I obviously don't post about anything other than yearly updates of what we eat so I thought I'd post for remembrance sake - what we have eaten over a two week period:
Monday - Navajo Tacos and Thai Quinoa Salad for lunch. We rarely plan for lunch but this was special because my parents were visiting and requested this.
Tuesday - Quesadillas and flaked "tuna" salad - a salad made with soaked almonds that are flaked in the food processor and mixed with all the tuna salad type fixins'.
Wednesday - Corn cakes and black beans - we were supposed to have veggie fried rice this night but I didn't make the rice in advance. This is a no-fail fall back because I ALWAYS have everything on hand to make this.
Thursday - Baked veggie rotini and homemade vegan Olive Garden knock-off bread sticks. We LOVE these bread sticks.
Friday - Veggie burgers and baked potato wedges. Ted made them both. He makes excellent veggie burgers and the potato wedges, though a new recipe, were also super tasty!
Saturday - Veggie fried rice, obviously with no egg or meat. We were supposed to have Chipotle Style black bean and cilantro rice bowls with sauteed peppers and onions but that uses leftover rice. So it didn't happen. The rice gets used the following Monday.
Sunday - Breakfast for dinner - Fluffy vegan pancakes, soy sausage, hash browns, and strawberries
Monday - Lentil burritos - Lentils cooked in veggie broth with baked brown rice and tomatoes. This is one of the easiest dinners we make. Monday and Wednesday nights are always a mad house so the easiest dinners take place these nights.
Tuesday - Crispy eggplant over whole wheat pasta with marinara and green beans - Panko breaded spiced eggplant baked on the pizza stone until crispy. It shocks me how quickly my family hoovers down this eggplant dinner. It's super tasty.
Wednesday - Tomoato soup and cheese sandwiches. This could be vegan with vegan cheese but will not be this time. Will be on homemade vegan bread though. Ted will eat the soup with a side of homemade garlic toast.
Thursday - Pizza - with a white bean base (not quite a "sauce") and the soy sausage that we LOVE.
Friday - Quesadilla pie - a veggie and bean PACKED layered mexican style dish we have been eating for years.
Saturday - Veggie burgers and corn while we are on the mountain for the day. We rarely have the same thing two weeks in a row (unless it's pizza, we have that most weeks) but this is for ease since we have leftover burgers which keep well refrigerated or frozen.
Sunday - Black Bean and Veggie Quinoa Taco Casserole - a family favorite!
I still love being (mostly) vegan. We have so many things we can eat and find it easier all the time to cook for other people and keep lots of tasty, healthy variety in the house.
4/17/13
Updated food post
Back in October I created a post about what my family eats. We still eat a mostly vegan diet and have fallen into much more of a groove now. I have a regular meal rotation now that we're more comfortable and I want to not only share this information, but document it for myself.
Breakfast:
We enjoy unsewwtened vanilla almond milk and almond coconut milk. Our go-to cereals include Cascadian Farms cinnamon cereal (think of a less junky cinnamon toast crunch), Quaker oatmeal squares (my favorite!), and a couple other relatively "clean" cereals.
We also enjoy vegan pancakes and waffles. I make double or triple batches and freeze them. We also eat oatmeal and cream of wheat. Rarely I will make hashbrowns and some sort of veggie scramble (egg free- mostly just veggies and potatoes, sometimes with extra firm tofu). Also, english muffins or bagels are pretty regular.
Lunch:
We regularly have leftovers from the night before. Easy and filling. We also enjoy veggie sandwiches and nut butter sandwiches. Sometimes peanut, sometimes almond, always single ingredient butters. They just contain nuts. Novel idea? Not really. The girls love peanut butter and honey on whole wheat, multi grain bread. We still devour our Bountiful Baskets bread and have about 10 loaves int he freezer right now.
I try to serve at least 1 veggie or fruit eith lunch in addition to whatever else we eat. A regular lunch for the girls would be peanut butter and honey with a side of nuts and carrots with a little ranch. A snack in between lunch and dinner might be veggie straws, tortilla chips, a cheese stick, banana, pear, apple, orange, or homemade goodie. We also love Triscuits or veggies with homemade (oil free!) hummus, chips and salsa, and veggie egg rolls. I'm not perfect, that's for sure, and we do eat some processed snacks like Goldfish and the like. I try to keep them to a minimum though.
