Hello Again

I just want to say for starters I am well.

I have been busy and caught up in life and all of the fun things that go along with having 3 kids.

I got an e-mail today from one of my favorite friends and she was a little concerned about my absence.  I realized I had to get on the stick and get back in the game.

I love blogging and I love reading blogs so I needed to carve out time to do that.

Well since I blogged last I've:

• attended a Chikara wrestling show
• hosted a birthday party for both my 6 and 4 year old
• my baby girl turned 4
• I went strawberry picking
• went on a girls weekend for Mother's Day

The week of Andrew's 6th birthday we were lucky enough to have family friendly Chikara coming to town for a wrestling show.  The were kind enough to say Happy Birthday to Andrew and to let him pick the winner in a raffle contest.

We decided that in lieu of gifts we would give the kids a rocking good birthday party.  So we got a bounce house.  Do know how much fun 4-6 year olds have inside a bounce house?  They almost didn't want to come out for cupcakes...they were serious about their bouncing.

For Mother's Day this year all I wanted was to go to Virginia and hang out with 6 of my girls from college.  We had a blast eating, shopping, playing putt putt, shopping, and then hanging out until late into the evening.

(here are a few of my besties)

Having my baby girl turned 4 just seems a little unreal.  In fact I really just don't know where the time has gone.  She is so much fun and enjoys life so very much that it is hard to not just laugh when you are around her.

Case in point, when my aunt sent her a singing birthday card it was cause for a dance party (and I was lucky enough to be allowed to film it).

I think that might be it for now.  I know this post was kind of all over the place, but it was things I wanted to share with you all.

I have a BUNCH of blog reading to catch up on.  I hope you all are having a fabulous Monday and I look forward to any and all comments.

So what have you all been up to lately?

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Way Behind

I intended to post on Monday.

Then I thought I would post on Tuesday.

Before I knew it Thursday is here.

Where did the time go?

I realize that this information is less relevant do to it's age, but I did want to share some stuff from this past weekend.

We went to the beach and I ran a 5k "Run Like a Diva" in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Those are some volunteers waiting with roses and champagne for you at the finish line.  Yeah champagne is a pretty awesome way to finish running.

I took a post race pic, and I don't think I look too rough (it was early and I had not had breakfast yet...at least that is my defense).

We continued with the family fun later in the day by stopping in EVERY golf store so that my husband could look at the shoes, clubs, etc.  My daughter found an older man she wanted to call her "boyfriend" (never mind that he is a headless mannequin).

We kept with the golf theme and went to play mini-golf.  SO much fun and between the 5 of us we had 4 hole-in-ones (even Caroline got one).

A beach trip would not be complete without some playtime on the beach itself...no worries we spent time there as well:

The fun didn't end with the beach trip...no we are partying all week long.  See my middle child, Andrew, turned six yesterday (I have no idea where the time went).

He got to spend the day being Head of School (note they both sported AWESOME bow ties):

He also took a walk around the sun (to illustrate the number of times he has orbited the sun):

After that we headed to a lunch location of his choosing...Chick Fil A.  I tried to persuade him to other locations, but in the end I let him have his pick and enjoy his special day the way he wanted to do it.

It has been a wonderful week.  The fun isn't over yet we have a joint birthday party this weekend (Andrew and Caroline are in the same class we didn't want to have two birthday parties inviting the same kids).

I hope you all are having a wonderful week and I look forward to catching up on my blog reading, as I am sorely behind.

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WIAW Birthday Edition

Another Wednesday

Another What I Ate Wednesday (aka WIAW) post

This Wednesday's post is a little different.

Not only is it WIAW it is also my birthday.

Yeah October 3rd is pretty much the best day of the year and this year I have the distinction of turning 35.

Holy Crap!

It kind of sounds old when I type it...I don't feel it, more like 25 (at least in my mind).

This post will be doing double duty as it will also be another notch in my Vegan MoFo belt (at least 20 posts during the month of October).

Let me say "Thank You" to Jenn from Peas and Crayons for hosting this for the past 89 weeks (yeah I know that is a long time).


However enough babbling let's get to the eats:

I have been severely addicted to Sharon's Raw Chocolate Banana Energy Shake...seriously it is like having dessert for breakfast.

I only made one substitution and that was adding Artisana's raw cacao bliss because I don't have any cacao nibs. 

This added a nice light coconut flavor and just makes the shake that much more decadent.

For lunch it is kind of meager, but in my defense the shake was super filling, I have 3 stalks of celery, 3 carrot sticks, and a tablespoon of peanut butter.  It was delicious and completely what I wanted.

For dinner I had vegan chili cornbread slaw mess. 

It doesn't have a better name because truly it just looks like a mess, but one that was delicious!!!

