Sean gets creative with leftovers--and totally steals the lemon out of my water without warning. Good thing I love him...

I had a play to review tonight for Theatre Vault, and it was over an hour away from home.  Even though I have some portabella mushrooms in the fridge that really need to be cooked, I just couldn’t be bothered.  I wanted to make tonight a special “night out” for my sweetie and me before the kidlets descend tomorrow.  So I offered to treat Sean to dinner at a vegan/vegetarian friendly restaurant of his choice before we set off for beautiful downtown Newark, Ohio.  After a bit of debate, we chose Whole World Natural Bakery and Restaurant.

So garlicy that I'm pretty sure I'm still not kissable several hours later. Totally worth it, though!

I checked out their daily specials, and when we got there I knew exactly what I wanted:  Black Bean Hummus on Pita Bread.  It had some nice crisp veggies, lots of garlic, and I stole a few of Sean’s black corn chips for a side dish.  Yum!

I promise--it tastes even better than it looks!

Sean’s choice was the Bombay Burger—a chickpea-based veggie burger with Indian spices, lettuce, tomato, onion, soy cheese, Vegenaise, and mustard (in a star shape—I love that!!) on a whole wheat bun.  He was kind enough to let me sample it, and it took everything in my power not to steal it from him.  I really was pretty happy with my Black Bean Hummus, though.  I think I’m going to try to make my own version of it at some point in the near future…

We grabbed some yummy vegan desserts there, too.  No pictures of those—sorry!  There was a raspberry bar that was pretty good (although I like the idea of raspberries, I still hate the stupid seeds that get stuck in my teeth) and a roasted almond bar that was orgasmic.  Really.  It’s not an exaggeration.  Ah-mazing.  I would have eaten the entire thing myself if it hadn’t been for the fact that I knew Sean would pout if I did.

While we were getting totally turned around on High Street, we stumbled across vegan Nirvana in the Columbus metro area:  Pattycake Vegan Bakery.  This is the place to go when you’re vegan in Central Ohio, or so I’ve been told.  Yes, we had a whole bag full of vegan desserts already.  But Pattycake was right there, in front of us! How could we let those poor defenseless baked goods go another moment without a loving home?  We totally caved.  I limited myself to three selections: peanut butter chocolate chip cookie heaven (because I wanted something similar from Whole World, but their version wasn’t vegan), a slice of raspberry lemon chiffon cake (for Sean—what’s up with the raspberry trend today?), and—on the advice of one of the girls behind the counter—the pumpkin spice Whoopie Pie.  We ate the cookie after the play, and we discussed the various high and low points of the production as we munched.  The slice of cake is half-devoured, waiting for whoever is least comatose from sugar overload to finish it, and I have a feeling the Whoopie Pie is going to be my breakfast tomorrow morning with a cup of coffee and a marathon review-writing session.

Tomorrow night, we’re taking the kids down to Groveport to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and there will be a vegan picnic involved.  I need to figure out what I want to do for that.  Luckily, I have all day tomorrow to cook and shop for what I need, but I still need to figure out what I feel like making.  I might do something with eggplant—I currently have 4 sitting in my produce drawer as we speak—and the kids didn’t seem to hate it too much when I made it before.  Maybe a different recipe with less oil is in order this time…  Oh!  I could make an eggplant lasagna…thing…and just serve it cold!  Hmm…  This may take some thinking and planning…  Horray ideas out of the blue!  (Of course, you realize that since it’s almost 2:00 a.m. now, I’m probably going to sleep late, completely forget about this wonderful idea, and make PB&J for the kids instead, right?  Right…  It sure sounds good now, though.  *grin*)

Best. Pizza. Ever!!

