adventures in the life of an 12 year old Vegan Kid & his 2 year old vegan brother...

Moved!

2011-09-29T12:14:00.002-05:00

We've moved and been reinvented. Check us out at Peanut Butter & Kelly

2011-06-01T12:58:00.018-05:00

Hey it's me Shae. I just wanted to tell everyone about my awesome sauce garden. When my grandma moved away she left me in charge of the garden. And guess what I'm freakin BEAST at gardening! Every day I water the the plants, but the scorching hot sun drys the water right up. The first couple of times I wasn't watering the plants enough and they started to shrivel up. I was scared they were gong to die. But my dad showed me the right way to water them. I would have to water each plant for at least 30 seconds and make it rain on the leaves and branches. All the plants are doing wonderful now! Woo hoo!!!

The green lushessness!!!!!!!!

Here is our little visitor hiding on our mystery hot peppers. When my grandma bought this plant the salesmen never told her exactly what it was all he said is "It's hot". And it surly is. I tried it because I did not think it would be that bad, but was I wrong! Before I knew it my mouth was burning and numb! That night my dad tried the pepper and said it was hotter than death!! And he loves spicy stuff.

It's going to be bigger than its pot!!!

It's up to my chest!!! Yay!!!!

Almost ripe!!!

Just a plant...

TOMATOES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My little bro loves him some leaves!!

2010-11-07T05:51:00.001-06:00

After the first day of Shae's soccer tournaments, we got roped into a team meal at a local buffet. Which meant he got to goof off with his friends for awhile, but we had only salad and french fries to eat. Sigh. We're used to this back at home, but it was pretty much torture in a city that contains two actual vegan restaurants!

We sat at the restaurant eating our lettuce and watching the kids dare each other to eat gross stuff, then we headed straight over to End of the Line Cafe for our real food.

We've been here once before and loved it. The vegan cheese they make in-house is phenomenal. I'm in love with their fried tofu fish sticks, which they were out of this time unfortunately. Shae and I had fish sandwiches instead, then shared Silas' mini pizza since he fell asleep. You snooze, you lose buddy! Matt had the bacon cheese melt. The food was delish! But the best part was getting to order anything off the menu. Shae bugged out when I ordered his hot chocolate without specifying soy milk and wouldn't drink it until he questioned the guy and was assured there were no animal products in the building. People who can do this everyday are just too lucky. All vegan restaurants are just a magical luxury.

Vegan MoFo, Day 2!

2010-11-02T20:10:00.001-05:00

Silas is a picky eater. Super picky. Reminds me of myself as a child... Not great. One thing he will always, always happily eat is an apple. If he was allowed to live off of that and breast milk, he'd be thrilled.

The first apple he ever had, he actually poached from his big brothers mouth. Shae lifted the apple to take a bite and there was Silas on the other side of it munching along.

Now if only we can get him to have this same kind of obsession with something green!

2010-11-01T16:29:00.007-05:00

On this first day of Vegan MoFo 2010, let's not mess around. It's not the Vegan Kid way to beat around the bush. Let's just get straight to business: Candy. It's what's on all of our minds anyway, right? In our house, candy is a once-in-a-while magical treat. Not something we see that often. So obviously, Halloween is a huge deal around here. FREE! CANDY! Ahhhhhhhh!

We hit up two local festivals this year, with a Jabberwockeez dancer and a tiny cow in tow.

Shae smartly used Silas' cuteness to his advantage and scored double the candy. Although when his big brother wasn't helping, Silas would give people back their candy and grin at them. Shae would not approve.

I think the official ratio of vegan to non vegan was about 70/30. Not bad odds. And I was thrilled to see that outcast 30% sent off to live with Grandma & Paw Paw. Shae wants it pointed out that all 4 full-sized candies they received were vegan, and that's a huge success.

The winner of the night was definitely Twizzlers. I think that's all Shae even ate. (I won't mention how many I stole from him) He even slipped one to Silas and let's just say he was a fan. His first taste of sweet, sweet candy.

2010-10-28T16:04:00.004-05:00

It's that time again! The Vegan Month of Food is upon us. We here in the Vegan Kid family are determined that this is the year that we conquer the Vegan MoFo. Starting this Monday we will be blogging about vegan food for the entire month of November. For more info: head over to the vegan mofo headquarters.

Until then, here's a pic of the little food testers themselves. Shae, age 11 1/2 and Silas, age 2.

2010-10-20T07:33:00.001-05:00

2010-05-25T08:05:00.005-05:00

Hello out there! It's me, Kelly. Yes, we abandoned you. It was bound to happen. But we're still here and we're still vegan. The vegan kid is 11 and has a 19 month old little brother (whom I am nursing as I type). Today I'm going to repost an article I wrote for an online vegetarian magazine (that is now defunct) when Shae was 4.

I have a friend whose family just went vegan- against all odds!- and she reminded me of those days today. Way back when we decided not to be apart of the masses and to make better choices for the animals and also for our bodies, even if they were the choices that involved more effort. Sometimes it's hard to remember ever not being vegan...

Veganism for the Four Year Old

Veganism isn't about drama for Shae; it's just his life. Shae doesn't eat animal products because he loves animals. One quirky thing about our family is that when he asks me questions about food, farms, life, anything really... I tell him the truth….not the graphic truth, but the edited for-his-little-ears truth. I see it as my job as a mother to educate him, to prepare him for the world. Lying or dumbing things down for him is just holding him back. Why would I withhold knowledge from my child? Isn't knowledge the key to his future?

Shae: Why don't we eat meat?
Me: Because we don't want to hurt animals. Meat is the body of an animal...and to get the meat, the animal has to get dead. Besides, meat makes our bodies not healthy.

Shae: Why isn't everyone vegetarian, Mommy?
Me: Not everyone takes the time to learn things, so they don't understand how bad eating animals is yet.

Shae: Why don't we drink regular milk?
Me: That kind of milk comes from cows. It comes from the mommy cow's body to feed her babies. It isn't made for human bodies. The farmers that take the milk from the mommies are very mean to them and hurt them. If we drink soy milk it is healthier for our bodies and doesn't hurt any one at all!

Shae: Why don't we eat honey?
Me:The bees spend their lives making the honey for themselves, it would be mean if we took it from them and if we take their honey from their hives, it could hurt them or make them die.

Shae sometimes gets frustrated when he sees family members eating meat. It's hard for him to understand why so many people just don't care about the animals, but then again, that's hard for me to understand too. He's been known to ask people, especially his many grandparents, "Why are you eating that animal?" and follows up with "Don't you want that little cow to live with its mommy and daddy instead of getting dead and going into your tummy?" This has led to many a meal abruptly turning at least vegetarian to please him. He has influenced so many people with his wide-eyed innocence than most hardcore activists could ever imagine doing. How can you look into such a sweet, loving little face, and say that you don't care if your meal had a mommy or daddy, because you like how it tastes?

It isn't just family & friends that Shae has influenced; he's also been turning the heads of pure strangers. With his homemade vegetarian t-shirts and sweet words he has been able to explain his cruelty-free lifestyle to willing, open-minded people. They aren't angry or defensive as they might get with adults, so he's able to get his point across more clearly.

The thing about Shae that makes him special is that he isn't trying to preach like a lot of us activists find ourselves doing. He just does what comes naturally to him! Maybe that is why when people learn of his veganism, he's never been met with any opposition or challenges. He's just a regular kid that plays on a tee ball team, runs around the yard with his dogs, loves to paint… and happens to not eat any animal products.

Cutting all animal products out of his diet had many benefits for Shae. As an omnivore, he got sick easily and frequently. He caught all the viruses that went around, and would get sick to his stomach easily after eating certain meals. As he went vegetarian, he started getting sick a lot less frequently. Then we began slowly cutting the last cheese products out of his diet, and started to notice that if he got sick it would be after something cheesy. Now as a vegan, he hasn't been sick at all. He never even gets an upset stomach. He has slimmed down and has tons more energy. Even his pediatrician has commented on the positive changes, saying "whatever you're feeding him, you're doing something right!"

So, when you hear the word, "vegan", think beyond the crunchy granola hippies and hardcore scenesters images, and picture an average, bright-eyed 4-year-old little boy! Shae doesn't meet any of the stereotypes, but he sure wants to break some boundaries.

---Kelly Dyer is the happily married, vegan, full-time mother of Shae.

