1. Apparently my baby doesn't care about daylight savings time and that she's still supposed to wake up at 6:30 NOT 5:30. AND she doesn't care that I'm sick and I need to rest a little bit. NO! She wants to wake me up at 5:19 am to be exact and squeel with delight, ever fading into frustration, until I get her out of her crib. What kind of MONSTER am I raising here???
2. Veganism is not easy for on the fly meals. I'm getting better, but you really have to plan meals out, which is something I don't do well when I'm sick and tired, literally. It's also not so good for snacking. It used to be that as a new mom, I would often forget to eat lunch, or not forget but simply not be able to put the baby down long enough to eat. By the time 3:00 rolls around and I'm shaking because I'm hungry, I'd used to go rummaging through the fridge until I settled on a string cheese usually, which would tide me over until I could make something substantial. The other day, I went through that same scenario, but found nothing. Yeah I could eat some carrot sticks, but when you're that hungry, you want something that you feel will fill you up. I finally ate the last of the pistachios and made lunch.
So the last few days have gone like this.
Sunday, we woke up at 5:19 am as mentioned. My hubby took the babe after a while and let me sleep. Aww how sweet! I was planning to make Coconut Banana French toast but I just wasn't feelin' it so I made a different breakfast from the Skinny Bitch Ultimate Everyday Cookbook. Behold the Breakfast Bake.
What??? That doesn't look like real cheese, you say? That's because it's not real cheese and trust on this one, from someone who likes cheese A LOT, it doesn't taste like real cheese either. It's Follow Your Heart vegan cheddar cheese but it tastes more like "processed cheese food". Actually it tastes exactly like the cheese spread you get with cheese and crackers. Anyway, This was an otherwise good breakfast and I will make it again without the cheese. It included onions, potatoes, mushrooms, soy sausage, and garlic! Yum! I ended up eating about half of my portion, giving the rest to Derek, and making myself some toast.
That was brunch.
For dinner, I quickly pulled some stuff together. I put 3 breaded chik'n patties (Morningstar farms italian herb) on my Pampered chef medium stoneware baker, lined up down the middle. Then I sliced up a potato, a yellow squash, and a zucchini ratatouille style and threw them in a ziploc with some canola oil, and some pampered chef seasonings and shook it like a Polaroid picture. I scattered those around the chik'n and baked it according to the chik'n package directions. I think it was 375 for 15 minutes or so. It was really good! It's good to have those meals in your head that you can pull out in a pinch. Also, side note: You may remember that I ate this same chik'n a few days ago on a sandwich and it was hard as a rock because I microwaved it. This time I baked it and it came out amazing. So the lesson here is, when a package says "recommended method of cooking", use that method.
We went out after dinner and on the way home, got Starbucks. Hubby didn't realize until we were ordering that he couldn't have his usual latte so he got a soy latte, which he said wasn't as creamy as usual but was better than regular coffee. Since it's fall, I enjoyed my favorite fall beverage, caramel apple cider. (I'll have to check the ingredients in the caramel later and next time ask for no whipped cream).
On Monday, hubby and I had a day together with the little turd-dropper as he calls her. We woke up at the crack of dawn with her and had an agenda: go to Guitar Center and Marshalls. We both were ready to go very early but we didn't eat breakfast before we headed out the door and we were out of caffeinated coffee. OH NO! So we went through the Jack in the Box drive through. I got an orange juice, he got a coffee and we both got a 5 piece hashbrown bag. I don't know what they fry in so I'll have to look into it but it was fine to tide us over till lunch.
We had a gift certificate for our favorite Greek place, Papapavlos, so we went there for lunch. Baby sat in a high chair for the first time, or should I say slumped in her high chair because she fell asleep almost immediately when we got there. It did make for a stress free lunch for us though! Hubbs had the special which was Blackened Salmon atop a Greek salad which he asked to be prepared without the feta. I'm so proud of him! I cheated with a Mediterranean Pizza that had veggies but lots of cheese. I told you I'm a cheese fiend! We also had loads of pita bread dipped in oil and vinegar and a mushroom appetizer. It was so good and so nice to have a day out together. Because the little munchkin was asleep, it was almost like a date!
For dinner, we were both tired and I'm still feeling under the weather so I didn't plan anything to cook. We had some soup I got from Raley's. Creamy Broccoli and vegetable (I think that's what is was called), but I do know that the creaminess did not come from cream, I think it must've come from potatoes. It was really good. I also made a large salad for each of us with baby greens, cucumber, tomato, salt, pepper and oil and vinegar. I toasted 2 pita breads in the toaster and cut them into wedges. I have to say now, that I don't like whole wheat pita bread! Hubby liked it but I found it cardboard-y. Yuck.
Yesterday, Hubby had to go back to work. For breakfast I had 2 pieces of whole wheat toast, with almond butter and cinnamon sugar. I felt a little better about this meal than the toast with margarine and cinnamon sugar. It did hold me over for a little longer too. Also, of course, my beloved coffee. It has never been so useful or so needed until after I had this little baby here.
By the time I was ready to make lunch, I was really hungry and I threw together a big chik'n taco. I cooked a chik'n patty in the oven. Meanwhile, cut up half a tomato, one stalk of green onion, half of an avocado, and put it all with some baby greens down the center of burrito sized tortilla. By that time, the chik'n was done so I cut it into little chunks and added that to the tortilla. I wanted some kind of sauce and I had recently bought Toffuti Sour Cream. This is the first time I used this and it is really more of a cream cheese consistency. I mixed that with some Pace salsa and poured it over the ingredients. It was yummy! Since I keep my tortillas in the freezer to keep them from going bad, the tortilla kinda fell apart when I tried to roll it up so I ended up eating it with a fork but it was still satisfying. Another yummy on the fly recipe in my bag, Check!
Hubby had to go to band practice so I was ridin' solo again last night. I didn't want soup again so I made Super Stuffed Mushrooms, which I made up. Here is what I did.
2 portobello mushroom caps, ribs removed, stems removed and set aside
1 zucchini, chopped into a small dice
1/4 cup red onion, diced
1 large clove of garlic, minced or pressed
2 tbls oil of choice
1 tbls Follow Your Heart vegan butter spread
4 tbls seasoned breadcrumbs
2-4 tbls Follow Your Heart mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/4 c pine nuts
Seasonings of choice. I used Pampered chef Italian mix, sundried tomato rub, salt and pepper
Preheat oven to broil.
In a small saute pan, heat oil and butter. Add onion and garlic and saute for a minute. Add zucchini and saute until almost soft. Add seasoning, pine nuts and chop mushrooms stems and add. Saute for 1-2 minutes. Place mushroom caps upside down on a baking sheet. Pour mixture into caps. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs and follow with cheese. Broil about 10 minutes or until mushrooms are tender and cheese is melted.
This was really good and I made it up! I will probably make it again with rice or something. Hubby had the leftovers when he got home and really liked it too!
I hope you enjoy the recipe! Please let me know if you try it!!
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