After lunch today we were off to run some errands and explored a brave new frontier. OK really it was just a playground we’d never been to before. Brave new frontier sounds much more interesting though if you ask me.

A dino? Or a rhino? You decide.

This was my second attempt to take this picture…

My first attempt was thwarted by this… this… THING!

Through my sunglasses this looked like a bumpy slide. Kind of like an incline with traction that you can walk up. But as I quickly discovered when I LEAPT on to this thing and my feet slid out from underneath me – that no, this not a bumpy slide at all. Those would in fact be ROLLERS.

And I fell. HARD. Totally confused, camera flying, feet, legs and ass in the air. Somehow I jammed my pinkie finger and it still freaking hurts right this very second. Is it possible to sprain just the tip your pinkie finger? Well if it is, I did. Every time I hit the enter key I’m reminded of what an idiot I am.

I swear my first thought was: can I still run on Sunday?? Shut up you dork it’s just your pinkie.

Uh oh, the pink shoes have already been replaced. We found tap shoes today on sale after we dropped off some things at Goodwill.

Did you know that the floor of a grocery store is the perfect tapping surface? I do. So does Maxine. So do all the people we passed in the grocery store today after we left the playground.

But before we left the playground, we had a packed snack!

And some packed dinner inspiration too.

Shriveled fruit and nuts (don’t say it) for me. Dried apples, raisins, walnuts and pumpkin seeds.

Ava discusses playground decorum while Maxine listens thoughtfully. Or maybe she just smells something.

For dinner tonight I picked the Tasty Tofu Patties from the October issues Vegetarian Times that arrived yesterday!

I followed the recipe but had to sub a couple of the ingredients based on what I had.

First, I subbed vegan mayonnaise for coconut oil. Brendan Brazier sings the praises of coconut oil in Thrive. I was a little worried about how it was going to work out but considering a ton of the recipes in Thrive contain coconut oil, I went for it.

I was little surprised at the consistency of coconut oil, it reminded me of margarine I’d say? I was expecting something more like Crisco based on how it looked, but it was much softer.

Read the label if you like.

My tofu patties contained:

1/4 cup coconut oil
1 tsp yellow mustard
A couple shakes of paprika
A couple shakes of dried parsley
1 14 oz package of extra firm tofu, drained
1 small onion, diced
1 medium carrot, shredded
1/4 cup of sun dried tomatoes, chopped
1 cup of flour

I mixed the coconut oil, mustard, onion and spices together, then mashed in the block of tofu with a fork. Stirred in carrots and sun dried tomatoes. The original recipe called for bread crumbs but I didn’t have any. I would have used whole wheat flour but I just used up the last of it to make banana bread yesterday. So white flour it was.

Mixed and spooned into a pan sprayed little with olive oil.

Cooked on each side for about 5 – 7 minutes. Served on a bed of steamed spinach.

These turned out great! When I make these again I will add more mustard and more sun dried tomatoes too – the flavor was good but could have been beefed up a little. Beefed up. Appropriate adjective for a vegetarian recipe, wouldn’t you say? These were easy and yummy. Different too, they were very cake like!

Now I must go get these kids out of the tub. Here’s the conversation that just went down.

Ava: Mom! Maxine is splashing!
Me: Maxine? Are you ready to get out?
Ava: Yes! She’s ready to get out!
Me: Ava, I wasn’t talking to you.
Ava: Who were you talking to?
Me: Maxine.
Ava: Oh.