Vegan Month

One of Kyra's goals for this year was to eat a vegan diet for a month.  She has since decided to do it for three months over the course of this year.
Today is the last day of her vegan month (a friend comes to visit tomorrow, thus four full weeks have been deemed sufficient).
In our family Kyra has been the only one to be completely vegan, though the rest of us have mostly kept to a vegan diet.  Allen and Kyle have had meat on occasion.  I have had the occasional cheese and meat, though I would have to say that the meat I have consumed over the past four weeks is roughly equivalent to what I would have eaten in about 5 days.  So not much meat at all.
The biggest challenge for me was not the diet itself, but the meal planning.  I'm already limited by Allen's allergies and then meat was taken away as well.  I had to completely ignore many of our family's staple recipes.  I spent more time flipping though my cookbooks (yes I have more than one vegan cookbook) and more time preparing our evening meal.
As you might expect we ate more healthy food, though by American pre-processed/fast food standards our diet is already quite healthy.  We ate more beans and more vegetables.  I felt a bit anemic about three weeks in and did buy some ground beef and eat a bit of it over the course of four days.
We are no strangers to tofu and I do know a bit about cooking with it, but I had never done an all day marinade for it before.  Now I have.  The verdict was - eh.  Not great, not horrible.  Kyra pronounced that it would probably taste much better with chicken.
My favorite recipe would have to be curried sweet potato soup - I'll definitely be making that again.  Just wish I had found that recipe earlier in the month so I could have repeated it several times.  Golden spaghetti pie was also a family favorite - spaghetti baked with chopped olives, capers, raisins and bread crumbs.  Simple, fast, tasty and vegan.
There were a few changes I noted with our switch to veganism.  Even though I bought significantly more fresh produce and more organic products, grocery bills were lower without the meat.  I really miss my immersion blender!  I needed it at least four times a week.  Transferring everything to and from the blender was a pain!  My food processor would have been nice as well.  Both appliances are in storage in the states as the voltage change is especially not good for appliances with motors.  I don't know how I would have done it without Post Punk Kitchen (cookbooks and blog).  Love her recipes and love her food.  To mark the end of vegan month, I will be making her chocoate raspberry vegan brownies - and there isn't a single thing about those brownies that says deprivation.
We start veganism again in March (months have been strategically chosen so as not to limit her diet around favorite food holidays - Halloween, Thanksgiving- or family gatherings - family reunion in July - or vacation travel).  Just as I am ready to have some more meal planning flexibility, I suppose I'll also be ready to return to being and almost vegan again a month from now.

French - I have to brag a bit

Since arriving here in Belgium, I have been taking French lessons twice a week in classes that last 90 minutes each.  When I arrived I took an assessment that placed me at an intermediate plus level.  I had retained some of my high school and college French.
As I moved through the first semester of classes gradually what I had learned year ago started to return.  When the new semester came and there weren't enough students at the intermediate plus level to offer that class so I was bumped up to the advanced class.  This was more challenging but even still I was able to keep up with the grammar and just needed to work on expanding my vocabulary.
This year there weren't enough students for the advanced class which means that I was placed into the highest class the center is offering which I would call intermediate plus plus or low advanced.  I've come to the conclusion that it matters little what level of grammar instruction I am receiving, what matters is that on a weekly basis I am speaking and practicing my French.
Most of the time when I am speaking French, I do so with ease.  I can carry on basic conversations and even specialized ones (like about Allen's medical care).  I don't translate my thoughts from English to French.  If I am speaking French, my thoughts are in French (until I hit a word I don't know).
One of the things I am enjoying about learning French at this level is that I have begun to learn expressions and idioms.  It is fun to throw them into a conversation and watch the reaction I get.
My two favorite expressions - fall in (amongst) the apples is a way of saying to faint.  And if you have other things you need or want to do - you would say I have other cats to whip.
The biggest compliment I get when I am speaking French is when I am asked where I am from.  Of course, I do not speak French like a native speaker, but my accent and ability to speak doesn't immediately identify me as American.  So I am not overly butchering a language I have come to love speaking and will miss speaking when we return to the US.

Schoolhouse Rock

If you are my age you remember that watching cartoons was a Saturday morning activity.  In between the shows we'd be exposed to short educational animated songs called Schoolhouse Rock.  These songs were about grammar, multiplication tables, history and science.

Now these songs are a show - Schoolhouse Rock Live! and this winter/spring I'm directing Schoolhouse Rock Live! Jr.  I've got nine kids and we'll be putting on the show in April.  Between now and then we'll be learning songs, lines and choreography.

I've been busy these last few days choreographing the songs.  So far I have most of a Noun is a Person, Place or Thing and a third of Elbow Room.  Still to go I've got to figure out Interplanet Janet, Adjectives, Circulation, Melting Pot, Three is a Magic Number, Preamble, Interjections and two others I've completely forgotten.

The songs and ideas spin around my head throughout the day.  Right now it is kind of fun but I imagine before long I won't much care what the function of a conjunction is.