Dinner:
Here is where I want to document the most.
This is my regular rotation:
Tamale Casserole
Lentil Shepherds Pie
Roasted Veggie Enchiladas
Fried Rice
Black Bean Spinach Enchiladas
Lentil Burritos
Navajo Tacos (i.e. a big pot of homemade beans - can do Navajo tacos, refried beans, taco salad, etc.)
Veggie Burgers
Veggie Lo Mein
Homemade Pizza
Quesadilla Pie
Tortilla Soup
Spaghetti
Pineapple Fried Rice
Baked crispy eggplant
Corn cakes (not the same as below) with black beans and corn
Easy substitutions if life gets too crazy:
Broccoli Pasta (I add a can of white beans)
Minestrone (my recipe)
Baked Potatoes with Sauteed Veggies
Loaded Quesadillas
Occasional substitutions that we enjoy in our regular rotation (some are seasonal):
Lynn's "Meatloaf"
Vegetarian Sloppy Joes
Crunchy Black Bean Tacos
Vegetarian Chili - made with Bulgar Wheat
Stuffed Acorn Squash
Corn Cakes with Avocado Tomato Salsa
Veggie Fajitas
Sides we enjoy:
Sauteed or roasted veggies: Green beans, Butternut Squash, Broccoli and/or cauliflower, carrots
Wilted spinach
Homemade Sweet Potato Fries (Ted rocks these)
Fruit Salads - name a fruit, we love it
Brown Rice or occasionally wild rice cooked a variety of ways
Rarely we will make a green salad with lettuce and/or spinach. For vegetarians, we eat very little salad. It's healthy but not filling and we have to make it count.
Veggie Egg Rolls
Baked goods/Snacks we love (vegan unless otherwise noted):
Crack Crackers (NOT vegan but so good!)
Vegan Chocolate Cake - cannot emphasize how much we love this
Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread - we use dairy free chocolate chips. They're addictive.
Pumpkin Pie - made with silken tofu, this is the best pumpkin pie I've ever tasted.
Peanut Butter Cookies
Oatmeal Cookies
Chocolate Chow Mein Cookies
How we eat out:
We love Chipotle. We can always eat there when we're away from home.
Japanese food (NOT Chinese food buffets) always have vegan options. We always leave Japanese food restaurants STUFFED!
Pita Jungle is a favorite. Ted can find a couple vegan options and I can order fish. I love fish and eat it occasionally when we eat out.
Most Italian restaurants have vegan options. You can always make requests if you don't see it on the menu.
When we are home we don't eat out. Unless it's bean burritos loaded with avocado, tomato, lettuce, and rice, that is. There is no where to eat out in our tiny town with our food preferences. We cook virtually every meal unless we are away from home where the options are greater.
What makes my life easier:
Since we prepare nearly all our meals, I have to be smart. Like I said, I double or triple breakfast foods. I also double or triple everything else I can. I make huge batches of chili and freeze half of it. We can warm it up and eat it as is or have it as part of something else like loaded baked potatoes or if we're feeling naughty we eat Frito pie. Also, we have to cook smart. We bake our brown rice because rice can be tempermental. It's easy to make rice and it never burns unless you don't take it out of the oven.
I work hard to incorporate whole grains and a good variety - like oat flour, bulgar wheat, and brown rice. Adds extra nutrition and it's yummy. I also sneak in as many extra veggies as I can. Ted and I love onion but the girls don't. The smaller we chop them, the easier it is to incorporate.
Some people look at what we eat and think our kids must starve because these are not "kid friendly" foods. On the contrary! Our kids eat what we serve them. We don't do "back up plan" foods unless it's something I KNOW they dislike. Mer doesn't like veggie fajitas. I take some of the sauteed veggies she does like and put them in a quesadilla. She still gets the good veggie power but isn't forced into eating a ton of peppers and onions she doesn't enjoy.
