Vegan Eating and the K&A Scale of Legitimacy

The vegan eating is going well thus far, and we've developed a new scale to determine our level of vegan diligence-the K&A scale, named after our good friends K&A, who are such hardcore vegetarians (no egg or dairy) that they make me feel ashamed whenever I even think of eating a hot dog. I don't know how they do it, but kudos to them for their level of dedication, they'll probably live to be 100.

Last night's dinner, on the K&A scale of legitimacy, with 10 being best, was about an 8, maybe a 7. We had falafels, stuffed squash, and spinach, and would probably have scored higher on the K&A scale if I hadn't put an egg in the falafel. I've just found that without it, the falafels just fall apart when fried. The squash is actually a modification of the Julia Child recipe for stuffed pumpkin. Since pumpkins are hard to come by, you can simply modify it to an acorn or buttercup squash. Great way to get your orange veggies, and the kids generally love it. Best of all, it's so easy.

Tonight we'll probably do Friday pizza night, which scores about a 6 on the K&A scale, or more like a 4 since we like pepperonis. And then there's the cheese, but as I've mentioned, we're not as worthy as our friends.

One final note-if we go skiing, we'll get home in the late afternoon, and then we'll have to scramble to make dinner. Also, pizza is something the kids love to have a hand in making, so it promises to be a time that is ripe for me to lose it at some point and get stressed, which also makes it a great opportunity to test my new anger management approach. Bring it on is what I say. Then again, I don't want to get too cocky. That's when I crash and burn.

Until the next time, thanks for reading.

Skiing Up A Storm and Falling Off the Vegan Wagon... Again

Man did we have a great day of skiing yesterday. The kids had been waiting all week for this day, and when it finally arrived, we took full advantage of it. The weather was beautiful, sunny and warm (30 degrees), and literally nobody there. It was almost strange, and J pointed out that some people just have to find something to complain about. Point taken.

The Quechee Hill is such a great place to ski for us, great learning hill, convenient and extremely well maintained. And a lot of our friends work/ski there. We got to the hill late morning and literally skied til they closed. We had a few spills, which are a bummer, but for the most part, it was a great day. We were amongst maybe five or six people skiing, and until the afternoon, when the people showed up en mass, the hill was all ours.

On the subject of milestones, the kids skied their first black diamond run, though at Quechee you have to take that with a grain of salt. Either way, they went for it, and they skied it like pros. Our days on the rope tow and T-bar may be numbered, though I still think the T-bar run is fun. Ironic how the easier hills to ski are the hardest to get up. Also, N did the T-bar all by himself, though he didn't enjoy it, and I think I'll have to ride up with him, if we in fact continue on it.

Since we were there all day, we naturally had to break for lunch and opted for the food at the lodge, which meant that we were in no way going to eat vegan, though S, who works there, is a vegan and had somehow scored a veggie burger. Our lunch consisted of bacon cheeseburgers, chicken strips, and fries. Talk about junk food. I'd made vegan lentil stew for dinner to counteract the garbage we ate for lunch, though I have to confess, it was tasty. It made us all a little sick.

By the time we got back out on the snow, our friends were beginning to show up. The kids were getting tired, but they powered on, and we managed to get a ton of skiing in, though A took quite a spill. She bounced back up and kept going. And N, in his quest to keep up, was simply incredible in his skiing.

All in all, I was so proud of them for making such huge strides. They set their minds to something, took a couple of spills, but persevered. Now they love skiing, they can't get a enough, and I'm more than happy to help them along.

I tried snowboarding with them but found that it wasn't so practical, so I think I'll stick with skiing, it just makes life simpler.

We're hoping to make it to Winter Fest but I have to go to the market and we have our day in Hanover, so it's conceivable that not only will we not make it there, but we more than likely won't get any skiing done. Bummer. But there's always tomorrow.

Until then, thanks for reading.