2009-10-05T16:13:00.003-05:00

hi today im going to write about soy-milk. i did not write this weekend because i had some friends spend the night at my house.for breakfast we ate cereal drenched in silk soy-milk. they did not notice it was soy-milk,heres a pic of us eating breakfast.

all cows should be able to give their babies milk just like my mom gives my baby brother milk. why dont we all buy soy milk instead of having to milk the cows go through all that torture?imageine how scared the cows must be when there taken to the machine to be milked? i really dont get it.

above is a pic of a milk farm filled with extremely depressed cows.

if i commited my life to save any animal it would be the cow ,i want the cows to be happy like us.

peace! . think of the cow .

vegan mofo III, day 2

2009-10-02T18:38:00.002-05:00

hi its me again. now for my next post. today im going to write about the wonderful Cafe Bamboo in New Orleans. I went there this summer when I was visiting my grandparents who live in slidell, la. We walked around the french quarter in circles, lost, for about for 4 miles but when we got there we new it was worth the walk. I ordered the red beans and rice with a side of french fries. my parents ordered the sol chicken dinner. The food was delicious. I was amazed at how fun it is to be able to choose whatever I wanted off the entire menu! I can't do that at any restaurants in my town!

above is a picture of us on our way to cafe bamboo.

peace!

Vegan MoFo III, day 1

2009-10-01T15:25:00.005-05:00

today is the first day of Vegan MoFo,the vegan month of food.bloggers across the world are writing about vegan food every single day this month.I'm 10 years old and this is my first post.

today im going to write about if i were any food of my choice.i know CAKE!speaking of cake heres a picture of the cake i made for my mom and dads anniversary. it is delicious! my parents said it was the best cake they have ever eaten! if you want to see where the recipe came from keep reading.the chocolate cake is from la dolce vegan,my dad changed that recipe to create the vanilla cake recipe. and the peanut buttercream frosting is from isa & terry's book, vegan cupcakes take over the world. isa is my favorite cookbook author EVER!!!she knows her food!

heres a picture of my almost 1 year old brother trying to help me bake, but he wasn't really baking just throwing measuring cups at me. ha ha!
i made it entirely by my self.

back to my topic ,if i were cake i would eat myself before someone ate me because im not really sure about the sensation of being eaten. im sure all the animals agree with me! sorry folks this post is over for today, make sure to read tomorrows post. Shae out! peace to all animal lovers.

It's that time again!

2009-09-30T12:55:00.002-05:00

Yep, MoFo time is upon us. Last year was a massive fail, due to vegan kid #2's arrival throwing us out of wack, but we're ready to get back into action. Something special is happening though.... The Original Vegan Kid will be taking over the blog! He wants to MoFo his little heart out this year and I don't know about you guys, but I'm stoked. 10 year old Shae thinks he can crush my past attempts and I wouldn't be surprised if he did. Go Shae!

2009-01-18T14:20:00.004-06:00

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

2008-10-09T16:35:00.006-05:00

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

2008-10-08T17:20:00.004-05:00

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!

2008-10-07T20:50:00.005-05:00

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!

2008-10-06T17:35:00.008-05:00

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!

2008-10-05T09:55:00.005-05:00

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

2008-10-04T06:56:00.008-05:00

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.

Vegan Baby Shower!

2008-10-02T10:18:00.011-05:00

Day 2 on VeganMoFo! Today I thought I'd talk about our baby shower. A few of my friends got together and threw it for us back in August. Nearly everyone else are omnis, but they all contributed vegan food! I have the best friends <3 Every single thing was vegan, it was amazing! Everyone ate & loved everything too. This is a huge deal to us because where we live, the only good vegan food we get comes from our kitchen. Having it made for us was a real treat.

First off,the yummy cake our friend Pamela made for us. You can find the recipe on her blog, Pamela Cooks. It was a lemon cake with raspberry jam between layers and buttercream frosting and decorated with gorgeous fondant flowers! Probably the best combo I've ever had. Pamela is the best! She was the only vegan at the shower besides the 3 of us.

Another friend made vegan cupcakes for us! She had never baked without eggs before! She always raves about our cupcakes at other events and wanted to try it out herself. YUM! These were cookies-n-cream variation from Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World.

We didn't get many pictures of the food, probably because we were so busy eating it all, but there was tons!

And since the Vegan Kid is glaringly missing from this entry, here's a random picture of him running around all sugared up, after swimming in the pool. (the baby shower was a pool party)

Is 3 pumpkin muffins too many? I think not.

2008-10-01T10:44:00.006-05:00

It's October! Know what that means? It's VeganMoFo, the magical month of vegan food! Lots of bloggers will be writing about vegan yum-ness for the entire month. Last year we started it all off, and boy has it grown since then!

We're in the final countdown to Shae's little vegan brother being born, but hopefully that won't take us out of the blogging world too much. Still gotta eat, right? Since I'm 9 months pregnant and will super-soon have a newborn to take care of, be prepared for our running theme to be convenience. Fast & easy and without too much of a mess hopefully! Vegans can be lazy too ya know.

Starting off the VeganMoFo with our favorite muffins. Isa's Best Pumpkin Muffins from Vegan with a Vengeance . I've been trying to stock the freezer with healthy, yummy stuff to make life easier and these muffins are a huge part of them. We love them for breakfast or just snacks. All 3 of us are obsessed with them. Last week I made a double batch, we ate a half dozen and froze the rest. Did the same thing again today. I've already eaten 3. Within a few hours. That might seem excessive if you didn't know how tasty these little babies are. Shae barely made it in the door from school when he smelt them and ran to the counter for his. He's special today, can you tell? (nevermind that he's always special!)

It's coming!

2008-09-10T14:07:00.002-05:00

VeganMoFo! October, baby. It's all about the food, all month long.

Also coming in October: Shae's little brother. Check out his cute little foot!

Lemon-Limeade

2008-06-16T17:23:00.003-05:00

I made the best Lemon-Limeade the other day! I did almost by myself. Mom just cut them and watched me at the stove."

"First we put 2 cups of sugar into a quart of water in a pot on the stove and turned it into a syrup. Then I squeezed the juice from 1 1/2 lemons & 3 limes. I strained out the seeds, but left the pulp because it's good. Dad poured the hot water into the pitcher for me, and I poured the juices in and stirred it up. Then I added more cold water to fill it up and stirred some more. Then I asked mom to cut up the other half of the extra lemon and 1 lime. I put those in the lemon-limeade so it looks very fancy. It was a very fun treat to make!"

Layton!

2008-06-11T08:44:00.002-05:00

Shae's not even in any of these pictures, but this is our buddy Layton and he's adorable, so that's reason enough to post them. These are from Layton's first birthday party. Shae was swimming somewhere in the background the entire time.

Yellow Rose Testers, yay joanna!

2008-06-11T08:27:00.003-05:00

Maple Ginger Tempeh Strips on a TLT. We all devoured this one. Delicious!

Chick salad, huge hit here.

and closer up.

Lemon Mint Pasta with Zucchini and Petit Pois. Must make this again soon. YUM!

Joanna's next book will be just as great as Yellow Rose Recipes! <3

Shae & his "cous"

2008-06-11T08:10:00.003-05:00

These are pictures of me and my cousin, Hailey. She's 5, the one with the cake is from her birthday party. And the one with her sleeping on my dad is after her birthday party. She's my favorite.

Birthday Cake and Chocolate Bunny

2008-06-11T07:35:00.003-05:00

This is my dad's birthday cake, he's so lucky to get that!!! It was vanilla cake with oreos crushed up inside it and oreos on the top inside of the buttercream frosting. My mom, the best mom in the world made it!
(I swear he said actually that. haha)

Thank the easter bunny! He gave me this whole chocolate bunny! We never see these that I can eat anywhere, it was delicious!

random stuff

2008-06-11T07:02:00.005-05:00

St Patricks Day. Living in the spirit! It freaked out my cousin Hailey, but I liked it.

Field day at school, me & my buddy Austin were in the sack race together, but no one won because the race was just for fun.

We found this cool lizard guy in the front yard eating a bee. It was so weird watching him devour that bee! That bee must've been sick for him to be able to catch it, they are normally so fast.

I got good grades all year in school so my parents surprised me and bought me the Wii Fit. It is soooo fun. My grades were all A's, all year long. And I got the highest scores on both of my FCAT's and I won the best kid on the bus award for not getting in trouble.

I was playing survivorman in the yard. That's a tshirt on my head.

I dug a huge hole in the yard and constantly filled it up with water and then played in the mud! The funnest!

Rocking out on my guitar

Baseball season!

2008-06-10T17:27:00.006-05:00

Baseball season is over! This is my trophy. My team was a first place team and I'm an all star!"

This is my team, we're called the Gators. I am not a Florida Gators football fan. I like the seminoles, but I didn't get to chose my teams name.

