A really great weekend

Cooking wise, it was a really great weekend.

Saturday morning, the kids wanted pancakes. Son, in particular, wanted pumpkin pancakes. So here is what I did:

1 cup wheat
2 cups soy milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp Turbinado
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup pumpkin
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Here's how: grind wheat in the vita-mix. Then add soy milk and run for a couple of minutes (not on high--high tries to cook it in the vita-mix. Add the rest of the ingredients--baking powder last (in fact, I usually stir in the baking powder with a wooden spoon instead of blending). Cook just like regular pancakes.

They were a big hit. We had leftovers for the kids to toast so they can have pancakes for breakfast for a couple more days. I like mine with a bit of vegan margarine and a drizzle of molasses.

For dinner I made "Sweet Potato Mash" from Kristen's Raw Holiday recipe book, steamed broccoli, and a "Magic Loaf" from the Vegan Lunch Box blog. My son really likes the Sweet Potato Mash; in fact, he asked for it again tonight.

Breakfast today was a smoothie while the carnivores ate bacon & eggs (the smell stuck around the house for way too long). Lunch was a bean-loaf sandwich w/ veganaise on a tortilla.
Dinner was a bean burger, mashed potatoes (mashed w/ a bit vegan margarine and soy milk), gravy made w/ soy milk, and cauliflower. (Son got his sweet potatoes last night so daughter got her potatoes & gravy tonight).

We also got most of the winter clean-up done around here. I can't believe how many leaves we have! We still have to do a little more, but we kind of got stopped because it ended up raining last night and all day today.

Since it was raining today, we ended up spending some time wandering around Costco, Wal-Mart, and Barnes and Noble. There was a book there I'd like called Raw Food Real World.

I'd like to move more to raw. I think I'd do better nutritionally. Like right now, I have totally vegan pumpkin cookies in the kitchen that I can't seem to keep my hands off. I think I'd feel better, too. I seem to still get into vegan baking and some of the things I make are sinful.

I like to do a green smoothie for breakfast. For lunch, I do a salad, or carrot/zucchini noodles unless I have leftovers. For dinner, I always try to do something at least someone in my family besides me will eat. For snacks I like to do fruit or veggies (unless I have cookies).

Right now, I've got one kid playing the Wii and one in the tub. Hubby made us a smoothie for a bedtime snack and he's in putting the dishes in the dishwasher .

Tomorrow I've got a lot of work to do, plus I need to leave right after the I get the kids home from school. I have a CPE class Tuesday and I hate making a 2 hour drive at 5 am so I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon. I've got a friend in the class where the class is so we'll have dinner and then I'll stay at the motel where the class is being held and then I'll go to class on Tuesday and come home afterwards.

I hate being away from my babies, but they do fine. My mom usually takes them to school (hubby's already at work by the time they need to leave) and then hubby pics them up after school. If either my mom or my hubby aren't available, then they can walk; we live close enough. I miss them, though. I guess that's just part of being a mom.

Well, I'll go now so I can start getting them ready for bed.
Ciao for now.