SO-YUM-Veggie-Pot-Pie

you know that feeling?
the one where you just want to throw on a hoodie,
cuddle up with a cup of hot chai, light an apple-harvest candle, and watch the leaves fall outside?!?!

is that just me? i LOVE the FALL.

i know i know... it is July 31st and 100 blazin' degrees outside,
but i needed a little dose of "COZY" to remind me that
my favorite season is just around the corner!

VEGGIE POT PIE

nathan thinks he is funny and asks "where's the pot" every time i make this. yea. lol. i just can't get enough of this man :-)

this recipe can't possibly get any more "down home."
sigh. i wish there were still leftovers.

make your favorite double pie crust.
i make mine half whole wheat and half unbleached white flour
with non-dairy butter and sea salt.

for the filling:
sauté 1 large red potato & medium zucchini (chopped into small cubes)
in 2 tbls. extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, garlic powder, and onion powder (to taste).

when the potato and zucchini are soft -
add 2 C. frozen mixed vegetables and some fresh chopped basil and sage (about 2 tbls. each).

basil and sage... mmmm that's where it's at!

for the gravy:
melt 1/3 C. non-dairy butter & 1/3 C. chopped onion in saucepan (til onion is soft) then add...

1/3 C. whole wheat flour - remove from heat and mix that together well.

no one likes clumps in their gravy, people!

return to heat and stir in 1/2 C. rice milk and 1 3/4 C. veggie stock - keep stirring on medium heat until you reach a thick,
"that looks like my grandma's gravy," consistency! add sea salt and black pepper to taste.

pour that yummy gravy happiness all over those mixed veggies in your skillet and stir it up.

put this filling into your pie crust and bake @ 425 degrees for 40-45 minutes.

i foil the edges of my crust so that they don't burn - and remove the foil for the last 10 minutes of baking.

works like a charm. i'm basically Betty Crocker. lol.

trust me. you're family and friends will LOVE this.

it is 100% animal free and will have even the biggest of plant-haters begging for more.

i've seen haters become lovers over this dish!

i love this recipe too because my babies can eat it!
the COMPLAINT DEPT. for our household received no calls over this dish!

... even when they had it for lunch the next day! winning.

Romancing Your Spouse

Nathan and I are teaming up to bring you this post today!

A word from Brittany...

I met Nathan when I was 16 years old. He was selling cars and I was answering the phones at a dealership back where we grew up. One night he sat in front of my desk and I told him, "You are the kind of guy I want to marry some day." ...I actually went home and wrote that exact line down in my journal later in the evening - and I read it to him on our wedding day! But at that moment in time neither one of us were thinking that we were looking at our future spouse. After all, I was 16 remember?... and he was 23. I just knew that he had a lot of the qualities I was looking for in a husband... and I made a note if it!

We went our separate ways a few weeks after meeting, with no promise of keeping in touch, and actually re-met (GOD is crazy!) when I was 19 years old. Things were a little different now, and Nathan lost no time in pursuing me! It was a wild and exciting time in our lives. We took dating to a whole new level - always coming up with new and extreme ways to show how much we LOVED each other!

When we finally got around to engagement (lol!)...
I was soooooo ready to be this man's wife!!! Dating him is so much fun - marriage will be too!... right?
YES YES YES! But taking all of the crazy energy and enthusiasm for dating into marriage took a little work. We still love each other HARDCORE - but with work, school, kids, daily routines, etc. you really have to make time to romance your spouse!

Besides all the little moments and gestures throughout the week, we set Fridays as our official DATE NIGHT! It is ALWAYS on the calendar and we take turns planning a night of romance!
... occasionally we get a babysitter, but most of the time we plan it around our
family. And it works! It is a great way to end the week/begin the weekend!

This past Friday we had a picnic at the lake (with the babies!)

and it was amazing!

The weather was perfect, the food was yummy, the scenery was beautiful,

and the company ENCHANTING!

Going to the lake actually gives the kids something to do -

so we can hang out on the blanket and have some heart-to-heart time!!!

I encourage wives to allow your husbands to pursue you! Let him know you are interested in being "chased!" Teach him how to woo your heart inside of marriage. After all, he was probably a pro at it while dating, right?!? Have mercy on him if he is not the same ROMEO you first fell in love with - he is the confident, faithful provider now... carrying the weight of the world for you and your children! Make time to show each other how much you care. Your relationship will flourish because of it!

A word from Nathan...

