Eating out Veg*n

  So I'm going to cover something a bit different this time.  Ever been invited out and felt awful either saying "no" or ordering a dry salad (yuck!)?  In my case I usually feel guilty because my husband is so accommodating to it when we go out.  He always asks what I can eat at places.  Some days I love that man!  The concern is - how do you find out?  Oh you lucky veg*ns, you.  The internet has come a long way: Happy Cow (which also has an app for your phone!), VegVine, and Vegan eating out are generally my three go-tos for finding out.  If I am asked well enough in advance about a restaurant - I email them.  I have never had a company not respond to my inquiries, though I've gotten answers I haven't been happy with.  Sometimes you just want to be able to eat where everyone does.  I think my worst experience was for Bucco di Beppo's for my parent's anniversary a few years back.  I flew in from Germany to San Diego (with a 4 year old, what was I thinking?!).  I emailed the company weeks in advance and got a promt reply of I could eat nothing.  This is where my parents wanted to go for their anniversary, I flew over 6,000 miles to go to a restaurant I couldn't eat at - and I did it happily, albeit a little disappointed.  I went vegetarian instead of vegan because most of the group was concerned.  Yes, sometimes you bend your principals for the people you love.  Sometimes you don't.  This was before I was doing vegetarian once a week - which I do less and less of since the move.
  Spur of the moment eating out is the worst!  Again, my husband is great at addressing dietary concerns.  While breast feeding our new one in the car (I have no problems breastfeeding in public, but I also understand it can make people uncomfortable so I do it as privately as I can when I can) he went in and checked out a buffet to see if I could eat there.  Lin's Buffet got a thumbs up from him so I finished up, got the stroller, and headed in.  Vegan was easy, crazy easy.  Except those sugared biscuits that screamed at me.  Then I ate one - yeasted and sugared.  OMG.  I need to figure those out for at home.  I am a huge fan of breads where you can taste the yeast, and then to sugar crust it?  Win.  No eggs in it, and I'm assuming there's some milk or butter in them - though I couldn't taste that either.  I've gotten super sensitive to eggs, both taste wise and intestinal wise, so I'm sure there are none.
  While locally I won't be a help to many of you; but anyone in the El Paso, TX area will be happy with the knowledge.  So some very vegan friendly places are:
  - The Hoppy Monk
  - India Palace
  - Thai Chef Cafe (ask to substitute meats for tofu)
  - Tacoholics (Jesse is great!)
  - Lin's Buffet

  I don't really take pictures of food when I eat out - perhaps it's time to change that.  But I can tell you they won't be the best pictures because if I'm not cooking it, I'm much quicker to enjoy it and quality of photo doesn't mean a thing to me when it gets between me and my food!

Cooking

  I'm a terrible blogger.  I keep trying to be better at it.  In the meantime, I've found this wonderful blog.  Let me tell you, if you don't make her recipes you are missing out.  Not all have been hits in our house, but of the few I've made most have been family approved - or at least partially.  Peanut butter and vegetable curry had too much peanut butter in it for us, but had potential.  Her simple tomato soup would make a great soup base for us (I used tomato sauce instead of juice, I just never buy tomato juice, ew).  I was the only one that ate the creamy chili and zucchini stew, I found it delicious, but I don't think anyone else would like it; they all dislike zucchini.  Creamy spinach with brussels sprouts reminded my son of grown up mac and cheese but with brussels sprouts, which only my husband likes... so next time we'll omit those (also, we bastardize these with the addition of ketchup and Tapitio).  My favorite, which I made tonight, so far has been the crispy carrot cutlets (there are no limes in this recipe, those were for my water and I'm terrible at putting things away - plus I drink lots of water, why keep moving them around?).  Mother of all that is delicious!  Estonia = amazing vegan food, who knew?!  The child liked these - let me tell you, that says a lot (picky little schmuck).

   I've also been baking bread about every two days (maybe one day I'll care enough to touch up photos before posting them, also I should learn to photograph food).

