. Today, it was Trader Joe's that got my vote.

Stopped in after dropping off the kid at school. I was a bit late for work, so I did a quick jog down the aisles. Veggie burrito, bagels, Tofutti cream cheeze, chocolate almond milk, vegan oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, and two bananas. Had to throw in some fruit. Made me feel better about the bag of cookies. But you and I both know what I tore into first once I got back into the car, that's right, the cookies. I didn't polish off the bag, just two. I do have some self control you know.

One of my brothers works for Trader Joe's and I think of him everytime I walk into one of the stores. He is nice enough to give me a sample bag or box of whatever new vegan item has hit the shelves. And even though it's a really nice thought on his part, he has to be my big brother and say "Damn vegans. You guys are taking over!" Let's hope, right?

Revving up for Veganmofo III

2009-09-30T14:50:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again. Veganmofo III is starting up. I participated last year for the first time and am excited to join in again. I'm not quite sure where I'm going to start but I'm sure something will come to me. Maybe I'll try out recipes from other blogs or veganize childhood favorites. Either way, we'll have fun. And don't just hang out here, there are tons of folks joining in this year. Go to Veganmofo III and ignore your day job or don't go to sleep, it'll be worth it.

Muggie Mudd's in SF

2009-09-04T13:11:00.001-07:00

Muggie Mudd's in SF, originally uploaded by erin32mc.

The family took a trip up north to San Francisco. Our old stomping grounds. My husband and I were loving being back in SF. We've missed it a lot. Of course we hit up Lucky Creation in Chinatown and Herbivore in the Western Addition. But I wanted to find new places to fall in love with.

First on my list was Maggie Mudd's. I had read about it in magazines and on blogs. I knew I needed to see what everyone was raving about. And since our 8 year old son shares my love for sweets, I knew he was going to love this adventure as well.

Once in the store, Henry was a little overwhelmed at the choices. He didn't know where to start but he knew he wanted it BIG! He wanted to taste as many toppings as possible. So he ended up with the Big Bowl. Two huge scoops of ice cream, chocolate syrup, vegan marshmallow sauce, vegan whipping cream, sprinkles, cherries all put into a vegan waffle bowl. It was fantastic!! Henry and I ate every last bit.

Then we went to lunch! On vacation, dessert comes first, right?

Green Goddess Salad from Eat,Drink, and Be Vegan

2009-07-30T15:48:00.001-07:00

Green Goddess Salad from Eat,Drink, and Be Vegan, originally uploaded by erin32mc.

I doubt I have the name correct...but it's close enough. Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan is by Dreena Burton. I have quite a love for her Vive Le Vegan book and have to force myself not to go back to it everytime I am craving one of her dishes. But once in awhile I break the mold, and this was one of those days.

This dish is simple and has chickpeas....two pluses for me. I would eat chickpeas more but my husband complains, so it's something I do in private. A private chickpea lover. I usually eat this dish straight, but once in awhile I stick in on some kind of toasted bread product. The ingredient list is short: chickpeas, vegan mayo, green goddess dressing, celery, green apples (optional) and some seaweed, salt and pepper. I believe there are capers in there as well.

I wish I had a helping of this right now. I could use a little something to hold me over until dinnertime.

Vegan Brunch Omelet

2009-06-24T15:26:00.001-07:00

Vegan Brunch Omelet, originally uploaded by erin32mc.

At this very moment, the omelet is my favorite recipe in Vegan Brunch by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. Hands down, it is amazing! So many options to make it fit your personal tastes. Here I had it with sauteed mushrooms and onions and Follow Your Heart cheeze. It was perfect. I ate two of them and could have eaten more.

The second time I made the omelets, I sauteed fresh spinach and poured on the miso tahini sauce (another recipe from Vegan Brunch). That was simple and tasty as well.

How do you like your omelet? Maybe I'll give it a try the next time I make up a batch of omelet batter.

My PPK swap goodies

2009-06-10T11:42:00.001-07:00

My PPK swap goodies, originally uploaded by erin32mc.

Over at the Post Punk Kitchen forums, another swap was set up by Katie of Don't Eat Off the Sidewalk. I was partnered up with Megan. Within two days of her mailing out my package, I got all of this great stuff in my little hands. First off, I must say she blew my mind from the moment I opened the package. There were instructions to open from one end only, so I followed the rules. And found a gorgeous, handmade cloth bag holding all of the swap items! How cool is that? A handmade item in an exchange?!?! Love it! So first off, we have the bag! So great. Then inside were: a couple chocolate bars (that you can see my daughter is stealing), a Ritter Marzipan, Tartex (I love Tartex!), lollipops (awesome for my 8 yr old son), sprinkles and cocoa powder for future baking adventures, chocolate tortilla chips (I have never seen these before),a co-ops rock sticker, cocoa agave spread (SO GOOD!!!!), and homemade ginger molasses cocoa cookies. The cookies are so great. I'll have to get the recipe from Megan. I want to make these myself. The family has eaten nearly all of them, and it's only Wednesday morning! I bet they'll be gone by the time I get home from work.

