Feeding a Family in The Time of Coronavirus

My son and I both struggle with asthma which places us both in the "underlying health conditions " category of people that need to be extra careful not to get coronavirus.  So we are really staying away from people and public spaces.  At this point our entire country is being strongly encouraged to do the same.  My family is even staying away from grocery stores as much as possible.

Thanks to all the food storage we have been purchasing and using for a few years now, it is not hard for us to stay away from the grocery store.  For years now, I have been a regular customer of Thrive Life.  I've had a shipment of freeze dried meat, vegetables, fruits, grains, or legumes come automatically, every month.  It's high quality food that I have been using in my regular meal prep for years.  So now that I need to rely on it, it's no big deal.  My family hasn't even noticed the change.

For recipes that require meat or vegetables, I just substitute the freeze dried version and add a little more liquid.  All the meals we've made with our freeze dried food have been delicious.  No one here is suffering and they haven't even noticed.

I find some big advantages to using Thrive Life freeze dried foods.  Here's where I begin promoting them.  Not trying to hide that.  But my motivation is to help people.  I truly find these products helpful and I think you might too. I am technically a consultant with this company and if you want to, you can order things from my consultant website but that is not why I'm sharing this today. You can also talk to your friend who is a consultant or just go to www.thrivelife.com. If you want to get on monthly deliveries, which I recommend, go here.

Here are the things I love about Thrive Life foods

1. High quality, pesticide free.  Tasty and healthy.
2. No washing, peeling, defrosting, chopping or other prepping. 
3. Super-fast to cook with.  Last minute meal prep is the standard. And I don't need to devote hours to meal prep, just a few minutes.
4. Even if I can't get to the store, like now, I can cook with meat and vegetables.  We aren't limited to rice and beans.  (Although we're big fans of rice and beans here).
5. IMHO freeze dried foods and Instant Pots were made for each other.  The steam of the Instant Pot ensures that the food is fully rehydrated.  When I cook in the Instant Pot, every last corner of the food is fully hydrated.  My family is picky.  They wouldn't eat it, if it wasn't good.  The Instant Pot is a miracle all on it's own.  It cooks food so fast!  It makes food delicious!  Put freeze dried food in it and it goes even faster with equally tasty results.  It just couldn't be faster or easier to cook dinner. 

Here is a recipe I adapted with help from my Thrive Life consultant, Debbie Abbot.  I hope this gives you an idea of how to adapt some of your favorite recipes so you can use freeze dried foods with an Instant Pot to make amazing food with food storage.

Dairy-Free Instant Pot “Butter” Chicken
(using freeze dried ingredients)

You can substitute butter and cream for the coconut oil and coconut cream but this recipe really is so good as written. And coconut products are more food-storage friendly. This recipe serves 6-8 people. If your family is small, you could halve this recipe but the leftovers are really good. I say just make it all and get two or more meals out of it!

1. Combine in the IP

• 3 cups tomato dices (freeze-dried or canned)
• 3cups chicken (freeze-dried)
• ½ t ginger powder
• 2 t turmeric
• 1 t cayenne pepper
• 2 t smoked paprika
• 2 t salt
• 2 t garam masala seasoning
• 2 t cumin
• 4 ½ c water (or chicken broth)

2. Put in an Instant Pot Steamer insert like this one (I divide these ingredients between the two parts of the insert. You could also make the rice separately on the stove or in a rice cooker.)

• 4 c rice
• 6 c water or chicken broth
• 2 t salt (if using water)
• 2 T coconut oil (if using water)

3. Set the IP steamer insert in the IP on top of all the other ingredients. Close the IP valve and turn the IP on manual for 15 minutes (It would probably work in as little as 8 minutes but I’m not usually in THAT big a rush and to ensure the rice is totally cooked, I do 15 minutes.

When the IP is done cooking, open the valve for a quick release of the pressure. When the pressure has completely released, remove the IP lid, using an oven mit, lift out the IP steamer insert and check that rice is perfectly steamed. If you have forgotten to put the sealing ring in or something (who would do that?! oh wait, me 😝) and found that things weren’t done cooking, just fix the problem, put the insert back in, put the IP lid back on and set it on manual for another 5-10 minutes. Once the rice is done, the chicken will definitely be done. Take out the IP steamer insert. Stir in the following until all combined.

• 2 t garam masala seasoning
• ½ c freeze-dried cilantro or ¼ c typical dried cilantro
• 1 c coconut oil
• 1 c coconut cream
• Serve the chicken over the rice. Enjoy!

I hope that inspires you to try cooking with freeze-dried foods and maybe even adapt some of your favorite recipes.  Really, all you do is forget all the prep time and add liquid.

If you haven't already,  I highly recommend that you sign up for monthly deliveries from Thrive.  So worth it!  Because this food is useful all the time, not just in a time of crisis, it makes sense to me to buy it regularly.  And then, when there is a crisis, you have more than enough to see you through it and you know how to use it - it really isn't complicated.  I don't know about you but I'm getting the impression this pandemic is going to drag on for awhile and I suspect, even when it is past, we will see more disruptions to life as we knew it.   I think we are finding a new normal.

