dinner dilema

so last night rolls around and i realize that i did not make anything for my daughter's lunch for school today. let me back up. my daughter is enrolled in a daycare program that is mostly green. they use cloth diapers, earth friendly cleaning products and serve organic food. they do not however provide vegan meals. and so because it is a bilingual program and the entire staff are native spanish speakers and i do not know how to translate exactly what our diet entails, i pack her lunch and snacks for the three days a week she is there. back to last night. these are the times i wish being vegan was more convenient. i cannot send pb&j because the school has a no peanut policy and we have no other nut butters in the house currently. i decided the next easiest thing was grilled "cheese". fortunately we had one slice of bread left in the house. next thing: fruit. that one is easy. she loves pretty much any fruit. i had some cherries in the fridge that i pitted and sliced. lastly, i needed a veggie. this one is hard. she is still pretty picky about vegetables. she loves peas and corn, but i sent peas on tuesday and we are out of corn. i have a sweet potato, but she does not really care for those. maybe i can make it work. i sliced the potato into tiny finger-sized, bite-sized cubes. i threw them in a pan with some coconut oil over medium heat. i sprinkled with a little salt, cinnamon and brown sugar. the scent alone brought dad into the kitchen to see what was cooking. i reduced the heat and sautéed them until they were soft. dad gave them the taste test and passed them! we will see what little girl thinks about them today...

birthday food

i decided to start out this post with a couple of pictures from my daughter's birthday. it was back in january, so it was a snowflake themed party. we served appetizers and punch and of course vegan cupcakes! one of the appetizers i was especially proud of was these little guys:



it was a super easy recipe that consisted of three ingredients-

1 can small black olives
1 can large black olives
1 container vegan cream cheese
one small carrot

the process seems laborious, but i found it to be quite easy and enjoyable-

first, slice the carrot into small rounds. cut a small triangle shaped piece out of each one and reserve them. take the large black olives and cut through one side. for the next part i used a mechanical pastry bag, but you may also do it manually it just may take longer. fill each large olive with cream cheese until it peeps out through the opening in the side. use a toothpick to attach a small olive to the top of the large olive and anchor it to the carrot round. stick a carrot triangle in the front for a beak and you have a cream cheese penguin!

you can continue this until you run out of large olives or patience. they were kind of bland, but you could add fresh herbs like dill or chives to the cream cheese to make it more flavorful. i also prepared a box of unflavored vegan gelatin with an added tablespoon of raspberry extract and a little sugar, and cut it into cubes to look like ice cubes.

the other little cuties i made were these:



i need to find the recipe i based this off of, but they are basically little peppermints that i colored, rolled and formed. they each stood about an inch tall. these recipes will not really be in season again for a few more months, but i hope they are found enjoyable!