RECIPE: Home Made Vegan Pizza!

If you read last week's "Feature Friday" interview you would know that my family is vegan. I had been vegetarian for 10 years before I made the switch to vegan about 4 years ago. When I met Lauren she was a meat eater but very sparingly and she slowly transformed into a pescetarian life style. We had planned to raise Sierra vegetarian anyway but she was born with an allergy to dairy so that was when we made the decision to be a vegan family. I love our decision and we aren't 'junk food vegetarians' who live off Morning Star and tofu. We do it right and health, although here and there we do indulge in the "vegan comfort foods" which is what today's recipe is, enjoy!

Everything you need to make this delicious vegan pizza can be purchased at your local Whole Foods. Almost all of it could be purchased at any grocery market but the "cheese" is a Whole Foods only kind of thing normally. 

So our pizza is a Pepper, Tomato, Onion, Mushroom and Buffalo "Chicken" pizza! If you're going to eat fake chicken and cheese it's nice to round out with some yummy veggies so you don't feel so badly about the "junk" (yummy yummy junk).

For convenience we got a pre made Organic Pizza Crust which is Whole Foods brand, but you can buy pizza dough and make it yourself if you're feeling like an over-achiever!

Again for convenience we used a Tomato, Basil and Mushroom pre-made pizza sauce by Classico. Again if you're feeling like an over-aciever you can make your own concoction but when you were at work for 9 hours and then with a toddler my guess is you want dinner quick and easy. So using a spoon, scoop and spread the sauce as evenly across the crust as you can.

The 'cheese' is the most important part of any vegan pizza. There are a lot of cheese substitutes on the market for vegan & lactose intolerant pizza lovers out there and BY FAR Daiya Vegan Cheese is your best bet. We've tried just about everything and Daiya comes out the winner without contest. It isn't overly expensive about $4.99 at your super market and it melts perfectly for pizza, quesadillas and sandwiches. Did I mention it's also delicious?

Spread the cheese and a decently thick layer as evenly as you can on top of your sauce.

The next step is optional but in the sake of all that is healthy and yummy it is highly suggested. For our pizza we have some baby-bella mushrooms, green peppers and onions. This will add a great taste, crunch and help your daily intake of veggies. The amount you add is really up to you, it depends how much you like veggies! Feel free to get creative here people.

Just like all the other ingredients we've added up to this point you will distribute as evenly across the pizza as possible. 

The next step is to cut up the faux-meat. Which doesn't taste like chicken it just taste like buffalo tofu bites basically. I hate meat subs that try so hard to taste like real meat. Health is Wealth Foods are usually a pretty safe bet for all natural meat subs that taste good.

Now before you stick this thing in the oven take a good look at all your hard work, this step is not optional. Looks great doesn't it?

Now I like to cook it right on the oven grates as I feel it gives me the crispiest crust which I'm a big fan of. I like my pizza ALMOST burnt. So if you want a softer crust go for a cookie sheet or pizza stone, but if you like your pizza to crunch with every bite go for right on the grate. Set your oven to 350º and set an alarm for 15-20 minutes. The time you leave it in again is up to you, if you like your pizza soft or crispy, etc. We left ours for about 20 minutes and it came out super crispy and perfect.

TA DA! 20 minutes later we have our delicious, crispy, melty perfect vegan pizza! This is a easy, inexpensive and tasty dinner for two that you can make with minimal cooking knowledge or effort. I highly suggest this meal to anyone vegan or not.

P.S. What about the parmesan cheese you say? We all know parmesan cheese and crushed red pepper are key to any successful Pizza. You have two options here one is to use Nutritional Yeast which is your all natural and healthy option as it is FULL of B12 vitamins and taste surprisingly like parmesan cheese believe it or not. Your slightly less healthy option is whats called "Vegan Topping"  and is made by Galaxy Nutritional Foods. I won't lie, it's definitely tastier than nutritional yeast and I prefer it when I can find it.

P.S.S. Please take 2 seconds to vote for us! The more votes, the more exposure, the more support for daddy bloggers! Thanks guys <3 -Craig

Summer fun!

Here are a couple more photos and a quick video from a trip to Wards Berry Farm, enjoy!

Chilling with the fam at Wards Berry Farm, Sharon. from The Hipster Dad on Vimeo.

ooh and dont forget to take 2 seconds to vote for us please! The more votes, the more exposure, the more support for daddy bloggers!

