gone

I've been offline a lot, getting ready for the big food holiday here in our country: Thanksgiving.
I took some fridge pics, and I was going to link back to the blog that I got the idea from--Raising Seven Vegans--but her blog appears to be GONE!!?? I am so sad! It was such a gem. It was one of those blogs where you say to yourself, "I hope I get to meet those people in real life some day". I hope everything's okay with them. There are many reasons people stop blogging, but it's hard when a blog is just deleted without ever knowing why. It's like reading a great book and having it suddenly go missing, and when you go to the library or Amazon to get a new one so you can continue reading it they tell you that it never existed. Nooooo!

Well, for better or for worse, here are my fridge pics...

The first set is before our winter farm share pickup, when we desperately needed groceries! But at least this way you get to see stuff at the back of the fridge for a change...
Top shelf, left: 2 bins of lettuce; a bottle of sake; 2 jars of homemade hot sauce; almond milk; Ryan's leftover breakfast cup (he never finishes his drinks!).
Top shelf, right: pitcher of homemade apple syrup; 2 tubs of miso; jar of capers; jar of grape jelly; big jar of marinated mushrooms; another container of apple syrup; jar of sunflower butter; bottle of agave nectar; maple syrup; jar of elderberry jam (made by my mother-in-law); vegan parmesan.
Middle shelf, left: tub of flax seeds; tin of tahini; jar of kimchee; tub of red thai curry paste; 1 can of natural cherry soda (leftover from Ryan's birthday last month); 3 tiny cans of tomato juice.
Middle shelf, right: tub of raw cashews; leftover homemade tofu salad; 1/4 of an avocado; jar of leftover homemade pickled radishes.
Small drawer, left: tubes of crescent rolls; container of tofu; package of chick'n Smart Strips; japanese pickled gourd strips (kanpyo); package of tempeh.
Bottom shelf, right: leftovers of my dinner the day before.

Bottom drawer, left: 2 thai chili peppers; 2 zucchini; a red bell pepper; green & purple kale; a bag containing a few sweet potatoes.
Bottom drawer, right: bag of shallots; big bag of carrots; bag of celery; cilantro; scallions and a cucumber (kind of hidden).

And the door...
Top left:
jar of
grated
ginger;
stick of
Earth
Balance;
jar of
Marmite;
dropper
bottle
of DHA
supple-
ment.

Covered
shelf,
right:
tub of
Tofutti
sour
creme;
parti-
ally used stick of Earth Balance; partially used tomato.
Middle shelf, left: rice milk; orange juice.
Middle shelf, right: mustard; various salad dressings; rice vinegar; ketchup; balsamic vinegar; lemon juice; red wine vinegar; sesame oil; canola oil; walnut oil.
Bottom shelf: baking soda; bag of yeast; ground flax meal; bottle of mirin; Worcestershire sauce; a couple jars of teriyaki marinades; chinese mushroom sauce; daquiri mixer.

And the next set are AFTER farm pickup:
Definitely some added greens, lots of kale, baby salad greens, leeks, swiss chard, bok choy. And more dinner leftovers in various glass containers.
And the bottom drawers have more scallions, radishes & salad turnips, and various herbs.

Then after pre-Thanksgiving grocery shopping! Whoa!

Various
bever-
ages
that we
don't
normally
buy,
the
first
Tofurky
feast
for the
kids to
try,
Vegan-
aise,
a couple
of diff-
erent
pickles,
an open
soy
yogurt
(that's gotta be Maia's), drink box for Ryan.
I didn't take another "door" picture, but there's a tub of Earth Balance spread, and a jar of probiotics.

Hope that wasn't too boring! I had fun seeing what was in another family's vegan fridge, so I just thought I'd share ours.

Ryan had a special meal planned for Dada when he returned from Rome, but his flight was delayed, so he had to wait a day, but here it is...
Between the square rolls
Ryan spread mustard &
Veganaise, then added
shredded carrot, avocado
& lettuce. Tasty!

Maia was just happy to
have Dada home again...




And today Ryan only had
a half day of school, so I
packed light for him, and
made it a treat of some
favourites...

Ryan's snack: roasted corn; Ju Ju Stars; 1/2 mini bagel smoked Tofurky & lettuce sandwich.

When not in Rome

I don't think there's any hope of me fully catching up from the last few days. I fell behind on friday and then the momentum wasn't there. My husband was in Rome for 5 days and the new Star Trek film came out on dvd, so I admit I did nothing else but watch it repeatedly every evening. But here were friday's lunches...
Ryan's
lunch:
tofu
salad
sand-
wiches;
meat-
less
meat-
balls;
orange
slices;
carrot
sticks;
cucu-
mber
slices;
a hazel-
nut
praline
dark
choco-
late.

I had grandma pick Nate up from preschool since AJ gets out of half day kindergarten at exactly the same time. He then spent part of the afternoon with her, so I packed him a lunch...
Nate's lunch; mixed fruit cup (leftover from a trip); tofu salad sandwich; carrot sticks; grape tomatoes; cucumber slices; a meatless meatball.

And me...
A salad with pickled
radishes.
And some sauteed
Tofurky sausages with
broccoli & tomato.



Saturday's hike seemed
to wear everyone out
more than usual--maybe
it had to do with Dada
being away. Nate and his
crooked walking stick,
about ready to give up!

But then he saw his
brothers at the top...

small packages & silly boys

It was
early
release
at 1pm
for the
public
schools
today,
so a
lighter
lunch...

Ryan's
lunch:
Thermos
of bean,
vege-
table,
barley
soup;
soy
cheese
squares;
herb crackers; a tiny Pez pack leftover from Halloween.

