Quinoa and Corn Pasta with Pesto and Lamb Sausage

Quinoa and corn pasta is a yummy non-gluten pasta. It's good to branch out from the standard wheat or semolina (refined white flour) pasta . Read my posts here and here. Also, quinoa contains more protein than rice.

I used my standard pesto sauce and then sprinkle about a cup of my mystery leafy green on top that I bought at the farmer's market. I've got to find out the name of it next time that I go. I like to use spinach in this same fashion but enjoyed the flavor of this mystery green better. Mikey seemed to really like it too. It's a good habit to sprinkle something green on pasta; otherwise, pasta dinner can sometimes lack in the vegetable department.

And finally, we grilled up one lamb sausage and put a couple bites on each plate. For not planning this meal at all, I thought that it turned out nicely. I think a little feta cheese and/or olives would have made it fabulous!

Pizza with Bacon

Lately I like to buy Vicolo organic corn meal crust. Mikey likes to eat the crust so I feel better that it's corn rather than wheat. Read why eating wheat, wheat and more wheat isn't that great for us here. Wheat is everywhere. If I don't make a conscious effort to branch out, we would only eat wheat products. I like corn pasta and spelt grains as well. Read my posts here and here.

I make pesto weekly for pizzas and pasta. I sprinkle a little mozzarella cheese on top of the pesto. I use Precious cheese. I should really use fresh mozzarella because it isn't so processed, but I'm having a hard time parting from my cheesy American-style pizza. Precious cheese grates well in my food processor. The toppings are the fun part. Tonight I added bacon, spinach, and corn.

Corn meal pizza crust
Homemade pesto
2 cups mozzarella
Five slices of bacon
2 corn ears
2 cups spinach leaves

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees with the pizza stone inside. A pizza stone is really key to making tasty pizzas. Fry the bacon on the stove top. Chop and set aside. Pour bacon fat into jar. I want a little bacon fat left in the pan to act as my cooking oil for the corn and spinach. Shave corn kernels off the corn ear. Roll spinach into ball and chop. Cook corn and spinach in the unwashed bacon pan until soft, about five minutes.

Coat the pizza crust with pesto, then mozzarella, then the spinach and corn, and lastly the chopped bacon. Pop in the oven for 10 minutes and dinner is ready!

Mary's Free Range Chickens

I rarely post about meat. But my family does eat meat. I usually shop for meat once a week. I buy a whole chicken (cut up in pieces), fish, and sometimes bacon or sausage. I have toured around the city to the different places that I list here, but I haven't fallen in love with any one store (that sales meat) or brand until now. I am really enjoying Mary's Free Range Chicken. These chickens are so moist and juicy. With each sitting I find myself saying, "Yum, this chicken is good!" If I were a cat, I'd purr as I ate it. I've eaten organic meat exclusively for the past two years but it wasn't until Mary's Chicken that I felt like I was back in the French Alps. (The meat in France is noticeably better tasting.)

I can find Mary's Chickens at Faletti's, Avedano's and Cal-Mart/Antonelli's.

Rice Casserole with Something Green Inside

This is a great recipe if I have leftover rice to use. It is also good when I have leafy greens that need to be eaten. It freezes well too. This casserole is similar to this one here.

2 leeks
2 cups leafy greens (kale, beet greens, bok choy, collards, swiss chard)
1 clove of garlic
1 tablespoon butter
2 eggs
salt
pepper
olive oil
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
1 cup milk
2 cups cooked rice

Butter a casserole dish and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a saucepan heat the butter and olive oil. Finely dice the leeks and cook for 5 minutes in the butter and olive oil. Finely chop a green vegetable. Add to the leeks. I use collards in the picture but spinach and broccoli work well. Finely chop the garlic clove and add to the leeks and greens. Season with salt and pepper. If I don't have garlic, I use garlic powder. Cook until greens are wilted about 3-5 minutes.

