Extremely Fun Halloween Ideas - Part One

Play a spooky board or card game. My favorites are:

Arkham Horror, which is a co-operative game in which all players either win or lose. The object is to prevent the Ancient One from destroying the world. The only drawback to this game is that it can take a very long time to play.




Lupus in Tabula, which is a game where the goal is to find out who the werewolf in the village is before he kills all the villagers. This game is much quicker and just as fun to play as Arkham Horror. The drawback to this game is that you need at least 9 players to play.



Gloom, in which the object of the game is to have the most members of your "family" die the unhappiest.

How to Have a Healthier Halloween, Part One

In my pre-mom/pre-vegetarian life, I never gave a thought to the candy I handed out to the eager children who rang my doorbell unless it was which candy to buy so that my husband would not eat it all before Halloween was here. After all, trick-or-treating what I did when I was little and what everyone I know did. It was tradition.

Now that I am the mother of a daughter with a milk allergy, I am looking for fun and healthy alternatives to traditional Halloween foods. This year, she will be almost 2. Old enough to understand that she is supposed to ring the doorbell or knock, say "trick or treat", and someone will put something in her bag. She will not be old enough to realize that mom will have some trickery up her sleeve to ensure only vegan snacks are available to her. However, I began to wonder about next year or when she's 4. Even if she does outgrow her allergy, I want to infuse some health consciousness into the traditionally unhealthy holiday.

Here are some ideas if you are looking to make your Halloween more healthy this year.

1. If you leave your light on for trick-or-treaters, buy inedible treats. This year, I bought a 100 pack of bat rings for the same price I would've paid for a bag of individually wrapped candies. Other ideas are holiday-themed pencils, erasers, notepads, rubber balls, stickers and even eye-ball shaped bubble containers.

2. Buy healthier treats. Boxes of raisins or bags of nuts are great alternatives to traditional candy.

3. If possible, forgo trick-or-treating for a festive alternative - your own Halloween party. Here is where the fun really starts.

Kid's Party Ideas:

• Games like "Pin The Hat on the Witch" or "Pin The Nose on the Pumpkin" or "Pin The Tooth on the Vampire"
  
• Tell age-appropriate scary stories.
  
• Include a Halloween costume parade where children get to show off their costume.
• Put together a Halloween themed scavenger hunt. Place paper bats (or pumpkins, ghosts, cats, etc) all around the house where children can collect them. The child who collects the most bats wins.
  
• Organize a Halloween themed craft making party. Kids can decorate their own pumpkins, design their own hats, draw Halloween characters, color in coloring books. Older kids, with an adult to help, could design their own shirts using iron-on crayons or concoct a special Halloween drink.
  
• Have a lot of yummy treats for kids to snack on throughout the party.

Adult Party Ideas:

• Play a spooky board or card game. Check this post for my recommendations.
  
• Throw a dinner party where everyone must wear black. If a potluck is more your style, ask everyone to bring healthy foods that are black, orange, green or purple.

4. Have a scary movie night. Pick a few favorite classics. Your guests can dress up as their favorite character from their favorite movie.

5. Start a new tradition. Invite a few friends or family over to make and decorate Halloween treats.

But I thought you were vegeterian

If anyone is bothered by photos of what appears to be hamburger meat, you may want to skip this post. However, I did say, what appears, which means it is not. In fact it is totally vegan.

I made Celebrity Aduki Bean and Rice Cakes from Vive le Vegan!
I have nothing but good things to say about Dreena Burton's cookbooks.

They are pretty yummy and also easy to make. If you have a former meat eater that misses hamburgers, try these out. The texture is not hamburger-ish, which is ok because I never liked that anyway.

Here are two photos. Again, these are not meat and are completely vegan.

Disappointed in Balsalmic Vinegar

So today I made extremely tasty, although time consuming to make, Rosemary Tofu Balls from Vive le Vegan!. I was preparing the sauce and Iooked at my balsalmic vinegar to see if it had to be refrigerated. It had a warning that said it contained lead. I reread it. Yep, lead. So I did some research online. Here is a good article on it.
http://tangergreen.com/proposition-65-lead-in-red-wine-and-balsamic-vinegar/

Cold Brewed Coffee Love

When I was living in New Orleans, I fell madly in love with cold-brewed coffee. I'd pack up my laptop and walk a few blocks down to the local PJ's and drink whatever flavor appealed to me that day. My favorite is still Southern Pecan.
I worked at PJ's once for a short while, but I was never privy to the secrets of cold-brewing. I saw huge white buckets covered by large filters filled with coffee grinds and I wasn't so sure how that made coffee. As far as I knew, one needed hot water and a machine to make coffee. It all seemed a little mysterious to me.

One day, at the grocery store,I saw Cool Brew, a cold-brewed coffee concentrate. Just add milk or water, pour over ice and magically, you had a delicious iced coffee. Cheaper and quicker than going to your local coffeeshop. Yummy.