If you are interested in the business opportunity (which I hear is going quite well right now) talk to my consultant, Debbie Abbott.  

Pesto Asparagus Risotto

 

My husband, contender for pickiest-man-alive, and huge fan of cheese, couldn’t believe this creamy risotto was dairy free and begged me to make it again soon.  I will! 

1 batch of Vegan Pesto 

1 T EVOO

2 cups shiitake mushrooms, cleaned and diced

3 pounds of asparagus, washed and cut into 1-inch pieces

3 c Arborio rice

8 c broth (mushroom, chicken, or beef)

1. Make Pesto first and refrigerate (definitely add the  “optional” lemon juice and zest)
2. Heat EVOO in a large sauce pot on medium high
3. Sauté mushrooms for 3 minutes
4. Add asparagus, rice, and enough broth to just cover rice.  Bring to a boil, then turn down to a low simmer.  Stirring often, watch for the liquid to be absorbed by the rice and add another cup whenever the liquid is mostly absorbed.  Keep stirring and adding broth until it is all absorbed and the rice is cooked through.  Don’t rush this process.  Let it take 30-45 minutes at a very low simmer for the creamiest results.
5. After all the liquid is absorbed, turn off the heat and stir in the pesto.  Let it sit for at least 10 minutes to absorb the pesto and then serve.

Cranberry, Apple, Pumpkin Crumble

Inspired by what was in my farm box this week, I made this crumble.  It was soooo good.  The kids gobbled it up.  I've been experimenting with wheat-free and sugar-free baking and this is a great option.  I think it's good enough for a Holiday dessert.

Cranberry, Apple, Pumpkin Crumble

Base

1 small sugar pie pumpkin, peeled and cubed

4 apples, peeled and cubed

1 pint fresh cranberries

2 T pumpkin pie spice

½ t salt

Toss ingredients and place in a 9X13 pan.

Topping  (I like a lot, you could do less)

1 ½ c butter

2 ½ c rolled oats

1 c maple sugar

1 t salt

Cut butter into oats with sugar and salt in a food processor.  Distribute evenly over pumpkin mixture.

Bake at 350 for 1 hour or until pumpkin is very soft.  Drizzle 1/3 c of maple syrup over the top when it comes out of the oven and serve.

Here's a picture before I put the topping on.

Vegetable Bacon Pot Pie

Today I made a delicious Vegetable Bacon Pot Pie.  I was inspired by a recipe I saw Ina Garten make on the Food Network (Lobster Pot Pie) and the vegetables I had on hand from recent Farm deliveries.

I found Ina Garten’s recipe for vegetable pot pie here and adapted it.

Here is my adaptation.

In a large sauce pan over medium heat sauté

1 large sweet onion

5 T butter

until soft and just starting to caramelize.  Reduce heat to med-low and add

1 c flour

and cook for a couple minutes.

Slowly add

5 cups of vegetable broth

letting the flour and onions absorb each cup of broth and bubble before adding another cup.  Turn the heat up if necessary to get the sauce to bubble a little.

Season to taste with

¼ t nutmeg

kosher salt

pepper

Taste and keep adding s & p until it tastes right.  It should be intensely flavored.  Add a dash of cream or whole milk.

I let the sauce sit at this point while I did the rest and it was fine.  You could certainly do all the other stuff in advance – even a day before.

Lay a ½ lb of sliced bacon over a cookie drying rack that is sitting in a jelly roll pan. This is the only way I cook bacon anymore  - it’s so easy!  Put the pan of bacon in a cold oven, turn the oven on to 450 and check the bacon after 10 minutes.  Let your nose and eyes tell you when it’s done.  I like mine extra crispy, especially when it’s going into something wet like this dish.

Meanwhile, wash, peel, and dice into bite-size pieces

3 carrots

3 small heads of broccoli

3 large red potatoes

1 large beet

When the bacon comes out of the oven wrap the pieces in a towel to absorb the grease.  Put the cookie drying rack in the sink.  Don’t pour out the bacon grease!  Dump the veggies you just chopped into the jelly roll pan of bacon grease, season with s & p, toss to coat.

Roast in the oven at 450 for 10-15 minutes, until the veggies are tender.

While those cook add the following to your sauce.

1 lb of washed and torn spinach, no stems

the cooked bacon, crumbled

½ large zucchini, peeled and diced

Stir until the spinach wilts down.  Season with more s & p, if needed. 

When the roasting veggies are tender, take them out of the oven and let them cool a few minutes.  Scoop them into the sauce and stir to combine.

I let my sauce sit again while I made the pie crust.  You could make yours ahead of time or buy some at the store.

Here’s Ina’s recipe for the crust.  Scroll down and you’ll see it in there. I did it mostly her way except,

1.     I didn’t have shortening and substituted with butter. 

2.     I don’t have a food processor so I cut the butter really small, used my kitchen aid, and made sure the water was truly ice-cold.  Seemed to work fine.

3.     I don’t have a pastry brush so I used my fingers to wet the dough w/egg wash so it would stick to the pans.  I didn’t put egg wash over the top or the salt and pepper.  Seemed fine without, though not as pretty.