While the greens are cooking, I beat the eggs in a large bowl. Then, I add the rice, cheese, and milk to the bowl. Last, I dump the leeks and greens into the bowl with the rice, eggs, and milk. Mix until well incorporated, and then pour into the buttered casserole dish. Cook for 1 hour. I know that it is done when the top starts to brown.

Quinoa and Corn Pasta

I'm adding quinoa and corn pasta to the rotation. Read one of my recipe posts that uses quinoa and corn pasta here. In this post here, I talk about how most pastas are made from semolina flour which is enriched white flour. I would never buy Wonder Bread so how was I fooled into buying white flour pasta. Since this realization, I try to feed my family a variety of pastas. And this quinoa/corn pasta from Rainbow Grocery makes the mark! It looks good and tastes normal! Looks don't matter of course, but I am still programmed to like yellow pasta. And tasting normal is still sadly normal like industrialized food normal.

Other pastas that I like are whole wheat pasta and rice pasta. My family does still eat semolina pasta but just not every time that we eat pasta. Mix it up, be different! Plus quinoa and corn are gluten-free, which is good for all of our digestive systems, not just those who are gluten intolerant.

[Quote from linked post]

SEMOLINA
I came across this ingredient on the label of a bin at Rainbow Grocery where I often purchase "semolina spaghetti." I haven't a clue what semolina actually is so I decided to do some research. What did I find? Semolina is little more than a nice Italian-sounding word for "enriched white flour." White flour!?!? When I do feed Mikey flour, it ought to be whole wheat. Goodness, it seems everyone is out to trick me. I have to make the effort to research everything I buy. Little by little, I'm learning exactly what I'm feeding my little boy.

[/quote]

Spelt for Lunch

I cook the spelt in the morning along side breakfast and then let it sit on the counter until lunch time. Then it's ready to go when I need it. We ate it cold but it's good hot as well. This is one inexpensive lunch. It's like eating a bowl of rice, but it tastes like I ordered it at a restaurant.

Spelt has twice as much protein and fiber as whole wheat and is the only grain that contains an immune system stimulate called mucopolysaccharides. Read more about why I am trying to balance out my family's wheat consumption here and here.

1 cup spelt
2 cups water
2 tablespoons lemon (1/2 lemon)
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 quart broth
1 cup raisins
graded parmesan cheese to taste

Soak 1 cup of spelt in water and lemon juice for 24 hours. Cover the spelt with water until the water comes 1/4 inch above the spelt (about 2 cups). The lemon juice helps sprout the spelt as it soaks. Drain and rinse. Heat two tablespoon of olive oil in a sauce pan and cook the spelt for five minutes. The spelt turns slightly translucent as the grains absorb the olive oil. Add little by little about 1 quart (a little less) of chicken or vegetable broth. Add enough to just cover the grains, and then wait for the liquid to absorb into the spelt before adding more. Continue about three or four times until spelt is tender. Spelt has a bit of a crunch to it so I expect that when I taste for readiness.

Add a handful of raisins (about 1 cup) to the spelt. Grade a little bit of parmesan cheese over the top and lunch is served. The oil and raisins compliment the spelt very well. Mikey's favorite part is the raisins!

Quinoa and Vegetables: a typical dish at my house

I can prepare this meal in 1/2 hour. Quinoa cooks just like rice in the rice cooker. If I have meat on hand this makes a lovely side dish. But if I don't, I know that quinoa packs in more protein than rice so I don't worry about Mikey not getting his protein for the day.

• 1 cup quinoa to 2 cups water or broth (Broth is a more nutritious way to cook grains. Soaking grains over night is also a preferred way to eat grains.)

Then, I peak in my fridge for some vegetables. I chop them to a size that Mikey can pick up and pop in his mouth. Then, I saute them in olive oil with a splash of water. The water steams the vegetables at the same time that I am sauteeing them. The whole process goes a lot faster with a little water. Sometimes I drop in a tablespoon of coconut oil.

