Happy Monday! I know I’m the odd man out here, but I LOVE Mondays! Especially if the weather is as beautiful as it was today.
Monday is the start of a brand new week. A fresh slate. Getting back to my 4:30-5 am routine that I honestly enjoy. I’ve recently given myself permission to sleep in on the weekends which really helps restore my soul more than I knew I needed.
Anyway, not everyone shares my enthusiasm for Mondays. So I wanted to share my very favorite Vegetable Pot Pie recipe with you in case you need a super mindless (& meatless) meal to make.
You will need:
1 box of store-bought pie crust (2 included), thawed to room-temp
2 (10.5 oz) cans of Cream of Potato Soup
3 bags of Frozen Mixed Vegetables, heated
1/2 cup milk
Salt, pepper, & thyme to your liking
First, preheat your oven to 375°
In a large bowl mix together 2 10.5 oz cans of Cream of Potato soup, 3 bags of Frozen Mixed Vegetables (I heat before adding to mixture), a half cup of milk, salt & pepper to your liking, throw some thyme in that bowl, and mix it all up.
Put 1 thawed-out, store-bought pie crust in your pie pan (you’re welcome to make your own if you want, but we’re going for mindless over here). Slowly scoop in your mixture until it’s all in there nice.
Place your second pie crust right on top and squish it around gently until it looks pretty. Add a fun design or letter (I like to do M for our last name) if you want, or just a slit works too. Beat an egg, brush it on top and pop that in the oven for 45 minutes.
When it comes out, let it cool for a few minutes. Cut into slices, dish it out, & enjoy.
There ya go! A super, duper easy and affordable weeknight meal that is both kid & meat-eating husband approved. You can add cheese or other spices if you want as well. It’s also a meal that is easy enough for older children to learn how to make on their own!
Helpful tip: use the cooking time for homework or chores. Try to get as much of your to-do list crossed off before the timer goes off. The more you can get accomplished before dinner, the less you’ll be left with at the end of the night.
What is your favorite mindless meal 🍽 to make on the weeknights?
My husband and girls LOVE bananas, so lately I have been making a lot of banana flavored treats for my family.
This breakfast is healthy, delicious, and super simple to make with and for kids! Ella and I made this batch together for Sunday breakfast for our family.
This recipe makes 24 muffins- which is perfect for our large family. This recipe can be easily cut in half if your family size isn’t as large! Or you can make and freeze for an easy grab & go breakfast for those accidental last-minute mornings!
Let’s Bake!
Ingredients:
1 Stick vegan “butter”, softened (I use Earth’s Best!)
4 Over-ripe bananas
2 Cups flour
1 Cup light brown sugar
1 TSP salt
2 TSP cinnamon
2 TSP Pure Vanilla Extract
2 TSP baking soda
2 TSP baking powder
2 Cups oats
Instructions:
Wash hands ✋
Preheat oven to 400° + prepare muffin tins (reusable liners or spray with Pam Baking Spray w. Flour)
In your stand mixer bowl, mix together bananas, flour, and brown sugar.
Add in salt, cinnamon, vanilla, baking soda, and baking powder. Stir to combine.
Add oats, stir to combine.
Spoon batter into muffin tin + top with oats for decoration
Bake 15 minutes + let cool before serving
That’s it! So easy that kids can make these almost entirely by themselves!
I hope you enjoy your Vegan Banana Oat muffins! If you do, please share!
One of my very favorite hobbies is planning, especially for events. I dream of the day we find our forever home with plenty of space to host many elaborate parties for the rest of our lives.
Throwing Mia a “socially distanced” birthday party was my first event since covid-19 began, and I was ecstatic to be party planning again! I was a bit further behind on time than I had hoped, but overall my first “socially disanced” party was a success.
I’m excited to take you along to join us for an afternoon tea!
The Invitations
I had so much fun making these invitations and I was really impressed with how they turned out.
I found a free teacup template online, printed it out and lightly traced onto white card stock. After that, I bordered it with pink and added a pink heart to each teacup.
I typed up the wording and cut out each one to be able to fit inside the hearts. Unfortunately, by the time I realized that it looks best if you cut along the individual letters, I was already on my last one 🤦🏼♀️ but now I know for the future! I wanted the letters to pop, so I used drafting dots to attempt to create that effect.
