Dudes, I suck at updating. You probably already know this. One day this blog will be current again! Until then, here's Shae & his adorable new brother, Silas. He's 3 months old now, so eventually there will be lots of back pictures.

VeganMoFo: Black Bean Chili & Wild Rice

I was suddenly craving Chili and Rice today. I don't know if that's something normal to eat together or now, as I've never heard of being served together, but yuuummmmmmm! The Chili is a black bean variation on Pamela's basic recipe. Insanely quick & easy and we all loovvveeee it. That and a boxed mix of Wild Rice and we called it dinner. Made tons of extra Chili so we'll be enjoying those leftovers for days.


It's kind of pathetic seeing all the super fast foods we eat night after night, but I have a good excuse. Shae's little brother refuses to vacate my body.

VeganMoFo: Our favorite snacks

Today's VeganMoFo is is about the yummy snacks we've discovered along the vegan journey and fell in love with.

Shae's favorite snack are Tings. We can't buy them locally anymore so we order them from Amazon in bulk. These are perfect for lunchboxes or any snack really. The thing about these are that no one seems to care that they are vegan! Everyone we've shared them with love them.


I'm a huge Tings fan as well, but lately I've been much more interested in Terra exotic vegetable chips. I don't know what it is about these, but I just loooveeeeeee them. A friend of mine had bought a big box of these and her family wasn't too fond of them, so she gave them to us to try and I gave them some Tings to try out. Worked great for both of us!


Unlike Shae & I, Matt's not much of a snacker. (What's wrong with him?!) But he's become really obsessed with Primal Strips Teriyaki Jerky. I used to be, blowing $1.50 a pop at the local health food store constantly, but somewhere along this pregnancy I ate too many of them and haven't been interested since. Matt took over for me, I guess.


Shae thinks it's extremely important that I tell you his favorite snack ever is his favorite food ever and that nothing will ever be better than watermelon. He's not kidding either, he'd turn down a truckload of chocolate for watermelon in a heartbeat.

VeganMoFo: Dinner in a hurry!

Tonight was Shae's soccer practice night. We don't get home until 7:30-8ish and his normal bedtime is 8pm. After running around for 2 hours at practice, he's starving so we have to fit dinner & his shower in as fast as we can after practice. Usually what that means is doing the short order cook thing. We usually each pick something fast & easy and Matt & I both make it while Shae showers. Tonight, I was exhausted (oh, and yeah, due to have a baby who apparently is super comfy in my belly!) so Matt did all the cooking.

Shae wanted his usual soccer night quesadilla. Black beans, corn & tofutti soy cheese slices. Sometimes we add some leftover rice or different veggies, just depends on what's on hand at the time.

And of course Shae has to do the fun part himself, cutting it up with a pizza cutter.


I am currently obsessed with what we call "Pizza Sandwiches". We use our Cuisinart Sandwich Grill for these. Bread is the crust, and my fillings of choice are simple: spaghetti sauce, tofutti soy cheese slices & seasonings. This is something I serve to Shae's friends when they are over- all kids who live in the land of Mcdonalds and Burger King, yet they always love these and never question the type of cheese.


And Matt went with the old standbys: Boca Burgers. Yeah, we love the convenience of these babies. Lots of vegans trash processed pre-made vegan stuff like these, but not us. Just don't cook them in the microwave. Gross.


And that's how a lazy vegan family has dinner ready in under 15 minutes!

VeganMoFo: adorable mini corndogs!

I saw these adorable mini-muffin style corndogs on the ppk and knew we just had to have them! Shae instantly freaked out excited. Anybody remember this post from last year?

I used the cornbread recipe from Veganomicon (it's our favorite cornbread recipe) & smartdogs. These are so quick & easy and taste delicious! Pleased all 3 of us. Shae said they are "like a small crummy version of watermelon". That one puzzled me... You'd think crummy is a bad thing, right? Turns out it's not. It's his highest compliment. Crummy is just the opposite of juicy apparently and watermelon is juicy. Nothing trumps watermelon, ever, in Shae Land, so you can't get any better than being compared to it. He's super excited to bring some of the leftovers in his lunchbox tomorrow.




(Thanks for the great idea, Sprinklebutt!)

VeganMoFo: Vegan Kid makes pancakes!

Shae wanted to make breakfast this morning, he was determined. He's never made breakfast himself before, but since I was craving pancakes I went along with it. He asked for the "Isa Book" right away for the recipe- Vegan With a Vengeance. Our favorite pancakes. This recipe is so easy and no-fail that I even have a few omnivorous friends who use it now. Yay, vegan pancakes!

Shae measured & poured everything himself.


Measuring is serious business, dontcha know.


And as usual, using the mixer is the funnest thing possible. I wish I enjoyed things like this as much as he does!


I forgot to get a picture of him flipping his own pancakes! I suck, I know. But he was really proud of himself. He doesn't do much at the stovetop usually because mommy is paranoid of him burning his cute little hands off.

Here's a pic of him showing off his First Ever Pancake! Yay, Shae!


And closer up...


He made a bunch more too, including cute teeny tiny ones. All the while, talking about how he's going to be a "part-time" chef one day.

VeganMoFo: Shae's favorite place to eat out

Shae wanted today's VeganMoFo to be about his favorite place to eat out, this kind of changes but at the moment it's China Wok, the most veg-friendly chinese place in the area. We've been going there since Shae was 3 (he's 9 1/2 now!), everyone is wonderful about telling us ingredients and altering dishes to make them vegan, plus they even have a tofu dish on the daily specials! Pure shock and awe for this little town. They have our usuals memorized even if we haven't been there in months and there are adorable little kids (children of the employees) always sitting and playing at one of the tables. We forgot the camera at home, so we'll have to make due with camera phone pics this time.

Here's Shae enjoying his rice. He's been eating with chopsticks since he was 3, even taught his grandparents how to use them at some point! I remember in kindergarten, he'd bring leftover chinese food in his lunchbox and kids were amazed by his chopsticks. A few of his friends still mention this, 4 years later.


And here is a plate of spring rolls (the best! ahhh YUM!), some sesame tofu and shae's soy sauce soaked rice. Check out Shae's crazy finger.