My son has a swim meet today.  If you have never been to a swim meet, imagine sitting for 5-6 hours to watch your child swim for about 2 minutes....  Anyway, I feel like I am packing the all the food we have!  My kids have been really hungry since eating so much healthier.  They are constantly eating.  I am not complaining, they are eating carrots, apples, celery, etc...  It is just a huge amount of food.  Here's hoping I pack enough.  I doubt the concession stand is going to have many options for our family.  Also, we have really been enjoying Great Harvest Honey Whole Wheat bread.  Sandwiches are packed and ready to SIT! At least I can meal plan the rest of the week.

I decided to take my kids to the big cheesy mouse...  We have never gone there without ordering pizza and soda.  I prepared my children by letting them know we would not be eating on our trip.  We had a gift card to use or I would have not even ventured into the rodent's territory.  My kids did great!  Pony asked for something for eat right when she was getting her coat on to leave.  It was the only time food was mentioned the whole we were there.  I would call it a success.  Tonight for dinner I made Stuffed Cabbage with a very yummy wild rice filling.  I try to always have cooked rice on hand.  A little prep work goes a long way after a tiring day.  I like a variety of rice, so I buy a huge bag of brown rice a few bags of the speciality rice.  I then just mix them all together in a plastic container.  I like the variety.  Here are some pictures.  It was really good and received all thumbs up!  Even Pony cleaned her plate.  

Here is a link to the documentary "Forks Over Knives."  It is great information, possibly life changing!
http://www.hulu.com/embed.html?eid=aamgwrj4bvz7qzpj166y9a

We started off with breakfast.  My kids love pancakes.  We, meaning my husband, used this Vegan Pumpkin Pancake recipe with the following adaptations:

http://www.preventionrd.com/2012/10/whole-wheat-vegan-pumpkin-pie-pancakes/

Whole Wheat Vegan Pumpkin Pie Pancakes adapted from Food.com

1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour or white wheat flour
3 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 1/3 cup unsweetened coconut milk
1/3 cup pumpkin puree
1 Tbsp olive oil

Adaptations:

We used all wheat pastry flour.  Whole wheat flour has more gluten and will make our food dense.  Whenever possible, spring for the whole wheat pastry flour.

We omitted the sugar and added 1 tbsp pure maple syrup

We used vanilla soy milk.

We omitted the oil and added an extra 1 tbsp of puree in addition to the 1/3 cup.

Side note… do not try this alone unless you have too.  My husband is the best pancake and waffle maker.  I tell him that all the time.  Since I first proclaimed him the best, I have not had to flip or stack since.  Find something he does you can call great, and let him have at it.  It will help you and your marriage.

The pancakes received a full 4 thumbs up!  We applied maple syrup from Geauga County and so yummy! Perfection!  They were so good, I kindly asked my husband to make more for the freezer. I mean let’s face it, I am not a pancake maker J  He obliged and I have a week’s worth of breakfast for next week when the kids head back to school.  I encourage you to freeze in kid size portions.  It makes life easier.  If anything is going to diminish your desire to feed your kids food that will not harm them, it will be the lack of convenience.  Do everything you can to make things easier.

I am a mom of two, an eight year old boy and a four year old girl.  For privacy purposes I will call the boy, “Fred,” because I use that as a nickname for really no apparent reason.  The girl I will, Pony,” simply because she really wants to change her name to Pony.  My husband’s name is John, and we are closing reaching forty (I am a little closer which I get reminded of often). I work part time during the school year and have summers off.   About nine years ago we made a decision to raise our son vegetarian.  Once he started to eat solid food, his diet pretty much consisted of soy nuggets and fries.  I tried some complicated recipes and always went back to the easy convenience foods.  My husband and I even toyed with vegan.  I am proud to say we lasted a full two, yes TWO weeks.  Convenience always reigned supreme.  I knew it was not the best, but it worked.

Over the last years we have consumed mostly a vegetarian diet.  There has been some chicken and an occasional burger thrown in here and there for good measure.  I was not trying to necessarily eat healthy, just feed my family.  Every once in awhile I would get this great idea to only eat healthy food.  Each and every time it would end pretty quickly with me always feeling like a failure.  One thing that has come out of my multiple attempts to eat only plant based, healthy food is the “tweaking.”  Each time I tried to go cold tofurkey; I kept up one of the habits.  For the last nine years I have added to my ability to eat healthy.  January 1, 2013 we are a vegan family as far as food consumption goes.  I am not eating animals, but not exactly ready to send my leather boots to the local charity.  It may come, but I am focused on the food end right now.  Let me list a few things we will not be eating that are still considered vegan:  Margarine, shortening or any types of hydrogenated oils, oils, sugars.  We of course will not be consuming any animal based products.  If it had or came from something that had eyes, we will not eat it.

My goal is to spend a few minutes each night to let you how my journey is going.  What concoctions received a “thumbs up” and what will never be served again?    Basically I want you to understand that any change I the right direction is good change.  In my experience trying to do it all at once will cause failure.  Focus on your successes and set reasonable goals.  Maybe cut out pop or the afterschool sugary snack.  Start small and you will gain ground.  Remember, here a tweak, there a tweak, everywhere a tweak tweak and you will find success.  One thing I really thing you should do is watch Forks Over Knives.  It will rock your world.  We watched in online, and then purchased a DVD to share with our parents.  Oh yes, we actually were able to get the parents that thought we were neglecting our kids by not giving them chicken nuggets are now on board!