Fluky Food and Fun

I am super frustrated with my technical gadgets lately so I've been avoiding the computer. I can't get my photos to load to my Mac from my Samsung phone...they don't talk well together...and trying to fix that has screwed up accessing pictures from my camera. Instead of spending time in the attic trying to fix all this, I avoid the computer and live my life. I did have bunch of pictures I don't believe I've shared so here ya go.

 Chickpea Noodle Soup (I roughly follow the recipe in Veganomicon) with whole wheat pasta and a bit of za'atar.

 Homemade pasta sauce with vegan chorizo. Sorry I don't remember the brand. We still prefer making tempeh sausage or using lentils if we need more umph to our sauce. I've been enjoying Jovial jarred organic tomatoes, but we can't wait for the growing season to start so we can use fresh from our garden tomatoes.

 We also tried the chorizo for a breakfast scramble with roasted sweet potatoes (white and orange flesh sweet potatoes), chickpeas, etc.  I served the chorizo scramble with whole wheat toast walnut butter and fruit spread, noochy grits and hot sauce.

We definitely preferred the chorizo this way, but still the kids like my homemade tempeh sausage better.

 Tomato Beet Soup...I've been making my tomato soup with roasted beets this winter and I will never go back. It adds depth, nutrition, and a bright fun color to tomato soup. My tomato soup is never the same twice, but it usually includes: red onions, tomatoes, beets, chickpeas, garlic, sundried tomatoes, sweet potatoes, nutritional yeast, and spices. This time I served it with whole wheat toast with a bit of Earth Balance and za'atar.

 Even in the winter the kids sometimes prefer a lunch of mainly raw foods. The homemade hummus has artichokes (my favorite thing to add to hummus lately), bananas with fresh ground peanut butter from Common Ground Co-op (I love grinding our peanut butter at the store now...we haven't been able to do this since we left Maryland), carrot sticks, orange slices, and thawed frozen strawberries.

 The theme of meals lately has been using leftovers. The kids are super busy with plays, gymnastics, homeschooling group, music lessons, etc. and when we are all on the go leftovers rule. This breakfast was thrown together from rice, chickpeas, garlicky kale, veggies, and a little bit of Daiya havarti cheese and hot sauce. So many of these type of meals lately and they truly are the best.

 Our homeschooling group put on a "mock trial" and we invited family and friends to attend a potluck and be part of the trial audience. It was a wonderful way for all the kids from my five year old to my teen to learn how the judicial system works while having fun. I made the Apple Strudel from Vegan Yum Yum.

 I also made my version of Quick Pinto-Potato Empanadas from Quick-Fix Vegan. I haven't made these for a while, but they are so easy to throw together and a nice finger food.

 I used black beans and sweet potatoes instead of pinto and white potatoes.

 Parker was a witness in the mock trial. The tooth fairy was on trial and Parker was James J. J. Jingleheimer who was testifying for the defense. He was a young studious boy who had recently lost his first tooth and was happy with the tooth fairy's job.

 All the kids were involved in some way. Dema and Josie were part of the jury. It was educational for all of us, the kids put a lot of work into it, and definitely had a blast.

 More whole wheat pasta with Rising Moon butternut squash ravioli mixed in and homemade sauce topped with nooch and walnuts.

 Another staple lately has been tofu scrambles with lots of veggies and garlicky noochy grits.

 Rob is awesome at making paella and using up veggies for a delicious comforting meal.

For Thanksgiving we had our new traditional Indian food, but the day after was all garlicky kale, country fried tofu, mashed potatoes and gravy.

Wish me luck that my computer woes will disappear on there own or that my sweet husband will take some time to freeze in the attic fixing it. Either way, I'll be around more...pictures or no.

Humongous Holiday Post - Halloween

Humongous holiday post part one - Halloween. I just realized we are 24 hours away from the end of the world Winter Solstice and I can't post about it since I never blogged about Halloween, multiple birthdays, Thanksgiving, etc. So here ya go, a bit late, Halloween 2012.

 Jose as a Princess Fairy and Parker as Captain America. We found a bigger shield, but it didn't look as much fun and was wooden and super heavy.

 Waiting for Dema to get into the picture.

 Finally, the elusive Dema ninja joins them.

 Ninjas don't stay still for long.

 Josie showing off the wings Awesome Neighbor Margie bought for her.

 After the pictures we were off to one of Parker's school friend's houses for a Halloween party. Parker loved the neighborhood friend showed up with a homemade Mindcraft creeper costume. It was exactly what Parker wanted to make, but we were too lazy this year.

 Dema being a ninja and climbing up Parker's friend's cool rope and climbing structure.

 It was cold out, but that didn't stop the kids from running around until they almost collapsed.

 Parker as Captain America doing battle with a friend dressed as Dr. Who.

 Josie wasn't about to let the boys get all the fun. She was one of the last to call it quits and come in and eat.

 My fairy "flying".

 My happy ninja.

 The party had plenty of vegan food for us to eat (we were the only vegans to attend). Like these cool apple mouths with nuts as teeth.

 Snake breadsticks.

 Brain cupcakes.

 Yummy spicy chili that the kids couldn't get enough of.

 After a lot of running, eating, and watching movies, our fairy was worn out and ready to call it a night. It was so nice to get to know the parents better and it is so sweet that all his friends of his one year of public school last year still think to include him in everything. They are a great bunch of kids!

