It’s Wednesday. What’s For Dinner?

Hubs is in LA today. I decided since it’d be just me and the girls for dinner I could try a meat-free meal. I saw this last night and it looked mighty good! Does anyone else troll Pinterest at night for tomorrow’s dinner ideas? I didn’t think it was just me.

I followed Jules’ recipe, but added two peeled and chopped carrots. I think noodles and or cabbage would be really good in this, too. I can see why she says it is addictive. So simple to make (15-20 minutes max) and really easy to combine new flavors into a soup that is totally your own.

Knowing my girls would be resistant to a new dish I also baked this up. See the “Going Bananas” sign? That was me trying to frost this banana cake while also holding a crying/cranky Q and coaxing PZ to practice piano when all she wanted to do was watch TV.

The cake was also super easy to make. If you’ve been looking to add a vegan banana chocolate chip cake to your recipe file, this is a good one!

Cake:

• 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 1/2 tsp aluminum free baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 4 medium sized ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 cup semi-sweet vegan chocolate chips (I use Ghiradelli)

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9-inch round baking pan.In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. In a separate large bowl, whisk together the sugar and oil, then add the mashed bananas. Add water and vanilla, stirring to combine.Add the flour mixture, stirring just until wet. Use a wooden spoon to stir in the chocolate chips.

Bake for 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool for 30 minutes before removing from pan.

Frosting:

• ½ cup Earth Balance butter
• 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
• ¼ tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 Tbsp almond milk

Whip Earth Balance until creamy. Add sugar and cinnamon and beat for a couple of minutes. Add vanilla and almond milk. Beat until light and fluffy on high speed, about 5 more minutes. Frost cooled cake. Add more chocolate chips and/or banana slices as decoration if you want. Enjoy!

So that’s what’s for dinner at my house. What’s for dinner at yours?

Tuesday Thinking

Every new year I start off, like so many others, with a lot of big goals and plans in mind. I’m much more motivated in winter. Progressive, too, if I can keep it up! This year, I’m working to remember to keep it simple. My focus narrowed, I want to make it easier on myself. Slow and steady. Simple and small. Project by project.

I want to start this way. And here, in my Tuesday Thinking posts, I’m going to reign myself in and realign to each new week. From my Pinterest boards, Be Mine, smoothies!, and MAD Scientist, I’m whittling down a few broad topics into manageable projects.

I’d love to see what you’re working on! Big or small. We can help keep each other motivated!

images via - design sponge, oh she glows, swanky tables

 

Must Have Monday – Best Apps for Traveling with the Kiddos

Without these Apps, life would have been much much harder on the plane to and fro. My kids, 3 and 5, were thoroughly entertained for probably 4 or more hours on the plane and still wanted more the whole week we were away.

1. Callaway Digital Art’s Sesame Street: The Monster at the End of this Book…Staring Grover! - $3.99 (but I got it on sale) Q (my 3 yr old) especially liked this one.

2. Toca Boca’s Hair Salon - $1.99 was a HUGE hit with both girls.

3. Toca Boca’s Toca Doctor - $0.99 kept Q engaged for a long time.

4. Chillingo’s Cut the Rope - $0.99 this one we even played at the circus during the intermission with a boy in the front row.

5. Moonbot Studio’s The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore - $4.99 for the ipad only. This one was great. Technology is amazing!

I Heart NY

From Top of the Rock

On our last full day, Cory and I took the girls to Rockefeller Plaza. Cory and I had a good time, but the girls were tired and hungry. Did we still make them go to all three floors of observation decks? Yep!

looking up

central park

I have no idea what these lights were all about, between observation decks on second to top floor, but the girls were fascinated.

I was fascinated, too.

In Rockefeller Plaza

the famous rink

I love this statue in front of the rink

Cory took the girls into Legoland while I visited the museum store and scored a couple of souvenir books for the girls. While fairly impressed with the Lego creations when I went to retrieve my party from Legoland, I was not tempted to buy anything. It was CRAZY in there!

Rockefeller Plaza built out of Legos

Once we left the plaza, we had to get food fast. The girls opted for pizza since it was the only restaurant with  a bathroom we could find. Sadly, they had nothing without dairy so I had to go eat by my lonely next door at a sandwich shop. Mediocre food at best, in both places. We were supposed to meet my friend Hilary in Union Square for dinner, so we had some time to kill and decided to kill it in Chinatown.

Radio City Music Hall on our way to subway

Portlandia sign. The shows seemed kind of big there. Go Portland!

PZ posed with this weird menagerie that some panhandler had gotten together.

Walking between Little Italy and Chinatown we saw a LOT of Santas hanging around.

In Chinatown, we basically just got lost a few times, Q cried because of all the dead fish and frogs and things, the girls had ice cream which I had to make them throw away because it was too messy and Q fell asleep as we rushed back to the Canal Street subway (the grossest one we went down into. ever see Candyman? it was like that) so we could get to Union Square and back to the land of big sidewalks. Chinatown was NOT made for strollers!