Next I wanted to show Nate's preschool snack, not because of the food so much as the size of the container. Bento snacks and lunches are meant to be packed efficiently, tightly arranged so that there is little excess space. This container is only holds 130ml and can fit in the palm of my hand, yet properly filled it can easily hold a nice snack for a preschooler.
Nate's snack: 2 dried apricots; 4 grape tomatoes; 3 squares of soy cheese; 3 herb crackers.

Any of you with multiple boys knows just how silly and crazy they can get. Besides the blocks and cars and toilet talk...









As I was getting Maia ready
for bed I walked in on a
conversation about "space
diapers" and they all started laughing hysterically.

And on our afternoons hike,
Ryan was "the King", AJ
was "the Queen", and...









...Nate was "the mad dragon", of course!

Don't worry, once the
snow starts to fly I won't
have all these daily
hikes to bore you all
with!

AJ wanted to climb this
pine tree. I thought this
picture looked even better
turned 90 degrees counter
clockwise, LOL.

Honest!

Thanks to Raising Seven Vegans I have a nifty new Honest Scrap blog award to display in my sidebar! Yippee! I will be passing along the award to 6 others bloggers later in the week and posting 10 honest things
about myself (um, yay?,
LOL). But you've got to
check out her blog. Just
managing to post at all
with infant TRIPLETS
and FOUR older boys
(by older I mean age 7
and younger!)!! And she's
breastfeeding all 3 babies.
YAAAHHHOOOOOO! She
rules. Seriously. Go see for
yourself.

Anywhooo...on to us for the day...












Ryan's
lunch:
nudgie
bar;
pretzels;
mini
yellow
gel
cup;
persim-
mon
slices;
cucu-
mber
slices;
carrot
"flower";
soba
noodles
dressed
with
toasted
sesame
oil and soy sauce, topped with shredded red bell pepper & scallion; a slice of cold silken tofu.

Wanna see something
nifty? Or rather creepy?
Check out this monkey
tail poison ivy climbing
this tree that I saw on
a hike yesterday.

We had quite a bit of
it on some trees on our
property when we moved
here. It took me 5 years
to finally axe or spray all
of it. The fuzzy vines I
let sit dead for a few years
before donning rubber
gloves covered with
plastic baggies and ripping
them off the trees into
double trash bags.

There is still a bit outside
our fence, but it's quite
an improvement! Now I'm
slowly making progress
removing it from the rail
trail. As the boys are
getting older, they like to
play beyond the yard.
The hill up by the school
is really overgrown with
it. I wish the town would
make some effort to
remove it, at least right
around where the play-
ground and pickup areas
are. I feel badly for any
kids who are highly
allergic, like my husband.

But that's New England
for you! Poison ivy, poison
oak, poison sumac, ticks,
mosquitos. But at least we
don't have poisonous
snakes, spiders, or scary
amphibians!

disposable airline meals inc.

Ryan's lunch: 2 meatless meatballs; celery sticks; red bell pepper strips; leftover homemade pizza; 1 tiny Equal Exchange dark chocolate; snap peas; dried apricots.

Nate
looked
so cute
behind
this
little
tree
on a
hike
at the
Ashland
Town
Forest
yester-
day.

Then
every-
one
climbed
a big
rock
outcrop to get their picture taken...












We hiked until dark
again, barely able to
see our way to the
car. I guess we should
start packing a
flashlight! It's hard to
get in a good hike when
Ryan doesn't arrive
home from school until
after 3pm.

Here
is my
husb-
and's
dinner
for his
flight
this
even-
ing:
a Luna
bar;
vege-
table
gyoza;
red
bell
pepper
strips;
cucu-
mber
slices;
a radish;
carrot, onion & sweet potato tempura; soba noodles w/scallion.

Kids'
dinners:
herb
flat-
bread;
carrot
sticks;
celery
sticks;
red
bell
pepper
strips;
cucu-
mber
slices;
apple
slices;
hummus.

I thought
it would
be inter-
esting to show the differences in each plate for each child's age. Top left is for a 7yo, top right is for a 5 3/4 yo, bottom left is for a 3yo, bottom right is for a 16mo.

Healthier Hummus

1 can (15.5 oz.) chick peas, rinsed & drained
1 can cannellini beans, rinsed & drained
2 T. tahini
2 T. ground or milled flax seeds
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. dried seaweed mix (I used Sea Seasonings organic Triple Blend Flakes made of dulse, laver & sea lettuce)
2 T. lemon juice
2 T. olive oil
1/3 cup water

Put everything in a food processor, adding water slowly as hummus mixes. Process until smooth.

never a dull moment

A weekend full of kid craziness...saturday rain, sunday hikes, and monday back to school. The food was nothing to write home about today. Heck I probably shouldn't have even bothered blogging it! Some mondays are like that...
Ryan's lunch: veggie crisps; carrot sticks; grilled nutritional yeast cheez sandwich; mango gel cup on the side.

But even with the older boys off to school (Nate only has preschool t/th/f mornings) there was still plenty of wild rumpus. Nate was riding his horse "Rocky" while playing musical instrumentas while battling an exercise ball. Go figure! Maia was mightily amused...
Thank goodness for the great outdoors!






















Our
Sunday
after-
noon
hike
was
almost
complet-
ely foil-
ed by
flooding
from
satur-
day's
rain...

in addi-
tion to
the
trail
clearly
not
being recently maintained...
Maia is happy to hike for hours as long as we keep moving...

ice cream for lunch?

Ryan's lunch: mini banana black raspberry muffin; peanuts; "ice cream cone" Tofutti cream cheese & jelly sandwich w/sprinkles; carrots sticks; smoked Tofurky "flowers" w/edamame; green beans dressed w/soy sauce.

AJ got out some clay
yesterday and made
a river with tadpoles
turning into frogs and
lilly pads and the lot...







What impressed me was
the teeny tiny tadpoles
with their itty bitty eyes!