This is me on first base, ready to steal second. Stealing bases is my favorite part. I'm really fast."

This is me pitching for the first time ever. It was so fun!

Finally! Shae's 9th Birthday Party Post.

2008-06-10T16:50:00.008-05:00

"Mom's first 9 year old hug! I'm almost as tall as mom now!"

"Delicious! Chocolate 2 layer cake with peanut buttercream frosting! everybody loved it! it was the best!"
(cake recipe from La Dolce Vegan, and frosting from Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World)

"Happy Birthday to me!"

"Night time lightstick tag! One of the funnest game ever invented!"

"Ahhhhh they're getting me! Haha! Silly string fight. We all got covered in that stuff! So much fun, the funnest!"

"Me and all of my buddies, after we did races and contests!"

"I love babies!"

2008-06-10T16:45:00.003-05:00

"Me and my buddy Cole! He's so funny, he makes me smile every time I see him!"

We Heart Kittee!

2008-06-10T12:14:00.003-05:00

Kittee's pure magic, she really is. We made these Peanut Butter Rice Krispy Squares from her zine, Papa Tofu, but you can follow that link to the recipe on her website too.

We used Envirokids Panda Puffs cereal and Dark Chocolate Dreams Peanut Butter. Shae took these babies to school for Valentines day and they were a huge hit! Shae was also thrilled to have a few leftover at the end of the day.

Kitty shelf!

2008-06-10T10:37:00.003-05:00

So first of all, be prepared for a huge backlash of photos and events past. I've finally uploaded my camera cards! The pictures go back to January or so. We're just randomly choosing ones we liked to share here. Shae's going to do some narrating.

"These are my cats, Karma and Topazy. They are never near each other until the kitty shelf came along. The kitty shelf is actually a part of our new coffee table, but the kitties like to sleep there."

Topazy is the brown flat-faced cat, she's a total sweetheart, just lays around in random hiding places all day. She so quiet, can't even meow. The most noise she makes is this little squeaky sneeze sound if she wants something really bad. We adopted her from a cat rescue about 3 years ago. Karma is the silver kitty, we've had her since she was a kitten, since shae was a little over a year old. She's got a crazy personality, sweet as anything one second and then trying to murder you the next. She's shae's baby, he can get away with anything with her and she'll just play bite him and then cuddle him. We, however would bleed if we did half the things shae does, like pet her stomach, lay our head on her, etc. Karma makes up for Topazy's quietness, by being insanely vocal. She doesn't just meow, she screams. All the time. Just for fun. She pretty much owns us.

Here's Shae cuddling up with Ms Karma Lynn.

2008-06-09T09:09:00.003-05:00

Yeah, so I didn't actually update when I said I would. Give me a break, I've been busy growing this little guy! Yep, "little guy". Shae's going to have a little brother!

Have tons of pictures and random things to post, so we'll continue to work on getting this updated.

So Close!

2008-02-22T08:15:00.002-06:00

Shae turns 9 tomorrow! Last night we worked on his birthday treat for his class, he didn't want the typical cupcakes this time and instead requested oreo pops. This is one of our favorite quick treats and everyone flips for them! Just a lolipop stick inside an oreo (or healthier faux oreo if you can find them, we were not so lucky this time), dip them in melted chocolate (we think ours with a bit of soymilk), and then drop the sprinkles on top and chill.

This morning, as I was about to furiously start wrapping them up, we found out that schools are closed today due the flooding in our area, so these babies fill have to wait till monday to hit the classroom. Shae seemed to think I was going to allow him to eat all 20 of them himself, instead. Good luck there buddy!

Tomorrow is the big sleepover birthday party, and the day this blog does it's annual name change... look for "Adventures in the life of a 9 year old Vegan" soon!

Where are we?

2008-02-11T12:56:00.000-06:00

Some of you have been inquiring as to where we are, why we haven't updated... it's all sheer laziness! I'll try to get back in the habit soon. I'll definitely have a big update in 2 weeks when Shae turns 9!

2007-12-12T13:46:00.000-06:00

We really, really, really love Veganomicon. Omg. This is Herb scalloped potatoes, roasted portobellos, and roasted green beans. All 3 of us really loved this dinner. We've made these potatoes a few times already, they are unbelievably good and so easy! I love easy! Shae's a huge mushroom fan, so he was insanely happy about the portobellos, I like this marinade a lot better than others I've used. I added some oregano, basil & thyme. I have no idea why it didn't occur to me earlier to roast green beans, but let me just say Yuuuuuuummm! So much better. Screw steaming.

2007-12-12T13:40:00.000-06:00

A few nights ago, Shae went into his bedroom and I, teasingly, locked his bedroom door. I expected him to giggle and demand to be released. Instead he got really, really quiet. We listened at the door and nothing! No response. Then pushed this note, wrapped around a crayon, under the door.

2007-12-05T15:21:00.000-06:00

Another obsession, foreign money. Except you cannot call it money, you have to say "currency" and if you mess up his sorted piles he'll look at you like the world is ending. Unbelievable how much enjoyment he's getting out of this. Comparing coins to each other, converting them to US money to see how much they are worth, pondering what the countries cultures are like. This is so much better than video games!

Some awesome vegans are offering to send him coins & bills from other countries and he is downright thrilled. Yet another reason why

Shae <3's Cozy Inside

2007-12-05T14:49:00.000-06:00

Ever heard of an 8 year old boy obsessed with food? I use the word obsessed because Shae's very all or nothing. When he gets excited about something, he gets really, really full-force into it.

Today he came home from school and spotted Joni's book- Cozy Inside open on the counter (to the fluffy omelets) and started oohhhhinng and aaahhhhing over everything. Screaming "mom! come look at this! we have to make this!". Getting more and more excited with each page and picture. He was downright giddy. He's begged for corn fritters, easy cheesy sauce, breakfast burritos, potato cheese soup and curried cashew chicken salad.

And get this! He saw garlic in one of the ingredient lists and he said "That's okay. I'll still eat it!". Yeah. He agreed to knowingly ingest garlic.

Something strange is going on here.

We heart etsy!

2007-12-03T08:22:00.000-06:00

We are so in love with etsy! First of all, we sell lots of pins and things there, so yeah, we love that. Actually, let's just get that out of the way first...

Etsy
Buy Handmade
teenytinytantrums

Check out our shop! And see that adorable little robot vegan kids pin? That's Shae's. He asks every day if he sold any or not and gets so proud of himself when he has. He's saving up right now to go to the skatepark, he says. He's working on a vegan themed coloring book thingy that we'll be selling before long, so keep your eyes open for that.

If Shae sees me on etsy, he'll run over and question me about his pin & his profits, then he wants to search for pirates and bikes and animals and stuff. I've caught him searching for different types of foods before and giggling over the fake food toys and jewelry. Then of course he launches into his next entrepreneurial plan to get rich and famous. He's always entertaining.

I stalk all of the crafters who are by far, more talented than I and try really hard not to buy everything! For jewelry, I am obsessed with BlueRoo, of course, but also brookadelphia and lilikoi designs. My favorite artist of-the-moment is Unconventional Ida, by K Smith. But the shops that I browse the most often, who literally hurt me with their product photos are the vegan bakers! Vegan Honey and Vegan Propamanda.

We're trying really hard this year to give handmade gifts. We're making photo albums for some people, scarves, jewelry, ornaments, pins, cookies, muffins, etc. Etsy has been a great source for crafts outside of our realm of creativity. I'm way more excited shopping for and giving handmade gifts than I've ever been buying the same old stuff from the box stores. Handmade is where it's at! Support crafter and the love of craft!

basketball season!

2007-12-02T16:17:00.000-06:00

First basketball game! Shae's been playing baseball and soccer on teams since he was 4, but we hadn't found a good place for him to do basketball at until now. We got really lucky with a great coach through the ymca. Shae's loving it! He's picking up on everything really quickly and doing a great job listening to his coach's feedback. He played point guard for the first game, they won 14-2!

So long, VeganMoFo.

2007-12-02T13:06:00.000-06:00

This post was from November 30th, the official end of Vegan Mofo, the Vegan Month of Food. Course I didn't post it that day, why would I? We didn't actually stick with VeganMoFo we well as I would have liked, but it did really get me in the habit of updating this blog and also discovering loads of fun vegan blogs. I hope everyone keeps up with them now that we are off the clock.

On our last day of the month, we baked a cake for my parents for their anniversary. it was a quickie cake, as I wasn't feeling too great and we had to be done before basketball practice, but it was yummy! Just ask Shae....

