Nourishing the Emperor One Day at a Time

Sunny Avocado and Pumpkin Seed Salad with Apple Ginger Garlic Dressing

Day 8

Maybe it's because I have been so focused on the types of foods I am currently adding or about to add back into my diet, but I have been neglecting some items I truly love. Nothing says health and goodness to me like a lovely, large green salad. And yet I hadn't eaten one in about a week!

Salads are so easy and incredibly versatile.  They are one of my favorite things.  It doesn't hurt that green salad is another one of the lonely few vegetables my husband will willingly eat.  Sometimes he'll even order a salad!  

As.his.meal.

I'm so not kidding.

As you can imagine, I try to take advantage of his tendency towards salads as often as I can without burning him out.  My dressing of choice has always been sea salt, black pepper, olive or grapeseed oil and rich, dark, aged balsamic, the kind that costs an arm and a leg and comes out of the bottle like maple syrup.  Yum!

Alas, I haven't added vinegar back in to the diet and the nice substitute of a lemon viniagrette is now sadly a thing of the past, as I just discovered I have at least a lemon intolerance and quite possibly, an entire citrus intolerance.  I can't tell you how traumatic this realization has been for me.  

I buy lemons by the bagful.  And I'm not exaggerating.

But, I digress.

I found an amazing non-citrus dressing on my most favorite blogs, Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen called Green Apple Salad Dressing.  Making this simple little dressing has proven to me there can be life after lemons!

So tonight, I whipped up this dressing and made a simple salad for dinner.  I was pretty positive the little boys would turn up their noses, but I have decided to continue to try salads on a regular basis.  They are just too good to pass up.

Ali's Dressing

1 tart green apple, cored (granny smith)
 1/2 cup filtered water
 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
 3-4 cloves garlic
 1-2 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled
 Herbamare or sea salt, to taste

Place all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth and creamy.  Add salt to taste and process again.

Sunny Avocado and Pumpkin Seed Salad

4-5 leaves, green leafy lettuce
4-5 leaves, red butter lettuce
1 medium carrot
1/2 very small sweet onion
1/2 large avocado
Handful raw pumpkin seeds
Handful raw sunflower seeds
Herbamare, to taste

Rinse and dry lettuce and tear or cut into strips.  Slice the carrot into very thin slices on the diagonal. Slice the onion in thin half-moon slices.  Mix ingredients together.  Prepare the avocado by running a knife through a seeded, halved avocado lengthwise without penetrating the skin so that you have long thin strips.  Then go the opposite direction to make little cubes.  Then take a spoon and scoop the avocado from the skin and you have easy, non-messy cubes of avocado for your salad.  Sprinkle with pumpkin and sunflower seeds.  Drizzle with dressing.

My Notes:

I've noticed if your apple is really small, you may want to consider using 1.5 or 2 apples.  I also use 2+ inches of ginger.  Though Ali warns you can go overboard with the ginger and it can give the dressing a bitter taste.  I have not had that happen.  When I do this again, I am going to toast the seeds beforehand.  I've only recently rediscovered the joys of pumpkin and sunflower seeds.  If you don't use them often, you should consider doing so.  They are a great addition to salads, vegetables, anything really...  One more thing:  If you don't know what Herbamare is, you should.  It is a fine sea salt and herb mixture that is heavenly on just about everything.  I got mine from Amazon.  A large container was around 9-10 dollars.

Results:

I think this is one of the most amazing combinations of flavors.  The dressing has a strong garlicky, ginger taste.  That, mixed with the mellow smoothness of avocado and the sweetness of carrots and sweet onions is wonderful.  The seeds add a chewiness that goes well with the smooth avocado and crunchy carrots and greens. All in all:  perfectly and delightfully satisfying as a vegan main meal.

Unbeknownst to me, Moose apparently does not care for ginger.  Funny how I am only just now finding this out!  Thankfully, I didn't drizzle the dressing on the whole salad.  He ate his with organic ranch from Trader Joe's.

I realized the boys would probably not make an entire meal out of my salad like I did.  So, I heated up the last of a simple tomato and cheese pasta bake I had made for all of them several days ago.  Max dipped his finger in the dressing and continued to eat the dressing, but would not touch even one leaf of lettuce or carrot.  He then devoured the pasta bake and I do mean devoured.  He ate an entire bowl.