Breakfast:
We enjoy unsewwtened vanilla almond milk and almond coconut milk. Our go-to cereals include Cascadian Farms cinnamon cereal (think of a less junky cinnamon toast crunch), Quaker oatmeal squares (my favorite!), and a couple other relatively "clean" cereals.
We also enjoy vegan pancakes and waffles. I make double or triple batches and freeze them. We also eat oatmeal and cream of wheat. Rarely I will make hashbrowns and some sort of veggie scramble (egg free- mostly just veggies and potatoes, sometimes with extra firm tofu). Also, english muffins or bagels are pretty regular.
Lunch:
We regularly have leftovers from the night before. Easy and filling. We also enjoy veggie sandwiches and nut butter sandwiches. Sometimes peanut, sometimes almond, always single ingredient butters. They just contain nuts. Novel idea? Not really. The girls love peanut butter and honey on whole wheat, multi grain bread. We still devour our Bountiful Baskets bread and have about 10 loaves int he freezer right now.
I try to serve at least 1 veggie or fruit eith lunch in addition to whatever else we eat. A regular lunch for the girls would be peanut butter and honey with a side of nuts and carrots with a little ranch. A snack in between lunch and dinner might be veggie straws, tortilla chips, a cheese stick, banana, pear, apple, orange, or homemade goodie. We also love Triscuits or veggies with homemade (oil free!) hummus, chips and salsa, and veggie egg rolls. I'm not perfect, that's for sure, and we do eat some processed snacks like Goldfish and the like. I try to keep them to a minimum though.
Dinner:
Here is where I want to document the most.
This is my regular rotation:
Tamale Casserole
Lentil Shepherds Pie
Roasted Veggie Enchiladas
Fried Rice
Black Bean Spinach Enchiladas
Lentil Burritos
Navajo Tacos (i.e. a big pot of homemade beans - can do Navajo tacos, refried beans, taco salad, etc.)
Veggie Burgers
Veggie Lo Mein
Homemade Pizza
Quesadilla Pie
Tortilla Soup
Spaghetti
Pineapple Fried Rice
Baked crispy eggplant
Corn cakes (not the same as below) with black beans and corn
Easy substitutions if life gets too crazy:
Broccoli Pasta (I add a can of white beans)
Minestrone (my recipe)
Baked Potatoes with Sauteed Veggies
Loaded Quesadillas
Occasional substitutions that we enjoy in our regular rotation (some are seasonal):
Lynn's "Meatloaf"
Vegetarian Sloppy Joes
Crunchy Black Bean Tacos
Vegetarian Chili - made with Bulgar Wheat
Stuffed Acorn Squash
Corn Cakes with Avocado Tomato Salsa
Veggie Fajitas
Sides we enjoy:
Sauteed or roasted veggies: Green beans, Butternut Squash, Broccoli and/or cauliflower, carrots
Wilted spinach
Homemade Sweet Potato Fries (Ted rocks these)
Fruit Salads - name a fruit, we love it
Brown Rice or occasionally wild rice cooked a variety of ways
Rarely we will make a green salad with lettuce and/or spinach. For vegetarians, we eat very little salad. It's healthy but not filling and we have to make it count.
Veggie Egg Rolls
Baked goods/Snacks we love (vegan unless otherwise noted):
Crack Crackers (NOT vegan but so good!)
Vegan Chocolate Cake - cannot emphasize how much we love this
Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread - we use dairy free chocolate chips. They're addictive.
Pumpkin Pie - made with silken tofu, this is the best pumpkin pie I've ever tasted.
Peanut Butter Cookies
Oatmeal Cookies
Chocolate Chow Mein Cookies
How we eat out:
We love Chipotle. We can always eat there when we're away from home.
Japanese food (NOT Chinese food buffets) always have vegan options. We always leave Japanese food restaurants STUFFED!
Pita Jungle is a favorite. Ted can find a couple vegan options and I can order fish. I love fish and eat it occasionally when we eat out.
Most Italian restaurants have vegan options. You can always make requests if you don't see it on the menu.
When we are home we don't eat out. Unless it's bean burritos loaded with avocado, tomato, lettuce, and rice, that is. There is no where to eat out in our tiny town with our food preferences. We cook virtually every meal unless we are away from home where the options are greater.
