More (Vegan and Gluten Free) Recipes for Success

The last 2 dinners I made were also successes, so I want to share what I made.

Thursday’s Dinner:

Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Cauliflower
This part takes a long time to get on the table but if you prep and plan in advance, it is easy and satisfying.
Preheat oven at 450.

Fill a roasting pan with cubed sweet potato, just one layer flat against the pan.
3 tbsp avocado oil, 1 tbsp maple syrup, salt, and paprika.

Fill another pan with chopped cauliflower.
Add 3 tbsp oil, salt, garlic flakes, paprika, and gluten free bread crumbs. Stir and coat evenly.

Bake at 450 for about 30 minutes, mixing halfway.
Be careful and check on them to make sure they don’t burn. The veggies should be browned and slightly crunchy.

While that is cooking, prep the nachos.

Instant Nachos

Fill a 11x13 Pyrex dish with tortilla chips (I used half a bag of Late July thin and crispy tortilla chips).
Top with:
- can of Amy’s Refried Beans
- 1/2c Goya manzanilla olives
- Violife shredded cheddar cheese
(Or any other combination)

Bake at 375 for 10min.

Then, serve with salsa and easy guacamole (smashed avocado with 1 tsp adobo chipotle paste, 2 tbsp salsa, and salt. I had no limes or cilantro, so I had to improvise).

Serve everything family style. I like to put the roasted veggies on top of my nachos and top with salsa and guacamole.

Friday’s Dinner:

Tofu Tostadas and Roasted Potatoes

Roasted Potatoes

Wash then dice 3-4 Russet potatoes. Leave in bowl of cold water for 10min. Drain.
Line roasting pan with baking parchment paper.
Toss potatoes with 3 tbsp olive oil, taco seasoning, garlic flakes, salt, paprik.
Roast at 450 for 30min, mixing halfway.

Tofu Tostada:

Drain a block of extra firm or firm tofu.
Sautée diced onion and garlic.
Add chipotle paste, salt, and paprika.
Crumble tofu into pan.
Add 1/2c salsa and 1/4c vegetable broth.
Simmer on low for 10-15min.

Brush or spray oil on both sides of tortillas, bake in the oven for 5-8min, turning halfway. They should be crunchy.

Assemble tostadas by topping tortillas with tofu, salsa, sliced avocado.
Serve with a side of roasted potatoes.

Best of all, it was a sunny 60degree day and we ate dinner in the backyard.
We enjoyed our first al fresco family meal of the quarantine time.

The Causes of Stress and A Recipe for Success

It is Day 3 of mandatory quarantine and the official start of remote learning. The statistics are grim; New York State has nearly 26,000 coronavirus cases and 280 deaths. Today, I found out one my closest friend's 45 year old brother is hospitalized with the disease and is in critical condition. My heart is heavy for all of those suffering and all those who are losing loved ones to this invisible antagonist that is indiscriminately ravaging hundreds of thousands of lives across the world. 

Each day with my family is a life's worth of love and joy. While we traverse peaks of moods throughout each day, wavering from anger and dread to calm and humor, we live as graciously and gratefully as possible. We follow our work/school schedules and make sure to sit down and share meals together. We try to agree on family activities such as walking the dog or watching a movie though that can be challenging since the kids often complain about going for walks, and we deliberate for an hour before we can agree on a movie. But these are minor stresses. The stack of students' picture books I have to grade, the video lessons I have yet to plan, the unavailability of time slots for Fresh Direct and Pea Pod grocery deliveries, are all minor concerns. 

Being home, I cook daily. No take out or delivery in two weeks. Not every dish I make is a success but today's dinner was. Lately my daughter has been asking for Chinese food takeout, so I took her suggestion and made General Tsao's Tofu and Broccoli; this perfect vegan, gluten-free recipe is from Minimalist Baker, one of my favorite blogs dedicated to plant-based food. I used the Wildwood brand High Protein Tofu which has a wonderful texture. I served this with sauteed broccoli and jasmine rice. You can prep several things in advance: wash and cut the broccoli, make the sauce, and cut and marinate the tofu. When everything is prepared, this dish comes together easily.  

The tofu was slightly crisp and dense, the sauce the right balance of sweet and salty, the broccoli crunchy and caramelized. The family loved it; my mood is often tied to the children's response to the food I make, and this time, I was uplifted (instead of angered and offended). Our palates were further brightened by cold, sliced navel oranges for dessert. It was a good meal to help us through the rest of Wednesday. 