I did finish the day off with a slice of cake...it is my birthday after all.

I hope you all are having a wonderful Wednesday. 

Be sure to head over to Jenn's and see what other fantastic foods my fellow bloggers were having this week.

Recipe for slaw:  here
Recipe for cornbread: here
Recipe for cake: here

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It's Big, It's Huge, It's Vegan MoFo

This year I have decided to join up with tons of other bloggers and participate in the Vegan MoFo.

MoFo you ask?

Vegan Month of Food...get your mind out of the gutter I wasn't talking about THAT kind of mofo.

I am very excited and a little nervous as most bloggers will post every day of the month...YIKES!

To make things more complex I am also doing the October Unprocessed 2012 challege (where I eat food that I either make myself or COULD make myself using whole foods NO processed foods).

I know I can do this.

I know I can talk about all things vegan and unprocessed for one month.

So to start things off I have Hershey's chocolate cake veganized.

It had to be a dessert because the chocolate will calm my nerves as I prep for what lies ahead.

Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Cake

2 C sugar
1 3/4 C all purpose unbleached flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 C almond milk (I chose unflavored)
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 C cocoa powder (I used Ghiradelli)
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
2 ener-G egg replacer eggs
1/2 C vegetable oil
1 C boiling water

Grease two 9-inch round cake pans.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Put all of your dry ingredients in a bowl and mix with a fork.

Add eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla (beat for about 2 minutes).

Add in your boiling water.  This will make your batter very thin...but trust me the result is AWESOME!

Bake the cakes for 30-35 minutes

"Perfectly Chocolate" chocolate frosting

1 stick Earth Balance
2/3 C cocoa
3 C powdered sugar
1/3 C almond milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Melt your Earth Balance and then stir in your cocoa. 

Alternate adding powdered sugar and milk.  If you think the frosting is too thick add just  bit more milk.  For mine the 1/3 C milk was perfect.

Add in your vanilla (you should have about 2 cups of frosting) and then spread on your cooled cake.

I added some candles because tomorrow is my birthday.

I encourage you to check out the other bloggers participating in Vegan MoFo maybe it will inspire you to replace some of your conventional foods with vegan friendly options.

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Happy Birthday Maria!

Happy 142nd birthday Dr. Maria Montessori!

From Google (whose founders credit you with their success)

To these innovative individuals who have given so much back to society:

Alice Waters

Julia Child

Helen Keller

Alexander Graham Bell

Thomas Edison

Henry Ford

Mahatma Gandhi

Buckminster Fuller

Leo Tolstoy

Ann Frank

The Dalai Lama

Yo Yo Ma

We have been taught to think independently and to strike out on our own.  To love nature and to respect others.  To grow based upon your teaching principles.

We have been nurtured in a class that allows you to select your own work and complete tasks at your own pace.  This has allowed us to excel and grow and move far beyond those of traditional school.

It's been 30 years since I was first exposed to the wonder that is a Montessori classroom and since I fell in love with my favorite work, the Pink Tower.

It is with joy that I send my own children to Montessori in hopes that they will also have a love of learning that knows no boundaries.

If you've never experienced a Montessori classroom please view the video below to get just a taste of what it is all about.

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Caramel Birthday Cake for Mom

This past Sunday was my mom's birthday (to protect the innocent I won't reveal her age)

She asked for a pound cake with caramel frosting.

There was a standard to live up to, as the best pound cake with caramel frosting comes from a woman by the name of Frances who ran my youth group when I was younger.

I was pretty sure I wouldn't live up to Frances' standards, but I gave it my best shot anyway.

I took a recipe of my grandmother's for pound cake but made the error of using all purpose flour instead of cake flour.

This wasn't a complete fail, but the cake turned out a bit more dense than I would have liked it.

So here is the final product:

I took the picture in the Mexican restaurant we went to (sorry I should have taken the time to style it).

Nana's Pound Cake

2 sticks butter
1 3/4 C sugar
5 eggs
2 C cake flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla

Cream your butter and sugar with an electric mixer.

Add eggs one at a time (incorporate fully before adding next egg).

Fold in flour, salt, and vanilla.

Pour into greased and floured bundt pan.

Bake for 70-80 minutes at 350 degrees.

For the frosting I went with a recipe I found of Paula Deen's (I figure she knows what to do with butter and sugar).

1 stick butter
1 C packed brown sugar
1/3 C heavy cream
16 oz (1 box) confectioner's sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat.

Add brown sugar and heavy cream, bring to a boil.

Pour in mixing bowl and add vanilla and confectioner's sugar.

Beat with an electric hand held mixer until it reaches spreading consistency.

