A third-grader at a local elementary school recently reported to her mom that there has been a rash of lunchbox break-ins. When questioned if her lunchbox has ever fallen victim to the petty crime, the daughter responded that it hadn't. It seems that the thieves had been looking for such items and bagged cookies and chips, which are evidently not a part of the girl's daily meal.
When the mother was questioned as to what she usually puts in her daughter's lunchbox, the mother replied, "A lot of times I make the kids a very simple lunch, like a sprouted wheat bagel smeared with avocado and sprinkled with nutritional yeast and a little salt. Sometimes they'll get some homemade hummus and some whole wheat pitas or crackers, and maybe some carrots. They always have some sliced fruit in their lunch, as well."
The evidence seems to point to the fact that the lunchbox bullies prefer to stay away from these healthier items, leaving the vegan kids to enjoy their lunch, undisturbed. The reporter notes that the mom was pleasantly surprised that her daughter's lunch has been untouched, yet that her daughter seems perfectly happy with the lunchtime offerings. Looks like another happy ending for the vegans...
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
Your questions answered!
Thank you for the question Facebook fan Julie!
"How do you handle pickiness? My 4 y.o. is refusing all beans for the past few months, which I usually eat daily!"
"How do you handle pickiness? My 4 y.o. is refusing all beans for the past few months, which I usually eat daily!"
Hey Julie,
Well, my kids never, ever refuse any food I offer them. They are totally aware of all the kids in the world who are starving, and of the enormous nutritional benefit of a high density diet. They regularly ask for more healthy snacks in their lunches and always drink their smoothies. Yeah - right. I WISH!!
I am not sure there is any parent out there who isn't exposed to finickiness over some foods. I always laugh at my own kids - Dylan likes jelly, his sister peanut butter. Kayla likes mustard, Dylan only ketchup. He likes tofu squares, she likes it scrambled. It can be challenging! We have a rule in our house that everything goes on your plate, and you can choose what to eat. I think there are rumors that you have to expose a kid 30 times to a new food until they'll eat it. I have no idea if this is true (certainly doesn't seem to be in our house), but I do notice that every year or so their tastes seems to change. Their favorite foods are no longer favorites, and things they wouldn't even try before are now expected to be in their lunches (like, duh mom! Of course I like pickles!) So, I don't worry too much when they're going through a food phase.
That said, for a while my kids also eschewed beans, which totally freaked me out because they are such a huge part of a vegan diet. After trying to force them to eat them (and after countless renditions of "Beans, beans, they're good for your heart, the more you eat them, the more you fart!" at the dinner table), I gave up. I took a break, and after a while, I decided to present them in a different way. Here are some ideas that worked for us - let me know if they work with your kiddo!
1. Bean taquitos - just wrap refried beans (homemade when I have time, but usually canned) in a corn tortilla. They can be lightly fried or baked. Make sure the tortilla is warmed so it folds easily.
2. Chickpea cutlets from Veganomicon. These are made with chickpeas, and oohhssoogood!
4. I LOVE homemade veggie burgers! I can use tons of beans in it and they have no ideas. This is my favorite site for inspiration:
5. Veggie lunch "meat" with beans!
So bottom line, I wouldn't freak about too much the pickiness, just keep offering up the frijoles and someday I am sure you'll be surprised - one day!!
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
I have a new lover, but don't tell my husband...
Okay, you can tell him, because he already knows. In fact, he and I are both madly in love with this new object of our affection. We take turns with it, declare our love for it at least once a week, and have even used it at the same time.
Before you start worrying about our marriage, our new lover is not a person (and not an animal either). We really aren't kinky like that. What we are in love with is....our new pressure cooker! Oh, baby, has this stainless steel beauty made the dinner hour much more freedom and freed me (at least a bit) from being chained to the stove top.
