Iron Chef Ryan

I had always told Ryan that when he was 8 he could start using the stove with supervision. Actually, first it was 10, but I lowered it to 8. Well, he's 7 1/2 and I caved and let him cook his own main dish for today's bento...

Ryan's
lunch:
rice w/
soy
crumbles
and
shallots;
orange
slices;
green
grapes;
almonds
and
peanuts;
peas.

The
chef
hat is
made
out of
rice
cheese,
and the smile is a piece of an Eco-Planet vegan cheddar cracker--often the smiling suns separate in the box and become a smiley face and the sun's corona.

Ryan has also been making his
own breakfasts recently. Often
by the time I bring Maia down-
stairs he's already eating, and
he gets food for his siblings too.
It took some explaining for him
to master the crazy settings on
our double wide toaster though!

Next I have to be brave and
let him use sharp knives! He
really wants to prepare more
things himself, but so much of
it requires knife skills... I think
I'll go buy some bigger band-
aids just in case!!

cookbook challenge, weeks 7 & 8

Got a little behind after a very busy week, but I've made up the difference with 5 recipes cooked from Tomato Blessings and Radish Teachings...

First off, before my husband left for GenCon, a Peach or Nectarine Crisp. I'm not big on baked fruit desserts, so I let the rest
of the family be the judges. My
husband loved it, and the kids
all ate it, so I guess as far as
peach crisps go it was adequate.
I froze the last two servings for
when he returns.

On to the Broccoli with Olives and Lemon...kind of an odd
combo, not necessarily something I'd make again, but not bad either. Again, the kids ate it, I finished it without reservation, but the flavours were certainly not something I'd have thought to put together.

My favourite recipe recently
is the Beets and Beet Greens with Red Chard. Utterly
fantastic. It's now my second
favourite beet recipe ever.
Spicy, sweet, with the red
onion and both chili powder
and cayenne pepper giving it
a really great tangy new taste...really good for a beet recipe.
I'll definitely be returning to
this one again what with all
the beets we get from our
CSA throughout the entire
season.

Next I tried the Carrots with Roasted Sesame Seeds. I
prepared mine in simple
rounds versus the suggested
matchstick presentation, but
come on, I have 4 kids; I'm not at liberty to spend hours in the kitchen on a Zen Monastery over a side dish like the author was.

I used agave nectar instead
of honey as a sweetener, but
regardless, sweet carrots just
don't do much for me. Maia
enjoyed them, but I don't
see myself making this one
again.


Finally, a quick dinner
for one on a hot night
was this yummy Tomato Salad with Avocado and Black Olives. Simple,
basic ingredients, with
a little kick from the hot
pepper and scallions.

So I did get to see Julie & Julia last week with a friend. Lots of laughs, cute, cheerful...not my usual movie fare, but I enjoyed it very well.

Meryl Streep was just
awesome as Julia Child.
And Amy Adams' cooking
meltdown performances
reminded me of myself
peeling kiwifruit, as I
often drop them because
they're so slippery. For some
reason that's the only thing
in the kitchen that has ever put me on the floor in tears...repeatedly. Ha ha ha.
Anyhow, go see the film, if you're in the mood for a laugh in good taste.

Life's Short, Eat Dessert First!

Here's a straightforward
dessert the whole family
loves...

Coconut Rice Pudding

1 cup arborio rice
1 can coconut milk
2-3 cups water
2 T. sugar
1/2 cup almond milk (optional)

Place rice in a large saucepan. Add 1 cup coconut milk and 1 cup water. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat to low. Simmer about 20 minutes, stir, then continue simmering until most of liquid has been absorbed.
Add remaining coconut milk, and as liquid is absorbed, slowly add warm/hot water in approximately 1/2 cup increments, stirring almost constantly. When rice is tender, remove from heat.
Add almond milk or thin with water before serving if pudding has become too thick.
The kids love to top with a little brown sugar or fruit...I like frozen strawberries or ripe banana slices while the pudding is still quite hot. If you want, you can also add fruit during the cooking process if you prefer softer cooked fruit.

I've made a few too many
desserts this week! Finally,
a recipe from Colleen
Patrick-Goudreau's The Joy
of Vegan Baking that I
actually liked, Banana Crumble.
The top was nice and crunchy
and the bananas didn't need
to be overripe.

We ate it with Trader Joe's
vanilla soy ice cream. Their
soy yogurt imitates Double
Rainbow's brand very well.
My favourite flavour is
definitely the Cherry
Chocolate Chip.

But one cannot live on
dessert alone...
Time to roast up whatever
veggies I had on hand in
the fridge. I covered two
baking sheets with onion,
garlic, kohlrabi, broccoli,
potatoes, zucchini & summer
squash, asparagus, & colorful
bell peppers. A little olive oil,
salt, pepper in a 400 degree
oven until tender & browned
and you have a great start
to many meals.