What makes my life easier:
Since we prepare nearly all our meals, I have to be smart. Like I said, I double or triple breakfast foods. I also double or triple everything else I can. I make huge batches of chili and freeze half of it. We can warm it up and eat it as is or have it as part of something else like loaded baked potatoes or if we're feeling naughty we eat Frito pie. Also, we have to cook smart. We bake our brown rice because rice can be tempermental. It's easy to make rice and it never burns unless you don't take it out of the oven.
I work hard to incorporate whole grains and a good variety - like oat flour, bulgar wheat, and brown rice. Adds extra nutrition and it's yummy. I also sneak in as many extra veggies as I can. Ted and I love onion but the girls don't. The smaller we chop them, the easier it is to incorporate.
Some people look at what we eat and think our kids must starve because these are not "kid friendly" foods. On the contrary! Our kids eat what we serve them. We don't do "back up plan" foods unless it's something I KNOW they dislike. Mer doesn't like veggie fajitas. I take some of the sauteed veggies she does like and put them in a quesadilla. She still gets the good veggie power but isn't forced into eating a ton of peppers and onions she doesn't enjoy.
11/16/12
Veggie Spaghetti Sauce
Spaghetti isn't as appealing as it used to be per-vegetarian days. Good tomato sauce itself and quality noodles can be enriching but I try to pack the most into each dinner that I can. Now I make veggie sauce. It's really simple.
I start with a tiny drizzle of olive oil in a pan. Next, I add 1 small diced onion, 1/2 a diced bell pepper (I use red), and 1 whole grated zucchini. I saute that until the onion and pepper are tender, salt a tiny bit. Then I add our favorite bottled spaghetti sauce (make sure it's "clean" - not loaded with sugar and unnecessary ingredients). I season with basil, parsley, and pepper.
From this point my favorite way to proceed is combine the whole pot with a box of veggie rotini and cover half it with light mozzarella and parmesan. I bake it at 375 for about 10 minutes. I like to serve this with whole wheat garlic bread (made out of a whole wheat loaf of french bread with Smart Balance and minced garlic and lightly salted) and a chopped salad. This is one of the few meals we have salad with. We hardly every eat salad.
It's really easy to prepare and everyone enjoys it.
I start with a tiny drizzle of olive oil in a pan. Next, I add 1 small diced onion, 1/2 a diced bell pepper (I use red), and 1 whole grated zucchini. I saute that until the onion and pepper are tender, salt a tiny bit. Then I add our favorite bottled spaghetti sauce (make sure it's "clean" - not loaded with sugar and unnecessary ingredients). I season with basil, parsley, and pepper.
From this point my favorite way to proceed is combine the whole pot with a box of veggie rotini and cover half it with light mozzarella and parmesan. I bake it at 375 for about 10 minutes. I like to serve this with whole wheat garlic bread (made out of a whole wheat loaf of french bread with Smart Balance and minced garlic and lightly salted) and a chopped salad. This is one of the few meals we have salad with. We hardly every eat salad.
It's really easy to prepare and everyone enjoys it.
10/28/12
What we really eat
I wanted to create a running list of all the things my family eats regularly and enjoys. A couple months ago we switched to a plant-based whole grain diet. The kids and I still eat some cheese, occasionally eggs, and a rare meal with a small amount of meat but that's almost never prepared by us or eaten at home. My husband is pretty strict vegan.
Here is a running list of what we eat on a regular basis. I'd like to get this list up to about 20-30 meals as my go-to for meal planning. This is just dinner - it does not include our breakfasts, lunches, or snacks. Those have got to be separate posts entirely, at some point.
Lynn's "Meatloaf" - This is a mock meat loaf of sorts, made with lentils and extra-firm tofu. We sub out the walnuts for brown rice. We love this with a side of roasted/steamed green beans, potatoes, or fruit.
Black Bean Spinach Enchiladas - I make half with cheese, half without.