"He who loves his wife loves himself." ~ Ephesians 5:28

Regarding our marriage, one of the deepest needs of my wife is the need to be pursued. She wants to know I am thinking of her, seeking to hear her heart, and bringing her the romance that first caught her attention in the beginning.

Within marriage, the enemy likes to introduce the following illusions:

"I can't lose [her] anymore. So I can coast."

"I have to work to pay the bills. Isn't that enough?"

"I really do love [her] but I'm so tired. It's OK to keep putting her off."

These illusions really aren't very different from the ones regarding other aspects of our lives. Instead, think of it this way:

Coasting in marriage tells your wife she's really not that important. Imagine telling your wife when you were dating that you didn't have time to talk often, have dinner together, or to pleasantly surprise her. Would the relationship have continued into marriage? I don't know about you, but I was "pulling out all the stops" to let my future wife know I wanted her to say "YES!!!" to the big question.

So now that the two have become one, why should it be any different? For one very simple reason. The enemy would like to keep you from having a vibrant and beautiful marriage. In fact, he'd eventually like you to have no marriage at all. Once he does, it makes his job easier on the next generation. I encourage you, brothers in Christ, to keep pursuing your wives. If you do, peace & joy is the result, for you and for future generations.

"Men love your wives as Christ loved the Church, AND GAVE HIMSELF UP FOR HER." Ephesians 5:1.

P.S.!!! Kids are great entertainment! Here is our Isaiah making us laugh while trying to carry around the cooler!



Happy dating!
Love,
Nathan & Brittany

a little monkey business

my boys are CRAAAAAZY about banana bread! who isn't? the aroma of a fresh loaf wafting through the air as it bakes in the oven... sooooo HOMEY-delicious!
this recipe is going to rock your face off! ... and your kids' faces too!

my Aunt Becky is the QUEEN of homemade banana bread. we had her secret recipe growing up, but for some reason it never quite tasted like hers when we made it. i remember my sister (won't name names!) tried the recipe and dumped a whole cup of salt in the batter rather than 1 C. of sugar! NAAAASTY. i think she is a better cook these days though. i hope!

i wanted to tweak my aunt's recipe to make it vegan for my family... and, believe it or not, it is pretty scrumptious! here's what you do...

BLEND TOGETHER:
3-4 very ripe bananas
(for some reason the darker and nastier looking they are - the better!)

3/4 C. organic, unbleached sugar

1/4 C. unsweetened applesauce

1/4. C. melted vegan butter
(i use one that is olive oil based and it works GREAT!)

2 tbls. honey

... let that whip around a couple of times then add ...

1 tsp. sea salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. vanilla

2 tbls. organic flaxseed meal

1 1/2 C. whole wheat white flour
(organic - no GMOs!)

bake @ 350 for 35-40 minutes

(or until toothpick comes out clean)

in a "non-stick sprayed" bread pan!!!

mmmmmm.... my monkeys got right to work on this treat
when they woke up from their naps!

isaiah was pleased to see the work of his hands!

& Judah was pleased to put that work IN his hands!

i love baking with my kids! isaiah thought that he could eat the batter like cookie dough and ended up with bread mix all over his hands. EPIC FAIL.

monkey business makes us laugh :)

A Very Von Trapp Sunday

I'm not sure that many people know how seriously Catholic the Trapp family was.
And yes, I am taking about THE Trapp family that we all know and love from the Sound of Music!

My mom has been a hardcore "Maria" fan since I was a little girl. She had this book, Around the Year with the Trapp Family, that served as inspiration for our radical, Catholic lifestyle growing up. You mean other people don't hang a 4ft. in diameter Advent wreath from their living room ceiling, pray at cemeteries on the Feast of all Souls, make a 7 church pilgrimage on Holy Thursday, or celebrate Carnival Time?!??! These are just a FEW of the things my family did when I was living at home. The liturgical year is not meant to just be celebrated at Church on Sundays and Holy Days, but is very much intended to be lived out in the body of Christ - in the hearts and homes of the faithful!

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.” - Exodus 20:8

Nathan and I have been hashing out what this means for our family since we got married. We were both raised with similar ideas of how Sundays should be spent, but we have gone back and forth about the details. We both feel a calling to something deeper, a way of life that we can almost put our fingers on... and I think this will sum up what has been weighing on our hearts.

