Let’s start this post by tackling a very important question you surely have:*

What the hell is the difference between a scallion and a leek?

Well, I’m glad you asked because until today I didn’t know either.  When getting ready to write up this recipe I couldn’t remember if the green oniony things I picked up in our CSA share yesterday were scallions or leeks.  Google tells me that scallions are young onions. Leeks are, well – leeks. I’m fairly confident that what I have here are leeks*, and because I don’t think your pot will explode* or your fabulous dinner party will be ruined* if you use scallions in place of leeks in this Vegan Potato Leek* Soup recipe, I’m going with leeks.

So assuming these are indeed leeks, here’s the scene: some big and small leeks and a bowl full of dirty potatoes. Plus some tomatoes and cantaloupes for decoration.

I know that I’m not the first person on face of this earth to make Potato Leek soup,* therefore I spent a little time browsing recipes today for inspiration and a little guidance too.

Except every recipe I found called for cream or milk or butter. OK, that’s lovely, but I think I can do this without any dairy.*

Vegan Potato Leek Soup

2 – 3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 large white onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 large leeks and 3 small leeks, sliced
6 medium white potatoes, cubed
3 – 4 water or vegetable broth
S & P to taste

Dice your onion, mince your garlic and slice off hairy part of your leek. Continue slicing your leek until you get to the green part and then toss said hairy and green parts into the compost. Saute onions, leeks and garlic in some olive oil on medium heat until the onions are translucent.

In the meantime, scrub up your potatoes and then cube them. I chose not to peel my potatoes because I got to thinking that if there’s any sort of nutritional value in a white potato, most of it is probably in the skin.*

Once your onions are soft, add a couple cups of water or vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Add your potatoes and cook until soft.

Then comes my favorite sneakity trickity trick soup trick. Ladle out about half to two-thirds of your vegetables and broth and transfer it to the food processor.

You know what to do from here.* Turn the food processor on while you stand there contemplating the world’s problems. Once pureed and you realize that all we need is love* (and to know the difference between leeks and scallions) add the blended soup back in to the pot with the un-blended portion.

And there you have it. Creamy, dairy-free potato leek soup.

The perfect afternoon snack.**

** – yes, I’m exactly right.

• Whole Wheat* Pizza Crust
• The Quest for the Perfect Veggie Burger
• The Infamous Breakfast Cookie

Don’t be fooled. Gazpacho is not cold, raw soup. That’s a lie. Gazpacho is a vegetable slurpee.

‘Round these parts, tomatoes are in abundance right now. If you too have been looking at the slew of tomatoes on your counter thinking “what the FREAK am I going to do with all of those?!” every time you walk by them – then a tomato garlic cucumber pepper smoothie is for you.

I mean, gazpacho. Gazpacho is for you.

I’ve been meaning to make the ‘zpach for a while now, but it just seemed too complicated. And when I say complicated, I mean that I couldn’t recall exactly what went in to it. And when I say that I couldn’t recall what went into it, I mean that the mere thought of searching my own blog for the recipe was just too much to bear. It made me feel sleepy. My tomatoes started to look like little pillows and the leaves like little blankets and I just wanted to take a vegetable-that’s-really-a-fruit nap.

FINE. These tomatoes aren’t going to eat themselves after all. Let’s get to it. Next year I’m planting the Cannibalistic heirlooms. You know, the ones that start to eat each other before I have a chance to feel guilty that I didn’t get to them all in time? Guilt free vegetables. I’m going to make a killing selling the seeds of those bad boys.

So an alternate name for this post might be What the Hell am I Going to do With All These Freaking Summer Vegetables, Part Deux.

Go click that recipe if you like, but really – it’s easy. De-seed a bunch of tomatoes. Peel and de-seed a cucumber or two. De-seed a red and/or green pepper. Throw everything in the food processor with some olive oil, salt, a couple cloves of garlic and some crushed red pepper. Voila! Liquid salad.

Tomato soup has to be eaten with a sandwich. It is the law. I don’t make this stuff up.

