Food Finds

For the last month I've been following a super strict vegan diet. It's been a mixture of rewarding and challenging as I have tried to change some bad habits, strengthen some good ones, and gently adjust what I prepare for my family. In a quest to find crunchy satisfaction, I've tried a few new things. Did you know you can roast kale? It is delicious! Kale is one of the (many) veggies I have always completely ignored at the grocery. I'm not typically very adventurous with veggies, which is one of the things I'm trying to change.

Anyway, to roast kale you just tear it into little pieces, toss it with olive oil and a little apple cider vinegar, and sprinkle it with salt.

Then you spread it on a baking sheet and put it in the oven at 400 until it sizzles! It gets completely crunchy, like a potato chip, but it has a very strong flavor. It's really good!

Another favorite way to satisfy the crunch craving lately is with apples. Honeycrisps are my absolute favorites, but the season for finding them here in Texas is really short. They also always cost more than any other fruit in the store. Super Target has had them for the last few weeks, but when I went to replenish my stash yesterday, the produce manager told me they were gone for good. I made a dedicated trip to our gourmet market in hopes of finding a few there, which was my first clue that my fruit fetish was getting a little out of hand.

Sure, the gourmet market had some. To the tune of $4 per pound! For apples!!! Undeterred by the ridiculous price, I grabbed three big ones, rationalizing that I had, after all, driven across town for the sole purpose of finding those exact apples. Good grief, would you look at this?

Who pays almost nine bucks for three apples??? A spoiled vegan with a crunch craving, that's who! I'm a little ashamed of myself, but I'm going to enjoy the heck out of these apples. I'm also going to hide them in the back of the fridge, behind the frugal fijis and the reasonably priced red delicious in hopes that none of my family members find them. I know. It's a little pathetic.

Here's my other favorite find at the gourmet market. Ever bought pee wee potatoes?? They totally corner the market on cute.

My pee wee loves them. They are super delicious roasted.

I up the fun factor by adding in my other favorite...organic PURPLE potatoes! What kid can resist purple food??

Every pretty princess knows that purple potatoes are pleasing to the palette. :-) They are also a total bargain, which greatly helps my apple cause.

And speaking of bargains, the sub sandwich shop on the corner celebrated their one year anniversary today, and they were giving away $1 subs for lunch. Since we have not been eating out at all lately, I took the boys up there as a treat to let them get sandwiches. It's hard to beat a $1 lunch, and they would prefer Italian meats and bread over roasted kale. :-)

Okay, one last thing, and then I'm off to homeschool ice skating day. Today was picture day at MDO. This would not have been my first choice for picture apparel, but nothing, and I do mean NOTHING, was going to come between my three year old and her favorite polka-dotted dress on picture day. Not even 61 degrees. She begs to wear this dress every single day. In the end, I think the picture will mean more to me remembering how much she loved this outfit. And how badly she wanted to wear tie tennis shoes instead of church shoes, which I totally let her do. Ha! It's amazing how much easier it is to give in to a fourth child. I wish I would have given in more with the others. I think I missed way too many polka dotted dress moments the first time around. I only hope the photographer has better luck with her today than I had this morning. She wasn't too interested in posing for me. I'm certain she was just trying to save all the good shots for the professional. :-)