Emily Weaver Brown

My Vegan Lunch Box

No, I'm not a vegan (not even close) but I am a big fan of  the Vegan Lunchbox blog by Jennifer McCann. Jennifer, makes these extremely elaborate vegan lunches for her son and then blogs about them.  Right now she is having "fill in the blanks" contest where she asked her readers to submit their own vegan lunchbox.  This is my entry.

I am not a food photographer but it looks good doesn't it ?

This is what's in it.

Whole wheat Pita Pockets from trader Joe's filled with plain and tomato basil hummus. (I also bought  basil hummus but when I got home I was disappointed to discover that it was NOT vegan.) Yellow bell pepper, carrot sticks, and cucumber with Vegan Tzatziki dipping sauce.

Quinoa salad with plum tomatoes, cucumber, mint, parsley and a lime and olive oil dressing. Blueberries and strawberries for dessert.

This Quinoa (pronounced KEE-wah)salad is seriously delicious! I got the recipe from Hayven. I know a lot of people are not that familiar with Quiona, it is a South American grain that is very high in protein. You cook it like rice though it must be washed first. (Yes, I know a lot of people wash their rice too but they shouldn't).

Here are the recipes

Quinoa Salad

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp fresh lime juice
1/8 tsp white pepper

1 average jalapeño pepper(s), minced

1/2 tsp table salt
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 cup uncooked quinoa, rinse well, follow instructions on box for cooking (I use my rice cooker)
1/2 cup cucumber(s), diced

1/2 cup Roma tomato, cup, diced (I used plum tomatoes)

1/4 cup parsley, Italian, minced
1/4 cup scallion(s), use mostly white only

1/4 cup fresh mint, cup, diced

Preparation:

Cook Quinoa, drain and let cool. Mix together oil, lime juice and pepper and add mix together with other ingredients.

Vegan Tzatziki

Ingredients:

• 2 cups plain soy yogurt
• 2 cucumbers, diced small (it helps if you have a Kitchen Aid slicer attachment)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• dash salt and pepper
• 1 tbsp fresh chopped mint leaves
• 1/4 tsp paprika

Preparation:

Mix together all ingredients. Chill for at least an hour before serving to allow flavors to mingle.   

   

   

Guess who is having another girl!

My friend Jennifer (middle) is expecting and told me last week that she would be having her ultrasound today. I told her she needed to come up with a witty way to tell everyone whether it was a boy or a girl. She smartly told me "you come up with a cute and witty way to tell." So I did : )
She came over last week and we took two photos. One that said "XY" on her belly and one that said "XX" Today she posted the appropriate picture on her blog.

Actually I can't take the full credit for this idea I was inspired a long time ago by another photographer who did something similar.

And yes it is seriously difficult to draw "X"s on the tummy of a squiring toddler.

6 months later...

I received so many positive comments and emails the last time I posted the photo of Myles playing guitar for Simon that I thought I should show Simon still enjoying it 6 months later.

No, we don't do it every night but more often then not Myles likes to unwind in the evening by playing a little guitar. This is something he has done since we were first married. Often I will give Simon a massage while Myles plays some hymns and lullabies. These were taken tonight after Simon's bath and massage. Simon likes to watch Myles's fingers and will often try and "help". Now that he can kind of scoot around he likes to try and insert his fingers in between Myles's strumming.   

Our bedroom is really tiny so to take this picture my tri-pod is sitting in our closet. I got lucky and Simon smiled just as the timer went off and it made me smile. And this was only the second shot, I didn't make it in time for the first one. The next camera I get must be able to handle a remote.

Simon has been having a rough time with the teething. This is resulting in the use of a lot of teething tablets and diaper cream (he has had a bad diaper rash). Just yesterday one of the bottom teeth has barely poked through the gum. This is now resulting in a lot of bitting  which is very painful.  The hot weather has made all of this even more miserable. Last night we let Simon sleep in just his diaper which was a mistake because he figured out how to un-velcro it and effectively take it off. He then of course wet the bed. This would not be that big of a deal if he had been in his own bed at the time, but no, he was in our bed. There's nothing like waking up in a puddle of someone else's pee!

It's too HOT!

I don't mind the rain, I am comfortable wearing a sweater, in fact I actually enjoy coolish weather because it means you can really enjoy a hearty stew or chili. I love snuggling up under my down comforter.

This morning breakfast was a fruit smoothing and dinner was the same thing - way to hot to cook on the stove. I know this may just sound like whining to those of you who live in much hotter climates but we don't have air conditioning and right now it is 11pm and my thermostat says 82 degrees in the house!

I took Simon down to the ocean tonight with the hopes of getting some good 6 month old photos of him. I knew it would be a lot cooler down by the water, and it was. But Simon was interested in everything but taking photos. I will post some of the outtakes from that later. For now these are just some photos I took earlier in the evening.

"There's mom with that blasted camera again... maybe If I just ignore her she will go away..."

"Oh, I can't help myself, I love it when she makes those funny noises!"

"Ooo! Peek-A-Boo I really love it when she does that!"

"But wait, I just remembered! I'm teething, my gums hurt, and it's WAY TOO HOT!"

recovering

Sorry I haven't been posting regularly, we are still recovering from the Montero's visit. The couple far left (Nick and Melissa), were our close friends but then they up and moved to Miami! They were in town visiting and lets just say some wild times were to be had.

Look our old small group out with out kids in toe - I think the last time that happened was before most of us had kids!

I asked a random stranger to take a picture of our group, she said "sure" but then had second thoughts when she saw my camera. She took one serious shot but then told us we needed to look a lot more wild and crazy - this was the resulting image.

The weirdest stuff cracks him up

5 years

Today is our 5th wedding anniversary. It really blows my mind that we have already been married that long it seems like it was only yesterday. To celebrate I made another slide show.You can view it  HERE. There are a lot of snapshots and goofy photos from the last 5 years in it - but hey it's us. If you have been reading my blog for long you have probably already seen a lot of them. And since I know I will get comments on it,yes, I look young for my age. For the record I was 22 when we got married. Myles and I met in College, he was a Theta Chi, I was a Tri Delta or houses were across the street from each other. We dated a little over a year and we were engaged our senior year and married the summer after we graduated.  Myles, you are my best friend and can't imagine life without you - Thanks for the best 5 years of my life.   

The Slide Show

This is my first attempt at this - so take it with a grain of salt.
click HERE to view the birth slide show. (don't worry it's PG)

What I did last night

I photographed a birth!
Cash Allen was born this morning at 1:43 am.




Big sister meet your baby brother.

In reality this is what I did the last two nights as this little guy took his time making his appearance into the world (almost 3 days). In all honesty I wasn't there the entire time, I got to go home and sleep and just come back for the important parts.  This was absolutely beautiful and I am glad that I had the opportunity to photograph it.

More photos coming soon... 

I forgot the outtakes

these were to funny not to share