We were almost forced to write a strongly worded email to the Tooth Fairy this morning. Apparently the Tooth Fairy slept like a rock last night and did not wake up in the middle of the night like she expected to. Fortunately, the toothless child in question decided to use the bathroom before she remembered about the visit from the Winged Dental Nymph and our crisis was averted.

We’ve got an outdoor homeschool adventure on tap first this morning which will suffice for a workout today. I spent my usual workout time prepping food and packing lunches.

Pineapple is SO cheap right now I need to start buying them every time we hit the produce section. For $2.99 a pop it’s totally worth the time and mess involved in cutting them up.

Can you spot the bean pot in the background? That would be dried black beans soaking to be used for dinner tonight. While emptying cupboards in preparation for the move I’ve discovered an abundance of dried beans. Hello, my name is Alison and I am a bean hoarder. It’s time to stop worrying about famine and start feasting on these beans. The fewer bags of beans we have to move the less complaining there will be from the men folk hauling boxes. I’m thinking black bean soup is on the dinner menu for tonight unless something more spectacular sounding comes to mind before then.

I need to keep our packed meal light today given I’ll be carrying our lunch (and our toddler) on my back through the woods. For the kiddos I made tortilla and cheese roll ups, pickles, raisins and raw cashews. For myself, sliced red pepper and some baby carrots, an orange plus a small dish of walnuts, raisins, pumpkin seeds and dried apples.

Yesterday’s breakfast cookie made with hemp seeds held me over for SO long I had to pinch my stomach to make sure it was still working 4 hours later! Now I understand the appeal to adding protein powder to oats. I’m not really a fan of protein powder but protein packed hemp seeds? That I will do.

Knowing we’ll be out all morning and on our feet until lunch time, on top of the fact that I’ve got to keep lunch on the lighter side today, I wanted another protein packed breakfast that will hopefully perform like it did yesterday.

Instead of breakfast cookie form this morning, I went overnight oats style.

1/3 c rolled oats, 1/2 smashed banana, 1 Tbsp almond butter, 1/4 c hemp seeds, 1/4 ground flax seed, 1/4 c chocolate almond milk and 1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder. Soaked overnight in the fridge and topped with banana slices this morning.

See those cute little hemp seeds in there?

Between the oats, hemp seeds, flax and almond butter I’ve got to believe this breakfast will do it’s thing! Here’s hoping this breakfast won’t disappoint like the Tooth Fairy almost did!

• A Day of Calorie Counting
• Stay at Home
• Shakey Fists

I’d like to give special thanks tonight to my neighbors, who put up their Christmas tree the day after Halloween. This has been cause for being repeatedly peppered with the “When are we going to put our tree up?” screech question every time we come home in the dark.

Uncle! Uncle! I’m crying uncle! OK! Let’s put the tree up already!

This is the earliest I’ve EVER put up a Christmas tree. I know a lot of people put them up the day after Thanksgiving, I’ve just never been one of those people. I’m afraid I’ll turn into the Incredible Hulk and start ripping down lights and tinsel around December 23rd if I put decorations up too early.

But as luck would have it, we’ll most likely be moving into our new house the day after Christmas – which means our Christmas decorations will be coming down Christmas evening instead of New Years Day. Yes, you read that right. The day after Christmas, as in – December 26th. Merry Moving Day to us!

So, in short, we spent the afternoon getting the house decorated and pretending to be kitties knocking ornaments off the tree.

I mistakenly told them a story about the cats and that when they were kittens, they would bat at ornaments on the tree and chase them all over the house like maniac cats. Now I’ve got maniac kids pretending to be maniac cats who play baseball with our ornaments. Me and my big mouth.

Once I got the cats kids in their cages out of my hair, I got dinner started. It all began with a big ol’ spaghetti squash and a post from Zesty Cook that got me thinking about different ways to use Sun Dried Tomatoes.

Cut in half length wise and de-seeded.

Baked face down at 375 for about 40 minutes.

While my squash was baking, I got started on a sun-dried tomato sauce.

Sun Dried Tomato Marinara Sauce

3/4 c sun dried tomatoes, packed in oil – separated
1 14 oz can of artichoke hearts – separated
1/3 cup pistachios

Place about a 1/2 cup of the sundried tomatoes into the food processor and puree until fairly smooth.

Add half the can of artichoke hearts and pulse until chunky.