Haha. Totally drunk off chocolate cake mix! We used our favorite easy cake recipe from La Dolce Vegan, and topped it off with Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World's Fluffy White Buttercream. Tinted some of the frosting pinkish red and flavored it raspberry and threw some letting on the cake. My first time, so yeah, that's kind of obvious I think. It was good though!

Things we love:

2007-12-02T13:02:00.000-06:00

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade
bleuroo.etsy.com

This is the start of something new I'll be doing, linking to various things that we love. Starting off is my friend Amanda's etsy shop! She makes really great earrings and the cutest hand embroidered onesies & baby shirts, ever. I almost always am wearing her earrings, I'm so in love with them. I'm really, insanely picky about earrings too, most are so overdone. Too many details, too frilly. Amanda's are just simple and pretty! And my super-sensitive ears like them, which is nothing short of amazing. Check her out, it's not to late to buy for christmas!

ps- Bleuroo has a great article up on the North Florida Craft Revolution blog about crafting moms. read it!

...and the survey says!

2007-11-28T17:53:00.000-06:00

Oh, yes, time to jump on the bandwagon! Finally- the survey that's been traveling around veganmofo land by Food Snobbery.

Plus a bonus picture of Shae hugging on Karma & and reading Vegan with a Vengeance. I promise we love Three & Topaz too, even though I've posted 2 pictures of just Karma in a row.

And on with the suvey...

1. Favorite non-dairy milk? Well, Silk Plain is the only kind that all 3 of us like, so that's what we buy. But I love,love,love Almond Milk.

2. What are the top 3 dishes/recipes you are planning to cook?
vcon macdaddy
cozy inside's tofu omelette
vcons fudgy blueberry brownies

3. Topping of choice for popcorn? lots and lots of salt & earth balance
4. Most disastrous recipe/meal failure? a month or so, I exploded a cake in the oven. I'm still not sure how it managed to literally explode up to the top of the oven.
5. Favorite pickled item?boring old dill pickles. yum.
6. How do you organize your recipes? in a binder with plastic covers on each recipe. stole this idea from pamela!

7. Compost, trash, or garbage disposal? Trash compactor, Garbage Disposal and trash

8. If you were stranded on an island and could only bring 3 foods...what would they be (don't worry about how you'll cook them)?
mashed potatoes
soul veg mac & cheese
tomatoes

9. Fondest food memory from your childhood? mommy's mashed potatoes and gravy!

10. Favorite vegan ice cream? Soy Delicious! We can only get a few flavors here, but I haven't met one I didn't love. Mint chocolate chip is my dream soy ice cream. One day panama city will love me enough.

11. Most loved kitchen appliance? Kitchenaid stand mixer

12. Spice/herb you would die without? oregano

13. Cookbook you have owned for the longest time? probably the sarah kramer books
14. Favorite flavor of jam/jelly? strawberry

15. Favorite vegan recipe to serve to an omni friend? lasagna
16. Seitan, tofu, or tempeh? tofu
17. Favorite meal to cook (or time of day to cook)? dinner, since that's the only time of day I really cook.
18. What is sitting on top of your refrigerator? dust, probably.

19. Name 3 items in your freezer without looking.
vwav best pumpkin muffins
edamame
tater tots (I tried to think of something less awful, but couldn't.)

20. What's on your grocery list? Bread and coffee
21. Favorite grocery store? Publix

22. Name a recipe you'd love to veganize, but haven't yet. Matt's mom's Tennessee Cake. I tried once, but since it's basically all non-vegan ingredients, it's hard to exactly replicate.

23. Food blog you read the most (besides Isa's because I know you check it everyday). Or maybe the top 3?
Just the Food
Don't Eat Off the Sidewalk
Cake Maker to the Stars
24. Favorite vegan candy/chocolate? Rice Milk Chocolate

25. Most extravagant food item purchased lately? ummmmm nothing really. I'm a cheapo.

Veganomicon, we love you!

2007-11-28T16:47:00.000-06:00

Does this look gross? When we took the picture last night, all we could think was "OMG I want to eat that right now!" and now that I look at it, it's not the most appetizing picture. Please ignore that because that was some damn good food. (Also, lets ignore the glaringly obvious lack of vegetable on that plate. I need to go grocery shopping!)

This was Shae's favorite meal in weeks. He's already begged to have Chickpea Cutlets again tonight, which works out fine for me since I made a double batch last night.

If you haven't already guessed, those are the cutlets from VCON of course. And the scalloped potatoes. I was not prepared for how delicious those potatoes would be! I made a different recipe a few months ago and they were just so-so. Not terrible, but not good enough to make again. The VCON ones are instant hits that I'll be making forever, probably. So easy. So yummy. Shae actually ate all of his right away. He's been in a ridiculously picky stage lately, so this made us really really happy. Picky stages are no fun whatsoever. He ranked these potatoes as "just as good as mashed potatoes", so basically that's like they are made of pure gold. I am really loving Isa & Terry right now for creating food that pleases him, when even cookies & desserts are getting whined about.

tis the season

2007-11-28T16:30:00.000-06:00

She isn't really that sweet, I swear. Karma's one of those cats that you totally love, until you happen to look at her wrong and she tries to murder you. Pretty sure she is part puma. Shae can get away with whatever he wants with her though. Drags her around hugging on her, yanks her into bed with him and she just loves every second of it. Course if anyone else wiggles a toe, there will be bloodshed!

See the christmas tree behind her? We put it up the day after Thanksgiving, while Grandma Cat was still staying with us. Before she got sick, Christmas was her favorite time of year. She'd spend weeks and weeks, and then months & months working on her perfect tree and decorating her house. It was adorable. While our tree is no where near as Martha-ish as hers used to be, she still seemed to really enjoy looking at it. Staring at the lights an the angels. At one point she momentarily recognized it and said "oh, Christmas", only lucid words we heard from her this week.

smashing pumpkins!

2007-11-27T16:17:00.000-06:00

give thanks!

2007-11-27T13:48:00.000-06:00

Let's all pretend that I posted this on Thanksgiving! Okay? great. Now let's move on. I try to do little crafts with Shae whenever we have a chance, this banner was a last-minute idea that not only allowed him to rummage through the yard for leaves and acorns and whatnot, but it also gave me peace & quiet to cook! He was especially proud of the "S", due to all of the acorns.

Tofurkey! One of those love it or hate it foods, I think. We really, really love it. really, really. I want another now that I'm looking at this picture, actually. My favorite thing in the whole entire world is tofurkey, my mom's mashed potatoes & mushroom gravy, all on the same fork. Nothing better than that.

Green Bean Casserole! This is a recipe that Pamela gave me last year. I loved it so much, I made it a few times since then, but had to have it on Thanksgiving again. Shae wasn't into it. Probably because he saw the onions. His only request for the meal was plain peas. He ate a million of those babies.

Sweet Potato Casserole! omg, good. Even my grandfather who is terrified of my scary food loved this. Just to clarify, to him, anything not from McDonalds is scary. I try to ignore this, but sometimes I offer to break eggs on top of cupcakes to make them more palatable for him. augh. Anyway. This casserole went over really, really well. I was planning on posting the recipes, but it's super basic and I have no idea where I got it from, and also my hands already hurt from too-much typing. So take whichever one of those excuses you want. I might post it later, since my dad wants the recipe anyway. Haha, that's really cute actually. That my dad asked me for a recipe.

Bar full of food. Hopefully you guys can't see the poor, murdered carcass all the way at the other end. (how else do you think we ended up with 10 meat-eaters at our thanksgiving? they brought their stuff with them. and my mom made her magical mashed potatoes vegan, as she has for years cause she's the bestest.)

And for the desserts! Lemon Gem minicupcakes from VwaV, with Lemon Buttercream frosting from vctotw. And an apple pie, served with vanilla soy delicious. I think I ate at least four thousand of those itty bitty cupcakes. That equals 1 regular one, right??

And onto the Vegan Kid! This is how the cooking mostly went. WIth Shae dancing through the kitchen every few minutes. He gets really into it, quite entertaining actually. Spent lots of time laughing and watching him, when I should have been paying attention to the food.

And of course, playing with Pop Pop! In the background you can see more of the family hanging out with Shae's "Grandma Cat", Matt's grandmother. She was visiting it us all week, and even though she's far progressed with alzheimers and wasn't actually aware of what was going on, I think she really enjoyed Thanksgiving.

Lots more posts will magically appear soon, you'll think they are new, but they've actually been there all along. really!

