back in the kitchen

Its Friday! well, its Friday but its not the weekend yet for us. Most you will be enjoying a three day weekend, some are even blessed to have a four day weekend. Not us, it happens to be Jon's Saturday to work, so we get a one day weekend, yup no memorial day off either.

Shortie got Zekie "dressed"

Super Hero Conrad

dirty Graesynn

I love waking up to a clean house, carpets vacuumed, floors mopped, all clean dishes and all put away, toys out of sight... its just such a refreshing way to wake up. Today was one of those days.  I finally feel like our house is our home again. Its cleaned and organized the way we like. Its so refreshing! I love to bake and cook, its my stress reliever and my comfort all in one. Jon knows when I'm really feeling sick and out of it because I have no desire to be in the kitchen. Lets just say that due to the negative circumstances the past few weeks my passion for the kitchen had disappeared. The last few days it has been so wonderful to be back in the kitchen with my family, and then sitting and eating meals together at the table in our usual craziness. (its hard to spend time cooking when you feel used for a meal, or the table conversations are filled with lies)

Making three meals a day from scratch for five hungry kids is pretty much exactly what it sounds like - A LOT of cooking and a lot of working (thank you God for giving me a love for baking and cooking - you knew I would need it!) Today was the first full day of getting back into our routine since things were shaken up. We spent a lot of time in the kitchen today and it was exactly what this mom needed (we also did school work, made more birthday presents for Auntie RahRah, lots of outside playtime, all the other usual stuff)

Shortie making Auntie RahRah another present

lets see food for today not including snacks went something like this:
breakfast - 4 cups uncooked oatmeal, 2 cups uncooked red quinoa, handfuls of walnuts, blueberries, dried cranberries, and raisins. Cooked in almond milk and there ya go - breakfast was served. However it wasn't enough and they were asking for more but we were out of quinoa and steel cut oatmeal takes forever to cook so I let them fill up on apples instead.

ha - I just remembered at one point while making the breakfast I had just put the almond milk away and turned around to do something by the sink when I see Conrad in the corner of my eye go open the fridge, I turn around to find him drinking straight from the almond milk container! I was surprised as I've never seen the other kids do this (nor do Jon or I) but man did he have the biggest grin on his face when I said his name in a stunned sort of voice. 

Conrad excited for breakfast!

lol - my kids are already missing an article of clothing! And Graesynn has some flour in her  hair thanks to Conrad. Our 'crazy table' is always an adventure and I love every moment of it!

lunch- We are really blessed to have Jon close enough to come home for lunch - we all get to eat at our table of craziness. Its a special time for all of us. Today's menu - making some baby artichokes, and adding them to a garlicky lemon pasta - oh and bonus we used some cherry tomatoes from our garden. To my surprise all the kids cleaned their plates! that's a lunch success!


just for the fun of it we made some fruit balls from Jon's new cookbook, Vegan Cooking for Carnivores,  - super easy recipe throwing together unsweetened coconut, raw almonds, and any combination of dried fruit into the viatmix until finely chopped, then shape into balls. The kids and I made these and put them in the fridge, the kids went nuts for them! You would have thought I offered them chocolate ice cream with how excited they were to eat them.

baby artichokes --- clearly hadn't put the lemon on yet as they already started to change colors...  still surprised the kids ate all of this

making the enchilada sauce

enchilada filing - cashew cream, black beans, red peppers, roasted corn off the cob, green chiles,  and gardein  chipotle "chicken" 

Dinner - tonight's was time consuming, Vegan Enchiladas. I was converting my Aunt Linda's family famous sour cream and chicken enchiladas into a vegan recipe. Made cashew cream in the vitamix to replace the sour cream. Then made enchilada sauce - saute onions, put in vitamix with tomatoes, adobe sauce, chili powder, cumin, Mexican oregano, veggie broth, green chiles... I think that's it - it is so good! So thankful for a vitamix, makes it nice and creamy without too much work. Anyways - assembled all the enchiladas then in the oven they went. Also made some spanish rice, a recipe from an old family friend, and boy can we eat some rice in this house! I love spanish rice from scratch, not that seasoning mixed rice stuff you can buy -nope instead real tomatoes, chiles, all the good stuff!!

pretty Baby Grae eating apples while we cook

naked babies playing on the swing

having so much fun together!

Zekie giving kisses

While waiting for dinner to cook we went out back to play and work some in the garden - it was hot and humid!  The kids asked if we could make some smoothies and it didn't take any convincing before I was in the kitchen pulling out the frozen fruit. {Our vitamix got a workout today} Lime, strawberry, and raspberry smoothies -yum!

Figured I had already made a full day of meals the only thing missing was a fresh dessert --- twist my arm again why don't you... made a new recipe that is a vegan shortbread crust, vegan toffee middle, and a nice vegan chocolaty  topping --- actually just typing this makes me want to go have another bite, it will be my reward for posting this blog - which is really all about food - but hey, life raising five takes a lot (I mean A LOT) of food so why not dedicate a blog to one day of food.


well ... I think I might be cutting this blog short of anything else besides food primarily because I want a piece of the dessert. Sometimes you just need to hide in the pantry and sneak a bite of a cookie...

I made this yesterday - its vegan mac and "cheese" - wanted to give it a try since my kids never get to  eat "normal" kid food. It was really good! I am not a fan of kraft, not even as a kid, I  can't stand how it just taste ick if slightly cold. This is made out of cashew cream and vegan cheese, I added some smoked paprika, and then turmeric for color. It was really tasty even when cold. I added pees because I am odd and dont like an overwhelming monochromatic food so the green color helps plus they're healthy so why not, right? Plus our kids love pees, next time I think I'll add some red peppers just to add another punch of color and texture.