1. I always start my vegetable melodies with onions, garlic, and ginger.
2. Then I throw in the hard stuff like red peppers and green beans.
3. Lastly, I add the squash.

That's it! Dinner is served.

Coconut oil was put in the same group as trans fat two decade ago. Coconut oil isn't trans fat, it is saturated fat. Saturated fat is used by the body to help absorb other nutrients in the meal like nutrients from vegetables. The Food and Drug Administration will soon worn against trans fat not saturated fat so coconut oil is innocent of all crimes charged against it. Read more about how healthy coconut oil is for us here.

Read my other quinoa recipe here.

Vegetable Macaroni Stew: let no vegetable go to waste!

This Vegetable Stew is so tasty that Mikey and Zack would never guess that I make it to use up the remains of vegetables in the fridge! Today, my sister and her two kids (4 and 6) came over from Marin for a day in the city. I made this stew when they arrived and we had it for lunch. This recipe is so easy, I made it while three kids ran around my small apartment. Everyone was starved after a fun morning at Koret Children's Quarter, it was a relief to know lunch was already made.

1) Cover the bottom of a soup pot with olive oil and heat.
2) Add an onion or however much of an onion you have.
3) Add finely chopped garlic to taste. I like two cloves.
4) Add finely chopped ginger to taste. I like about two inches from a root.
5) Mix in spices: salt, pepper, turmeric, curry seasoning. Cook all of the above for about seven minutes.
6) Add all your chopped vegetables. The picture shows green beans, carrots, and corn. Today I threw in the rest of the green beans, carrots, and zucchini.
7) Add 1 to 2 cups of Macaroni pasta.
8) Add water until it rises one inch above all the vegetables and pasta. Bring to a boil and then simmer until the pasta is done. You want it cooked down like the picture shows.

I sprinkle Parmesan cheese over the top. I sometimes serve it over rice if I am really hungry or feeding my husband.

Mikey enjoys this meal. I love watching him eat a meal made with curry seasoning; it warms my heart!

The macaroni in the picture is semolina pasta. Learn more about why it isn't the best food choice in my post here. I am cooking my way through what I have left in my pantry before switching to rice pasta and on occasion whole wheat pasta.

Quick Broccoli-Spelt Casserole: dare to be different

I just posted a picture of a variation of Ruth Yaron's Quick Broccoli-Rice Casserole to my post here. I used spelt in place of the rice. It turned out great!

Easy One-Dish Casserole: my new favorite

This recipe rocks! Mikey savors every bite—yum, yum! Lentils and rice are the main ingredients, so the casserole is loaded with protein and complex carbohydrates. It's a compete meal—and a snap to make. It keeps for a week in the refrigerator.

I doubled the recipe and put one in the refrigerator for the week and one in the freezer.

1/2 cup uncooked lentils, soaked overnight
3/4 cup uncooked brown rice, soaked overnight
1/2 diced onion
1 diced garlic clove (optional)
2 cups vegetable or chicken broth
1/4 tablespoon turmeric

1 teaspoon garlic powder if you didn't add a garlic clove

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup spinach or other leafy green (optional)

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

The night before, submerge the rice and lentils together in water and lemon juice from 1 lemon. Soak for 12 to 24 hours. Rinse and pour into a buttered casserole dish (2 quart pyrex dish).

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Finely chop onion and cook until it is soft about five minutes. Add garlic, turmeric, and salt. Add spinach or other leafy green to the onions. Cook greens until wilted about one minute.

Put the onion and greens mixture into the casserole dish with the uncooked rice and lentils. Pour in enough broth to rise 1/4 inch above the rice and lentils (approx. 2 cups). Cover and cook for 1.5 hours.

After one hour take out the casserole and mix in the cheese. The cheese makes everything stick together. Make sure it's well mixed in with the rice and lentils. Press down on the top of the casserole to flatten everything out again. Then add a thin layer of cheese to the top and pop it in the oven uncovered for another 30 minutes. It's done when the bubbling has stopped. No bubbling means all the broth is absorbed.