Daycare Blues!

It's 8:02 AM on a Friday and I am sitting in my favorite little coffee shop with a large iced coffee and my laptop. I should be on my way to work but after the morning I had I feel I deserve a coffee, a bagel and 15 minutes to actually sit and decompress before boarding the bus to work. My morning goes one of two ways: good or bad. The way the day goes is dependent upon Sierra's willingness to go to daycare, she always goes, just not always willingly. Some days she practically leaps from my arms and runs to the plastic slide or to the out stretched arms of her teachers, today was not one of those, it was one of these: Sierra clings to my arm, leg, face, etc screaming at the top of her lungs for MAMA MAMA MAMA and trys to wrestle me for her binky. Picture trying to put a cat into a bath tub, it's sort of like that. On days like that I feel like a terrible parent but theres nothing I can do, I need to pay the bills! Sierra is a toddler she doesn't understand work, bills and 'the man' yet. So I shut the daycare door to her screams, crys and pleads and walk with my head hung low to the elevator. See how I need a coffee and a bagel now?


Two weeks from now this will all change, we are taking Sierra out of daycare. Not because we are unhappy with their care or because we can't stand the bad days but because Lauren is a teacher and it is the summer. It better for the family financially to have Lauren stay home with the baby then it would be to have her work some crap summer job and make just enough to keep Sierra in daycare. Even though I know it's our best bet I have very mixed emotions about it. On one hand Sierra loves spending time with us, doesn't seem to miss daycare on the weekends, and we have more of the bad mornings than the good ones, the daycare offered us our spot back in September if we want it, oh yeah and we'd be saving $1350 a month. On the other hand Sierra has been there 9 months and I'm sure even at 1 ½  has developed friendships and routines and I feel badly taking that away from her. I'm unsure if my feelings are valid or if these are just the first time parent worries that don't really matter. To combat Sierra losing the interaction with her friends at daycare Lauren and I have been looking into parent meet-ups for stay at home mom's in our area and believe it or not there are plenty. When I found this out I felt a bit better about the whole situation but still having separation anxiety at the moment.


I'm curious if any one reading this has gone through this same situation. What did you do? Do you feel you made the right decision? Would love your opinions and feedback!

I hope you liked the blog post, if you have a extra second please click below to vote for us on Top Baby Blogs! No sign up, just click! 

A day in the life..

Here are a few of the thousands of photos that get dumped onto my drive every week, they span from Easter to as recent as yesterday. I take a lot of photos, probably too many! After filling 1tb of my new 4tb drive in less then 3 months I realize its probably time to be a bit more selective with what I keep, ya think?

 Both boys love sitting in the window and watching the sun set.

 We sat in the parking lot at Whole Foods for way too long while they cracked up at these dogs!

I will try to regularly keep these photos coming, but in the meantime how about a couple clicks to show us some love? Help spread the word? Thanks! <3

Pampers 50th Anniversary Miracles Campaign

Michael and I have been invited to an exclusive event at the New England Aquarium being hosted by Pampers. The event is Saturday June 18 and we hope to see some of you there! The event is to bring 30 dads and dad bloggers together to network, socialize, and be recognized for their role in supporting others while generating awareness about the Pampers Miracles Campaign on Facebook. Pampers is celebrating their 50th anniversary by kicking off their Miracles Campaign which embraces 50 years of parenting and recognizes that every baby is a little miracle. They are trying to give 'little miracles' to families everywhere in the form of prizes like free diapers for a year and other really helpful things for parents. All year, Pampers will announce different tasks (or missions) on their Facebook page. With your commitment to support a little miracle in your life, Pampers will respond to touch the lives of many more! We will personally be taking part in some of these missions and doing what we can to provide families or families to be with little miracles! You should to! To participate in a Pampers Little Miracle Mission, you can visit Pampers Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pampers.

GUEST DAD: Pete Fazio (of DadAnd.com)

Hi everyone, I'm Pete. I write a blog called dadand.com with my buddy Marty. Our blog is a mashup of all things dad-, and dude-related. DIY, repairs, cars, gadgets, whatever. We like to teach our kids about the way things work and how to fix stuff and explain the world as best we can.

While we ARE a "dad blog" we're not really a get-really-sappy-about-our-kids-so-the-mom-bloggers-get-all-weepy kind of blog. We normally leave the sap to the other 6 million dad blogs, BUT NOT TODAY. Today is a worldwide internet exclusive.


