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| 5:00 AM Just woke up snack: Food for Life Gluten-Free English Muffin, with a Veggie Breakfast Patty (aka veggie sausage) and some maple agave nectar. |
Workout: 40 minutes on the treadmill, running intervals: 2 minutes run, 2 minutes fast walk. Would have loved to workout for 60 minutes, my usual standard "workout time" but Avery woke up and did not want to watch me on the treadmill, so I was done. Bummer. How does everyone else with babies workout when you are the only one home? Brandon had already left for work, so it was just her and I. Now usually I count on getting it done when she's sleeping, but sometimes she wakes up and it is not fun. I can usually entertain her for a while, but not today. Usually I would have stressed that I didn't get that full 60 minutes in, but this was a good chance for me to work on just "letting it go"...one of the many lessons I've learned since becoming a mom.
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| 7:30 AM Breakfast: Chocolate Ice Cream Smoothie Avery had several licks of this as we were getting ready...she's a fan of it as well. |
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| 9:15 AM First Morning Snack: Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Larabar |
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| 10:15 AM Second Morning Snack: Rudi's Multigrain gluten-free toast with organic strawberry spread and Earth Balance vegan butter. |
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| 12:15 Lunch: Tofu Mushroom Stroganoff...these are prized leftovers at our house- yum! |
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| 2:15 1st Afternoon Snack: 1 organic navel orange |
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| 3:15 2nd Afternoon Snack: Organic corn tortilla chips with "Melty Pizza Hummus" from Chocolate-Covered Katie. |
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| 4:15: "Green Juice" (apple juice + green powder) |
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| 5:30 Just-got-home snack: "Chocolate Vanilla Smoothie": vanilla coconut milk, Chocolate Sun Warrior Rice Protein Powder, spinach, 1 1/2 frozen bananas, 3 frozen strawberries. |
Here's the ingredients:
Raw sprouted whole grain brown rice protein, Cocoa, Chocolate extract, Stevia, Xanthan, Pectin
Short, sweet, and simple...even better it packs 16g of protein per scoop (per smoothie for me).
After packing up our dinner, we headed over to my parent's house for some fun. Avery had a blast looking for all the dogs outside and playing with her grandparents and uncles.
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| Looking so old with those teeth and curls! |
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| Look at that face... |
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| "Rock, rock, rock, rock..." She loves to rock in this rocker. |
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| And stand in it as well! |
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| 7:00 PM Dinner: Veggie Burger with Vegan BBQ Baked Beans (recipe below) and Alexia Crinkle Cut Sweet Potato Fries seasoned with Salt & Pepper. |
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| Dessert: 1 gluten-free, sugar-free, vegan vanilla cupcake with agave-sweetened frosting...leftover from Avery's birthday party! I tried freezing a few of the leftover ones (un-frosted) and then thawed one out for my little dessert. I added some frosting of course. Yum! |
Any other baked bean fans out there? I suppose I can't be from Kansas City, and not have a little love for BBQ in me right? Well, I grew up loving baked beans. We would go every Sunday to a local BBQ restaurant, and one of my favorite things was the slow-cooked beans. My mom had a favorite recipe of baked beans that I enjoyed for many years. All I knew is that she used a can of VanCamp's Baked Beans. So when Brandon and I got married, I was excited to try and make them on my own. So I got the can from the store, dumped it onto a pot on the stove, let it cook for a little bit, had a taste and then spit it right out! Wait a second, I thought, that tastes nothing like my mom's baked beans! Little did I know my mom used the can of beans as the base of the recipe and then she added her own special ingredients (that apparently I never noticed). Once she schooled me on her methods, I was whipping up yummy BBQ baked beans in no time.
Fast forward to a few years later, when I decided to go vegan and that old can of beans was "dunzo" since it had "pork' in it (like that Laguna Beach reference? Gosh I miss that show.). So I found another brand of vegetarian baked beans and it was pretty good. Nothing amazing...but pretty good.
