Veggie Mom

Fitness Challenge: Day 22

2012-02-09T18:01:00.000-08:00

To experience the antithesis of the West Side Y, I decided my next stop had to be the Reebok Sports ClubNY on the Upper West Side. This was a country club smack dab in NYC, with a huge climbing wall, an outdoor running track and roof terrace, a gorgeous pool and impressive locker rooms. The pristine hot tub screamed resort, not gym, though no one was drinking a margarita.

Of course, it was 11am.

I took Zumba, which was more fun than a fitness class ought to be. The instructor had us moving for a solid hour, with no stopping for a sip of water or a towel to wipe up sweat.

But it was a blast. We were dancing. It was a sober club, on a weekday morning, everyone in workout clothes.

And the lockers rooms are fantastic. Huge, well-stocked with amenities, enough showers, with great water pressure and new tile.

But this gym feels a bit overwhelming. You have to take an elevator to check-in, then another elevator to the 6th floor (or walk) to the fitness studios. The bi-level locker rooms mean you have to walk down for a shower, then back up to change. There is no way to get in and out quickly here.

On the other hand, I may want to stay for the rest of my life.

Fitness Challenge: Day 21

2012-02-07T07:03:00.000-08:00

As Gertrude Stein might say, a spin class is a spin class is a spin class.

At the West Side Y, the spin class is held in a room so cramped that we can’t stretch our arms to either side, or we will hit the person next to us. But save the danger of flying sweat, the class is basically the same as almost any other spin class, an intense cardio workout with thumping music, dim lights and loud panting.

This class also has a few participants who ignore the instructor, sitting when everyone is standing, sprinting when we are slowing down, and pedaling when we end the class. The instructor seems miffed, but the iconoclasts pay her no heed – one, in fact, is wearing headphones and riding to her own beat.

Not really sure why anyone would subject themselves to the claustrophobic, hot room when there are spin bikes in a large, much cooler cardio room, but then, this is an upper west side gym.

Fitness Challenge: Day 20

2012-02-06T10:01:00.000-08:00

Another day at David Barton gym, another intense Melt workout.

The David Barton members don't seem any more fit or gorgeous than members of other New York City gyms, though the mood lighting makes everyone look good.

I run into a little snafu after the class. When I go to shower, there is a woman in the locker room who says that men are working on one of the showers, and it will be an hour till I can shower.

Hmm. Can't wait around, and getting on the subway in this sweaty condition is disgusting. Then someone says she will shower anyway, since the guys are just in one shower. So I do the same. I can hear a couple of men working while I shower but I'm behind a curtain. It reminds me of the co-ed showers at my daughter's college dorm.

Fitness Challenge: Day 19

2012-02-05T05:08:00.000-08:00

You have to remember a lot of stuff when you go to the gym, but most important are your clothes and work out sneakers. I often forget one or other and trudge back home.

If you are traveling and forget fitness clothes, you might be out of luck, but if you are at an Omni Hotel, you can have a Get Fit Kit sent to your room.

The Omni Berkshire Place, in NYC, sends a bag with a kettle bell, a couple of resistance bands and a Pilates ring, along with a mat.

If you know how to use the equipment, you can have a decent in-room workout, though the light kettle bell won't build any muscle.

The kit is also great if you are traveling with a young child who can't be left while you go to the fitness center. You can let her watch TV, read books or even nap while you work out. Squeeze the Pilates rings between your knees while you do crunches and intensify your abdominal work.

Those resistance bands are great while doing lunges; step on the band, hold an end in each hand and do a bicep curl while you lunge.

Fitness Challenge: Day 18

2012-02-04T18:15:00.001-08:00

One of the perks of travel is staying in a hotel with a fitness center. Some hotels have tiny dark gyms but the Omni Berkshire Place in midtown Manhattan has a bright sunny gym with a couple of cool touches.

The gym is on the 17th floor, accessible by only some elevators (I thought there was a cruel joke when I got into an elevator that stopped before floor 17). But once I got there, I was taken with the bright, sunny space and my favorite elliptical machine, ready to go with a towel and its own TV.

If you forgot your headphones, you can use one of the pairs there. And for a post-workout snack, there was a bowl of fruit, with bananas, apples and oranges.

Best of all, there is a balcony across the hall with lounge chairs. On summer days, it is a huge draw. But even in a NYC winter, hit by global warming, the balcony was ideal for a cool-down.

The gym also has weights, stability balls, treadmills and mats.

Fitness Challenge: Day 17

2012-02-03T08:22:00.000-08:00

The David Barton gym is the very antithesis of the Y. This gym, which generously offers a full week of access with the pass, has thick, warm towels, free-form wooden benches in the locker room and amenities like razors and mouthwash. Of course, because this is Chelsea, where the beautiful NYC people are.

This is also where one of the most intense classes, is, Melt, run by a former marine. We start with a full 5 minutes of jumping jacks, speeding up at the end, and move right into strength training and more cardio.

As happens at every other boot camp I've been to, everyone talks to each other - between gasps and pants - which is nice, since as a gym gypsy, I know no one.

Eco-friendly Brooklyn Chinese Food

2012-02-02T11:38:00.000-08:00

No MSG used to be the rallying cry for ‘better’ Chinese restaurants. Now Chinese restaurants in NYC often have creative cocktails and organic ingredients.

Michael & Ping’s, in the burgeoning Gowanus sectin of Brooklyn, touts its eco-friendly aspect, serving take-out in recycled cardboard boxes and not throwing in all the unnecessary trash you often get; no useless wooden chopsticks or packets of cloying duck sauce.

And while the liquor license is just beer & wine, the beautiful wood floors and exposed brick walls offer a sense of style not often seen at this price point.

Michael & Ping’s, certified green, also composts its waste, and uses fresh, local produce. The chicken, for those not vegetarian, is hormone-free.
And the food tastes fresh. Everything is made to order, and the food seems lighter than traditional takeout.

Steamed dumplings, with tofu and vegetables, could have used a more flavorful sauce, but the cold ‘main mein noodles, loaded with baby bok choy and broccoli, was spicy and succulent.

Although the regular menu does not have a long list of vegetarian options, they are happy to swap out the meat for tofu. If you eat seafood, the shrimp with broccoli featured perfectly stir-fried shrimp in a delicate brown sauce. And the brown rice with it is organic.

Fitness Challenge: Day 16

2012-02-02T10:43:00.000-08:00

The West Side Y, just off Central Park West, is in a gorgeous historic building. I have a pass for 2 visits here.

The locker rooms are basic, but clean. You have to go to a desk outside to get a towel, and get buzzed into the locker room. A bit creepy. but I like the idea of asking for a towel - cuts down on rampant towel abuse. I used to see a woman at NY Sports Club who would take a stack of 10 or 12 towels every time, tossing them on the ground like tissues.

Working out here is a bit strange - there are rooms for different exercises, on different floors and I can't even find the cardio room. But I find all the free weights I need. The concrete floor isn't the most forgiving, but unlike my local gym, it doesn't have huge dust bunnies.

Fitness Challenge: Day 15

2012-02-01T08:59:00.000-08:00

For years, I took my kids to gymnastics classes and camps at Chelsea Piers. When your kids take a class, you get a pass to use the Sports Center, but since I had my own gym, I never did.

I did once get a facial at the spa, and apparently you also get a free day pass if you spend enough.

But one of my kids had a pass and since I was going to a cocktail party at Pier 60, I decided to finally try the gym.

It is truly massive, and one of the best perks is the sun deck off the pool, where you can catch some rays on a nice day.

I love the elliptical machines here; instead of individual televisions, there are 8 overhead screens and you can plug into any channel. Seems more environmentally conscious.

The showers are gorgeous here, with individual changing areas, thick, soft towels, and good products.

Fitness Challenge: Day 14

2012-01-30T14:23:00.000-08:00

Time to cash in a pass I won to Physique 57. This studio, with locations on Spring St, the upper west side, and 57th Street, has a unique workout, with lots of squats while squeezing a ball between your legs, and exercises using a barre. There are some light hand weights used, but basically you use your body as resistance.

This is one of those deceptive classes that initially doesn't seem too difficult; half an hour in, your body is screaming in response.

Classes are quite expensive, but there is a bowl of free apples.

Kelly Ripa has gushed about Physique 57, but she is nowhere to be seen.

Fitness Challenge: Day 13

2012-01-27T06:05:00.000-08:00

Although I have one last day at 24 Hour Fitness, I forsake the gym and head to the park. My daughter runs with me, and we incorporate some other exercises into our run: high knees, butt kicks, and mummy walks.

We also stop at a bench for tricep dips and use a curb to do step-ups.

Prospect Park also has a fitness area, with pull up bars where you can work your whole body. The fitness area is next to the playground where my kids used to run in the sprinkler and swing. We can hear the cheerful sounds of kids playing while we grunt through our workout.

Fitness Challenge: gym bag

2012-01-26T11:18:00.000-08:00

Going to different gyms around NYC, I had to remake my gym bag into a lightweight bag that might accompany me to meetings or events throughout the day.

I was looking for make-up that would do double duty, but I found the triple duty Miracle Skin Transformer SPF20 Face. This miraculous product is a day cream, sunscreen and light foundation, all in one.

When I have a brutal workout, my face turns bright red, and stays that way for hours. I cool down, shower and still look like I just ended a marathon. With the transformer, I can carry just one product, slap on a little more eyeliner, and quickly go about my day.

Hair is another story.

Fitness Challenge: Day 12

2012-01-26T10:13:00.000-08:00

Spin class became an addiction for me, though in god weather, nothing beats a bike ride.
But when you bike in NYC, you take your life in your hands. I try to stick to bike lanes, but even in so-called protected lanes, cabs pull over and cut you off, people open car doors, runners knock into you.

So I try spin at 24 Hour Fitness. Beside the safety factor, there is also usually inspiring music (Raise Your Glass) and heavy-duty air conditioning. This studio is meat locker room cold, but the music stinks.

The instructor is also a bit nutty, babbling about her weekend plans and how we need to step up our workout.

I find myself staring at the digital clock, counting down till the class ends.

But I burn a ton of calories.

Scotch: Crossing over to the dark side

2012-01-25T12:22:00.000-08:00

Some things in life are absolutes: I eschew meat, despise okra, love a craft cocktail.
I always thought that tastes were pretty much set as a kid, but when I grew up, I learned to like mushrooms (important when you are a vegetarian), Brussels sprouts, salad dressing. Still hate mayonnaise and ketchup.

But even as an adult, taste evolves. I thought I didn’t like gin, but then I tasted Bombay Sapphire. Then Hendricks. Now I favor artisanal local gins: Breuckelen, Brooklyn and the gin that is required drinking for any acerbic New Yorker, Dorothy Parker American Gin.

I thought, though that I hated scotch. I avoided all ‘dark’ spirits, but then I ordered a Sixpoint Signal, a smoked IPA. The bartender remarked that I must also like single malt scotch, particularly smoky ones. I said I hated scotch and he said I was wrong.

Turns out, I hate cheap scotch. I tried a glass of Laphroaig, which was peaty, smoky and utterly delicious. It didn’t have that gut-wrenching burn of cheap scotch, but rather a warmth that spread through my body.

Guess I need to retry okra.

Fitness Challenge: Day 11

2012-01-24T11:24:00.000-08:00

Back to 24 Hour Fitness in Soho, where I take a boot camp. This class has us doing squat thrusts, running with our hands over our heads, sometimes with weights, (like carrying guns?) and crawling around the studio on our bellies.

Luckily, the gym is quite clean. The showers, in fact are spotless, with frosted glass doors and sparkling tile. The lockers are the kind where you don't need to schlep a lock; you enter your own 4-digit password and set the integrated lock each time.

This boot camp is an hour long. I've been taking a 45 minute boot camp, and the extra 15 minutes of non-stop rigorous exercise is both invigorating and exhausting.

Fonda: Vegetarian Mexican (plus meat)

2012-01-23T13:00:00.000-08:00

The food at Fonda is so good, I feel bad about nit-picking. The vegetarian-friendly Mexican restaurant in Park Slope has been open long enough that they should have worked out the kink.s But the service is so scatter-shot that a meal here requires patience and a good sense of humor.

Fonda is packed every time we go, and we planned ahead with a reservation the other night. Our party of 4 was crammed into a tiny table. With one chair brought in from the garden. It was freezing.

We each got a different specialty margarita – mine with blood orange, one friend with grapefruit soda, (quite delish) one a classic and my husband one with hibiscus. His took an extra 15 minutes to arrive, with no explanation.

We shared the guacamole, which comes with warm soft tortillas and chips, and extra sauce to spike it. Lovely. And they bring a bowl of spicy black beans and a bowl of rice to the table with every meal, a nice touch.

My carnivore friend got the short ribs special, which she loved. I had a mushroom and hominy soup special, along with fish tacos. Perfect. Our other friend got the shrimp and scallop enchiladas, in a hazelnut mole sauce. I’ve had this before and it’s hearty and delicious.

My husband got the shrimp with spicy green rice. Very nice, but again, it came 15 minutes after the rest of the food. With no explanation.

And in our second round of drinks, one drink was again forgotten.

Maybe because our table was so small they thought we were a party of 3?

Fitness Challenge: Day 10

2012-01-23T10:25:00.000-08:00

The thing about a 40 mile bike ride - on a folding bike - is that you don't want to get back on a bike the next day. We had planned to ride from Northampton to Amherst, MA, on a rail trail, an easy 20 mile round trip.

But after riding an extra mountainous, extremely hot 30 miles, we don't want to sit on those uncomfortable bike seats again.

And the temperature is still hovering near 100.

We opt, instead, to hike on trails near Smith College.

It's still hot. But we are rewarded at the end with great vegetarian food.

Fitness Challenge: Day 9

2012-01-22T18:55:00.000-08:00

Our 20 or so mile bike ride turns into a 45 or 50 mile trudge, when we ride folding bikes through the Vermont and New Hampshire mountains.

We are visiting camp, and our route takes us from the other side of the mountain. To an unmarked road that we miss, and ride 5 or so miles past. Once in town, we get directions back and someone notes that the sign fell down years ago.

There is a hand-lettered sign, on the ground, that we couldn't see as we sped by.

Going back, no excuse, we just get lost. And run out of water.

Still a heat alert. After an hour or overheated riding, we are back where we started. Then we have another 10 miles to ride.

Our post-ride Smuttynose is possibly the best beer ever.

It's winter: flu time!

2012-01-20T07:56:00.000-08:00

New Yorkers love to complain -it's too hot, it's too cold, there's too much snow, not enough.

This winter is no exception. We have had an unusually mild winter - except for a freak Halloween snow squally. But now it's cold and I can't stop sneezing.

I did get my flu shot. The CDC recommends the shot for pretty much everyone, but when the person next to you on the subway coughs in your face, your vaccine may seem futile.

I won't resort to wearing a face mask, but I will breathe through my scarf and cross my sanitized fingers that the shot will protect me.

Fitness Challenge: Day 8

2012-01-20T07:36:00.000-08:00

In a heat wave, exercising outside can be challenging. It is going to be over 100 today, and we are heading up to visit our youngest daughter at camp in New Hampshire. There is a heat alert there, too.