Okay, I’ve made pizza a few times since going vegan, but I believe that this particular one is my crowning glory.  All veggie toppings (red peppers, broccoli, and onions), a crust made with whole wheat flour and a hefty amount of vital wheat gluten, some leftover spaghetti sauce, and—wait for it—no cheese!  Or even a cheese alternative!  I sprinkled a few tablespoons of nutritional yeast over the whole thing, added an assortment of spices, and it was really, really good!  I honestly believe it was one of the best pizzas I ever made.  And it looks pretty, too.  ☺

Not much left over--and the cupcake stayed there just long enough for the picture!

Saturday was the vegan/vegetarian meet-up at the Whetstone Park of Roses.  We had such a good time, and the food was awesome.  We met a bunch of cool people, and we added some Facebook friends because of it.  I also signed us up for another meet-up group that does hiking meet-ups in the area, thanks to a lady we met at the picnic; we really can use some regular exercise again.  The weather was terrible—huge thunderstorm started the second we got out of the car, and it rained pretty much the whole time we were at the park—but that didn’t stop us from having a good time.  And everybody liked my cupcakes!  There were only 4 tiny ones left by the end of the picnic.  That alone says a lot!  Sean and I also got to reacquaint ourselves with the animal activist who got us started down this particular path.  I saw her at the food table shortly after she arrived, and we ended up talking for the next couple of hours about how she changed our lives.  Thanks again, Eriyah!

We have been so incredibly lazy all day Sunday.  We slept in, at when we felt like it, tried to focus mainly on Vita Mix concoctions, and just generally took it easy.  It’s been fun, but I’m hoping to do something a little more active tomorrow.  I told Sean that I really want to get up early and take a nice long walk before it gets too hot.  Then I have a facial scheduled at the Origins shop at Macy’s at noon.  I know he has a photo shoot that needs to happen tomorrow if it’s going to happen at all, and I’m still trying to decide if I’m coming along or not.

First up on the theatrical scene...

Followed by Shakespeare and a vegan picnic!

Even though it’s vacation week, we’re still going to be busy.  I have two plays to review this week (back to Newark to see Weathervane’s production of The Secret Garden on Thursday, and then Rosebriar’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream on Friday down in Groveport), and I still want—nay, demand!—to see Harry Potter, probably on Tuesday or Wednesday.  So, in a nutshell, Sean is probably going to kill me for booking our social calendar so full when he’s trying to relax…  Oh, well.  It’s not like we usually have lives or anything any other time. 

Must. See. This. Movie!!!!

Ah... Vegan comfort food!

I have been so incredibly lazy today.  I did spend about half an hour cleaning up the kitchen (kind of…), and I started a load of laundry (at 5:00), but other than that I haven’t really done much of anything today except up my post number on PPK’s forums.  Shameful…

In an effort to redeem myself, I decided to make a nice dinner for Sean and me, since the kidlets are with their dad this week.  I really wanted mashed potatoes, and I knew I had a few left that needed to be used pretty soon before they started sprouting.  I made them with some soy milk, Earth Balance margarine, and about a clove or so of minced garlic.  I made the basic broiled tofu recipe from Veganomicon.  Then I steamed some broccoli and cauliflower.  I put fresh garlic pepper over everything and sprinkled some crushed red pepper over the tofu.  Simple flavors, easy preparation, and delicious to boot.  And lots of leftovers!  All those things make me happy.  ☺

Creamy and delicious!

Sean put himself in charge of dessert.  He really wanted to try the whole Vita Mix ice cream thing again.  This time, we left the lid on.  *grin*  Yay no more broken tampers!  He was going to make strawberry, but we didn’t have quite enough strawberries for what the recipe called for.  So he added some peaches and a frozen banana to get the fruit weight up to where it needed to be.  Then he added some coconut extract.  I think that almond would have been nice, too.  He used what was left of the vanilla soymilk we made yesterday.  Despite running the blender just a bit too long (it shut itself off—yay overheating!), it ended up perfect as soft-serve ice cream.  The coconut extract was a little stronger than I would have liked—maybe we should scale it back a little bit next time.  But it was creamy and light without being overly sugary sweet.

