All-You-Can-Slurp-Popsicles

I am not a "yes" Mom. I wish I was, but more often than not I'm a "No, stop it, right now, immediately, no way!" Mom. So having popsicles on-hand that the kids can eat whenever they please makes me feel a little better about my parenting!



Every few weeks when we get low, the kids and I make up a huge batch of homemade popsicles and keep them in the freezer so they and their friends can help themselves. We make them all at one time so I don't have to be bothered too frequently (remember, I'm inherently very lazy). We make about 30 at a time, and it takes about 30 minutes to get them all into the freezer.



After they're done, I take them out of the holders and leave them in a bin in the freezer so the kids and their friends can grab whenever they like. I have been so pleased to see how much their friends like them; they're pretty healthy so I didn't know how they'd go over with kids who aren't used to our way of eating. Not only do they like them, two Dads have mentioned how their kids talk about them all the time and came over to get their own tastes!



To make them I just use frozen fruit, almond milk and water (fill to just below the top of the fruit), and a squeeze or two of agave nectar in each blender. When I was in DC, I used the frozen organic fruit from Trader Joes. Here in Panama a 6-inch bag of frozen organic raspberries is over $6!! So when I found non-organic big bags of frozen fruit at PriceSmart, I counted my blessings and bought them thankfully. Our choices here are blueberries, strawberries, and a combo bag of pinapple-mango-peach-strawberry. I let the kids choose how to mix and match. Our neighbor Neely (10) loves strawberry-banana so we always make a batch of those for her.

We also use the same mix to make "scrapies" - the kids eat these with a spoon while they're still frozen.



To make about 30 popsicles, I'm estimating it costs about $11.50 (or about 40 cents each):

* Almond milk: $3 * Agave: $.50 * Frozen fruit: $8

Here are our favorite popsicle molds from Amazon:

* Cutie-pie ice cream cones. These are on the smaller side and easy for little kids to hold onto. We have two sets of these!



* Bug molds - the boys love these. They are HUGE!




* Rocket pops! These are medium-sized.



* Straight-up popsicles. Pretty good-sized.



* Star molds, big favorites with everyone. Medium-sized.



* I bought these for one of Jack's Chanukah presents; we haven't tried them yet. Small ones.



These are the containers I use for the "scrapies":



Remember: anything you can do ahead of time will make your life better. Give it a try!

What do you eat? Vegan pesto edition!

I've been meaning to try making my own pesto ever since I tried LeGrand's vegan pesto at one of those sample booths at Whole Foods. I didn't even realize it was vegan when I first tried it; all I knew is that I wasn't overloaded with cheese and that it was bright and tasty.



My first try today wasn't excellent. It was good, and since the flavors are so simple it was easy for me to get close, but it still needs work. I made it a bit too salty, and even at its teeny amount the parsley was just too much for me (I am not a parsley fan). Here's what I did today: 2/3 cup cashews, soaked for an hour 2.5 ounces basil .25 ounces parsley 3 tbsp olive oil 2 tbsp lemon juice 1 tsp salt If anyone tries and comes up with a tweak to smooth out the flavors a bit, please share it back with me! I turned this into a pesto pasta salad: whole wheat rotini, chopped up bell peppers, broccoli (I softened up the broccoli by throwing it into the boiling pasta water about 5 minutes before I drained the pasta). Cooled the pasta down, added in the veggies and pesto, and served!



Everyone ate it without comment, even though it was the first time they'd had pesto before. Both kids had two bowls, and there's enough for Stewart's lunch tomorrow. I'll keep experimenting with this one since herbs are so cheap here (the basil cost me about $2)! Yay Panama!

What do you eat? Greek salad edition!

I'm generally a follow-the-recipe kind of cook. Unlike my friend Dave, if I start throwing ingredients around, nothing good comes from it. So I stick to a script and everybody gets out alive. I made a minor tweak to a recipe today and it was a big success (in my humble opinion!) so I'm excited to write about it.

Tonight we had vegan greek salad: cucumbers (de-seeded, skin on), bell peppers, and tomatoes (de-seeded) all chopped into bite-size pieces (I like to be able to eat a salad with a spoon. Odd, I know. It does make it easy for the kids to eat, so there's that.) I like this kind of recipe because you can always add in whatever you like; tonight I added half a can of corn and some small-chopped romaine that were on their way out of this life. Traditional? No. Yummy? Yes.



