second-monday

Okay, so my meal planning was sort of 50/50 success.  Two of my good lady friends from the Midwest came out for a visit.  We ate, we gabbed, we ate some more.  I did bake them a vegan Kale and Quinoa Quiche the night they got in– I knew they would be hungry after a day full of travel.  We did make the Garlic Coconut Cream Pizza (so crazy delicious), but other than that our moods led our meals more than my plan.  Read also, there was a lot of dessert (Smlove Pie, Pull-apart Pumpkin Bread, and Cookie Dough Hummus to start).  We kept savory meals simple and veg filled– my ladies do love the veg.  So, when all was said and done, it almost sorta balanced out.

clockwise starting at top left: almond milk, felix, baked pumpkin oatmeal, super belated xmas gift, garlic coconut cream pizza, and laundry couch.

It is always very refreshing to see long distance friends again, and it was great having company in the kitchen.  There is a downside to visits though.  Every time someone leaves I feel overwhelmed by the physical distance between us.  Most of the time I enjoy where I live and am happy in the knowledge that we’re going home EVENTUALLY.  But, I totally lose it every time we drop someone at the airport.  Every.  Time.   My laundry couch gets a little fuller, my meals a little heavier, and my apartment even dirtier (because, I won’t lie, it’s never really clean).

Well, my mourning period pity party has passed, and I’m ready to hop back in the meal plan van– I thought it would be better than wagon because it rhymed, but it just sounds creepy.  We’re going to make a few recipes from Appetite for Reduction (pot-pie stew and buffalo tempeh with cool slaw), baked potatoes, and asian-style pepper steak (with gardein beef tips or tofu).  AFR recipes usually last through a couple of meals, and I also have some veg-lentil soup (also from AFR)  in the freezer.  I am hoping this and maybe some pantry improv will keep us eating from home until next Sunday.

Happy Friday if it’s your Friday!  Have a great weekend.  In this family it is more like Tuesday or maybe more accurately Second-Monday (there are some repeats in a seven-day work week).  Things are just getting started up in here.

[pinterest eats] meal planning from pinboards

One of my goals for the new year (really, any time of the year) is to meal plan and budget better.  I don’t know why I am not awesome at this.  It should be genetically imprinted on you when you become a parent.

This past week I made old stand-bys like the VegNews Mac and Cheeze (great for using up spare farmer’s market potatoes and carrots) and Tofu-Ricotta Stuffed Shells.  I also tried a new recipe from the most recent issue of Real Simple, which features a bunch of slow cooker meals, Sauerkraut, Potatoes, and [Tofurky] Sausage.  We also ate frozen pizza and got take-out.  Baby steps, I suppose.

To keep myself motivated and interested I’m opting to forgo my, perhaps shamefully massive, library of vegan cookbooks and shop Pinterest for meal ideas.  So, in no particular order because I find having a list to pick from instead of assigning them to specific days is more realistic for my needs, here are some meals I am hoping to make this week:

• General Tso’s Tempeh (because at some point we inevitably crave Asian take-out)
• Quinoa and Kale Quiche (I am going to use the frittata recipe from 500 Vegan Recipes as a base)
• White Pizza with Roasted Garlic Coconut Cream and Sundried Tomatoes (would be great next to a big salad)
• Cha Seitan Bao (or Steamed BBQ seitan buns)  (because at some point we will crave Asian again)

I am also going to try my hand at some slow cooker seitan.  It won’t be my first run, but I don’t feel like I have really mastered it yet.  And, for the pickiest eater I’ll probably make a big batch of nuggets, and supplement with raw veg (I am glad he at least likes undressed vegetables) and a metric ton of sunbutter sandwiches.

I’ve succumbed…

… to the bleakness of this day.

Rain in January is an abomination and only serves to worsen my mood of late.  I have been guilty of giving in to the time suck that is the internet and getting further behind in everything real in life.  My head is so fuzzy with to-dos and oh-ahs my mind is ready to just turn off.  I think I am going to have to ground myself from the internet.  Ya know, read a few extra books to these guys…

 

Before I dimly stumble away from my computer (so cold, alone, and confused without you), how about a little over-share for the road.  We have been eating quite a bit of fermented food recently (black pepper tempeh; kimchi; potatoes, sausage, and kraut; fermented pickles), and my belly has been a bubblin’.  It has been a very tasty, very stinky week.