Cold tomato soup deserves a cold sandwich. Tonight I choose my favorite open-faced, sesame ezekiel bread topped with Sabra hummus and salsa sandwich. Yes, that’s right. Salsa. As in – more tomatoes. Stop looking at me like that.

I got a spoon out with the best intentions, but I think I used it twice before I chucked it over my left shoulder, let loose a lip rattling war cry and replaced soup slurping sounds with gazpacho guzzling gulps.

I don’t know what makes gazpacho so creamy and good. Is it simply the combo of vegetables? The oil and garlic? The sweet relief I feel given the fact that I cut my tomato stash down by 75% this evening? Whatever the case, this was good. And the tomatoes didn’t even have to eat themselves! Well, not today anyway.

• We Came, We Saw, We Raked
• True or False
• Thanksgiving is Officially Over

I envision the title of this post being sung to the chorus of Rock Me Amadeus, in case you were wondering.

So… Ratatouille. Yeah. I’m fairly sure “Ratatouille” is French for “what the hell am I going to do with all these freaking summer vegetables?”

My mom has been making Ratatouille a lot recently and has subsequently been raving to me about it during recent phone conversations as well. When she described what went into it and I realized that I had every single one of the ingredients in my overstocked-with-produce fridge, I considered it vegetable fate.

That would be:

2 medium eggplants
1 giant zucchini (that I used half of)
1 medium – large yellow squash
2 small – medium green peppers
1 large red pepper
1 large red onion
3 tomatoes

Plus garlic, basil, thyme and parsley and the oil of your choice. I’m using coconut oil for cooking these days, mainly because coconut oil whispers sweet nothings in my ear about “athletes” and “beautiful people” whenever I get it out of the cupboard.

I looked at a bunch of different Ratatouille recipes to get the general idea of what this dish entailed. Can I add a quick side note here that this dish is absolutely not at all what I expected it to be? I don’t know what I was expecting exactly… but I do know it wasn’t a bunch of chopped up vegetables cookin’ together in their own juices. I think I was picturing a smooth bowl of brownish vegetable mush? That sounds awesome, doesn’t it? It’s a real wonder I haven’t made this sooner.

So did I mention there will be a lot of chopping? Just in case I didn’t, let me say that now. There will be a lot of chopping.

First up, cubed eggplant. The eggplant gets bumped to the head of the class because it’s going to need time to sit while you are busy chopping all the other vegetables. You see, I like to hack into an eggplant and then pretend it’s some jerky dog-walking mortal enemy so I can throw salt on his fresh wounds. That makes me feel evil. Or maybe I salt eggplant to remove some of the bitterness and excess moisture. Either way, your reasons for salting eggplant are up to you really.

Cut the onions into rings and saute in oil over medium heat until soft. Here is where I would have added a couple cloves of minced garlic if I’d had any, but alas – I had none. The understudy Garlic Powder was very excited to take over the role of Garlic tonight.

Next up, cube zucchini and throw it in the pot. Cube yellow squash. Into the pot. Add more oil as needed to keep any vegetables from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Dice yuletide (that would be red and green) peppers and – you guessed it! Into the pot. Tomatoes? Same deal. (Cubed AND de-seeded, thankyouverymuch.) I put the lid back on the pan between each round of vegetables to help keep in heat and moisture.

The last thing to go in to the mix was the eggplant, rinsed and drained. This would also be where I was suddenly wishing I’d had a bigger pot. Either that or less vegetables.

Less vegetables? Bite your tongue! (And if you break the skin, let me know so I can throw salt on it.) I cut up all those dang vegetables! They’re all going in the pot and they’re all gonna like it!

Add fresh herbs, put the cover on the pot and let the vegetables stew in their own juices for about 20 – 30 minutes over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally. And yes, thanks to the magic of condensation it was possible for me to stir them even though they were initially almost too big for their Calphalon britches.

Serve over rice or pasta if you like, or better yet – no grains at all cause that’s the way I roll.

The eggplant was absolutely the star of this dish, the texture was great and I loved the way it took on the flavor of the other vegetables too.

Despite lots of chopping, this dish was really pretty simple to make. It was impressively tasty considering the simplicity that is summer vegetables too!

