vegan sugar cookies

We made sugar cookies this week. I have tried different recipes over the years but they never turned out perfect. I found one that sounded promising on pinterest. You can find the recipe over at Maple Spice. There is a recipe in the beginning but if you scroll down there is an updated version which is what we used. To make the frosting, I basically used the recipe from Veggie Kids. I made the frosting thinner so it was more of an icing.
We loved them over! I didn't even send any to work with Dave like I usually do. If you try these out, let me know how you like them!

Pasta Puttanesca

We don't get home from work until 730. Then we have to cook, eat and get ready for bed at least by 830. That doesn't give us a lot of time to make some of our favorite recipes.
This is where Veggie Kids comes in. Sarah posts healthy vegan recipes. I love trying out new recipes but sometimes the prep/cook time is too long. Sarah just started a new feature on her blog called easy weeknight meals. She will be featuring 2-3 quick & easy, family-friendly vegan meals each week that come together in 30 minutes or less using 10 ingredients or less.

Dave made the Pasta Puttanesca. He was finished and had it on plates in less than 30 minutes. Perfect for our quick nighttime schedule and it was delicious. We will be printing this out and adding it to our binder.

Remember how I said Elinor is not eating a lot since she was sick? Well she ate almost a whole bowl of this. I was surprised. I thought she would just pick out the noodles but she loved the tomatoes, mushrooms and olives too.
Check out Veggie Kids. Even if you aren't vegan, give a meat free meal a try!

raising a vegan child

When I was pregnant I knew Elinor would at the least be vegetarian until she decided otherwise. Now that she is here and I've been reading healthy happy vegan families making it look easy(veggie kids/vegan dad/before I was a mom/oh dear drea) I'm wanting to raise her vegan.

Of course the first thing people always ask are "HOW WILL SHE GET HER PROTEIN???" "HOW WILL SHE GET ANY CALCIUM??" because I guess you can't get either of those from anything except meat and milk. The only thing I'm remotely worried about her getting enough of is B-12 but we do use nutritional yeast a lot and also a lot of soymilks and cereals now have B-12. 

One post I found recently from Veggie Kids, on how to raise a vegan child, gives a break down on where exactly vegans can get there protein, calcium and other vitamins. Explained simple! Go read it non believers! 

I get pretty defensive when people question us for being vegan or now raising a vegan child. I feel like we eat a lot healthier than most of the people that question us. We are very aware of what we eat and need. I don't mind if someone eats meat but don't act like we don't know what we are doing.

 (I didn't mean to turn this into a vent but I've been getting little comments recently when someone finds out.)

I like food

 Spike's 

 maple donuts with bacos

 tempeh bacon, sprouts, avocado, buffalo wing hummus

 chickpea and dumplings

 better spaghetti sauce from a jar

 vegan nutella 

 nutella wrapped in croissants

 noodle salad with peanut mmmm sauce (I could drink the mmmm sauce!)

 dinner at dave's dads house

 pizza with daiya cheese, sundried tomatoes and onions from a little place by dave's moms house

"cheesy" kale chips before the oven ( I want to make the "cheese" and put it on crackers. it was super good)

thai fried quinoa

I finally am ordering the peas and thank you book. I make so many of the recipes from her site and love them. Last night we didn't have much in the house but since her recipes use a lot of the same ingredients I was able to throw together the thai fried quinoa. I had leftover coconut milk from making the mmm sauce so searched that on her reci"peas" pages and found a couple of things to choose from. One including a PB cup shake!! Wish I could've had that for dinner.

Happy Friday!

we won!

I always enter giveaways on blogs and I finally won one! I really wanted this book and almost bought it for Elinor a couple of weeks ago. Veggie Kids had a giveaway for That's why we don't eat animals. It is a children's book by Ruby Roth for vegans and vegetarians. She explains the difference of free animals and animals raised on factory farms. Also the effects eating animals has on the planet.

As soon as I got the package I opened it and read it to Elinor. She sat quietly for the whole story and looked around at every page. The pictures are so pretty but also sad on the factory farm pages. Nothing graphic, just darker and animals cramped in cages.

I'm glad there are books like this so I can explain to Elinor at an early age why we eat the way we do. Ruby Roth has a new book coming out April 24th called Vegan is love. I will have to get that one too!

Also check out Veggie Kids. Sarah wrote a book called The boy who loved broccoli that I also need to order for the little one. She posts about vegan products and also cooks with her 3 little adorable guys. She just posted about a protein packed pasta recipe that I might make tonight! 

fav food blogs

cardigan-fredperry tunic-AA jeans-F21maternity shoes-UO

I asked Dave if this outfit looks ok and he kept saying I'm worried about that button. It didn't pop off though! I am getting more and more uncomfortable and I feel bad complaining because I would rather me be in pain and baby girl be comfy and growing. A lot of Dave rubbing my back, prenatal yoga and a bath and I am feeling a little bit better. It is also getting really old having to go to the bathroom every 10 minutes....I'm not even kidding. But little miss is growing so much and everything with her is looking great.
During my morning sickness stage I had some non vegan food cravings. Mostly cheese pizza from Reginas but I have been doing really good eating healthy and getting everything I need. I've found so many awesome vegan/veg blogs lately that leave me craving everything they post. Here are a couple
peas and thank you
veggie-kids
the vegan stoner
laziest vegans
There are so many others I read but those are the few I recently found.
Do you have any fav food blogs?