Well I’m writing this blog post from another vacation! That’s right, I haven’t taken a vacation in forever so I booked two in the same month! This time we are visiting Block Island, RI which is one of my favorite places. We’ve been having a great time biking around the island, eating great food, hanging out at the beach, and today we even got to tour a lighthouse! The kids seem to be enjoying it as well. Not going to lie my favorite part so far though may have been taking a luxurious outdoor shower. Man I love outdoor showers!
So before I tell you about today’s how-to, I wanted to catch you up on Patricia and Julius. Patricia is speaking full sentences. Before I went to Israel she was still doing one or two words at a time, when I came back from Israel she was speaking full sentences. I’m not even joking. We’ve been working on potty training since Memorial day with mixed results (great results at home, terrible results at daycare). It is earlier than we started Julius, but on top of that she is extremely headstrong and doesn’t like us to suggest when she needs to go. That makes it a challenge. She loves her brother and frequently copies everything he says. The latest is “hey mommy” which she says all the time now since Julius also says it all the time. (I guess I’ve moved from mama to mommy, not sure when it happened.)
The other adorable thing Patricia does is hard to describe. She will point her finger at you and say “you!” with this huge mischievous smile, to which you are supposed to respond “no you” and this continues until she gives you kisses or snuggles you. Sometimes she even squishes my cheeks together for good measure.
Julius lately I keep saying is my son because he loves to do crafts and he can unguided finish a craft start to finish. I’ve been buying him crafts WAY older than his age range for a while now and he doesn’t need any help to put them together. On Block Island the cute little house we rented had a rock “guest book” and Julius the first day we were there decorated a rock, it was the thing he wanted to do most. He is a great brother, but he gets frustrated with Patricia still, and we have to work on his tattle-tale-ing. I’m not sure how to curb that, especially when he is telling us useful things like “mommy Patricia has rocks in her mouth” or “mommy Patricia hid the remote control under the couch”. Julius has also gotten really good at reading. We have been doing those Bob books all year and he’s really got the hang of it. We’re trying to build his confidence with longer words.
Next week I’ll tell you my favorite story of Julius and Patricia that pretty much sums up their relationship. So now you have that to look forward to. Don’t worry though, I’ll leave you with something else to look forward to… lentil taco “meat”! Will and I eat a lot of tacos, since “Mexican” is Will’s favorite food (note we only make bastardized Mexican food sadly). Our go-to for taco protein is usually either refried beans or black beans, but I wanted to change it up. Lentils, it turns out, are an amazing substitute (and they take way less time than refried beans from scratch using dried beans). Plus the lentil taco meat tastes great in stuffed peppers as well as other places! (For instance today I ate the lentil taco meat as a sandwich with cheese and toasted bread and it was awesome!)
Vegan Lentil Taco “Meat”
- 1/2 lb of green/brown lentils (about 1 cup dry)
- 1 tbsp of tomato paste
- 2 tsp cumin
- 1 tbsp Taco seasoning
- ½ cup water
Wash and remove any rocks from lentils. Add to a medium pot then cover lentils with 4 inches of water. Bring to a boil then lower the heat to a simmer and simmer for 25 to 30 min or until tender but not too mushy. Drain the lentils. Add tomato paste, cumin, taco seasoning and 1/2 cup of water and stir for another few minutes over high heat until the tomato paste and seasonings are integrated (add more liquid if necessary). Simmer, stirring constantly until the liquid is absorbed. Serve on tacos, over rice, in sandwiches, or wherever you please.
