Meal Planning

Well today is Palm Sunday! Ha, psyche! I'm Orthodox...so today is actually Orthodoxy Sunday (meaning the first Sunday of lent). So we're just getting started... Our Pascha (Easter) is May 5th this year! Pretty late, but the snow might just be melted by then, yippie!

Along with Lent comes a new way of thinking and cooking. Vegan style.

My 9-year-old already makes us bread once per week now, so at least that's covered. I have refined my bread recipe a few times since I posted in 2011. Now we grind 4 kinds of wheat on Thursdays, soak the flour overnight, then on Friday she makes it into bread adding lentil, millet & brown rice flour, oats, ground flax seed, olive oil and maybe a cup or two of white flour. We like the recipe and I like knowing it is full of protein and will last longer in their tummies than regular store bought bread.

I also stay well stocked on apples and bananas. They are the most economical fruits I have found and I pretty much buy them in bulk every time I visit the store. Great snacks for any time of year. One of my favorite snacks is apple slices and dry roasted almonds.

I have found the internet so helpful and am in love with vegans because they have so many fantastic recipes!

Today I read my friend, Ser's, blog and she had posted about meal planning, inspiring me to get my rear in gear.

I spent a lot of time thinking of meal ideas, after all, each lent I have to remember how to be a vegan all over again. I make a much bigger deal over it than need be. I made a meal planning notebook and a list of food ideas. Then I can start assigning meals to each day. I decided to write about my ideas because I can never find my list each advent and lent... but I can locate a computer, the internet, and my blog so that next year I can find my list again. I used my blog today to get started, so many recipes listed are already here and I added my lentil soup today so I could be sure to find it if I need it later.

Fasting/Vegan food Ideas:

Hummus Pizza
Enchiladas
Tostadas w/ veggie "meat", avocados, caramelized onions, tomatoes, lettuce, re fried beans, salsa, fake sour cream, olives (made these earlier this year for company, sooo good!!!)
Vegan shepherds pie (can use the fake taco meat in this)
Seafood soup
3 Bean salad
Indian food! Cabbage Kofka, Aloo Mattar, Flat bread, Dal and Rice.
Pirogis, this recipe looks promising.
Dumplings and fried rice, these recipes look yummy, haven't tried them yet.
Yummy lentil soup
Chili and cornbread (have a recipe we love, will try to post sometime)
Falafels and Tabuli w/ pita (will be trying the one in the link this week, soaking chick peas now...update 3-26-13, the falafels in this recipe are fan-freaking-tastic!!!! I just put more beans to soak so we can have more tomorrow or the next day)
Hummus (have a new recipe we like better than the one linked, but have not posted it yet. This is my favorite hearty snack or lunch, especially with Kalamata olives.)
Spring rolls, so yummy.
Lentil veggie burgers (this look good! I just found this recipe)
Rib sticking pancakes
Waffles, I'm posting a successful recipe. I'd found 4 different ones then tried my own but it didn't really work.
Jambalaya (hubby's recipe with "gimmie lean sausage" fake chicken & shrimp, spendy recipe but very hearty, will try to post it sometime)
Roasted vegetables
Sushi
Sweet and sour shrimp or tofu and rice, have a great recipe for this.
Shrimp fajitas. I LOVE these so much!

One of my favorite websites is Veg Web. I love how they have their website laid out if I need ideas and the comments people add are nice. I added recipes to it a while back, not sure if they are still there. Also, Laura at Hey What's for Dinner Mom makes meatless meals at least twice per week and she's in Alaska, so she shares good ideas of local foods that we can buy, pick or grow up here.

I know I'll think of more later, but this will get me going.

Pretty vegetables. link.

Yummy Lentil Soup

This  recipe has been a staple in our house for the last few years. Typically I make a giant batch in the fall (harvest) season so I can use up fresh veggies from the garden and freeze them in usable form. Usually in the large recipe I substitute some grains in place of some of the lentils to provide different nutrients and different texture.

Yummy Lentil Soup 
(serves 6)

1 onion, chopped
1/4 c olive oil
2 carrots, diced
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tea dried oregano
1 bay leaf
1 tea dried basil
1(14.5 oz) can crushed or diced tomatoes
2 c dry lentils (can substitute some lentils with barley and millet)
8 c water (or however much fits in the pot, more for soupy, less for stew like)
1/2 c spinach or cabbage, rinsed & sliced
2 Tbl vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

(huge pot)

6 onions or 5 lbs
3/4 c oil
12 carrots or 2 pounds
12 celery or 1 bunch
2Tbl oregano
2 Tbl basil
12 cloves garlic
5 bay leaves
6 14.5oz cans crushed tomato or 3 28oz cans or 1 large 10lb can
5 lbs lentils, rinsed
1 c barley, rinsed
1 c millet, rinsed
10 ish qts water
1/2 head to whole head cabbage or 3 cups spinach
3/4 c vinegar (or to taste)
2 T salt (or to taste)
1 T pepper (or to taste)

Directions

Heat oil on medium heat in appropriate sized heavy bottom pot (preferred).

