The Best Baked Zucchini and Dipping Sauce Eva!

Last night, I recreated an amazing Pinterest find: Baked Zuchinni Sticks and Sweet Onion Dip.



Adaptions
* I only had red onion, so that's what I used.
* I used have veganaise (it's what I had) and 1/2 plain Greek  
  yogurt.
* I used Glutino GF breadcrumbs



Today, the Prince had a cavity free dental appointment and we scheduled an appointment for next week to have sealants placed on his 6 year molars. He is such a big boy. He looks forward to the dentist and refuses to let me go back with him. Tear... He is growing too fast.

After that we headed to the zoo, well technically we stopped by the Starbucks window for a tall, iced, soy, skinny vanilla latte then we head to the zoo. Okay, okay...today it was a double shot....trust me I deserved it!

I enjoy spending so much time with my Prince. I will regret things throughout my life, but being with him daily will not be one of them.

Yummy Summer

I have created an entire writing workshop area in our homeschool. I promise to have pictures posted this week. The Prince is loving his exploration of writing. He was never had a true interest in creative writing or self spelling before, so thanks to homeschooling I was able to wait until he was ready. Recently, he has been drawing, writing and creating up a storm.


We had soccer practice this morning; Can I just say it was super super hot outside at 10am...whew! But, even in the heat I took the time to create this Oh. So. Easy crafty... in between picture taking, of course.


This crafty was inspired by A Cupcake for the Teacher ! Her pattern is wayyy better than mine :) We will pretend I was distracted by soccer.

Here is a writing crafty he completed today after soccer practice.

While writing he ran out of space and was worried. No worries, we just addded more paper!

He wrote: This summer I will go to my friends housed. I will also go party, eat cake, go to Chuck E Cheese. 

Aiden

06-04-12

Black Olive Dip and Amazing Wild Rice

Saturday night as I cooked dinner the Prince sat in the kitchen snacking on bagel chips and chatting with me. He was reading the recipes on the back of the bagel chip box and wanted to make on of the recipes. He gathered all the ingredients and we whipped it up. I was pretty sure he wouldn't care for it because it is a "creamy" dip but, I never try to discourage his food explorations.




Black Olive Dip

Makes approx 1 1/4 cups


3/4 Vegenaise ( Yes, yes, you can use Mayonaisse)
1/4 finely chopped black olives
2 garlic cloves, mince
2 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 chopped fresh parsley
Salt/pepper to taste



I was right he wasn't a fan BUT, I loved it. Lovvvvvveeeeddd it!


The dinner I was preparing prior to the dip making turned at as equally delicious! I made Wild Mushroom, Roasted Asparagus and Wild Mushroom Salad with Feta. I served mine over fresh raw organic spinach. *** This can easily be made vegan, just don't add the feta ***



Mine.


The Prince's.



Sunday Night's Menu

Protein Packed Quinoa Salad
and
Baked Sweet Potatoes with Cinnamon Butter

YUMMMM!

Wait, it's not Winter?

I have seen this subtraction poem all over Pinterest and thought it to be such a great reminding tool. So, I recreated for our Prince.



What good is a reminder poem with no reason to use it? So thanks to my favorite blogs and their gracious freebies- Viola! Instant review lessons. Click on the pictures below and go get your own freebies.


Who cares if one of the lessons contains snowmen and it's 90 degrees outside? Cuteness knows no temperature :)!

Remember the continual question regarding my GF/vegetarian diet: "Well, what do you eat then?"

Last Night's Dinner:

Thai Black Pepper and Garlic Tofu

(I add 1/8 of red pepper flakes to the veggies and didn't add carrots)

Steamed Jasmine Rice

***This dish was amazingly good*** Even the meat eating husband thought the veggies were very flavorful and the Prince seriously could not get enough of the tofu.

Happy Thursday to Ya!

I am Truly Thankful.

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you, to all those who sacrificed everything, so I can enjoy my everything!

 

Happy Memorial Day!

The husband is not a fan of the jersey the Prince has on :).

The Prince proudly wearing his flag pin today. He told me this morning that he is thankful every day for the military people that die for us. Big Mommy Heart Smile!