I scored! Let's hope that Megan feels the same when she opens her box of vegan goodies.

East Coast Coffee Cake

2009-06-08T15:42:00.001-07:00

East Coast Coffee Cake, originally uploaded by erin32mc.

And before you ask, I'll just tell you that yes, yes this recipe came from Vegan Brunch by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. There are many possibilities of flavors you can add to this cake to mix it up and make it have any theme you need. But for the first time, I decided to go plain and simple. Just straight up coffee cake. And trust me, it is fantastic. The cake part, without the crumb topping is pure beauty! It is so soft. The topping just adds to the perfection. Variations that I will try in the near future are apricot/cardamom or berry or how about good ol' reliable chocolate chip.

So pour yourself a cup of hot tea or coffee and have a slice on me. You'll be glad you did.

More from Vegan Brunch

2009-06-04T11:21:00.001-07:00

More from Vegan Brunch, originally uploaded by erin32mc.

On Sunday I make a big breakfast for the family. It is something that my Dad use to do in our house when I was growing up, that I wanted to carry on for my kids. Usually it is pancakes, tempeh either in the form of bacon or a recipe from VWAV, fruit, and possibly roasted potatoes or squash. This Sunday I decided to break out just a little and try out some more recipes in Vegan Brunch by Isa Chandra Moskowitz.

Here were have the Brazilian French Toast. I chose this since I had some very ripe bananas on the table that needed to go in the freezer or compost bin. So I put them to good use by making the banana custard that the bread slices soak in before cooking them up in a skillet. This dish was made mainly for my son. He loves anything sweet. He puts my sweet tooth to shame. Although I did go a bit crazy with the cocoa-cinnamon dusting on the top of my french toast, as you can see.

The second recipe is the tempeh and greens saute. I had roasted beets the day before, so I still had the beet greens. Perfect! So I cleaned those up, cut up the tempeh , red onions, red bell pepper and garlic and I was good to go. That dish was for my husband and daughter. They are all about savory.

Then we had some fresh organic strawberries to finish the plate off.

Everyone was satisfied with this Sunday breakfast and there weren't any leftovers for a midday snack. Another gem from Isa.

Simple snack

2009-06-02T14:08:00.001-07:00

Roasted Garbanzo Beans, originally uploaded by erin32mc.

This is my latest favorite snack. Take a can of garbanzo beans, drain and rinse. Make sure to get off as much of the water from rinsing as possible. Put onto a cookie sheet that is covered in parchment paper. Pour some olive oil, some salt, and as much nutritional yeast as you want. Toss until all are coated. Then put that into a 400 preheated oven. Let it go for about 20 minutes, tossing at least once or twice during that time. Remove from oven and enjoy! My son and husband aren't big fans of this snack. But I am happy to say that my 18 month old daughter likes it.

Bakery Style Berry Muffins

2009-05-28T09:33:00.001-07:00

Bakery Style Berry Muffins, originally uploaded by erin32mc.

These babies are GOOD!!!! Isa Chandra Moskowitz has done it again with Vegan Brunch. This book is fantastic. This recipe is just one of the many gems that you can find. If you haven't picked it up already, RUN, I say, RUN to the bookstore and get it. You won't be disappointed. For now, I will only show you muffins. But there will be more gems, I promise.

The muffins are moist, have just the perfect amount of sweetness and are going fast in my house! This is my second batch in two days. And I bet I'll make them again before the weekend is over. Come on by before we eat them all and I might just give you a taste.

Mother's Day

2009-05-11T10:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was packed full of good food but unfortunately NO photos. For shame for shame.

But I'll go ahead and tell you about the goodness.

Friends came down from the Bay Area and we decided to stay in and eat instead of going out and waiting in long lines at any given restaurant. So I stayed up late and Saturday and made a double batch of Pumpkin Waffles from Vegan With A Vengeance. The smell in the house was incredible. I packed them away and went to bed. In the morning I got the potatoes and herbs into the oven for Herb Roasted Potatoes from VWAV. Those had be baking for a good 50 or so minutes, gave me plenty of time to make the Sun dried tomato and Asparagus Fritatta. Another gem from Isa Chandra Moskowitz. Make sure to have enough for leftovers. This stuff is great the next day for lunch! One of my friends brought fresh berries and apricots to share. The buffet was perfect.

My 17 month old couldn't eat enough of the roasted potatoes, my son ate his weight in waffles, and I had to stop myself from eating all of the frittata.

Later, during naptime for the toddler, I was able to get back into the kitchen and make something from the new Babycakes cookbook by Erin McKenna. I decided on the Rasberry Scones since I still had some berries leftover from brunch. Spelt flour, coconut oil, agave, vanilla extract, some baking soda and hot water along with some fresh berries and you have some delicious scones. Not heavy, not too sweet, not dry or "puck" like. Absolutely perfect! The family ate all but two before dinnertime. I managed to bring two scones to work to share with coworkers. They were a hit. Next I'm going to try and make the Apple Cinnamon Toastie. Looks like a cross between a cake and bread. With just enough sweetness and perfect with a cup of tea.