This was the easiest frosting to make.  I was quite intimidated as caramel makes me nervous, but I couldn't have been more pleased with the turn out.

By the looks on their faces I have to say I think they were pleased:

I am going to keep working on the pound cake, because it wasn't exactly what I wanted.  If any of you have suggestions for good pound cake recipes comment below, or e-mail them to me, I would love to give them a try.

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Vegan Brownie Pie

This past weekend my kids and I wanted to celebrate my husband's birthday (a little early).

I think it is because they wanted some cake love him so.

I asked him what kind of treat he would like...which I knew would be like pulling teeth.

See Kyle isn't one for sweets and really he only had one request...he wanted oreos in it.

Well of course I could accomodate him.

I decided I would create for him a brownie pie with oreo crust.

The chocolate all blended together so that you couldn't see the crust, but I promise the overload of sweet does hit you.

For Crust
20 organic chocolate sandwich cookies
1 Tbsp Earth Balance, melted

Take the cookies and smash the hell out of crush them in a gallon ziploc bag with a rolling pin.

Add your Earth Balance and then press into a spring form pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

Brownie filling was from Colleen Patrick Goudreau's The Joy of Vegan Baking (which as a side note is just a wonderful book for some very delicious desserts).

Pour the prepared brownie on top of the crust and bake for an additional 40 minutes.

The result was pure joy from my house...mainly because Caroline was so very excited to sing "Happy Birthday."

What is your favorite cake to have for your birthday?

I hope you all have a wonderful Thursday.

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WIAW The Birthday Edition

Happy What I Ate Wednesday to you all.

Jenn thank you so much for having us over.  I enjoy this link up every week and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger ("That's what she said").

Crude jokes aside it is fun to go around each week and take a peek at what people eat. 

Freaks that we foodies are not only do we type out a diary of the food we eat we photograph it for you.

Today I want to share with you, not what I ate, but what my husband ate for his birthday (Tuesday the 7th).

Kyle turned 31 and for him the day is really no different than any other, however I think birthdays should be special and as such I made him celebrate (even if it was against his will).

For breakfast an extra special green smoothie (have to keep him healthy so we can have a nice long life together):

Snack, his favorite, wheat thins with a wedge of Laughing Cow Creamy Swiss cheese:

For lunch we went to Bangkok Cafe one of our absolute favorite places to go.  We used to go at least once a week (and probably did that for a couple of years), due to schedules we don't get there as often but still enjoy it just as much.  The staff is so very wonderful and the food well out of this world:

I brought a little dessert along with me for us to share, red velvet cupcake with cream cheese icing (they got squished in transit so I didn't photograph them).

Dinner pizza from Elizabeth's:

Well that is his day in food, and it was a yummy one.

Please be sure to check out the other freaks bloggers over at Peas and Crayons.



What is something special that you like to do, or eat, on your birthday?

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Chocolate Cake, Vegan of Course Mom's Crazy Cooking Challenge

Happy February 7th to you all.

Quickly I have to say Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband. He turns 31 today.

I will dote on him for a minute and say that I could not be luckier to have Kyle as my husband. He is a wonderful father and husband.

I have a chocolate cake for you all, but not the one I made Kyle (I will feature that tomorrow).

I am participating in Mom's Crazy Cooking Challenge hosted by the lovely Tina.

The challenge was to make a chocolate cake from a fellow blogger's site and share it with you all.

I chose Joy the Baker's Vegan Chocolate Avocado Cake (I swear you cannot taste the avocado).

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The only hint that you have that there is a funny ingredient is the green avocado buttercream icing.

This cake was so very moist and delicious. 

Not overly sweet but just right for a dessert and some hot tea.

In hind sight I think the cake would have tasted best with just the buttercream filling and no frosting on top (I prefer the cake to the frosting..I know I am weird). 

This cake was me going out on a limb because I really didn't think (no matter what Joy said) that the cake was going to taste weird, a bit like I stuck guacamole in my dessert.

I was pleasantly surprised and my kids were able to enjoy it as a lunch box treat all week long.

I strongly encourage you to try new things and to branch out with your ingredients...you never know when you are going to be surprised.

Be sure to check out my fellow bloggers (listed below) and see what other fantatic chocolate cakes they baked up.

This close to Valentine's Day you might need to whip one up and share with your loved ones!

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Happy Birthday USMC

I want to use today's post to give a quick Happy Birthday to the United States Marines. 

I swear you don't look a day over 235 (they are 236 today just in case you weren't aware).

There is a fantastic message from the Commandant, here, that really is fantastic and something everyone should take a moment to see.

I have a huge respect for those who are "the few and the proud" and I would like to thank each every one of them for the service they provide to our country.

Semper Fidelis

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