So why is it a "complete" meal?
I've been reading quite a bit about this in Kelly Hayford's book, If It's Not Food, Don't Eat It. Basically, there are three macronutrients in our diets that provide calories: carbohydrates, protein, and fat. We need all three to keep functioning, but our body wants them from real foods—not sodas and junk food. In the casserole, the lentils provide protein and the rice provides nongluten, complex carbohydrates. Both these ingredients also contain natural fat as well as many other nutrients such as fiber. See this post for a list of some gluten and nongluten complex carbohydrates.

What are complex carbohydrates?
You'll find complex carbs in anything that's still in its natural state. For example, you find them in an apple but not in apple juice. Complex carbs contain vitamins and minerals, providing sustained energy. When the apple is processed into apple juice, it becomes what's known as a simple carb. Another example? Oatmeal is a whole grain so it has complex carbs, but the more processed boxed cereals are simple carbs and won't keep your "honey" full for long. So, if you feel like your kids are always hungry, try to feed them unprocessed food that's still in its natural state. "Simple carbohydrates are best kept to a minimum," says Hayford. This advice can be hard to follow because it seems that simple carbs are everywhere now!

Pizza: everyone's favorite pie

Ordering out pizza was once a cheap option. But these days I have to shell out $25 for a pie that's usually tasteless and soggy. Recently, I started making my own with Trader Joe's pizza dough—it costs only $1. Sometimes, I even kneed my own dough. This makes for an even more delicious crust—and there's no packaging so I'm limiting my impact on the earth.

I recommend buying a pizza stone so your crust comes out of the oven perfectly crispy across the bottom and chewy along the edges.

Makes two pizzas.

First step: the dough

If you're using Trader Joe's dough skip to Step 2. If you're making your own dough, start about 1 hour or more ahead of time because it needs at least a half-hour to rise. I have used both a food processor and a mixer to make the dough but prefer the mixer. If I have to grate cheese, I'll use the food processor so I clean only one tool.

Dough recipe is courtesy of Ina Garten. I've only made the dough; I've never tried the full recipe. And, I always use whole wheat flour—not that all-purpose stuff.

For the dough:
1 1/4 cups warm water
2 packages dry yeast or buy bulk yeast (it's 2 1/2 teaspoons per package)
1 tablespoon honey
3 tablespoons good olive oil
4 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons kosher salt

Combine the water, yeast, honey, and olive oil in the mixer or food processor fitted with a dough hook or blade. Add 3 cups flour and then the salt, and mix. While mixing, add 1 more cup flour, or enough to make a soft dough. Knead the dough on low to medium speed for about 10 minutes until smooth, sprinkling it with flour, if necessary, to keep it from sticking to the bowl.

When the dough is ready, turn it out onto a floured surface and knead by hand a dozen times. It should be smooth and elastic. Place the dough in a well-oiled bowl and turn it several times to cover it lightly with oil. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel. Allow the dough to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Second step: preheat and the toppings

Put the pizza stone in the oven and preheat at 450 degrees. While dough is rising and the oven is preheating, I chop, cook, and grate cheese. When I first started making pizza, I'd always forget to preheat the stone. I want the stone hot enough to cook the dough while I'm adding the ingredients to the top.

Prepare two low-moisture mozzarella cheese balls in the food processor with the grater attachment. Two mozzarella balls gives me enough for a second pizza later in the week. For the toppings, I pick and choose from almost anything that I can find in the frige. Leftovers are great for piling on top of pizzas:

Goat cheese
Corn
zucchini
Peppers
Onions
Spinach

Chop and cook in a olive oil: onions, peppers, zucchini, and corn. I want everything cooked before I put it on the pizza. If I use spinach, I steam it before adding it. I also like to chop it after steaming; otherwise, it's a little stringy for Mikey.

Third step: roll out dough

Roll out the dough. If I made my own, I pinch the dough ball into two pieces. I use one and refrigerate the other.