I have decided that in the name of keeping myself sane, I’m going to start making a monthly meal plan.  I’ve had to throw away so much stuff that I bought and never used because I either forgot about it or changed my mind, and it’s just sickening to me.  I’m still going to try to incorporate at least one or two new recipes a week since we’re embarking on this vegan journey, though.  After all, when you eat the same stuff for 36 years, a drastic change like going vegan means you have to experiment to find what you like and what you don’t.  Without some wiggle room for experimentation, this new lifestyle could get really boring really fast.  And it requires more than just veganizing old recipes.  Doing this is going to make grocery shopping a lot easier, too, which will hopefully save us some money in the long run.

I’m not expecting myself to turn into June Cleaver overnight, but I am hoping that I’ll have made a decent dent in my new stay-at-home-mom persona by the end of the year.  So now I’m armed with a master shopping list, a 30-day meal planning calendar, and a dream…  Wish me luck!

No salt, little bit of melted "butter", hot out of the oven--just the way I like 'em.

Sean was begging for pretzels today.  I have one of the Top Secret Recipes books by Todd Wilbur that has a recipe for Auntie Anne’s pretzels.  I’ve made them several times before, but I think I got them almost perfect this time.  Yay!  They’re best when they’re fresh out of the oven, but they’re still pretty good if you put them in a Ziploc bag and eat them within the next day or so.

I’ve taken a few days off from blogging because for some reason, I have been inexplicably exhausted since about Thursday.  It’s kind of annoying, really—I have stuff to do!  Namely, baking and cooking more new vegan recipes.  And I have a brand-new brunch cookbook that I haven’t really even sampled yet.  So stop being tired and dumb, body!  I have plans!

For him

For her

It has been quite the movie week here, though, even with my being so tired recently.  We took the kidlets to gender-appropriate movies on Friday night:  Transformers:  Revenge of the Fallen for Daniel and Ice Age:  Dawn of the Dinosaurs for Sylvia.  I’m not sure how it’s happened, but I haven’t seen the new Harry Potter movie yet.  What’s up with that?!?!  Though I was talking to the kids’ swim instructor yesterday, and she told me about a few things that are in the movie that never happened in the books.  *sigh*  I hate it when they do stuff like that…

For the grownups

On the vegan front, Sean and I went to see Food, Inc., last night.  Very informative.  The production value of this film is definitely better than Earthlings, but I’m afraid that I wasn’t quite as moved to action with this one.  I am convinced, though, that I’m going to try to do as much cooking and preparing of my own food as I possibly can and try to stay away from overly-processed stuff.  I can almost hear the arguments starting that “cooking is processing,” and all that.  But I think even the argumentative ones know the difference between making your own tomato sauce from scratch using fresh ingredients and opening a jar of Prego.  There really is a difference.

Once again, I’m feeling that sense of tiredness sweeping over me.  At least I’ve had an easier time waking up in the morning than I usually did.  Maybe this is just my body’s way of telling me that I really do need some rest, despite all the “stuff” I feel I need to accomplish.  Besides, the puppies are sleeping, and they just look too darned cute not to join them.  ☺

Presentation is everything.

When we picked up our produce from the CSA farmer last week, there was a lone, teeny eggplant included in the mix.  I had actually been craving eggplant for a couple of weeks, but I never bothered to buy one because it’s not one of Sean’s favorite vegetables.  And as much as I wanted some, I just couldn’t fathom eating an entire eggplant by myself.  So this tiny one was a perfect opportunity to get my fix and to give just a little sampling to everyone else.

After perusing my favorite VegWeb site for a while, I really wasn’t finding anything that jumped out at me.  I finally adapted one recipe to fit what I had and what I felt like doing.  Since the eggplant was really small (think large banana-sized, maybe), I sliced it into rounds.  I dipped the rounds into some soymilk and then dredged them in whole wheat breadcrumbs that I seasoned with Italian seasoning, ground black pepper, and a little chili powder.  The breadcrumbs really didn’t stick very well, but I kept going anyway.  I heated up some safflower oil and fried the eggplant.  It really soaked up the oil, so now I’m wishing I had used olive oil instead of safflower just because I think it would have tasted better.