So before we leave, I take a quick trip back to the 24 Hour Fitness gym, where I can lift weights in air conditioning. We are planning a 30 mile bike ride in the mountains tomorrow and I figure I don't need any aerobic workout.

CHRISTMAS ON THE TELE

2012-01-19T13:18:00.000-08:00

Guest post written by Derick Burks

The cool thing about my kentucky direct tv that I just figured out is that I have music channels. I always flipped through and saw them, but didn’t realize what they were or that I had them until my sister came to visit us this Christmas. We were getting ready for our annual holiday party at our place. My husband has everyone from his office to our house. I asked my sister to put together a good ipod mix of Christmas music so that we would have something to listen to. She suggested that instead of doing that we should just turn on the tv. I was confused and didn’t realize why she would suggest actually having the television on at a Christmas party. I thought that she had lost her mind. She called me in the living room and flipped through the channels. She showed me that there was one channel that was playing music. I had no idea! It was like satellite radio on the television. I guest that you learn something new everyday. It is really a cool thing.

Fitness Challenge: Day 7

2012-01-19T11:15:00.000-08:00

One week in and I figure I need to check out a full service gym. I go to 24 Hour Fitness in Soho with a one week pass.

The gym is huge, with 3 floors, but, oddly, only one water fountain, on the third floor. Maybe they want you to buy the bottled water on the first floor?

Towels are soft and thick and all the equipment is new & shiny.

I take a boot camp class, which has us crawling across the floor, panting form squat thrusts and dripping with sweat. It's great.

Very clean locker rooms, though the TV playing there kind of disturbs me. I prefer mindless chatter in the locker room.

Fitness Challenge: Day 6

2012-01-18T12:38:00.000-08:00

I am almost a week in without a 'home' gym and I decide to take advantage of a coupon I got on the way to the Park Slope Food Coop; a free guest pass to S Clubs, on the corner.

This was another club 25 years ago, and I was a member. It is certainly spiffed up since then, but still a cramped basement space. I do my normal routine, 45 minutes on an elliptical machine, followed by 30 minutes of weights.

It's nice to have a body bar for dead lifts and a bosu ball for core work, but this subterranean gym certainly does not make me long for a gym membership.

Fitness Challenge: Day 5

2012-01-17T09:21:00.000-08:00

Stolen bikes don't stop the fitness obsessed. My stolen bike was my folding bike, a bike I got so I could ride in a skirt. I still have my mountain bike, which my husband can ride (it's a man's bike) so I borrow my neighbor's bicycle and we ride 38 miles (round trip) to the beach.

We also sign up for the NY Century Bike Tour in September, an annual bike ride around the city that we've done in the past with our kids. There is a family friendly 35 mile option, and realistic 55 and 75 mile rides. The 100 mile ride just starts too early.

Fitness Challenge: Day 4

2012-01-16T06:55:00.000-08:00

New York City throws in a roadblock to the fitness quest. We live near the controversial new two-way bike lane, which I support. I like to ride the Prospect Park bike lane to show my support.

So, before riding our bikes to meet friends at the High Line, my husband and I ride the new bike lane to the farmer's market. Then we stop at home for bananas and lock our bikes outside. When we return, 10 minutes later, our bikes are gone.

Our Kryponite lock lies sliced in our front garden.

So, just a 3 mile bike ride, followed by walking 10 miles with our friends.

Fitness Challenge: Day 3

2012-01-13T05:31:00.000-08:00

Friday July 15 is a gorgeous day, one I would ordinarily spend inside, sweating during Spin. With no gym membership, I take out my bike for a few loops of Prospect Park. I spend an hour in the gorgeous weather, working just as hard and singing Pink's "Raise Your Glass" while I cycle.

No headphones, though, since the park loop is crowded with runners, walkers, Spandex-clad cyclists and the occasional car (the loop is officially closed to cars during certain hours, but some cars always slip through.

No worries: I am alert, energized and enjoying a full cardio workout.

Fitness Challenge: Day 2

2012-01-12T05:49:00.000-08:00

July 14

Thursday is usually my 'light' day, when I power walk the loop in Prospect Park with a group of friends. It started out with 1; now we are up to 7 regulars, with occasional guest stars.

If I have time, I run a mile before our 4 mile power walk, and I do 30 minutes of abs after the walk, so there is no need for a gym on Thursdays.

Which is good, because my New York Sports Club has no Thursday morning classes.

Fitness Challenge: 100 days, 100 gyms

2012-01-11T11:41:00.001-08:00

For 8 years, I have gone to New York Sports Club almost daily. But in July, fed up with rising prices, dirty showers (I could get that at home) and limited classes at my local gym, I bought a Fitness PassBook to get me into a variety of gyms.

I should have blogged about this while I worked out at different gyms, but I was too busy..working out. And getting to those gyms, which weren't around the corner like the Park Slope branch of New York Sports Club.

I saved money, if not time, and plowed those savings into an iPhone. Totally worth it. Plus I took a variety of classes and stayed in shape.

Day 1
July 13. Still sore from previous day's boot camp (the best class at NYSC) so went for a run in the park. As a gym member, I feel guilty not going, even if I run. But on an 80 degree day, perfect weather for a run, I feel free.

Foreign Travel Language Help

2012-01-09T10:10:00.000-08:00

In the age of smartphones and instant Google translations, there is still a need for translations services. You might need a translation service for medical reasons; your child is sick and you don’t speak the language in the country where you are taking your family vacation.

Our friends needed a translation agency when their daughter’s appendix ruptured on a family trip to France. Although my friend considers herself fluent in French, she did not know the technical and medical terms that a translation company did. They had to spend two months in Paris when medical complications arose, and turned to translation companies to help them navigate the process.

Translation agencies can also provide help in legal matters, and I can’t help wondering if Amanda Knox had such help when she was on trial for murder in Italy. One of my daughters is a junior in college and many of her friends have spent their junior year abroad, in far flung places, from Peru to Ghana to Vietnam. Minor college offenses, like drinking in public or smoking marijuana, may not be viewed kindly in other countries, and parents can turn to one of these translation companies if their child gets into trouble aboard.

Camping to see Family

2012-01-05T12:03:00.000-08:00

When you calculate the cost of sending your child to camp, you have to include visiting day costs. And if you send her to a camp far away, you may have to spend the night, and either fly to camp or rent a car.

We have treated our camp visits as mini-no-family vacations, but the wonderful camp where my daughter goes is near B & B’s that don’t seem worth the cost. One year we had mold in the room, and another, our friends were yelled at for coming towards the end of breakfast time (I thought that 7-9 time was a range).
S
o last summer, we went camping. Aside from getting a tent for camping this made our stay virtually free. We paid $15 a night for the campsite, vs $200 for a B & B.

We had a basic camping tent which kept us protected from the morning dew. We brought egg crate mattresses to keep our ancient bones from feeling every stick and we slept relatively well.

And we got to eat breakfast at the excellent café at King Arthur Flour.

Once you buy your tent for camping you can use it over and over. Will I forsake the Four Seasons for camping?

Not likely, but I can certainly see using it for a yearly budget vacation, and putting the money saved towards a nice dinner.

Fiji family adventure

2012-01-03T10:34:00.000-08:00

While you may associate Fiji all inclusive resorts with romance, you can also have an active family adventure in Fiji. Namale Resort offers Fiji vacation packages for honeymooners and well-heeled families.

Vegetarians will appreciate the emphasis on fresh produce at meals, and kids can expand their palate with foods from Fiji and the South Pacific. In addition to all meals, the all-inclusive rate also covers snacks, wine and beer and hard liquor.
Scheduled activities at Namale include snorkeling, water-skiing, kayaking, knee boarding, reef and tide pool exploring, hand line fishing, guided reef walk and scuba diving. There are two freshwater pools for swimming or relaxing.

This Fiji all inclusive resort also offers hiking, tennis, and a game room, perfect for teens, with a ten pin bowling alley, foosball, darts, table hockey, virtual golf simulator room, billiard table, board games and an arcade. Mountain biking and horseback riding are part of the all-inclusive deal; extras like scuba diving, fishing, and spa services are also not included

You can also experience Fijian life at the resort; villagers in traditional costumes perform weekly dances and local artisans bring their wares to a weekly crafts sale.

Excursions from the resort include the family friendly dolphin watch, where you can snorkel in the tropical reef.

NYC Crepes

2012-01-03T10:09:00.000-08:00

In New York City, restaurants can pop up in the most unlikely or seemingly inhospitable places. Alleyways and tiny slivers of real estate become bustling establishments in about 100 square feet.

Such is the case at Crespella Crepe and Espresso Bar in Park Slope, Brooklyn, which I remember as a tiny gap between a pizza parlor and a newsstand. Now it serves Stumptown coffee and a delectable array of sweet or savory crepes.

The crepes with eggs are perfect for breakfast, and the other savories make a light, inexpensive lunch or dinner. The mostly vegetarian choices include ricotta, spinach and mushroom; tomato, mozzarella and pesto; and zucchini with onions and pepper. The savory crepes are also gluten-free, made with chickpea flour.

If you have a sweet tooth, you can have nutella with banana or strawberries for lunch.
Crespella has counters along one wall and the window, so you can grab a stool, or take your crepes to go.

Galapagos Family Vacation

2012-01-02T07:46:00.000-08:00

Cruise vacations have become popular for extended family vacations and for those with children over age 7, a Galapagos Cruise offers a unique look at the islands off Ecuador. The Galapagos Cruises are 3, 4 or 7 nights long, in small luxury ships that offer suites for all guests.

These active eco-tours are best suited to adventure seekers, who want to hike and snorkel. The Galapagos Cruise Ship includes such amenities as a Jacuzzi and a game room, but these are just supplementary to the real appeal, the natural wonder of the Galapagos Islands. You can also explore the marine life aboard a glass-bottom boat, and go on a whale watch.

The cruises are perfect for animal loving families: you can see giant tortoises, marine and land iguanas, exotic birds and Galapagos penguins, flightless cormorants and elegant tailed gulls. There are also sea lions and fur seals and rare native plants.

For those who worry about the environmental impact of cruise ships, the Galapagos Cruises are environmentally friendly, and the ships promote sustainable tourism on the Galapagos Islands. The Galapagos Cruises use biodegradable soaps, recycle materials and purify water with ozone not chlorine.

The all-inclusive meal plan always includes at least 2 vegetarian options at each meal.

Travel Insurance

2011-12-29T09:10:00.000-08:00

Until the United States passes health care reform, millions of Americans will continue to be uninsured or underinsured. If you like to travel, you may need even more insurance for accidents of unexpected medical conditions.

MedicareSupplementalInsurance.com offers a way to cover the gap between Medicare and other health costs. It offers the option of continuing with your own personal doctor to ill the gaps in Medicare policies.

My Medicare offers prescription drug plans and information on preventive health measures, like flu shots.

Vegetarian Thai Food

2011-12-29T08:49:00.000-08:00

I have a complicated relationship with Beet, the hip Thai restaurant around the corner from my house.

Brooklyn has no shortage of moderately priced, vegetarian-friendly Thai restaurants. This one also has good cocktails and nice decor. But we had two bad experiences, one where one of my kids found the exo-skeleton of a huge bug in her food. We were at Beet at the time, but the waiter seemed unconcerned and did not offer to replace the dish.

Another time, we picked up and had a huge long straight black hair in one dish. We went back to the restaurant, but again they did not offer to replace the food.

So we avoided the place for a couple of years.

We gave it another try recently and the food was delicious: vegetarian chicken in a basil curry, tofu in massaman curry, seitan in thick glass noodles.

No bugs, no hair.

London Apartments

2011-12-28T10:58:00.000-08:00

When my family and I last took a family trip to London, we decided an apartment rental was the way to go. Our family vacation was for a week, and with a London Apartment we feel like natives.

Turns out London Apartments are a great deal only if rent from the right place. we got ours from a site that no longer exists, and the apartment was extremely cold, with barely working heat and inadequate lights.

But friends who have rented from London Apartments have had much better experiences, with family friendly apartments vetted by a local family.

Still, we had a lovely post-Christmas week, shopping the Harrod’s sale, visiting Kew Gardens, cooking vegetarian curry in our apartment and exploring London’s museums. My kids loved the city view from the London Eye, and making friends with the owner of the local chip shop. We also got half-price tickets to two West End productions, including an all-male version of Swan Lake.

Our apartment, near Portobello Road, offered easy access to the Tube, so we got weekly transit cards and explored every inch of the city.

Patagonia family vacation

2011-12-27T09:59:00.000-08:00

On Christmas Day, people drove convertibles around New York City – with the top down.
It is time to see the Patagonia glaciers before global warming melts them away.

Navimag runs multi-day boat trips that take you up close to the Patagonia glaciers. The family friendly adventure trips include a whopping 80% off the trip price for kids under age two. But even families with older kids get to enjoy discounts; 20% off for ages 12 and under, and 10% off for students. Cabins can accommodate up to four people; larger families need a second cabin.

Another bonus for families; low season, with correspondingly lower rates, runs April – October, so families can go over summer break.

The ships, called ferries, are nothing like cruise ships. One ferry take sup to 52 passengers, while the other can accommodate 320. The smaller size means more personal service, though also fewer activities. For kids who love wildlife, the scenery is the main attraction: you can see dolphins, sea lions, wild birds, and whales. There is a game room for down time.

The Chile Patagonia Tours are also great for budding photographers, who can catalogue the fjords, glaciers and snow-capped mountains that they see.

The meals are all inclusive, and vegetarian food is always available.

Gift cards for family

2011-12-21T13:27:00.000-08:00

According to my mother, I am impossible to shop for. I disagree – I love getting gifts. But things I want.

My kids are the same way, and woe be to those who divert from their list. My oldest daughter wanted yoga pants for Hanukkah, with my sister dutifully purchased from Athleta.

But no, Hallie hated them. Seems she wanted yoga ‘style’ pants – what she got were actual yoga pants. Is there a difference? Are you a 20 year old woman?

Luckily, my sister and all my other relatives just sent gift cards for the girls. It seems a bit like a cop out to some of them, but they really like going into stores and choosing their own gifts.

We like to shop locally, so we give our siblings the websites of independent stores in our neighborhood. The infusion of cash around the holidays can help smaller stores stay afloat.

And when my middle daughter graduated from high school in June, she asked for gift cards to the Apple, which she used towards a new laptop.

I also look for deals, like one that ran recently through my Banana Republic credit card: 10% off on gift cards to any of the store’s brands. Gap was on one girl’s list, and I saved on that gift.

You can let teens shop alone with their gift cards, without worrying about them losing money. I write down the number of gift cards in case one gets lost (it’s never happened). But when they take cash, they invariably lose it.

There are a few downsides to gift cards. Some stores give you back in cash unused amounts, usually $5 or under; others give you back the gift card, which can then be mislaid. But I have the girls give me back their unused gift cards for safekeeping, with the amount left on it written on a post-it.

And stores can go out of business before you use the gift card. I had a gift card to a toy store chain that is no longer around. That’s why I like to shop with gift cards right away.

Then it’s like two presents in one: the present when you get the gift card, and the present when you redeem it.

