Photo Post

Reinforcing the concept of lift at Scienceworks.

Scienceworks

More about aerodynamics

Art and Craft show - refashioning a pair of pants

This lady was such an awesome help.

Embellishing a jacket

This is where his love of the sewing machine began

The final product - a bag made from a tee shirt. The only thing YM didn't do was sew the zip

A wasabi peanut competition - who could eat the most at one time!

 

It was a hoot! (I didn't join in!)

I think we got to 15 wasabi peanuts at one time!

Organ Pipes National Park

Climbing up quietly to see what was in the box

Jackson's river (I think from memory) at the NP. We got to see some fairy wrens we had previously learnt about which was pretty exciting.

Asparagus and Edamame Bisque

Tonights dinner was dee-lish! It came from 1000 Vegan Recipes (p. 167).

I LOVE soups. Mostly because I am lazy and love to just throw everything into one pot and  sit and wait. Yesterday we had Corn and Potato Chowder (p. 165) and I've got another 3 soups planned (I already have the ingredients which makes things even simpler) for the next few meals.

Baby has been playing with the camera. Sometimes the kids manage to get a good photo.

I've also been playing with the camera. It happens every now and then. (Isn't my lil man handsome!)

We were all outside enjoying the Melbourne Autumn sun doing some homeschooling. LOVING homeschooling!

Tahn

I'm a proud mama!

I've got two new babies! I'm very happy! It has been a while since we have had any pets and I just LOOOOVE kittys!

So this proud mama is very, very proud to introduce our new members of the family:

 Biggles

Trim

Aren't they beautiful?? Ok, so like any parent, I may just be a little biased! 

We chose them from Lort Smith Animal Hospital on Sunday. They were in a cage together and I didn't want to split them up so we took both! (Poor Popeye is allergic to cats, but we are hoping that he will get used to them). I was under the opinion that they were brothers, but I think I must have made that up as their DOB differs on their documents.

Popeye named Biggles, after the famous literary aviator. We all agreed on Trim's name. One of our homeschooling stories was about Matthew Flinders' cat, Trim, who was a very intelligent cat. We are hoping our Trim is as smart as the cat he is named after. So far, he is very shy. He jumps at the slightest noise. Biggles, on the other hand, is very friendly and loves the attention. It's good to have that balance of pussy personalities I think.

Fortunately for us, both cats are toilet trained. They will also be exclusively inside cats mainly because we live on a VERY busy road with a VERY busy car wash business as our neighbour. Cats and cars are not a good combination. Also, I have a bit of an issue with cats killing wildlife outdoors. so inside cats they are.

Baby can't keep her hands off them!

YM can't wait for them to settle into our house so he can play with them!

Now having two gorgeous additions to our family has produced a DILEMMA for me. As a vegan, I am having a hard time having animal products in my house for the first time in over 2 years. I do realise that cats are not really made for vegan eating but I would love some ADVICE from my fellow vegan blogging cat owners - What do you feed your cats? 

My initial, uninformed thoughts that I should continue feeding my kitty's on kitty food until they are 1. Then I was hoping to be able to introduce a bit of vegan food into their diet and maybe mix it in with their food. Something to research.

On a change of topic, my two home educated babies (the human kind not the kitty kind) have started a blog page called 'Adventures of our homeschooled superheroes'. Their first post was about the kittens and it is fabulous for their writing skills. I'm sure they would love it if you checked it out and left an encouraging comment (this will also help their understanding of writing for an audience).

Meow for now (oh, I feel a Super Troopers moment coming on meow)

Tahn

New foods, homeschool fun and a birthday

Wow, have I been busy of late! New recipes have been tried, not photos have not been gotten. I'll be honest and call it as it is - laziness! Here's a meal we had just the other night that I did take out 5 minutes to click away before stuffing it lovingly into my gob!

Country Fried Tofu with Golden Gravy (1000 Vegan Recipes, P. 285) with Szechuan String Beans (Vegan Planet, P. 196) and of course, sweet, sweet corn!