I couldn't get Rowan to try even one bite of the salad.

Ah well... there's always next time.

Antioxidant Fig Smoothies

Day 7

I've been drinking green smoothies daily, while doing an elimination diet to determine what food sensitivities/allergies/intolerances I might have.  While I genuinely enjoy them, I know without a doubt that I cannot get them into the boys, which is a shame because they are chock full of vitamins and nutrients and fiber.

Then I saw a recipe for an antioxidant smoothie on The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen website.  I modified the recipe slightly to incorporate berries, fruit and greens I could find locally, including fresh figs.  Figs are nutritional powerhouses, with more fiber per serving than any other common fruit and more calcium per serving than milk.  Did you know that?  I did not.  They are also rich and yummy, which is why I bought them.  It wasn't until I got home and looked them up that I found out how great they are for you.  As soon as my diet is a little less restrictive, I'm going to play around with them in savory dishes.

Rainbow chard is in abundant supply in my garden currently.  It is a great source of potassium, fiber, vitamin A and has about 3-4 grams of protein per serving. It can be utilized as a substitute for spinach in many recipes and apparently, its stalks can be prepared and eaten much like asparagus, though I did not know this until I looked it up.  To think I've been growing it for years and have always just discarded them!  I'll have to try this and post on it in the future.

Actually, I don't really discard them.  Did you know you could save all the trimmings from your vegetables, including the papery outsides of onions and garlic and make a lovely vegetable stock with them?  As I am peeling vegetables or trimming them up to use in recipes, I save everything I remove and place them in a plastic bag, which I keep in the fridge.  Then every couple days when the bag is getting full, I dump them in a large stockpot and cover with cold water.  Bring it to a boil and then turn down to a simmer for 1-2 hours.  Strain and cool.  This brings me a great deal of satisfaction knowing I have not let a single thing go to waste, and keeps me in flavorful stocks which can be expensive to constantly buy pre-made.

One last thing:  drinking greens in a smoothie is incredibly good for you.  You've lost no nutrients due to cooking and they are much easier to digest.

The original recipe calls for blackberries, blueberries, italian plums, peaches, apples and spinach.  Here is my modified recipe:

Antioxidant Fig Smoothies

1 white nectarine, pitted
4 fresh black mission figs, stems removed
3 italian plums, pitted (or 1 large regular plum)
1 small container red raspberries (1-2 cups)
1 small container blueberries (1-2 cups)
Rainbow chard, rinsed and torn with middle stem and stalk removed
2 cups water

Place the fruit in a high powered blender.  Add as much chard as will fit in the blender and pour water over the top.  Blend until completely smooth and creamy.

My Notes:

Using chard gives this smoothie a distinctly 'greenie" taste.  I've read recently that spinach (especially baby spinach) is far milder and blends in with other flavors better.  However, I have an abundance of rainbow chard in my garden that I'm trying to eat before the cool nights do it in.  I also don't mind the flavor of chard or greens of any type in my smoothie.  If you do, I would suggest trying spinach, specifically baby spinach, first.

Also, you may need to blend this for 5 minutes or longer, depending on how much power your blender has.  You'll know it's ready when you can no longer see bits of green swirling around in the blender.  I turn my blender on and then go about cleaning up.  I've made the mistake of not blending greens long enough and it's not a pleasant drink.

I make this the night before and chill it in the fridge overnight to enjoy in the morning and throughout the day. 

Results:

I will attempt to get the boys to drink this today and will update their opinions later.

Personally, I loved it and am thinking about going to get another pint of figs to freeze so I can enjoy this later in fall!  It has a rich, deep flavor and texture somewhat like prune juice.

Gingery Beef and Cabbage Potstickers

Day 6

I am so far behind in posting that I am beginning to realize I am going to have to at least start making notes as I cook something, instead of relying on it being readily availble in my cluttered little mind days later.  However, I am going to do my best to recall the ingredients of a scrumptious little recipe I made on Day 6 for boys3 (Moose, Max and Ro).  Unfortunately, I made this on a work day, before I went to work and when I got home to steam the little gems, I completely forgot to take a picture. I am planning to make these again.  So, I promise to snap a shot then.

