Back in the Kitchen

Wow, I can't believe it's Thursday already! This week has FLOWN by. I'm already getting excited for the weekend!

It's been a busy week. On Monday, my son woke up with a bad cold and it also rained over 5 inches (!!) in my town, so we decided to just stay inside all day and snuggle in my chair. We read books, watched Cars, played with some toys, and were just cuddle bunnies all day :) My son is just the sweetest little thing and it makes me sad to see him sick. But it was good to just take a day and rest. It was not, however, a good day for me and my juicer. Apparently, even some juices are a little too hardcore for me.

I didn't have cucumber, lemon juice, fruit, or anything else to make this taste better. It was straight up collard leaves, celery, ginger, carrot, and romaine. It was not good. I consoled myself with a delicious carrot-ginger smoothie afterward.

On Tuesday, he was feeling a little better, so we made a quick run to BJ's to stock up on the essentials. In my house, the essentials are: 6 cartons of Silk soymilk, 1 large bottle of carrot juice, 2 English cucumbers, 1 lb of baby spinach, 9 lbs of bananas (hey, those smoothies don't make themselves!), a 4-lb bag of raisins, a gallon of Almond Breeze almond milk, and Megamind. (Okay, Megamind isn't technically an essential, but it's very funny...and it was on sale :)

Yesterday, my hubby surprised me by coming home from work at 9:30 in the morning and announcing that he had taken the rest of the day off. This was indeed surprising, as he's only taken one day off this entire year! I was totally psyched. My son seemed to be feeling better, too, so we decided to pack up and head to the beach. I grew up in Newport, RI, and my parents still live there, so we headed on down to their house so we could hit the beach with my Mom.

He could spend hours playing this game: "Where's my foot? Where's my foot? There it is!"

I think he had a little too much fun at the beach, though, because he woke up feeling warm this morning :( So, another day in the house was called for. My son actually asked to cook something with me this morning (*swoon*), so I decided we should make some snacky food. I thought it would be fun to try something out of Peas and Thank You, since I hadn't made anything out of the cookbook yet.

First up: Pumpkin Spice-Roasted Chickpeas (recipe here). Chickpeas, maple syrup, canola oil, cider vinegar, salt, nutmeg, ginger, and cinnamon are tossed together and roasted until they become crispy. Here are the chickpeas, fresh out of the toaster oven:

 I put them in a little container in the fridge for easy snackin':

We also made Chewy Energy bars (recipe similar to the one here). Maybe these will help me kick my Larabar habit.

After these were done, my poor little guy was needing a nap, so I put him to bed and then came downstairs, pondering what to make for lunch. I was feeling like chickpea salad, so I started grabbing some stuff out of the fridge and pantry, and in 5 minutes flat, I had a tasty lunch ready!

Speedy Chickpea Salad
Serves 4

1 15-oz can organic chickpeas, rinsed and drained
2 tablespoons Vegenaise
1 tablespoon capers plus 2 teaspoons brine
2 medium stalks celery, finely chopped
1 scallion, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon dulse granules (can substitute sea salt, to taste)

Mash chickpeas in a sturdy bowl with a potato masher. Add the rest of the ingredients and combine.

I decided to use it in some collard wraps. I destemmed a large collard leaf, then added some romaine lettuce and a big scoop of my chickpea salad.

I topped this with some sliced grape tomatoes...

And then rolled it up like a burrito.

I also had some stuffed into some little romaine leaves. I actually preferred these to the collard wrap!

I was pretty happy with how my quick 'n easy lunch turned out!

My son's up from his nap, and he just told me "I'm upset because you're on the computer." I think it's time for me to sign off :)

Raw Wraps and Juice

Oy, I have not been a good blogger lately. I am so behind on my posts. I have been eating, rest assured, but my meals are waiting patiently on my computer to be shared with the world (and by world, I mean the 3 people out there that read my blog :) 

Let's recap Monday's eats....

I started the day with some yoga, then I chugged choked down this green juice:

Believe me when I tell you, I was singing the "Well, you're not hard core...." song in my head the whole time I was drinking this. Apparently, using 15 or so leftover collard stems makes your juice really spicy. There was also some celery, carrot, lemon juice, cucumber, romaine lettuce, and ginger in here, not that it mattered. All I could taste was really spicy collard stems. It took me two sittings to get this down! I really earned that Carrot-Ginger Smoothie later in the morning!!

For dinner, we noshed on Gena's Indian Wraps, which totally rawk, by the way. I slow roasted my veggies instead of dehydrating them, though, because I'm a lazy bugger. I really hate cleaning my dehydrator!

