As most of you are aware I have been cooking and baking my way through Sarah Matheny’s cookbook, Peas and Thank You this year. I have posted 19 recipe reviews so far (and made quite a few more than that) and I’m totally in love with this book. I mean, I’m such a fan girl it’s a little embarrassing. Here are the five most recent recipes I’ve made. So so so good!!

	I was late to the party with blondies, I’m sure because my granny was never big on them. She maaaaaaay have made them once or twice but I have no childhood memories of these ‘brownies void of chocolate’ and once I discovered what they were I couldn’t get past the why? Why leave the chocolate out of a brownie? (read)
	One of the biggest hurdles we all have with healthy eating is time, unless of couse you either have someone to make all your meals for you or you’re willing to spend your shoe / yarn / cute dress / kitchen gadget money on prepared meals and snacks. (read)
	One photo and no recipe? Surely this is a cop out. No, no. I just really, really don’t want to give away recipes for free from a book that is worth buying not just because it was written and pulled together by a talented food blogger that I adore, but because these recipes are crazy good – and also kinda crazy. (read)
	I? Am a little in love with these falafels. Some of the ingredients were totally unexpected to me and I wasn’t sure if this was going to be a good idea, but I went with it, and trusted Mama Pea and what do you know? They’re amaazing. (read)
	This recipe comes together very simply and has just the right texture. Perfect with a cup of coffee or a glass of almond milk. My kids are not big on carrot cake, but 2/3 of them love this and I’m a serious fan of it. It’s nice to bring along when visiting because it’s uber healthy but still sweet! (read)

I have mentioned, but try not to broadcast that I generally make separate dinners for my family and myself. Occasionally, I’ll cheat and eat what I made for them or some slightly different version of it. I’m not trying to force my relatively newfound dietary beliefs on them, but I’m also not going to eat meat every night just because they are. I don’t ever bug them about it, I generally make healthier versions of their favorites and add in as many veggies and seeds and other goodies like that as I can without causing them to hate it, but I try to keep them happy and at the same time, lead by example. If they never come around to eat the way I strive to, that’s cool, but I’m going to keep on with it because it honestly does make me feel better.

Having said all of that, here’s this week’s menu!

August 20 – 26

Sunday – The Duggar’s Tater Tot Casserole (with homemade tater tots and broccoli) for the fam, Peas’ Crack Wrap for me and Caramel-Filled Brownies for dessert

Today, I’m linking up with Organizing Junkie

Sometimes I fear that if I post any more about my unending love for Mama Pea or her cookbook, she will think I am officially insane. Or like, get a restraining order or something. But I’m not crazy obsessed, I’m just smitten by a book filled with vegan recipes that not only doesn’t require me to sprout oat groats (wait, what?) but also tastes amazing and rarely takes a whole lot of effort – though when there is a recipe that does require a lot of effort (hello Crazy Good Hummas) it’s totally worth it.

This week is a bad week to be cooking a lot because the Ravellenic Games 2012 are still kicking and I reeeeeally want to finish the Modular Relay by Wednesday so I can attempt a second event. Incidentally, for those following along, last night I passed out with a puff count of 44/100. Today will be a serious knitting day. Hopefully. So anyhoo, while this week is a bad week to be playing in the kitchen, I’m going to anyway because I fell off the clean eating wagon a few weeks ago and have felt really uncomfortable and generally just gross since. I’m already starting to feel better and it’s only been a couple of days back on the wagon! Most of that is thanks to Mama Pea’s book. It really is inspiring. <3 This Week’s Menu – August 6-12

Sunday – Roasted Chicken with Root Veggies, Stuffing and Gravy for the fam, Vegetarian Pad Thai for me and Pea’s German Chocolate Cake for dessert

Here are a few photies of Mama Pea’s Baked Oatmeal Squares. Not because they’re on the menu this week, but because I’m snacking on one as I blog this morning.