After the trip down American snackfood lane and its relative success, I started thinking about placing good-for-you items in little tasty packages.  On my day of desperation, when I was standing in the grocery store with both boys screaming at me for cheese, I neglected to mention that I also picked up a pack of wonton wrappers.

The following night, I began brainstorming on what ingredients I could incoporate that would be palatable to everyone and would also be relatively indistinguishable in a potsticker.  I've been reading a great deal about the health benefits of cabbage, courtesy of The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen.  Cabbage is a potent detoxifier, can aid in detoxifying carcinogens and the destruction of human tumor cells.  Cabbage is also one vegetable that Moose will willingly eat.  Ginger is a powerful anti-inflamatory and gives things a lovely zing.

I decided both would go into the potsticker, along with the last of my zucchini from my garden, half a red bell pepper I needed to use up because I'm not eating nightshades currently, a tiny (and I mean fit in the palm of my small hand) sweet onion (walla walla from my garden), garlic and of course, meat.  Nothing says 'mmmm good' and this is a 'MEAL' to Moose like meat.  I thought I had pulled out a package of frozen ground pork, but realized after it thawed that it was lean ground beef.

And so I give you:

Gingery Beef and Cabbage Potstickers

(Disclaimer - I am recreating this in my mind from memory.  Amounts are approximate, but I doubt you could go wrong if I am slightly off! :)

1 cup nappa cabbage
1/2 medium red bell pepper
1/3 medium zucchini
1 tiny onion (the equivalent of 1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped)
1 clove garlic
1/2 piece of peeled ginger
1/4 lb lean ground beef (or pork, or chicken or turkey)
2 tbsp sesame ginger teriyaki sauce
1/2 package wonton wrappers
small bowl of water

Place cabbage, bell pepper, zucchini, onion, garlic and ginger in food processor and pulse several times until finely chopped.  Don't just turn it on or you'll puree the mixture.  In a mixing bowl, mix the ground beef and the processed vegetables.  Add the sauce and combine well, without compacting the meat.

On a working surface, take a wrapper.  Place 1/2 teaspoon of the mixture in the middle of the wrapper.  Wet the edges of the wrapper with your finger and water.  Fold the wrapper over until the edges meet and press down to seal all edges.  Place the completed pot sticker on a cookie sheet sprayed with non-stick cooking spray and cover with a damp papertowel.

Repeat until you've used all wrappers or mixture, whichever comes first.

At this point, you can do one of three things.  You can immediately steam them or you can keep them in the fridge to steam later or you can freeze them on the cookie sheet and place them in a ziplock bag or container once frozen.  I've done each of these with any combination of potsticker fillings and it works fabulously. 

However with this recipe, I removed the papertowels and covered in plastic wrap, placed them in the fridge and steamed them when I got home from work that evening.

I steamed them in a steamer for 14 minutes or so.  I imagine you could do the same thing with a steamer insert on a pot.

Serve with a side of the sauce you added in the beginning to dip them in.

My Notes:

I had way more filling than I needed.  I also feel like I didn't stuff them full enough once they were cooked.  I would probably use a teaspoon (or more), as long as the wrappers don't tear when you are pulling them over.  I also served these with a chicken, vegetable and noodle teriyaki stirfry coourtesy of Trader Joe's.

Results:

Moose loved them, but also commented that they weren't as full as potstickers you get in a restaurant.  He had no idea there was zucchini in there.

Rowan ate  more of the potstickers than the stirfry.

Max ate 1 potsticker and then devoured the stirfry, much to my surprise.

I didn't eat them, wontons being full of wheat and the whole red bell pepper business.  I promise to post something in the next several days that ALL of us actully ate.

All in all, I was incredibly pleased with the results of a completely cheese (and cracker) free meal!

Rethinking Nourishment

In the last week, I've been thinking about nourishment and how it relates to a person's overall health.  Then I was thinking about health and what it entails.  Feeling and being healthy involves a sense of well-being in all aspects of one's life.  Reduction of stress greatly aids in this.  My life is extraordinarily busy.  Even if I am home, I barely sit down until the evening.  Such is life with two toddlers, one of whom is still quite a bit higher maintenance than most children.

I've decided to commit to making/trying 365 new or newly modified recipes in an attempt to get them to eat, but I can't kill myself by committing to it being daily.  While I will do my best to do this daily, life gets in the way and this first week was no exception.