While the dough chilled I scooped the sauce into individual serving dishes (must be ovenproof).  I had enough sauce for 7 small dishes. When the dough was ready I rolled it out (with lots of flour) and cut it into rough circles to cover each of my dishes.  There was plenty of dough.  Mine look more rustic and less professional than Ina’s.  As she suggests, secure the dough to the sides of the dishes with an egg wash and cut 2- 3 slits in the top of the crust.

Bake at 375 for an hour.  Let cool for at least 20 minutes.

Yum!

I’m sure I will make variations of this in the future when I have lots of miscellaneous veggies around.  Try it with whatever you have on hand.  The only veggie I consider critical is the onion.

The Woes of a CSA Subscriber

Beckie, this one's for you.

When you sign up for a share in a CSA(Community Supported Agriculture) Farm, in addition to fresh, delicious, local produce, you are signing up for work. It forces you to develop a totally new way of preparing food for your family. Here are the main challenges I’ve faced in my relationships with CSAs followed by my strategies for dealing with them. I don’t have it all figured out but I’ve made progress and I’ll keep at it until hopefully one day I will always know just what to do with the produce that shows up and never throw any rotten produce away.

One of the things CSA subscribing does is challenge the conventional wisdom that gave us grocery stores. I think that deserves challenging. So with all the struggles you face as a CSA subscriber consider the whys of everything – there are some really important answers to those questions and I’d like to see people think through those for themselves. Don’t just take what the grocery store or the farmer says and accept it—think about it for yourself.

Common Challenges For CSA Subscribers

I Don’t Like _______. What Do I Do With It?
Most CSAs offer you a weekly share of whatever they harvested that week. Which means you get what they give, no more, no less. If you don’t like something in the box that week, your problem.

What’s With All The Beets And Kale?
I don’t know why but most of the CSAs I know offer lots of beets and kale, regularly. Maybe they are easy/cheap to grow and underappreciated. I’m sure it’s different for every growing region and each one probably has its own “beets and kale” type of vegetable that grows well and isn’t terribly popular.

Where’s The Fruit?
Fruit seems to be scarcer in most CSA boxes. Probably depends on where you are living and what grows well there. I think fruit is more challenging and expensive to grow, harvest, store, and deliver. But oh, organic farm fruit is the food of the gods – so worth the trouble and expense.

I’ve Never Heard Of _______. What Do I Do With It?
We are so used to the standard array of fruits and vegetables at the grocery store that it can be overwhelming when all these unusual plants start showing up in your box. Organic family farmers seem to have a special love for the underdogs that never make it into the US grocery system. It’s important to know that the produce that has made it is usually chosen for things like how little it bruises and how cheap it is to grow. Taste and quality are almost always sacrificed.

My CSA Lifestyle Strategies
I’ve been using CSAs for 5+ years. I have much to learn but here’s what I know today.

Strategy 1: Cook Your Way Through it All
When I have plenty of time (ha ha, who ever does?!) or I'm really in a cooking mood I spend a couple hours with my cookbooks, recipe files, and online searches to find recipes that will utilize all the beautiful and strange things that arrived in my box this week. I am always on the lookout for a good cookbook or recipe that emphasizes produce. Here are my favorite resources for this:

Cooking Light Salads
In Season
Mediterranean Kitchen
Williams Sonoma: Vegetables
Mariquita Farms Recipe Database
Giada De Laurentiis recipes 

UPDATE 6/2/12 I started using Pinterest and have a board for  Feeding My Family with recipes and more cookbooks I love.

Strategy 2: Try a Custom Order
Some farms grow certain things all year. Find out if yours does and see if they will let you have a weekly custom order of things you know you will use. For the last year I had a standing order of lettuce, potatoes, avocados, apples, bananas, and carrots.  Now I'm back to the seasonal box and it's so exciting to see what's in it each week!

Strategy 3: Work With More Than One Farm
Most local, organic, family farms grow a limited number of items. More and more I’m seeing small farms band together for CSA purposes. My local CSA, Klesick Family Farm, sources out organic produce from several farms, including some in Mexico. So I get a lot more fruit and things like bananas, avocados and oranges that just don’t grow here. If there isn’t a combo CSA in your area, talk to a few of the farms and see if you can facilitate something.

Strategy 4: Order a Double-Share of Fruit
My family never seems to have too much fruit. Whatever shows up in our box, we eat in a few days. If your CSA offers fruit, ask for double or triple the normal share of fruit.

Strategy 5: Go Raw
The vast majority of fruits and vegetables can be eaten raw. Wash, peel, and cut up whatever you’ve got, set it on a platter with some dip and chances are it will be gone by the end of the day. For fruit I like peanut butter and honey mixed together or vanilla yogurt and honey as dip. For veggies I like hummus or ranch dressing. You can also grate or dice fruits and vegetables and toss them into a green salad.

Strategy 6: Use Master Recipes
Most fruits or vegetables can be prepared in one of the following ways. When you don’t know what to do with something in your box, try one of these. A basic cookbook can get you started. I suggest working on one of these preparations, say soup, until you find your favorite version and get good at making it. Then you can move on to roasting.