 I made copious muffins, including these which the boy would barely even try (like I said, schmuck).  More for me.  I did dates in lieu of raisins since raisins come straight from the devil.  I wouldn't be surprised if they were his wrinkly scrotum proliferating itself... too much?  Yes, I dislike raisins that much.  More than brussels sprouts.  I forgot to take a picture after I'd baked them, and then they were all up in my face so fast I didn't get the chance.  Two days, that's how long they lasted.  They didn't rise, at all.  Still wonderful, don't care.

 
  I know I was supposed to make things for lunches.  I failed.  Sure did, not going to apologize.  DH had been working like crazy with zero days off - no, I exaggerate.  In 7 weeks he did get 1 day off, which meant lots of kid time and tired.  Like incoherent tired.  He decided to take a day off last weekend as well and he did get this weekend off; as bad as it sounds, only because someone died.  So yes, I'm still dragging; but doing better with DS back at school.
  Hopefully I'll post next Thursday, my goal will be to post every Thursday.  I sure hope *someone* remembers!

Strangling the Sugar Beast

  I have a confession to make - we eat a lot of sugar.  No, a lot.  We didn't a few years ago, but I've gotten lax.  I've laid down with the Sugar Beast myself and my head is paying for it.  When I started seeing signs of what frequently gets labeled as ADD in my son I knew it was time to take both the easiest and hardest route - limiting the sugar consumption.  We started last week, right after we made chocolate chip muffins for breakfast *facepalm.*  Today is the last day of muffins, so it will be starting more in earnest tomorrow.  Though we have already taken out a lot and gotten in the habit of stopping ourselves (at least boyo and myself).
  DH just got home yesterday, so he's very new to it and I've already heard whining.  "Does this mean I can't make those vegan brownies?"  Yes fool, it does.  It's not permanent, but when we are done desserts will be eaten once a week.  Not every night, plus candy and sodas during the day.  I did give DH that he can cheat at work.  I know he's going to anyway.  I'm hoping that will make the transition at home easier because he's the biggest whiner in the house about it.
  So those fruit snacks that made it on to the list of things to make - gone.  I'm not disappointed.  Just like boyo gets to finish off his muffins, I get to finish off my pumpkin spice syrup.  In case  you missed that recipe two years ago, or lost it: (you're welcome)

                                                                  (photo credit: Alison of Culinary Adventures in the Kitchen)
  So far I have noticed that my son is paying slightly better attention.  Now we've only been at this about a week and we did not cut out all refined sugars immediately.  We are also only cutting out refined sugars.  So fruits, breads (including pancakes, he doesn't use syrup), and recipes that use less than 1/8c of sugar in them are still a go at this point.  We're cutting down significantly, but not eliminating - yet.  This does mean no candy type or chocolate chip studded muffins, pancakes, etc.  Today I will be trying my hand at a new recipe for muffins, I'm looking for a recipe I have everything on hand for now.  The chocolate chip muffins came from a baking book and we doubled the recipe to 20 muffins, cut down the granulated sugar from 2/3c to 1/3c and brown sugar from 6Tbs to 4Tbs and they were still very sweet.  I could always use that as a base and keep reducing the sugar until it's the correct sweetness or the muffin recipe no longer works right.  Eventually tweaking without substituting will make it crap out.
  I am also looking into Jeddy's blend to try.  Right now I'm focusing on the sugars though because I really want to cut them down.  I know if Jeddy's blend works on it's own DH will be off the limited sugars band wagon and it will be a huge fight.  They need it the most too with their waists (somehow I wasn't putting on weight - I think it was a lot of sugar for me, but not so much that it had weight effects).  Something I want to point out is it's far better to get rid of than substitute sugars.  The average substitute has the same, if not worse, effects.  The only thing we substitute with are fruits.  Very ripe bananas and dates are the most popular in my house. 