Obviously Sacred Scripture has something to say about the Sabbath. It is only listed in the ten commandments that are accepted by Christians around the globe. Wow heads up! God must seriously want us to pay attention!

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states in paragraphs 2172 & 2173:

“God's action is a model for human action. If God 'rested and was refreshed' on the seventh day, man too ought to 'rest' and should let others, especially the poor, 'be refreshed.' The sabbath brings everyday work to a halt and provides a respite. It is a day of protest against the servitude of work and the worship of money. The Gospel reports many incidents when Jesus was accused of violating the sabbath law. But Jesus never fails to respect the holiness of this day. He gives this law its authentic and authoritative interpretation: 'The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.' With compassion, Christ declares the sabbath for doing good rather than harm, for saving life rather than killing. The sabbath is the day of the Lord or mercies and a day to honor God. 'The Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.'”

Sunday, the day we remember Christ's resurrection and triumph over sin and death, is the fulfillment of the Old Testament's Sabbath. So how are we, as modern Christian-Catholics, to live out the Sunday feast?!
Get excited. We are called to an epic experience!

The Church expounds on Scripture's commandment concerning the sabbath in Exodus 20 for us in CCC paragraph 2187:

“Sanctifying Sundays and holy days requires a common effort. Every Christian should avoid making unnecessary demands on others that would hinder them from observing the Lord's Day. Traditional activities (sport, restaurants, etc.), and social necessities (public services, etc.), require some people to work on Sundays, but everyone should take care to set aside sufficient time for leisure.”

Two words jump out at me when reading this passage: “unnecessary demands.” Now, our family has definitely slipped up with this teaching and has certainly made unnecessary demands on people on the Lord's day. This teaching has recently refueled our passion and desire to honor God and His commands for us... because they are intended for our good, right?!?!

In reading Around the Year with the Trapp Family by Maria Augusta Trapp, my heart was so moved by the Old World Catholic way of celebrating Sunday. She describes a typical Saturday evening/Sunday in her book so beautifully. I want to jump into the pages, sail through time, and go enjoy the day of rest with Maria!!! Let me sum it up for you...

Maria said that when the Church bells tolled at 5 o'clock on Saturday evening the preparations for Sunday would begin. People came in from working and playing to clean-up, iron “Sunday” finery, prepare food and desserts for the following day, tidy the house, go to confession, etc. Dinner on Saturday night was relaxed and leisurely. The family would unwind from the work week enjoying the company of each other and friends. Sunday was a hearty breakfast, mass, a relaxed walk home from Church, time to visit family, friends, and those who were sick or needy. The evening meal was followed by rosary and recreation. It was TRULY a day of rest - a day spent with the Lord. Public services were only to be sought out if absolutely necessary.

I will admit that I have thought running to the doughnut shop after Mass on Sunday was necessary for MY rest... but now I realize that I am NOT enabling others to rest and am encouraging a culture of NO SUNDAYS. Take a look at communism and how they treated Sundays. It is time to be anti-cultural, ladies and gentleman!

Maria writes: “And I came to understand that the Christian Sunday is threatened more and more both from without and from within from without through the systematic efforts of the enemies of Christianity, and from within through the mediocrity and superficiality of the Christians themselves who are making of Sunday merely a day of rest, relaxing from work only by seeking entertainment. There was once a time, the Old Testament tells us, when people had become so lazy that they shunned any kind of spiritual effort and no longer attended public worship, so that God threatened them through the mouth of the prophet Osee: 'I shall chase all her joy to cease, her feast days and her Sabbath, and all her solemn feasts.'”(201).

I feel inspired more than ever to TAKE BACK SUNDAY! To return to the old way - the way of honoring God's day in the way that HE intended for it to be celebrated: rest for myself and everyone around me! I hope you are inspired too!

Pope Pius XII stated in a September 1947 address on Catholic Action: “Sunday must become again the day of the Lord, the day of adoration, of prayer and rest, or recollection and of reflection, or happy reunion in the intimate circle of the family.”

So we spent our past Sunday going to mass,
visiting with people at Church,
enjoying a yummy lunch together, family naptime,
swimming in our condo pool,
sharing a bowl of “rice”-cream,
and praying together.
Judah also learned how to rock in his rocking chair
and Zay shot some hoops!
SO REFRESHING!
God has good things in store for us...
and I feel like enjoying “very Von Trapp Sundays”
in our home is getting a taste of that goodness!

