Mom's Visit and Candy for Dinner

As I had mentioned, my mom came to visit yesterday. It was such a nice visit; I hadn’t seen her since I graduated from college last May. Much, much too long since I’d seen her. We had very good conversation, and a nice time downtown. We had originally been planning on going to a tea room for lunch, but after calling a locally owned Mexican restaurant to see if their refried beans were vegan (they are made with corn or vegetable oil – not great for you I know, but hey – it’s not lard), we decided to go there. It was pretty good, I had heard great things about the place, but had just never thought to go there. I had a veggie burrito with guacamole and a Mexican mango soda. After that, we went to the best coffee shop in town, Coffee Zone, and I had a soy latte, Brett had a mocha latte with regular milk. Man I love that place, they have the best espresso I have ever tasted.

We walked around downtown for awhile, my mom got to see some of the nice ‘trinket and knick knack stores’ that sell locally made artwork, and she really seemed to enjoy it. I think I’ll have to try to get her up again when the weather is nicer so we can spend more time down there.

We got a couple of pictures, and she gave her permission to have her picture put up on my blog (Mwaaaahaahaaa can’t back out now Mom!), so here they are. Warning: I don’t always take the greatest pictures.

She also brought up our Christmas presents. What a good job she did, they were very thoughtful gifts, and things that I have been wanting. She got us a new coffee maker, one of those where you can program it to start making coffee at a certain time (the coffee maker we have is pretty old), AND this one has a reusable filter. It doesn’t take those paper filters, which reduces a lot of waste! An environmentalist and coffee lovers dream. She also got us a tea kettle! I have wanted one for a long time, as we drink a lot of tea, but would just heat water up in a pan. Until now, wahoo! So I was very happy with her choices in gifts. Thanks Mom!

Last night for dinner I made Chandelle’s Ginger Roasted Winter Vegetables with Maple Coriander Seitan. I think Brett put it best himself, it was like eating candy for dinner that was good for you. We had it over quinoa, which was super good, quinoa is something I could eat plain, it is just that good. The only thing I didn’t like about this meal was the rutabaga, which is nothing to fault Chandelle for; her recipe doesn’t call for it. It really wasn’t too bad though, the rutabaga was white and the rest of the veggies were orange so it was easy to pick them out. The flavor of rutabaga reminded me a bit of the bad cabbagey flavor of poorly cooked Brussels Sprouts. I don’t mean to offend anyone who likes rutabaga, we all have our own tastes, but it was not at all pleasing to my palate. The squash, sweet potatoes and carrots were so sweet when they were roasted and the savory flavor of the seitan went so well with the sweetness of the veggies. We will definitely make this again, but you know, actually using the right root veggies.

My only complaint, which is a very weak one, is that it made a lot of food. But now I get take this ‘healthy candy’ for lunch tomorrow, so I think it worked out all right. :-)

‘Til next time!