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.

Friday Night

Today's Food (all Vegan):

1 cup of coffee w/ soymilk
green smoothie
Spagetti squash w/ tomato sauce
small pb & j sandwich
1 apple
veggie mongolian BBQ
2 cookies

I also had a few little snacks. We went to the holiday craft show at the Expo Center, they had a lot of cute things, but nothing worth buying (not right now, anyway). At several of the booths, they had snacks so I had a rice cracker w/ mustard, a bite of cotton candy, a dixie cup of apple juice, and a dixie cup of spagetti w/ homemade marinara. Of course the kids and hubby had all of the snacks.

It really bothered me that they had one booth with all leathers. It even had a sign that they could do the hair as requested on custom tanning. I had to look away. It's funny that it has never bothered me before. I guess I just didn't think about it. Now, I see the animal instead of just a product.

Like I said earlier, being Friday, hubby would want to go out to dinner. We went to a mongolian BBQ place. I ordered a tofu dish and then when I went up with my daughter, I saw that they had just cleaned the grill and the only person ahead of me was her. So I found the waitress and had her cancel my order and I had the BBQ. Broccoli, cabbage, onions, carrots, mushrooms, bean sprouts, and a few noodles lightly sauteed in curry and garlic and sweet & sour sauces. It was really good. I did suggest to the waitress that it would be nice if they had tofu on the bar to be sauteed with the veggies.

While we were there, we ran in to my aunt and uncle. She had a gastric bypass a couple of years ago. And while she is looking good, I'm glad I did my weight loss my way--I hate surgery and I know she had some trouble with nausea after hers.

The puppy is going crazy-she's wanting to play and the kids are wanting to build with legos in the other room. They were at each other's throats while we were out so I'm not sure why they are playing together nicely, now. (probably because we are at home and not out)

Well anyway, ciao for now. I probably won't be logging in over the weekend. I think I really like having this log, but after being on the computer most of the week, I usually don't even turn the machine on on the weekend.

Good Morning, It's Friday!

Yesterdays Eats (all vegan):
1 cup of Coffee w/ Soy Milk
Green Smoothie
Grapes
Almond Butter and Jelly Sandwich on WW
Carrot and Zuke Soup
Banana
Spagetti Squash w/ tomato sauce
1 cookie's worth of cookie dough
2 pumpkin cookies

So yesterday was a pretty good day. I didn't get everything I wanted to get done at work done, but that's a never ending story. I'll get this written and then get busy and try to get it done today.

I also need to go shopping. My cousin's daughter is having a baby just before Christmas and her shower is tomorrow. My daughter, my mom and myself are going to go in on a gift for her.

It's cold and overcast here today. All of the leaves finally fell off the trees. If it warms up a bit after while, I think I'll have the kids go do "doggy duty" and then rake leaves. That'll be a good bit of exercise for them and it will keep them out of my hair while I'm working. They have the day off of school today and I find I have a hard time working with them home.

I think I'd like some soup for dinner. I have a couple of recipes--butternut squash soup and chowder--that I have all of the ingredients for. Actually scratch that. It's Friday and we usually go out to dinner on Fridays. I hope hubby doesn't want a "steakhouse" kind of place. (I'll just have a salad with no cheese or croutons and oil & vinegar, and a dry baked potato.)

Well, 9:00. Time to get to work.
Ciao for now.

Spagetti Squash and Pumpkin Cookies

Well, I made a Spagetti Suash for dinner. I didn't do anything fancy, I just baked it and the put tomato sauce on it once I had it forked out into a bowl. I thought it was good. I was surprised that my daughter even liked it. She doesn't usually like vegetables. (I also made chicken nuggets for my hubby and my kids--yuck, but they think they need meat. Normally, I have hubby do the meat if he thinks he needs it, but he was at an eye appointmtent.)

I baked a pumpkin a few days ago and had some left over so after I got cleaned up from dinner, I make pumpkin cookies. My aunt had a recipe from a church thing she went to so I did some substituions and they came out really good. The last batch just got out of the oven. We now have 5 1/2 dozen cookies in the house--dangerous times.

My daughter is at Girl Scouts, and my son just finished practicing his piano and is going outside with the puppy, and my hubby is watching Survivor. I've got a few minutes to myself.

I really hope I get to sleep in the morning. My husband gets up early, so the puppy gets up early. She either cries while he showers or plays with her toy--I really dislike waking up to "squeaker, squeaker, squeaker". The kids don't have school tomorrow (they are out for parent-teacher conferences) so I can actually sleep in a little while and still be ready for work in plenty of time--if I can sleep, that is.

Well, I'm off. Think I'll read my book for a few and then go get my daughter.
Ciao for now.

A Second Try Here

Well, I'll try this again. I just typed up a big long post of introduction and then did something and "Poof" it was gone.

User error, I am sure.

Well anyway I'll try to get this going again.

I am married; a busy mom of 2 kids; I work from a home office for a company in another town; we have 3 dogs, 2 fish, 1 cat; and in my spare time I like to--wait a minute, I don't have any spare time. Also, I am a fairly new vegan in a house full of carnivores.

I used to be fat. Seriously--I recently lost 130+ pounds and have been working on keeping it off for the last 4 months. Getting healthy, once and for all, and motivating my kids to be healthy was what got me to lose the weight. Health and a couple of books (Skinny B#$%* and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Vegan Living) were what got me vegan.

I sometimes have trouble with being vegan--the thought of meat or eggs turns my stomach, but dairy occasionally calls my name. (Like when I'm out of Rice Divine ice cream and my family insists they need Dairy Queen blizzards.) And sometimes it's frustrating. (Like when I make a dinner that is to die for and my husband and daughter turn their noses up at it.)

But overall I feel great and it's a good feeling to know that I'm not killing animals.

When I was losing the weight, I kept a food diary. I kept it on into maintenance for a few months--it helped. And I find that when I am processing something in my head, I start working it through like I'm writing it. So I thought a blog might be a good idea. I don't intend this to be just a food diary, I'd like it to be a life diary of a transitioning vegan.

Well, like I said, I work from home and I really need to get some lunch and then get back to work. I had a cup of coffee with soy milk and then later a green smoothie (dates, spinach, a few oats, a little cocoa powder, water and ice--yum) for breakfast. Then I had some grapes for a snack. Now, it's almost noon and I need to go see what's in the fridge.

I'm really looking forward to keeping this on-line diary of sorts.
Ciao for now.