Long Overdue, Super Productive Update!

So, it's been two months and I haven't updated. Nor have I probably commented much on my fellow food bloggers' comings and goings lately. Sorry 'bout that. I have a pretty good excuse this time, though:

I'M PREGNANT!

Yes, if all goes well, we'll be welcoming our new addition sometime in Mid-February. Woo-hoo!

I'm into the second trimester now, so I'm starting to feel A LOT better. I wasn't terribly sick like some ladies get (I'm lucky, I know) but I had NO interest in cooking or really in eating or looking at food. Which was ironic, since I needed to eat at least every two hours or I would feel nauseated. Fun times. I was also Exhausted with a capital E. I'm sooooo glad to be in the wonderful world of the second trimester. Where I can eat as much as I want (because my stomach isn't the size of a tic tac like it will be in the 3rd trimester). No heartburn yet. It's all golden until November!!!

Silas is very excited about it all and has named the baby "Cheese." Strange, since we're vegan, but hey, 3 year olds have their own logic. He's requested a sister, and we told him we'd see what we could do. (Aside: the boy LOVES older ladies. By that, I'm talking 4 1/2 or so. LOVES THEM. It's so funny/cute/nervewracking - we have to keep talking about personal space. ;) We'll be trying to see the gender at the 18-20 wk ultrasound, probably in late September.

Anyway, now that I actually can look at food again without crying, I should be able to make it on here a little more frequently.

CSA!
We're in the height of lovely CSA season. I'm really loving our CSA this year - it's one that allows you to choose what's in your box every week, which was seriously a lifesaver the past few months. I can't imagine all the greens I would have wasted from the standard CSA box. Shudder. We also get a small fruit share, which is the bomb! We've been diggin' on fresh local organic blueberries, apricots, peaches, and rainier cherries (the BEST EVER!!!) for the past few weeks. I've also been really into cold cucumber salads lately, and we get some pretty awesome cucumbers from the farm. They make Chad blush, to be honest.

GARDENS!
The gardens have done remarkably well for the first year! Our OR garden has produced quite a bit of turnips (who knew?). We thinned them out several weeks ago and enjoyed a huge bumper crop of turnip greens - had to foist some on my grandmother! We also thinned out our heirloom lettuce and had some great salads! We thinned the pac choi, but I was through with greens at that point, and unfortunately those just got composted. Damn pregnancy aversions!

We also got quite a few snap peas and shelling peas and several tomatoes so far! The tomatoes are doing MUCH better than anyone thought; they're not the easiest crop to grow in the Pacific NW, but they've surprised everyone.

Our single most prolific vegetable so far though? You guessed it, zucchini!
We've had a heat wave last week (really, really hot - in Seattle, we had the highest recorded temperature OF ALL TIME. Yeah. And we have no a/c.) Anyway, the zucchini LOVED IT. My mom picked these from 4 plants yesterday!!! I swear they grow a foot a day, it is crazy.

Still coming up: green bush beans, corn (not sure this will actually be productive, but it's growing!), possibly head lettuce, maybe a second sowing of broccoli, possibly cilantro, but I'm not holding my breath on that one. Oh, and maybe pumpkin? Oh, and green cabbage! And carrots!!!

We've had our share of failures, including spinach, kale, swiss chard, broccoli, and cucumbers that failed to germinate. Better luck next time, right? And it might not have been too bad of a thing, seeing how I had a total greens aversion for the past 3 months!

Our Seattle soil-bag and container garden is growing pretty well - we were away for 10 days so it suffered a little without water, but still doing remarkably well. I think the lettuce is done (it looks burnt, but it never bolted...weird?). We are actually getting some real broccoli!!! Strawberries are still growing, amazingly. Tomatoes and basil still pretty good, although the basil is trying it's hardest to flower. Must make boatload of pesto SOON!

Our plum tree is also super productive this year and I think the plums are just about ready. I have no idea what to do with them all! I think we might donate some to the food bank. I wish I had my sh*t together enough to can some jam, but I'm not sure I have the motivation now. Fingers crossed!

MEAL PLAN!
Here's what's on the menu for the week. I'm not assigning days because I'm not feeling like nailing it down. Note: Chad's been feeling wonky lately and had some allergy testing done (suspected it was wheat/gluten). The test results look kind of inconclusive to us, but he'll discuss them with the naturopath on Wednesday. For now, we're trying to avoid wheat. :)

Bean of the Week: Pinto
Grain of the Week: Brown Jasmine Rice

-Green Beans and Crunchy Crumbled Tempeh with Walnut-Miso Sauce, over brown rice (How to Cook Everything Vegetarian)

-Soba Noodle Salad with Ginger Peanut Sauce (current issue of Vegetarian Times)

-Brown Rice Pasta Bake (incorporating leftover ratatouille, cashew ricotta), salad

-Gimme Chimis using the pintos and brown rice tortillas(Eat, Drink and Be Vegan), salad

Hope you all are staying cool and eating well! XO

Wowza!