To accompany my eggplant, I made a homemade spaghetti sauce with fresh tomatoes, oregano, parsley, minced onion, garlic, olive oil, about a tablespoon of sugar (to cut through the acidity) and more Italian seasoning.  I put about 4 or 5 quartered tomatoes in the blender until they were pulverized; then I added two more, but I just pulsed it a little bit so there would be some tomato chunks, too.  I put everything in a skillet and heated it up to boiling, then let it simmer for about 20 minutes to give the flavors time to blend and to cook down a bit.

Just to make sure that the kids ate more veggies than the two eggplant rounds I was planning to give them, I also steamed some fresh asparagus.  To serve, I made whole wheat spaghetti, topped it with the sauce, arrange the eggplant along the edge of the pasta, and the filled in the extra space with the asparagus.  This is probably the prettiest dinner I’ve given them in a long while.

The verdict:  Sylvie finished her eggplant before she started on anything else and said she liked it a lot.  Daniel took some coaxing, but he finally gulped it down—chased with plenty of water.  Sean got 5 rounds because he is, after all, a grownup.  He delayed a bit, but finally finished them all.  I think he’s hoping for a different recipe for the next time, though; they were really oily this time around.  Surprisingly enough, Sylvie didn’t want to finish her asparagus, even though she usually loves it.  I think she may have just been full.

In an effort to get the kids more involved with meal planning, we gave Sylvie a stack of cookbooks from the library and told her that she could help choose what we’re having for dinner tomorrow night.  Unfortunately, there weren’t a whole lot of pictures in the books that I picked out, so now she’s determined that there aren’t any recipes to be found in the 7 or 8 cookbooks I gave her to look through.  Silly girl…  ☺

I think that I may make some brownies tomorrow.  I got Ghiradelli double chocolate brownie mix (it’s vegan!!!), and I think I may make them with a can of pureed black beans to help keep the fat and calorie count down while increasing the protein and fiber.  Thank you Weight Watchers for that little trick!

It may not look that appetizing, but at least it knows how to keep a smile on its face!

I had a sweet potato that really needed to be used before it started sprouting in my cabinet.  Since the Indian dish I made on Saturday went over so well with the kids, I thought I would try a recipe for Sweet Potato Dahl that I’ve wanted to try for a few weeks now.

I kept the spices dialed back for the kids since they still don’t really do spicy stuff, and I added Sriracha to the adults’ portions.  Since it looked kind of, well, unappetizing (to say the least…), I tried to keep things whimsical and made a smiley face on Sean’s.  It actually tasted okay, but I’m still trying to figure out why it is that every time I make a recipe with red lentils, they turn to mush.  I only have this problem with red lentils; never with green or any other color.  It’s weird.  And frustrating.  And the end result made my dinner look like someone else had already eaten it and barfed it back up.  Not the best choice for a transition food for the oh-so-particular kidlets.  They ate it—albeit begrudgingly and on pain of dessert withholding.

I’m planning to submit a slightly different picture to Post Punk Kitchen’s “food porn” thread.  I’m pretty sure it will qualify…  ☺

I did get the kids out of the house and we spent an hour or so at the pool.  I got my daily dose of Vitamin D and an opportunity to start reading a new book, and they got some much-needed exercise.  Despite the barf-dinner tonight, they’ve been pretty good all evening—probably because they’re tuckered out.  Yay tired kidlets!

Ahhh... Healthy chips that don't *taste* healthy!

I found a new favorite junk food today:  RiceWorks Rice Chips.  The Sea Salt and Sweet Chili are both available at my local Giant Eagle, are super tasty, and vegan!  The kids even liked them.