Fourth step: make the pizza

Pull out the pizza stone, place the dough on it, drizzle with olive oil, and then add a light layer of sauce. I like to use my homemade pesto but you can also make it with the more classic tomato sauce. Add a light layer of the grated mozzarella cheese. Scatter topping from frying pan and the spinach from the cutting board onto pizza. Add clumps of goat cheese. Stick in the oven for 10 minutes.

Mikey typically eats one slice. He loves pizza night!

Easy Macaroni and Cheese: fresh take on a kids' classic

When I think of macaroni and cheese, I picture the packaged, processed kind that's bright orange. Ruth Yaron offers a quick and healthy version of the classic meal (p. 334). I often make this recipe on my work days because I have so little time to prepare food when I get home. I like to boil the pasta in the morning and then stick it in the fridge until dinner time. Then I only have to heat all the ingredients up in one saucepan. It's so easy and Mikey devoured that whole bowl in the picture!

One cup dry pasta made about 4 cups cooked pasta so I made enough for Zack and me too—and we had chicken with it. The 2 teaspoons of milk didn't seem like enough and I worried that it would be overly dry, but the ricotta cheese makes this recipe creamy and moist.

1 cup cooked whole grain pasta
1/4 cup grated natural cheese
1/4 cup ricotta cheese
1 teaspoon butter
2 teaspoons of milk
Dash of wheat germ

Mix all ingredients. Heat on stove top until cheese and butter melt. Add a dash of wheat germ to the top. You'll never go back to Kraft!

Vegetable Quinoa: how to whip up a delicious dinner with nearly nothing

When I got home today, I didn’t know what to make for dinner. The kitchen cupboards seemed empty. I pulled out a few random vegetables and I looked at my bulk grains in the pantry. And presto, I threw together this tasty vegetable quinoa (pronounced keen-wah).

This dish is full of flavor, and after devouring a bowl of it I realized that I didn’t even add salt and pepper. Quinoa is a grain that packs in a lot more protein than rice. It’s light and fluffy with a delicate nutty flavor. I know that I’ll be making this again and again but it will of course change depending on what’s available in my kitchen.

It took me about a half-hour to prepare and fed the three of us with no leftovers.

Start rice cooker with 1 cup quinoa to 2 cups water. It’s the same as rice!

Cook the following ingredients in a fry pan like the one in th picture—starting with the hard vegetables so they have time to soften:

½ cup olive oil
1 carrot chopped for baby
¼ of an onion
¼ of a green bell pepper
1 garlic clove minced
Corn from two cobs
1 zucchini chopped for baby
Handful of spinach leaves minced
1 tablespoon of Italian parsley minced

When I was interviewing nannies for my son, one candidate peeked in my refrigerator and said, “Don’t you have anything to eat?” I was rather insulted by the comment, but she didn’t know that I grind my own rice and freeze pureed sweet potatoes. Her comment made me stand back and look at my kitchen from an outsider’s perspective. There is no premade or processed food—no colorful boxes of cereal, juice, granola bars, and macaroni and cheese. Everything is made from a raw ingredient or we just eat it fresh. If I keep my kitchen well stocked with fruits and vegetables, my family always has something healthy to eat! And today that proved true!

Quick Broccoli-Rice Casserole: Mikey’s second favorite

[picture shows the recipe with spelt rather than rice]

This dish is Mikey’s second favorite casserole as of writing this post (page 337;) sweet potato takes first place. And Mikey should know; he’s sampled many casseroles. I made him the Broccoli Cheese Rice Quiche (page 338) but I wouldn’t bother cooking it again. Mikey nibbled on it like a bird, and the recipe calls for a crust—a lot more work for me!

I also tried the Kale and Rice Casserole (page 337) but it was too dry. Mikey refused to eat it, but I can’t blame the kid for not wanting to eat something that tasted like a bale of hay. The pie sat in the refrigerator until it got stinky and I had to throw it out. I was trying to fit kale into our diet since Ruth raves about its nutrients. Kale and potato soup is the only way I can incorporate kale into Mikey's diet. He loves the soup. I’d love to hear from anyone who can offer up some tasty kale preparations.

