Nourishing the Emperor One Day at a Time

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.