Well, officially we started home schooling one week ago. We are having so much fun. One topic, which began with a reading book called 'Granny Grasshead' ended up with us making our own grassheads. We had a ball making these on the back lawn with a heap of supplies. A few weeks later here is what they look like:

Tweenie's grasshead

YM's grasshead

Baby's grasshead

And, yep, even I made one! The best thing about homeschooling is learning shoulder-to-shoulder with my kids!

Recently it was Baby's 8th birthday and she wanted a chocolate cake. 'No problems,' I said as I picked up my favourite go-to book '1000 Vegan Recipes' by Robin Robertson and I came across the perfect cake for her.

This is the most delicious 'Vegan Chocolate Mousse Cake' (P. 445). It has three different sections - the cake, the mousse in the middle and a chocolate ganache on top. Ch Ch Chocolate overload!

Happy birthday my beautiful baby girl. Why do you have to grow up so fast?

Tahn

A New Dehydrator and Old Food Photos

A few weeks ago I splashed out and bought a 9 tray Excalibar dehydrator! I was so excited, it was a purchase I that had been on my wish list for a while. We have put it to great use, drying mountains of apples, zucchinis, pears, peaches, grapes and more. It has pride of place in my kitchen - I have moved my almost unused microwave and put the dehydrator in its place!

apples with cinnamon sprinkled on. Mmmmm

zucchini chips with moroccan seasoning. Too good. 

The following are some old photos (when I say old, only from when we returned from Bali! So not that old really.) Just trying to catch up.

A crepe from Vegan Brunch, if my memory serves me!

Walnut bikkies from 1000 Vegan recipes

A tiffin lunch for the kids. On the left is a spaghetti sauce I spent AGES making.

The sauce.

Semolina Potatoes for breakfast.

An absolutely DELICIOUS burger! The patty was out of 1000 Vegan recipes and I made the bun.

I made peach jam!!!!! My first jam ever, and so good! I gave some to the next door neighbour and Popeye's mum with a loaf of freshly made bread. Oh and the same to my vegan friends in Frankston.

A raw breakfast. It ROCKS! It's called Raw Porridge. Soak a couple of handfuls of nuts (I like peans, cashews and almonds) overnight. Soak a handful of sultanas for 20 minutes, then place nuts, sultanas and chopped apple into food processor. I topped it with chia seeds and ground flaxseeds. Very filling.

A raw school lunch.

Raw Chocolate! Not bad, quite fudgey. I chopped it and add it to our banana icecream. 1T coconut oil, 1 -and-a-half T of agave, mix. Add 1t vanilla, mix. Add 2T cocao, mix. Pour into a small container lined with glad wrap and put in the freezer for a while. Mmmmmm

My raw 'diet' went really well for about 9 days. I was really enjoying it and feeling great. I have had a LOT of difficulty keeping up with making different meals for everyone - cooked for the kids and raw for me. The kids ate a lot of raw too, but I was still making them a cooked meal once a day (for lunch). By the time I had cooked their meal, I couldn't be bothered making something raw for myself. So now I am still about 60-70% raw. I would love to go more, but I think I need to go a bit slower, to slip the kids into this way of life. I think Baby does better on a raw diet. She often complains after a meal "feel how hot my tummy is. Feel my head." When she was eating a lot of raw with me she did not complain. Maybe with them homeschooling things will be a bit easier, because I can just make us all a smoothie or something. It's a bit tricky to send a fresh smoothie to school with them!

Speaking of homeschooling, Steph asked why I decided to homeschool my kids. There a a lot of reasons, and I will jot them down on my next blog entry. I have really noticed an improvement with Tweenie and her attitude and love towards her sister. (she hasn't committed to h/s yet, but I hope she does!) Tweenie, as lovely as she is, is often in trouble for her pre-teen attitude towards us, and everything else. Also she rarely has the time of the day for Baby, often stating that she hates her. She has little tolerance for Baby's differences and is always being quite nasty to her. Well, for the week or so Tweenie has been home she has been an ABSOLUTE DELIGHT!!! I'm not over exaggerating! She has played amazingly well with Baby, helping her with her work and including her in everything! Just goes to show how much crap she brings home with her from school. (so there is reason number 1 for homeschooling!!) Here is a picture of Baby and Tweenie working together to make a yummy fruit smoothie. They blended each fruit up individually and wanted to layer it.

Oh the joy!

Tahn