Eating

I know it looks like we all dressed alike in blue T-shirts, but I swear we didn't plan it. Cross my heart.

One of the best parts of our vacation was food. Not so much while we were driving, because even though I packed lots of snacks and things to eat, food on the road is just plain gross. But while we were at our beach house (more on that later) we could eat what we wanted. You know I'm a stickler about pretty healthy food around here, but when I'm on vacation I break out the fun food. We ate ice cream every. single. day. Not vegan. Not healthy. And truth be told, sometimes we had it twice a day. We consumed lots of calories. Lots of breakfasts that involved vast amounts of syrup. Lots of meat for the family and lots of California rolls for me.

I can sum it up in one word: yum!

For me, vacation means I shouldn't spend more than 30 seconds a day planning what we're going to eat.  Everyone still got their quota of fruit and (some) vegetables, but it was heavenly to just eat what we wanted whenever we were hungry. And Galveston has really yummy pumpkin pie ice cream downtown. Lily and I both agree.

Now that we're back home it feels good to eat normal again, but I'm still going to work on re-veganizing myself. Wee bits of dairy are finding their way into my diet these days. Well, they're finding their way in because I'm putting them there, duh! But other than that I'm back to meal planning and pushing the spinach and cauliflower and making sure everybody is ship shape in the nutritional department.

At least until our next family trip.

Hair-A-Thon
My fingers are bent in the cramped position. Carver's hair is looooong, and he loves having it in cornrows. I did his hair last night, and this morning I am doing Lily's twists. Twists are way faster than braids, but all in all the entire process takes about 5 hours. We're taking a break right now to not kill each other stretch and grab a snack.Thank the good Lord for podcasts. I am blissfully listening to all kinds of information goodness while Lily plays on the computer and I comb and part and wet and twist and repeat. During November Lily was feeling especially crummy health wise and didn't really want me touching her hair. I let it go, but we've paid for it. I spent a good two hours combing (and cutting) the knots out of her hair. We're in a better place now and I'm hoping I can keep on top of her hair. Not to mention she looks so darn cute with her hair done well.

An FYI about the tamale recipe in the previous post. It was the BOMB.COM! All my kids devoured them. However, I found that I had three times the amount of masa and not nearly enough veggie filling. So I would halve the masa amount you make and triple the filling amount. I also added Boca meatless crumbles to my veggie filling and it was divine. I'm pretty sure homemade tamales are now a part of our regular meal rotation.

The Great Food Experiment

Thanks to his formative years in Ethiopia, Zinabu is by far my most adventurous and well-rounded eater. He loves Ethiopian food (duh!), he loves comfort food, he loves Mexican food, he loves Chinese food, vegetarian, Indian, middle eastern, and anything else you can come up with. Primarily this is because he loves food. Period. He is still pretty sensitive to when and where his next meal is coming from. He wants to know the food agenda every day. And he gets a tiny bit antsy when the pantry is low. So all in all, food makes him happy.

But his taste buds are seriously a mother's dream. He doesn't like cheese or pasta (my two favorite items in the universe), but other than that, he's happy about anything. He also goes through hot sauce like tokens at Chuck E. Cheese.

My other kids... not so much. Lily is better than Carver, but they still have their ten favorite foods and don't like to stray too far from them. Lily, at least, loves fruit and vegetables and I have no problem getting her daily doses of vitamins and minerals. But Carver.

He's thirteen and I'm still sneaking spinach into his smoothies. He loves white food. Bread. Tortillas. Cheese. He hates vegetables. Most fruit makes him gag. Literally.

But I'm ever optimistic and always wanting my kids to eat as healthy as possible. I used Pinterest this morning to find some interesting recipes... especially foods from other cultures. Here's my list for the week.

Saturday: Vegetarian tamales with salad. I found the recipe here.
Sunday: Falafels and fruit salad.
Monday: Tomato garbanzo bean soup with sandwiches and salad. Recipe here.
Tuesday: Vegetable casserole with pesto and polenta (for me), chicken for everyone else. I'm not stupid.
Wednesday: We have company that night, and I'm trying my hand at spinach and cheese enchiladas. One of my most favorite meals in the world.
Thursday: Tortellini and marinara sauce, garlic bread and salad.
Friday: I'm done. We go to our favorite New York style pizza restaurant.

I think I finally figured out why I hate to cook. For the most part, it makes a mess. A big mess. Between prep work, cooking, eating, and then clearing the table, I use a lot of our dishes, pots and pans, and the sink is full. I really would rather make everyone a piece of toast and call it a day. I also hate the amount of time it takes to make a meal for 6 people, plus clean up. Am I just incredibly slow, or does it take the rest of you two hours to do all that? Seriously, if I begin prep work around 4:30, make the meal, serve it by 5:30 or 6, we eat, then clean up... by the time I'm done it's 6:30 or 6:45. Yes the kids help (a little), and yes there are days when my meals don't take that long, but on average it's a production. I always plan my meals so we know what we're having, but I just wish the entire process was a wee bit easier.

And I just looked at the time. If I'm going to attempt homemade tamales (my first time), I'd better get moving. Who knows how long this will take.