2007-11-20T10:54:00.001-06:00

dear veganmofo,
over the weekend we visited the land of meat. we ate a load of peanut butter sandwiches. shae snuck a lot of soda and somehow managed to make a "pepsi footprint" on the hotel bed. long drive home, then shae got sick and missed school yesterday. now his great-grandma is in town. we don't care about food right now. i'm sorry. be distracted by this adorable picture of shae as a new vegetarian. probably 6 months or so into it.

sincerely,
mother of the vegan kid.

thanksgiving lunch at school

2007-11-15T16:40:00.000-06:00

"Those mashed potatoes with the seitan and the mushroom gravy were PERFECTO! Those kids who usually say my food is gross were admiring me today. Their food was just plain old stuff, nothing compared to mine. And it smelled bad."
---Shae

Their food really did stink. Yuck.

We had the chicken seitan from Don't eat off the sidewalk, instant mashed potatoes (give me a break! it was early!), mushroom gravy, green beans, and VwaV pumpkin muffins. It was sooooo good. If I hadn't already bought a tofurkey, I'd serve this seitan instead. Thank you Katie!

Shae's favorites and least favorites, by: shae

2007-11-14T15:54:00.001-06:00

Well, well, the vegan kid has decided to actually contribute to his blog today! He's sitting here munching on the chicken seitan from Katie's Zine, talking about how it's "sooooooooo so so so good". (it really is! yum!) I made it today, to reheat for his lunch tomorrow. His school is having their Thanksgiving Dinner, you know the mushy cafeteria version of dead bird- so he'll be rockin' the seitan. Last year his class learned all about Tofurkey when he brought that. I also made some of Isa's Best Pumpkin Muffins from Vegan with a Vengeance for dessert.

Anyway, back to Shae. He wants to list his favorite foods, or as he said "other foods that are extraordinary!". I'm his typist.

1. watermelon
2. chocolate cake
3. seitan
4. Soul Veg Mac & Cheese
5. lasagna ("just the kind of isa's tofu in it")
6. peanut butter sandwiches
7. tofurkey
8. stirfry
9. peas
10. chips
11. FruitaBu
12. tings ("that should go up WAY FURTHER!")
13. mashed potatoes
14. smores
15. cheeseburgers (boca, with tofutti cheese)
16. noodles
17. Barbara's Snackimals, chocolate chip flavor
18. cheese grits ("that goes with with watermelon!" as it should. he eats them nearly every single morning!)
19. applesauce
20. pizza
21. spaghetti with cheese
22. stroganoff
23. cupcakes ("any flavor")
24. chili
25. soy dogs
26. popsicles
27. chocolate soy ice cream
28. mushrooms
29. apples ("especially Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, and Red Delicious")
30. cashews
31. peanut butter bars
32. rice krispie treats
33. pumpkin muffins
34. popcorn
35. creamed corn
36. corn on the cob
37. green beans
38. black beans & yellow rice
39. back bean dip
40. pears
41. peaches
42. peanut butter chocolate chip cookies (from soy, not oi!)
43. seasoned almonds
44. apple chips
45. pineapple
46. Panda Puffs Cereal
47. dill pickles
48. HUMMUS AND PITA (I was told to do that in capital letters.)
49. Pretzels
50. smores (after telling him he already wrote that, he said "I really like them!"
51. hot cocoa
52. dark chocolate dreams peanut butter
53. mushroom gravy
54. french fries
55. kidney beans
56. baked beans
and he quits! That was all just streaming out of his mouth, I could barely keep up to type it all. Ya think he likes food?!?!

And things he "despises":
1. onions
2. hot tamales
3. atomic fire balls
4. hot sauce
5. bell peppers
6. brussel sprouts
7. raisins
8. oatmeal
9. salsa
10. GARLIC

...and that's it. The garlic part amuses me the most since its in nearly every single thing I make. And he knows this! When he was little, he caught us putting garlic in the spaghetti sauce and we told him it would make it taste like "chocolate" and then for about a year after that he begged us to put the chocolate in the spaghetti. Good times.

Oh, the gift that just keeps giving. He's reading this over my shoulder, out loud, but quietly. He catches up to me, turns to me and said "That really happened, didn't it?" I told him yes, and he groaned loudly and threw himself on the floor laughing.

burgers & smores

2007-11-13T07:49:00.000-06:00

Sorry bout that, VeganMoFo. I've been sick all weekend, cold turned sinus infection, loads of fun. Boys have been fending for themselves. Basically I can sum the entire 3 day weekend up like this: "Dad! Let's play baseball! I'm hungry, can I have a cheeseburger? Dad, let's play football! I'm hungry, can I have a cheeseburger? Dad, let's skateboard! I'm hungry, can I have a cheeseburger? Dad, let's ride bikes! I'm hungry, can I have a cheeseburger?" and so on and on and on. I have no idea what made him suddenly addicted to his wheat bread, veganaise, ketchup, boca burger, tofutti soycheese burgers, but whoa was he loving them.

And then last night, Matt came up with the best idea. ever. Smores using Dark Chocolate Dreams. Forking amazing.

I think that smores picture makes up for skipping all those posts. Tasted even better than is looks. mmmmmmmmmm.

chili & cornbread!

2007-11-09T18:50:00.000-06:00

Yep, that's chili in his teeth! We've been waiting for cold weather to have some chili and I'm glad we waited until veganomicon was here. We all looooovveeeeee the vcon cornbread. Matt says it tastes just like his mom used to make (and she's just about as down home southern as you can possibly get. The chili is just a souped up version of my moms chili, basic and delicious. 'Course we had to make it in two separate pots- Shaes and Ours. Shae's is tailor-made to his little palate. "no onions, no peppers, no seasoning AT ALL". He loved his bean/tvp/mushroom combo though. This is the first time he's eaten & loved chili. It's one of those foods he's always hated, I did too as a kid. I figure it's better to cater to his tastes than to just let him hate such a wonderful food. Scroll down and drool over that amazing cornbread.

grocery experiment, tofu scramble, chickpea casserole,

2007-11-09T16:40:00.000-06:00

Wow, my internet service provider hates me. I tried to post this dinner twice last night and both times my internet cut out before I had it saved. So, here I am a day late, per usual, posting about yesterdays food as I cook tonights. Okay! A few days ago, Joni at Just the Food blogged about The Great Grocery Experiment of 2007 and I thought it was genius! So, what did I do? Went to the store to stock up on bread & soymilk because we would be reduced to tears without them. I'd hate to even imagine Shae's reaction to a day without a peanut butter sandwich! I always try to switch it for something more interesting, but then he'll say "Instead of the snack can I have a PB sandwich?". I've given up. He might turn into a big pile of wheat bread and peanut butter one day. I'm okay with that. Anyway, soymilk and bread. I can't believe I'm doing this, but this is the contents of our pantry & fridge. Yep, that's a huge walk-in pantry, except you can't even see the floor due to the massive amounts of food. Ack!

I know you are all jealous of the case of Tings! Shae is inhaling them. Okay, I am too. Whatever. And I'm pretty embarrassed to be showing off our worst vice- bottled water. I know, I know. It's awful and wasteful and I feel like such a shit for using it. Our well water is brownish and tastes disgusting, so it is not drinkable. We've tried MANY different types of filters with no luck. We really should at least buy big containers instead of the little ones, but we don't. I do not endorse bottled water drinking! Do as I say, kids, not as I do!

And onto the food! First we have my breakfast yesterday: a simple tofu scramble with spinach. This is the closest thing I've tasted to egg, it was crazy! I'm not even sure how. It was really basic. garlic, tumeric, cumin, oregano? I don't even remember what else. Had lots and lots of spinach in it too which was soooooooo good. Had the leftovers for breakfast this morning too.

A funny thing with Shae and tofu scramble. He thinks he hates them, but he really doesn't! He had some once and didn't like it. Another time (nearly the same scramble! from Vegan with a Vengeance), I told it was a "Tofu Stirfry" and magically he loved it. I'm so amused by little things like that. I don't believe in hiding stuff in kids foods or tricking them into eating stuff, because I think you are doing them a HUGE disservice in the process, but I am really fascinated by the power of suggestion and word. Shae's a smart guy, you can't get a lot past him in other ways. But poof! A scramble is a stirfry and all is right with the world. (and oh crap. he's about to read this and the jig will be UP!)

Erm, next up was last night's dinner. We had a bunch of broccoli that we needed to use, so of courrssseee that means VWaV's Chickpea Broccoli Casserole. Left out the onions to please the boy. Also, made the Cheesy Sauce from Veganomicon...ohhhh boy am I going to be making that often. So good. So versatile. whoa. We all loved it so much. Thank you Isa & Terry! <3 <3 <3

We're so not making that again without adding the cheesy sauce. Made it magical!

scandal rocks the vegan world.

