Spaghetti Monsters

July 2 2011. Toby age 2 1/2.

Spaghetti Monsters

Cut 6 hotdogs into 1/2" pieces.
Skewer each piece with 3-4 sticks of spaghetti. I used corn spaghetti to be gluten-free.

Cook in large pot until pasta is tender.

Wibbly wobbly spaghetti monsters!!
Using half pieced of spaghetti would make shorter legs and they would be more like 'bugs' or 'spiders'.

Yum Yum!!

Happy Eating!!

Summer Solstice

June 21 2011. Toby age 2 1/2.

Summer Solstice. The time of year for celebrating sun, warmth and fresh food.

For me, the solstices are like an un-birthday part for the world. The Summer and Winter solstices mark the longest and shortest days of the year based on our journey around the sun. 

We made it another season. The sun is still shining. The Earth is still spinning.

Sounds like something worth celebrating to me.

For Summer Solstice 2011 we had:

Peach and Lovage Salad.

Lemon Sage Whole Roast Organic Chicken.

Roasted Potatoes.

Salad greens form the garden with blueberries and goat cheese.

Strawberry Mint salad for dessert.

Peach and Lovage Salad

6 peaches, diced

Half an English cucumber, diced.

1 Tbsp fresh chopped lovage

Mix gently together in a medium sized bowl. Allow to sit for at least an hour, or in the fridge overnight, before eating so flavours can mingle.

Lovage is a herb that you might not be able to readily find. We grow it here, and I've seen seeds for it in a few places. Farmers markets might have some. Its in the parsley family and has a taste similar to celery with Italian parsley with cilantro. Very 'Summery'.

Lemon Sage Chicken

When cooking chicken in the oven, I always put it in a roasting pan with a lid. Some people don't use a lid, but I find that more moisture stays in and you don't have to worry as much about basting or burning.

With this method you can also put a frozen bird in the oven and in a few hours it's cooked perfectly.
I always put a few cloves of garlic and a piece of bay leaf in the bottom of the roasting pan with a few centimeters of water.
With this chicken I also poured a few tablespoons of lemon juice carefully on top of the bird, along with fresh chopped sage.

I added some more fresh sage near the end because the original stuff shriveled up.
The potatoes were sliced and added to the roasting pan with the chicken about half an hour before the chicken was done. This way the potatoes take on the flavour of the chicken and the herbs.

Chicken was garnished with beet seedlings.

Strawberry Mint Salad

1 cup chopped strawberries

1 Tbsp or several sprigs of finely chopped fresh mint.

1 Tbsp liquid honey.

Mix all ingredients gently in a bowl.

The honey turns the strawberry juice into a syrup and drawn out the flavour of the mint.

Yum Mum!!!

And Vanilla Chai soy milk to wash it all down.

Happy eating!

Kale Chips

May 29 2011. Toby age 2 1/2.

I saw Gwyneth Paltrow talking about her new cookbook on Ellen one day and the recipe she was demonstrating was kale chips. I'd heard people mention them before, I just never paid attention or had any desire to make them. Since Toby was developing an addiction to potato chips, I thought that if he liked this alternative it would at least be healthier for him.

Kale Chips

1 bunch of kale, torn into bite sized pieces in a bowl, stems removed

1 Tbsp olive oil

1tsp salt

Mix together in large bowl until kale is evenly coated.

Line cookie sheet with parchment paper and bake kale in a single layer at 350F for 10-15 minutes, or until edges begin to brown.

--It's really easy to burn them!! I burnt my first batch because I was waiting for them to all turn brown because they didn't look cooked. But brown = burnt! They need to be dark green and shiny still, then they crisp up as they cool.

Also, 1 bunch of kale is A LOT. I used a few leaves in order to cover a cookie sheet, but then you also need to figure out the right amount of oil and salt. Mine were too salty at first.

Kale chips with tofu and kale stir fry and rice with lentils.

 Om nom nom.

Kale chips are kind of an acquired taste. I felt like they were hyped up so much that I was expecting them to taste better than they did. The first couple I ate i was disappointed, but they grow on  you and you find you cant stop eating them. They also fill  you up though, so you don't gorge on them the way you do with potato chips.

Kale is high in beta carotene, Vitamin K, Vitamin C, lutein, zeaxanthin, and calcium. Even if you don't make chips out of it, kale is an amazing addition to your diet!!

Happy Eating!

Potato Leek Soup

April-May 2011. Toby age 2 1/2.

 Potato and Wild Leek Soup

3-4 fist sized potatoes

1/4 cup (approx) margerine, butter or substitute

1/8 tsp salt

1 stalk of celery

1 large carrot

2-3 large (store bought) leeks, or equivalent in baby wild leeks (about 8-10)

3 cloves of garlic
1 cup milk (if substituting with soy milk make sure it is PLAIN and not vanilla or sweetened)
Potato flour to thicken (a few tablespoons)

1 tsp approx chopped fresh Rosemary
1 tsp approx chopped fresh Basil

**Note about leeks: If you use the whole plant your soup will be coloured slightly green. If you use only the white 'bulb' then you will have a creamy white soup. You may need more or less leeks in the recipe depending on which method you use.