The Quick Broccoli-Rice Casserole is moist and sticks together, so Mikey can easily pick it up with his hands or stab it with a fork. Here’s my slightly revised variation of the recipe:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a bowl, mix the following ingredients in this order:
1 beaten egg
½ cup whole milk
1 cup cheddar cheese
2 cups cooked brown rice (or use spelt for a variation; turned out great for me)
1 head of broccoli
½ chopped sautéed onion

Mix all and turn in buttered casserole dish or pie pan, and bake for 1 hour.

I just noticed while writing this that Ruth suggests that I cover the pie dish with tinfoil before putting it in the oven. Additionally, I add extra cheese—always! I use leftover rice and whip up this recipe after Mikey goes to bed. I like to steam or blanch the broccoli before adding it to the mix. If I chop the broccoli before steaming it, I make a big mess when I transfer it into the pot. So I cut it when it’s warm and limp. Ruth calls for a whole onion. I don’t think this little pie needs that much punch so I use half an onion per pie. Make two and freeze one!

Sweet Potato Casserole: It’s as yummy as pie!

Mikey has loved pureed sweet potatoes ever since he started eating them at five months. The tuberous roots pack in big doses of carotenes and vitamins C and B6. Read page 461 in Super Baby Food, where I learned how to choose sweet potatoes and about the different varieties.

When Mikey turned 10 months, I decided to make this casserole to add a little variety to his sweet potato diet. This was the first casserole recipe that I made from Ruth’s book. It was an instant hit with Mikey and it’s still one of his favorite dishes. Mikey finishes off a half of this casserole in one sitting.

Sweet potato casserole is so easy to make and requires so few ingredients that I can whip it up fast. Remember to double the recipe and freeze a pie to save time.

2 sweet potatoes
1 egg
½ cup whole milk yogurt
2 tablespoons parsley

Wash, prick, and stick 2 sweet potatoes in the microwave. I have a button called “Potato” on my microwave so I just use that to cook my potatoes. Beat an egg in a large bowl. Then scoop out the potato meat from the skin into the bowl. Add ½ cup whole milk yogurt. Throw in 2 tablespoons parsley and you’re done. Cook in a pie dish at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes. I know the casserole is done when it starts to brown a little on the top.

If I don’t have parsley, this casserole survives, but I usually have frozen cubes of the herb in the freezer. I like to use Italian parsley because it’s less bitter. If you’re using fresh parsley, chop it into tiny pieces—babies don’t like to eat leafy stuff!

Parsley doesn’t only make my casserole look pretty; it’s also extremely rich in chlorophyll and carotenes. Chlorophyll and other compounds in parsley have been shown to inhibit the cancer-causing properties of fried foods (Murray). I like to keep fresh sprigs of parsley in a cup of water on my kitchen counter so it’s always available to sprinkle onto all sorts of food. When it starts to go bad, I puree it with water and stick it in the freezer.

Spinach Loaf: a tasty main dish

Ruth Yaron’s Spinach Loaf is a healthy and tasty dish. For my son, Michael, I serve it as the main dish and toss a few pieces of grilled meat on the side. He usually picks at his meat and gobbles down the Spinach Loaf as if it were apple pie.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine:
2 cups cooked frozen chopped spinach
One recipe white sauce (see page 334)
2 beaten eggs
1 sautéed onion (optional)
1/2 cup shredded cheese (optional)

Pour into buttered casserole and bake 35 to 40 minutes until knife comes out clean. One casserole makes four servings. I serve Michael one square a day until it's gone. So, a casserole lasts four days typically.