I am sitting in the hospital with Max as I write this.  There is nothing wrong.  He had a routine biopsy scheduled.  But, it was supposed to be an outpatient all-day deal.  A day before the actual biopsy, I found out they had decided to admit him overnight.  So, we've been here since 930 yesterday morning. Being in the hospital makes it difficult to cook, as you might imagine.

I still have day 6's recipe to post and I am going to attempt to write that up this morning while the Emperor continues to sleep peacefully.

So, stay tuned...

when all else fails

Day 5

I'm trying to settle into a new work routine which has me out of the house for two half days and one full, something I haven't had to do in years.  And I'll admit I'm none too pleased about it.  However, work has bent over backwards to be accomodating since before Max was born, allowed me to work mostly from home, was understanding about multiple hospital stays, etc.  They were wonderful.

So, when they asked me to come back into the office for two extra half-days now that Max has been transplanted, I didn't feel as if I could reasonably say no.  The two extra days are afternoon hours, which puts me back at home right around the time that the boys need to eat and get ready for bed.

As I've been writing about, Max has basically boycotted everything I've made for him in the last week, save for the delicious Olive Oil crackers, which is disheartening to say the least.  At times, I stand there looking at him in his steadfast refusal with a look of inredulity on my face.  In my head I'm saying, "I can't believe I took all this time to deliberate on the best thing to make for you, to make sure I was getting a good mix of veggies and protein that would taste good to you.   I can't believe I got up at 4am to get things ready, while everyone else (including you) slept until 630 or 7.  All of this I do for you and you won't even take a single bite?  Not even one?  One?  Not one."

Oh yes.  I know he's a toddler.  I know they do this.  I know he is even more stubborn because, well...let's face it:  he has me for a mother and Moose for a father, not to mention the fact that he spent the majority of his young life with an aversion to food and eating in general.

You see, I know all this and yet I still find myself taking it personally. Oh yes. I do.

And yesterday, I even cried.  Which annoyed me then and still does now.

Of course, he doesn't see me cry.  He doesn't know I am upset or taking anything any way at all.  He just wants his cheese and he knows I'll give it to him, eventually.

Having said all that, I need to confess that I do not have a recipe for day 5.  Instead, I am looking at this as a food preparation idea, born of sheer desperation and a distinct lack of creativity as I stood in the aisles of Fred Meyer yesterday with both boys screaming at me for 'more cheese'.

Please understand this would not, in a million billion years, ever be my idea of a nutritious meal.  Ever. However, I decided I needed to see if I could get him to just eat SOMETHING that was more than a cracker and a strip of cheese.

And so I give you day 4 and 5's dinner (I do not have pictures, because I was too embarrassed to take any):

Day 4 - was pigs in a blanket made with low fat refrigerated crescent roll dough, turkey dogs and Max's favorite, cheddar cheese.  Terrible yes.  Embarassing yes.  I cut the dogs in half and rolled each half in it's own cresent with a bit of cheddar rolled up, as well.I served with a tiny salad of romaine and cucumbers from the garden with an apple cider vinegar and grapeseed oil dressing.

Day 5 - was only marginally better as mini-pizzas made with small refrigerated biscuit dough.  At least with this one, I used my roasted tomato sauce made from our garden, red bell peppers, onion and garlic.  I topped with a combination of shredded cheddar and jack cheese (because that's the only shredded cheese I had) and baked in the oven for 11 minutes at 400.  Mini-pizzas were served with sauteed thin green beans with garlic, olive oil and sea salt.

Results:

Moose devoured the pigs, of course, and ate the salad.  Rowan ate two halves, himself and didn't touch the salad.  Astonishingly, Max ate an entire half by himself, put his fork in the salad, tasted the fork and then wouldn't touch the salad again.  But he ate an entire portion of the pigs in a blanket!

The same thing happened with the pizzas, except both boys also tried the green beans.  In fact, Rowan tried them a number of times.  Max, tried them twice and the second time he actually took a bite.

I sat and watched them during both meals, while I ate leftover curried vegetables and adzuki beans, wishing my family would just try them, because they were fantastic.

In the end, taking a detour through American snackland for two nights of dinner actually ended up showing me that I can get Max to eat and that I need to be a little more creative in how I think about presenting meals to all of them.