Peace and love to all.

My 10-year old son's 1st blog post: How are you? What have you been doing?

My son wrote this in response to a writing prompt as part of his remote learning:

I'm good thank you. I've kept myself occupied  with soccer and TV. Also my dog keeps us occupied. My family also is okay. Me my dad and my mom play sports together and me and my sister tackle each other and normal brother and sister stuff still. We take the dog out on walks every morning. She gets kind of scared of loud noises.

Even though I miss school I still text my friends. But I broke my ipod that i called and texted on so i use the ipad now. My mom and dad have a schedule that I follow. That includes social time. And the way i call people without phones is google hangouts

But i am concerned that grocery stores will shut down and we can't get the food that we need.

A Poem to Get Us Through Another Week of the Corona Crisis: "Reality Demands" by Wislawa Szymborska

It has only been a week since the city has been shut down because of the rapidly spreading virus. One week of closed schools, gyms, restaurants, centers for religious worship, stores, and clubs. One week of not seeing friends and family outside the home. One week of small business not getting income, workers losing their jobs, ordinary people of all ages and socioeconomic levels coming down with fevers and coughs, waiting on long lines in hope to get tested, going to hospitals in severe cases and not knowing if they will return to their homes.

Social media no longer seems superfluous. It is helping us socialize from a distance, participate in activities we enjoy, stay connected to our communities. My son has been cheerfully chatting with friends on Google Hangouts. My daughter finds solace as she FaceTimes her friends. I FaceTime my 82-year old mother and take her on walks with me since she cannot leave her apartment, stopping to show her blooming magnolia trees and vibrant yellow forsythia shrubs. My husband and I do yoga classes through Zoom in our attic. All of these technologies help us manage the isolation. Every day this week I have been grateful to be able to stay active and connected to people in my life.

But this is just the beginning. This new phase in existence will continue for months. Only three weeks after the first confirmed case of COVID19 was discovered in NY, there are 15,168 cases, and the number increase exponentially every day. This is daunting and frightening. But we have to learn to accept the present and persist.

Here is a poem that helps me face the difficult reality of the world right now.


"Reality Demands" by Wisława Szymborska
Translated by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh

Reality demands
that we also mention this:
Life goes on.
It continues at Cannae and Borodino,
at Kosovo Polje and Guernica.

There’s a gas station
on a little square in Jericho,
and wet paint
on park benches in Bila Hora.
Letters fly back and forth
between Pearl Harbor and Hastings,
a moving van passes
beneath the eye of the lion at Chaeronea,
and the blooming orchards near Verdun
cannot escape
the approaching atmospheric front.

There is so much Everything
that Nothing is hidden quite nicely.
Music pours
from the yachts moored at Actium
and couples dance on the sunlit decks.

So much is always going on,
that it must be going on all over.
Where not a stone still stands,
you see the Ice Cream Man
besieged by children.
Where Hiroshima had been
Hiroshima is again,
producing many products
for everyday use.
This terrifying world is not devoid of charms,
of the mornings
that make waking up worthwhile.

The grass is green
on Maciejowice’s fields,
and it is studded with dew,
as is normal grass.

Perhaps all fields are battlefields,
those we remember
and those that are forgotten:
the birch forests and the cedar forests,
the snow and the sand, the iridescent swamps
and the canyons of black defeat,
where now, when the need strikes, you don’t cower
under a bush but squat behind it.

What moral flows from this? Probably none.
Only that blood flows, drying quickly,
and, as always, a few rivers, a few clouds.

On tragic mountain passes
the wind rips hats from unwitting heads
and we can’t help
laughing at that.

My 12-Year Old Daughter's First Blog Post

Day 3 (March 18, 2020) about noon:

At the beginning of the outbreak, I would make jokes about it with friends and act like it wasn’t a big deal. When someone would cough or sneeze, one of us would say, “You have the coronavirus!” and all of us would laugh along with it. When it reached the U.S, we still joked about it, but I was personally a little scared. Then it reached New York, and all of us became pretty paranoid. Everyone started bringing hand sanitizer with them to school, people started to stock up on food, toilet paper, etc. I kept saying I wanted schools to close, but only because I thought I could see my friends every day and watch lots of tv and sleep until 9am. But when the mayor actually closed schools, and my parents sat down and discussed the issue with me, I realized it wouldn’t be as fun as I thought.

