The best laid plans...

Yesterday,  I made a plan for my day. A day with no grandchildren around, filled with doing things I enjoy, like gardening, reading, relaxing etc... Of course, as often happens, the universe didn't decide to align itself with my plan. Luckily I'm one of those people who can adapt to change. It all started off quite well, I sat with my cup of coffee in quiet and solitude, and then I decided to gather the necessary equipment for canning the tomatoes I'd been given: canner-check, tomatoes-check, lemon juice-check, jars....wait where are all my quart size jars? I searched all the areas they might be hiding to no avail. I had only 1 jar left. Well darn. Okay, hmmmm, can it wait until Friday when I have another child free day? No not really, the tomatoes are pretty ripe. Well, that means a trip to the store. Now in many cases, this just involved running down the street, but not for me, the nearest stores selling what I would need are almost 30 minutes away. That requires  putting makeup on, fixing my hair, and since I was going I might as well get anything else I needed. List in hand I headed out. Walmart was first where I picked up salt, low dose aspirin and jars....oh wait, I need a birthday gift for the weekend, a quick call later to see what the recipient would like found me in the sporting goods dept looking for a knife. One Bear Grylls knife later, and I was headed to the checkout. Next up Lowe's. We are building a playhouse for our 2 year old granddaughter, and so far it has been entirely from scrap or discarded wood, we now are at the point to have to purchase the roof material and paint. After checking all the possibilities, seriously I was dragged around through every single item that could be used as the roof until I gave up and left it to my other half in search of pretty paint. That's more my department, the pretty paint part. I chose two shades of purple, and got on my way. Except in Lowe's we received a phone call asking up to pick up a pizza on our way home for the little people. Okay, one more detour and one pizza later, we headed home. By this time, my carefully planned day had been changed by about 2 1/2 hours. Arrived home, canned tomatoes, and then went to relax. What should have happened next was to get on with the rest of the things I wanted to accomplish, what actually happened is none of those things. I sat staring at television, mindlessly. I had a headache and didn't really feel like doing a darn thing, so I didn't. No gardening, no reading, no lovely adult friendly Red Beans and Rice with Vegan Chroizo dinner. I didn't cook at all. I threw together a salad. It was a wonderful salad, but still. And you know what? I don't feel bad at all about it, I don't feel bad about staring at television for hours, or not cooking, or neglecting my garden another day. Life's too short, and sometimes the universe is telling you to watch General Hospital, I recommend when that happens that you take Madame Universe up on the offer and sit down for a good dose of Sonny Corinthos and enjoy. Those moments don't last forever and then it's back to reality. Here's the delicious salad we ate for dinner last night. It's comprised of lots of baby greens (spinach, arugula, chard etc...), banana peppers, Greek olives, onions, and roasted beets, with a balsamic viniagrette.

The sound of silence...

What's that sound....ahhh yes, it's the sound of quiet, beautiful silence. No children today. I won't even know how to act around here. I swear the last two days has run me ragged. Yesterday the 2 year old and the 6 year old little darlings were anything but darling for the first half of the day. Thankfully after a mandatory afternoon nap the 6 year old woke up in a better mood, the 2 year old...well unfortunately I think that's here to stay for the foreseeable future. She's into absolutely everything, she looks adorable doing it, but darn she's a feisty little thing. In addition to my two little darlings their 11 year old stepsister is here this week so she's also been here. She really is a lovely child but while I don't know all the circumstances, I think comes from a less structured background. She craves attention constantly, which is heartbreaking and something I'm not really used to. Last night when I was getting ready to make dinner she asked, "Do you make dinner every night?", and had a bit of incredulity to her voice, I was a bit taken aback and replied, "well yes, how else would we eat? Don't you make dinner at night at your house?"......"no, sometimes we do, and sometimes we just have cereal or ramen or snacks." she then asked while I was teaching her to set the table,"so do you always eat at the table".....okay folks,  here I am about to get on my soapbox so if you don't want to hear it, please discontinue reading the blog. I cannot stress enough, and I know you've all heard it before, but I'm about to say it again, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE eat with your kids at the table as often as you possibly can. I know that in this day of working parents and overload that it can be difficult to pull together a family meal every night, but even if you are all having something different, even if it's takeout, even if it's a bowl of cereal, please set the table, shut off the television, take away the phones, and sit down with your kids (or grandkids) and have a meal together. It gives them a sense of ritual, a sense of family, an opportunity to talk and actually be listened to without other distractions. Even if they protest, I promise you they will be happy for it down the road. I learn many things from my grandson as we sit at the table having a meal. Okay, I'm now stepping off the soapbox. Thanks to those who read all the way through.