So, it's back to the drawing board I go and this time with a little lighter heart.

Sweet Potato and Zucchini Mini-Muffins

Day 4

After feeling as if I had nearly traumatized Maximus with the attempts at getting him to eat yesterday's Cheddar Mini-Fritattas, I decided to try something I was pretty sure he would devour.

I originally found this recipe 4 years ago, when I had my first zucchini surplus from the garden.  That was my first year gardening and also the year I realized a family of 2 needed 1 zucchini plant, at the most.  I had 2, plus 2 summer squash and 1 sunburst squash.  I went overboard and was drowning in squash.  The original recipe for this quick bread came from epicurious, but I have modified it so much over the years that I had to rewrite the recipe because my notes were more voluminous than the recipe itself.

In bread form, I give this away as gifts and have been asked for the recipe more times than I can count.  It originally appealed to me because I was looking for a way to get more vegetables into Moose and he does not like sweet potatoes, nor zucchini.  I looked at it as a challenge.

The first time I made it, I followed the recipe religiously, but then set about trying to make it healthier.  I replaced all oil with homemade canned applesauce, started replacing portions of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour and set about trying to reduce the sugar content.  This summer, the idea of replacing the sugar entirely with natural sweetner and making a gluten and dairy-free version began simmering around in my mind.

Since I am still not at a point in the elimination diet where I can even try a gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free version of this recipe, I decided to just replace the sugar in this trial run and have Moose try it to tell me what he thought.  I decided to try it in mini-muffin form to make it easier to handle for the boys, as well as to make it easier to freeze manageable portions for later.  This bread freezes amazingly well! Finally, I added a small amount of oil back into the recipe because I now understand the importance of healthy fats in any diet.

Oh... and by the way, Moose LOVES my original modified bread form of this recipe, so much so that I finally told him a couple years ago he was eating sweet potatoes and zucchini and loving it!

Sweet Potato and Zucchini Mini-Muffins

2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp + a pinch baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
2 tsp cinnamon
2/3 cup good quality maple syrup (I used Vermont maple syrup Moose got on a business trip)
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/8 cup grapeseed oil (you could also use extra virgin olive oil)
3 large eggs (I use omega-3 enriched)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups grated zucchini
1 1/2 cups grated peeled sweet potato
1 cup chopped walnuts (I used almonds this time because I was out of walnuts. You could also leave these out if you have a tree nut allergy)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a mini-muffin tin with olive oil or non-stick cooking spray. Sift first 5 ingredients into medium bowl. Beat maple syrup, oil, eggs and vanilla to blend in large bowl. Mix in zucchini and sweet potato. Add dry ingredients and nuts and stir well.

Transfer batter to prepared muffin tin. Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 14 minutes. Let muffins cool for a couple minutes and then pop them out to cool completely on a wire rack. Wrap in foil and let stand at room temperature if entire recipe is not devoured within minutes.

Makes approximately 44 mini-muffins.

My Notes:

I grate the zucchini and sweet potato by hand, even though I find the task odious.  I am sure you could do it in the food processor, but I find that when you hand grate you wind up with more moisture from the zucchini and while most people would tell you to press any excess moisture out of the zucchini or any vegetable before you put it in the batter, I think it actually adds something to the bread doing it this way and not removing anything.  I wish I could say I had tested this out, but honestly, the only reason why I originally grated it by hand was because I am too short to reach the shelf where the processor lives, there was no chair tall enough for me to stand on and I think Moose was out of the house the day I made it.  I've been doing it that way ever since.

I use a kitchen-aid stand mixer and place all wet ingredients in the mixer bowl and let them stand while I'm sifting the dry.  Then I turn the mixer on medium speed to blend.  When I'm ready to add the flour, I turn the mixer down a notch and add the flour in batches until each batch is mixed in.  I never turn the mixer off until the last batch of flour has been added and is mixed in.  Then I stir the nuts in by hand.

This is the first time I've used whole wheat pastry flour in this recipe.  I've always just used plain whole wheat, which I think makes for a denser bread.  These ended up looking light and fluffy.  I say "looking" because...you know.. I decided to make something that I couldn't eat myself, again.