For a while now I had wanted to break my addiction to canned beans. I didn't like the waste of the cans, though they can (in theory) be recycled, and I also didn't like that BPA is present in all cans (with the exception of Eden Organics beans--not their tomatoes, though). Canned beans can also take up a whole shelf in a bean-lovin' vegan pantry. I am a hummus fanatic and usually make a big batch at least once a week, and I would use at least two cans of chickpeas each time. Now that I have a pressure cooker, I have forever broken the canned-bean habit, and I am FREE! =)
Beans really taste better from a pressure cooker! My neighbors, who are of Mexican descent and own a taqueria, LOVED my refried pinto beans. The wife even said they are better than her husband's from the restaurant. Now, that's a compliment!
The true beauty of the pressure cooker is the time and energy that's saved. I bought the Presto 8-Quart Pressure Cooker from Amazon. I first got interested when I read an article about pressure cookers in Vegetarian Times magazine a few months ago, and then began doing some research on Amazon. The model I bought looked the best for my family. I nearly got a smaller size, but then realized that I'd like the option to make large amounts of food at a time. (I'm big on doubling recipes so we can eat what I've made for at least two meals.)
I never use a regular old pot for soups anymore, because the pressure cooker is just so darn cool! I don't have to stir its contents to prevent them from burning like I'd do if I was cooking soup, etc the traditional way, and it's so fast! I also have grown to like the loud hiss that emits from the pressure cooker while it cooks at high-pressure because it can drown out the noises my children are making! LOL!
I throw just about anything in there to make a soup. I now subscribe to a service that delivers fresh produce from local farms and I get so many veggies a week that I can barely contain them in my fridge! I find that throwing just about any veggies (think greens such as chard or kale along with carrots, celery, onions...) and some soaked dried beans into a pot with some veggie broth or bouillon cubes and seasonings, and I have a soup that my whole family will eat--and most of the time, even enjoy! No, really my kids are often excited by my crazy soups and they end up eating a lot of veggies at once that's otherwise hard to fit into one meal. And, best part? Reheating the soup the next night couldn't be any easier-only one pot to clean! Woo hoo! It's one purchase I've made that my husband hasn't complained about because it's actually NOT collecting dust.
Speaking of the pressure cooker, I'd be remiss not to mention the source of my beloved beans. For the basic variety (think chickpea, black and pinto) I get them from the bulk section of our local Whole Foods, but I've also been buying them online from an awesome website and semi-local (to me) distributor, called Rancho Gordo. Every bean I have tried from them is amazing, and I love the names and colors of the beans! They're gorgeous! Some I've tried and enjoyed are: Good Mother Stallard, Yellow Eyes, Christmas Limas, and Runner Cannelinis. They are heirloom organic beans and are just so fun to make. Some are tiny, some are HUGE and they are just so beautiful. (Yes, I think I'm now in love with beans and pressure cookers!) Rancho Gordo sells other things, like spices and chiles, and I highly recommend checking them out if you're at all curious.
I'll leave you to ponder whether the addition of a pressure cooker is right for your family while I give you one of our fave recipes. My kids absolutely LOVE butternut squash soup, and so do I! It couldn't be easier to make (even without a pressure cooker)! Here is my basic recipe for the beautifully orange soup: (This is a loose recipe, meaning that I never measure anything and I always make it with differing amounts of veggies, depending on what I have on hand or feel like chopping.)
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced or chopped
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 or 2 large butternut squashes (start with one if this is your first time trying it so you can gauge how much your family will eat), peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch chunks
3-5 large carrots (you can use more if you're using more than one squash and the squash is particularly large. I think the more carrots the better, because they deepen the orange color of the final product), sliced
2-3 stalks celery, sliced
2-3 vegetable bouillon cubes, crumbled (try salt-free or low-sodium) OR vegetable broth, enough to cover veggies in pot
salt and pepper to taste
Saute garlic and onions in a few tablespoons of water in pot (or pressure cooker WITHOUT lid on if using pressure cooker) until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, you can heat water in a teapot to add to soup pot in a few minutes if you'd like to cut down on boiling time when the soup starts cooking.