2007-11-08T13:29:00.000-06:00

Veganism is all all peace and love, right? Oh, how I wish. You've all seen the drama surrounding the veganyumyum book-that-isn't. I just wanted to weigh in and send some love to the herbivore duo. This whole event is just confirming how great Josh & Michelle are. They're really coping with a huge knife-in-the-back & public endangerment of their business with nothing but class. Herbivore, I salute you!

Now, let's all go show our love with the almighty dollar! Shouldn't be hard, they get lots of my dollars as it is. If I could buy one of everything, I would. Oh, and while you're there, preorder Joanna's book- Yellow Rose Recipes. Joanna is one of my favorite Vegans, and I'm just dying waiting for her book to be in my little hands.

good ole salad!

2007-11-07T15:17:00.000-06:00

I'm a salad-obsessed vegan, Twigs and berries all the way! Okay, not really twigs. Actually it's spinach, cherry tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, bell peppers, walnuts & poppyseed dressing. sooooooooooooooo yummy. I could eat it all day long. I do sometimes, actually. One of the reasons being vegan has always been so simple for me. As long as I have produce, I am happy!

P.S. I've been a day behind on VeganMoFo since I started and this wimpy post is my way of settling up! Take that, mofo!

"corn dogs are dead in my life"

2007-11-07T15:07:00.000-06:00

Um. Shae drew this last night. Laughing and laughing the entire time. I'm not exactly sure what's up because he hasn't mentioned corn dogs. ever. I don't think he's ever had one in his life. He became vegetarian at about 2 1/2... and I didn't let him eat hot dogs anyway (choking hazard!).

I guess I need to figure out how to make vegan corn dogs?

Isa does it again!

2007-11-05T20:30:00.000-06:00

mmmmmmmm lasagna! Probably my favorite food ever.

My grandma used to invite us over for lasagna every once in a while. At the time, I remember griping about it and scraping every last bit of the offensive "brain cheese" and meat off of the noodles. Ick. But at some point, she stopped making it and we started. My mom would make the Grandma version, sans the ricotta since everyone one of us hated it, and I'd make a vegan version. It was a really basic lasagna, jar sauce, meat, cheese, ricotta. Our vegan version uses boca crumbles, soy cheese, and a tofu ricotta that a friend taught me years ago. Shae always picked out every last bit of it!He loves the lasagna. Begs for it! Praises it! But would go to great lengths not to let a droplet of that tofu ricotta touch his little tounge.

Well tonight, I used Isa's Tofu Ricotta recipe fromVegan With a Vengeance and Shae inhaled it! He was eating it raw while I was cooking. Actually sought out the ricotta instead of banishing it to the side of his plate. I'm still a little shocked. And full. Really, really full.

And yes, this was another food post brought to you by the motivation of VeganMoFo.

R-A-T-A-T-O-U-I-L-L-E (november 4th)

2007-11-05T12:50:00.001-06:00

R-A-T-A-T-O-U-I-L-L-E R-A-T-A-T-O-U-I-L-L-E R-A-T-A-T-O-U-I-L-L-E R-A-T-A-T-O-U-I-L-L-E R-A-T-A-T-O-U-I-L-L-E R-A-T-A-T-O-U-I-L-L-E R-A-T-A-T-O-U-I-L-L-E R-A-T-A-T-O-U-I-L-L-E R-A-T-A-T-O-U-I-L-L-E

omg. seriously. how many times can you listen to that word being spelled out before caving in and making it? Shae learned how to spell ratatouille and was incredibly proud of himself. noisily. over and over. So I told him to search through the cookbooks and find me a recipe. He discovered a Chickpea Ratatouille recipe in Vive Le Vegan! and we got to it. even better, he loovveeeess chickpeas. I honestly had no idea what ratatouille even was, but it was super simple to make so I'm all about that. Shae liked it, minus the "gross" tomatoes, which "should NEVER be cooked", that is. Matt and I thought it was good, but very unimpressive. Eh, whatever. We ate it served over brown rice with broccoli on the side.

2007-11-03T19:58:00.000-05:00

Hey there, VeganMoFo. You know how everytime you see a blog about vegan food, it's the most magical, gorgeous, complicated meal you've ever seen? I should have already warned you that this blog was not going to be like that AT ALL. I love to bake. But cooking. Well, cooking takes too much energy for me on a regular basis. Like tonight, we got home kind of late, were all super hungry. We had ate a late breakfast and skipped lunch. And I'm tired and just want to eat! Right now! So I did one of our favorite mega-fast, mega-filling meals, Yellow Rice & Black Beans. The rice is Mahatma's and the beans are from a can. We put some tofutti mozzarella in it, eat it with blue corn chips. Gorge ourselves. Steamed veggies on the side.

I asked Shae what he thought of it (he was too busy playing with his dad to help cook)and he said "Mom! I ate ALL OF IT!!". And back to his football game he went.

Vegans can be lazy, without being junkfood addicts.

the cuteness hurts!

2007-11-03T10:26:00.000-05:00

Support your local (or unlocal, whatever!) Vegan family! Buy pins! lots of them!. There's some jewelry and embroidered thongs. (yep, you read that correctly.) at my etsy shop too.

VeganMoFo

2007-11-02T17:25:00.000-05:00

Soooooo tonight we made the infamous Veganomicon Chickpea Cutlets and let's just say that I could have eaten that entire recipe myself, they were so good. Shae flipped for them! He made the Potato Squashers from Eat Drink & Be Vegan, by himself. Got to use a knife and everything. Happy kid. Those were awesome too. I have no idea why they were so much better than regular baked potatoes, but that bit of olive oil really kept us from getting the Earth Balance out and drowning them like we usually would. And those crispy skins... yuuuummmmm. Also, who knew that preheating the oven was the most exciting thing ever?!?!? (according to Shae it is.)

Shae's commentary on dinner- "This dinner was as great as WATERMELON! P.S. I love watermelon." Um, yeah. That's quite a compliment there. You know how kids always bug for junkfood in the store? Since Shae was old enough to talk, he's begged, at every shopping trip, for watermelon. He's gotten much smarter and now knows that politely asking and reminding me of watermelon's healthiness is the surefire way to getting his way.

So since I'm paranoid, Shae still thinks using a butter knife is a privilege. But thanks to Hung and Top Chef, he's been wanting to use "real knives! real BIG knives!". ack. I gave in and let him pierce the potatoes with a steak knife. Still has 10 fingers!

And then his yummy potato goodness-

I forgot to take a picture after we put the mushroom gravy on, because these cutlets smelled soooo good and we were starving. But believe me, we will be making many, many more of these. Like, maybe even today already. So unbelievably good. Isa & Terry have replaced our dependence on storebought faux chicken patties. Especially since they were so incredibly easy (and cheap!) to make. Yay VCon!

And of course, an action shot. He inhaled a cutlet & a potato and then went back for seconds. of both. and actually ate every single bit of it. That's too be expected with anything potato, but is a huge compliment towards the cutlets.

Happy Halloween!

2007-11-02T17:00:00.001-05:00

okay, we have chickpea cutlets(vcon) and potato squashers(EDBV) in the oven, Shae is entranced in pokemon world(on his DS), so I'm going to continue with my quest of getting up-to-date with new pictures on here.

Next up, cupcakes! Vegan cupcakes, once again, took over Shae's classroom. First time for third grade and whooooaaa did they go over well! His pregnant teacher ate 3 of them, then begged me to be the official cupcake maker for all class events. Another teacher begged for the recipes, even though they know we are vegan. Hell yeah. I usually always use recipes from Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World for all my cakey needs, but this time I only used it for the frosting. Vegan Fluffy Buttercream Frosting, worth the price of the book alone. I'm so not kidding. For the cupcakes, I usedLa Dolce Vegan- Tara's Chocolate Cake. In our house, we refer to it as "Matt's cake" because there was one of Shae's birthdays, long ago, where I tried like 3 different cake recipes and they all flopped and looked horrible and I flipped out, until Matt saved the day. Grabbed a random recipe and magically turned out the best cake ever (it's just a wacky cake! agh!). So my whole family requests "Matt's Cake" from time to time, mostly just to torment me I think. It really is good, moist cake though. Anyway, then we dressed them up all gross-like to please the little 8 year olds.

and on a totally unrelated note, yet on the same camera card--- this is our little buddy, Eli, modeling one of my vegan knit hats. isn't he adorable?!

Back to Halloween! This is the first year that Shae has carved his own pumpkin! Dad helped him pick out a stencil and set it up and Shae concentrated soooooo hard.

