You can judge me.

Seriously.



Why would you judge me do you ask?


Because I bought this for Saoirse.

That's right. I bought her a leash. Actually I prefer to call it a "safety harness." But let me defend myself before you go all "child degradation" on me. First, this is not degrading - it's a fun monkey backpack! Second, anyone who really does have a problem with these things I cordially invite you to take my daughter in public and force her to sit in her stroller. Even better, why don't you try carrying her for a few hours? If your arms aren't tired from carrying 25 lbs, maybe they'll get that workout you've been dying for if that 25 lbs is screaming in your face and struggling for freedom.

I feel like I'm doing the world a service. I'm sure nobody wants to hear my child cry-screaming, and I don't want her wandering off by herself. Win-win right?

Really.

We're going to Iowa soon-ish and I desperately needed something to assure her protection from crazy strangers and from her own curiosity while we're at the airport(s). 

I've heard of some people having serious problems with these things. I'll admit that I didn't think they were necessary when I was younger. But that was before I had a kid and realized the genius behind these things. Your child can walk and be safe while in public! Everyone is happy.

On another note, I made this last night for dinner.

Yummy.

It's a black bean salad/dip. You can eat it by itself but I highly recommend dipping some chips in there. Have I had onion breath for 24 hours? Why yes I have. And it's been amazing, thanks for asking.

Black Bean Salad

Serves 4

Two 16-ounce cans black beans drained and rinsed well (to avoid turning your salad grey)
1 very large tomato, diced (I used three)
1 16-ounce can corn (I used 3 corn cobs)
1/2 Vidalia onion, diced (the smaller pieces the better unless you really like raw onion)
1 can sliced water chestnuts, drained, rinsed and diced
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
1/2 lime, juice and zest
3 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar or more to taste

1. Add beans, tomatoes, corn, onion, and water chestnuts to a bowl (glass looks pretty) and mix.
2. Add cilantro, lime and balsamic vinegar and mix again. Serve alone, with cucumber open-faced sandwiches or chips for a perfect meal!

My portabella pride.

It's been a while since I posted anything on here concerning vegan eatings but let me reassure you, the reader, that we are vegan and well!  We have slimmed up and wised up to the follies of man-made "food." I'm happy to report that my body now repels any and all dairy, and meat for the most part.  We eat out once or twice a month and I try to stay with the diet, occasionally eating some chicken or turkey.  But what I really wanted to talk about in this post is... the portabella mushroom!

As it turns out, these mushrooms are the meat in the vegan society.  There is also nothing I hate more than mushrooms.  They are a fungus.  People spend their entire lives avoiding fungus and they want me to EAT it?  No thanks.  But let's be sensible, being a vegan requires a bit of fearlessness when it comes to eating.  You have to eat new things especially when your diet only consisted of Wendy's Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers and Sterzings chips (ooooooooooh Sterzings, how I love thee).  We decided to try 3 different ways of preparing portabellas.  Okay really more like 2 different ways, but we'll say 3.

1. Portabella mushroom steaks:

Season prepared mushroom with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  Grill for about 10 minutes.  We served this with baked beans (definitely not vegan friendly with Miss Queen Bean ruling her can-kingdom) and a baked potato with Stewed Tomatoes (a Forks Over Knives recipe) on top.

-Result-

The mushroom tasted REALLY good but the texture kind of did it in for me.  I figured out that if you season it like you would a piece of meat you'll get it to taste EXACTLY like your favorite kind of meat.  You just won't get it to feel like one.  Maybe I cooked it too long?  Who knows.  I probably won't be making it again for the texture reason.  The potato was good, as usual and the beans were satisfying the desire for fake sugar, salty meat, and FAKE SUGAR.  Bad Abby.

2. Portabella burgers:

Season prepared mushroom as you do the steak version; with olive oil (on both sides), salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  Grill for a few minutes (I tried a little less time to see if it might not be so squishy).  Served with sweet potato baked fries - bake slices at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes.

-Result-

SO AMAZING.  Honestly one of the best burgers I've ever had.  So tasty and satisfying.  I would definitely make this again and am looking forward to making these somewhere in the mountains this summer!  The texture was again, not very mea-like, but it wasn't distracting either.  It worked with with the bread texture of the bun and was overall quite wonderful for all of my senses.

