Purple

It was a purple day here at the Kunklebaby household. This didn't happen on purpose, we started out with smoothies-yum. They usually turn out pink, but today we made them with fresh organic blackberries, raspberries, and a smidgen of banana & strawberry. They were super tasty & healthy too. I love making smoothies, they feed our large family quickly and without scrimping on nutrition.

We received these "blue" potato''s from our CSA bag [loving it!] last week, and they became lunch today. Turns out they are the prettiest violet color. They darken a bit into a deep purple-ish blue after they are cooked. I debated making eggplant for dinner to make an official full day of purple-licious goodness, but I think we are going for super quick & super easy tonight-and that doesn't come in purple [unless we decide on skittles...hmmm after the week I've had, just maybe!]

Yum

We've been on a baking kick for the past few days. Lots of tasty treats being made! Today I'm planning to make & freeze a few batches of baby food for the winter. I made most of Little {L}'s baby food, and I'm hoping to do the same for baby unicorn. It's actually super quick & easy, with the added benefit of avoiding some processed food, and the cost that accompanies them.

We picked up some yummy zucchini's, squash and eggplant at the market last Saturday. Last night, we received our CSA bag from Whole Foods. At first, I wasn't sure how we'd like having this. I'm really picky and wasn't sure how they whole "surprise" aspect would be. With a family full of vegetarians, I thought it couldn't hurt to try, and so far, we are loving it! Lots of fresh, healthy veggies from local Ohio farmers. I think this will actually force us to find new recipes and uses for some of the things in the CSA bags. [which is a good thing]

I'm excited to take advantage of all the seasonal fruit & vegetables. We will have a freezer full of goodies for the baby when he's ready to start eating food this winter!

Prepared

Lately I have been really prepared for things. It's funny because it's come after a several months long spell, of unprepared chaos in the house! It feels nice to seem to have things under control again. I spent the morning preparing for our Thanksgiving.

This will be the first year that my husband is joining us in an ALL Vegetarian feast. While me and the children are vegetarians, my husband is not. Usually we have family coming in to visit, so we make the typical American Thanksgiving food-turkey. With no one else to eat it, he has decided to skip it this year. I was really excited and wanted to prepare a few new dishes to help make it "easier" for him.

While we have some of the normal Thanksgiving staples, we also have several foods that we always make [carrot pudding], this year we are added a stew served with couscous, mashed turnips [which the kids actually love!], berry soup and a bananas cinnamon cake to the menu. Mmmmmm, yummy!

Our fridge packed full of healthy goodness!

I decided to make 3x the stew and turnips we would eat. I froze the rest for quick, healthy and easy meals throughout the next few months. I love making big batches of food and just reheating it later! It really adds almost no time to the cooking, just a few extra minutes to cut up the veggies and spices.

I was so lucky to have 3 little helpers today. The kids are really excited about helping prepare the food this year. I have been making them carrot pudding for Thanksgiving since they were born, this year they started asking if we were going to have it-weeks ago! It felt really great that it has become a "family tradition" food for the holiday.