Add squash, carrots and celery to pot. Cover with either WATER or VEGGIE BROTH until butternut squash is NEARLY covered, but not quite. If you leave a little of the veggies out of the water (perhaps 1/2 to 1 inch sticking out) you will have a thicker, creamier soup after it's pureed. If you are using water and not broth, crumble 2 or 3 bouillon cubes (two if only one squash is being used) into the water and stir into water/veggie mixture.
If using pressure cooker, cook on high pressure for 5 minutes, then turn off heat. (Pressure can be released a few minutes after the 5 minutes of cooking time are up if desired.) If cooking soup in a pot, cook in covered pot on medium-high heat, checking for tenderness of the squash after 40 to 45 minutes. Squash should be able to be pierced easily with a fork, but not be falling apart. Puree in pot with an immersion blender (another of my FAVORITE cooking tools) or blend in small batches in a blender, waiting until soup has cooled a bit. Transfer back to pot, if necessary, and season with salt and pepper. If soup needs extra flavor, you can crumble another bouillon cube in it and stir it up a bit.
I think you will love this soup as much as our family does! Even my 21-month old snooty eater will eat it. YUM!
xoxo
tami
Before you start worrying about our marriage, our new lover is not a person (and not an animal either). We really aren't kinky like that. What we are in love with is....our new pressure cooker! Oh, baby, has this stainless steel beauty made the dinner hour much more freedom and freed me (at least a bit) from being chained to the stove top.
For a while now I had wanted to break my addiction to canned beans. I didn't like the waste of the cans, though they can (in theory) be recycled, and I also didn't like that BPA is present in all cans (with the exception of Eden Organics beans--not their tomatoes, though). Canned beans can also take up a whole shelf in a bean-lovin' vegan pantry. I am a hummus fanatic and usually make a big batch at least once a week, and I would use at least two cans of chickpeas each time. Now that I have a pressure cooker, I have forever broken the canned-bean habit, and I am FREE! =)
Beans really taste better from a pressure cooker! My neighbors, who are of Mexican descent and own a taqueria, LOVED my refried pinto beans. The wife even said they are better than her husband's from the restaurant. Now, that's a compliment!
The true beauty of the pressure cooker is the time and energy that's saved. I bought the Presto 8-Quart Pressure Cooker from Amazon. I first got interested when I read an article about pressure cookers in Vegetarian Times magazine a few months ago, and then began doing some research on Amazon. The model I bought looked the best for my family. I nearly got a smaller size, but then realized that I'd like the option to make large amounts of food at a time. (I'm big on doubling recipes so we can eat what I've made for at least two meals.)
I never use a regular old pot for soups anymore, because the pressure cooker is just so darn cool! I don't have to stir its contents to prevent them from burning like I'd do if I was cooking soup, etc the traditional way, and it's so fast! I also have grown to like the loud hiss that emits from the pressure cooker while it cooks at high-pressure because it can drown out the noises my children are making! LOL!
I throw just about anything in there to make a soup. I now subscribe to a service that delivers fresh produce from local farms and I get so many veggies a week that I can barely contain them in my fridge! I find that throwing just about any veggies (think greens such as chard or kale along with carrots, celery, onions...) and some soaked dried beans into a pot with some veggie broth or bouillon cubes and seasonings, and I have a soup that my whole family will eat--and most of the time, even enjoy! No, really my kids are often excited by my crazy soups and they end up eating a lot of veggies at once that's otherwise hard to fit into one meal. And, best part? Reheating the soup the next night couldn't be any easier-only one pot to clean! Woo hoo! It's one purchase I've made that my husband hasn't complained about because it's actually NOT collecting dust.