I'm going to go heat up a pumpkin waffle and have a late breakfast. Next time I'll remember to take some photos before I dive in.

Cookies: Apricot Oatmeal with Walnuts

2009-04-17T10:23:00.001-07:00

Apricot Oatmeal with Walnuts, originally uploaded by erin32mc.

I think I used a recipe from the woman who wrote Get It Ripe, Jae Steele, as my base recipe.I saw it on her blog Domestic Affair But I decided to go for apricots instead of raisins because that is what I had. They were perfect when they were fresh out of the oven. Not too sweet but just enough. Only sweetened with maple syrup and the apricots. The recipe made three dozen. We managed to eat all but one before they got stale. I could go for one of those right now.

Lily is 16 months old

2009-04-01T13:51:00.001-07:00

Baseball game, originally uploaded by erin32mc.

Every Saturday we are at the park for Henry's baseball games. Lily, of course, wants to be on the field with him. But here is a moment where she actually stood still for me to get a shot that I love of her. The pink cheeks and green grass with her blonde hair blowing in the breeze. She's growing up too fast.

8 years old!!!

2009-03-24T13:26:00.001-07:00

8 years old!!!, originally uploaded by erin32mc.

Work has finally slowed down enough for me to breathe again. So this is a big event that has happened in the last two months... my oldest child, Henry, turned 8 years old. Hard to believe that eight years has flown by so quickly.

For his special day, he went to the movies with one friend and his dad. Then out for vegan pizza and then they came home for chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting. And they were nice enough to bring home a couple slices of vegan pizza for me. Yeah! I was suppose to go enjoy the day too, but Lily got sick, so I stayed home and cancelled the babysitter. I licked the frosting bowl to make up for missing the movie.

41

2009-01-18T14:13:00.000-08:00

happy 41st birthday to me.

Change

2009-01-11T08:16:00.000-08:00

A couple weeks ago, a friend sent me a link to Change.org. I haven't had too much time to dive into the site and check everything out. Please check out some information for yourself at http://www.change.org/ideas/faq. I think many of us know that we have to make changes to how humans have been dealing with a lot of problems on our planet. Hopefully this is another way to gather the masses and get the message to the powers that be. For the President of the United States to listen to us, not his own agenda, but the people who elected him. So far in my limited amount of free time, I signed a petition hoping to get vegan options for school meals. I know there are days where I am rushing around trying to get a kid friendly, will stay cold or hot enough until lunchtime meal ready for my 2nd grader. And it would be great if some kids in his class were given the option to try something new, even if they don't plan on going vegan at this point in their young lives. Just to be exposed to a healthier way of eating would be a good start. Wouldn't we all love for people to get back to more fresh ingredients? I know there are many problems out there and me picking vegan options for school lunches might seem unimportant to you. That's fine. We don't have to agree. But go take a look at Change.org and see what is important to you. And let's all hope for lots of changes with our next president. I figure it can only get better, right?

Too much work

2009-01-07T09:40:00.000-08:00

For the last month and a half, it has been "crunch" time at work. Which means a lot of rushing around on my part and not enough cooking time. I've been making meals that can get on the table fast and we've eaten them before any photos have captured the event. Last night was BBQ tempeh with roasted veggies. Leftover BBQ sauce was easy to throw on top of some cut veggies and throw it in the oven for thirty minutes. Not the best meal I've ever tasted but filling and warm. It did the trick. Another night was tofu, indian spices, and cauliflower all thrown in together and baked. Our son was treated to homemade pizza a few times. Always a crowd pleaser. My husband and I just try to throw some more flavor on our side of the pizza to mix it up. The last one I remember was fresh basil and black olives. I have a thing for black olives on pizza. It's hard for me to accept a slice without them. Tonight will probably be a Henry friendly dish. Either Mac and Cheeze from the New Farm Cookbook or pizza... again. I just hope I have some black olives to throw on there or Mommy might be a bit grumpy.

We're walking here.

2008-12-23T13:27:00.001-08:00

We're walking here., originally uploaded by erin32mc.

I love the size difference between my kids at this stage.
That's all I wanted to say. I'm in love with them. I thank them
for choosing me to be their mommy. I truly am lucky.
Can't wait for 2009. Gonna be fun.

Only silly need to apply

2008-12-22T09:22:00.001-08:00

Lily is confused, originally uploaded by erin32mc.

We had a family day yesterday. A big brunch of tempeh crumbles from VWAV, homemade biscuits, golden gravy, and sweet potato hash. Good stuff! Then playing handball or skateboarding. Off to Santa Monica Airport to watch planes land and take off. This was Lily's first time. Henry went MANY times as a kid. Anyways, Lily enjoyed seeing the planes and then we went to the park that is next to the airport. Once she saw the swings, she was smiling from ear to ear! Once we got Lily settled in the swing with Daddy, Henry and I took off to go see the dogs in the dog area of the park. Not much happening. The sun had set and it was getting cold so we decided to head over to Real Food Daily for dinner.