I tossed the veggies with a
can of chick peas, and a
dressing of olive oil, lemon
juice, garlic, salt & pepper.

In the rice cooker I had a
batch of Ina Garten's
Herbed Basmati Rice ready.
The two dishes went
perfectly together. And what
a great way to use a mix of
fresh herbs.

I know some people think
a rice cooker is a single
purpose gadget, but in my
opinion they couldn't be
more wrong. There's a good
reason most asian households
have a rice cooker!

Got leftover rice? I used
a heaping of leftover rice
in this Broccoli Rice
Casserole recipe from the
VegPeople recipe archive.
It traveled well to the park
the following day in a
Thermos too (and of I
forgot to take any photos
of our picnic, oops!).

I love the cheezy broccoli.
This is a quick recipe that
uses a bag of frozen broccoli.
The sauce was a bit salty in
my opinion, which meant my
husband didn't have to add
any to his for once!

Feeding the Family

This week has really been a transformation between the dead of winter and the approach of spring. Here is Maia the snow bunny dressed in her poofy mouse snowsuit.

Ryan has been enjoying
attending Lego Club
meetings at the Lego
store. Here he is showing
off his new Bionicle
shirt before school. We
have to curb his printing
of downloadable blueprints
from the website. Some of
them have been over 70 pages!

Ryan has also been
creating more recipes.
His latest "Iron Chef"
dish was a salad to
accompany our dinner.

Bon appetit!





Maia wore her first
real hair accessory,
a vegetable headband.

Meanwhile, the boys
continued to celebrate
Mardi Gras days later
with music, toys, and
lots of beads of course.



After emptying his basket
to the "crowd", AJ wore
the basket as a hat.

He gathered small toys
and tossed them around
while parading to Dan
Zanes tunes.

Ryan gathered every
bead necklace he'd ever made,
plus those he got during his
two trips to New Orleans.
I think he'll be ready to
catch his first throws
soon! He can't wait to
go to a real parade
now that he's old enough
to understand what it's
all about. He wants to help
me score a Zulu coconut!

And Nate just wanted
to hog all the beads...
in the typical Carnival spirit!

He wore his beads for
days.

Maia just watched amused
at the whole escapade.
Next year I'm sure she'll
be part of the action.
This year she just wanted
to eat the pretty colored
beads.


Speaking of eating,
here she is in one of her
homemade bibs, ready
for a meal. She adores
pears, beans & coconut
yogurt.


Being the little sister, she
has to endure a lot at the
hands of her big brothers...
like spiders in her hair.
Agh!
She didn't seem to mind.

The snow finally began to
melt, so we all went on a
walk along the rail trail
behind our house.

When we first moved here
almost 7 years ago, there
were still active train tracks
just beyond our property.
They have since been removed
and a rail trail is under
development. I hope it is
completed so the kids can
use it to ride on before too
long.


The boys absolutely adore throwing rocks in the Hop Brook. This was Nate's first time now that he's old enough.

Maia just hung out enjoying
the warming weather. She
absolutely loves being outside.
As a new baby the only way to
calm her crying was to take her
outdoors. Even in the pouring
rain I'd sit on the porch bench
and rock with her wrapped in
a blanket.


Zucchini were on sale
this week at the supermarket.
So of course we made...
brownies??!!
Yep.
In fact, the best vegan
brownies I have ever had.
And I've tried a lot of recipes.

The boys all helped--Ryan
shredded the zucchini, AJ
added the other ingredients,
and Nate helped scrape the
batter into the pan with AJ's
help.



The batter seems dry at
first, but after you spread
it into a baking dish and
pat it down it seems to
moisten up.

I baked them for 5 minutes
longer than the recipe called
for, we did not add any nuts,
nor did we frost them.
Just a cold glass of almond
milk accompanied them.
Absolutely perfect. There
were only 2 squares left from
the entire pan by the end of
the day...burp...


A sunny day was ideal for
Ryan to show off his Lego
creations. He'd built a bunch
of rock vehicles that he
wanted pictures of. He
hopes to someday get his
picture in the Lego Club
magazine.




If any of
you have
older kids,
then you
have
most
likely
heard of
the Magic
Treehouse
books.
Ryan
has
been
really
into
those
books
lately
and he built a Lego treehouse from the first book about visiting the time of the dinosaurs.

Nate meanwhile has his
mind on baseball. He's
happy to be outside without
snow to prevent him from
playing his favourite game.
Indoors he had even invented
a new game called "Base Duck"
using a Ty beanie baby mallard
duck and an orange Hot
Wheels race track piece just
because we won't allow balls
to be hit or thrown inside the
house. Clever.