When we moved to North Carolina, I had a difficult time finding anyone who'd even heard of cold-brewed coffee. Finally, I came upon it one day at a Caribou Coffee in Traingle Town Center. What Joy! It tasted just like home! Only problem was that the closest Caribou is 30 minutes away from my home by car. Not very convenient.

As I was looking for a solution to create my own cold brews, my mother-in-law bought me a Toddy Maker Cold Brew Coffee Maker.

I was quite skeptical at first, but after the first time, I was hooked! The concentrate will stay good in the refrigerator for 14 days, but it never lasts that long for me.

My standard recipe for an iced-coffee is:
1/3 cup coffee concentrate
1 cup water
creamer to taste(I use almond milk)

Mix these together then pour over ice.

Leftover Soup Risotto

My husband isn't a big fan of eating the same dinner 2 nights in a row, unless it's pizza. So, in an effort to stretch our food, I decided to try to make risotto. Before I swore off packaged foods, it was something we really enjoyed often. Surely, I could make my own. So, I put on my swanky 50's style apron and got to work.


Ingredients:

• 4-5 cups leftover vegetable soup, puréed, depending on how creamy you'd like it. More soup makes it more creamy.
  
• 1 cup Arborio rice
  
• salt to taste
  
• Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning to taste
  
• 1 Tbsp olive oil

Directions:
1. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan.

2. Add the rice. Sauté until brown.

3. Add the soup, 1 cup at a time, and cook rice for 20 minutes, stirring very often.

It turned out pretty good. My husband and I really liked it, however our 18 month old rejected it after one taste. I am not sure what sort of grudge she holds against broccoli.

Leftover Vegetable Soup

2 Nights ago, my husband and I made vegetable slow cooker soup to use up frozen and fresh veggies we had to use up. Any type of soup can be used, and ours was super simple.


Ingredients:

• 1 bag frozen butternut squash
  
• 1 bag of frozen broccoli
  
• 1 large Onion, chopped
  
• 5 cloves of garlic (we love garlic)
  
• 1 large russet potato, chopped
  
• pinch of salt
  
• water to cover the veggies

Directions:
1. Chop the new potatoes and onions. Place into crockpot.

2. Open frozen veggies and pour them into the crockpot.

3. Pour enough water in, about an inch over the veggies.

4. Cook on low at least 8 hours.

My husband and I really liked it, however my 18 month old, did not. Perhaps she dislikes broccoli.

I finally finshed my apron!

It only took me 27 hours, but at last I have finished my apron. It came out pretty well, considering I knew almost nothing about sewing and considering my teacher was a little confused at where I was in the directions at times and often told me conflicting things. All in all, I love it.

Adventure August Mondays

It's finally August in North Carolina, and with temperatures reaching into the high 90's, I am looking for cool activities with my 18 month old daughter. So I came up with the idea of Adventure August Mondays. It's very easy and lots of fun too.

What You Need:

• A child
  
• A camera
  
• A sketchbook or blank journal (optional)

What To Do:
1. Pick a few Places to go
2. Take your child, camera
3. Lose your inhibitions and take pictures anywhere and of everything.
4. If you decided on buying a blank sketchbook, print out some pictures and record your adventure.

Some ideas of places to go:

• the Library
  
• a Museum
  
• a Mall
  
• a Coffee Shop
  
• a Bookstore
  
• If possible, let your child decide

Ideas to Make your Adventure More Exciting

• Decide on a color that days and see how many things you can find that color.
  
  
• Invent a new word to use during Adventure Time that day. Something akin to the way the Smurfs would use "Smurf" for a lot of words.
  
  
• Take self-portraits of you and your child.
  
  
• Wear funny hats when you go out.

What We Did on our First August Adventure Monday:
It was nearly nap time, and Rooney was fighting sleep. So, I decided to get in the car to put her to sleep. Since I hate to use up gas with no goal in mind, I decided to go to Trader Joe's to get milk-free bread for her. I also like their bread because none of their choices ever seem to have high-fructose corn syrup or partially hydrogenated oil, both of which I avoid. Next to Trader Joe's was a Staples, which was convenient since I needed pen refills.

So we went to Staples first and although I felt a little nervous at first, I took out my camera and snapped a few pictures of her in the store. She loves when she gets to hold anything "adult", so she was pretty happy holding the refill packages while we waited in line.


Then we went to the grocery and snapped a few pictures there, too.


On the way home, we stopped at a Barnes and Noble. She loves to pull books off of the shelf and play on their stage used for story time. She also enjoys climbing in and out of the chairs.
On the way home, she took a wonderful, exhausted nap.


This week I will print out my pictures and write the details of our adventure. And I will start all over again next Monday.

