Category: In the Kitchen

April 23, 2013 Gluten Free, In the Kitchen, Paleo, Recipes 1 Comment

Gluten Free/Casein Free Experiment Day 3 (And a paleo meatball recipe!)

So far we haven’t had any complaints about our change in diet. I made sure to fully stock the house with favorite “safe” foods so no one would feel deprived, and it seems to be working.

Some of the behaviors I’m noticing that I’m hoping will go away. Henry’s shirt chewing has increased again this week as has his back talking, neediness/clinginess, and fixation on Minecraft. Thomas was particularly fussy today. We have compounding factors with Thomas – in addition to the diet change we’re also night weaning.

On a related note, I slept through the night last night for the first time in over two years! Woo hoo!

So here’s what the kids ate today.

Breakfast
Sausage, strawberries, dry chocolate chex cereal.
Once again, Helen ate everything. The boys just ate the sausage.

Lunch
Grazing on ham and fruit.
Mini Egg Pizzas from Eat Like a Dinosaur.
Helen (it’s so nice to have a good eater in the house!) gobbled them up, the boys wouldn’t even taste them. Which is too bad, because they really did taste like pizza and even had a pizza like texture. I will probably make them again and hope the boys will give them a try.

Snack
Peanut butter Chocolate Apple “Cookies”
These were great. Cut apples length wise so you have apple circles. (I know I should have pictures, but really anyway you slice the apple is fine.) Spread with peanut butter (or seed/nut butter of your choice). Top with “safe” chocolate chips. This felt like a huge treat!

Dinner
Paleo Meatballs and pasta sauce
Quinoa pasta shells

Dinner was a huge hit with everyone. I’m so glad I made a huge batch of meatballs! I cooked half of them with marinara sauce for dinner and the other half I cooked in some chicken broth and froze for future meals. Here’s the recipe:

Paleo and Kid Friendly Meatballs

1 cup almond meal
1/4 cup coconut flour
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt 
6 oz tomato paste
3 eggs
1 lb ground chicken

1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground pork
oil for frying
marinara sauce or chicken broth

Mix almond meal, coconut flour, garlic powder and salt. I used my stand mixer to mix everything up. Add tomato paste and eggs and mix well. Add meat and mix till everything is well combined.

Heat oil in a large pan until it sizzles when you drop something in it. Form meatballs to desired size. I used a one inch cookie scoop. Brown meatballs for a minute or so on each side and then transfer them to your marinara sauce or chicken broth. Simmer for 30 minutes or more until they’re cooked through. For our marinara sauce I used a jar of my dad’s homemade sauce, a jar of store sauce and about a cup of white wine. Is wine paleo? I don’t know or care. 🙂

The meatballs were awesome. They held together well and were delicious. Even with the big eaters gobbling them up, this made enough for at least two meals.  I’m sending a few of the sauceless ones in Henry’s lunch tomorrow.


April 23, 2013 Gluten Free, In the Kitchen Post a Comment

Gluten Free/Casein Free Experiment: Day 2

Helen asked loudly at breakfast this morning, “Don’t you just love this diet?!! We get to eat scrambled eggs and bacon and fruit!” The boys weren’t as enthusiastic. They left their tacos untouched.

Breakfast
Scrambled eggs in corn tortillas with salsa
bacon
watermelon

Snack
Chocolate Chex

Lunch
Helen ate leftover meatloaf
I think Henry ate ham.
I don’t know what Thomas ate. He may have just had mama’s milk before his nap.

Sunday lunches are mostly grazing affairs around here. Fruit and nuts. Not sure what else they ate. Oh. Potato chips. 🙂

Dinner
Roasted chicken
mashed potatoes with unsweetened almond milk and Earth’s best soy free butter spread
roasted brussel sprouts
Almond dream vanilla ice cream for dessert

April 21, 2013 Gluten Free, In the Kitchen 2 Comments

Gluten Free/Casein Free Experiment: Day 1

We’ve decided to jump on the GF/CF bandwagon and see if we notice any discernible positive change from the diet. I’m hoping mostly for positive behavioral changes. I have some indication that my boys are addicted to wheat and dairy – they have very limited diets composed primarily of milk and bread. My oldest in particular. My pediatrician doesn’t seem too concerned that Henry lives on hamburgers, milk, and apples (“it covers all 4 food groups!”), but I actually believe nutrition is important. I’ve heard that once you get through the initial withdrawl, these picky eaters often expand their repertoire quite a bit.

So not only do we have GF/CF challenge, we have a very picky eater challenge. I’ve planned out a full week of meals and snacks based on Henry’s favorite foods that are naturally (or with minor tweaking) GF/CF. I don’t want to do a bunch of highly processed gluten free foods. But I don’t want them to feel deprived either, so I’m allowing more “junk” than I might normally (i.e. potato chips, dairy free ice cream, etc.).

Ideally I will keep a record here of how my family receives these meals and whether I notice any changes in behaviors.

So today we ate:

Breakfast
Henry just ate sausage. The other kids also had hashbrowns with mustard.

Lunch
Okay, this is sad, but they just jumped me when I got in from the grocery store and ate what looked good. It was past lunch time, so I just let it go.
Chocolate Chex Cereal with soy milk
Potato Chips
Pepperoni
Ham

Dinner
Meatloaf (with almond flour and coconut flour in place of bread crumbs)
Sweet potato fries
GF Ketchup (is all ketchup GF? I don’t know, but I bought some marked GF just to make sure.)
Steamed broccoli
Orange Juice (calcium fortified)

January 8, 2012 In the Kitchen, Our Homeschool 3 Comments

Born to Cook

Henry has declared that he was born to cook. Today he decided to bake a cake. He didn’t ask for permission, he just went for it while unsupervised. Ryan “caught” him as he finished the batter and prepared to bake it. So Ryan helped him pour it in a pan and bake it.

