It wasn’t rainy today. But it felt like one.

I didn’t sit down to snuggle my kids once until 8 p.m. and that’s a problem. We were coughing, running like mad from there to here and back, Alyssa started crying when she realized I am leaving in the morning on a blog trip, we had to put the garbage out, the towels wouldn’t dry even after nine twists of the knob on the dryer, I got a pimple right on my forehead. You know. Rainy day.

So we made meatball soup. Vegan style. I’m not a big fan of meatless fake-out products. They cost a lot and sometimes taste like cork dipped in dishwater. But if you’re lucky, you can stumble all over a recipe that makes those meatless products into some sort of a treat.

The sort of treat that turns a rainy day into a hysterical dinner conversation. The sort of recipe that melts away the rain.

Yep. This is one of those recipes. I know from experience.

©2012 Cheeky Kitchen

We planted herbs today on the ledge outside our front window. Hung Tibetan prayer flags across the patio. Ate dinner in the fresh air.

Not all days are magical, but some surprise you with their quiet perfection. The unexpected visit of a dear friend. The children offering to set the table, and setting out candles. A late-night swim. Teenagers so exhausted from the day, they put themselves to sleep and remind you with their flickering eyelashes and quiet breathing that they are, indeed, the little babies you cradled just moments ago.

©2012 Cheeky Kitchen

A friend texted a few weeks ago, wondering what in the world I was now feeding my children for school lunch, since Lunchables are officially out as vegans, and the standard PB&J gets a wee bit bland after fifty straight meals. I buzzed her along a list of supremely simple ideas that my kids will actually eat and thought I’d share them with you, because let’s be honest, vegan lunches for kids is a learned skill. And we all need all the ideas we can get.

©2012 Cheeky Kitchen

Who posts a new recipe on Friday at 3:44 p.m.? Well, the crazy girl who’s still unpacking her life, that’s who. Thanks so much for your patience this week. To reward you for sticking by me through thick and thin, being patient on a week with a pathetic amount of posts (and even more pathetic posts), I think it’s high time we celebrate two of the deadly sins.

Greed and lust.

Vegan donut porn, anyone?

©2012 Cheeky Kitchen

John and I just returned from the This American Life Live! event and I’m awash and aglow with satisfying happiness.

It seems that happens more and more. When I look around me. Marvel at this world. Take a moment to look–really look–at the stories happening all around me. The lives moving past me. The mothers bending to kiss toddler curls propped into a shopping cart, the old man with a hat riding his jazzy scooter up the long hill that winds it’s way near our old house, the two girls and one boy clearly ditching high school at ten ‘o nine in the morning. This world is a wonder, isn’t it? Ira Glass has found a way to bottle that and bring it into my ears every week via podcast. Sitting tonight and seeing it all happen live? It was worth every minute to laugh, cry, ponder, ache, sit in silence.

The event airs again this Tuesday. Go. You won’t be sorry.

This recipe sat ready to be posted since early this morning, but it was off to the races from the sound of the alarm, and I literally just got this house quieted down. But not clean. No, clean is aiming high for today.

Since posting my Avocado-Chicken Salad sometime last year, my site has seen an ample amount of visitors oogling all over that recipe. It’s a great recipe, full of loveable things like avocados and avocados. Need I say more? I think avocado’s are the vegetable equivalent of the biblical manna. Gather it in the morning and eat it fast, lest it turn brown and mushy on your arse. But, oh. That flavor. That texture. That avocaaaado.

Now that we’re steering clear of chicken for our souls and bellies and this world we love, I thought is was high time we make a vegan revamp of that Avocado-Chicken Classic. It has strawberries. In avocados.

It’s like manna with lipgloss smeared all over it.

Vegan manna with Lipsmackers.

I think we’re onto something here.

Strawberry-Avocado Quinoa Salad {Vegan}

Yield: 6 servings

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

2 cups quinoa, cooked and cooled
1 can black beans, very well drained
1/2 small Vidalia onion, finely diced
3 avocados, peeled with innards diced and skins saved
12-14 small strawberries, washed and sliced
3 fresh ears of corn, kernels sliced from the cob
juice and zest of 3 limes
3 tablespoons agave
1/2 cup fresh cilantro
salt to taste

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine quinoa, black beans, diced onion, avocado pieces, and strawberry slices. Stir together and toss with corn. In a blender, combine the lime juice, agave, and cilantro. Blend together. Toss over salad and stir gently until coated. Sprinkle just enough sea salt on the salad to give it great flavor. Spoon into empty avocado skins. Enjoy.

Vegan

©2012 Cheeky Kitchen

Remember that day when you were bone-raw from moving to a new house, had boxes packed ceiling-to-floor, a hundred and ninety two freelance assignments to complete, and an oldest son who won an award that was going to be given at the Denver Zoo after a full-day ceremony? YOU HAD ONE OF THOSE DAYS, TOO?! Tell me what happens. Tell me it’s all going to get done. EEK!

Seeing as how I haven’t set foot in the kitchen since last Saturday (but I will for tonight, because that Avocado Salad recipe I’m making for you is just haunting my tastebuds), I’m off to feed my kid churros and zoo crackers while I look for any vegan offering at the Denver zoo. I’ve got a hunch that says I’ll have to steal into the ape cage and nab some lettuce leaves.

As you wait patiently for three cuh-razy fab recipe this week, hop on over to Make it Work Mom, where my beautiful friend, Camille, is celebrating mother’s this week. She asked some poignant questions and I answered them for her beautiful soul. You’ll love what she’s got going on so go check it out.

And hey. Thanks for telling me today will end with fireworks and a foot massage. I was hoping.

©2012 Cheeky Kitchen

We’re sleeping in the new house tonight, a month-by-month rental furnished with crocheted things on the walls and a lot of plaid. It doesn’t smell quite like home. It doesn’t feel quite like home, but I took Alyssa to the Dollar Store tonight, where she spent $16 on crafts and pretty boxes for the desk sitting next to the bed in the loft, and she announced just before bed, “I just feel so glad to have crafts now, I feel like it can be home.”

Instead of calling it the Granny Rental (for realz. You should SEE the pillows in the living room), we’ve all decided to call this short stay in our borrowed townhome our summer Vacation Rental until plans are solidifed and a our new direction becomes clear.

In the meantime, forgive the lack of a Monday morning recipe. The entire spice cabinet is sitting in a cardboard box and my feet are too tired to move me downstairs for unpacking. The rest of the week should be chock full of magnificent recipes, including an Avocado stuffed with the most absurd Vegan Quinoa salad you’ve ever seen, a chocolate donut so purty it’ll make you weep, and some summery noodles you can make in a snap.

No matter where we roam, it’s nice to know that Cheeky Kitchen is still right at home.

XO.

©2012 Cheeky Kitchen

I’m gonna ask you to do something. Then, I’m gonna give you a recipe for Chocolate Bread.

Deal, yes?

We’ll keep it super simple because, you know. Simple is fabulous.

©2012 Cheeky Kitchen

Hey you.

Have you told yourself have daggummed clever you are today?

Well, you are.

And you’re doing amazing things. Really.

And those things matter. All of them. Somehow. Somewhere. They all do.

And you deserve lasagna. That was not a shameless plug for lasagna. It was a real-live, this-recipe-is-better-than-a-chocolate-bar comment and you should take heed.

Because you deserve it.

You also deserve a foot rub.

But this ain’t a foot rub blog, so don’t go getting any ideas.

©2012 Cheeky Kitchen