Taco Pizza - We love variations of Mexican pizza - whether the base be refried beans (we cook a pot nearly every week) or black beans. I like to make a large whole wheat crust and then segment this out with what we like. My husband obviously doesn't have cheese on his part, the kids don't like bell peppers and the youngest doesn't like green onion. I don't like olives. Sounds confusing but it's way easier than picking things off later.
Whole Wheat Crepes - This is one that my husband passes on. I only have 2-3 recipes that I make semi-regularly that he doesn't eat with us. I like to make 2 fillings for crepes. The first is sauteed squash and onion and the second is fruit. I use whatever is seasonal - I love blueberries or strawberries. Raspberries don't go over great in our family. Peaches are good.
Crunchy Black Bean Tacos - Our whole family loves beans so this is a no-brainer for us. I like to use salsa verde, a little bit of salt, green onion, and a sprinkle of cheese. I make 3-4 with no cheese. We like to eat this with a recipe my mom found years ago for Mexican rice. Since I don't know the source, I don't like to post it. But we love it and I have successfully made it with brown rice because we don't eat white rice anymore.
Vegan Tortilla Soup - This is a great jumping point for this recipe. I like to use any veggies we have on hand and my husband and I love hominy in our tortilla soup.
Sweet Potato Chili - We have actually never used sweet potatoes to make this chili, although I'm sure it's great. We use roasted butternut squash, added at the end. Also, this is just sort of a jumping point for our recipe as well, but it's a good starting point. We do serve it over brown rice (not instant) and I like pinto beans and black beans. Also, we've never added the cocoa powder.
Quesadilla Pie - We've made this for years, probably since about the time it was posted. Super yummy. Can do without butter and make it cheesy on half - or omit both of those all together. Still good.
Easiest Pasta & Broccoli Recipe - Seriously people, this is easy. But so good! I add a can of white beans. Feel free to skip the cheese. Use whole cloves of crushed garlic not minced. Just make sure to take out the cloves or you might get a big garlicky surprise.
Stacked Roasted Veggie Enchiladas - We LOVE this recipe and have been eating in for a while now. I do make this with cheese on half and on that side I use only light salsa. The veggie juices soften the tortillas enough and if I use a lot of salsa, my youngest won't eat it well. I go light on the corn (I'm not big on corn, it's such a "filler"), no poblanos, and add a can of beans (black beans rock) when the veggies are roasting that last 10 minutes.
Our Perfect Veggie Burger - The obligatory veggie burger recipe - this is a pretty good one. I don't feed my family meat "substitutes" like veggie dogs or boca burgers. I don't like the concept or the ingredients (sodium is normally through the ROOF!) but every once in a while you want a burger. This is a good one but the sunflower seeds need to be processed a little to meet our texture requirements. Can load this baby up. We love sprouts, ketchup, various mustards, grilled pineapple ring... you name it, all on a whole wheat bun. We serve this with homemade sweet potato fries - just sweet potatoes, sliced with our mandolin slicer, roasted in a tiny bit of olive oil.
Bean Tostadas or Navajo Tacos - We like these with a pot of homemade beans. I prefer the concept found in the recipe for the bean tostadas on a fry bread that my friend taught me to make. It can be made with whole wheat flour (huge plus) and you can load it heavier. Also, it's easier to eat because I can cut it up for the kids or fold it for the adults.
Sloppy Joes - I have no link for this one because I use a recipe from a friend and instead of ground meat I use 1 can black beans and about 1.5 c. brown rice. Saute a whole (small) diced onion, add the beans and rice and then the sauce ingredients:
8 oz. can tomoato sauce
T. vinegar
T. mustard
T. chili powder
1/4 c. (or less, depending on taste) brown sugar
1/2 clove garlic OR 1/4 t. garlic powder
Let it simmer and serve on whole wheat buns. Super yummy and we love it because we used to really like our sloppy joe recipe and this is the same bang for your buck flavor with no meat. Again, love this with fries but also serve it with a chunky chopped salad, sliced fruit (any combo of apples, pineapple, peaches, watermelon or other melon, bananas, pears - pears are a big hit in our house)
Breakfast for Dinner - We have some super tasty vegan pancake recipes. I use almond milk in place of dairy milk and applesauce in place of eggs. Simple, right? We also LOVE hasbrowns.