Pasta Salad
Basically all you need is cooked pasta, chopped and blanched veggies or fruits, and tasty dressing. You can add cheeses, herbs, sauces, and other condiments to fancy it up.

Soup
Spend some time finding a vegetable based soup recipe that you really like. Add whatever veggies you have on hand that week. Leave it chunky or puree if you like. I find the following ingredients make a great flavor base for any veggie soup: potatoes, bacon, pesto, tomato paste, and Parmesan.

Smoothie
Start with fruit and liquid. Bananas and oranges make a great flavor and texture base. I use water for my liquid but you could use juice or milk too. If you have a good, high-powered blender, it’s easy to slip some carrots and spinach in and no one will ever know. Frozen bananas or berries make it frothy. Sweeten with honey, sugar, or maple syrup as needed. If fresh mint shows up, this is a great way to use it.

Roasted Veggies
Wash, peel, and roughly chop whatever you’ve got on hand. Spread it on a foil/ parchment lined baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Bake at 425 until tender (maybe 25-45 minutes?) Serve roasted veggies alongside meat, mix it with hot pasta or rice and herbs, or puree for soup.

Strategy 7: Get into a Routine
I’ve developed a lot of habits or routine’s that incorporate produce into my daily life. If it’s not part of my routine it won’t happen for more than a week or two. We eat pretty much the same things every week, which makes it easy. I don’t spend a lot of time these days thinking about what we’re going to eat.

First and foremost – process your produce the day it arrives. Get a lettuce keeper and some of those plastic containers designed to lengthen the shelf life of produce. They really work. I try to wash, chop, and dry my lettuce first. I keep it in the salad spinner in the fridge and it stays good for several days. Wash, peel, and chop anything you intend to roast, puree, or otherwise cook. Put asparagus and herbs stem side down in a tall glass or jar of water in the fridge, like you would cut flowers – but don’t wash them until you are ready to cook them. Wash, peel, chop or grate things you will use in salad or eat raw with dip. Don’t do any of this with fruit or tomatoes. Just wait until you’re ready to eat them. But things like potatoes, zucchini, squash, carrots, leeks, celery, broccoli etc. will do fine if you clean and cut them and keep them in the fridge, especially in those nifty produce containers. And you will almost certainly use them if the hard part is already done. This is the best way I know of to eliminate rotting produce in the fridge.

Then you need a daily meal routine.

We eat fruit for breakfast almost every day. In the summer it could be in the form of a smoothie or alongside toast. In the winter it’s probably mixed into oatmeal.

For lunch we have sandwiches or soup, with raw fruit, veggies, or green salad.

For dinner we have one of the following accompanied by steamed, roasted, or souped veggies: pasta, rice and beans, polenta, bean tacos, soup and salad. Seriously, we just rotate through those same dishes over and over. I vary the flavoring here and there and make other things on special occasions but this is what we habitually eat.  These are things we all like, I can make without thinking, I feel good about feeding my family, and they go pretty well with veggies. It has to be simple if I’m going to do it regularly.

Strategy 8: Learn What to Do With Beets and Kale.
Or whatever it is that shows up regularly in your box. Just this year I learned how to make Kale chips. What a revelation! They are so yummy! And easy! Wash and dry the kale. Tear it into chip-sized pieces and lay it out on a foil/parchment lined baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper. Bake at 425 until crispy but not burnt, 10-20 minutes.

Now I gotta figure out what to do with beets…I should try roasting.

With some farms you can say, no beets for me thanks, and they will exclude them from your box.

Strategy 9: Keep Complimentary Ingredients in Your Fridge or Pantry at All Times.
If you know what flavors you really love with veggies and you keep them around all the time, it’s easier to bring a new veggie into your repertoire. Things with salt, fat and intense flavor tend to compliment veggies well. When I use them as condiments, and make veggies the star of the dish I see no problem with the fat or salt content. I try to keep bacon, Parmesan, olive oil, butter, sun-dried tomatoes, sea-salt, olives, tomato paste, pesto, nuts, and my favorite French vinaigrette around. With these I can make tasty salads, pasta, soup, rice, and polenta.

So how is it going with your CSA box?

Granola Bars

Here's my latest favorite snack.  I adapted this recipe based on one a friend gave me.  For my family, this is a delicious, guilt free, healthy snack.  I like them as much as cookies.  The recipe is very flexible.  Experiment with the ingredients and come up with your own version.  My recipe is doubled - divide in half if you want less or your mixer is on the smaller end.

9 c rolled oats

3 c whole wheat flour

2 t baking soda

2 t vanilla

1 c chopped pecans

2 c craisins

1 bag of organic chocolate  chips

1.5 c melted butter

2-4 c liquid sweetener (I use honey and maple syrup)

1.  Mix all the dry ingredients.

2.  While mixing on low, slowly add melted butter.

3. While mixing on low add liquid sweetener until mixture starts to come together--not one big ball but enough so that you can press it together.  Experiment with this and you'll find the texture that works best.  

