VeganMom...stumbling through life: I've spent 15 minutes thinking about a title and still have nothing.

I am happy to be married to my husband most of the time. I'm most grateful to be married, however, when it's snowy and gross and he's outside doing snow removal. I hate that job, and as much as I am not fond of all the time spent on meal prep and clean up every day, I would much rather do that every day than the winter snow duties my husband is taking care of right now!

This Sunday's meal prep was a little disappointing. I usually make at least one dessert/snack item, but I didn't get to it this week. It's probably a good thing, with Thanksgiving just around the corner. My mom will be baking her traditional banana nut bread (YAY!) and probably some other sweets as well.

I made another batch of dog food. They are loving it, and I will continue with this schedule--their morning meal is kibble and their evening meal is warm, yummy, and served on nice plates. It's served on the dishes I usually only use for holidays, because they are very heavy and the washing/putting away is risky with my arthritic hands. The home made food is easier for them to eat from a plate, rather than a bowl, and the plate needs to be heavy enough that it doesn't slide across the floor while they are eating. I'm still working on finding efficient ways to store and serve. I don't like having to scoop out and measure the food then measure and add the supplements. There has to be a more efficient way, but I haven't found it yet. I'd love to store it all measured in the appropriate serving size for each dog, but that requires three small containers per day and 21 for a week's worth, and I don't have that many small containers. I'll keep refining and tweaking and will eventually come up with a system that works well for all of us.

So besides the dog food (and packing lunches), I prepped/made:

Pumpkin seeds (Still finishing up our garden pumpkins!)
Dal (which we'll eat with Roti)
Mac & Cheese (the Vega recipe--best ever!!)
Tofurkey Roast w/ mashed potatoes & gravy (We'll have Thanksgiving with my parents, but Mark loves the Tofurkey loaves, and picked one up on a really good sale this week.)

My friend/office mate made and brought in two delicious-looking Indian dishes (Gobi and Chana (chole) Masala) for me today. I'm so excited! We have a glut of food this week. The Dal, Mac & Cheese, and Shepherd's Pie leave us with lots of leftovers. The Mac & Cheese is made in a 9x13" pan, and L doesn't like it, so only M & I eat it--leaving us with a ton of it.

I didn't get to the dessert, and I still have to prepare the shepherd's pie and gravy that Mark requested for his birthday (Friday). Instead, I installed some shelves in the kitchen and reorganized everything. I have so many spices and bulk foods, that I'm trying to come up with a more efficient way to store/organize everything. I loaded, unloaded, and rearranged the shelves several times last night. Right now they are functional--more efficient than what I had before, but I don't like the way it looks. Function trumps looks, so for now I will leave things as they are and live with this layout for a while until I come up with a better idea. I have tons of bulk items, but unlike the spices which are small and not that tough to find homes for, the bulk items take up a lot more space. I need to keep these basics on hand all the time, as they are the staples of most of my meals, and then some additional items that I don't use as often (popcorn, couscous, millet, etc.):

Black beans
Kidney beans
Chickpeas
Adzuki beans
Black-eyed peas
Red lentils
Green lentils
Toor dal
Chana dal
Mung dal
Urad dal
Quinoa
Brown rice
Basmati rice
Oats
Barley
Wild rice
Raw cashews
Walnuts
Pecans
Peanuts
Raw almonds
Six different kinds of flour (for gluten-free cooking/baking)- I ran out of room for these on the new shelf, so they are still in a cupboard.

That makes for a lot of containers to store and organize. Someday, I will find the perfect system--one in which I find every item I need quickly and easily without having to move containers to get at it, and ideally, it will end up looking nicer than it does now.

A few bonus shots from this afternoon: Jezebel is being perfect, as usual, looking out the window. Damon is following me around, telling me he wants his walk RIGHT NOW.

L-R: Grace Hopper, Hawking, PZ, Ada Lovelace, Hitchens, Hazel, Franklin, Poppy

Same shot, different angle. This time you can see Cypress (front left) and Valentina (front right). They are gathered over there eating their fresh produce (today: assorted mixed greens, parsley, and carrots). You can also see the splatters on the wall from where they shake their fruits and veggies while eating them (The berries are the worst!), leaving bits of them glued to the wall. I have to occasionally steam clean the walls to get that stuff off. They are very messy little creatures! There's another produce plate on the other side of the room, too. Sometimes the thuggish little cockatiels like to fly down to the floor, eat the rabbits' and guinea pigs' produce, and then fly back up and eat their own. Smart, but naughty!

Przemek - He's very shy and very fast, so it's hard to get a picture in which he isn't just a blur!

Fergus and Fiona, snuggled up after finishing their afternoon produce

Przemek likes to eat his produce with the rabbits and guinea pigs. I started out putting his on his own food tray, but he prefers to hang with the others. When I adopted him, I assumed he would join with the doves, but instead he prefers the rabbits, particularly Fiona. At least once a week I walk in to find him snuggled up in Fiona's neck. I NEVER have my camera with me when it happens, and as soon as he sees me, he runs under the big cages to his private space. I need to make a point to carry my camera in more often, so I can try to catch this. It is one of the cutest things ever!