Along the lines of breakfast -
Vegan Breakfast Burrito - We like to do a combo like this: Sauteed zucchini, green onion, potatoes, and then maybe spinach (we use several LARGE handfuls), bell pepper, or whatever else we have on hand. My husband and oldest daughter like mushrooms, sweet potato would be good, as would tomatoes. We saute all that up and then make a hole in the center. We add some extra firm tofu and let it cook a little bit before mixing it all up together. Salsa is a given. We wrap it up in a yummy tortilla (we buy all our tortillas local and fresh) and devour it.
Baked Potatoes with... - We like to make baked potatoes because they're easy, healthful (not just carbs, friends. They're full of fiber and vitamin C) and versatile. We top them with anything we have on hand:
Chili
Beans
Sauteed veggies such as squash, spinach and onion, steamed broccoli or cauliflower
This recipe for Fiesta Baked Potatoes
Garden Vegetable Soup - We have vegetable soup probably once a week but we have lots of different recipes from chick pea noodle to Mom's minestrone. This is one recipe that's a little different for us because we don't eat a lot of leeks and there are a good dose in here. Use veggie broth, obviously. I use 1 small red potato because I'm not a big fan of potatoes in soup other than potato soup. Also, I omit the corn, sub in zucchini, and use dried parsley so I use much less. We really enjoy this soup. We like to have some variety of brad along side it. We eat Bountiful Basket's bread - we like to go to the Alpine Valley bread factory in the Phoenix area and buy 10 loaves at a time. It freezes great and is just so good for you. If you can get this bread, DO IT! We love it.
Veggie Spaghetti - We enjoy this with whole wheat garlic bread and a green salad. Could also do roasted broccoli and cauliflower or just steamed veggies on the size.
Here is a running list of what we eat on a regular basis. I'd like to get this list up to about 20-30 meals as my go-to for meal planning. This is just dinner - it does not include our breakfasts, lunches, or snacks. Those have got to be separate posts entirely, at some point.
Lynn's "Meatloaf" - This is a mock meat loaf of sorts, made with lentils and extra-firm tofu. We sub out the walnuts for brown rice. We love this with a side of roasted/steamed green beans, potatoes, or fruit.
Black Bean Spinach Enchiladas - I make half with cheese, half without.
Taco Pizza - We love variations of Mexican pizza - whether the base be refried beans (we cook a pot nearly every week) or black beans. I like to make a large whole wheat crust and then segment this out with what we like. My husband obviously doesn't have cheese on his part, the kids don't like bell peppers and the youngest doesn't like green onion. I don't like olives. Sounds confusing but it's way easier than picking things off later.
Whole Wheat Crepes - This is one that my husband passes on. I only have 2-3 recipes that I make semi-regularly that he doesn't eat with us. I like to make 2 fillings for crepes. The first is sauteed squash and onion and the second is fruit. I use whatever is seasonal - I love blueberries or strawberries. Raspberries don't go over great in our family. Peaches are good.
Crunchy Black Bean Tacos - Our whole family loves beans so this is a no-brainer for us. I like to use salsa verde, a little bit of salt, green onion, and a sprinkle of cheese. I make 3-4 with no cheese. We like to eat this with a recipe my mom found years ago for Mexican rice. Since I don't know the source, I don't like to post it. But we love it and I have successfully made it with brown rice because we don't eat white rice anymore.
Vegan Tortilla Soup - This is a great jumping point for this recipe. I like to use any veggies we have on hand and my husband and I love hominy in our tortilla soup.
Sweet Potato Chili - We have actually never used sweet potatoes to make this chili, although I'm sure it's great. We use roasted butternut squash, added at the end. Also, this is just sort of a jumping point for our recipe as well, but it's a good starting point. We do serve it over brown rice (not instant) and I like pinto beans and black beans. Also, we've never added the cocoa powder.
Quesadilla Pie - We've made this for years, probably since about the time it was posted. Super yummy. Can do without butter and make it cheesy on half - or omit both of those all together. Still good.
