June 28, 2010

How I love the summer bounty

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This past week I was able to pick from my garden!  I thinned out the kale, collards, romaine, red leaf and butter crunch lettuce.  It was all so good. 
With the baby lettuce we had a salad... with just lettuce, we did not want anything else with it!  For the dressing, I don't have a recipe for you as I never measure, but it consists of:
olive oil
red wine vinegar
maple syrup
dijon mustard
salt
pepper
chives


For the kale.... Well we decided earlier that day we would have grilled halibut so I sauted it in a little olive oil with ginger and garlic and a large cooking onion (sliced very thinly)

Then I wondered how I could get Eyla to eat the greens.... and fruit came to mind, so I threw some frozen mango chunks in a pot and a touch of water.  I cooked them until they fell apart easily.  Once they were done cooking I added some chopped fresh cilantro.
Then I wrapped the greens, mango and fish up in a rice paper wrap.  Really tastey and I loved the novelty of the wrap that she didn't care what she was eating!
Be inspired by natures bounty and enjoy!

June 22, 2010

My invention of East Indian Swiss Chard

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So this recipe is inspired by Saag or Saag Aloo, an east Indian spinach and potato dish.  Eyla did not even give this a try, but it is really really good. 

1 bunch of chard, chopped
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 large onion thinly sliced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 tsp ginger, grated
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup water

Heat the oil over medium heat and fry the mustard seeds until they begin to sputter.  Add the sliced onion, garlic and ginger and fry for about 5 minutes, stirring.  Add the chili powder, salt and water and cook for 10 minutes.  Add the chard cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes.

We had this dish with my dahl recipe, white basmati rice and papadums.  You can find my dahl recipe on my cousins whole foods blog as her family loves it too :) Eyla loves the dahl with rice and green peas mixed in... she eats in by the spoonful.

Enjoy

Carob Energy Truffles

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No picture for these little morsels of goodness... they didn't last but 2 hours.  I took them to Eyla's last Kindermusik class and there they were gone! 

1 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup pumpkin seeds
1 cup dates
1/2 cup raisins
3 tbsp carob
2 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp water

Place seeds in food processor and process until they resemble bread crumbs.  Then add the carob and just give it a quick burst to get mixed in.  Then add the dates and raisins and process.  While processing add the olive oil through the hole in the top and the water... what you are looking for is the mixture to form one big clump, you may not need all of the water, so add one tablespoon at a time and see what happens. 
Then I roll them into little balls and coat them in more carob. 

Enjoy.

Sorry about no pictures, next time I make them I will take pictures.

Simple Salmon and Hummus Spread

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So this may sound wierd, but it is actually really really good.  I think it is one of Eyla's favorites.  (She has fallen asleep many times eating it!!)  I got the idea from the hummus container.... yes yes yes, i buy my hummus.... i make everything else in this house I just cannot seem to get my hummus to taste as good as the one we buy from Costco.. and so cheep too.... I know I could still make it cheeper but I just don't want to fight that battle!!  So on the container it says to use in place of mayonaise, so I did!! 
Thats all... really no recipe, because it really depends on how moist you like your salmon spread.  So we like it in a bowl with a spoon (Eyla's favorite) or with a rice cake, or today we did something new and Eyla liked it too, we wrapped it in romaine lettuce leaves.

Enjoy

June 20, 2010

Black Bean Brownies

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These are a very pleasant suprise!!! No flour? No eggs? No dairy? Oh but they are so good! I saw a recipe for black bean brownies some where in passing, but it had flour and sugar and stuff so I thought I would make my own experiment! They will suprise the heck out of you!

1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
2 whole bananas
2 tbsp your choice of natural sweetener (I used maple syrup)
1/4 cup organic apple sauce
1/4 cup carob powder
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 cup quinoa flakes, divided

Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease and 8x8 pan and set aside.
Combine all ingredients except quinoa in food processor and combine until smooth, make sure you scrape the sides every once and a while.  Stir in 1/4 cup of the quinoa flakes.  Depending on the size of your banana, or can of black beans you may only need 1/4 cup.  If it looks too liquidy you may add the rest.  Mine did.  Bake approximately 30 min, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.  Allow to cool before slicing.  Enjoy!

Turkey, Kale and White Bean Soup

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"This soup is YUMMY" said Eyla. Ok maybe it sounded more like this "numnumnum". But I knew what she meant!!! I was inspired to create this soup as I was cleaning the kitchen... I emptied some containers in the pantry by cooking some beans and there was fresh kale in the fridge from the farmers market... So this is what I threw together. You will notice in the picture there are some different coloured beans in the soup and that's just because I was cleaning out the pantry :)

I hope you like it as much as we did.

8 cups water, divided
1 package of turkey (made into balls by adding salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder and parsley)
1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
4 carrots peeled and diced
4 celery stalks diced
6 cloves of garlic smashed and chopped
Salt and ground black pepper to taste
7 cups cooked white beans (cannellini, navy or great northern), divided
1 bunch organic kale, stems and tough ribs removed, leaves roughly chopped

Heat 1/4 cup water in a large pot over medium heat. Add turkey balls and cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid has evaporated and meat is just browned, about 10 minutes. Add onions, carrot, celery, garlic, salt and pepper and cook, stirring often, until softened, about 10 minutes more. (Add a generous splash of water to the pot if onions begin to stick.)