4.  Press into a large jelly roll or bar pan. 

5. Bake at 325 for 20 minutes

6.  Cut into bars.  Keeps well in an airtight container - but it won't last more than a couple days if your family likes it as much as mine does.

It would be good crumbled in a bowl like cereal with milk over it.  I'd love to hear other people's versions of this.  So many flavor possibilities....I want to experiment with ripe bananas and coconut butter.

Cranberry, Apple, Pecan, Yogurt Muffins

I'm finally taking my babies off formula (hurray!) but I have to work hard to make up the calories for my tiny ones.  So, I'm experimenting with ways to add healthy fats to their diet.  Some of what I've learned recently has made me reconsider dairy products.  I think they are ok if they are organic, and especially for kids who need more fat and calories than adults.

I found a yogurt muffin recipe online and adapted it for my purposes.  These were really yummy.  I was surprised to see no eggs in the recipe - I think the yogurt acts as the binder instead of the eggs.

3/4 C whole wheat flour

1 C all purpose flour

3/4 C sugar

4 tablespoons butter, melted

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

2/3 cup vanilla yogurt

2/3 cup whole milk

1/2 cup frozen cranberries

1 apple, peeled and diced

½ C very finely chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 400°F

Grease and flour a 12-cup muffin tin

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Stir in yogurt, milk, melted butter and fruit, stirring only until mixed.

Fill muffin cups 2/3 full.

Bake 20 minutes of until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Serve warm.


VARIATION
This morning I tweaked the recipe a bit based on lack of time and a few ingredients and a desire to try all whole wheat.  It turned out fantastic and my whole family gobbled the muffins up.

1 and 3/4 C whole wheat flour

3/4 C brown sugar

4 tablespoons olive oil

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 and 1/3 cup vanilla yogurt

1 cup frozen cranberries

½ C very finely chopped pecans

Same mixing and baking instructions.

Cooking Light Recipes

As I mentioned in an earlier post, one of my favorite cookbooks is Cooking Light: Salads.  You can get most of the recipes on line.  Here are links to some of my favorites:


Cuban Beans and Rice

Greek Dinner Salad

Barley Pasta Salad 

Curried Couscous salad with Dried Cranberries 

White Bean and Roasted Chicken Salad 

Summer Garden and Lentil Salad

Here's another salad recipe we make for dinner in the summer.  I adapted it from a recipe in Shape Magazine.  I've played with the proportions and you can too.  Add more of what you like, less of what you don't.

Couscous, Tomato and Basil Salad

1 cup whole wheat couscous

2 cups very warm water

1 cup frozen or fresh peas

1/4 cup sundried tomatoes, diced or 1 fresh tomato, diced

1/2 cup feta cheese

2 T fresh basil, chopped or julienned

Olive Oil

Mix the couscous and water together, cover and let sit for 5 minutes.  Fluff with a fork and add peas, tomatoes, cheese, and basil.  Season with olive oil, salt, and pepper to taste.  

Alternative preparation:  Mix all ingredients together, cover and chill in the fridge overnight.  The water doesn't need to be warm for this and there is no need to defrost the peas either.  The flavors will meld better and you serve it cold instead of warm. 

Cranberry, Apple and Yam Muffins

Cranberry, Apple and Yam Muffins

I tried these today.  Pretty good but I had a few problems with the final product.  I'd love to perfect them.  Any experienced bakers want to suggest how I could improve them?  I based my recipe on a universal muffin recipe.  They weren't sweet enough (probably need to increase the maple syrup), they were too salty (so I'll decrease the salt a bit), they weren't moist enough (not sure what to do?).  They stuck to the muffin tin liners pretty bad.  I wondered if the soymilk versus real milk had something to do with this.

Here’s my recipe for 24 muffins

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl

4 c flour (I used white flour but wished I had whole wheat on hand)

4 t baking powder

½ t salt

½ c dried cranberries

2 t pumpkin pie spice

Combine wet ingredients in a medium bowl

2 c soymilk

¼ vegetable oil

2 eggs

1/3 c maple syrup

1 apple, peeled, cored, diced, and steamed

½ large jewel yam, peeled, diced, and steamed (I wasn’t sure if the yam and apple would cook inside the muffin very well so I steamed them first, made about 2 cups all together)

Add wet to dry and mix just enough to combine but don’t overmix.  Fill muffin tin cups with rounded ¼ cupfuls.   Bake at 400 for 20 minutes.

Cranberry, Apple, Yam Oatmeal

This is what we're eating for breakfast this morning.  It's one of my favorite combos so far.

Cranberry, Apple and Yam Oatmeal

Combine in a pot
3 cups water
1 cup steel cut oats
1 apple, peeled, cored and diced
1/2 large jewel yam peeled and diced
handful of dried cranberries (fresh would be better)
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Refrigerate and soak overnight.  This activates some of the live nutrients in the oatmeal making it even healthier and everything cooks faster the next morning.

Cook over medium heat 5 - 10 minutes until water is absorbed

Yummm!

