Nourishing the Emperor One Day at a 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.

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.