Vegan MoFo Day 30: Spooky Pancakes!

Day 30.

 

Turns out Pinterest actually makes me do things.  At first, I just pinned and stared at all the amazing, time-consuming, costly crafts that I know I’d never ever do and bemoaned my horribly lacking wardrobe.   But then I started making to do list boards and it has been so helpful to me!  My board for planning Silas’ 4th birthday party kept me so on track and everything I needed in one place.  It was so successful for me that I made one for each of the major upcoming holidays, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.   I narrowed things down as we went and didn’t force myself to accomplish everything that I had pinned for Halloween, but I did use any spare time we had to squeeze in a little holiday fun and I know the kids (especially Silas) really enjoyed it!  Definitely saved me a ton of time in the moment, looking for crafts or fun ideas.  I’m bumping a few pumpkin-y things to my thanksgiving board that I just didn’t have time for this month, but really, does it matter when we eat pumpkin cinnamon rolls?  NOPE.  Anytime and always, please.

I knew from the second I saw these spider pancakes that the kids would flip for them!  A squeeze bottle!  So smart!  I would have never thought of that and I see it being a reoccurring thing around here.  I did have trouble finding a squeeze bottle, but my mom found one for us.  I must have been looking in all the wrong places? Definitely work the effort to find one though!

 

It’s super easy to draw with it!

 

Silas’ brilliant addition was chocolate chip eyes on everything.  I like the way this kid thinks.  And you know, last year he hated chocolate chips!  Finally came to his senses.

 

He also recommends eating them eyes first.

 

Of course I needed pancakes too.  Obvs.

 

The only issue I ran across with the squeeze bottle is how much air it put in the pancakes.  Not sure how I can fix that for next time?  Maybe a thicker batter?  I’ll figure it out eventually.

Vegan MoFo Day 27: Halloween cracker spiders!

Day 27.

Cracker Spiders! We make these every year, but this year Silas made them himself! He’s so old, ya’ll.

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Vegan MoFo Day 26: Pumpkin Muffins and a Googly Craft

Day 26.

More pumpkin today of course! The Very Best Pumpkin Muffins from Vegan with a Vengeance. They really are the best! I’ve made them hundreds of times, they are our absolute favorites.  This time I just substituted a TBS of the Pumpkin Pie Spice I made a few days ago for all the spices.
Silas loves them so much he said they make him do yoga.  I don’t know about that, but I did eat 2.

 

Bonus:  Halloween craft.  Googly eyes (Siley’s JAM.) on a picture frame with a photo from last Halloween.  That pic just won us a $100 giftcard to the halloween store in a local contest.

Vegan MoFo Day 14: Too tired to make words/kids parties

Day 14.

Today is the day that I’m too exhausted to make words. Silas’ Lego Birthday Party. I’ll do a big post about it eventually, but for now: Whoa did he have a good time.

Vegan MoFo Day 11: fast food doesn’t have to come through a car window.

Day 11.

Everyone always tells me they’d eat better if they had time. Which I totally get, because yeah, me too! But the thing that I realize they are trying to do is replace drive-thru meals. I spend a ton of my time in the car so I really get it. We live far from everything, my kids have a constant stream of places they need to be, I feel like a full time chauffeur most days. But drive thrus are not something I even consider. For the busiest days, I’ll pack sandwiches and fruit to eat in the car on the way. Sometimes we throw some fruit, spinach, protein powder and soymilk in the blender and bring smoothies in the car with us. Yes, that means leaving the blender soaking in the sink until we are back home, but look at all the nutrients we are eating! So much more important. I’m sure that’s quicker than waiting in a drive thru line, right? I know the Starbucks drive thru makes me want to cry a little.

A few days a week we have to cut into Silas’ naptime for lunch and we all know that is torture. When a 4 year old still takes a 3 hour daily nap, on top of sleeping easily from 8pm- 6:30am, you attempt to move the earth in order to preserve that little block of midday silence!

This calls for real speed.

Sometimes I read blogs about this that end with homemade bread and marinated seitan and fruit shaped into kittens and rainbows. You are in the wrong place if you are looking for that type of result. That is not hectic busy food! I wish it was. That’s stepford food and I am about as far from that as possible. This is actual no-thinking, quick eat something remotely nutritious please food.

I usually give quick options, like “peanut or almond butter on your toast?” or “spinach or carrot sticks?” Because I’m a firm believer that giving kids some sort of power over their foods makes them more likely to actually eat it and more likely to make healthy choices on their own in the future.

On this day, Silas went with peanut butter on his whole wheat bread, carrot sticks with a bit of thousand island dressing to dip, applesauce squeezer and his gummy multivitamins as his “snack”. That was a little ridiculous but why would I complain?

We play a little game at each meal to see if be can identify which food groups he’s eating, this is him cheering himself on for having while grain, protein, fruit and a veggie.

And then the results of a 3 minute to throw on a plate meal:

I’ll sometimes stick this type of Lazy Meal into his little lunchbox and let him munch on the road or while we wait to pick his big brother up from school. Crazy fast, easy and cheap, and no greasy trash fast food!

