Menu Planning Monday

I picked up a new vegan cookbook at the library - Vegan Planet: 400 Irresistible Recipes with Fantastic Flavors from Home and Around the World by Robin Robertson. This week most of our recipes come from this cookbook. I am also trying out some holiday type of recipes to decide what to bring to my parents' for Thanksgiving. My brother is a vegetarian (has been vegan in the past) so there are always some dishes made animal free but not dairy/egg free. Today I tried to make a carrot-mushroom "loaf" with vegan gravy. Ohmygoodness, it was HORRIBLE :( I spent 2 HOURS cooking and had to throw most of it away. Thankfully I also made a big tray of roasted red, purple, yukon gold and sweet potatoes and we had beautiful farmer's market tomato slices with cracked pepper, sea salt and balsamic so dinner wasn't a total loss but I could have spent 15 minutes prepping potatoes and slicing tomatoes instead of all the time spent chopping, shredded, mixing and cooking veggie loaf ingredients.

Hopefully we don't end up with too many more disasters this week.


Breakfasts
steel cut oats with berries and cinnamon
leftover pumpkin pie pancakes with almond "cream"
leftover pumpkin biscuits with vegan sausage

Lunches
homemade hummus with veggies to dip
leftovers
soups & salads

Dinners
Monday - Seitan Stroganoff, pasta & broccoli
Tuesday - Roasted corn chowder, asian coleslaw & pumpkin biscuits
Wednesday - Savory spinach bread pudding and salad
Thursday - Orange & Thyme scented white bean & “sausage” chili, salad & cornbread
Friday - Take out or leftovers

Extras
small batch of Texas caviar
apple spice cake
if time allows - try a pumpkin pie recipe

9/365

Last week I was asked what we "do" when we homeschool. I usually find it hard to define. We talk. We play. We read. We go places. We investigate and discuss. We play with friends. We meet new friends. We play on the computer. We do not do packaged curriculum or have a set schedule or a daily goal to meet. But we do have some workbooks because they like them and so we use them on (rare) occasion. Yesterday was one of those days. Zachary asked to do some workbook pages and his "30 minutes a day" preschool workbook held his interest for over an hour an a half. William colored in an old workbook and generally wrecked havoc. As a retired classroom teacher I think I expected to do more "school at home" but as I think about it more, get to know my kids better and what works for our family - I think we are definitely more on the unschooling end of the spectrum, for now.

Playing Catch-up

I have been taking my 365 pictures - I just haven't posted them.

I left off on Friday 6/365

Last week was tough and I was excited to get out to a ladies' craft night. I stopped at Target on my way and spent a blissful 1 hour shopping A L O N E. It was lovely. I got to church at 7:30 and by 9:30 was almost done with the tutu I was making for a birthday party on Sunday. My phone rang and a very sad "come. home" greeted me. My poor babe cannot go to sleep without momma. I got home and he was out within 2 minutes of touching me.

7/365 Saturdays are for Soccer

This picture is awful... but it isn't about the picture. It is about the memory. Arriving at DS1's soccer game and DS2 seeing Grandma and running to greet her.

8/365 Sunday birthday party day

The kids eating cake and ice cream. The family of the birthday girl are our very special friends. It was so nice that they even had cupcakes and soy ice cream that William could eat.

Outtake... the kids made leaves on tees with their hands and fabric paint...

4/365

We are trying to eliminate naps but he fell asleep on the ottoman while watching sesame street at 4pm. It is going to be a LATE night.

3/365

Today was dental check ups for the boys. Their teeth looked good although we need to brush better on their back teeth. Zachary has a little looseness in his front bottom teeth - suggesting he could have a loose tooth soon. How is that possible? He isn't even 5 yet. My baby!

2/365

Carl is 33. Our pumpkin patch plans were foiled by rain and a last minute doctor's appointment but we still took time to decorate bowls of ice cream (rice dream for W) with sprinkles.

1/365

This weekend I decided to start a 365 photo journal. I will take a picture each day for the next year. I thought I would start on Oct. 1 but while making breakfast on Sunday a bagel begged to be photographed. We celebrate "birthday weekends" in our house - the birthday person gets to pick all meals, all outings and all activities for the weekend closest to their birthday. This past weekend has been Carl's birthday weekend. His breakfast of choice this morning was fresh whole wheat bagels with cream cheese and lox. While schmearing his bagel I discovered that the hole was a heart. A heart shaped hole in my love's bagel. How sweet.