And best of all – it helped me free up a bunch of space in my fridge. Amen to that.

Another great thing about Ratatouille is that it’s pretty flexible in terms of ingredients – I now understand that you can substitute a bunch of different vegetables based on whatever you have on hand. Mushrooms, carrots, various summer squashes, peppers and herbs too – villainous thoughts are optional.

In short, this really didn’t feel like any more work than making a salad. Just a cooked, lettuce-less salad – how bad could it possibly be? It could have been a bowl of brown mush after all, so let’s just be thankful for that.

• We Came, We Saw, We Raked
• True or False
• Thanksgiving is Officially Over

A dear reader named Kenzie left a comment the other day asking me to do a post about how I make my salads and what I put in them. Given this is supposed to be a food blog afterall, and it seems I’ve mostly been blogging about running these days – I figure it’s high time for a food post.

And what do you know, with a 15 mile long run on the agenda for first thing tomorrow morning, I just so happen to have “Big Giant Salad” on the dinner menu tonight! Here’s how I make a salad that will knock your (and maybe even someone else’s!) socks off.

Step 1: Start with a beautiful head of lettuce. Something OTHER than iceberg for crying out loud please. Red leaf is typically my head of choice, but green leaf or romaine work nicely.  Don’t be afraid to throw in spinach, arugula, dandelion or other mixed field greens too if you’ve got ‘em.

Optional Step 1a: If you’ll be photographing your lettuce before you tear it to shreds, take it outside where natural light is abundant. This will be your best shot at getting the best shot of this gorgeous piece of red-greenery.

Step 2: Tear up lettuce to be washed in salad spinner.

Take note! Tear lettuce in large bite-ish sized pieces OFF the spine. You’ll find no spines in my salad. Spines bad! Leaves good!

You’ll know you did it right if you’re left with this:

(Don’t eat that part.)

Repeat.  And repeat.  And repeat and repeat and repeat until you get to the heart of the head.  Coo lovingly at those sweet little leaves in the middle that are so dang cute and tender.  Rinse leaves well in your salad spinner and then start the spin cycle.

It takes me about 10 minutes or so to rip through a good sized head of red leaf lettuce and it’s worth every minute.  I typically tear up a whole head at once and have a nice bowl full of greens for easy salads/sandwiches/wraps for the next couple of days.  This is also the best way to ensure any head of red leaf gets eaten before it’s forgotten and is turned into a head of slimy brown leaf at the bottom of my produce drawer.

Lettuce torn up, Step 3: would be to head out to the garden to fetch yourself a fatty cucumber. (For sensitive, self conscious cucumbers, refrain from calling it a fatty and instead consider the term big boned.)

Step 3a: Try your damnedest not to sink your teeth into that thing as you walk back into the house.

Step 3b: Slice.

I don’t peel it – the skin is where all the good stuff is, yo! I’ll cut it length wise and de-seed if I’m in the mood.  Friday night rowdiness around here = cucumbers with the seeds still in them.

Cucumber sliced, the carrot is next on the list to meet it’s maker. Enter Step 4.

Wondering how I took that pic if one hand is holding the grater and another hand is holding the carrot? I know you are!

Have someone else take the picture? Psssh – too predictable! What if your husband is at a party and your 6 year old is currently out of your hair and you want to keep it that way?

It’s called your chin and your chest and the timer on your camera.  I do all my own stunts.

Back to Step 4.  Wash carrot.  Don’t peel.  Grate.  Eat the last little nub instead of adding “shredded knuckle” to the list of salad ingredients.

Step 5: Half a red pepper, de-seed and slice.

Step 6: Fetch yourself an organically grown tomato from your CSA stash.

Step 6a: Slice and de-seed.

Cucumber seeds? Maybe. Tomato seeds? Deal breaker. Might as well throw the whole dang salad straight into the compost, eat a Big Mac and a fake shake and let out a huge belch and just go to bed if you’re not going to cut the seeds out of the tomato.

Like, gosh, what a totally grody tomato snob this chick is.  Like, really?  What-evah.