Cute, right?

And of course, Dad did one too. I choose the owl, that was my huge contribution! Matt does some awesome pumpkins every year.

And what to Vegan Ninja's do? They use their stealth weaponry on.... pumpkins. oh yeah.

Also, they attack the Devil! She who holds the UnVegan Candy, beware!

yo, veganmofo!

2007-11-02T15:37:00.000-05:00

Shae's been super interested in cooking lately and asking to be allowed to do more complicated stuff, so we're joining in on the veganmofo thing! That means that each day in november (yeah, yeah, we're a day late), we'll be posting something vegan food related. Should be fun & motivating. Shae's already asking if he can use the chef knife. scary. (not a chance, there, buddy!)

Check back later on for our chickpea cutlets from veganomicon.

in disguise

2007-11-02T12:10:00.000-05:00

"A wig is a hat, because it's headwear" Not allowed to wear costumes to school on halloween was apparently getting to Shae. He has to wear uniform colors and plain stuff to school and he's never been a fan of that. Halloween was hat day- a charity thing where you donate a buck and wear whatever hat you want to school. So Shae convinces me that a wig is a hat and I cave in because really, look how adorable he is. You would too. Next thing you know he's begging me to draw a "mustache and soul patch" on him. When he walked into school, it was like he was instantly famous. Screams and points and crowds. whoa.

his real costume:

smile! laugh!

2007-11-02T11:29:00.000-05:00

a bunch of our friends have just had babies and shae's just loving it. this is my oldest friend rachel's little boy, cole. he just happens to be shae's "favorite baby". he's only 4 weeks old, but shae was trying his hardest to get smiles and giggles, mostly he just got wide eyes and wiggles.

BBQ, eagles, festivals and slides.

2007-10-31T08:49:00.001-05:00

Last year, we went to an fsu game and it rained, we froze and fsu was totally crushed by wake forest. not fun. This year, the weather was gorgeous, fsu creamed duke, and we ate some amazing food beforehand. At lunchtime, we had some goddess tofu, steamed veggies & chocolate cake at New Leaf Market. The goddess tofu was amaaaaaazinggg. And I'm pretty sure Shae is in love with whoever made the cake. Then right before the game, we had BBQ tofu sandwiches and mac & cheese at Soul Veg, our favorite place on earth! Would live there if we could, even if it IS just a portable food cart. Sigh.

this is the BBQ tofu sandwich:

and Shae with his Trademark Soul Veg mac & cheese

No pictures from the actual game, since I left my camera in the car. Oops.

On Sunday we went to a fun festival at St Andrews State Park called Nature's Gallery. It had a big focus on natures, animals, the earth, and local artists. Shae did lots of crafts- drew on a reusable shopping bag and learned what happens to those nasty plastic one that the cashiers push at us, made lots of crafts, met local artists.

Here is with with his skull mask. With the lovely "tears of blood". DO NOT call it a pirate, cause it's totally not. no, no, no.

And here is the scary bald eagle, who I am pretty sure wanted to murder me.

Matt and Shae leaving the festival. Shae loaded down with crafts, Matt carrying all my plants

And then Shae going down a huge inflatable slide at a fall festival Sunday night. He did this no less than a million times.

biloxi weekend

2007-10-26T13:55:00.000-05:00

last weekend, we went to biloxi, mississippi to visit matts family. i'm pretty surprised that we didn't have to drag shae out of there he had so much fun.

doggie treats!

2007-10-25T16:42:00.000-05:00

we can't find ANY vegan doggie treats locally anymore (thanks A LOT panama city!), so we made some peanut butter cookies from http://www.yummyfordogs.org/ for him. he is one happy guy!

who needs roomba?

rambling on about how he plans on winning top chef, season 19.

sneaking cookie dough.

and the spooky cookies! we did bats & cats, but the cat pictures are blurry.

recipe: Peanut Butter Power Bites

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup wheat germ
1 cup peanut butter
Egg replacer equivalent to 1 egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup water

* Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
* Combine flour and wheat germ.
* Add peanut butter, egg replacer, oil and water and mix thoroughly.
* When it becomes too stiff to stir, knead the dough till smooth, adding a tablespoon of water, if needed.
* Roll to 1/4 inch thickness.
* Cut into desired shapes.
* Bake for 30-35 minutes, being careful not to over cook.

Ouch!

2007-10-08T14:01:00.000-05:00

Shae's first stitches. He either fell when leaning on the side of a table, or jumped out of an airplane. Depends on who ya ask.

2007-10-04T18:48:00.000-05:00

Shae's new little buddy! (our friends little boy)

Ninja Chef

2007-10-02T12:36:00.001-05:00

Oh yeah, that's how he rolls. Grinding up walnuts, ninja style.

pup luv

2007-09-26T12:35:00.000-05:00

silliness with his doggy...

Good old Peanut Butter.

2007-09-26T12:00:00.000-05:00

Again, I'm posting old pictures! I don't even remember how long ago, but it was on the camera, so here ya go. Shae helped his little cousin Hailey make peanut butter pinwheels. Who knew something so easy would be so fun & entertaining?

The gooey finished product.

And then somehow they appeared, wearing silly hats and socks on their hands. Military style crawling across the house. Something about aliens, I think? Lots of giggling.

hot shot?

2007-09-26T11:47:00.000-05:00

This just in! Healthy Vegan Kids exist!

2007-09-26T11:10:00.000-05:00

Well of course they do! We know that. Why wouldn't they? Death by vegetable isn't something you expect to hear, after all. Vegetables are healthy right? It's well documented that vegetable-based diets are perfectly healthy.

Nice to see the media actually being positive towards veganism though!
Oklahoma City family finding vegan lifestyle benefits in many ways

2007-07-09T07:39:00.000-05:00

shae and his buddy three! shae's grandma gave him three three as a puppy on shae's third birthday, hence the name. notice shae's long hair.

and poof! shae's gone punk again.

more summer fun!

2007-06-05T08:54:00.000-05:00

yay! all caught up! this picture was taken yesterday at home, shae's buddy jacob was over playing. he's getting a blog too i think! go jacob!

more from our stay at the condo:

2007-06-05T08:34:00.000-05:00

this is shae's all star team! getting ready for lots and lots of practices and 2 rounds of tournaments.

shae's cousin and favorite person, hailey, had her 4th birthday party out with us on the beach.

here's shae, birthday girl hailey & mom-mom (my mom! their grandma)

and here are the vegan cupcakes that my awesome sister made for the party!!!!!!! yep vegan cupcakes from a non-veganer. GOOD stuff! and super yummy too!

in his new all star uniform:

shae getting all serious on the field in his first county tournament. which they WON! by a landslide.

and a messy, but FUN video of one of shae's hits! it's sooooo hard to record this stuff cause we get so excited cheering for the kids.

beach & baseball

2007-06-05T08:22:00.000-05:00

we spent the rest of may in a condo on our beach (panama city beach, oh yeah) and loved every minute of it. beach, pool, beach, pool. that is the life!

we spent alot of time while we were out there driving up home for baseball. shae finished up the regular season, his team came in FIRST PLACE! woohoo!!!!

and he was chosen for the all stars team! a huge deal!

no more pencils, no more books! no more teachers dirty looks!

2007-06-05T08:09:00.000-05:00

haha. yep, it's summer! school let out on may 18th, so let's just pretend i posted these pictures back then.

shae had a end-of-schoolyear ice cream party! 4 of his friends rode the bus home with him. here's elijah, shae, zachary, jacob & amanda.

this was just too cute not to post. jacob, all zen-like...

and everyone enjoying their totally vegan ice cream sundaes! everyone happily downed these, with no complaints.

and all the of the supplies: yep, all vegan, folks! we aren't so weird afterall, dontcha know!

oh yes, and this is when drawing with chalk on the porch turned into making chalk-smoke under the jeep hardtop. nice.

toothless herbivore

2007-06-05T08:01:00.000-05:00

okay, quick everyone! email herbivore and beg them to remake this sticker! we've had them on 2 of our cars for 5 or 6 years and now both of those cars are gone! i miss that sticker!

i won't mourn this sticker, cause i much prefer the newer version "veganism is for lovers"

check out toothless, here! lost his 2 front teeth in one week! the new teeth are pushing there way in by now, won't be long.

mothers day, over the years

2007-05-13T10:35:00.000-05:00

happy mothers day, to me!

see my little garden of mothers day love? every year shae's classes have made a flower for mothers day gifts. the first year- kindergarten, he loved the idea so much, he convinced his daddy to take him to the craft store to make something for mommy- acted as if the idea was totally his own because he wanted to make another one HIS way, apparently he wasn't able to use up all his creative energy on the school project! the flower all the way on the left with the cutesy polka dots & his picture is the one he made in his kindergarten class. the striped pot next to it was the one he made at home with daddy. he choose 8 different wooden pictures of things i like to glue around the pot, filled it with pretty stones and used a textured material for the stem. the red flower in the teeny pot is from his first grade class & it's a pen, so cute! this years addition is the sweet little pink flower, also a pen. i love that they used mostly recycled materials this year! they have been learning about the environment & conservation. and that toothless little boy? all mine. lost his third tooth a few nights ago and is working up the nerve to pop out the other front tooth, it's hanging from a thread! the new tooth is peeking through, all ready to fill the gap.

secret cookies, pets, grandmas, books, and play clay!