Chop the remaining artichokes by hand.

Combine processed tomatoes and artichokes with chopped artichokes in a separate bowl and set aside.

Remove pistachios from their shells until you have about 1/3 of a cup.

Add to food processor and pulse until you have your desired consistency. I left mine fairly chunky. Add chopped pistachios to tomato and artichoke mix and stir until well combined. Add remaining 1/4 cup of whole sundried tomatoes and set aside.

When your squash is ready, scrape out with a large spoon to get your “spaghetti”.

The sauce will be at room temperature but will warm up quickly as you add and stir in hot spaghetti squash.

Time to eat!

Dinner for two – Sun Dried Tomato and Artichoke Spaghetti Squash with a side spinach salad with tomatoes and cucumbers.

I have to admit, I’m totally in the holiday groove after decorating today. Although I think I’ve been feeling at least slightly Christmas-y since my encounter with the wall of holiday teas back in October. Maybe my neighbor saw that tea wall back in October too and it hit them a little harder than it hit me? Must be.

• Thanksgiving is Officially Over
• Not Chili
• Let’s Learn Spanish

After a roasted red pepper hummus sandwich and a side of carrot sticks with salsa for lunch this afternoon,

we were off with some friends to the local garden center for some holiday fun.

Lots of decorations to check out -

and painted plywood to stick our heads through.

We enjoyed a gigantic train display.

The adults appreciated the finer details of the model, like dirty old men and their posters.

Bums being picked up by the cops.

Guys drinking on the job.

After train spotting, it was time to move on.

There were rides to ride after all! And rides to just watch too, apparently.

Maxine chose to watch, Ava chose to ride.

One likes to bounce.

One likes to hold still.

But we finally found a ride that was Maxine approved. Mama approved too thanks to the lack of sketchy characters standing around the train scene. Although a reindeer decorating a Christmas tree seems a little sketchy, but we’ll let it slide this time.

A fun day out, but I’m afraid the day after Thanksgiving is not complete without a meal full of leftovers.

Leftovers of vegetarian stuffing and sweet potato casserole were freshened up with some steamed broccoli and cauliflower and a little sage seasoned, sauteed tofu.

Plus a small piece of apple pie!

The leftovers are gone, the last piece of pie has been eaten. Thanksgiving is officially over. Who wants a sexy lady poster for Christmas? I’m making my list and checking it twice! I already know you’re naughty, but I’m nice – Mama Claus is shopping around!

• Whensday?
• The Reasons I Had Kids
• Rest Day

I’ve run Turkey Trot races on Thanksgiving morning before. They are a lot of fun and it’s such a great way to start the holiday off on a healthy kick! I considered doing one again, but in the interest of time I decided to do my own little Turkey Trot at home for free this year.

My girlfriend Sharon came out this morning to run this morning and doing it together made it seem more like an “event”!

We hit the streets in my neighborhood at about 8 this morning for a nice and chatty Thanksgiving morning run.

4 and a half miles and 40 minutes later, we’re back! The air was pleasant and the streets were empty, a fun and fantastic start to Thanksgiving Day.

What’s Thanksgiving morning without a blender full of spinach?

A post-run green smoothie for breakfast with a banana, spinach, ground flax and almond milk. I wanted to be sure I got a nice serving a greens in today because there is no tossed salad on today’s Thanksgiving menu at my grandmother’s house later today.

There is however, coleslaw and vegetarian stuffing on the menu.

As well as sweet potato casserole and cheesy corn casserole too.

All together now!

With a grandmother who is nearly 80 but still enjoys having Thanksgiving dinner at her house, I’m happy to do my granddaughterly duty and prepare and bring a good share of the dishes for our family meal. And as a vegetarian, the vegetable “sides” are our main course after all!

Wishing all my fellow Americans a Happy Thanksgiving!

• Stay at Home
• Scary Spoon
• Nothing Beets a Burger

The girls were with Aunt Ellen today while I got some work done around the house. I managed to sneak in 45 minutes of Runner’s Yoga before I left to pick them up with plans to run some errands on the way home.

We were out longer than I expected. By the time we got back some of us were pretty cranky. Some of us were pretty hungry too. And some of us were all of the above.

I had nothing planned for dinner. What else is new. After a quick scan of the produce drawer I pulled out a green pepper, mushrooms, onions and tofu and got to work.

Veggies were chopped into large pieces and then sauteed in some olive oil and veggie broth until they softened up.