Henry ate a grilled cheeze sandwich while reading a Star Wars comic. Lily polished off a tempeh triangle and some mashed potatoes, although Daddy's sweet potato mash was much better! I can't believe we're ordering kid meals for Lily. But she has a great appetite, so we might as well order her a whole dish to herself.

On the way back to the car, Lily had to walk on her own, alongside all of us. Of course a 2 minute thing became a 15 minute or more thing. But that is totally fine. It was exciting to see her explore.

Now it's back to work for me while the rest of the family is sleeping in on a wet and chilly day. Lucky buggers!

Sheperds pie is good!

2008-12-19T10:52:00.001-08:00

Shepard's pie is good!, originally uploaded by erin32mc.

This photo makes me happy. I love seeing people enjoying food, especially when they are in my family. Lily is eating sheperds pie and she looooves it, as you can see. She went to bed with a full tummy.

Holiday Baking

2008-12-18T09:57:00.001-08:00

Sugar cookies, originally uploaded by erin32mc.

Over the weekend, I did some SERIOUS baking! Must have been nearly 400 cookies and treats. Sugar cookies, snickerdoodles, chocolate chip cookies, and chocolate covered pretzels. Most of it went to my work. My boss likes to send out homemade treat baskets to clients. Four of us at work made treats to send out. Of course, mine were the only vegan ones. My chocolate chip cookies came out PERFECT! So soft. And tons of chocolate chips. Henry thought I overdid it, but I thought it was just right. Funny that he thought I overdid the chocolate, I never thought I would hear those words come out of his mouth.

This weekend we have a cookie exchange party to attend with our vegan family playgroup. Henry has been craving peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, so that is what we are making. That's our family activity for the week.

Baked treats

2008-12-08T13:11:00.001-08:00

This was Lily's birthday cupcake. It is zucchini spelt with a vegan cream cheese frosting. Lily doesn't eat wheat yet but I wanted her to have something "birthday" like. So this is what she got. She didn't eat. She just wanted to hear people sing Happy Birthday to her and clap. She does not have a sweet tooth. She wants savory more than anything. So to make up for her passing on her cupcake, I ate four of these. Most of which were eaten late at night when the kids were asleep. The frosting was really good, I ate that straight out of the bowl! But don't we all? The frosting, I think, was from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. The muffin recipe was from Dreena Burton's last book Eat, Drink, Be Vegan.

This is the cake that I made for everyone else to eat at Lily's 1st birthday celebration. It is a basic vanilla cake recipe and fudge frosting. My son loves this cake! It's the cake that we always make for his birthday. So , since Lily is too young to pick, Henry was able to pick for her. Score!

After Thanksgiving, I was still in the mood to bake. I had a huge bag of apples that my Aunt Suzie gave to me. I don't know where the kids were, my husband must have been out with them or something, but I was able to make the crust from scratch and dive into this beautiful pie without any interruptions. It was delicious. Too bad I didn't have some soy ice cream in the freezer. That would have been amazing! I guess I'll have to make it again. I used a recipe from Julie Hasson's book, The Complete Book of Pies. Her recipes are very straightforward and easy to follow. Even though there are non-vegan recipes in the book, she has done a great job of noting where a recipe can be veganized. I need to make more pies from this book. But this apple pie was a good place to start.

YEAH!!!

2008-12-01T16:22:00.001-08:00

YEAH!!!, originally uploaded by erin32mc.

Lily is 1 year old!!!!! We celebrated her birthday on Thanksgiving with my family. I made a two layer vanilla cake with fudge frosting for the family. Lily had a zucchini spelt muffin with vegan cream cheese frosting. She was not interested in the muffin at all. She just wanted to look at everyone looking at her. At the end of the birthday song, she clapped with the family and got off my lap to walk around.

I can't believe she is already one year old. Amazing how fast time flies by. Of course I cried a little on her birthday. I wish I could slow down time a little. I don't want her to be a baby forever. I just want to cherish it a little bit longer.

Thanks for joining our family, Lily. I hope you know how much I love you.

Halloween 2008

2008-11-15T10:43:00.001-08:00

Lily as a crawling dinosaur.

Henry as Gene Simmons from KISS

I know Halloween was a little while ago, but I never posted photos of the kiddies. Henry is really into KISS. Thanks to his dad. It went over well with adults. His fellow classmates didn't have a clue to who he was. Lily, of course was clueless to Halloween, but we dressed her up in a hand me down outfit. Henry called all the shots on which houses to go to and when to stop. Surprisingly he stopped at 8pm, I expected him to go much longer. Next years costume has already been talked about. So far he thinks Paul Stanley or Ace Frehley of KISS. I bet he'll go through many ideas in the year to the next Halloween.

