playing catch up and dinner travel

Homeschooling and spring cleaning has kept me very busy. I had a few minutes and wanted to throw some pictures on here that have been piling up.

We tried Mochi finally! The kids loved watching it cook! They liked the taste of the original flavor and didn't even want to try the pizza flavor! huh? Oh, well. My husband and I liked it. I ate my original flavor stuffed with homemade kimchi and the pizza flavor dipped in homemade marinara mixed with Vegan Gourmet cheese.






Here is some quickie sausage I made from frozen Boca burgers and a spice blend I found on the internet. Just threw it all in the food processor and shaped into small patties. Turned out really good! The kids liked it even though they won't touch Boca burgers.



Made some Foccacia Bread from Nava Atlas' Vegetarian Soups for All Seasons The family loved it! I thought it was quick, easy and good, except that the garlic and herb topping burned. Yuck! Not much worse than burnt garlic.



Oh, this was delicious! Texas Rainbow Greens. My husband and I ate it with quinoa. I didn't even try to serve it to the kids.



Weird "meat" in a can. My husband is curious about it, so a can usually ends up in the cart "to try". This was surprisingly good and I think will be one of my favorite dishes to serve to omnis. All but the youngest kid loved it. Companion brand Peking Vegetarian Roast Duck used in a recipe called Hoisin Duck and Greens Stir-fry (from a tiny little cookbook called Asian Food that I picked up at Costco a few years ago.)




Another canned "meat" Cedar Lake Chops coated with spicy breading and lightly fried in cooking spray. Also, surprisingly good. Was just okay straight out of the can. Wish I had more time to make homemade seitan.



I decided to make some Indian food a few nights ago, and, as a way to get my kids excited about trying everything out, I treated it as a "class". We pulled out the atlas and encyclopedia and read a little about the country before "tasting" some of the foods that are eaten in India. Although they didn't all pile their plates full and eat every bite, the kids were thrilled with it! So much so, that we've also "visited" Italy and Mexico since, and the kids requested Africa tomorrow night! I forgot to take any pictures but will be sure to start, especially if this is a recurring event! We may have to change our travel plans to once a week - I can't handle this many dirty dishes every night! :)

beautiful, delicious roasted veggies

OH, MY! These are so amazing and addictive and I cannot stop eating them! Roasted Sweet Potato Fries and Cauliflower. Forever grateful to Bazu, for sharing this link which inspired me to roast cauliflower.

Roasted Sweet Potato Fries & Cauliflower

4 Tbsp. olive oil
2 tbsp lime juice
2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. crushed red pepper
2 tsp. hot chili powder
2 tbsp. jalapeno mustard
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
2 tsp. salt
3 cups sweet potato fries
1 head cauliflower, cut into bite size pieces


preheat oven to 400 degrees. in a large bowl, stir together first 8 ingredients. add sweet potatoes and cauliflower and stir until evenly coated. arrange veggies in a single layer on baking sheet. bake 20 minutes, turn veggies over, and bake another 10 minutes, until browned. Serve with ranch dressing and TRY TO SHARE!! :)

*cut the first 8 ingredients in half and use for just cauliflower or just sweet potato fries. good stuff!

curry pasta & kimchi

Found this at Trader Joe's a few months ago and just got around to using it. They're very slightly curry flavored noodles, which is perfect for us because we like curry just a little bit. Used it in a typical breakfast soup. My two oldest girls ate it and liked it a lot, although they thought I went a little crazy on the chili sauce :)



And here's my first batch of kimchi this year. This is something the kids don't touch, but my husband and I love it. It's crunchy and sour and salty and has lots of "good for you" stuff in it. Check out Rejuvenative Foods for a store bought option. Used this recipe for the first time, and although it was barely spicy, it turned out good. I think the problem was that the recipe called for cayenne and not Korean chili powder.

vita-mix and healthy dessert?

I need a Vita-Mix!! Are they as awesome as they seem?! I was lucky enough to take a trip to Costco last week with just one kid in tow, and was able to actually stand in front of the Vita-Mix demonstrator and see what it's all about. She made: soup in about 2 minutes, throwing whole veggies in the container; sorbet with cabbage, carrots, and fruity things (my 6 yr old PICKY eater ate it!); iced chocolate coffee; fresh fruit/veggie juice, etc. etc. It was so amazing! She made a Chicken Tortilla soup that smelled wonderful and made me want some, so, I came home and made one similar to hers.


I threw some very roughly chopped carrots, celery, zucchini, cilantro, bell peppers, jalapenos, onion, and garlic into a large soup pot with one can of undrained diced tomatoes and some water and seasonings (chili powder, cumin, etc.) Next, I boiled everything until it was soft and then blended it with my hand blender until it was smooth. Last, I added some cooked brown rice, corn, black beans and crushed tortilla chips. My three oldest kids loved it and so did my husband. Very heavy veggie flavor but kid friendly because there were no veggie chunks.

What about that "healthy" dessert?

My 3 yr old's eating habits have been really stressing me out lately. She refuses to eat anything but about 5 foods and we're starting to see "issues" because of it (don't worry - no details) One thing she eats very little of is grains and/or breads. I thought that I would try to make some low sugar oatmeal cookies and see if she would eat them. I never quite got that far though and decided to do a sort of no-bake, rice crispy treat...



This is what I ended up with. What a bomb! It didn't taste like a dessert. puffed brown rice, oatmeal, carob powder, brown rice syrup, vanilla, and soy nut butter. It was not sweet at all and it was so hard I couldn't even flatten it into the pan or cut it into bars or cookies. Needless to say, my 3 yr old didn't touch it. I kept it hoping I could salvage it, but I can't quite figure out how to do that. Any ideas for a healthy sweet with no dates?