Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Mini Vegan S'mores

The kids are on a Little Women kick lately. Completely their idea, actually Parker's idea. It is so much fun for me since I loved reading Alcott's Little Women and Little Men when I was Dema's age. I smile to myself as I hear them fall asleep to the audio book. I couldn't help but join in when they watched the Winona Ryder movie version. We have continued homeschooling throughout the summer, but it was pretty low-key. We are ramping it up a bit this month since our new-to-us homeschooling group starts the 21st. I picked up some of our curriculum this weekend and I'm not ready. They are not ready either, but they are excited to embark on a new experience. Parker's summer has been very full with lots of friends from public school, but he hasn't seen much of his homeschool pals. This summer was hot, heavy, and not long enough. I need a vacation!

Rob had a mini vaca in California this weekend. I think he spent more time traveling than in California, but it was worth it. He went for our friends (his friends since 6th grade) 50th birthdays. They also had a surprise wedding ceremony* and asked Rob to officiate. I was so sad to miss it (kids and Persephone needed me here), but enjoyed the pictures. Our friends have been together longer than Rob and I have known each other. They have the most amazing relationship and life. I wish everyone the same happiness. It is truly inspirational.
Our neighbor friends, Vicky and Greg, have relatives in from out of town with two daughters around Dema and Parker's ages. We've been over there swimming and playing all week. So much fun! Lunch was veggie sushi made by Greg's niece, Laura, served poolside. Laura even let Josie help cut the sushi which meant Josie had five rolls before sitting down to eat. I threw together some dinner between swimming sessions (they went swimming three separate times yesterday, I think they are growing gills). More tomato soup from our garden (this time it had yellow squash from our friends who are out of town and dropped off some veggies for us before they left, hot peppers, yellow onion, garlic, cashews, tahini, sun-dried tomatoes, carrots, tomato paste, red miso, unsweetened soy milk, white potatoes, rosemary, oregano, and thyme). I bought Pekara focaccia to dip in the soup. I also made nutritional yeast covered fried tofu sandwiches (with sliced tomatoes from the garden, romaine lettuce, and chipotle Vegenaise), and organic cherries from the co-op.
I added some of our favorite salads from the co-op - black bean pasta salad and peanut sesame noodles with a few sweet potato and jalapeno chips to fill up my busy kiddos.
Look at these cute mini vegan s'mores! Back to Nature sweet potato and cinnamon crackers, Endangered Species dark chocolate with goji berry, pecan, and maca, and Dandies marshmallows. Perfectly bite sized for the right amount of s'more goodness.
It was pretty hot around the fire at Vicky and Greg's house so after acquiring a sugar high, the kids all jumped into the pool for one last swim. The lights in the pool made it loads of fun, but I sad there and chatted with the adults as the mosquitoes fed on my blood. Worth it.

* Or domestic partnership ceremony because some people are still living in the dark ages with bigotry, fear, and hatred in their lives and have to dictate others' happiness by opposing same gender marriages.  If you don't want to marry someone of the same gender, don't do it, but why keep others from legally joining their lives? Partnership is hard, it is not the easy road, if people want to stand up and take a stand to say they want to be together and be dedicated to making their relationship work...good for them and I support it. Rob has been divorced, I've had more engagements than I care to admit, but we were joined legally with no muss or fuss. Why is it that our friends who have been together since college and have known each other since middle school have a harder time of it? Sorry, pet peeve of mine.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

love the smores!!! they're so cute! and wow that black bean pasta salad looks incredible!