Spicy, super creamy black bean dip--excellent with RiceWorks chips!

Sean whipped up a batch of black bean dip and the four of us finished off a bag of the Sweet Chili ones with dinner tonight.  I think that’s the only thing that kept Daniel going through his Sweet Potato Dahl.  They remind me a lot of Doritos, but they’re way healthier and—best of all—no dairy, no hydrogenated oils, and no icky bad stuff I can’t pronounce in the ingredients!  They totally satisfy my craving for a salty, savory snack.  We’re definitely going to have to keep these around!

Tonight for dessert, we’re having tofu chocolate pudding with the Nasoya chocolate-flavored tofu I found over the weekend.  I’m really excited about it.  We made it in the Vita Mix with a slightly tweaked version of their recipe.  Since we had chocolate tofu and chocolate soymilk already, we left out the 2 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate and the 5 tablespoons of margarine the recipe called for.  We also added some crushed Newman’s Own chocolate crème cookies to the blender during the last couple of seconds for an extra dose of yumminess.  We also added a couple of tablespoons of cornstarch, since I really wasn’t seeing anything in the recipe that was going to make pudding set up after being blended with just milk and sugar.  We’ll see what happens with that; it’s in the fridge as we speak.

I thought that we were going to have a grown-up movie tonight, but it’s starting to look like that isn’t going to happen since it’s after 9:30 and I haven’t seen Sean in over half an hour.  We’ll see, though.  Maybe it’ll just be a late-night showing.  ☺

UPDATE:  Even after sitting in the fridge for a full 24 hours, the chocolate tofu pudding never did set.  *sigh*  Oh, well.  It made a really tasty chocolate soup!

This is sooooo good when it's warm and fresh!

My kitchen has been invaded by ants this week.  I find this most distressing.  All the time I’ve lived in this house, I have seen an occasional straggling insect.  This invasion goes way beyond that, though.  This week, I have found a tiny battalion working its way to the dogs’ food dishes.  I looked around for humane methods of convincing the little buggers that they should look elsewhere for food.  Chili powder, curry, and vinegar haven’t worked.  Combinations of all three haven’t worked.  The last time I tried the chili powder trick, I found them walking through it to get to the food dishes.  I have cleaned the dogs’ bowls, mopped the floor, emptied the trash daily and swept the kitchen floor every night hoping the stem the tide.  So far, I haven’t seen any more today.  Let’s hope that maybe they found someplace better to go.  I will admit that I squashed a few while trying to sweep them up, and I’m pretty sure a few were drowned in vinegar.  I will also admit that I felt absolutely no remorse over the casualties.  This is why I will most likely never be a member of PETA.  ☺

I had a couple of overripe bananas sitting around the kitchen, so I decided to make some banana bread.  In the interest of trying to be a tad healthier (and possibly drop the 5 or so pounds I’ve gained since becoming vegan—ick!!), I made some changes.  I used 1 ¼ cups of whole wheat flour, ½ cup of unbleached all purpose flour, applesauce instead of oil, only ½ cup of sugar (I figured it would be sweet enough with the applesauce and the really ripe bananas) and I added about ½ cup of chopped walnuts.  I shortened the baking time to just under an hour—about 50 minutes or so—because the bread was starting to look overcooked.  As it turns out, the bottom was still a little underbaked, but it’s edible and not too sweet.  The whole wheat flour made it kind of dense and it didn’t rise very much, but it’s really tasty and doesn’t taste as desserty as some of the other sweet breads I’ve made recently.