Speaking of the pressure cooker, I'd be remiss not to mention the source of my beloved beans. For the basic variety (think chickpea, black and pinto) I get them from the bulk section of our local Whole Foods, but I've also been buying them online from an awesome website and semi-local (to me) distributor, called Rancho Gordo. Every bean I have tried from them is amazing, and I love the names and colors of the beans! They're gorgeous! Some I've tried and enjoyed are: Good Mother Stallard, Yellow Eyes, Christmas Limas, and Runner Cannelinis. They are heirloom organic beans and are just so fun to make. Some are tiny, some are HUGE and they are just so beautiful. (Yes, I think I'm now in love with beans and pressure cookers!) Rancho Gordo sells other things, like spices and chiles, and I highly recommend checking them out if you're at all curious.
I'll leave you to ponder whether the addition of a pressure cooker is right for your family while I give you one of our fave recipes. My kids absolutely LOVE butternut squash soup, and so do I! It couldn't be easier to make (even without a pressure cooker)! Here is my basic recipe for the beautifully orange soup: (This is a loose recipe, meaning that I never measure anything and I always make it with differing amounts of veggies, depending on what I have on hand or feel like chopping.)
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced or chopped
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 or 2 large butternut squashes (start with one if this is your first time trying it so you can gauge how much your family will eat), peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch chunks
3-5 large carrots (you can use more if you're using more than one squash and the squash is particularly large. I think the more carrots the better, because they deepen the orange color of the final product), sliced
2-3 stalks celery, sliced
2-3 vegetable bouillon cubes, crumbled (try salt-free or low-sodium) OR vegetable broth, enough to cover veggies in pot
salt and pepper to taste
Saute garlic and onions in a few tablespoons of water in pot (or pressure cooker WITHOUT lid on if using pressure cooker) until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, you can heat water in a teapot to add to soup pot in a few minutes if you'd like to cut down on boiling time when the soup starts cooking.
Add squash, carrots and celery to pot. Cover with either WATER or VEGGIE BROTH until butternut squash is NEARLY covered, but not quite. If you leave a little of the veggies out of the water (perhaps 1/2 to 1 inch sticking out) you will have a thicker, creamier soup after it's pureed. If you are using water and not broth, crumble 2 or 3 bouillon cubes (two if only one squash is being used) into the water and stir into water/veggie mixture.
If using pressure cooker, cook on high pressure for 5 minutes, then turn off heat. (Pressure can be released a few minutes after the 5 minutes of cooking time are up if desired.) If cooking soup in a pot, cook in covered pot on medium-high heat, checking for tenderness of the squash after 40 to 45 minutes. Squash should be able to be pierced easily with a fork, but not be falling apart. Puree in pot with an immersion blender (another of my FAVORITE cooking tools) or blend in small batches in a blender, waiting until soup has cooled a bit. Transfer back to pot, if necessary, and season with salt and pepper. If soup needs extra flavor, you can crumble another bouillon cube in it and stir it up a bit.
I think you will love this soup as much as our family does! Even my 21-month old snooty eater will eat it. YUM!
xoxo
tami
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Meet Draculara, the Vegan Vamp
"Mom!! MOM MOM MOM MOM MOM! Come quick, look!"
My 8 year old daughter was watching T.V, and excitedly informed me "Look, she's a vegan, too!" pointing to the trendily dressed vampire on her morning cartoon, Monster High.
HOW COOL. I love watching veganism going mainstream! I LOVE Draculaura. And I want a doll.
Here's Draculaura's bio:
Draculaura — daughter of Dracula. She is a vegan vampire, abstaining from any blood. She is hemophobic, being unable to even say the word "blood" without feeling faint. According to her biography, she is 1,599 years old. She has a pet male bat named Count Fabulous that Draculaura dresses up in pink clothing. In the books, she goes by a more normal name, Lala.
Favorite Food: I'm a vegan, no icky blood for me, so it's fruits, vegetables, and a lot of iron supplements.
Pet Peeve: The lack of vegan selection in the Creepoteria is so sad.