I rummaged the spice cupboard for cumin, chili powder, oregano and red pepper flakes to add to the mix.

Once the vegetables were nearly done I added 1/2 a block of extra firm tofu, sliced into thin strips. At the last minute I threw in some jarred jalapenos and stirred gently so the tofu pieces wouldn’t break up too much.

20 minutes after walking in the door, veggie fajitas were hot and ready. It’s about time! I’m cranky! And hungry!

Into a warm whole wheat tortilla with a little salsa. x2.

This meal was fast and filling and totally worth the salsa stain on my shirt.

Not only do I cook fast, but I eat fast too. Now if I could just do laundry fast I’d be all set.

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

Friday night’s Polenta FAIL was an attempt to make Polenta Pizza. The recipe I was using called for instant polenta, mixed with water.

But I didn’t use instant, I used this:

Melissa’s Organic Polenta, found in the produce section at Wegmans. What do you mean this isn’t “instant”. Looks instant to me! Open the package and BAM! Polenta! How can you get more instant than that?

Well, I guess there is in fact an instant variety of polenta because when I added water to this as directed in a magazine recipe clipping, I had very watery polenta that didn’t behave at all like I expected it to. I didn’t make anything resembling pizza on Friday. I made polenta pizza soup.

FAIL.

So tonight was Polenta Pizza: Take Two.

Cooking Techniques? Fried, grilled or as mush. OK, I choose mush!

Today I added NO water and popped the whole thing into the food processor to mash it up quickly.

With my fingers I flattened the polenta mush into a crust on a lightly greased cookie sheet.

I made a fast sauce in the food processor with plain tomato sauce, a little agave nectar, dried oregano and a dash of salt.

2 oz of grated mozzarella cheese – measured on my digital food scale because I’m not good at eyeballing 1 oz portions of cheese. It’s easy to go overestimate with cheese and while I’m in calorie counting mode I want to know exactly how many calories are going into this pizza.

Topped with some of our favorite pizza toppings – mushrooms, onions and banana peppers.

I ended up adding another 1 oz of mozzarella, plus 1 Tbsp off Parmesan cheese.

Into a pre-heated 375 degree oven for about 20 minutes.

Served with a small spinach salad.

Unfortunately Polenta Pizza: Take Two was still not a complete success. I definitely got closer tonight though. The crust on the outside was cooked but the center was still mush. I couldn’t let it cook any longer or the cheese was going to burn.

It tasted great but this was pizza that had to be eaten with a fork.

If there is ever a Polenta Pizza: Take Three, I will bake the crust first and then add toppings and cheese once I’m sure the crust is crispy. The outside of the crust that wasn’t covered with toppings cooked up perfectly and was nice and crispy. The texture was great and I know this has real potential.

I’d like to have a little chat with the person who wrote this original recipe I found though! The original directions has you cook the whole pizza with the toppings on it right from the start. Maybe instant polenta behaves differently?

I like that this is a gluten free version of pizza. I especially like that this is much lower in calories than regular pizza dough. The entire pizza was just over 700 calories. Cut into 8 slices, that’s less than 88 calories per slice! It was a lot easier to make than pizza dough and tasted great! Just a little mushy in the middle.

Mushy? Well, that’s what the package said, right? Serve as mush. So that’s what I did! Just not intentionally.

• We Came, We Saw, We Raked
• True or False
• The Beautiful People Know

This fine Saturday started out with a 7 mile trail run early this morning, much like last weekend’s trail run, but without all the photo shop fun.

We left early this afternoon on a little road trip for a family birthday party about an hour and a half away.

A glass of Pinot Grigio upon arrival? Why certainly!

Tons of great party food.

Lots of veggies!

A few different pasta casseroles were served for dinner tonight. I can’t remember the last time I had pasta and it was a welcome treat!

On my plate, lots of greens with crumbly bleu cheese – plus a serving of the cheesy broccoli pesto casserole and some of the sundried tomato asparagus casserole as well. Both were amazing!

And no birthday party is complete without kids waiting for cake to be served.

It’s almost time kiddos!

Max requested the piece with the most amount of frosting.

OK but we’re not leaving until the sugar buzz has worn off!

After cake I switched from wine and sugar to water. I most definitely wanted to avoid waking up tomorrow morning like I did last Sunday.

Time to head outside for a fire!

