A few weeks I sent in a picture I took of the girls at zoo this summer to our newspaper for consideration for the “Our Towns” section.

Low and behold it showed up today’s paper! I positively squealed when my dad called this morning to tell me. When I showed Ava she said “I’m in the newspaper! Finally!”

It’s been 5 1/2 long years since her birth announcement, I guess she’s been waiting.

That would also be the picture of two girls who were not at all interested in banana nut balls today.

But speaking of banana nut balls, those suckers held me over all. morning. long. I was barely hungry for lunch 4 hours later.

Another packed lunch today, my sandwich was of course constructed on site this afternoon at the Museum of Play.

Today’s sandwich spread was not compost hummus, but instead steamed broccoli blended in the food processor with an avocado. Food processor already out and broccoli that’s soon going to be too old to eat? Sounds like this lunch was in the stars. I steamed 2 cups or so of broccoli and once cool threw it into the food processor with an entire avocado. I diced up a large tomato and stirred it in to the broccoli avocado mix. A little salt and voila, a variation of broccamoli! This made 2 – 3 servings. I smell tomorrow’s lunch already.

More Nature’s Pride bread today with spinach and homegrown sprouts for sandwich toppings.

Broccamoli was good but was lacking in the herbs department. I usually add cilantro and didn’t today, this could have used some lemon juice or garlic too.

With red pepper sticks and a grapefruit seltzer on the side!

More playing after lunch, I pretended not to be jealous that Ava scored her own cooking show this afternoon.

Maxine and Haylee were working hard on the set as runners to the neighboring play Wegmans for Ava’s “Healthy Cookies” (her words) to fetch ingredients including toothpaste and empty bottles of Wegmans brand pedialyte.

Ava’s cooking show totally got me thinking about dinner. But what doesn’t get me thinking about dinner?

Considering I’ve been inundated with bread and have been staring at an acorn and winter squash on my counter for a couple weeks now, I had all the makings for a fall themed dinner tonight.

When we went vegetarian a few years ago, you don’t immediately think about how it will impact things like holiday meals that are centered around a cooked bird or pig. At least I didn’t, but then again I made the official vegetarian plunge at the end of January of 2007 when holiday meals were just a memory and visions of sugar plums were now a reality on the thighs.

But when I really sat down and thought about it, I don’t miss the turkey at all. I think my favorite Thanksgiving food is stuffing! Last year I made my own vegetarian stuffing and brought it with us to our omnivorous Thanksgiving dinner.

Last year when I surveyed that the packaged bread crumbs used for making stuffing from scratch, I discovered they are almost all made with white bread and the fiber and nutritional content leaves much to be desired. Even when I found wheat breading it still had all sorts of additives and fun stuff that I just wasn’t interested in eating.

I finally realized I could just use the wheat bread I usually buy, dice it up and bake it in the oven for a little while and voila – whole wheat bread crumbs for stuffing.

Fast forward to today and lots of extra bread, it’s like someone was begging me to make this. Oh yeah, that was me doing the begging.

5 or 6 pieces of cubed Nature’s Pride whole wheat bread, spread out on a cookie sheet and baked for 5 – 10 minutes, flipping once half way through.

Once the bread was ready I moved the toasted pieces to a separate bowl and added craisins and pecans. (Walnuts are a great option too – or you could leave nuts out completely.)

In a pan, saute diced onions (mushrooms and celery are great too, I only had onions tonight though) in a little extra virgin olive oil until soft. Once onions are soft, add 1 chopped apple and added to the onions. Once the apples soften up, add a little veggie broth and stuffing seasoning and salt.

I use a couple of teaspoons this Bells stuffing seasoning because it’s easy, but really all you need is rosemary, sage, parsley – or whatever herbs you prefer in stuffing.

Pour veggie broth/onion/apple mixture over bread, nuts and craisins and stir until well combined and bread is evenly moist. Bread should be wet but not soaked. Add more broth or water if necessary – again personal preference comes in here with how moist or dry you like your stuffing.

Smashed into a baking dish coated with a little olive oil, covered and pop into a preheated 375 degree oven for about 20 minutes.