I googled around for a greek salad dressing and found this one at All Recipes. Looked good, reviews were good. I made it as printed (scaled to 8 servings which I think the link will do for you), except for substituting an "all flavor" kind of herb for the onion powder (didn't have any), using 1/3 cup red wine vinegar, and adding 1 tbsp lemon juice from the jar. So the big tweak? I soaked about 1/3 cup of cashews for an hour or so before making the dressing, and threw those in the blender with the other ingredients. It came out creamy, thick, tangy, and delicious. I dressed it about a half hour before diner. It got pretty watered down once it was on the food, despite all the de-seeding, so I'd use it right before eating. still tasted good!



Served with bread and "butter" (Earth Balance). You can see Jack's dinner priorities in this pic:





In non-food news, I found out that I got my provisional Top Secret security clearance which means that I can work (secretary rover) whenever they have need of me. I'm up for a proper part-time position; pitted against my across-the-street neighbor Stacey. That's not uncomfortable at all. Ugh. Hopefully we'll hear who got it in a week or two. The boys are happy at school, our maid is great, and I'm busy planning Jack's birthday and Halloween and Thanksgiving and Chanukah! We're doing great on our budget and haven't eaten dinner out even once this month. Very pleased! Tomorrow night...falafel? We'll see!

What do you eat? Vegan sausage edition!

I have this thing about fake-meat; I love it, but I don't mistake it for meat. Nothing tastes like a steak except for steak. No veggie burger on earth will taste like a real burger. Enjoy fake meat for itself, not because it will remind you of any meat you've ever tasted. And I do enjoy veggie burgers, vegan sausages, all of that stuff - I enjoy them a bunch. But they're pricey and loaded with fakey-stuff, and pretty hard to find here in Panama (and costly when you do).



 Before we moved down here, I made a list of projects I've been dying to work on but haven't really had quite enough time to sink my teeth into. Making my own seitan was one of them and I think I've made a good start. Stewart says this is now his favorite dinner, and the boys and I enjoy it a bunch as well. It freezes beautifully so I'm able to pull these sausages out of the freezer for an easy fun dinner. The only thing I haven't tried is grilling them; I'm keeping some in the freezer now for the next time someone has a barbecue on Friday night.

This recipe is taken from Vegan Dad's version of Isa's vegan sausages. I followed it almost exactly; my only changes are to use half the amount of pepper (it still had good heat for us with half), no paprika, and a bit less nutritional yeast than called for (it was too noochy the first time I made it).



This recipe is really easy and takes only a few minutes of prep. The ingredients are simple, and it takes very little TLC. Definitely worth trying. See Vegan Dad's site for ingredients and instructions. Here's how I do it (I double the recipe and make 12 big sausages:)

Whir the fennel seeds in the food processor to break them down, then add some of the veggie broth (out of 2 cups total) and all of the beans to get them nice and smooth.



While they're whirring, add the spices and the nooch and the rest of the ingredients to a bowl EXCEPT for the wheat gluten. Hold that back.



Add the bean mixture to the bowl and stir to combine. Add the wheat gluten and mix immediately. It will turn into a floppy dough.



I usually separate into 12 even chunks but next time I'm going to try 16 slightly smaller ones. Anyway, use a knife to cut into even pieces. Form each piece gently into a sausage shape and roll up like a tootsie roll in some tin foil.





Steam for 45 minutes until they're spongey but firm. They should hold their shape when you poke them.





You can eat them as is, but they taste especially fabulous fried in a TINY bit of oil in a pan. The sides crisp up and they're really great. Today I served with rosemary roasted potatoes; Saturday I will serve with the traditional classy crinkle cut french fry.



Yum. Very curious what my omni family will say about this one when they come down for Thanksgiving. Jason, you're my official test subject. Get ready!

What do you eat? Peanut noodle edition!

Jack was so sick yesterday and we're all recovering, so I needed something easy for dinner tonight. Grabbed some frozen peanut sauce (talked about it here) and dug some soba noodles out of the pantry. I love recipes like this which allow you to use up whatever veggies you have on-hand



Simple recipe: cook noodles, cool down with water, drizzle with sesame oil to keep from sticking, sautee veggies, add cucumber strips (optional, of course), mix in peanut sauce. Serve cool or warm, whatever you like. I used 20 ounces of soba noodles; I do find that the recipe, as written, is a little too much for a regular pound of pasta. If you use it, just pour most on the pasta and reserve a bit for use as a dip or whatever else you'd like. Nate wasn't into it tonight, but he's also clearly coming down with what Jack had (fever, headache) so I give him a pass (this is a "thumbs-medium")

 

 Jack had toast for breakfast, lunch, and dinner so he wasn't given a vote. We had enough for 3 of us for dinner, Stewart's lunch at work, and probably mine as well. Tomorrow I plan to make something more complicated so stay tuned!

What do you eat? Pancake edition!

I've been meaning to try this for a while and opportunity presented itself when Stewart took the boys swimming with some friends this morning.