We did visit a nice park in Chinatown though on Hester street. The girls especially liked the set of 9 chimes built into the sidewalk.

At The Republic waiting for Hilary and family

We finally made it to Union Square and met my friend Hilary, her boyfriend Campbell, and their adorable daughter Ada for dinner at The Republic. The food was so so, but the reunion was great!

The next day we went to Marcus Garvey park in Harlem and then were off, back to the airport and home again to Portland! So glad to be back, even with this crazy downpour, but I DO Heart NY!

From Top of the Rock

Another NYC Post

Although both Hubs and PZ had to navigate their way through a stomach bug during our trip, we were still able to have lots of fun! Hubs and I took the girls to see Mary Poppins at The New Amsterdam Theater. It was fantastic! We all loved it! If I lived in New York, I’d see every broadway show. The sets, the music, the acting – it was all phenomenal.

The next day Hubs and Andy finally had to go to work. Cory, the girls, and I went to moomah in Tribeca on the recommendation of my friend, and local New Yorker, Hilary. Thanks Hilary! It was so yummy! There were lots of fun toys and art stuff to keep the girls  entertained and the on the walls a crafting gallery that I found a complete delight. The whole affair made me a little homesick and now I wish owner Tracy Stewart would open a place here. Definitely the most Portland place we visited while in New York.

Q is pouring "smoothies" for us and making the blender noise. Note the way she's talking out the side of her mouth.

Across the isle from our table were these awesome dioramas.

This place was great for me with their green smoothies and dairy free options. The girls loved their blueberry smoothies and hummus plate, too. If you are in the Tribeca area with young kids I would highly recommend moomah. Q loved that everything in the bathroom was just her size AND mermaid themed. And PZ went bonkers for the projection room in the back. They pretend to swim for about 20 minutes.

the art above and behind Q

"swimming" in the projection room

After we ate, the helpful guy behind the counter told us about a great playground just a few blocks away. A few blocks meant a 20 minute walk, (thank goodness we brought the umbrella stroller to NYC or my back would have broken!), but we found a very clean, almost empty park. While it obviously had a water feature for the summer, there were a lot of nice features for the winter, too. Both girls liked the “train” the most.

"All aboard!"

there was also a "boat" in their toddler section

We ended up taking a cab to Chelsea Market once we were done playing. While Cory and Q shopped for some organic groceries for our Harlem home, PZ and I just had to check out One Lucky Duck and get some green juice, organic lemonade and a few smoothies for the road. Yep. We were pretty smoothied out by nightfall, but MAN they were delicious.

American Museum of Natural History – NYC 3

After the circus, and a quick, yummy bite at Lansky’s, our family and our friends Cory and Andy made the trek to the American Museum of Natural History. It was a busy Saturday afternoon, but while crowded and slightly confusing to navigate, the museum was full of wonder for grown ups and kids alike.

We started on the top floor, hoping to see the big Tyrannosaurs Rex like in the movie, Night at the Museum. No luck though.  A lot of the exhibits were closed because of some shindig they were setting up for. Maybe it was one? Who knows. We still had fun with the rest of the prehistorics.

Hubs said I looked like a true New Yorker.

4th floor dinosaurs

PZ by the anteater

This was PZ's favorite!

The second and third floors are a bit of a jumble in my mind.  Lots of cool stuff. Lots of animals and artifacts. Lots of information that PZ wanted read to her. I think she must have inherited this trait from my Dad. That man never met a plaque he wouldn’t read.

PZ was spooked by the animals. She thought they were going to come alive and "GET" her.

Put a bird on it!

Shaman tools - dig the bear claw!

These little "re-enactments" totally got the girls thinking.

These masks in the Asian section really caught my eye.

Q liked the little baby doll in the Asian Peoples section.

Hubs rocking out!

These dioramas are awesome!

Can you see the little flying carpet on the right, in the middle? So funny!

The girls thought this one was really cool. They pretended to be on a boat for a good 15 minutes.

The first floor was probably our whole crews’ favorite. Cory loved the geodes and the girls ran around like crazy  in that room. Hubs said the room was straight out of a Bond flick. We also got to go through the Native Peoples of the Pacific Northwest which made us all proud and slightly homesick. They’ve got a HUGE canoe! And my personal favorite was the last exhibit we visited.

Speaking of huge, have you seen the whale they’ve got? They’ve got so much cool stuff in this museum it made me want to some sort of collection of my own.

Q's favorite rock was the Rose Quartz.

The girls inside a meteorite.

Jellyfish right when you come in the room.

This was my favorite part of the whole museum!

Deadliest Catch has nothing on this guy!

Butterflies!

By the time we got out of there we were all exhausted. Thankfully there’s an exit right to the subway. It took us straight back to Harlem, a good meal, and a beautiful moon over the city.

 

The Big Apple Circus

I’d seen Circus on Netflix a few months ago with Hubs, so I knew if we were going to New York  I wanted to take the girls to the see the Big Apple Circus. Man. It was FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC!