And keeping warm under the outdoor heaters.

I didn’t worry about calorie counting today and just enjoyed myself this evening with good company and good food without going overboard. I think it helps that the scale is moving in the right direction and I’m feeling motivated to not completely derail my efforts without depriving myself either. It’s all part of the journey I suppose. It’s certainly nice though to have a Saturday with a long run and a party end as enjoyably as it started!

• Thanksgiving is Officially Over
• Stay at Home
• Glitter

On days when we stay home all day I try to get caught up on all tasks that are neglected when we’re away from home and running full speed ahead. You know… vacuuming, sweeping, feeding the cat.

Laundry is always on this list too, except when we’re home all day, Maxine changes her outfit six times over the course of about 12 hours. New socks, new underwear, the whole 9 yards. Usually she times her wardrobe change for when I’m elbow deep in rubber gloves and dishwater or I’m caught in a firestorm of pots and pans and herbs and spices trying to make sure nothing is going boil over or burn. What a coincidence that I can’t do a damn thing about her third pair of pants or second leotard of the morning when I can’t grab her by the shirt collar and gently remind her through a forced smile and gritted teeth that if she doesn’t knock it off she’ll be signing herself up for a new course I’m offering next semester; Intro Toddler Laundry.

I can’t do laundry when we’re not home, but the laundry piles up faster than I can fold it when we are home. How do you win?

So what was I doing tonight during wardrobe change numero cinco? (I hope that says Number Five. The only Spanish I know is from Dora the Explorer.)

I was making Southwest Tomato Soup.

Given we were under self imposed house arrest today, grocery shopping has been scheduled for tomorrow. Fresh produce stock has plummeted and the vegetable crisper is breathing a sigh of relief for the welcome break. I found myself locked in my house bound shackles trying to come up with a pantry dinner. Fortunately, I managed to whip up something easy and yummy – shackles and all. And please let the record state that I was wearing the same clothes during dinner prep that I was wearing when I made breakfast this morning.

Southwest Tomato Soup

1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup jarred jalapenos, diced
28oz canned tomatoes
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
8 oz frozen corn
2 cups vegetable broth
1 Tbsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1 Tbsp dried cilantro
a dash of hot sauce
salt to taste

Saute onions, garlic and jalepeno in olive oil until soft.

Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer for about 15 – 20 minutes.

Done.

So what’s the perfect side kick to Tomato Soup?

Grilled cheese! But we’re having Mexican tomato soup, then we need Mexican grilled cheese to go with it! Mexican grilled cheese might also be known as tomato and cheese quesadillas. Served with a quarter of a diced avocado.

So happy together!

The soup recipe made six, one cup servings, about 165 calories per serving.

Dinner has been made, the dishes are done, pajamas are on. I’m now on red alert to stop any pajama wardrobe malfunctions before they even start.

• Confessions
• We Came, We Saw, We Raked
• Thanksgiving is Officially Over

Today I am taking my title as Stay At Home Mom quite literally and we are not going anywhere today. No. Where.

Well, I did go for a run but that doesn’t count. I didn’t schlep children in and out of the car, carry arm loads of extra clothes, snacks, toys, mail, papers and shoes out the door with me, so really it doesn’t feel like I’ve gone anywhere at all.

On my didn’t-go-anywhere run, my lovely albeit slightly boring digital watch told me I was gone for 36 minutes. My inner GPS says I probably went about 4 and a half miles.

I’ve got a butt load of greens to eat up so a green smoothie was on the menu for this morning.

1 banana
1 1/2 cups of spinach (approx)
2 Tbsp ground flax seed
1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk

+ 1 toasted slice of ezekiel cinnamon raisin toast and about a 1/2 tbsp of almond butter.

All this for 340 calories! What a steal!

Can I give a big shout to spinach for being so little in calories but so big in everything else?

Thank you spinach for being mild enough in flavor that I can throw you in a banana smoothie and barely notice you at all. You are so filling and have made my runs so much easier so I introduced you into my life on a regular basis. You truly are a special vegetable. Thank you.

In fact, I love spinach so much I’m going to stay home with it today! All day! Do you hear me spinach? ALL. DAY. Just for you.

• When the Garmin Strikes Midnight
• Scary Spoon
• Manly Time Change

One afternoon a couple of weeks ago I was at Wegmans, minding my own business, looking through the nice display of huge heads of cauliflower and searching for the perfect head that was destined to come home with me.