Come on over! I suppose you could say we are celebrating “very Vail Sundays” in our home!

if you take a vegan on a picnic...

i get asked ALL. THE. TIME. "what do you feed your kids?" "how do you find food to eat when you travel?" "are you sure you are getting enough vitamins and nutrients?" etc. etc. etc.

here's how we do it. we eat plants at home (pretty much most of the time - i usually have organic cheese and yogurt on hand for quick, easy, fatty lunches for my boys). traveling is tricky, but there ARE lots of options if you look for them! we usually "splurge" on our little holidays and enjoy some of the flavors we gave up awhile back... or we PACK A LUNCH!

we have been running around like wild and crazy kids all summer long... so to take a break... we headed to Brookfield Zoo here in the burbs to REST with the animals :-) we decided to be veg-heads and bring a plant-powered picnic!
here's what was on the menu...

jambalaya rice with roasted mushrooms, peppers, and onions - wrapped in tortillas with fresh spinach and romaine

peanut butter and jelly & organic raisins (for the 2 year old)

chips (there are "healthier" options out there! natural food stores are dangerous!)

kashi go lean crunch!
(yummy granola-like snack for me... who is STARVING after i nurse Judah!)

fresh strawberries and grapes

organic fruit pouch... aaaand momma's milk (for the 10 month old)

peach lemonade

after a long morning at the zoo...



lunch was YUM!

it was kind of cool eating plants at our picnic at the zoo...
just like the animals!!!

100% Organic Love

“When a man and woman consciously and of their own free will choose to marry and have sexual relations, they choose at the same time the possibility of procreation... And it is only when they do so that they put their sexual relationship within the framework of marriage on a truly personal level.”
- Karol Wojtyla, Love and Responsibility
I'm going to talk about my favorite controversial subject here... *drum roll please*... contraception! If you don't want to listen to a little tangent on crazy-holy, beautiful, organic sex...
then you probably should walk away now :-) You've been warned. Lol.

Nathan and I have been married for 3 years this summer and I still can't get over the goodness of God's order and design for man and woman in marriage. You know, from the very beginning God was trying to tell us what's up, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it...'” (Gen. 1:27-28). I imagine this whole thing going down at the first WEDDING CEREMONY... Adam and Eve standing in awe of the gift of each other in the presence of God... and this was his HOMILY – this was his BLESSING on them.

“Man cannot find himself except by making a sincere gift of himself.” - Gaudium et Spes

I tell Nathan all the time, because I love to talk about contraception, remember? lol... that I can't imagine what our marriage would be like if contraception was part of it.

Here's what I can gather on contraception inside of marriage...

is almost always one spouse's responsibility

treats pregnancy as a disease that should be avoided at all costs

harmful side effects (many contraceptives are actually listed as harmful carcinogens)

prone to failure / leads to spouses condemning each other

can turn sex into a habit

can make conception and sustaining a pregnancy difficult in the future

messes with hormones for both men and women

is known to decrease sex drive

opens the door for infidelity / a spouse can be unfaithful without repercussions

sends the message to your spouse that you want all of them (what gives you pleasure) EXCEPT their fertility

I could go on and on and on....

So we're all just supposed to get married and pro-create like rabbits, right?!?!? Here's what my favorite late pope, JP2, has to say to that...

“Unfortunately, Catholic thought is often misunderstood on this point, as if the Church supported an ideology of fertility at all costs, urging married couples to procreate indiscriminately and without thought for the future. But one need only study the pronouncements of the Magisterium to know that this is NOT so. Truly, in begetting life the spouses fulfill one of the highest dimensions of their calling: they are God's co-workers. Precisely for this reason they must have an extremely responsible attitude. In deciding whether or not to have a child, they must not be motivated by selfishness or carelessness, but by a prudent, conscious generosity that weighs the possibilities and circumstances, and especially gives priority to the welfare of the unborn child. Therefore, when there is a reason not to procreate, this choice is permissible and may even be necessary.” - July 1994 Angelus address

Here's where the Church hands us the gift of Natural Family Planning! To use NFP a couple must take an upclose and personal look at the woman's cycle. A truly beautiful ART to master -for both the man and woman. This raw, organic approach to having a family can be such a blessing and answers the skeptic's rebuttal: “God not only said to procreate, but to SUBDUE the earth... responsible parenthood!” Yes, we ARE to subdue the earth and take care of what God has given us. NFP empowers a couple to prayerfully discern whether it is a good time to conceive a child or not. If not – couples can abstain from sexual union during the fertile phase.... and “God-willing” postpone pregnancy until the discerned time. I say “God-willing” because without contraception in the way there is ALWAYS a chance that God can act. An NFP couple allows God to trump EVERY TIME! They are OPEN, in a sense, because they have not closed the way with artificial instruments.