If I have an abundance of time and am feeling motivated, I will chop up a ton of vegetables at once to make throwing salads together really fast and easy.  If I’m feeling lazy I’ll just get the lettuce part done and pat myself on the back for being that much ahead of the game for next time around.

OK so where was I?  Oh right.  Step 7.  Dig around for whatever other salad-ish vegetables you have in your fridge.

Step 8: Shout “rock out!” when you realize you’ve got fresh green beans to add to the mix!   Chop up into 1″ (exactly!) pieces, cut off those weird little tail-y and stem-y things and throw them into the compost pile with those shunned lettuce spines and pepper and tomato seeds.

Step 9: Add a couple tablespoons of your salad dressing of choice. Mine might be smashed avocado with salsa if I’m feeling like bottled dressings are the devil (like sometimes you do). If you are feeling less resentful of bottled dressings, a few of my current favs are Organicville Miso Ginger, Annie’s Goddess Dressing or like I used tonight – Good Seasons Italian Dressing made with apple cider vinegar and canola oil.

Step 10: Put the lid on that bowl good and tight cause otherwise it’s gonna get ugly in Step 11.

Step 11: (Stock photo) I like my salads shaken, not stirred.

Step 12: Dump dressing covered salad into a large salad bowl.  Take said bowl outside.  See Step 1 for explanation if you’ve already forgotten why this important.  If you will not be photographing your salad, just eat it straight out of the first bowl you used to toss it in like a complete heathen.

Step 13: Bring salad back inside and eat at computer while you write up this post.

Step 14: Hurry and click Publish and go check on your kids cause it’s awfully quiet up there.

• We Came, We Saw, We Raked
• Recalibration
• Polenta Pizza: Take Two

From my omnivorous days of yore, I think I miss meatloaf the most.  I mean seriously now – how have I been getting by without eating a loaf of meat these past three and a half-ish years? It’s a meatless mystery for sure, and it’s time to do something about it!

That’s a joke in case you couldn’t tell. Actually I miss turkey subs the most. OK that’s a joke too. Who needs turkey when you’ve got lettuce, tomato, onion, red, green and banana peppers and (gasp!) mayo and provolone cheese on a sesame seed roll from Wegmans? I rest my case.

Wait, so what was I talking about? Oh yes. Meatloaf. Meat. Loaf. What does any sensible vegetarian use to substitute meat in meat dishes? Why beans of course. (Except in subs.) Time to grab your legumes and get a loaf on.

Bean Loaf:

2 cans Cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1 medium onion, diced
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/2 c ketchup
1 c rolled oats
2 eggs, beaten
1 c frozen corn
a dash of salt & pepper
a couple good shakes of dried oregano and dried basil

And don’t forget the most important ingredient:

1 sad three year old who is extremely disappointed that you are using the last two eggs to make your bean loaf instead of making her scrambled eggs for breakfast.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and get mashing those beans with a potato masher. Stir in the rest of the ingredients as desired – the order doesn’t seem to matter a whole heck of a lot here – it’s all just going into the loaf pan as a bean and vegetable mash when you’re done!

Ketchup is probably my least favorite ingredient in this recipe – BUT! I must say, if I might jump ahead and spoil the ending, it really gave the bean loaf a great taste! At least it was organic ketchup and contained no high fructose corn fun. You could probably even substitute your favorite barbecue sauce or even salsa to mix it up.

Grease a 9 inch loaf pan (I misto‘d mine with olive oil) and bake at 350 for 50 minutes.

I just so happened to make this bean loaf in the morning. (Note the Strawberry Shortcake pajamas above, although admittedly that’s really no indication as to what time of day it might have been…) It was nice to have dinner crossed off my to-do list early on.

In other exciting veggie news – this week marks the start of our CSA pick up! Earlier this year we purchased a share of vegetables from a local, organic farm. From now through mid fall we’ll head out weekly to the farm to pick up our share of vegetables.

And boy oh boy did it feel like we hit the green motherload this week! And to think this is only Week 1!

Turnips? OK, I have never prepared a turnip before, or even eaten a turnip for that matter… I smell a Turnip Loaf post in our future!

