Cowgirl Cookies were in order:

The stickers on the back were contributed by Casey.

I’ve been reading Food Revolution by John Robbins. With the exception of this blog, I don’t go didactic about veganism with the people I interact with. I simply do my best in my daily life to eat, shop, and live sustainably and cruelty-free. But this book makes me want to liberate livestock from factory farms, chain myself to old growth trees in endangered-soon-to-be-clearcut rainforests, and pelt the headquarters of U.S. agribusiness giants with their own toxic genetically modified frankenfoods. Which is funny, since Robbins isn’t a rabble-rouser. His writing is quiet, factual, and behind every word is a deeply felt sadness for the state of our planet. Yes, he’s preaching to the choir when vegans read his book (although there’s plenty for vegans to learn to reinforce their commitment to the lifestyle), but everyone has so much to learn from Food Revolution. If I had just one wish, I’d use it to get everyone in the world to read this book and take its lessons to heart.

Feeding a toddler, vegan or not, can be frustrating. One day she loves your Tempeh Shepherdess Pie, the next she’s hurling it against the windows. I do claim, however, that lunches are getting easier. Especially with a cutie-pie Skip Hop Mat & Plate. Kids seemed programmed to like their food in easy-to-see component form, and this little tray does the trick. You can pull together a quickie lunch of nibbles in no time, it looks fun and fancy, and it keeps the kiddie occupied while you make your own lunch. Today, my monkey noshed on organic brown rice cakes with a schmear of organic peanut butter, grapes, carrot matchsticks, cucumber slices, a Newman’s Wheat and Dairy Free fig bar, and these lovely tortilla chips I just found that have green, black, and kalamata olives baked into them. Paired with a cold glass of almond milk, this lunch bought me ten minutes to whip up my current favorite sandwich (the previously blogged about apple-carrot-cucumber-vegan cheese melt). A yummy way to end the morning, and a good way to fill that tummy before nap time.

My Vegan Mofo challenge this month is to feed my family three square meals a day. I’ve been wanting to create a monthly menu and shopping list for ages, since I believe doing so would simplify things around here at mealtime, not to mention save us a lot of money and time in the process. (Pssst – Ultimately, I want to get so organized that I can do a weekend of Cook For the Month, and have a deep freeze full of vegan goodness to heat up and serve. This month of blogging will be a test run of recipes for this unrealized and heady dream).

The rest of this challenge for me is making food for my vegan toddler, who will be loving pea soup one day and flinging it against the walls the next. If she had it her way, she’d subsist on dried cranberries and breastmilk until kindergarten.

Luckily, I have help! Isa Chandra, Jennifer, and Cathe will be joining me in the kitchen (in spirit), not to mention my vast archive of Vegetarian Times magazines. And there will even be a little Iron Chef-type action, since the veggies are delivered weekly from New Roots Organics. So not only will I be cooking, baking, steaming and blanching daily, but I’ll be planning meals with new-to-us vegetables. (I recently met parsnips through New Roots Organics and we are very much in love).

Is it 3:30pm already? Time to figure out some dinner while my baby is napping. I’m thinking:

Mini Veggie Burgers (Vegan Lunch Box Around the World) with Oven Fries (The Vegetarian Mother’s Cookbook). And I gotta do something with all the green beans and fingerling potatoes that came in this week’s bin, maybe a Green Bean and Fingerling Potato Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette? And what are we having for breakfast, lunch and dinner tomorrow?

Gotta go raid the fridge. And pantry. And get cooking. Vegan Mofo 2009 is on!