This afternoon we walked over to a local cafe and had a pleasant lunch. The food was good and the company (meaning my kids) was excellent. The kids behaved so well and we happily chatted while we waited for our food. Afterwards, we checked out a neighbouring gift shop and I “encouraged” Hubby to buy me some perfume (I happily left my purse at home). Then we returned home and I read — a bit inside and then outside with a great German white wine.

It was just a pleasant afternoon. I love days like today.

Another great thing about this summer is that Hubby didn’t travel. I was spoiled. Each weekend and each night we hung out. We took walks to the river and checked out the fish or dipped our feet. The girls rode their bikes and we checked out the park and they swam in the wading pool. We also checked out a couple of fairs and had friends over and caught up on life over casual food and drink.

Next week we’re going on a mini roadtrip. Then we need to finalize plans for The Pea’s birthday party and get her ready for school (what’s up with schools not providing supplies?). And then there’s still time before the cold weather arrives to have more fun.

This summer is probably the best I’ve had in recent memory.

Jell-O is one of those products that I can’t break down and let my children consume because it contains gelatin. For those of you who don’t know, the gelatin used in in Jell-O comes from the collagen in cow or pig bones, hooves and connective tissues. The process to make gelatin involves grinding up these various parts and pretreating them with a strong acid or a strong base to break down cellular structures and release proteins like collagen. The resulting mixture is boiled after pretreatment. During the boiling process, the large collagen protein ends up being partially broken down; the resulting product is called gelatin, which forms a layer on the surface of the boiling mixture. Sounds appetizing, doesn’t it?

Since I don’t want my Pea to be left out I always try to find vegetarian alternatives to mainstream products. The jelly mix that I found was easy to prepare and was just as good. (I sampled some today with The Pea and The Peach.)

Interesting note, the kids prepared their Jell-O and put them outside to chill. After an hour, none of the girls’ Jell-O had chilled enough but The Pea’s did so she was able to bring her treat home to enjoy.

My inspiration for one of my sandwiches was this post by Gena from Choosing Raw. As a sidenote, I’ve become such a huge fan of Gena. I love her writing style and her approach to food. She described this sandwich as one that would change your life. It’s a monster of a sandwich in that it’s quite filling and it’s bursting with flavours.

I used some Grainfields bread (spelt I think) along with some baked sweet potatoes, cucumbers, basil, mashed avocado with some seasonings and then some chopped romaine lettuce. I served it alongside a salad. It was so good.

* A tip for baking sweet potatoes use some lime juice and olive oil to soften them up and help with the baking process but also season them with some chili powder, chili flakes, garlic powder, poultry seasoning and some black pepper. *

First off, make the seitan. I use a very basic recipe consisting of 1 cup of vital wheat gluten and 1 cup of water. I stir the ingredients together and then knead them for about five minutes. In the meantime a broth of various seasonings heats up. Once the water is boiling I drop the cut up pieces of seitan.

Here’s the seitan cut up waiting to be immersed in the broth. Doesn’t look too appetizing, but you wait…

The next step is to cook the seitan for an hour while stirring it every 10 minutes.

As you can see, the seitan really puffs up. I nearly had a coronary the first time I ever made it and lifted the lid off the pot. Oh yeah, you’ll want to use a big pot and a lid.

For this recipe I wanted the seitan to hang out in a marinade once it was cooked.

This marinade consisted of tamari, arrowroot powder, rice vinegar and some sesame oil. While the seitan was marinading I prepared a sauce consisting of water with 1/2 bouillon cube (I think chicken seasoning would work in this instance), more tamari, agave nectar, rice vinegar, vegan Worcestershire sauce, arrowroot powder, chili paste, grated ginger and grated garlic.

After marinading, I heat up some oil and throw in the seitan and some broccoli pieces.

Once heated, I add the sauce and let the sauce thicken while coating the seitan ad broccoli. Admit it, it looks good.

Throughout the cooking process, I’ve got some brown rice cooking. Soon we’re ready to eat.