In addition to turnips we picked up radishes, garlic scapes, red and green leaf lettuce, bok choi and 1 1/2 pounds of mixed greens including arugula, mustard greens, broccoli raab, red mustard and orach (??)

With a produce drawer now positively overflowing with leafy vegetables, re-heated bean loaf was served with a side of steamed mixed greens.

Before you ask, no – sadly, my kids won’t eat one bite of this. I do have high hopes for the future though! Please let the record show that there was absolutely a time in my life – not even that long ago I might add – where I would have raised one corner of my upper lip like Elvis in his blue suede shoes at the thought of eating a big pile steamed greens like that instead of rice or potatoes.

Beans for meat, dinner for breakfast, greens for grains, that’s a wrap! Or better yet, a veggie sub.

• Two Lefts Don't Make a Right
• Thanksgiving is Officially Over
• Strawberry Shortcuts

Tonight I had my hopes set on a fast and easy dinner. I was ready to slice up a Kabocha squash that I found recently (at a store, not in my closet or something) but after it’s photo shoot on the cutting board, I flipped it over to find mold growing on the bottom and a bunch of soft spots on it too.

Well alrighty then. I had a few choice words for this Kabocha squash, chucked it into the compost and moved onto the next orange fleshed vegetable on my shelves.

OK, still going for fast and easy here – tonight seemed like a good night to give my new mandolin a try and make real sweet potato fries.

Now, please note that I said this mandolin is NEW. I’ve never used this vegetable slicing contraption before. Why I thought this would fit into my “fast and easy” plans for dinner is beyond me. I didn’t bother to read the directions (somewhere my mother is groaning at me!) because that would take too long. I’ll figure it out, let’s just jump right in and get this done, OK?

After my first few attempts at slicing this sweet potato, I now had a few choice words for the potato and the mandolin too. It kept getting jammed, I kept worrying about my fingers being the next thing to be mandolined (not a word), the slices I was getting were way too short. Eventually though, it started to come together and we worked it out. By the time I got to the second potato, I was feeling like an old mandolin pro.

Look Ma! Real fries!

Onto a coconut oil greased cookie sheet and into the oven at 375.

Fries getting their bake on, I got started making my favorite fast black bean burgers with my favorite BBQ sauce.

Seriously, this stuff is the best, even if the name wouldn’t lead you to believe it’s vegetarian.

My fast and easy fries were taking their dang sweet time at 375, and after about a half hour I kicked it up 50 degrees and at 425 the sweet potatoes finally took the hint that I was expecting them to cook.

An hour later, fast and easy dinner was finally served.

To be enjoyed with the landslide of magazines I picked up at the old house yesterday.

One for the breadwinner too, whenever he gets home from winning bread.

Seems like my post is trying to take after dinner tonight.

• Two Lefts Don't Make a Right
• The Quest for the Perfect Veggie Burger
• The Opposite of Birthday Beet Juice

Well, I have no pictures of our woodland adventures today because we were not there long enough to take any pictures. Within about 10 minutes I had two very cold, cranky girls on my hands that not even a backpack full of refined carbohydrates (pretzels, granola bars, kashi crackers) could turn around. It WAS cold though, the thermostat in the car read 18 on the way home. Oh well. We tried.

Interestingly enough though, Ava said she “couldn’t wait” to go cross country skiing when we got home. Zak brought his childhood cross country skis to the house yesterday and Ava’s been in love with the idea of cross country skiing ever since.

So off she went, cross driveway skiing immediately after bailing out on our homeschooling friends because it was too cold to play outside.

Maxine stuck to her “it’s too cold” guns and we stayed inside to watch Ava and her maiden voyage on cross country skis.

I have to say, she did pretty well for her first time, especially considering how cold she was barely an hour earlier.

With our schedule suddenly clear for the afternoon, I had no choice to but get started early with dinner.

On tonight’s menu? Something I haven’t made in what feels like ages: Enchiladas!

One of the reasons I haven’t made enchiladas in a while is my reluctance to use the canned enchilada sauce that I typically use. The ingredient list on the can always make me screw up my face and put the can back down to go find something else to make instead. Tonight was no exception… but with a perfectly ripe avocado giving me the evil eye and practically daring me to make it in to guacamole, I decided to find a way around my canned enchilada sauce dilemma.

