Travis is 2!

Happy Birthday sweet, sweet boy!!!

You're amazing! We love you!

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Travis- 2nd birthday celebration. Train theme!

We celebrated Trav's birthday today. We had a blast! We went to the zoo with Kiki, Dadoo and Amp. Then we had a picnic at the park and rode the FW Miniature Train. Trav loved his cake! I worked hard on it! We enjoyed eating it too :) We also said farewell to Amp. He's moving to California to pursue his skating career next week! 

The cake!

Zoo time.

Family photo attempt!

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Cakes, cakes, cakes.

Trav's 2nd birthday is only days away! We will be having a small family train themed celebration for him this weekend. This means...mama is baking a cake! I plan on making all of TnT's birthday cakes for as long as they'll let me! Here are the few cakes I have made. I'm making a train cake for Trav's 2nd bday this weekend.

 Trav's 1st birthday cake. First experience with vegan marshmallow fondant!

 

Aaron's birthday cake. Twenty niiiiine.

Trent's race car cake. 3rd birthday.

Valentine's Day birthday cake I made for Kiki and co workers. 

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A quick lunch.

Chicken less salad sandwiches! This is probably my favorite lunch to take along on play dates and picnics. It's also super easy and quick to make while at home. The garbanzos can be mashed with a fork, but according to my boys, chopping them with the ninja processor makes them yummier!

Chickenless Salad

Ingredients:

• Garbanzos/chickpeas
• 1 tblsp of vegannaise
• Dash of salt
• Dash of pepper

Directions:

1. Mash garbanzos until they are no longer whole.
2. Stir in vegannaise.
3. Sprinkle in salt and pepper.
4. Add celery or other veggies if desired.

Prep

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Vegan sweets? Yes, please!

I haven't always liked coconut, but I recently developed a taste for it. I never thought about making this recipe, but I stumbled upon the idea while making chocolate covered strawberries with coconut flakes. They were fantastic!

Coconut Macaroons
Ingredients:

• 1 cup nondairy milk ( if any less than 5 grams of fat, add 1 teaspoon vegetable oil)
• 1/4 cup vegan sugar or 2 tablespoons agave or maple syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups sweetened or unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1/3 cup sugar, if using unsweetened coconut

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Boil milk on medium high and add "sweetener" of choice and salt. Whisk in flour. Boil for about 2 minutes and lower the temperature to medium low. Cook until it is slightly thinner than pudding. (about 5 minutes or so)
2. Add the vanilla as soon as it's done boiling. Mix in the coconut and excess sugar if using.
3. Drop rounded teaspoons onto a cookie sheet. Bake for about 16 minutes or until golden.

Enjoy!

My photos:

Prep

Mixture

Out of the oven 20 minutes later. Drizzled in vegan chocolate and done!

Boys loved them!

Really, really loved them.

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What's for dinner?

Trav LOVES potatoes. I do too. I found a recipe that looked too good not to make. I made it for dinner the other day and I couldn't stop eating it! The boys enjoyed it too. I found it on Vegweb.com It's where I find most of my recipes. :)

Outstanding Cheezy Potato Bake
Ingredients:

• oil, as needed
• 6 small-medium red potatoes, sliced in 1/2" rounds
• 1/2-1 yellow onion, sliced
• vegan buttery spread, to taste (I use Earth Balance)
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
• 1-1 1/2 cups unsweetened nondairy milk or water

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Prepare a casserole dish with oil to cover the bottom. Set aside. Add 1 layer of potatoes to the bottom of the dish (I used 2 potatoes per layer, for 3 layers).
2. Add some sliced onions to the top of the potatoes, season with lots of salt and pepper, and add a few dollops of vegan butter on top of the layer.
3. Add the nutritional yeast to a bowl, and pour in enough milk or water  to make a sauce (medium thinness). Season this with salt and pepper. Pour some of the sauce over the first layer, but remember you need enough for 3 layers.
4. Continue to layer the dish with potato, onion, salt, pepper, vegan butter, and cheezy sauce. You should have enough sauce to pour some on top. I recommend lots of onions on top because they brown so beautifully. Make sure you season with enough salt and pepper!
5. Pour some milk in the dish to about 1/2 up the dish. Bake for 45 minutes-1 hour (until the potatoes are very tender, and the sauce is bubbling).

Preparation Time: About 30min

Cooking Time: 45min- 1 hr

Servings: 2-4

http://vegweb.com/recipes/outstanding-cheezy-potato-bake

My photos:

Food prep

 Result!

 DINNER!

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Back to blogging!

This blog will be back up and running again soon. So much has happened since my last update 3 years ago! I'd like to have somewhere I can look back on to see some of our memories because as some of you know, I have a horrible memory! :/ Also, some of our family doesn't facebook. I hope you all keep up with us a bit and enjoy visiting this blog. :)

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