I made a hole behind the cup and two holes above the cup to be able to tie in a string for the teabag and a bow. I attached the string from a white & gold foiled Christmas string I already had and attached the teabag to the string using a stapler to give it a realistic look. I asked my friend to tie a perfect bow for me because she makes beautiful ones and mine are downright sloppy 😂.
I then bordered the pink with a brown to match the guest’s teabag and hide the strings behind the pink card stock and tie it all together.
The Spread
The waffle fruit bowls were a big hit! I bought 1 box of 12 small waffle cone bowls and an already prepared fruit salad and divided it between the 12 waffle cone bowls. We also had a cream cheese fruit dip to be used as a sauce to drizzle on top of each bowl, or to dip your fruit skewer in.
I would have preferred to buy my flowers from my friend, Celeste, the owner & artist of Village General; but due to lack of time, I purchased two small, half-price, day-old bouquets and blended them together to create the look I was going for.
I found some Celestial Caffine-Free Fruit Tea Sampler to serve the children. I thought that fruit flavored tea would go over well with the children, and there were multiple really yummy options for them to choose from! Even my pickiest of all found a flavor he enjoyed!
I had tried desperately to find some colorful macaroons, but had no luck tracking any down. I decided to substitute my original plan with meringues instead and that worked out just fine.
I made the pressed flower sugar cookies that turned out very cute! The other two cookies were purchased: Frosted Sugar Cookies in pink & of course, Verona cookies because you can’t have tea without those!
The bottom layer was simply a few boxes of powdered donuts, nothing too fancy. I would have liked to get the mini powdered donuts, but one package of them cost as much as 4 packages of the large ones, so I decided to go with those for budget purposes.
My mom found very cute little tea party plates that really pulled the theme together and came in several different patterns to match the various colors. They have an entire tea party set as well, that would make it even more adorable!
More food that was unfortunately not photographed was:
Chicken Salad Crossant Sandwiches
Fairy Bread Sandwiches
Ham & Cheese Sandwiches
The Activities
I found these plain white tea cups at the thrift store for 50 cents each. Each kid was given their own tea cup to decorate with sharpie to take home with them.
When decorating your own mugs or teacups with sharpies, it is important to bake them in the oven at 250°F for at least 2 hours so that the sharpie does not wash off.
I had planned to incorporate the tea cups into a game of having the children race with full tea cups of water to the fence and back while spilling the least amount of water, but tea went into the cups before I was able to get that far 🤦🏼♀️.
We also found many fun dress up ensembles at the thrift. The girls had a blast dressing up in boas, hats, and beads galore.
It was a really lovely day and I am very pleased with the turn out.
I cannot wait to begin planning for Thea’s FIRST birthday coming up in October (which if you know me, know that it is my FAVORITE month)! & Ella’s birthday in November!
Don’t forget to subscribe 😉 & as always, PLEASE share!
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I first heard about this Vegan Chickpea Salad from a dad in our play group and it has since become a staple in our home. Seriously, I make it at least once a week!
It is a healthy, kid-approved lunch that is so easy to make! In fact, it is so hard to mess up that you can totally let your kids make this (almost*) completely by themselves and it will still come out delicious. It is a great meal to get kids involved in the kitchen from a young age.
What You Need:
1-2 can(s) garbonzo beans
Red onion
Shallots
Celery
Lemon juice
Follow Your Heart Vegenaise
Dijon Mustard
Relish
Paprika
Dill
Salt & Pepper
Directions:
(I used 2 cans of garbonzo beans here)
Step 1. In a strainer, drain and rinse garbonzo beans then empty into a large mixing bowl.
Step 2: Add all ingredients into bowl.
This is one of those recipes where you can literally just eyeball everything to your own liking. Add as much or as little as you prefer – it will still come out delicious with very little effort.
It’s the perfect starter recipe for getting kids involved in the kitchen (*note: please leaving vegetable preparation / knife handling to an adult) from a young age. Being able to add ingredients freely is so exciting to my children. They get to play and experiment with their ingredients while gaining confidence since it still comes out delicious in the end!
Step 3: Stir and Mash
Mix everything together really well and then mash it up. A potato masher is easiest, but you can use whatever you have handy. I like to have it semi-mashed because I enjoy the texture, but mash it to your liking.
Enjoy!
Serve it up with some Ritz Crackers (our favorite way), as a sandwich, on homemade pretzels (recipe coming soon!), or on a bagel for a delicious and healthy lunch!
From Heroin to Housewife 