Update:  The twins LOVED it!  The kept asking for more (with baby signs).  I added a little sea salt and maple syrup to mine but I overdid it - it didn't need the sweetener.  Still, it was so good!  Can't wait to make it again.  I think I'm going to experiment with this combo in muffins...

Feeding My Family

I love food.  I love cooking it, eating it and sharing it.  I also love good health.  I like to feel my body working at it’s best, feeling, strong and clean.  Sometimes I find these two loves at odds with each other.  Reconciling them is something I’m constantly working on.  In this post I will share my experience with making my own baby food and feeding all three of my kids.  My oldest is 6 and my twins are 14 months old. 

First I want to share my family’s eating philosophy.  I have read a bit about the links between health and diet and as a result my family has chosen to eat a certain way.  We are what many describe as flexitarians.  We believe there is an ideal way to eat for the greatest health and we aim for that ideal but we take plenty of detours from it.  We believe the ideal diet is vegan, organic, non-processed, mostly fruits and veggies, low in sugar or other sweeteners and grown by and purchased from local producers.  Truly ideal would be producing it all ourselves.  Like I said, we take a lot of detours from this ideal – it’s just something we shoot for and we hope to get better at it every year.  The closer we get to it the better we feel and the fewer health problems we experience.  I did try for 6 weeks; to live according to the Eat to Live rules and I did it perfectly.  It was amazing.  I wrote about it in an earlier post.  Our weaknesses are dairy products, sweets, summer BBQs, holidays, bread and pasta. 

We have based this philosophy on a handful of books that I’ve read and discussed with my husband.  He’s read some of them.  They include, Eat to Live, Disease Proof Your Child, How to Get Your Kid To Eat But Not Too Much, In Defense of Food, Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual, and most important to us, The Word Of Wisdom from The Doctrine and Covenants.

My favorite healthy recipes come from the following cookbooks:  First Meals, Whole Food, In Season, Cooking Light: Salads, and Mediterranean Kitchen.  These include non-vegan recipes but I tend to skip those and focus on the plant-based recipes. 

I totally reject the notion of “kid food” – things like fruit snacks, fishy crackers, lunchables, juice boxes, and other processed, snack food marketed to kids.  It’s a modern invention associated with the SAD (Standard American Diet) way of eating that is linked with very high rates of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.   I believe starting toddlers out on “kid food” just primes them for fast food and junk food and deprives them of the opportunity to develop a taste for healthy food. 

Here’s how I feed my kids. 

Birth – 6 months

Idealy, breastmilk only.  I adopted all 3 of my kids and did manage to breast feed them but had to supplement with formula.  Happy to share more with anyone looking into breastfeeding an adopted baby.

6 months – 12 months

I started all 3 of my kids on pureed vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, peas, carrots, potatoes, yams, winter squash, and sweet potatoes.  I want them to develop a taste for vegetables, especially the ones that aren’t sweet, before I introduced fruits.  My 6 year old still loves broccoli better than just about anything.  Of course they still get most of their calories from breast milk or formula.  With my twins, our dietician and doctor encouraged me to start with baby cereal but I found they had a hard time digesting it so I stopped it and just fed them pureed veggies.  After about a month of veggies I start introducing pureed fruits like bananas, apples, mango, and pears.  I also start mixing things together and making the texture chunkier.  Once they can handle chunky textures and pick things up with their fingers I give them soft, cooked veggies and fruits.  When I’m low on cooked veggies and fruits and short on time I used canned – not ideal, but better than a lot of other options!  I also give them raw banana and avocado chunks, frozen peas (awesome on sore, teething gums!) and canned black beans (smaller than most beans).  They started consuming less milk about this time.  After my twins were doing well with all the finger food and their systems were digesting all the veggies, fruits, and beans well I started offering them bits of whole wheat bread (sometimes I make my own) and making grain-based casseroles for them.  They wouldn’t mind eating these with their fingers but I can’t handle the mess!  I make a sweet casserole and a savory casserole.  My 14 month-old daughter prefers the savory while her twin brother prefers the sweet.  I suspect this reflects their unique dietary needs.  One casserole will usually last for the whole week.

Sweet Casserole

Combine in a casserole dish:

1 to 2 cups of cooked steel cut oats

Homemade applesauce (peeled apples, cinnamon, and water)

Any soft, raw, soft-cooked, or canned fruit that you have on hand like peaches, pears, cranberries, grapes, apples, bananas (add them fresh right before serving), mango, blue berries, and apricots.  Make sure it’s all baby-bite-sized.

¼ tsp of cinnamon

Savory Casserole

Combine in a casserole dish:

1 to 2 cups of cooked brown rice

Any soft, raw, soft-cooked or canned vegetables you have on hand like, onion, carrots, celery, peas, mushrooms, green beans, broccoli, potatoes, yams, winter squash, sweet potatoes, Brussels sprouts, avocado, and beets. Make sure it’s all baby-bite-sized.

1 can of beans.  (Black are nice and small, others probably need to be cut in half)

1 can of cream of mushroom soup (I feel guilty about this but my daughter is a little picky and she will eat any veggie coated in cream of mushroom so I think it’s an okay trade off.  I should learn to make my own soymilk version….)