For starters, I’m turning 13 on April 10th, which is pretty soon, and I was supposed to go to Miami for the spring break, since my birthday was the first day of it. I imagined tanning on the beach and take beautiful pictures of where I was and getting to celebrate with my friends when I got back. Most of all, I wanted to see my best friend, Eva, who moved to New Jersey at the end of last year and I haven’t seen her in a few months. I wanted to have a sleepover with her and bake a cake and watch a movie and all the fun things you can think of doing with your best friend.

When my parents talked to me, I realized I wasn’t allowed to see any of my friends, and that I should stay 6 feet away from people at all times. I felt ruined. I was even supposed to go to a birthday party this weekend in an indoor water park upstate! Next Monday, I start online school, which I hope won’t be bad. Schools are closed until at least April 20th, but a part of me doesn’t really want to go back to school.

Anyways, my mom made a schedule of things we’re supposed to do in a day. We have to wake up at 8am(but it’s flexible), breakfast is until 9, and then we go on a family walk with our dog until at least 10. Today we went to Cloves Lakes park, but we had to drive there, because my dog gets all scared when we try to walk her. And then when we get back, we have “Academic Time” until 12, and then we have lunch and social time until 1:30. That basically means we can facetime and text our friends or whatever, since we can’t see them in person. Actually, some people I know are allowed out of their house and can see their other friends.

Well 1:30 to 3:30 I think is reading and writing time, and I usually make myself tea or decaf coffee and sit on my couch and just read. I usually don’t write, but I guess I am now. After that we have our choice time, where we can do whatever we want( not exactly whatever I guess, but tv, baking, etc). I bake a lot when I’m bored, over the past few days, I made chocolate chip cookies and a cake. I’m scared I’ll use up all our food supply on it though. I finished the margarine yesterday, but we have another on downstairs thank god.

After choice time we have exercise time, which everyone pretty much forgets about. After that our( me and my brother)parents make us do meditation then dinner and go to sleep. I think we have to be in bed by 8:30. Me and my dad usually stay up and watch a movie. We’ve been having a Star Wars marathon. Oh and I forgot to mention, I’ve had an on and off fever these past couple days, but I don’t feel sick. On Friday my head hurt and I was a little nauseous, but that’s it.

9 Years Later: Family in the Time of COVID19

Again I turn to writing to help me confront, manage, and transform existence into organized words, crafted sentences. Right now, the only thing I can control is what I type into this post.

Last week, the W.H.O. declared the coronavirus a pandemic. This has highlighted the reality of our global existence. Though we are divided by country borders, we are united by the threat of this disease. We are united by our mortality and the delicate line between life and death. We are united by the restrictions and dangers that govern every day.

The mundane is no longer mundane. The daily annoyances of highway traffic, missed trains, and children fighting over the fairness of chocolate chips. The accidents of shattered picture frames, overcooked chickpeas, lost keys. These all seem so slight in the zoomed out point of view of this pandemic. 

Just last Wednesday, it was business as usual at the middle school where I teach. Kids discussing in groups the themes of poems. Kids doing pacer tests in the gym. Kids making Tik Toks at dismissal. That day, this disease was declared a pandemic. Student attendance dropped for the rest of the week. Parents panicked. Teachers worried. Regardless, Mayor Di Blasio and Governor Cuomo chose not to close schools. Over the weekend, teachers and parents petitioned, urged our leaders to protect students, their families, and school staff. Finally, Sunday afternoon, the mayor announced the decision to shut down public schools. That was the prologue.Now, we are in the rising action of this frightening plot mountain. 

It has only been four days since the official mandate of social distancing. Only four days of working from home and homeschooling the kids through Google Classroom and i-Ready. Each day goes by slowly. Going to bed at night always feels like a welcome reward for getting through the day, healthy and alive. In the morning, I wake up with hope that we will get through another day.

This post marks a new beginning. I began writing this blog about ten years ago when my son was newly born, and I was on unpaid family leave from work for 6 months. Now, I am grateful for being home again; this time, it will be with my husband of 17 years, my 10-year old son, my daughter who will turn 13 in 3 weeks, and our 3-year-old dog, Sirius.

I am excited about the renaissance of this blog and look forward to future posts, typing away at this computer, reflecting on mundane, joyful, and troublesome times. Uniting my family's lives with others who read these lines.