Draculaura is the brainchild of Mattel, and now has her own line of EVERYTHING - dolls, stationary, cartoons, music, clothes, costumes, games, etc.
Check her out! http://www.monsterhigh.com/bios/draculaura
The whole series is super veg friendly. Here is an example: DIS the DISSECTION!
xo,
Sarah
Monday, February 14, 2011
Happy Valentines Day!
So, I've totally overindulged in chocolate today! Yum, and uggghhhh. I came across a posting for vegan(ish) peanut butter cups a few days ago, and became crazy obsessed. Resses be damned!
What better timing to cater to my not-infrequent-enough- choc-o-holic-whims then V-day? Hey, I'm single so no flowers for me, and I'll drown myself in sugar if I wanna! I set to work. Unfortunately, I am a typical over-planner, and get overwhelmed and rush my projects. In between painting my daughters room (with eco-friendly paint of course!), vacuuming the sand out of my car, turning the seriously overripe nasty bananas into oh-so-yummy muffins, and dodging "mom, mom, MOOOMMMM!!"s, I decided to make these treats. WHAT WAS I THINKING?
All the recipes I looked at were amazing, beautiful, and decadent. But I'm a mom - an insanely busy one- and I just wanted some dang PB and chocolate! Is that sssooooo much to ask?
I cheated.
And you know what? They were gooooooood. So good in fact, I almost did not share this with you because I can now so easily fake my non-existent confectioners talent with these.
Here's the secret:
Take a mini muffin pan
Put 1 Tbsp. chocolate chips in the bottom of each cup (please use liners. Do as I say, not as I do.)
Put in the oven for 2-3 min (I had mine set at 350 because I was baking)
Take out of oven
Put in a dollop of your choice of filling (I used Dandies vegan marshmallows - YEAH, baby! And PB)
Cover with another tablespoon or so chocolate chips (this isn't rocket science)
Put in the oven for 2-3 min
Take out of oven
Swirl chocolate to make it look pretty
Place in freezer
Take out of muffin cups
EAT IT and LIKE IT.
If you know me at all, I don't apologize for my food. But, I am sorry. These are so ugly. I forgot to take a picture of the pretty ones, and by the time I went to do so, they had all vanished! :-D
xo,
Sarah
What better timing to cater to my not-infrequent-enough- choc-o-holic-whims then V-day? Hey, I'm single so no flowers for me, and I'll drown myself in sugar if I wanna! I set to work. Unfortunately, I am a typical over-planner, and get overwhelmed and rush my projects. In between painting my daughters room (with eco-friendly paint of course!), vacuuming the sand out of my car, turning the seriously overripe nasty bananas into oh-so-yummy muffins, and dodging "mom, mom, MOOOMMMM!!"s, I decided to make these treats. WHAT WAS I THINKING?
All the recipes I looked at were amazing, beautiful, and decadent. But I'm a mom - an insanely busy one- and I just wanted some dang PB and chocolate! Is that sssooooo much to ask?
I cheated.
And you know what? They were gooooooood. So good in fact, I almost did not share this with you because I can now so easily fake my non-existent confectioners talent with these.
Here's the secret:
Take a mini muffin pan
Put 1 Tbsp. chocolate chips in the bottom of each cup (please use liners. Do as I say, not as I do.)
Put in the oven for 2-3 min (I had mine set at 350 because I was baking)
Take out of oven
Put in a dollop of your choice of filling (I used Dandies vegan marshmallows - YEAH, baby! And PB)
Cover with another tablespoon or so chocolate chips (this isn't rocket science)
Put in the oven for 2-3 min
Take out of oven
Swirl chocolate to make it look pretty
Place in freezer
Take out of muffin cups
EAT IT and LIKE IT.
If you know me at all, I don't apologize for my food. But, I am sorry. These are so ugly. I forgot to take a picture of the pretty ones, and by the time I went to do so, they had all vanished! :-D
xo,
Sarah
Friday, February 11, 2011
Valentines is Coming!