In the last week, I've got back to the office to do work. I've been working from home since Lily was born. And it has been wonderful. A little crazy at times trying to balance family and work but for the most part it was great. The office has been nutty, so they asked me to come back in. Hopefully it is temporary but I'll just be thankful for the time I had at home and be quiet. My husband is the stay at home parent and is doing a great job. It's rough juggling two kids and their activities. Somehow it all works out and dinner is on the table. As I said, work has been nutty, so I better get back to it.

Mixed feelings

2008-11-06T14:44:00.000-08:00

So obviously, I'm happy about our next president being Obama and not McCain. But I am disappointed in California for passing Proposition 8. I can't even talk about it. Breaks my heart. I was talking about the outcome election day with my son, who is 7 1/2 years old. When I explained Prop.8, in simple terms, he was sad thinking that two friends of his would have to choose which mommy they wanted to keep living with. Obviously I needed to do a little more explaining. At the end of the discussion, he asked "Why does it matter to people who someone marries?" I couldn't have said it better myself.

Vote!

2008-11-04T09:26:00.000-08:00

Get out there and vote people! Obviously you know who I'm voting for.

Time to cozy up!

2008-11-03T09:15:00.001-08:00

Finally it is feeling like Fall weather in Los Angeles. Grey clouds. Possibility of rain at any minute. A chill in the air. I love this time of year. It is gorgeous! Absolutely gorgeous. All I want to do is cook and bake. Work is getting in my way. But trust me, I'll manage to squeeze some kind cooking into my day. Maybe some biscuits to go along with a nice pumpkin soup or a thick stew. I'll find the perfect thing and it's going to be good. Warm up the house and my family. Let's hope this chill lasts.

Vegan MoFo: Cookies

2008-10-29T10:24:00.001-07:00

Chocolate Chip Cookies, originally uploaded by erin32mc.

For the first time in days or maybe even weeks, my kids went to sleep at a decent time! They were both asleep before 9pm and I had the place to myself. I can't tell you how much I love moments like those. I could go on for days and days. But I won't. But what I will tell you is that since they were both asleep and I still had some energy, I baked. Nothing fancy. Nothing new. Just simple and delicious chocolate chip cookies. My go to recipe for chocolate chip cookies is always from Vive Le Vegan by Dreena Burton. Before I found this recipe, I just used the Tollhouse recipe that my grandmother used. You know the one, on the back of the bag of chocolate chips. Yes, that one. But Dreena Burton's recipe is more simple. No egg replacer and she uses maple syrup which adds a great flavor to the cookie.

Chocolate chip cookies always make me think of my grandma. The one who cooked from scratch. When you would visit her house, she'd have a tin of chocolate chip cookies waiting for us. The tin was always on top of her bread box. After giving her a hug, I'd wait for the adults to start talking, and then I would sneak off to the kitchen to find the cookies. My brothers didn't have the same need for sweets as I did, they still don't. My dad and I are the sugar junkies. So I didn't have to fight way to the cookie tin. It was a peaceful, quiet moment. Then pour a glass of milk, now I always drink plain rice milk, and sit at the counter that separated the kitchen from the dining room, in a spinning bar stool. Soon my dad would come in and join me. He would stand across from me and we'd chit chat about nothing while we dunked our cookies.

As my grandmother aged, her cookies did too. They didn't taste as wonderful. But no matter how tired she was, she always made them when we came to visit her. So my dad and I always ate them. And took the leftovers home to show her how much we appreciated the treats. Sometimes I would ask to make them with her, but she didn't like people in her kitchen. She liked cooking alone. It was her domain. It took quite awhile for her to accept me cooking my vegan food in her kitchen. She wanted to kick me out but I kept explaining that I needed to cook my food separately from hers and I wasn't trying to disrespect her. The meals I made there were always simple, so that I didn't hang out on her turf for too long. After my grandfather died, my grandma moved in with one of my cousins. That way she wasn't alone. I never saw her cook again and she never had cookies waiting for us when we would visit. She didn't care what I did in the kitchen, she would grumble that it wasn't hers anyways, it belonged to my cousin, so do as I please. Funny, but I missed the struggle. I wanted her to get up and push me out of the kitchen. To try and take over. But it wasn't going to happen. The desire to cook was gone for her. Before she passed away in 2004, she asked if there was anything I wanted of hers. I went straight to the kitchen and requested her mixing bowl ( a beat up yellow pyrex bowl) and the cookie tin. She thought it was funny that I wasn't asking for pictures or jewelry. But I had the photos I needed to remember her by, for when that time came. And I don't like jewelry. I just needed to have her cookie making supplies so that when I made cookies for my family, she would be there with me.

