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I Smell Good...Because of My Dog

Any mother out there will tell you that it can be near impossible to find time for a shower some days when you have a small baby. Today was DEFINITELY one of those days! Determined to leave the house without offending everyone who came within 3 feet of me, I had to find a way. Then, Nala Monster herself came to mind.

Nala Monster and the baby do an outstanding job of entertaining each other every day. The dog loves to sit and stare at the baby, just out of his reach, while the baby squeals with excitement while trying to reach for her ears. I had to use this to my advantage!

I strapped the baby into his carseat, hung a few toys just in case, and brought both the carseat and the dog into the bathroom with me. Worked like a charm! My entire shower was spent listening to happy baby noises! Ah, a solution that is almost worthy of a parent hacks submission.

Now it's time for me to enjoy a tall/soy/no-whip/gingerbreadgingersnap latte/hold the funky ginger flakes, and finish my Christmas shopping!

Lasagna Pizza

Lasagna and pizza put together into one amazing, VEGAN dinner! YUM!

In one pan, I cooked up some grated carrots, finely chopped celery, onion, and garlic with a few dashes of Italian herbs. After the veggies cooked through, I added a lazy jar of storebought spaghetti sauce.

In another pan, I put some extra virgin olive oil, margarine, and a couple of cloves of pressed garlic on low heat, and thickened it up with some flour. Next, I mixed in some unsweetened soymilk, mashed firm tofu and ground raw cashews. At the end, I added some nutritional yeast. This is my "cheese."

I layered it all into a baking dish with the lasagna noodles while the sauce and "cheese" was still warm. On the top layer, I added some of my favorite pizza toppings: black olives, pineapple, sweet onion, and vegan pepperoni.

I think it's pretty safe to say that this dish was a hit...I'm actually surprised that Rob didn't lick his plate when he was done!


This is definitely not a diet food!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Rob is on swing shift this week, so posts have been scarce. Not because I haven't had anything to say, or any food to share. There's been plenty. In fact, Rob even made cookies! Really!! The guy whose best meal is canned tomato soup with minute rice made homemade cookies from scratch! Something about swing shift just takes away my time and inspiration to post.

Until tonight!

I was totally prepared to go without a Thanksgiving post, and even a Thanksgiving. For months, he knew he was supposed to work that afternoon. So we decided to not make a big deal out of it. Why stress myself out all morning for an elaborate lunch that we have to quickly inhale so he makes it to work on time, and then I'm left spending the rest of the afternoon getting fat off of cleaning up the leftovers while dealing with the baby? What kind of holiday is that? Don't ask me, because that's not how it turned out!

Yesterday evening, I get a phone call. He got the day off! At the last second they decide to give half of his crew Thursday off, and the other half Friday off! WOOOO! WAIT! NO! Tomorrow off? We don't have ANY Thanksgiving food, it's 6pm on Wednesday night, and Rob has the car! Luckily, I was able to get ahold of his friend Dave, who was nice enough to drive me to two stores so I could get my Tofurky and all of the other little Thanksgiving must-haves. Whew!

We invited Dave to have dinner with us. It was the least we could do since he was nice enough to take me shopping! Holidays are more fun with company anyway. I knew the boys would be watching football, so I whipped up some dips for them: Pine Nut and Garlic Hummus and Black Bean Dip. They were just sort of thrown together at the last second so I don't have actual recipes. Here's the general idea of what I did though:

For the hummus, I toasted up a handful of pine nuts, a can of drained and rinsed chickpeas, and a few cloves of garlic in olive oil. I seasoned it up with some fresh rosemary and thyme, as well as dried basil, oregano, salt, black pepper, and red pepper flakes. After letting it cool a bit, I ground up everything in a food processor with tahini, more olive oil, and some vegetable broth. It turned out a little dry. It needed more tahini and olive oil. It tasted excellent though!

For the black bean dip, I drained and rinsed the beans and threw them in a pan with a few cloves of garlic and toasted them as well as black beans could be toasted. They were seasoned with cumin, chili powder, a little bit of oregano, black pepper, red pepper flakes, and salt. This was blended up with olive oil and veggie broth, and I managed to not make it too dry. It was a big hit!