Anyway, today is adult time, back to the kids tomorrow and then they are gone for several weeks visiting the other grandparents. I'm not really sure what to do with this luxurious time I have today. I do have to can some tomatoes that were given to me, so that's on the list. I'm also looking forward to an adult dinner, although I'm not sure what that will consist of yet, I'm not used to having that option during the week. Actually having just written that, what I wanted popped in my head. Red Beans and Rice with vegan chorizo and cornbread on the side. I make mine with lots of chunky veggies in it, and the chorizo is out of this world delicious. Okay, that's decided, now what do do with the rest of the day. I need to do a bit of gardening. My vegetable garden is on it's second planting and contains several rows of butterbeans, lots of peppers, eggplant, sweet potatoes and okra. My tomatoes are about over, it's just getting too hot here. So I need to see what needs to be done in the vegetables and also my flowers. I think after I do that I'll enjoy some reading time. I'll let you know how it goes. In the meantime, here's a picture of my veg garden:

How do you deal with a picky eater?

Are you anything like me? Does it seem like life just slips away so quickly and you aren't sure where the days go? Well, that's where I'm at these days folks. I can't believe it's been another full week since I posted. I really mean to update this every day or at least several times a week, but lately it just doesn't seem to happen. I made a vow a couple years ago, and really reminded myself of it at the beginning of the year, it was to be fully present in every day. So many times I found myself trying to do so many things at once and never give anyone or thing my full attention. Especially with my grandkids I want to be there fully for them. They spend most of their awake time with me, and they deserve my attention. Last week I had them every day Mon-Fri from 8a.m. until about 8p.m., except on Friday they left about 6:30p.m., so it's been busy and crazy. I haven't had days like this since my daughter was 2 and I was a stay at home mom (I soon learned I needed to work outside the home to maintain sanity). When you can start singing the songs from Super WHY  and Sid the Science Kid, it starts getting rough. They will be going to visit their other grandparents in Georgia for 2 weeks, and while I'll miss them, I will be glad to have some adult time and catch up with friends and just relax with a book. Last night we had a battle royale here over dinner. I had made a baked pasta with Daiya cheese, a beautiful tossed salad and garlic bread. My granddaughter of course just ate, she loves everything her grammy makes, but my grandson is the pickiest kid ever, and just because he liked something last week, doesn't mean he will this week. He's 6. So it started with me preparing him before dinner by saying what we would be eating and that I wanted him to try a bite of salad, (he's firmly against salad, won't even TRY it). I told him I bought him a special salad dressing that used to be his dad's favorite when he was a kid, and all I wanted him to do was try one bite, and he had to chew and swallow it. Once we sat down to dinner, he absolutely refused. Not only did he refuse to try his salad, he proceeded to scrape all the sauce off his pasta and would eat only the garlic bread dipped in the sauce. I told him it was pasta and he loved pasta, but he said, "THIS is not pasta", ummmmmmm yes Brian it is, it's just a different kind, it was Ziti. The boy would not put one bite of it in his mouth. So I told him that was fine, it he wouldn't even try to eat his dinner, there was no dessert, that's the rule. Dessert last night was homemade vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookies we made earlier in the day. By the end of dinner, he had eaten nothing and left the table, about an hour later he started with it wasn't fair because everyone else got cookies and he didn't. Well, I explained (once again), that everyone else ate dinner and he didn't. He stomped off muttering about it not being fair. Seriously, it's all just exhausting. I know kids are like this, but this is the pickiest kid I've ever come across in my life. My son was picky about vegetables, but I could hide anything in a salad and he would eat it. If this grandson of mine even sees a speck of green in something, he demands to know what it is. So after that lovely dinner, a day full of playing Uno, Wii bowling, chasing the 2 year old and such, I fell into bed at 9p.m. and slept slept slept. I'm not really sure what to do about this boy and his eating habits, especially at dinner, do I make one dinner and adapt to his eating habits, do I make what everyone else likes to eat and make him eat it (and how exactly do I MAKE him eat it?), or do I make dinner and make something separate for him? Any advice out there?