Meanwhile, put 3 cups beans and 2 cups water into a blender and purée until smooth; set aside. Add remaining water to meat mixture in pot and bring to a boil, scraping up any browned bits. Add kale, reduce heat, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, until wilted and softened, about 5 minutes. Uncover, add remaining 4 cups beans, bean puree, salt and pepper and simmer until hot throughout, about 5 minutes more.

June 9, 2010

Lentil Spinach Soup

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Eyla loves this soup. It is really thick which is great as she is using utensils, so it sticks nicely to her spoon or fork. She also likes to dip rice cakes in it, which is a perfect way to make this meal complete. This soup is a really easy way to get some more greens in her diet. Eyla loves her veggies, but I just like to make sure she is getting lots of leafy greens.

1 onion
6 cloves of garlic
4 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp ground Ginger
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp tumeric
2 cups lentils
2 carrots
2 celery
1 sweet potato
1 pkg spinach
6 cups water
Salt to taste

Sauté the onions and garlic in oil until translucent. Add the spices and heat until fragrant. Dice and add the celery, carrots and sweet potatoes. Rinse and add the lentils and water. Bring to a boil then simmer for 20 minutes until lentils and veggies are tender. Add the spinach and simmer for 5 min. Then either transfer to blender or use an emersion blender and blend until smooth. Green soup!!!!

Yummy note: my hubby was having peas for his dinner so we added them too our second bowl and YUM!! I will make it with peas on purpose next time!

Banana Oat Biscuts

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I found the inspiration for these goodies in my Vitamix blender recipe book. The original recipe called for quite a bit of oil so I made some modifications.

I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

1 ripe banana
1/4 cup ground flax seed
1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
2 tbsp coconut oil
1 cup oats, divided
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup raisins

In a food processor blend banana, flax, salt, applesauce, oil and half of the oats. Blend until smooth. Then mix in the remaining oats and raisins by hand.

Spoon onto cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 20 minutes at 350.

Note: if you do not have coconut oil on hand, canola or any othe light tasting oil will do the trick.

Sweet Potato Pasta Sauce

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I wanted to create a pasta sauce without tomato as I have not introduced it to Eyla yet, and this turned out great. We ate it over brown rice linguini and Eyla had the most fun I have seen her have eating noodles

2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion
4 cloves garlic crushed
1 pkg ground turkey
2 large or 3 medium zuchini diced
2 medium sweet potato baked
4 tbsp paprika
4 tbsp parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup water

Sauté onion and garlic until slightly brown in oil.
Add turkey and cook until done.
While turkey is cooking purée sweet potato with water in blender or food processor.
Add zuchinni to turkey and cook for 5 minutes.
Add sweet potato purée, paprika, parsley and salt and pepper.
Let simmer while you cook your pasta.
Enjoy

Seedsational Crackers

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My daughter loves to dip something into something right now and she loves to eat on the go. This girl does not stay still!! So I have been experimenting with some cracker recipes as they are a great portable snack, and in this case packed with good fats and protiens. Best of all she loves them.

1/4 cup each ground sunflower, pumpkin, sesame and flax seed
1/4 cup each whole sunflower, pumpkin, sesame and flax seed
1 cup chickpea flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp each onion and garlic powder, paprika, curry powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tbsp parsley
Pinch balck pepper
2 tbsp sunflower oil
1 cup water

Preheat the oven to 350F and line cookie sheet(s) with parchment paper.

Mix dry ingredients, then add wet and mix well. Use dessert spoon to place small ball onto parchment paper. Have a small bowl of water to dip your fingers in and press down till nice and thin. Sprinkle with a dusting of salt.
Bake for 20 minutes and place on rack to cool. Enjoy!

Blueberry Flax Pancakes

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Well my husband said these are the best I have made yet as far as pancakes go. I made them on mother’s day, yes me. Bry said he would make them for me except I never have a recipe written down for pancakes, it is always in my head. So this is it, and Eyla loved them. You could top them with what ever you like but Eyla and I just ate them plain, Bry put maple syrup on his. I hope you enjoy them as much as we did, something wonderful about pancakes on a weekend morning.

1 cup brown rice flour
1 cup ground flax seed
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
2 tsp baking powder
dash of salt
2 tbsp sunflower oil
2 cups water
1 cup of blueberries

Wisk dry ingredients together. Then wisk wet ingedients in another and then mix the two together thoroughly. Adjust thickness by adding more water as you meed it, if you like them thinner. Spoon onto hot griddle and wait for holes in the batter to form, then flip. I found these take longer than regular wheat pancakes.

