Dinosaurs in the Valley

I brought the kids today to the Natural History Museum at Amherst College. It is a beautiful space and they have one of the largest collections of dinosaur tracks in the world.

My son enjoyed the Mammut americanum

The staff were very knowledgeable and happy to answer questions. It’s open Tues-Sun and it’s free.

Barefoot has some fun Dinosaur books. Our fav is Thesaurus Rex

Barefoot Book Review Round Up

There are so many Barefoot Books and so little time. Thankfully there are many book reviewers who’ve given us their thoughts on Barefoot titles. Here are a few that I’ve found:

First Tales for Storytime on Big A, Little a
Bear in the Sunshine on Book Carousel
My Granny Went to Market on Saffron Tree
Faerie’s Gift on Curled Up Kids

Eating Our Friends

In the past few months, our house has become vegetarian. I have toyed with the idea for awhile now and I would say that I cooked 75% vegetarian beforehand, so it has not been a shock to my kitchen.

How did it happen?

My husband, meat lover, had an epiphany after listening to a song by a rockin’ kids band called Lunch Money. We saw them perform live and they sang a song that included the lyrics, “We gotta watch out for our animal friends”. That was enough for my husband. Our son lasted a few weeks until he announced that he “wanted to eat his friends”. How about me? I’m thinking of eating meat as a special treat. If someone is serving it I may have some. It has been really fun to discover meat substitutes and grains like quinoa and red lentils. We also got a really great cookbook Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. We keep kosher in our house, so it’s made that easier as well.

Does Barefoot have a book about being vegetarian? You bet. Our brave hero is Herb the Vegetarian Dragon. His fellow dragons are Meat eaters and scare the local townspeople but not Herb. He peacefully tends to his organic vegetable garden and makes Leek and potato soup (yum!). He is an outsider in the Dragon world and at one point is pressured to eat meat to save his life. Herb stays true to himself and helps the dragons make peace with the townspeople.  The book is beautifully illustrated by Debbie Harter.

The web has been a great resource for vegetarian cooking. Do you know of any great blogs or websites about vegetarian cooking? Any recipes to share?