I don’t bake them but you could.  I just mix them, refrigerate them and warm up a small bowl for each feeding and my twins gobble them up.  I try to make sure that at least half of the volume comes from fruit or veggies. 

When we are out of the house for mealtime, I take small containers of beans, peas, canned veggies, and a couple slices of bread with me.  Easy, cheap, and healthy.

12 – 24 months 

I start letting them sample what the rest of us are eating at the table, as long as it’s not dangerous for them.  We wait until 2 yrs old on peanut butter, nuts, honey, strawberries, green salad (need teeth for that!), and citrus. We also don’t share cookies or other treats with them. I have not and don’t plan to introduce regular cows milk or juice to my twins.  I still give them formula 3- 4 times a day.  I will eventually start offering them soy and nut milks in small quantities.  This really helps my husband and I focus on healthier eating – we don’t want to set a bad example for our kids.  For breakfast this includes oatmeal (steel cut is best but instant is so much easier), fruit, green smoothies (pureed fruit and spinach) toast, and pancakes.  For lunch we typically have PB sandwiches, fresh and dried fruit, salad, nuts, and veggies and dip.  Our dinner staples are pasta (whole wheat or multi-grain) w/marinara and parmesan, soft polenta made with parmesan and butter, massive green salad with beans and sometimes grilled chicken, steamed veggies, veggie soup and homemade biscuits (nothing healthy about these), rice and beans, and grain-based salads. 

2 years old (or whenever they have a full set of teeth) and on

They eat what we eat.  If they don’t like what we’re having for a given meal, they might be hungry but I won’t make them anything else.  Our 6 year old has done very well with this.  She goes through picky stages and sometimes she’s not satisfied at the end of a meal but she usually makes up for it later in the day or the next day.   I just keep offering her a wide variety of healthy food and she sometimes discovers that now she likes something she used to hate.  I don’t force my kids to eat anything; I just don’t offer them much that’s not healthy.  When my oldest goes to parties or other places away from home she is very attracted to junk food and will eat as much as she can but I don’t worry about this because we’re pretty healthy at home.  She seems to be losing her taste for dairy.  We only have Parmesan and butter on a regular basis.  On Sundays I make one of our less-healthy favorites like lasagna, fettuccine alfredo, chicken and cheese enchiladas, and homemade pizza.  My daughter recently declared that she doesn’t like melted cheese.  She will not eat pizza with cheese (I make a small part of it with just sauce and pepperoni for her), or any cheese-based sauce.  At friends houses she has refused milk and string cheese – she used to love both of those things.  I’m curious how my twins will do going forward.  My little girl is definitely picky.  I know more than I did when my oldest was a baby and I’m feeding my twins even healthier.    

And for all of us it’s a work in progress.  We get better every year but we’re still a long ways off from the ideal.

UPDATE:  I forgot to add that we get most of our produce from Klesick Family Farm.  Each week they deliver a box of fresh, organic, mostly locally-grown, delicious fruits and veggies.  We always order lettuce, potatoes, apples, carrots, and broccoli.  I order additional things each week based on what's in season.  We love it.  Everything is so much tastier than what you get at the grocery store and because it's so fresh it lasts longer without spoiling.  I can keep the lettuce in my fridge for more than a week.  If you live in the Seattle area, check out Klesick.  If you live somewhere else google CSA in your town.  CSAs are community supported farms and they are a growing trend.  

All Things Pumpkin

I love pumpkin.

In addition to pumpkin pie, for Thanksgiving I make pumpkin biscuits and serve them with cranberry butter. I think Isabel lived on these for a couple of days.

Pumpkin Biscuits (Adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe)
12 tbls unsalted butter
4 c flour
2 tbls baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp salt
6 tbls brown sugar
pinch of ginger
2 c cooked pumpkin
1 ½ c buttermilk

Preheat oven to 400. Melt butter in small bowl. In medium bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, brown sugar, and ginger. Cut in butter. Make a well in the center, and add pumpkin with a fork. Stir in buttermilk till dough comes together. Dust dough with flour and knead 8 times. Pat dough out and cut biscuits. Brush tops with butter and bake until golden brown, 15 – 18 minutes.

Cranberry Butter (from Martha Stewart)
1c cranberry sauce
1 c butter

Blend in food processor until smooth

Last weekend we went to the University District farmers market (it’s open all year!) and Isabel just had to have a pumpkin. So I hunted up a few more pumpkin recipes and we’ve tried them over the last two days. 1 pumpkin goes a long way…

Pumpkin Risotto (adapted from a Sweet Potato Risotto recipe in Real Simple magazine)

2 T olive oil
½ c onion finely chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
1 pound of uncooked, peeled pumpkin, cut into ¼ inch pieces
2 cloves of garlic
1 c rice (I used par-boiled brown rice that cook’s in 20-30 minutes)
2 c chicken broth
½ c grated Parmesan (I’m sure I used more than this)
5 leaves of fresh sage, finely chopped

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, ½ t salt, and ¼ t pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, 4 to 6 minutes. Add the pumpkin and garlic, and cook, stirring occasionally, for 2 minutes. Add the rice and cook, stirring for 2 minutes. Add the broth and cook, stirring frequently, until absorbed. Measure 3 ½ c water. Add ¾ c at a time and cook, stirring occasionally and waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding the next. It should take 25 – 30 minutes for all the water to be absorbed (It took me more water, probably because my rice was brown). Check that the rice is tender, if not add more water and cook longer. Stir in parmesan and sage.

