Lazy Vegetarian: Day 27

This is going to be the fastest blog post ever because I have to be up tomorrow at 5am and I'm not quite finished packing yet...

Breakfast: Toast and Tea. I did manage to buy more coffee this evening though!

Today's mug is another from a trip to Scotland.

Lunch: More beans on toast!! One can = 2 meals. YUM. I ran out of hot dogs, so this one is just toast, beans and cheese.

I finished off part of Fiona's dinner (hummus and bread) as a pre-dinner snack...

Dinner: Leftover quiche, sweet potato bites, steamed broccoli (I added some teriyaki sauce to the broccoli after I took the picture).

This weekend we're going to Chicago and I'm sure there will be some exciting and delicious foods to share!

Lazy Vegetarian: Day 25

Breakfast. Tragedy! I ran out of coffee. And I tried to buy some more after dropping the girls off but Kowalski's only had Folgers and some other weird brand. What the heck? I had already warmed up the milk before I realized so I had to have hot chocolate instead. Disappointing.

Today's mug is from Colgate University where Ben's cousin Amanda studied. He thinks she gave it to him as a gift when she visited Ann Arbor.

Lunch: My friend Sang spotted British baked beans at a store and instead of just letting me know he'd seen them actually bought some for me as a surprise. Which makes him pretty much the awesomest friend ever. Thanks Sang :-) Most recent recipient of that honored title was Emily, who brought me Shortbread from her trip to Scotland, so if you'd like to win a place in my heart, you know what to do...

I had some beans for lunch today on toast with chopped up veggie hot dogs and cheese on top. Delicious.

British beans are different from American beans, I think mainly because they're not flavored with maple or molasses. They have a more tomato-ey flavour. I like American beans, but I could never eat them on toast.

Here's some interesting beans trivia, shamelessly copied from Wikipedia.

• 1886: Heinz Baked Beans are first launched at the Fortnum & Mason department store in London, United Kingdom, although they were manufactured in Canada.

• 1928: Heinz Baked Beans start being made in the United Kingdom.

• 1941-1948: The Ministry of Food classifies Heinz Baked Beans as an "essential food", as part of its wartime rationing system.

Essential Food. No kidding!!

After that I had some tea and a piece of the aforementioned Shortbread...

For dinner this evening I tried something new... acorn squash baked with butter and brown sugar (and maple syrup). I used this recipe though I used 1 tsp of sugar and one 1sp of maple syrup for each half instead of 1 tbsp of each. It was definitely enough.

I made onion, spinach, tomato, three cheese quiche to eat with it, and while I was working on these things I got dinner ready for the girls... short order cook? Yes. That's me.

Adele entertained herself very nicely while I was cooking. Before I got the video going she was saying "lie down, go to sleep baby". In the video she's just saying "lie down".

Ben got home late and by then it was bath and bedtime, so I warmed the food up again later. It was good, but I was super hungry ;-)

That's all for today. I promise, tomorrow I'll announce the grand prize winner of the cheetoes competition!

Lazy Vegetarian: Day 24

Breakfast: Latte and burned toast. Gah.

Today's mug is one that Fiona made for Ben for father's day last year. We went to paint your plate in Edina (which - crazily - doesn't have a website!) and Grandma came with us to hold Adele so I could help Fiona. Fiona had a lot of fun and Ben liked his gift.

This morning we had a halloween party with a bunch of friends. Fiona dressed up as a cat this year. We got ears and a tail (and bowtie, for some reason, which came with the cat accessories) and I attached a furry cat tummy to a black shirt, which she wore with black leggings. She is over the moon with her cat costume and was very sad to have to take it off this evening after wearing it all day.

Adele borrowed a puppy costume from her sweet friend Annabelle but got kind of warm and uncomfortable, so wanted to take it off again before I got a picture. I'll take one another time, it's very cute.

Fiona and Adele with some of their friends...

The party was potluck and there were some delicious snacks, and a very strange beverage that was a combination of tasty and fruity and gross and slimy. We brought cheesy potatoes and some strawberries. Adele ate most of the snacks I was trying to share with her though I managed to eat half a cookie and some potatoes. I forgot to take a picture, so here's a picture of the half cookie and potatoes I ate once I got home...

For dinner we had more potatoes (they are too good) and I made black bean burgers. I use this recipe, and it is yummy, thought I always add cumin, coriander and a little thyme to the burgers and skip the seasoned ketchup. Tonight I had mine with guacamole, spinach, tomato, cheddar cheese and bacon mayonnaise*

*Doesn't contain actual bacon. Does contain deliciousness.

Ben thought it was good.

Lazy Vegetarian: Day 23

Breakfast: Fiona asked for pancakes so that's what we had today! I made them with whole wheat flour and they were yummy!

Today's mug is from the trip to Scotland we took in 2007. I won round trip flights for two to Dublin in a competition at the Fineline on St. Patrick's Day (just by putting my name in the jar, I didn't have to embarrass myself in any way!) so we flew to Dublin for a few days then to Scotland for the family holiday, then back to Dublin for a day before heading home.

Mum and I being statues...

Edinburgh

We stayed in a beautiful house way out in the country. This is the hill behind the house. You had to climb it to get cell phone reception... a bunch of us climbed it one day, which involved trudging though a stream raging river, climbing over some fences and staring down a number of sheep.

These little girls are not little any more. And that makes us OLD.

Catriona has never been more impressed with an activity...

We made it!! Who got text messages?

We stayed in a B&B near Dublin for a night on our way back but I don't remember where it was... pretty though!

It was a fun trip!

Lunch: We hadn't been to the mall for a while so we went there this morning. We had pita pit for lunch... YUM!! I had falafel and hummus and veggies and we all shared some fries.