Easiest Pasta & Broccoli Recipe - Seriously people, this is easy. But so good! I add a can of white beans. Feel free to skip the cheese. Use whole cloves of crushed garlic not minced. Just make sure to take out the cloves or you might get a big garlicky surprise.
Stacked Roasted Veggie Enchiladas - We LOVE this recipe and have been eating in for a while now. I do make this with cheese on half and on that side I use only light salsa. The veggie juices soften the tortillas enough and if I use a lot of salsa, my youngest won't eat it well. I go light on the corn (I'm not big on corn, it's such a "filler"), no poblanos, and add a can of beans (black beans rock) when the veggies are roasting that last 10 minutes.
Our Perfect Veggie Burger - The obligatory veggie burger recipe - this is a pretty good one. I don't feed my family meat "substitutes" like veggie dogs or boca burgers. I don't like the concept or the ingredients (sodium is normally through the ROOF!) but every once in a while you want a burger. This is a good one but the sunflower seeds need to be processed a little to meet our texture requirements. Can load this baby up. We love sprouts, ketchup, various mustards, grilled pineapple ring... you name it, all on a whole wheat bun. We serve this with homemade sweet potato fries - just sweet potatoes, sliced with our mandolin slicer, roasted in a tiny bit of olive oil.
Bean Tostadas or Navajo Tacos - We like these with a pot of homemade beans. I prefer the concept found in the recipe for the bean tostadas on a fry bread that my friend taught me to make. It can be made with whole wheat flour (huge plus) and you can load it heavier. Also, it's easier to eat because I can cut it up for the kids or fold it for the adults.
Sloppy Joes - I have no link for this one because I use a recipe from a friend and instead of ground meat I use 1 can black beans and about 1.5 c. brown rice. Saute a whole (small) diced onion, add the beans and rice and then the sauce ingredients:
8 oz. can tomoato sauce
T. vinegar
T. mustard
T. chili powder
1/4 c. (or less, depending on taste) brown sugar
1/2 clove garlic OR 1/4 t. garlic powder
Let it simmer and serve on whole wheat buns. Super yummy and we love it because we used to really like our sloppy joe recipe and this is the same bang for your buck flavor with no meat. Again, love this with fries but also serve it with a chunky chopped salad, sliced fruit (any combo of apples, pineapple, peaches, watermelon or other melon, bananas, pears - pears are a big hit in our house)
Breakfast for Dinner - We have some super tasty vegan pancake recipes. I use almond milk in place of dairy milk and applesauce in place of eggs. Simple, right? We also LOVE hasbrowns.
Along the lines of breakfast -
Vegan Breakfast Burrito - We like to do a combo like this: Sauteed zucchini, green onion, potatoes, and then maybe spinach (we use several LARGE handfuls), bell pepper, or whatever else we have on hand. My husband and oldest daughter like mushrooms, sweet potato would be good, as would tomatoes. We saute all that up and then make a hole in the center. We add some extra firm tofu and let it cook a little bit before mixing it all up together. Salsa is a given. We wrap it up in a yummy tortilla (we buy all our tortillas local and fresh) and devour it.
Baked Potatoes with... - We like to make baked potatoes because they're easy, healthful (not just carbs, friends. They're full of fiber and vitamin C) and versatile. We top them with anything we have on hand:
Chili
Beans
Sauteed veggies such as squash, spinach and onion, steamed broccoli or cauliflower
This recipe for Fiesta Baked Potatoes
Garden Vegetable Soup - We have vegetable soup probably once a week but we have lots of different recipes from chick pea noodle to Mom's minestrone. This is one recipe that's a little different for us because we don't eat a lot of leeks and there are a good dose in here. Use veggie broth, obviously. I use 1 small red potato because I'm not a big fan of potatoes in soup other than potato soup. Also, I omit the corn, sub in zucchini, and use dried parsley so I use much less. We really enjoy this soup. We like to have some variety of brad along side it. We eat Bountiful Basket's bread - we like to go to the Alpine Valley bread factory in the Phoenix area and buy 10 loaves at a time. It freezes great and is just so good for you. If you can get this bread, DO IT! We love it.