Generally, a bowl of strawberries doesn’t need any dressing up around here. All of the kids will devour a bowl without any sugar on them, without them being dipped in chocolate (though that never hurts, especially if it’s dark chocolate). Sometimes, though, I feel like a little something and these little somethings are just the thing. No dairy, just a little hit of sugar and a tofu punch at the same time! Totally impossible to eat just one.

Let’s get educational, shall we? What’s so great about strawberries and tofu anyway? Weeeell, since you asked…

What’s so great about strawberries?
-1 cup of strawberries has 141% of your vitamin C for the day and 28% of your manganese (not to mention the fiber, folate, iodine, potassium, magnesium, vitamin k and omega 3 fats)
-cardiovascular support and prevention of cardiovascular diseases
-improved blood sugar regulation, with decreased risk of type 2 diabetes
-prevention of certain cancer types including breast, cervical, colon, and esophageal cancer
-anti-inflammatory
-amazing combination of phytonutrients–including anthocyanins, ellagitannins, flavonols, terpenoids, and phenolic acids

What about tofu?
-4 oz tofu has 43.7% of your daily tryptophan (an essential amino acid which is the key ingredient in serotonin, which promotes feelings of calmness and relaxation), 39.6% of your calcium, 34.5% of your manganese and 33.7% of your iron (plus protein, omega-3 fats, selenium, copper, phosphorus and magnesium)
-the iron in tofu is important because it’s used as part of hemoglobin,which is responsible for transporting and releasing oxygen throughout the body
-…and hemoglobin synthesis also relies on copper, which is also in abundance in tofu
-soy protein can help to lower total cholesterol levels by as much as 30%, lower LDL (bad cholesterol) levels by as much as 35-40%
-soy protein may reduce cholesterol and the risk of heart disease
-lower triglyceride levels, reduce the tendency of platelets to form blood clots, and possibly even raise levels of HDL (good cholesterol)
-helpful in alleviating the symptoms associated with menopause

4 ounces non dairy cream cheese, like Tofutti
1/2 cup extra firm silken tofu
1/2 cup icing sugar
2 tablespoons lemon or orange juice

Just chop the tops off the strawberries and hollow them out. Pulse together all the ingredients and pipe the filling into the strawberries however you want. Pastry bag, zippy bag, spoon…whatever.

As I sit here, listening to The Andrew Sisters (yes, really) and planning out the menu this week, I’m already thinking of the banana bread I’m going to make this afternoon. The rant about it is after this week’s menu plan and no, I didn’t post the recipe. I swear the book is worth the mere $10 for the eBook. This week, for whatever reason I’m not sure, I’m feeling especially like a domestic goddess. Maybe my weekend soap making adventures with my friends working out pumped me up? Maybe it was reinstating Sunday dinner that did it? I’m not sure, but I want to scrub the patio and wash the windows and cook and bake everyone’s favorite everything! This week’s menu is a little of everyone’s favorite everything.

This Week’s Menu!

Sunday – Lasagna with Homemade Rolls and Blueberry Pie for dessert

In her book, Peas and Thank You, Sarah Matheny boasts that this recipe will make you actually want to make banana bread – that it will no longer be a necessary way to deal with spotted bananas on the counter. I read that and thought, dude, it’s banana bread, we all like it but no one makes it on purpose. Well, it’s true. I now purposely put some bananas in a paper bag (speeds up ripening) the same day I bring them home from the grocery store. I love this banana bread and so does everyone I’ve served it to!

I hope everyone is off to have an amazing and memorable Father’s Day! If you are lucky enough to be able to hang out with your Dad today – go hang out with him! My husband and I will have to settle for Skype convos with our Dads tonight, but that’s after we spend the day celebrating here with the wee ones!

For now though, here’s a quick look at our week!

Sunday = my personal cheerleader	Monday = rad new shirt
Tuesday = so ugly it’s cute cookie jar	Wednesday = knitting on the patio
Thursday Morning = these animal crackers are not for sharing	Thursday Afternoon = time to plant some patio garden seedlings
Thursday Afternoon = patio seedlings started off in repurposed toilet paper tubes
Friday = the possibilities in soap making combos are pretty much endless – so exciting	Saturday = making personalized recipe cards

Today I’m linking up with Dandelion House, Happy Go Lucky Blog, and Chubby Cheeks Thinks.