Do you see a theme? Lots of green.

I’m trying to limit oven usage but I needed to have a salad topper for my summer salad so I made Dreena’s polenta croutons. I love polenta and it’s even better when crisy.

Doesn’t it look delish?

One of the things that surprised me about Italy is that the majority of young children I saw that were either overweight or obese. Many adults were as well, including family members with health problems. One of my older aunts who has a list of health problems that are mostly diet related asked why I was vegetarian and if I was raising my kids vegetarian. She shook her head when I answered – obviously not getting the connection between health and what we eat.

The benefits of not eating animal protein include: ward off disease such as heart disease: help maintain a healthy weight; increase your chances of living a long and healthy life; and decrease incidents of food-born illnesses. And there are many more reasons which include humane and environmental ones. I talked about my reasons for becoming a vegetarian in this post. I’m still a committed vegetarian and now that I have two young children my goal is to do whatever it takes to ensure good health for my children.

I had an interesting conversation with the owner of a local Lebanese restaurant on Saturday. The girls had just finished munching on hummus and pita bread. Hubby told the owner that the girls love hummus and have been eating it since they were babies. He also mentioned that I was vegetarian and so were the girls. The restaurant owner asked the usual questions: why and what do we eat? He pointed out that a bit of fish would be good since Jesus ate fish. I’ve never heard that comment before and replied that Jesus also drank lots of wine. Should I give the kids wine too? His response: Not yet. It was a friendly banter and I don’t mind friendly conversation regarding nutrition. Anybody who knows me knows that I shy away from confrontation especially regarding food. This conversation got me thinking…why not fish and a little bit of meat once in a while?

Food messages are thrown at us every single day — what to eat, what’s good, what’s bad, buy this, buy that. Kids are an easy target market. I have no problems with treats once-in-a-while. Unfortunately, treats are now a norm and are expected each day. Each day at school one of my daughter’s teachers would give out candy for good performance. The Pea would decline and choose a sticker instead since many of the treats contained gelatin (an animal product). She would come back from various activities or birthday parties full of assorted cookies, cakes, candies, etc. So if a child is being offered junk food each day from various sources can I say ‘no’ to each one? Probably not. So early on we made a decision to minimize their risk of health-related problems. Choosing candy over animal protein is the lesser of two evils. There are plenty of plant-based foods that replace animal protein that are full of nutrients that will ensure our children grow properly (their pediatrician says to continue doing what we’re doing because we’re doing something right).

Now we didn’t choose not to give our kids animal protein so they could have candy. Our decision was based on health benefits. There are so many anti-nutrient “foods” out there that if we can replace one item with a healthy alternative then we’re doing something right. There are always going to be treats of some kind. We often try to replace these treats with healthier alternatives so the girls can still have fun in a social setting. Sometimes we lose the battle to win the war. When it comes to animal protein we’ve replaced a category of food with a healthier alternative, which includes various fruits and vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts and seeds. My children are thriving so next time someone asks why I can just point to my happy and healthy girls and respond with “that’s why”.

My mother’s village at night.

My aunt and uncle’s welcoming home.

My dad’s village in the distance, which is a neighbouring village to my mom’s.

My school. Strange to see it after so many years.

A meal at my one of my uncle’s homes. Yes, it’s a lot of food and not all the food is pictured here. Our first course was pasta and mushrooms (picked by my uncle) with a side of one crepe filled with mushrooms. Oh my!

And then there was beautiful Rome…The Pantheon

The Colosseum

And some beautiful pieces…

And then there’s this guy…

So cool to walk where others have walked thousands of years ago…

Hubby and I in front of the Trevi Fountain (too bad for the water bottle in the background) with the sun shining on us. Beautiful.

And Hubby very happy with his litre of beer.

This was the norm after a full day of touring. The wine and food were so delicious and affordable. We had an amazing time. Arrivederci!

I’ll be back with pictures and a post about my trip and life in general once I get a chance to catch my breath.