Pizza Night!

Thai Chickun Pizza from Let Them Eat Vegan has been on our weekly menu for a while, but somehow it's never made its way from the menu to the table. Last night, it finally made the leap. It's been a couple years since we've made this pizza, but we both remember it being delicious and love peanut sauces. It turned out just as good as we remembered and it was a big hit with Will. He carefully ate the toppings off his piece, scooped the peanut sauce one finger-full at a time and ate every crumb of the crust. Poor Schatzi didn't get a drop from Will's plate! We definitely won't be waiting years to make this pizza again!

Will and Mr. Carrot!

 

On one of our many IKEA trips before Will was Will, we found a book called "Heroes of the Vegetable Patch."  We had to have the book and the book just wouldn't be as fun without the matching giant plush carrot!  Once Will was born, I had the idea to take his picture with the carrot each month to show how much he was growing.  Some months were easier than others, some months Will was more cooperative than others, but I'm glad I took time to document 12 months with Mr. Carrot!



 



1 week

 

 

2 weeks

 

 

3 weeks

 



1 month

2 months

 

 

 

3 months

 

 

 

4 months

 

5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

10 months

11 months

1 year!!



Gyros!

It's been a while since we've made gyros, but they are still a family-favorite around here.  I don't know if it's the sloppy tzatziki sauce, the cool cucumbers, the warm seitan or the slight resemblance to the beloved Doener, but we love them.  We made them last Friday and we cleaned our plates!  Will loves seitan and we've been trying to fill him with yogurt (he's on antibiotics for pink eye and an ear infection), so it was a win-win for him.  It was a lazy version, because we already had some seitan in the freezer that we just marinated quickly in broth, oregano and a few other spices before heating, whipped together a cucumber-yogurt tzatziki sauce and through it all in a pita with cucumber, lettuce and tomato.  Quick, but satisfying and delicious!

Chad loves gyros!

Almond, seitan and sesame Tagine

I bough Vegan Eats World about a month ago and I've been a little intimidated by it.  So many recipes, so many ingredients, so much prep... but everything looks so good!  I thought if I try just one new recipe each week it won't be so daunting.  First on the list-- almond, seitan and sesame tagine (page 159).  It really wasn't as hard as I had myself convinced it would be (maybe it helps that I made it on a snow day, so I had plenty of time!) and it was well worth the time and effort.

Toast the almonds and sesame seeds.

Sautee onions.

Add seitan and garlic.

 

Spice it up!

Everybody in the pot.

Add toasted pitas and serve!

I don't think this was in the directions...

Day of Snow

Baby's 1st Snow Day!

Also known as... SNOW DAY!  My favorite part of snow days, aside from the obvious staying home, is breakfast.  In my opinion, there's no better way to celebrate than with a big, keeps-you-full-all-day, made-from-scratch breakfast.  Today was a big surprise snow day.  We were predicted to get 2-10" of snow from yesterday evening until early morning.  I thought, no way, especially if we were closer to the 2" side.  Well, surprise, surprise. I checked TMJ4 just before hopping in the shower and here we are... the hum of snowblowers, the smell of breakfast, a lazy day at home.
 

Tofu Scramble and Cinnamon Rolls

Another favorite breakfast addition of ours is tempeh bacon.  Chad just posted about it on his blog, I Run and I Eat.  Check it out!

Garbage Pizza... a la Trader Joe's

I made an impromptu trip to Trader Joe's yesterday and decided it was a good day for homemade pizza.  I usually make my own crusts, but in the interest of time decided to try Trader Joe's whole wheat yeast crust.  Other toppings that filled my cart... and later our pizza?  Pizza sauce, BBQ chicken-less chicken, marinated red and yellow bell peppers, Kalamata olives, organic grape tomatoes, spinach, navy beans and (because we really wanted to try it) Trader Joe's new vegan mozzarella shreds.  I stretched the crust, spread a thin layer of sauce and piled the toppings high!  15 minutes later, this came out of the oven...