I have had a love for all things vintage and slightly chipped and worn and almost matching for as long as I can remember. I used to beg my department store-loving mother to take me downtown to Toronto’s Kensington Market so I could hunt for treasures from my favorite thrift stores. The concept of used clothing totally skeezed her out so most of the time my dad and I would go together – and more often than not, he’d find a treasure himself!

My husband however, is not so down with vintage stuff. I’m not going to get all psychological here, but he’s defo the kind of guy that likes new and shiny things. He likes sets of things that match. He likes new and matchy things even more than I like vintagey things, so a very long time ago (over a decade ago anyway) I stopped bringing random old cups and mismatched plates home and instead started hitting up Ikea and Pier 1 and if I’m totally honest there may have been some Crate & Barrel and even some Pottery Barn going on as well. Last year we bought a very pretty house in the woods of Central Ontario and we were slowly filling it with catalog wish list goodies. Then my husband was offered a situation he couldn’t refuse in Los Angeles – so off we went!

Fast forward to a few months later. We came down here with just a small trailer of absolute necessities. We packed light for two reasons – we didn’t think we’d be here very long and we knew we had to declare every single thing we were bringing aka ‘importing household items’ for CBP. After some bitching about how lacking my LA kitchen is (and truthfully the rest of our apartment is equally lacking), my friend Vanessa brought over some thrifted cups and cutlery for us to use because she’s super sweet like that, and one of those cups is now my husband’s hands down favorite cup of all time. He oddly likes that there isn’t another one of them in our little collection, which of course spawned a conversation about the possibility of creating a vintagey apartment down here and it was like 1000 Christmases rolled into one when he said he was totally down with it. All I’ve thrifted since that convo is a zebra print plate and a Little Miss Chatterbox cup, however last night? Oh last night I spent hours on Etsy looking for just the right picnic basket.

I proudly found this $60 wagon at a streetcorner ‘yard’ sale for $15 a couple of weeks ago and can now pull my two smallest wee ones to the farish park that’s perfect for picnics. Vanessa and I took the kids there for a picnic once already but picnics are always better when you’re rockin a beautiful picnic basket, right? Right?

These baskets are all amazing. I adore them and once I complete my actual shopping list of things I need for our new place I’d love to get a couple more and start a collection. I’m not including the basket that I picked in these pictures, I’m going to wait until it gets here and show it to you on a picnic!

This is one of the first ones I fell in love with. It’s $50 but there’s no domestic shipping on it! The fabric inside it melts my heart and I absolutely adore the double lid.	I crossed this one off my list when I decided that I had to have a double lid, otherwise this was a strong contender because it’s so roomy and I’m always packing a picnic for at least 4!
The charm of this basket is that it comes full of goodies (4 each; large plates, saucers, coffee cups, drinking glasses, forks, knives & spoons). I came thisclose to picking this basket and it’s dishes.	Are you kidding me?! A pie basket?! I love this!! I think it might be a bit too small for us though and again, as sweet as this one is the one I picked is even sweeter!

In this Etsy adventure I also found a really adorable little something for my sister – shipping on it to Canada is the same as here, so I could even have it shipped right to her so I’m not paying shipping twice! I also came across a lot of really painfully cute plastic picnic baskets from the 70s for the kids, but I’m not sure I can justify getting one for all of us and then another one! There is one more picnic basket that was in the running that I’m not going to post because it is perfect for patio picnics and I can’t wait to show it to you – on my patio!

Obviously, I’m obsessing over all things picnic (summer has officially hit LA, but of course coming from Canada even their ‘winter’ is official summer to us) and all things vintage (getting the thrifty green light from my husband has me totally over the moon with excitement). I apologize to everyone who reads this blog and loves all things shiny and new because I have a pretty good feeling that all of my Window Shopping Wednesday posts are going to focus on all things slightly worn. 😉

I will leave you today with some vegan picnic inspiration, courtesy of Mama Pea. I haven’t coughed up any recipes from this book yet because I really think it’s worth picking up – but Mama Pea gives you this recipe on her blog.