Before I got started on my stuffing, I sliced my acorn and winter squash in half, removed seeds and placed face down a cookie sheet to cook at 375. They continued cooking as the stuffing went in and everything was done at about the same time. You know the squash is done when you can easily stick a fork through their skin.

Tell me this acorn squash wasn’t built to be stuffed with veggie stuffing. I dare you!

Yup, I knew it. So happy together.

I’ve got an identical one in the fridge right this moment waiting for Zak when he gets home.

This vegetarian stuffing is so versatile, you can easily tweak it to your tastes and preferences, make more or less depending on how many people you’re feeding or how much left overs you want.

Fall rules.

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I took yesterday off from exercise so a run was in order first thing this morning. A quickie 4 miles in about a half hour, home to whip up an Averie inspired breakfast.

I think I need to send Cuisinart a thank you note because I use my food processor almost every day. Or maybe they should send me a thank you note for featuring my food processor on the blog almost everyday. YOU’RE WELCOME CUISINART!

But enough with the accolades already and back to breakfast. Yesterday Averie used flax, coconut oil and maple syrup to make some pancake cookies. As luck would have it, I’ve been feeling like I’m in a breakfast slump I was excited I had something new to try this morning.

Except breakfast for me isn’t complete without bananas and almond butter, so I took Averie’s concoction and ran with it.

A pile of ground flax, a banana and some almond butter.

But it ended up being too wet to form into anything like a pancake. I added more flax, which lead to it being too flaxy. (Flaxy is my word, don’t try to look it up in the dictionary – let me save you some time. It’s not there.) Let’s add another banana. Now it’s too wet again. <*Dramatic Sigh*> I threw in a little unsweetened shredded coconut and then a couple medjool dates and before I knew I had a big glop of not-too-wet banana nut mess in a bowl.

And it tasted great!

Still, I didn’t think pancakes were going to work. So I rolled them up into balls and breaded them in a little more shredded coconut and called them banana nut balls. It works.

I think the kids might even eat these, Ava is probably my best shot. Maybe Maxine too with a little effort in presentation.

There! That might do the trick.

I made them a couple of these banana nut balls and they are ready and waiting for when Thing 1 and Thing 2 grace me with their presence and claw at me claiming to be hungry. I ate the rest of the banana ball glop, unrolled and unbreaded since I can give a rats ass about presentation after slaving over the food processor while still in my running clothes. It sort of felt like I was eating a big bowl of cookie dough for breakfast. No presentation necessary – just hand me a spoon.

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Today is our homeschool away from home day. That means it’s our pack a lunch day too.

What’s in today’s fantastic basket of food fun?

This was lunch for me and Maxine. Ava’s was with her at her homeschooling school of homeschooled kids where they chuck wood like a wood chuck would.

Before I reveal the contents of our basket, I better back up. When I started to make hummus this morning I threw in today’s romaine, cucumber, lemon, apple and ginger juice pulp straight in with the garbanzos like the food processor was my compost bucket.

The chances I take with hummus, living on the suburban health nut edge I tell ya.

Along with my compost hummus I packed two slices of Nature’s Pride Whole Wheat bread we were sent along with some spinach too.

I’m a total sandwich snob and dislike soggy sandwiches, so I always pack the ingredients and then construct my sandwich immediately prior to consumption. That’s what it says in the Declaration of the Snob Sandwich. I wrote it, I should know.

But today I forgot a knife and had to spread hummus on my bread with a carrot stick like a freaking barbarian. I’m so uncivilized.

I think I’m going to find something to do with my pulp from now on. Well, not forever, don’t make me sign a Declaration of Juice Pulp Creativeness. But Heather sent me juice pulp muffin recipe, and Zak’s aunt suggested I make vegetable stock with it. I think there’s a lot of possibility with this vegetable fiber that’s been put through the spin cycle. As I sampled the non-dehydrated cracker mush yesterday I thought it could work for a veggie burger too. Don’t be shocked when I open an etsy shop and I’m selling juice pulp earrings and clothes. You know you would totally wear juice pulp socks.

But instead of socks I just made hummus today. Socks tomorrow maybe.

Sandwich construction complete. Prepare for lift off.