Valentines Day is Monday! I am not big on celebrating this holiday, and one year tried to convince my kids that it was an unimportant holiday. We had recently become vegan, I didn't really think about getting vegan chocolates, and I was in a very idealistic place, not wanting to contribute to a "Hallmark holiday", encourage the kids to consume junk, etc. BIG FREAKING MISTAKE. Though we had talked about it, my kids were devastated when they woke up that morning and there was no candy and trinkets - I am a bad mom, so I didn't even make a card. It was tears and "don't you love us?" all morning! Talk about feeling like crap.
Lesson learned. Here is their gift this year:
Above: Go Max Go Jokerz Bar
Sjaaks Chocolate Heart of Cherry, Peanut Butter Bites, and solid Dark Chocolate Heart
All Go Max Go candy bars are covered in our signature-recipe rice-milk chocolatey coating. Light and lovely, it makes dairy-milk chocolate positively passé.
When your idea of the perfect candy bar is all about peanutty goodness, then we've got you covered. If layers of dry roasted peanuts, buttery-tasting caramel, and rich peanut nougat, sweetly wrapped in a delicious chocolatey coating sounds like a little slice of heaven, then smile, the Jokerz™ bar is for you!
How does a rich, fluffy, chocolatey nougat covered in a creamy chocolatey coating sound right about now? If you can't answer because desire is consuming you… aye matey, 'tis aBuccaneer™ bar for you!
Now imagine that rich, fluffy, chocolatey nougat topped with a layer of thick, buttery-tasting caramel all wrapped up in our very own creamy, rice-milk chocolatey coating. If this gives you sweet dreams of good taste, then the Twilight™ bar is for you!
If you crave a gently sweetened coconut candy bar topped with three whole dry roasted almonds and covered in a luscious chocolatey coating… hang loose, the Mahalo™ bar is for you!
Yeah.... YUM!!
They are carried at most Whole Foods stores, and here is a list of other locations:
TOTALLY WORTH IT!!
They can be purchased at some Whole Foods, and many natural foods stores and Co-ops. If your local stores don't carry them, they have a request form available. Of course, they can also be purchased online!
xo's and chocolate,
Sarah
Friday, February 4, 2011
Kids Perspective - a follow up to Have a Heart
I recently wrote about our struggle with dissection in school: http://growingvegans.blogspot.com/2011/01/have-heart.html
The outcome was that my son decided to observe the dissection. I bit my nails all day at work, anxiously awaiting for his report on the lesson. When I picked him up, he said "WOW! That was the coolest and most disgusting thing I have ever seen!!" Hmmm... not so much the reaction I was expecting. What was I expecting? Remorse. Horror. Scarring. But you know what? He's 11. Things like this are cool when you're 11. As ethical and thoughtful and empathetic as he is, he's still a kid.
We talked about his feelings about participating - he felt bad for the animal, but didn't feel terrible about participating. I asked him if he thought he learned more, less, or the same than if we had decided to learn about it at home, online, and by making a model. His answer? "Way more mom, because everyone was excited to learn 'cause that was cool".
So when he wrote this a few days later, I was somewhat surprised. I asked him why the change of heart (pun intended) and he looked downcast, saying "I don't want to talk about it. I just feel really bad about what I did".
When this comes up again (it will next year), I think I will handle it the same way. It's not perfect, but it's true to who we are. It's my job to help him make good decisions, but at his age, it's up to him to carry them through. I'll have him re-read what he wrote, encourage him to remember why we're vegan, and let him make his own decision.
Here is his post:
www.growingvegan.blogspot.com
Dissection
OK one thing every vegan on earth worries about dissections at school. We did that in class a week ago, I had a raging battle inside my conscience over it but in the end I did it. I will NEVER do that again. Next time I might walk out of the classroom if I have to. anyways I wish I hadn't done it.
-Dylan
xo,
Sarah
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