Fiona chose the Blues Clues ride to go on.

Adele doesn;t like to go on the rides, but does like to watch her sister!

This afternoon we walked (and Fiona tricycled) over to the park for a while. She's getting really fast and is pretty good at steering now. It took a lot of practice - I think she got my coordination genes!

Adele went on a big girl swing for the first time and LOVED it. I have a cute video but it's upside down and it's going to take some time to right-side-up it, so I'll have to post that another day.

Dinner... leftover soup and bread and some frozen taquitos (well, they weren't frozen after I cooked them).

This evening I put my mediocre sewing skills to the test and worked on Fiona's halloween costume. She has a party tomorrow and I'll reveal the finished product tomorrow. Prepare to be underwhelmed with the effort on my part ;-)

Lazy Vegetarian: Day 22

Breakfast. I woke up with a sore throat, stuffy head and sniffy nose. Thanks Fiona. So in addition to toast I had chamomile tea this morning. I'm telling myself it helped.

Today's mug is Ben's again. I got this for him when I was pregnant with Fiona and hid it until I went into labour. I packed it with my hospital stuff and gave it to Ben after she was born.

Lunch: I love broccoli cheddar soup but it turns out it's usually made with chicken broth (WHY?! It's made of vegetables!) so I had to make my own. It was meant to go in the blender but Adele was napping so I just bashed it up with the potato masher. That actually worked pretty well!

Broccoli Cheddar soup and bread.

This evening we dropped the girls at Grandma and Grandpa's, and the Tennants did the same and we all went out together to see a movie and have dinner. I know! 2 movies in one week! I could get used to this!

We saw 50/50 and it was really good. I was expecting something gross and goofy but it was more serious than that, though still funny. I'd definitely recommend it.

After that we had mexican food. Ohhhhh so good!

Chips and salsa.

Mushroom quesadilla, beans and rice.

Twoo wuv.

Thanks for going on a double date with us, C&E!!

Lazy Vegetarian: Day 20

I know, yesterday is also named day 20. I published it after midnight so when I checked the date it was already the next day. And my brain works more slowly after midnight so I didn't notice.

Breakfast. Toast and Latte.

Today's mug is from the to trip to Washington DC Ben and I took the summer we met.

Obviously from this picture you can't tell where we are so you will have to just trust me. This is the best photo of us from the trip, which is pretty sad, and that handsome fellow in the back is our friend Peter. He lives in Tennessee with his lovely wife and we miss them!

Lunch-ish. We went to the Como Zoo with friends and had a picnic. I had an apple and a delicious pumpkin bar made by the charming and talented Vicki.

Fiona was taking some photos later and I think managed to delete the one of the apple. But you know what an apple looks like at least.

Later at the zoo Fiona remembered I said she could have some ice cream so we had coffee (me) and ice cream (the girls) with our second wave of zoo friends.

I meant to eat some more lunch once we got home, but then I was busy cleaning and cooking while the girls both miraculously napped, so I forgot.

This evening we had friends over for dinner - I was going to make lasagne but I only had fusilli and I didn't have any onions so in the bolognese I used a lot of garlic, some kidney beans and a splash of red wine instead. I layered that with bechamel sauce and pasta, then topped it with cheese. Tanya and Boyd brought yummy salad and Emily made a delicious pan fried cauliflower with golden raisins and pine nuts.

For dessert Mandy and Aaron brought apple cake. Mmmm good. I may or may not have a slice hidden away for tomorrow.

It was a fun night hanging out with good friends while eating delicious food. I am looking forward to doing it again soon! Consider yourselves all officially invited :-)

Lazy Vegetarian: Day 20

Breakfast! Toast!! How exciting! And Latte!!

Today's mug was brought from Aberdeen. It is cute and has my name on it. I try not to use it too much because it already has a couple of chips out of it and I would be sad if it broke. So today was a special day :-)

Lunch... I happened to pass by the Co-op on my may home from work and couldn't resist the lure of fresh, delicious soup. They usually have at least 2 vegetarian options and one of them today was.... Borscht!! I've never had it so I gave it a try. It was pretty much like vegetable soup but slightly tangy. It was good.

I was also unable to resist the muffins today, but I chose a bran one to be healthy and only ate half.

But I did eat the other half a few hours later. So imagine the same picture a little later.

After I picked up the girlies we headed over to Shriners to have Adele's orthotics fitted! I'm so excited for her to have these finally!

She's interested in them. She doesn't like for me to take them off. She wears them half an hour on, half an hour off all day, moving up to more time on progressively. After a week or so she should have them on all the time.

She wears regular shoes over them because they are slippy and thin so could be damaged walking around on them.

Here's a video of her walking on them. In the past her left foot was twisted off to the side and she put her weight on the inside of her foot and ankle, but the shoe helps to straighten it out and point it forward. I was warned that there would be a big adjustment but so far she is doing great!

After they were fitted we hung out and played on their playground for a while. Fiona played "baby sloth needs to be rescued" and Adele played "stand there and look adorable".

Dinner was teriyaki veggie stir fry with noodles. It was yummy though a little overcooked.

This evening I had a lovely time going to see Footloose (yes, really) with one of my favorite friends. The movie was ok... the dancing was really great but the story was a bit cheesy. I kind of expected that though. It was fun :-)

Man, I wish I had that half muffin still... I'd like to eat it now.

I'll announce the winner of the big cheeto competition in the next few days. If you haven't cast your vote yet, better get on that! Also, for you British readers - cheetoes are like wotsits but fatter. Crunchy cheetoes are like 100 year old rock hard wotsits that got all messed up looking. Now, which do you prefer?! ;-)