Savory oatmeal, family upset, and sleepwalking

Good morning all.
Here a while back CCV posted asking about savory oatmeal. Yesterday lunch was leftovers; this was what I had in the fridge--stir-fried teriyaki veggies, spaghetti squash, oatmeal. Not enough of any one thing for a meal so I warmed up the veggies and squash together, then warmed up the oatmeal, then poured the veggies over the oatmeal. It reminded me of teriyaki veggies over polenta. I'll easily do it again if I have leftovers, but not to cook for a meal for my family--they don't like polenta, so I'm sure they wouldn't like oatmeal like that. (My family is uber-picky.)
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Next topic.
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Speaking of picky--I made a bean loaf (vegan lunch box blog) and steamed cauliflower for dinner last night. It turned out really good. But no one would eat the loaf! Hubby had a few bites and then went into the kitchen and put his piece in the dog dish. Son ate about half and daughter ate 2 bites..
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I blew up. At hubby mostly. I told them all the I shouldn't even care if they all get fat, get diabetes and high blood pressure, have heart attacks and die. I ought to just quit cooking for them and let them fend for themselves.
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Then a bit later, hubby was trying to be cute and I told him to knock it off because I was madder at him than anyone else. I expect it out of the kids--they are just kids--I would expect better out of him. He obviously doesn't give a rat's ass that he is fat, has diabetes and high blood pressure, and is heading right for a heart attack, but he needs to care that he is sending daughter there, too.
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It's one thing to eat like crap if you truly don't know any better, but he does. And our most important job in life is to raise our babies to be healthy, happy, productive members of this planet. He needs to get on board and help me with that job. It's child abuse to intentionally make your kids sick. That's what we are doing if we don't feed them healthy food. We are guilty of child abuse! I think I'll put it to hubby that way. Surely, even if he doesn't care about himself, he would care about his daughter........
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OK, rant done--next topic.
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Last night I made date balls. Hubby wanted some (don't ask me why I did anything for him last night, but I did). I used the basic recipe for "donut holes" by Ani Phyo but more or less just winged it--dates, coconut, and almonds in the food processor. Then I decided I wanted chocolate so I added a spoon of cocoa powder. Then I rolled them into balls and rolled them in coconut. YUMMY! Son, hubby and I all liked them--daughter didn't even try, of course.
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Next topic.
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In the middle of the night last night, son came and woke me up. "Mom, I woke up to go to the bathroom and when I went back to bed, my blankets were gone." So I went with him and, sure enough, his blankets were gone! The weren't on the bed or the floor or under the bed or on the bunk. So I started looking around the house. The were on the love seat in the living room! He just couldn't understand how they could have gotten there. I have a pretty good guess--I think he was sleepwalking. Pretty funny.
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I have a class in Boise tomorrow so I probably won't post (unless I do it from my phone). That's all I have.
Ciao for now.

Muffins and Pasta

When daughter got home we started in on the muffins. I made a double recipe so we'd have some for home, too. We ended up with 32 muffins and a small loaf. Here they are (along with the birthday girl--the big "9" tomorrow)!

Then I made the pasta--I stir fried red pepper, zucchini, onion and garlic in olive oil. Then I added capers and artichoke hearts (and a little garlic salt because it was bland). Then I served it over whole wheat angel hair pasta. Ta-Da.

That's all.

Ciao for now.

Lunchtime on Wednesday

My conference was pretty good. I went up on Monday (a 2 hour drive) and had dinner with a friend. We went to a place called Mai Thai--we shared edamame, I had a green curry with Tofu, and for dessert we shared black rice with coconut creme. I was pretty impressed with the waitress--I asked for the vegan red curry and she came back to tell me that the chef couldn't do the red curry completely vegan tonight, but he could do the green. Would I like to have the green or could she help me find something else? It would have been so easy for her to just bring me the red curry--I'd have never known there was meat broth in the sauce--but she took the time to let me know and offered me alternatives. It was very good and the service gets excellent marks as well.

At the motel, I had some fruit and plain oatmeal off of their buffet for breakfast and a banana for a snack. For lunch, I had requested a vegan alternative--everyone else got a pasta buffet; I got a great salad made up of all kinds of raw vegetables cut into really tiny squares over a bed of shredded leaf lettuce served in a cabbage bowl. It had a really light vinaigrette over it. I think I definitely got the better end of the deal over the other participants. For an afternoon snack, I had raw sunflower seeds (out of my purse) and an apple.

Then I had to drive home. I had rain the whole way--I HATE DRIVING IN BAD WEATHER! When I got home, I had a piece of whole wheat bread with a little almond butter and jelly on it. I had to have something--I was starving and the kids were just leaving for karate so we wouldn't be able to have dinner for another hour and a half!

For dinner we had stir-fried teriyaki veggies and sauteed teriyaki marinated tofu (hubby and daughter had hot dogs and cottage cheese instead of the tofu).

My veggies are so easy. Here's what I do:

Cut up into like sized pieces whatever veggies you have in the house (we had zucchini, onion, carrot, yellow bell pepper, celery).
Put a little oil in the wok and heat (I use soybean oil).
When the oil is hot, put the veggie in and toss for a few minutes over the heat.
Pour in 1/2 cup of teriyaki sauce (I use kikoman--just like the soy sauce but teriyaki), toss the veggies some more, and turn down heat.
continue cooking until the veggies are as done as you'd like them. (I like them crisp, but hubby likes them pretty much well done so I do them somewhere in between for us).

tofu:
drain, press, and marinate extra firm tofu (I marinated in a bit of veggie broth and teriyaki sauce for about 20 minutes).
lightly oil small fry pay and fry tofu on both sides (about 3 minutes per side or just until lightly brown.

My son really liked the tofu. And by the way, I buy a block of the extra firm tofu and cut it into 3 steaks. They are a little fatter that way, but that's how I like them.

I was so tired last night, I fell into bed as soon as we got the kids in bed. A 2-hour drive, sleeping in a hotel bed, then an all day class, then a 2-hour drive in the rain had taken their toll on me.

Well, I'm back to work, I had a sandwich--seitan with vaganaise and spinach on whole wheat--and now I'm ready to work again.

Ciao for now.