Chop potatoes, place in large pot and cover with warm water.
Chop and sautee celery, carrot, leeks and garlic with the margerine and salt, only until all vegetables are coated.
Add vegetables to the potato pot, bring to boil, and simmer until tender.
Add milk and bring to a heat again, but don't boil. Turn the stove off.
Using potato masher or hand bender, puree the mixture in the pot.
Add potato flour to thicken if desired. Sprinkle a tablespoon at a time while stirring until desired thickness is reached.
Add chopped fresh herbs.
Cover and let sit for about 10 minutes to allow flavours to steam through.

Yum Yum!! Toby ate tonnes. 

I've also made this as a Potato Rosemary or a Potato Sage soup, omitting the leeks and adding way more of the desired herb at the end.

An easy version of this is to add all the potatoes and veggies to one pot, stir in oil or margerine over heat, add water and boil until tender. Mash and add desired amount of milk, thickener and herbs at the end.

Happy Eating!!

Spring Rolls

April-June 2011. Toby age 2 1/2.

I had a craving for spring rolls.

This resulted in watching a bunch of youtube videos to figure out what the heck to do, much like the beginning of the sushi phase.

But finding a recipe proved to me much harder.

It's not as though there's a shortage, on the contrary there seems to be thousands.

But they're all so DIFFERENT.

Some had weird spices and vegetables that I didn't think I'd enjoy eating. Some didn't seem to have enough.

I finally found a few that seemed right, and based what I did off of that.
Off to buy rice paper!
Rice paper, for wrapping, can be found in most major grocery stores, or Asian food markets.
It's round and thin and hard and comes in a package of about 25.
To use, dip the rice paper in a pan of very warm water until soft, lay on your work surface, add filling, and roll up. There are various rolling techniques, I suggest poking around  youtube before you start.

Spring Roll attempt #1

Purple Cabbage

Carrot

Red and green pepper

Mushroom

Tofu strips

Cilantro

Sesame oil.

Looks great. The first few bites were ok. Then I just kind of got sick of the flavour.

I'm not a huge fan of sesame flavour to begin with, and I also think that the tofu didn't pair well with all the other tastes going on. However we had fun trying it out.

Toby picked at some of the innards but didn't really want to hold or take a bite of the whole roll.

Spring Roll attempt #2

Purple cabbage

Carrot

Bean sprouts

Snow peas

Cilantro

Basil

Soy sauce

I think I liked these better than the first ones, but there was still something about them that I got tired of after a while..

Toby ventured to try an actual roll this time, but got frustrated with it and opted for a fork.

Spring Roll attempt #3

Somewhere along the line, while I was eating a salad, that THIS was the kind of thing that needed to be in my spring rolls. Something with a dressing that I didn't get sick of. Something light and crunchy, but not hard to chew.

Then I thought.... Salad rolls... hey why not?

Salad A

Mixed salad greens from the garden

Cucumber

Mushrooms

Asian sesame salad dressing.

Salad B

Mixed greens from the garden

Guacamole(recipe as follows)

2 avocados, juice from half a lime, pinch of salt, pinch of cumin, half a red pepper chopped fine, 2 Tbsp fresh chopped cilantro, dollop of vegan mayonnaise (original recipe said to use sour cream).

Mash together until smooth and creamy.

The ones with salad dressing were good, the ones with guacamole were GREAT.

Toby even ate one.

Really, anything goes with spring rolls. Kind of like sushi, just whatever you have and whatever you want to eat. Some people like them crunchy, or with seafood. I guess I prefer mine mooshy.

A great summer dinner that requires no cooking! Very filling!

Happy Eating!

Homemade Chocolate

February 2011

I'm not really an advocate for feeding chocolate to kids, but I found this recipe for 'healthy' chocolate, and it can easily be adapted to be kid friendly.

Dairy-free, Sugar-free Chocolates

1/2 cup coconut oil
3 to 4 tablespoons of almond butter
1 tablespoon of honey
1 to 2 tablespoons of coco powder

Coconut oil turns solid when it cools and is essentially what holds these chocolates together, and thus cannot be substituted.
The original recipe says to blend ingredients in a blender and then press into molds. I ended up melting the coconut oil on the stove and then mixing it into the rest of the ingredients, and then pouring it into mini cupcake cups in a pan.
Put the pan in the freezer to solidify the mix.
For a softer type of chocolate, keep in the fridge after the mix had hardened, and let sit out on a plate for a minute before eating.
If left out of refrigeration for too long, however, the mixture will re-goopify.

To make these kid friendly you can substitute the honey for Agave nectar (because babies under 1 year should not consume honey, and some people prefer to wait even longer than that before introducing it), and the coco powder for carob powder (because chocolate contains caffeine and caffeine makes bouncy kids).

I also experimented with different toppings, like sliced almonds and berries.

You can change the nut butter used for a different flavour too.

Yummy treats without the guilt!

Happy Eating!