I noticed a woman checking out my head (talking about the cauliflower head here) as I approached the produce scale to get my bar code sticker. She commented on how beautiful it looked (I was hopeful she was talking about the head attached to my neck now…) She then told me how much she loves cauliflower. I agreed and we went on to discuss the various ways we like to eat cauliflower… steamed, raw, roasted or standing on our heads (cauliflower or otherwise), we’ll happily eat it.

This lovely stranger then went on to describe a cauliflower pie recipe that she loves and makes frequently. She told me this recipe has a crust made with shredded potatoes and the potato crust is filled with sauteed cauliflower and cheese. From her gestures and movements I could tell she wanted to write the recipe down for me, but then suddenly with excitement she said “It’s in the Moosewood Cookbook! Do you know it?”

Sort of. I knew that The Moosewood Cookbook was from Ithaca, New York – a city about 2 hours from here. That was all I really knew of it though, I’d never looked through it or had even seen it for that matter. I told my Cauliflower Sister that I would look for the recipe online and thanked her for the idea.

I’d almost forgotten about this conversation until this afternoon. Today while visiting a girlfriend and perusing her collection of cookbooks, I spotted The Moosewood Cookbook! The cauliflower conversation came flooding back as I snagged the book off the shelf. I flipped to the index and sure enough, there it was! Cauliflower Cheese Pie.

And my inspiration for tonight’s dinner was born.

It turns out that all the recipes in The Moosewood Cookbook are vegetarian! I had no idea! It was originally written in 1977 and is based on the cuisine of The Moosewood Restaurant in Ithaca.

While all the recipes are vegetarian, most of the recipes contain large quantities of cheese, eggs, milk and butter. I took the original Cauliflower Cheese Pie recipe and made some tweaks to make it slightly healthier and a little lower in fat and calories.

Here’s my adapated version of the Moosewood Cauliflower Pie Recipe that I made tonight.

Crust:

1 large sweet potato, peeled (optional) and shredded. (I swapped out white potato.)
1 egg, beaten
1 small onion, shredded

Pre-heat oven to 400 F. Add shredded potato and onion to beaten egg, stir well to combine. Grease 9 inch pie pan and form potato mixture into crust. Bake crust for 40 minutes.

Filling:

4 – 5 oz shredded cheese
1 medium cauliflower, cut into small florets
2 cups of spinach, trimmed and washed
1 glove of garlic, minced
1 small onion, diced
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup vegetable broth
2 eggs
1/4 milk (I used plain, unsweetened almond milk)
thyme, basil, paprika

In my version, I swapped out 3 tablespoons of butter for 1 Tablespoon of olive oil and a half cup of vegetable broth. Add olive oil, diced onion and minced garlic into a pan and sautee until soft. Add herbs and spices to mixture and stir well until veggies are well coated.

Add broth and cauliflower to pan and cover, cooking for about 10 minutes. Add spinach to pan and cook for 5 minutes. The original recipe didn’t call for spinach but I wanted a little bit of green in this pie!

The spinach reduces down to almost nothing when cooked so don’t be shy throwing a couple handfuls in.

In a separate bowl beat two eggs and add milk, set aside.

When the crust is ready, remove from oven and reduce oven temperature to 375 F.

Layer half of the cheddar cheese on the bottom of the cooked crust.

Top with cauliflower/spinach mixture.

Sprinkle remaining cheese on top of veggies and finally pour egg/milk mixture over the entire pie.

Bake pie at 375 for about 35 minutes.

Time to eat.

My math tells me this entire pie contained 1302 calories. Cut into 6 slices, 217 calories per slice. I expected it to be much more so this was a pleasant surprise.

I thumbed through Moosewood Cookbook while the pie was baking and I can’t wait to try more the recipes in this book, so many great ideas! I snagged another book from my friend Tara’s house when I was there too, oh boy I’m gonna be busy.

Dear Stranger From Wegmans,

Thank you so much for recommending this recipe to me! It was delicious and nutritious. It was a lot of work, but well worth it. In fact, I think I might even make this for our main course at Thanksgiving while our carnivorous family members dine on turkey. Even if you only complimented one of the two heads I had with me on that fateful day, I am grateful for our short conversation. I liked your head too.

Your Truly,
Two Headed Mama

• Stay at Home
• One Fine Day
• Make Your Own MamaBars