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!

Restaurant Review: Finagle-A-Bagel

Finagle-A-Bagel

***July 2011 update - restaurant has closed (though there are still other locations in the area)***

It was time to reinstitute "Mama dates" now that Maia is eating enough to spend a few hours at home with Dada. Nate had the first turn so I helped him choose what to do. We knew we were headed to the winter garden fair at Russell's Garden Center, but first we needed lunch.

So we headed a little further in on route 20 to Finagle A Bagel. Nowadays it's referred to as simply "Finagle", but I've been eating at various locations for over a decade and I still call it by its full name. It's a Boston chain that originated in the famous Faneuil Hall Marketplace. Everything is made in nearby Newton, MA.

Nate chose nothing but
avocado to fill his toasted
vegetable bagel. He also
gobbled down most of a
fresh fruit bowl himself. I
swear he ate more than I
did.

All Finagle locations I've been to are unique in that your bagel can ride a conveyor belt the length of the prep counter at kids' eye level, behind glass of course. It zips through the circular cutter and down to the topping station.

I ordered an everything
bagel with my standard
hummus & tomato. The
hummus is always nice &
garlicky.

My only issues with our
visit was being charged $6+
for what was essentially a
bagel with hummus & tomato, not an entire sandwich in my opinion. But a slight language barrier with the sunday staff left me not wanting to engage in a discussion about it...after all, Nate's inherently more expensive avocado bagel was only $2. Go figure.

What's great about this particular location is that there has always been scheduled kids entertainment here for as long as we've lived here. On Mondays from 3-4pm there is music with guitar songs for kids for free. Can't beat that!

Ample parking, conveniently
located on route 20:

54 Boston Post Road,
Wayland, MA
508-358-6282

Ryan's Lunch

I had intended to make myself a Lost bento this week using some rice barrels, but a sick baby threw a wrench in those plans. I still had them ready to go wrapped in plastic wrap in the fridge, an easy shortcut for Ryan's friday lunchbox. He's been asking for me to put his name in his lunch for a while anyhow...

Ryan's
lunch:
"RYAN"
rice
barrels;
simmered
shiitake
mush-
rooms;
steamed
broccoli;
edamame;
banana
Craisin
walnut
muffin.

Twister

I got some new Betty Crocker food markers that I just had to try. They colored on rice cheese almost like a paintbrush. Fantastic! A big improvement over my Wilton set which performed more like pencils on waxed paper.

Thanks to PikaMama who posted a cheese character tutorial on the Lunch In A Box forums for suggesting the change! I didn't expect to find the markers the same week, on sale no less, at my local Stop & Shop supermarket.

Ryan's lunch: pbj sandwich w/rice cheese Twister board; cucumber slices under soy cheese & nori spinner; orange slices.

I need to be more careful next time about pushing out the colored images from the shape cutter. Some blue ink got onto the first yellow circle. I should have redone it, but I was too pressed for time. What's new!

AJ & Nate had mini pitas
with sunflower butter &
strawberry jelly; cocoa
snaps; cucumber slices;
orange slices.

maki sushi bento

Making sushi for a quick kids bento may sound daunting, but it's actually one of my short cut lunches. The key is having leftover warm rice in the rice cooker or portions of rice in the freezer that can be nuked and shaped in no time. Or if you know you'll really be pressed for time in the morning, roll the maki the night before, but cut it in the morning so the inside stays fresher...the nori might not be as crisp, but I haven't had any complaints!

What are your favourite quick maki sushi fillings?
Avocado and cucumber are an easy sell around here, along with takuan, shiitake mushroom, carrot, abure-age, spinach, and scallion.
But the possibilities are endless...I've used bell pepper, fried and pickled eggplant, tempura sweet potato, fresh mango, silken tofu...

Ryan's lunch: maki sushi of avocado, oshinko, asparagus (leftover from the previous night's dinner); cold spinach; sesame tofu; strawberries; dropper of soy sauce.

I win!

I can't believe it! My twisted lunch won 1st Place out of 15 entries in Jewelmaker's bento contest! Woohoo!!! Check it out!

In honor of the occasion, I made all of the boys a vegan make-your-own pizza bento. It is Jewelmaker's son CDC's most requested lunch...
Ryan's lunch: smoked almond crackers; golden round crackers; mini whole wheat pita bread; rounds of veggie pepperoni, soy cheese & rice cheese; steamed broccoli; marinated mushrooms; sliced black olives; a container of red sauce.

AJ and Nate both had
smaller versions of
the same pizza bento.
AJ didn't want mushrooms
this morning though, and
neither boy could have
the smoked almond crackers
due to their preschool
being completely nut-free.

Thanks for the great idea
Jewelmaker! I'm looking
forward to posting many pics of lunch in my prize bento!

Restaurant Review: Papa Gino's

Papa Gino's, Sudbury, MA

The boys' preschool was
having a fund raiser night
at Papa Gino's. The
restaurant donated 20%
of sales to the preschool!
So of course we made an
effort with 2 large orders
of fries and a large pizza
(no cheese) with broccoli,
mushrooms & black olives.

I hadn't eaten at a Papa
Gino's in a long time. The
crust was much better than
I remembered; in fact I'll vote it
the second best crust in the
MetroWest area that I've had
so far, though I still have
many more places to try.

The prices were very reason-
able, the restaurant was clean
and comfortable. My 2
complaints would be that the broccoli on the pizza was obviously raw when topped since it was still crunchy, and the ketchup for the fries was only available in those obnoxious individual packets.

Papa Gino's is a New England family pizza restaurant with a decent ingredient list online.

This Papa Gino's is located at 104 Boston Post Road (rt. 20), Sudbury, MA. You can order online or by calling 978-443-7136. There is plenty of parking.