food frenzy

Well, I haven't been a good food blogger... but dwell not!

We've been without heat for a few days now and today I've been cooking frenziedly hoping to heat up the kitchen so I can move my fingers again. Roasting a garlic lemon chicken, acorn squash, beets and potatoes. Cooking up some stock, lentils, onions, potatoes, apples, beet greens to blend with a can of coconut milk, curry, red pepper and a 28 ounce can of pumpkin puree because I was too lazy to chop up pumpkin or bake it and scoop it out.

From 30 minutes of prep and 80 min of roasting/blending/plopping(the dumplings) I will have 1 chicken dinner, 2 chicken and dumpling dinners, 2 lentil pumpkin soup dinners...dumplings don't require much skill just flour, a little milk, butter and baking soda. Canned ones are a fine substitution, but I think you can taste the preservatives.

It would take me far longer to peruse the freezer section... and Alex is a huge soup/stew fan. He tested some pumpkin from the can before I decided to go the canned route.

Garden Ode

10 minutes and I've got some fresh kale in the oven at 350 foiled and oiled laid out on a bed of sliced garden tomatoees. The greens need something with moisture underneath them to help their wilt.

On the edge of the pan, I've mixed a few diced cloves of fresh garlic and a type of yellow round squash that I've never seen before, it isn't of the zucchini or butternut variety.

Baby Alex will eat it all if I can figure out the right ratio of kale to squash to tomato, or if I sneak some fresh mozzarella on it in the last 10 minute of its hour of baking.

If he doesn't eat all of the veggies, I realized he'll eat anything if I blend it a little finer and squeeze some fresh peach or apple pulp on it and mix it with a little baby oatmeal. If he doesn't need the oats to disguise some of vegetables, he'll be eating quinoa with us tonight.

Also, we have some free range shredded chicken that is so tasty I'm going to wait until he's eaten a little of the rest of his dinner to feed it to him.

From one chicken: Peach Bean Stirfry

Rotisserie chickens stretch 4 dinners at my house.

After our first rotisserie chicken meal, I made a green bean and peach stir fry from 1/3 of the chicken. Alex doesn't like green beans, but I thought if I paired them with something he really liked (peaches) a winner would emerge.

In a large skillet

Heat skillet to medium heat with a few tablespoons of olive oil

To warmed oil add:

1 pepper cut into baby sized bites
1 peach with some of the skin cut off (if you are eating non-organic peaches I'd advise removing the skin or scrubbing them like they have the plague- because like non-organic grapes and apples these have really high pesticide loads)
1 sweet onion cut finely

While these were simmering I pulled the ugly bits from the ~3 c. green beans and washed the pretty parts.

Add

1/3 rotisserie chicken
3 cups of green beans

3 tablespoons of water

Cover and simmer until beans are the texture you prefer.

Leave a 1/4 of the total mixture in the pan and cook an addition 3-4 minutes until beans are softer than you would like, but easier for your little one. Beans will need to be cut into smaller pieces to serve.


For adult version:

Add soy sauce or ginger and soy sauce to taste

For baby version:

Add butter or additional olive oil. This meal is pretty light, so I added olive oil to give Alex a few more calories. If your baby does not eat little pieces of chicken puree the chicken with a little yogurt or yogurt and fruit.

Serve stirfry on a soft small pasta (or quinoa)- we used a multigrain pasta.

Alex still spit out a few green beans, but I think a few were gone by the time we finished our meal.

Maybe I didn't eat enough green beans while Alex was fetal.

Baby feeding adventures: try this kumquat now or be forever bland

My college boyfriend's roommate only ate things that were shades of yellow or orange. The only vegetable he ate was baby carrots. They didn't have the green tops. He'd eat pizza with no sauce (is it still pizza?) and drink a few too many beers. His skin was pasty and I think maybe he was molting... he is by far the pickiest eater I have ever met. He was a heck of a fun (quirky) time- so I hope he is still around.

Anyway, I don't feel so bad that Alex has yet to ingest a green bean with no companion. He will eat disguised versions as long as I blend them with at least 3/4 of a food he likes better. So, I will keep putting those limp, grinch fingers on his tray until he puts it in his mouth and smiles instead of pelting Loki (our schnauzer).

This strategy has worked for several other foods--- for example, avocado went from baby smash to yum around 8 months.

A new study has just been released that suggests that if you feed an infant variety from the start, they are more likely to eat healthfully when they are older. The research also suggests that infants and toddlers should play a role in determining how much they eat... this helps with their 'stop' function when they are older and as older children and adults they will be less likely to overeat.

Anyway, I need some chocolate now. Too late to completely retrain this Mama. But thankfully I don't like to spend a lot of time cooking- because I don't have any baked goods to gnash on.

Rotisserie Chicken, Squash Medley

Maybe my mind has been infiltrated irreversibly by Michael Pollan ... I can't get over the best food advice I've ever heard, eat real food. Doing this has done as much for our overall health as synthroid has done for my metabolism. I love artificial hormones as much as I love real food.


Anyway, with so many food options, it is easy to go with the convenient ones. I like the idea of spending very little time on cooking. If it were my artform, and I truly enjoyed the time I spent in the kitchen it would be different. For me, it means that I am not playing with my son, hanging out with Trey, writing a research paper, or going on a long run. Whether or not I drop running as a hobby because my music loop is putting me to sleep, I still don't want to spend hours in the kitchen and I don't like feeding Alex out of a jar. It takes no more time to give him some variation of our meal than it does to open a jar. Plus I feel a little guilty if he doesn't finish the jar because even the non-organic stuff is more expensive than feeding him what we are already eating. Yes, I am cheap and becoming cheaper as I stay home more.