Enjoy

Busy

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Hey,
so it has been a while since I have posted anything, and well that is for no other reason than being busy!! I have quite a few recipes that I have created, but I have not uploaded the photos…. Sure sure that only takes five minutes, but when I can be making mud pies with my daughter out side instead, well that is what I am going to do!!
My/our diet is going to get a little more complicated also. My digestive issues are flaring up again and I am also hoping to get my tests results back within the week to see what is really going on, but
I am going to be eating a diet that will help to eliminate Candida…. So you thought things were restricted before!!!!! Well big change is no fruit, however until I get the test results back I will be having berries and the other big change is less grains. Well I am up for the challenge, it will allow me to be more creative and explore lots and lots of recipes…. what more could i ask for Life is good.

Cookies or Crackers

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Ooh I am so excited about how these turned out. I know that Eyla really like them because I gave them to her and sat her in her high chair and she sat quietly and ate them for 10 minutes all by her self while I made more!!!! (If you know Eyla this is unheard of!!) It is important for me to get more fat into Eyla’s diet, so I have been using seeds as she doesn’t too many other healthy fats other than avocado and salmon (which is excellent ). So again these were also an experiment but are awsome. I bought little cookie cutters at the Bulk Barn so next time I make them we will have fun shapes!

I cup rice flour

1/2 cup flax seed

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1 banana

1 cup mixed berries

1 tbsp sunflower oil

1 cup water

pinch salt

Grind the seeds in a food processor then add the remaining dry ingredients while in the food processor. Then add the berries, banana, water and oil and process until batter is well blended. It is a very sticky batter… reminded me a little of silly putty!! Then let the batter rest in the fridge for a bout an hour (i discovered this made it easier to work with, as I had to put Eyla down for a nap and slept with her!!!)

Oil a baking sheet and preheat the oven to 350. Spoon out the batter and roll into tiny balls and flatten so that all the crackers are equal thickness. Bake for 10 minutes then flip, and then bake for 10 minutes more.

Enjoy!!!!

Baby Granola

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Well this granola was definitely an experiment, but the result was excellent. It is a soft cereal which is very suitable for Eyla, as something too crunchy would be a bit much for her at this age, and she loved it!

1 cup quinoa flakes

1 cup baby rice cereal (I used Healthy Times Brand)

2 cups brown rice puffs

1/2 cup ground flax seeds

1 cup sesame seeds

1 cup pumpkin seeds

1 cup sunflower seeds

1 1/2 cup watered down applesauce (1/2 cup water to 1 cup apple sauce)

1/2 cup canola oil

1 tbsp cinnamon

dash of salt

1 cup of cut up organic unsulfered apricots

Preheat oven to 350F

Combine dry ingredients (except the apricots) in large bowl, whisk wet ingredients in another and combine. Place on a cookie sheet and bake until golden approximately 30 minutes, turning every 10 minutes. When it is done, while still warm, place in a large bowl and add apricots and stir. Place back on cookie sheet and allow to cool before storing in an air tight container.

Enjoy

Seed Treats

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So these were not a hit with Eyla, but a big one with mom and dad. So as you will get to know with me and recipes I kind of just do things on a whim but for your sake I will be measuring more

1/2 cup dates

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

1/4 cup pumpkin seeds

1/4 cup sesame seeds

and a touch of water and some more sesame seeds for decorations

Grind the seeds in the food processor until slightly resembles flour. Add dates and process until a paste. This is when you might have to add some water to make them get pasty… it all depends on how moist the dates are. Then you spoon them out and roll them into balls and then roll them in sesame seeds.

Enjoy

Oatmeal Banana Bake

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This is really really yummy, and I am sure you could do so many variations of this recipe, with apples or raisins or whatever you like. Eyla did not enjoy this one, but mommy sure did!!

Preheat Oven to 375 and grease pie plate (I used coconut oil)

3 bananas (2 sliced, one mashed)

2 cups rolled oats

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp sea salt

1 egg substitute (1 tbsp ground flax mixed with 3 tbsp water)

1.5 cups water

1 tsp vanilla

Combine dry ingredients in one bowl and wet ingredients in another. Wet ingredients ingredients includes the mashed banana. Place one of the sliced bananas on the bottom of the pie plate. Pour the oatmeal mixture in and then top with the remaining banana.

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.

I enjoyed it with a spoon of homemade almond butter for some protein.

Another Blog in the World of Blogs

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So here we go, I never really thought I would ever blog, I am not really a talkative person, don’t really ever have much to say… but I felt that this was important and worth sharing, because I am most certain that there are other moms having the exact same challenge that I am having. As I am a holistic nutritionist and love to cook I thought that people might like what I have to say. So what am I going to blog about?? Well I am going to be publishing recipes that I create for my daughter. She is a VERY picky eater, in addition I introduce foods very slow as her (all babies) digestive systems are so very underdeveloped. (Actually our digestive systems are not fully developed until 12 years of age). So this blog will be of recipes that Eyla loves and those that I created and she didn’t… hopefully someone else will My daughter is the world to me and creating these recipes is going to be so much fun to see what her likes and dislikes are. She is a very spirited girl who has always know what she likes and doesn’t for that matter. She is 13 months old (almost 14). So I hope you enjoy the posts that I have to share with you