It's been a long time

Well it's been 11 days since my last blog, Christmas does that to your schedule.  We had a great Christmas, the husband is home for two weeks, nice, but I am a not staying with my usual plans that I have for the week, re: meals, cleaning, errands, etc.  Hoping to get back on track today.  He has taken our son and two of his friends to Chuck E Cheese, good luck, glad it's him and not me, boys!

Over the holidays I attempted to make sushi, the california kind, cucumber, carrots, avocado.  I think for my first attempt it turned out not bad.  I didn't steam the carrots first, so they were very crunchy and I didn't have a bamboo mat to roll them with so they weren't tight enough.  Here are a few pictures:

I will be looking for a bamboo mat this week, I was hoping the picky son might like these, always looking for options for his lunchbox too, but sadly, NO.  I haven't done too much in the way of true veggie cooking this past holiday.  Meals have been slapped together at the last minutes, mostly pasta, pizza or noodles. 

So I wanted to write a bit today about where my protein comes from.  I have had a few people write telling me they would like to try more vegetarian meals but don't like tofu.  This too was my thought process when I was thinking of going vegetarian awhile ago, there is more to veggie meals then just tofu, I soon found out.  I love lentils and beans (a good source of protein) so this wasn't much of a new thing for me.  I found a great Lentil and Gouda soup that was to die for, I love black beans, navy beans, pretty much any kind of bean.  I do love tofu as well, I know not many people do, but if you do some research you can find all sorts of tofu recipes where tofu doesn't taste like tofu.   We also love nut butters, which are a great source of protein.  Almond butter is our favourite, even the picky son likes it.  I spread it on a wrap, roll it up and off they go. 

This is all I have for now, will write more later.  My mind just went blank, I hate that. 

Any comments, questions, suggestions please send me an email.

What's been going on

First off I need to tell you that I am a stay at home mom, trying to start a small at home business and raising two kids (three if you count the husband).  The last couple of days have been hectic as I have been working with a kids store in our area that I was hoping would carry my product.  And they now do, yyiiipppeeee.  I hand make personalize baby/child bracelets, teething necklaces and custom bracelets.   Here is the website,  http://www.bornbeads.com/.  As of today, you can now purchase teething necklaces and ready made bracelets for that last minute Christmas gift at Over the Rainbow here in Calgary.  Okay enough of my excitment, here is what I have for today.

Since this week has turned out to be so busy, I haven't really stuck to the menu I set out on Monday.  The last couple of nights have been slapped together meals, unfortunately one quite bad one last night.  Hopefully will be back on track tonight.  Here is what the daughter and I had yesterday for lunch:


We had edamome, marinated tofu with rice, yes that is white rice.  I had it in the fridge and didn't want to waste it.  We usually eat white rice at dinner (my husband in asian, he hates brown rice) but when it's the daughter and I, I usually make brown and enough to store in the fridge for the week.  I slathered the miso gravy on my dish and soon the daughter was screeching she wanted what mommy had too.  She ate it all up, have I mentioned the gravy is "TO DIE FOR".

For lunch today, we had some pasta noodles with a Vodka Tomato sauce, I added some hemp seeds to the sauce, they don't have a strong flavour so it blended in nicely.  The daughter kept looking at the little seeds but also kept on eating.  For tonight I am planning a pizza night, the son has drum lessons and by the time we eat dinner it's quite late and pizza is fast. 

Also the PCRM Physicians Committe for Responsible Medicine is launching their 21 day kick start program on January 1, 2010.  http://support.pcrm.org/site/PageServer?pagename=21day_vegan_kickstart.  There are meal plans, celebrity tips, community forum, daily messages to keep you motivated.  I signed up for this the last time around and it was very helpful and informative.