I credit Gena with giving me the courage to try raw collard wraps. I always thought they would be really chewy and kind of gross, but turns out, I love them!!

Here's the assembly line: de-stemmed collard leaf, topped with Gena's Curried Cashew Spread...

 ...some julienned carrots....

 ...and some slow roasted veggies. I used red bell pepper, eggplant, zucchini, and carrots.

 Roll them up, stick some toothpicks in them, and call it a day.

 Well, it's a day after I added some steamed green beans and some chickpeas :)

These wraps are so good. They're perfect anytime, but especially during this warmer weather!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Wow, life has been crazy lately! With the long holiday weekend, my hubby's birthday, music class, mom's group outings, and other things going on, I've been super busy and haven't had a chance to blog. Truthfully, I've also had several nights lately where I've eaten some "repeats" and thus didn't feel the need to blog about them. But here are some of the yummy things I have had lately...

Green juice with celery, cucumber, ginger, carrot, spinach, and lemon juice:

Creamy Asian Pear and Tempeh Salad with Wasabi Dressing from Veganomicon, seaweed & wasabi rice crackers, and an Asian salad (not pictured):

And, for my hubby's birthday, a special dinner and birthday treat. He requested the Chile Cornmeal-Crusted Tofu Po'Boys from Veganomicon:

This sandwich is the bomb-diggity. For realz. The tofu is mega-delicious and almost sort of catfish-like:

The tofu is baked and served on a crusty baguette with some cholula-spiked Vegenaise, cabbage slaw, and pickles. I had some extra cornmeal mixture left, so I decided to toss some chickpeas in it and roast them. They were really good - all 3 of us loved them!!

For his birthday dessert, he chose something new to try, the Toasted Coconut Cupcakes with Coffee Buttercream Frosting from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I did not let my lack of on-hand ingredients deter me - off to Whole Foods I went to get the necessary coffee extract, coconut extract, and vegan shortening. My hubby is an amazing man and I was happy to bake him something special for his birthday! The cupcakes, by the way, were A-MAZING. And I am no baker, believe me!

My son was excited to try one of Daddy's birthday "pupcakes" -- too cute! He liked it, although I replaced his frosting with some coconut butter, which he loves anyway. I wasn't risking a big sugar-high right before bedtime!!

Finally, I hosted my mother's group at my home yesterday. I planned a scavenger hunt/nature hike-themed outing and thought that "ants-on-a-log" would make a fun snack:

It's just sunflower seed butter, raisins, and organic celery. Easy-peasy!

Learning the Ropes

Hey there! I had a really busy weekend so I didn't have much time for blogging :) But sometimes it's good to get away from the computer and enjoy real life!!

I'm still a newbie when it comes to blogging, and as such, I'm learning as I go. I'm also making tons of "rookie" mistakes, such as....

...remembering to take pictures of the food prep, but not the finished product. Duh.

Yeah, this was for Thursday night's dinner. Contrary to appearances, we did not eat a bowl of marinade and 3 sliced avocados. We had Avocado Chimichurri Bruschetta from Vegetarian Times magazine. I think I forgot to take a picture because this is one of our favorite things to eat EVER! I can't even count how many times I've shared this recipe with others. Everyone who tries it LOVES it!! Oh well, I'll have to remember to take a pic next time!!

Another rookie mistake: going out to dinner, but forgetting to take pictures of the food. Double duh. I did remember to take one picture of my hubby enjoying our (shared) flight of beer and veggie calzone Friday night at Mews Tavern:

...but I forgot to change the setting on my camera. So the picture would, you know, come out and all. Silly blogger! And I forgot to take pictures of the rest of our food: sweet potato fries, veggie nachos, and (more) beer. Rest assured...it was all delicious!

I did remember to take a picture of the yummy new snack I picked up at Trader Joe's...

I looooooved this! I love seaweed rice crackers, dulse, arame , and wakame, so I was hoping I'd like these, too. And I did. I'll be buying more next time I'm at TJ's because they're only 99 cents - woo!

I also remembered to take a picture of my newest smoothie creation: Chocolate-Dipped Strawberry!

...but in my zeal to drink this baby, I forgot to add the frozen banana. I was like, WOW, this is really tart. Then I saw my bag of frozen bananas on the counter. Tee hee. I added the frozen banana and it was So.Much.Better! LOL This is what happens when you don't sleep through the night for 2 years.