Results:

Moose thought they were great and commented on how much fluffier these muffins were than the bread.  I can only assume it is the pastry flour, or a combination of that and the substitution of maple syrup and grapeseed oil.  He snacked on them throughout the day, which did not surprise me.

Rowan ate 2 at breakfast, along with leftover frittata from Sunday and sliced apples.  He also snacked on them throughout the day and had one for dessert.  This pleases me immensely.

Sarah, our nanny, who got the recipe from me earlier in the summer and baked my modified version, thought the new one was even better!

Max put a small piece to his lips, put it down and refused to eat anything on his tray (read fritatta, apples and muffin). Finally, I broke down and pulled out the block o' cheese and gave him his fix.  God help me.

Cheddar Mini-Frittatas

Day 3

Saturday night I was brainstorming on what to try and make for the boys on Sunday.  Whatever I make, I try to get as much nutrients into the smallest package possible because I know there is a good chance they are going to eat a couple bites at most on some days.  Oh ok.  Let's be honest here.  They are going to eat a couple bites at most on MOST days.

Time and again, I keep returning to eggs.  Eggs are nutrional powerhouses, rich in folate, B12, omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.  My track record with the boys and eggs has been spotty, at best.  Even before Max began eating, Rowan would eat and then reject omelettes and frittatas so fast it could make your head spin. 

I keep returning to them, though, because they are a great medium for getting veggies into unsuspecting toddlers.  There's also the fact that they are easy!

Coming off of my 2 day green smoothie detox fast, I was feeling pretty badly and easy was what I was looking for. I decided to try something slightly different and ended up with mini-frittatas made in mini-muffin molds.  I've done something like this before as a brunch finger food, but it was years ago.  I thought the round shape and the fact that they are just the right size for little hands would be enticing.

Here's what I ended up with:

Cheddar-Mini Frittatas

3 large eggs (I used omega-3 enriched)
3 tbsp organic, unsweetened soy milk
1 tsp flaxseed oil
1/4 cup finely diced zucchini (any finely diced veggie will work fine.  Zucchini was what I had.)
2 sundried tomatoes, finely diced (use dried, not packed in oil or water)
2 tbsp finely diced walla walla sweet onions
2-3 tbsp freshly grated parmesan (I use a microplane) 
1/4 tsp sea salt
Dash fresh ground black pepper
Thinly sliced cheddar cheese cut in squares (to top)

1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Grease, butter or spray a mini-muffin tin
3. Wisk together the eggs, flaxseed oil and milk
4. Add remaining ingredients through pepper
5. Spoon mixture into muffin tins (I filled 12)
6. Bake for 9 minutes and remove pan.   Lay cheddar squares over tops of frittatas.
7. Bake for an additional 3-4 minutes, or until eggs are completely set and cheese is bubbling
8. Loosen edges if needed with a knife and remove from the tins.

My Notes:

Next time I do this, I'll fill the containers half-way at the most.  On most of them, I filled them almost to the top and when they baked they rose up quite a bit above the tin.  One of them I filled only half-way and the result was a small and manageable frittata, which was really what I was looking for.  I would probably reduce the cooking time by a minute or two if I did this.

Results:

Moose tried them and liked them, though whether he would actually eat them as a breakfast, who can really say?  Rowan ate two of them in one shot and two more throughout the day.  Yey for Rowan!

Max rejected them completely.  And I mean, touched them once and then would not touch them again, would not even look at them...even cried at one point when I tried to give him one. I tried various times throughout the day to no avail.

Back to the drawing board.

Slow-Cooker Indian Spiced Adzuki Soup

Day 2

I am going to admit up front that this recipe was made mostly for me.  I thought I could get Rowan to try it, but was highly doubtful about Max.  Moose will likely never take a bite.  I spent Thursday and Friday doing a Green Smoothie Fast, which is the kickstart to my 28 day elimination diet by The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen, which is one of my new favorite food blogs, by the way.

By Saturday morning, I was starving and in need of something laden with protein.  I also wanted something hearty and reminiscent of fall, despite the fact that it's been in the 90's the last two days.  If I could get the boys to take more than one bite, I'd be happy.

This was also basically one of those:  I have tons of stuff in the fridge that I should be eating and which is going to go bad if I don't combine it all into one dish.