Compost hummus was surprisingly good – the ginger gave it an awesome kick in the teeth. And no, Maxine definitely did not eat compost hummus. She ate a cheese sandwich and some pickles. The only the cucumber the girl will eat. I’ll take it.

The Nature’s Pride bread was great too, it’s a lot like the Wegmans brand whole wheat bread I buy for the girls. The list of ingredients earns my approval with no high fructose corn fun or trans fat euphoria. Even though I’ve been a sprouted grain kind of gal lately, I was happy to eat some non sprouted grain bread today. I prefer Ezekiel bread when it’s toasted and I’m not that much of a sandwich snob yet. Not until they start making toasters with cigarette lighter adapters anyway.

For a little something sweet, I had half of the Tropical Fruit Tart Larabar. I have to say I was not sure what to expect from this Larabar, based on the wide variety of reviews I’ve read about it. But me? I loved this one! The pineapple was unexpected (because I failed to read the ingredients on the label until I was honking on it) but Tropical is exactly right! Dare I say it, I think I liked this one better than the PB&J!

Since we were in the city, Maxine and I also hit up our favorite hippie co-op for to score some bulk almond butter before picking Ava up from her class. I went hog wild and bought my second bottle of Kombucha while we were there.

This bottle green goodness had algae and seaweed along with other flotsam and jetsam. It was great, it was not as intense as the Gingerade I tried first a couple months ago.

If you’ve yet to try Kombucha, it’s a raw “tea”, but not like any tea you’ve probably ever had before. It’s tangy and acidic, but still has an appealing taste too. What it’s not is something you might slam like you were Doing the Dew.

Although Mountain Dew is green, don’t be mislead. It’s not the same as Kombucha.

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Yes, you read the title of this post right. (Go on – go back to look at the title now because I know you skipped it. I almost always breeze by titles unless the author points it out.)

Orgasmic Birth

That’s right! You can have an orgasm during child birth! Yes, YOU.

Tonight I had a support group meeting for mom’s who have had a cesarean section and are planning VBAC’s (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean) or just need some help with emotional recovery from their cesarean. Yes there’s a support group for everyone. I’m still waiting to find the support group for people who return library books late, except I’m sure no one would get there on time. Or at least I’m sure I would be late.

Tonight for our meeting instead of discussion we watched the birth documentary Orgasmic Birth.

When I reserved the room at the library for a space to watch this film I just wrote “Birth Documentary” on the form lest I raise any librarian eye brows.

Ladies, listen to me. If you think the Standard American Diet is screwed up, birth in the US is twice as screwed up. The acronym should be STAB – STandard American Birth. Your chances of having a cesarean section in the US is now 30% – that means 1 out of 3 women in the US are giving birth by cesarean section. Yes, some of those cesareans are necessary and save lives, but 30% is too high. Says who? Well, says the World Health Organization. The WHO states that any country with a cesarean rate over 15% is performing too many cesarean sections.

That paragraph is only the tippy tip of an iceberg of information buried deep beneath the surface. There is scads and scads of information out there about birth. Before I move on let me leave you with this: if you are not yet a mother, or if you plan to have more children, when the time comes for pregnancy and preparing yourself for child birth, read, read and read some more about child birth. During my first pregnancy all I read about was pregnancy, when I should have been reading about birth. Forget What to Expect When You’re Expecting. Read The Thinking Woman’s Guide to a Better Birth by Henci Goer. Read Ina May Gaskin’s Guide to Childbirth. Read like your life and the life of your unborn child depends on it.

What does birth have to do with health? Everything. What’s my point here? Looking back, I wish someone would have given me this advice. I wish someone would have told me just how important birth is, and that it’s a rite of passage that will change every ounce of your being. Maybe with this little post I can ignite a spark of curiosity in you sooner than one was sparked in me.

Birth movies always get me all riled up, can ya tell?

After running Ava to and from dance class this afternoon I had to run out the door to get to my meeting. I finally got to enjoy the highly coveted PB&J Larabar on my way to the meeting. I think this picture sums up my feelings on this subject.

Home after my meeting to enjoy what looks like something my girl Cindy would call dryer lint. But they tasted good! Really! Especially with some hummus. Don’t ask my mom though because she tried some dryer lint this afternoon and was not as impressed as I was.