Chocolate-Dipped Strawberry Smoothie
Makes 1 large serving / 2 small servings

1 cup frozen strawberries
1 large frozen banana
1 1/2 cups water
1 heaping tablespoon raw cacao powder
1 heaping tablespoon raw almond butter
5-6 drops liquid chocolate stevia, or to taste
5-6 ice cubes, to taste

Blend on high until smooth!

Saturday was a busy day with our nephew's birthday party during the early afternoon, and yard work/mowing the lawn in the late afternoon. My hubby and I weren't all that hungry at dinner time, so we decided to just get cleaned up and eat after we put our son to bed. Around 8 pm, we settled in to watch the Red Sox-Yankees baseball game and eat some Amy's frozen meals - I had the Brown Rice, Black-Eyed Peas, & Veggies Bowl, and my hubby had the Black Bean Vegetable Enchiladas. We also noshed on some baby carrots, popcorn, and wasabi peas. We'd both run 5 miles Saturday morning and also each spent 1 hour mowing our lawn (we split it - he did the front, I did the back - but we have a HUGE lawn so it takes 2 hours!!), so we were hungry!

Sunday was a nice, lazy day around the house after church in the morning. Since I had time to cook, I decided to make something new, the Peanut-Lime Tempeh Bowl out of Appetite for Reduction. This is a bowl consisting of cooked quinoa, steamed broccoli, steamed zucchini, shredded raw carrots, shredded cucumber, shredded romaine lettuce, cilantro, and Peanut-Lime Dragon Dressing. I preshredded the carrots and cucumber earlier in the day and stuck them in the fridge...which is why I was halfway through eating dinner when I realized I had forgotten them. *Sigh.*

At least our lunch leftovers had the carrots and cucumber. Good thing, because they made it extra yummy!

I think I'm back on track today. After yoga, I remembered to take a picture of my morning juice:

Mmmm, this may have been my best yet! This one contained a head of organic romaine lettuce, carrots, celery, cucumber, zucchini, ginger, and lemon juice. Definitely NOT hard core...this is a juice even a juice newbie would enjoy!

Later I enjoyed a frosty, delicious Carrot-Ginger Smoothie:

Notice no greens in the carrot smoothie...I was completely out of fresh greens :( Happily, I went grocery shopping this morning so I'm "back in the green!"

Tonight's dinner is an oldie but goodie...a raw soup and salad combo that I've been making for a couple of years now. I love to have raw soup and salad for dinner on Mondays...combined with my morning yoga and juice, it just feels like a nice way to start the week fresh. Especially after a weekend full of beer, fries, nachos, and calzones :) But, hey, I'm a big believer in balance - I can enjoy my occasional beer and pub food because I also have my juices, raw soups, and big salads. Everything in moderation!

Mother's Day Recap

Happy belated Mother's Day to all you mommies out there! :) I had a wonderful day with my hubby and son. Yesterday was especially special to me because it marked two years to the day that my son came home! He was just 11 weeks old when he came into our home and made me the happiest Mommy :) I love him so much and he is such a joy to my hubby and me!

My hubby asked me what I wanted to do for Mother's Day. Now, I'm very much a tomboy - always have been, and probably always will be. I like to watch sports, play sports, talk sports, and wear comfy clothes. I have no use for makeup and I spend 3 minutes on my hair everyday. As such, he knew I wouldn't want typical Mother's Day fare such as brunch or a manicure. I suggested an activity that I thought we'd all enjoy together - indoor rock climbing at Rock Spot Climbing in Lincoln, RI. And Mommy was right - it was awesome!

My son had an absolute blast - he loved climbing and especially descending! :) They had a little harness for him to wear and my hubby belayed him up and down the wall. The smiles and laughs from him were definitely the highlight of my day! :)

Here's a pic of me scaling one of the walls:

What a workout! My arms and hands were completely dead after this :) It also worked up quite an appetite for us all. On the drive back home, I mentioned that I was really in the mood for another Mexican pizza ilk we made last night. Hubby smiled and said that sounded good to him, and since it was Mother's Day and all, I decided to just go ahead and indulge! Pizza two nights in a row? Why not! And it was just as yummy as Saturday night's pizza :)

I actually expected my hubby and I to be completely sore and immobile this morning, but to our mutual surprise, neither one of us felt sore at all despite yesterday's rock climbing adventure. Score! I decided to do yoga this morning to stretch out the kinks.

After yoga, it was time for my Monday morning juice. Today's was a bunch of organic collard leaves, carrots, celery, ginger, and lemon juice:

Love that bright green color! It didn't taste too hard-core so I didn't have to sing my hard-core-juice song :)

I wasn't feeling too hungry today, so I waited until lunchtime to have my carrot smoothie. By early afternoon, I was craving broccoli for some reason (??) so I steamed up some frozen broccoli and topped it with a little bit of tahini and fresh lime juice. It hit the spot! For the record, I don't think I've ever had a broccoli craving before. Weird.