P.S. I’m typing this blog post on my phone, using the WordPress app, waiting in the middle school pick up line, while Silas and I sip on spinach/banana/blueberry/soymilk/pea protein smoothies. Silas is trying to suck the very last drip of his up his straw. YUM.

Vegan MoFo Day 6: Kid-Friendly Round Up

Day 6.
It’s just as important to read blogs this month (and always!) as it is to blog.  I’ve been reading and commenting as much as possible and I’m finding so many interesting bloggers!

My life basically revolves around kids so I’m drawn to those types of bloggers.  Here are a few of my favorites so far.

For Reals Mom posted this easy, kid-friendly pumpkin alfredo recipe, but the important part is she made the recipe printable with a COLORING SHEET.  Best mom, ever?  Maybe.  She’s doing this with all of her recipes now and I’m liking each one better than the last.  Silas always is in the kitchen helping me so I’m really excited to let him color while I’m doing the “grown up” parts of the recipes.

Megan at Henry & Zelda has a recipe up for a One-Pot Sweet Potato Puff Casserole that I am drooling over and I am sure my kids will too, because tots.  Duh.  Silas is obsessed with tots and even goes as far to complain to near-strangers about how much he loves them and how mommy said “no tots today”.  He puts quite a bit of energy into the whole shebang and has the best sad face.  People glare at his awful mother and want to throw tots at him by the end of it.  Can’t wait to see if he likes this casserole!

Joanna is doing what I’m declaring the best theme EVER, which is a month of  Christmas cookies!  I love every recipe of Joanna’s I’ve ever made (try her brownies.  you’re welcome.) so I’m really excited to cook through her list this December!   I think my kids will be most excited when we get to the sugar cookies because I just never want to make them and of course they totally want me to.

Silas’ favorite thing to look at now is Zoetrope’s blog, or more specifically, the “cute happy veggies!” on it.  I’ve been a fan of hers for awhile, but it sure makes me happy to see him requesting to look at a blog I already love!

Speaking of cute, check out Lily helping her mom in the kitchen over at vegan-mom.   So adorable!

Vegan MoFo Day 5: School events & FREE PIN FRIDAY!

Day 5.

(edit:  Leslie, you win!  Email me with your address and I’ll get your vegan kids pin in the mail to you!  Congrats!)

 

People are always curious how vegan kids manage to eat at school and school functions.  Well, my kid (only 1 goes to school!) does great, but I also do a lot of behind the scenes work.  We pack each lunch each day.  For events, I always see what they care about most and make sure it happens.  We live in an area that is not very progressive.  Shae is the only vegan at his middle school and was the only vegan at his elementary school.  The only vegan foods at school are purely accidental.

I bake for every single party Shae’s ever had at school.  I’d probably do this either way, but occasionally I do get jealous of the parents who get to just grab something at the store.  The plus side to this is that we get to show veganism is all of it’s sugary chocolatey goodness.  No better way to advertise.  The general public looks at a green smoothie and maybe a few people are interested (I am!) but you show them moist delicious cookies and everyone is all over them.

Shae has an honor society (NJHS) event at school.  We’ll probably end up with salad and fruit at the dinner, but if I didn’t bake, he’d never get dessert and you know kids, dessert matters.  It matters most when all of your friends are eating it around you!

I’m the type of person who really gets stuck on recipes once we love them.  Sure, I make other cookies but for baking for big groups, in a hurry, I always come back to the peanut butter chocolate chip cookies from Soy, Not “Oi!”.   They are the perfect cookie!  Super fast to make, the most amazing texture and taste, plus this recipe makes A MILLION COOKIES.  This zine/book is an oldie but a classic.  Exciting news is that they are working on a follow up book in celebration of the 25th anniversary!

They are NOT joking about being highly requested.  Every single time I take these somewhere, I get a pile of requests for the recipe, along with sheer amazement that they are vegan.  Then they just cut to the chase and ask for more cookies.

Ignore the blurriness of this pic and focus on the cookie-drunk face licking.  So yum.

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PS:  It’s FREE PIN FRIDAY!  Every Friday I will give away a pin to one lucky winner from my etsy shop, teeny tiny tantrums. Up for grabs this week:

This is a 2 1/4 inch pinback button that is perfect for pinning on your kid’s backpack or lunchbox as a gentle reminder.   I’ll be giving 1 away, with free shipping, offer open to everyone.  Just comment with your favorite party food for kids! I’ll randomly choose a winner on Monday.

Use coupon code: VEGANMOFO at teenytinytantrums for 25% off.

Vegan MoFo Day 3: Copycat Trail Mix by Silas

Day 3.

Silas loves the trail mix that comes in the sunbutter gopicnic box, it’s made by Enjoy Life.  It’s a nut-free, gluten-free mix full of fruits and seeds called Mountain Mambo.

After inhaling his gopicnic box,  he was craving this stuff.  We can’t find it here in town (or at least I can’t!), so one day at the store he pointed to an obviously not vegan trail mix and told me “That has animals parts in it so it’s not for us but we can make our kind in our kitchen”.  It was the first time he identified something as not vegan on his own and the first time he suggested we veganize something.  So proud!   I let him choose ingredients himself, with a bit of help, and he basically copied the Mountain Mambo.