3. Portabella sloppy joes:

We bought small presliced portabella mushrooms (we were going to make the burgers again but they only had these little prepackaged, presliced deals so we tried it out) threw those in a pan with a little oil (oil wasn't necessary but we did it because our pan makes everything stick to it) and added 1/4 cup of Heintz Ketchup (no high fructose corn syrup or nasty preservatives) along with lots of onion powder, lots of garlic powder, pepper, cayenne pepper, parsley, basil, and Montreal Steak Seasoning... I think that was it.  Served with baked sweet potato fries.

-Result-

I would make this again in a heartbeat.  Who needs meat when you can get the same taste and half the price??  I don't.

My very own Vegetable soup!

Serves 2

1 potato
1 celery stalk
1 carrot
1/2 of a medium shallot
2 cups vegetable broth
about 1 cup noodles
water
2 Tbs flour
salt (optional)
garlic (optional)
pepper to taste

Chop shallot and celery and fry in a little water in a pot until shallot is almost translucent.  Then add chopped carrot and potato and the vegetable broth (and the seasonings if you want them).  In a separate bowl mix about 2 Tbs flour with just enough water to cover the flour and mix with fork until there are no clumps.  Add to pot.  Cook for about 20 or so minutes (I think I let mine cook for half an hour so the time doesn't really make a difference) then add noodles, cook for about 10 more minutes and serve!

Really yummy!  And I just made it up!  I'm feeling much more comfortable now cooking vegan meals.  I love it!!  It's got such a good flavor.  I wouldn't be opposed to doubling the amount of vegetable broth either.

I'm watching this right now, it's probably my FAVORITE movie.  Soooo good!!! 

Also, I will be putting up pictures from Thanksgiving in Iowa!!  I got to see my cousin Evan who I haven't seen in about 12 years!!!!  He's the nicest guy ever.  You would never know he was in prison for that 12 years.  

My Hearty Minestrone.

I've never really liked minestrone, though, I only ever had it at restaurants.  But today was a chilly day and soup sounded good for my insides.  I absolutely had no idea how much I would love this homemade version!  It was great and very filling.  Everything I put into the pot (which, by the way, was an astronomical amount of food) made my mouth water.  Let's see, there were onions, celery, carrots, green beans, cannelloni beans, kidney beans, tomatoes, vegetable juice, cabbage (!!!), noodles, and seasonings.

It was super amazing and thick.  There were as many veggies and beans as there was liquid which I REALLY appreciated.  There's nothing more annoying than soupy soup.  It had great flavor and texture and everything.  This would be a great meal for large gatherings and big families because we have some very serious leftovers.  We'll be eating this for a few days.  

A good meal!

My applesauce.

I made Saoirse some homemade applesauce and it is really good!  I'm really excited about this because there aren't any preservatives in it and no sugar!  It's JUST apples!  The best part is that she loves it.  And of course I forgot to take any pictures.

All I did was google how to make applesauce and went here. Super easy.  Although I don't think this lady mentions how important it is to keep an eye on the water level, because it goes down quickly and it doesn't take long for your house to fill with the smoke of burning apples.  Just saying.  Strangely enough, slightly burned (I like to call them 'browned') apples taste pretty good, so I still made applesauce.

My life is amazing.

I'm playing a little catch-up with this blog post because I haven't posted anything in forever and a lot of food has been cooked and Christmas trees put up!!  

I'll get this out of the way first, I made the Split Pea Soup from our cookbook Forks Over Knives, it lacked.... almost everything.  It was really bland and very watery.  If I make this again I would add noodles and probably celery and ... just more vegetables or something.  And probably 2 cups less water. Soo not the best thing I've ever eaten.

THIS WAS DELICIOUS.  We were watching Destination Truth and were really craving a dessert, so Joseph looked online for some good vegan desserts because, if you don't already know this, every delicious dessert under the sun is made with butter and milk and BUTTER.  But! we found this recipe for cookies that was amazing.  If I remember correctly, it was 3 cups instant oatmeal, 3 bananas, some amount of prunes, 1/4 cup vegetable oil (or applesauce), 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg.  I put a little peanut butter in it as well.  If I were to make this again I would probably put some nuts in (I didn't have prunes so I have no idea if it's good or not).  This was seriously a delicious cookie and it made the house smell AMAZING.