After reading Skinny Bitch (and skimming Sean’s copy of Skinny Bastard), I have been trying to cut down on my caffeine intake.  It sucks.  Not that I’m usually too crazy with it—I got myself down to 1, maybe 2 cups of coffee a day, and I don’t drink soda at all anymore—but I really should be drinking more water.  I drank a full glass of water with the banana that I ate for breakfast (trying out the suggestion of eating a piece of fruit for breakfast, wait a little while, and eat another piece of fruit if still hungry), but I still wanted something else.  So I made a cup of chai tea with Silk creamer and a packet of Truvia.  Truvia is a tricky substance for me in beverages:  one packet isn’t enough, and two packets are too much.  I hate having half-packets lying around, so I’m thinking I may just try to deal with my tea being less sweet.  Either way, I greatly enjoyed my chai with a slice of fresh banana bread.  You didn’t really think I wasn’t going to taste it the second it came out of the oven, did you?  *grin*

Tonight is Weight Watchers, and I’m not looking forward to seeing the scale.  I have been hovering in the same 5-pound range for months, and now I’ve completely overhauled my eating habits and gained a few pounds.  Ick…  I know it’s just a matter of finding the right balance, and I have been eating so much bread lately that I’m surprised that I haven’t gained more.  It’s still been kind of frustrating not getting to my goal weight yet, but I’m still working at it, still trying, and still keeping that goal in mind.  I really need to remember that just because it’s vegan doesn’t automatically mean that it’s healthy and low-calorie.  It’s still all about calories in versus calories burned, and unfortunately baking cupcakes doesn’t burn enough calories to justify eating three of them in a day.  I should probably start my running regimen again.  I’m turning into a lump…

Enough pouting!  At least I’ve been keeping up with my kitchen (granted, it’s mainly so deter the ants, but still—an accomplishment is an accomplishment!), and I’m thinking I should probably get the kids out of the house for a while today.  Maybe we’ll go to the Y and they can swim while I run laps.  It’s a perfect day for it, really.  Exercise time, everybody!  ☺

Getting the kids to eat vegan food has been something of an adventure.  Last night’s dinner was a total miss for them—too strong of a wine taste in the sauce, beans, and any number of other stuff that just turned them off completely.  Tonight, I decided to try to duplicate something that Daniel really loves:  meatloaf.

Vegan meatloaf is a challenge.  Trying to find something with the right consistency that won’t fall apart or dry out is tough when you don’t use eggs, dairy, or meat.  So here’s the recipe I used (cobbled together from about 3 or 4 different recipe suggestions):

*      *     *     *     *     *      *     *     *     *     *      *     *     *     *     *      *     *
TVP “Meet Loaf”

1 ½ cups TVP
1 ½ cups boiling vegetable broth/stock
3 tbsp dried minced onion (or more, to taste), rehydrated in water
1 tbsp dried parsley
1 tbsp Italian spice mix
1 tsp salt
½ tsp fresh ground pepper
4 oz baby bella mushrooms, diced small
2 tsp Ener-G Egg Replacer, mixed with 2 tbsp water
1 cup breadcrumbs
¼ cup ketchup

Mix TVP with boiling vegetable stock in a medium-sized bowl; let sit for 10 minutes or until all liquid has been absorbed.  Combine all ingredients except ketchup in bowl and pour into loaf pan or baking dish.  Bake at 375F for 35 to 40 minutes.  Spread ketchup over top of loaf and bake an additional 10 minutes.  Cool for 5 to 10 minutes.  Serve with more ketchup on the side, if desired.

*      *     *     *     *     *      *     *     *     *     *      *     *     *     *     *      *     *
The result:  the kids ate every bite, Sean mentioned how moist it was compared to my last meatloaf attempt (made with ground chicken, I believe), and I was fairly happy with the outcome.  I have read that there are some rather noxious side-effects that often go along with eating TVP, but Sean and the kids heartily enjoy their flatulence so I’m not too worried.  ☺  I wish I had gotten a picture of it before I cut it, but I didn’t think of it until after it had already been consumed.  At least there was a tiny bit left for someone’s lunch later on and for the picture posted above.  Since the kids are going to be here next week as well, I’ll probably be making this again soon.