Silas’ Trail Mix:

Sunflower seeds

Pepitas

raisins

dried cranberries

chocolate chips

I should capitalize and bold print the chocolate chips and pepitas, based on the jumping up and down with excitement this kid did over them.  Still, we’re enjoying the “PEPITAS MOMMY!  PEPITAS!”.

Vegan Mofo Day 2: Soccer Life

Day 2.

Shae’s on a travel soccer team this season, which means we spend a lot of weekends out of town and a lot of long days on soccer fields. Silas is the self-appointed team mascot, cheering from the sidelines and hugging all the players after a win.

This is serious competitive soccer, these kids train like crazy. But all the soccer fields sell is pure trash food. Lets fuel these athletes with fried foods, candy and sugar water! Yeah!

We usually bring veggie subs with us. Shae’s a big fan of Cliff Builder Bars to refuel in between games. Tons and tons of water.

I always have my bag of tricks stocked to keep Silas full and his eyes away from the junk everyone else is inhaling.

A few weeks ago, we ran across these gopicnic ready-to-eat meals at a gas station and Silas was instantly obsessed. A box full of little packaged (Express Lane for anyone living in vegan wasteland like us! They also have individual silk milks!) “snacks”?! Happy kid. He has no idea that lunchables exist, but I’m sure this is the same kind of enjoyment.

Go picnic makes 2 boxes that are vegan, one of which is gluten-free and nut-free as well.

His favorite is the one with sunbutter, crackers, trail mix, a cookie and fruit bites. He sets such a good little vegan example happily chowing down on protein and whole grains, not candy and chips!

We only buy these for soccer trips becaus almost $5 a box is kind of a lot when you don’t have a real need for it. So Silas uses a lot of energy begging for them. Once while grocery shopping, he pointed out some trail mix that “has animal stuff in it so it’s not for us” and created his own plan to make our own at home.

He had the most fun shopping and making it, loves eating it (duh, its delish) and felt so proud of himself. Details tomorrow!

Vegan MoFo Day 1: Frantic ramblings of a vegan mom

Day 1:

Spent the weekend frantically trying to come up with brilliant plan for mofo, ended up right where I started.  Going to blog about whatever, whenever I can grab the time.  By spending the weekend, I mean while running around with kids, cleaning up messes, helping Shae with his 8th grade SGA campaign and making 5 billion halloween crafts (Silas “NEEDED ART”), I briefly stared into space, begging for magical  a-HAH moment.  Crickets.

Spent rest of night desperately trying to at least decide on eye-catching first post.  (obvs failed)  Maybe I was sleeping.  Maybe.

So here we are, Monday morning, October 1st.  Up at 6, made breakfasts, lunches, husband off to work, Big off to school, Little is quietly and intensely building lego water for scooby doo to dance on.  I’m drinking cold coffee (NOT COLD ON PURPOSE) and have already made a huge disaster of my google reader and downloaded an app for my phone that may or may not make me actually have time to read all these mofo posts.  More on that later.

The cat is scratching the furniture, The dog is begging for in and out and in.  Silas wants more and more legos that are “water like”.  Did Shae remember his speech? (Shae for President!)

It hits me.  I’ve never going to think is sentences.   Def not today at least.

So what you get is the frantic rambling of a vegan mom who is trying to instill compassion and healthfulness in her kids.   However I can.  Try not to let your head explode from incomplete sentences and bad grammar.  My brain is not great these days.  My cupcakes are AMAZING though so I think it evens out.  Right?

OK, so I mentioned a few posts ago (in JANUARY.  hah.) that I was in a food rut and wanted to get out of it and start enjoying the process of cooking again.  It totally worked.  Mostly.  I’m testing for Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s next book Isa Does It and that gave me the direction I needed.  I grew up the pickiest eater in the world and while that has changed dramatically,  I still never developed the  motivation to force myself outside of my box when choosing recipes and odd ingredients.  I try, but it just doesn’t come naturally to me. I didn’t grow up in a family that cooked from scratch at all, so basically everything has been new to me as an adult.  The thing about cooking Isa’s recipes is that it’s more than just cooking, it’s more of a mini cooking lesson.  Isa introduces us to the ingredient, teaches us how to use it best, give alternative methods/ideas, and leaves us excited to destroy the kitchen.  I learn something new from her constantly and take that with me.  I’ve introduced my family to tons of new foods this year via testing and expanded our regular meals exponentially.  Most importantly she made a cashew cream addict out of me.  Cashews are magic, did you know that?  Seriously.  Just order a bulk bag and await this book.

Here are a few of our favs from testing:

Very Berry Scones

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Chocolate Zucchini Bundt Cake (Silas is saying he wants to pour coconut milk on this.  That is not Isa Endorsed.)

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Island Black Bean Burgers

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Chandra Malai Kofta

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Nirvana Enchilada Casserole

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Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to design some lego buttons & cupcakes toppers for Silas’ 4th Birthday party, beg my dog to stop barking at the squirrels, and build some Kale out of legos because Muno is hungry…

Also, now I’m starving.  Way to go, Vegan MoFo.