My oven seems to cook all of Ruth’s recipes a little slow, so I crank up the heat to 375 degrees. I wait at least 40 minutes and often longer for my loaf to be done. To cook two loaves at the same time it takes an hour. Although the ingredient list for this recipe is only five lines, I use three burners to make it: onions on one, spinach on another, and white sauce on the third. Lots of dishes! I highly recommend doubling the recipe and freezing one of the loaves.

I keep a bag of frozen spinach in the freezer so I’m equipped to make this recipe at any time. I’m always cautious to measure 2 cups “cooked” spinach. If I add 2 cups “frozen” spinach, it’s too little. This recipe is also an excellent way to use up a fresh head of spinach on the verge of wilting. I steam all the leaves, and then chop them. One head makes two loaves.

Dirty dishes aren’t the only thing that can scare me off from making this recipe. There’s another thing: the white sauce. I have to turn to another page in the Super Baby Food book to finish my loaf! It makes this seemingly short recipe so much longer. But I usually get over it and flip to the white sauce page.

Yikes, the white sauce calls for arrowroot! What’s that? I still don’t know and don’t let it freak you out. Arrowroot is supposedly a healthier alternative to corn starch, but I still haven’t tracked down the stuff and I successfully make loaves with corn starch. Here’s my white sauce recipe. It’s the basic one on the yellow Kingsford’s corn starch box:

Stir until smooth 1 tablespoon corn starch and 1 cup milk.
Add 2 tablespoons butter.
Salt and pepper to taste.

Ruth includes the onion and cheese as optional, but I change that to mandatory! Onions and cheese make everything taste better—Michael would agree. I also add more cheese than 1/2 cup. In fact, I take about two fistsful of grated cheese and mix it in. I always grate my own cheese with the food processor, using the cheese-grating insert that comes with it. This is easy to do and far less expensive than buying the pregrated cheese.

For the baking dish, I like a 2-quart square dish—but I have only one of those so I use a pie dish for the second loaf when I double the recipe.

I have followed all the eating guidelines to raise my son to eat well. And he does eat nutritious meals, but he doesn’t eat what my husband and I eat. My pediatrician tells me not to break my back making two meals. He suggests that we give our son a little of what we cook for ourselves. But, a lot of the time, I disagree with this advice. When we make homemade pizza it works but when we make stir-fry, Michael starves. Or rather, I’m getting up in the middle of dinner to fix him something else to eat. Argh! So exhausting!

I think kids like food to be fresh and simple. It is good to add salt, pepper, garlic, and onions but the Thai green curry sauce that we use in our sir-fry pushes the limit of seasoning that he'll accept. Maybe he knows that it's from a glass container that I bought at Trader Joe's. Maybe simple, fresh food is just plain better. I know a four year old that eats very well, but she wants everything fresh and separated on her plate. If her mom makes a fruit salad, she carefully picks out all the best tasting fruit and leaves the not so good fruit behind for her mother to clean up. Maybe we could use our kids as food watch dogs. Send them out on front line to tell us what is fresh and what to stop buying.

We may eat different things, but I still believe in eating our meals together as a family. It’s quite relaxing (even when Nate’s throwing food) and a learning experience for my baby. According to Ruth, “Mealtimes are the foundation for a lifetime of the healthy attitudes and the eating habits so necessary for the prevention of adult eating disorders.” Read pages 71 to 83 for more great information on this topic. That said, spinach loaf is one thing that we can all eat—as I always cut myself a slice too. It’s nutritious—and delicious!

Leftover Legume Loaf

I love the title of this recipe. It sounds so disgusting, but I needed to get rid of my split peas and lentil cubes. Yes, cubes. I puree and freeze food for my son. I do it a lot less now because he can eat food that I eat, but I am still at it for somethings.

The expiration date on my split pea and lentil cubes has come and gone.I marked an expiration date on the zip lock bag that holds my legume cubes. The date is two months out from when I made them. I thought of making split pea soup but the thought of spoon feeding soup to a baby just sounded like unnecessary pain. And I have no idea how to make pureed lentils taste good. And so, while thumbing through my trusty Super Baby Food book, written by Ruth Yaron, I found the leftover legume loaf recipe on page 311.