He is such a typical boy.
Check out his muddy pants.
He tried so hard to keep up
with his older brothers and
one of the neighbor boys
on their adventures.



He no longer wants to be
carried, and on the rare
occasion that he does he's
getting just too darned
heavy!

Speaking of carrying...I
haven't been able to coax
my husband in to using a
mei tei carrier, but I bet he'd use an Ergo if he had one to carry either Nate or Maia. So when I saw this blog giveaway for a free Ergo I just had to enter!

If you've made it this far
today you deserve to be
rewarded! Here's an easy
hands off meal for a busy
family day...

Rice Cooker Rice & Beans

1 1/2 cups brown rice
1 15.5 oz can light red kidney beans, rinsed & drained
1 15.5 oz can diced tomatoes, drained, or 2 chopped tomatoes
1 T. dried minced onion, or 2 diced shallots, or 1/2 a medium onion, chopped
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. oregano
2 3/4 cups vegetable broth
1 avocado, peeled, pitted & diced
3 scallions, chopped

Place all ingredients except last 2 in rice cooker. Stir. Set on regular, close lid, press cook!
Top with avocado & green onions/scallions.

Here is a typical "meal" for
my vegan babies at 6-9
months old: puffed rice, a
slice of ripe pear, halved
cooked beans; well-cooked
carrot; diced ripe avocado.

I begin offering food around
6 months of age if baby is
ready, as recommended by most major medical establishments these days. But babies certainly don't need to start that early unless they are ready. Signs of developmental readiness for solid foods include:

- the ability to sit upright unassisted
- use of a pincer grasp
- loss of the tongue thrust reflex
- an interest in grabbing & chewing food
...and in my opinion some opposing teeth can't hurt!

I offer a combination of finger foods for self-feeding and some spoon-fed items like soups, applesauce, coconut yogurt, hummus, etc. A great up-to-date resource for following baby's lead when introducing food is the book Baby Led Weaning. Don't be confused by the term "weaning"; in the U.S. it is associated with cessation of breastfeeding, whereas in Europe it simply means the introduction of solid foods which begins the weaning process. Of course it is recommended by the World Health Organization that all children receive breastmilk for a minimum of 2 years for optimal growth and development. There are many great baby food books out there if you want to make your own more nutritious and cheaper baby food. But jarred baby food, nutritionally-devoid baby cereals, and watered-down purees are simply not necessary...they just make the baby food manufacturers a ton of money!

Happy Lunches

I have finally found a winner in my quest to find a cabbage dish that I really love...and what luck, it's the first cabbage dish that my husband has requested I repeat again soon! Yahoo!!
The recipe is a Seared
Cabbage Salad from
Rachael Ray's 30-Minute
Meals. I served it over
soba noodles with some
shiitake mushrooms and
cold tofu.


Simple, fun meals were
key at the beginning of
the week; Dada left for
his first trip since Maia's
birth. Three days alone
with four kids was
certainly exhausting!

Ian's Alphatots, Yves
Good Dogs in whole wheat buns with organic ketchup, grapes, cucumber, carrots.













The older boys have been taking turns holding their baby sister.

Monday:

AJ's camp lunch: whole grain crackers w/cream "cheese" & white crackers w/peanut butter; green beans; edamame; onigiri; watermelon; mini zucchini muffin.

Tuesday:

Farm pickup: eggplant, green peppers, pattypan squash, cucumbers, green kale & red russian kale, celery, watermelon, cantaloupe, muskmelon, red onions & white onions, jalapeno, red potatoes, blueberries, orange cherry tomatoes & red Juliet plum tomatoes, purple cabbage, 3 pounds of various heirloom tomatoes. Not shown: herbs & flowers.

More bento treats arrived in the mail:

A Buzz Lightyear Toy
Story bento box, a green
mushroom fork case
with fork, various paper
cupcake holders,
kyaraben nori punches,
a rice ball mold.


I also came across a great instructional Happy Lunch Box website intended for parents of kindergarten kids in Japan. It shows how to make simple animals, people, flowers, etc. out of food. Check it out!

Wednesday:

AJ's lunch for camp: Nate's Meatless Meatballs; cantaloupe chunks; tiny gherkin pickle; blanched spinach; grilled nutritional yeast cheese sandwich.

Thursday:

Husband's lunch: Thermos of homemade vegetable lentil barley soup; soba noodles; steamed broccoli & tomatoes; Insanely Easy Chickpea Salad & cucumbers; baguette slice (to accompany soup); carrot sticks; sesame tofu; marinated mushrooms.

AJ's playdate lunch in his new Buzz Lightyear bento: 1/3 of an EnviroKidz Berry Crispy Rice Bar; sesame tofu & green beans; soba noodles; cucumber slices; carrot sticks; mini zucchini muffin; steamed broccoli.