Add onions, carrots and celery; cook and stir until onion is tender.

Stir in garlic, bay leaf, oregano and basil; cook 2 minutes.

Stir in lentils and any grain, add water and tomatoes. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for minimum of an hour.

10 min before serving add spinach or cabbage, stir 'till it's wilted. Add vinegar and season to taste with salt and pepper.


Just fyi, I have canned this before and it's not good. I love lentils because they cook up so fast.

Just found this picture from 2010 on facebook of my kids and nephew when we were making a pot of this soup.
How quickly they grow up! Sniff.

Alaskan Fall Lentil Soup

8/29/2014: I cleaned out the garden and wanted to use more veggies that I had including the dill, parsley, beets, etc. I remembered the borscht recipe that I love so much and based the spices off of that one. I really liked it this way and it doesn't need tomatoes or basil that I can't grow with out a greenhouse.

This is for a double batch:

2 onions
1/2 cup coconut oil
4 carrots
4 celery and all the celery leaves
4 cloves garlic and any greens from the garlic from the garden
-cook these three up 'till onions are soft-
-stir in:
fresh thyme
fresh dill
fresh parsley
1/2 tsp pepper
3 cups lentils
1/2 cup millet
-then add-
16 cups water, don't need to add it all at once
-after about an hour of cooking add:
1 pint pickled beets
1 pint plain beets
one bunch kale
one bunch beet greens (about 2 beets worth of greens)
1 small head of cabbage
or any mix of the greens of your choosing
2 tsp salt

1/4 cup vinegar
more fresh dill
more salt and pepper to taste

May taste good with sour cream, will have to try that.

I was pleasantly surprised. Definitely a sweeter soup, but I loved it.

Bedside Table

Doesn't Instagram make pictures look so much better?

I wanted to write a blog post tonight but didn't know what about. Seems silly to me to not know what to write about but want to write...maybe not silly, but odd for me. I was browsing some blogs I follow and saw that on Nesting Place she wrote about the books on her nightstand.

Clearly, I'm stealing her idea.

Clearly my blog is not about cute and well kept houses. I like to think of my home as "lived in" don't most homeschooling moms? (That means "not clean" for you that don't know what I mean.)

My bedside table has belonged to me since before I was married over 17 years now. It would look very cute repainted in a shabby chic way, but the wax from the candle that spilled in our first year of marriage is still on the top... I did, however, clean off the clutter for this picture.

The funny thing about this picture is that I almost pride myself on being a non-reader, so it's strange to have so many books on here at the moment. I am a VERY slow reader. I tend to like "how to" books and I find novels hard to get into and usually not worth my time.

The books I have here:

Sarah (Orson Scott Card, borrowing from a friend, finding it harder to read than I'd like, I don't like how he makes her out as such a know-it-all)
Ender's Game (Card, second reading)
Flannery O'Connor (mom's book, haven't started it yet)
Les Miserables (watched the movie and was inspired to read it, haven't started it yet)
The Gift of an Ordinary Day (My mom gave this to my sis and I for Christmas)
Seven Principals for Making Marriage Work (good book, intense, good for my type of person...gives actual exercises and games for husband and wife to do, my priest recommended it)
The Five Love Languages (another good one, I have gotten a lot out of this)
Backwoods Home Magazine
Mary Jane's Farm

Now for the fun part, the things that I cleaned off (after 4-6 months of build up):

old bag of m&ms
carpenters pencil
sharpies & pens
otoscope
airplane tickets
sake glasses from last night Chinese food "date night" in our bedroom
2 water glasses
Thrifty maps from Boston and Seattle
new Schoop skirt tag
bottles of: Tylenol, Ibuprofen, Calcium/Magnesium tablets
drawing of our family from youngest daughter
Netflix envelope

And since I'm in a sharing mood I'm listening to my youtube playlist my top favorites are:
Mumford & Sons (all songs)
Johnny Cash - Hurt
Live - Lightning Crashes
Metallica - The Unforgiven
Home - Phillip Phillips
U2 - Pride, Beautiful Day, really any U2 song will do...

Time to go put away the leftover waffles from tonight's dinner and get these kids in bed...after this song is over.

What's on your nightstand?

Bumbershoot

In 2011 my kids were calling umbrellas "bumbershoots" it seemed very random and strange. It was the younger girls too, but they all did it. I even mentioned it in a blog post one day called "random".

Today I saw this posted by a fun "word of the day" fellow who posts daily on facebook:

You can follow his page here.

I had to laugh. Here I thought they were making up a silly word but they probably read it somewhere. I love knowing that my kids are are learning with out me even knowing it.

It's good to feel pretty.

I'm a hot mama.