I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Gift Cards Rock blogging program, for 6,000 My SocialMoms Rewards Points. For more information on how you can participate, click here.

Family Ski Trip: France

2011-12-20T10:24:00.000-08:00

Skiing in Vermont is a no-brainer when you live in New York, but true powder heads fly out west.

Except for the really dedicated, and well-heeled, who go to Europe.

Skiing in France actually makes a lot of sense. You can take a ski train to the Espace Killy ski resort in Tignes, and drink French wine après-ski. Flights to Europe are at one of their lowest points during ski season, which runs from September to May, and you can find Tignes Ski Deals to make your family vacation reasonably priced.

Imagine being able to eat all that delicious French cheese and burning off the calories skiing.

There are many types of Tignes accommodations including
Tignes apartments where you can make your meals and full service Tignes hotels.

For families, ski school starts at age 2 ½ and there is childcare for younger kids. The village has family friendly restaurants, including vegetarian friendly creperies.

Hanukkah latkes – crispy or not?

2011-12-20T09:51:00.000-08:00

Like a matzo brei debate, Jews are divided over the issue of latkes. You generally want the latkes your mother made for Hanukkah, either shredding the potatoes by hand or pureeing them in a Cuisinart or blending.

If your mom went the latter route, you got something soft, more like a pancake. This is the kind of latke I am used to. My husband’s mother grated her potatoes, and fried them in more oil, resulting in the traditional crispy latke.

Not to be a heretic, but I actually prefer the crispy latke. And I can cheat when I make this, using the shredding blade on my Cuisinart so I don’t have to lose the skin off my knuckles.

Whatever kind of latkes you eat, they all taste better with homemade applesauce.

Darling Harbour - hotels, accommodation and attractions

2011-12-19T14:09:00.000-08:00

No family vacation to Sydney, Australia, can be complete without a stop at Darling Harbour, just 5 minutes from the Sydney central business district.

If your kids like different means of transportation, they can explore a wealth here; take a ferry, the monorail, a bus ride, or the light rail. You can also easily bicycle there.

And once you are there, you can use the People mover trains, which travel the length of Darling Harbour and offer easy access to the area’s attractions. Family friendly Darling Harbour attractions include the Sydney Aquarium, and Wild Life Sydney.

See historic vessels and learn about the local waters at the Australian National Maritime Museum.

Darling Harbour hotels and accommodations and many reasonably priced family-friendly ethnic restaurants make this area a must see during an Australian family vacation

Home James

2011-12-16T05:48:00.000-08:00

If you’ve lived in a neighborhood for years, you remember the history of its real estate. You may buy your artisanal cheese from a storefront that once sold cell
phones, or buy designer clothing from a spot that once housed a check cashing place.

So it is with the restaurant James, where a bodega once offered convenience for Prospect Heights, Brooklyn residents. Our friends, who lived around the corner, remember buying milk and cigarettes here.

But the gleaming bar, dark wood and reclaimed tin ceiling speak to a different era, one more likely to drink the gin cocktail (with bits of ice, St. Germain, lemon juice and fresh mint) than beer from a paper bag.

ames has a super Sunday Supper deal: appetizer, main course and dessert, for $30. Choices are limited, but twice when I’ve been there, both appetizers and both main courses were vegetarian. You can also order off the regular menu, but it’s nice when vegetarians aren’t marginalized.

Well, ok, we can’t go there on burger night. But any other night is vegetarian-friendly – perfectly composed salads, soups like the parsnip soup topped with Brussels sprouts. Simply divine.

The risotto with wild mushrooms had a hint of truffle oil and was studded with meaty fungi. Buttery skate over broccoli and arctic char over beets elevated the humble vegetables accompanying the fish.

I can’t wait to go back.

Egypt Family Travel

2011-12-12T11:47:00.000-08:00

Egypt is a food paradise for vegetarians, with hummus, baba ganoush and eggplant dishes readily available. You can find freshly baked pita to dip in hummus, and vegetables like okra, cabbage, cauliflower and potatoes, stewed with tomatoes and garlic. Okra is actually one of the few vegetables I truly despise, but you can easily avoid it.

Kids can try exotic fruits like fresh dates and pomegranates. An Egypt travel guide can help you plan your Egyptian family vacation.

The Egypt tourist board has great information on sights to see, from exploring ancient Egypt to cruising down the Nile. If you or your kids have studied the Pharoahs, or seen one of the King Tut exhibits, this is a chance to see Tutankhamun's treasures at the Cairo Museum or the ancient Pyramids.

There are many homes that you can rent for Egypt holidays, and you can sort them by ones that welcome children, and have amenities like pools, washing machines and air conditioning, all of which can make your family vacation a success.

If you need further Egypt travel inspiration you can also see modern Cairo, dive in the Red Sea of ride a camel in the desert.

TRISHA again

2011-12-09T13:45:00.001-08:00

This guest post from Lewis Beck

I looked into voip for business for the office and my boss agreed it was a good idea…that’s where things got dramatic. I say dramatic because Trisha got involved and everything with her is a firestorm – she’s got more attitude than anyone I’ve ever met. She was really just angry I hadn’t consulted her first before I went to our “big” boss about the suggestion but you know, I don’t work for Trisha and I don’t feel like I have to answer to her. Things are extra complicated because we used to be friends outside of work but that relationship got hairy so I’ve started to pull away and though I’m sure Trisha noticed she’s yet to come and talk to me about it. It’s just created tension at the office which is the worst place to have it and I can’t wait until she moves to the other building so I don’t have to see her so often. That won’t be long now and I can’t wait to get my new “life” started!

Tourists in Brooklyn

2011-11-14T08:47:00.000-08:00

There are those evenings when you go out without a reservation and think you might never eat. We went to a restaurant with friends, and a soon to expire gift certificate. But there was a 2 hour wait. So we went to another restaurant, then another.

Our mistake was to be in Williamsburg, a great place to eat, but maybe not so much if you don’t live there and don’t know the next best place to try. Also, it was Saturday, amateur night.

We thought our goose was cooked.

Finally, we wound up at The Fat Goose. It looked promising: exposed brick walls, chandeliers, tin ceiling, only half full.

But all those tables were spoken for.

The host was very gracious, and sat us at the bar. He said in 15 minutes, if a certain table didn’t show, we could eat there.

Fourteen minutes later, they walked in.

Meanwhile, we were contemplating drinks. Fat Goose has a very trendy cocktail menu, but the new winter menu was all rum and bourbon, neither of which I like.

There were 2 IPAs on tap, including my fave, Smuttynose. But both were out. We sampled the Ommegang wheat beer, which no one really liked.

So we drank wine.

Conversation was difficult with our group, since we were lined up at the bar, but then the people at the corner left, so we moved there and ordered appetizers.

Remember when appetizers were called apps & no one had a smartphone?

So Fat Goose, of course, puts goose fat in things where it doesn’t belong, like a lovely looking lentil, pear and Stilton salad, or kale salad. But both were tasty without the goose.

Then, we got a table so we could order main courses. A progressive dinner in one small restaurant.

Vegetarian options for main courses included a sweet potato strudel with oddly bitter carrots and scallops with roasted cauliflower.

We also had wild mushroom toasts with goat cheese – the best thing on the menu.
Next time, a reservation.

Artisanal Meat, Veggie Sandwiches

2011-11-02T11:16:00.000-07:00

When a restaurant touts the origins of its meat, form four local butchers and specialty shops, I figure the vegetarian food is going to be an after thought. But Zito's Sandwich Shoppe in Park Slope, Brooklyn, puts as much care into its veggie sandwiches as it does in its meat offering, so this is definitely a vegetarian friendly place.

Of the 13 classic sandwiches, 5 are vegetarian (3 if you don’t eat fish). Plus you can create your own. All are served on brick oven bread baked by Il Fornaretto in Bensonhurst, or gluten-free bread from Everybody Eats in Park Slope.

The meatless was my first choice, with plenty of grilled portobellos roasted peppers and broccoli rabe, with artichoke spread. My only gripe was that it was too cold, so if you can let your sandwich sit for awhile, or ask the counter guys to heat it up.

But this brings up the problem many have with this place. The food is wonderful, but waits can be interminable. If you order arancini, Sicilian rice balls (there is an addictive veggie version, with spinach and homemade mozzarella) and sip a craft beer, you might be a little less puckish when your food arrives.

Sandwiches are huge, and make a more than filling dinner; at lunch, you might only eat half and save the rest for later. You could also split a sandwich and get one of the 6 veggie side dishes: faro salad with roasted corn, garlicky broccoli rabe or lentil with caramelized onions.

The eggplant parm, with more of that homemade mozzarella and a slightly too salty tomato sauce was a perfect counterpoint to the crusty bread. If you like breakfast for dinner, try the bargain Potatoes & eggs sandwich; scrambled eggs, fried potatoes, onions and parmesan cheese, with tomato sauce on the side.

The chickpea fritters were so meaty that my husband was convinced he had been given meat. These fritters are not like falafel at all, but with the lettuce, tomato and lemon, they were yummy.

Next on my list to try, before I start customizing my sandwiches, is the Sicilian tuna, with arugula and tapenade.

We were not bothered by our long waits, since the guys working there were so friendly and they have a great sense of humor. A family friendly place that promotes its high chairs and growlers has to be. Fill those growlers with Sixpoint craft ale to go, or drink a beer with your sandwich. There is also wines from Long Island based Gotham Project.

Vegetarian Chicken Soup

2011-10-05T12:47:00.000-07:00

As a Jewish mother, I supposedly have the panacea for colds, chicken soup. This legendary broth-y soup has been spooned in the mouths of generations of kids, with the urgent, “eat it, it’s good for you.”

I don’t make chicken soup, since my family is vegetarian, but for years I have made a rich vegetable soup, using vegetable stock to make a soup with carrots, parsnips, celery and onions.

But my youngest daughter doesn’t like broth-y soup.

Now, we take other measures to ensure winter health, getting flu shots, drinking Traditional Medicinals cold tea when we get the sniffles, and not going outside with a wet head (not sure what this one does, but my own Jewish mother instilled it in me).

Still, I wanted Nora to eat the restorative soup.

Here’s the thing – she loves soup, but only cream soup. One day, I took her bowl and buzzed it with the immersion blender. Voila – she ate the soup.

Then I thought about other soups and ways to get more vegetables into her. Nora hates cooked carrots, but if they are blended in soup, she willingly eats them. And I find ginger to be particularly soothing when I have a sore throat. Since Nora is a singer (and a screamer) she gets a lot of sore throats, cold or no.

Note: You can make this soup vegan by sautéeing the onion in olive oil.

Carrot-Ginger Soup

1 onion, roughly chopped
1 T butter
1 3 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled
2 quarts vegetable stock (homemade is much better, but you can use Imagine)
3 carrots, peeled and cut into 2 inch pieces
3 parsnips, peeled and cut into 2 inch pieces
1 sweet potato, peeled and chunked
1 potato, peeled and chunked
slat and pepper, to taste
Tabasco sauce, to taste

Cook the onion in the butter on low heat till soft, about 10 minutes. Add the ginger, stock and all the veggies and turn the heat up high. Add salt and pepper.
When small bubbles appear, turn the heat down to medium, cover, and cook for about 45 minutes, or until all the vegetables are soft.

Remove the piece of ginger.

Blend the soup with an immersion blender (you can do this when the soup is hot) or wait till it cools and blend in a food processor until smooth.

Add the ginger back. Heat and taste; add salt, pepper and Tabasco sauce, if needed.

This soup gets even more ginger-y the next day. Just don’t serve anyone the huge chunk of ginger; it can turn them off ginger forever.

Have a bowl after you get your flu shot.

Decluttering: a pack-rat’s tips

2011-09-28T06:27:00.000-07:00

An earthquake recently jolted New York City. While damage was minimal, my oldest daughter posted a photo on Facebook of her youngest sister’s playroom, “apparently the only part of our house affected by the earthquake.”

I have raised a slob.

Now, I don’t profess to be all spic & span, but I do prefer a clutter-free zone. Yet I am at heart a pack rat. This is why I believe strongly in closets.

Our family has a lot of them.

When we built an addition to our house, we added a wall of extra deep closets, where the television, DVDs and board games live. We also have a ton of videotapes, which no one watches. I’m not even sure our VCR works. The kids watch movies on their computers.

In our battle to reclaim floor space, I have these 10 tips:

Bins. I love color-coded bins, so kids can remember that crayons go in the yellow, markers in the blue.

Baskets. I use baskets throughout the house, for hats, gloves, makeup.

Shelves. All those bins and baskets can’t be in the floor, because then there would be no place to walk, or play.

Clear boxes. These are best for high closet shelves, so you can see which has the sweaters, which the ski socks.

Rotation. Most kids simply have too many toys. If you put some out of reach – in the basement, under the bed, on the highest shelf, it limits kids’ options, plus it seems like they have new toys when you bring them back out.

Donation. When they clearly have outgrown something, I donate it. But don’t donate too soon. My youngest decided she was done with Barbie, but I knew she was too young to completely give them up. I put them in the basement playroom and, although she denies it, we know that she still plays with them.

Stoop/yard sale. In our Brooklyn neighborhood, families have frequent stoop sales, where they unload extra or unwanted toys. Be beware. Some kids use the opportunity to buy new toys with the money they make (we usually donate the money to whatever cause the kids choose).

Digital camera. Get rid of school projects, but preserve them by photographing them before you trash them (and don’t let kids see them in the garbage).

Less is more. I really like when beds are made, but blankets and covers make it more difficult for kids. We have sheets topped by comforters with print covers. All you have to do is pull the comforter up and the bed is made. And laundry is simpler. You don’t have to wash the comforter often; just wash the cover.

Build. If you run out of floor space, build a new closet.

Family at Play: Kids on Bikes

2011-09-22T08:32:00.000-07:00

Biking has been one of my favorite activities since I was a child. When I was a teen, I went on bike trips with American Youth Hostels, and even when I had a car at college, I used a bicycle to explore St. Louis. It seemed natural that when my husband and I bought our second brownstone, we built a closet specifically for our bikes.

Like many kids, our girls played soccer, and the fields were a couple of miles from our house. We used to drive over, but the extremely limited parking meant we could circle the fields for half an hour, with one kid missing practice and the others growing bored. We told the kids, “if you want to play soccer, you have to ride to the field.”

This turned a couple of hours at soccer into a day-long adventure. In our first house, we stored 2 bikes in the cellar, 2 on the ground floor, and the third up the stoop. Just getting all the bikes out took 45 minutes. And when the kids were younger, they rode very slowly.

But as their skill level and confidence grew, so did their speed. Our youngest daughter, now 13, rides a 35 mile round trip to the beach with no complaint, and she went on a bike trip with camp, New Hampshire to Maine, biking 45 miles a day.

Our middle daughter, now in college, often rode her bicycle from Brooklyn to the Upper West Side for high school. She was a competitive soccer player, so she didn’t ride when she had soccer practice, but we rode our bikes to her games.

Family vacations have included Backroads bike trips in Denmark and Italy, and shorter bike trips as part of a family trip. We have ridden bike trails in Northampton, MA, Jim Thorpe, PA, and Cincinnati, OH. We rode bikes over the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and through Mayan ruins in Mexico.

