Pho

I'm going to start this blog in a new direction...hopefully one with a little humor that will amuse and inspire. Well, it has been increasingly hard to find things that my oldest son enjoys eating that has any resemblance of "healthy". Let me start out that I have three sons who are completely full of life, laughter and energy...I was going to say joy but we have had a hard day today and they are officially on my sh*t list ;) My boys are as follows: E who is just shy of 11 yrs old, J who is 7, and Baby T who is 21 months. They have all been vegan since birth except for a few oops encounters but we are actually very strict with this. My kids go to an alternative school which supports all the different lifestyle choices of all the families and for this I am extremely grateful. They oldest two have been blessed with having the large majority of snacks and birthday treats at school being prepared vegan for the entire class. This is just a dream come true for us and a real nod to the sense of community the school fosters. But...back to the pickiness of my oldest son E. So I mostly make homemade and whole foods based lunches and dinners but E would mostly rather eat **dun dat dat dun**...Salt and Vinegar potato chips....not at all healthy for anyone especially a growing vegan child. We used to be a lot more strict with only eating raw foods, or only eating fruit for snacks but as the kids have grown we have given in to some of the junk food for convenience and also just for fun, or maybe even to feel a bit more "normal". Everyone said this would happen but as a new and idealistic mama, I said "No way". My kid will never eat potato chips or cereals or god forbid fast food! (They are now addicted to a certain chain owned by McD's who claims to have "burritos as big as your head"...darnit. Well my intention with this blog is to share the things that my family eats and also share random tidbits from our life for family and friends new and old. Lets begin with the delicious dinner I slaved over I mean made tonight. I always have tons of food in the house but sometimes I get so inspired to make something particular that I just have to go to the grocery store....again. Tonight was no exception. It was the football playoff night and I wanted to make these delicious barbecue wraps for our guests so I went to the local Kroger. But while I was there of course I traveled up and down every aisle looking for something new that is vegan and lo and behold I found something! It was Pho. I love Pho. My kids love Pho. My husband loves Pho and it is rare in out house for everyone to love the same thing so wow I had a little heart flutter (yes food does that to me) and I bought the pre-packaged Pho soup. Now normally one would make this broth homemade but sometimes you just need the convenience of heat and eat so into the cart it went. Our plans fell through with the friends coming over for football so of course I wanted to change up dinner and make the glorious Pho soup with it's chewy rice noodles, chopped garnish and sweet n spicy sauces......I was confident everyone would love it because we get this dish all the time at the local Loving Hut restaurant down the street and everyone leaves happy everytime. So before when I said I slaved over this dinner, it was so true. Baby T was in no mood for me to be doing anything other than sitting quietly and nursing him so he screamed at me the whole time while I was cooking. He was also insisting that E had the blue bowl and J had the red bowl and then he would just yell at me when I said "yes that's right"...kids are so strange sometimes. Finally my husband took Baby T and I was able to finish up the soup and make it look beautiful, because in my world presentation is equally important as flavor, and i served the Pho. It was....just ok, I'll admit but the reaction I got from everyone else is just so typical of our family. E smelled it and just looked at me with that ungrateful look, you know the one. He then proceeded to take a bite and promptly said "This is disgusting". My husband said "Rice Noodles are so weird" and then put the bowl down on the counter. he was done. E was done. I was eating it because I've just become accustomed to eat whatever is there. J, bless his heart, ate every bite and Baby T kept trying to eat the noodles and then spit them out. Sigh. Later, after Baby t went to bed, J and i made pumpkin muffins with cream cheese frosting. Those were a hit....go figure. Sugar and fat wins everytime!