Natural Family Planning allows a couple to...

share the responsibility of husband and wife / it takes TWO!

communicate more about each others' bodies

pRAY and DISCERN together about their marriage and family

keep the passion alive by taking breaks from sexual activity to work on other ways of loving

intentionally conceive

avoid harmful side effects, both physical, emotional, and spiritual – NFP is natural goodness

build virtue together

increase their LOVE and RESPECT for each other

frees a couple from being bound by sexual desires and allows them to be GIFT OF SELF

embrace ALL of the other with no reservations or barriers in the way

ETC. ETC. ETC.

“The man who abstains from bodily pleasures and delights in this very fact is temperate, while the man who is annoyed at it is self-indulgent.”
- Aristotle , 366 B.C., Nicomachean Ethics

I love and respect my husband so much for being interested and taking the time to learn my body's unique rhythm. I feel like he is MAN for me as he takes care of my WHOLE person, especially by denying his own sexual desires to honor God inside of our marriage.

And can I just say that I LOVE the joy we share each month at the idea of conceiving another child. Because we are “open” there is always a little excitement at the idea of God working through our union to bring about HIS will! The other night we had a conversation that went something like this...

“How was your day, Brit?”

“Oh it was good. I woke up from my nap with the kids and felt nauseous though.”

**Nathan cocks head slightly with a playful grin as he bends over and starts talking to my STOMACH!....**
“Hello, little baby!!! Hello hello!!! I LOVE YOU!”

WARNING: THIS IS NOT A PREGNANCY ANNOUNCEMENT ...
Just a good way to share our JOY of being open to life with you :-)

I'm going to close with one of my favorite paragraphs from G.K. Chesterton's, Orthodoxy:

“It is possible that God says every morning, 'Do it again' to the sun; and every evening 'Do it again' to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes the daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never gotten tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. The repetition in Nature may not be mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical encore. Heaven may encore the bird who laid an egg. If the human being conceives and brings forth a human child instead of bringing forth a fish, or a bat, or a griffin, the reason may not be that we are fixed in an animal fate without life of purpose. It may be that our little tragedy has touched the gods, that they admire it from their starry galleries, and that at the end of every human drama man is called again and again before the curtain.”

God creates because he LOVES to LOVE. If we are indeed made in His image, perhaps it is the same for us. Husband and wife, united to the Father, LOVE to love! And since LOVE is creative it brings forth new creation... and we LOVE 'em up – one baby at a time!

FIRST COMES LOVE...
THEN COMES MARRIAGE...
THEN COMES CREATION GOODNESS!

r2d2 = H2O distiller!

Without fail, when newbies come over to our house they want to know what the big, white,
humming thing is in our kitchen.
r2d2, baby! No, actually it is a DISTILLER.

We've been distilling our own water for over a year, and I am a total clean water junkie now!

How does it work? Let me tell you. Bringing water to a boil and capturing it as it evaporates - purifies it of all the nasty bacteria, dirt, metals, chlorine, etc. that our bodies DO NOT need. All the bad is left in the bottom of the distiller.

I love it when people are brave enough to look inside the distiller after it has done the "dirty work." It not only looks gross, but it smells HORRID. I hold me breath when I go to clean it because it'll take the wind out of you. SCARY, huh?! We otherwise would have just consumed that in our regular glass of h2O.

Our distiller also runs the water through a charcoal filter for extra cleanliness. LOVE THAT.

And I know what you are all probably thinking now... "You are leaching your water of GOOD minerals by distilling all the time!" This is TRUE. BUT - we use a product called WATER MAX that actually puts the GOOD back in! Really though - if you are eating a balanced diet and getting all your vitamins and minerals from the food you are eating -
"you'll be just fine," says the doctor :-)

I will admit that I was not "on board" with this whole distilling project at first. Nathan was insistent that we try it after seeing the inside of his parents' distiller. They've taught us a lot about clean water and storage containers for water and other products. So thankful for that!

Next time you come over you should take a look inside of r2d2.
It might change your mind about drinking straight out of the tap :-)

Here's to cleaner bodies, cleaner water, and a cleaner earth!!!