We were trying to decide what to do to celebrate Nickelodeon's 8th Annual Worldwide Day of Play this weekend, but the 13 year old has practice for the Ultimate team. So we will go on a own bike ride without her.

Our kids all played varsity sports, from track to soccer to Ultimate, they ski, they swim, they hike and rock climb. But they go their start on tiny bicycles with training wheels. Get your family started on exercise today.

Ordering in for the Emmy's

2011-09-14T12:10:00.000-07:00

A pile of outdated menus stuck in a kitchen drawer is so 1990. Use your drawers for their intended purpose, to store corkscrews and bottle openers, and order your food on the web.

New Yorkers have several online delivery services, which offer a network of restaurants and no additional cost to the coach potato. With the Emmy’s approaching and football season under way, this is a good time to consider options.

Grub Hub has over 15,000 restaurants in 13 cities, including Boston, Boulder, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Oakland, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, DC.

You can sort by cuisine, restaurant name or menu item and read Yelp reviews to help try an unfamiliar restaurant.

Allmenus.com also includes Yelp reviews. They live up to their name by trying to include all the menus of local restaurants in every market – but this means that some restaurants don’t participate in their online ordering program. So you might see a menu for a place you want to order from – and not be able to order.

Of course, you could actually leave your house, but you can also spend hours searching the 250,000 menus from cities across the United States. It’s also in over 400 college campuses.

Seamless offers apps for apps for iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry users, or you can old-school it with a computer. The site covers 7,000 restaurants in 27 cities across the US and UK, and you can bookmark restaurants you like for easy re-ordering.

Delivery.com, the newest service in New York, has restaurants, but also grocery stores, liquor stores and florists who deliver – about 3,000 places in all. It has about 10,000 places in 10 cities outside New York.

Delivery.com offers reward points; follow the other sites on Twitter for promotions and special deals.

To go with your food, try The Sparkling White. Created by the folks at Sauza in honor of seven-time Emmy winner Betty White, a nominee for Hot In Cleveland.

7.5 oz. Tequila
2.5 oz. Triple Sec
3 oz. fresh lime juice
3 oz. Agave Nectar
12 oz. Prosecco or sparkling white wine
Lime Wedge for garnish
Combine first 4 ingredients in a shaker filled with ice and shake vigorously. Strain the mixture into a chilled champagne glasses and top it off with the sparkling wine. Serves 9.

Vegetarian Banh Mi: Cheap Brooklyn Lunch

2011-09-08T10:25:00.000-07:00

Israeli relatives who came to our house passed one of the ubiquitous Vietnamese sandwich places in Park Slope. “What means this vegetarian pork?” they asked.

I have never been sure at Hanco’s Bubble Tea & Vietnamese Sandwich because they always seem to be out of it, but the vegetarian pork at Henry’s Vietnamese Sandwiches is seitan in a spicy barbeque sauce, with the usual coriander, cucumber, shredded carrots and diakon radish.

Henry’s sandwiches are cheaper, too; the vegetarian ones are only $5.50 here, instead of $6.50.

If you like very spicy food, you can handle the hot version; the medium needs an extra squirt of Sriracha.

The only disappointment is that there is no whole wheat option.

Henry’s has a delicious vegetarian chicken sandwich, that taste just like – chicken. There is also vegetarian ham or fish, neither of which I’ve tried yet.

Hanco’s is a much nicer place to sit; Henry’s has just a couple of tables and is really better for take-out.

Henry’s also has a variety of brown rice dishes, each $5.95, with meat or the veggie meat.

Both Henry’s & Hanco’s are on Seventh Avenue; Fifth Avenue in Park Slope also has Lotus (all sandwiches are $5.95) and Home (all sandwiches are $6).

The (almost) Empty Nest

2011-09-06T09:05:00.000-07:00

My middle daughter left for college last week. Let me rephrase that. We took her to college. Back in the dark ages, parents (like my mother) happily dropped college-bound kids off at bus stations or airports, but in this day of helicopter parenting, the whole family comes to take a kid to college, often turning it into a mini family vacation.

When my first daughter went to college two years ago, everyone and his brother (including my older brother) told me about the cool Bed, Bath & Beyond college shopping experience. You choose everything at your local BB &B, then it’s waiting for you at the one near college.

But Hallie refused to participate. She wanted her stuff and she wanted it then. While we trolled the aisles, numerous sales associates approached us, to tell us about the college deal. Her age, the rabid look in her eyes and the false cheer I was holding on to (look, sweetie, only $39.99 for the body pillow) must have tipped them off. Hallie brushed off each salesman, assuring them that she wanted to take her stuff.

Then one guy tried a new approach. He could have our stuff delivered, free, in the five boroughs. Hallie, normally placid, snapped. “Stop trying to tell me how to shop,” she said.

We took our 5 overstuffed bags with us and couldn’t fit through the revolving-door turnstiles at the 16th St entrance to the F.

Sela loved the idea of shopping with the clicker at BB&B. her entire shop took 20 minutes – no debating over shades of towels or the look of her mattress pad. But it turns out that the pick up doesn’t go as smoothly. Your order is not put together until you arrive at the college-area BB &B, so we essentially shopped twice – we had to wait 45 minutes while the stuff was pulled.

And when you buy the stuff near college, you can’t wash it at home first.

So we’re learning. We’re also readjusting our buying habits with only one kid at home.

We also just discovered the Empty Nester, a cocktail that is perfect for using up leftover red wine.
1 ½ Parts Sauza Silver Tequila
½ Part Cabernet Sauvignon
½ Part Triple Sec
½ Part Agave Nectar
½ Part Fresh Lime juice

Pour all ingredients over ice in mixing glass. Shake and strain into a martini glass and garnish

Telepan: Friendly to Vegetarians

2011-08-24T12:18:00.001-07:00

I loved the restaurant Judson Grill (where Bar Americain is now) so I was not surprised to like the same chef's upper west side place. Bill Telepan, owner of Telepan, is a greenmarket fan and though he has meat on his menu, he also offers many vegetarian choices.

Starters on the late summer menu include a vegetarian-friendly vegetable-bread soup, enriched with olive old and parmigiano cheese. Cabbage is cooked slowly until it is sweet and tender.

A 'gazpacho' salad featured chopped heirloom tomatoes, covered with bits of cucumber and onion. Sadly, no spoon was offered, so the delicious soupy liquid went to waste (I'd finished my bread).

There is also an egg on fried green tomato, and smoked trout on a corn blini, an upgrade of what your Russian bubbe might have served on Sunday mornings.

Family Meal: Where are the veggies?

2011-07-27T17:45:00.000-07:00

It was always challenging to raise vegetarian kids who didn’t eat vegetables. For years, we fell into a pasta trap, making a vat of pasta most nights and letting the kids carbo load.

At a certain point, I’d had enough. I wanted my daughters to eat vegetables. It took some work, but eventually, I was able to get them to eat a more balanced diet, one that included many different vegetables.

I didn’t want to hide the veggies, like The Sneaky Chef Missy Chase Lapine so I came up with a few tips:

1. Drop the pasta. The first thing I did was just stop buying pasta. If I didn’t have it in the house, I couldn’t make it or offer it.

2. Rethink the sauce. Ok, so I do now make pasta once every other month. But I make a tomato sauce that includes an entire package of frozen chopped spinach and the girls are none the wiser. I dub this sauce ‘puttanesca’ and add chopped black olives, capers and hot sauce, along with shredded carrots and chopped tomatoes. So they get plenty of vegetables.

3. Go to the farmer’s market. The unusually colored vegetables, like orange cauliflower and purple carrots, have enticed my kids to try an array of veggies.

4. While I make dinner, I put out carrot sticks, slices of red pepper, jicama, or sugar snap peas. If a child comes by fainting from hunger, I point out the spread, which also includes hummus or another dip. If a kid is truly hungry, she will eat the veggies.

5. One of my kids just won’t eat salad. She hates leafy greens. Since my husband and I love salad, this causes great consternation. But, she loves fresh peas. We used to buy them just for her – snapping them is so time consuming – but the other girls figured they were missing out. So now they all eat fresh peas.

6. Read cookbooks together, and not just ones specifically designed for kids. The photography in Chez Panisse cookbooks makes almost anything look appealing. Except meat, but that’s another story.

7. Bake with veggies. Roasted acorn squash puree enlivens my waffles and muffins. You can even cut down on the sugar in muffin recipes when you add the puree. In a pinch, I have used prepared baby food.

8. Eat at ethnic restaurants. When kids get served food they don’t recognize, they might be more apt to try, not snub it. Since my kids like spicy food, they will try almost anything pungent at a Korean, Indian or Vietnamese restaurant.

9. My husband and I would sometimes treat ourselves to a snack before feeding the kids; samosas, or Spring rolls, saying we just had to eat right away and we couldn’t share. Of course, this made the kids really want to try our vegetable-filled treat and we’d ‘reluctantly’ offer a taste.

10. Finally, don’t stress too much. Soon enough, they go to school, on play dates, or out with their own money and make their own food choices. Model good eating habits and hope some of it rubs off.

High Line & Haute Cuisine

2011-07-21T11:21:00.000-07:00

One of the joys of the High Line extension is The Lot, at 30th Street and 10th Avenue, in NYC. This former parking lot, at the new northern terminus of The High Line, is filled food trucks and an outdoor bar, The Lot on Tap.

For those of us with OCD issues, The Lot has well-maintained portable toilets, with running water and soup outside, so you can wash your hands. The water is operated by a foot pedal, so no touching grotty faucets.

You need clean hands to tackle some of the food, which on the day we visited included Taim Mobile. This all vegetarian truck has falafel sandwiches, with fresh and tasty falafel and spicy sauces to perk up your lunch (or dinner - The Lot operates 11am – 10, Sunday – Wednesday; till 11pm other days).

Taim also makes a zesty and refreshing ginger mint lemonade and date smoothies; the kids can drink this while parents have a craft beer on tap.

Celebrating National Ice Cream Month with the Family

2011-07-14T13:03:00.000-07:00

I don’t think we had National Ice Cream Month when I was a kid, but then, in summer, every day was ice cream day. Now we have to worry about sugar intake, fat content, lactose intolerance and gluten allergies to cones.

So it’s nice to just forget all about that and just revel in frozen treats in July. Loews Hotels offers free ice cream all summer long, from 4-5pm.

All North American Loews Hotels have this Summer of Loews celebration.

In NYC, families can celebrate locally at the new Ample Hills Creamery, in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. This ice cream shop makes its own base, using natural, hormone-free milk and eggs. Then the fun really begins.

Parents can have Otis Stout & Pretzels, with chocolate Stout ice cream and chocolate covered pretzels, or salted crack caramel, with salted caramel ice cream and cookies. Both of these offer addictive combos of sweet and salty. There is also a maple bacon, but it doesn’t work with my avowed vegetarianism.

Kids veer towards the baked/unbaked, with cookie dough and cookie bits, or the colorful cotton candy, which amazingly has no artificial tints or flavors.
Ample Hills also serves up scoops at Celebrate Brooklyn!

The Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, at Fulton Ferry Pier, is best reached by Water Taxi, or after a walk or bike ride across the Brooklyn Bridge.

The small shop, an old fireboat house (with long lines) offers only a few flavors, but each is perfection. The peaches & cream or strawberry will make believers out of those who don't usually like fruit flavored ice cream.

A new nearby park, Brooklyn Bridge Park, has playgrounds, free kayaking and rowing and the ferry to Governors Island.

July 17, The Bell House is hosting an Ice Cream Takedown.

10 Reasons to Visit Virginia Beach

2011-07-11T19:54:00.000-07:00

Virginia Beach, Virginia is a laid-back place for a family vacation. The beach area is not far from the historic triangle destinations/southeast/1702.html of Jamestowne, Colonial Williamsburg and Yorktown.

1. Virginia Beach has 14 miles of free beaches, with different attractions at each. The main resort area has restaurants and nightlife within walking distance of the sand, while of Sandbridge, on the southern shore, is more tranquil. Little Island Park has playgrounds, tennis courts and beach volleyball.

2. Swimmers should head to Chesapeake Beach, with its protected, shallow water. The beaches are great for a family vacation; teens can go to a livelier beach, and families with young kids can go to another. And if you have kids in different ages ranges, you can spend your time exploring them all.

3. Along Atlantic Avenue between 17th and 25th Streets, you can see shows with live music, magicians and jugglers. The free oceanfront entertainment occurs nightly during the summer.

4. Get in the water with a kayak; one rental outfit offers Dolphin Kayak tours where you look for dolphin, loggerhead sea turtles and marine birds.

5. You can bike the flat, quiet roads; bring a bike or rent a beach cruiser, a one-speed bike that usually comes with a front basket for your towel.

6. The free Atlantic Wildfowl Heritage Museum has exhibits on the migratory wildfowl that fly through Eastern Virginia. There are wood carving demonstrations, historic decoys and exhibits on the history of Virginia Beach.

7. If it rains, go to the Virginia Beach Rock Gym, which has a 32–foot climbing wall, boulders and daring edges.

8. Vegetarians who eat fish can dine well in Virginia Beach. The Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean provide fresh seafood, including blue crab and rockfish. The Virginia Beach Boardwalk Food Tour offers an inside look at the area.

9. Shop with your kids at The Virginia Beach Farmer's Market has local produce, organic products and a restaurant.

10. The Old Beach Farmers Market has specialty produce like heirloom tomatoes that you can bring home to your friends or cook in your vacation rental.

Vegetarian Indian Dining

2011-07-06T10:31:00.000-07:00

Eating vegetarian is easy at Indian restaurants, and Tamarind Tribeca elevates the often austere experience of going out for vegetarian or Indian food. This is fine dining, with great cocktails (the signature ginger martini, with Absolut peppar). But still kid-friendly.

The huge, bi-level restaurant is elegant and refined, in an Art Deco building flooded with sunlight during the day. At night, dramatic lighting transforms the space, creating intimate areas.

We started with samosas, of course, my kids’ favorite. These had a twist; a pomegranate sauce that leant a touch of sweetness. The kachori, lentil and green pea pancakes, had dried mango powder on top.

The tandoor baked nan had none of the greasiness you sometimes get. I was able to convince the kids to get the onion version, but not the wild mushroom and truffle oil; I’ll have to save that for another visit, without the family.

The saag paneer was a more refined, less buttery version of the take-out Indian were are accustomed to, and the channa masala had a hint of pomegranate powder in with the ground chickpeas and ginger.

We loved the rich nargisi kofta, dumplings made of lotus root and cheese, in a saffron-cashew sauce, and achi khumb, shiitake mushrooms with pickled vegetables.

Tamarind is about twice as expensive as a neighborhood Indian restaurant, but more than twice as good.

Food on the Beach: Not just lobster rolls

2011-06-16T07:39:00.000-07:00

Head east on July 16th for the first annual Dan's Taste of Two Forks. Over 40 restaurants from the Hamptons and the North Fork, plus over a dozen local wineries and food purveyors, will all be at Sayre Park, Bridgehampton.

Marcus Sammuelsson (Red Rooster Harlem) hosts and Good Day NY co-anchor Rosanna Scotto )whose family owns FRESCO by Scotto is Master of Ceremonies.