Well, they just arrived, so it's off to face another day. Let's hope it's battle free.

Monday morning catch up...

I've been a bit negligent of this blog for the last week, in my defense I've been really ill with this cold/respiratory infection/bronchitis, as well as still attempting to care for the grandkids. On Friday I spent the entire day in bed except to get up to get drinks and such. Saturday and Sunday I started feeling a bit better, and today, well my lungs still feel horrible but I'm trying to be optimistic. I found a new vegan dilemma through this, alot of over the counter medications contain animal products like gelatin. Since I'm not a huge fan of taking meds for every little thing, I hadn't realized this in the past. I spent 45 minutes in the cold medicine section at my local CVS trying to find something, a lovely pharmacist came to assist me, and considering my high blood pressure the only medication I could take, was not vegan, and actually wouldn't have helped my symptoms at all. She told me that I couldn't take anything at all that would clear up the head congestion since it would also raise BP. Then she suggested things I could do, like a Neti Pot. Have you ever tried this before? Seriously, that thing works. It worked so well I went back to get one for my son who has serious chronic sinus issues. So the Neti Pot along with my tried and true Cayenne Tea for chest congestion, and lots of juices and water, has me feeling a bit better this morning, (at least after I woke and hacked up half a lung). So now that we covered all that, let's get on to some other activities. Last week I picked blueberries at a nearby farm and so of course that meant blueberry jam, my grandson's favorite. I don't generally recommend canning with young children around, all that boiling water, boiling syrup etc...can be dangerous, but I didn't have much choice, I like to can the same day I pick for that delicious freshness. We set about canning. I'm using it also as a science lesson for my grandson, now that he's out of school for the summer I'm trying to keep his mind engaged. So I explained that in canning you have to be very precise, you have to have just the right balance of acid and alkaline and you have to carefully measure or your end product won't taste great and may spoil. Here is our end result:

14 jars of beautiful Blueberry Jam, we gave away some and stored the rest in the canning closet along with the Strawberry we made in March, we now have enough jam for the entire year. While putting it away, my grandson said, "I like that we never have to buy jam because we make it ourselves, that's better right grammy". It sure is sweetie.

On Sunday we had to can tomatoes, I had about 25 pounds that needed canning, so even though I had planned to do absolutely nothing, instead I found myself doing tomatoes. If you've never canned tomatoes, be forewarned, it's a bit of a job, well worth it, but definitely one of the most time consuming and laborious canning projects. You have to peel the tomatoes first, this is done by plunging them into boiling water, then ice water, then the skins will slip off, then you core and chop them. Since I was doing crushed tomatoes, for use in spaghetti sauce or soups, I then had to crush them in the pot while they came to a boil. Then you get to pour them into the jars, and get them into the water bath for 45 minutes. I can only fit 6 quart sized jars at a time so I had to water bath in 2 batches. Sounds like fun right? Maybe not so much, but as I said, the result is very much worth the effort. When you open a jar in January and you smell fresh tomato, it's wonderful. Here's those results:

11 quarts of crushed tomatoes. Yum.

That's the end of my canning adventures. On to some of the delicious food I've been eating.