It's been a while. I've been cooking, but very very uninspired. I think it was the winter doldrums, you know? Now that we're getting some sun in our part of the world again (she types as it rains...) I've been feeling very inspired, motivated, and spring-cleaning-ish.

New Direction?
I've been thinking a lot about either starting a new blog or changing and expanding the focus of this one. I'm not sure where I'll end up yet. But lately I've been bitten by the organizing/cleaning/decluttering/money-saving/meal-planning bug...that is to say, sustainable, mindful home management. So you may be seeing more posts on those topics in the near future. Or you may see me linking to a new place where all that stuff will be. Let me know if you have an opinion either way. But there will still be delicious, vegan food. Just, you know, more than that.

Big New Goal: Meal Plan!
And follow the dang thing...
Monday: Honeybaked lentils with coconut rice, baked winter squash with ginger; leftover squash got leveraged into pumpkin Squash Muffins, yum!!! Super double bonus: Made homemade whole wheat bread! (Used bread machine dough cycle, which is the awesome).


Tuesday: (frozen) Pesto with spaghetti, chopped leftover celebration roast, and sun-dried tomatoes, steamed broccoli with lemon, red leaf salad with chopped Pink Lady apples and local hazelnuts with homemade balsamic vinaigrette

Wednesday: Rustic Black-Eyed Peas with Mushrooms, (leftover) coconut rice, garlicky kale and more of the red leaf salad combo from Tuesday

Thursday: Nearly Instant Thai Soup with Corn (from Vegan Express), more salad combo!

Friday: Pizza night with pesto, broccoli or kale (depending what's left!), sun-dried tomatoes

Saturday: Breakfast: biscuits and gravy, grapefruit. Dinner: Burrito night out with friends

Sunday: Breakfast: Pancakes! Dinner: Indian Night! Chana Masala (with extra gravy to freeze), cumin rice, salad

Monday: Mac and Cashew Cheese, [whatever fresh veggies I buy at the farmer's market Sunday]

Tuesday: Gimme Chimis (from ED&BV), Guac & Corn Chips

Wednesday: African Peanut Stew, bread

Thursday-Monday: Out of town; play by ear

Garden in the Works!

Did you know my parents have a mostly empty 2 acre field behind their house? Well, they do. And we are lucky enough to use some of that field for an awesome kitchen garden! This is a little tricky, because, well, they live 3 hours away. But we visit about every other weekend so the little dude can get his fix of grandma crack, so we're hoping that we can keep it going and maybe bribe my parents with produce to water and weed occasionally.

This past weekend Chad went out to roto-till the sod into our garden. And that sucked. A lot. So my dad went across the street and asked if his friendly neighbor wouldn't mind using his tractor to dig up our beds. $40 later, voila! Garden. We measured 3 foot beds and figured out our paths, and altogether, we figure we have about 700 square feet of actual gardening space. Woo-hoo!

So far we've planted:

• 6 Quinalt strawberry starts
• 3 Tomato starts
• Snap peas
• Shelling peas
• Leeks
• Scallions
• Spinach
• Cabbage
• Pac Choi
• Heirloom lettuce

And we have a LOT of space to go. My dad insists we grow completely insane and not-of-this-climate things like corn. But we'll also have lots of bush green beans, carrots, kale, chard, summer squash, broccoli, and possibly potatoes and bell peppers (although we have to start peppers inside and I'm not really sure I'm that ambitious this year.) We also hope to put in some perennial herbs. Oh! And we convinced my parents to plant 6 fruit trees! Woo-hoo! 3 apples (gala and honeycrisps) and 3 peaches. I'm so excited! Our plan to transform their land into Post Peak Oil readiness is underway, bwaaaahaaahaaa!

We're also planning on container gardening at our place. We've got three tomato starts ready to plant, and some chives and oregano to re-pot (who knew they were perennial? Not me until they came back to life recently!) And our thyme is coming back. Our rosemary never died, but might need a larger home. I'd also love to do some salad greens and some kale in some half whiskey barrels. But we'll see how far we get.

The raspberry canes are starting to look leafy and productive! I can't WAIT until fresh raspberry time!

Ok, off to rid my kitchen sink of dishes. It's another new goal of mine - empty, shiny kitchen sink. Dishes washed and dealt with immediately. It doesn't sound like a big deal, but man, it really improves my mood and encourages me to spend more time in my kitchen.

Smelling the lilac blooms from our backyard is a big incentive, too.

Super Duper Over Due Update

Sit down, pour yourself some sun tea (we've got black tea OR peppermint), and catch up with me and my foodiness!

Geez, it's been forever since I've been here! You know how it is, you keep meaning to update, and then you don't and then the stuff you want to update about gets longer...and longer...requiring more of your time...so you put it off a little more...until more than a month has gone by and you've lost all your loyal readers. ;)

So apologies, all. I have been so busy getting to know and falling in love with my new home that I just haven't had it in me to update. Here I am!

(If you're only here for food, skip down to the end of this post).