A Ladybug and a Continual Question

My girlfriend, Tasha, swears she is not crafty. I always tell her neither am I. As homeschooling mommas we want to be all things, so I pretend to be crafty. I find the cutest things from the cutest blogs and I try my hardest to recreate them. So when I saw a cutie pie ladybug with a splash of math from Step Into Second Grade I knew that this was the perfect crafty lesson to show how easy it is to recreate something. For this one all you need are a few circle and a couple of free hand drawings.

Click HERE to print the very crude drawing of what you need. See the drawings do not need to be anywhere close to perfect. A craft like this can be presented in pre-cut pieces for assembly only or you can provide your little ones with the templates and they can trace and cut them out his/herself.


As with every crafty, I add some sort of lesson. The Prince was gracious enough to complete a couple different types of math equations to show the possibilities are really endless when it comes to what lesson you add to this craft.

Next... The Continual Question. Due to being vegetarian, frequently vegan, and gluten free, people continually ask " Well, what do you eat then?" I sometimes have difficulty with this question as I don't have a fixed menu, you know like when our parents used to cook the same 7 meals over and over and sometimes I feel it would be too much to run down my grocery list. So, my solution... To randomly post our menu. If I have a recipe or a link to that recipe, I'll try to post that as well.


Tonight's Menu


- Vegan Smokey Black Bean Stew
(I didn't have smoked paprika - but you can substitute 2 parts paprika and 1 part cumin to get a great substitute)
- Jasmine Rice
- Spinach Salad
(spinach, boiled egg, feta cheese and faux bacon bits)
- Balsamic Vinaigrette

* I was going to cook a chicken breast for my Carnivore Husband, but he said he didn't need it *




Finally, if you have made it this far in this long post, Wow! Way to hang in there. I wanted to share one last picture. My Prince started his venture toward becoming an official non-training wheel kind-of biker :).

I found an amazing bike riding method online. It really really works. This picture was taken on day 3 (about 30 minutes each day prior) of practice. Click HERE for the tips/strategy. 

**By the way, that's our house in the background. The one with the 4 windows and the tree :)

Addition With Regrouping Review

So on those Oh. So. Busy. days we try not to introduce anything new or work on anything that takes tons of instruction, instead we review! I found some cute review ideas from Step into Second Grade and whipped this review up really fast.

Delicious Black Bean Burger and Yummy Dessert

After a day of slipping-n-sliding, a fun, easy and delicious dinner was in order.

A couple days ago the Prince's Auntie Kyra sent me her dear friend's, Kelly, Black Bean Burger recipe. I knew I had to make it. I have made many veggie burger recipes. Some easy. Some labor intensive. Some super yummy. Some mediocre.

This recipe sounded easy and delicious. It did not disappoint. I did adapt the recipe a bit to fit our likes and GF needs.

Thank You So Much!, Kelly for the recipe and Ky for sending it to me!

Ingredients

• 1 can organic black beans (or two cups), drained and rinsed
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 cup finely diced red bell pepper
• 1/4 cup finely diced red onion
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 1/2 cup gluten free bread crumbs

Directions

• In a mixing bowl, mash black beans with a fork until thick and pasty. 
• Mix all remaining ingredients, in order, into the mashed black beans. 
• The mixture should appear sticky and hold together.
• Divide mixture into 4 patties.
• Heat approximately 2 tablespoons olive oil in pan. Fry burgers for 2 to 4 minutes on each side.

*If grilling, place patties on foil and grill for about 8 minutes on each side. 
*If baking, place patties on baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes on each side at 375•. 




***If you prefer a spicy black bean burger then add a teaspoon of hot sauce of choice to the mixture.

I added rice cheese to mine and white cheddar to the hubby's. The possibilities are endless.. Blue Cheese Black Bean Burgers (like Chili's), Mushroom and Swiss Burger, the yumminess could go on forever :)

 

And what is a yummy dinner without a yummy dessert? So I quickly whipped up a 1/2 recipe of Skinny Taste's Creamy Grape Dessert!

The only ingredient change was I used a couple of teaspoons of Stevia instead of Agave. OH and I only had purple grapes.

Is it odd that as a family we like to eat out of the bowl with three spoons? YUM!!!!!