Although I haven't been in the mood for much food, I still have to eat and feed the little people, here is one of the things we ate last week, recipe follows:

Roasted Tomato Soup with Grilled Daiya Cheese Sandwich

This tomato soup is seriously delicious, but here's the thing, I don't know exactly how many tomatoes it takes, I generally just pick what I have, cut the larger ones, the smaller cherry tomatoes stay whole, and I fill a large baking sheet, once it's full I know I have enough. Sorry to not be more precise.

Roasted Tomato Soup

Assorted tomatoes, enough to fill a large baking sheet
2 tbs olive oil
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
6 cloves garlic, peeled
1 med onion cut in wedges
3 tbs fresh basil chopped
4 cups vegetable broth

Preheat oven to 350.
1.Cut any tomatoes larger than cherry tomatoes in halves or quarters. I use a variety of tomatoes, whatever is ready in my garden, in this batch I had alot of sun gold tomatoes and yellow pear, so the soup is lighter in color. Add the garlic cloves and onion to the baking sheet. Drizzle Olive oil over all, sprinkle with the salt and pepper. Roast for about 45 minutes, until everything is carmelized.
2. Add everything on the baking sheet to a food processor along with the basil. Pulse until it's the consistency you like, chunky or smooth is up to you. I make it smoother for the kids but chunky when making for just myself.
3. Add tomato mixture to a saucepan with vegetable broth and allow to come to low boil, reduce to simmer for about 15 minutes, just enough to mingle the flavors.
I always serve this with a grilled cheese made simply with whole grain bread and Daiya Cheddar Cheese. Enjoy.
I hope your day and your week is filled with joy, now I have to run to make some pumpkin muffins for the little folks.

Morning Crankies...

I woke up this morning feeling a bit sluggish and tired, as the day has progressed, it's turned into a case of the crankies. I'm not even sure exactly what I'm cranky about, I just feel off. Do you ever get that way? I think it has to do with the lack of sugar. After several starts and stops over the last few weeks, I'm finally on day 4 of a sugar detox, so maybe that's what it is. If that's the case, then from the reading I've done, by tomorrow it should pass. I just have to stay strong today and not cave in to every cell in my body screaming for sugar. As for the rest of my journey, the vegan part, it's going very well. Summer is a great time for me to have dived in, with all the beautiful produce everywhere, and the natural desire to eat lighter, it definitely makes this easier, at least for me. Have I mentioned previously that I also try to limit my intake of processed foods? I think our world has become one in which we depend on all these processed foods, and we wonder why we have become a society of obese, sick, people. The old adage, you are what you eat, really is true, at least that is my belief. On that note, I try to limit as much as possible the processed foods from not only my diet, but that of my grandkids and other half. Limiting mine is easy enough, theirs on the other hand, can be a real battle, but I continue to try. Yesterday I was really craving a sandwich for lunch, but since I don't buy any of those processed veggie meats, I didn't have anything on hand to make one, other than peanut butter, so I decided to try my first ever Chickpea Salad. I can't believe how delicious it is. Here's my finished sandwich, it's on a wheat bun, with lettuce from the garden and a bunch of banana peppers, with the last of my spicy garlic pickle spears.

And here's the recipe:

1 can chickpeas, rinsed
1 stalk celery
1/2 med vidalia onion
1 carrot
2 tbs reduced fat vegenaise
1 tbs spicy southwest mustard
1 tbs relish (I used a homemade zucchini relish)
Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Place chickpeas, celery and onion in food processor and pulse until chopped and combined.
2. Place shredding blade on processor and shred carrot into chickpea mixture.
3. Add vegenaise, mustard, relish, salt and pepper and mix together.
4. Chill and devour.

It made quite a bit and I'll be eating this for lunch again today. Dinner last night was a summer squash casserole with a pile of steamed broccoli on the side. I've been eating lots of fruit to stand in for the sweets I would have been eating previously. A bowl full of watermelon, cantaloupe and blueberries is sweet in the best sense of the word. Now I just have to keep busy and keep my mind off the sugar beast and hopefully this will subside.

End of School Celebrations, Summer Storms, Pinkeye and lots more...