Veggie Spaghetti - We enjoy this with whole wheat garlic bread and a green salad. Could also do roasted broccoli and cauliflower or just steamed veggies on the size.
8/6/12
Family Home Evening
Since our family has moved, we've been really bad about having regular Family Home Evening. Today I felt inspired to do better. I decided we needed to have a lesson on prayer. Our 2 year old needs some direction and more help with her prayers.
We're keeping it simple. We're going to talk about it at dinner since Dad leaves for work at 6:45. I made a little coloring page for my girls to do and am feeling even lazier and I'm not going to post a jpeg file of it. Here is a screen shot. If you'd like a copy, let me know.
Here is a little blurb from the friend about prayer as well that can give you some motivation on prayers in the scriptures to talk about.
Found: here
Joseph Smith was fourteen years old when he wanted to know which church to join. He prayed one morning in a grove of trees near his family farm (see JS—H 1:5–20).
Moses wondered about all of God’s marvelous creations. He asked questions about them on “an exceedingly high mountain” (see Moses 1:1, 30).
Enos had gone to the woods to hunt when he recognized that he needed forgiveness for his sins (see Enos 1).
Daniel lived in a busy city near the king’s palace. He prayed daily for guidance even though the law said that people who prayed would be thrown into a den of hungry lions (see Dan. 6).
Esther fasted and prayed because she was afraid to go to the king’s court to plead for her people (see Esth. 4–5).
Each of these people prayed for help. They believed that no matter where you are or what time of day it is, Heavenly Father can hear your prayer. The scriptures show us that Heavenly Father did hear their prayers and that He answered them.
One day after watching Jesus Christ pray, one of His disciples said, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1). Jesus gave them the Lord’s Prayer (see Matt. 6:9–13; Luke 11:2–4). This prayer is a pattern for us to follow too. Jesus not only taught the disciples how to pray, He gave them a promise that their prayers would be answered. He said, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Matt. 7:7).
We can pray to Heavenly Father anytime, anywhere. Just as Heavenly Father heard the prayers of the people in the scriptures, Heavenly Father hears our prayers today, and He answers them in ways that will be for the best.
We're keeping it simple. We're going to talk about it at dinner since Dad leaves for work at 6:45. I made a little coloring page for my girls to do and am feeling even lazier and I'm not going to post a jpeg file of it. Here is a screen shot. If you'd like a copy, let me know.
Here is a little blurb from the friend about prayer as well that can give you some motivation on prayers in the scriptures to talk about.
Found: here
Sydney Reynolds,
“Sharing Time: Prayer,”
Friend,
Sep 1998,
12
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him (James 1:5).
When you need to know an answer to a question, whom do you ask? When
you are hurt, who can help you? When you are sad, who can comfort you?
In the scriptures, we read of men, women, and children who prayed to
Heavenly Father when they had questions or needed help.Joseph Smith was fourteen years old when he wanted to know which church to join. He prayed one morning in a grove of trees near his family farm (see JS—H 1:5–20).
Moses wondered about all of God’s marvelous creations. He asked questions about them on “an exceedingly high mountain” (see Moses 1:1, 30).
Enos had gone to the woods to hunt when he recognized that he needed forgiveness for his sins (see Enos 1).
Daniel lived in a busy city near the king’s palace. He prayed daily for guidance even though the law said that people who prayed would be thrown into a den of hungry lions (see Dan. 6).
Esther fasted and prayed because she was afraid to go to the king’s court to plead for her people (see Esth. 4–5).
Each of these people prayed for help. They believed that no matter where you are or what time of day it is, Heavenly Father can hear your prayer. The scriptures show us that Heavenly Father did hear their prayers and that He answered them.
One day after watching Jesus Christ pray, one of His disciples said, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1). Jesus gave them the Lord’s Prayer (see Matt. 6:9–13; Luke 11:2–4). This prayer is a pattern for us to follow too. Jesus not only taught the disciples how to pray, He gave them a promise that their prayers would be answered. He said, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Matt. 7:7).
We can pray to Heavenly Father anytime, anywhere. Just as Heavenly Father heard the prayers of the people in the scriptures, Heavenly Father hears our prayers today, and He answers them in ways that will be for the best.
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