A vendor at our local farmer’s market sells vegan kimchi and fermented pickles.  They are so delicious.  I bought some (totes out of season) cukes so I could make a batch of fridge pickles because mama cannot afford farmer’s market pickles on the regs.  Would you believe I hated pickles up to a few years ago.  If my picky-eating, ten-year-old self could see me now… Oh, she would NOT approve.

 

no-no juice

 

I basically woke up muttering profanities at the World, and I refused to put on real pants until almost noon.  Usually, I forgo the morning coffee routine since I am still breastfeeding , but this morning I drank 3 cups in a row (atypical for me even when I drank caffeine freely).  I needed every drop.

Living in The Dozen (That’s what I’m calling 2012, Ya’ll!)

First, can I just say how much I love that in the past few years people seem to have collectively embraced “goals not resolutions” for the New Year.  I love making lists and trying to build myself into a better person, but resolutions are just so darn resolute.  I like the wiggle room implied with goals.  Room for amendments.  Room for my humanity and imperfections.  I like it.

I have thought about what goals I would like to reach for in the next year, The Dozen.  So, I am looking ahead at where I want to be, and I realize that in 6 months time our lives are turning upside down.  After almost a decade of service, Mr. Darling will be leaving the military and looking for civilian employment.   I cannot convey the excitement.  Knowing there is less than a year, knowing this was the last Christmas we live too far from our families to visit for the holiday, the joy is without words.

I cannot even envision where I want to be because for the first time in years the door is so very wide open.

everywhere but here

How do people even keep up hobby blogs?  It’s just so easy to put it on the back burner.

Last week Mr. Darling took some leave, and we indulged in some seriously necessary lazy time.  It wasn’t entirely uneventful.  We had out-of-state visitors for a few days, hosted a dinner for our neighbors, and trimmed our Christmas tree.

This is the first year our oldest has really had a sense of the holiday.  Even now it’s still pretty abstract (What do you mean I have to wait another week before I get to open all these presents under the tree?  What do you mean they aren’t ALL for me?!  You are so mean!).  But, we’ve had a lot of fun putting up ornaments and decorating cookies.  The Xmas jams have been playing nonstop, and he’s already learned the chorus of “Jingle Bells.”  Tonight, we’re going to drive down to Albany to a park with a drive-thru holiday light set up.   This is the first year it has felt like we were making memories for all of us and not just the adults.

I haven’t just been busy making memories, though.  I’ve also been working on some crochet projects.  I finished a hat for my future SIL, made myself the same hat with a different yarn (which I ended up thinking didn’t suit me and promptly gave away), and then I made my baby some mittens from the scrap yarn.  My mother-in-law’s cowl has been slow going because I let the yarn become a tangled knot (a mistake I shall not soon make again!).  That is one Christmas gift that will definitely be belated.  But, I have had a productive month of hooking.

Last night, my littlest little refused to succumb to slumber and kept us up until Midnight.  The worst in a recent series of late bedtimes.  So, the alone time has dwindled (along with some of my sanity).    I get so little time to myself I feel like I have to make a choice betwixt crochet and bloggy time, and now crochet is usually more soothing (although the tangle of yarn did send me into a pretty serious spiral of rage…).

 

|pinterest eats| vegan breakfast pizza

I have drooled over these mini breakfast pizzas from Biscuit Batches since the moment I pinned them.  And, today, when my baby went down for his morning nap I whisper-shouted to myself, “Let’s do this!”

They turned out fabulously.  Well, sort of.  I got a little overzealous with the salt.  Salt incident aside, they were delicious.  My biscuit crust wasn’t as pretty as BB’s, but I wager it tasted just as nom-nommy.  The coconut gravy was so good that I stole a few bites straight from the pot.  I did just wing it with the tofu scramble.  Other tofu scram recipes have burned me before, so I usually stick close to the Isa’s version.  Ironically, it was the tofu I over-salted.  I will definitely revisit this with a lighter hand in the future– probably the very near future.

Once again, Pinterest and the Internet have done right by me.

hookin’ season

Do you craft?  For fun?  For the holidays?  I crochet year round, but once the chill really takes hold my hands start to ache for projects.

I am guilty of giving my children less than perfect attention whilst daydreaming about my yarn and hook.  Not that I don’t straight up sneak it into our days when I can.  Oh, I do.  But, sometimes I want to turn [something with Cary Grant instead of Kipper the Dog] on Netflix, sip some cocoa, and work up a project without having to worry if I have placed my scissors within reach of tiny hands.  KnowwutImsayin.

Lately, I’ve been eking out time to work on a holiday gift for my mother-in-law.