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix thoroughly:
1 cup legumes
1 cup wheat germ, ground nuts, or whole grain bread crumbs, or a combination
1 cup liquid (milk, soy milk, or tomato juice)
parsley, powdered or minced garlic, onions
Place mixture into loaf pan and bake about 30 minutes until firm

I have been making this recipe once or twice a week lately. I'll probably move on to something else as soon as I clear out those frozen cubes but for now it's a stable. My baby loves it and it's so fast and easy. He eats half a loaf a day. It's easy for the nanny to feed him and, most importantly, I am working my way through those legumes that I made months ago.

When he goes down for his nap, I throw the oven on 350 degrees, pull out a mixing bowl, and put three cubes into the microwave. Right now, it's just lentils. I use to mix my split pea cubes with my lentil cubes until the split peas got freezer burn and I had to throw them out. You could also use any legume.

What is a legume any way? From Answers.com, "A pod, such as that of a pea or bean, that splits into two halves with the seeds attached to one edge of the valves." Ruth Yaron describes as legumes as dried peas, beans, and lentils. I have always just called them beans but I guess it's a real food group that is properly called legumes. In French, I think it means vegetable, and so that's kind of confusing. Once I am done with the legume cubes in my freezer, I am going to have to figure out how to include beans in my adult cooking since they are so good for us.

So the oven is on, the legumes are in the microwave, the bowl is out... Now comes the bread. If you have bread around the house, this works the best. If I am not using my food processor for something else while I am cooking this loaf, I'll just chop up the bread with a knife. I like the fine bread crumbs that the food processor makes, but it isn't worth getting it dirty for just the bread crumbs. If I am short on bread crumbs or just want to add in something a little different and healthy, I'll add some wheat germ. I haven't done the nuts yet because I feel my baby isn't ready for nuts yet. I alway add more than a cup of bread crumbs because they're chopped up and not fine little bits. Really what you want is to enough bread and liquid so that you have a really soggy bread but not bread soup.

Then one cup of liquid. I always use whole milk. I always have some in the house and the other options sound a little strange: soy milk and tomato juice. Soy milk seems like it might taste weird but Ruth probably means regular soy not the sweet vanilla flavored kind that I always have in the refrigerator. And tomato juice sounds strange as well. I don't like tomato juice and neither does my baby. Although I love Ruth's book, I also go by my tastes. As I cook more and more of her recipes and change my diet little by little, I am trying more and more of her unusual suggestions.

Now comes the seasoning. I always cook up half an onion and 1 garlic clove. These really make the loaf taste good. I always cook the onion because I personally don't like raw onion. If you run out of garlic, I have used garlic powder and it turned out to be a good substitute. I think that I might have made this once without the onion and my baby still ate it. Remember that you are cooking for a baby and so you want everything finely chopped. I normally chop until I run out of patience. My baby's nanny calls this dish the onion dish and so you can tell that I run out of patience quickly. The onions are chopped not minced. I would love to mince but what mom has time!

The other seasoning that I defrost from an ice cube tray is the parsley. Freezing cubes of parsley is so cool. I finally have a solution to all those expensive herbs that I buy, use two twigs, and then watch them die in a glass of dirty water. Now I puree them with a little water and then freeze them. One ice cube is about one tablespoon of parsley. Whenever I need parsley, there's almost always some in the freezer. Also, Ruth writes about how good parsley is for us. It's not just a green garnish, we should be eating it. And so, I throw a cube of parsley in the microwave and add it to the legume loaf.

Mix everything together, make sure it's not too soupy: more bread, less liquid is better. Butter a loaf pan. I didn't have a loaf pan until recently, but it's a must have. I am always using it. If you don't have one, you can use anything that's not too big. You want your loaf to be an inch and a half thick. It doesn't rise. The 30 minutes in the oven is just to stick everything together.