Both dips were served with fresh veggies and chips for dipping (of course they ate the chips and left most of the veggies...boys...), and black olives. The hummus is on the left, and the black bean dip is on the right.


Dinner turned out great. The Tofurky turned out excellent. I used my usual recipe.


There was a massive bowl of mashed potatoes that required some serious muscle to mash. I might have gone a little overboard with those. Which, of course, is way better than not making enough!! Yay for leftovers!


Dave brought the cranberry sauce, which turned out awesome!


Not Pictured: Sweet baked yams, green beans (from a can...not worth a picture), homemade apple crisp (Mom's recipe), and sparkling cider (because we're wild like that). It was a great meal that I was very lucky to have. I definitely have something to be thankful for.

Burlington, VT: Because Saratoga Wasn't Cold Enough

It's Rob's 4-day weekend this weekend, and we wanted to get out of the house and out of town. Gas prices are way down and our hybrid gets 40mpg, so we started looking at places to go for a short day trip. We notice right away that Burlington, VT is less than 3 hours away. Neither of us really knew anything about the place, other than it's supposedly the hippie capital of New England. That doesn't really give us an idea of what we're supposed to do when we get there though. Rob looks around online and finds a couple of Starbucks locations and seems really happy about it. Starbucks? Really? What's the point of driving 3 hours away to a so-called hippie town for Starbucks? No way!! He goes back to searching, and finds a locally owned coffee shop called Muddy Waters. He seemed to like where it was located, so that's what we settled on. It was official. We were about to drive 3 hours north in November for a scenic drive and a cup of coffee.

The drive turned out to be really beautiful. The entire way we either had a view of mountains, or frozen rivers, or big lakes, or a combination of the three. It was really great. It even made up for the fact that we missed our exit and added almost another hour onto the trip! I'm only disappointed that we didn't take a ferry ride across Lake Champlain. I know, I know. After all of my ferry rides between Bremerton and Seattle, I probably would have been over it within minutes. It would have been the perfect place to just sit back and nurse my baby though.

Three Four hours after leaving our house, we finally made it to Burlington. We found our coffee shop right away and a parking space right out front. Score! That's always a bonus in freezing weather, especially when you're hauling a baby around. We walk up to the door, and Rob makes one last plea for Starbucks. Ha! Not a chance! After one peek inside, I wasn't going anywhere. It looked like you were walking into a log cabin! I walked inside and got excited when I saw a group of people with a carton of chocolate soymilk on their table. Then I got even MORE excited when I looked at the menu: Vegetarian Chili, Hummus and Veggie Plate, Smoothies...all in addition to the coffee! I forgot all about the sandwiches I packed and ordered a hummus platter with my coffee.


After our coffees, we decided to wander out and explore downtown for a while. We were back in the car 5 minutes later with the heater cranked up, on our way back to Saratoga. We loved what we saw of Burlington...but next time we visit, we're either wearing snowsuits, or waiting for warmer weather.

Yam Fries with Broccoli and Tofurky Kielbasa

Tonight for dinner, I baked up some yam fries, coated in olive oil, and seasoned with fresh garlic, rosemary, and thyme, and sprinkled with salt and fresh ground black pepper. Served with broccoli, cooked with lightly browned Tofurky kielbasa. Too yum!!

Chili and Corn Muffins

The furnace repairman wasn't able to make it last night (grrrrr!!!), so we were forced to find a way to stay warm for one more day. I don't have a chili recipe for you, since I was in the kitchen trying to throw everything in the pot as quickly as possible, but I DO have pictures! For the corn muffins, I used my favorite cornbread recipe off of VegWeb, with only a slight modification: I skipped mixing the egg replacer with water, and just mixed the powder right into the dry ingredients and made sure it was whisked in really well. Mmmm...there's nothing better than a hot oven and bowl of chili to warm you up...except for maybe a functional furnace...

It Smells Like Snow...Inside My House

BRRRR!!! My furnace still is not working. We have somebody coming by in a few hours to look at it. We were able to get through the night by using the baseboard heating in the bedrooms. They actually seemed to keep the bedrooms warm better than the furnace! Unfortunately, the baseboard heaters in the living room and kitchen are functioning as well as the furnace. Rob seems to think that there is something wrong with the baseboard heater in the kitchen that is tripping the circuit breaker, and that the switch that turns on the furnace is on the same breaker. Whatever that means. All I understand is that the heat is not working in the living room and I either get to freeze in here, or hide out in one of the bedrooms. I think I'll allow myself to freeze just a little bit longer.