After a great deal of agonizing (read about 10 minutes), I decided to call it:

Slow-Cooker Indian Spiced Adzuki Soup

2 cups dried organic Adzuki beans, rinsed, soaked and cooked until tender
4 cups vegetable stock (I used homemade.  You could also use chicken)
1/2 very large walla walla sweet onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, smashed and roughtly chopped
2 medium sized carrots, sliced in 1/2" diagonal rounds
2 celery stalks, chopped
1/2 head caulflower, roughly chopped
1 broccoli crown, roughly chopped
1 small tart apple, cored and chopped (no need to peel - I used granny smith)
1 1/2 tsp coriander
3/4 tsp turmeric
3/4 tsp cumin
2 tsp sea salt, or to taste (I used Salish Fine -which has a lovely, deep, smoky flavor and aroma)
3 large Kale leaves, rinsed and torn into small pieces (I used red kale)

Place everything except the sea salt and kale in a slow-cooker.  Add 1 tsp of sea salt and  mix everything together. Set the slow-cooker to low and let it cook until the vegetables are tender and the flavors have melded.  About 3 hours in, I would taste and decide if more salt is necessary.  20 minutes before you are ready to eat, add the kale.

Either enjoy as is, or puree lightly with an immersion blender.

My Notes

If I were to make this again, and I believe I will, I might add a teaspoon or two of ginger.  Initially, I hadn't planned on pureeing it.  I had intended it to be more like a stew.  But, as it cooked I realized there was no way the boys were going to try it the way it looked. So, out came the handy immersion blender.

Pureeing it gives it an unfortunate brown color reminiscent of something you would not want to think about whilst eating.  But, oh well. 

This cooked for a total of about 4.5 hours on low, but I think my slow-cooker runs higher than normal.

The Results:

I loved it.  But, I was also starved for something substantial, that didn't taste like fruit and greens.

I had to entice the boys by putting little bits of chicken-vegi meatballs around the outside, two Olive Oil Crackers, and two sticks of cheddar cheese sticking up out of it.

Max immediately took the cheese out of the soup and ate it, despite the fact that it had the soup on it.  He did the same with the crackers.  He then asked for more cheese and crackers and ignored the soup, except that I put every subsequent piece of cheese and cracker in the soup to begin with.  He at them.  I count this as a victory in the world of the Emperor.

Rowan actually took bites of it with the spoon off and on throughout the meal, but was also focused on the cheese and crackers more than anything else.  At least he continued to try it AND he was using his spoon quite well.  Go Rowan.

I asked Moose to try it.  His comment was, "It smells like weird diet food..."

I'll leave it at that.

Update:

This is even better the second day.  I will definitely do it again.  It would be absolutely amazing with this lovely whole grain flat bread from Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen, which is yeast free, gluten-free and vegan!

Olive Oil Crackers

Day 1 

In the last week, Max and Rowan polished off
4lbs of cheese and four boxes of wheat thins (1 of which was a family sized box).  Besides the fact that I absolutely cringe at packaged foods as a mainstay of any diet, I fear they will eat me out of house and home with their cheese/wheat thins addiction.  After a friend posted about her adventures in homemade cracker making on facebook, I decided to try and give crackers a whirl.

I first tried a gluten-free recipe for me and I am pleased to say they were fantastic, delicious, stupendous, amazing.  Need I say more?  Ok, they were great and easy and incredibly versatile.

The boys took a bite or two and then rejected them completely.  Moose, my husband, thought they were somewhat tasty, but I could tell he was suspiscious and probably would not eat any beyond what I asked him to try.  This was a couple weeks ago.  I was right.

After the wheat thins craze of late, I decided I needed to revisit the cracker idea.  I found the following recipe for crackers, chock full of gluten, but a possibility for the boys on a lovely website:  101 Cookbooks

Olive Oil Crackers

1 1/2 cups semolina flour
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour (or all-purpose flour)
1 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
1 cup warm water
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

special equipment: pasta machine (optional)

Whisk together the flours and salt. Add the water and olive oil. Using a mixer with a dough hook attachment mix the dough at medium speed for about 5 - 7 minutes. Alternately, feel free to mix and then knead by hand on a floured counter-top. The dough should be just a bit tacky - not too dry, not too sticky to work with. If you need to add a bit more water (or flour) do so.

