The Test Drive

It's been far too long since I last posted, almost two months! You can blame it on this little munchkin.

At the botanical gardens last week. She LOVES plants! We were there for three hours, and she was completely engrossed the entire time. Can't wait to plant her own little garden together next spring!

She has been demanding every second of my time. Clint and I think we named her quite appropriately - Vivian means "full of life" and has the same root word as vivacious, which means "lively and animated," and vivid, which describes something that is strong, clear, and bright. I think all of these are good descriptions of the little personality we're seeing more and more of each day!

Needless to say, I haven't had much time to spend in the kitchen either, but the limited time I've had has been nothing short of scrumptious. For a bit over a month, I've been experimenting with what I like to call a "vegan test drive." Basically I haven't been eating animal products (but I do still eat honey) except in situations where it's unavoidable (like when I'm a guest in someone's home and it's either not possible or impolite to maintain my eating preferences) or where a non-vegan treat is irresistible (which happens sometimes when you have a bad sweet tooth and work at a bakery, even though we have awesome vegan baked goods). I'll have to get into why I'm doing this in another post on another day!

Here is one of my current favorite test drive meals: quinoa "taco meat" with avocado, sprouts, salsa, and sunflower seed sour cream, all on a giant swiss chard leaf (harvested straight from the garden). It's filling, easy to throw together, satisfying, and just plain good! I could eat about three of these, even though they're huge! Good thing I never have enough time to get that many down :)