I don’t often make gifts for people.  There are just too many things I want to make for myself and my kiddos and not enough hours in the day.  However, my MIL is sentimental, perhaps overly so, and I know she will truly appreciate a handmade object.

I am trying to take it slow and enjoy the rhythm of this simple project, but in my head I am always thinking about the next project or even the project after next.  The only time Winter doesn’t seem long enough is when I think of it in terms of crochet projects.  This is the yarn season, and the clock is ticking.

{recappin’} thanxvegan 2011

Oh. Mah. Goodness.  Yesterday was nuts.  The food was yummy, and the company was stellar.  This morning I reheated green bean casser ole, roast, and a roll on the stove and dumped it all into a bowl.  Thanksgiving breakfast bowl for the win.

Usually, when I’m making this many new-to-me dishes there is bound to be miss, but astoundly it was an entirely miss-less meal.  The Fat Free Vegan Green Bean Casserole lived up to the hype (and that’s coming from a self-professed green bean hater), the cake was successfully veganized, and my gracious that roast was aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamazing.

Tru fax, that might have been the best seitan roast of my life.  The bite was tender but not chewy.  It was well-seasoned where so many roasts over or under season.  I just keep looking off and shaking my head because there. are. no. words.  It was so good.  I am thinking of making another one soon because all that remains of this one is a little end piece for my husby’s lunch.

I did deviate from the recipe in several ways.  I added liquid smoke because I don’t have smoked paprika, and then I just forgot to add regular paprika.  I blended my gluten in a food processor (instead of in a mixer or by hand).  And, since I got a late start, I put it in the slow cooker overnight on low instead of in the oven for three hours.

Okay, and the Four Layer Sweet Potato cake…

(please ignore lack of cake decorating skillz)

It was delicious.  But SO rich.  But delicious.  But rich.  Basically, it was all I hoped for.

I’ll post my finalized Brown Sugar Buttercream frosting soon.  I scrapped the first batch and created something even better the second time around.  My only regret is that I didn’t make a larger batch so I could be more liberal in my frosting of the cake.

Around these parts we’ve had a nice, mellow (or the toddler equivalent of mellow) Friday.  I saw fit to exert myself just enough to make the VPITS Pumpking Cheesecake, it was cut yesterday due to time crunch and belly hunger.  I hope, whatever you did this Friday, you had a good time and did not get pepper sprayed.

thanksgiving adjacent

… is what I’ve called the past few days.  Mostly so I can finally turn on Christmas music without feeling completely absurd, but also because I have thought about the big meal almost non-stop.

Holidays definitely motivate me to go the extra mile in the kitchen.  It’s one of the few times I make fancy seitan roasts, and I look forward to it each season.  This year I was struggling to decide betwixt these two roasts (click pics for original source):

-OR-

I finally decided on the latter, Seitan Roast with Sausage and Pear Stuffing and Onion-Cider Gravy, because it is a little smaller and because it’s seitan stuffed with seitan.  Get IN me already!

This will be the second year I’m celebrating the holiday with my girl, Erika.  She’s a fellow Navy wife (so both our husbies are working through the holiday), and I love hanging out with her because 1. she’s totally down with Thanxvegan 2. her son is basically my three year old’s idol and 3. she’s easy on the eyes (she also has a lovely, completely hilarious personality. blahdy, blah, blah…).  She’s also a delight to share a kitchen with.  Thank goodness, because between my special lady friend and I there is gonna be so much cooking!

We were gchat’ing about it last night, and our menu is bitchin’.

• aforementioned seitan roast with stuffing and gravy
• raw cheddar dip and veg (for pre-meal snackies)
• cranberry sauce
• Martha Stewart inspired leek and onion tart
• pull-apart rolls
• fat free vegan green bean casserole
• sweet potato fries
• ppk pumpkin cheesecake

It also turns out Erika’s birthday is Thanksgiving adjacent (thank you, Facebook).  So, I dug around on Pinterest for a Thanksgiving-y Birthday cake, and this amazing beast is what I found.  In case you didn’t click the link, that’s a “4-Layer Sweet Potato & Ginger Layer Cake with Toasted Marshmallow Filling, Candied Pecans and Brown Sugar & Cinnamon Buttercream.”  In other words, a friggin’ mouthful.  Is any of it vegan?  No.  Do I plan to veganize it all?  Yes.

Obviously, I have a lot on my plate (har, har).  That’s why I’m starting my cooking today.  I’ve got a grocery list.  My kitchen is cleaner than it was a day ago.  Let’s do this!