Ok, sure, not to everybody's standards, but to mine? Yes.

Ok, am I kidding myself a little? Yes. But I’m trying to think more this way.

This is not an easy thing for someone like me to say. I'm 5'8", not huge but not thin. If I tell people my weight they are shocked, apparently I’m good at hiding it…thank you? I do have good hair and people say I have a pretty face and my husband certainly likes me, curves and all! What has taken me so long to realize such a simple thing? What is it that stops so many women from thinking this way? What is keeping us “down”.

I'm sure I could go on for days about who did this to us, the horrors of our society, how prudish I have always been, what sort of guilt is been tangled and mangled into our thoughts?...but I won't tonight, I'm too tired.

I think most women fall into the trap of thinking they are not hot. This can be quite dangerous for a young woman who has a tall, dark, handsome stranger trying to pick her up one night. Making her feel special for the first time. What girl in her right mind would want to turn that down? If he really makes her feel special, is he the only one who sees it? What happens if she lets him go? As a mother I want to remind my girls of their “power” so that they can use it for good or evil. But to know that they have it so that it can’t be used against them. It’s not a little thing.  

All I know is that every woman IS hot. But if you don't believe that, you are NOT going to be so. If you act like it and think like it, it really can be true. It's probably the only thing in a woman's life that you can imagine to come true and it can just by thinking that it can. The same can even be said for men. What is the most attractive quality in a man or a woman? Most people would say self confidence. Being self assured. Having "swagger". I wish I would have appreciated my beauty when I was younger and had more of it...but how would I have used my “power” would it have gotten me into trouble? Very likely.

I like my life. I like my husband. Perhaps my new found “hotness” is for the worst, perhaps I don’t know a bloody thing that I’m talking about. Either way, it is what it is…for now.

September 2012, 16th anniversary weekend. Sporting my very cute and very uncomfortable heels for the second time. Husbands apparently like heels. Who knew?

Edited 2/8/2013

And did I show you my quilt?

After I painted the kitchen my living room looked sort of off. On my birthday I made myself the quilt rack you see in the first picture. I bought the parts and pieces a month before but finally got a chance to build it. The shelf is wide enough to hold folded throw blankets for cold nights or movie watching.

The quilt haning on the rack is one my mom gave me from a great aunt or grandmother. It's period 1950s fabrics. The backing and binding are even turquoise! The binding is ripping and I want to fix it, but finding the exact match to that color is very hard!

I went back to Etsy and found a bunch of 1950s feed sack fabrics, but I didn't want a ton left over and wanted a good variety for a quilt. One woman had cut a bunch up into 6" squares and was selling a pack of mixed colors. I have them interspersed here with other fun fabric I found at fabric shops locally and some that were in my stash.

Almost finished! Just have a little Algebra to go...

Finished quilt. Just a throw size and just enough pop of color to really brighten up our new/used COMFY leather couches that a dear friend practically gave us.

Did I show you my new kitchen?

Fall of 2012 husband had to go to the East Coast for 2 weeks.

While the cat is away, the mice will play...

I took these pics on a sunny day with my phone/camera (that's all I have) so the pictures don't really do it justice. I love it to pieces...

I went out to eBay and Etsy as soon as I know I was doing this. I ordered one rotary phone on Etsy but it wouldn't work for my set up, so I found this refurbished red rotary one on eBay. It's wonderful. The potato cutter (vintage) I picked up a few years ago at a thrift store. The glass duck is from a moving sale and in front is our milking station where we keep the milking pails and jars.

Here's my lovely hoosier in all this glory. The stool was a hand-me-down from my mom, it helped choose red as a companion color. The turquoise on the hooser was painted on two walls in the kitchen to cover the old maroon color. The coke box and white colander was from my favorite antique store in town. The vintage apple towel covering was an Etsy purchase and the cracker box on top was an overpriced purchase from a favorite thrift store

My beloved vintage radio I bought on Etsy. They refurbish them and put an IPOD jack on the back so you can plug in your MP3 player to listen to. The yogurt maker is circa 1960s but still very useful and yellow.

Every 1950s kitchen had a pot holder for their cast iron pans. I made mine. There's a bottle opener in the middle I got on Etsy, the rabbit head hanger is from a moving sale, the vintage apron I found on Etsy and the large hook from the antique store. The pot holder/trivet having on the fridge is pink and turquoise and came from a grandmother I think.

New light over the table installed by my uncle, Pyrex bowl I convinced a woman to sell me, vintage tablecloth from Etsy, curtains sewn by me. There's a cute chicken feed pic on the back wall it's hard to see.

New valance sewn by me, canister "retro"fited with vintage stickers (saved a bunch of money found them on Etsy), rag rug crochet by me, vintage towel an Etsy find.

Here are some better lit "live use" photos:

Window washers. Note the vintage sewing machine my girls use when they want to sew with me.

After school snacks, oldest tuning out the littles with ear protection.