2007-05-09T07:48:00.000-05:00

baking secret cookies for a ppk swap!

they're in the mail and hopefully close to the recipient- soooo these are (half of the cookies sent) peanutbutter chocolate chip cookies from soy, not oi! we really, really love these. they make HUGE batches though. about 4 dozen. mailed some, froze some, ate forty billion and still more cookies!

and speaking of cookies! long ago(about 5 years ago), in a care package swap on the old vmb (r.i.p!), my partner included a book for shae that became one of his favorites.
Mmm, cookies! by Robert Munsch
it's a super-silly book full of onomatopoeias that kids LOVE, it's just the best family bedtime story. this storybook inspired shae to make some play clay over the weekend. all by himself, of course! you start off with salt & water in a pot on the stove and stir & stir. then you take the pot off the stove, add cornstarch & cold water and stir & stir. a few drops of food coloring and OH YES! more stirring! finally it thickens up and cools down. then the kneading. the fun part!

whatever you do, don't eat it! BLELCH! PLAY CLAY!

2007-05-09T07:38:00.000-05:00

wet doggy! three smells soooooo much better now.

karma loves water. can you tell? LOVES it.

grandma cat is visiting! we all missed her after not seeing her a few months. shae loves to cuddle up with her and watch animal planet.

2007-05-09T07:30:00.000-05:00

awww puppy hugs! shae's cousin hailey -one of his favorite people in the world- hugging on his doggy three. hailey's not vegan, but she's been known to beg her mommy for "kelly's tofu" and she loves to eat and do anything shae loves. tings are her favorite snacks. hailey is turning 4 this month!

2007-04-25T17:52:00.000-05:00

Shae doing his new favorite thing in the world- playing his Wii. he has a good system worked out with his buddies zack & elijah, whoever is waiting their turn gets the guitar. fun stuff!

ricemilk choco and bat shoes!

2007-04-10T16:18:00.000-05:00

YuM! Terra Nostra organic Ricemilk Choco bar is sooooooo delicious! Shae got one from the easter bunny and boy am I glad he shares. Karma & Topazy wish he would share with them too, poor things. Karma attacked him begging and begging for a taste. No such luck there, kitty. The only other foods Karma swarms for are grits and potatoes- espespecially mashed, but any kind really.

plus, a bonus shot of shae's new shoes. kid's got taste. who said vegans can't find good shoes?!

Happy Easter!

2007-04-10T14:02:00.000-05:00

shae had a fun easter! a hunt for plastic eggs & a hidden basket full of vegan goodies from the bunny... seitan kabobs, soul vegetarian macaroni & cheese, chocolate chip cookie cake with buttercream icing (frosting from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World, YUM!), and Key Lime Pie at Mom-mom & Pop-Pop's house along with another plastic egg hunt in their yard. Hope everyone had a great day!

ps- if you're interested in the adorable chocolate bunny on motorcycle that shae is chowing down in the picture, you can find them here.

2007-04-10T09:29:00.000-05:00

2007-04-04T14:37:00.000-05:00

lots has happened with shae since the last update. first of all, he turned 8! he had a huge party full of vegan cupcakes and fear enducing reptiles.

then he received his best report card ever! 12 E's! (E= excellent, for those not in the know) previous record was 4, so this was a huge deal.

then came spring break! we hit orlando again this year, disney this time. some highlights of the week: one of the players gave shae a bat at the braves spring training game versus washington nationals! he was just beaming. one of the coaches signed it for him too. then we caught 4 balls during batting practice, a player signed one of them for him. LOTS of fun. after the game all of the kids got to run the bases in the braves footsteps. shae says he's getting ready for when he plays third base for them in a few years.

at the magic kingdom, aladdin buddied up with shae and they hung out for awhile (part of their "a million dreams" promotion). they rode the magic carpet together, chatted about baseball and whether or not that was the game where you throw monkeys and knocked down pins...then he introduced shae to the genie and jasmine as his special guest.

his favorite rides at the magic kingdom here Splash Mountain, the haunted mansion and pirates of the carribean. that night, we had the best meal of our LIVES at Boma at the animal kingdom lodge.

Disney MGM's indiana jones show was awesome! and so was their stuntshow was insanely cool.

his favorite ride out of everything was Mission:Space at Epcot,and yes we choose the more intense route... and let me tell you, i did not share his enthusiasm over this one! never felt anything like it and definitely want NOTHING to do with space in the future.

we had SUCH a blast, we can't wait to go back

oh, and baseball season has started! it's shae's 4th year and he's loving it more than ever. he's on the Sluggers this year. at last night's game shae scored a run and then hit a triple. he also managed to steal 2 bases.

one more thing! yesterday was his second grade field trip to Landmark Park in Dothan, Alabama. it's a really interesting place! learned alot about life on a farm and in a small farm town 100 years ago, went to the planatarium, met some happy farm animals that had huge amounts of land and love, and shopped in an authentic general store

whew! that's an update, alright. now let's all ignore how erratic these pictures look all over the page cause blogger and i just AREN'T getting along today. la la la! going to really, really try to keep up with this blog now. really!

Support this vegan kid!

2006-12-28T13:44:00.000-06:00

Shae got creative! He drew, designed & made these buttons himself! email us if you want one. butterflymommy@hotmail.com $2 per button, shipping included.

holiday baking 2006, baby! woohoo!

2006-12-23T19:01:00.000-06:00

We just finished our holiday baking. We made:

bluedawgs(from ppk) peanut butter bars- one of my fav things ever!
sarahs(from ppk) skor bars- such a magical combination of sweet and salty. the ultimate candy.
isas vwav pumpkin muffins
vwav chocolate chip cookies
small chocolate chip cookie cake with the extra dough
sugar cookies from a recipe posted on the ppk
vwav sparkled ginger cookies

Shae's favorite part was cutting out the sugar cookies and doing the sprinkles (all him!). He says that the cookie cake is the yummiest!

We had lots of fun and are too full from dough & batter to ever eat again. Hope everyone has lots of fun with their family & friends this season!

Vegan Buttons!

2006-12-14T07:26:00.000-06:00

Want to show off your vegan pride and support a vegan family at the same time?!? I've started selling buttons! Mostly vegan ones, but also political & socially aware messages, and of course random cuteness. We all need random cuteness!

Check out:
teeny tiny tantrums, my website
my etsy shop
and the teeny tiny tantrum blog

You can order through etsy, or through my website once construction is finished--(emails me until then!)

Thanks!

2006-10-15T12:05:00.000-05:00

We made VCtotW's Marble Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting for Shae's pop-pop's birthday. Soooooo good!!!

Vegan Kid takes over the World

2006-10-10T20:40:00.000-05:00

Shae making our first batch of cupcakes from our new favorite cookbook: Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World. He oohed and ahhed over all the pictures while bouncing all over the place, then finally decided on the basic chocolate cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting.

sifting.

licking beater, giggling.

ta-da!

woo-hoo!

p.s.Be sure tocheck out Veganlicious's vegan food blog, She was a tester!

3 3

2006-10-05T08:36:00.000-05:00

Shae's buddy, Three Three

2006-10-01T09:47:00.000-05:00

2006-07-14T20:50:00.000-05:00

So, we forgot about this blog. Until we made the yummiest, most amazing chocolate chip cookies the other day(from Vegan with a Vengeance) and Shae said "Hey! Let's put this on the internet!". Those cookies are sheer magic. They are reminiscent of Soft Batch cookies. Sigh.

So, here are the cookies:

And here's Shae grinning like usual. Note the cookie dough mustache.

And here he is cuddling his sweet grandma ("Grandma Cat")...

She is in the later stages of Alzheimers, we are her caregivers. Shae had just made her a sandwich and sat in her chair with her reading a magazine to her.