Layered Tex-Mex Lasagna

5 stars. So good.  I really didn't miss the meat or the noodle in this!  It had pinto beans, corn, green chiles, corn tortillas, and some serious red sauce.  If you like your local mexican restaurant you will really like this, it tastes exactly like something you'd get there.

I LOVE CHRISTMAS.

Our neighbors had us over for dinner on Sunday and surprised us with helping them put up their Christmas tree, BEST IDEA EVER.  Dinner was yummy and tree was beautiful!  Kendra helped me make some origami ornaments since we had three ornaments last year.  They turned out so amazingly awesome and now our tree looks fantastic!!!!!

Tim-Tam Slam.

Our neighbors, Adam and Kendra, enjoying their very first Tim-Tam Slams.  Aren't they cute?!

Haha, I don't even know what he's doing.

So I hadn't had milk in a couple of weeks and when we drank some at A & K's house it was so weird!  It was really strong and just kind of strange tasting.  I think I made Joseph drink some of my milk because I just couldn't handle it which is kind of exciting.  I love eating vegan meals and feeling generally more healthy.  We're not completely vegan yet because our supply of meaty and dairy foods seems to be never ending but in all the time we've been eating vegan meals we stopped drinking milk.  So I guess I'm just excited my body is okay with not drinking it and I don't really miss it too much anymore especially now that it tastes crazy.  

I LOVE MY BODY!  It really is kind of amazing how it knows things.  For example, Saoirse had her first taste of bananas about a week ago and she never really liked them much although I would force feed them to her everyday.  As it turns out they were likely causing an allergic reaction and she was super off the whole week until finally her body produced a lovely rash.  No more bananas, rash gone, happy mommy.  Well.... kind of happy, this means that while I'm breastfeeding her I probably shouldn't eat bananas either.  Bummer.  I guess Joseph will have to enjoy those cookies all by himself.  Anyway, I think she didn't like them because she already knew they were no bueno for her tummy.

P.S. A banana allergy is often accompanied by a latex allergy!  Weird.

My Wild Rice Stuffed Squash.

This was surprisingly wonderful and surprisingly cheap to make.  For the two of us it cost around 5 or 6 dollars.  It was also fairly easy to make, but I had two issues, number 1, Acorn Squash is almost impossible to cut in half and number 2, it took me almost 2 hours to complete this meal.  I think my lack of knowledge on leeks donated some of the length of cook time, I had to youtube how to cut/cook/whatpartdoyoueat.  Once I learned that it was a fairly painless process of waiting around for the squash to cook in the oven and for the rice to cook on the stove.  LOTS of waiting.  But when it was finally done it looked like a masterpiece.

I used half as many squash(es??) as it said to use but still kept the same amount of everything else.. so if you're planning on making this recipe I would double the amount of rice and all that if you're sticking with making the 2 whole squash.  The rice was just enough to completely fill two halves.

Look at that handsome man and his half squash-bowl.  

I highly recommend this meal!  It's very good if you have just 2 or 4 adults.  I'm not so sure this would be something convenient to make if kids were going to eat it, I feel like rice would be flung all over the place while they're trying to dig the squash innards out.

My Minty-Lemon Lentils with Spinach

Right, this was kind of gross!  Joseph liked it for some reason.  I was kind of afraid to make it because it has mint in it and I know how I am with mint in anything that isn't toothpaste.  Aaaaaaaaaand, I don't like it.  It took me about half of the bowl to get used to the seemingly overwhelming mint taste, it was then that I could kind of enjoy the other flavors, like the lentils, which I apparently don't really like either.  Haha, at least Joseph liked it.  I'm making him eat all of the leftovers for lunch so I never have to eat it again.  

I'm so disappointed because it was SO promising!  Sweet potatoes?  Spinach? Vegetable broth?  Garlic??  My favorite things!!!  Unfortunately, it didn't have a ton of flavor except for the mint, which was (I believe I already said this) gross.  At least I know.

