May Day

Happy May Day! It has been almost three weeks since my last post and I really don't know where the time has gone! 

One of my closest and most treasured friends flew to Nashville in April for a long weekend and sadly, we didn't take even one picture while she was here!  We've tried to see each other at least once a year with constant plans to make that twice a year, so we'll see if this will be the year we live up to that!  She is always one of the first people I want to call with good news or bad, to rant about random things that I know she will appreciate, and we have been through a lot of ups and downs together since we first met in the dorms our freshman year at IWU.  

Sophie officially moved up to the Older Toddler room last month and she's loving it.  All the kids are verbal and we've noticed a huge increase in her vocabulary and ability to form sentences.  To think, less than six months ago we were contemplating speech therapy!  Each year, Sophie's school has a parade to celebrate the Week of the Young Child and the birthday of the school.  Here are a couple of pics from this year's parade, held last week.

I've been cooking quite a bit, but haven't posted many new recipes lately and I need to work on gathering them to post.  Here's a recipe for a shredded veggie salad adapted slightly from a Healthy.Happy.Life vegan blog recipe that I made last Monday and enjoyed for lunch for a few days with plenty to share at work and with Jason and his colleagues, too!  We have a 12-cup food processor, which is what I used to shred all the veggies.

Salad:
1 raw beet, shredded
1 red onion, shredded
1 lb of carrots, shredded
1 head of broccoli, shredded
golden raisins to taste
sesame seeds to taste

Dressing: 
2 Tbsp tahini
2 Tbsp agave nectar
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 small lemon, juiced


Since this made a huge batch of salad, I didn't dress the it until right before eating. I made a little more dressing after the first day and it's really tasty on any salad.  Here's a picture of the Happy.Healthy.Life. blog - it's really colorful and pretty!

Photo courtesy of Happy. Healthy. Life.

We have a share in the Avalon Acres CSA again this year and look forward to our first delivery, although I kind of dread the prep and chopping when the box comes.  A small price to pay for good produce that I know is good for my family.  The more we learn about GMOs and the sourcing of food products, the more vigilant we feel as a family about that issue.  I find myself buying less and less packaged or processed food, especially those with lists of ingredients I can't pronounce and becoming more focused on local and simple foods.  I know that's easy for me to say when there are so many families out there who don't have access to local, fresh and organic products because of finances, food deserts, and many other reasons, and I only hope as time goes on it will become easier to buy local and organic products.  

I'm off my soapbox now and leave you with this photo of Sophie and Sparky - two best friends.  Until next time!