School Break

  I recently registered my son into a traditional school; well, a year round traditional school.  Last week and this next week he's already on break.  That's one lucky kid!  One week in a desk and already on vacation.  So what to do during this two week hiatus?  He's not hot on eating the same kinds of lunches at home that he will at school.  In fact, I've been asked more times than I can count if we can go out to eat last week.
  My kid is on a mac and cheese kick.  We had been doing Annie's, now I'm going to have to figure out how to make my own that he likes.  I'm really not looking forward to attempting fruit snacks he's going to like.  In case you missed it, Annie's sold out to General Mills.  There's a petition that's really not going to do much of anything if you'd like to sign it.  I did just because it made me feel a little better that I'd said something, as little good as it will do.
  However, mac and cheese isn't the most wholesome thing so we do some sort of veggie with it as well.  Can I send him to school with mac and cheese?  Of course, but it's hot at home.  It's that easy to interest my kid.  We also do leftovers, which is even better if you can make those left overs into a sandwich.  Unfortunately, my son discovered he like pepperoni and cheese sandwiches as well.  Judge me all you want, but when you're breast feeding one kid and the other is finally clamoring that he's hungry (even though you asked about five minutes before you started feeding the infant), you let the 9 year old make his own lunch with the stipulation he needs to include a vegetable.  He's back to liking carrots again, so he changes between spinach and carrots at this point - his favorite is the veggie mix you find in the freezer section but I haven't taught him to use the stove yet.
  When he goes back to school we're going to try a few new things as well.  I get bored of the same stuff day after day too.  Bentos sure can be cute, but the cute ones are copious amounts of work and often use ingredients banned from my house.  I'm scouring my bento, school snacks, and sammiches pins to find some simple lunches for the boy and DH.  With this move I won't be seeing him at lunch, so he'll need to take it with him.  Here are a few we'll be trying out once the boy goes back to school:

veggie nuggets, I'll be replacing the eggs with ground flax eggsand the Parmesan with nutritional yeast.

Doctor Who bento: multiple days; Cassandra sandwich, a TARDIS sandwich, the other three pretty much as is.

Yoda!  Maybe carrots cut into strips to replace the grapes, no fruit snacks, not m&m eyes (broccoli stem?)

"Pizza" pockets, whatever filling I choose to go with.

Mini corn dogs, use Nathan's hot dogs

fruit snacks

pretzels

Here are my pin boards if you are interested.  They're not all healthy options, sometimes a treat is ok.  Some of them I'd like to make healthier.
Bento ideas, school snacks, sammiches

Large Italian meal planning

  I'm much later than expected posting this.  Apparently kids and memory don't cooperate in my keeping up on the blog.  So, I stated that I would share my Italian meal plan as well.  Lets get right in to that.

Italian Menu ideas:
  Appetizers:
 - bruschetta (there are copious recipes, find one that appeals to you, you can also replace the regular bread with bread spoons)
 - roasted tofu lollipops with pesto (chowvegan is currently having issues, but the picture is pretty self explanatory, as cute as they are on the little forks, I'll be using toothpicks)
 - balsamic strawberries with basil
 - pesto zucchini bites (easily use any squash or even eggplant)
  Salad:
 - panzanella (I wing it and add beans to make it a main dish)
 - vegan Caesar salad
 - sliced tomatoes and cucumbers marinated with balsamic, capers, and olive oil
 - any green salad
  Soup:
 - tomato soup (this one is nice and light omitting the potatoes)
 - minestrone
  Main Dish:
 - spaghetti marinara
 - roasted garlic, olive, and tomato pasta salad (there are plenty of vegan ricotta recipes)
 - stuffed shells (even eggplant haters love this recipe)
  Sides:
 - garlic bread
 - eggplant "meat"balls (another one approved by the indigenous eggplant hater, best faux ones I've found according to him)
  Dessert:
 - pumpkin cannoli (not going to sugar coat it, cannoli shells are crazy hard and time consuming.  Try doing it with someone experienced the first time, and never make them alone.)
 - Italian Wedding Cake (or Creme cake - sweet Jesus someone already veganized it!  This version is missing the walnuts my mother always included and I cannot say whether or not this recipe works)