Tonight I will be making the raw soup I was supposed to make on Friday. It's one of our favorites so I'm sure we'll all have happy tummies tonight!

Monday Miscellany

Monday morning means two things to me: yoga and juice (actually, it means #@!%^&$* but I'm trying to set a good example for my son :) Admittedly, I wasn't much in the mood to get out of bed this morning, but my back and neck were feeling a little cranky so I was hoping that yoga would help. Thankfully, the yoga did help stretch things out a bit, although my typical Hunchback-of-Notre-Dame posture helped erase the benefits by noontime. Sigh.

Ah well. Yoga is still good for the mind, body, and soul, and that's why I enjoy it. Plus, it's easy for me to do in the comforts of my living room while my son plays around me and treats my inverted poses like tunnels to crawl through. It always makes me smile and laugh :)

After yoga, it was time for my juice. Today's concoction was another one that had me singing "Well, you're not hardcore...." :) This one contained a bunch of collard greens, cilantro, beet, carrots, celery, cucumber, ginger, and lemon. I equate the hardcore-factor of my juices to how dark and green they are - witness the evidence:

Now that's hardcore ;-D

As usual, I followed up my juice with another Monday fave, a Carrot Greens Smoothie (recipe here). My hubby commented yesterday that he could never drink smoothies with spinach and kale and collards in them. I told him how you don't even taste them, and with a Vita-Mix, it blends it up so well that you don't even "feel" them. I think baby spinach adds a subtle sweetness to the smoothies, so I add it to almost every smoothie I make!

Lunch was leftovers from last night's dinner, the Wild Rice Salad with Oranges and Beets and Basic Baked Tempeh from Appetite for Reduction. Silly me, I forgot to take a picture last night, so here is my lunch in all its glory:

Big plate of pink deliciousness

Yeah, tempeh doesn't always look that great, but it tastes AMAZING!

The salad was even better the next day, since the flavors had a chance to meld overnight. The salad is cooked and cooled brown & wild rice, sliced baked beets, spinach, oranges, and toasted sesame seeds tossed with an orange-sesame vinaigrette. I heart beets (heart beets...heartbeats...ha! I just got that!) so I knew I would enjoy this salad. And I did! It was great. And I heart tempeh too so I loved this simple preparation. My son loves tempeh so he enjoyed that, but I think the salad was too...avant-garde for him, so he just ate a few bites of the beets and called it a day. No matter. I love that my son is willing to try almost everything I've given him. All I ask is that he take one bite and try, and he does, 99% of the time. Sometimes he surprises me with what he likes, and sometimes he surprises me with what he doesn't like (such as millet - why? I've had him try it 10 times and he still spits it out...must be a texture thing!), but the important thing is that he tries. I think that's a good lesson for all of us!

This afternoon, I was starting to get a bit of a caffeine headache, so I decided I should remedy that and make a Chocolate Mint Smoothie:

Chocolate Mint Smoothie
Makes 1 large serving or 2 small servings

1 1/2 cups water
1 heaping tablespoon raw cacao powder
1 droppers-full of peppermint liquid stevia
1 large frozen banana
1 tablespoon raw almond butter
6-7 ice cubes, to taste
Optional add in: large handful of baby spinach leaves

Blend on high until smooth and creamy.

By the way, that's only half of the smoothie - when I say one large serving, I mean one LARGE serving - two pint glasses for me!

Since I was kinda tired today, I really didn't feel like doing my big weekly shopping trip to Stop & Shop, so I just made my weekly trip to BJ's after my son's nap. As such, I'm running low on supplies and had to search my cookbooks for something to make for dinner. Fortunately, I had almost everything I needed to make something out of another favorite cookbook, 1,000 Vegan Recipes by Robin Robertson. This book has never let me down, and it didn't let me down tonight, either. I'll post the details tomorrow!

Oh, and by the way...I had the other half of the Red Velvet Cupcake yesterday afternoon. And it was freakin' delish:

I was feeling charitable so I let my hubby eat 75% of the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcake, pictured below:

I wish I'd taken an inside shot of it, because this baby was filled with a luscious peanut butter cream filling. He'd eaten half of it yesterday and I let him have half of the remaining half tonight for dessert. Why does this feel like an algebra test?? Oh, and I ate the other half of a half (that's a quarter, folks) right alongside him. And it was deeeee-licious!