We had second row seats!

You could glimpse this baby head from behind the tent flap as you waited to enter.

We saw them on their last night at Lincoln Center for their 34th season and I was so impressed. It was really magical and hilarious and exciting and inspiring. Everything you could ask for and more! This season the show was all about using your imagination and reaching for your dreams. The acts were supposed to be people’s dreams come to life.

The top of the tent is covered in these beautiful stars.

The Shandong Acrobatic Troupe doing an awesome jump rope act.

Dimitry Chernov with his "Dima Black" juggling act.

The animal portions of the show were some of my favorite. Although my pictures are poor, having such cute puppies, and gorgeous horses so close you could almost touch them was such an amazing experience. Meanwhile, Jenna Robinson is singing in this phenomenal operatic voice as she’s flying overhead and strapped into some sort of horse shaped contraption. It was very strange, totally beautiful, and completely otherworldly. Q, whose jaw practically came unhinged during the act, said Jenna had the prettiest voice she’d ever heard. I couldn’t even take offense it was so wonderful.

Jenny Vidbel's dog show

Jenny Vidbel's horses were so close you could feel the wind as they galloped past.

Another one of Q’s favorites was Melanie Chy’s hand balancing act. The whole time the woman was preforming, Q was saying “Wow”, over and over. It was pretty cute. And she was right. The act was Wow!

Melanie Chy bent our brains with her incredible performance.

The Shandong Acrobatic Troupe came out for a pyramid act.

PZ’s favorite, and one of mine, was the final act of the show. The Flying Cortes‘ trapeze act was tremendous and right above our heads! The topper was when 10 year old Ysabella dropped the charade of being a shy audience member and climbed to the top of the trapeze platform some 20 or so feet above our heads. PZ’s couldn’t believe it and kept asking me how that little girl could be doing something so cool.

Just the shadow of a Flying Cortes

The Flying Cortes Trapeze act was amazing!

Although not pictured, Barry Lubin as Grandma and Scott and Muriel were hilarious. They had us all laughing hysterically throughout the show.  I am so glad we got to go, especially on this final tour for Grandma. It was excellent, riveting, and totally entertaining. You definitely gave us something to DREAM BIG about. Thanks Big Apple Circus!

 

If they come to your town, GO!

In New York…

Well, the girls and I got back last night from our week long stay in NYC. So much fun! We stayed in east Harlem in a quiet neighborhood brownstone just a few blocks from Marcus Garvey park. (Great park!) We got into town around 1, and even though we were all fairly exhausted from the plane ride, my friends Cory, Andy, and I took the girls to the Central Park Zoo.

The beautiful entrance to the Children's zoo.

The turtle at the entrance to the petting zoo. Q's favorite!

We got there kind of late in the day so didn’t get to do much more than visit the children’s petting zoo, but we DID get to watch them feed the sea lions. Q  managed to get a spot right up front so we got splashed a few times, but it was worth it!

Q waiting for them to feed the sea lions.

The sea lions were ready for food too!

Once the zoo closed, we wandered around a bit before heading back. We ran into some cool art and some very pretty ponies.

"The Tornado"

Cory holding PZ up to pet the carriage pony outside Central Park.

The girls fell asleep in the cab on the way back to Harlem and thus ended day 1… in New York! (Can you hear Alicia Keys singing? That song was in my head the whole trip.)

Sleepy heads.

Photo Friday

"Tornado" by Michael Sailstorfer at Doris C Freedman Plaza

Just something in passing…

Dairy Free Baking – Cookies!

As of the New Year, I am now completely dairy free. Whether it’s forever or just for the 6 weeks my doctor recommended we’ll just have to see. I’m choosing to see this as a culinary adventure instead of a sentence of deprivation and am actually pretty excited about the experiment. Anyone else out there trying out a new diet for the new year?

My first official vegan recipe is, of course, a cookie. Unhappy with the taste of vegan chocolate chip cookies that I’ve purchased or had at parties, I decided to try something a little different. I’m calling it my Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Banana Snickerdoodle Vegan Cookie Yum! It took a couple of tries, but I’m really happy with this final product. Tell me what you think!

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Banana Snickerdoodle Vegan Cookie Yum

1 1/3 cup of all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

pinch of salt

1 stick of Earth Balance vegan butter

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup organic peanut butter (I used creamy)

1 large organic banana

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup rolled oats

3/4 cup semi sweet Ghiradelli chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees

In a medium size bowl, stir together your flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Melt your vegan butter. In a large bowl beat your melted vegan butter and the granulated sugar until frothy. Add the brown sugar and peanut butter until well blended. Peel and mush your banana. Stir the mushed banana and the vanilla into the sugar and vegan butter. Add the flour mixture just until incorporated. By hand, stir in the rolled oats and chocolate chips.

On an ungreased cookie sheet, scoop out 2 inch balls of dough evenly spaced about 3 inches apart. Bake for 8-10 minutes until the edges are turning brown. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before removing cookies from the sheet. Enjoy!