Babette's serves both meat and plenty of vegetarian and vegan options at its East Hampton restaurant, so check it out for vegetarian tastes. Southfork Kitchen specializes in sustainable seafood restaurant and local produce; it even has its own garden. One of the North Fork restaurants, Noah’s, serves lobster rolls and small plates.

It won’t all be healthy eating; newlywed Dylan Lauren will have a Dylan's Candy Bar table.

The event benefits East End food pantries through Have a Heart Community Trust. Buy tickets online.

Airline Passengers: family travel complaints

2011-06-13T15:00:00.000-07:00

I am sometimes known as a complainer, but I only complain when I think it is warranted.

When my daughter flew home from Israel with her Hebrew school class, they were not allowed to bring water on the plane (i.e, fill their water bottles after security). But the overworked flight attendants either ignored a the group of teens or figured they didn’t deserve good service. My daughter literally had nothing to drink on the LOOONG flight to JFK and arrived thoroughly dehydrated.

hen I complained to Delta, they stepped up to the plate. Not only did they offer me $100 credit, but they extended this to everyone in her group.

My point is that if you speak up, you can often get results.

That is why taking the Airline Passenger Experience Association survey is a good idea. How can airlines improve their service if they don’t know you are unhappy in the first place? The survey cover travel experience, from check-in and food, to in-flight entertainment and cabin ambiance.

And if you go over to TravelingMom and take the survey through their link, you are entered to win an iPad2!

Ordering Dinner in NYC

2011-06-01T12:21:00.000-07:00

Even with central air, it is often just too hot to cook in summer in NYC. I make a lot of salads, and just recreated a sushi sandwich, based on one from ‘snice.

If we still want to eat in our garden, we resort to take out.
Allmenus.com allows us to clean out our drawers and throw away all those battered menus. The site has dozens of restaurants in my area, with menus, reviews and specials – a free soup or extra discount.

And if you follow allmenus on twitter (@allmenus) you can score extra discounts.
Allmenus has thousands of restaurants in over 200 cities, so it is also a great resource when you are traveling and can't find a restaurant.

For locals if you comment below, you can win a $20 gift certificate from Signpost, good for any Allmenus NYC restaurant.

Sushi sandwich (for one):
¼ avocado
3-4 strips spicy nori (I used Annie Chun’s)
3-4 slices firm tofu
1 multigrain wrap
Spread wrap with avocado. Lay nori on top, then tofu. Roll, slice in half and eat.
You can add sliced cucumber, pickled ginger and more wasabi.

Five Summer Getaways Every Kid Should Experience

2011-05-23T15:18:00.000-07:00

Our family vacation plans are on hold as we figure out how to pay for college for 2 kids, and keep the third happy.

Luckily, in New York City, you can find lots to do that is free, and takes you away from your regular self.

Go to an Island
No, we are not heading to St. Barth’s or even Cape Cod. But Governors Island has so many free activities that we could head there again and again, and still enjoy ourselves.

We can laze away in a hammock, ride a bike (Bike & Roll even offers free bikes for an hour on Fridays) or splurge on a family surrey ride.
And free ferry rides provide service from Brooklyn and Manhattan to Governors Island.

Go to the Beach
This is not exactly the same as going to an island, as anyone who has tried to swim in the waters off Manhattan (an island) can attest. From our house in Brooklyn, we can take the subway to Coney Island or Brighton Beach, and spend the day at the shore for the cost of a Metrocard swipe ($2.25; free for kids under 44 inches).

We can also ride our bikes to the somewhat less crowded Manhattan Beach (no direct subway access, but you can take a bus there, too, or pay $10 to park). If we are feeling really adventurous, we can bike to the bucolic Rockaways, particularly Breezy Point.

Take in a Game
The boys of summer played baseball and if you don’t live near a major or a minor league baseball stadium, you should take a trip. We can see the Mets and Yankees (both major leagues teams; the Mets, alas, barely) or minor league affiliates, the Staten Island Yankees and Brooklyn Cyclones, again, all just a Metrocard ride away.

Time with the Grandparents
My husband’s mother lives in a house that can accommodate our entire brood, and just down the road, a free pool and tennis court provide entertainment. Yes, we have to get there, but this kind of family vacation, spending time with the older relatives, is invaluable. We also get to see other relatives who live in my husband’s hometown, and see how he spent his boyhood.

Amusement Parks
Even if we can’t afford a trip to Disney World this summer, we can still spend a relatively inexpensive night at a nearby water park or theme park and get our fill of thrill rides and fried dough.

Family Travel Planning with Goby

2011-05-19T10:29:00.000-07:00

I pride myself on always being in the know, but it can be hard when you are traveling to figure out what to do if it is suddenly raining, or your kids have a craving for Vietnamese food.

But if you have an iPhone or iPad, Goby can be your family vacation savior. This app, which you can also use as a search engine on your laptop, gives you hundreds of activities, food choices, and places to stay throughout the US.

A Test Drive
For years, we have spent a grim 3 or 4 days in Cincinnati, OH, visiting my husband’s family.

Ok, grim may be a bit extreme. Cincinnati has a great museum center, the King’s Island amusement park and a museum on the underground railroad. But it doesn’t have many vegetarian restaurants, or so I thought.

We put Goby to the test and it spit out so many choices, we may have to make 2 family vacations to Cincinnati this summer.

A Comparison
Since I figure I know my hometown best of all, I all looked into the biking recommendations for Brooklyn. Local bike shops were listed, which can be particularly useful when you are on the road and get a flat. And bike paths in & near the city gave me choices for a ride.

I can’t wait to see how Goby does on my next vacation.

Cheese Loving Vegetarian

2011-05-18T10:36:00.000-07:00

I could never be a vegan – I love cheese too much. So I was excited to be invited to a cooking class with Top Chef Ariane Duarte and the makers of Finlandia Cheese.

Finlandia has a new Lacey Swiss, with less fat and fewer calories. They also make Swiss, light Swiss muenster and other cheeses, all made in Finland.

We helped make a rich, gooey macaroni & cheese, with chipotle paste, and mushroom & Swiss cheese tartlets. The tarts are easy to make and if your kids like mushrooms, a fun dinner.

Chef Ariane’s recipe, below, can be tweaked with the addition of some chopped spinach or broccoli – I love to sneak in some greens.

Mushroom and Finlandia Swiss Tartlets
1c shitake mushroom sliced
1c Portobello mushrooms sliced
½ c domestic button mushrooms sliced
2 shallots diced
2T olive oil
1T butter
1T chopped parsley
1c Finlandia Swiss Cheese, small dice (I made this with the low-fat Lacey Swiss and it was just as good)
1/2c parmesan
Salt & pepper
4 eggs
2 c heavy cream
36 prepared tartlet shells

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a sauté pan add butter and oil. Get hot and add shallots and mushrooms. Cook on high heat until mushrooms are brown and soft. Season with S&P. Add parsley.
In a blender add mushrooms, eggs, cream and parmesan. Blend for about 1 minute (not too smooth) Add in Swiss cheese. With a small scoop fill tartlets. Bake in a 375 degree oven for about 15-18 minutes.

Vegetarian on family vacation

2011-05-16T11:51:00.000-07:00

When my oldest daughter was little, she hated Indian food. This was a problem for my & my husband, since Indian food is so vegetarian friendly.

So I tricked her, ordered in Indian food & billing it as Pakistani. She loved it. I don’t know if she had confused southeast Asian food with something out of Pocahontas, and I know that Indian & Pakistani foods are not identical, but we do what we can to get our kids to eat.

Saag paneer is a great way to get kids to eat spinach, whether they are vegetarian or not. And you don’t even have to tell them it’s spinach, which may turn them off – it’s saag paneer.

I was happy to learn about TheDailyMeal, a site for traveling vegetarians. There is a list of the best countries for vegetarian dining, including the obvious India, and the not so obvious: Belgium and Costa Rica, for example.

We seek out ethnic restaurants on our family vacations, figuring that's the best places to find vegetarian food.

If only I could convince my Ohio in-laws that vegetarian food is not only important to us, it is critical to the health of the planet.

Have Booty, Will Travel

2011-05-10T11:13:00.000-07:00

If you have teens or tweens in the house, surely you know that Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides opens May 20.

What you may not know is that the great snack Pirate’s Booty is also getting in on the action. The all natural rice & corn puff, Pirate’s Booty, is gluten free and made without trans fat. The cheddar cheese puffs are also relatively low in calories and sodium, so you don’t have to feel guilty about snacking.

Which is good, since you’ll want to look your best if you win the Fountain of Youth Caribbean family vacation. Enter at Pirate’s Booty for a 5 day family vacation for 4 at Casa De Campo in the Dominican Republic.

Pirate Brands, makers of Pirate’s Booty, is also donating $.05 for each package sold unitl 7/31/11, up to $100,000, to Boys and Girls Clubs of America.

Family Fun: Getting kids to try food

2011-04-29T09:58:00.000-07:00

When kids are really little, we try to entice them with airplane spoons and Disney plates, but as they graduate to real flatware and the regular dishes, we sometimes lose the sense of fun.

One way I got my kids to try new goods was to buy interesting tableware. I got soup spoons in Chinatown for about $1 each, and they eagerly spooned up vegetarian Asian soups.

I have a lot of different chopsticks, both the smaller, thinner Japanese kind, and the thicker Chinese chopsticks, for stir-fries and sushi. I also bought different chopstick rests, to make the meals fun.

Not for the kids
Adults deserve a little fun, too, and I recently went to an event where party planner Cathy Riva made great cocktails even more special by rimming the glasses in colored sugar.

Because I like things less sweet, I made these at home with a mixture of sea salt and colored sugar.

Pear Ginger Fizz
1 part Sauza Silver Tequila
2tsp ginger liqueur
1 part pear juice
Top with champagne

Directions:
Wet champagne flute and dip into colored sugar

Shake and strain tequila, ginger liqueur, and pear juice into the glass and top with champagne.

Mother's Day Brunch

2011-04-28T08:25:00.000-07:00

Going out for brunch in NYC is a blood sport; going out on Mother's Day is exponentially worse. Every couple of years we make a mistake and go out for Mother's Day - inevitably, we wait forever, our order is screwed up, and no one is happy.

So this year, we are heading to the Hell's Kitchen Flea Market to combine a bike ride and brunch. On the 2nd Sunday of each month, the flea market hosts a Gourmet Food Truck Bazaar, from 11am - 5pm.

The trucks include: Rickshaw Dumplings (vegetarian edamame dumplings), Kimchi Taco Truck, (falafel and kimchee) Luke’s Lobster (lobster rools, duh), and best of all, the vegan Cinnamon Snail. They have tempeh sliders, spicy seitan and grilled tofu.

For dessert, The Cavity Shoppe. I will be avoiding Schnitzel & Things.

Easy Meals: Pasta Delivers

2011-04-27T12:08:00.000-07:00

I have a friend who is an excellent cook and baker. her soups, stews, and salads are all perfect and she makes brownies, cookies and cakes that are just delicious.
But she can’t make pasta. No matter what she does, her pasta is gummy, under-sauced and a misery.

I can’t understand this because pasta is one of the easiest meals for me to throw together. In fact, I have to make an effort NOT to make pasta too often - it is a vegetarian trap, an old stand-by that is also a kid-favorite.

But if you are similarly pasta-challenged, or work long hours and face an empty fridge, Schwan’s can help. Schwan’s Home Service delivers a grocery store of choices to your home and the new Fresco by Scotto offers restaurant quality meals that you can store in your freezer, and quickly heat up.

The NYC restaurant, Fresco, has a new line of frozen entrees that include vegetarian friendly baked ziti, and pasta with spinach and mushrooms. These are easy, and pretty cheap, ways of getting veggies into your kids. The eggplant and zucchini pie disguises the vegetables under a red sauce with ricotta, mozzarella and parmesan cheeses. And a huge tray of it, serving 5, is only $14.80.

There are also a couple of pastas with meat, including a meat lasagne and penne a la vodka with chicken.

And best of all, you can’t possibly screw it up.

Win $150!

2011-04-22T10:03:00.000-07:00

Shanghai cuisine is one of my favorite types of Chinese food. There is actually a Chinatown restaurant in NYC called Shanghai Cuisine and they serve the famous soup dumplings.

Also, these dumplings use pork to get the haunting flavor. And crab. Not the best choice for a vegetarian. But they also have a number of tofu and vegetable dishes, with sweet & sour one of the preferred preparations.

I have friends living in Shanghai and we want to take our kids to visit. And American Airlines is not only flying to Shanghai now, they are also giving away $150 towards a flight (or anywhere AA flies.

Watch the American Airlines video and go to the TravelingMom.com American Airlines giveaway to enter the contest.

And try the soup dumplings. Even if they are not vegetarian.

Ordering In

2011-04-21T13:25:00.000-07:00

Here is the usual scenario when we want to order food. We poll family members (up to 5) to see who wants what cuisine. Then we look for menus. Usually, we don’t have a menu for the kind of food we want, or we only find an old menu for a Chinese place that closed.

We have been saved by Allmenus.com. This nationwide service lets you search nearby restaurants, narrow them down by cuisine (e.g. Thai, vegetarian, Mexican) then read menus and Yelp reviews and order your food. You can even find deals and specials on the site.

You don’t pay any extra for this - places that don’t charge for delivery don’t charge when you order through Allmenus.com.

Another cool feature - if you are on vacation and have a hankering for Indian food or pizza, you can find a place.

Now if we could only all agree on what to order...

Coke for Breakfast

2011-04-13T17:36:00.000-07:00

As a New Yorker, I always knew that adults started their mornings with coffee. As a girl, I really didn’t like milk, so my mother would put a couple of spoonfuls of coffee in my milk and I would drink it.

So I was completely shocked the first time I went to London and people started their day with tea. It just seemed so wrong.

Then I went to Texas. Everyone there, it seemed, stated their day with a Coke. A cold drink in the morning? Doesn’t your morning beverage have to be hot?

But it makes a little sense, when you think about it. Kids drink milk or orange juice in the morning, but of them cold. Who says you have to start your day with a hot liquid?

And yes, Coca-Cola is sweeter than the unsweetened coffee I still drink. But plenty of people throw a couple of sugars into their coffee. If you ask them, they say they have to cover the bitter taste of the coffee. I like the bitterness - but if you don’t like the taste of coffee, why are you drinking it?

It’s hot in the south. A cold drink makes sense. One with caffeine makes even more sense, particularly if you have kids who keep you up at night.

Coke in the morning? Still not my thing. But I wonder if Starbucks would have a better time right now if they started selling soda.

As much of the country is overtaken by malls, I think it’s important to encourage regional differences. Not only is Coke the morning beverage in the south, but people eat grits with their eggs, instead of hash browns, or biscuits instead of toast. I won’t eat biscuits with gravy (not vegetarian) but I always want to try whatever regional vegetarian specialties there are.

On my recent trip to Panama City Beach, Florida, I went to Andy’s Flour Power Bakery where they have biscuits and gravy, grits with eggs and cold sweet tea for breakfast. And Coke.

I got a plain biscuit and grits. And coffee.