The mess wasn’t that bad. And he did help me clean it up.

The cake came out surprisingly well. And was pretty tasty, if not terribly sweet.

Because I’m always looking for an opportunity to get him to write, 
I asked him to write down the recipe.

I guess he’s been paying attention when I bake!

July 10, 2011 Recipes 1 Comment

Beet and Chick Pea Salad

I was pretty excited about this and was super pleased with how it turned out. My very own creation!

Salad

1 lb beets, roasted peeled and diced
1 can or about 2 cups of chick peas
1/4 red onion minced
2 Tbsp fresh chopped mint

Dressing
3 Tbsp olive oil
3 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 clove of garlic pushed through garlic press

Assemble salad, toss with dressing. Enjoy!

I served it with baked sweet potatoes and fresh whole wheat bread (King Arthur’s easy no-knead version). In retrospect it was a lot of sweetness. Next time I’ll serve it with broccoli or something. Oh, I also used multi-colored beets so it wasn’t such a beet red extravaganza. I was worried it would look bland, but it still was pleasing to the eye.

October 11, 2010 Recipes 1 Comment

Pumpkin Potato Soup

I needed to use up the leftover pumpkin puree from the oatmeal pumpkin cookies I made the other day. Since it’s been raining all day, I thought it would be nice to have some soup. And since I somehow ended up with two enormous bags of potatoes (I’m pretty sure the bagger put someone else’s potatoes in my cart), I figured it’d be nice to combine the potatoes and pumpkin into the soup.

I thought the result was delicious enough to share. And surprisingly filling. I served it with whole wheat parmesean biscuits and it was a simple and delicious meal!
I shamelessly stole this image from www.thinandhealthy.com.
I didn’t get around to taking a picture of my own soup.

Pumpkin Potato Soup
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp butter
1/2 onion chopped
2 large cloves of garlic
2 cups or so chicken broth (I used homemade, if you’re using a can, just use one can)
2 cups pumpkin puree (again, if you’re using a can, just use one can)
2 medium sized potatoes
1/2 cup of milk
10-12 fresh sage leaves (or use dry, but I don’t know how much)
1 tsp salt (or to taste. I like salt.)
Pepper to taste – my kids flat out reject anything peppered, so I just added it at the table.
Heat the olive oil in your pot. Add butter, onion and garlic and sautee until onions are soft and butter starts to brown. Meanwhile, nuke your potatoes for about 5 minutes.
Add the chicken broth and pumpkin and stir. Scoop the flesh out of the potatoes and toss in the pot. Add the sage leaves and salt and let everything simmer for a bit. 15-20 minutes is good.
Scoop out the sage leaves and put the soup in the blender. Blend until smooth. Return soup to pot and stir in the milk. Serve.
Generally I don’t think of blended soup and biscuits as a meal, but I think there was enough fat and protein in the biscuits and enough fat and fiber in the soup to fill me up. Or maybe it’s just because I ate a gallon of the soup!

October 8, 2010 In the Kitchen, Recipes 1 Comment

Perfect Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

I’m always looking for snacks that my kids will eat that I feel good about them eating. These fit the bill. (I should mention that I don’t worry about fat intake, so if you do, these may not be what you’re looking for!) They’re 100% whole grain, low in sugar, high in vitamin A, and really, really tasty. These are soft cookies, not crunchy. I recommend doubling the batch.

I have no idea where I found the original recipe and I’ve doctored the heck out of it. So here’s my latest, yummiest version.

Oatmeal Pumpkin Cookies

We used a pumpkin we grew in our garden!

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup pureed pumpkin
1 cup of chocolate chips or raisins or nuts

Preheat oven to 350.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, oats, cinnamon, cloves, baking soda and salt.

Using a mixer, cream butter and sugar. Add egg and mix. Add vanilla and mix. Add pumpkin and mix. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and combine. Stir in chips/raisins/nuts if using.

Drop by rounded teaspoonful onto ungreased baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes.

I ran a nutrition analysis based on a batch of 48 cookies with 2 cookies per serving and here’s what I came up with. Oh, and I made these without any of the optional mix-ins because my picky picky kid can’t handle the texture. I would love to add walnuts to up the protein. Instead, I serve them with nuts and milk.

Caliories 134; Calories from Fat 59 (I told you, I’m not afaid of fat!); Total Fat 7g; Saturated Fat 4g; Trans Fat 0g; Total Carbs 16g; Dietary Fiber 2g/7%; Sugars 6g; Protein 3g; Vitamin A 14%; Vitamin C 1%; Calcium 2%; Iron 5%

September 12, 2010 In the Kitchen, Our Faith Post a Comment

Fall is in the Air!!!

Fall is absolutely, hands down, my favorite time of year. The infernal heat of summer transferring its intensity to the blazing leaves of the trees. Harvest festivals,  apple cider, farm field trips, pumpkin carving, cool mountain hikes, Halloween, Thanksgiving.  
One of my favorite fall events is the perfect trifecta that is All Hallowed’s Eve, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day. My son thinks there’s nothing better than a holiday that allows him to hack into pumpkins, dress up in a scary costume, and stay up late to wander the neighborhoods collecting an enormous bag of candy. 

After all of that excitement, our family spends the next day in the cozier activity of baking bread. Pan de Muerto to be exact.  There’s just something about baking bread. And baking bread in the shape of a skull is, apparently, kid nirvana. For me, I’ve found bread baking to be the perfect way to commemorate a holy day which, in our culture at least, is not widely celebrated. It’s an all day activity, and each time we go back to the dough, my mind is brought back to the importance of the day.  It’s become one of my favorite fall traditions.  

Pan de Muerto 2009
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