The Death Cupcakes from yesterday weren’t so bad after they sat out overnight in an airtight container.  They’re definitely more brownie-like than cupcake-like, but at least they’re edible.  The kids have liked them a lot!  And the icing really is awesome.  I have plenty left, so I may make some more cupcakes soon—especially since Sean picked up flour for me tonight.  ☺

I made bagels again today.  This is my third attempt with them, and I think they keep getting better each time.  Today, I made them with half unbleached all purpose flour and half whole wheat flour.  I also added some caraway seeds, flax seed, wheat germ, garlic powder, and onion powder.  I wanted a savory bagel this time, and I think I got it.  You really can’t taste the garlic and onion so much, so next time I might try minced garlic and onion instead of the powders, but they also went over really well.  I almost forgot to dip them in the boiling sugar water to give them their nice crust, but I caught it before they were completely baked.  Even with that little oversight, they’re really, really good.

All in all, a good cooking day.  Tomorrow is Wednesday, which means that it’s time to pick up more veggies from the CSA farmer.  I hope we get some tomatoes soon.  I know it’s still early in the season, but I’m looking forward to making some homemade tomato sauce and salsa so I can stop buying the jarred stuff.  And hopefully we’ll be getting the Vita-Mix soon.  We ordered it a week ago, and the waiting is just killing Sean.

Time for a nice long puppy walk followed by dessert!  Vegan “ice cream” and a brownie-cupcake, anyone?  ☺

I bribe my children.  I admit it.  Sometimes, it’s something material.  Today, it was for pure fame and notoriety.

I wanted for them to get out of the house for a while today.  We took them to the grocery store first—granted, hardly the most fun trip for a kid—and then we went for a walk at Battelle Darby Creek.  I had them bring their cameras along and told them that whoever took the best picture would have it posted with my blog entry today.  Daniel won!  Those are his size-10 feet that you see there.  I hope his feet stop growing soon—or at least that he grows into them more.  As it is, he’s starting to look like he’s wearing clown shoes.  ☺

Sylvie was a little less than enthusiastic about the walk (and the picture-taking, as it turns out), and she was breathing so hard by the time we got to the top of the steps on the trail that she could barely talk.  I’m thinking that maybe daily trips out there and a few times up and down the stairs might toughen her up a bit.

Not too much new on the food front today.  I did make broiled tofu for the first time using this recipe.  Super easy, and pretty tasty, too.  I don’t think I used the full amount of oil, though.  I just used some that was leftover after Sean made sweet potato fries for the kids and added some Bragg’s aminos to it.  After I turned the slices a few times, I added different spices to each set of 4:  garlic pepper, Mrs. Dash onion and herb, and a spicy one.  I think the spicy came out the best.  I served them on sandwiches with hummus, spinach, and some green pepper strips.  Definitely a keeper!

Surprise of all surprises:  my children are coming to like veggie “hot dogs”.  Daniel had one for a quick snack yesterday and ate two more for dinner tonight.  And this was after he made fun of the tofu at the store earlier today.  Little does he know that he had it for dinner tonight!  *evil cackle*  I’m on a quest to make these children like healthy food if it’s the last thing I do!

I think tomorrow is going to be something with pinto beans.  Actually, I know it’s going to be something with pinto beans since there’s a pound of beans soaking in the fridge as we speak.  I had one recipe in mind, but I totally forgot to pick up fake beef bouillon at the store tonight, and I think I’m out of even the veggie stuff.  Hmm…  A different recipe may be in order.  I was planning to make bread tomorrow, but we’ll see how that goes.  I found a great whole wheat bread tonight at Whole Foods—it’s light and fluffy, sliced super-thin, fairly inexpensive, no artificial crap (I could actually read the entire label without having to consult a dictionary!), and from a local bakery.  With all of that going for it, it makes me wonder if I really want to continue on my bread-making quest…  I really would like to make my own, though.  It makes the house smell wonderful when it’s baking.