Vegan MoFo: Chocolate Spread

2008-10-26T12:05:00.001-07:00

When I order stuff online, I always check the "sales" page to see if I can find any good deals. Last week I ordered from Pangea and got a few sales items. The Ritter Sport Peppermint chocolate was a GREAT sales find. But another thing I ordered wasn't so great. It was chocolate spread made for Pangea. I was hoping for something that tasted like Nutella. I use to love that stuff. Probably enjoyed it too much. Anyways, I ordered the spread since it was only 3 dollars. (Now on sale for 99 cents.) Quite the deal, I thought. I took a spoonful and it was oily. Kind of slick. So I put it away and thought I'd deal with it later. That maybe I could think of something to use it for that would mask the oily texture of the spread. Flash forward to the other day, when I was craving chocolate and I grabbed the spread. Went back to the computer, where I do my job, and ate a spoonful here and there throughout the day. Have you guessed what happened yet? I'm sure you have. I ended up eating the whole jar! I felt like crap! Such a headache and tummyache. Yuck. It wasn't bad enough that I didn't really like it but to eat it all when I didn't really like it makes me feel like crap. I should've just thrown it away. Three dollars wasted. I've wasted more on stuff before. But here it is. In all of it's emptiness. Blech!

11 months old!

2008-10-26T10:58:00.000-07:00

The photo is Lily in part of Henry's Halloween costume. Henry is going to be Gene Simmons of KISS. Matt made bat wings and attached them to the shirt. Very cool. I'll post more photos of that later, for now I just can't believe it has been 11 months since Lily was born. And of course that means, one more month and she's a year old! That blows my mind. This time has flown by so quickly. Too quickly. She is on a mission to catch up to Henry and other big kids that she observes. Last night, Henry was in his loft (it's a low loft, only three feet off the ground) and Lily climbed up the ladder to get to him. I didn't stop her, just stayed right behind her to catch her if she fell. Well she didn't need any help. She got up to the bed without a problem. Then she went up three more times. We finally had to put a gate up on Henry's bedroom door so she wouldn't wake him up. Normally Lily would be asleep before or at the same time as Henry, but since she has so many new things to try out, she's up until 10 or so every night. And she still wakes up super happy and silly. See....

Vegan MoFo: Pizza

2008-10-24T11:20:00.001-07:00

PIZZA!, originally uploaded by erin32mc.

Of course, this is one of Henry's favorite meals. What kid doesn't love pizza? Well, I'm sure there are some out there who don't, but let's ignore them right now.

Henry loves pizza but he loves plain pizza. Crust, sauce, and FYH (Follow Your Heart) cheeze. That's it. Nothing else. Which I can accept...but that gets old for me and his dad. So we made a deal. Half the pizza is for him and half is for us. So on our side you can see we had black olives and tempeh sausage crumble from Vegan With A Vengeance and under the FYH cheeze, I have hidden soy pepperoni. It dries out when it is on top of the cheeze, so hiding it keeps it moist. Before we had kid #2, I made the dough from scratch. This isn't the story anymore. Now I buy it ready made from Trader Joe's. We try to always have a package in the fridge. You don't get that lovely yeasty dough smell in the house like you do when you make it from scratch, but sometimes you just don't have the time.

If Henry wasn't allergic to pineapple, I would've thrown some chunks on there too. Maybe next time I'll make two separate pizzas. Then I can load up on pineapple and soy pepperoni. That's one of my favorite pizza topping combos! Good stuff if you haven't tried it. What's your favorite pizza toppings?

Vegan MoFo: Tofu Spinach Pie

2008-10-22T10:15:00.001-07:00

Tofu Spinach Pie, originally uploaded by erin32mc.

I love this dinner! Ever since Matt made it for me 14 years ago, I have loved this meal. And now, our son likes it too. He doesn't love it , but that's okay. I'm just happy that he'll eat it. It comes from The New Farm Cookbook.

Crust:
3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup of Earth Balance
Mix together until crumbly. Then add 3/4 cup of cold water. Mix until a nice dough forms. Split into two balls. Roll out on to fit your rectangular pan. Poke a few holes in it with a fork. Prebake the bottom shell in the oven at 400 degrees. 15 minutes should be good enough. Roll out other ball of dough and have it ready for later.

Mixture:

one large onion, chopped

bag of chopped frozen spinach

package of firm tofu, crumbled

1 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. salt

juice from 1/2 a lemon

pine nuts (optional)

nutritional yeast (optional)

Saute chopped onions in a little olive oil. Throw in spinach,garlic powder, salt and warm that up. Put in crumbled tofu. Mix it up. Squeeze lemon over and throw in nutritional yeast and some pine nuts, if using. When warmed thru, it's done. Throw this in the prebaked shell and then cover with other piece of dough. Put a few holes with a fork for steam to escape. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Look for a nicely browned crust. Cut and enjoy!

This is a great food item to take to a potluck. It serves loads of folks if you cut the portions small. But if it's just you and few folks, you have enough for HUGE portions and maybe even lunch tomorrow! Which is what I'm having right now.