Vegan Rella

I've never been one for fake cheese substitutes unless you count making Palak Tofu instead of Palak Paneer or white beans instead of macaroni & cheeze. However, in an attempt to include Sage in our recipes, I made Polenta Casserole from Eat, Drink & Be Vegan, which includes vegan mozzerella.

I don't like the way butter smells. It always smells rancid to me. I don't like the way butter tastes by itself. My cousin used to eat sticks of butter as a kid (literally - take them out of our Grandma's fridge and suck on them), and the smell & sight combined caused me great abdominal distress.

So when I smelled the VeganRella, I should've known better. I even made Rob smell it because it smelled Rancid to me. But I put it into my polenta anyway & baked it.

Objectively, it wasn't bad. Rob loved it. I hated it. The top layer tastes like butter.

What a way to ruin a batch of grits.

Blueberry Picking

Today, we went blueberry picking in Cedar Grove. It was only an hour away from where we were, and it wasn't that hot. We got about 5 pounds before we decided that the sun beating down on us made it hot.

Recipes I will make:
Vegan Blueberry Brownies (from Veggie Life Magazine Autumn 2002)
Fresh Blueberry Smoothie
Blueberry Carob Pancakes (from Eat, Drink and Be Vegan)
Vegan Blueberry Muffins

New Patterns

JoAnn's had a 99 cent Butterick Pattern sale. I got these:



This one I am making next. I got ridiculously expensive black and red cloth to make it. I can't wait. It says it is very easy, and it looks like it. I am probably starting this one in two weeks because I am finishing my apron on Monday.


And I am going to make Rob a long sleeve button down shirt. It says it's a 2 hour pattern so I figure it will only take me 3-4 class nights to finish it (9-12 hours).

Some Veggies from our garden

We got lots of Jalapeno peppers. We plan to freeze them since our baby can't really eat stuff with hot peppers in it. We put our light green bell peppers in chili. Yum!

I am learning to sew

Eventually, I will make this pattern I just ordered.

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary

What Our Garden looks like Now


Our tomato bushes(do they grown on bushes?) are growing incredibly. Our lettuce doesn't look that bad, either. We are going to try to eat it tonight.

Here's a close up. We got grape tomatoes.


I've always wanted to grow my own organic bell peppers.


My bucket o' mint. Mint could eventually take over the world, along with Aloe as its ally.

Vegan Scallopy Potatoes & Broccoli

This was one of my first successful recipes for making a cheese substitute for my daughter. We discovered after her first birthday, after the cupcake she ate, that she has a milk allergy. So my challenge has been to come up with recipes my cheese-loving husband will eat that will also be safe for my baby to eat. I began with just making potatoes and broccoli, but I decided that was pretty boring, so I made a bean sauce adapted from Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound of new potatoes
  
• 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
  
• 1 bag of frozen broccoli
  
• 1 large Onion, chopped
  
• 1 15oz can of White Beans, drained
  
• 1 Tbsp miso Paste
  
• 2 tsp lemon juice lemon juice
  
• 1/4 tsp dried mustard
  
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
  
• pinch of ground nutmeg
  
• pinch of salt
  
• 1/2 cup water

Directions:
1. Chop the new potatoes.

2. Roast in stove-top pan with a little olive oil and Italian seasoning.

3. While potatoes are roasting, steam the broccoli.

4. Drain broccoli and mix with potatoes. Set aside.

5. Sauté onions.

6. Place water, sauteed onions, can of white beans, miso paste, lemon juice, dry mustard, cayenne, nutmeg, and salt in the food processor. Process until smooth.

7. Poured that mixture over the potatoes/broccoli.

8. Serve to unsure husband and hungry baby.

My husband loved it! He thought he tasted more like scalloped potatoes than cheesy ones. My 16 month old did not like it. She liked the potatoes, but after eating a piece of broccoli she decided that was enough of that food for today.

Purple Cauliflower & Fresh Picked Strawberries

Yesterday, we went to Vollmer Farm to pick organic strawberries, and we had a great time. We got 2 buckets of great strawberries, go to be out in the sun and hang out with our friends. Plus, even though she was too young to realize it, we brought our 15 month old so she can begin to see where food comes from. She did enjoy carrying around 2 strawberries the whole time.
They had the most amazing looking cauliflower there, in white, bright yellow and bright purple varieties. The purple color is caused by the presence of the antioxidant group anthocyanin, which can also be found in red cabbage and red wine (Wikipedia). We got a purple one because it has the most amazing color. It looks like something that was dyed, rather than something that grows naturally. We cut it up and just ate it raw, then we tried it with some vinaigrette dressing. Yummy both ways.

Is it weird that I think our raised vegetable bed looks like a grave?

Here is our garden, basically. My husband made the raised bed, and we planted stuff last weekend. We also have herbs in containers. In the very back of the picture, hidden, is an overgrown area of blueberry and blackberry bushes/sticks.

Random Fact About Me: I have a bizarre love for peppermint equaled by a bizarre hatred for spearmint.