After lint came chewy apples and bananas. I probably could have let them go a little longer but I was ready to turn that damn dehydrator off.

We also got a special delivery that I opened today, two little bundles of joy.

(Freaking birth movies.)

Sent from FoodBuzz and Nature’s Pride for us to try and review, we’ll be busting into these babies tomorrow.

Signing off, wishing you many orgasms, both during childbirth and during what gets you in that mess in the first place.

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I’ve been a busy little bee this morning! (New header anyone?)

After some blog reading this morning I officially had produce dehydration on the brain. With dehydrating madness going on across the land, I knew today was the day to fill the house with the smell of hot fruit stank.

But first, a run! 5 ish miles in 40 ish minutes. I got caught in the rain for the last mile and a half but you’ll be glad to know that both me and the iPod survived.

I was so impressed with Heather’s flax crackers that she made in a dehydrator that looks exactly like mine, it was finally the kick in the pants I needed to make the vegetable pulp crackers I’ve been meaning to make for ages now.

Guess that means I better make some green juice!

With the pulp from the romaine, cucumber, lemon, ginger and apple I popped it in to the food processor. Yes that would be THREE small appliances I slugged out before 9am on a Monday morning. I tossed in the pulp from the juicer, a peeled carrot, some ground flax seed and cumin. As it was processing I streamed in a little olive oil because fat makes food taste good.

Below the crackers were layers of apples

and then bananas, both sliced and tossed in lemon juice before laying them on the trays.

When the vegetable cracker mush was ready I flattened it with my fingers into the fruit roll up tray. I sampled the non-dehydrated cracker mush and I have to say, it was pretty dang yummy. I’ll be curious to see what these turn out like.

And now we wait. And smell hot fruit all day.

In other news, be sure to check out the latest interview at Health Blog Helper today featuring Angela from Oh She Glows! Angela is such a doll and her enthusiasm is not only contagious and but just oozes from her interview, not to mention her blogs! She’s got lots of great thoughts and advice for bloggers, head on over to Health Blog Helper!

Along with the new header this morning I also installed a new plugin so I can embed YouTube videos directly into the blog. Guess what that means? Why a little dehydrator and juice tour – LIVE from my kitchen this morning! Well, I guess it’s not live since technically it’s a recording. But it’s more live than a photo so please don’t call the Semantic Police on me.

Oh boy – videos on the blog. I think we’re in trouble.

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I’ve let Max have a lot more control over all sorts of things this weekend. I’ve found that with half as many kids as usual I have twice as much patience. Funny how that works.

She made her own peanut butter and jelly sandwich today for lunch. That probably goes without saying, at least I hope it does.

Remember being a kid and wondering how mom always made sandwiches so perfectly?

Fortunately for me I made my own sandwich.

And BEETS! Dude, beets are good. I don’t know why anyone didn’t clue me in on this sooner.

Sandwich was my standard fare of lettuce, tomato, sprouts, banana peppers and sprouts. I peeled and cut my bloody beets into sticks and steamed for about 15 – 20 minutes. Once they were cooked I sprinkled them with a little balsamic vinegar.

This afternoon we walked to the playground, and then a favorite post-playground stop – the little coffee shop on the corner. See the purple monkey in there?

Maxine got a sugar cookie and I got some oolong tea. She shared her cookie with me on her own accord. Hey! I thought the person who breaks the cookie isn’t the one who decides which half they want!? Hmph.

For dinner tonight I took portabella pizzas for another spin. Shawna at Balancing Me made them this weekend too! I washed the mushroom caps, removed the stem but left the gills. I cooked the mushrooms in the toaster oven on 350 for about 20 – 25 minutes, removing them every so often to dump the mushroom water off. I cooked the mushrooms longer this time and therefore they’d released almost all their water by the time I added sauce and cheese to them.

While the mushroom were cooking, I sauteed some banana peppers, red onion and garlic in extra virgin olive oil and then added some diced tomatoes, salt and basil. When the mushroom were cooked, I piled on the sauce and sprinkled on some mozzarella and Parmesan and baked for another 10 minutes.

Served with tossed salad.