But then I realized I do have a Coke product at breakfast. The Coca Cola Co. also now makes Minute Maid orange juice.

I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Coca-Cola® blogging program. If I am one of the first 100 blogs received by SocialsMoms, I will receive a $25 gift card. For more information on the program, click here.

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Little Switches: New Vegetarian Dinners

2011-04-06T12:19:00.000-07:00

No matter how much you try to innovate in the kitchen, you can quickly fall into routines. My husband grew up in a house where every Monday was spaghetti and meatballs, every Tuesday, steak, every Wednesday, overcooked fish, every Thursday, dry chicken, every Friday a pot roast (also over cooked). They went out on Saturday nights or the parents went out & the kids ate TV dinners. Apparently, they didn’t eat on Sundays.

My mother served a more eclectic, and less overcooked, mix, but she did pretty much serve chicken one of 3 ways, (I hated all of them) fish 2 or 3 different ways and everything with no salt and little flavor.

I vowed to be different, but now as my kids have gotten older, they make odd declarations, like “you know I don’t eat lentils” or “when have I ever liked (insert name of that night’s dinner).

So I’ve decided to just make new vegetarian foods every night and, in a little switch, not even take into consideration everyone’s likes and dislikes. You eat it, great, If not, leftovers.

I found a recipe for a cabbage and potato gratin recently. I was not even sure I would like it - I grew up hating cabbage. One kid sneered, then ate all the potatoes. I could swear a teensy bit of green was clinging to some of the potatoes.

The other kid expressed surprise, said she didn’t like cabbage, took a big helping, and ate it all.

And you know what? I liked it, too.

1 pound Yellow Finn potatoes, cut into ¼ inch slices
1 ½ pounds green cabbage, cut into ribbons
Salt and black pepper
¼ cup unsalted butter
3 tablespoons fresh sage leaves, chopped, or 1 tablespoon dried
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/3 cups skim milk
3 eggs
½ cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1/3 cup flour

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Bring a gallon of water to a boil. Add the potatoes and boil until nearly tender (about 6 minutes). Remove from boiling water with a slotted spoon. Set aside.
Add the cabbage to the water and boil for about 5 minutes. Drain and dry in a kitchen towel.
Combine the potatoes, cabbage, and salt and pepper to taste in a bowl.

I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Cottonelle blogging program, for a gift card worth $25. For more information on how you can participate, click here.

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Power Up Your Brain

2011-03-17T11:57:00.000-07:00

In the movie Limitless, Bradley Cooper takes a drug that allows him to access the full capacity of his brain.

But maybe he just needed mega-doses of vegetarian DHA.

According to Power Up Your Brain: The Neuroscience of Enlightenment by Dr. David Perlmutter and Dr. Albert Villoldo, you can build new neuropathways in your brain, grow new brain cells and live a longer, healthier life with dietary supplements. Vitamin D and vegetarian DHA can reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s, and cancer, heart disease and Parkinson’s risk factors can be reduced through better nutrition and exercise.

Learn more about supplements for better brains here.

Vegetarian on St. Patrick’s Day

2011-03-15T12:37:00.000-07:00

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, I’ve seen a number of restaurants advertising corned beef sandwiches and I started thinking out a sandwich I liked as a kid, the Reuben. A Reuben is a corned beef sandwich, typically served on pumpernickel, with thousand island dressing, sauerkraut and Swiss cheese. The whole thing is then grilled.

The thing is, even when I ate meat, I didn’t like thousand island dressing, sauerkraut, or Swiss cheese. Or pumpernickel bread. I just liked the sound of a Reuben sandwich. So my mother would make it my way, on rye bread, with no condiments or cheese. You could say it was a corned beef sandwich. But I called it a Reuben.

One day when I was about 8 or 9, we had gone out to lunch and I ordered a Reuben. Without thousand island dressing, sauerkraut, or Swiss cheese. On rye. The waitress started arguing with me, that I wanted a corned beef sandwich. I insisted that I wanted my customized Reuben. It was like the toast scene in Five Easy Pieces.

I have no idea why this waitress felt the need to argue with a little girl. but when I saw that chefs at New York restaurants insist that customers eat their food the chef’s way, I thought I’d better make my own Reuben. And now I even like Swiss cheese, sauerkraut and pumpernickel bread, though I still hate thousand island dressing.

Yves Meatless Salami
Pumpernickel bread
Swiss cheese
Sauerkraut
Mustard

Drink enough Guinness Stout and you won’t even notice the missing meat.

10 tips for family travel deals

2011-03-09T18:49:00.000-08:00

As gas prices and airline fares soar, families are looking at ways to save money, yet still take a fun family vacation. You can find deals and follow these tips to save money.

Travel Off Season
1. It can be very difficult to find ski deals Christmas week, or a cheap beach house in the Hamptons in August. Consider traveling in the ‘shoulder’ season, the time before or after the high season.

Public School breaks
This can be the most expensive time for family travel. For example, public schools in New York City have a week off in February around President’s Day, and ski vacations and flights to Florida shoot up in price. If you can take your kids out of school a day or two early, you can snag a better deal.

3. Snacks
Pack your own snacks so you don’t have to rely on overpriced convenience stores or, worse, yet, snacks at theme parks or tourist attractions. Because my family is vegetarian, I always have plenty of healthy snacks in case we can’t find suitable food. Bring refillable water bottles.

4. Car rental
Book your rental car, at a refundable rate, as early as possible. Then check prices again a week or two weeks before your trip, and again the day before. Agencies often run specials when they have a lower than expected rental rate and you can take advantage of that by rebooking at the special rate.
Car rental, step 2 Check priceline.com after you rent your car. you might be able to snag an even better deal. Bid low; you can always bid again if your bid is rejected. Priceline rentals are non-refundable, so no more price checking after .on.

6. Car rental, step 3
Bring your own GPS, toll pass and car seat so you don't have to pay extra to rent these.

7. Public transportation
You might be able to forgo the rental car altogether and save even more money. Since kids often love riding trains and buses, see if you can just utilize these.

8. Museum memberships
If you are visiting a city or region with a local children’s museum, science museum, zoo or botanic garden, bring all your membership cards with you. Many non-profits offer reciprocity and you can have fun, like a local, for free.

9. Go Vegetarian
When you dine out on a family vacation, consider the vegetarian options. They are often several dollars cheaper than the rest of the menu.

10. Do Your homework
Research your chosen destination’s local convention and tourism bureau for free family-friendly events and attractions.

I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Alamo blogging program, for a gift card worth $25. For more information on how you can participate, click here.

Coming Home from a Family Vacation

2011-03-08T12:49:00.000-08:00

I was recently passing through the Orlando airport on the way home from the travelingmom.com Disney retreat and since my flight was at 6:30pm and airlines don’t serve meals on domestic coach flights, I had to find vegetarian food.

The results were grim.

In my little neck of the woods, the Delta terminal, an Outback restaurant had no vegetarian food on the menu. The Starbucks had only chicken sandwiches left and a place I’d never heard of did have broccoli cheese soup, but everything else looked so unappetizing, I didn’t want to chance the soup.

There was a veggie burger at Burger King, which sat forlonly while everyone else scooped up hamburgers. Since no one could tell me if it had been cooked on the same grill as the meat, I avoided it. Good thing; I found out later that it had 1030mg of sodium.

I wound up at The Smoothie King where people are deluded into thinking they are choosing a healthy snack. My peanut power shake (plus chocolate) had a whopping 717 calories in the 20 oz size, the smallest. I couldn’t finish it, which led me to wonder about the people I saw ordering the large.

OK, I didn’t have to wonder much. They were HUGE.

But since neither calorie nor nutritional information was posted, how could people make an informed choice?

When I go to Starbucks, the cinnamon chip scone looks appealing, but since by NY State law, the calories are posted, I know this indulgence will cost me 480 calories.

Which is why it’s so cool that the new Starbucks Petite line has fewer calories and less sugar. The salted caramel sweet square, with chocolate, pretzels and pecans, has 190 calories and 15 grams of sugar.

And if the airport Starbucks had only sold the vegetarian roasted vegetable panini, at 350 calories, I could have had a more filling dinner, at less than half the calories.

My hotel and meals at the retreat were sponsored by Disney. And I found plenty of vegetarian food there.

National Peanut Month

2011-03-02T08:50:00.000-08:00

Peanut butter is a vegetarian mom’s best friend. We usually travel with a jar of peanut butter so we can make a sandwich if we can't find vegetarian food on the road.

I just found out that March is National Peanut Month - who knew? Peanut Butter & Co, one of our vegetarian family’s favorite NYC restaurants, created a pop-up PB&J Art Exhibit with the National Peanut Board.

The exhibit, The Nutropolitan Museum of Art, is open March 4-6 at the Openhouse Gallery. It features photography by Theresa Raffetto. On Saturday and Sunday, kids can make their own PB&J art in an art studio and meet a peanut farmer. The Van Leuwen Ice Cream truck will be on the street from 11am - 4pm, selling peanut butter treats. On Sunday, get PB sandwich cookies, brownies and rice crispy square from the Treats Truck, also 11am - 4pm.

Not only is the gallery free, but every family gets a free jar of Peanut Butter & Co peanut butter. How cool is that? And for every jar given out, another jar will be donated to the Food Bank For NYC.

2011-02-28T14:01:00.000-08:00

I spent 48 hours at Disney World as part of the travelingmoms.com retreat and since this was a working trip, I didn’t bring my kids. In fact, they weren’t invited, and even had they been, one kid is in college, one was skiing with friends and the youngest was on a bar/bat mitzvah trip to Israel.

But still, every time I go away for business, I go through a bit of an exit strategy. So if I were abducted by Martians, these are things my kids would miss:

Dinner. I cook dinner most nights, and try to make double what we need for favorite meals. Then I can freeze half, or we can eat it later in the week, and I only had to cook once.

Dessert. I’ve been baking since I was a kid, and one of the tricks my mother-in-law taught me was to freeze cookies or brownies. Whenever I go away, I leave a batch of peanut butter brownies in the freezer for a treat.

Bread. Over a year ago, I started a sourdough starter, and I’ve been baking bread regularly. I’ve got it down so I can mix a dough in just a few minutes, let the starter work its magic for a few hours, then do the next step when I have time. Although the quality of the bread degrades in the freezer, I leave a couple of loaves for the kids (and my husband) for lunches.

Math homework. I am the math expert in the family, and have had to explain corresponding angles and differential equations over the phone.

Shoes. My three daughters all wear the same size shoes as I do, so we trade footwear. When I go away, I sometimes take shoes that they want with me. When I go south in winter, I leave my boots home for the jackals to pick through.

Humor. We love to laugh in my family, and my kids definitely miss my warped sense of humor.

Compassion. One of my worst trips was when my youngest daughter, who was 5 at the time, had an accident. I was on a plane from Los Angeles and when I turned on my phone at JFK, I had an increasingly sadder series of messages from her.
Estrogen. Try as he might, my husband just doesn’t get it sometimes. When one of the kids has cramps or wants to rant about her period, I am there for her.

But since my kids are teens, and I rarely go away for more than a few days without them, they can handle me being away, reachable by phone, text and email. And when I am away from them, I can enjoy:

Sleep. Our bedroom is a floor below the girls’ bedrooms and we hear every floor creak, toilet flush and late night phone call.

A break from fights. As I said, it’s an estrogen -laden household. Maybe the Martians are interested in three teenage girls?

I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms blogging program, for a gift card worth $25. For more information on how you can participate, click here.

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Vegetarian in Vietnam

2011-02-17T11:55:00.000-08:00

Ok, I haven’t actually been to Vietnam, but Hanco’s, in Cobble Hill and Park Slope, has Vietnamese sandwiches in three vegetarian varieties.

The traditional Vietnamese sandwich, banh mi, combines ground pork, ham, and pâté on a toasted baguette with cilantro, carrots, and daikon radish. At Hanco, the vegetarian variety has tofu, and with all the other flavors, plus the sweet/spicy Srichacha chili sauce, you really won’t miss the meat.

A vegetarian chicken and vegetarian pork variety use the same fake meat used in vegetarian Chinese dishes, and the different textures make these great choices for the vegetarian diner.

Best of all, Hanco’s now has whole wheat baguettes, giving the sandwiches a bit more heft and some fiber. All the sandwiches have mayo and butter on them, too.

The $6.50 sandwiches are perfect for lunch; if you want to have dinner here, you can add summer rolls (shrimp, lettuce, fresh mint, and vermicelli wrapped in rice paper, with a peanut hoisin sauce or garden rolls, swapping the shrimp for cucumber.

Salads have lettuce, cabbage, cucumber, carrot and mint topped with roasted peanuts, fried red onion, and scallion oil

Hanco’s also has a sardine sandwich I have yet to try, with tomato sauce along with the usual Vietnamese condiments.

Drinks include a large variety of bubble teas, with or without milk, (or soy milk, for vegans) all with large balls of tapioca. It is definitely an acquired taste.

Cold and Flu

2011-02-03T08:27:00.000-08:00

If I ever waver about getting the flu vaccine, I think back to when my oldest daughter was a sophomore in high school. It was early in the flu season, around October, and we had not yet gotten our shots. She got the flu and missed a week and a half of school. It was not a kid’s dream vacation, watching movies and reading trashy books. She was really, really sick and when she finally got better, she spent weeks playing catch up with her school work.

My youngest daughter just recovered from a nasty cold - three days of missed school - and we even visited the doctor to make sure she didn’t have some strain of flu that escaped the vaccine. No, just a cold, which she has now passed on to me.

According to Dr Tanya Remer Altmann,a pediatrician consultant for Puffs, the common cold is “the most frequent cause of school and work absenteeism.”

Dr. Altmann offers these tips for avoiding colds:

Practice Healthy Habits (get plenty of sleep, exercise and eat your veggies!)

Wash hands early and often with soap and warm water for 20 seconds.

Soothe cold symptoms by drinking fluids and running vaporizers/humidifiers at night.

Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze and put your used tissue in the trash.

Soften-And Strengthen-Your Blows by selecting a gentle but strong tissue like Puffs Plus with Lotion to help prevent chapping from frequent nose blowing.

I tried Puffs Plus with the Scent of Vicks. It brought me back to my days of have Vicks VapoRub smeared on my chest and gave me the illusion of feeling taken care of. Because no sooner had I sat down, than my young patient bleated about needing a hot drink.

So is the flu vaccine worth it? Nora still got sick, still missed school. But she was out less than half the time, and by the middle of that third day, she was fine. Had freezing rain not been falling, we might have sent her to school in the middle of the day.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to recommend vaccination for everyone 6 months and older this season. For more information, click here

Family travel: U.S. getaway

2011-01-26T12:14:00.000-08:00

Having just returned from Puerta Vallarta, where my brother-in-law treated friends and family to a vacation to celebrate his 60th birthday, I was thinking that my ideal family vacation is one that I don’t have to pay for.

But I’ve taken a number of free vacations and some are far from ideal.

For my kids, now 13, 17 and 19, any adventure related trip is up their alley. They love to ski, and though we haven’t ventured out west, we’ve had great ski vacations at Mount Snow and Smugglers’ Notch. My husband doesn’t ski, and now that the kids are older and accomplished skiers, we don’t even have to put them in ski programs. They ski together and my husband and I cross country ski. We gather by a fire for lunch, have a hot chocolate break at some point, and eat for more than normal, since we are burning fuel.

