Your Vegan Mom

Mark Reinfeld's Raw Pear (or Plum!) Tart

I should have listened.  The recipe called for one cup of finely chopped pitted dates.  I did not do that.  Instead I threw a big rounded cup of somewhat dry whole pitted dates into the food processor along with the raw pecans and a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg to make the crust for Mark Reinfeld's raw tart.  I did this despite the fact that I had never made a raw tart before and the author of the well-tested recipe has cooked professionally for twenty years, founding a much loved restaurant that I always wanted to visit.  He has co-authored five cookbooks and recieved many honors and awards for his vegan cuisine, and still, I decided that I probably knew better.  

Mango Lemonade Slushie

 
(Isn't that straw beautiful?  I am totally in love with it.*) 

Prepare to be nutritionally unimpressed.  Okay, are you ready?

Well then, say you have a whole bunch of lemonade left over after... say... your baby's little third (third!) birthday party with his preschool pals.  

The existence of jugs of lemonade in the fridge will be difficult for two small children that are rarely exposed to juice and related forms of liquid sugar (liquid sugar - that's a quote from my first PTA meeting) to ignore.

You could repeatedly say no while you parse it out in vodka-based grown-up cocktails for weeks after bedtime, or you could more than placate those two kids with some fruity slushies.

This recipe slightly mitigates the concentrated sugar of juice or any sort of ade by diluting it with a bunch of ice and reinforcing it (both nutritionally and deliciously) with fresh (or frozen) fruit.   

Anupy Singla's Aloo Tikki

Over the summer when Desmond's swim teacher asked him what his favorite food was, he answered, "Indian food."

I'm not sure if that is entirely true or if that was simply all he could recall eating.

Cookbook author, Anupy Singla is completely responsible for my recent obsession with Indian cooking and my five-year-old's worldly palate.  She's an Indian American Mom and former reporter who so, so successfully translates complex Indian flavors to the time constraints of the home cook without dumbing down the dishes one bit.  Her recipes are realistic and super flavorful.