Today I AM going to get sappy about my little bean, Julia. She's called peaches, bean, burger, turkey, tofu burger, J, J-bird, JJ, the list goes on. But after 4 years it's sort of landed on "J".

"Julia sitting on me. No joke, she peed on me like 10 seconds after this pic was taken."

On being a single dad

I've been a single dad for over 2 years now. Time is split 50/50 with her mom. She has no recollection of her me and her mom being married or being in the same house at all. One time after telling her that mommy loves Elvis she actually asked me "Why do you know so much about my mommy?". It's brought Julia and I so close that it's not even funny. We're best buddies, she completely trusts me in every aspect, and she also knows that even though we're buds, what I say goes, and when it's time to get serious and listen to dad she does it without (much) question.

"Hanging in Cape Cod. Photo by mom."

Daddy/daughter adventures

She's a great traveling buddy. We're always on some kind of adventure, it could be anything from going to plays, music shows, to our favorite: friday night trips to the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, NY to something as simple as a trip to the store. We make it fun and make it a mission. She also loves helping me build and do DIY projects, like this treehouse I made from reclaimed deck wood.

"Going whale watching. yes she puked everywhere."



I've seen her grow in so many awesome ways. She loves art, music, nature, bugs, toads, everything. She's fearless. She loves food and trusts that if I ask her to try something that it's worth it. She'll at least give it a shot.

Any dad rants?

YES. Dads, stop yer bragging.

It  kind of bugs me when dads pat themselves on the back for doing stuff like doing tea parties and painting finger and toenails. It's just stuff you do when you love your child. It's expected. I'd almost go as far to say if you're pointing that stuff out then you're kind of saying it should be "woman work" and you're some great guy for "helping out the wife".

Any advice?

I always hesitate to give others parenting advice but If I were going to (and UH OH, it sounds like I'm about to right now), I'd say:

1. Let your kids make mistakes, get dirty, and get a bump on the head once in a while. I think of J like a little lion cub. She's going to poke around in the yard and explore and get dirty and pick stuff up she shouldn't and climb on stuff she shouldn't and fall down. GOOD. I try to be as poised as possible to let her explore freely and swoop in when my spidey-senses start tingling.
2. Don't baby talk to your kids. We've talked to J like an adult since she was born and the kid has an amazing vocabulary and can have a conversation.
3. Make them try new things every day. Food, music, games, toys. I know kids love routine and listening to the same CD over and over, and could eat chicken fingers every day, or tofu fingers, or whatever people are eating now-a-days, but damn man, break them out of that mold. There's nothing more annoying than an adult who won't eat this and won't eat that and picks the tomatoes out of their salads.

Oh, I'm tired of reading my own words and quite frankly I zone out when reading other parents write about parenting so I'm going to peace out. Of course we're always available for any kind of manly advice over at dadand.com and always would love some followers on twitter.com/dadandblog, or likes on FB: facebook.com/dadandblog.

Pete

Read this interview we did for "Feature Friday" !

We just did an interview for our new friend's the Cox Family Blog! Check it out by clicking the screenshot below! We will have a few new posts for you this weekend sorry we slacked last week!

Florida Vacation, part deux!

I think the general consensus amongst all the members of my family would be that the best part of vacation was Red Reef Park in Boca.  The beach was really clean, had crystal clear water, fantastic places to shower and cook out as well as a man made reef that was just a few feet off of the shore:

I took Christian (and the goggles he never took off the entire trip) out to swim around the reef and look at all the fish, he absolutely loved it! The time of year for being down there was perfect so there were not a lot of tourists to deal with, which made this almost empty beach even better! Here are some photos of the beach, our cookout, and the other major place we went down there, Lion Country Safari!

 They only consider MAN O WAR a pest!!!?!?

 Night Swimming!

 I have never seen the boys sleep so well as they do after a day at the beach!

 At the safari you travel on this single lane road at about 5 mph, if that, so seatbelts are not required!

 Flamingos are pompous A-holes, huh?

 We got to feed a giraffe!

 He looks like hes getting some special luvin, knowwhatimean?

My wife is hot.

Thats it!! Although I do feel compelled to add a note here about how amazingly my children flew! Not a single scream from either of them both there and back! We were pretty much amazed, the rest of the passengers were pretty much relieved!