Seattle is AWESOME. Did I mention I love it? Because I am like psychotically, sloppily, first-time-crush in love with Seattle.

Could it be the raspberries in my backyard?

(I've picked about a bowlful of berries every day for the last 4-5 days! OMG!)

Or the giant apricot tree?

Maybe it's the cute little (yearound!!!) farmer's market in downtown West Seattle. Or my new (woman-owned, organic) CSA.

On to to food!

I've been recipe testing for a new cookbook by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, which is super fun! Of course I can't share the recipes, but here are some photos of the creations:

Beet Cake

Not-Just-For-Breakfast Banana Splits

And of course, we've been eating lots of delicious things in general.

CSA Tofu Scramble and Salad

This tofu scramble consisted of tofu (duh), mushrooms, fresh garlic, green onions, beet greens, fresh cilantro and avocado. Our salad was butter lettuce with (home-sprouted) mung bean sprouts and a balsamic vinaigrette.

Silas liked it.

Did I mention I bought a new cookbook? When we were in Portland we stopped by Herbivore and I had to buy a copy of Yellow Rose Recipes, which is awesome. This is our new favorite tofu scramble recipe! With some avocado on the side and some awesome whole wheat bread from the farmer's market.
This was a whipped together pasta dish with sun-dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, calamata olives with garlicky olive oil over it all. With some more of that awesome bread, garlic bread style.

We ditched our old grill in MI because it was DONE. Luckily for us, Chad's parents decided to go halvsies with us on a new one. Wicked! Here is some grilled BBQ tempeh over rice with grilled asparagus and smoky collards.We've also been eating a lot of delicious food out and about:

Rice and Bean Burritos from Tacqueria Guyamas
Delicious Breakfasts and Silence-Hearts-Nest
Fabulous Coffee and Mighty-O Donuts at Red Cup Espresso
Unbelievable pizza at Tutta Bella in Columbia City
Very good Veggie Pho at Thanh Brothers

Our little dude Silas also celebrated his 2nd birthday last month, and my mom being the ANGEL that she is ordered him a special Choo-Choo cake from Sweet Pea Bakery in Portland, an all-vegan bakery. It was DELICIOUS!!!!

Silas thoroughly enjoyed it (that's my mom with him).

Oh and I forgot (for SHAME!!) to take a pic of this, but I also made a raw (!!!) raspberry cobbler with our bounty of backyard raspberries. It is delicious. It's unbelievable. It takes like 5 minutes to make. Go make it NOW! Use whatever delicious fruit you have on hand, it takes about 6 cups of fruit. I used Ani Phyo's recipe for Mango Cobble.

So much to do! So much to say! But that's all for now. :D

The Seattle Deets

Life and Whatnot
(skip down for you food-only people!)

So, I'm pretty much convinced that Seattle is the enchanted land that can do no wrong. This is my second trip up this week, and it continues to rock my world!

So, Chad got a job at a local community college here as Associate Dean of Academic Programs or something to that effect. It's a new position for both the school and him, so this should be very interesting and very fun. It's in West Seattle, which is where we'll be living, like 3 miles away from his job! And there's a bus (BUS!!!) that takes him there in like 12 minutes. Unless you've lived in Detroit, the excitement about the bus is probably weird, but after living in a city that buried its public transportation decades ago, it is so awesome to live in a civilized place again.

I found us a house to rent that is great, with gorgeous gigantic flowers (seriously, my dad's in the nursery business and he said that every plant on our property is the biggest one he's every seen of the species!) and this crazy knotty tree that is perfect for climbing. I seriously feel like I'm moving to the enchanted forest! There is an outstanding view of the Puget Sound from the end of our street and our place is like 3/4 of a mile from tons of stuff to do - year-round farmer's market, tons of coffee, restaurants and bookstores, a YMCA...I just can't believe how awesome this moving is turning out to be! If I were anymore thankful I think I would spontaneously combust.

Vegan Eats!
Earlier this week I had the distinct pleasure of indulging in some of Mighty-O Donuts for breakfast, and I can safely say that they rock. The French Toast donut may have changed my life forever. Later that day I dragged my mom (such a trooper!) to Squid and Ink in Georgetown, where I gorged myself on vegan chicken-fried steak and hashbrowns while she enjoyed the french toast, tofu scramble and tempeh sausage. It was a little hard to find, but definitely awesome and we will most certainly be back! We also hit up PCC Natural Market a few times where I was thrilled to discover they sell a bunch of vegan sandwiches, such as the tasty SmartLife Club and Vegan BLT, plus a variety of vegan baked goods (great brownie and I also had some outrageously delicious raw raspberry cheesecake! That is, until Silas woke up and devoured almost the whole thing.)

This trip my dad is along and he is, how shall we say....a less than adventurous eater, which means the wholly vegan restaurants are not on the agenda for this trip. But I'm still hoping to check out a bakery at Pike Place that has vegan cinnamon rolls tomorrow, and we're also going to try to get into Blackbird Bistro for Mother's Day breakfast. I'm so psyched!