I am a Grandma!

I am a grandma! Brandie and Micah did an amazing job birthing our little angel. Weighing in at 9lbs 1oz and 21 inches long I give you Micah Robert Jr. I believe there is nothing more precious. Brandie and Micah went all natural at an amazing birth center. I am so proud of both of them and know that they are going to be awesome parents. He is 100% natural baby. No shots, no pain meds, no antibiotics and fed 100% mommy's milk. Brandie has spent her last 9 month reading everything she can about how they can achieve the best health for their son and her and her DH have strong convictions, which I respect and admire. Just look at him, an angel from Heaven! How blessed we are!

Look at those perfect little features!

I know this is primarily a food blog, but I think it is written somewhere that grandma's have bragging rights. So consider this blog one big brag of our beautiful daughter, our amazing son-in-law, and the star, our Grandson!

On a cooler note, we have been having a record heat wave and cooking has been out of the question. DH and I have spent our days in the pool eating oranges and fresh blackberries from our neighbors yard. Hmm... must be the garden of Eden. :o)

Julie's Healthy Pancakes, Vegan Dad's Breakfast Sausage, and Testing Grammy's Meatless Balls

Breakfast is usually the same for DH and I . He eats a variety of cereals, soy or almond milk, and banana. My breakfast, as of lately, has been grapefruit, oranges, and mango or melon, which ever I have on hand. Somehow we got into a tradition of making Sunday morning breakfast a bit hardier. Why Sunday? I have no idea. We are always super busy getting ready for church and still this tradition has taken hold. This past Sunday we tried Julie's new pancake recipe from http://www.everydaydish.tv/ Well, it is the main batter minus the blueberries and orange juice. I increased the soy milk to compensate for the missing orange juice and added a bit of vinegar to the milk to make "Buttermilk" pancakes. We used what we had on hand and they are wonderful. Julie makes hers with what looks like about a 1/4 cup but I used 1/2 cup. Shall I say right now, make 1/4 cup, they are huge! DH who usually eats 4 pancakes could only eat 2. :o) They were a hit. Along with them is Vegan Dad's breakfast sausage recipe. Simply put, a staple in our home. They freeze well and taste delicious!

Thank you Julie and Vegan Dad for making this Sunday a meal to remember!

The Happy Herbivore has done it again. Here is another mouthwatering preview of another great recipe for her upcoming cookbook. Enjoy, drool a little, and let your imagination go wild.

Here we have Grammy's Meatless Balls, which happen to be the best vegan "meatballs" I have ever tasted. Forget the frozen ones, these put those to shame! Here they are accompanied with mashed potatoes, gravy, and veggies.

Ok, now I know this meal is not the healthiest, but some days you just need some good old fashioned comfort food. Grammy's Meatless Balls worked wonderfully in this Vegan Alfredo dish by Don't get Mad get Vegan. By the way the Alfredo sauce calls for white wine, which we never have so I added 2 Tbls of "No Chicken Broth" and it tasted great.

And finally what everyone has been waiting for Spaghetti and "Meatballs". Once again Grammy's Meatless Balls did their job quite well. They hold up so nicely

in sauces and taste fantastic.

Well, it is time to wipe your chins and enjoy life. :o)

Fresh from the garden and recipe testing

I have to say, I am thrilled to have my computer back up and running. So far this inanimate object that has caused me such grief the past few weeks has finally gotten its attitude adjusted. :o) With that I share with you the first summer squash from our garden. These plants are just thriving, which we are so happy about. Brandie stopped by yesterday and her eyes lit up with pure joy when she say them. Yes, I sent her home a little care package of delicious home grown squash. Tonight's meal was simple and delicious. I stir fried, with cooking spray, some onion, yellow squash, and the little scalloped squashes. I love how they got a little bit caramelized. Sprinkled a bit of garlic and sea salt on them and they were ready to dish up. When dinner was over I wished for more. :o)

We also have an abundance of Swiss chard growing in our garden. I went out this evening before dinner and cut some beautiful 2 1/2 foot leaves off. I am not kidding, they are huge! Simple and quick. Saute some fresh garlic add the washed greens, some sea salt and pepper and let the magic begin. They so hit the spot!



Here we have a few tester recipes from the Happy Herbivore. You will so want to get her new cookbook when it comes out. Trust me mouth watering recipes! Her banana bread is so moist and delicious. I have tried many vegan banana bread recipes and this one is by far the best ever.

Vegan corn dogs anyone? Well, you will just have to wait. :o)

I made a Double layer pumpkin cheese cake today,

Susan's recipe, which is the best. Trust her when she says you can feed an omni and they won't be able to tell it's vegan. My DH loves this recipe! My dilemma was, what to do with the leftover pumpkin? After all the reason I made the cheesecake was because my canned pumpkin had been sitting in the cupboard just begging to be used. The answer make pumpkin bread, using the banana bread recipe as a base. It worked!! Just as moist and tasty as the banana bread. Yahoo!!!

On that tasty note I will close for now. Happy cooking everyone!

Edible flowers and grandbaby count down has begun!

When it rains it pours! I hate computers, well just my computer. I have not been able to upload any pictures from my camera. The program has a mind of its own and it has decide to YELL NO PERIMETER FOUND! What the heck is it talking about. I have uninstalled and re-installed it 4 times and still NO PERIMETER FOUND! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH it is enough to make a person nuts. I even took my computer back to bare bones and still the same smart attitude.

I am lucky enough to have a couple pictures to put up of Brandie and Micah's baby shower. Can you believe only 12 days to go until there due date? Time sure flies! Micah's mom put on the whole baby shower. I helped with vegan food. Brandie had requests :o) I made vegan ribz, tofu quiches, and a fruit salad. Of course silly me only got one photo of the fruit bouquet I made after some of the flowers go picked by hungry guests. I hope we can get my computer working so I can share some goodies I have been testing for the Happy Herbivore.

Until then, I leave you with a couple shots of the happy expecting couple.

One of the games was to guess how big around the two of them were belly to belly. That is Micah's mom, mamma huff in the picture. She is getting ready to measure the bellies.

My son-n-law is crazy, but I so love him. The shower was 3 weeks ago and my has Brandie popped out. We took pictures yesterday and I am waiting for Brandie to email them to me. Oh by the way, Brandie is loving being pregnant and already misses the big tummy moves. There is little room for little one to roll around so he/she just kicks and kicks now. The baby's head is down and there is no way that little one is going to change position now. There simply is no room. :o)