Vegan MoFo: PPK October Care Package

2008-10-19T22:37:00.000-07:00

On the PPK Forum, a care package swap was set up (by Katie of Don't Eat Off the Sidewalk) for those that wanted to participate. I had wanted to join in last year, but didn't have enough posts to the forum. But this time around, I was able to jump in. Yeah! I got paired up with a person in Vermont. She sent me a great care package. The only thing I requested was butterscotch chips. I had heard a lot about these and I can't get them in Los Angeles, CA. Other than that, I left it up to her on what to put in the box.
The first thing I tried was the maple candies that are in the shape of frogs. SWEET! Wow! Made my teeth hurt a little bit. I think I could take a little nibble and be completely satisfied. Eating the entire candy frog was too intense. Next up was a sample of the BBQ chips. Tasty. I love BBQ chips. Ranks up there with salt and vinegar chips. Then I tried one of the chocolate bars that had a cream center. That was amazing! I devoured that. Didn't share one bit of it with my family. On Saturday, I baked cookies and of course I threw in the butterscotch chips! They were good. I prefer chocolate chips, but obviously it was nice to have a different flavor. My son and mom really liked the butterscotch chip cookies. They wanted to eat a few more. I haven't tried the other chocolate (chocolate mint and spicy chocolate) or the maple syrup. But you can't go wrong with natural pure syrup! And I'll crack open the blueberry-rhubarb jam the next time I make a PB&J. I've never heard of that combination before. I'm looking forward to it. My husband has his eyes on the gingersnap cookies and since I didn't share the chocolate bar, I'll let him have those. I'll just make sure to get a taste before they are gone. Thanks a lot, Becca. Your choices were awesome!

She can walk!

2008-10-19T10:34:00.000-07:00

As of Friday, October 17, Lily is walking. First it was three steps at a time, then plop! Back to crawling. Then it became five steps at a time. Yesterday she was doing fifteen steps at a time. Life as we know it in our house just got turned upside down again, in a good way! I haven't gotten any good photos of her actually in upright motion, hopefully I'll get some soon.

Vegan MoFo: Store bought treat

2008-10-17T11:20:00.001-07:00

Ritter Sport, originally uploaded by erin32mc.

On The PPK Forum, I have heard about the peppermint Ritter Sport chocolate. While looking around on a few of the vegan sites (Vegan Essentials, Pangea,etc), I found these babies on sale on Pangea! I love me a good sale. So I ordered three of these, some Tartex, and a chocolate spread that I haven't tried yet.

When the box arrived, the chocolate mints were melting. So I threw them in the fridge and waited. Waited for cold chocolate mint perfection! Last night, when everyone was out, I opened up my first package and tasted the Ritter Sport for the first time. YUM! It was good. Good like York Peppermint Patty good. I ate the entire package, minus two squares that I gave to my mom. I didn't feel so good at the end of that package. But doesn't take away from how great the chocolate tasted.

If you haven't tried one of these babies, go! Get yourself one. You won't regret it.

Vegan MoFo: They're here!

2008-10-16T11:46:00.001-07:00

Persimmons! Yesterday, my husband and daughter went to the Santa Monica Farmer's Market to get the usual (onions, garlic, celery, dates, apples, berries). But we have an agreement that if something stands out or catches their eyes, that they will add that special item to the goods.
Yesterday that special item was my beloved persimmons. There are two types of persimmons. I only have a love for one. The kind that looks like a flattened tomato, otherwise known as Fuyu. The type of persimmon I don't have a love for is the Hachiya. The one that looks like a big acorn and has to be eaten when it is ripe. Really ripe. The Fuyu can be eaten firm or soft. I like the texture of it when it is firm. Like a firm apple.

So far I have never done anything with a persimmon but cut it up and eat it straight. I eat as many as I can, without making myself sick, when it is their season. Maybe this year, I will actually make something with my beloved persimmon. Maybe ice cream or muffins. Or toss them with roasted sweet potatoes. Today, I'm just going to eat it straight. Pure persimmon.

Vegan MoFo: Healthy food equals healthy son

2008-10-14T17:33:00.000-07:00

This is off the path a little bit but somewhat related since I'm talking about my son, who has been raised a vegan. He was born at 10 pounds 14 ounces and 22 inches long. By the time he was four months old, he was 22 pounds. Once he got mobile, he leaned out a bit. Even though Henry has been a picky eater since he was 2 1/2 years old, we still manage to get good food into him. And don't worry, he still gets treats here and there. He doesn't go without! That's for sure. Now Henry is 7 1/2 years old. Every year, he is suppose to go in for a well child check up. I meant to have him go in during the summer for the check up but it didn't happen. So he had his 7 year check up today. He passed with flying colors.

It was fun to watch and listen to him answer all the doctor's questions. First was the weigh in. 56 pounds. Height is 49 inches. He's grown from last year. That's always a good sign.

