Vegetarian Foodie

Goings Ons......

Hope your Valentines Day was spectacular and filled with heaps of love and chocolate.  We had our annual dinner- This year's menu was French with a North African influence.

We enjoyed: Socca, Cous Cous with Roasted Carrots, Cheese and more cheese, Roasted Beets, Sprouted green salad (more on sprouts soon) and mountains of chocolate!

This tradition of a fancy pants dinner complete with decor has been going on for 5 years.... here is a snapshot from 2009 Valentines Day -I hope to post a few photos of last night's dinner soon. Until then, here are some goings ons as of late: 

Cheese.

 

4 layer Birthday cake..... because February offers up a birthday (Recipe Here)

We have been taco and burrito crazy as of late.... tempeh and kale seems to be high the list of favorites

Another (Not very pretty but tasty) cake was made for no reason... and I surprised the kids (look at their faces-ha!)

Starting a nonprofit with this talented and inspirational girl...see: Community Wings .....mosaics coming to your neighborhood soon! (Find Kirstin's mosaic site here and her awesome food blog Veggie Voyager)

This rascal making more messes than I can keep up with..... better go clean one up now.

Y'all Lettin Us Down Paula Deen!

I don't own a tv. When we travel, I do love to click on the tv and watch Food Network with the kids. Cooking shows are a family past time when we are in a hotel. Paula Deen has always been one of our favorites to watch and imitate (although we rarely, if ever, make her food recipes).

I am so disappointed with how she has handled/reacted to her diagnosis of Type 2 Diabetes... Paula Deen has apparently not addressed the issue of her weight, diet and lack of exercise but rather chosen to become the front person and spokeswoman for a drug called  Victoza^®.

As an important celebrity for middle America, her message of “Eat whatever you want, as long as you take your pill…” is incredibly irresponsible.  

More on this at one of my Favorite Blogs Food Politics.

You are what you eat, Ya'Hear?

Christmas Hangover Walk

I hope your holiday was wonderful. After the festivities and the candy...and the candy...and more candy... we decided to walk it off.

Have a Perfect Friday...

Vow of Silence (follow up)

(Photo taken right before a haircut)

Thinking about how we communicate around our home has been a hot topic as of late. As I mentioned in a previous post (the vow of silence) it has become all to easy too shout and mindlessly subscribe to reactionary speech. 

Additionally, we are in constant discussion about "what ifs" and "we coulds" as we are standing at a fork in the road (sorry for the cliche-more on that soon). These 'what if' and 'we could' discussions are fun and required but sometimes feel like verbal clutter. 

My day off from speaking aimed at a bit of calm and insight.

• The day was playful. The kids were amused and interested in the idea of a vow of silence and the elements of communication  
• I forgot about the vow a couple times and started to speak -there is that mindless speaking again
• I missed reading books to the littlests...words can be so useful
• I took the 3 littles to the grocery store (I didn't say a word the entire time). When the kids said, "Can I have this? We need this..." etc. I could only shake my head yes or no... not using words felt so much easier
• Rather than shout across the house I was forced to stop what I was doing and enter the room in which the person I needed was. Communication involved making eye contact and charading the situation

Calm and insight achieved.

Happy Friday!

Happy Birthday to the 9 year old in the house!!!

(the daughter is mid-sentence in explaining to her father that it is unlikely that there would be someone (ever) that would NOT like the book Charlotte's Web by E.B. White)

A shout out!

Normally I don't do this type of shout out and I have not collected money for this..... but,  yesterday on my doorstep arrived a box of these:  Perfect Foods Bar

There happened to be a small gang of people at my house when they arrived so we all tore into the bars to sample them.

All agreed: They are delicious, really over the top tasty and MADE IN SAN DIEGO! Local! Filled with good stuff and protein packed... So if you need a bar on the go- go for this one.

The Living Room and the Couch

This is a peek into my living room.... it is a simple room with the intention of offering itself as a venue for people to meet, drink, have fun, laugh and or cry, enjoy a fire, dreamily look at trees out the big window.... you know, that kind of stuff.

But there is a problem. The husband hates the brown couch... yes, that antique beauty there below... I mean, he hates it. I agree with him that it is not the most comfortable couch ever made. .... but it is lovely, does that not count for anything?

Guess not. Anyways, after some debate-the couch goes. There is a different couch on its way... I have never liked couches- I prefer a pillow on the floor any day. But the coming couch, is snuggly as well as nice to look at. So, ok.

The brown couch will be moved into my office (aka bachlorette studio) ...

The groundskeeper. 

 

The Persian Den as we call it..... perfect for late nite giggles and tipping the wine bottle into emptiness.

Come over and pick up a book....

I love this window.....

Catching Up...

I had some very amazing photos of the orange spiced donuts I made. I had some other amazing photos of the wine harvest from a year ago's project wine (Recall?)

Where...did those photos go? DRAts.

Big Bear in the summer...camping at Green Valley...Drinking Lots of Home brews...planning for some wine making to fill all these glass jugs....taking care of 4 more chicks...that is what is going on here nowadays.