We're trying to save some money for next month (Thanksgiving, and some welcome family guests) so I have us eating from the pantry this past week and this coming week. Found a box of Bisquick and decided to veganize some pancakes for lunch today.

 Disclaimer: I honestly haven't read the Bisquick box to see if there are any animal products in the standard mix. There may be some milk powder or something.

 To make the panckes with the Bisquick mix, I used Bob's Egg Replacer mix (1 tbsp mix + 3 tbsp water = 1 egg) and one cup of almond milk instead of regular mix. Cooked them in Earth Balance margarine and used regular pancake syrup that we bought when we were missing maple syrup (I can't find it anywhere here!). Served with homemade hummus and carrots and bell peppers.

 

 I thought they were great. Stewart says they were a "tad" cakey but he only said that when I told him they were vegan. :-) Before that, he was "mmmmm...."ing so I'm calling vegan-bias on his cakey complaint. Kids downed them happily. Will make the rest for a cheap lunch tomorrow!

What do you eat? Summer roll edition

Since we're eating from the pantry this week (trying to use up the random things I have around and keep the weekly grocery bill low), we're getting fancy with a package of rice paper and some rice noodles, tofu, a Panamanian avocado, cilantro, and my favorite peanut sauce.



 The peanut sauce comes from an Epicurious recipe and we all love it enough to drink it straight. I quadruple the recipe each time I make it and freeze the other 3 portions for use on linguini (we'll probably have that next week). I obviously use veggie stock instead of chicken stock, but otherwise follow the recipe verbatim.



 Nate was my sous chef tonight; he got the rice paper wet, I filled it, and then he rolled it up. But when a friend stopped by to chat for a few, Nate took over completely and made 6 rolls entirely on his own! Go little chef!

 

 The kids still don't love avocado so their rolls were just noodles, sauce, cilantro, and tofu that I'd marinated in Soyaki. Grown-up ones were sans tofu, plus avocado. Yum. If I'd had green onions, I would have gladly used them. The nice thing about summer rolls is you can fill them with anything you darn well please! I've even seen people make them without noodles, just sautee'd veggies. This isn't a particularly healthy dinner, but it's not too bad and it's fun to eat. The verdicts?

 

What do you eat? Lentil edition

When people find out that our house is mostly free of animal-products (no meat, eggs, dairy, cheese, etc.), they inevitably ask at some point: "So what do you guys eat?!?!"

Somehow, despite getting dinner on the table most nights, I really never know what to tell them. Since I'm living the life of luxury here in Panama with a full-time maid to help out, I'm able to enjoy cooking again and do homemade most nights. So I thought I'd document dinners, include some recipes, and let the kids give a Thumbs-Up-Medium-or-Down on the meal.

 Tonight we had Lentil Night, one of Nate's favorite. I was introduced to the sauce by Stewart's cousin Colleen who uses it as her brisket recipe. I tried it for my once-a-year-meat-at-Chanukah brisket several years ago and it was a HUGE hit. A big enough hit that my mother put me in charge of the yearly brisket. Anyone who knows Jewish Mothers knows that's saying a lot. I give all the credit to Colleen. 

About a year ago, I had the idea to try the sauce on lentils, sort of a "sweet and sour sloppy joe lentil stew." It was a big success and we eat it once every week or two. Besides being delicious and nutritious (mostly), it's cheap and filling! This recipe makes enough for dinner for us 4, several days of lunches for Stewart, and another dinner for us 4 later on in the week. I never ever cook for just one night - I'm far too lazy for that! If you want to make a normal sized amount, just cut everything in half and use one bag of lentils (with no extra beans) - it will be a little less saucy than we like but still great.



Recipe:

Cook one pound of lentils (I just boil in water) and when they're done, drain and add two cans of cooked beans (I used one can white and one can black beans tonight but any are fine). Set aside.

In a large-sided pot or pan (I use the same one I cooked the lentils in), sauté any veggies you have in the fridge, along with a couple of onions, in whatever oil you want. Tonight it was red peppers, garlic, onions, and some tomatoes in canola oil. When the veggies are soft and starting to brown, add the lentils back into the pot.

Make the sauce by adding to the pot of lentils: two jars of Heinz chili sauce (or generic version), two cans of beer, a bunch of brown sugar (I used about a half pound tonight), and some soy sauce (I used about 6 tbsp tonight). That's it! Stir the sauce it into the lentils and let simmer for a half hour or so, serve over brown rice or on hamburger buns for "sloppy lentils" or over pasta! It's pretty sweet with a lot of tang and I would expect most kids to really like it. Let me know if you try it!

The verdict at our house: