You mean that's a 'D' not a 'G'?

     It was my intention to post Disneyland pictures in the month of February since that is when we attended the place, but that never happened. Just like it was my plan to post my seeing Tony Bennett in January. OH MY GOODNESS! I SAW TONY BENNETT! This is my forth year working The Humana Challenge, a golf tournament in my hometown. I was so happy when I was asked to work the Opening Party. Bill Clinton introduced Tony Bennett (yes, as in former President!) Tony Bennett was amazing. Such a dream come true for me since he is the last of his kind. He is something like 87, and still managed to sing for nearly an hour and put on a great show. I was pretty much crying the whole time. Working that party was horrible/stressful, but Tony made up for it. It's still the highlight of the year for me. Although I did have a dream last month that I never actually saw him, but instead I saw a cover band! Talk about a nightmare! 

    Anyway, here are Disneyland pictures. We decided to go Superbowl Sunday in hopes of less crowds. There were definitely less people in the afternoon. We got great seats for the parade (a bench!) and also for the fireworks. We weren't going to stay up for the fireworks. The girls fell asleep in line for Peter Pan, so Daniel and I dropped them in the Stroller and had some very quiet alone time staring at Tom Sawyers Island and watching the lights in New Orleans Square. By evening there were no people. As we were walking through Downtown Disney on our way out, the girls woke up and decided they wanted another ride on the Carrousel. So we hopped on the Monorail and found ourselves back in the park. Glad we stayed because I haven't seen the fireworks in about ten years. Every time I do, I am always so amazed by Tinker Bell and wish I had her job. But I can't get on Dumbo without wanting to puke my brains out, so zip lining is out for me. That dream always gets kicked out fast. 

      This is a safe distance from the characters. The mice from Cinderella tried to go in for a hug and Thérèse screamed murder and booked it. She's good at multitasking that way. 

  

    Scared of the door too. Hey, at least I know they have an imagination. 

      Toon town is not scary. Toon town, is awesome.

I love how she is sticking her tongue out. On the back of the fire truck too. 

 

      The parade was a major highlight. 

        This is my favorite picture of the day. Monique was so amazed that she was seeing Simba, that she slipped into a trance and started waving both hands. She stopped, looked down at her hands, wondered how they got there, and just kept waving. She calls it her "Two Wave". 

       Op, that's mine. 

      At this point Daniel and I were thinking to ourselves, "We were almost to the car...how did we end up back in this place?" I think Daniel jokingly said something about "YOLO" and all I could think was, "We are going to be paying for this Monday!"

       Best fireworks show ever! Sorry 4th of July Firworks. You ain't got nothing on Disney. See Tink? Overall, I don't like the girl and her attitude. But really life flying Tink...amazing. 

       I don't follow many blogs (I don't have the time to). For the past couple years I've been following Cute and Delicious run by Alix. I like to go to her space to see what childless married vegans who reside in L.A. are up to. She has great food photography. She and her husband just hosted a Wes Anderson party, which I wish I had crashed. While we were walking through New Orleans Square, I saw them! I muttered something incomprehensible, "Thosearethosepeople" and took off running after them. Good thing Thérèse is a great runner because I totally forgot I was holding her hand and she kept up great. I ran up to them and said, "Not to be a big weirdo creep, but I TOTALLY FOLLOW YOUR BLOG!!" Super awkward introductions were made and I was super happy and they were smiling but I didn't know what to say. I wish I had gotten my nerd out and asked them what they were eating on this fine day, but everything happened so fast and before I knew it, I had said "bye". Daniel, who had no idea what was going on, ran up behind us with Monique on his shoulders and I was just like, "THAT WAS AMAZING! WASN'T THAT SO COOL?!" He was actually expecting the couple to be like, "um...yeah...we are not who you think we are crazy lady" but the names and faces matched. I was on a high all day from running into them. 

     Speaking of eating in D-Land. We packed so much food we didn't need to eat till dinner time. My favorite spot is the Burger Place in Tomorrow Land. They have the most delicious roasted vegetable sandwich on ciabatta bread. I look forward to that sandwich every time we visit. The veggies are marinated in balsamic vinegar and are so juicy. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. 

 

All In A Sunday Afternoon

     Yesterday we went to mass and then ran a ton of errands. Usually afterwards, I'm beat and ready for a nap (I hate running errands), but yesterday I rested for a bit, and then spent the rest of the afternoon/evening working in the kitchen, made dinner, fit in a quick run, and gave all the girls a shower. The only way I can explain all this extra energy is that I went on a three mile run on Friday and the energy carried over throughout the weekend. Plus, I find working in the kitchen can be relaxing when you have someone to help with the kids! 

    I didn't run all last week. Consequently, my headaches were at a level ten (I have daily TMJ headaches), I didn't sleep well, and I was super depressed. I need to get my lazy feet out the door and remember to run at least every other day.

    Anyway, here are a couple of the things I made yesterday:

 

Hungry Man's Double Chocolate Trail Mix: Dark chocolate covered pretzels, dark chocolate covered raisins, dried cranberries, raw almonds, raw pecans. 

   Daniel is notorious for grabbing a handful of chocolate chips when he is hungry. This kills me because 1) Chocolate chips are for baking 2) There is zero nutrition in that and chocolate chips are not filling. I finally got around to making him this mix and stuck it where the chocolate chips used to be.

   We are trying to save money in every way possible. So I decided to be the biggest freak on the block and make my own dog treats. I realize dogs aren't vegan, but obviously, we only have vegan ingredients in our home, so these ended up being veg. Doesn't matter because she loves them. This was a fun project for Thérèse and me while Monique and Athena slept.

Vegan Pumpkin Doggie Cookies

2 1/2 cups flour (I used self rising flour because I've been trying to use it up)

2 tbsp ground flax seed mixed in 6 tbsps water

2/3 cup pumpkin purée 

3 tbsp peanut or almond butter 

2 tablespoons canola oil

Preheat oven to 350°F. Place flour, flax seed mixture, pumpkin and nut butter in a mixing bowl. Stir it together then add oil. Add more water if too dry, add flour if too wet. Stir and then knead together to form a dough. Roll out on a lightly floured surface to about 1/4-inch think. I used an empty spice jar to cut out 1-inch cookies. Keep rolling out and cutting till all the dough is used up. Place on a baking sheet, it's okay to crowd them since they won't be expanding. Bake for 25 minutes for crunchy cookies.

Tip: I used canned pumpkin purée from thanksgiving. Since I didn't use the whole can, I divided the remaining pumpkin into three zip lock baggies putting 2/3 cup into each one and freezing, ready for the next time I  make these. 

EXPERIMENT OF THE DAY:

I also made bagels! What?? They turned out to be more like unleavened bread. Daniel figures there must be something wrong with the yeast (expired or opened to long) because I followed the directions perfectly and they didn't rise. I didn't realize till the last step that they were not shaping up to be the way they were supposed to be. Whoops. I was about to have a melt down, but Daniel gave me a lecture about how I can't expect perfection when I try something the first time. Apparently this is the same talk he gives his emotionally disturbed students everyday. Great.

 Here are some girl pics for you all:

Athena and Thérèse morning cuddles.

 

The four of us after our shower and so ready for bed!

After this busy weekend, I'm okay with it being Monday. Kind of. Kind of okay with Monday. You know what makes Mondays great? Freezer crock pot lasagna! All made and defrosting in the sink. I used one of my freezer slow cooker meals last week and was so excited by the zero work and five minute clean up! I was so pumped that I made two more meals Friday morning before I left town for a couple days. Why did I never do this before?

R&R Family Style

    Our family got to live life large with a four day weekend. Ordinarily, if we had time off, we would leave town or run errands or somehow find ourselves very busy. We are always so busy! This weekend we decided to take a mini family vacation in our own home. I mean much needed home family vacation. It was so relaxing. As relaxing as it could be with three little people, housework, cooking, bathing dog, Daniel doing homework and lesson plans...but all constant work aside, it was perfect. 

     

    

Every day is vacation day for this girl. Lucky...

     Saturday we went on a hike in Oak Glen. It was beautiful! So nice to get out and be away from the pollution. There was even some snow left over. We needed to take these girls to the snow before winter was over. Glad we get to check that off our list! 

     This is Mo in a nutshell. Really, I just asked her to smile. 

     Love how Thérèse is hiking up her pants to keep them snow free. 

     My view.

Post hike cuddles. 

     Today I found myself with some free time, hahahahahahahahahahaha! Oh my goodness, that was funny. So I decided to make up some crock pot meals. I really need crock pot meals in my life, especially on days that I'm busy running errands or cleaning. But on those days, I don't have time in the morning to stick my ingredients in the crock pot. Excited I now have them prepped in the freezer! I wanted to make more, but Wednesday is our food shopping day, so by Monday/Tuesday we are low on everything. I made what I could. We shall see how this works out for us and hopefully do this more often! 

Rustic Pot Pie from Fresh from the Vegan Slow Cooker

Lasagna (mixture) from Peta, but I added some tahini, miso and EVOO to give it more flavor.

Chili-Potato Gratin from Fresh from the Vegan Slow Cooker

    Last night I started reading Wuthering Heights. I wish I had realized it was from the Gothic Period before I started reading it. I thought it was going to be all sweet and cute like the Austen book I just finished (yes, I stereotyped all female authors into sweet and cute. How terrible is that?) I started wondering why I was suddenly COMPLETELY TERRIFIED OUT OF MY BRAINS (I've gotten weaker since birthing children), but now I'm at a point that I have to finish the book because it is so darn good. It's going to be lots of long nights till then. 

     I want to say a big THANK YOU to all of my followers. It is so cool to see my little blog being followed from ten different countries! I've been having a lot of fun getting to write again and share our family with you all. 

Valentine's Day Dairy-free, Sugar-free Tea Party

    We had our first Valentine's Day Tea Party today. I broke out my 100+ year old china  from Germany, a wedding gift from my adopted Grandmother. The girls enjoyed drinking tea for the first time out of their little plastic tea cups and tea pot. I wanted the food to be as traditional English tea as possible, but kept it all vegan and sugar free! Love that. Still, I forgot how rich tea food is! Glad we had early tea so they could get all that sugar high out by nap time.

Note the clean shinny beautiful faces. Soon to be covered with chocolate.

I get a big girl plate. These shortbread cookies were to die for!

The Menu:

*  Raspberry Scones from Babycakes NYC Cookbook (Agave Sweetened)

*  Gluten-Free Lemon Poppy Seed Teacake from Babycakes NYC Cookbook (Agave Sweetened)

*  Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Cookies from The Kind Diet (Sweetened with Maple Syrup)

*  Cucumber Finger Sandwiches with Chive Butter

*  Olive Cream Cheese Spread Watercress Finger Sandwiches

*  Farmers Market Sliced Strawberries

*  Chamomile Tea for the girls

*  Tazo Calm Tea for me

Substitutes: For the cream cheese replacement I used "This is not a tub of cream cheese" from Trader Joe's. Veganise to replace the Mayo and Earth Balance Butter to replace the butter. 

Favorites: I was in love with the cream cheese and watercress sandwich. I just followed the recipe (posted above) and topped with a bunch of watercress. SO GOOD. I think I will make this for myself on a regular basis. The shortbread cookies stole our hearts. I've tired to make these a couple other times and they didn't come out quite right. Today I actually followed the recipe very carefully. I took one bite and was transported. We all fell in love. Now I get what the whole short bread infatuation is about. So delicious. 

Special girl time with my crazy girls. They were excited about life. Monique always has some whack move going on. 

Thérèse was a little liberal in her tea pouring. Monique taking a sip. So cute!

Tea was followed with a dance party. Monique got in this position and danced around the whole room like this. It's what she does. 

Dinner! This was one of the best pizzas I've made. The dough was perfect and the sauce sweet. I've been working to perfect the potato pizza for a while now. Potatoes are a great alternative to cheese and vegan cheese. I paper thinly slice them and let them hang out in olive oil for a while. Once I get this recipe just the way I like it, I will share it. For now, it is still in the works. 

We served this with steamed very dark leafy green veggies called broccoli greens? Never heard of it. Got it at the farmers market and the girls like it! Love it when dinner is easy!

Tea party was fun. We will be having another one Easter Morning! Can't wait! For now, I'm keeping out one of my pretty cups for my quiet time Mama moments. 

Hope you all had a lovely St. Valentine's Day! 

So, What's the point anyway?

     A couple weeks ago, I ran my first 6k. Now, this is a big deal for me, considering all through high school I consistently made fun of runners. As far as my best friend and I were concerned, if a person was running down the street, he might as well have been wearing a sign that said, "Make fun of me, I'm running".
      "DAAAAA!! Look at that runner! Look at him running with his biceps and stuff. He thinks he's so fit. Te he he he."
      It may not seem funny to you, but we were always laughing pretty hard.

    And then I married a runner. Never thought I'd do that. Let's just say, we wouldn't have been friends in high school. "So you think your all big and bad 'cause you run huh?" Is what I would have said with my mind.

    Daniel didn't run when we were getting to know each other or when we were engaged. But after we got married, he was ready to get his shoes back on, and I saw it as a way to spend time with him. So I would jog with him down the street, stop at the corner, try to catch my breath, and try to remember the last time I smoked, "I'm not a smoker. I must be though because I can't breath" and he would be looking at that dumb running watch saying, "We've only run a minute, you got to keep going." As if.

    I kept up with running and got semi better. I ran a 5k when I was pregnant with my first daughter, took a break, and then after I had Monique, I ran in the L.A. marathon. (THAT is another story. If you think I finished, you think wrong.)

    I picked up running again after I had Athena (my last baby). Daniel was working at a running store. As is turns out, he found great enjoyment out of buying his very pregnant wife running clothes. Why? Oh the guilt. Now I HAVE to run. He made a deal with me that I'd get a dollar for every mile I ran. Cheap? Yes. But hey, it totally worked.

    Then he told me about a 6k near my parents' house and I figured why not? We'd have babysitters, and I am already running 2-3 miles everyday anyway. So we signed up for it.

    The night before the race, Daniel asked, "So are you going to run fast?" What? Yes, I had signed up for a race, but running fast had never ever occurred to me.

    "Um...no...I was just going to run." Oh yeah, I had signed up for a race...why did I think this was going to be relaxing?

     "No, Arisa, when you run in a race, you are supposed to push yourself and see what your best time is".

     That sounds like, a terrible idea. Someone should have told me that,  before we paid.

     The morning of the race, we wake up early (which I actively avoid) grab a banana and go. We get there, get signed in and Daniel tells me, "Okay, so I want you to do 9 minute miles, k?"

     "Yeah, sure." In one ear and out the other that went. Dude, I spend every day of my life trying to keep a house in respectable order, keep a massive dog semi-tame and keep three midgets alive. Running 9 minute miles is THE LAST THING I'm thinking about. This was supposed to be fun. Almost sure this was supposed to be fun.

    The worst part of the race was that half of it was up hill. UP HILL. I tried not to laugh when the guy in front of me grabbed his buttocks. Sore there buddy? Should have worked on that stair master. But I listened to Daniel who also told me to just be in tune with my body, pushed myself, and surprisingly kept up a pretty steady pace.

     The race went out two miles, and then had us turn around and double back. Two miles in I see Daniel coming up in the lead. Just as he is about to pass me, I try to whack him in the butt and he tried to give me a high five. (Note to self: in races you give high fives, not butt whacks.) But clearly I was trying to say "You are hott" not "Good effort chump".

    It was downhill on the way back to the finish line, but it didn't matter, cause I was dying. A mile away from the finish line I realized, "Why am I doing this to myself?!?! I'm going to Disneyland tomorrow and I'm going to be so sore!" Thankfully, Daniel ran back to find me. "This is stupid" I told him. Deep emotion and emphasis on "stupid".

   "You are at the end. Give it all you got."

    So without even thinking, I took off (where did that energy come from) to try and catch this lanky girl I had a vendetta against because she had the audacity to pass me. As soon as she saw me, she took off, and I didn't have a chance. I crossed the finish line so frustrated and pretty sure I was going to throw up.