But just recently I came across this recipe from the awesome blog, Nourishing & Flourishing that instructed me on how to make my own baked beans! I don't know if I've said this before, but I love finding ways to take things that I always buy at the store and make them myself. I feel a sense of pride when I walk by something I used to always have to buy and I say, "Ha! I don't have to buy you anymore! I can make you myself...and I make you healthier...and tastes better!" I'm silly like that I know.
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| Vegan BBQ Baked Beans |
Anyways, I jumped at the chance to try making my own baked beans, and after trying out the Nourishing & Flourishing recipe, I made some tweaks (as my mama would!) and I think I've come up with one fabulous tasting dish!
My BBQ Baked Beans are vegan, gluten-free, and only require a few common household ingredients. Oh and they make your house smell delicious! Every time I cook these beans or warm them up at school, people comment, "Oh that smells so good!" or "What are you eating? It looks great!" Now you have a chance to taste it for yourself...so let's get onto that recipe.
Vegan BBQ Baked Beans
Vegan BBQ Baked Beans
Inspired by "Easy GF, Vegan Baked Beans" from Nourishing & Flourishing
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups of navy beans (or the smallest white bean you can find)
- 1 small red onion
- 1/4 cup ketchup
- 1/4 cup mustard
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 2 Tbs. liquid smoke
- 2 Tbs. BBQ sauce (this will change the flavor of your beans, so choose wisely...I like Three Little Pigs "Kansas City Sweet")
- 1/4 cup water
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
You will also need an 8 x 8 baking dish.
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| The "condiment ingredients" |
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| Don't forget the beans! You could use a can, but I like to use mine dry (cheaper and more green). I soak them overnight and then cook them in a pressure cooker the next morning. Anyone interested in seeing a video of this process? I feel like posting one. |
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| 1. Chop the red onion and saute it over medium high heat for several minutes. |
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| 2. Transfer to a small casserole dish (I use an 8 x 8 glass Pyrex dish). |
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| 3. Now add all ingredients to the casserole dish...starting with the beans (1 1/2 cups to be exact). Followed by the ketchup, mustard, BBQ sauce, and molasses. |
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| 4. Don't forget the liquid smoke...that is crucial for the BBQ flavor! |
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| 5. Now add the 1/4 cup of water. I like my beans to be a little bit more "saucy and liquidy" but if it's too runny for you, decrease the water. |
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| 6. Mix it all up and then bake it in the oven. I'm using trying to bake my sweet potato fries at the same time, which go at 425 degrees. At this temperature, I cook the beans for 15 minutes. But it could be adjusted accordingly... lower temp, longer cooking time. |
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| Let the beans cool and then enjoy their awesome, vegan BBQ flavor! |
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| She likes them... |
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| A LOT! |
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| Looks like she's going into battle..."bean battle." |
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| Let's just say a bath is a must after this meal! |
All joking and cute pictures aside, I know that there's much more going on when Avery eats other than just getting messy. Baby-led weaning or baby-led solids as I like to call it has really taught Avery a lot in the past six months that we've been doing it. I've seen her fingers get stronger, hand-eye-coordination improve, and she's tried more types and textures of foods than I ever would have thought a one year old would be interested in!
One downside of baby-led solids is the mess that comes along with it, and although I may sigh from time to time when a meal fiinishes and "clean up" begins, but I know it's "worth the mess." I found this awesome graphic that really explains why babies and kids get so messy when they eat...it's because they're learning! I love the captions, and I wonder what Avery thinks about as she eats (other than the semi-funny captions I always seem to stick on them).
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| source |
Hope you like the beans! Messy, learnin' girl and I will see you guys next week!
Recently this post was linked up the "Friday Vegetarian Potluck Link Party" over at Elle's blog: The Way... Check out the virtual potluck to see what other yummy vegetarian dishes were "served!"