My day was quite hectic and full yesterday. After a breakfast that consisted of pineapple and blueberries (plus a slice of french toast for the 2 year old,  Millie and I headed into town in the morning to run a few errands. She was acting a bit out of sorts, so I should have been forewarned, but somehow was unaware of the day that was about to unfold. The first clue was at the cable company as I tried to figure out A.) why my bill was $50 higher than ever, and B.) why I couldn't seem to get a digital box sent to me for my third tv (4 calls to the company, with 4 assurances that it would get right in the mail, didn't get me one). Millie was really clingy in there and fussy, not her usual happy self. After the very lovely lady fixed all my problems, including refunding and $8.50 charge I had been overpaying for the last 9 months, ($76.50 credit? yes please), and giving me the digital adapter I needed, we headed out to WalMart. Have I mentioned I hate WalMart? Well, I do, but it's a necessary evil in my area where the options are very very few. We stopped in Subway for some lunch and as I settled in for my yummy Veggie Delite Sandwich, I noticed Millie's eye was red and a bit weepy. I called her mommy and left a message to call back so I could see if she had poked it or what was up, and we ate our lunch. Next up, WalMart Shopping. My list wasn't so long, just a few things from different departments, I promised my grandson pizza for his end of school dinner, and needed some personal items, wanted to pick up pool toys for the kids and a couple other things. Millie was really acting up, which is very unusual, she's generally good as gold in the store. By the time her mom called back, while we were looking at new potty chairs, her eye issue had increased and I knew by then it was the dreaded Pinkeye. Great. In my haste to get out of the store at that point, I stopped really concentrating on what was being put into the shopping cart. NEVER a good idea. Head to the checkout. OH MY GALOSHES!!! $284 dollars later, honestly I still don't know how that happened. Moral of this story? If impending doom seems to be happening, (i.e. cranky 2 year old, puffy, leaky, red eye, and increasing frustration and headache?) just leave the store, leave the cart, make your escape and get out while you can, because nothing good can come of it. As we left the store and headed to the truck, it started sprinkling, and Millie, wiping the raindrops off her arm, looked up at me with her one adorable eye, and one red monster eye, and said "uh, oh". "Uh oh is right sweetie pie", let's get home. Half way home, the downpour started, the lightening began and with it the soul shaking thunder. Great. I decided to get to the school and pickup my grandson and just get home. The downed tree across the road wasn't going to stop me from my mission, and we finally arrived home. An hour later, everything put away, snacks handed out, toddler eye wiped numerous times, I finally settled down to put a warm compress over her eye and realized it was now BOTH eyes. The day was getting better. She was getting naughtier, although her brother was on his best behavior, and we started making pizza. Dinner done, table ready, sit down to enjoy, Millie decides to show a new trick, take a drink, hold it in her mouth and see if she can spit it out, really far. Yep, she can. After 3 times of being told to stop, her cup was taken away. Dinner finished, kids and kitchen cleaned up, settle down to relax. Yeah....right. A demon took over that darling little toddler's body and she proceeded to go crazy. My grandson came into the back room where I was straightening up, "Grammy you better come out here, Millie's sitting on top of the table". Indeed that's where she was, sitting on top of the dining table. Take her down, tell her no, she runs to the tv, grabs the Wii sensor bar and runs off with it. Take it from her, tell her no, she opens the entertainment center door and slams it closed. All right missy, that's it for you. Timeout. It was her first ever. Here she is:

Finally, mommy came home, kids left, grammy sat in perfect silence trying to recover. What a day. On a much happier note, it was my grandson's last day of first grade, he is now officially a Second Grader. It's amazing to me how much he's grown and learned this year.
And here are some pictures of my food today, no picture of the veggie sub, I was too preoccupied with the Toddler Terror.

A beautiful bowl of fresh pineapple and blueberries. So delicious and light.

Whole wheat crust, simple marinara with basil, homemade vegan pepperoni (recipe from Vegan on the Cheap), red onion, green pepper, Daiya cheese and sprinkled with red pepper flakes. 

Let's hope today goes a whole lot easier than yesterday did. Finger crossed.....okay, toes too.