We have also taken our kids on Backroads bicycle trips. These are great because all the planning is done by the Backroads team. You choose a trip and show up on the appointed day - your bicycle is ready to go, you get a detailed map and snacks, and meals and hotels are arranged. You even have built in friends - on family trips, the Backroads planners put together groups with kids of similar ages.

We are not the only ones who love Backroads. Last year, my siblings and their kids took a family biking trip out West.

But for my money, the best place for an active family to go to in the United State is the all-inclusive Club Med Sandpiper. We have been to several Club Meds, and the mixture of family time and adult-only time is ideal. Kids have their own clubs, where they hang with kids their own age.

My girls are addicted to the circus school, where they perform on the flying trapeze. And when it is too cold to swim - my friends went to Sandpiper over Christmas, during a cold spell - there are tennis lessons, sailing trips, fitness classes.

The food, for vegetarians, fussy eaters, hearty appetites - even dieters - is amazing. Maybe dieters wouldn’t be too happy about the preponderance of food, but if they stick to salads and fresh fruit, they can find low calorie food.

My husband and I have a major birthday coming up (OK, a year away) and we’d love to go with our extended family.

If only we could find a way for my brother-in-law to pay.

I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Alamo blogging program, for a gift card worth $50. For more information on how you can participate, click here.

Vegetarian in Mexico

2011-01-21T12:04:00.000-08:00

At our first meal Puerto Vallarta, my husband asked a waitress if a dish he saw go by had meat or tofu in it. She laughed, “there is no tofu in Puerto Vallarta!” Yet we found tofu, and much more for vegetarians, at Coco’s Kitchen.

In fact, one of the dinner entrees, Coco’s Tofu Steak, had grilled tofu over Chinese noodles, with lots of vegetables. It was delicious. If you eat fish, you could have the Chiles Rellenos, with shrimp, mushrooms and cheese, or the excellent Mahi Mahi, served with jicama and a mango sauce.

There are a number of appetizers for vegetarians, including an avocado egg roll, with sun dried tomato and tamarind, and a simple grilled polenta with red bell pepper. Most interesting and flavorful were the tortilla tacos, with the taco skin made form sheets of thinly sliced jicama. These added crunch to the seared tuna or shrimp with ginger inside. Potato skins with tomatillo salsa or grilled eggplant are other vegetarian options.

Inventive salads included mixed greens with mango, goat cheese and alamonds, and a spinach & strawberry salad. I thought the latter would be too sweet, but the gorgonzola cut the sweetness, and the caramelized pecans had only a touch of sugar.

The simple beet carpaccio, with mandoline thin slice of beet and parmesan cheese, and basil, was perfectly prepared. Meals starts with pita crisps, and a yogurt/garlic dip, gratis.

The corn and bell pepper soup, creamy and not too rich, was perfect on a night where the ocean breezes cooled us. Coco’s only has outdoor seating, open to the street or in a rear patio, under fig trees. With candles and fresh flowers, the restaurant offers casual romance, at reasonable prices.

122 Olas Altas, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Saving Money

2011-01-07T12:23:00.000-08:00

One of my new year’s resolutions is to find new ways to save money, and many websites offer money-saving ideas, even when traveling.

Blackboard Eats provides free coupons for restaurants in New York, Los Angeles or San Francisco. If you live in one of these cities, or happen to be planning a trip, you can sign up for free and get one of the 30% off pass codes, sent to your phone, to use on your travels. We have gotten a couple of these to restaurants we already frequent, so there has been no downside. One caveat: you get just one code, good for one visit, and they are limited.

jDeal has discounts on Kosher restaurants, hotels and more, just in New York right now, but expanding to Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Israel, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The site is geared towards Jewish consumers, but anyone can eat a Kosher restaurant, and the discounts range up to 50% off. Like Groupon, you buy a discount coupon; unlike Groupon, you won’t find deals on cheeseburgers or pork cheeks.

Use those gift cards. My kids get a ton of gift cards, and when they lose them, the money is gone. A free way for them to keep track of their cards is to download them to an iPhone or other Smartphone, using the free SWAGG app. You just show at checkout. If you don’t have a Smartphone, you can still download the gift cards to your web browser and shop online. Did I mention that this is all free?

Another cool thing - you can exchange your gift card, free, if it is one of SWAGG’s participating retailers. Let’s say your tween suddenly hates Wet Seal. She can swtich to American Apparel. Or use it to buy her mom flowers at 1-800 Flowers. Well, a mother can dream, right?

Finally, New Jersey based Daffy's Daffy’s offers discount designer clothes, but this store saved me when I took my niece to Philadelphia. She had forgotten her pajamas, and right across the street from our hotel, a large Daffy’s had a good selection of socks, underwear and PJs. Daffy’s also has a number of stores in New York City, and if you are lucky enough to be traveling someplace warm, they have swimsuits on sale..

Looking forward to 2011

2010-12-16T12:45:00.000-08:00

For years, my kids have been the focus of my life. Even while I worked full time, I made being with my kids a priority, bringing work home and staying up late so I could attend a winter concert or a soccer game.

And about that soccer - while all of my kids played, my middle daughter played at the most competitive level. This meant weekends traveling to soccer games all around the area, plus out of town tournaments that consumed family vacations. She also had practice several days a week, meaning late or disrupted dinners. Though I coach recreational soccer, travel soccer took over all our lives.

As you can see in the accompanying photo, plenty of parents show up for soccer games. In fact, when I didn't show up, people would question me.

Now my kids are getting older; the oldest is a sophomore in college, and next fall, the middle daughter will start college and the youngest will go to high school. Though my kids still mean the world to me, I think that next year, my husband and I will have more free time to pursue our passions.

I have often crammed exercise into times that are convenient for my kids, going to the gym early in the morning or late at night. I truly hate exercising at these times, but I don’t have any other time. If I am not spending my weekends driving three hours to a soccer game, I can take long bicycle rides, and maybe even train for the marathon. I don’t know if I can actually run a marathon, but training may be enough.

2011 will also be the time when we go through our house, getting rid of long outgrown toys like a play kitchen that as been abandoned for years. The books that the girls no longer need can be donated to a local literacy program, but I want to keep the special children’s books that I read to my daughters before putting them to bed.

There is one small wrinkle in the plan. My soccer-playing daughter has friends in college and the parents would actually drive to college to see the soccer games! They went to games that were six or seven hours away. My daughter does plan to play soccer in college, but I have to put the kibosh on this weekend spent watching someone else have fun. I think we deserve a break.

I wrote this blog post while participating in the TwitterMoms and OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network blogging program, for a $50 gift card. For more information on how you can participate, click here.
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Vegetarian Toothpaste

2010-12-02T09:11:00.000-08:00

It may come as a shock to most people, but toothpaste typically contains detergent. It also often contains a host of other unhealthy things, like synthetic colors and flavors. But Dr. Sharp’s line of natural toothpaste has organic botanicals, no fluoride and is vegan to boot. As someone who avoids the gelatin in marshmallows and chewy candy (it’s meat!) I can truly appreciate a vegan toothpaste.

Of course, you are not supposed to eat your toothpaste, but it does go in your mouth, and fluoride toothpastes contain warnings about kids under age six using. The Dr. Sharp toothpaste is safe for kids to swallow, and the strawberry cream kids line offers a nice child-friendly flavor. If your kid has a more sophisticated palate, she can try the mint, or even the green tea flavors.

Dr. Sharps’ paraben-free paste contains no sodium lauryl sulfate or alcohol. The eco-friendly toothpaste packaging is printed with soy ink

Holiday tech shopping tips

2010-12-01T08:21:00.000-08:00

Hanukkah is here and Christmas is right around the corner. If you check the list of almost any teen or tween, you will find tech toys listed. But before you shell out money, consider a few things:

1. Find out if the household is Mac, PC, or both. There is nothing more disappointing than unwrapping a gift that your computer system doesn’t support.

2. If you are buying for a niece, nephew, grandchild or friend, check with the parents before buying a tech gift. Maybe they don’t want their child to have a laptop, or a KindleKindle. And if you want to buy an iPhone, for a kid, make sure the family has AT&T.

3. Check the return policy before buying any tech items. Some store or websites might charge a restocking fee, or refuse to accept returns of any tech items. Others require a gift receipt, which you can include in the card. And if you are sending a gift from a store, not a website, make sure that the recipient can return it if need be to a store where he lives.

4. Many people think their kid is advanced, and can handle a game or toy designed for a much older child. But age recommendations should be carefully considered. A young child may not be able to manipulate small buttons, or understand the complexities of a video game designed for an older child.

5. When buying video games, pay attention to the ratings. If your nephew requested a violent video game, check with his parents before buying it.

6. If you are buying a tech toy at a store, try it out before buying to see if you like it. Try to put yourself in your grand daughter’s shoes – is this appropriate and fun for her? If you are buying online, read reviews from a neutral site like Dr. Toy.
Finally, see if you can find a non-tech accompaniment to the tech toy, to further the fun. If you are buying a drawing game for a computer, include a sketch pad and craypas. If you are buying a Wii football game, give a real football as well.

I wrote this blog post while participating in the TwitterMoms and Staples blogging program, making me eligible for a $50 gift card. For more information on how you can participate click here.
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Got Curls - Giveaway

2010-11-23T10:12:00.000-08:00

If you have curly hair, you understand the concept of a destination haircut. Recetly on twitter, a travel editor wondered about that – she was at Devachan, in Soho, when she met a woman from the Midwest. I am a Devachan devotee myself, and have also been to Ouidad, in midtown (there’s a branch in Santa Monica as well), another curls Mecca.
But if you don’t want to travel for a cut, you can buy Devachan or Ouidad hair products. Another new product specializing in curls, Curly Q, specifically targets kids ages 2-12.

And I am giving away a Curly Q Princess Glaze Sample Kit.
You get
Curlie Cutie Cleansing Cream
Coconut Dream Conditioner
Moist Curls Moisturizer
and
Curly Q Princess Glaze
The organic products moisturize and enhance curls, leaving them bouncy and frizz-free.

To enter, follow my blog, and leave a comment about your curly headed kid.

Get another entry by following me on twitter, @judy511 and RT the following:

Got curls? Follow Veggie Mom and tell her why your kid needs Curly Q for a chance to win a Princess Glaze kit.

Winner will be contacted by Dec 20

No Turkey for Me

2010-11-22T14:14:00.000-08:00

I used to cook a mean turkey. Haven’t eaten it since I was a kid, but I took over the Thanksgiving turkey when I read that you could improve the bird by rubbing spices on the skin and sticking butter and herbs under the skin. I didn’t want my family to endure a dry, tasteless bird.

I even used to make turkey stock afterwards and distribute it to the meat eaters in the family.

But I stopped cooking meat when I was pregnant with my first child, and I don’t get involved in the basting, stuffing, carving, or eating.

Until a near crisis this year. We are having our youngest daughter’s bat mitzvah 2 days after Thanksgiving, so my sister-in-law, our usual host, invited my husband’s family as well.

Then her father got sick and we became plan B – 45 guests, most of them expecting turkey, on Thanksgiving. I considered insisting on a raw, vegan meal, but I really have no interest in that.

But my sister-in-law decided to host after all. My oven gets to stay poultry free for another year.

Holiday Diets

2010-11-19T13:01:00.000-08:00

Fall is an eating fest, from raiding your kids’ Halloween stash to holiday parties. I’m almost happy to be a guest at a Christmas dinner where roast goose or ham is the main attraction; I can not eat and give my stomach a rest.

But, even if no one thought about the vegetarian at the table, there are Christmas cookies, spiked and rich eggnog and platters of cheese, all tempting and all guaranteed to put inches on your waist.

So I was thrilled to try out Shapercise, a combination exerciser and Spanxlike shaper. The body contour-er not only makes your stomach look flatter, if actually burns calories as you wear it.

Shapercise has a high waist body shaper, great under tight dresses, and a regular waist shaper. The ‘regular’ waist is about a foot higher than where my teens wear their jeans, but then, Shapercise is not for teens; it is for the moms who had those teens and still don’t have the washboard abs of their youth.

It is made with breathable cotton and Lycra, so you won’t get hot while you wear it.

The shapewear, which you wear without underwear, is smooth and non-restricting, though it does take longer to tug on than underwear. It doesn’t replace a visit to the gym, but Shapercise does offer a light resistance workout while you go about your every day activities.

Though if those activities include frequent trips to the cookie jar, you may want to rethink your exercise plan.

Dining in NoHo

2010-11-15T13:23:00.000-08:00

There are so many good restaurants in my NYC neighborhood that I often forget about places just a couple of miles, but a bridge or 10 subway stops away. Five Points has been in NoHo for 11 years, but I hadn’t been back recently.

The restaurant is perfect for carnivores and vegetarians. A wood-fired oven cooks meat and pizzas and the emphasis on local, seasonal vegetables means everyone can eat well.

Salads are a highlight. We tried two: Treviso (radicchio) and escarole, with a lemon0anchovy dressing and shavings of pecorino cheese. It was billed as coming with a soft cooked egg, and I imagined a runny yolk melting over the greens, but the egg was hard boiled. No matter, it was still tasty, and there was no risk of salmonella.

The other salad, chanterelle mushrooms with squash, polenta and mascarpone was finished in that oven and came bubbling to the table. It could easily be an entrée with a salad.

But then you would miss the pasta. Whole wheat cavatelli comes with roasted Brussels sprouts, squash, and pistachios and spaghetti is garlicky and larded with clams.

The only disappointment was the pizza with potatoes, fontina cheese and white truffle oil. Sometimes I order a dish that is supposed to come with bacon or speck and it is missing a flavor. This dish came as is, but needed another flavor – sundried tomatoes? Olives? Something to balance the richness of the cheese.

Five Points has a couple of seafood dishes and steak, all cooked in the wood oven.

Thanksgiving appetizer

2010-11-12T10:30:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving can be a tough time for vegetarians – some people are so focused on the turkey that they don’t give enough thought to the side dishes.

But if you are a guest at a Thanksgiving dinner with lots of good side dishes, you can usually make a meal of sides, as long as the stuffing isn’t cooked inside the turkey, the Brussels sprouts don’t have bacon and the re is soup and salad.
If you are hosting the meal, though, and you don’t want to serve turkey, you may get complaints. I used to make a turkey for my family, but it started grossing me out, so we did without the turkey for a few years. When my sister-in-law started hosting the meal, she made turkey, and I contribute chestnut or squash soup, chocolate pecan pie and regular pecan pie, and maybe an appetizer.

I have this habit of always making a complicated new dish and springing it on guests. But Bobby Flay, chef and owner of Mesa Grill and Bar Americain, recommends sticking with staples, making the same dish a couple of times to make entertaining easier.

But because we have my daughter’s bat mitzvah Thanksgiving weekend, 35 out of town guests, high school applications due for the same daughter and college apps due for another, I decided to try out Bobby’s easy balsamic-glazed stuffed mushrooms. They are easy to whip up, don’t require any hard to find ingredients and they taste great.