I’m aware that I used a piece of bread and the recipe clearly calls for a tortilla. Since I snapped this photie, I have made them properly and they amazing either way. They’re perfect picnic food too and will absolutely find a place in my new basket. <3

I’m editing the site today so if something is wonky or broken, it wont be for long!

This week, I’m linking up with Organizing Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday and The How To Mommy’s Meal Planning Monday.

For years and years and years now, I have been a planner. Both in the ‘knowing whats for dinner next Tuesday’ kind of way and in the ‘I keep a notebook of running ideas I add to my calendar’ kind of way. This way of thinking and planning had ingrained itself in me pretty deeply. So deeply that not knowing exactly how long we’d be in California was stressing me out before we even left Canada. It bothered me that as I was reading through blog posts of neat home decor projects I didn’t know when or where I’d be able to work on them, or that I didn’t know what my routine would be like with homeschooling so I had no idea when I’d be blogging or how much time I’d have for baking. I’m not kidding, it honestly stressed me out to think about not having the info I needed to make solid plans and even worse that there was no way for me to find out that info because it just didn’t exist yet. So I packed up our most loved and used treasures, helped my husband change the oil and tried not to freak out about it too much.

At first, about a week before we left when we were still looking at apartments in LA online and trying to pack up the last of our ‘must have’ list, I started to let go of the idea that I’d know exactly where we’d be living. I rationalized to myself that it was ok to not know yet since I’d like to see the place in person before deciding to move there anyway. So leaving Canada without having picked a place in LA ushered me into letting go of planning, which made it a lot easier and honestly a lot more fun for all of us to just enjoy our 2700 mile road trip! We totally did too! It was so so so much fun!

After that, instead of pressuring my husband and rental-unit-finder person (what’s that job called?!) into getting us a place ASAP, we moved into a really cute extended stay suite with a wee (but sweet) kitchen and spent some time finding a great place for us. Ever since then, I’m pretty breezy about plans. I mean yes I still menu plan, but that’s a sanity saver more than anything else – and I rarely actually make these meals in order (plus down here there is a lot more popping out to Chipotle and tossing all plans aside). Of course there is homeschool planning to do, but really I just read ahead in the homeschool books at night so I know what I’m teaching the kids the next day, I don’t obsess over exactly what needs to be taught each school day and exactly what needs to be on each review for each unit. I will roll with it.

So now that I know that we are here for a while, I’m not freaking out about exactly how long or when we’ll upgrade to a bigger place or if we even upgrade to a bigger place and man – this feels so good! So here’s my tentative menu plan for this week – and yes I’m aiming to make these fudgy snowballs twice because they’re uber simple and a serious hit with the whole fam (even Wee One #1 who is not big on dates).

This Week’s Menu
Monday – Spaghetti with Meatballs and Breadsticks for the fam, Spaghetti without Meatballs for me and Cinnamon Buns for dessert

Sunday – Beef Stroganoff for the fam, Crack Wrap for me and Chocolate Chip Cookies for dessert

Fudgy Snowballs – via Skinny Taste

15 pitted dates
2/3 cup cocoa
1 cup whole roasted unsalted almonds
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp + water
3 tbsp icing sugar

Grind up the almonds into almost dust and add the dates. I pre-chop mine a little so they don’t gum up my food processor! Then add the honey, cocoa and water and process till it holds together.
Now scoop out small balls and roll them tightly. Just like this, these treats are perfect but to make them snowbally, you need to roll them in icing sugar.
Voila! Simple and pretty healthy (especially if you leave off the icing sugar).

I know I have been singing serious praises for this cookbook all year but it really is everything I’m hyping it up to be and no one is even asking me to do it!