These were even better this time with less water in the mushroom and with mozzarella cheese too! The mushroom does not get crispy like pizza crust, and you really only want to eat this with a knife and fork, it’s still an uber healthy and tasty version of pizza, especially if you really like portabella mushrooms like we do!

And now Maxine says it’s time to go to bed. Oh no wait, that’s me saying that.

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Today is going to be the most productive day in the history of productivity. I so declare it.

I need to keep Maxine occupied while I whiz around this house and get stuff done this morning – including mopping the kitchen floor and I need little feet OUT of the kitchen for at least a 15 – 20 minute stretch.

So what’s a mom to do? Set up a Little People Ring of Fun! Toys perched and ready to be played with, it’s like coming down to a boat load of presents on Christmas morning when I take the time to do this. But I have to give credit to Zak for this idea because this was something he started oh so long ago. He did this sort of thing for Ava during his stint as a Stay At Home Dad and it is a kid MAGNET.

I set up a Juice Ring of Fun for me while the girl slept and the toys waited anxiously for her arrival. Just the same old romaine, cucumber, lemon, apple and ginger concoction into the juicer. Another day, another glass of green juice.

Let’s play, Where’s the Juice? Ohhh I see it!

Hmmm, looks like I wasn’t the only one who had dessert for dinner last night.

I know what you’re thinking: what is up with the whacked out vegetables at this chicks house? Well, what can I say, the veggies like to play too. I can’t deny them.

Who wants to go camping? I will! But it depends on what you brought to eat.

I hope that’s veggie sausage for crying out loud.

I swapped out my morning run for running around the house like a crazy vegetable lady and productivity is off the charts so far. Cleaning is much easier when there are two less people here to step over and mess things up. Lots to do before Ava and Zak get home today. I’m sitting down now to take a little break and enjoy some overnight oats.

1/2 a mashed banana, about a 1/2 cup of rolled oats, 1 Tbsp or so ground flax, 1 Tbsp or so unsweetened shredded coconut, a heaping tablespoon of almond butter and unsweetened almond milk all stirred together and into the fridge for a few hours this morning. The other half of the banana sliced and dealt out on top!

Maxine? Maxine who? Why is it so quiet? Crap I’m supposed to be mopping the floor!!

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Maxine and I have had a sweet little day together. We shopped, she tapped, I smiled, she talked, I listened. I’ve come to realize just how much Ava rules the roost here and poor little Maxagirl often doesn’t get to speak in complete sentences before she’s interrupted by her very intense older sister. It’s easy to see how birth order can play a role in your personality!

We ate lunch before we left to grocery shop to avoid any hungry impulse buys.

A giant salad with home grown alfalfa sprouts and a cup of spicy refried bean soup from yesterday. I was glad I got to take Averie’s Raw Herbalicious Goddess Dressing for a spin again!

I had big plans to make another portabella mushroom pizza tonight, but as dinner time rolled around I realized I was in the mood for something warm and sweet. I’m livin’ it up on a Saturday night I tell ya – let’s have dessert for dinner! When the man is away, the woman will play. And eat dessert without him.

I’ve seen apple desserts in more than one place recently and decided today was the day to see it my own kitchen.

I peeled and chopped 3 crispin apples, tossed in a little agave nectar, cinnamon, nutmeg and a couple of tablespoons of flour. I poured the mixture into the bottom a coconut oiled baking dish.

Once the bowl was emptied I combined about a half cup of rolled oats, more agave, more cinnamon, nutmeg, some hand crushed pecans, a few more tablespoons of flour and about a 1/4 of coconut oil. Stirred until well combined and then layered on top of the apple mix.

Apples + Crumble = Apple Crisp Crumble!

I baked the apples and crips at 350 for about 45 minutes. Somewhere in that 45 minutes I realized we needed ICE CREAM to go along with my dessert for dinner! I mean come on, if I’m gonna have dessert for dinner – let’s have dessert for dinner!

When I polled Maxine, she was in favor of ice cream. We donned our raincoats and boots and headed out for a trip to the store in search of vanilla ice cream.

As we were leaving store with ice cream in (her) hand she said “Where’s yours mom?” Nice!