Last night dinner approached too fast---our dog put on a freak show and occupied most of the afternoon with an unexpected illness.

In haste, I grabbed a rotisserie chicken and made a side from the farmer's market goodies.

Into a pan of 2 tablespoons of olive oil on medium heat:

I sliced:

1 small white onion
2 medium ears of sweet corn

at the same time I microwaved

5 fingerling potatoes until they were soft to the touch (2-3 minutes)
I like the colorful ones because they typically have more nutrients.

I then cut these even smaller and added them to the sweet corn and diced

1 summer squash

I put a few tablespoons of water into the pan and put the lid on and cooked 3-4 minutes until the squash was done and then added

dill for taste


For Alex, I diced his potatoes even more and also did a quick softening of part of his meal in the blender (just loosening it for a little bit easier chewing). Turns out his 4 teeth are good enough to eat the dish with or without the easy blend. I also gave him really small pieces of the most moist (and fatty) parts of the chicken because they were easier to chew.

I gave myself a slice of ugly tomato (I'm the only one that digs uncooked tomatoes in this house).

Alex devoured this and I only spent 10 minutes making the meal. This is real convenience food.

Summer Quinoa Salad (for parents and babies)

Alex napped blissfully this morning! I had plenty of time to wander through the farmer's market while my husband Trey mowed down our grass forest. I bought as many colors as I could fit into my bags and returned to short grass and a missing spaghetti squash plant.

By the time dinner neared, it was over 90 degrees and I had no desire to cook and definitely didn't want to eat anything warm. With this in mind, I set out to make a simple salad made with fresh produce, black beans, and quinoa (a hearty grain--- you could use couscous, bulgur, or a mixed grains from a grocery chain). Quinoa is a great choice because it has the highest protein concentration of any grain. I also like quinoa because it cooks faster than rice.

Before I could choose from all of my farmer's market goodies, I had some bok choy and lemons that I had to use up before they sat too long. If I were making this strictly from the farmer's market I would substitute another green like chard, kale, or spinach. But the stalk of the bok choy lends a nice crunch. Lemon was a nice summery addition to the meal, but you could use balsamic if you needed another source of tang.

The meal is baby friendly because the vegetables can be diced to a good size. Also, quinoa is a nice grain to serve to babies because it is small and soft. Alex doesn't really care for meat unless I blend it with other things and only sometimes likes beans, so I was happy to serve him Quinoa as another source of protein.

The salad could easily be blended or stirred together with yogurt or applesauce or another food you know your baby already likes. Alex was tired from a busy week and I was overcautious thinking he might be picky because he has never had quinoa before. So I put some of his meal in the blender for a few seconds with 1 part baby yogurt (you can make your own baby yogurt with fruit and whole milk yogurt, or buy a name brand). He ate 1/4 c of the adult version of the salad and about the same amount of the salad-yogurt blend.


For the summer salad:

Prepare 3/4 c. Quinoa (dry) according to package (will make ~ 3 c. cooked)- takes 10-15 minutes

While the Quinoa is cooking-

In 2 tablespoons of olive oil sauté:

1 diced summer squash (medium-sized)
the white part of 1 bunch (4-8) scallions (save the green parts to toss in with the finished salad)
1 clove of finely diced garlic

after the scallions and squash have browned add
1 bunch of bok choy diced (I use the white and green parts)
juice from 2 lemons

Wilt the green parts of the bok choy (the quinoa was done about the time I was done with the bok choy)

Mix quinoa with the cooked vegetable mixture
add 1 can of rinsed black beans
add olive oil to taste (~1/4 c is my preference)

I put the salad in the fridge to cool for a few hours, but you could also eat this warm. Either way, the scallion greens and parsley are a nice addition.(Keep them both out of the infant portion unless you chop them really fine so that they aren't difficult to chew on).

This was an excellent meal! Trey even admitted that it competed with meat, which I'll take as a carnivore's compliment. I'm going to try the leftovers for lunch and have high hopes that it will still taste as delicious!

Why blog?

I'm an environmental geochemist by training, for most of my adult life I've learned about how chemicals enter natural water: the dissolving of rocks, the to and fro of nutrients and toxins from the algae to the mud guppy to the carnivorous cow to our plate, the blowing of fine industrial particulates that eventually flavor the water....and for more than 2 years of this time I was physically glued to glaciers, safely kept warm by appropriate layers of polypro and smartwool sponsorships. I have the ice disease that calls me to live in the white wilds until I am no longer haunted by the need to be free.

Since last August (2009), I've been staying home with my 11 month old, Alex. I'm not sure how long I will stay home, but I felt that one of the reasons I found my true passion is because I was well supported when I was a child, especially by my mother who stayed home until we were in school. I do have fond, fond memories of daycare from 7 on and I do not question the parenting choices of anyone. For that matter you can eat out of boxes and drink gasoline and I will not judge.

We must be true to our happiness. For me, life is long. I suspect that there is time to fulfill every vision and goal possible.

But for now, I will use my environmental geochemistry know-how to advocate for eating organic and letting your kids get a germ or two when they move their hands from floor to mouth (if you don't use toxic cleaners or have carpet).