After a bit of googling and looking at the label of the enchilada sauce can for clues, I went to work making my own enchilada sauce tonight. This is what I came up with:

1 6 oz can of tomato paste
1 tbsp canola oil
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 cups of water (approx)
1 tsp agave nectar
2 tbsp chili powder (more or less to taste)
1 tbsp cumin
1 tsp paprika

Add tomato paste, water and spices to pan on low heat, whisk until smooth. Add spices, canola, agave, and vinegar and continue whisking until simmering, remove from heat.

I took French in high school, but I’ve watched my fair share of Dora the Explorer and I’m fairly sure that “Enchilada” is Spanish for “make a big mess on your stove”. Either that or “use a bigger pan next time, you dope.”

I ladled enough enchilada sauce into the bottom of a baking dish and then added 5 handsome enchiladas to the pan. I filled each whole wheat tortilla with refried black beans, cooked (frozen) corn, whole black beans and pepper jack cheese, swaddled them like a newborn baby and laid them into the dish on top of the sauce. More sauce ladled over tortillas and then placed them into a pre-heated 350 degree oven for about 35 minutes.

This recipe made more sauce than I needed, but it worked out well because I had plenty to drown these suckers with, when normally I don’t have a drop to spare when using sauce from a can.

While my enchiladas were baking, I got to work on that avocado that was giving me dirty looks.

Homemade guac consisting of 1 fork smashed avocado, 1/2 a diced onion, the juice of one lemon, 1 glove minced garlic and salt.

Guacamole is Spanish for “creamy goodness”, right?

I meant to make rice, but I forgot – by the time I remembered I didn’t care anymore so I went wild and ate my enchilada with guac, salsa and no rice.

How do you say “This is the end of my post” in Spanish?

• Strawberry Shortcuts
• Not Chili
• It’s Not Even December

After what seems like the 100th day in a row of packing and hauling toys and household items to the new house, I found myself blanking once again when it was time to figure out what on earth I was going to make for dinner tonight. I think I made 6 trips back and forth between the cupboards and the fridge with one hand glued to my cheek due to pure puzzlement. I finally waved the white flag and made giant salads of green leaf lettuce, the last of the spinach that expired two days ago, grape tomatoes, carrots, red bell pepper slices, hemp seeds and Annie’s Goddess Dressing.

After a much needed run on the indoor track first thing this morning, followed by new house related tasks, I had a root canal this afternoon on a tooth that I injured when I was a kid. Oh the timing of these sorts of things. It’s like the tooth knew I needed one more thing on my plate right now (not to mention my debit card) and has been poised and ready, waiting to become infected until just the right moment.

My appointment was with a new dentist so I had to fill out some paperwork, including a brief medical history. One of the questions I had to answer was:

Have you lost more than 10 lbs in the last year?

I was about to check the YES box before hesitating for a moment as I thought about what I weighed last December and realized that no, I haven’t lost more than 10 lbs in the last year! Yes, I lost nearly 40 lbs in 2008 – but I had reached my happy weight by the summer of 2008 and at this time last year I weighed what I do today.

These two stories tie together because of what my fall back, fast, go-to meal is these days. If you were to visit Alison of Decembers past… say December 2006 or even December 2007, my fall back meal would have been a grilled cheese sandwich and baked french fries for my “vegetable”. Not that I’m above eating grilled cheese sandwiches and white potatoes, but I know that I’ve been able to maintain my weight loss because I majorly overhauled my approach to what I once believed was healthy eating. I had to form new habits and get them to stick.

So how do you make these habits stick? We can change just about anything if we truly believe that it’s worth the effort. Knowledge is power and educating yourself is the first step toward understanding why something is worth the effort, or as the case may sometimes be, to clear up a misconception you have that is holding you back from making any progress.

These musings are pretty timely considering I’ve got guest post up on Love Veggies and Yoga today about my journey to reaching my healthy weight. Head over to Averie’s blog if out if you missed reading two posts from me today or if you just want to see some groovy pictures of Mama Averie living large in Aruba!