On a slightly different note, I decided last week that I would start cooking only vegan meals, and after seeing everything we didn't have in our cupboards for such a quest I had some very serious shopping to do.  While I was cooking said vegan meals this week I realized how much junk we DID have.  And it was seriously junk.  TONS of meat in the freezer, lots of boxed foods and JUNK.  So, I decided that we at least need to eat the meat in the freezer, so we've been having a meat binge the last coupe of days (hence the not posting our vegan delights).  We're finally kind of getting rid of the meat in the freezer.  SOO, we'll be making some of my favorite meaty meals a few days this week THEN we'll officially be vegan.  Wish me luck!  I already feel sick after eating so much meat.  We don't normally eat so much at once, but I just want to get it out of my fridge so I don't feel like I'm wasting it.  AHH.  At least, I'll probably never want to eat meat again after this.

My Polenta with Rice and Beans.

Last night we had some leftovers (because holy cow does this vegan food making thing make a TON) so tonight I made something absolutely del-to-the-icious.  Polenta with rice and beans.  WOW.

The polenta I just bought at the store pre-cooked.  It was in a meat tube-like thing.  Super appetizing sounding, I know.  I used that for the crust in the biggest pie pan I could find.  The stuff in the pot is brown rice, tomatoes, an onion, vegetable broth, water and chili powder all cooked until there was no liquid left. 

Then I mixed in black beans and poured that into the pie pan and put some salsa on top and baked!  On each piece served I put a dollop (best word ever) of avocado mixed with lots of lemon juice.  It was SO AMAZING.  

I would definitely make this again.  The avocado really rounded it out well.  Super good.  

AND I followed the directions to a 'T'.  I think I'll have to start doing that from now on because the results are quite good.  The weird thing is that I don't even miss the meat that would normally be in a meal like this.  It's all very filling and tasty.  I'm impressed.

P.S. if anyone wants to try making any of these recipes, just let me know and I can give it to you!  

My Garbanzo Bean Loaf.

Last night was my first time cooking a vegan meal and I messed it up.  Haha.  It still tasted really good, but I have a problem measuring things - I just don't do it.  It wasn't until it was all mixed up and ready to go into the loaf pan that I realized that I had waaay too many garbanzo beans.  So it never set right and never *really* turned into a loaf and was just a hot delicious mess.

Sooo delicious.

So it was supposed to be a vegan version of meatloaf, something I LOVE.  It didn't really taste like meatloaf but it had the components and substitutions that somehow all worked together.  It was mostly blended garbanzo beans and rice which was the meat substitution with shredded carrots which I'm saying substituted the crackers and tomato sauce that substituted the ketchup.  I was very surprised by how WELL the tomato sauce stood out and tasted with everything!  Without that it wouldn't have been nearly as good.  All in all, I should probably measure things I put in the oven, but it was a tasty success!  

And we have TONS of leftovers.  

Another thing I forgot was sides.. I was so concerned with getting all of the ingredients for this that I completely forgot that you can't really eat meatloaf by itself nor would you probably want to eat garbanzo bean loaf by itself, so I opened a can of green beans.  They went surprisingly well together.  

All in all, I would definitely make this again.

Our whole foods plant-based diet.

I have one question.  Being one of the most advanced countries in the world, why do most people die from poor nutrition?  Most people die from heart disease and many die from diabetes, Alzheimer's, cancer and most of this is accompanied by obesity.

Joseph and I watched a documentary called Forks Over Knives a few nights ago and it left a pretty big impact on us.  Not that I hang on every word of a documentary - because you can make a documentary about anything you want to and talk about the results you want to (think "Michael Moore") but with this I do believe what they were professing, to be true.  It fits perfectly with what my church teaches with what is called The Word of Wisdom.  The diet (I hate using that word, it's more like, new eating lifestyle) is vegan (Joseph hates that word, it's more like, whole foods plant-based diet).. but when I picture someone who is a vegan I think of a hippy who does too much thinking and likes to hug animals and trees and has hairy pits. I want the world to know that my pits are not hairy, animals are okay and, well, I do like trees.  But I definitely keep up with the body hair thing.  My quest for a vegan lifestyle is because I have learned that animals and their byproducts are not something that we need to be eating regularly, in fact, we should be eating it sparingly.  If you want to good description of why I'm doing it, read this.

I have absolutely no idea and no experience cooking anything other than midwestern hearty meat and potato meals so this will be a challenge for me cooking things I've never even heard of before.  So I'll be blogging my daily struggle cooking for vegans.  I have the help of the ever-so-wonderful cookbook Forks Over Knives and will be cooking most of our meals from that.

Wish me luck!

It took me a while to realize the genius of this picture - eat before you cut yourself open.  Love it.