Another winner from this book, this time a breakfast treat. Even one of me wee ones that isn’t really into pears was down with this. You probably have everything you need for these already and if you don’t own a waffle maker (aside from this recipe being a good excuse to buy yourself one), I’m betting you could easily make pancakes from this batter as well.

So what’s so great about pears? Well, let’s get into it. They’re high in vitamin c and copper, which are both antioxidant nutrients. Aside from that, vitamin c is mega important for general immune function, it’s the boss guy that gets your white blood cells ready to fight infections and kills off bacteria and viruses. That’s pretty serious! It also helps to regenerate vitamin e (an antioxidant for fat-soluable areas, as opposed to vitamin c being an antioxidant for water-soluable parts of the body). Pears also pack a good fiber punch, and fiber has been shown to lower high cholesterol levels. It also binds to cancer-causing chemicals in the colon, preventing them from damaging colon cells. There are also studies that suggest that fruit fiber as a whole helps prevent post-menopausal breast cancer and macular degeneration (aka, your eyes). So eat up!!

Vegans, or I guess I specifically mean vegan cookbook writers (or vegan recipe thinker uppers in general) are pretty magical. How can a diet that is free of cheese hand you cheesecake, or even ‘cheesecake’? Even low fat cheesecake that’s made from actual cream cheese tastes like crap most of the time, so how does cheesecake that’s extremely low in fat that’s not even made from actual cream cheese taste so amazing?! I’m not really looking for an answer, because Mama Pea has this dip on deck, so it’s all good in the hood. Or wherever, you know.

Ahem.

What I love about this dip is it works just as well as a base for an oatmeal parfait concoction – which we have used the second half for every time I’ve made it so far. Wee One #3 basically eats it like pudding, not so patiently dealing with the bits of oatmeal and flax and berries in her way. It’s a rough life, right?

Again, no recipe for you, just buy the book, it’s totally worth it I swear.

First, put a buncha stuff in your food processor! Then dip berries in it!

This week, I’m linking up with Organizing Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday and The How To Mommy’s Meal Planning Monday.

My kitchen is so confused. Silken tofu and dairy free cream cheese in the morning, buttermilk fried chicken at night. What can I say? I cook what makes me happy and then I do my best to cook for my family the things that make them happy. There is a lot of dish washing going on around here.

I first found this recipe in February and bookmarked it to do it, but I’m not a huge fan of frying (or more specifically, the splashy mess it makes of my stove top) so I put it off. Once we got down to LA I thought it was time to actually cook up some of these dusty bookmarked recipes and away I went. I’m not going to lie, it feels so wrong to pour that much oil in a pot and have at it, but I’ll keep the honesty going and admit that it was actually a fun recipe to make.

Super simple to do, as long as you make sure your oil doesn’t get too hot (but gets hot enough) and you have some patience with it. Everyone loved this meal, I served it with wedges! I will not be making this again this week, but it did rank really high with the fam so I will likely make it again soonish and thought it’d be a fun addition to Menu Monday! This week I will photograph all of the recipes as I do them so I can link back to them!

This Week’s Menu:

Sunday – Mini Chicken Hot Pockets with Potato Rings for the fam, Chick Pea Salad for me and Salty Sweet Butterscotch Brownies for dessert

Buttermilk Fried Chicken – via Allrecipes

Before you do anything, mix all of the ingredients in the left column with the buttermilk, plunk your chicken in it and soak for about 6 hours. Then get your oil heating and theeeeeeen, mix all the ingredients on the right side and use that to dredge your chicken pieces in.
So you just shake off the buttermilk coated piece of chicken and place it in the seasoned flour. Roll it around a bunch to make sure it’s totally coated. Pile them all up and wait for your oil to heat to about 350 degrees.
Now add your chicken to the pot, with 2 1/2 quarts of oil you should be able to cook all of the chicken at once. Leave it in there for about 10 minutes, then poke at it and turn all the pieces around and leave it for another 10-15 minutes. Dry the chicken on pieces of paper towel for at least 10 minutes. Serve with wedges and a salad!