Well You're Not Hard Core...

There's something so inherently...wrong about saying "Happy Monday!" I mean, is anyone REALLY happy that it's Monday? Monday to me means grocery shopping, laundry, and hubby going back to work :( None of these things make me happy!!

Still, I try to start my week off on a good note. For the last year or so, I've had a little Monday tradition that I enjoy. I wake up early and begin my day doing the Yoga X sequence from P90X. It's a 70-90 minute session (the DVD is 90 minutes, but I skip through a lot of the chatter and explanations of moves, and I can usually finish in about 70 minutes - score!!) After my yoga (sometimes my son joins me, which is always fun and usually funny... just imagine a 2-year-old doing downward facing dog and tree pose and you'll understand what I mean :) I make a fresh green juice:

This bad boy had organic red kale, chard, carrots, celery, ginger, cilantro, cucumber, and lemon juice. I often will add an apple to the mix but decided to be hard-core today :) On days like this, I often sing "Well you're not hard core, unless you live hard core..." If you're laughing, that means you've seen the movie School of Rock and remember Jack Black teaching this song to his students. If you're not laughing....then go see the movie cuz it's hilarious!!

After my juice, I usually wait an hour or so before I reward myself with a carrot juice smoothie. Something so simple...carrot-ginger juice, frozen banana, cinnamon, ice cubes, and some almond butter...but sooooo delicious.

After my smoothie, it was time for one of my least favorite Monday rituals...going to Stop & Shop :( I never really enjoyed grocery shopping before I had children, but now that I have a 2-year-old, there are few things more...challenging than trying to keep a spirited and energetic boy in the confines of a grocery cart seat for an hour. I try to go well-prepared...sippy cup with soymilk, snack bag with cereal and raisins, maybe a toy...in hopes that he'll be happy to just sit and eat his snacks while Mommy gets the shopping done. Some days, it's a success, other days...not so much. But, thankfully, today was a good day!

I did my menu planning yesterday while my son was napping. Yes, it takes some time to do, but I think in the long run, I end up saving time by not having to plan what to have for dinner every single night. I get a sheet of paper, write down the days of the week, and then I check the weather forecast and write down the temperatures and expected weather. That way, if it's going to be rainy/snowy/nasty on a certain day, I'll plan for something warm and comforting, like a soup or a stew. If it's going to be super hot, I'll plan for a ginormous dinner salad or a raw soup or something. I like to have fun stuff like pizza on Saturdays and soups on Sundays. Knowing this, I can plan the other days accordingly. See? There's a method to my madness!

I make sure to write down the cookbook and page number for easy reference. On Thursday, I can just open up Appetite for Reduction (AFR) to page 42, and bam, there's my recipe! I also make little notes such as how many tomatoes, peppers, avocados, etc. a recipe will require so I make sure to save enough of each during the week. Nothing worse than realizing you're out of an ingredient right when you're ready to start cooking! That makes me sooooo mad!!

After I put the groceries away, it was time for lunch. My son was happily munching on some Kashi cereal and I had some leftover Vegan Bowl from Appetite for Reduction. That's what we had for dinner last night and it was just as yummy the second time around :) What is a Vegan Bowl? Well, it is a bowl full of deliciousness and nutritiousness (yes, I made that up). See for yourself:

First, I chopped up a bunch of mushrooms, carrots, red pepper, kale, chard, and garlic, and added it all to a big skillet with some water and a teensy bit of salt.

I also had a pot of quinoa cooking on the back burner.

I baked a pound of tofu that I'd marinated in some veggie broth, tamari, balsamic vinegar, thyme, and garlic. I sliced the tofu into thin strips so they'd be bite-sized in the bowls.

Then, I assembled my bowls by putting quinoa on the bottom, then the steamed veggies, then the baked tofu, and then I topped it off with the amazing Caesar Chavez dressing, which I'd whizzed up in the food processor earlier in the day. The dressing is craaaaaazy delicious and is way better than traditional, anchovy-laden Caesar dressing, IMHO (in my humble opinion...I use IMHO often so I figured I'd better explain!) I swear, Isa Chandra Moskowitz is a genius!!

I decided it would be fun to eat the bowls with chopsticks. That's just how I roll. And my son thought eating with chopsticks was the coolest thing ever.

Tonight's dinner is one of my hubby's favorites...raw tortilla soup and salad. I mean, just look at all these veggies, which will be magically transformed by my Vita-Mix into a Tex-Mex bowl full of awesomeness.

I'll post some pictures later when we have dinner.