Feeding picky jerks vegan food

Let me walk you through a timeline of dinner at my house:

4:00-the natives start to get restless, what's for dinner?
4:15-ingredients assembled, preparation begins
4:20-boiling, chopping, sauteing and measuring all being done while simultaneously keeping Mini out of the fridge (which she always violently protests), keeping Mini away from the oven, cleaning up pasta shells Mini has dumped onto the floor, rescuing playdough from Mini's mouth and trying to have a rousing debate with Biggest about why now is not the time for snack.
4:30-Pingu saves the day
4:33-Biggest takes up where we left off about negotiating for snacks
4:35-Settling for a glass of rice milk, Biggest now takes up a petition for the family to play Super Mario brothers together. Melts down when dinner preparation wins. Glass goes zooming across the kitchen and shatters. Clean up said glass while Mini tries to dance in the shards.
4:40-Turn off oven timer and instead program in a time out
4:45-Forget about oven items while talking to Biggest about why he had a time out
4:50-Oven treats burn. Rescue Mini from imminent death(she's jumping on the top bunk because the door was left open to their room).
4:55-Dinner's ready. Shut up and eat.
5:00-Mini may be a jerk, but girlfriend knows how to eat. She shovels it in while Biggest complains that it's too hot/cold/brown/cooked/not plain bread

I'm going to tell you a little secret, kids are assholes at meal times (and bedtime for that matter). One second they are dying of hunger, the next they could starve you out for weeks. Vegan kids are no different (though I do feel that my children's palate is probably more keen on dark leafy greens than most omniorious adults). Nothing pisses me off more than spending and hour in the kitchen to have them refuse to touch it. A few of Biggest and Mini's current no fail favorites:


1. Garlic bread. Whole wheat toast, earth balance buttery spread, dehydrated garlic powder and nutritional yeast. Bam, breakfast is served.

2. Smoothies! I'll save my secret smoothie recipe for another post-but biggest chooses two fruits and two vegetables. 60% of the time, it works every time.

3. Tortillas. Put anything in them, or nothing.

4. A loaf of bread/plain bagel. Carbs carb carb carb carbs! Who doesn't love carbs, and lots of em? Ask any 4 year old.

5. Mini loves soups of all sorts, Biggest is indifferent.

I'll end with a magical, life changing, super delicious, can never make enough, family favorite recipe. For hummus. That tastes like pizza.

Pizza Hummus
Servings: Never enough

1 can (or 1.5 cups cooked) chickpeas
3 cloves garlic (or less if you're wimpy)
2 tbs-1/4 cup olive oil
juice of a lemon
1/4-1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin
1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes, soaked in warm water for about 15 minutes to soften
1 tbs dried oregano
1 tbs dried basil

Rinse your chickpeas if using canned variety. Add all ingredients to food processor(start with smallest amount of olive oil, and drizzle in until you get your desired consistency) and process until smooth. Salt with smallest amount first, then taste and readjust as necessary. Next, drain the water off of your sundried tomatoes, add them and your spices. Blend again-Bam! Dinner is served. Pictured with roasted veggies, and pita (to roast, oven at 400-450c, a little olive oil, a little salt, keep your eye on them until brown!)


I served it with a fruit salad. The syrup is made of equal parts flax oil (for omega fats) and maple syrup. Dinner FTW! Now if I could just find guest that wear pants to the table....

Book Review: Appetite for Reduction

I've been a bit of a slacky blogger as of late, so to make it up to you- I'm going to sift through some food porn, write up some of my favorite dishes and hopefully blow your ever loving mind with vegan goodness. Before I do that, I have to gush about my favorite Christmas present. I've been an obsessive fan girl since I picked up Isa's first book "Vegan with a vengeance". At that time, I was a new vegetarian with the cooking skills of a seventh grader. A lot of the recipes sounded amazing, but had weird ingredients that required some searching and a lot of trying strange things. They also required skills and time management in the kitchen that I didn't have yet. So I made lists, went on ingredient treasure hunts and dove in feet first. I had so many delicious results that I had to have each book as they came out (many were co-authored by the awesome Terry Hope Romero, who me and Jules got to see in person at the Toronto Veg fest) :Veganomicon, Vegan brunch, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World, and Vegan Cookies Take Over Your Cookie Jar. I couldn't even begin to choose a favorite. Veganomicon is a vegan Bible, with basics like how to cook rice and beans plus recipes for just about every veggie or occasion under the sun. Vegan brunch has the best tempeh bacon in the world. As for cupcakes and cookies, I use these about every other day. Certainly not healthy, but amazingly delicious! When I want to show people how fantastic vegan food can taste, I look no further than these two. Appetite for Reduction doesn't have deserts, but it makes up for it with incredible, fast and easy recipes. All are under 400 calories and many are under 200; if you care about that sort of thing. Our favorite so far has been the Caesar Chavez salad with eggplant bacon. It's creamy, it's smokey, it made me weep with happiness. We also loved the blackened tofu with butternut squash coconut rice. Epic win! Isa started off in Brooklyn, and an international flavour in her cuisine really shines through.Check out some food porn from the book here. If you are just starting your vegan journey, are veg curious, or just looking for some great new cookbooks-I highly recommend picking up one of these bad boys. You might start a novice, but you'll leave a pro!