Vegan Poop

I believe I have mentioned that I have received some apprehension of changing over to a vegetarian diet from 2 of my sons. They are my oldest sons, ages 13 and 18. My oldest son has taken pictures with his phone to show his friends vegetarian meals I have prepared and made him eat. We have hit a new level, now that I am transitioning to vegan from vegetarian.

In attempt to heal my body of follicular non-hodgkins Lymphoma I have also been trying to keep sugar out of my diet.

I miss sweets! So I tried to come up with a healthier natural candy/dessert that I could indulge in. When my 13 yr old son CJ came into the kitche and saw me making something, he asked me what it was. Before I could answer he piped in, "Uh Oh, is this vegan?"

I replied with a "yes"

He said, "It looks like vegan poop!"

So, this recipe has been affectionately named Vegan Poop curtesy of CJ. My 5 yr old daughter and I LOVE this sweet treat.

Vegan Poop

• 1 cup rolled oats


• 1 cup almonds


• 2 cups raisins (I prefer Newman's Own organic raisins)


• 1 tbsp. Brown Rice Syrup*


• 1/4 tsp. nutmeg


• 2 tsp. cinnamon


• extra cinnamon to coat after mixed together

This is so quick and easy plus there is no baking involved!

Put the almonds, oats, nutmeg and cinnamon in a food processor and let it run until it is finely chopped into almost a dust, like flour. Then add in the raisins, and brown rice syrup. Let the food processor run until the mixture pretty much rolls up into a big ball (this can take a little while). Take it out of the food processor and place it in a bowl. You can refrigerate it now for an hour or more to make it a little easier to work with or you can go ahead to take pieces and roll into logs about 2 inches long and half an inch wide. Then place them in a bowl of cinnamon and roll them in the cinnamon to coat. Another option rather then the logs is to roll them into marble sized or a little larger balls and roll them in the cinnamon to coat. Refrigerate once made and they will last quite a few days. I am finding I like them in the little balls so I can just grab one when I go in the fridge and just pop it into my mouth. They really make a great quick little treat to satisfy that sweet craving.
Ofcourse, use all organic ingredients if possible for the healthiest treat.

*You could use honey instead of Brown Rice Syrup

The Date

My husband and I went on a date last weekend. It isn't often we get to do that. Our plan was to go to eat and then see the movie The Bucket List.
Since we have become vegetarians, and most recently I have changed over to vegan...it makes it difficult to find places to eat at in our area that can occommodate our diet. We decided to try Ruby Tuesday's. We had been told that they offer a nice salad bar with organic greens. They also offer a vegetarian burger.
On our way there a seagull flies down and lands in the road a ways in front of us. My husband, thinking he was being funny, sped up as if he was trying to run the seagull over. In his mind the bird would ofcourse fly off before he got to him. Well, the seagull did fly up and FLEW RIGHT INTO OUR WINDSHIELD!
As many know, I am a huge animal lover. I was terribly upset by the situation and angry at my husband. However, since we were on our way to having an evening to ourselves I tried to hold back my feelings but I couldn't stop he tears. Jim kept saying, "I'm sorry! I thought it would fly away!" Then he would add "but it was too stupid!" Ugh!
As we get to Ruby Tuesday's I am still wiping tears away. We are seated and I ask the waitress what is in their vegetarian burgers. She didn't know and went to ask the manager for me. He didn't know either so he came out to our table with large piece of cardboard box from the freezer with the ingredients on the side. This made me giggle and perked me up a little. The burger was okay, a bit dry but it was fair.
With me being upset about the bird, Jim decided it probably wouldn't be a good idea to see The Bucket list, a movie about two cancer patients who are dying. So he suggested Atonement, a movie that he been reported as being the most romantic movie of the century...however, what we didn't know is both main characters die in the end of the movie...haha oh well, so much for happy endings!
Now that the evening is over and a few days have past, I can find humor in the evening. Oh, and by the way, I thought Atonement sucked. It started out pretty good but the second half of the movie drug by. One scene went on for so long and was so boring I thought I was going to pull my hair out. Do yourself a favor and read the book, skip the movie.

Growing up

This week my oldest son turned 18 and graduated highschool and my youngest child got her first real hair cut.
My 5 year old daughter decided she wanted her hair cut. She had 16 inches cut off and is donating it to Locks of Love, an organization that makes wigs for children who have no hair.

What Were They Thinking?

The other day I was browsing the toy isle in our local super store. I spotted something I thought my daughter would like as she is a huge animal lover. It was Barbie with a dog. So cute, I thought but as I inspected further it was not what I expected. There was also a dog bowl and a pooper scooper. In the dog bowl were what I thought were dog biscuits and I guess they were but then they were also used as poop.

So you feed the biscuit to the dog and then you push the tail down and it comes out of the dog's tooshie. Then you use the pooper scooper and.....put it back in the bowl??? YUCK! I already have a miniature pinscher that mistakes dog droppings for food. I don't need a toy dog in the house that eats it's own poop too!

Hearing Loss

I received a phone call from the school nurse today. She informed me that my 5 yr old daughter did not do well on her anual hearing test that they do at school. they repeated the hearing test 3 times, 3 different days with the same result. My daughter is not hearing low frequency.
Tomorrow I will call to make her an appointment with an audiologist. There is deafness and hearing loss in the family, so the possibility of having a child with some hearing issues is not a surprise. The timing however is. I didn't expect another health issue to pop up in the family before the end of the year. All we can do is roll with the punches and deal with it.

Jane's Vegetarian Burritos

My family's conversion to vegetarianism is getting easier. Last night I made a vegetarian meal that my teenage sons devoured. I haven't gotten many rave reviews from my 17 year old son on the vegetarian meals but he loved this one.

Black Bean and Spinach Burritos
However, if kids have an aversion to the words "beans" and "spinach" then just call them vegetarian burritos.

2 cans of black beans
1 can of corn
1 cup salsa (homemade or jarred)
2 tsp. cumin or 1 pkg. taco seasoning
1 pkg frozen chopped spinach thawed and drained

I mashed 1 can of the beans up and then mixed everything in a skillet on medium heat. Cooked until heated through and mixed well.
Have topping you want available. Grated cheese, onions, lettuce, taco sauce ect...wrap in tortillas and enjoy.
*If you like sour cream in your burritos, a healthier option is non fat plain yogurt. You'd be surprised how good of a replacement that is to sour cream.
This recipe would work fine for hard of soft tacos too.

A New Husband

My husband Jim shaved his long scruffy beard off and cut his hair the other day. The change is so drastic I just had to share a couple of snapshots taken in my kitchen.
Before and After - taken 1 day apart.