When you are done mixing, shape the dough into a large ball. Now cut into twelve equal-sized pieces. Gently rub each piece with a bit of olive oil, shape into a small ball and place on a plate. Cover with a clean dishtowel or plastic wrap and let rest at room temperature for 30 - 60 minutes.

While the dough is resting, preheat your oven to 450F degrees. Insert a pizza stone if you have one.

When the dough is done resting, flatten one dough ball. Using a rolling pin or a pasta machine, shape into a flat strip of dough - I can usually get down to the 4 setting on my pasta machine w/o trouble. Pull the dough out a bit thinner by hand (the way you might pull pizza dough). You can also cut the dough into whatever shape you like at this point. Set dough on a floured (or cornmeal dusted) baking sheet, poke each cracker with the tines of a fork to prevent puffing, add any extra toppings, and slide into the oven (onto the pizza stone). Repeat the process for the remaining dough balls, baking in small batches. If you don't have a pizza stone, bake crackers a few at a time on baking sheets. Bake until deeply golden, and let cool before eating - you will get more crackery snap.

Makes a dozen extra large crackers. 

My Notes:

I did not use a pasta machine and I did not feel like bothering with a pizza stone.  I used a cookie sheet and a silicone liner from kitchen Aid. The first two balls I baked off, I forgot to prick with a fork and realized I hadn't rolled them out evenly enough.  I think this is key.  I did some as small, wheat-thin sized crackers and a couple larger sheets.  This is a mistake.  Cut them all around the same size, or you'll wind up burning some of them and having some of them come out not quite done, like I did.  That first batch, I cooked for 12 minutes.  Way too long.  I brushed them with olive oil and seasoned them with a bit of fresh grated parmesan, sea salt and pepper.  James thought they were bland and would definitely not stand in for wheat thins. The kids were in bed.

The second batch, I tried to role out uniformly and cut all roughly the same size, which is incredibly easy using a pizza cutter like Heidi mentions in the recipe.  I brushed them liberally with olive oil, layered grated parmesan (grated with a microplane), a fair amount more of sea salt and pepper.  I also remembered to prick them and baked them for 8 minutes.

Perfection.  They look beautiful, don't they?

The Results

The boys not only tried them, they ate the whole batch! (4 of the 12 mini-balls).  I'll be finishing up the rest of the recipe tonight.

Unfortunately, I cannot comment myself because somehow I thought it would be a good idea to make something I can't eat.  It seemed fine at the time.  That is until I couldn't taste it to see how it came out.  Not a fantastic idea, I might add.  This is especially so because I'm trying a 28 day elimination diet to see what food sensitivities I really do have and I'm only on day 3.

Note to self:  go back to the gluten-free version and try to make them tasty for the boys, sans cheese.  Maybe in a month or so, I'll post that version as a day's recipe.

The Story

I have two boys:  2.5 and approximately 1.5 years old.  Lately, I feel as if I am constantly struggling with trying to find varied, nutritious foods they will not only try, but actually eat enough of to obtain some nutrional value.  Complicating the situation is that our oldest was born with chronic kidney disease and received a kidney transplant in early June.  Up until he was transplanted, he ate nothing and I mean nothing by mouth, other than drinking water.  He also had an aversion to utensils.

He is learning to eat now and enjoys doing so, but is incredibly picky about what he will or will not attempt.  He does not like things that are wet to the touch.  He doesn't like things that are mushy to the touch.  Getting him to eat something with a spoon or fork is an exercise in frustration.  If it's not cheese, some type of moist sweet muffin or quick bread, a cracker or the occasional mini-meatball, he's barely interested.

My second has a more varied palete, though he is recently going through the stage of liking something and then rejecting it the next time I try to give it to him.  He is learning to eat with utensils, but would rather play with them most of the time than eat with them.  He also is addicted to cheese, crackers, muffins and is currently rejecting meat.

I am attempting to eat a whole grain, gluten-free, sugar-free and dairy-free diet in an effort to control my MS without medication.  My husband, on the other hand, never met a healthy meal he would eat.

Ok. I'm exaggerating.

But only slightly.

This blog is an attempt to find a different recipe or method of presenting food each day for a year.  If I can get everyone to eat it and love it, I'll be estatic.  But that is so beyond realistic. 

So, If I can get everyone to just try it, I'll be satisfied.