I'm back...well, sort of

Hi, everyone! I'm back in the blog world, sort of, that is. Spring is always a busy time and a favorite season for us to be out and about and I'm planning to have as much nature and play time with the kids as I possibly can. Last week we celebrated Zurielle's 3rd birthday and the girl had a blast. I planned to make vegan cupcakes which turn out to be a dozen cupcakes and a small cake. I used the chocolate cake recipe recommended by SusanV and I am so glad I did! Weird as this is, I used silken tofu and vanilla pudding mix for frosting. Pictures will follow later.

Thanks everyone for all the nice comments in my previous post! The fast was a much needed one. I didn't do a total fast, haven't done that in a while since in the last 45 months (almost 4 years!) I'm either pregnant or nursing, but it was helpful nevertheless.

Foodwise: This is a soup from the McDougall Quick & Easy cookbook with a little modification. It was delicious and I'm really glad that everybody liked it. Zurielle normally doesn't like soup but finished her bowl this time. Aliyah asked if I could make this again soon and dh agreed that this would make a good lunch for him at work. We all loved the kale in it and I'm hoping I'll have more next time I make this soup again. Definitely kid friendly, quick and easy to make and here's everything that went in it:
veggie broth, onion, garlic
1c red lentil
canned tomatoes, with the juice (recipe calls for chopped tomatoes, but I wanted to use the left over whole tomatoes from my previous cooking, so I just diced them)
cumin, chili powder, 2 bay leaves
chopped kale (lots of)
2 c hash browns
1 c corn kernels
tamari
As you can see, other than chopping the onion, garlic and kale, everything else is just dumping ingredients in the pot. Five or so active minutes in the kitchen, the rest is simmering time, and the result? Yummy dinner!

I also made this Raspberry Cocoa Quick Bread which I thought was delish, but dh doesn't really care much for chocolate and I think it's too dark for the kids. So overall it is NOT GOOD, because what this means is that I get to eat the whole sweet, nutritionally deprived (white flour), cake-looking bread, with tea from Teavana.
I also had to take a picture of my teamaker (brewing rooibos chai) for Harmonia since I was so excited to hear that she liked the teavana tea that she got as a present. Here's to loose leaf tea! (raising my mug)


To the rest of you: I have a lot of catching up to do, and I must admit that in the last few days I've been reading your blogs (you mean, you didn't see me?) but have been keeping my comments to myself!