After I put my salad together, I spent some time with a certain 5 year old girl who relentlessly requested I play War with her until I found my white flag again and begged for mercy!

Uh oh – here we go! Dueling Kings!

This means WAR kiddo.

But awww yeah Mom and The Fallback Salad cleaned up for this round!

I was in the mood for something sweet tonight and opted for the healthiest version of a cookie I can come up with. Cinnamon Raisin Ezekiel Toast topped with almond butter and a little shaved Green and Black 70% Dark Chocolate.

Little shavings get melty pretty fast!

Did you know that shaving chocolate can be a great way to save calories?

One might say you save calories because shaving chocolate is a great way to make a little go a long way. But tonight as it turns out I ate the remainder of the 6 small blocks of chocolate I broke off to do the shaving and thus saved NO chocolate calories. It turns out that you save calories shaving chocolate because you only use a little bit and (note to self:) you don’t need to break off 6 squares of chocolate for a few little shavings. Or – for crying out loud woman – put the rest of the 5 blocks of chocolate back in the fridge!

Ah well. It’s water under the bridge now! At least I won War tonight. I’ve got that going for me.

• Whensday?
• There’s Always a Silver Lining
• Say What You Mean To Say

With an active day in store for us, I used my workout time this in morning to make some head way on packing and other turning-our-lives-upside-down prep work. I got my heart rate up a couple hours later during an outdoor homeschooling mid-morning adventure with 28 extra pounds strapped to my back.

She looks thrilled, no? Let’s let this picture be a little cranky pants foreshadowing.

We met up today with our friends for a hike through the woods and to build a shelter made with sticks.

There was stick collecting, but there was also a lot of running, jumping, balancing and playing too.

After our walk and some physical labor, it was time to bust into the sack of snacks.

Can you make all of that out in there? Just the essentials for surviving in nature.

Two Kashi granola bars for Thing 1 and Thing 2, a container holding Maxine’s spilled and then retrieved the Kashi Heart to Heart cereal, a buried orange, a PB&J Larabar, a random slice of cheese, some raw (obscured in the white dish) cashews, a cell phone, a small container of mashed curried chickpeas with carrots and onions, and Kashi crackers to go with it. (Sheesh – three various Kashi producs with me today? I should be buying stock in Kashi.)

My curried chick pea snack/lunch was practically camouflaged in the leaves! Where did my lunch go??

Like I was saying, just the essentials. Nothing more, nothing less.

Maxine’s whiny-ness increased exponentially when she was freed from the warmth of Mei Tai during our lunch break. She wouldn’t stop asking to go home, despite extra layers and the offer to split the dividends of my Kashi stock. She told me she had to speak with her stock broker first, so until then – no deal.

This was the last look I got of the shelter before heading back to our friend’s house to warm up the monkey on my back. I let my first born stay behind with the other kids and parents. Together they finished covering the shelter with more sticks and leaves.

Dinner was inspired by an awesome sandwich idea from Erica at Itzy’s Kitchen!

It began with sauteing a red pepper, red onion and canned artichoke hearts in a little bit of olive oil and just a splash of Good Seasons Italian Dressing.

Once the veggies were soft, I loaded Ezekiel sprouted grain buns with the veggie mix and topped it with a little Organic Valley mild cheddar cheese and popped it into the toaster oven to get all melty.

Veggie sammies for two!

One for Zak and one for Alison. Can you tell them apart?

Artichokes were such a great idea for a veggie sandwich! It was fast and easy, the artichokes had a great meaty texture. We both agreed these will be moved into regular meal rotation.

At least I get to keep all my Kashi stock earnings. I’m going to use it buy stock in artichokes! I suggest you do the same.

• Greetings From the South Pole
• Eating Out of Their Hands
• Two Lefts Don't Make a Right

Tonight as I scoured recipes in a couple of different cook books and those in my recipe box, I had no idea what I was looking for. All I knew was that I needed something I could make with with the remaining produce in my fridge or ingredients found in my cupboard. It’s slim pickings until I get to the grocery store tomorrow to restock my personal farmer’s market.

