Today was such a beautiful day! I forgot how much I love winter and the fact that we live in a country that has four beautiful seasons to enjoy. I like that the weather is not the same all the time. I think the change in seasons gives us an opportunity to appreciate the uniqueness of each one. It also reminds me of how everything in life is subject to change and that nothing lasts forever.

Sundays are perfect days to relax and take it easy and we did just that today. This morning we all took a nice long walk, for the first time in over a week and the girls giggled all the way. It was just what I needed. Being cooped up on the house all day really gets to me and finally the weather was not too cold to be out in the fresh air and sunshine, my main ingredients for an awesome day.

When we got in, it only took Kesa 30 seconds to get ‘nakey’ and have all of her clothes off, except her diaper. She still refuses to wear any clothes whatsoever at home and the other day when we were in town shopping for groceries she said to me “mom I wan to go home and be nakey.” I laughed so hard and also had to wonder if anyone overheard that. But seriously, should I be worried about this? I think she has been a proud nudist for about 4 months now. She is just not jiving with the seasons at all. I’m sure in Spring it will again be an impossible feat to get her to take her winter hat and mitts off. What to do?

I love life so much these days. On Friday I did a super cleaning of my entire house and changed some furniture around. It always feels good to have a clean environment. Everyone around here seems happier than ever. Autumn especially! She is enjoying her homeschooling and so am I. We are closer than ever and I have never seen her behave so well and be having so much fun.

(Autumn dressed as a wild tiger)

The girls are also enjoying having sleepovers together. Kesa is now enjoying sleeping with her big sister in her bed. Except last night, they got into a little spat and Kesa wanted nothing to do with her and decided to sleep in her own bed. Autumn cried and pleaded for Kesa to come back to her room, but Kesa (stubborn as she is) refused to be nice and simply told her “go to bed Auty!” This morning all was made well again when I got up early to make the girls blueberry banana muffins and they made peace with each other over breakfast.

I know I have been posting a lot of recipes lately and today I intended to take a break from recipe posting for a while, but this just had to be posted. IT IS THE BEST EVER! 🙂

For lunch today I decided to make something kid-friendly. We had rainbow macaroni salad and tofu nuggets. These are the best nuggets ever. I do mean ever. A non-vegan would never ever know that they aren’t chicken nuggets. So I just had to share this with all of you, especially for those of you who have kids or are looking for a good tofu recipe to try out. This lunch reminded me of being a kid and having Kraft Dinner and Chicken nuggets for lunch, although this is obviously much, much healthier.

Rainbow Deli Macaroni Salad

Serves 8-10

Dressing:

• 3/4 cup vegan mayo or Eggless Mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup vinegar
• 3 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

For The Salad:

• 3 cups whole wheat macaroni
• 1 small head of broccoli, cut into small florets
• 1 large thick carrot, peeled and grated
• 1 bell pepper, diced (I used 1/2 red and 1/2 yellow)

Directions

Boil the macaroni as directed. While the macaroni is boiling, prepare the dressing by whisking all the dressing ingredients together in a large bowl. Then cut up the broccoli, dice the pepper and peel and grate the carrots. Add the vegetables to the dressing. Drain the macaroni and run under cold water, then add to the large bowl with the dressing and vegetables. Stir and eat as is or refrigerate for later.

Yum! 🙂

This salad is so colorful, my kids just love it. I love pasta salads because they are so simple to make and are a great way to get your kids (and yourself) to eat more veggies. They are also nice to have on hand to have for lunch or to add as a side with dinner.

Crispy Tofu Nuggets

• 1 lb firm tofu
• 1/2 cup non-dairy milk
• 3 tablespoons Dijon
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 1 cup whole wheat breadcrumbs
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 3 teaspoons dehydrated onion flakes
• 2 teaspoons sage
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 375F.

Cut the tofu width-wise into 1/4 inch slices and then cut each slice in half to make little nuggets.

In a small bowl, whisk together the milk, Dijon and nutritional yeast. In another small bowl, place the breadcrumbs, garlic powder, dehydrated onion flakes, sage, salt and pepper.

Coat each nugget with the milk/Dijon mixture and then coat in the breadcrumb mixture.

Place on a baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden and crispy.

Life is what we make it. We can choose to be happy and enjoy life or we can choose to get down on ourselves. We can focus on all the beauty life holds and all of our blessings or we can focus on what we think we should be doing or all that is not how we want it to be. I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful husband and two beautiful little girls that always remind me to take the time to smile, no matter how ridiculous the smile. 🙂

I’ll keep on smiling even if sometimes I have to fake it. Life is just too beautiful not to!