Isabel and I loved this for dinner last night. Great comfort food. I will definitely make it again.

Toasted Pumpkin seeds

Handful or more of pumpkin seeds
1 T olive oil
Salt to taste

In a small non-stick skillet heat oil over medium heat. Add pumpkin seeds and toast stirring constantly. When the seeds puff and turn golden brown remove from heat. Sprinkle with salt to taste.

These were so satisfying to crunch and they hit that salty snack craving perfectly.

Pumpkin Blender Wheat Waffles (My friend Christina shared this recipe with me. She got it here.)
1 Cup Milk (3 T. Powdered Milk and 1 C. Water)
1 Cup + 2 Tbs Wheat Kernels, whole &; uncooked
2 Eggs (2 T. Powdered Eggs and 1/4 C. Water)
2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/4 Cup Oil
1/2 Cup Pureed, Cooked Pumpkin
1-1/2 t. Pumpkin Pie Spice
2 Tbs. Sugar

Put milk and wheat kernels in blender. Blend on highest speed for 4 or 5 minutes or until batter is smooth. Add eggs, oil, baking powder, salt, pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice and honey or sugar to above batter. Blend on low. Pour batter into hot prepared waffle iron from the actual blender jar (only one thing to wash!)
For a yummy variation, put chopped pecans on the top of the batter in the waffle iron before closing.

There was a recipe with this for caramel syrup but we loved it with plain old maple syrup. This was so easy to make and they were some of the best waffles I’ve ever had. Can’t wait to make them again!

I haven’t tried this recipe yet but it sounds amazing and the reviews were great. I bet the candied pumpkin seeds alone will be worth it.

Warm Pumpkin Salad with Polenta and Candied Pumpkin Seeds

Comfort Salad

I love comfort food. Relying on food to soothe or enhance my emotions is one of my ongoing struggles. I hope to someday conquer it. In the meantime I try to find healthy recipes that feel like comfort food to me.

Avocado Tomato Salad is one of my current favorites. The avocado is creamy, the tomato, lime juice, and salt make it super-flavorful, and it totally satisfies me. I also love knowing that the avocado and tomato have tons of disease-preventing nutrients and heart-healthy fat. You could serve this over a bed of greens for a bigger salad.

Avocado Tomato Salad (Makes 1 lunch-size serving)
1 tomato
1 avocado
EVOO
Lime Juice
Salt

1. Dice the tomato and avocado and combine in a bowl
2. Drizzle with EVOO
3. Add lime Juice and Salt to taste. Start with just a little of each and keep adding until it tastes just right.

Green Smoothies

I absolutely refuse to be sick this Christmas. I have spent too many Holiday seasons with a cold or the flu and last year was the worst. I came down with a make-you-want-to-die version of the flu on Christmas Day and the next 10 days were terrible. I missed out on many family plans, including Christmas Dinner and instead of enjoying time with my husband off from work, I barely remember it. I know he was thrilled with the experience too.

I’m one of those people who believe that good nutrition, good sleep, and exercise can solve a majority of health problems. I’ve experienced it myself and I know it works. So this year I’m going to do everything in my power to stay healthy and prevent illness. The problem is, it’s hard to eat really healthy all the time and it’s especially hard during the holidays. I struggle most with getting enough greens and veggies in. I recently discovered a shortcut: Green Smoothies. My friend Rachel introduced me to the concept. Thanks Rach!

A Green Smoothie is packed with disease preventing nutrients, yet it’s much easier to eat than a plate of salad or vegetables and especially useful when you’re in a hurry. It takes 5 minutes to make and about 10 minutes to eat. After I drink two glassfuls, I feel really satisfied and my energy level goes way up for the rest of the day. It also minimizes my desire for less healthy options. I’m betting that this year, if I eat at least one green smoothie a day, I will avoid the dreaded Christmas cold or flu.

So what’s in a green smoothie you ask? You can make a Green Smoothie with any combination of fruits, leafy greens, and water that can be pureed in a blender. It sounds weird, I know, but it really does taste good. Some versions actually look green while my favorite version looks dark purple. I shared my pitcher of green smoothie today with my daughter and her 3 visiting friends.

Their faces tell the story--they loved it.


















My Favorite Green Smoothie

3 bananas
2 satsumas, mandarins, or tangerines
4-6 cups of spinach
2 cups of frozen berries (blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries)
Enough water to make it a smoothie

1. Puree bananas, oranges and some water
2. Add spinach a handful at a time, puree and add more until you’ve added it all. Add water as needed
3. Add frozen berries a handful at a time until pureed. Add more water as needed.
4. Serve it up and enjoy. This makes 7-8 cups.