Some of the recipes I looked at before coming up with my own concoction called for as much as 2 cups of sugar. A little agave nectar for sweetness was all this needed, I’m almost shocked it turned out as well as it did. Who needs all that sugar? Well, I guess I do if I needed some ice cream! The oats were pretty crumbly, that was ok with me. When looking to sub butter I chose coconut oil. In hindsight I probably should have used canola in place of coconut oil.

Ice cream for Max, apple bake and ice cream for mommy! At my desk, and now the spoon scraped bowl is still sitting here to my right. Good times.

Where do you fall in the birth order? I’m an only! I think that is part of the reason why I love watching them interact and think often about how their birth order plays a role in their little personalities. How have your siblings (or lack thereof) shaped who you are today?

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Zak and Ava are heading up to the cottage this weekend to get some things wrapped up for the end of the season. Zak was going to go by himself with his brother and mom, but then we thought Ava would enjoy it. Now that she’s older she’s much easier to take on the 4 hour road trip to up north.

We also thought it might be nice to let each girl have a parent all to themselves for a weekend. So Zak and Ava are off on a little adventure and Maxine and I here to have what I’m sure will be a few little adventures of our own.

I got my run in early knowing I won’t have a chance to run later (because Maxine + jogging stroller = screamfest) or tomorrow morning without Zak home (because running + leaving sleeping child home alone = Child Protective Services). My iPod battery was dead so I had another iPod-less run this morning.

My goal this morning was to just enjoy my run. I wasn’t going to worry about my pace, my distance or my route. I ran to allow my body to get moving and allow my senses to take in every aspect of the peaceful Saturday morning through my neighborhood streets. I wanted to get a half hour in but beyond that there were no rules.

I jogged through town and made my way through the cemetery, down side walks and paths I usually don’t run down because they aren’t part of my usual “route”. Absorbed in my thoughts without my iPod I got to thinking about the fact that race season is over, the half marathon is behind me and I am pleased with how it went. I’m giving myself permission to stop training for the fall and winter. I’m going to run without worrying about getting faster or stronger. My goal for the next few months is to simply run and exercise for physical and mental health.

My run was 34 minutes and when I got back I remembered we were out of bananas. No bananas!? Call the breakfast police!

Instead of a sequel to my cucumber in your pocket post, I snagged a bag so I could put my bananas on my back where they belong. When Zak saw me with my backpack he asked me to pick up some snacks for them for the road too.

I rode my bike the mile to the store and along with bananas I grabbed them some banana chips (made with coconut oil! SCORE!) and trail mix. I picked up some pruney prunes and ground flax for me so I could make it through breakfast before hitting the grocery store this morning as the official start to my Adventures with Maxine.

Before bidding The Man and Thing 1 farewell, I put together some fruit cereal.

Diced banana and diced prunes tossed in ground flax. A small handful of crushed walnuts topped off with unsweetened vanilla hemp milk.

Z&A are on their way – now it’s time for me&M to play!

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Oh look! A package!

For me! For me!!

Well what’s in it?

Awww yeah, JACKPOT! The search is over! PB&J Larabar you are all mine! ALLL MINNNEEEE! Muahahaha! I once was lost, but now I can Be Well and Take Care. Or something. Thank you Heather Baby!

Ooooh, something we’ve never seen before! A veggie sandwich! How original!

Well, hey if it wasn’t good I wouldn’t eat it all. the. time, now would I? I didn’t think so.

What’s in the bowl you’re wondering? Why that would be super stinking easy spicy refried bean soup for supper, that’s what!

Over at Meals & Moves it’s Flash Back Friday per usual. Welp, I decided it’s Flash Back Friday here at Mama’s Weeds this week too in honor of my girl Janetha.

I went and dug through photos of Septembers past. I gave the wheel a good spin and the needle pointed to 2007. Right about now, two years ago, Maxine wouldn’t stop pulling trash out of the small basket under the kitchen sink and covering the kitchen floor with garbage. I installed child proof locks on those cabinets and was there to catch her first encounter of said child proof locks that prevented her from getting the cupboard doors open.

And I just realized that I’m writing yet again about Maxine and pulling things out of the trash. I think we might have garbage issues here. We need a trash intervention. Anyone? Anyone?

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