The one and only plus side to all of this is that it motivated us to go out to dinner! We ate at my FAVORITE Indian restaurant, Karavalli. The food and service are always outstanding. I had my usual: Vegetable Samosas as an appetizer, and then Lassoni Gobi, which is basically breaded cauliflower with some sort of sweet and sour sauce. It's absolutely amazing!


Rob ordered Aloo Gobi, which wasn't our favorite. Good, but not as good as other food we've had there.


Now, of course, the basmati rice! What Indian meal would be complete without it?



I'm definitely going to have some leftover for breakfast! After that, I just might have to start up the oven and bake something - maybe some corn muffins (note: when I use that recipe, I just mix the dry egg replacer with the other dry ingredients, I don't bother mixing it with the water). Not because I'll still be hungry, but to heat up this friggin house! Baby Levon probably won't put up with that though. I have him bundled up like the little brother in A Christmas Story, and he doesn't like it!

When 71 = 64

It's 3pm and about 32 degrees here. Since I've been stuck in the house absolutely freezing, I cranked the heat up to 71. After several hours of still feeling cold, I went to check the thermostat. It was still set at 71 degrees, but the actual temp was down to 64! 64!!! That's not very close to 71! Hopefully my husband knows how to fix a furnace...If not, I guess I'm baking cookies all night long to help the baby stay warm.

Creamy Potato Soup

The weather here has been ridiculously cold these past few days - I've even seen snow flurries! Snow already!! I guess I'm not in Seattle anymore! With all this freezing going on, Rob and I decided it was time for one of our favorite cold-weather comfort foods: creamy potato soup. Bonus: I was able to use up a few more of the fresh herbs I have left over from making the Tofurky! Unfortunately, this wasn't the most photogenic batch...I almost didn't even post a picture. I used broth instead of water, unpeeled red potatoes, and red onion, which gave it sort of an odd color. Trust me, it tastes better than it looks. Here it is:



As usual, everything is approximate. Use your own tastes and judgement as your guide.

Ingredients:
extra virgin olive oil, as needed
1-2 carrots
2 celery stalks
1/2 bell pepper (I would recommend sweet bell pepper, but I just used the leftover green one I had in the fridge)
1/2 large onion, or one small onion
3 cloves of garlic
1/2-1 head of cauliflower
2-5 potatoes (if you're using big potatoes use 2 or 3, if you're using little red potatoes like I did, use 4 or 5)
3 cups vegetable broth or water
1/3 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup or more of plain, unsweetened soymilk
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tbsp margarine (optional)
few sprigs of fresh thyme
1 sprig fresh rosemary
2 bay leaves
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2-1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp white pepper
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
red pepper flakes, to taste (optional)

Instructions:
Rinse, peel, and scrub vegetables as you normally would. If you're using the big, brown potatoes with thick skins, go ahead and peel those. If you're using the little red potatoes, go ahead and just give them a scrub and leave the skins on - the skins are the best part!

Preheat a big soup pot to medium-medium high heat, and lightly coat with olive oil

Finely chop carrots and celery and add to heated pot, add a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir.

Finely chop onion, and add that next. Add another pinch of salt and pepper. Stir.

Mince garlic and finely chop bell pepper. Add them at the same time. Salt and pepper. Stir.

Dice potatoes into medium-small pieces, while keeping an eye on the veggies in the pot and stirring them occasionaly. Add the potatoes when they're all chopped.

Remove "leaves" from rosemary sprig and mince. Add along with all other seasonings. Don't bother removing the leaves from the thyme sprigs - they'll fall off on their own while cooking.

Stir in broth or water and corn. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium. Let simmer for 20 minutes or so, stirring occasionally. I literally use the "thyme" as my timer! When the leaves fall off the thyme sprig, it's done!

Remove from heat.

Optional: Using a potato masher, mash everything up to make it thick and creamy.

Add soymilk, nutritional yeast, and margarine.

Serve it and love it!