Next up was the vision exam. 15/30. Doctor said that is fine. Anything below 50 is perfectly right on for young kids. Then into the exam room for questions. Henry showed her his homework, was eating a banana and drinking coconut water in front of her, and then showed off some of his martial art moves. Then when she started doing the eye,ear, tonsil check. Henry made sure to pull up his sleeve and show her his muscles. Heart good. Lungs clear. Then a few questions to see about his developmental growth. She asked him what a pen was and his response was "A writing tool that does not erase." I liked that one. Made me giggle a bit. Next was a clock, which he responded "Something that tells us time and has the numbers one to twelve on it." He tried talking to her about poltergeists, but she said she didn't know much about them. He told her to get a book from a library so she could find out about them. I never knew that Henry knew the word "poltergeists" until that moment. Henry asked if he had to do a blood test, she said no, just urine. So Henry peed in a cup, washed his hands, grabbed a bug toy, and said his goodbyes.

Even though I know Henry is healthy and growing. It's always nice to have that back up from the doctor's file that shows his growth on a chart. To hear from a "professional" that he is doing great.

So if any of your friends, family, or coworkers question that a vegan diet doesn't give a growing child what they need, here's one example that shows them wrong. Now it's time for me to cook up a dinner. Have a good night.

Vegan MoFo: Another fast dinner

2008-10-14T11:39:00.001-07:00

Curry Fennel Cauliflower Bake, originally uploaded by erin32mc.

Another gem from La Dolce Vegan by Sarah Kramer. It is called Curry Fennel Cauliflower Bake. All of the work was in the chopping of the vegetables and tofu. Once you have that out of the way, throw it all into a big baking dish with some olive oil, garam masala, fennel seeds, salt, and some black pepper. Let it bake for thirty minutes. Play with your kids, do a crossword, wash some dishes, or just stare at a wall. When the timer goes off, throw in some peas and cilantro. Let the peas warm up for a few minutes. And you are done. The smell was fantastic! Even my picky seven year old loved the smell that was coming from the oven.

I served it over basmati rice and dug in. My husband and I had two big servings each. Our son ate everything but the peas and onions. He actually ate cauliflower!!! That is a first in our house. And he loved the flavor of the tofu. Next time I'll probably throw in more tofu. Henry was searching through our bowls for leftover tofu, it was that good.

Vegan MoFo: My pantry

2008-10-13T10:05:00.001-07:00

pantry, originally uploaded by erin32mc.

I don't have a huge pantry, but I seem to manage. As you can see, the top shelf is almost all pasta. I love pasta. The family gets a bit tired of it, but I could eat it practically everyday. So simple and filling. I don't really like brown rice pasta myself but I keep that for Lily. She loves it. Henry will accept it in a pinch, but he'd prefer the "usual" pasta. We go through a jar of peanut butter in a week, easy. Maybe even more than that. Henry eats it in his soy yogurt and loves his PB&J! The second shelf is mainly for my canned goods. Lots of beans (black eyed peas, pinto, black, butter). I love beans. If only I could convince Henry to eat them. I even told him he would "toot" more if he ate beans. I thought for sure that would work on a 7 year old boy. No such luck. I'll have to try another angle. Although I do get him to eat chickpeas by making the chickpea cutlets from Veganomicon. He loves those as long as they are SUPER crispy!

Taking up a big amount of space on the shelf is our nutritional yeast. Ever since I tasted this on popcorn back in 1991, I have always had some in the pantry. Usually, I buy this in bulk. My co-op was out for a few weeks, so I was forced to buy it from Whole Foods. I usually have a mason jar twice this size packed with the nooch! And then of course I have some diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, ketchup sweetened with agave, and random items like pudding mixes for a quick treat on the bottom shelf.

I wish this pantry was larger so I could have even more goodies in here. But I have the basics and they get me by. On any given night, I have no problem fixing a quick meal for the family if I don't have a lot of time. Chili, pasta with red sauce, beans and grains, pumpkin muffins, and pb&j's are always available at my house. So if you stop on by, unannounced, you know what you'll be eating.

Vegan MoFo: Simple and new

2008-10-11T20:23:00.001-07:00

Berry Oat Squares, originally uploaded by erin32mc.

So I said I wanted to try something from La Dolce Vegan and I did. This morning I woke up to a chilly home, chilly for Los Angeles. So to warm it up in the best possible way, I turned on the oven and got cooking. I picked Berry Oat Squares out of La Dolce Vegan. Simple and pretty quick. Oats, sugar, flour, margarine all go together for the crust and topping. Blueberries, blueberry jam, and a bit of flour were the middle a section. Prebake the bottom layer, then add on the berries, throw on the top layer and bake for 20 minutes. Out comes a simple and tasty treat. I ate my first slice over the stove. Didn't even bother with a bowl. My second slice is the one in the photograph. My third slice was after watching Henry play in his soccer game. I'm trying to hold off until tomorrow for the next piece. I don't know if I'll make it until then.

Also, if you like the bowl, you can order one of your own! Go to etsy.com and you can shop for lots of vegan dishes. The bowl in the photo is my son's and it actually says *vegan henry* on it. And of course we have one for our daughter too but she can't have it until she stops throwing everything she picks up.