BALSAMIC-GLAZED STUFFED MUSHROOMS
A Bobby Flay Recipe

6 servings

Prep Time: 15 minutes Cook Time: 25 minutes

20 cremini mushrooms, stems removed and finely chopped
2 Tbsp. olive oil, divided
2 medium shallots or 1 small onion, finely chopped
Pinch crushed hot pepper flakes
2 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh parsley
2 tsp. fresh thyme leaves, chopped
1/2 cup Hellmann's® or Best Foods Real Mayonnaise, divided
2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar, divided
4 Tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese, divided
1/4 cup plain dry bread crumbs, toasted

Preheat oven 400°.

Toss mushroom caps with 1 tablespoon oil in large bowl. Season, if desired, with salt and pepper. Arrange mushroom caps in 13 x 9-inch baking dish, stem-side-down. Bake 10 minutes or until golden brown. Remove mushrooms; drain liquid. Return mushrooms to baking dish, stem-side-up.

Heat remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil in 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat and cook shallots, stirring occasionally, 1 minute. Stir in mushroom stems and cook, stirring occasionally, 8 minutes or until tender. Stir in hot pepper flakes, parsley and thyme. Season, if desired, with salt and pepper. Turn into medium bowl. Stir in 1/4 cup mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon vinegar, 2 tablespoons cheese and bread crumbs. Evenly spoon mixture into mushrooms.
Combine remaining 1/4 cup mayonnaise with remaining 1 tablespoon vinegar in small bowl. Season, if desired, with salt and pepper. Drizzle over mushrooms, then sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons cheese. Bake 15 minutes or until mushrooms are golden and heated through.

Unhappy Meals

2010-11-10T11:50:00.000-08:00

Last year, parents in Park Slope were outraged when a new ‘family friendly’ restaurant opened without including a children’s menu.

Dr. Rallie McAllister would be pleased. Dr. McAllister, author of Healthy Lunchbox and The Mommy MD Guide, urges parents to avoid kids’ meals, though when you are traveling, it isn’t always so easy. The fried foods, sugar and salt make these terrible choices.

My own bugaboo is when the kid’s meal vegetarian option is spaghetti, served with French fries. If we don’t eat offer a few fresh veggies – broccoli and dip, carrots, grape tomatoes – how will we get kids to choose healthy food on their own?

San Francisco, though makes it easy to eat healthy. Even at the interactive Exploratorium science museum, you can get a sandwich filled with local, sustainable produce. Compare this to the Boston Children’s Museum, which has a McDonald’s on-site. Or to hospitals around the country that have McDonald’s in the building.

San Francisco also recently banned promotional toy giveaways with children’s meals filled with too many calories and too much salt and saturated fat.
Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity just released a study that says “the average kids’ meal contains 616 calories, which may meet the needs of older, more active children, but provides too many calories for most younger children. If your child is 2-5 years old, she required 410 calories at lunch or dinner, or a third less.

And if you examine the study carefully, you see that the lower calorie counts come when you choose low fat plain milk for your child. If you let him get a soda or chocolate milk, or add cheese to a burger, the calorie count is much higher.

Dr. McAllister suggests parents let their kids eat some of their own meal, noting that restaurant portions are often so large that adults don’t need to finish them. In fact, last night, I had an excellent barley and wild mushroom risotto at Alchemy and brought more than half of it home. My daughter, after two hours of soccer, ate the remainder. We were both stuffed.

And not a bit of fried food passed our lips.

Hotel Dining

2010-10-29T10:57:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid, the only reason we ate at a hotel was we were staying at Howard Johnson and kids ate free. Now, hotel restaurants are destinations in and of themselves, and on a recent trip to Boston, we ate at Henrietta's Table in The Charles Hotel, but we weren’t even staying there.

The market focused restaurant, which has a large outdoor patio in warm weather, relies on local farms to supply it with produce. So the huge salads are an excellent way to start a meal. Try the simple ‘native’ greens with a lemon vinaigrette or the spinach salad, with blueberries, goat cheese and spicy maple pecan vinaigrette. The latter is a bit sweet with the berries and maple, so I tried it with the lemon- much better. There is also smoked salmon over greens, with a potato wafer and a retro iceberg lettuce (but an heirloom variety) with blue cheese dressing.

I am always happy when a menu offers more than a token vegetarian pasta and no other veggie choice. Here, there is no pasta on the menu, but you can have an entree of roasted carrot, squash, celery root and spinach with quinoa, white beans and farro. This changes seasonally, but when I had it, it was a festival of flavors, each offering a delicious morsel.

You can also create your own vegetable plate from sides: we tried the roasted beets, wilted greens, butternut squash puree and Brussels Sprout. Or get the appetizer of grilled Portobello, with blue cheese but without the bacon vinaigrette, and add some other sides: roasted root vegetables, roasted or mashed potatoes.

Seasonal drinks also offer vegetarians a place at the table; instead of trendy bacon infused drinks, find a Dilly Bean Martini with beans, or the Pepperoncini Martini with pickled peppers. Don’t try to say that five times after a drink or two.

Eating with Carnivores

2010-10-25T13:14:00.000-07:00

Going out to dinner with another couple involves negotiations; what time should we eat, where, when? But the hardest thing for vegetarians is finding a place we want to eat that the carnivores will also like.

Thistle Hill Tavern fits the bill. The new American restaurant, in the south Slope, is committed to local and sustainable produce, dairy, seafood and meat. Locavores and foodies can find plenty to eat and drink here.

And the seasonal produce is so appealing that out meat-loving friends chose vegetarian entrees so we could all share. One salad, a fall green market salad, had speck, which we ordered on the side so we could all taste the roasted yellow beets, honey crisp apples, frisee, pumpkin seeds and pecorino. Even better, the grilled trumpet mushroom salad had  watercress, shallots, piave vecchio and just the right amount of truffle vinaigrette.

Start with home made pickled vegetables, spicy or not, and curried pumpkin fritters, which could have used more tahini sauce. The grilled beans and charred kale give you more than your quotient of daily veggies.

The menu changes frequently, but the burger and vegan burger come with addictive salt & pepper French fries. Make sure someone in your group orders one so you can poach some fries.

Fall vegetarian entrees include a squash gratin with kale and goat cheese, and a rich pappardelle with roasted pumpkin, mushrooms and radicchio. If you eat seafood, go for the grilled octopus, served now with black lentils, olives and roasted parsnips. There are also curried mussels and Arctic Char with cauliflower.

The menu also includes an inventive cocktail list, local beers like Kelso of Brooklyn and Sixpoint on tap, and Brooklyn Oenology, Social Club Red wine, made in Queens with Long Island grapes.

A Better Lunch

2010-10-20T18:00:00.000-07:00

One of the challenges parents face during the school year is sending kids to school with a healthy lunch. My family faces an additional challenge because vegetarian lunches are more limited. But this weekend, families can learn how to “Build a Better Lunchbox” the Loews Regency Hotel in New York City.

The event, which repeats at other Loews hotels throughout the US, includes chef demonstrations and hands-on food stations. Kids get an organic cotton lunch Loews bag with a coupon for a berry smoothie and a $20 donation card for DonorsChoose.org.
They also get recipes for healthy lunches. The wrap, which can be altered for vegetarians by omitting the turkey, has protein and veggies.

Tickets are $25 for advance, $30 at the door (for one child, accompanying adults are free)
RSVP at 212-339-4013 or amandavargas@loewshotels.com

Whole Wheat Turkey-Hummus Wrap
Ingredients:
1 large whole wheat tortilla
¼ Cup Hummus
¼ Cup crumbled Feta cheese
½ heart of Romaine lettuce
1 4 ounce package of sliced turkey
1. Cut half inch strips of lettuce using all lettuce.
2. Warm tortilla slightly to make easy to roll.
3. Spread hummus over half of the tortilla.
4. Sprinkle feta on top of hummus.
5. Distribute cut lettuce evenly over hummus and feta.
6. Place sliced turkey over lettuce.
7. Roll the tortilla from the edge closest to you half way through, then fold up both ends and roll the rest of the way.

Hummus
Ingredients:

1 16 oz can of chickpeas or garbanzo beans
1/4 cup liquid from can of chickpeas
3-5 T lemon juice
1 1/2 T tahini
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4 t of cayenne pepper
1/2 t salt
2 T olive oil
1 t chopped parsley
Drain chickpeas saving the liquid from the can aside.
Combine remaining ingredients in blender or food processor. Add 1/4 cup of liquid from chickpeas. Blend for 3-5 minutes on low until smooth.
Place in a serving bowl; create a shallow well in the center of the hummus.
Add a small amount (1-2 T) of olive oil in the well.

10 Tips: Fun with Vegetables

2010-10-12T13:13:00.000-07:00

I may have been a picky eater when I was a child, but I also ate most vegetables. It was never a problem to get me to eat a salad – I just liked it plain, with no dressing. It was all part of my no condiment stance. But it angered my mother, who insisted I use dressing (why? It’s not the healthy part).

Anyway, at some point I discovered blue cheese dressing and started dumping it on my greens.

With my kids, it was a different story. It was a challenge to get them interested in vegetables, possibly because they had few other choices. Perhaps if I’d plied them with meat, they would have rejected it, as I did, for the veggies. So I had to be creative, and think of ways to sneak veggies into food and involve the kids in the process.

1. Farmer’s markets: from the time the kids were little, we took weekly trips to the farmer’s market and let the kids choose what to buy. When you are faced with a bounty of fruits and vegetables, healthy food is bound to be chosen.

2. Read cookbooks together. And not just ones for kids. I have a huge cookbook collection, and I look through them with my daughters, or let them read them alone, and mark them up with post-its.

3. Cook together. This can be frustrating for kitchen control freaks, but when the result is ownership of the meal, kids are more willing to try exotic foods.

4. Taste tests. Since my kids actually like dressing, I let them experiment with different kinds. We would put out bowls of three kinds of ranch dressing, for example, and let them sample each – by dipping in string beans or baby carrots, of course.

5. Shop at ethnic markets. In NYC, we are blessed with Chinese and Japanese supermarkets, Middle Eastern stores, kosher stores, cheese shops galore. We once visited a Polish store in Greenpoint, Brooklyn and came home with dozens of unknown items.

6. Cut food into fun shapes. Make a radish flower, a heart shaped sandwich, pinwheel wraps, all of which can entice kids to try different foods.

7. Color your food. Let your child add a drop of food color to milk to turn it her favorite color, or make green eggs with food color and spinach.

8. Have a picnic. Food can taste better when eaten on the ground, whether in the backyard or on a blanket on the floor of the dining room.

9. Use different utensils to try different food. Our kids were a lot more receptive to Asian soups when I bought the large ceramic soup spoons that the Chinese restaurants use. And they tried Japanese noodles dishes loaded with vegetables and veggie dumplings when I got them special kid-sized chopsticks.

10. Have breakfast for dinner. But make your pancakes with butternut squash puree or mashed sweet potatoes and serve fried bananas on the side.

Try to keep the mood light and have fun.

I wrote this blog post while participating in the TwitterMoms and The Hub blogging program, making me eligible to get a $50 gift card. For more information on how you can participate, click here.

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Vegetarian Tackles the Flu

2010-10-08T09:10:00.000-07:00

As a Jewish mother, I know the curative powers of chicken soup, but as a vegetarian, I am unwilling to serve my kids fowl. So I take other measures during cold & flu season.

The first is the annual flu shot, recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for kids ages six months and up.

If on of my kids has a sore throat or cold, I have her gargle with salt water, which actually does ease symptoms.

Then there’s using a Neti pot to rinse out your sinuses. I always thought this was rather disgusting, but Water Pik has a new line of SinuSense products to make using a saltwater solution to rinse your sinuses simple. A squeeze bottle and a Neti bottle are both a bit easier to use than a traditional Neti pot, or you can go with the battery operated water pulsator.

Finally, I make spicy vegetarian soup, usually with lots of ginger and chili paste, at the first sign of sniffles. This blasts through your nasal passages and clears you out in no time.

Try this soup, from This Can’t be Tofu! by Deborah Madison

Coconut Red Curry Soup with Butternut Squash and Lime
1 small butternut squash 
4 tsp peanut oil 
1 cup minced onions 
2 garlic cloves, minced 
4 slices fresh ginger 
Grated zest and juice of 1 large lime 
¼ tsp turmeric 
1 to 2 tsp Thai red chili paste 
4 cups vegetable stock 
Sea salt ¼ cup cilantro leaves 
2 tbsp basil leaves, thinly sliced 
1 can light coconut milk 
1 10 oz carton soft tofu
1. Peel the squash with a vegetable peeler, halve and scoop out the seeds, then dice into ½ cubes. 
2. Warm the oil in a wide soup pot. Add the onion, squash, garlic, galangal, lime zest and turmeric. Cook over medium high heat, stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes, then add the chili paste.
 3. Add ½ cup water and scrape pot to dilute the paste, then add stock and ½ tsp salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover the pot and simmer for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, dice the tofu into small cubes and prepare the cilantro and basil. 
4. Add the coconut milk to the soup, followed by the tofu. Simmer until the soup is hot again and the tofu is warmed through, about 5 minutes. Taste for salt, adding more if necessary. Add the cilantro and basil, and squeeze in the juice from the lime.
Serves 4-6

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Veggie Hummus

2010-09-30T10:47:00.000-07:00

Baby food is designed for babies, of course, but the purees can be great additions to soups and stews. I sneak a jar of squash puree into pnacake batter and give my kids an extra dose of vitamin A for brunch.

Actually, Gerber’s new line of organic, “Smart Nourish” baby food, with DHA and choline to support brain & eye development, is sold in little plastic containers, lighter for toting home, but no more handy little jars for spices. But the lighter material also reduces the carbon footprint, so even better.

The farmer’s market vegetable blend, with carrots and tomoatoes, adds undetectable Vitamins A and E to hummus. Just throw a package into any hummus recipe.

Veggie Hummus

2 cans (15 oz. each) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
One 2 pack of Gerber SmartNourish Farmer’s Market Blend with Mixed Grains
1/2 cup tahini
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Fresh chopped parsley

Blend or puree all ingredients except parsley in blender or food processor. Add a little water if too dry.

Garnish with parsley.

Serve with raw vegetables and get your kids to eat even more veggies. Try carrot sticks, string beans, red pepper strips, cucumber spears and broccoli florets.

Chestnut soup

2010-09-27T11:31:00.000-07:00

Nothing says fall like rich chestnut soup. This soup is great for the holidays, but can be served any time during the fall. The chestnuts make it a bit heartier than vegetable based vegetarian soups, so follow with a light main course.

One can roasted chestnuts (Season has a new product, Roasted and Peeled Whole Chestnuts
2 C vegetable broth
2 T butter
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, cleaned and chunked
2 ribs of celery, chunked
1 C whole milk
salt & pepper, to taste
S
aute onion in butter till soft, then add broth, carrots, chestnuts and celery. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer, 40 minutes, or until carrots are soft.

With an immersion blender, puree the soup. Or wait till cool, then blend or puree in food processor.
Just before eating, whisk in milk, then heat.

I use homemade broth, but you can also use Manischewitz All-Natural Vegetable Broth.