 On actual Halloween night, we had planned a party, but my fairy princess came down with a cough and I didn't want to expose all our friends. She did dress up. Parker went trick-or-treating with his friend who had the Halloween party a couple days before. It is the first time he's gone trick-or-treating in a different neighborhood. He had a great time. Ninja Dema went around with his best friend and neighbor, Ethan. 

 The kids really got into their characters this year.

 Our sweet high school friend and neighbor, Tessa, was brave enough to walk around the neighborhood with a coughing fairy princess so I could hand out candy to the 200 visitors to our house. It was so strange to have all three kids off in different directions.

 The Great Pumpkin left them presents that night in exchange for all their non-vegan candy. Josie received Hanna Andersson organic cotton pajamas (I buy them during their sales and usually give them for Solstice or Christmas, but this year I decided to go with Halloween), some gum, vegan chocolates, and a bank divided for spending/saving/giving.

 Dema received Story Cubes (he loves them at our Joy in Learning homeschooling group so I bought his own), Hanna Andersson organic cotton pjs, gum, vegan chocolate, and a Lego super hero. He shares the super hero with Parker and the story cubes with Josie.

Parker's last Hanna Andersson organic cotton pjs. This makes me a little sad and of course happy because it means he is growing up. I guess next year I'll have to buy him adult sized pjs so maybe they aren't his last. He also received a cube calendar, gum, and vegan chocolate.

Wet Paint

We are not DIYers. I wish we were. I thought be might become DIYers when we bought this old house. I had daydreams of the boys (we didn't know we were quickly to become pregnant with a girl, we bought a house with lead paint thinking it was finally safe since the kids were past the putting things in their mouths stage) would help us demo, rebuilt, paint, etc. Now Josie is five and we have no excuse not to include the kids and become DIYers, but we still aren't. Thus, we haven't really done a lot to the house. Sure we had the  outside steps fixed when they spontaneously caved in, we put up a fence, we had asbestos removed before we moved in, etc. It isn't just the lack of this old house know how that has kept me from doing anything big. I feel a crazy obligation and responsibility to the previous people who have living in this house and those who will come after me. I don't want to screw anything up. In the end, it is our house and just like the people who have lived in it before us, the people after will wonder why we put that hook there or curse us for not fixing something or adding something we shouldn't have added. We live here now and I'm ready (I think) to put our mark on it.

 Drywall on the ceiling and an electrical outlet now. We are going to install a ceiling fan. The ceilings are kind of high and our house gets very hot in the summer and stays cold in the winter. I'm hoping ceiling fans will help.

 We put some insulation up before the drywall in order to keep noise down. Dema and Josie share the master bedroom which is right above our living room and we were told we'd miss the sound dampening of the plaster. So far, the drywall has been fine and we don't notice more noise, but we aren't using the living room yet.

 The walls were surprisingly good. Not many cracks at all. The worst part was over the fireplace, but Eric did his magic and it should look smooth.

 We love old windows and don't want to replace them, but we also like windows to open. We replaced the old broken rope with new rope and kept the weights.

 Electricity! 

 This is the type of thing that made me super sad to paint and almost had me ordering wallpaper. There is history written on the walls.

 If the walls tell the whole story. There has only been three layers of wallpaper in over 100 years!! The last installed when I was a toddler in 1973.

 It looked like a hazmat area when Eric was demo-ing the plaster and later sanding the walls. We had this mask for him that Rob bought when he was working on the basement. Eric kept the area amazingly clean and was all organized with bags of plaster. He went out and in the windows during the really messy part.

 Eric is meticulous and I love to see him making sure everything on the ceiling was level.

 1925 was the second layer of wallpaper (assuming wallpaper was what they covered the walls with when it was first built) and some plaster touch ups. 

 I am sad all these notes are gone as Eric sanded, primed, etc.

 I let go of the old and embraced a new. Yes, we chose green for the ceiling. Bold choice for both of us and I hope previous owners are not rolling over in their graves, but this is where we are now.

 We decided not to strip the molding around the ceiling and paint it another color so Eric didn't have to be too particular at the corners, but it looks good to me.

 The stripping of the woodwork around the fireplace has proven to be a messy affair and time-consuming, but I love getting back to the wood.

 It looked like many layers of paint on the woodwork.

 The walls are more neutral. We really wanted to use limestone paint from Unearthed Paint, but we were running short on time and funds. I really want to use their paints in the rest of the house. We ended up with Sherman Williams Emerald paint instead. It seems to cover well and so far we are pleased, but I don't love it like I know I'll love the Unearthed. The colors we picked remind me of the Common Ground Co-op. I didn't think of it when we picked them, but I took Josie shopping there this week and it hit me that we now have a living room that is like the co-op. I'm cool with that.

 I can't wait to see how the colors look with the green around the fireplace and I am eager to pick out window treatments and floor covering to bring it all together.

 If we were more organized, we would have done this project in the spring so we could sandblast the radiator and repaint it, but that will have to wait.

We were originally thinking red for the living room to bring color to our lives, but I think this color scheme is more relaxing. I know we'll enjoy many parties, countless games with the kids, endless hours of cuddling and reading in our new living room. Maybe we'll try to tackle one of the other rooms on our own.