    Unfortunately, I'm really competitive, so I had a lot of fun. Lame, I know. Daniel told me not to worry about that girl beating me, since her legs went up to my ears, and I ran 9 minute pace, which he wanted me to do, so he was super proud of me. It ended up being a really fun date for both of us. We ate gigantic bagels and fruit. He got first place (came in four minutes before the guy who got second) and I got second place in my age group!!! Who knew, right?

   I'm starting to appreciate running, because I sleep so great at night, and have so much more long lasting energy during the day, which makes the sacrifice of running so worth it. I hope I don't give it up again! Maybe more cute running clothes would help...

   After our race, they gave us hats instead of medals because we placed. I love that! I can use a hat! We don't need more medals. Btw: I always grow a little tummy when I run. How is that even fair?!

   This past weekend, it rained and we had a crazy cold front. Daniel mentioned, the way I mention he needs to buy bananas at the store, that he was going to wake up at 5am on Saturday, and run up a mountain by our house to the snow. I didn't argue with him because, are you ready for this? That is how he gets his kicks. I know, I mean, I'd rather sleep in on a cold Saturday morning, but hey, if you want to run up a mountain, then how can I come between him and that dream? Round trip he ran 15.3 miles covering 3,500 feet of climbing. That's amazing! I would love to be able to do that, but, no. I don't think I'm being negative when I say, I do not have the ability to achieve that! Check out these spectacular pictures he took.

Our home is near the middle of this photo. Love the snow in contrast to the green valley. 

Just him and the coyotes. 

 

This is my favorite. It reminds me of 'The Road Not Taken' by Frost, which is our poem. 

That is so amazing! Seriously, I would love to do a trail run. Maybe in twenty years when I have time to get in shape.

The Best Fried Vegan Eggplant

    Now that Daniel doesn't work on Saturdays anymore (we are still getting used to this greatness!) we are able to get down and party on the weekends! Which is why I spent all morning in the kitchen on Saturday. I made quiche, date bread and fried eggplant (all vegan). My in-laws took the girls for a couple hours and it was so great getting to cook without interruptions. Super therapeutic. So glad I got married so I could be forced to cook, so I would learn I love to cook! 

     Did you get your party moves on this weekend?

      Oh, just so you know, sensory boxes are made to be played INSIDE OF. I know, it's confusing since we were always taught sensory boxes were for senses connected to your hands, but as it turns out, it is much more fun to get inside of a sensory box and pick the beans out of your toes. This is the only way to do it folks. 

      I was out of diced tomatoes, so my eggplant was sauceless. I actually ended up enjoying it this way. I was able to appreciate the flavors of the eggplant and pasta more. This is the best my eggplant has ever come out. Yesssss, I'm actually getting better at this! Love it!

Fried Eggplant

1 Eggplant sliced

Salt

1 cup rice milk

2 cup flour

4 tablespoons Italian Style breadcrumbs

Olive Oil for frying

Spaghetti and fresh parsley for serving

1) Rub both sides of your eggplant slices with salt. Lay them on a cloth in a single layer and let them sit and sweat it out for a good hour.

2) Mix together your flour and breadcrumbs. Heat your pan up. 

3) Dip your eggplant in milk then in the flour mixture. Fry on lightly oiled pan at medium high heat till crispy, about 5 - 10 minutes, turning once. 

3) Serve on top of spaghetti pasta lightly tossed with EVOO (optional) and sprinkled with fresh parsley. 

Yummy!!

    I'm incredibly boring when it comes to my hair. I have a messy bun look and a down look. That's it. Today I decided to live a little and I did an up-do that I found on Pintrest. I'm definitely going to be doing more of these. I loved that it was out of my way, the baby couldn't grab it and I was semi stylish. Thank you Pintrest!

   Papa's Toolshed Mama's Kitchen now has a Pintrest page! Scroll to the top of our blog and click to follow us! Great way to track our recipes and DIYs.

   Have you reached a sad point in your life when you are excited to go to bed at 9pm? Not sad. Just full. I live a full life. With my fools. Okay, I'm stopping now.