I flipped through pages and recipe cards but nothing jumped out at me or sounded even remotely appealing. I studied recipes and ingredient lists waiting for something with “butternut squash” or “celery” or “old, wrinkled jicama” to leap out at me and flip on the light bulb over my head.

Still dark. Maybe that bulb is burned out.

Just as I was getting ready to throw myself into a heap on the floor and declare we’d be having cereal topped with wilty beet greens for dinner, I got a glimpse of the word “pizza” in the index of 1000 Vegetarian Recipes as I was slamming the book closed like a dungeon door.

Pizza? I can do pizza.

Polenta pizza was great (sort of) and I’m all in favor of wacky and crazy, healthy pizza-like concoctions. But sometimes I just want pizza. Real pizza made with gluten filled flour and cheese made with the squeezing of a cow. Pizza like they make at pizza places but without all the grease.

Isn’t there a happy medium?

Why yes there is! Healthier pizza (compared to what I’d get if I ordered pizza) but not so healthy that I’m making dough from ground sunflower seeds or cheese from soaked cashews. Is that too much to ask?

No, it’s not too much to ask! I can have normal pizza that’s sort of healthy, I just have to make it myself.

“Make it myself”, or delegate? You decide.

Tonight we used my standard recipe for pizza dough. Pizza dough use to seem so intimidating. Yeast, dough, rising, fear of crust that is as hard as a rock or reminiscent of card board – oh the things that can go wrong! Well, I’ve yet to fail with my the recipe linked above (don’t make me link it again) and I love that when I make it myself I can use organic ingredients, sub some whole wheat flour for white flour, use canola oil instead of who knows what.

Next up, let’s get saucy. Into the mini prep went a 15 oz can of organic diced tomatoes, a 4 oz can of tomato paste, a tablespoon or so of agave nectar and a little salt.

Time to shred like my girl Jillian. I’ll pass on all those fun preservatives and anti-caking chemicals that come in pre-shredded cheese, thanks. Unfortunately we did not get a pass on hormones or antibiotics tonight. Mama skipped organic mozzerella and went with the cheaper, Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone variety this time.

I just can’t bring myself to buy the 4.99 brick of cheese every time, what can I say. I’ll still shred my own block of cheese every time though – antibiotics or not!

Not only did I pass on organic cheese, but I passed on calorie counting with dinner tonight too. I just wanted to make pizza and eat pizza like a normal pizza-makin-pizza-eatin person. I didn’t want to weigh shredded mozzarella, I didn’t want to measure out flour precisely when adding a little more at the end to make it the right consistency. So I didn’t.

Kid pizza? Sauce and cheese. Done and done.

Next up, a grown up pizza. My favorite pizza toppings for a veggie pizza would be banana peppers, mushrooms and onions. But as I mentioned earlier, I’m scraping the bottom of the produce drawer until tomorrow, so I had to make do.

OK, whatta we got?

Hmmmm pineapple? Let’s do it.

Banana peppers? Yes, I believe I said that already.

Half a tomato left over from lunch? Dice it up and throw it on there.

Sundried tomatoes too? Absolutely!

What about this half of an avocado in here? Hmmm, maybe. OK, no. Save that for lunch tomorrow.

We’ve got a cucumber in here still. And some cauliflower? Um, no. I draw the line somewhere.

OK, so where’d we end up? Pineapple, banana peppers, tomatoes – both normal and shriveled varieties.

Finally – normal, health(ier) pizza time is here!

I’m usually a stickler for toys at the table but sometimes I’m a total slacker, inconsistent with the rules kind of mom. I’ll bookmark this post and email the link to their shrinks 15 years from now.

Calorie counting, organic cheese and sunflower seed crust thrown to the wind tonight – sure, what the hell, your toys can eat with us tonight. What do I care.

No pepperoni here – just toy pig on the side.

And a slice of a grown up pizza. Pineapple on pizza rocks. Try it and then come back and tell me how smart I am.

Well, I did it! Normal pizza! Made with whole wheat flour, RBGH, canola oil and some BPA from canned tomatoes. It’s a tie.

• Whole Wheat* Pizza Crust
• Whensday?
• Weekend Randomness